Tuesday, August 01, 2017
When Fiat Currencies Die - Preparing to Barter and Trade Is NOT a Loony Idea / Currencies / Fiat Currency
Let’s start with this fact; fiat (paper) currencies die – often spectacularly. That is why precious metals may someday be needed for barter and trade. Anyone who thinks it is silly to worry about such a thing is putting blind faith in Federal Reserve Notes.
The U.S. dollar is having a great run, no question. It will soon be 50 years since Nixon closed the gold window, thereby converting the dollar to a purely fiat currency. Five decades is longer than most purely fiat currencies survive.
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Tuesday, August 01, 2017
Stock Market Bears Are Getting Desperate / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
Last weekend, I noted that I expect the market to move up towards the 2487SPX region before we are able to see a market top. And, this past week, we struck a high of 2484.04, and saw a strong reaction to the downside.
While the market has continued higher since February 2016 as I expected, we have all read those articles which suggest the top is going to be seen any day now. And, yes, we have seen them almost daily for the entire 40% rally we have experienced since that time.
Many analysts have been pointing to so many different reasons as to why they believe the market is “wrong.” And many more have pointed to reasons they expected the market to crash imminently, such as terrorist attacks, Brexit, Frexit, Trump election, cessation of QE, interest rate hikes, and many more that we all have read. Yes, most were quite certain that the market would never see its current heights and have fought this rally tooth and nail.
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Tuesday, August 01, 2017
Here’s The Real Reason The Fed Is Making Absurd Monetary Decisions / Interest-Rates / US Interest Rates
I have often written about the Fed's abysmal track record in managing the economy. Here Lacy Hunt and Van Hoisington of Hoisington Investment Management explain the reasons for the Fed's consistently poor track record.
They start by considering the Fed’s “dual mandate,” which sets “the goals of maximum employment, stable prices and moderate long-term interest rates.” (And yes, that is actually three goals, not two.)
But a problem arises, the authors note, “because considerable time elapses between the implementation of the monetary actions designed to follow the mandate and when the impact of those actions take effect on broader business conditions.”
The time lag can easily be three years or longer, with the result that policy changes often end up being pro-rather than countercyclical. To make matters even worse, “the economic risks from adherence to this dual mandate are now much greater than historically due to the economy’s extreme over-indebtedness, poor demographics and a fragile global economy.”
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Tuesday, August 01, 2017
The Myths and Realities of Duterte’s Infrastructure Initiative / Politics / Asian Economies
A huge upgrade of infrastructure is vital for Philippines economic future. That’s why it is contested by entrenched interests, including foreign powers. This is the first in a series of occasional commentaries about the Philippines transformation from an international viewpoint.In the past year, President Duterte has initiated a series of economic reforms to accelerate economic development. Despite much “political noise,” the government seeks sustained growth around 6.5- 7% in 2017, by banking on multiple initiatives, especially higher infrastructure spending.
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Monday, July 31, 2017
Bitcoin, ICO Risk Versus Immutable Gold and Silver / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
– Latest developments show risks in crypto currencies
– Confusion as bitcoin may split tomorrow
– SEC stepped into express concern over ICOs
– ICOs have so far raised $1.2 billion in 2017
– ICOs preying on lack of understanding from investors
– Physical gold not vulnerable to technological risk
– Beauty and safety in simplicity of gold and silver
Monday, July 31, 2017
Mixed Expectations As Stocks Trade Along New Record High / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
Our intraday outlook is bearish, and our short-term outlook is bearish. Our medium-term outlook remains neutral, following S&P 500 index breakout above last year's all-time high:
Intraday outlook (next 24 hours): bearish
Short-term outlook (next 1-2 weeks): bearish
Medium-term outlook (next 1-3 months): neutral
Long-term outlook (next year): neutral
Monday, July 31, 2017
Buy-to-let Mortgage Interest Rates Still Falling / Housing-Market / Buy to Let
Despite the increased scrutiny the buy-to-let (BTL) market has been facing, BTL mortgage competition is showing no signs of stopping. Research from moneyfacts.co.uk shows that the average two-year fixed BTL rate has fallen by 0.31% in one year, and even though the pace of the fall has slowed in recent months, the market has now recovered from the significant drop in products that was seen at the start of this year.
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Monday, July 31, 2017
Gold Price Would Test 1300 Resistance / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
XAUUSD recently broke above 1258.78 resistance and continued its bullish movement from the July 10 low of 1204.77, and the bullish movement extended to as high as 1270.81.
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Monday, July 31, 2017
Exposing the US Government As Terrorist Organization / Politics / US Politics
I recently had the opportunity to speak on Iran’s PressTV channel. It was great being able to speak a bit of truth about the state of the world and evil transgressions perpetrated by the US government on a relatively well-known network.
The first thing I was asked about was what kind of repercussions the US sanctions on Russia, Iran, and North Korea will have? I responded by bringing up the great anarchist, Frederick Bastiat’s, quote “When goods don’t cross borders, Soldiers will.”
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Monday, July 31, 2017
Precious Metals Stocks Alert: Gold Powerful Upleg Believed Imminent / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
Clive Maund analyzes the significant increase in Large Spec positions in gold and silver in the past week, and the gold stocks to gold ratio.
The significant increase in Large Spec long positions this past week in gold and silver from a very low level might be cause of concern to some, since it of course increases the risk of a reaction in these metals, but there is another much more positive way of looking at it, which is that, in the face of a continued albeit incremental rise in the prices of gold and silver, the Large Specs have suddenly realized their mistake in bailing out over the past couple of months, and are scrambling to get back on board.
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Monday, July 31, 2017
Why the Stock Market Must Fall Hard! / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
I have been warning for over a week now about a coming waterfall decline. The wave counts and cycles are at the point where I believe it is a virtual impossibility for the market not to implode Monday for the biggest one day loss of the year.
This next chart shows the daily e-wave count:
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Monday, July 31, 2017
Stock Market Final Minor Correction? / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
Current Position of the Market
SPX Long-term trend: Uptrend continues with a serious loss of upside momentum in weekly indicators.
SPX Intermediate trend: An ending pattern appears to be in its last stages of completion. This should be followed by an intermediate term correction into October.
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Monday, July 31, 2017
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Sunday, July 30, 2017
The Perfect Stock Market Crash Indicator Is Flashing Red / Stock-Markets / US Auto's
What’s the last big toy you buy when things have been good for a really long time and you already have all the other toys? An RV, of course. A dubious thing to own if you already have a house, but when the good times seem likely to roll on forever, why the hell not?
And what’s the first thing you sell when you lose your job and your stocks are tanking? That very same RV. Which makes new RV sales a useful indicator of our place in the business cycle.
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Sunday, July 30, 2017
Hacker Cracks US Voting Machine - If Politics Seem Messy Now, Just Wait / ElectionOracle / US Politics
It’s already widely understood that the electronic voting machines used by a growing number of US states are easy to hack. But just how easy may not be clear. Consider this from today’s Wall Street Journal:
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Sunday, July 30, 2017
368 TRILLION Reasons the Fed Won’t “Normalize” Rates / Interest-Rates / US Interest Rates
Many commentators are baffled as to why the Fed has suddenly reversed course. Throughout 2017 the Fed has talked repeatedly about raising rates several times as well as shrinking its balance sheet.
Then in the span of a single month, the Fed just about dropped all of this. Fed Chair Janet Yellen, speaking to Congress, confessed that the Fed is just about done with rate hikes and that any balance sheet reduction will NOT be used to drain liquidity from the system.
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Sunday, July 30, 2017
Investment Legend Warns of a 1987-Type Market Crash / Stock-Markets / Financial Crash
Klarman is founder of Baupost Group and is widely considered to be one of the greatest value investors in history. In 30+ years from 1982 to 2015, he only had three losing years, and is believed to have averaged returns of 16%.
Bear in mind, he did thiswhile keeping 30%-50% in cash at all times.
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Sunday, July 30, 2017
Stock Market SPX Uptrending Again After Minuscule Correction / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
The week started at SPX 2473. With nothing more than a pullback to SPX 2466 on Monday, the market worked its way to a new all-time high at 2484 on Thursday. After opening at the high the market started to pullback, then sold off to SPX 2460 in the afternoon. After that the market rebounded to end the week at SPX 2372. For the week the SPX/DOW were mixed, and the NDX/NAZ lost 0.20%. Economic reports were mostly positive, with no rate increase at the FOMC meeting. On the downtick: existing homes sales, plus jobless claims rose. On the uptick: consumer confidence/sentiment, new home sales, durable goods, and Q2 GDP. Next week’s reports will be highlighted by the ISMs and monthly payrolls. Best to your week!
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Sunday, July 30, 2017
Gold And Silver – Value Remains Irrelevant To Price / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
Value is subjective, reflective of one’s feelings or opinions. In the minds of those who value gold, throughout the ages and around the world, this precious metal is deemed to have an intrinsic value superior to most other assets. The well-used adjective, intrinsic, is also subjective, construed as essential, belonging naturally in its association with gold. In the end, “intrinsic value” is elusive, a figment of one’s mind.
There are many, and we fall in this camp, who associate gold with an inherent preservation of wealth. This has been true throughout history but with intervening failures during some time frames. Failure may not be the most apt expression, but many detractors are happy to point out those times when gold did not retain its status as a wealth preserver, and in fact, losses were on the table for many who paid a price higher than for what their gold was sold. It happens. The net result of gold being a wealth preserver holds true, but with periodic, and some times substantial, yet temporary, reversals. This time will be no different.
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Saturday, July 29, 2017
Bitcoin Price Soars As Everyone Wants a Bitcoin Cash Lottery Ticket on August 1st / Currencies / Bitcoin
Bitcoin has been soaring in recent days and it is likely due to the fact that there will be a bitcoin hard fork on August 1st.
Many speculated that a fork would cause the price of bitcoin to drop. But that is far from the case. And it makes sense that the price is actually increasing on this news because if you hold bitcoin properly (more on that soon) you will end up with both Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCC)... and we know from experience with the Ethereum fork into Ethereum and Ethereum Classic, that the two combined can be worth much more than just the one.
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