Newsroom
The Goldbugg Report – December 22, 2009
December 22, 2009
-Gold: how high will the price go in 2010?
-Gold & Silver What’s Next? Roger Wiegand
-Why Precious Metals Aren’t in a Bubble.
GOLD
-As I know it’s on the minds of many of you here’s a quick look at the corrections in gold so far this year. You can see that of the seven corrections, three have been as bad or worse than the current version.
While it may be premature to call this correction over, gold and silver do appear to be forming a solid bottom. In other words, I think this overdue stop on the road to higher prices won’t last overly long. If you are thinking of filling in your precious metals position, I wouldn’t put it off. David Galland Managing Director Casey Research
-James Turk-Gold Remains Firmly Within a Major Uptrend. In my last commentary I asked “What’s next for gold?” Answering my own question, I noted that “$1200-$1400 is a reasonable target for the end of this year, but first, it seems likely that gold will re-test support.”
In fact, gold kept climbing to above $1200, so my timing was off. Only now are we seeing the re-test of support that I had expected. Gold has fallen deeper than I envisioned, but it is clear from the following chart that gold’s technical position remains very bullish.
The above chart is very powerful. Note the following bullish features:
1) By hurdling above $1000, gold broke out from the ‘head & shoulders’ pattern (highlighted by the green lines) it formed over the past couple of years.
2) I have extended the right trend-line of gold’s base (the purple dashed line), and gold remains above this uptrend line.
3) Gold remains above its 200-day moving average.
All of these points make clear that gold remains firmly within a major long-term uptrend, which is the salient fact. The short-term ups and downs are merely noise that can easily distract us from the big picture. Gold is now in the second stage of its bull market, so the volatility of the past couple of weeks is to be expected. Increasing volatility is one of the traits of a bull market’s second stage.
In conclusion, last week’s shake-out did nothing to alter gold’s major long-term uptrend, which is not surprising. The problems confronting national currencies continue to deepen. They continue to be debased, so a lot more erosion of their purchasing power is to be expected.
For example, The Times of London on December 10th forecast that governments from 19 of the G20 countries will suffer fiscal deficits in 2010. Only Saudi Arabia is expected to operate with a surplus, and leading the list of the worst fiscal offenders are the UK, Japan, US and India each is expected to rack up a deficit of 10% of GDP or greater.
The amount of new debt that will be created in 2010 by the G20 means central banks around the world will be running their ‘printing presses’ day and night, debasing currencies at breakneck speed. Next year promises to be another big year for gold. Read more here-http://www.fgmr.com/december-13-2009-gold-remains-firmly-within-major-uptrend.html
-Jim Rogers: Gold Can’t Be in a Bubble if Nobody Even Owns it Yet. Jim Rogers, who has long been bullish on commodities, tells CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo that despite the recent spike in the gold’s price; the market is not experiencing a bubble.
“I wouldn’t think of selling [gold],” Rogers said. “If gold goes to $1,000 or pick a number I hope that I’m smart enough to buy more. Until last year central banks around the world were selling gold. Now you have the opposite. They’ve stopped selling and they are starting to buy as well. That’s a huge shift in the gold market and many other people worry about paper-money as well. So I think gold will certainly go to a couple of thousand dollars over the next decade. I mean that’s not a radical assumption.”
According to Rogers, gold will power the great commodities bull run that will last for the next decade. With many people worried about the deficit and paper money, gold will be a great investment and relatively few people are invested in it.
At a speech in Prague Rogers surveyed about 300 people, including big money managers, and 76 percent had never owned gold, he said. “So when you say it’s a bubble nobody owns gold yet,” Rogers said. Still, silver is preferable, with silver 70 percent off its all-time high and gold near it’s all-time high, he said. Watch video here-http://www.cnbc.com/id/34376063/
-Santer Says Gold May Rise to $2,000 Within 3 Years. Watch video here-http://www.bloomberg.com/avp/avp.htm?N=adviser&T;=Santer%20Says%20Gold%20May%20Rise%20to%20%242%2C000%20Within%203%20Years&clipSRC;=mms://media2.bloomberg.com/cache/vahKRjthNrhU.asf
-Four pillars of gold price strength remain intact. Despite the recent setback in the gold price, the principal drivers of gold’s recent strength remain in play and don’t be surprised to see $1,500 gold next year. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=94497&sn;=Detail
-Gold heading for $1,500 before mid-2010 SocGen. The bank suggests buying into the recent commodities correction as it expects precious metals to outperform the rest over six months as investors’ fears intensify about inflationary pressures exacerbated by political interference. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page34?oid=94594&sn;=Detail
-BMO’s bull case for gold could reach a peak price of $1,500/oz. BMO Capital Markets Global Strategist Bart Melek said there are “plenty of reasons to hold gold” with “considerable upside possible.” Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=94628&sn;=Detail
-Gold: how high will the price go in 2010? Gold rose to a record high in 2009, but can it continue to rise above the $1,200/oz level, or will it fall back? Read more here-
-Four digit gold “magical” for investment psychology Hathaway. Tocqueville fund manager John Hathaway predicts public expectations regarding gold are about to pivot in a manner that leads to irrational exuberance for the precious metal. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=94382&sn;=Detail
-VM mostly positive on metals prices for 2010. The latest Metals Monthly from the VM Group takes a generally positive view on the prospects for precious and base metals prospects in the year ahead. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=94488&sn;=Detail
-Recent gold price dip, just a minor hiccough. While gold prices have fallen over the last few days on a slightly stronger dollar the fundamentals for the gold rally have not changed at all. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=94461&sn;=Detail
-Russian Central Bank to buy 30 tonnes of gold from Gokhran. Russia’s Central Bank will increase its gold holdings by around 5% by buying 30 tonnes of gold from the State repository which had been planning to sell the gold on the open market. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page34?oid=94430&sn;=Detail
or http://www.gata.org/node/8144
-Gold’s Old Enemies: Allies in 2010. A number of the world’s most prominent gold experts, including Sprott Asset Management’s John Embry, are expecting central banks to play a very supportive role in underpinning the rise in the gold market in 2010. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=94557&sn;=Detail
-Gold Buying by Central Banks May Send Signal to Sell. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid;=arhlK7_y34Mg
-Fabrice Taylor: The gold bubble myth. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8151
-Clive Maund gold market update. Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/CliveMaund/1260724320.php
-J.S. Kim: Disinformation obscures great opportunity in gold. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8150
-Not Too Late to Buy Gold: Beware of Global Bumps Ahead, Lynn Tilton Says. Read more here-http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/not-too-late-to-buy-gold-beware-of-global-bumps-ahead-lynn-tilton-says-390792.html
-U.S. Mint resumes bullion coin sales with rationing. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8147 or http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page34?oid=94454&sn;=Detail
-Gold & Silver What’s Next? Read more here-http://www.kitco.com/ind/Wiegand/dec112009.html
-How to Predict the Price of Gold. Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1260477303.php
-James Turk-The Fractional Reserve Aspects of Gold ETFs. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8157 or http://www.fgmr.com/fractional-reserve-aspects-of-gold-etfs.html
-Nouriel Roubini thinks he knows nearly everything about gold. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8149
-What a revelation: Gold trading can rig currency markets. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8146
-John Browne concedes gold price manipulation. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8154
SILVER
Gold to silver ratio at 80 to 1 with gold at $1,500 the silver price would be $18.75
Gold to silver ratio at 70 to 1 with gold at $1,500 the silver price would be $21.43
Gold to silver ratio at 60 to 1 with gold at $1,500 the silver price would be $25.00
Gold to silver ratio at 50 to 1 with gold at $1,500 the silver price would be $30.00
Gold to silver ratio at 40 to 1 with gold at $1,500 the silver price would be $37.50
Gold to silver ratio at 30 to 1 with gold at $1,500 the silver price would be $50.00
Gold to silver ratio at 20 to 1 with gold at $1,500 the silver price would be $75.00
Gold to silver ratio at 15 to 1 with gold at $1,500 the silver price would be $100.00
-With the gold: silver ratio at 65 ($1117/$17.10/oz), silver remains a compelling buy at these levels and will likely be the surprise outperformer in 2010 as it was in 2009 (up by more than 51% YTD as per table). Silver’s industrial uses should mean that the gold/silver ratio will likely gradually regress to the average in the last 100 hundred years which is close to 40:1.
If the tiny silver market was to see real funds enter it than the ration could return closer to the historical average of 15:1 as it did as recently as 1980. Silver remains less than half of its nominal record price in 1980 and very undervalued from a historical basis. Goldcore.com-Read more here-http://www.goldcore.com/research/silver-set-soar-it-did-1970s
-Getting Gold and Silver Back in Synch. One sign is the gold-to-silver ratio, or the price of gold divided by that of silver, which gives investors a sense of when either of the two precious metals is straying too far from its “fair” value. This market gauge, which has averaged about 54 since 1970, jumped to 84 at the height of the financial crisis in the fall of 2008 as investors seeking safety poured into gold.
Since then, the ratio has fallen back to about 66, thanks to silver’s 52% jump in value this year, which has far outstripped gold’s 27% gain. But the market’s slowness in returning to equilibrium has some analysts scratching their heads over what the next year could hold for the precious metals market.
Some observers say gold, which until recently had been hitting a nearly continuous series of records, could eventually lose some of its shine, helping restore the ratio to its average. But there’s another possibility: Silver’s mammoth gains could simply continue in a rebounding economy, even as gold rises more slowly. That means neither the yellow metal nor its secondary cousin would have to lose.
“There would tend to be a gravitational pull back” to the average, which is somewhere in the 50s, says Neil Meader, research director at GFMS Ltd., a London-based precious-metals consulting firm. Mr. Meader expects gold prices to eventually run out of steam and for silver to continue benefiting from rising industrial demand tied to the global economic recovery. Read more here-
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704201404574590011622195876.html
-Clive Maund silver market update. Read more here-http://news.silverseek.com/CliveMaund/1260721878.php
-Silver outperforms gold by +30% in 2009. Read more here-http://www.thehedgefundjournal.com/news/2009/12/14/silver-outperforms-gold-by-30-in-2009.php
-Silver buying may shoot up below $ 20 level. Read more here-http://www.commodityonline.com/futures-trading/technical/Silver-buying-may-shoot-up-below-$-20-level-13398.html
-Silver market analyst Ted Butler’s new commentary is a speculation on the possibility and consequences of a default by the New York Commodities Exchange’s silver futures market. The short position there, Butler writes, is so huge and concentrated that it could not possibly be delivered from Comex warehouses or world production.
Of course this does not address the possibility that there is some secret U.S. government silver stockpile underwriting the short position, which has to be considered, since the short position is almost entirely in the hands of the U.S. government’s main agent in the financial markets, JPMorganChase & Co.
But even any greater transparency arranged in the precious metals futures markets by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission could prove sensational. Butler’s commentary is headlined “Extreme Speculation.” Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8148
-Silver market analyst Butler’s weekly interview at King World News. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/8145
-Interview with silver expert David Morgan. Read more here-http://news.silverseek.com/SilverInvestor/1261029840.php
-Buyers spurn gold for silver. A leading bullion dealer says that there has been a marked interest from investors for silver in recent weeks. Read more here-
-Is the Price of World Silver the Result of Legitimate Market Discovery? Read more here-http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2009/12/is-price-of-world-silver-result-of.html
-Why Precious Metals Aren’t in a Bubble. Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1260972676.php
U.S. BANK FAILURES HIT 133
-U.S. bank failure tally reaches 133. Regulators close regional banks in Florida, Kansas and Arizona, at a cost of $252.1 million to the FDIC. Read more here-
http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/11/news/economy/bank_failure/index.htm
-FDIC Boosts 2010 Budget, Staff as Bank Failures Rise. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=a61K0Spsn2QU
-FDIC Approves Giving Banks Reprieve From Capital Requirements. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. gave banks including Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. a reprieve of at least six months from raising capital to support billions of dollars of securities the firms will be adding to their balance sheets.
Bank regulators including the FDIC and Federal Reserve want to permit a phase-in of capital requirements that rise starting next month under a change approved by the Financial Accounting Standards Board. The rule, passed in May, eliminates some off- balance-sheet trusts, forcing banks to put billions of dollars of assets and liabilities on their books. Read more here-
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=aNQ2cLJ8kCLo&pos;=6
CHART OF THE WEEK-QUOTES-QUICK HITS
-Chart of the day: The Average Investor Remains Terrified Of The Stock Market. While the federal reserve’s dollar ‘printing press’ keeps churning, all the excess dollars still aren’t ending up in stocks. Latest data from the Investment Company Institute shows that long term mutual fund flows for stocks were negative $9.8 billion during the last four weeks ending December 2nd.
Thus while the U.S. stock markets treaded water in November, mutual fund investors were heading for the exits, as their sentiment toward stocks remains weak. Just as it’s been since August. What are average investors in love with? Bonds. If excess dollars are supporting any market, it will have to be this one. $36.8 billion of new mutual fund money entered bonds just recently, which is a continuation of the massive bond-buying trend that started in January.
Even though bonds generally command higher quantities of investment funds than stocks all else being equal, the negative vs. positive flows shown in the chart below make it pretty clear where the current market consensus lies. The average mutual fund investor remains scared of stocks and fond of bonds. Read more here-
-A 53-per-cent rally in stocks from March lows won’t be enough to tempt Canadians back into equities in big numbers in 2010, top mutual funds executives say, forcing the industry to focus on more conservative products. Read more here-http://ctv2.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20091214.wfunds1214/business/Business/businessBN/ctv-business?ctvBeta=yes
-Chart of the day: U.S. Bureaucrats Have Way Better Benefits than you. When you choose a career, two of the biggest factors to consider are your benefits and your salary. If you’re the kind of person looking to make $500 million a year (a la Michael Milken), stay in the private sector. But for the rest of us, becoming a government employee seems like a more lucrative option.
According to the BLS, total employer compensation costs for civilian workers, which include private industry and state and local government workers, averaged $29.40 per hour worked in September 2009. Total employer compensation costs for private industry workers averaged $27.49 per hour worked in September 2009.
State and local government employers spent an average of $39.83 per hour worked for total employee compensation in September 2009. But the killer part lies in the benefits. Health benefit employer costs were $4.43 per hour worked for state and local government and $2.01 in private industry. Ouch! Read more here-
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-employer-cost-per-hour-worker-2009-12
-For feds, more get 6-figure salaries. The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data.
Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession’s first 18 months and that’s before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.
Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time in pay and hiring during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector. Read more here-
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-12-10-federal-pay-salaries_N.htm
-”There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.” Louis L’Amour-Read more here-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_L%27Amour
-”I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” Jimmy Dean-Read more here-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Dean
-The U.S. has no way of avoiding a financial Armageddon. John Williams, shadowstats.com
-”For those who think gold is already too expensive consider this from our dear friend Ian McAvity and his great newsletter, Deliberations… ‘Gold is about 52% higher than it was at its January, 1980 peak. Meanwhile, the CPI, which is the consumer measure of inflation, is 177% higher, the money supply is 464% higher and the stock market is nearly 900% higher.’
He notes, ‘I don’t think it untoward to suggest that gold is badly lagging a number of important yardsticks and at these levels it has some catching up to do.’ Gold could still reach $1300 to $1350 on this run, if it can hold above $1100. Aden Sisters-Read more here-http://www.marketwatch.com/story/story/print?guid=B81BF039-C183-4293-AF02-D7A268D9301D
-Since 1989, the Japanese stock market has had no fewer than four 50%-plus rallies and there still has been no period of growth that can be called a sustained expansion. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff
-The past two years have seen the greatest outpouring of money and credit from central banks and governments in history. In most countries interest rates cannot fall much lower being presently under 1% or close to zero. You might call this an attempt at fiat money recovery.
As a result of pump priming for the past six months or more investors have returned to the same gambling and risk taking they engaged in before, the losses of which caused the world economy to come to the edge of the financial abyss. All sectors of investment are again affected by a casino mentality. Bob Chapman-Read more here-
http://news.goldseek.com/InternationalForecaster/1260974580.php or http://news.goldseek.com/InternationalForecaster/1260723600.php
-Mainstream economists called this downturn “The Great Recession”. This is truly a gentle way of saying “Depression”. When we can have the courage to come to grips with the fact that we did in fact experience a depression of sorts, which is by definition a credit event, then and only then can we draw a conclusion that a sustainable recovery will not get underway until the ratio of household credit to personal disposable income reverts to the mean (and goes to an excess in the opposite direction). I know it sounds harsh, but we shall endure believe it. Transition is rarely without pain.
The ratio of household debt to disposable income is up from a 30% ratio back in the 1950s to 125% today (though down from 139% at the peak in 2007). Mean reverting to a ratio closer to 60% means that the deleveraging process will be a multi-year event and by the time it is over, more than $7 trillion in additional household credit will have to be extinguished. For more on this see the unbelievably grotesque article on the front page of last Thursday’s (December 10) Wall Street Journal he New American Dream. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff
-We are not sure if this is a well known “fact”, but the U.S. government has a record $2.5 trillion of its debt, including bills, bonds and notes, rolling over in 2010. That, my friends, is 35% of the outstanding level of Uncle Sam’s marketable obligations having to be refinanced in one single year.
One has to wonder how the Fed is going to be able to raise interest rates in such a backdrop of massive rollovers; and if it doesn’t and the economy manages to exceed expectations or we get some inflation, how it is that the near-record steepness in the yield curve doesn’t continue in the coming year.
But very clearly, sovereign risk globally has taken over as the major potential flare-up for the coming year. Looking at the official projections for 2010, we have Japan’s government debt-to-GDP ratio hitting 227%; Italy at 120%; the U.S. and the U.K. both at 94%; Germany and France at 83%, and Canada at 79% (all levels of government). Rarely, if ever, has Canada been the one-eyed man to this extent in the land of the blind. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff
-Americans Want Government to Spend for Jobs, Send Bill to Rich. Americans want their government to create jobs through spending on public works, investments in alternative energy or skills training for the jobless. They also want the deficit to come down. And most are ready to hand the bill to the wealthy. Read more here-
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid;=awkrRPMONDW8
-Most Europeans Feel Worst of Crisis to Come on Jobs. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid;=aVnbP7Z2T60A
-“I don’t think many people grasp just how much job creation we need to climb out of the hole we’re in. You can’t just look at the eight million jobs that America has lost since the recession began, because the nation needs to keep adding jobs more than 100,000 a month to keep up with a growing population.
And that means that we need really big job gains, month after month, if we want to see America return to anything that feels like full employment. How big? My back of the envelope calculation says that we need to add around 18 million jobs over the next five years, or 300,000 a month.
This puts last week’s employment report, which showed job losses of “only” 11,000 in November, in perspective. It was basically a terrible report, which was reported as good news only because we’ve been down so long that it looks like up to the financial press.” Paul Krugman
-Report: Nearly 50 percent of Detroit’s working-age population is unemployed. The unemployment rate in Detroit fell slightly last month to 27 percent. Read more here-http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2009/12/report_nearly_50_percent_of_de.html
-Sugar Jumps to Highest Price Since 1981 in New York on Deficit. Sugar rose in New York to the highest price in more than 28 years on renewed concern that the global output is lagging behind demand for a second year. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=aiZOOsJfJj6A
-Obama’s Big Sellout. The president has packed his economic team with Wall Street insiders intent on turning the bailout into an all-out giveaway. Read more here-
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31234647/obamas_big_sellout/print
-Airline Loss Forecast for 2010 Widens on Fuel, Fares. Airline losses in 2010 will total $5.6 billion, 47 percent wider than an earlier forecast, as oil prices rise while carriers compete for passengers with lower fares, the International Air Transport Association said. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=aKETztcaDYpY&pos;=4
-Plug-In Cars May Not Soon Cut U.S. Oil Use, CO2, Study Finds. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=auIq_IVzAkDI
-Crunch Cuts Top Champagne Prices on This List of Festive Bubbly. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601093&sid;=aoC7Ax0umJyQ
-Fed’s Bernanke Is Named Time’s ‘Person of the Year’. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=aha7dayF3enc&pos;=9
-Most Madoff Victims Denied SIPC Repayments a Year After Arrest. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20603037&sid;=aIiyVnSZxBLE
-US judge sets Allen Stanford trial for January 2011. Read more here-http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1718597720091217?type=marketsNews
or http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=aumD.AqRGkYU
-Dumbest business moments of the decade. As the first 10 years of the century draw to a close, we take a long hard look at exactly what got us into this mess. Read more here-
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/fortune/0912/gallery.dumbest_moments_decade.fortune/index.html
-The Rare Colored Diamonds Historical Value Tracker system is the perfect tool for investors to view the potential future value of a rare colored diamond based on the current market trend of a particular type of diamond. Track the potential future value of colored diamonds here-http://www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com/HistoricalPriceTrackingsystem.html
-Watch BTV interview of Harold Seigel on colored diamonds and his website http://www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com/. Watch video here-http://www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com/watchnow.html
-Rare Blue Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond Makes Public Appearance at Museum. Read more here-http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullNews.asp?id=33345
or http://www.elitetraveler.com/news_detail.html?nid=2155&n;=wittelsbach-graff-diamond-be-displayed-at-national-museum-natural-history
-Diamonds Hold Allure as Gem of an Investment. Despite the financial meltdown, luxury assets such as wine and art are drawing strong interest from rich buyers, some looking at the goods as investments. Now, promoters of diamonds are hoping to add the precious stones to the investment mix.
The ‘Vivid Pink’ sold in Hong Kong for $10.8 million. Record sales at recent auctions, set by Asian bidders, is spurring talk of a surge in high-end diamond demand. Several investment funds focusing solely on diamonds have launched or are in the works and are hoping to take advantage.
Asian bidders, especially from mainland China, represent a growing presence at auctions, says Patti Wong, chairwoman of Sotheby’s Asia. At a Sotheby’s auction in New York City earlier this month, five of the top 10 buyers were Asian.
The most expensive item a 30.48 carat oval diamond went to a buyer from mainland China for approximately $4.11 million. At a Christie’s auction in Hong Kong this month, a colored diamond, called “The Vivid Pink,” sold for $10.8 million, setting a record for a gemstone of its kind.
It’s unclear if the buyers were after the rocks for investment purposes or simply to enjoy. But proponents are hoping to turn diamonds traditionally seen as ornaments into wealth-accumulating vehicles. Read more here-http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126099490068094349.html
-A rare five-carat “vivid pink” diamond ring broke the world record at Christie’s jewelry auction in Hong Kong, selling for $10.8 million dollars at $2 million a carat. Watch video here-
http://uk.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=8130629
-“The diamond market continues to show remarkable strength despite the volatility of the financial world.” Rahul Kadakia, head of jewelry at Christie’s New York-Read more here-
http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullNews.asp?id=33338
-Diamonds shine for 2010. Diamond prices could go up in the next few months as miners search for new sources of the gems and investors snatch them up to hedge their portfolios. Read more here-
http://www.torontosun.com/money/2009/12/12/12130111-sun.html
-Diamonds: Not Only A Girl’s Best Friend. Given the turbulence on global financial markets and the underlying cautious consumer sentiment, diamonds are becoming much more than a girl’s best friend.
By fusing the emotional aspect of diamond purchasing with the rational element of investing money in a valuable and steady tangible asset, the ingredients exist for the creation of a very powerful marketing message and the emergence of an exciting alternative ‘passion investment’. Read more here-http://www.commodityonline.com/news/Diamonds-Not-Only-A-Girl%E2%80%99s-Best-Friend-23723-3-1.html
-Australia’s 1Q Diamond Production -49%. Australia’s diamond production fell 49 percent to 2.449 million carats during its first fiscal quarter ending September 30, 2009, according to Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE). Output more than quadrupled from the previous quarter after the Argyle mine was closed for maintenance during the three months ending June 30.
Australia exported all its production from the September quarter, down 65 percent from one year earlier to $53.8 million (AUD 59 million) at $21.9 per carat (AUD 24 per carat). The country’s rough diamond imports by volume fell 7.5 percent to 111,000 carats with values down 4 percent to $100.3 million (AUD 110 million). The bulk of Australia’s diamond production is mined at the Argyle mine, owned by Rio Tinto. Read more here-http://www.diamonds.net/news/NewsItem.aspx?ArticleID=29008 or http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullNews.asp?id=33342
AUSTRIA NATIONALIZES BANK
-ECB orders Austria to nationalise Hypo bank, fearing domino crisis. Austria has nationalised the Carinthian lender Hypo Group after it ran into trouble on hidden losses in Eastern Europe, offering a stark reminder that Europe’s banks are not yet out of the woods.
Finance minister Josef Pröll said the government had been forced by fast-moving events to take a 100pc stake in the bank, Austria’s sixth biggest lender with assets of €42bn (£38bn). “The risk situation of this bank has created an enormous threat to Austria, to its future as a financial centre, and to the whole economic region in recent days and weeks,” he said, speaking after a 14-hour emergency session overnight on Sunday.
Chancellor Werner Faymann sought to calm the fury of Austrian citizens and opposition leaders, saying there would have been “catastrophic consequences” if the bank had been allowed to fail. Read more here-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/6812031/ECB-orders-Austria-to-nationalise-Hypo-bank-fearing-domino-crisis.html
U.S.-GLOBAL DEBT CRISIS
-Moody’s warns of ’social unrest’ as sovereign debt spirals. Britain and other countries with fast-rising government debts must steel themselves for a year in which “social and political cohesiveness” is tested, Moody’s warned. Read more here-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/6819470/Moodys-warns-of-social-unrest-as-sovereign-debt-spirals.html
-House Votes to Raise U.S. Debt Limit to Almost $12.4 Trillion. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=aE0KALGgkwJE&pos;=8
or http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/16/news/economy/debt_ceiling_increase_house_vote/index.htm
-US needs plan to tame debt soon, experts say. The U.S. government must craft a plan next year to get its ballooning debt under control or face possible panic in financial markets, a bipartisan panel of budget experts said in a report on Monday.
Though the government should hold off on immediate tax hikes and spending cuts to avoid harming the fragile economic recovery, it will need to make such painful changes by 2012 in order to keep debt at a manageable 60 percent of GDP by 2018, according to the Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform.
Without action, investors could lose confidence in the United States, driving down the dollar and forcing up interest rates, said the former lawmakers and budget officials who crafted the report. That could cause a sharp decrease in the country’s standard of living. Read more here-http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1419042320091214?type=marketsNews
-Greenspan warns of threat from record deficit. Read more here-http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091217/bs_nm/us_usa_deficit_greenspan
-Federal budget deficit for November hits $120.3B. Read more here-http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iWWPT8cAUpUCsmOZoABze-6XhwTAD9CGLVP00
-America’s debt burden starts to shrink. Read more here-http://blogs.reuters.com/rolfe-winkler/2009/12/14/americas-debt-burden-starts-to-shrink/
DRUG MONEY SAVED BANKS IN GLOBAL CRISIS
-Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor. Drugs and crime chief says $352bn in criminal proceeds was effectively laundered by financial institutions. Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations’ drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer.
Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were “the only liquid investment capital” available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result.
This will raise questions about crime’s influence on the economic system at times of crisis. It will also prompt further examination of the banking sector as world leaders, including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, call for new International Monetary Fund regulations. Speaking from his office in Vienna, Costa said evidence that illegal money was being absorbed into the financial system was first drawn to his attention by intelligence agencies and prosecutors around 18 months ago.
“In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system’s main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor,” he said. Some of the evidence put before his office indicated that gang money was used to save some banks from collapse when lending seized up, he said. Read more here-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009/dec/13/drug-money-banks-saved-un-cfief-claims
U.S. FORGOES BILLIONS IN TAX ON CITI
-The U.S. government “quietly” agreed not to collect billions of dollars in potential taxes from Citigroup Inc as part of its deal to allow the bank to repay its taxpayer bailout, The Washington Post reported. The Internal Revenue Service issued a notice on Friday that extends the benefit to Citi and other companies in which the government owns a stake, the Post reported.
The Washington Post said the precise value of the IRS ruling depends on Citigroup’s future profitability and other factors, but the newspaper cited two accounting experts as estimating Citi would save at least several billion dollars. Read more here-http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BF0G820091216
or http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/15/AR2009121504534_pf.html
JIM ROGERS-WHAT RECOVERY?-LONG TERM PROBLEMS FOR U.S. ECONOMY
-”It’s getting worse, not better.” That’s how Jim Rogers responds to the recent talk of improvement from President Obama, Treasury Secretary Geithner and Fed Chairman Bernanke, among others.
“Papering over the problem is not going to solve America’s problem,” Rogers says. “The idea you can solve a problem of too much debt and too much consumption with more consumption and more debt defies belief. I cannot believe that grownups would stand there and say that.”
History shows the only way to solve a financial crisis is “when people go bankrupt, you let them go bankrupt,” Rogers say. “Then, competent people come in, take over the assets, reorganize and you start over.” But rather than “take the pain and reorganize and start over,” as Sweden, South Korea and others have done, Rogers says America is “doing the Japanese model.”
Keeping zombie banks alive and bailing out their creditors will only prolong the pain, the famed financier predicts. “What has been happening is the government has been printing and spending a lot of money,” he says. “The problem is not solved they’re making the problem worse.”
Adding insult to injury, Rogers fears the “unintended consequences” of new regulations that inevitably come from politicians seeking someone to blame for the crisis. “The problems in last two years came from industries that are heavily regulated: banking, insurance, mortgage,” he notes. “Now what? You’re going to make the regulations tougher? It’s not the regulations, it’s the regulators.” Read more here-http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/388223/What-Recovery-America%27s-Problems
-Harvard’s Feldstein Says U.S. Economy Still Mired in Recession. The U.S. economy remains mired in a recession, prospects for next year are weak and home prices may resume declines, Harvard University economics professor Martin Feldstein said. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=aoBDcTKNS.oo&pos;=6
-Volcker Says ‘Basic Structure’ of Economy to Impede U.S. Growth. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker said imbalances in the structure of the U.S. economy pose a bigger challenge than the financial crisis and will impede economic growth for some time.
“We have another economic problem which is mixed up in this of too much consumption, too much spending relative to our capacity to invest and to export,” Volcker, an adviser to President Barack Obama, said today in Berlin. “It’s involved with the financial crisis but in a way it’s more difficult than the financial crisis because it reflects the basic structure of the economy.”
“It’s likely that economic growth is going to be pretty sluggish for a while,” Volcker said in a Bloomberg Television interview. Read more here-
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=aL6KzrXJh418&pos;=5
-Eurosclerosis Is U.S. Diagnosis Not Japan Stagnation. The U.S. may have avoided the Japanese disease of prolonged stagnation only to end up with a dose of eurosclerosis: chronically high unemployment in a growing economy.
Economists are starting to extend their forecasts through 2011 and the results don’t look pretty. Jan Hatzius, chief U.S. economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in New York, forecasts that the jobless rate will rise to 10.75 percent by the middle of 2011 from 10 percent now.
Even optimists such as Bruce Kasman, chief economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, see unemployment remaining well above the 20-year average of 5.6 percent. Kasman, projects the unemployment rate will average 9.9 percent in 2010 and 9.3 percent in 2011.
“We had been worried about turning into Japan,” says David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor’s Corp. in New York. “But it may be more likely that we end up with sclerosis.” Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid;=agjD4W3DdFps
U.S. DOLLAR-FOREIGN CURRENCY
-Chinese central banker says dollar must weaken. Chinese central banker Zhu Min said that the dollar is set to weaken further and it will become more difficult for nations to buy U.S. Treasuries.
“When the U.S. has to fund its deficit through the combination of issuing more Treasuries and printing more dollars, it is inevitable that the dollar will continue to weaken,” Deputy Governor Zhu said at a forum in Beijing today. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8155
-Gulf petro-powers to launch currency in latest threat to dollar hegemony. The Arab states of the Gulf region have agreed to launch a single currency modelled on the euro, hoping to blaze a trail towards a pan-Arab monetary union swelling to the ancient borders of the Ummayad Caliphate. “The Gulf monetary union pact has come into effect,” said Kuwait’s finance minister, Mustafa al-Shamali, speaking at a Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) summit in Kuwait.
The move will give the hyper-rich club of oil exporters a petro-currency of their own, greatly increasing their influence in the global exchange and capital markets and potentially displacing the US dollar as the pricing currency for oil contracts. Between them they amount to regional superpower with a GDP of $1.2 trillion (£739bn), some 40pc of the world’s proven oil reserves, and financial clout equal to that of China.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar are to launch the first phase next year, creating a Gulf Monetary Council that will evolve quickly into a full-fledged central bank. The Emirates are staying out for now irked that the bank will be located in Riyadh at the insistence of Saudi King Abdullah rather than in Abu Dhabi. They are expected join later, along with Oman. Read more here-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/6819136/Gulf-petro-powers-to-launch-currency-in-latest-threat-to-dollar-hegemony.html
-A Global Currency Coming Faster Than You Think. Watch here-http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=8929
DOLLAR CRISIS WILL BRING MORE STIMULUS
-It was fitting that Richard Duncan sequestered himself in Bangkok to write his latest book “The Corruption of Capitalism,” a post-mortem of the credit bubble that crippled the world’s financial system. Duncan learned first hand from working in Thailand for most of the 1990s in the run-up to the Asian financial crisis that rapid credit growth causes excess capacity and leads to busts.
Then governments have to finance rescue plans very similar to what is now taking place around the world. After predicting in his 2003 book “The Dollar Crisis” that the U.S. property bubble would trigger a global recession, Duncan’s new book argues that governments will have to keep stimulating their economies because U.S. demand for cheap goods will not return to the halcyon days of the 2003 to 2007 boom.
Talk of an exit from the easy money policies in 2010 is entirely premature since investors will most likely see more U.S. stimulus spending next year to prop up demand. “This current round of stimulus will begin to wear out and everything will start to weaken again, and that will require another round of stimulus, not just from the U.S. but from China as well,” Duncan told Reuters. “If this stimulus is delayed or withdrawn, we will get significant drops in asset prices and go back into recession.”
Duncan is part of a group of economists like Marc Faber, Nouriel Roubini and James Grant, who believe the financial crisis is a symptom of something structurally wrong with the United States economy that will not be solved by the end of recession.
The institution of capitalism has been so corrupted by binges of borrowing financed with money printed on demand that governments now indefinitely have to take the reins of economies, Duncan argues in his book. “We can’t describe this economic system as capitalism, I describe it as statism,” he said. Read more here-http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BF14420091216
INTEREST RATES
-Fed Keeps ‘Extended Period’ Pledge, Sees Rebound. The Federal Reserve repeated its pledge to keep interest rates “exceptionally low” for “an extended period” and said the economy is strengthening. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=a.G_8imggW6k&pos;=1 or http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/16/news/economy/fed_decision/index.htm
-Fed May Hesitate to Tighten in 2010 as Congress Debates Powers. Proposals in Congress to trim the Federal Reserve’s powers and subject it to greater scrutiny mean Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may have to think twice about raising rates in 2010 as long as unemployment stays high. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20603037&sid;=a_.PPhXquoVI
FOOD INFLATION-HYPERINFLATION
-Dairy, Meat Prices Will Spur Food Inflation, Wells Fargo Says. Rising milk, beef, pork and chicken prices will double the pace of U.S. food inflation next year as livestock supplies shrink and rebounding economies boost demand, said Michael Swanson, a senior economist at Wells Fargo & Co.
Food prices may jump as much as 6 percent in 2010, Swanson said. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Nov. 25 forecast 3 percent to 4 percent food inflation next year, up from an estimated 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent in 2009.
Producers of cattle, hogs, dairy cows and poultry cut output after a jump in feed costs last year, reducing supplies as demand for meat is rising at home and abroad, Swanson said. Corn, the main source of animal feed, will rally next year because of record demand for grain to make ethanol, he said.
“Protein inflation is going to be much higher than people are anticipating,” Swanson said Dec. 9 in an interview from Minneapolis. “Corn is a proxy for feed costs, and right now the value of all meat and dairy output is below the price of feed on a long-term relative basis.” Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid;=aubdC_KeCOvM
-Fastest Food Inflation Since Riots Means Milk Up 39%. Falling production in commodities from rice to milk is bad news for just about everyone except investors. Rice may surge 63 percent to $1,038 a metric ton from $638 on Philippine imports and a shortage in India, a Bloomberg survey of importers, exporters and analysts showed.
The U.S. government says nonfat dry milk may jump 39 percent next year, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. forecasts a 25 percent gain for sugar. Global food costs jumped 7 percent in November, the most since February 2008, four months before reaching a record, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
Farm prices this year lagged behind copper futures that doubled and oil’s 57 percent increase. A recovery from the worst recession since World War II would spur food demand and boost costs for buyers of commodities including milk processor Dean Foods Co. while increasing the number of hungry people that the UN says now exceeds 1 billion. Read more here-
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid;=aBYSp0.XfXZs
-Shadowstats’ John Williams: Prepare For The Hyperinflationary Great Depression. Read more here-http://www.zerohedge.com/article/shadowstats-john-williams-prepare-hyperinflationary-great-depression
REAL ESTATE
-Lockhart Says Housing May Take ‘Another Leg Down’. James B. Lockhart III, vice chairman of WL Ross & Co. and the former director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said the U.S. housing decline may not be over.
Lockhart said at a conference in New York that he’s concerned there may be “another leg down” because of the pace of foreclosures. Foreclosures will “spike” unless the Obama administration’s programs to spur home loan modifications do more to reduce homeowners’ debts, he said.
“We need to be more aggressive in writing down mortgages and reducing principal to keep people in homes,” he said. “A spike could be pretty big.” Lockhart also said he expects that “hundreds of banks will be taken over.” The possibility comes from troubles in commercial real estate, which lags behind housing in finding a market bottom, he said. “We are overbuilt in many areas,” he said. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid;=ay2B7GJ6UuUE
-Is the Canadian Housing Market in a Bubble? At a time when personal income is down around 1% over the past year, we have seen nationwide average home prices soar over 20% and last month hit a record high; as did home sales. In real terms, home price appreciation is back to where it was in 1989. Of course, back then, interest rates were far higher but then again, the economy was in the late stages of a phenomenal multi-year economic expansion, not making a transition from deep recession to nascent recovery.
We are in no position to make a claim that there is a high degree of speculation in residential real estate as there was during the “flipping” mania of the late 1980s. Be that as it may, housing has become a very crowded asset class in Canada, as measured by the homeownership rate, which at last count was estimated at 68.4% which is not only a full percentage point higher than the current U.S. ratio but is the highest it has been on this side of the border in nearly four decades.
In answer to the question as to whether prices are in a bubble, all we will say is that when we ran some charts showing Canadian home prices normalized by personal income or by residential rent, what we found is that housing values are anywhere between 15% and 35% above levels we would label as being consistent with the fundamentals.
If being 15% to 35% overvalued isn’t a bubble, then it’s the next closest thing. We are talking about 2-3 standard deviation events here in terms of the parabolic move in Canadian home prices from their lows. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff
-Mortgage delinquencies rose to a new record in November and could remain high in December as Americans set aside more money for holiday expenses, Equifax Inc data show. Among U.S. homeowners with mortgages, 7.91 percent were at least 30 days late on payments in November, up from 7.76 percent in October, according to the monthly data the credit bureau provided exclusively to Reuters on Wednesday.
Delinquencies are an indication of future consumer bankruptcy filings, according to Equifax. “(Consumers) spend a lot more during November and December and they get behind and can’t get to their payments,” said Myra Hart, senior vice president of Analytical Services at Equifax.
No real improvement is possible until unemployment levels come down, she said in an interview. “We are about at the peak in terms of delinquencies,” Hart said. “Things probably won’t improve dramatically until jobs begin to be added. Delinquencies will stay at this level and may improve by small levels but we won’t see any real improvement till 2011.” Read more here-
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BF54420091216
-Shadow Inventory’ of U.S. Homes Climbs, Report Says. The number of homes that may be in the pipeline for a sale because of foreclosure and delinquency climbed about 55 percent to 1.7 million at the end of September, according to estimates by First American CoreLogic.
The “shadow inventory” rose from 1.1 million a year earlier. Such properties include those taken over by banks and mortgage companies and those where the loans are at least 90 days delinquent, the Santa Ana, California-based research firm said in a report today. The number of unsold homes listed for sale was 3.8 million in September, down from 4.7 million a year earlier, First American said. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=auKSnUtGaDC4&pos;=7
-Luxury Homeowners in U.S. Use ‘Short Sales’ as Defaults Rise. Homeowners with mortgages of more than $1 million are defaulting at almost twice the U.S. rate and some are turning to so-called short sales to unload properties as stock-market losses and pay cuts squeeze wealthy borrowers.
“The rich aren’t as rich as they used to be,” said Alex Rodriguez, a Miami real estate agent with JM Group USA Inc., whose listings include a $2.9 million property marketed as a short sale because the price is less than the mortgage, leaving the bank with a loss. “People have reached the point where they can’t afford the carrying expenses of a $2 million home.”
Payments on about 12 percent of mortgages exceeding $1 million were 90 days or more overdue in September, compared with 6.3 percent on loans less than $250,000 and 7.4 percent on all U.S. mortgages, according to data from First American CoreLogic Inc., a Santa Ana, California-based research firm. The rate for mortgages above $1 million was 4.7 percent a year earlier.
As defaults on the biggest mortgages rise, borrowers such as Steve Holzknecht are turning to short sales to exit loans that now are larger than the market value of the house. In such a transaction, the lender agrees to accept less than a 100 percent payoff on a mortgage to expedite the property’s sale. Read more here-
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20603037&sid;=aQED_96QBBkk
-4 Big Mortgage Backers Swim in Ocean of Debt. Even as the biggest banks repay their government debt in what is being heralded as a successful rescue program, four troubled giants of the financial world remain on government life support.
These companies, the American International Group, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and GMAC, are not only unable to repay the government, they are in need of continuing infusions that make them look increasingly like long-term wards of the state.
And the total risk they pose to the taxpayer far exceeds that of the big banks. Fannie and Freddie, in the final days of the year, are even said to be negotiating with the Treasury about greatly expanding the money available to them. Read more here-http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/business/17wards.html?_r=1&partner;=rss&emc;=rss
-U.K. Property Gains to Stall in 2010, Rightmove Says. The U.K. housing market recovery will peter out in 2010 as the supply of homes increases because of forced sales, Rightmove Plc said.
Average asking prices will stagnate next year after rising about 2 percent in 2009, the operator of the U.K.’s biggest property Web site said in a statement today.
Prices fell 2.2 percent this month to an average of 221,463 pounds ($359,600), and may drop again next month, the group said. Banks may show “less forbearance” to consumers who are late on mortgage payments after the general election, which Prime Minister Gordon Brown must call by June 2010, Rightmove said.
A shortage of properties available helped stoke prices this year and erased some losses in values caused during the slump, which shaved as much as 12% off asking prices. Read more here-
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid;=a28echQXD9CM
FLU PANDEMIC
-Too Soon to Say H1N1 Pandemic Over, WHO’s Fukuda Says. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=a6DOXn8l1oxM
-Sanofi Recalls 800,000 Swine Flu Shots on Potency. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=azlsIBRuqG0Q
-Swine Flu May Mean Seasonal Strain Won’t Emerge in U.S. Winter. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=azdXB_63sShc&pos;=8
GEOPOLITICAL NEWS
-Iran tests upgraded long-range missile. Read more here-http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/12/16/iran.missile/index.html or http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091216/D9CKDCJ80.html
-Iran Missile Test May Increase Sanctions, Brown Says. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid;=aUyv1dDWALfY
-Iran’s Missile Test Undermines Peaceful Claims, Obama Aide Says. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid;=ayzz9AzLmC7I
-Secret document exposes Iran’s nuclear trigger. Confidential intelligence documents obtained by The Times show that Iran is working on testing a key final component of a nuclear bomb. The notes, from Iran’s most sensitive military nuclear project, describe a four-year plan to test a neutron initiator, the component of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion.
Foreign intelligence agencies date them to early 2007, four years after Iran was thought to have suspended its weapons programme. Read more here-
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6955351.ece
-US to drill Iranian attack scenario. Read more here-http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1260447443823&pagename;=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
-A year on, Iran, North Korea threats worsen. Analysis: Both countries press ahead with nuke programs despite sanctions. Read more here-
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34404196/ns/world_news
© 2012, Worldwide Precious Metals Canada Ltd.
www.wwpmc.com
The Goldbugg Report – December 22, 2009
Posted by Worldwide Precious Metals on Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Subscribe to
receive timely
information on
precious metals.
a
Fill Prices may vary based on actual time orders are placed and confirmed. All orders are Final and Subject to Terms and Conditions of the Customer's Account Agreement with Precious Metals International, Ltd. All Fabricated Products for Home Delivery are quoted, basis specific product, quantity and delivery destination at Time Orders are placed and confirmed. Retail Dealer Prices may vary.