Making the Personal Virtual

In a bar in Sydney ~

I was regaled on Friday night about a friend's personal assistant. Knowing him well I expected another story of boardroom table antics, but no. He blewout that the US multinational he works for in a cost cutting measure was retrenching his PA and offshoring her role to a shared PA in the Philippines. He said "how am I am supposed to get personal with someone I will never meet? let alone the hassle of communicating via email and instant chat vs. talking face to face."

It seems another western career option has bitten the dust, just add it to careers in IT, accounting, legal, medical analysis, and management.

Making Hard Money could get you Hard Labour

From The Wall St Journal:

The next chapter in the struggle over sound money may be the case of a newly minted felon named Bernard von NotHaus. Mr. von NotHaus was convicted this month of counterfeiting money by issuing silver coins called Liberty Dollars. His company's website says it's been taken down by court order, and absent a successful appeal he could spend years in jail.

Mr. von NotHaus was convicted under a section of the United States Code that makes it a crime to manufacture or pass "any coins of gold or silver or other metal, or alloys of metals, intended for use as current money, whether in the resemblance of coins of the United States or of foreign countries, or of original design." The law was enacted during the Civil War, soon after the Union began issuing the paper scrip known as greenbacks.

It is too soon to say what Mr. von NotHaus's grounds of appeal will be, but it is not too soon to say that his case will be one to watch at a time when so many believe our economic troubles are tied to the fact that the dollar has become a fiat currency, and when leaders world-wide are calling for a new reserve currency.

So alarming has been the collapse of the dollar that the legislatures in as many as a dozen American states are considering using their authority—under Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution—to make legal tender out of gold and silver coins. Lest the ghost of Friedrich Hayek or any other advocate of privately issued money get any bright ideas, however, the von NotHaus verdict will stand as a warning......read on

Weekend chillout

For this weekend's chillout I have found a song from the late 80's that fits the news about the nuclear fallout in Japan and the civil war in Libya.

Midnight Oil - Put down that weapon:

Mike Maloney - The US$ has cancer

Jim Rogers - On Japan and the Markets

The USA is a Failed State

Gold Heads for Longest Run of Quarterly Gains in 3 Decades

From Bloomberg:

Gold rose in New York, heading for the longest streak of quarterly gains in more than three decades, as fighting in Libya and concerns about European debt spurred demand for an alternative investment.

Troops loyal to Muammar Qaddafi forced Libyan rebels to retreat as the U.S. and U.K. said they would consider arming opposition forces. Gold futures reached a record $1,448.60 an ounce on March 24 as fighting in Libya, the Japanese nuclear crisis and concerns about European debt boosted demand for a protection of wealth.

“Given the unrest in the Middle East and North Africa region, increasing debt issues in the euro zone and the environment of historically low interest rates, gold and silver should continue to remain underpinned and test towards recent highs,” James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com in London, said in a report.

Gold futures for June delivery rose $13.20, or 0.9 percent, to $1,438.10 an ounce at 11:52 a.m. on the Comex in New York. Prices are up 1.2 percent this quarter. A 10th quarterly increase would be the best run of gains since at least 1975. The metal for immediate delivery in London was 1 percent higher at $1,436.93.

Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa quit Qaddafi’s government as rebels were forced to abandon much of the territory they captured after the U.S.-led air campaign against Qaddafi’s army began almost two weeks ago. The fighting in Libya is the most violent seen in more than two months of popular uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa.

Portuguese Debt

Standard & Poor’s this week cut credit ratings for Greece and Portugal, and the cost of insuring Portuguese government debt reached a record according to CMA prices, as speculation mounted the nation will be forced to restructure its borrowings. Irish regulators instructed four banks to raise 24 billion euros ($34.1 billion) in additional capital following a stress test on the nation’s lenders.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. has been spraying water on the reactors at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant damaged after this month’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Work to repair the plant’s monitoring and cooling systems has been hampered by discoveries of hazardous radioactive water. The government hasn’t ruled out pouring concrete over the whole facility as one way to shut it down, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

Gold and silver are being supported by “inflation, geopolitical and euro zone debt concerns,” analysts at GoldCore Ltd. in Dublin said in a report.

Inflation Accelerates

European inflation unexpectedly accelerated to 2.6 percent in March, the fastest in more than two years, the European Union’s statistics office said today.

Gains were limited this quarter on signs the U.S. economy is improving, boosting investor appetite for higher-yielding assets like stocks. St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard yesterday said the central bank may need to begin pulling back from record levels of monetary accommodation even amid uncertainties in Japan and the Middle East.

Silver for May delivery in New York rose 0.4 percent to $37.675 an ounce. It reached $38.18 on March 24, the highest level since February 1980, the year futures reached a record $50.35. Prices are up 22 percent this year, heading for a ninth straight quarterly advance, the best run of gains since at least 1975.

An ounce of gold bought as little as 37.72 ounces of silver in London today, the lowest level since October 1983, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Silver is used more in industry than gold.

“Increasing global investment and industrial demand in the very small and finite silver bullion market is a recipe for higher prices,” GoldCore analysts said. With gold near a record, “silver is the cheap alternative to gold and an attractive store of value.”

Keiser Report: Food Stamp Army

by RussiaToday on Mar 31, 2011

This week Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, report on American household wealth declining by 23% while billionaires see their wealth rise by 25%. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Dmitry Orlov for an update on the state of economic collapse in America.

Libyan update with Webster Tarpley

Japan nuclear update