JustThinking.us

From Reuters.

It's always interesting when the thieves start turning on each other.

Click on the photo for the entire story.

In MF Global, JPMorgan again at center of a financial failure

(Reuters) - In late October, as MF Global Holdings Ltd teetered toward bankruptcy, Jon Corzine phoned his close-knit circle of Wall Street friends for help.

His firm, facing demands from customers and other firms for cash, needed to sell billions of dollars in securities to raise the money. As the week progressed, MF Global executives came to believe that JPMorgan Chase & Co., one of MF Global's primary bankers and a middleman moving that cash, was dragging its feet in forwarding the funds.

Scroll down one post to see who the boys are supporting in this years presidential election, having supported Obama in 2008.

The following calculations were compiled or figured by R.E. Mcmaster.

I haven't checked them, but probably will to the extent I'm able to this evening.

It mostly feels about right.

There are $30 trillion in currencies worldwide.

All the gold ever mined would fit in a 62.3 ft. cube.

All the gold ever collected, panned and mined since the time of Jesus is worth approximately $7 trillion at today's price.

There are 158,000 tonnes of gold above ground, 86% of which is held by central banks, investors, and jewelry owners.

This means there are 4.8 billion ounces of gold above ground globally, of which 2.1 billion ounces, 43% is in jewelry, religious and art items, official reserves of 1 billion ounces, industrial use of 530 million ounces, and 1.1 billion ounces in private hands.

The market cap of all gold that is above ground, including central bank reserves (30,717 tonnes as to 10/11), is equal to only 1.4% of global financial assets. Combined central bank gold reserves rose in 2009 by 425.4 metric tons to 30,116.9 tons, an increase of $13.3 billion (2009 average prices), the first increase since 1988.

Central banks hold 18% of all the world’s gold ever mined.

From Bianco Research who claim "more than 300 institutional clients worldwide including official government agencies, central banks, public and private pension plans, institutional money managers and hedge funds".

Which claim has caused me to never bother pricing them out.

Take note of the year 1916 which incorrectly holds the line marking the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank.

The New York offices of which are the official summer home of Satan himself and the source of all evil in this world.

The Federal Reserve Act was voted into existence December 23, 1913.

Click on the chart if you have an interest in pricing out Bianco Research, someone around here might partner up with you.

Take a hard look at 1940 through 1984 if you own or are planning to own bonds anytime soon.

The value of your bonds rise as interest rates fall, and subsequently fall as interest rates rise.

From THE GOLDEN TRUTH and Dave in Denver, here's a bit of holiday cheer.

Click anywhere below for the entire piece ... recomended as it makes perfect sense.

At least to us.

Think Your IRA Is Safe?  Better Think Again

The MF Global bankruptcy is a blueprint for how the Government and wealthy bankers will begin to take everything that is kept within the confines of the financial system.

Ten years ago I tried to tell many friends and acquaintances that housing prices would collapse and this country was headed for disaster and that the only only way to protect themselves financially was to load up on gold and silver.   Almost everyone looked at me like I needed my own floor in the mental health wing at Belleview Hospital in NYC.  Of course, that was back when gold was around $300/oz. and housing prices were on average about 50% higher than they are now.

As I run into these folks these days, they compliment me for my ability to see into the future and immediately want to know what I think will happen next.   My only logical response is to say that they don't want to know what I think because, just like 10 years ago, they'll think I'm crazy.   I add that I hope I'm wrong this time about what I think is coming but that I doubt that I am.

I bring this up because one of the things that I believe will eventually happen is that the Government will find a way to confiscate all retirement assets (IRA's/401k's).   But rather than outright taking them, they'll substitute them with some kind of retirement "annuity" that is funded with good old Treasury bonds.   Of course, by that point in time, the Treasury bond printing press will be working overtime to print currency the Government can use to stay afloat.

From today's installment of Richard Russell's Dow Theory Letter.

Below are the last day of the year quotes for gold.

2000 -- $273.60
2001 -- $279.00
2002 -- $348.20
2003 -- $416.10
2004 -- $438.40
2005 -- $518.90
2006 -- $638.00
2007 -- $838.00
2008 -- $889.00 
2009 -- $1096.50
2010 -- $1421.40
2011 -- $1566.80

This year's close for gold marks the 11th year for higher year end gold closing.

To my knowledge this is the longest bull market of any kind in history in which each year's close was above the previous year.

This fabulous bull market will not end with a whisper and a fizzle. I continue to believe that the upside gold crescendo of this bull market lies ahead.

We are watching market history.

The following was taken from an interview with Ron Hera of Hera Research that was published at Seeking Alpha this past weekend.

Keith Nueman's resume' was too heavy to cut and paste.

One must take into account that Mr. Neumeier has silver for sale so keep that thought in mind when considering his opinions on the price of silver going forward, but this is a man with tremendous experience dealing in futures markets as both a supplier/hedger and an investor/broker/dealer.

When he tells you the deal is rigged you have to take it seriously.

Click anywhere below for the entire interview.

Recommended

Keith Neumeyer: The job of the regulators is to protect the retail investor. That’s their only job. It’s not to protect the banks or the brokerage firms. The little guy is the primary taxpayer. Why were the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the CFTC put in place? They were put in place to protect retail investors. Prior to regulation, the banks controlled the market. Today, the banks control the market again. Who should control the market? Retail investors. Who’s protecting them? No one.

HRN: Are you saying that the CFTC does nothing while the COMEX caters to banks and brokerage firms?

Keith Neumeyer: Yes.

HRN: And the COMEX doesn’t serve retail investors?

Keith Neumeyer: No. Absolutely not.

HRN: Do you foresee a return to a free market in the future?

Keith Neumeyer: I’m an optimist. I believe one day that governments will rewrite the rules and force the regulators to protect investors. That’s where we were back in the ‘70s and that’s where I think we have to be again to correct the problems that have arisen over the past 40 years. Silver is being revalued. It’s going to affect a lot of people along the way and it will change the financial system. Ultimately, we’re going to have a new financial system and, hopefully, we’ll go back to natural markets, completely driven by supply and demand. It may take another 20 years but I think it will happen.

HRN: A new financial system?

Keith Neumeyer: If I’m wrong, the banks will run the world, even more so than they do today, 10 or 20 years from now. God forbid that we ever get there because that’s a one currency, one government world that would absolutely be a disaster for the human race. There would be no freedoms at all to move or to invest. It would be like having shackles on our ankles. There is a movement to go in that direction, unfortunately. There are a number of very wealthy people that want to see that. I hope that we can find the politicians to prevent that type of world from coming to pass.

Instructive in light of the following quotes.

Don't you think?

The following is the punch line to a white paper by John Roe, and James L. Koutoulas, Esq. concerning the disposition of stolen assets trapped in the MF Global fiasco.

Click anywhere on the excerpt below for a very short and well written paper which also serves as a primer on the how, the what, the who and the why of commodities trading.

Way super double highly recommended. 

By subordinating customers with collateral in segregated funds to creditors of MF Global's estate, the Trustee is essentially making the creditors the beneficiary of a criminal act.  If MF Global comingled segregated funds with corporate assets, it was a criminal act.  Paying such a creditor's claim with a portion of those comingled funds would make them a beneficiary of that crime.  Paying JP Morgan with an Iowa farmer's money is not only morally and legally wrong, it risks the future of the American economic model.

Commodities accounts were reputed to be regulated by an entity of the federal government known as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

It's true mission however is to assist large Wall Street Banks in their theft of middle class America's wealth.

Click this little gear here for our recent piece concerning former Goldman Sachs great, Democratic Senator from New Jersey (is that better Robert?), Democratic Governor of New Jersey, well known Democratic and Obama fundraiser, and MF Global CEO John Corzine who famously lobbied the CFTC in order to prevent the instituition of rules associated with the Dodd-Frank legislation that would have prevented MF Global from commingling client's money with it's own and thus would have prevented this 630 million dollar theft.

For my friend Richard Nolle.

We've posted several different charts demonstrating this same idea over the past couple of years.

This one happens to come from Bullion Management Group using data supplied by The Sauder School of Business via R.E. McMaster.

When people start talking about Governments defaulting on their obligations via inflation, this is exactly what they're talking about.

You might want to think that the price of Gold or stocks or gasoline or cornflakes is going up.

When what is really happening is that the purchasing power of your Dollar or Euro or Pound is going down.

And they're all doing it.

This one was sitting right at the top of my newsreader this morning.

I heaved a sigh of relief as I have been really, really worried about these guys.

Click anywhere below to link to the story.

Chief executives at the biggest U.S. companies saw their pay jump sharply in 2010, as boards rewarded them for strong profit and share-price growth with bigger bonuses and stock grants.

The median value of salaries, bonuses and long-term incentive awards for CEOs of 350 major companies surged 11% to $9.3 million, according to a study of proxy statements conducted for The Wall Street Journal by management consultancy Hay Group.

Viacom CEO Philippe P. Dauman topped the list with compensation valued at $84.3 million, more than double his 2009 pay.

What a sordid adventure this has been.

A month or so ago I asked myself a question,

"Who owns the Fed?"

Foolishly thinking that having asked that question, at about 8:30 am on a Saturday morning, I'd have a post done by noon at the latest.

Just another example of just how wrong one can be, when one is wrong.

If you ask the above question of your search engine, it goes nuts.

I read a lot of it.

I'm a little mad at myself here because if you follow some of this stuff far enough, you get to part about the escaped, homosexual, occultist Nazis hiding underground (literally) somewhere in Argentina ....... with grey space aliens.

I am not making this up.

Hell, I couldn't make it up.

Anyway, what I'm mad about is that I lost that link.

You can believe me when I tell you I'm lookin' for it.

But I digress.

Evidently lots and lots of people have asked this question, long before I did and have posted/published their answers.

Then a whole other group read the first group's post/publication/book and felt a need to dispute those answers.

Now, wouldn't you think that it should be easy to determine the ownership of something as important as the entity the controls the money supply of the world's largest economy?

This is the information age after all, don't you think that a simple list might be easily obtainable?

It ain't.

Factcheck.org provides the best start here  .

I'll wait.

Click it and read it dagnabit, it'll only take a minute and I'm trying to make a point here.

Thank you.

Now, if you click on their sources, from the Fed itself, you get this , and then this .

DO IT!!!  You don't even have to read anything this time.

See what I mean?

Hmmmmm, is all I have to say about this.

Then there are the vids.

The vids now, are a whole new ballgame.

And while a lot of the vids are very good and entertaining, none of it is as helpful as I would have liked in answering the original question, "Who owns the Fed?" because one needs to have a much better than none at all understanding of the nature of money, before any of the above makes even one lick of sense.

So, here's where I start.

The following comes from a definite Libertarian point of view, and while some may prefer a different viewpoint, it is very clear and easy to grab hold of.

It'll take about 40 minutes but you will most likely be entertained and a hell of a lot smarter about the world around you than you are now.

Go get a beer, a glass of wine, a cup of coffee, maybe a sandwich.

Got all that?

I'll be back on issues having to do with that non existant list in a bit.

You've seen this one before.

From Chart of the Day, as stated at the top of the chart, this is the chart for the Median single Family Home price (Inflation-Adjusted) from 1970 to the present.

Notice the consolidation going on now at just under $160,000.

Consider the argument that people don't really buy the house that they like as much as they buy the monthly payment on a house that they can afford.

Then consider that interest rates sit at historic lows due to unprecedented efforts by the Treasury Department and the FED to hold the cost of servicing the federal deficit to as low a monthly/yearly number as is possible.

Then consider that when interest rates go up, the monthly interest payment on a new home purchase will also increase, making the monthly payment on the Median Single Family Home more expensive.

Now you now know why I'm calling this a "consolidation of losses" rather than a bottom.

Although, it would please me to no end to be wrong on this one.

As always, click the chart for the entire piece.

Now remember that good for nothing, smiling, shill Larry Kudlow yammering on and on about "The Wealth Effect" and how you needn't worry about anything and certainly not the economy because housing prices were so strong?

Now you know why, when the revolution comes, and if they're not out there looking for me, I'm goin' looking for him.

Among others.

This one has been going around for at least a couple of years now.

Still, it's revealing. 

I've been saving it just for today.

Harry Reid explains it all.

Taxes are voluntary.

Who knew?

From Katya Wachtel at Business Insiders, who has been doing a real nice job lately of providing fun but useful stories.

As always, the photo will link you up with the story.

Nuns Demand Goldman Sachs Explain Why It Paid $69.5 Million To The Top 5 Execs In 2010

Katya Wachtel   Apr. 4, 2011
 

Goldman Sachs will pay its top five executives just under $70 million for their work in 2010, and four orders of catholic nuns are demanding that the firm launch a review over whether the pay is excessive.

Lloyd Blankfein and his top lieutenants were awarded between $13 and $14 million for their work last year; they all received a cash bonus of $5.4 million.

The nun and charity group has asked that the firm's Compensation Committee reveal extremely detailed information about the compensation.

Hope she still has that damn yardstick.

And the joke is on us.

Click the photo to link up with this Bloomberg story.

Foreign Banks Tapped Fed’s Secret Lifeline Most at Crisis Peak
By Bradley Keoun and Craig Torres - Apr 1, 2011 1:53 PM ET

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s two-year fight to shield crisis-squeezed banks from the stigma of revealing their public loans protected a lender to local governments in Belgium, a Japanese fishing-cooperative financier and a company part-owned by the Central Bank of Libya.