15 year old Tells Establishment to Stick-it

Weekend chill out

As the ABC Bullion blogger is on Thai time, ie late, so it seems is last weekend's chill out, and being in Thailand I thought it only right to have a Thai pop song as the chill out.

Cinderella
Mai Chai Ghon Hin
(I'm Not A Stone)

Speed

Speech by Commissioner Bart Chilton before the High Frequency Trading World USA 2010 Conference, New York

December 8, 2010

Introduction

Good morning and thanks to Terrapinn, and especially Matt Bednarsky, for the kind invitation to speak with you today.

Today, I’m going to spend a few minutes talking about speed. That is, speed not only with regard to computers in trading but also to regulation. Together, we’re all going boldly where no man has gone before. I’ll also share with you a few of my thoughts about the happenings and changes that are occurring in Washington that will impact Wall Street and LaSalle Street and a bunch of people on streets that not many folks have even heard about.

Streets With No Name

In fact, forget about Wall Street or LaSalle, it really doesn’t matter the name of your street at all. Many High Frequency Trading (HFT) and other financial trading firms don’t even have offices in New York or Chicago, let alone London, Hong Kong or Singapore. If you have a connection, you can trade, and trade they do. A recent report says HFT firms account for about 50 percent of European markets. Our CFTC economists say high frequency traders (HFTs) account for roughly a third of all trading volume on regulated U.S. futures exchanges.......read on

End of Empire: Max Keiser interviews Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

Words vs. Actions

Sins of the Father

One has to wonder if Bernie's son was given some help for fear of him naming the banks that helped Daddy.

Brittan protests against the imposition of the New World Order

Mass demonstrations by thousands of students and trade unionists in central London against an increase in tuition fees, are growing more violent. It's the latest and the largest in a string of rallies against sweeping austerity measures and budget cuts across Europe. What started as a relatively peaceful march later turned into violent clashes with the police, which were largely outnumbered by the demonstrators.

Jim Rogers: Britain is Bankrupt

China Tells Bernanke To Take A Hike

Graham Summers
9 December 2010

Over the last few months, I've noted that the most important monetary relationship in the world is that between China and the US, the world's largest creditor and debtor countries respectively.

Both countries' central banks engaged in a money-printing orgy to counter the Financial Crisis in 2008. Now they're butting heads on the consequences of their actions: the US Federal Reserve wants to create inflation, while China wants to aggressively halt it.

This is IT, the #1 dynamic for the financial markets going forward. How this plays out will impact everything from the US Dollar's reserve currency status to where the stock markets will head.

With that in mind, we need to consider the power dynamics between these two countries from a monetary perspective.

China has made it clear that it is NOT pleased with the US's current monetary policy (China has blamed the Fed for its inflation woes with some officials going so far as to label the Dollar's status as a reserve currency, "absurd").

The US has in turn responded by labeling China a currency manipulator and blaming it for the US's economic woes. Indeed, it seems almost every other week that some US Government official comes out with a "it's ALL China's fault" statement.........read on

A Gentleman's Agreement

Richard Zimmerman
December 9, 2010

Following the 1980 price peak in gold, there was a sell-off that probably left more than one investor wondering if precious metals had completely lost their luster. The Hunt Brothers' manipulation of the silver markets also added its own tarnish to the world of bullion. As these two markets march to fresh highs this year, it is time to think about what pulled both markets down and why support may come at a higher level than you think.

As mentioned in previous reports, catalysts for rising prices include geopolitical tensions, inflation, and a host of other fear-inducing fundamentals. The jittery reaction to uncertain world and economic conditions doesn't always cause the pendulum to swing towards higher ranges. There is one thing in particular that can make gold buyers into gold sellers. That is an increase in gold sales from large banks or investors.

This fear was one of the biggest culprits for the most recent low price in gold.

In the late 1990s, there were a number of gold sales that were thought to be impacting the broader market. Sales were coming from central banks including Bank of England auctions and other European nations. The result of rumors over more central bank sales, especially considering the lower prices for gold, was a threat of destabilizing the market. Since central banks held so much of the physical gold at the time, some of them came together to take action to prevent a rapid decline in prices. The result of their meeting was a gentleman's agreement on gold sales......read on