Ben Davies discusses the recent Gold price action with Eric King of King World News......listen here
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Ben Davies on the Gold price correction
Ben Davies discusses the recent Gold price action with Eric King of King World News......listen here
Ben Bernanke doesn't want QE3. For now
According to recent reports the US economy grew 0.2% in the second quarter of this year. For a while now economists have debated if the US is in a recession or not. With these dreadful numbers, should the Federal Reserve intervene to try to save the economy or will they do more harm? Karl Denninger from the Market Ticker tells us what he thinks.
Pepe Escobar: Al-Qaeda asset leading rebels in Tripoli
From: | Aug 26, 2011
The hostility persists in Tripoli and the Libyan rebels continue the search for Gaddafi, but who is leading the rebels? Who are the beneficiaries of the fall of Gaddafi? What will the blowback be for those in Libya and across the globe? Pepe Escobar, a correspondent for Asia Times, gives us some answers to these questions.
The hostility persists in Tripoli and the Libyan rebels continue the search for Gaddafi, but who is leading the rebels? Who are the beneficiaries of the fall of Gaddafi? What will the blowback be for those in Libya and across the globe? Pepe Escobar, a correspondent for Asia Times, gives us some answers to these questions.
James Grant on Inflation
Financial Thought Leader James Grant explains why he believes the Federal Reserve's easy money policies will wreak havoc on the economy and markets. The dangers of inflation creep and how to protect yourself against it are the focus of this week's Consuelo Mack WealthTrack.
Tarpley: Al-Qaeda pirates to grip Mediterranean if rebels take over
The UN has called for restraint in Libya amid reports of abuses and alleged summary killings by both rebels and Gaddafi loyalists. The Security Council has also agreed to release 1.5 billion-dollars in Libyan assets to help deal with humanitarian needs. The opposition continues to claim that Tripoli is largely under its control, while the National Transitional Council says it's moved from its stronghold of Benghazi to the capital. There are reports of heavy resistance by Gaddafi forces, with the Colonel's whereabouts still unknown. Meanwhile, Gaddafi has aired another radio message, claiming he's fighting on the frontline. NATO has denied previous reports that it's assisting the rebels in the hunt to find him. Now more analysis on the latest developments in Libya from author and investigative journalist Webster Tarpley, who's in Washington.
Naoto Kan resigns as Japan PM
Naoto Kan has resigned as prime minister of Japan almost one year after assuming office. The move does not come as a surprise in a country that has seen five prime ministers in the past four years.
Kan and Yukio Hatoyama, his predecessor, co-founded the Democratic Party of Japan, and together led it to election victory in 2009, ending nearly six decade rule by Liberal Democratic Party.
Kan has been criticised for his handling of the post-tsunami Japan especially the nuclear crisis.
He lost support even in his own party and last month offered to step down.
Kan and Yukio Hatoyama, his predecessor, co-founded the Democratic Party of Japan, and together led it to election victory in 2009, ending nearly six decade rule by Liberal Democratic Party.
Kan has been criticised for his handling of the post-tsunami Japan especially the nuclear crisis.
He lost support even in his own party and last month offered to step down.
Inside Story - Libya's biggest hurdle
The interim government has moved from Benghazi to Tripoli and is urging the world to release billions of dollars in frozen Libyan assets overseas. Is this the biggest challenge facing Libya as rebels gain further control of the capital?
Introducing Brett Le Brocque - and 5 new gold charts
“Human history is a race between education and catastrophe.”
That was H.G. Wells - and he could have been talking about investment, don’t you think?
If you’re interested in education when it comes to precious metals, I have good news for you today.
News: Brett Le Brocque has joined ABC Bullion
I’m delighted to let you know Brett has just joined ABC Bullion full time, as Chief Investment Analyst and head of ABC Bullion Investor Education team
Brett Le Brocque is Australia’s leading precious metals educator. (Some of you will have met or spoken to Brett at our Pitt St showroom.)
Brett’s aim is simple: to help you understand the precious metals market - and profit from that education.
Brett’s making quite an impact in the industry, just a couple of days ago he was on Channel 10, speaking about gold’s continued appreciation. Brett has been predicting the rise of gold for 4 years now, so understandably the media are showing some interest…
Today I want to give you a personal taste of why we’re fortunate to have Brett on board; and in a moment I’m also going to offer you exclusive access to 5 essential charts he’s put together for you.
These charts show you the real state of the precious metal market and the local Australian economy.
Above: The Le Brocque Ratio - Property / Gold
That’s the Le Brocque ratio – and it’s a great way of showing how Australian property is STILL overvalued relative to gold. Do you notice the long term cycles at work? And would you back Aussie property having seen this chart, and knowing the state of the economy?
This chart raised eyebrows at the Gold Symposium in November last year, as investors visiting from around the world came face to face with the real state of the world’s Fiat currencies (currency backed with nothing but a promise).
It’s also the chart that convinced me that Brett was the man to kick start our Investor Education Division.
Good news!
There are lots more insights where that came from. And you can be in the loop.
Introducing ABC Bullion Investor Education
You see, we are now planning a range of mentoring opportunities to suit you. There will be reports, alerts, webinars, live seminars and even one-to-one coaching by Brett and his team.
Some of these services will be free, and some may attract a small fee. But I’m convinced you’ll find ALL of them will offer great value if you are a serious investor.
Why is ABC Bullion Doing Investor Education?
You may be wondering why a bullion trading company like ABC Bullion would make such a major commitment to investor education.
Of course, we do have a vested interest in this plan, because the more we educate our clients, the more loyal they tend to become, and frankly, I see this it as a vital part of our effort to improve our services to you.
However, I do quite understand that investor education won’t be for everyone.
It’s for YOU!
Like all education, you need to put in some effort to get rewards, so this service is meant for any investor who is serious about getting a good investment education based on real fundamentals and “value investing.”
Above: Gold Bullion from ABC
The people who will benefit most are:
- Mum & Dad investors looking to secure wealth.
- Current investors in property or shares who want to learn about the broader investment market.
- Self Managed Superannuation Fund trustees who want to know how bullion can improve their portfolio profile.
- Young investors who want a strong foundational education on the fundamentals of investing.
- Self-employed people who want to know to manage and protect their profit.
These are 5 important charts from his sell-out seminar in Sydney last year:
Above: Your complimentary chart deck from Brett Le Brocque
Yes please - register my interest and send me my exclusive LeBrocque bonus slides immediately!
Your Bullion Mentor
Brett’s official title at ABC Bullion is Chief Investment Analyst. But you can think of him as your “Bullion Mentor”!
So Brett will also be available to help guide clients like you on actions you might want to take to protect and nurture your wealth.
And in the coming weeks, Brett will help coach savvy ABC Bullion investors in the trends and history of the market, and what that means for your portfolio.
Above: Brett Le Brocque in action: “The Rise and Rise of Gold” November 2010
What Have Golf and Investing Got In Common?
If you’ve ever played golf, you’ll know the importance of a personal, expert coach.
Someone who is highly knowledgeable when it comes to the technical side of the sport, but who is also able to translate this to your personal game so it makes a difference to you.
Brett is to an aspiring gold investor what an elite golf coach is to an aspiring professional golfer.
He’s you in-house “investment professional” and is here to care for, coach and guide ABC Bullion metals investors.
Why Would I Want A Mentor?
Great question. Over the past 7 months we’ve found investors like you are simply bursting with questions such as:
- Why is silver rising so fast?
- What is the outlook for gold?
- What will happen to silver next?
- When should I buy?
- Should I borrow to buy?
- When should I think about selling?
- Can I use my Self Managed Super to invest in gold?
- How much should I buy?
- When should I sell?
- How much should I store?
Does that sound like you?
Register your interest in the new Bullion Mentor 2011 Programme and the 2011 Seminar Series
We’re just putting together plans for the programme and would like to share it with you first as soon as we have all the details.
I’m Interested: Tell Me More About ABC BULLION “BULLION MENTOR”
Please note: By registering, you will be first to know about about the new mentor programmes (when we’ve finished working out the details). But you’ll be under no obligation, of course.
More About Brett Le Brocque
If you’ve read this far and STILL haven’t signed up, you might be waiting to learn a bit more about Brett.
With over 16 years of coaching experience, Brett has mentored thousands of investors though seminars and workshops all over Australia.
He’s shared the stage with the “original gold bug,” James Dines.
He conferences regularly with US-based David Morgan, one of the world’s top 3 experts on silver.
Brett has personally interviewed virtually all of the “greats” of investment – people such as Jim Rogers (US billionaire investor), Marc Faber (Asia-based Gloom Boom and Doom Report) and Richard Duncan (author of “The Dollar Crisis”).
And if you attended the packed-to-the-rafters “Rise and Rise of Gold” presentation, or The Gold Symposium 2010, you might remember Brett also predicted this year’s stunning rise in both gold and silver prices.
But that’s not all.
Brett is a qualified wealth advisor. But he’s not exactly the favourite son of the financial planning industry. After all, he’s happy to explain to the world the reasons most financial planners are still reluctant to advise clients to invest in physical metals. You guessed it – there’s no commission on gold!)
Perhaps most importantly for you, Brett is a straight-shooter.
He speaks in plain English and hates jargon, because as he points out, “jargon is how the investment-elite try to restrict access to the sheer power of information”.
Oh, and as an aside, Brett loves golf.
So, I hope you’ll join with me in welcoming Brett to our community of ABC Bullion investors, and I personally encourage you to register right now to express your interest in our Investor Education and Bullion Mentor Programmes.
Yours for investment success,
CEO ABC BULLION
Australian Bullion Company (NSW) Pty Ltd
PS - Don’t forget, if you click through here now, you will receive your instant download of
“5 CHARTS EVERY PRECIOUS METALS INVESTOR MUST SEE”
Click here to access your exclusive Le Brocque slides
Gold, Silver And 'Leaky Buckets'
By Jeff Nielson:
To those of us who have "found" precious metals, their (financially) life-saving properties are blatantly apparent. Indeed, apart from explaining the 5,000 year heritage of gold and silver as premier financial assets in our civilization, most of the arguments in favor of gold and silver are straightforward, simple arithmetic.
Because of this reality, one of the great frustrations for all precious metals bulls are the thankless (and generally fruitless) efforts we make to try to enlighten friends/relatives/associates. The pattern of such attempts is maddeningly similar.
Some friend or loved one mentions how "inflation" is hurting them financially. So the gold/silver bull begins to explain what inflation really is, who is causing it, and how it is done. So far, so good. However, as soon as we move on to explain how we protect ourselves from this "inflation" (i.e. through accumulating gold and/or silver), a subtle metamorphosis inevitably takes place with our subject.
A bland/placid expression creeps over their face, and is frozen into their features. Through years of experience with this phenomenon, I know exactly what that expression translates to in terms of the person's thoughts: "I'm trapped with this dangerous lunatic. How can I escape?" At that point, any attempt at "conversion" becomes purely an exercise in futility.
After each such failure, I inevitably review the process which has taken place, and ask myself where I could have gone wrong. The reality, of course, is that the fault does not lie with ourselves, nor with the individual whom we have failed to convince. Rather, the "blame" belongs to the propaganda machine of the bankers, which for the past century has blared out one message above all others: paper currency = money = wealth.
It is the fact that this simple, but totally erroneous equation is embedded in the "programming" of most of us which prevents the precious metals message of financial salvation from penetrating the psyche of those so afflicted. Thus, the initial step in being able to re-program the minds of these propaganda victims is to de-program them first. It starts with repudiating the bankers' odious "equation" (above).
First of all, paper currency does not equal "money". This is actually an entire discussion in itself. I could abbreviate it by listing the four qualities which all "good money" must possess. However, without expanding on the reasoning behind those traits, such mere assertions will not sway the brainwashed mind. Readers can review my own previous discussion on this, or the many similar efforts of other commentators, however the conclusion is unequivocal: paper currency is not money.
Now let's examine the third element in this propaganda-chain: wealth. The more cumbersome way to refute this equality/equivalence would be to explain why paper currency does not equal wealth. However, the better way to do this would be to simply point out the basic difference in the properties of these three elements. Paper currency is tangible. Money is tangible. Wealth is intangible.
This can be easily demonstrated anecdotally. Many people (including myself) often go days at a time carrying out all of our commercial transactions without ever once using "money". Thanks to the credit card (which is simply an electronic cheque-book), we no longer need money to convey our wealth to a vendor to make a purchase. It can all be done electronically because of the intangible nature of our wealth.
In similar terms, if we get up in the morning to discover that interest rates have been raised or lowered, this immediately affects property values - and the wealth of each/every property owner. Our properties have not changed in any way. We have not done anything ourselves. However, our level of wealth has gone up (or down). In fact, countless exogenous events affect our precise level of wealth at any given moment. Clearly, if wealth was not intangible than its exact level at any moment in time would not be so fluid.
Our equity markets leap higher or plunge lower (affecting the wealth of any/every equities-holder) often based only on "sentiment" or "expectations" - purely intangible drivers themselves. Obviously anything which can be altered by mere attitudes is intangible. As with any "intangible" (in our material world), we often find it helpful to adopt a (tangible) metaphor to allow us to have a better conceptual grasp. In the case of wealth, the obvious metaphor is a liquid. Indeed, the very frequent use of the term "liquidity" as a synonym for wealth is proof of such suitability.
Once we have conceptualized wealth as a "liquid", then it becomes equally simple to conceptualize "money" and "paper currency" within the same metaphor. They are containers for this liquid. Now let us make our metaphor even more tangible and precise.
Instead of "money", let us divide this into two "containers": gold and silver - the best/most-preferred forms of money in the history of our species. And instead of "paper currency", let's call that container "U.S. dollar". Finally, let's simply refer to these containers as "buckets".
We now have a very specific metaphor, and a very clear choice for each of us. We each have our own quantity of liquid (wealth), and we can store/hold that liquid in the "gold" bucket, the "silver" bucket, or the "U.S. dollar" bucket. Now let's examine the quality of each bucket.
Why have gold and silver been the preferred forms of money for our species for 5,000 years? Because they perfectly preserve (i.e. contain) the wealth of the holder. Look back 2,000 years to ancient Rome, and a stylish Roman could adorn himself in the finest toga, sandals and accessories for the cost of 1 oz of gold. Flash ahead to today, and any gentleman could obtain a top-quality suit, shoes and accessories for the cost of 1 oz of gold. Clearly, the gold bucket does not leak.
Now let's look at the U.S. dollar bucket. In the less than 100 years since the creation of the odious Federal Reserve, the U.S. dollar has lost approximately 98% of its value. Obviously the U.S. dollar bucket does leak. Hold your liquid in the U.S. dollar bucket long enough and you will lose all of it.
A (literal) "Devil's Advocate" would argue that a bucket which takes nearly 100 years to lose all of its liquid is "good enough". The rebuttal to this is as frightening as it is simple.
In the 40 years since Nixon severed the last connection between the U.S. dollar and gold, the dollar has lost more than 75% of its value. In other words, the hole in the bucket has gotten much larger. Today, as the price of food soars, and the price of gas soars, and the price of gold soars, and the price of silver soars none of these items have changed in any way, rather it is the value of the U.S. dollar which is plummeting. The hole in the bucket is rapidly getting larger.
Throughout history, all paper currencies which have not been backed by gold or silver (i.e. "fiat currencies") have failed. The most common means of failure is through the destruction of these paper currencies via hyperinflation: the value of the currency plummeting to zero. We can describe "hyperinflation" in our metaphor very easily: it's when the entire bottom of the U.S. dollar bucket has disappeared. Liquid (i.e. wealth) pours out the bottom as fast as we can funnel it in.
Looking at the first two buckets provides us with a crystal-clear picture. We have the gold bucket which never leaks. Not in 100 years, not in thousands of years. We have the U.S. dollar bucket. Not only does this bucket "leak", guaranteeing the loss of all liquid/wealth over time, but the hole in the bottom is getting larger every day - and soon it won't be capable of holding any liquid at all.
Given this stark illustration with just two buckets, some might presume that my inclusion of a silver bucket in this metaphor is redundant. However (as we shall see), the silver bucket is actually quite distinct from the gold bucket.
Obviously the silver bucket is just as leak-proof as the gold bucket, but silver buckets cost much less. After decades of being impoverished by our own, elitist governments (primarily through storing our wealth in 'leaky buckets'), many people can no longer afford gold buckets - however virtually everyone can still afford silver buckets.
This makes silver the "People's Bucket", a leak-proof container to store our "liquid" (wealth) which everyone can afford. However it gets even better. In continuing with our metaphor, we must all understand that the bankers have their own "Magic Bucket". How magical? Every drop of liquid which leaks out of the U.S. dollar bucket ends up in the bankers' Magic Bucket. That's pretty "magical"!
It is because the bankers have their own Magic Bucket that they hate silver buckets with every fiber of their evil beings. For the last century, and especially the last 50 years the bankers have made a concerted effort to destroy all of the world's silver buckets. How? Through manipulating the price of silver to a ridiculous low (in real dollars, the price of silver hit a 600-year low in the 1990's), they simultaneously destroyed "supply" (by bankrupting more than 90% of the world's silver miners), while causing demand to explode. Global inventories and stockpiles have been obliterated.
The result of this is that in relative terms there has not been this little silver in the world (above ground) in thousands of years. This is true both in relation to the quantity of gold and on a per capita basis. This means that in relation to gold buckets, silver buckets are now very rare - some might even call them "magical" too.
Not only is silver a leak-proof bucket to carry our liquid (wealth) which is still affordable for the average person, but it has become extremely useful in countless industrial applications - meaning that "everyone" wants silver buckets. Because of this high scarcity and soaring demand, it is a matter of elementary supply/demand analysis that the price of silver must rise to many multiples of its current price.
To translate this back to our metaphor, when we put liquid in our silver bucket, not only does the silver bucket prevent any leaks, but it actually increases the amount of liquid in our bucket. The silver bucket is also a Magic Bucket - but not an "evil" Magic Bucket like the one owned by the bankers. The bankers' liquid increases through leeching all of the liquid out of the U.S. dollar buckets, while the silver Magic Bucket increases the liquid of the holder without stealing any liquid from anyone else.
Let us review (one last time) the three "buckets" we can choose from to store our liquid/wealth. We can choose the gold bucket, a leak-proof bucket guaranteed to hold every drop of our liquid over the long term. We can choose the U.S. dollar bucket: a leaky bucket, with a hole in the bottom that gets larger every day - and which is guaranteed to lose all the liquid contained over time.
Lastly there are the silver "Magic Buckets". These marvelous devices not only ensure against leaks, but actually cause the liquid contained to increase in volume. The only down-side to these Magic Buckets? There is a very limited supply.
It can be virtually impossible to explain to a brainwashed mind how/why U.S. dollars are just scraps of worthless paper - just as it was impossible to convince the Dutch 400 years ago that tulips were mere flowers. It can be equally difficult to explain the concept of "saving our money" (i.e. wealth) in the form of gold and/or silver - despite the fact that 100's of millions of Indian peasants understand it and have been doing it all their lives.
Conversely, even the most brainwashed mind should still be capable of understanding the difference in "utility" between a 'leaky bucket' guaranteed to fail in its sole purpose, and buckets which have demonstrated themselves to be leak-proof over thousands of years.
Jeff Nielson
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)