Justice Department To Announce Historic Wall Street Crackdown, Expose Over 300 Criminal Defendants

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/justice-department-announce-historic-wall-street-crackdown-expose-over-300-criminal-defendan

Why Eric Sprott sees silver as the next big investing windfall

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/funds-and-etfs/funds/why-eric-sprott-sees-silver-as-the-next-big-investing-windfall/article1818091/singlepage/#articlecontent

Artist's Impression Of JPM's CEO Hearing That Silver Is Trading Over $500

Knowledgeable gold and silver bugs will catch every inside joke, but even precious metals neophytes will appreciate this parody.   Google Jamie Dimon, Blythe Masters, Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner, Ted Butler, and Max Keiser to understand the characters.  I'm assuming viewers know who the mustachioed psychopath is.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0mhX9hpq3g&feature=player_embedded

Bernanke Is 100% Sure

http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=8112

Ben Bernanke's Facebook page

A parody from zero hedge on Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke:

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/hildebrand/Doctor%20Ben.jpg

Click on image to enlarge--you won't regret it.

Watch As David Einhorn Makes A Mockery Of Fed "Expert Network" Larry Meyer

Government can’t print money properly

Thanks to Kitty for finding this article.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20101206/us_yblog_thelookout/government-cant-print-money-properly

More than 1 billion unusable bills have been printed. Some of the bills creased during production, creating a blank space on the paper, one official told CNBC. Because correctly printed bills are mixed in with the flawed ones, even the ones printed to the correct design specs can't be used until they 're sorted. It would take an estimated 20 to 30 years to weed out the defective bills by hand, but a mechanized system is expected to get the job done in about a year.

Combined, the quarantined bills add up to $110 billion -- more than 10 percent of the entire U.S. cash supply, which now stands at around $930 billion.

The flawed bills, which cost around $120 million to print, will have to [be] burned.

JP Morgan revealed as mystery trader that bought £1bn-worth of copper on LME

Is JPMorgan cornering the market in copper?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/8180304/JP-Morgan-revealed-as-mystery-trader-that-bought-1bn-worth-of-copper-on-LME.html

Former OMB Director Debunks The Economic Recovery Myth

Ben Bernanke on 60 Minutes: Doesn't rule out QE3

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Ben-Bernanke-on-60-Minutes-cnnm-1490415534.html?x=0

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke this Sunday will make his second appearance on 60 Minutes, defending the central bank's controversial $600 billion bond buying program.

And he doesn't rule out the possibility that more could be on the way.

"He explains why the Fed announced its intention to buy $600 billion in Treasury securities, defending against charges the move will lead to inflation and not ruling out the purchase of more," CBS said Friday.

The Fed's latest move would mark the central bank's second round of quantitative easing since the financial crisis in the fall of 2008. Nicknamed QE2, it is meant to stimulate the economy by keeping interest rates low and encouraging consumers to spend more and businesses to create jobs.

The plan has drawn a major backlash from both conservatives and global leaders. Critics argue the policy of low interest rates will artificially devalue the dollar, and feed long-term inflation and asset bubbles.

A conversation with Art Cashin

Art Cashin recaps "breaking the buck" of money market funds, and how we were all frozen out, post-Lehman collapse.

http://classic.cnbc.com/id/33432400/page/3/

There were reports today that they were considering would they need martial law if banks failed and people took to the streets. So they were as terrified as everybody else. I think they never realized what Lehman would do, not only with the money market funds, but when the money market funds looked like they were freezing up and everybody got terrified, they stopped dealing in commercial paper.

Money markets are the major source of liquidity in commercial paper. Not to bore the viewers, but commercial paper is a very liquid, short-term borrowing thing that IBM uses, that Proctor and Gamble uses. I mean, we're not talking about financials here. We're talking about transferring from Wall Street to Main Street. These people are used to borrowing for two or three weeks. And suddenly, they were frozen out. There were no assets. And that, I think, is what terrified both Bernanke and Paulson. And they had to guarantee to try to re-liquefy.

Art Cashin on the coming hyperinflation

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/art-cashin-coming-hyperinflation

Let’s take a different tack. To understand the incomprehensible scope of the German inflation maybe it’s best to start with something basic….like a loaf of bread. (To keep things simple we’ll substitute dollars and cents in place of marks and pfennigs. You’ll get the picture.) In the middle of 1914, just before the war, a one pound loaf of bread cost 13 cents. Two years later it was 19 cents. Two years more and it sold for 22 cents. By 1919 it was 26 cents. Now the fun begins.

In 1920, a loaf of bread soared to $1.20, and then in 1921 it hit $1.35. By the middle of 1922 it was $3.50. At the start of 1923 it rocketed to $700 a loaf. Five months later a loaf went for $1200. By September it was $2 million. A month later it was $670 million (wide spread rioting broke out). The next month it hit $3 billion. By mid month it was $100 billion. Then it all collapsed.

Things did not go badly instantly. Yes, the deficit soared but much of it was borne by foreign and domestic bond buyers. As had been noted by scholars…..“The foreign and domestic public willingly purchased new debt issues when it believed that the government could run future surpluses to offset contemporaneous deficits.” In layman’s English that means foreign bond buyers said – “Hey this is a great nation and this is probably just a speed bump in the economy.” (Can you imagine such a thing happening again?)

When things began to disintegrate, no one dared to take away the punchbowl. They feared shutting off the monetary heroin would lead to riots, civil war, and, worst of all communism. So, realizing that what they were doing was destructive, they kept doing it out of fear that stopping would be even more destructive.

Currencies, Culture And Chaos – If it is difficult to grasp the enormity of the numbers in this tale of hyper-inflation, it is far more difficult to grasp how it destroyed a culture, a nation and, almost, the world.

People’s savings were suddenly worthless. Pensions were meaningless. If you had a 400 mark monthly pension, you went from comfortable to penniless in a matter of months. People demanded to be paid daily so they would not have their wages devalued by a few days passing. Ultimately, they demanded their pay twice daily just to cover changes in trolley fare. People heated their homes by burning money instead of coal. (It was more plentiful and cheaper to get.)

The middle class was destroyed. It was an age of renters, not of home ownership, so thousands became homeless.

All hope and belief in systems, governmental or otherwise, collapsed. With its culture and its economy disintegrating, Germany saw a guy named Hitler begin a ten year effort to come to power by trading on the chaos and street rioting. And then came World War II.

JP Morgan Silver Manipulation Explained

I've been preaching this conspiracy theory for two years and now they're making a cartoon out of it.  I guess this makes the theory more legitimate than the fact that criminal and civil charges have been launched against JPMorgan for the manipulation of silver prices.  Life imitates art.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl47z2g2EvI&feature=player_embedded

Bernanke Tells Nation This Sunday: More QE Coming

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/bernanke-tells-nation-sunday-more-qe-coming

Equities and gold spiked in the last hour of trading.  Rumors leaked out that Bernanke's taping with CBS' 60 Minutes would air this Sunday.   Nah, Wall Street doesn't trade on rumors and leaks, do they?

HK gold market hit by sophisticated scam

Here is another article on fake gold showing up in Hong Kong.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f7b05cf2-fcfc-11df-ae2d-00144feab49a.html#axzz170efB47i

As occurrences of fake gold become increasingly exposed, the market will slowly come to the realization that there is less gold above ground than what "official" estimates are.  Actual physical shortages will only be intensified.  I'll leave it up to the reader to decipher what the consequences are.

Beware of fake gold scam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fS1rcE_yCc 

I have been been bullish on gold as a hedge against currency debasement--long before most retail investors.  As the price of gold rises, expect more fake gold scams, with retail jewelry being the largest target.  The guest interviewee is wrong on fake gold bars though--there have been cases of tungsten-filled fake gold bars being exposed at some smelters, which I blogged about last year.  Click here for the blog entry and watch the video.

As an investor, your best bet to owning physical bullion is to buy sovereign gold and silver coins, such as the American Eagle series or the Canadian Maple Leaf.  These coins from their respective national mints should be the most difficult to counterfeit, are recognized as having monetary value worldwide, and therefore highly liquid.

See the disclaimers in the side bar.

Disclosure:  long physical gold and silver coins.

Chris Whalen: Fed let the real economy go to hell

Jim Rickards believes Chris Whalen to be the most astute banking analyst he's met.  This snippet further validates that label.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8vFbZ4J8kQ

China Should Consider Increasing Gold Reserves to Boost Trade in the Yuan

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-03/china-should-consider-increasing-gold-reserves-to-boost-trade-in-the-yuan.html

China Is `Scared' of U.S. Monetary Policy, Rogoff, Rickards Say

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-02/china-is-scared-u-s-policy-is-debasing-currency-rogoff-rickards-say.html

The lifecycle of bureaucracy

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-lifecycle-bureaucracy

Volcker Says Dollar's Role in Danger as U.S. Influence Declines Globally

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-01/volcker-says-dollar-s-global-role-is-in-danger-as-u-s-influence-declines.html

The precious metals power higher

http://www.fgmr.com/precious-metals-power-higher.html

I am often asked when it will be time to sell the gold and silver we are now accumulating as our savings to get us though the crisis as it continues to unfold in the years ahead.  I always respond that the end of this bull market will not be like the one that ended in January 1980.  When gold and silver eventually become overvalued at some future date, you won’t “sell” your metals; you will “spend” them. 

In other words, I expect that because national currencies are being so badly mismanaged, many will collapse – including the dollar, which was the conclusion of The Collapse of the Dollar that I wrote with John Rubino in 2004.  As a consequence of the dollar and many other national currencies collapsing, so little confidence thereafter will be placed in any government’s management of a currency that few if any national currencies will exist.  This watershed event will mark the end of the world’s reckless experiment foolishly started in 1971with fiat currencies backed by nothing. With the inevitable failure of national currencies, gold and silver will be the currency of choice.

Gold Imports by China Soar Almost Fivefold as Inflation Spurs Investment

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-02/china-gold-imports-jump-almost-fivefold-as-inflation-outlook-spurs-demand.html

China’s gold imports jumped almost fivefold in the first 10 months from the entire amount shipped in last year as concern about rising inflation increased its appeal as a store of value, said the Shanghai Gold Exchange. 

Imports gained to 209 metric tons compared with 45 tons for all of 2009, Shen Xiangrong, chairman of the bourse, told a conference in Shanghai today. China, the world’s largest producer and second-biggest user, doesn’t regularly publish gold-trade figures and rarely comments on its reserves. 

Gold imports this year by India have already exceeded 2009 levels as consumers boost jewelry purchases, the World Gold Council said Nov. 17. Imports totaled 624 tons by the end of the third quarter, compared with 559 tons in all of 2009, according to the council.

Bundesbank joins Fed in demanding secrecy for gold swaps

http://www.gata.org/node/9363

Fed Names Recipients of $3.3 Trillion in Crisis Aid

The American public won't like the fact that hundreds of billions went to bail out foreign institutions and companies.  But then again, the American public won't care until it's too late.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-01/fed-names-recipients-of-3-3-trillion-of-aid-during-u-s-financial-crisis.html

The Federal Reserve, under orders from Congress, today named the counterparties of about 21,000 transactions from $3.3 trillion in aid provided to stem the worst financial panic since the Great Depression. 

Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. were among the biggest borrowers from one program, the Term Auction Facility, with as much as $45 billion apiece. Some aid went to U.S. units of foreign institutions, including Switzerland’s UBS AG, France’s Societe Generale and Germany’s Dresdner Bank AG.