Wednesday, April 17, 2013

EU may hit us for an extra £2billion to plug black hole in its budget, MEPs warn

  • Brussels angered ministers by demanding an extra 11.2billion euro this year
  • MEPs have now said the true hole in the EU budget will hit 16.2billio euro

  • Britain needs to stump up an extra £2billion to stop the European Union running out of cash, MEPs have warned.
    Brussels has already angered ministers by demanding an extra 11.2 billion euro (£9.3 billion) this year to plug a black hole in its budget - landing Britain with an extra £1.4 billion bill.
    But MEPs have now warned that the true hole in the EU budget will hit 16.2 billion euro (£13.5 billion) this year - potentially landing the UK with a demand for another £2billion.
    Pay up: Brussels has already angered ministers by demanding an extra 11.2 billion euro this year to plug a black hole in its budget
    Pay up: Brussels has already angered ministers by demanding an extra 11.2 billion euro this year to plug a black hole in its budget
    Members of the European Parliament’s powerful budget committee urged the European Commission to come clean about the true scale of the problem, rather than table further demands for cash later this year.
    The comments came during a meeting with the Commission’s budget chief Janusz Lewandowski, who said Brussels would run out of money within months unless it received a cash injection from member states.
     
    Ivailo Kalfin, a socialist MEP and member of the Parliament’s negotiating team on the budget, said that ‘we all know that the 11 billion euro will not be enough’.
    Dutch liberal Jan Mulder said 16 billion euro was a more realistic estimate of the final shortfall this year.
    Committee chairman Alain Lamassoure has warned that the Commission could become ‘insolvent’ unless the full 16 billion euro gap is bridged as it is not possible to roll over the debt beyond the end of this year.
    UK Treasury minister Greg Clark described last month's 11 billion euro demand as unacceptable
    UK Treasury minister Greg Clark described last month's 11 billion euro demand as unacceptable
    ‘There is a threat that the EU will run out of funds before the end of 2013,’ he said. ‘This is forbidden by the treaties and the Parliament will not accept a deficit.’ 
    Tory MEP Marta Andreasen said Britain should not give a penny more to Brussels, which was given an extra 3 billion euro at the end of last year to help it pay its bills.
    Miss Andreasen, the Commission’s former chief accountant, said the constant demands for more cash were damaging the ‘credibility’ of Brussels.
    ‘The problem is that the Commission comes up with different amounts all the time. They are always asking for more.
    ‘They must understand that it is going to be very difficult for them to get an extra 11 billion - to ask for 16 billion would be madness.
    ‘It is ridiculous - we should not give them any more. If they don’t have any money left then they should stop signing off projects. Many of the member states have financial problems of their own - they cannot afford to bail out the Commission just because it can’t stop spending.’
    UK Treasury minister Greg Clark described last month’s 11 billion euro demand as ‘totally unacceptable’.
    Government sources have indicated they will seek to block any significant increase in the Commission’s budget this year.
    Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister and chairman of the Eurogroup, has also called on the Commission to cover the shortfall by making savings.
    He also accused the EU of having ‘made no effort whatsoever to find the space (for savings) elsewhere in the budget.’
    But Pawel Swidlicki, of the think tank Open Europe, said it was unclear whether Britain would be able to find enough allies to block the budget increase, which will be decided by a majority vote.
    He warned the European Parliament could also hold Britain and others to ransom by refusing to sign off the long-term budget negotiated by david Cameron unless more cash is provided this year.

    DIMON ADMITS: Breaking The Law 'Is A Problem At JPM'


    Following the rules is not easy for Jamie.
    Dimon warns more sanctions are coming for JPMorgan.
    Jamie Dimon warns that JPMorgan, which is under regulatory orders to tighten internal controls, will face more sanctions in the coming months.  Dimon comments on the London Whale, criminal investigations into activities at the bank, illegal foreclosures, money laundering and the threat of cyber attack.

    Here's why Jamie is warning shareholders:

    NYT: JPMorgan Faces Multiple Criminal Investigations

    This Gold Slam Is A Massive Wealth Transfer From Our Pockets To The Banks

    Chris Martenson: I am very disappointed by, but not surprised at, the latest transfer of weath to the bankers from everyone else.  The most recent gold bear raid has vastly enriched the bullion bankers, once again, at the expense of everyone trying to protect their wealth from global central bank money printing.
    The central plank of Bernanke’s magic recovery plan has been to get everybody back borrowing, spending, and “investing” in stocks, bonds, and other financial assets.  But not equally so – he has been instrumental in distorting the landscape towards risk assets and away from safe harbors.
    That’s why a 2- year loan to the US government will only net you 0.22%, a rate that is far below even the official rate of inflation.  In other words, loan the US government $10,000,000 and you will receive just $22,000 per year for your efforts and lose wealth in the process because inflation reduced the value of your $10,000,000 by $130,000 per year.  After the two years is up, you are up $44k but out $260k for net loss of $216,000.

    That wealth, or purchasing power, did not just vanish: it was taken by the process of inflation and transferred to someone else.  But to whom did it go?  There’s no easy answer for that, but the basic answer is that it went to those closest to the printing press.  It went to the government itself which spent your $10,000,000 loan the instant you made it, and it went to the financiers that play the leveraged game of money who happen to be closest to the Fed’s printing press.
    This explains, almost completely, why the gap between the rich and everyone else is widening so rapidly, and why financiers now populate the top of every Forbes 400 list.  There is no mystery, just a process of wealth transfer of magnificent and historic proportions; one that has been repeated dozens of times throughout history.
    This Gold Slam Was By and For the Bullion Banks
    A while back I noted to Adam that the gold slams that were first detected back in January were among the weakest I’d ever seen.  Back then I was seeing the usual pattern of late night, thin-market futures dumping which I had seen before in 2008 and 2011, two other periods when precious metals were slammed hard.
    The process is simple enough to understand; if you want to move the price down for any asset, your best results will happen in a thin market when there’s not a lot of participation so whatever volume you supply has a chance of wiping out whatever bids are sitting on the books.  It is in those dark hours that the market makers just dump, preferably as fast as possible.
    This is exactly what I saw repeatedly leading up to Friday’s epic dump-fest.  The mainstream media (MSM), for its part, fully supports these practices by failing to even note them, and the CFTC has never once commented on the practice, and we all know that central banks support a well contained precious metals (PM) price because they are actively trying to build confidence in their fiat money, and rising PM prices serve to reduce confidence.
    Here’s a perfect example of the MSM in action, courtesy of the Financial Times:

    Gold tumbles to two-year low

    “There is no other way to put gold’s recent sell-off: nasty,” said Joni Teves, precious metals strategist at UBS in London, adding that gold would have to work to “rebuild trust” among investors.
    Tom Kendall, precious metals analyst at Credit Suisse said “Once again gold investors are being reminded that the metal is not a very effective hedge against broad-based risk-off moves in the commodity markets.”
    There are two things to note in these snippets.  The first is that the main ideas being promoted about gold are that it is no longer to be trusted, and that somehow the recent move is a result of “risk off” decisions meaning, conversely, that there is increased trust in the larger financial markets that ‘investors’ are rotating towards.  Note that these ideas are exactly the sort of messages that central bankers quite desperately want to have conveyed.
    The second observation is even more interesting; namely that the only people quoted work directly for the largest bullion banks in the world.  These are the very same outfits that stood to gain enormously if precious metals dropped in price.  Of course they are thrilled with the recent sell off.  They made billions.
    In February Credit Suisse ‘predicted’ the gold market had peaked, SocGen said the end of the gold era was upon us, and recently Goldman Sachs told everyone to short the metal.
    While that’s somewhat interesting, you should first know that the largest bullion banks had amassed huge short positions in precious metals by January.
    The CFTC rather coyly refers to the bullion banks as simply ‘large traders’ but everyone knows that these are the bullion banks.  What we are seeing in that chart is that out of a range of commodities the precious metals were the most heavily shorted, by far.
    So the timeline here is easy to follow – the bullion banks:
    1. Amass a huge short position early in the game
    2. Begin telling everyone to go short (wink, wink) to get things moving along in the right direction by sowing doubt in the minds of the longs
    3. Begin testing the late night markets for depth by initiating mini raids (that also serve to let experienced traders know that there’s an elephant or two in the room)
    4. Wait for the right moment and then open the floodgates to dump such an overwhelming amount of paper gold and silver into the market that lower prices are the only possible result.
    5. Close their positions for massive gains and then act as if they had made a really precient market call
    6. Await their big bonus checks and wash, rinse, repeat at a later date
    While I am almost 100% certain that any decent investigation by the CFTC would reveal that market manipulating ‘dumping’ was happening, I am equally certain that no such investigation will occur.  That’s because the point of such a maneuver by the bullion banks is designed to transfer as much wealth from ‘out there’ and towards the center and the CFTC is there to protect the center’s ‘right’ to do exactly that.
    This all began on Friday April 12th, and one of the better summaries is provided by Ross Norman of Sharps Pixley, a London Bullion brokerage:
    The gold futures markets opened in New York on Friday 12th April to a monumental 3.4 million ounces (100 tonnes) of gold selling of the June futures contract (see below) in what proved to be only an opening shot. The selling took gold to the technically very important level of $1540 which was not only the low of 2012, it was also seen by many as the level which confirmed the ongoing bull run which dates back to 2000. In many traders minds it stood as a formidable support level… the line in the sand.
    Two hours later the initial selling, rumored to have been routed through Merrill Lynch’s floor team, by a rather more significant blast when the floor was hit by a further 10 million ounces of selling (300 tonnes) over the following 30 minutes of trading. This was clearly not a case of disappointed longs leaving the market – it had the hallmarks of a concerted ‘short sale’, which by driving prices sharply lower in a display of ‘shock & awe’ – would seek to gain further momentum by prompting others to also sell as their positions as they hit their maximum acceptable losses or so-called ‘stopped-out’ in market parlance – probably hidden the unimpeachable (?) $1540 level.
    The selling was timed for optimal impact with New York at its most liquid, while key overseas gold markets including London were open and able feel the impact. The estimated 400 tonne of gold futures selling in total equates to 15% of annual gold mine production – too much for the market to readily absorb, especially with sentiment weak following gold’s non performance in the wake of Japanese QE, a nuclear threat from North Korea and weakening US economic data. The assault to the short side was essentially saying “you are long… and wrong”.
    (Source – originally found at ZH)
    The areas circled represent the largest ‘dumps’ of paper gold contracts that I have ever seen.  To reiterate Ross’s comments, there is no possible way to explain those except as a concerted effort to drive down the price.
    To put this in context, if instead of gold this were corn we were talking about, 128,000,000 tonnes of corn would have been sold during a similar 3 hour window, as that amount represents 15% of the world’s yearly harvest.  And what would have happened to the price?  It would have been driven sharply lower, of course.  That’s the point, such dumping is designed to accomplish lower prices, period, and that’s the very definition of market manipulation.
    For a closer-up look at this process, let’s turn to Sunday night and with a resolution of about 1 second (the chart above is with 5 minute ‘windows’ or candles as they are called).  Here I want you to see that  whomever is trading in the thin overnight market and is responsible for setting the prices is not humans.  Humans trade small numbers of contracts and in consistently random amounts.
    Here’s an example:
    Note that the contracts number in the single digits to tens, are randomly distributed, and that the scale on the right tops out at 80, although no single second of trades breaks 20.
    Now here are a few patterns that routinely erupted throughout the drops during Sunday night (yes, I was up very late watching it all):
    These are just a few of the dozens of examples I captured over a single hour of trading before I lost interest in capturing any more.
    As I was watching this and discussing it with Adam in real time, I knew that I was watching the sort of HFT/computer trading robots that we’ve discussed here so much in the past.  They are perfectly designed to chew through bid structures and that’s what you see above.  They are ‘digesting’ all the orders that were still on the books for gold, to remove them so that lower and lower stops could be run.
    Anybody that had orders up against these machines, perhaps with stops in place, or perhaps even asleep because this all happened in the hours around midnight EST, lost and lost big.
    There is really no chance to stand again players this large with a determination to drive prices lower.  At the very least, I take the above evidence of computer assisted declines of this magnitude to be a sign that our “markets” are completely broken and quite vulnerable to a crash.  That the authorities did not step in to halt these markets during such a volatile decline, when they have repeatedly stepped into other markets and individual equity shares on lesser declines, tells me much about the level of official support for such a decline.
    It also tells me that things are speeding up and the next decline in the equity or bond markets may happen a lot faster than anybody is expecting.
    Unintended Consequences
    If the intended consequences of this move were to enrich the bullion banks and to chase investors away from gold and other commodities and into stocks, what are the unintended consequences going to be?
    While I cannot dispute that the bullion banks made out like bandits, I also wonder if perhaps instead of signaling that the dollar is safer than gold, that the banks did not unintentionally send the larger signal that deflation is gaining the upper hand?
    With deflation, everything falls apart.  It is the most feared thing to the powers that be and for good reason.  Without inflation, and at least nominal GDP growth, if not real growth, then all of the various rescues and steadily growing piles of public debt will slump towards outright failure, and possibly collapse.  The unintended consequence of dropping gold so powerfully is to signal that deflation is winning the day.
    If this view is correct, then the current sell off in gold, as well as in other commodities (detailed in part II), will simply be the trigger for a loss of both confidence and liquidity in the system and that will not bode well for the larger economy or equities.
    In Part II: Protecting Your Wealth From Deflation we explore the growing signs that the money printing efforts of the central planners are seeing diminishing returns and are failing in their intended effect to kick-start global economic growth higher. Deflationary forces appear poised to take the upper hand here, sending asset prices lower — potentially much lower — across the board.
    If deflation indeed manages to break out from under the central banks efforts to contain it, even if only for a short period, how bad will the ensuing wave of price instability be? How can one position for it? How extreme will the measures the central banks take in response be? And what impact will that have on asset prices, the dollar and precious metals?
    We are entering a new chapter in the unfolding of our economic emergency, one in which the risks to capital are greater than ever. And the rules are increasingly being re-written to the disadvantage of us individuals.
    The one unfair advantage we have is that history is very clear on how these periods of economic malfeasance end. Let’s exploit that as best we’re able.
    Click here to read Part IIof this report (free executive summary; enrollment required for full access).
    This article is brought to you courtesy of Chris Martenson from Peak Prosperity.
    Related: SPDR Gold Trust ETF (NYSEARCA:GLD), iShares Silver Trust ETF (NYSEARCA:SLV).

    Is The Takedown Of Gold A Sign That The Entire Global Financial System Is About To Crash?


    The Collapse Of GoldSomebody out there is sure getting prepared for something really big.  We have just witnessed a takedown of gold and silver unlike anything that we have witnessed in decades.  On Monday, the price of gold had fallen by more than 10 percent at one point.  It shocked investors all over the globe, and overall what we have just seen was the largest two day decline in the price of gold in 30 years.  The price of silver dropped even more rapidly on Monday.  It was down more than 14 percent at one point.  There was an atmosphere of "panic selling" as investors and financial institutions raced to liquidate their holdings of silver and gold.  But was this exactly what someone out there wanted?  As I wrote about the other day, big banks and news outlets all over the world have been boldly proclaiming for weeks that gold is entering a "bear market" and that now is the time for all of us to sell our gold.  In particular, Goldman Sachs reportedly told their clients earlier this month that they "recommend initiating a short COMEX gold position".  Was that just a "good guess" on their part, or was something else going on?  Were they actually trying to help create a "selling frenzy" that would drive the price of gold much lower?
    What we witnessed on Monday was absolutely jaw-dropping.  Just check out this chart of the price of gold over the past 10 years.  The takedown of gold on Monday sticks out like a sore thumb...
    The Price Of Gold
    And that chart does not even show the full extent of the collapse.  As I write this, the price of gold is sitting at $1355.20.
    But this is just the beginning for gold and silver.  As I have warned repeatedly, the price of gold and the price of silver will experience wild swings in the years ahead.
    For example, the following is what I wrote about gold and silver on August 7th, 2012...
    I like precious metals myself, but if you are going to invest you need to get educated so that you know what you are doing.  If you go in blindly you are likely to get burned at some point.
    In addition, you need to be prepared for wild fluctuations in price over the coming years.  There will be times when gold and silver absolutely soar and there will be times when they drop like a rock.
    So if you are going to play the game you need to be able to handle the ride.
    Monday was an example of what I meant when I said that "you need to be able to handle the ride".  There are going to be a lot more days like Monday (both up and down) for gold and silver in the years ahead.
    The foolish people are those that are scared out of their wits and that are selling off all of their gold and silver right now.
    Sadly, there was reportedly a tremendous amount of panic selling of gold and silver during this collapse.  The following is what Dennis Gartman told CNBC on Monday...
    "There are a lot of people throwing up their hands. Throwing positions overboard. Panic is everywhere," Gartman said in a "Squawk Box" interview on Monday. "I've never seen anything like this. I mean it."
    It just shows that there are a lot of stupid people out there.  The following is an excerpt from another CNBC report about the panic selling that was happening on Monday...
    "I think the last $20 has been margin selling. The market is falling like a knife. People are saying, 'Get me out now,' " Phoenix Futures President Kevin Grady said. "You're also seeing people selling energy profits to pay for metals losses. You're seeing a tremendous amount of gold liquidation today."
    According to Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Ronald Reagan, all of this panic selling is the result of an orchestrated takedown of gold and silver...
    This is an orchestration (the smash in gold). It’s been going on now from the beginning of April. Brokerage houses told their individual clients the word was out that hedge funds and institutional investors were going to be dumping gold and that they should get out in advance.
    Then, a couple of days ago, Goldman Sachs announced there would be further departures from gold. So what they are trying to do is scare the individual investor out of bullion. Clearly there is something desperate going on...
    So who is behind all of this orchestration?  Well, according to Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, it is actually the Federal Reserve...
    The Federal Reserve began its April Fool’s assault on gold by sending the word to brokerage houses, which quickly went out to clients, that hedge funds and other large investors were going to unload their gold positions and that clients should get out of the precious metal market prior to these sales. As this inside information was the government’s own strategy, individuals cannot be prosecuted for acting on it. By this operation, the Federal Reserve, a totally corrupt entity, was able to combine individual flight with institutional flight. Bullion prices took a big hit, and bullishness departed from the gold and silver markets. The flow of dollars into bullion, which threatened to become a torrent, was stopped.
    In fact, Dr. Roberts says that former Goldman Sachs trader Andrew Maguire is reporting that the Fed orchestrated the dumping of 500 tons of naked gold shorts into the market on Friday...
    According to Andrew Maguire, on Friday, April 12, the Fed’s agents hit the market with 500 tons of naked shorts. Normally, a short is when an investor thinks the price of a stock or commodity is going to fall. He wants to sell the item in advance of the fall, pocket the money, and then buy the item back after it falls in price, thus making money on the short sale. If he doesn’t have the item, he borrows it from someone who does, putting up cash collateral equal to the current market price. Then he sells the item, waits for it to fall in price, buys it back at the lower price and returns it to the owner who returns his collateral. If enough shorts are sold, the result can be to drive down the market price.
    As Dr. Roberts noted, this represents an absolutely massive amount of gold...
    Consider the 500 tons of paper gold sold on Friday. Begin with the question, how many ounces is 500 tons? There are 2,000 pounds to one ton. 500 tons equal 1,000,000 pounds. There are 16 ounces to one pound, which comes to 16 million ounces of short sales on Friday.
    Who has 16 million ounces of gold? At the beginning gold price that day of about $1,550, that comes to $24,800,000,000. Who has that kind of money?
    If any of the allegations above are even remotely true, then a whole lot of people need to be criminally investigated.
    Meanwhile, many are considering this takedown of gold to be an ominous sign that another major financial crisis may be heading our way.
    Just remember what happened back in 2008.  As Zero Hedge noted on Monday, the price of gold suddenly plunged 21 percent in July 2008.  That was just a couple of months before the U.S. stock market crashed in the fall...
    The rapidity of gold's drop is impressive, concerning, and disorderly. We have seen two other such instances of disorderly 'hurried' selling in the last five years. In July 2008, gold quickly dropped 21% - seemingly pre-empting the Lehman debacle and the collapse of the western banking system.
    Is this collapse in the price of gold a harbinger of another major stock market crash?
    Time will tell.
    Meanwhile, many average Americans are wondering if they should dump their gold and silver while they still can.
    As I mentioned above, gold and silver are going to experience wild fluctuations over the next few years.  When the next stock market crash comes, gold and silver are probably going to go even lower than they are today for a short time.  But in the long run gold and silver are going to soar to unprecedented heights.
    Investing in gold and silver is not for the faint of heart.  If you cannot handle the ride, you should sit on the sidelines.  We are entering a period of tremendous financial instability, and holding gold and silver is going to be like riding a roller coaster.  The ups and downs are going to shake a lot of people up, but the rewards are going to be great for those that stick with it the entire time.

    Force Majeure Was the End Game All Along, COMEX Will Default in the Next Week!

    The COMEX will default in the next week or several weeks and people will be “settled” with Dollars, no more metal will be delivered!  So, knowing that “game over” has arrived, they are dumping a massive volume of  paper contracts with impunity to push the metals prices as low as possible before the “default”.  This way the “shorts” do not have to and will not be “covered” when “supply” cannot be obtained because of “an act of God”.  They will be settled in cash (at a profit no less) because these “unforeseen” disruptions in supply.  “Who could have seen it coming?” will be the mantra.  I would suspect that banking stress and “bail ins” will also become prevalent globally.  The pricing structure” will now push any and all physical sellers away from the markets and the “door” to safety is effectively being shut.  Either you own metal or you don’t.
    After the closure of the COMEX and LBMA doors there will be no availability and “price” will be meaningless.  Your ability to protect yourself is right now for all intents and purposes being eliminated.

    Submitted By Bill Holter, Miles Franklin Ltd,:
    Last week Barrick Resources announced the postponement of their giant Pascua Lama mine.  This was to be one of the worlds largest mines and is now tied up in litigation over true ownership as it appears to show that Barrick does not have clear title.  The probale reserves were nearly 18 million ounces of Gold and almost 700 million ounces of Silver.  Work on this mine was completely ceased last Wednesday.
    “Last Wednesday” was also an important day for the Kennecott copper mine in Utah, the ground started to shift more rapidly prior to this weekend’s landslide.  They knew this was coming as they closed the visitor center on April 1st and had all equipment and personel out of harms way.  This mine produces some 400,000 ounces of Gold and over 3 million ounces of Silver as a by product of copper, this is the largest copper mine on the planet.  Have you heard even a peep out of the mainstream media on this on?  I didn’t think so.
    Is it not strange that these two events came to a head last Wednesday?  The same day that out of nowhere Gold reversed from being up and give up $40?  And then of course there was Friday with $85 and another $75 this morning.  Gold is now down $200 per ounce in just over 3 trading days.  Between these two projects, one not coming online and the other going off line, a VERY significant amount of production is not going to happen.  Does this make sense?  Did you not learn in school that “less” supply meant higher prices?  In the real world?
    We don’t live in “the real world”, we live in a world where everything financial is manipulated.  Here is what I see happening.  They knew that this mine was going to collapse and the production would stop.  Then the ruling on the Pascua Lama mine was sent down.  Last Thursday president Obama met with 15 heads of the biggest banks and brokers in the country, THIS was discussed as sure as the Sun came up this morning: we have hit the bottom of the barrel!  Reserves that could be fed into the market are and have dried up at the same time that production has dropped and future production delayed.  The paper game is blowing up …RIGHT NOW and the topic of discussion at the White House was about “how it would play out”.
    The COMEX will default in the next week or several weeks and people will be “settled” with Dollars, no more metal will be delivered!  So, knowing that “game over” has arrived, they are dumping a massive volume of  paper contracts with impunity to push the metals prices as low as possible before the “default”.  This way the “shorts” do not have to and will not be “covered” when “supply” cannot be obtained because of “an act of God”.  They will be settled in cash (at a profit no less) because these “unforeseen” disruptions in supply.  “Who could have seen it coming?” will be the mantra.  I would suspect that banking stress and “bail ins” will also become prevalent globally.  The pricing structure” will now push any and all physical sellers away from the markets and the “door” to safety is effectively being shut.  Either you own metal or you don’t.
    I tried to “be nice” in my piece from last night talking to those who worry about price.  What is now happening is exactly what I spoke of, you must count ounces because “availability” is going away right here and right now!  After the closure of the COMEX and LBMA doors there will be no availability and “price” will be meaningless.  Your ability to protect yourself is right now for all intents and purposes being eliminated. 
    We received  a few (very few) angry letters from customers who say that Jim Sinclair, Mr. Sprott and Embry, James Turk and others including myself are and were wrong.  That we should hang our heads in shame and that we are nothing more than charlatans hawking Gold and Silver.  We will soon, very soon see just how right or wrong we really are.  What is happening right now is very clear to me, what I don’t understand is how anyone could miss this as it has all been laid out for you and dropped in your e-box to see (for years now), understand and prepare for.  Life, all of life as we knew it is about to change forever.  Hopefully you understood this and have already prepared for it!
    Regards,  Bill H.

    All US Wholesalers Sold out of all Physical Silver


    Silver Doctors
    *UPDATE: ALL US WHOLESALE SUPPLIERS ARE NOW SOLD OUT OF EVERY OUNCE OF PHYSICAL SILVER & HAVE SUSPENDED ALL SALES!  SDBullion.com has closed due to lack of ANY AVAILABLE SILVER!
    Two of the largest wholesale suppliers in the US, including Amark and CNT, who is the supplier of gold blanks to the US Mint for Gold Eagles, and is a registered COMEX depository, HAVE JUST SOLD OUT OF ALL PHYSICAL SILVER!!!
    AND……IT’S GONE!!!!!  
    In the face of an EPIC TSUNAMI of gold and silver sales today as the cartel hammered the price of silver down over 12%, and off $6 from Friday’s open, we have just been informed at SDBullion upon trying to place a large inventory order that BOTH AMARK & CNT ARE SOLD OUT OF EVERY LAST OUNCE OF PHYSICAL SILVER!!!
    Apparently the fact that one of the largest wholesale suppliers in the US is SOLD OUT, while simultaneously the 2nd largest silver mine in the US is offline perhaps permanently is of absolutely no consequence to the paper dumping cartel bullion banks.
    Bullion bank silver shorts are most likely covering in mass RIGHT NOW, and we’ll soon have the data to make the case.  Many have speculated that the bullion banks are going to switch to a net long position. There couldn’t be a better time to do just that given that at $22/oz, pretty much all existing shorts taken out before this week will be in the money.
    http://silverdoctors.com/cnt-sold-out-of-all-physical-silver/

    Obama Signs Law Gutting Insider Trading Regulations For Congress


    Fire Dog Lake – by DSWright
    Yesterday President Obama signed a law that gutted the reporting requirements originally included in the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act. Before these changes were made the STOCK Act required congressional staffers to disclose their finances to the public to help ensure they were not engaging in corrupt practices.
    But on second thought, President Obama and Congress decided that congressional staffers should be able to escape transparency.
    President Obama quietly signed legislation Monday that rolled back a provision of the STOCK Act that required high-ranking federal employees to disclose their financial information online.
    The White House announced Monday that the president had signed S. 716, which repealed a requirement of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act requiring the disclosure, which had previously been delayed several times by Congress.
    You never heard of this political project to reinstate corruption incentives? Don’t be surprised.
    Both chambers of Congress quickly — and near silently — approved the repeal legislation at the end of last week by unanimous consent, just before heading home to their districts.
    That’s right. Unanimous consent, no one wanted to put their name down as openly supporting corruption while supporting corruption. And now President Obama has signed the bill guaranteeing a more corrupt Washington.
    http://news.firedoglake.com/2013/04/16/obama-signs-law-gutting-insider-trading-regulations-for-congress/

    A Frightening ‘Crash’ Inevitable? A “Runaway” Move In Stocks Could Be Happening Now Which Is Destined To End Badly. Some Of The World’s Best-Known Economic Advisers Warn Of An Inevitable Consequence Of The Current Global Economic Situation. Be Prepared!

    Trader alert: A “runaway” move in stocks could be happening now

    “All the pieces are starting to fall into place…”
    We are now at the point in the bull market where traders think that stocks are bullet proof. Back in December, I warned this was coming.
    I said at the time that this round of QE was going to be different. That it would have a much bigger effect on the market than the analysts were expecting. I remember at the time analysts were claiming each round of QE was having less and less effect.
    I was confident that QE3 and QE4 would usher in the euphoria phase of the bull market. Actually, Bernanke is putting in place the final components to bring about the end of the bull. Let me explain.
    QE infinity has, and is generating a runaway move in the stock market. The problem with a runaway move is that it’s artificial. Anyone with a shred of common sense knows what’s driving this move and it isn’t the economy.
    Bernanke is crazy if he thinks the stock market is acting normal. Well, this is the guy that said the subprime crisis was “contained.” Any artificial move is destined to end badly, just like the artificial housing market ended badly.
    The problem with runaway moves is…

    Why some of the world’s best-known economic advisers agree on one frightening prediction

    Kyle Bass, Nouriel Roubini, Jim Rogers, Jim Rickards, and Many Others Forecast War and Unrest
    “An inevitable consequence of the current global economic situation…”

    Kyle Bass, Martin Armstrong, Larry Edelson, Charles Nenner, James Dines, Nouriel Roubini, Jim Rogers, Marc Faber and Jim Rickards Warn of War

    We’re already at war in numerous countries all over the world.
    But top economic advisers warn that economic factors could lead to a new world war.
    Kyle Bass writes:
    Trillions of dollars of debts will be restructured and millions of financially prudent savers will lose large percentages of their real purchasing power at exactly the wrong time in their lives. Again, the world will not end, but the social fabric of the profligate nations will be stretched and in some cases torn. Sadly, looking back through economic history, all too often war is the manifestation of simple economic entropy played to its logical conclusionWe believe that war is an inevitable consequence of the current global economic situation.
    Martin Armstrong writes this week:
    CycleOfWar-2014
    We will be updating the Cycle of War. Obviously, it is time once again. Especially since that model also hit to the day 3 times in a row.
    Similarly, Larry Edelson wrote an email to subscribers entitled “What the “Cycles of War” are saying for 2013?, which states:
    Since the 1980s, I’ve been studying the so-called “cycles of war” — the natural rhythms that predispose societies to descend into chaos, into hatred, into civil and even international war.
    I’m certainly not the first person to examine these very distinctive patterns in history. There have been many before me, notably, Raymond Wheeler, who published the most authoritative chronicle of war ever, covering a period of 2,600 years of data.
    However, there are very few people who are willing to even discuss the issue right now. And based on what I’m seeing, the implications could be absolutely huge in 2013.
    ….

    Suckers! Tech Execs Selling Stock at Record Pace

    Insider selling at the biggest technology companies hit a record pace over the last six months even as investors snatched up shares, pushing the Nasdaq CompositeIndex to a 12-year high.
    More than 55 million shares were sold versus 1,780 shares bought for a sell-buy ratio of an eye-popping 31,109 to 1 at the 10 biggest tech companies, includingMicrosoftOracle and Qualcomm, according to Alan Newman, editor of the Crosscurrents newsletter and market analyst for 49 years.
    “Insider activity confirms the rosy scenario indicated by prices is only an illusion,” wrote Newman in his latest letter. “Insiders have no confidence in their own companies. While prices appear to be indicating an all clear, we remain in one of the most egregiously speculative phases ever seen.”

    The ‘Dumb Money’ Goes for Yield
    ROSENBERG: It Looks Like Demand For US Housing Is Cooling Off
    Crash Indicator: Mom and Pop Take the Plunge Back Into Stocks For Fear of “Being Left on the Sidelines”
    Obama’s budget signals the retreat of US government

    TIMING THE STOCK MARKET: Why Only 5 Days Matter


    Five days make or break the year for market returns.
    Tom Keene and Mike Holland with Bloomberg’s Single Best Chart.
    April 1 (Bloomberg) — On today’s “Single Best Chart,” Keene and portfolio manager Michael Holland look at timing the market and the importance of best gain days.

    Fed Prez: "QE Is Like Ritalin, You Just Can't Overprescribe"

     

    Fed President Richard Fisher on the Bernanke Doctrine.
    Start watching at 1-minute mark.  Dallas Federal Reserve President and CEO Richard Fisher discusses Japan, Bernanke, QE, the stock market rally, housing, and his plan to break up the too big to fail banks.
    Classic line on the difference between the U.S. and Japan.
    "We breed here in America."
    Fisher is entertaining as usual.  Here are some of the quotes.
    • The Bernanke doctrine is not perfect.
    • There is no QEinfinity.  It doesn't go on forever.
    • I supported the first round of QE and nothing since.
    • We're not going to do something crazy like take the balance sheet to $5 trillion.
    • There are limits to Fed policy.  We just have to figure out what those limits are.
    • QE is like ritalin or adderall, you just can't overprescribe.
    • QE can't go on forever because you will kill the patient.
    And we save the best, or at least most ridiculous, for last:
    "All central bankers try to do the same thing -- which is to improve the welfare of their fellow citizens."


    Image by William Banzai7...

     

    IRS Expected to Target Small Businesses This Year

    Americans who get paid in cash and own a small business are at high risk of being audited – especially if they live in wealthy suburbs: the IRS is going after those from which the agency thinks they can get more taxes.

    IRS
    Photo: AFP
    RT
    April 16, 2013
    “It’s just a matter of them going where they think the money’s at,” Steve Rosansky, president and CEO of the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce, told AP. “I guess if I were running the IRS I’d probably do the same thing.”
    The Internal Revenue Service only audits 1 percent of tax returns each year and can yield greater taxes by targeting wealthy small business owners who might have underreported their earnings.  As a result, the IRS is looking closely at small business owners in New Carrollton, Md., College Park, Ga., Beverly Hills, Calif., and Newport Beach, Calif. – suburbs that are home to wealthy and middle-class Americans, many of which are sole proprietors.
    These five metropolitan regions are more likely to host tax cheats than other neighborhoods, according to a study conducted by the National Taxpayer Advocate, an independent office within the IRS. And those who own construction companies or real estate rental firms are considered by the IRS to be most likely to cheat on their taxes.
    Despite the outcome of the study, which looked at tax cheat clusters from 2009, the IRS denies that a person’s ZIP code or employment status determines their likelihood for an audit.
    “The IRS initiates audits based on information the taxpayer includes – or doesn’t include – on a tax return,” the agency told AL.com. “We don’t base audits on geography. City or state location plays no role in the audit process whatsoever.”
    But data collected by the National Taxpayer Advocate did find that audits were more likely to occur in specific regions and target small business owners – even if the IRS denies using regional information as an auditing factor.

    The agency runs all of its tax returns through a program that gives each return a score called the Discriminant Inventory Function (DIF). Higher scores indicate that there are higher chances for the IRS to collect more money from conducting an audit.
    “If your return is selected because of a high score under the DIF system, the potential is high that an examination of your return will result in a change to your income tax liability,” states an IRS publication, according to AP.
    Sole proprietors, many of whom have cash businesses, need to be particularly careful about reporting large charitable contributions or home-office expenses if they want to avoid an audit.
    “If you’re reporting $8,000 of charitable contributions when you’re only making $50,000, that’s a red flag,” Bob Meighan, vice president of TurboTax, told AP. “Likewise if you’re reporting business or employee expenses that are out of the ordinary for your income range, that would attract the interest of the IRS as well.”
    Elizabeth Maresca, a former IRS lawyer and professor at Fordham University, told the newswire that claiming unusually high employment-related expenses is another red flag that could increase a taxpayer’s DIF score.
    “I had a case here where the person made about $40,000 and they claimed $25,000 of employment-related expenses,” she said. “Most people don’t spend $25,000 to earn $40,000. That’s an unusual number.”
    The IRS says it conducts audits primarily to minimize the “tax gap”, which is the difference between what the federal agency is owed and what is actually paid.  The National Taxpayer Advocate study found that this gap is largest among small business owners.
    In 2006 – the most recent year for which the IRS provides an estimate – the tax gap was $345 billion. The study pointed out 350 neighborhood communities whose residents face higher risks of being audited as the IRS attempts to collect more money, particularly from those it believes are well-off.

    CNBC: Panic Selling In Gold & Silver Driven By Margin Calls













    Panic in the gold and silver pits of the Comex.
    Gold and silver see the worst two day drop in 30 years.
    "I think the last $20 has been margin selling.  The market is falling like a knife.  People are saying, Get me out now," Phoenix Futures President Kevin Grady said.  "You're also seeing people selling energy profits to pay for metals losses.  You're seeing a tremendous amount of gold liquidation today."
    Heavy outflows on global gold exchange-traded funds, which cut holdings to their lowest in more than a year, could also mark the end of a love affair between gold and investors.
    "The fall in gold prices is reminiscent of some of the market capitulations seen during the global financial crisis when leveraged investors were required to sell assets to maintain balance sheets and preserve liquidity," said Ric Spooner chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney.
    At last check, gold is trading at $1377, up $28 this morning.
    GOLD LIVE QUOTE...
    LIVE CHART...

    CRAMER: 'Don't Sell Your Gold, I'd Buy On The Dip'













    "You need to have something to offset the printing presses of the central banks."
    Jim Cramer shares his final thoughts of the day.
    If you're an investor with a longer time horizon, "My advice is to have a position in gold.  I am not changing that.  If you hold no gold, on this dip I'd buy some."
    ---
    At last check, gold is trading at $1377, up $28 this morning.
    GOLD LIVE QUOTE...
    LIVE CHART...

    Assault On Gold Update — Paul Craig Roberts

    NOTE: Gold weights are based on metric tons and Troy ounces. 500 metric tons of gold would be 16,075,000 troy ounces. This changes the arithmetic slightly but not the point

    I was the first to point out that the Federal Reserve was rigging all markets, not merely bond prices and interest rates, and that the Fed is rigging the bullion market in order to protect the US dollar’s exchange value, which is threatened by the Fed’s quantitative easing. With the Fed adding to the supply of dollars faster than the demand for dollars is increasing, the price or exchange value of the dollar is set up to fall.
    A fall in the dollar’s exchange rate would push up import prices and, thereby, domestic inflation, and the Fed would lose control over interest rates. The bond market would collapse and with it the values of debt-related derivatives on the “banks too big too fail” balance sheets. The financial system would be in turmoil, and panic would reign.
    Rapidly rising bullion prices were an indication of loss of confidence in the dollar and were signaling a drop in the dollar’s exchange rate. The Fed used naked shorts in the paper gold market to offset the price effect of a rising demand for bullion possession. Short sales that drive down the price trigger stop-loss orders that automatically lead to individual sales of bullion holdings once their loss limits are reached.
    According to Andrew Maguire, on Friday, April 12, the Fed’s agents hit the market with 500 tons of naked shorts. Normally, a short is when an investor thinks the price of a stock or commodity is going to fall. He wants to sell the item in advance of the fall, pocket the money, and then buy the item back after it falls in price, thus making money on the short sale. If he doesn’t have the item, he borrows it from someone who does, putting up cash collateral equal to the current market price. Then he sells the item, waits for it to fall in price, buys it back at the lower price and returns it to the owner who returns his collateral. If enough shorts are sold, the result can be to drive down the market price.
    A naked short is when the short seller does not have or borrow the item that he shorts, but sells shorts regardless. In the paper gold market, the participants are betting on gold prices and are content with the monetary payment. Therefore, generally, as participants are not interested in taking delivery of the gold, naked shorts do not need to be covered with the physical metal.
    In other words, with naked shorts, no physical metal is actually sold.
    People ask me how I know that the Fed is rigging the bullion price and seem surprised that anyone would think the Fed and its bullion bank agents would do such a thing, despite the public knowledge that the Fed is rigging the bond market and the banks with the Fed’s knowledge rigged the Libor rate. The answer is that the circumstantial evidence is powerful.
    Consider the 500 tons of paper gold sold on Friday. Begin with the question, how many ounces is 500 tons? There are 2,000 pounds to one ton. 500 tons equal 1,000,000 pounds. There are 16 ounces to one pound, which comes to 16 million ounces of short sales on Friday.
    Who has 16 million ounces of gold? At the beginning gold price that day of about $1,550, that comes to $24,800,000,000. Who has that kind of money?
    What happens when 500 tons of gold sales are dumped on the market at one time or on one day? Correct, it drives the price down. Investors who want to get out of large positions would spread sales out over time so as not to lower their sales proceeds. The sale took gold down by about $73 per ounce. That means the seller or sellers lost up to $73 dollars 16 million times, or $1,168,000,000.
    Who can afford to lose that kind of money? Only a central bank that can print it.
    I believe that the authorities would like to drive the gold price down further and will, if they can, hit the gold market twice more next week and put gold at $1,400 per ounce or lower. The successive declines could perhaps spook individual holders of physical gold and result in actual net sales of physical gold as people reduced their holdings of the metal.
    However, bullion dealer Bill Haynes told kingworldnews.com that last Friday bullion purchasers among the public outpaced sellers by 50 to 1, and that the premiums over the spot price on gold and silver coins are the highest in decades. I myself checked with Gainesville Coins and was told that far more buyers than sellers had responded to the price drop.
    Unless the authorities have the actual metal with which to back up the short selling, they could be met with demands for deliveries. Unable to cover the shorts with real metal, the scheme would be exposed.
    Do the authorities have the metal with which to cover shorts? I do not know. However, knowledgeable dealers are suspicious. Some think that US physical stocks of gold were used up in sales in efforts to disrupt the rise in the gold price from $272 in December 2000 to $1,900 in 2011. They point to Germany’s recent request that the US return the German gold stored in the US, and to the US government’s reply that it would return the gold piecemeal over seven years. If the US has the gold, why not return it to Germany?
    The clear implication is that the US cannot deliver the gold.
    Andrew Maguire also reports that foreign central banks, especially China, are loading up on physical gold at the low prices made possible by the short selling. If central banks are using their dollar holdings to purchase bullion at bargain prices, the likely results will be pressure on the dollar’s exchange value and a declining market supply of physical bullion. In other words, by trying to protect the dollar from its quantitative easing policy, the Fed might be hastening the dollar’s demise.
    Possibly the Fed fears a dollar crisis or derivative blowup is nearing and is trying to reset the gold/dollar price prior to the outbreak of trouble. If ill winds are forecast, the Fed might feel it is better positioned to deal with crisis if the price of bullion is lower and confidence in bullion as a refuge has been shaken.
    In addition to short selling that is clearly intended to drive down the gold price, orchestration is also indicated by the advance announcements this month first from brokerage houses and then from Goldman Sachs that hedge funds and institutional investors would be selling their gold positions. The purpose of these announcements was to encourage individual investors to get out of gold before the big boys did. Does anyone believe that hedge funds and Wall Street would announce their sales in advance so the small fry can get out of gold at a higher price than they do?
    If these advanced announcements are not orchestration, what are they?
    I see the orchestrated effort to suppress the price of gold and silver as a sign that the authorities are frightened that trouble is brewing that they cannot control unless there is strong confidence in the dollar. Otherwise, what is the point of the heavy short selling and orchestrated announcements of gold sales in advance of the sales?

    James Grant: Gold A Hedge Against Monetary Disorder, Prices May Be Falling On Momentum

    Gold plummets, let's attack libertarians and preppers!

    Gold plummets, let's attack libertarians and preppers!

    Company Linked to Horse Meat Goes Bankrupt

    THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A meat processing plant and wholesaler suspected of mixing undeclared horse meat with beef has been declared bankrupt.
    A court in the eastern Dutch city of Den Bosch court declared the Willy Selten meat works bankrupt Tuesday. The company is at the center of a huge recall announced last week of suspect beef across the European Union.
    A Dutch labor union requested the bankruptcy on behalf of workers who had not been paid since February and can only claim unemployment benefits once their employer has been declared bankrupt.
    Last week, the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority called on 370 companies around Europe and 132 more in the Netherlands to recall 50,000 tons of meat they bought from Willy Selten.
    Calls to the company went unanswered Tuesday.

    CNT Sold Out All Physical Silver! ALL US WHOLESALE SUPPLIERS ARE NOW SOLD OUT OF EVERY OUNCE OF PHYSICAL SILVER & HAVE SUSPENDED ALL SALES!

    *BREAKING
    CNT, one of the largest wholesale suppliers in the US, who is the supplier of gold blanks to the US Mint for Gold Eagles, and is a registered COMEX depository, HAS JUST SOLD OUT OF ALL PHYSICAL SILVER!!!
    In the face of an EPIC TSUNAMI of gold and silver sales today as the cartel hammered the price of silver down over 11%, and off $6 from Friday’s open, we have just been informed at SDBullion upon trying to place a large inventory order that CNT is SOLD OUT OF EVERY LAST OUNCE OF PHYSICAL SILVER!!!
    http://www.tfmetalsreport.com/comment/297296#comment-297296
    “ALL US WHOLESALERS SOLD OUT OF ALL PHYSICAL SILVER”
    http://silverdoctors.com/cnt-sold-out-of-all-physical-silver/

    CME hikes margins!
    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gold-adds-to-losses-cme-hikes-margins-2013-04-16?link=MW_latest_news
    The CME Group Inc., the parent company of the main metals and energy exchanges in the U.S., said Monday it was raising the collateral requirements for trading in benchmark gold, silver and other precious-metals futures contracts.

    Golden Warning ~ What Crashing Gold Meant in Recent Past #n3


    Government Sanctioned Ponzi Schemes? | XRepublic

    Government Sanctioned Ponzi Schemes? | XRepublic

    100 Years Worth Of Silver Sold In ONE DAY!


    *UPDATE: ALL US WHOLESALE SUPPLIERS ARE NOW SOLD OUT OF EVERY OUNCE OF PHYSICAL SILVER & HAVE SUSPENDED ALL SALES!  SDBullion.com has closed due to lack of ANY AVAILABLE SILVER!
    Two of the largest wholesale suppliers in the US, including Amark and CNT, who is the supplier of gold blanks to the US Mint for Gold Eagles, and is a registered COMEX depository, HAVE JUST SOLD OUT OF ALL PHYSICAL SILVER!!!
    AND……IT’S GONE!!!!!
    In the face of an EPIC TSUNAMI of gold and silver sales today as the cartel hammered the price of silver down over 12%, and off $6 from Friday’s open, we have just been informed at SDBullion upon trying to place a large inventory order that BOTH AMARK & CNT ARE SOLD OUT OF EVERY LAST OUNCE OF PHYSICAL SILVER!!!
    Apparently the fact that one of the largest wholesale suppliers in the US is SOLD OUT, while simultaneously the 2nd largest silver mine in the US is offline perhaps permanently is of absolutely no consequence to the paper dumping cartel bullion banks.
    Bullion bank silver shorts are most likely covering in mass RIGHT NOW, and we’ll soon have the data to make the case.  Many have speculated that the bullion banks are going to switch to a net long position. There couldn’t be a better time to do just that given that at $22/oz, pretty much all existing shorts taken out before this week will be in the money.










    Source:http://www.brotherjohnf.com/archives/155851


    Is The Market Poised To Crash? Is There A Catalyst? 8 Reasons Why The Stock Market Is At or Close To A Top And 8 Reasons The Market Might Crash

    8 Reasons Why The Stock Market Is At or Close To A Top

    from :
    Where the Market Stands; Where It’s Headed:
    My eight reasons why I believe the stock market is at or close to a top:
    1. Corporate insiders are dumping stock.
    2. Bullishness amongst stock advisors is at a multi-month high.
    3. Companies are propping up earnings with record stock buyback programs.
    4. Corporate earnings growth will be negative again in the first quarter of 2013.
    5. The global economy is slowing. Certain countries in the eurozone are in a depression. The U.S. economy could be contracting.
    6. The percentage of assets that mutual funds have invested in the stock market is near a multiyear high.
    7. The underemployment rate (which is the unemployment rate taking into consideration people who have stopped looking for work and people who have part-time jobs but want full-time jobs) is over 14%—it really hasn’t changed much in months.
    8. The American consumer is in trouble. Real disposable income is lower today than it was in 2008. The personal savings rate has fallen more than 70% since 1980. Average hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory employees have crashed 50% since 2008. (Source for all date in list: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.)
    What do we really have? We have a stock market bubble created by the “too easy” money polices of the Federal Reserve—policies of multiyear artificially low interest rates and $2.5 trillion in newly created (printed) money.

    8 reasons the market might crash

    from Charley Blaine, MSN Money:
    1. The Federal Reserve reverses course without warning
    Odds of happening: Low
    2. North Korea attacks
    Odds of happening: Moderate, but who knows?
    3. The Middle East erupts
    Odds of happening: Moderate
    4. Market trading systems fail to work properly
    Odds of happening: Possibly low
    5. The bond market revolts and balks at buying government debt
    Odds of happening: Moderate
    6. The eurozone falls apart
    Odds of happening: Moderate
    7. China’s economy implodes
    Odds of happening: Low
    8. Stocks crash because prices are just too high
    Odds of happening: Moderate


    IMF Trims US Growth Outlook in Draft Report

    The International Monetary Fund lowered its forecast for U.S. growth as automatic budget cuts take hold, according to a draft of the Washington-based lender’s World Economic Outlook.
    U.S. gross domestic product will expand 1.7 percent this year compared with a previously forecast 2 percent advance, according to the draft report obtained by Bloomberg News. The draft, which was presented to the IMF board last week, may be subject to revisions before its scheduled April 16 release.

    The U.S.’s fiscal tightening that took effect last month will restrain consumption temporarily, the report said. The global economy will expand 3.4 percent this year, compared with 3.5 percent forecast in January, according to projections in the report. The 17-nation euro area will contract 0.2 percent, unchanged from January, with uncertainty stemming from Italy’s election adding to challenges facing policy makers fighting Europe’s debt crisis, it said.

    Pento Likes Gold But Warns A Stock Market Crash Is Coming

    is very bullish on gold, but warned of a coming global stock market crash and economic meltdown. Michael Pento, who heads Pento Portfolio Strategies, spoke candidly about the frightening situation the world faces in the very near future.

    HYPOTHERMIA: CONTAGION IN THE EUROZONE

    The contagion in the Eurozone is like hypothermia.  The peripheral countries of the Eurozone are frozen; frozen out of the capital markets, with little capital flow inside the country. They are shut down.
    If these countries start accepting bail ins, in a strange way they are temporarily revived by fresh capital infusions from the ECB.  Their banking system that was formerly shut down restarts with a jolt of liquidity.  They start to show some signs of life even though they are moribund.
    But what happens is the smart money starts fleeing from countries before the bail in proposal ink is dry.  The smart money; call it the warmed blood, the money that gets out of a country’s banking system before it starts crashing,  starts flowing towards the core. 
    This is happening now.

    Other Possible Catalyst:
    Greek unemployment rises to 27.2%/Youth unemployment at 59%/Spanish house prices plummet by 9.7% y/y/ Italian debt to GDP projected to rise to 130.4/ Silver OI rises again to 166,621
    Shock: Bloomberg Admits Models Don’t Work – Economics, Government Turned Upside Down?
    Debt spiral could push Portugal into new bail-out, admits EU-IMF
    FED DISCONNECTING WARNING GUAGES WON’T PREVENT ECONOMIC ENGINE FROM FAILING
    Approaching A Tipping Point? Profits Just Hit Another All-Time High, Wages Just Hit Another All-Time Low

    Ruinous euro rescues

    In an attempt to save the euro at all costs, Europe's technocrats are advocating policies of startling brutality

    Angela Merkel: Those in Brussels and Berlin must ask, not: 'What is necessary to save the euro?' but: 'What is necessary to restore prosperity to our benighted continent?'  
    Angela Merkel: Those in Brussels and Berlin must ask, not: 'What is necessary to save the euro?' but: 'What is necessary to restore prosperity to our benighted continent?'

    When the Dutch finance minister suggested that the Cypriot bail-out could become a “model”, the outcry was immediate. It was all very well to treat a minnow such as Cyprus in such a brutal manner, said Jeroen Dijsselbloem’s critics, but no country of real stature would put up with a raid on its savers’ funds. What a difference a few weeks makes. Germany’s council of economic experts has now scrutinised the Cypriot rescue package, and concluded that the critics had a point. Not about the arbitrary confiscation of wealth, but that a levy on bank accounts was an inefficient manner of going about it. They suggest, in future, a tax on property or other assets, paid predominantly by the wealthy, since it is far more difficult to move your home out of reach.
    From one point of view, the suggestion has a certain logic. Bailing out those countries whose economies are unable to compete within the single currency is an inordinately expensive business. With even Germany’s resources stretched to their limits, it makes sense (from Berlin’s perspective) to punish the sinners for their crimes – especially since new data appear to show greater housing wealth on the eurozone’s periphery than at its core. Such a pot of money in such undeserving hands makes for an irresistible target.
    Sadly, the architects of this plan have it backwards. Their starting point is “What is necessary to save the euro?” From there, they end up advocating policies of quite startling brutality. Yet the very differences in housing wealth between nations illustrate, once again, the folly of locking disparate economies into a shared currency. Those in Brussels and Berlin must ask instead: “What is necessary to restore prosperity to our benighted continent?” The answer is to recognise that the euro, in its current form, is bringing ruin to all too many of the nations trapped inside it.

    Gold Gains As 14% Plunge Overdone - Speculators Sell, Central Banks To Buy


    Today’s AM fix was USD 1,378.00, EUR 1,054.00 and GBP 900.48 per ounce.
    Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,416.00, EUR 1,083.31 and GBP 924.52 per ounce.
    Gold fell sharply $131.10 or 8.81% yesterday to $1,357.00/oz and silver slid to $22.80 finished -12.69%.

    Cross Currency Table – (Bloomberg)

    Gold rebounded as store of value and diversificaiton buyers deemed a 14% plunge over two days to be excessive and an Asian central banker said that policy makers may take the opportunity to buy.

    Gold in USD, 1 Month – (Bloomberg)

    Silver, platinum and palladium also advanced.  At 11.30am GMT silver is 23.44(+0.75), platinum is $1,438.00(+39.00) and palladium is $677.00(+26.00).
    Prices fell 9.1% yesterday, the most since 1983, and have lost 28% since reaching a record in September 2011.

    XAU/EUR, 1 Month – (Bloomberg)

    Banks such as Soc Gen and Commerzbank have admitted that the sell was ovedone.
    Societe Generale SA said that the slump was overdone as quantitative easing, or QE, will continue.
    “Everything isn’t looking that rosy, so gold should hold up,” said David Poh, Singapore-based regional head of portfolio-management solutions at Societe Generale Private Banking. “This tumbling over the past few days is overdone. We think a good time to accumulate is at the $1,300 level.”
    The decline in prices would give central banks an opportunity to buy, Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said in an interview on Bloomberg Television today.

    XAU/GBP, 1 Month – (Bloomberg)

    The Bank of Korea said that bullion’s drop isn’t a big concern as the bank’s holdings are part of a long-term strategy for foreign-exchange reserves according to Bloomberg.
    Bullion for June delivery was 1 percent higher at $1,374.70 an ounce on the Comex in New York after losing as much as 2.9 percent to $1,321.50. CME Group Inc. will increase margin requirements on gold trading, raising the minimum cash deposit for futures 19 percent to $7,040 per 100-ounce contract at the close of trading today, Chicago-based CME said in a statement.
    Spot silver rallied 2.4 percent to $23.305 an ounce after losing 3 percent to $22.07, the lowest level since October 2010. Platinum climbed 2.8 percent to $1,442 an ounce, rebounding from $1,375.50, the cheapest price since December 2011. Palladium dropped as much as 1 percent to $647.25 an ounce, the lowest level since November, and then gained 3.8 percent to $678.
    Gold’s drop was spurred by massive concentrated selling in the futures market and as speculators sold the metal to raise cash to cover other positions.
    Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest ETP backed by bullion, fell to 1,154.34 tons yesterday, the lowest level since April 2010, data on the company’s website showed. That’s 15 percent, or 199 tons, below the peak reached in December. Holdings in all ETPs compiled by Bloomberg dropped 1 percent to 2,382.43 metric tons yesterday, the biggest loss since Feb. 21.
    Smart money such as Bill Gross and Marc Faber have reiterated why they see gold as a long term buy and important diversificaiton for porfolios.

    Why Did Goldman And JPM Get Fed Minutes A Day Early?


    QE could end this Summer according to leaked Fed minutes.
    Why were FOMC minutes released to a few organizations a day early, and who got the data?  Peter Cook examines what happened and how it damages the Fed's already tattered reputation for transparency and fair play.
    Late update on the story...

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    List of Banks and Lobbying Firms
    Who Got the Fed Minutes Early - WSJ
    American Bankers Association
    American Council of Life Insurers
    Barclays Capital
    BB&T
    BNP Paribas
    Capital One
    Carlyle Group
    Citigroup
    The Clearing House Association
    The Cypress Group
    Fifth Third Bank
    FINRA
    Goldman Sachs
    The Gray Company
    Guggenheim Partners
    HSBC
    Independent Community Bankers of America
    IntercontinentalExchange
    J.P. Morgan Chase
    King Street
    National Association of Realtors
    Nomura
    PNC
    Regions Bank
    Rich Feuer Anderson
    Roberts Raheb & Gradler
    Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association
    Standard & Poors
    Sullivan & Cromwell
    UBS
    U.S. Bank
    Wells Fargo
    Whitmer & Worrall
    Williams & Jensen
    Government agencies or public-oriented entities:
    Austria Federal Ministry of Finance
    Bank of Japan
    Conference of State Bank Supervisors
    Congress (House & Senate)
    Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
    European Central Bank
    Federal Housing Finance Agency
    National Credit Union Administration
    Treasury Department
    White House

    UPDATE - Grayson Asks for Investigation into Fed leak