Bill Cara's Blog for Feb 18, 2011 [See Post-Close report]

hsj79,

In your earlier post you spoke of people not caring about the "collective good as long as they have their McMansion." What you are proposing is that everyone should have as good a deal as the state union workers — the equivalent of voting everyone a McMansion.

The subrime meltdown is the result of the idea that everyone has the right to own a house. A laudable sentiment, but who pays? Essentially this amounts to simply voting everyone whatever they desire. Look at the result. People who worked and saved for years are the biggest losers.

What we are doing is splitting into a two class system more than ever. The wealthiest have taken control of Congress, state legislatures and local city councils. The middle class — what made the U.S. different — is disappearing with the exit of manufacturing. Government has been the biggest source of new jobs for several years now. When all you have comes from the government — you are a government slave.

Legislatures at all levels have bought into "the wonders of the new service sector", favored businesses with lack of import inspections, favorable tax measures (The 2004 American Jobs Creation Act — really just a tax break, no job requirement here) and H1-b visa increases (giving jobs to foreign Ph.D.s over new U.S. grads). Now there are far fewer working here, lower wages, and far less income to be taxed, therefore the taxes on my house must rise to finance the deficit spending.

We must limit Congress's powers. Stop lobbyists from controlling our politics. Give citizens equal opportunities — not equal presents. Stop favoring big businesses and banks at the expense of the rest of us.

----------
Incidentally, those Wisconsin Democrats who disappeared yesterday, were hiding less than five miles from my house.

German banks dragging the broader credit market wider after Moody's downgrade on sub debt. Spanish banks also underperforming

Mayhem991 , thats an honest idea . We need to condense it for a bumper sticker .

(US) CNBC: A flash crash SEC/CFTC report will be published today; will note that electronic trading has increased market fragility

- Panel to recommend audit trails and tweaking trading halts.
- Believes regulators should consider requiring fees for order cancellations.
- To recommend that CFTC and derivative exchanges evaluate the need for second tier of pre-trade risk safeguards.
- Supports SEC "naked access" rules, urges SEC to work with FINRA and exchanges to test broker-dealer management controls.
- To recommend SEC evaluate the benefits of changing broker/dealer pricing practices.
- Believes the SEC and CFTC should consider reporting requirements for liquidity and market imbalances.
- CFTC should require strict controls on sponsored access.

Wow.. not even a year passed since the event, and the report is in! (sarcasm mode off).

US GOLD CORPORATION (NYSE:UXG)(TSX:UXG) (the "Company" or "US Gold"), an exploration company focused on gold and silver in the United States and Mexico, announced today the pricing of its previously announced underwritten offering in the United States and Canada of 15 million shares of common stock at a price to the public of $6.50 per share (the "Offering Price") for aggregate proceeds of US$97.5 million (the "Offering"). The Company has also granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to 2.25 million additional share of Common Stock at the Offering Price within 30 days following the closing of the Offering to cover over-allotments, if any.

Robert R. McEwen, the Company's Chairman and CEO, purchased 3,050,000 shares representing approximately US$20 million. The underwriters will not receive a discount or commissions on shares purchased by Mr. McEwen.

Thank you Bill for the link - I just now got around to reading it. I've passed it on to those in my address book but these days I have to be careful not to hit them with too much... I wish everyone I know would read your blog and some may be... this link is a keeper to share.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/what-i...

thanks for everything,
Earl

Question; so why would the share price be at $7.25 this morning? I see this happen all the time but can't quite figure out the reasons...
regards,
Earl

It seems the effect of HB&B's fraud has far-reaching ramifications...and this is one...bubble creating the environment allowing inflated pension promises over time...deflate the bubble...the snowball starts rolling...promises are not able to be fulfilled...affected entities start to revolt...kids lose.

What happens to HB&B...bailed out by the people they fleeced...to begin again...the system is still basically in place...to run the fraud again.

The 10-year bond spread just hit no man's land at 4.28% today for the Portugese vs. the German bund. Now the EU's question becomes to bail or not to bail. One will make the euro crash and the other will make it zoom.

Anyone here believe NFLX will pull back to 220 range? I'm simply going off the chart http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=NFLX&p=D&yr=1&mn=... and think the MACD can't hang up here for long - I'm looking for anyone elses view. FD bought puts yesterday.
regards,
Earl

Per my post of a week ago or so on how the dollar could be made to rise, thus bringing commodities in (especially oil) without having to tank the market into order to put a bid under bonds to get there, we mentioned repatriation:

"A group of tech, pharmaceutical and energy giants is readying a major lobbying blitz for a tax holiday that would allow them to bring home the estimated $1 trillion they've got parked overseas at a steeply discounted rate, Fortune has learned."

http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/16/news/companies/rep...

These numbers look good and the short ratio could feel some major pain...
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=PUDA+Key+Statistics
GL,
Earl

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/opinion/14Salmon...

It's only the past few years that I've been trying to get up to speed on all this - a HARD pill to swallow for sure. I admit I was one of those with my head in the sand – and I know many people who really don’t want to know how bad things could get in this country – their not bad people but mostly very busy existing. The claque surrounding the bankers and corporate CEOs are nothing less then selfish, piggish low- life’s allowing these bankers and CEOs to literally remove the wealth of this country offshore at the expense of us all – and here is the result, the beginning of protest in the US. In many ways I feel I get what I deserve not doing anything about it – but I’ve always been pretty conservative in my lifestyle and don’t live above my means; there was no other way for me to be and raise 5 children. The one silver lining in this if there is one is I believe the top needs us; if that’s true it will play out maybe starting in Wisconsin…
Regards,
Earl

I too find this interesting; have a buy order in for 2.22 gl
Earl

http://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/openmarket.html

Click on permanent on left hand side , then tentative outright treasury operations.

Centamin has gotten slammed this morning on a Reuters report of 250 workers staging a sit-in/hunger strike. The company countered shortly thereafter and said the sit-in was only 50 workers and related to working conditions, there was no hunger strike, and gold production and sales are not affected.

I'm taking a flier on some shares under $2 CAD as this is one of the premier gold properties around. There is definitely a risk that the situation could become more serious but seems to me that a lot of it has already been priced in on the recent decline.

Anyone else eyeing this one?

SLW 10 day crosses 50 day on my chart

Short squeeze? Buyers bidding up the price like if there will be no more silver left to buy next week. +2.25USD/Oz in 50 hours. Crazy stuff!

I just sold 1/3 of my SLW call position and am now flying on a free position.

aiki100 & davelee,

You're quite welcome. I'm happy to contribute something to this great place.

Regards,
BH

One of my silver juniors (usa.v) hedged 20% of their production for this year at 27.5USD/Oz just back in November. I am still holding a position.

Bill, when it comes to the mining industry you are the true expert, not me. The potential for much higher silver prices is definitely there, the question is only if one can be fast enough to cash in on the opportunity.

http://bit.ly/15yTGs

The CEO said production was not up to expectations....watch video at 2 minute mark.......http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1799932663&play=1

The Pomo info is available on the site of the NY FED.

http://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/pomo_landing.html

http://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/tot_operation_sc...

Kaimu's essays on money have got me searching all over the net to try and learn about the monetary system so fundamental to the function of the economy and by corollary to each and every one of us.What I have found so far brings to mind Plato's Allegory of the Cave.

http://platosallegory.com/TheStory.aspx

I have found this site to be a great resource for anyone interested in Economics, including how the monetary system has evolved.

http://ingrimayne.com/econ/TOC.html

It took 2 days to clear out the IPO Aus discount

I heard that physical inventory is rising at LME (?) in London. I do not know if this is factual.

Maybe this cam be verified from KitCo website.

Les , I am temped to hold East Coal , looking at the 3 month chart . Perhaps too much positive thought ?

Back in at $18.85, as well as BCSI (beat back after earnings).

westcoaster- Good call. I'm going to second that by adding another allotment (now up to 40% of allocation) @ 18.91.

Interestingly, euro has some strength lately. I bet dollar would go up, but it didn't. Lost some on that.

Jack -

It's official Fed policy to devalue the USD. My use of the yuan and the swissy as a safe cash proxy has worked well with some minor gains. All the talk of a flash crash and the POMO pump suggests the pucker meter in the red zone and turning a few too many RPMs. These positions do better than equities when the music stops.

Took profits on UXG today but still holding SQM as my primary risk trade in this environment. Took some gains and losses today to move into primarily a non-equity posture as the U.S. public union debate starts to erupt. Armstrong predicts an event within the next month. As Bill says, protecting capital is job one.

Cheers.

Telestar,

This is a sad story. I have a list of over 70 people with similar tales — people I either know personally, or someone related to them, usually their kids.

Most have found at least some kind of job, but like the young lady in this article, often at lower pay and fewer, if any, benefits.

My barber, whose business has fallen 50%, is traveling over 500 miles round trip each week to fill in for a friend whose getting cancer treatments and working the other weeks. His son and daughter-in-law now live with him and his wife after losing their jobs and their house.

I'll take it. Let 1/3 ride.

yeh and that's a thought that weighs on me. But that 4 million shares changing hands has me standing back a moment.

I like your entry point.

You make a good point that Bob should consider Westy in that you've got 300% already on ECX.V. That's a lot of breathing space, even if the stock should pull back here.

I will look to reestablish a new setup as I don't want to be underwater on a stock as I average into it.

Tail wind for gold. Military clique controls many businesses..ie everything, keep serious wealth in gold, and are not about to let any democratic processes occur without a fight. Internet the people's weapon. It's going to be bloody. Good luck people.

http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/article...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleea...

I just got this invite via email.

The Government of Columbus Ohio is now more open than before. There could be arising direct immigration business opportunities for you. To ensure for warmer & fruitful networking as the speaker wishes, the setting is planned for 1-2 table(s) only. Immediate RSVP per emailing SinoCanAmETS@ yahoo.com with your good name, cell number, and company name/nature is suggested.

A few short notes about Columbus Ohio USA:
- 1.8 million people
- Annual economic growth of 1.1%
- Third-fastest major metropolitan statistical area growth in the Midwest
- 27 colleges and universities
- 125,000 college students
- Home to 15 Fortune 1000 headquarters
- Within one-day drive or one-hour flight of over 50% of the US population
And 40% of the Canadian population
- Competitive place for Chinese businesses - Coda Automotive, and Lishen Battery Power etc., and numerous small enterprises
- Generous Government incentives

Hi All - The pricing Gods pulled up @ $1390.10 (ask) and Ag @ $32.66 ...nice integers. Interesting times we are in. Thanks to Bill, Patrick, Pat, Kaimu, Vad, Bull Hunter and you All. Have a peaceful weekend - I get to go skiing. Happy Trading
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/peaceful#Translations

California Kid .Les, Bill and others..

Very interesting comments, thanks for the transparency every one.. In my opinion, PMI is one of the candidates for a buy and hold for yrs as kaimu introduced it to us and I agree with him. When a strong believer in the company takes a risk buying over a million shares of the stock at 3 cents a share in Apr/2009 and hold the position until now where price hit 80 cents even higher few months ago, such a strategy obviously is very rewarding and there are many few stock candidates like this one. I can almost guarantee you that any one who traded over one million shares of PMI in and out since Apr/2009 would not have come to a similar gain or performance. Hence, I do believe that some winners are really made for BUY and HOLD strategy and not made for day or swing trading. Your chances of making higher gains holding those are far outweigh the chance of achieving similar gains trading them in and out for the same time period, of course with a bit of luck on your side that help you choose such winners in the first place and sit on them. Unless of course you are a high frequency trading computer that is fed complex trading formulas to trade the capital in and out in micro seconds and keep scalping those micro gains on the way up and the way down all year long.

However, we are human and we make our own decisions when to buy or sell always. Unfortunately we sometimes let our emotions take over or let others influence our decisions in a negative way and we end up holding the bag or suffering deep loses. I guess we all learn from our own mistakes and try to do better the next time although some may never learn and may repeat the same mistake over and over and over again. Just watch the events around you in the world and you will you come to the conclusion that the majority of people never learn from history and they tend to repeat the historic mistake over and over again.

GLTA

FD. I hold a large position as well bought last year when Kaimu mentioned it and after I saw some fund managers starting to get their hands on the shares and I am still holding with no intention to sell at this point. I wish I knew Kaimu back in Apr/2009 and bought the shares at 3 cents as well :). By the way Kaimu, I don't know what your entry price was anyway but I just wanted to make a point in my comments above. Thanks for the tip again.

BERNAKE SHOULD BE CONSIDERED A SAINT AND GOLD IS A REAL CRUMMY INVESTMENT.
Just a heads up. Here is something to consider. What if Ben has been right all along? What if he has made all the right moves? From a stock market perspective what has he done wrong? I believe the headlines say. "Stock Market is up 100%." If BEN was a CEO we would be giving him a billion dollar bonus. You know what. He deserves it. LET THE CANNONIZATION BEGIN. He has preformed a miracle. I know Ben is Persona non grata on this board, but really you are not seeing the big picture. He has essentially doubled the value of the market. Price Pays and the numbers don't lie.

This is just the beginning. The longer you are on the sidelines the farther you are going to be left behind. Gold is basically being on the sidelines. It has incredibly under performed the market since the bottom. Do you have more than a 10 % weighting in gold? Why? While you are fretting about ore % samples from RBY and Jag the smart money is going to be buying web/wireless infrastructure companies that are going to double AGAIN! While you are wondering why GGs earnings are only up 15 %, oil drillers, refiners and service companies are going to go parabolic. See a VLO chart lately. I even like that company despite the fact it is located in Texas (just kidding you Ross). Heck even a real risky investment like Dow Chemical has out preformed gold by 10
times since the bottom. That is DOW CHEMICAL.
Bob
P.S. Whatever happened to those Wave Theory guys. Are we in a Tidal wave.

http://tinyurl.com/gld-vs-sp

http://tinyurl.com/65wq5fv

Good one O. Not so true of juniors a la kaimu. Put pmi etc up against your DOW. Uxg was $2 not so long ago.

Here's a couple of funds that you could've owned if the link works
http://globefunddb.theglobeandmail.com/gishome/pls...

This is what I wanted to share. A good summation of the ruler situation in the middle east. A lot of brittle regimes, up against a twittering, texting youth population. Where I have I seen this movie before?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/20ad6b80-37aa-11e0-b91a-...

Ha let's vote bobbyo off the board for taking an opposing view :P

But the point is well taken that I don't want to be fully vested in gold at all times - mostly due to reasons of risk. That waterfall event in May 2010 is still thoroughly ingrained in my mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mC4tu1NhUA

At this point in time history suggests that any reversal now is increasing in likelihood of being a substantial one. No need to short every pause the market takes but having powder dry ready for a pullback is a strategy spoken of here often enough, or if pullback becomes market drop being ready to short.

Yes I'm happy to ignore K waves and other surfing paraphernalia and concentrate on price. I'm happy to have a little exposure to leader stocks in other sectors and leveraging through options to again limit exposure. This weeks experiment in using options to play breakouts has been encouraging and I will continue to learn it.

RIG continues to consolidate at 6 month highs while $OSX has long blown past this point. RIG has some catching up to do, so I hold this Mar call which recovered nicely into the close on Friday. SLW 30%+ in session. My two swing trades going into next week.

Note McClellan oscillator in a daily time frame:

http://tinyurl.com/5u9moq4

and weekly time frame:

http://yfrog.com/hs4ymip

Nothing overextended in a short-term time frame yet. Get those McClellan oscillators REAAAALY overbought, assuming Wall St. will pump the public before dumping on this market.

A worthy read on silver, COMEX expiration next week and Blythe Masters.

"If someone wants to purchase physical silver through the Comex, they must first buy a future or option contract for a "delivery" month. The current delivery contract is the March11. Before the close of trading on 2/28, any holders of March contracts must sell their positions or be forced to take delivery.

Those unwilling to take delivery typically "roll" their position into the next month, which is May. If an investor does intend to take delivery, that person must, by the close on the 28th, show in their account enough money to pay for their acquisition. A single contract is for 5,000 ounces so, at $30/oz, you must show available funds of $150,000. For 10 contracts, you must have $1.5MM.

This is kind of a "put up or shut up" thing. It keeps goofballs from claiming they want delivery when they really can't afford it. On the 28th, you've got to have the dough in your account to "prove" to TPTB that your are serious. Every delivery month, the EE/Comex plays this game and, every month, enough longs simply roll instead of standing for delivery so that the Comex has yet to default on their obligations to deliver the physical silver.

Now, here's the problem...Monday was 2/14. Only 10 trading days to go until the critical 28th. Heading into Monday's trade, there were still 62,692 open contracts for March. This had to really get the attention of the EE and they, without question, went into Monday with a plan to attack silver and scare as many March longs as possible into rolling to May or later.

Unfortunately for Blythe, silver began to rally in the wee hours of Monday morning and broke $30 while she was still sleeping. It closed that day above $30.50. But that wasn't the true disaster for the EE. The real shock was when they got the new OI numbers Monday night and found that the March OI had only fallen to 61,720. Panic surely began to set in. Then yesterday, silver traded even higher, briefly touching $30.90.

(FYI, Blythe Masters was the genius who created what we coin now 'financial weapons of mass destruction'. Following that master stroke they made her head of commodities at JPM).

Earlier today, we got the OI numbers basis yesterday and it was an eye-opener. As of last night, there are still 59,851 open March contracts. And first notice day is now only eight days away!!! Blythe had this information before the general public so she knew, going into today, that she had to attack again and she did. Here's your chart (see the following link):

http://tfmetalsreport.blogspot.com/2011/02/wow.html

Obviously, it didn't work and that's the problem.

Recall for a moment how the EE caps price. They do so by flooding the Comex with an almost endless amount of unbacked, paper silver. Think about that trade, though. To sell short, you need a buyer on the other side of the trade. And now, at this late hour, how can you reduce the open interest in the March contract if you're only selling new paper shorts to resolute longs who intend to stand for delivery in eight days? By raiding and selling, you're only compounding your problem because you are creating more open interest! If you're Blythe, you're left with only being able to freely sell the forward contracts in an attempt to influence the spot and nearby price. Does this explain the current backwardation? Probably.

To the point, however, what's a girl to do? You can see by looking at the chart above that Blythe tried to raid today but she didn't seem to do it with the usual bluster and gusto. How could she? Every new March contract she sells only adds to her problem. She is truly caught in a catch-22. Again, what's a girl to do?

If the March longs stay resolute, she's screwed. Even if only 20,000 stand for delivery, thats 100,000,000 ounces that the Comex has to deliver. By most estimates, that's their entire inventory. She and The Evil Empire must, somehow, convince/force March contract holders to close their positions but if they can't scare them by crushing price, how do they do it? They could get the CME to raise margin requirements but if you're ready to stand for delivery by putting up 100% of the cost in eight days, a margin increase today is of zero consequence."

http://tfmetalsreport.blogspot.com/2011/02/wow.html

Note the final paragraph and be prepared for fun and games going into COMEX expiration next week. I'll be glued to precious metal futures heading into Tuesday.

Master's is of course a straw man, a setup like Taibbi's articles, but I think a special place is reserved for her - if not in hell, which I don't believe in - at least in our cultural lexicon; she will have her place in history. History will certainly reveal at some point whether it is JPM that is flooding the market with useless paper. As Jesse's Cafe reminds us, that most famous quote from the Bhagavad Gita is already reserved for another deadly creationist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8w3Y-dskeg

Westcoaster,

Just a reminder in regard to this comment...

"Internet the people's weapon."

Weapons, like any tool, are always neutral and are dependent on who is using them.

Information today is fast, plentiful, persuasive and NOT the same as TRUTH.

I spent last evening with a long time friend who said essentially the same thing about cell phones and the net. He believes what he hears and also thinks conscience is a universal deciding factor in ALL people. He is a well educated person (economics major) who successfully ran his own business for nearly 50 years, is very generous and has led a very good life.

He's 87 and still thinks truth will triumph in the long run. I reminded as Keynes said, "In the long run we are all dead." In the meantime millions of our fellow Americans are losing ground rapidly and this will effect the whole world as our charity is suffocated.

Grym

http://www.sec.gov./Archives/edgar/data/866970/000...

Just in case anyone is interested in LED lighting maybe you can share some thoughts with me - I'll repost from 02/09/11

6 months ago I did some research on LED lighting before doing a $600 dollar lighting project in our kitchen; I took on this project because my wife leaves the kitchen lights on all the time and 500 watts of light at cheap $0.10/kwh is $.60 to $.80 a day – part of the $600 expense were the 5 Definity PAR30’s 15w (http://www.lsgc.com/dmdocuments/DFN_PAR30_Sheet_30...) that I bought ($24.95 each) to replace the standard PAR38 100w flood lights. The math is straight forward where these cost 15% of what the standard flood lights cost to operate. But don’t let anyone tell you that the heat off these new lamps does not exist, it does (so don’t grab them after turning them on) – but far less then the standard flood bulbs which cuts my AC bill also. The bottom line of my project (because my wife leaves the lights on 10+ hours a day) is I pay for my investment (parts only since I did the work) in 8 to 10 months and my 5 year return will be $2300 savings since they have 50,000 hours of life. Actually the $2300 includes some of the companys other lighting taken from the total wattage; I was able to add more useful light and still come under 20% wattage of the lighting I removed. I used the soft white color scheme and my wife loves it - gives the whole kitchen a far more stylish softer look. The PAR30's I mention above are screw in to the standard PAR38 (regular flood light) receptacles. I didn't buy their new PAR38 LED because (to fit the standard PAR38 receptacles in the kitchen) because I like the cleaner recessed look of the PAR30 LED for my particular application.

The strange thing is I bought these at Home Depot. I can’t find on their site where they have anything to do with Home Depot – just strange. The bid/ask is $2.00 and $6.00 which is caused by an issue with the exchanges OTCBB and PK so I’m told. With 126 listed employees it’s a small company but their web site is first class.

FD I bought 200 shares this morning at $4.60 - what little research I could do is it seems this is mosty insider owned. If someone with the acumen to figure this company out wants to please share your findings with me.

best regards,
Earl

Web site; http://www.lsgc.com

http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=LSCG&p=D&yr=1&mn=...

Obama Budget Cuts Visualization
http://tinyurl.com/66wb898
How much is the $100 million dollars in budget cuts compared to the federal budget as a whole? This video imagines the budget as $100 in pennies to provide the answer. For more on the budget,…
00:01:38 Added on 4/25/09 1,463,696 views

Change you can believe in....

Bobbyo
A simple question;
Which one in the attached chart would you choose as your winning horse?

Note; After the intense outperformance in 2008/9 I would expect a period of consolidation as that has been the case per the past 11 years. Always followed up with another intense period of outperformance. Just an observation.

To put it in perspective I have attached a chart from 1980. If you bought gold 10 years ago you would have made a fortune. If you bought just two years ago (when everybody was scared) you are one big loser today in relative comparison. Just like those who bought at the last peak 30 years ago. However, the trend is up and not down.

Timing isn't everything. It's the ONLY thing.

I must admit I'm a little surprised that I am the only one in the pro Bernanke camp. Maybe you don't think he is a saint, but at least there has to be some people that think he is doing a better than average job. Do people forget so quickly where we were at. I guess some call it a depression, but deep down they know it was not a real depression. I mean a REAL DEPRESSION! Of coarse we have a chance to regress back, but the arguments for making this a better market and a stronger country on this board are overly simplistic and completely unrealistic. Some how all our problems will end if we dissolve the FED or change our currency. I guess when we backed our money by gold we never had financial crisis' or panics. Right?

Now on gold, On Friday there was 80 or so posts on this board. At least 80% of them were about gold stocks or other precious metal stocks. Many were pink sheet venture penny stocks. Just from a risk reward nature of trading I was wondering why is everyone taking on all this risk when we are in the middle of one of the biggest Bull markets in history. BILL is a mining expert so I certainly understand a bias in that direction, but I never heard him once say go all in on PM or take more than a speculative position in a venture stock. Other then his mining focused funds I am sure he is participating in this broad market rally. Heck he probably even owns some yoga pants stock.

I agree with davefairtex.

Ben just made the can another notch bigger and heavier, and gave it yet another kick. I haven't seen any progress to any kind of "sustainable" economic growth, just printing of yet more money and credit to bail out the culprits at the price of punishing those who worked hard, lived within their means and saved.

I will add to the list,

Reduction of real unemployment and underemployment to below 10%. There is no way things will get much better till people are working and earning a living again.

I think will be at least 10 years, if we are lucky and don't have a hyperinflationary collapse.

Grym, you quoted Keynes: "in the long run we are all dead."

John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

In the long run I have eternal life.
BearE

Imagine if you will the 44 million people waiting in line for their food instead of charging it to their EBT card. The term "depression" is not too far fetched.

Ron

Bobbyo,

"....but deep down they know it was not a real depression. I mean a REAL DEPRESSION!"

Not for people who have successfully played the market perhaps — although we are not out of the woods by any means, IMO. If you look at a graph of the depression decade the ups and down were many, as Bill and others have pointed out.

If not for the taxpayer funded programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicade, unemployment insurance, Aid to Dependent Children, PLUS a couple $trillion in TARP and QE and some realistic measure of unemployment...

We would all realize this IS A REAL DEPRESSION and we're still in the first half with no one working on a solution.

I'm with Dr. Stranglove, let's talk about in a few years.

IMO, as they slow or stop, the rates will rise dramatically as government borrowing crowds EVERYTHING else out, because it doesn't MATTER what the rate is, they will borrow it anyway.

So, how can the Fed get out of this without causing hyperinflation from POMO, or deflation, depression, and collapse from trying to slow or stop it?

Do they plan on walking this infinitely long type rope trying to balance between the two, forever?

I seriously can't imagine the budget or trade deficits ending, so I'm at a loss as to seeing any "good" way out of the mess, no matter how long term of a view I try to take, because the debt numbers are growing, month by month, not improving.

bobbyo -

"If Yen takes a big crapper where is one of the richest countries in the world going to put their money? With uncle Ben in T-notes and dollars. Won't the dollar gain value making gold less valuable?" - bobbyo

Richest countries? You mean most indebted countries in history. Are you part of Oprah's audience? Wealth and debt are interchangable? Kaimu makes his points!

Go to Bill's WIR #7 and toward the bottom review his Forex Review. It says, in part, the following:

"The Forex market is a four trillion dollar a day marketplace, which dwarfs the size of the stock and bond markets. In this market, the Euro/USD is the highest volume trader, and London is the center of the universe.

The current value of $USD is a mean value of rate fluctuations of six world currencies (Japanese yen, Euro, British pound, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc and Swedish krona) that each trade against the USD. The Euro is by far the biggest component." - WIR #7 Forex Review

Gold is the benchmark not the floating fiat trade of $4 Trillion PER DAY crashing across the deck of a tall ship like a loose cannon in a gale to paraphrase Herbert Hoover.

POMO is the music and it's got to stop ... in June even. Which country will default in this game of musical chairs?

By the way, as debt interest goes up 250 basis points in a bid to find buyers for the monetized runaway public debt, that's just a lot more debt we haven't a rat's ass in hell of paying in a PRODUCTIVE economic way.

How CONFIDENT do you feel, really, my friend, for that is all that matters now. I want to have confidence in Ben but I know too much history to buy in at this late stage of the debt crisis. All empires end with the transfer of the reserve currency. Your choice: SDRs or a free floating yuan.

Cheers.

How do you keep your bartering power?

I believe we started by trading things each thought had value. The values could be short term or long, and goods or services. For instance another guy with a sharp stick might have value when hunting long ago we call that a service. When teams of running guys got tired of running into each other we get goods in the way of the fence, a signal. Today it would seem not much has changed you can find guys with sticks at all the borders and others running around on their side of the fence looking for things.

This leads to hording behaviors among competing teams of humans. Whether it is Bombers, BMW’s or who has the top Bahamas houses on Pleasure Island. Individuals tend to have a narrow focus which defines their lives. Who you are is defined by what you keep. You morals, associations and your physical possessions become you.

We have inherited a system undergoing violent upheavals in perceived values by other communities. Sure we still use a coin system older than Julies Cesar but the value of coins change. And now we are creating cloud coins which are completely intangible to normal human perception. A value without existence this electronic system of the modern bankers. You don’t have to be the smartest pebble on the path to understand you have nothing in the absence of artificial energy keeping those bit alive in a computer somewhere. That is, we must all depend on electronics to store our wealth as bank balances somewhere we are not. Our wealth tends to be more non corporal and is only perceived in the absence of the physical currency it represents.

In college I was absorbed by the structure of our planet having been a child that followed the NASA program in Look and Life each week in a large color format. I wanted to understand the dry land in the pictures taken in space. I studied geology in college until on a five day field trip to Death Valley I happened to ask him where does one with good geologists skills happen to come in handy. Having worked for Chevron for many years you can guess what he said, hunt for oil. If it were diamonds or gold then maybe thing would be different but gas was a quarter then and flowed like water.

Here in this Community in the cloud we have a group who wish to provide goods in the form of metals. They are the fractional owners of enterprises engaged in extraction around the globe. Some believe in the product so much they purchase it retail.

Control for a company will affect outcomes with PMI I see someone knows something or the normal players are accumulating shares. Recently one entity posted it had acquired a portion equal to a mid teen number of all the shares floating as required by regulations. On a day with extremely high volume one would think sell triggers were hit and a lot of shares went somewhere. Several on this board indicated they had given up control of some share and expect a free ride on a reduced position or sold out right. That’s fine but if there is an accumulation battle it goes up from here. If I were someone recently selling out a major position in a fund I might snatch the low hanging fruit if I believed strongly in its fundamentals.

The junior miners are the fun stuff. I don’t know any pants factories going up 33% in a day. We might talk about core samples and grams of recoverable gold by tone estimated out in a lab, but as I indicated earlier evidence suggest normal mining parameters in selected areas of the crust. As the big grindery truck guys are excavating ore to the mills others need to be establishing new claims and determining values by lifting costs.

I can now show you detailed and somewhat 3D photos of Earth from space over Obodan Gahana. Look at the gray area in this Google photo at the alluvial fan coming out of the hills. To me as others are successfully lifting in this area gold has washed down from the area during a previous geological event. The area had supported several mines in the past. New drilling abilities have provided evidence in certain conditions larger strikes can be found deeper than the original strikes and for a distance away from the original digs. Therefore I believe PMI will with its last cash infusion make it to production. That there are a lot of people with a lot more money than I looking to increases their stakes in this project.

Is gold a bubble might be but I don’t think humanity will turn away in my lifetime. So, today groups of men in Africa with sharp sticks are pounding away at the crust leaving messages that say dig here.

You will need Google 3D viewer installed to view the area maps in you browser.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Obodan+Ghana

Buy the way I said Junior Miners were the fun stuff I also have blocks of WFC, GE and RQI that I consider core holding and would not touch if the sky were falling. Another 1/5 of my asset's in the market are actively managed in my retirement funds. They are boring and don't need my attention.

reference per Farber/Gross roundtable disscussion... great inflation/coming funding crisis discussion... http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast/E...

bobbyo -

Let's take it one step at a time here.

1) Soup lines came because there was no safety net. We have one now, so bank failures won't create soup lines.

2) Dust bowls came from poor farming techniques - over-farming, no crop rotation, etc. We have better farming techniques now, so bank failures won't lead to dust bowls.

3) Elderly homeless people wandering around came because we had no social security. We have social security now, so bank failures won't lead to elderly people wandering around.

In fact, all bank failures will do is lead to a bunch of unemployed bankers. This IS terrifying - to the bankers, who used to be Masters of the Universe and now are just on the street looking for a job. So they in turn terrify everyone slow and stupid enough to listen, which includes Ben Bernanke and the Treasury Secretary (who both secretly want jobs making 10 million a year once their government service is over from these self-same organizations).

If your thoughts of a Bob Rubin-style very comfortable post-government service lifestyle relies on your grateful contacts in the industry hiring you, you aren't likely to want those contacts to be on the street looking for a gig. So you save them. And that's what happened.

Last point. Sweden did exactly what I describe with their failed banks. There were no dust bowls, no elderly people walking around, and no soup lines. But there were a lot of unemployed bankers, and the bondholders got haircuts, and the stockholders lost everything. The RICH RISK INVESTORS took the hit, while the poor taxpayers stood by and watched. Deposit insurance was important too in making sure the little guys weren't wiped out.

THAT is the capitalism I'm looking for. Sweden-style capitalism. Not Bernanke-style banker-coddling socialism.

boobyo -

So when the cannon known as the Yen carry trade rolls across the deck back to Japan in that gale, it won't roll back again at a rate of $4 Trillion per day into the USD? It's called volatility with a capital V. It's too much fiat currency with no place to hide as Ben's debt printing inflates hard assets like food, energy, and gold. Food inflation alone is causing monarchs to gun down innocents in a bid to hold power. U.S. public unions appear to be next focus right here in little ol' Wisconsin. Gold's steady secular trend sails on without obligation.

Kaimu often comments that Oprah tells her audience that the U.S. is the richest country in the world. It's in fact the most indebted in historic scale.

It's not hypocritical to discuss junior minors because they use debt. The majors are on the hunt to acquire the juniors to expand reserves in this environment. Junior minors made some of the most spectacular returns in stockmarket history during the Great Depression. I didn't read anyone here ever say go all in on a junior here like Ben did with your great grandchild's future.

Just what is your strategy? All in on Ben's new 50 year debt at 5% below the real inflation rate?! Do tell.

Dr. Lovestrange.
In all honesty I'm a short term momentum trader. If the Yen scenario materializes like LES says, I will be shorting GLD and finding any JR miner I can to short. It is hard finding JR miners to short. I think it is already a crowded trade. What Cali Kid failed to mention in his euphoria over the possibility of a 30 % gain in a single day is that you also have a possibility of a 30% loss in a single day. Really an easy no stress trade. Look for a DBI over a round number on a news based sell off in a junior. Damn i'm salivating just thinking about it. Hope Les is right.

I had presented the proposition that in December I exchanged equity value in Bombardier for PMI on the pretense that one would in my estimation of the big picture have a greater likely hood of doubling in value before the other.

As to volatility in penny stocks I also from time to time might gamble to short a stock but I don’t go that way. I have heard 95% of day traders get ground up sooner or later. In normal markets of the past my hold stratagem has watch the values fall 50% but I was on board when they split.

I have mentioned MPG a favorite of a few money managers and its predictable rises and falls in its current range a perfect short if you know whose turn it is in advance and the pivot points. I am fully aware of swings in valuation but that alone does not signal a change in the fundamental underling asset.

When I rode momentum I was in at the bell for IPO’s with a guys pay service he stoked them by being a regular poster at a major stock web site. On Saturdays he posted for free what we had read many weeks earlier in his research as a CPA. We knew which ones he was going to post before the IPO. The BBS was live and he gave updates on his positions and sell targets. I ate cheese sandwiches in the dark here in California to be into pretrade at the open of the US markets day which was 5 AM here. It was to demanding to follow blind momentum and make since of it tic by tick.

Problem was I got so good I started using margin and of all things as my order was being filled for an IPO of a portion of the states power grid the president of Argentina repealed the increases in the power rates one could charge the users. Fortunately I sold the same day. There are unforeseen things in many transactions.

I apologies for my poor writing style if you left with the impression I was euphoric from the 20 cent change in value for my shares. Maybe if it were 20 cents for each man women and child on Earth.

Can you remember ever thinking that a penny from each would make you rich as a kid, Inflation!

The hidden message in my last piece was men tend to pick up shiny things and assign them value through time.

You are a kindred spirit and I wish you well in your endeavors.

ALOHA!!

bobbyo-Thanks! First of all I have no clue how anyone can argue that juniors are too risky due to huge debt and then tell me how brilliant BEN is for presiding over the biggest DEBT LIABILITY in US History! Using that logic why would anyone hold a USD or a US Treasury chit? Using DOW and the DJI as examples of great trades has nothing to do with BEN and the US FED's original charter. This tunnelvision that every one employs today simply creates a huge malinvestment especially when it comes to the USD and USD denominated prices. Yes we trade prices but behind every price we trade is a free floating irredeemable currency which is essentially a debt derivative based on the whims of a private banking cartel and a US Congress run amok for fifty years. DEBT IS HUMAN NATURE!

Take with you what you may, but the fact remains that even though inflation is "contained" below 2% according to BEN, it is contained at the highest embedded levels in US history. I showed a chart on that which was part of the SANS MEDIA of my last report. In 1913 you could have bought a real nice home for $3,000USD now it takes $600,000 to buy a real nice home. If you want to celebrate that as some kind of a world class economic or monetary achievement; a miracle of central banking brilliance ... then go ahead and rent a room at the OUTRIGGER REEF ON THE BEACH at Waikiki for $400USD and buy a $500USD bottle of Dom Perignon 1990 and spend $200USD on dinner and a luau at the AHA'AINA! In 1970 all that would have cost you less than $60! WOW ... Its all about money and its "store of value". What can you buy with your DOW profits today versus those same profits from 1970 using a 1970 USD?

Hey, who's counting, but Obama and the US Congress already cranked the debt ceiling by over $2TRIL USD in less than two months time; from Dec 24, 2009 to Feb 12, 2010! Even Bill Gross at PIMCO is sick of having to look at all that debt every week!

Okay, DOW(NYSE) ... yes, up 400% and the DJI up 100%! Good, but almost any one can shown nice gains if they bought in at the bottom two years ago.

Whats more risky PMV or BSC and LEH? How many millions of Americans lost their shirt on those two companies that have been around for over 100 years! ITS ALL RELATIVE ...

PMI GOLD
Some big fund was buying on Friday. When the volume is over 4 million it has to be some institutional player either from Canada, Australia or Europe(Swiss/German). Now I do know that PMI did a Hong Kong road show so add in some China into the mix. You have to look at risk in perspective. When PMI GOLD was $0.03CAD it was risky, but fundamentally there was still some good property on the books and I heard numerous CAs come from undisclosed large miners trying to take advantage of the situation. Still there were four past producing gold mines on two of the most prolific gold belts in human history. After consideration I felt I would have been a fool to not play the "inverse risk" at the time. In other words the share price was so low it was almost "riskless"! I mean 200,000 shares was only $6,000CAD, if I used a USD to buy in, which I had, that risk drops to $4,000USD. The choice was lose $4,000USD or WIN really big(4,000% gain)!! I really did not think losing $4,000 was a big risk, so for me it was a NO BRAINER!. Then again it was all relative, as I have no mortgage or car payment and I already own XOM and CVX, so what the hey??? Why not take advantage of being "debt free"?

All "true" junior TSXV stocks under $1CAD on a six month(6M) chart. It has been a lot harder to make substantial gains over the past six months, but you can click on the one year(1Y) or the two year(2Y) tab and see where things are when you buy at the bottom. Then again try the five year(5Y) tab too ... Now how long will it take PMV at $0.80CAD to double versus DOW, DJI or QQQ?

LINK: http://tinyurl.com/6hk4ubw

"I don't know Les, Short yen, Long gold. Seems counter intuitive. If Yen takes a big crapper where is one of the richest countries in the world going to put their money? With uncle Ben in T-notes and dollars. Won't the dollar gain value making gold less valuable?"

Hey Bobbyo, if you're referring to the Japanese putting their money somewhere where it won't be ravaged by a weakening currency - forget it. The Japanese govt. has plundered local savings for decades in order to fund the debt it has. That is a positive in one sense, Japan doesn't have the foreign creditors that the US has.

Like I said before, Japanese demographics lead now to a situation where the population requires that money back in order to fund retirement. Savings are soon to go negative and the Japanese govt. has no more easy money to build bridges to nowhere. Probably why they are determined to make their currency cheaper, to export their way out of this. As always, a weakening currency is a stealth means of default and stealing a populations savings. We're all going to experience that to one degree or another. That's why we invest in hard money.

History tells us the US is prepared to weaken its currency. Such a tactic was publicly spoken of by the G-(7?) in 1985. It was what the group of nations was brought together for. They are in this together and they will weaken their currencies together, cooperatively or not. There is no escaping a weakening Yen in that sense, by buying dollars. Rats fleeing one sinking ship for another.

That's the big picture bob. There will be a couple of enormous rallies like this, that if played correctly will help the astute trader make their year. History shows this and astute experienced players like Bill knew this as the market turned in 2009. But the multi year outlook is not so sanguine. Central bankers could be the death of us all. At least have a couple of penny stock, market proven precious metal jockeys on your payroll mate. JMO.

--------------------------------------------------

Does silver manipulation go beyond JPM and a mystery client? Is it also being orchestrated by the G-10 and for what economic reason? Read on:

The huge rise in silver price has caught the silver bankers totally offside on the silver banking. The BIS data released in November (www.goldexsextant.com)**NOTE I cannot find the BIS data** shows that the G 10 bankers have collectively sold forwards and swaps to the tune of 4 billion oz and short naked calls for another 3 billion oz. The total, 7 billion oz represents 10 years of production. If you just do the forwards, then it is 7 years of annual silver production. Let us say the average cost of acquiring these derivatives and forwards equate to $15.00 for silver. Thus collectively the entire G10 bankers are feeling massive pain (losses) to the tune of:

7 billion oz of silver( 32.30-12.00) = 7 billion x $17.30 = 121.1 billion dollars of losses.

http://harveyorgan.blogspot.com/2011/02/silver-exp...

bobbyo -

You're welcome. And for the record, I'm a fan of Oprah. ;)

When I first read about Sweden I confess I was dubious. Its one of those examples that reminded me to think for myself, to analyze things not on the basis of "what everyone knows" and "isms" but on the actual facts of the situation. While everyone knows Sweden is socialist, the fact is, they treated their banks very, very capitalistically.

Japan and the US have resolved their banking crisis in much the same way as a crony-capitalism Banana Republic, while Sweden kicked ass and did exactly what we were advising the Japanese to do back in 1993 - take losses immediately, zero the shareholders, toss out the executive teams, and move on with life.

Sweden recovered in 2-3 years, while Japan is still dealing with its deflation 20 years later. But the individual winners and losers were quite different. In Japan, shareholders and executives were rescued, while the country stagnated. In Sweden, the executives were fired and the shareholders lost everything, while the taxpayers bill was small, and the recovery was swift.

If you're a bank shareholder, or a bank executive, which outcome would you prefer? Given how little banking reform has happened, and that very few bank executives lost their jobs, and that JPM's stock is back to its pre-crash levels, who do you think had the biggest voice in the policy decisions? Bankers, or taxpayers?

THIS is why I don't like Bernanke. He seems like a nice guy personally, I'm sure I'd enjoy it if he came to my party. But his policies suck. Not all central bankers act the way he does. Some go Swedish on their banks, so the vast majority of taxpayers don't suffer needlessly - because its the fair thing to do.

mntinhi,

Your picture of the massive differences in ag and manufacturing are right on. I mentioned recently my dad had gone from bookkeeper and office manager at the brick plant where he worked for 19 years to night watchman. He began on the farm and made the full transition. In 1940 we moved to where he could get factory work as the WW2 build-up went into full swing.

While I hope we don't go on a war footing to turn things around again I do see some signs of manufacturing returning to the US. Some local shops are hiring (at far reduced wages) with more efficient equipment (computerized using fewer workers). Also, VW will be making the Passat here (TN, I think.) and reducing the base price from $27,000 to $20,000. Apparently sans unions (total cost including benefits $72/hr) we're the new "cheaper labor" kid on the block. (I wonder what labor/hr is in Germany.)

We are witnessing a massive global reshuffle and only beginning, I think. But the major problems are universal — too many people, too few needed, too many old ones like me (using, but no longer contributing) not enough younger workers to support the structure.

Madison avoiding the truth is a metaphor for the world. Those in the middle class are being squeezed by the unions' benefits packages and at the other side the wealthiest getting ever more by off-shoring and outrageous salaries, bonuses and stock options.

In my book Bernanke is a four letter word.

Grym

Bobbyo – I’ve read this thread with much interest. I can respect and applaud these types of comments with the hope they are meant to instruct (“When I started this thread some guy was comparing the DOW gains with some venture stock that has 5 letters. Come on that is so naïve”). Admittedly I’m new to managing my own account (only been at this a few years) compared to most everyone here and could use some constructive criticism. I post my stock picks and appreciate the few responses very much. I can read davefaritex, Kaimu, Les, Analyst65, Dr. Strange, Grym and many others without the need to watch the news – which is good since I don’t really have time for the news anyway. Your post BERNAKE SHOULD BE CONSIDERED A SAINT AND GOLD IS A REAL ... has sparked some great debate here and brought some of the political debates more in line with the financial (market news) information I came to discover. Thank you!
Earl

Grym -

So I agree, Social Security is less than it costs you to keep a decent lifestyle on your own. But its definitely better than zero, which is what we had back in the 30s, which was the point of what I was saying. Back then, grandpa lost his savings in a bank failure (because of no deposit insurance) and had no social security at all, so he was totally destitute.

Now he has deposit insurance, and some modest income, so even in a banking failure scenario he's much better off. Now at least he's an asset to the family and not a burden. "Son I'm coming to live with you, but at least I can help pay the mortgage, and I have that $20,000 in cash if we get desperate." Or he goes to live in a boarding house. I'm going to guess they'll come back, as people find new incentive to economize.

The safety net now beats the heck out of the non-existent one back in the 30s. My grandmother's stories about the depression told me of a very different world. And the fact that she re-used every blessed thing for her entire life, down to aluminum foil and christmas present wrapping (tape carefully removed, and re-folded) spoke louder than her words about what she went through. As a kid I used to laugh at her for being so silly; I grew up in a world of plenty. Now I get it: poor now is nothing like what poor back then was like. Saving aluminum foil meant that you could afford extra food. That was just common sense.

But I'm sure you know about all that. Its probably just surprising (and disappointing) to you that we're heading back in that direction. And I think its because of declining net energy spread across a much, much larger population. And a great deal of waste.

Two bits of real estate news that I just noticed:

1) MERS announced it was "strengthening its business practices":
* no more foreclosures in MERS name for the next 90 days
* assignments must be recorded in county land records
* those wanting to be MERS Vice Presidents need to re-apply to MERS ASAP

Denninger gives a blow-by-blow:
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=2417068

This no doubt will slow down foreclosures even more. Perhaps the homebuilder rally has more legs to it than I thought. (No position)

2) Arizona legislature introduced a bill requiring clear recording of every assignment of the deed of trust in the case of a NTS (notice of a trustee sale, a step in the foreclosure process); failure to have such a clear recording is grounds for a lawsuit (with attorneys fees and damages if they prevail).

I wonder how many Banker Roundtable folks are on a plane right now burdened with sacks of cash for AZ legislators.

Denninger again:
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=180038

http://tinyurl.com/6yqf5lq
Protests start for 6th day at Wisconsin Capitol
Hundreds chant, drum, dance inside Wisconsin Capitol as pro-labor protests start for 6th day ...

I expect we will see many more protests as the year plays out. The protest I am waiting for is when the American people wake up to how they have been fleeced by the politicians, lobbyists, bankers, unions, big business and their buddies. When will that protest start? Perhaps it will have to wait for QEx to fail and inflation (on the back of worth-less FRNs) to head into double digits, while jobs remain scarce for the 'have nots', and wages stagnate.
J

ALOHA!!

bobbyo-Thanks back at ya!!

"Do you criticize a duck for acting like a duck?"

Yeah I do criticize a "duck when he tries to act like an eagle"! If you are speaking of the meager attendees here at this blog then YES we all know he is a failure as is all the other US FED Chairmen who have ground the dollars purchasing power down to near zero over the past 96 years. Granted with the help of the US Treasury and the US Congress it has not been just a ONE MAN SHOW!! Now go around and ask complete strangers on the street if BEN has been a success and probably most would reply ... "BEN who?" Then if they did know who BEN was they'd say ... like Oprah ... "Hell YES, look America is the richest country in the World!"

"Maybe you could share some large if not catastrophic losses you had investing in a junior to at least illustrate that you don't ride one horse."

Not sure what the ONE HORSE thing is ... Yes, I have had losses, but if they were catastrophic then I would not be on this blog recommending anything.

Here is one that did not pan out ... MOR.V as I am down 50% so I have a $10,000USD paper loss. This chart however compares one of the the REAUGH GROUP incubators that I am up on(AMY.V).
LINK: http://tinyurl.com/4kcn45x

MOR.V is the only PP I bought that did not pan out, but since I have not sold any yet perhaps I can turn that around as there is still value left in the ground, but I need to rethink and maybe deploy into another faster rising elevator! Not sure yet, but it is showing signs of life.

Another I have screwed up on was ECU SILVER(ECU.V). I only had a 150% gain and I missed out on a 500% gain by not selling at the right time. All my ECU.V shares I bought on the open market. Let's put it this way ... I have done better than "Otto's short"!

Out of all my PP buy-ins only MOR.V has failed to produce a higher return.

I also bought 1.2 mil shares of TONOGOLD(TNGL) @ $0.04USD. They have a JV with Centerra Gold(CG.T) based in Nevada. They also have other prospective past producing mines in their pipeline they are currently seeking a JV. So far I have a 75% gain, but with the volume liquidity I really cannot move 1.2 mil shares on the open market except to insiders in a private deal, which always means discount. Its only a paper gain for now.

I have not had any huge losses because I don't allow them to get huge and I pile into positions with the better fundamentals based on my own research and I will even average down to do that, unless the fundamentals have changed. So yes, I BUY THE DIPS! There was a huge GLOBAL DIP in 2008/2009! I was buying.

My strategy is to buy in very low so I minimize loses and hold over the long run so I can get a mine built or at least come to a jump off stage, which is what I did with NAK and UXG. I did not see good drill results from UXG nor did I see a mine in the near future so I sold everything years ago in both UXG and NAK and Uranium One. Those past successes have given me the ammo to do what I do today. You build on past successes and learn from past mistakes.

Like Hillary says ... IT TAKES A VILLAGE, well I say IT TAKES A NETWORK! Bill has a network based on Bay Street, I have a network based on Howe Street! This niche has worked for me over the past ten years.

So far I have been able to keep my buy-ins extremely low on companies that had properties and management that were under the radar. Its rare that I will ever pay more than $0.25 a share for these juniors, mostly large blocks via PPs under $0.15. Its my way to minimize risk and I do not mind a long term strategy. I am only where I am due to past successes using this same strategy only mixing in some currency arbitrage by using foreign exchanges like the ASX and the TSX. I do not own any "F" stocks(foreign corp) or ADRs. I used to back when you could not trade directly on foreign exchanges, but now I use IB.

NEW STUFF
I think the next country in Asia to look at is LAOS, so I am trying to find companies operating there in either mining or ag. So far I have not found much and the new LAOS STOCK EXCHANGE has just recently opened. Tons of arable land and a very minimal population for an Asian country. Less than Switzerland! Mostly a younger population due to the Vietnam War and genocide. It seems there is yet untapped potential there. I also look at Cambodia. Right now Vietnam is garnering interest and these two countries are right next door. It may take a few years but I think there is something there as the government seems to see value in emulating the Chinese successes.

RISK IS AS RISK DOES ... It's just something we all have to gauge on our own merits! I see the failure in the monetary system as the core issue to risk since in order to compensate for a lack of long term monetary value and stability we must all take on more and more risk. This especially is true for banks, insurance companies and pension funds. Who can retire on 4% debt?

ALOHA!!

Tbar-I agree ...

"So once again, where is the post of someone comparing the dow to a five letter venture stock?"

Was it the DOW or DOW Chemical?

There are no "five letter" TSXV stocks. He must mean five letter OCTBB/PK that are actually block shares traded as "foreign corp", designated with an "F" on the end for "Foreign". Back in the day when Americans could not trade directly on foreign exchanges they had the foreign corp registrations that brokerages used that supposedly kept up with the currency exchange rates as well. Those shares were used widely by naked shorts and probably still are.

For instance LYSANDER MINERALS was LYM.V on the TSX Venture, but LYMCF.PK in the USA pink sheets. They quit supporting the PK foreign corp LYMCF and then switched to ECX.V and changed the name. In fact NAK was NDMLF on the OTCBB when I originally bought it. Many Toronto Exchange juniors traded on the USA OTCBB or the PK started as F corps.

In fact the comparison was not really some strange five letter stock but a derivative of the actual TSX Venture exchange symbol, so it was a TSXV to a NYSE comparison. There is no DOW exchange!

I thought it would be interesting article for this community

http://www.hindu.com/2011/02/21/stories/2011022153...

Sometimes it helps (and hurts) to put the magnitude of these numbers into perspective.

1 million seconds = 12 days

1 billion seconds = 32 years

1 trillion seconds = 32,000 years (that’s approximately 30,000 years before Christ!), This would be in the year of our Lord, LLoyd Blankfein.

etc.

http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

Ron

It's me! And just returned home this morning from Madison. I posted Oct 15 I wish the President would explain the actual situation better. I since then have discovered much much more on my own. The wind gusts around the whitehouse has more to do with the Muslim Brotherhood than you think. Big Brother was stolen and is being used. Can't wait to tell you more when I can. Let's hope for the best!

ALOHA!!

Mokat- Sorry, but I did not say this ...
"Kaimu mentioned that the US racked up $2T in debt in less than two months...."

This is what I said ...
"Hey, who's counting, but Obama and the US Congress already cranked the debt ceiling by over $2TRIL USD in less than two months time; from Dec 24, 2009 to Feb 12, 2010!"

On Dec 24, 2009 they raised the DEBT CEILING by $249BIL then on Feb 12, 2010 they raised it another $1.9TRIL. Add them up and it is over $2TRIL USD!!

kaimu,

Thanks for sharing your methodology. I liken your positions to non expiring option contracts their cost basis is so low. So the only time you will lose money is if the company goes completely bankrupt? In addition you visit most mining sites and personally know or meet management. Plus you have an extensive knowledge of the business itself? So your homework is not just listening to some dudes pump a stock on an internet site. Right? Sorry I'll stop pestering you and go look at a Lululemon chart.

bobbyo -

Even though its incredibly unfair to compare gold (cash) to risk investments, I'll bite. You picked your timeframe, I want to pick mine too. So instead of picking the March 09 bottom, I prefer Jan 2000 - now. After all, I'm a long term investor, right?

SPX: 1440 - 1343 (that's off 6%)
GOLD: 250 - 1396 (that's up 456%)

Or, we can pick another period. How about Jan 1972 until now?

SPX: 106 - 1343 (up 1166%)
GOLD: 35 - 1396 (up 3888%)

Gold sure looks better, doesn't it?

moral of the story: anyone can cherry pick timeframes to flatter your favorite vehicle.

I still maintain that OF COURSE SPX should do better; gold is the same as cash, so we should compare apples to apples. Compare gold to other cash vehicles such as currencies, not to risk investments.

Kaimu,

Exactly, right back at ya,

"It's like the people I told in 2001 when I was buying gold at $280USD most waited until now over $1100 to consider buying. Hey, you missed the boat!! You failed to buy in at the low. It's a much tougher and much costlier decision to buy gold at $1300 than it was to buy at $280USD. Some of those who missed the gold boat are now buying the "junior boat" using the leverage so they can drop their gold/silver buy in."

That was my point about gold being a bad investment. At a higher price it has higher risk. So David see above:). Alright, I will admit it when gold is back at $280 it will be a good investment. Now for the Ben thing maybe I have a crush on guys with beards.

ALOHA!!

"Now for the Ben thing maybe I have a crush on guys with beards."

Okay ... I will be shaving mine tomorrow!

I like those two companies you speak of Kaimu. MOR.V and ECU.TO.

ECU.TO is already producing, which is cool.

They're on the watch list. cheers.

duplicate

"Now for the Ben thing maybe I have a crush on guys with beards."

Okay ... I will be shaving mine tomorrow!

I'll keep my beard (1976 model). I always joke that if I ever make the most wanted list it would go. Ben my need to do the same to attain anonymity when reality eventually trumps juggled data, the sin of spin and media gullibility.

Something to look forward to — The Naked Maestro — defrocked.

Hi Bob,
Thank you very much for your suggestion. I will work with this calculator to find a solution for me. If I were to manage my size position relative to a ‘max loss on any one or even overall trading relative to portfolio value’ then I’d have to manage a distribution of stocks numbering 20 or more which I can’t ‘well’ keep up with. I’ll blend your example with some numbers; Say you’re working with $100,000.00 dollars and in your example you have stops set so that your total loss can’t be much more then $7500 at any one time (flash crash excluded OUCH…). If you owned 10 stocks priced at $10 dollars a share I’d achieve your maximum risk ($7500) by setting my stops $750 under the purchase price, or in this case 75 cents or $9.25. But that’s managing 10 stocks and I can’t see a hard and fast number like $9.25… Just to reiterate, this is only an example! So I’ve made this little spreadsheet to help stay in line with your portfolio max loss scenario.
http://tinyurl.com/6agpbu2

Then you say “but I pick a stop loss based on the chart!” Ok, fine – I believe that is where I need to drill down a bit deeper. You call it ‘ART’ I believe… I can tell you from painful experience some azzwipe would reach all the way down (as much as 10% away) for the one and only time of the day and stop me out. So I’d call up Fidelity and ask how that can happen – it just can, congratulations, you happen to be the low of the day…

Since I can’t keep track of these numbers in my head I thought I’d combine your calculation with my spreadsheet – I don’t know, will have to play with it a bit. I can’t see owning 5 stocks and still having a .075 factor or $7500 dollar at risk limit. It’s for this reason I have to put more weight on picking a $ amount I’m willing to risk on each trade and then figure size. Well this gives me a good start I believe. I’m half way expecting Wednesday to be a selloff. I know many people don’t like Jim Cramer but I listen to his podcast every now and then; he said he’d be a seller in this market and I believe him. And he’s HOT ON GOLD!!! which you’re not, I believe (you did not say you're a seller of gold or maybe I missed something) LOL. These next two weeks are going to be very problematic for me watching the market – I’m being pushed by my wife and daughter to get their store open March 1st so it’s crunch time. Good luck and thanks for the thoughts.
Best regards,
Earl

The Weber debacle comes at a bad moment. Germany is already in full cyclical upswing and needs higher rates, even as the South languishes in a slump. Jim O’Neill from Goldman Sachs said Germany had decoupled from Europe, becoming the first “developed BRIC” as supplier in chief to China’s industrial revolution. “The Germans are going to have to accept 3pc inflation, even if they don’t know it yet,” he said.

Or 4pc, or 5pc. Germany’s producer price inflation reached 5.7pc in January. The country is hitting capacity limits. Yet ECB rates are still 1pc. This has the makings of an almighty punch-up.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambrose...

Since mid-Feb their year-over-year weighted composite index has basically dropped a further 4%, indicating that whatever group of buyers they're tracking have significantly slowed their spending down. Since their previous stuff didn't result in any tradable event, I'm not certain this will either, but its a data point. Perhaps keeping a closer eye on y/o/y retail sales might be in order?

Double Post

The Canadian Press.

Libya exports at least 1 million barrels of crude a day.

"Compared to Tunisia (a minor crude exporter) or Egypt (not an exporter but a transit country), instability in Libya is a major concern to the oil industry," said analysts at JBC Energy in Vienna.

Sunday, anti-government demonstrations spread to the Libyan capital of Tripoli and protesters seized military bases and weapons. In the eastern city of Benghazi, about 60 people were killed, while more than 200 have died since the unrest began seven days ago.

For every $1 increase in the price of a gallon of gasoline, U.S. consumer spending falls by about $120 billion, said Gerard Minack, an economist with Morgan Stanley.

http://tiny.cc/8dj00

Earl,

this should help with using charts to place stops:

http://blog.realitytrader.com/2007/04/stops-why-an...
http://blog.realitytrader.com/2007/05/stops-deeper...

Earl,

Lets not worry about the maximum Port loss thing that was poorly written on my part.And worrying about having over 20 positions we are not KISS. Lets talk about an individual play on a stock.

I believe with your method you are going to have to keep a STATIC stop depending on the price of the stock. Meaning all $20 dollar stocks will have a stop in the same place all 30 dollar stocks same place ect. You could do this but you are going to have to find a stock to fit your system. This is likely to eliminate any stocks that have a high Beta. Because you will be stopped out in just normal trading fluctuations.

In my method I can trade any type stock at any level. The system fits the stock. I have the same risk in LULU that I would in MSFT. Two examples.
Say I want to buy US STEEL and NVEC. I"m going to use the 20 day EMA as a stop placement guide and use $150 risk. US STEEL Current price of 61.86 minus 59.58 is 2.28. Put in the calculator I can buy 66 shares. Now NVEC price of 60.39 minus 59.88 equals .51 put in the calculator equals 294 shares.
Side note: NVEC is the type of setups I look for. X is not a stock I would play at this time.

http://tinyurl.com/6grq23k
http://tinyurl.com/5u3u99e

Maybe. But when disruptive events are on-going you need to know whether the miners you buy take commercial short positions in silver and/or gold.

Best internet post I have read on anything so far this year, bar none:
http://traderdannorcini.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-...

If already quoted by others I do not apologise. I believe this is a "must read" unless you are a very experienced, confident, and successful commodities trader.

Phelps Dodge almost went bust in 2006 because they had sold a large chunk of their copper production (hedged) right before copper price went to the moon. Phelps Dodge was eaten for breakfast by Freeport McMoRan which in that move created the world´s greatest publicly traded copper company.

Sorry Kaimu... I misread your statement on the raising of the debt CEILING.
To use a modern phrase....My Bad.

I have read that Congress may, at the end of their fight this spring, raise the debt ceiling to a mind boggling $17+ TRILLION.

Thanks for the update on your trip to Honolulu. My favorite hotel has always been the 100 year old Halekulani... especially the outdoor bar at sunset. One of those special locations on Planet Earth. I once lived in Kailua, Oahu
many years ago. We used to go to Lanakai beach near Don Ho's house. In the winter, I remember going up to the North shore to watch the waves... they were indeed awesome.

There are talks about Muammar Gaddafi already fled to Venezuela as per Foreign British Minister’s statement who said that Gaddafi left his son to continue the fight in Libya against peaceful protesters using all types of weapons including Mirage Jet fighters and hiring mercenaries to do the dirty work. Two Jets already landed in Malta with their colonels pilots asking for asylum.

"Security forces and protesters have clashed in Libya's capital for the second night, after the government announced a new crackdown.

Witnesses say warplanes have fired on protesters in Tripoli.

To the west of the city, sources say the army is fighting forces loyal to ruler Col Muammar Gaddafi, who appears to be struggling to hold on to power.

Libya's deputy envoy to the UN has called on Col Gaddafi to step down, and accused his government of genocide.

Ibrahim Dabbashi said that if Col Gaddafi did not relinquish power, "the Libyan people will get rid of him".

Smoke and flames

The BBC's Jon Leyne, in neighbouring Egypt, says Col Gaddafi has now lost the support of almost every section of society."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12531637

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/21/live-blogging...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/02/21/liby...

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/02/2...

I also wondered if the money managers were done with PMI so I watched it last night trade in Germany the first market since its run-up Friday in North America. It closed Friday around .43 of a Euro and the ask bid moved up 20 points until they connected around a 25% increase today there. The chart shows several runs up to around 30% at .55 and a weakening before running the board lower to close up 23%.

What will be interesting is how the price of gold rising may affect junior minors with the general public coming back into the sector. Have to wait and see if gold performs a dump at open tomorrow.

http://www.boerse-frankfurt.de/EN/index.aspx?pageI...

Your right I also have it bookmarked but forgot the world market rotation order as I usually just read Asia at night. Maybe Google can make us a world markets app for Google Earth we can drill down onto to exchanges as daylight overtakes them each revolution to gain the numbers.
Found a letter where PMI Gold responded to the Australian Stock Exchange regarding price and volume action on Monday, where shares had an intra-day high of 74 cents on it's third highest volume of its short time on that board.

The letter appears to be a standard did something leak and do you need to stop trading.

http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20110222/pdf/41wxv9mg...

My bone head math indicates 5.7 cents as 10% and 17.1 as 30% showing the same price action to sweep up low hanging fruit there by hitting 74 cents also with a snooze you loose ending.

Thank you Bill.
I am anxious to see what you have to say about oil and PMs. On 2/10 I began scaling into OIL at 24.02, at what seemed to be a bottom but wasn't. Doubled down 1/2 when the price reached 23.29 and think energy trading on Tuesday could be quite interesting. My Friday 2/18, 2 year OIL chart shows OIL bounced off it's lower trend line at 23.10, with macd, stochastics and RSI favorable. OIL traded above 24 on Friday. Given current events I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

I also began scaling into the shippers, picking up EXM Wednesday 2/16, with BDI rising it seemed a good trade.

Except for PMI I am out of individual miners and even sold 1/3 of my VGPMX fund shares, thinking risk is just increasing a bit too much for my taste. I have been decreasing positions and position sizes, shortening holding periods and holding more cash.
J

Can anyone remind me again why overthrowing oppressive regimes isn't incredibly positive longer term? Especially when the people in their respective countries are the ones doing the overthrowing (and not the US).

And good luck back to you Ilya. These people breaking bonds have no Martin Luther King. These are people out of KAOS. Maybe they have had tough rulers for a reason. Maybe they are the reason…
Earl

Bill, 'Agreements to liberalize trade with Japan and also Malaysia signed in last 10 days.' Sounds like an opportunity for the New Bloods Agreement. Yep, that's a closer relationship for sure. Sounds like a long term strategy.

I'd like to thank Bill again for allowing me to share my story first off. I have to clear something up. I wasn't spoken to directly by God like I had mentioned earlier. They were using this technology to confuse. It's quite convincing too, my mother had a similar experience. Well I hope we can keep learning from each other and be understanding. I'll keep in touch.

Probably none of us know the fist thing about these arab states.
Today, I heard a frenchman on Lybia: The essence of what he says: he's very pessimistic.
Huge country (maybe bigger than Texas LOL)
Small (5m) population
Rulership is a family business. Kadaffi has 8 sons and they are of course squabbling about who gets what when Momar steps aside.
There's about 20 tribes scattered across the country. Everyone belongs to one of them.
Khadaffi's not going to give up, and there won't be any democracy there any time soon. It's going to continue bloody.

http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/africa...

Libya is literally covered by the Sahara Desert. The only exception is the narrow 1,200 mile coastline bordering the Mediterranean Sea, where almost 80% of its population resides.

Once part of the Roman province of New Africa, it was subsequently controlled by the Byzantine and Ottoman empires. In modern times it was occupied by the British and French, but since 1969, the country is led by the government of Colonel Muammar Qaddafi.

Tripoli, the ancient capital city, was designed by the Romans, and remains one of the most exotic destinations on the planet.

Oil is the driving force in the country's economy, and in fact, Libya has the highest standard of living in Africa.

In 2003 the United Nations finally voted to lift the 11-year-long sanctions because of Libya's payment of indemnity to victims and relatives of terrorism. In 2004, the United States removed all remaining sanctions, and began to establish normal diplomatic relations.

Tourism is still somewhat rare here, however in recent times the country has opened its borders to inquisitive visitors interested in Roman ruins and other historic sites. Most sources still warn of potential dangers for western travelers because of the war in Iraq.

I read this somewhere on the internet about Bernanke under the title "Bernanke, You Stupid Bastard" and I think it answers the question about whether he should be considered a Saint or Not quiet well, read on...

"
Bernanke, You Stupid Bastard

Yes, you.

And Trichet, and the rest of the Central Bank fools.

But especially you, Bernanke.

There's dumb and then there's really dumb. Let's take a short walk back down history lane.

You were sure there was no housing bubble.

Then you were sure it wouldn't pop.

Then you were sure when the subprime problem hit, that it wouldn't cause a recession.

Then you were sure you had it under control with Bear Stearns' hedge funds.

Then you were sure you had it under control with Bear Stearns itself.

Then you were sure it was under control with Lehman, even though you had to know Citibank and others were refusing their collateral in the repo market.

You were sure QE would support higher bond prices - and lower yields. The exact opposite thing happened.

You were sure QE2 would suppress long end yields. The exact opposite thing happened.

Oh yeah, you made excuses both times, but in fact you publicly said that in both cases the exact opposite thing would happen that did.

Now let's look at what happened just today.

Oil went up almost $7 today for the WTI contract. For each dollar that crude oil rises, we transfer roughly $95 billion (estimates vary from $90-100) outside of the United States.

That's a direct hit to GDP.

In ONE DAY the entire impact of your so-called "QE2" was ERASED.

(As an aside, yes, I can do the math on the direct import numbers; the argument here is on the total economic impact, which is as noted above. Estimates there vary somewhat, but they're centered around $90-100 billion/year/dollar increase.)

Your entire gambit and what you sold to Congress and President Obama was that you could "restart" credit expansion with your policies. Implicit in your policy was a need to do so, because without it you cannot succeed. The World Economic Forum at Davos released a paper saying that we needed, collectively, to add one hundred trillion dollars of new debt to the system to support the paltry growth numbers you and your economists are putting up. Worse, the CBO stuck up numbers in the TBAC report that show another doubling of Federal Debt in the next nine years and a rough quadrupling of debt service costs to $800 billion, implying a paltry 3% blended rate.

We had the collapse starting in 2007 because people couldn't afford the debt they already had and yet your entire scheme, to succeed, requires doubling all systemic debt AGAIN.

So how are you going to do it Ben?

Who's going to take on that debt, and how are they going to service it?

You know damn well it can't work, and won't. You also know damn well you've goaded and prodded the Federal Government into taking on $4.5 trillion in debt we cannot afford, or nearly 30% of GDP.

How are you going to take that back off Bernanke? You keep being asked this, but all you say is that you're confident "you have the tools."

Uh huh.

You don't have jack and you know damn well you can't pull your pump-job back one iota without laying bare on the table the fact that the Federal Government is supporting 12% of GDP with borrowed money. If it disappears we have an instant Depression worse than the 1930s.

The bad news is that if you keep this crap up it will disappear by force of the market, there's not a damn thing you can do to prevent it, and that day is rapidly approaching.

EVERY prediction you've made about the economy over the last five years has been wrong.

All of them.

The market is rising only because you're "promising" infinite leverage.

But infinite leverage means certain financial ruin if you're wrong about external forces. And the economy is not a closed system under your control. You cannot control other nations, you cannot control commodity speculators and you cannot control other central banks and politicians. You think you can force China off their peg, but they can suppress riots longer than we can. You think you can keep printing but now Egypt has gone down, Libya is collapsing and if Saudi Arabia folds you're instantly ****ED and so are the rest of us.

Never mind that it's not just the Middle East. What if Venezuela folds? Mexico goes feral with their drug war? How about South Korea, which now has how many banks closed due to runs?

The longer you keep this crap up the worse the instability will become. Eventually something will break that's important, and then it's too late.

You can't win this game Bernanke. And the longer you keep trying to protect the banks that should have been shut down and taken into receivership in 2007 the more damage you're going to do. When the history books are written on this catastrophe your name is going to be featured in bright lights as the personal architect and chief jackass who pontificated that he knew it all because he studied The Great Depression.

Yeah, you studied it all right. And now you're duplicating the mistakes made then, writ even larger.

There are no statesmen left in this nation when it comes to Congress. Not one who will haul your ass in front of them by force of subpoena, put your clear and public record of "accuracy" in front of you and then demand that you justify your twisting of the clear English language to come up with "2% inflation" as your "interpretation" of STABLE PRICES.

You're going to fail Bernanke. You're failing right now. You've destroyed one nation's government and this evening, as I write this, a second is falling apart. The madman behind the second, Qaddafi, has apparently ordered his military to strafe civilians, murdering hundreds.

But behind it all, your policies and those of your cronies, believing in an indefinite Ponzi Scheme of exponential debt without bound, are responsible for every bit of what's happening today worldwide - and what is to come tomorrow.

The only way you can stop it is to admit you were wrong, pull liquidity and allow the insolvent institutions to collapse. And collapse they will - all of them. I'm convinced you know that too. And I'm also convinced that there's three words you will never utter so long as you infest Washington DC: I ****ed up.

So here we sit as Americans, with no solution. There is nobody in Congress or The Administration that has the balls to stop you, and you're too much of a douche to admit you blew it and do what should have been done three years ago.

As a result, all we have left is to be prepared for what's to come.

It's not going to be pretty, and I hope Americans are ready for it.

Congratulations Ben Bernnake. Your place in history is secure, and I'm sure Beelzebub thanks you daily for your cooperation.

Some day I'm quite sure you'll meet him face-to-face."

http://market-ticker.org/post=180591

It's gonna be ripped one way or the other today. Heads up.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eznpIf3Wvl8/TWExVubxnWI/...

---------------------------------------

Thoughts go out to New Zealander's today. The monetary impact is immediately clear:

http://www.finviz.com/forex_charts.ashx?t=NZDUSD&t...

... but does not reflect the state of loss many have suffered.

---------------------------------------

Google must be one of the most democratic and powerful tools placed into the hands of human beings. It's latest conquest, a superstar German politician brazenly plagiarizing his PhD:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518...

You'd think these elites would've worked it out by now...

---------------------------------------

Bloomberg shamelessly dropping BRIC's for advanced markets as "America takes over".

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-22/brics-los...

A pullback is clearly in play now on the global market. I'll be curious to see whether it is AM's or EM's that lead the way following this. Is Bloomberg selling us a story?