from usawatchdog:

Syria is in the middle of a revolution, and Russia has warned the West to stay out. Nothing is settled there, and the cease fire was short lived. Any NATO action, such as what happened in Libya, could spark World War III. The European debt crisis is getting worse, not better. Spanish banks are in trouble, more than two dozen Italian banks have been downgraded and the Greeks took nearly a billion dollars (700 million euros) out of the banks there. Germany is under Pressure to come to the rescue, but Angela Merkel is in trouble from all the bailouts. The fear is if Greece leaves the EU, then other countries will follow, and the banks could all take big losses. The other big topic for discussion will be the Iranian nuclear program and the big meeting in Iraq next week. The last meeting in April with the U.S., Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia ended with nothing more than an agreement for the meeting next week. Israel is not happy and, basically, said Iran was free to enrich uranium. Iran has repeatedly said its nuclear program is for the peaceful production of energy. The U.S. Senate is working on new economic sanctions on Iran, and word there is that containment of Iran is not an option. JP Morgan’s $2 billion loss will probably turn into a $3 billion loss and may go higher. It will not sink JP Morgan, but this shows how risky derivatives are, and all the banks are backed by the FDIC. This is a warning flare that big financial icebergs are ahead. At some point, the loss might be big enough to trigger another meltdown. Goldman Sachs, for example, had $44 trillion in derivatives and a little more than $100 billion in assets. The banks will tell you that this is all hedged risk, it’s called bilateral netting. This is done to keep losses tiny, if any occur. But we know how well that worked with AIG, Lehman, MF Global and, now, JP Morgan. Finally, there is a new story on the internet about how President Obama was born in Kenya. It seems Obama’s literary agent accidentally released it. Please remember, a few months ago, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio alleged the President’s birth certificate was a forgery. The MSM ignored the story, but it might be harder to ignore now. Greg Hunter has analysis of these stories and more on the Weekly news Wrap-Up.

~TVR

from peaktheories.com:

An alternative title for this note is Flight to Liquidity Is Lifting for Takeoff, but the word “correction” stands out more for most with the two titles meaning the same thing and that is a mass investor exodus from equities and commodities and into the relative and perceived safety of US dollars and Treasurys. Put more politely, this correction could be called a flight to safety by some or even primly, a flight to quality, but when looking at the decade-long monthly charts of the dollar index, 10-year Treasury yield, S&P, VIX, $BPSPX, CRB Index with a little Russell 2000 thrown in there for good measure, there’s nothing prim or proper about what’s coming and that is a potentially devastating correction and probably soon.

Rather than getting lost in semantics, though, let’s just jump straight to those long-term charts that show the forest rather than the trees as was the case in 2007 and 2008 looking first at the chart that suggests a real risk-on asset drain and that is the dollar index.

Keep on reading @ peaktheories.com

from businessinsider.com:

Facebook has priced its IPO at $38 a share, the high-end of the range they were considering.

One valuation guru said that he would be “very surprised” if the stock were overpriced, noting that both the company and the bankers have too much to lose if it were.

Mark Cuban argues that the Facebook IPO is the most important IPO ever, but not for the reasons you might think.

Here are all the people who are about to get filthy rich off the Facebook IPO.

Facebook doesn’t want the IPO to distract employees too much, though. The company is hanging these posters around campus so employees don’t notice they’re about to be super rich and stop working.

Mark Zuckerberg received a standing ovation from thousands of Facebook employees last night in a strong show of support for the CEO. Then many employees jumped into an all-night hackathon leading up to the IPO.

Keep on reading @ businessinsider.com

from nakedcapitalism.com:

It feels as if Europe has rolled the clocks back to 2011 as the effects of the ECB’s LTRO have now well and truly warn off and the markets appear to have reconnected with idea that the fundamental issues of the Eurozone have never been addressed.

Spain is 55% through its debt schedule for the year but, as the shadow of emergency operations passes over, yields are rising quickly:

Spain sold 372 million euros of a bond maturing January 31, 2015 at an average yield of 4.375 percent, after paying 2.89 percent April 4, with a bid-to-cover ratio of 4.45 after 2.4 in April.

The bond maturing July 30, 2015 sold 1.0 billion euros, had a yield of 4.876 percent compared to 4.037 percent May 3 and was 3 times subscribed following a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.9 percent at the last auction.

The bond maturing April 30, 2016 sold 1.1 billion euros with an average yield of 5.106 percent, higher than 3.374 percent March 15. Demand was lower than previously, with the bond 2.4 times subscribed after 4.1 times at the March auction.

Keep on reading @ nakedcapitalism.com

from sjlendman.blogspot.com:

Israel’s long known open secret is its formidable nuclear arsenal. Less is known about its chemical and biological weapons (CBW) capability. More on that below.

In 1986, Dimona nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu revealed documents showing what many long suspected. Israel had been secretly developing, producing and stockpiling nuclear weapons for years.

Experts called his information genuine. They revealed sophisticated technology able to amass a formidable nuclear arsenal. Today it’s more potent than ever.

In his 1991 book titled “The Samson Option: Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal and America Foreign Policy,” Seymour Hersh discussed its strategy to launch massive nuclear counterattacks in response to serious enough threats.

Keep on reading @ sjlendman.blogspot.com

from telegraph.co.uk:

Moody’s slashed the ratings of 16 Spanish banks on Thursday evening, citing the reduced ability of the Spanish government to provide support to the sector, as well as the “adverse operating conditions” characterised by a renewed recession.
The rating agency also downgraded Santander UK, although, at “A2,” it is still rated one notch above its parent bank Banco Santander. Moody’s highlighted that Santander UK has “no direct exposure to the Spanish government (or regional governments)”.
Earlier in the day, shares in Bankia, the country’s fourth biggest bank, plunged by as much as 29pc amid reports that depositors had pulled out €1bn in the past week.
Madrid was then forced to pay 50pc more than in March to drum up interest in a €2.5bn (£2bn) bond. By then end of the day, borrowing costs for benchmark 10-year sovereign debt in Spain rose 2 basis points to 6.21pc, while gilts and German bunds dropped to fresh lows of 1.834pc and 1.41pc respectively. Britain’s debt management office was swamped with record demand for a ‘safe haven’ £1.5bn gilt auction.

Keep on reading @ telegraph.co.uk

from thedailybeast.com:

PMorgan shareholders reelected Dimon chairman and CEO and gave him a $23 million pay package despite the bank’s $2 billion loss. But it’s ludicrous that he’s still calling the loss a mistaken ‘hedge’—and it shows he doesn’t get it, says Nomi Prins.

It’s official. Just as he was voted in for a second term as Class A New York Fed director in February 2010, Jamie Dimon was reelected chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase yesterday afternoon. He got to keep his $23 million pay package, too. All without breaking a sweat.

This means that at each of three of the top five bank-holding companies dominating U.S. derivatives exposure, loans, assets, and deposits, the same man holds the chairman and CEO positions—at Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and JPM Chase. (Bank of America and Citigroup separated those roles.). If the stock buckles under another “discovery,” shareholders can take comfort in blaming themselves, not Jamie Dimon.

Keep on reading @ thedailybeast.com

from mybudget360.com:

Now that tax seasons is mostly finished for your average American and people can exhale and take a breather, some interesting data is released by the IRS. Audit data is fascinating because it highlights that in terms of those getting an audit, the more you make the more likely you are to be audited. It is useful to get a sense of how this plays out. The IRS is unlikely to audit the average American making $25,000 a year because in reality, the cost and return of going after this group is so minimal. As the famous bank robber Willie Sutton once replied to a reporter as to why he robbed banks, “because that’s where the money is.” The government is running lean and as many of you know, carrying over a $15 trillion in public debt is starting to become a burden.

Keep on reading @ mybudget360.com

from mineweb.com:

Newly refined market economy silver supply is set to surpass one billion ounces for the first time in 2012, according to CPM Group’s Silver Yearbook 2012.
Market economy silver mine supply was entirely responsible for the increase in total silver supply in 2011, with secondary silver declining during the year. Total refined market economy silver supply rose 22.6 million ounces to 995.1 million ounces in 2011.
After rising for nine consecutive years, total silver supply is forecast to reach 1.01 billion ounces in 2012 with nearly all of the projected increase expected to come from higher mine production.
Silver mine production in market economies was 713.6 million ounces in 2011, surpassing the 700-million ounce mark for the first time on record. Mine supply increased most strongly in China and Mexico, the two largest silver producers. Silver mine supply is forecast to reach 729 million ounces this year, up 15.4 million ounces from 2010.

Keep on reading @ mineweb.com

from jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.ca:

When people talk about devaluing the dollar, as opposed to reissuing it completely, the natural question is, against what? What would one devalue it against officially if you do not wish to reinstitute a formal gold standard, which is clearly the preference of the Western central bank.

One likely candidate might be the SDR issued as a new currency for global trade, and for the pricing of international goods and commodities.

The major bone of contention as I have pointed out before would be the new ‘basis’ for the SDR. What Will the World’s Reserve Currency Become? The BRICs are adamant for the inclusion of additional currencies and gold and silver to make a portfolio that is less weighted to the US, Europe, and England.

A country would have the option to retain their own national currency for domestic use.

Keep on reading @ jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.ca

from news.goldseek.com:

For many years now, a meme has been floating around that the prices of gold and silver are being manipulated, which is to say suppressed, by various powers of darkness. This is not an unreasonable assertion. After all, the last thing the monetary powers-that-be want is to see is the price of gold skyrocketing. That would serve as an alarm bell, possibly panicking people all over the world, telling them to get out of the dollar. It’s assumed, by those who believe in the theory, that the US Treasury is behind the suppression scheme, in complicity with a half-dozen or so large bullion banks that regularly trade in the metals.

The assertion is bolstered by the fact that governments in general, and the US in particular, are always intervening in all kinds of markets. They try to control the price of wheat and corn with various USDA programs. They manifestly manipulate the price of credit (interest rates), now keeping it as low as possible to stave off financial collapse. And they may well be active, through the so-called Plunge Protection Team, in propping up the stock market. They were largely responsible for the boom in property, through numerous programs and parastatals like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Why, therefore, shouldn’t they also be involved in the monetary metals? Central banks regularly intervene in (i.e., manipulate) each others’ currencies. So it’s not unreasonable to imagine they’d try to manipulate gold as well.

Keep on reading @ news.goldseek.com

from bullionbullscanada.com:

The mainstream (corporate) media is nothing less than the unofficial accomplice of the banking crime syndicate which is running/ruining our markets and economies. Nowhere is this despicable relationship more apparent than in its deliberate efforts to grossly misinform investors on the critical subject of risk.

I partially dealt with this issue in a previous commentary titled “Volatility Does Not Equal Risk”. In that article I did something which you will never, ever see the mainstream do: I provided an explicit and detailed definition of the term “risk”.

I would encourage even those readers who read the original piece to re-read it, as I simply don’t have the space to repeat that multi-paragraph definition here, and (as I always stress) definition of terms is a crucial prerequisite to understanding any concept. Equally important, that previous piece clearly distinguishes the entirely distinct concepts of “volatility” versus “risk”. In contrast, one of the principle propaganda assignments given to the mainstream media has been to entirely blur the distinction between volatility and risk.

Keep on reading @ bullionbullscanada.com

from beaconequity.com:

As an apparent gesture to lend a helping hand to Sprott Asset Management John Embry’s call for seasoned gold professionals to coach rosy-cheeked newcomers through the treacheries of the gold market, as witnessed so far this month, Mr. Gold, Jim Sinclair, posted an Open Letter for the weak-of-heart among his flock to ignore mainstream media, stare down that empty-chambered pistol of the Fed, and “forge ahead.”

“Please make an effort to stay balanced. Greed is a condition of lack of balance similar to fear,” the 40-year gold market veteran Sinclair stated in his Open Letter of May 16. “Fear is being fanned from within the gold community as much or more than from outside. When people who know gold is seriously under priced talk temporary bear, they kick good people when they are down.”

Keep on reading @ beaconequity.com

from dailyreckoning.com:

Yesterday, we drove into Washington, DC, to the Argentine embassy. Friends from Salta were hosting a wine-tasting. It seemed strange to see our Argentine friends — who live in a remote corner of the country — in our nation’s capital. But it was a pleasure to see them…and taste their very strong, high altitude malbecs.

Washington has largely escaped the financial crisis. There is plenty of money in the city, but hardly anyone in town knows anything about economics or finance. It is politics they care about. That’s how they get money, in the old fashioned way — by taking it away from someone else. So, it is only natural that they believe the world of economics should be approached in the same way — by brute force. Command, control, and central planning…that is Washington’s method. That’s what politics is all about.

Keep on reading @ dailyreckoning.com

from kingworldnews.com:

Today Citibank analyst, Tom Fitzpatrick, told King World News that despite the recent pullback, gold is headed to new all-time highs. Fitzpatrick, a 28 year veteran and top analyst at Citibank, which has $1.3 trillion in assets, also said that stock markets will continue to head lower in the coming weeks. But first, here is what Fitzpatrick had to say about the volatility index: “We’ve broken above that resistance level at 21% on the VIX, completing what is a very clear inverted head and shoulders within the daily chart. That suggests we could easily get a move that could take us up to something in the region of 27% to 28% (on the VIX).”

Tom Fitzpatrick continues:
“The longer-term chart might even suggest a little bit more than that (27% to 28% target) on the VIX, but for the moment that is the interim target. So we are very closely focused on that and the fact that we’ve made a very significant break. By definition it suggest we’re going to continue to see a lower move in the equity markets in the weeks ahead.

Keep on reading @ kingworldnews.com

from silverbearcafe.com:

Trying to tip the direction of the most volatile of metals is a futile task and we would never advise anybody to attempt to trade the silver market. Even JP Morgan is going to get caught out with its massive short position one day, and any idea that these are the true masters of the universe is surely buried by the $2 billion loss admitted last week.

However, if you are considering the establishment of a silver position you still need to decide a precise time to buy, you have no option but to do that. So on those grounds only you do have to think about the immediate price outlook and make your best guess.

Technical analysis
Bob Kirtley of silver-prices.net notes: ‘Taking a quick look at the chart we can see that the 50 day moving average didn’t make the cross over of the 200 dma, that we were hoping for and so the pressure remains on silver prices. The drop below $30 that we have alluded to has now happened. We see this as at or close to a possible buying opportunity, however it could go as low as $26, so it could be worth the wait for slightly better prices.

Keep on reading @ silverbearcafe.com

from silvervigilante.com:

As has been totally predictable by anyone familiar with the ruling architecture of planet earth, the Shanghai Silver Exchange has been of no help to silver. Can anyone say JPMorgan and HSBC connections? The ruling class cannot let silver shine, because in the total information age it would not take long for a critical mass of investors to catch onto the trade and send the metal to market extinction. The silver would disappear into the hoards of desperate humans doing what they can to protect themselves against the criminally mismanaged economy. Let me restate that: against the managed economy. There is no reason why others should be managing the economy of man. Individuals should be managing their own economic relationships and the power should cease there. But, nope – we have a worldwide neo-soviet paradigm.

Keep on reading @ silvervigilante.com

from alt-market.com:

After being immersed in the world of alternative economic analysis for several years, it sometimes becomes easy to forget that most people do not track forex markets, or debt to GDP ratio, or true unemployment, or hunch over IMF white-papers highlighting subsections which expose the trappings of the globalist ideology. Sometimes, you just assume the average person knows what the heck you are talking about. This is, of course, a mistake. However, it is a mistake that is borne from the inadequacy of our age and our culture, and is not necessarily a product of weak character, either of the analyst, or the casual reader.

The great frustration of being actively involved in the Liberty Movement is the fact that many people are rarely on the same page (or even the same book) during political and economic discussion. Where we see the nature of the false left/right paradigm, they see “free democracy”. Where we see a tidal wave of destructive debt, they see a “responsible government” printing and spending in order to protect our “best interests”.

Keep on reading @ alt-market.com

from rtamerica:

~TVR

from thealyonashow:

Essentially what this did is grant the government the power to detain anyone it considered a terrorism suspect, including American citizens. Last night, Judge Katherine Forrest ruled that it violated not one but two amendments to the Constitution, the First Amendment’s right to free speech, and the Fifth Amendment’s right to due process. But the mainstream media was too busy today providing wall-to-wall coverage of the important cases about sex scandals with former movie stars and washed up politicians.

~TVR

from wepollock:

We grew up being told to work hard to get ahead, do everything according to the system. Our system was there to help us. In crisis, in retirement, or in disability it would protect us..   Today our system seeks to bleed us dry, take from us, trick us, and then (controlling the information flow) turn each of us against one another.

Some of the latest affronts against reform include the “ExPatriot Act” and the growingly intrusive and brazen security state. We are also lawless, rich and laws, and short on justice.

That is the context

What should I invest in because of this oppressive context and the collapse it courts

Perhaps we need to think about the old adage, “invest in yourself.” But in our context that old axiom may not hold entirely true. Perhaps we need to update that idea a bit using critical thinking as our guide.

Why don’t we pretend we are approaching a point where the US will be allot like Haiti. We can then use our reasoning skills to develop a meaningful strategy for reform.

–Worst Case Scenario – Haiti..

Despite the passage of time, Haiti’s infrastructure remains in very poor condition, unable to support normal activity, much less crisis situations. Last year’s cholera outbreak — exacerbated by inadequate public sanitation — killed thousands of Haitians, further straining the capacity of medical facilities and personnel and undermining their ability to attend to emergencies.

WE need to invest no only in ourselves but also towards reform by doing what we can as individuals working to our best interests; and as a side effect to “the greater good.”

~TVR

from daytradeshow:

~TVR

from silverfuturist:

Interview with Kerry Lutz from the Hard Assets Conference:

~TVR

from stefbot:

Freedomain Radio is the largest and most popular philosophy show on the web – http://www.freedomainradio.com Jake Diliberto is a Political Scientist and Christian Theologian. He is a Ph D. candidate from UK University of Birmingham, and is a resident scholar on US National Security. He is the co-founder of Vets for Rethinking Afghanistan. Jake is a specialist in Religious Conflict and Religious Guerrilla Warfare. He served as a US Marine in Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001 Af-Pak, and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Jake is a co-founder of Veterans for Rethinking Afghanistan and a policy adviser and analyst with US based advocacy organization Rethinking Afghanistan.

~TVR

From Jim Puplava and Financial Sense:

Steve Forbes: The Only Way Out is a Return to Free Markets and Capitalism

Jim is pleased to welcome Steve Forbes, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Media. Steve and Jim discuss a number of important topics, from a new gold standard, to tax reform, to Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve. Steve believes the only way out of the mess we are in is a return to free markets and true capitalism. The combination of a low-tax system and a gold-backed currency worked well for much of our history, and Mr. Forbes believes we must return to those basic policies.

Much More @ FinancialSense.com 

from thealexjoneschannel:

~TVR

from thealexjoneschannel:

It has now emerged that Barack Obama’s own authorized biography while president of the Harvard Law Review says he was “born in Kenya” and raised in both Indonesia and Hawaii. This is prima facie evidence that the public has been sold on a big lie. It further only reinforces the mountains of related evidence that has surfaced, not the least of which is Michele Obama’s own public statements about their returning to Barack’s “homeland” in Africa to conduct a public AIDS test stunt. Wow!

Breitbart.com broke the story as part of their “vetting” series that has coincided with the untimely death of Andrew Breitbart himself.

~TVR

from dollarfall:

~TVR

from unconventionalfin:

~TVR