#GOLD: A return to the Wizard of OZ?

Once upon a time the Gold Standard

«Public debt and deficit-spending are a growing and intolerable burden on the society and economy, because they divert resources from the productive (private sector) to the parasitic, counterproductive public sector.»
— Murray N. Rothbard



On the15th of August, the United States «celebrated» the forty-second anniversary of their exit from the gold standard. What does this mean? Two things: the central regulators have removed their actions from the possibility of encountering negative sanctions; the electorate was sold the story that the U.S. had found the philosopher’s stone towards infinite growth. No more disastrous economic cycles, no more depression, no more miserable lives. The American dream had become a reality. But «dreams», that at first seem

harmless, can always turn into nightmares. And that’s what happened since that 15th of August in 1971, the day when the American dream was permanently lost (it was already on this path since 1933) to a nightmare marked by the stinging words of Richard Nixon.

How have things gone since then? From bad to worse. The presumptuous central regulators believed that they could control market forces at will, that said forces could be addressed according to their wishes – towards prosperity for them and a slice of paradise for others. Despite gold served as a barrier for their reckless actions, another parameter has replaced gold: the interest rates of the US Treasury bonds.

ALTERNATIONS

The main goal of Nixon’s decision in 1971 was to prevent a rush to the US Treasury counters. Given the scarcity of gold, whenever there was the perception that a debtor government had engaged in a morally hazardous and unrestrained behaviour, the creditor government could ask the Treasury of the debtor government the return of their gold. This is what happened in 1965 when De Gaulle told the Bank of France to begin the procedure of returning the dollars to Uncle Sam in exchange to gold.


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History ... Follow the yellow brick road?

  Comments

Should we return to the gold standard. Why? It will do very little to cure what ails the real economy, starting with the growing imbalance between resources and population. It is just  a distraction.

 

Time to get real and stop returning to Oz for fictional answers.

 

Or, click your heals...

Platinum Wealth Partners

April 24, 2014

 

Credit Bubble - Banking Collapse Possible

Is This What A Credit Bubble Looks Like?


 April 21, 2014 by ffwiley

There’s been some buzz recently about a pick-up in business lending. The six largest banks increased business loans at an average annual rate of 8.5% in the first quarter, according to a Wall Street Journal report last week. Other first quarter data reported by the Fed shows commercial and industrial loans jumping 12% from last year. Charles Schwab’s chief strategist went so far as to call a chart depicting the Fed’s broader lending data “the most important chart in the world.” 

Unlike some pundits, though, we’re not convinced that a surge in business credit is such a good thing. We don’t doubt that more lending to small businesses, in particular, might do some good if it doesn’t go too far. Lending to large corporations, on the other hand, is a different story. Corporations are already borrowing at a pace that’s only before been seen near cyclical peaks:

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 Is it a crisis? 

Stocks Will Boom or Doom - Who Knows?

Be wary when you hear ‘this is the big stock crash’ 

 

 

 

By L.A. Little












Market commentators love to make the big call: market crash. As soon as there is a sign of general market weakness, they come out of the woodwork with their crash calls. Perennial doom commentators like Marc Faber, Harry Dent and others were on the airwaves last week talking up the fear of the impending meltdown. If you go back through history, that's how you get famous.

You repeat your bear calls each time the market wobbles, calling for a huge decline, and if it develops while your call is still fresh, then six months down the road you are a guru — set up to live off your 15 minutes of fame for the rest of your life.

Of course, these big macro gloom-and-doom calls do nothing for the average investor/trader. In fact, one could easily make the case that they do far more harm than good, since they are wrong 99% of the time, and anyone who acts on the crash calls typically ends up liquidating what are likely well-positioned longs at inopportune times.

It all ended in 2013?

So are the crash callers right this time around? Is this that 1% case where you really should sell everything finally and hunker down? Is this the big meltdown that has been repeatedly called fo?r


 
In short, it is doubtful, and even if it is, it will take more time to create the structure needed for it to happen. How can one say that with confidence? What is meant by that statement? Many detractors suggest that one cannot know when a sell off is imminent and with that, I agree. Imminent implies one can call both direction and timing correctly. That is not possible with any reasonable degree of accuracy.



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Comments:

Great to hear and read a balanced insight on the markets - and generally reality. Anyone who has been in the markets knows by now they are not always rationale, and guru's are right only some of the time, you will never hear about their mistakes thatare  promptly buried in the "oops" archives.

Let's face it, most these guys - Rogers, Dent, Faber, and others are financial entertainers. and that includes the cable networks - Cramer;  as well. There are mostly actors, comedians and promoters bestowing modern day snake oil to any one foolish enough to listen. J. T. Barnum's patrons.

So on with the show...

Platinum Wealth Partner 
April 22, 2014       

  
  

SPECIAL REPORT #13: OVERPOPULATION IN AMERICA - 18 Part Series

SPECIAL REPORT: 

OVERPOPULATION IN AMERICA

(Part 13 of 18)


 

Series on overpopulation in America—Enormous Environmental Destruction of Raising Domestic Animals for Consumption

By Frosty Wooldridge

Raising animals for slaughter, consumption and feed

“As far as food is concerned, the great extravagance is not caviar or truffles, but beef, pork and poultry. Some 38 percent of the world's grain crop is now fed to animals, as well as large quantities of soybeans. There are three times as many domestic animals on this planet as there are human beings.

 http://beforeitsnews.com/environment/2013/10/part-13-series-on-overpopulation-in-america-enormous-environmental-destruction-of-raising-domestic-animals-for-consumption-2483290.html

“The combined weight of the world's 1.5 billion cattle alone exceeds that of the human population. While we look darkly at the number of babies being born in poorer parts of the world, we ignore the over-population of farm animals, to which we ourselves contribute...that, however, is only part of the damage done by the animals we breed.

“The energy intensive factory farming methods of the industrialized nations are responsible for the consumption of huge amounts of fossil fuels. Chemical fertilizers, used to grow the feed crops for cattle in feedlots and pigs and chickens kept indoors in sheds, produce nitrous oxide, another greenhouse gas. Then there is the loss of forests. Everywhere, forest-dwellers, both human and non-human, can be pushed out.

“Since 1960, 25 percent of the forests of Central America have been cleared for cattle. Once cleared, the poor soils will support grazing for a few years; then the grazers must move on. Shrub takes over the abandoned pasture, but the forest does not return. When the forests are cleared so the cattle can graze, billions of tons of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere.

“Finally, the world's cattle are thought to produce about 20 percent of the methane released into the atmosphere, and methane traps twenty-five times as much heat from the sun as carbon dioxide. Factory farm manure also produces methane because, unlike manure dropped naturally in the fields, it does not decompose in the presence of oxygen. All of this amounts to a compelling reason...for a plant based diet.”   Peter Singer, Practical Ethics

Harsh facts about raising beef cows for food:  it takes 12 pounds of grain to add one pound of meat on a cow.  It takes 2,500 gallons of water to add one pound of beef on a bovine.  The average mature dairy cow, which weighs about 1000 lbs., produces about 148 lbs. of raw manure each day that equals 52,000 pounds annually. Source: Texas State Energy Conservation Office's report.  The average cow drinks and excretes up to 50 gallons of water daily. (Source: www.earthsave.org)

(1.5 billion cows eat, crap, expel methane gas and more 24/7.  Enormous amounts of fossil fuel burns to feed them, transport them, milk them, slaughter them and take them to market.  The United States faces an added 122 million people by 2050—a scant 37 years from now.  Will we possess enough water, energy and arable land to continue this enterprise?)  Photography by www.google.com

With 1.5 billion cows on the globe, planet Earth must deal with trillions of pounds/gallons of manure waste, water waste and carbon footprint waste to feed the animals.  Combined with the amount of fuel, arable land and water to grow the corn and grain encompassed in filling the stomachs of beef cows, “Houston, we’ve got a problem.”

While the United States of America expects to add 122 million more people within the next 37 years, it suffers seven states already facing water shortages with its current 316 million in 2013.  By growing the population to the projected 438 million by 2050, America faces sobering realities not being considered.

(Shot of Texas industrial beef waste river heading to a holding lagoon.  Ultimately such waste seeps into every corner of the natural world.)  Photography by www.reddit.com

“A United Nations report has identified the world's rapidly growing herds of cattle as the greatest threat to the climate, forests and wildlife,” said Geoffrey Lean, environmental editor of The Independent.  “And they are blamed for a host of other environmental crimes, from acid rain to the introduction of alien species, from producing deserts to creating dead zones in the oceans, from poisoning rivers and drinking water to destroying coral reefs.

“The 400-page report by the Food and Agricultural Organization, entitled Livestock's Long Shadow, also surveys the damage done by sheep, chickens, pigs and goats. But in almost every case, the world's 1.5 billion cattle are most to blame. Livestock are responsible for 18 per cent of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together.”



(Behind every bucolic farm barn, farmers burn anything and everything including plastics, chemicals, containers that held chemicals such as fertilizers, medicines, oil and unspeakable filth.)  Photography by  www.BurnBarrel.org

With the current 7.1 billion humans on the planet, another 3 billion within the next 37 years can only accelerate livestock destruction of the natural world.

Bovine overgrazing worldwide constitutes the major driver for deforestation.  Eventually, those pastures turn to deserts.  One liter (just over a quart) of milk requires 990 liters of water to produce it.  That equates to 989 liters of waste water the planet must tolerate.

(Steaming billions of tons of cow manure cannot be handled by the natural world.  It poisons the soil, groundwater and atmosphere. Over 1.5 billion cows create inexhaustible waste worldwide in our water, oceans, land and air.)  Photo by Robert Barker

Feedlots and fertilizers over-nourish water, causing weeds to choke all other life.  The vast array of pesticides, antibiotics and hormones ultimately migrate into drinking water and endanger human health.  In dairy farm states like Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio—ground water contamination creates mega-problems for humans and animals alike.  Cancer:  Sandra Steingraber wrote a book about cancer caused by contaminated ground water, rivers and lagoons—Living Down Stream.

Agricultural contamination washes down to the sea, killing coral reefs and creating "dead zones" devoid of life. The Mississippi River absorbs and transports millions of gallons of contaminated water into the Gulf of Mexico.  Recent reports show a 10,000 square mile dead zone in New Orleans.

The mind-numbing damage can only grow by insane degrees as the human race adds another 3 billion of itself by 2050.

“Our choices as consumers drive an industry that kills ten billion animals per year in the United States alone. If we choose to support this industry and the best reason we can come up with is because it's the way things are, clearly something is amiss. What could cause an entire society of people to check their thinking caps at the door--and to not even realize they're doing so? Though this question is quite complex, the answer is quite simple: carnism.””
 
― Melanie Joy, Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism: The Belief System That Enables Us to Eat Some Animals and Not Others

Frosty Wooldridge

All About Frosty  - "A Hero For Our Times"

If we do not change course - consider the possible consequences.

Forbes -New Zealand Denies Super Housing #Bubble

It's Not A Bubble 

Does it mean tulips are overpriced?

Until It's Officially Denied, New Zealand Edition

Jesse Colombo Contributor

I'm an economic analyst who is warning of dangerous post-2009 bubbles

What an Easter weekend it’s been. On Thursday, I published a piece called “12 Reasons Why New Zealand’s Economic Bubble Will End In Disaster” in which I summarized my research on the Pacific island’s growing property and credit bubble. In just a few days, this article went viral and received over 85,000 views and nearly 8,000 shares on social media. This bubble warning created a media firestorm, making numerous news headlines, landed me a prime timeappearance on TVNZ, and made the cover story of The Herald on Sunday:

My bubble warning also led to something that I’ve become quite familiar with lately: an official denialfrom Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce. This makes the fourth official bubble denial I’ve experienced in the past several months, with the first three coming from officials in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore.

Experieneced Banksters??

After having experienced official bubble denials before, I have stopped taking them seriously because I now realize that they are simply standard responses that add little intellectual substance to the discussion. While I bring facts and statistics to the table, the official bubble deniers typically attempt to attack my credibility and write me off as a “doom and gloomer.” In response to my warnings about credit and property prices doubling or tripling in just a decade, I receive pat answers such as “our banks have prudent lending standards” and “property prices are rising because of a shortage” (after all, it’s always a “shortage” – never a bubble). It doesn’t matter what country I’m warning about, the official bubble denials are essentially the same.

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Any thoughts from George Soros and friends