Newsroom

The Goldbugg Report – March 30, 2010

March 30, 2010

Post CFTC Hearing interview with GATA’s Whistle Blower: http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast/Entries/2010/3/30_Andrew_Maguire_%26_Adrian_Douglass.html

-Why Silver Will Keep Shining.

-Adrian Ash: The Case for Silver.

GOLD

-Five reasons Jeff Nichols thinks gold is a steal. Despite reports to the contrary, Jeff Nichols maintains a bullish view of gold and believes it will again hit its record high of $1,227 by mid-year and, $1,500 by year-end

This is the view of Jeffrey Nichols, Senior Economic Advisor to Rosland Capital and Managing Director of American Precious Metals Advisors. In a recent report, Nichols states that while this view remains intact he does expect “continued volatility with big swings in both directions around an upward trend this year and beyond”

Part of the reason for this belief he says is that “we think the best of the economic news is now behind us, certainly with regard to U.S. inflation rates, consumer spending, and industrial production, is now behind us and that indicators in March, April, and May will begin painting a gloomier picture of the economy. But, the five main reasons for likelihood that gold will continue its upward trend are:

Inflationary U.S. monetary and fiscal policies-According to Nichols, “the single-most important factor promising higher U.S. dollar-denominated gold prices are inflationary U.S. monetary and fiscal policies”. These he says will be characterized by an unprecedented provision of liquidity into the financial system, an extended period of super-low interest rates, huge Federal budget deficits and accumulated debt in both absolute terms and as a percentage of GDP, and “a dysfunctional government that remains incapable of dealing effectively with these immense issues”.

An inherently unstable European currency-Nichols says divergent fiscal policies across the continent threaten the future of the euro and the European Union as it now exists. “Gold’s recent rally to record highs in euro and sterling is a sign of the metal’s broadening appeal to European investors in the face of European sovereign debt fears. Some investors selling the euro have chosen gold in addition to or in place of the greenback as an alternative,” he says.

Expanding investor interest in gold-Nichols says that more people and institutions globally are looking ever more closely at gold as an investment option. And, the variety of new investment channels, such as ETFs make this process significantly easier than in previous eras.

Rising central bank and sovereign accumulation-As a fourth reason, Nichols points to the shift in attitude of central banks towards gold, which is now become a significant net buyer of gold after “two decades in which central banks as a group sold on average some 400 tons a year”.

Declining world gold-mine production-”Even in the face of sharply rising prices,” Nichols says, “global gold-mine will continue falling for at least another few years as existing mines are depleted, ore grades drop, operating depths fall, and the costs of developing new mines rise. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=101189&sn;=Detail&pid;=1

-Hold gold because the next crisis is brewing. Investors should continue to hold gold because it will take a crisis of considerable magnitude before the UK government is forced on to the path of fiscal sustainability, warns SocGen analyst Dylan Grice. He says the outlook will continue to look favourable for the precious metal while concerns about the long-term solvency of developed market governments remain.

Previous periods of uncontrolled inflation, from ancient Rome, through revolutionary France, the US and Weimar Germany, have all been caused by overleveraged governments resorting to printing money as a get-out clause to avoid an explicit default.

‘It’s all very well for economists to point out that the cure for runaway inflation is simply a contraction of the money supply,’ Grice says. ‘It’s just that when you look at inflationary episodes you find that such monetary contractions haven’t been politically viable courses of action.’

As an example, Grice points to the Reichsbank president Rudolf von Havenstein in 1930s Germany. Although knowing the risks of printing more money, he was more fearful of the social consequences that rising would result from unemployment and falling output.

‘The agonising dilemma he faced, identical in principle if not in magnitude to that faced by policy-makers today, is as old as money itself,’ Grice adds. Today, the UK government would have cut spending by close to 11% a year to bring its debt ratios down to 2007 levels and by almost 6% over 10 years.

‘Governments aren’t ready to take that step at the moment. Indeed, the pressing fear among policy-makers today remains that stimulus might be removed too soon,’ he says. ‘But they will face up to these problems one day, because they must.’ Read more here-http://www.citywire.co.uk/personal/-/news/money-property-and-tax/content.aspx?ID=389674

-Gold’s current consolidation phase to continue as the market looks for new direction. Investors like China and Japan continue to switch out of dollars and into gold. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=101262&sn;=Detail&pid;=33

-Clive Maund gold market update. Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/CliveMaund/1269200178.php

-Dennis Gartman: Don’t Fight the Trend on Gold. Read and watch more here-http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/story/10706318/1/dennis-gartman-dont-fight-the-trend-on-gold.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm;_cat=FREE&cm;_ite=NA

-Are we still on the road to $5,000 gold? Dr. Marc Faber recently suggested that $1,000 gold might be seen as similar for investors to the Dow crossing 1,000 in 1982. Bring on the 1.3 billion potential Chinese gold bugs. China’s gold reserves amount to 1,054 tons, ranking fifth in the world. China is the largest gold producer in the world, with more than 300 tons of gold produced annually, all of it consumed locally.

China consumes over 400 tons of gold a year, second only to India. And there are more than 3,000 tons of gold in private hands in China. Indeed it was only at the start of last year that China suddenly announced to the IMF that it had doubled its official gold reserves to 1,054 tons from 2003. Nobody knew anything about it before then.

China has clearly been increasing its official gold reserves steadily for a decade and has benefited from the quadrupling of gold prices over that period. But never mind the central bank, surely the surging private gold and silver holdings are the thing to watch.

When 1.3 billion Chinese become gold bugs then $5,000 an ounce gold will be seen as far too conservative and $200 silver will also be history. In the meantime how will you be saving to beat inflation and low interest rates? Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/PeterCooper/1268978700.php

-King World News interview with John Hathaway portfolio manager of the Tocqueville Gold Fund. John believes that gold’s run is no more than half over and he expects a major upward revaluation of gold as investors realize that currencies and government bonds offer only devaluation. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/8445

-Is It Better To Buy Gold Bullion Or Gold Shares? Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/GoldForecaster/1269219600.php

-Asian buyers to support gold price as balance of power shifts. While it is likely to be rather becalmed in the short term, gold is in for significant changes in the longer term as the West begins to live more within its means and the East starts spending a little. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=101473&sn;=Detail&pid;=1

-Explain why you sold Britain’s gold, Gordon Brown told. Gordon Brown has been ordered to release information before the general election about his controversial decision to sell Britain’s gold reserves. Read more here-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/gold/7511589/Explain-why-you-sold-Britains-gold-Gordon-Brown-told.html

-Gold ‘Panic’ Buying Ends, Reducing Austrian Coin Sales by 80%. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601012&sid;=alkB2RgF2eCI

-Metals trade limits would hurt U.S., financial execs say. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8464 and http://www.gata.org/node/8463

-Zero Hedge throws itself into the fight against gold price suppression. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8460

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

-Why Silver Will Keep Shining. Silver a star performer over the past several weeks, still has plenty of room to shine. Analysts say demand for silver should remain strong as a result of both investment interest and increased use in electronics and other products as the economy recovers.

“Silver benefits from a split personality,” says Bart Melek, commodity strategist with BMO Capital Markets. “One is gold-like, and another is it is very much an industrial metal.” As with gold, investors often snap up silver as a safe haven at times of dollar weakness, financial-market uncertainty, inflation or geopolitical tensions.

“Silver is poor man’s gold, and people have been buying silver coins,” says Frank Holmes, CEO and chief investment officer with U.S. Global Investors, which manages a number of mutual funds, including the Gold and Precious Metals Fund. With gold more than $1,100 an ounce, a single coin of gold can buy dozens of silver coins. Melek says some 54% of silver’s demand is industrial.

This part of the market was hurt by the economic slowdown in 2008 and 2009. “Once the global economy starts recovering, and we are seeing good evidence of that, we are going to get a big rebound in industrial demand for silver,” Melek says. Melek looks for silver industrial demand, excluding photography, to rise 19% this year after a 17% drop last year.

CPM Group’s comparable estimate is for a 5.8% rise this year. Silver is used to conduct electricity in products such as laptop computers and cellphones, since it takes up less room and needs less cooling than other metals. It also has health-care uses because of antibacterial qualities.

Silver jewelry demand may pick up as discretionary income improves with the economy, especially if consumers view it as more affordable than gold, Melek says. Parikh looks for silver to average $17.24 this year, up 17.4% from 2009. It could peak in the $19 to $20 area, he says. Melek calls for silver to average $20 in 2010 and 2011, with it likely to outperform gold. Read more here-

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB126843798928661257.html

-Waiting for silver’s big break. Patience and bravery are key to reaping the metal’s rewards. When it comes to silver, patience is golden or so some analysts hope. Not too long ago, analysts were cheering the metal’s prospects in the face of a recovering global economy and strong prices for gold, but the metal has so far failed to perform as well as many expected.

Silver “has the most potential of the metals and will outperform gold but it will take time,” said Julian Phillips, an editor at SilverForecaster.com. Analysts remain upbeat about the longer-term potential, but warn that the short-term journey will continue to be rough.

“Silver, like all investments, will reward those who are patient and who have a long-term view,” said Mark O’Byrne, a director at GoldCore, an international bullion dealer. That patience has already been sorely tested.

Late last year, analysts were touting the metal’s promise as a much cheaper investment alternative to gold that was poised to see higher industrial demand. Some even predicted a price climb above $20 an ounce by the end of 2009, but instead, prices dipped below $15 in February. See previous Commodities Corner on poor man’s gold.

“The overall demand for silver is down compared to gold,” said David Beahm, a vice president at precious metals retailer Blanchard & Co. “Since silver’s price is driven much more strongly by global industrial demand rather than investor demand, it has underperformed as compared to gold.”

The bigger picture shows that silver’s up over 133% in the last five years smaller than gold’s more than 155% climb, according to data from GoldCore. Silver has “underperformed significantly over the long term,” said O’Byrne. But “this under performance will be rectified in the coming months and silver will also reach the record highs that gold has reached.”

In the meantime, silver’s short-term performance hasn’t been too shabby. O’Byrne pointed out that in the past year, silver prices have climbed more than 31%, much larger than gold’s more than 19% rise, and while gold prices fell almost 1% in the past month, the price of silver rose 1.7%.

“The fundamentals for silver are better than gold but the ‘dips’ for silver prices could be frighteningly fast and large still,” Julian Phillips and Peter Spina, editors at SilverForecaster.com, said in a recent report. On the other hand, “silver will outrun gold on the rise,” and potentially offer a considerably larger profit.

“This metal is for the brave, for sure,” they said, noting that now’s the time for “‘buying the dips’ and cautiously watching for the right opportunity.” Mark O’Byrne says silver is “one of the most undervalued commodities and assets in the world and merits a small allocation by nearly all investors,” he said.

And given that the metal is “notoriously difficult to speculate in and make money trading in it should be personally owned or stored with a secure counter party. Read more here-http://www.marketwatch.com/story/story/print?guid=904816AE-6A1E-4E5A-8A06-0392BAF9C4CF

-Adrian Ash: The Case for Silver. Read more here-http://news.silverseek.com/SilverSeek/1269469187.php

-Morgan not aggressively adding to shorts, Butler tells King World News. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/8444

-Clive Maund silver market update. Read more here-http://news.silverseek.com/CliveMaund/1269199764.php

-BMO forecasts gold, silver, and PGMs to do ‘very well’ next few years. BMO Global Commodity Strategist Bark Melek says global growth is reigniting industrial metals, as silver and PGMs are expected to outperform firm and stable gold. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page34?oid=101098&sn;=Detail&pid;=34

-Jeff Nielson: Precious metals and rigged markets. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8447

-Having your gold, and drinking it too! A Mexican distillery is counting on the beauty and digestibility of gold and silver to drive sales for a special edition of tequila. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page34?oid=101260&sn;=Detail&pid;=34

CHARTS OF THE WEEK-QUOTES-QUICK HITS

-Chart of the day: See Where The V-Shaped Recovery Has Already Died. In February 2010, total U.S. industrial production rose +1.7% year over year according to the Federal Reserve. While there was continued expansion, production growth fell from Q4 2009’s +6.6% rate and Q3 2009’s +6.4% growth. Still, overall industrial production kept growing in February.

But diving into a breakdown of different products by market shows that some U.S. industries have already experienced sharp reversals of fortune. As shown below, U.S. industrial production contracted sharply in February (orange bars) for Home Electronics, Appliances & Furniture, Paper Products, and Industrial Business Equipment.

This came after strong growth in Q4 (blue bars). Thus for some the recovery already feels like it’s over. Read more here-http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-industrial-production–selected-industries-2010-3

Source: chartoftheday.com

-As Chart 1 illustrates, a record-low 6.2% of Americans buy into the recovery story and it looks as if this picture is already in the process of double-dipping. Rarely, if ever, has the perception gap between Wall Street and Main Street been so wide as it is today. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-Since hitting decade lows in early March of last year, the S&P; 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and NASDAQ have rebounded by an astonishing 73.6%, 66.3%, and 90.4%, respectively. And even though stocks are only back to the levels they were a little more than ten years ago, there’s evidence which suggests most of the stocks out there are fully (if not over) valued and returns from these stocks won’t justify the risks going forward in the short to medium-term.

The chart below could help make the case that U.S. markets have been overvalued since about 1995, when the market capitalization of the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ hit 90% of GDP, which is about 30 percentage points above the historical average of 62%. Read more here-http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/03/market-cap-of-nyse-nasdaq-as-a-gdp/

-“Sending lawyers to oversee capital markets professionals is like sending chickens to chase foxes.” Harry Markopolos-Bio here-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Markopolos

-If you’re holding paper currency, you have to have some kind of trust that the country that issued it is not just going to print its way out of its problems. That’s a real concern right now. Gold, on the other hand, has real intrinsic value, unlike a paper currency which can be debased by its government. Sacha Tihanyi, currency strategist, Scotia Capital

-I believe we will see gold hitting a minimum of $6,500 an ounce as the U.S. dollar collapses. I also believe that the silver/gold ratio will go back to its 15-to-1 (15 ounces of silver to buy 1 ounce of gold) benchmark. As this happens silver will be roughly $400 an ounce. ($6,500 /15 = $433.00). Greg McCoach-Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1269460713.php

-”The important thing to understand is we’re going through a phase in which people are gradually losing faith in conventional assets. Gold is not something to get rich quick on. The real story is that if you already have wealth and want to preserve it, then you should have a percentage in it. It’s an asset for the prudent and the paranoid.” Donald Coxe-Read more here-http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/MutualFunds/what-happened-to-2000-gold.aspx

-Gold is quietly, at the edge, becoming the world’s second reservable currency, supplanting the euro and rivaling the dollar. [This] trend shall continue months, if not years, into the future. – Dennis Gartman, The Gartman Letter, 18 March 2010

-Gold will trade at $1650 and above. About that I have no doubt. If you recall back at $529.40 my advice was to cease trading gold. It was at that point the price had entered into a runaway. That advice remains intact. Jim Sinclair

-There is no way the debt disaster is going away. There is no way that the US dollar is a store house of value. The US and Great Britain have the most serious debt problems and it is still growing. Gold will trade at $1650 and above.

According to Martin Armstrong the action of the gold price is a perfect setup cycle wise for a major April October rally. Seasonality does not now exist in gold, but it does exist in gold trader’s minds. Jim Sinclair

-If we hadn’t left the gold standard on 8/15/71 we wouldn’t be in the fix we are in today. We do not have that standard, but after all else has collapsed we will then again regain that standard. We no longer have free markets and continued injections of liquidity will not work, only purging the system will work and its time is fast drawing to such a conclusion. Bob Chapman-Read more here-

http://news.goldseek.com/InternationalForecaster/1269442800.php and http://news.goldseek.com/InternationalForecaster/1269187200.php

-Really big suckers can last for months and even years and gain 50 to 100+ per cent from the lows. It is usually during really big suckers that the pundits declare the bear is dead and that we have entered a new great bull market that will go on for many years. David Chapman-Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/UnionSecurities/1269545500.php

-First, we see from the latest Investors Intelligence poll that bullish sentiment is now running at 46.2% versus 21.3% for the bears. You don’t have to be a very big contrarian to be nervous about that ratio. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-The credit crunch continues unabated with the FDIC eating seven more failed banks last Friday, bringing the year-to-date tally to 37. Last year, 140 banks failed, so at the current pace, we are talking about at least 160.

And, some of the recent closures were biggies like Utah-based Advanta at $1.6 billion in total assets and $1.5 billion in total deposits; and Georgia-based Appalachian with $1 billion in total assets. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-Thank the lord for the investor class for it is the one helping underpin activity in the residential real estate market as the natural first-time homebuyer who needs a mortgage is all but dormant. According to the National Association of Realtors, more than one in four housing transactions is now all-cash deals.

From November to January, a separate survey found that the share of buyers who consider themselves “investors” jumped to 17% from 12%. What are they doing with these units? Renting them out. There is a literal glut of apartment units on the market and rents are a critical part of the deflation/disinflation pattern evident in the CPI. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-Americans know a thing or two about bubbles so when we see articles like this show up in the Saturday NYT, it likely pays to pay heed (Up North, Real Estate Is Booming, Seriously). Then, go have a read of the paper by Alexandre Pestov for the Schulich School of Business (The Elusive Canadian Housing Bubble February 2010) and draw your own conclusions.

The combination of extremely lax CMHC guidelines over the past three years coupled with ultra-low interest rates have triggered a housing mania in Canada that rivals what we saw state-side from 2003 to 2007.

Now the Bank of Canada is on the precipice of raising rates, and if the consensus and money markets are correct, then the wave of borrowers that opted for short-term mortgages are going to be paying the proverbial piper in coming quarters. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-As for U.S. home prices, we have a total of over 20 months’ supply of total housing inventory overhanging the residential real estate market when all the shadow inventory is accounted for; therefore, it is hard to believe that we have hit bottom in the home price deflation cycle.

And, the demand for homes, as we can see in the continued negative year-over-year readings in mortgage applications for new purchases and the receding new traffic index in the NAHB survey, is dormant at best. Meanwhile, a wave of new supply is coming from strategic defaults, which now account for 35% of all defaults according to research published by the University of Chicago. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the U.S. economy still needs low interest rates and that the central bank will be ready to tighten credit “at the appropriate time.” Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=atA4aK8D24_c&pos;=1

-The Fed’s New Vice Chairman Janet Yellen Implies No Fed Rate Hike Until 2013. Read more here-http://www.zerohedge.com/article/feds-new-vice-chairman-janet-yellen-implies-no-fed-rate-hike-until-2013 and http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid;=askizRCWdj2Q

-The Taylor Rule: A Tool for Predicting Fed Policy. Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1269024389.php

-Greenspan Says Fed, Regulators ‘Failed’ During Financial Crisis. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=aUMG21drp2fM&pos;=1

-Bill Gross, manager of the world’s biggest mutual fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., said bonds may have seen their best days and he’s making an argument for investors to own fewer. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20603037&sid;=aBgdtQr3KDNc

-David Tice Says Stock Market Decline Potential Is ‘Huge’. Watch video here-http://www.bloomberg.com/avp/avp.htm?N=adviser&T;=David%20Tice%20Says%20Stock%20Market%20Decline%20Potential%20Is%20%60Huge%27&clipSRC;=mms://media2.bloomberg.com/cache/v1Ntn_oRJubc.asf

-Rick Rule: Systemic Shock Will Kill Sucker Stock Rally. Read more here-http://www.theaureport.com/pub/na/5818

-Americans Say They Missed 73% Rise in S&P; 500 as Economy Surged. By an almost 2-to-1 margin Americans believe the economy has worsened rather than improved during the past year, according to a Bloomberg National Poll conducted March 19-22. Among those who own stocks, bonds or mutual funds, only three of 10 people say the value of their portfolio has risen since a year ago. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid;=aTp.Sf7cvYvU

-Martin Armstrong’s monthly financial commentary. Read more here-http://www.scribd.com/doc/28513873/Armstrong-From-the-Hole-3910-1-from-the-Hole

-James Turk: Don’t count on the U.S. consumer to bailout the economy by spending. Read more here-http://www.fgmr.com/do-not-count-on-the-consumer.html

-China’s yuan is destined to become a global reserve currency rivalling the dollar and the euro, as the nation’s economic power increases the currency’s allure, said Jim O’Neill, chief economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Read more here-http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-18/yuan-poised-to-become-reserve-currency-goldman-s-o-neill-says.html

-China warns US against sanctions over currency. Read more here-http://finance.yahoo.com/news/China-warns-US-against-apf-2448997968.html?x=0&sec;=topStories&pos;=7&asset;=&ccode;

-Obama Pays More Than Buffett as U.S. Risks AAA Rating. The bond market is saying that it’s safer to lend to Warren Buffett than Barack Obama. Two-year notes sold by the billionaire’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in February yield 3.5 basis points less than Treasuries of similar maturity, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=aYUeBnitz7nU

-Portugal’s Debt Rating Lowered by Fitch on Finances. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=azuaDHkQHKp8&pos;=3

-Quarter of adults out of work, official figures show. More than one in four adults in Britain are not working, after a record number left the workforce in recent months, official figures indicated. Read more here-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/7465199/Quarter-of-adults-out-of-work-official-figures-show.html

-Oil reserves ‘exaggerated by one third’. The world’s oil reserves have been exaggerated by up to a third, according to Sir David King, the Government’s former chief scientist, who has warned of shortages and price spikes within years. Read more here-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/7500669/Oil-reserves-exaggerated-by-one-third.html

-NY Fed illegally warehoused junk for Lehman, examiner finds. As Lehman Brothers careened toward bankruptcy in 2008, the New York Federal Reserve Bank came to its rescue, sopping up junk loans that the investment bank couldn’t sell in the market, according to a report from court-appointed examiner Anton R. Valukas.

The New York Fed, under the direction of now-Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, knowingly allowed itself to be used as a “warehouse” for junk loans, the report says, even though Fed guidelines say it can accept only investment grade bonds.

Meanwhile, the Fed and Geithner both strongly oppose a congressional measure to authorize an independent audit of the central bank and its lending facilities. The provision passed the House but is under attack in the Senate, where Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., says he hopes to stop it.

Without an audit, the Fed is able to conceal the specifics of what it holds on its balance sheet. If the Lehman deal is any indication, the Fed is hiding billions of dollars in toxic loans on its books. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8449

-In May 2008, former Lehman Senior Vice President Matthew Lee wrote a letter to senior management warning that the New York securities firm may have been masking the true risks on its balance sheet. A month later, he had been ousted.

His warning was revealed for the first time in a report by a U.S. bankruptcy-court examiner and showed that Lehman’s auditors knew of potential accounting irregularities and allegedly failed to raise the issue with Lehman’s board. Here is the letter that placed the little-known Lehman executive at the center of allegations that Lehman manipulated its numbers and misled investors. Read more here-http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2010/03/19/breaking-news-here-is-the-letter-at-the-center-of-the-lehman-report/

-Blank stares, disdain and tears. Harry Markopolos encountered all three during his nine-year struggle to convince the Securities and Exchange Commission that Bernard Madoff’s returns were mathematically impossible.

SEC officers didn’t grasp the numbers until the Ponzi scheme had swelled to $65 billion, as Markopolos shows in “No One Would Listen,” a disturbing firsthand account of his quest to expose one of the most powerful men on Wall Street.

Markopolos, a self-described “proud Greek geek,” is a former chief investment officer at Rampart Investment Management in Boston. His investigation began in 1999, when a colleague learned of Madoff’s investment returns and urged Markopolos to replicate his strategy, he writes. Markopolos soon concluded that the numbers didn’t add up, he writes. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid;=a9Aa_FFITv00

-Wall Street Despised in Poll Showing Majority Want Regulation. Most people interviewed in the Bloomberg National Poll say they don’t like Wall Street, banks or insurance companies and favor letting the government punish bankers who helped cause the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601010&sid;=a4nQoiYaj2ag

-Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday it had arrested 113 al Qaeda militants including suicide bombers who had been planning attacks on energy facilities in the world’s top oil exporter. Read more here-http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE62N1S1.htm

-Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden warned that more Americans would be killed if the self- proclaimed mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks is executed, according to an audio tape aired by al-Jazeera. “The day America will take such a decision it will have taken a decision to execute whomever we capture,” Bin Laden said on the audio tape.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four accused conspirators are to go on trial in the U.S. and the government intends to seek the death penalty. In the recording, the al-Qaeda leader also warned President Barack Obama of further attacks on U.S. soil if the Palestinian “situation” isn’t resolved. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=a0Mbk.qF3_UQ&pos;=8

WWW.RARECOLOREDDIAMONDS.COM

 

-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 and

http://www.b-tv.com/features/watch-now.html?id=326

-Sotheby’s Spring Sale Offers Superb Color Stones. Sotheby’s will hold an April sale of Magnificent Jewels and a single owner auction, “Always in Style: 150 Years of Artistic Jewels,” in New York on April 20, 2010.

A highlight of the colored diamonds on offer is provided by a rare fancy intense, pinkish-orange diamond ring set with a 7.67-carat, type IIa, cut-cornered rectangular modified, brilliant-cut stone that is the largest flawless or internally flawless diamond of this hue to be graded by the GIA to date. Its presales estimate ranges from $2.5 million to $3.5 million.

Another superb example is a magnificent, fancy vivid yellow diamond necklace (pictured), which features 42 GIA-certified, fancy vivid yellow diamonds weighing a total of 100.17 carats and set in a graduated riviere style. This necklace boasts a presale estimate of $2 million to $3 million and Sotheby’s has contended that it will be the first of its kind set entirely with fancy vivid yellow diamonds to appear in auction. Read more here-http://www.diamonds.net/news/NewsItem.aspx?ArticleID=30318

-The De Beers Millennium Blue Diamond, a magnificent 5.16-carat pear-shaped internally flawless fancy vivid blue diamond, will be a highlight at the upcoming Magnificent Jewels & Jadeite sale April 7 in Hong Kong. The high estimate of the rare blue diamond is $5.8 million, making it among the most expensive diamonds Sotheby’s has ever sold in Hong Kong. Read more here-http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullNews.asp?id=33852

-Christie’s New York will present two exceptional jewels the Emperor Maximilian Diamond and the Catherine the Great Emerald and Diamond Brooch to highlight the first major jewellery sale of the year on April 22, 2010. Both pieces have fascinating histories.

The Emperor Maximilian Diamond of 39.55 carats (estimate: $1 million to $1.5 million) is one of two large diamonds the Archduke Maximilian acquired in Brazil in 1860, in the years just before he was named Emperor of Mexico at Napoleon’s urging. In 1866, under pressure from the United States, Napoleon backed away from financial and military support for Maximilian, effectively abandoning him.

Soon thereafter, republican forces captured and court-marshalled the young emperor and sent him before the firing squad. Legend holds that Maximilian was wearing the Emperor Maximilian Diamond in a small satchel tied around his neck when he was executed.

The diamond was returned to his wife, Princess Charlotte of Belgium, who later sold the jewel. Its whereabouts remained unknown until 1919 when it was purchased by a Chicago gem dealer who kept the diamond until 1946.

The cushion-shaped diamond appeared at auction at Christie’s in July 1982, where it was purchased by London jeweller Laurence Graff after an intense round of bidding. The winning bid was $726,000 more than twice the estimated price of $330,000.

The following year, Graff sold the Emperor Maximilian Diamond together with two other important diamonds, to Madame Imelda Marcos, wife of the president of the Philippines. Subsequent private transactions followed, until it was acquired by the present owner. The upcoming auction marks the first public viewing of this historically significant diamond since 1982. Read more here-

http://www.diamonds.net/news/NewsItem.aspx?ArticleID=30243

REGULATORS SHUT 7 MORE BANKS IN FIVE STATES-37 CLOSED THIS YEAR

-Regulators on Friday shut down seven banks in five states, bringing to 37 the number of bank failures in the U.S. so far this year. The closings follow the 140 that succumbed in 2009 to mounting loan defaults and the recession.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over First Lowndes Bank, in Fort Deposit, Ala.; Appalachian Community Bank in Ellijay, Ga.; Bank of Hiawassee, in Hiawassee, Ga.; and Century Security Bank in Duluth, Ga. The agency also closed down State Bank of Aurora, in Aurora, Minn.; Advanta Bank Corp., based in Draper, Utah; and American National Bank of Parma, Ohio.

The FDIC was unable to find a buyer for Advanta Bank, which had $1.6 billion in assets and $1.5 billion in deposits. The regulatory agency approved the payout of the bank’s insured deposits and it said checks to depositors for their insured funds will be mailed on Monday.

The failure of Advanta Bank is expected to cost the federal deposit insurance fund $635.6 million. Read more here-http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Regulators-shut-7-banks-in-5-apf-2660571978.html?x=0&.v=10 and http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid;=amWAIsJeBd2Q

-Federal Reserve Must Disclose Bank Bailout Records. The Federal Reserve Board must disclose documents identifying financial firms that might have collapsed without the largest U.S. government bailout ever, a federal appeals court said.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled today that the Fed must release records of the unprecedented $2 trillion U.S. loan program launched primarily after the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The ruling upholds a decision of a lower-court judge, who in August ordered that the information be released. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601010&sid;=azmztIRQLqq8

-Hoenig Says Big Banks Must Either Add $210 Billion In New Capital Or Reduce Total Assets By $3 Trillion; Bank Capital Raises Imminent. Read more here-http://www.zerohedge.com/article/hoenig-says-big-banks-must-either-add-210-billion-new-capital-or-reduce-total-assets-3-trill and Fed’s Hoenig Endorses Volcker Rule, Leverage Limits

GLOBAL-U.S. DEBT CRISIS

-Lipsky Says ‘Acute’ Debt Challenges Face Advanced Economies. Advanced economies face “acute” challenges in tackling high public debt, and unwinding existing stimulus measures will not come close to bringing deficits back to prudent levels, said John Lipsky, first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

All G7 countries, except Canada and Germany, will have debt-to-GDP ratios close to or exceeding 100 percent by 2014, Lipsky said in a speech yesterday at the China Development Forum in Beijing. Already this year, the average ratio in advanced economies is expected to reach the levels seen in 1950, after World War II, he said. The government debt ratio in some emerging-market nations has also reached a “worrisome level,” he said.

“This surge in government debt is occurring at a time when pressure from rising health and pension spending is building up,” Lipsky said. Stimulus measures account for about one-tenth of the projected debt increase, and rolling them back won’t be enough to bring deficits and debt ratios back to prudent levels.

Rising public debt could lead governments to seek to eliminate it through inflation or even default if they fail to carry out fiscal measures in time, Mohamed A. El-Erian, co-chief investment officer at Pacific Investment Management Co. warned earlier this month. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of “The Black Swan,” a book arguing that unforeseen events can roil markets, said March 12 he is concerned about hyperinflation as governments around the world take on more debt and print money.

The U.S. budget deficit widened to a record in February as the government spent more to help revive the economy. The gap grew to $221 billion after a shortfall of $194 billion in February 2009, the Treasury Department said on March 10. The figures indicate the deficit this year will probably surpass the record $1.4 trillion in the fiscal year that ended in September. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid;=aa84GdC5eSN0

-U.S. Debt Clock here-http://www.usdebtclock.org/

-Gross Says Health Care Reform to Raise Liabilities. Bill Gross, manager of the world’s biggest mutual fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., said health-care reform will add to, rather than subtract from, U.S. deficits and unfunded liabilities.

“Long-term bondholders beware,” Gross wrote in a monthly investment outlook posted on Newport Beach, California-based Pimco’s Web site today. “No investment vigilante worth their salt or outrageous annual bonus would dare argue that current legislation is a deficit reducer. It will add $562 billion to the deficit over the next decade.” Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=aALDMVlTVn68

-Bud Conrad: Battle for the Budget. Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1269374946.php

-James Turk: Debtor Nation. Only a few decades ago, the United States was the world’s largest creditor nation. American capital spanned the globe financing all types of investments in virtually every country. But that dominance began to erode in the 1960s because growth in consumption in the United States was starting to outpace new production. Wealth built up over generations was being consumed.

To compensate for the resulting decline in living standards, the nation turned to debt, rather than hard work and savings. This trend continued through the next decade. A focus on consumption and a seemingly unstoppable reliance on debt at all levels of American society had become the dominant force in economic activity.

By the 1980s, the inevitable happened. As generations of accumulated wealth disappeared, a line was crossed. America now owed more to the rest of the world than the world owed to it. The United States had become a debtor nation, and it has continued to run up the tab in the decades since.

The mindset of policymakers today continues to be one of debt and consumption instead of savings, investment and production. We see this way of thinking in their pronouncements and actions. Worryingly, the tipping point appears to have been reached. Not only is the United States living beyond its means, it is now borrowing beyond its means, as graphically illustrated in the following chart prepared by Nathan Martin.

Here’s is how Mr. Martin explains the crucial message from this chart. “This is a very simple chart. It takes the change in GDP and divides it by the change in Debt. What it shows is how much productivity is gained by infusing $1 of debt into our debt backed money system.

Back in the early 1960s a dollar of new debt added almost a dollar to the nation’s output of goods and services. As more debt enters the system the productivity gained by new debt diminishes but now total income can no longer support total debt.

In the third quarter of 2009 each dollar of debt added produced NEGATIVE 15 cents of productivity, and at the end of 2009, each dollar of new debt now SUBTRACTS 45 cents from GDP!” The US is digging itself into a hole, and if the message in the above chart was not clear enough, another bell tolled last week.

Moody’s warned that the triple-A credit rating of the United States is at risk of being downgraded if the nation fails to come to grips with its growing debt. It warned: “Preserving debt affordability at levels consistent with Aaa ratings will invariably require fiscal adjustments of a magnitude that, in some cases, will test social cohesion.” [Emphasis added]

It is an unusually stark assessment with profound implications that require thoughtful attention. Debt has always been and will always be a two-edged sword. Iceland now knows that lesson well. So do Dubai and Greece. Other nations including the United States are about to learn that lesson too.

As I see it, a lot of the federal government’s promises are about to be broken. The collapse of the once almighty dollar is rapidly approaching. Read more here-http://www.fgmr.com/debtor-nation.html

-The U.S. government is currently creating one of the most colossal monuments in the history of the world. It is the U.S. national debt, and it threatens to literally destroy the American way of life. For decades now, this generation has been recklessly spending the money of future generations and has been convinced that they have been getting away with it.

Americans have been enjoying an obscenely high standard of living, but the party is almost over and the day of reckoning is fast approaching. It has been a great party, but it was fuelled by the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world. Read more here-http://www.businessinsider.com/facts-about-the-deficit-2010-3

1) As of December 1st, 2009, the official debt of the United States government was approximately 12.1 trillion dollars.

2) To pay this 12.1 trillion dollar debt would require approximately $40,000 from every single person living in the United States.

3) The $1.9 trillion cap increase recently passed by the House amounts to another $6,000 for every living American.

4) The U.S. government’s debt ceiling has been raised six times since the beginning of 2006.

5) If we spent a dollar a second, it would take more than 31,000 years to spend a trillion dollars.

6) When Ronald Reagan took office, the U.S. national debt was only about 1 trillion dollars.

7) The U.S. national debt has more than doubled since the year 2000.

Barack Obama’s latest budget anticipates $5.08 trillion in deficits over the next 5 years.

9) The U.S. national debt on January 1st, 1791 was just $75 million dollars. Today, the U.S. national debt rises by that amount about once an hour.

10) The U.S. national debt rises at an average of approximately $3.8 billion per day.

11) In 2010, the U.S. government is projected to issue almost as much new debt as the rest of the governments of the world combined.

12) The majority of U.S. debt is purchased by the Federal Reserve. Talk about a Ponzi scheme!

13) A trillion $10 bills, if they were taped end to end, would wrap around the globe more than 380 times. That’s still less than the national debt.

14) Counting social security and medicare, the U.S. government is committed to future payment in excess of 65 TRILLION dollars.

INFLATION-HYPERINFLATION

-U.S. Hyperinflation Possible By Year 2015. NIA believes the real rate of U.S. inflation to already be approximately 5%. If the Federal Reserve doesn’t raise the federal funds rate to above 5% in the short-term, in our opinion, an outbreak of double-digit inflation is inevitable.

By 2014, it is possible the Federal Reserve will be forced to raise the federal funds rate up to above 10% and the public portion of our national debt could exceed $15 trillion. Therefore, in 2014 we could see the interest payments on our national debt reach $1.5 trillion, about triple what is currently being projected and 43% of the government’s projected tax receipts that year of $3.455 trillion.

NIA believes hyperinflation is possible by the year 2015. Besides the rising interest payments on our national debt, another major catalyst for hyperinflation will be social security payments, which adjust to the CPI-index. As the government’s CPI-index rises, so will the social security payments that it owes.

This could cause a death-spiral in the U.S. dollar. Inflation is still the last thing on the minds of most Americans, but soon it will be their primary concern. Read more here-http://inflation.us/hyperinflation2015.html

-My Inflation Nightmare. Am I crazy, or is the commentariat ignoring our biggest economic threat? Read more here-http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/04/my-inflation-nightmare/7995

-The Road to Hyperinflation. Read more here-http://173.203.164.51/editorials/petrov/2010/0316.html

-Healthcare Bill to Cause U.S. Hyperinflation By 2015. Read more here-http://inflation.us/hyperinflation2015.html

-BOE’s Sentance Says Global Recovery Poses a Risk of Inflation. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid;=ajdmHmlCy7cs

60 MINUTES-MICHAEL LEWIS ON WALL STREETS DELUSION AND COLLAPSE

-Michael Lewis’s new book, called “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine,” comes out this week and it explains how some of Wall Street’s finest minds managed to destroy $1.75 trillion of wealth in the subprime mortgage markets.

“60 Minutes” and correspondent Steve Kroft spent two days debriefing Lewis at his home in California. “This was an episode where capitalism was almost destroyed, just by the capitalists. And, in the most sensational way, they were sort of destroyed by their own folly,” Lewis told Kroft.

Asked what happened, Lewis said, “The incentives for people on Wall Street got so screwed up, that the people who worked there became blinded to their own long term interests. And because the short term interests were so overpowering. And so they behaved in ways that were antithetical to their own long term interests.” Read and watch more here-http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/12/60minutes/main6292458.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

-”Wall Street is able to delude itself because it’s paid to delude itself. I mean one of the lessons of this story is that people see what they’re incentivized to see. If you pay someone not to see the truth, they will not see the truth. And, Wall Street organized itself so people were paid to see something other than the truth. And that’s one of the central messages of this story.

You have to be very careful how you incentivize people, ’cause they will respond to the incentives,” Lewis explained. According to Lewis, “all” of the people who made these terrible decisions left with a lot of money. “I didn’t run across a single character who didn’t get rich. Anybody above a certain level in all these firms made huge sums of money by any standard.

And the people who were, I mean, this is where it gets a little creepy, the people who were most instrumental in building the subprime mortgage machine also happened to be the ones who had the most detailed understanding now of the securities in the rubble,” he told Kroft. “And they’re being paid all over again to sort through the mess because they’re the experts.

That is an age-old trick on Wall Street, ’cause generally speaking, people who create disasters make a lotta money cleaning up the disaster because they’re the ones who know about the disaster,” he added. What about the CEOs? “Stan O’Neal at Merrill Lynch, and Chuck Prince at Citigroup are the most obvious examples. But they were paid not tens, but into the hundreds of millions of dollars to run their firms into the ground,” Lewis said.

Asked if he sees anything happening to reform the system, Lewis said, “There are several things that obviously should be done that have not been done. And you can’t explain to my mother why they haven’t been done. Only a really smart person on Wall Street could explain why they haven’t been done.

Lewis believes the financial industry is living in a world so disconnected from American life that it cannot be sustained. He thinks it may take a while, but he believes Wall Street as we know it, has done itself in.

“The leaders on Wall Street completely lost any sense of their responsibility to the society,” Lewis said. “And if you know you’re gonna blow up AIG by putting $20 billion of bad subprime mortgage risk into it even though it’s gonna be very profitable for you, you should stop and say this shouldn’t be done.”

WALL STREET SEQUEL AN OMEN OF STOCK COLLAPSE?

-Yes, Oliver Stone is suddenly America’s hottest market timer, as well as the voice of the inner “American Soul,” warning investors of a collapse. Remember the Crash of 1987? One-day 23% drop. Happened just before his 1987 “Wall Street” film hit the theatres.

He says he can’t predict the future. Don’t believe him: Even if he’s unaware of his “source,” it’s stirring again, rising from deep in what Carl Jung would call the “collective unconscious” of the “American Soul,” warning us again of a collapse, using Stone as a stock trader’s “alert.”

Wake up Wall Street: You’re getting the biggest market timing signal of 2010! Seriously, why now? Why after 23 years, did Stone decide to update the message of his famous 1987 movie. Great question: The interviewer was Michael Lewis, former Salomon trader, author of “Liar’s Poker,” a guy who understands Wall Street’s soul.

Stone’s answer is in “Greed Never Left,” Lewis’ Vanity Fair review of Stone’s new movie, “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” Stone had to think about it: “Why did I go back?” Why? “Because it’s important. It’s the collapse of capitalism and the collapse of our society. It is. Our way of life is going to change.”

The collapse of capitalism? Not just a stock market crash. He’s predicting the “collapse of our society.” Worse, Stone’s predicting: “Our way of life is going to change.” Is this really a market-timing signal? Hey, it was in 1987. Will history repeat? The odds say yes.

Remember Stone’s predictions when you see the sequel, “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” Lewis says Stone’s goal is not just to entertain you for a couple hours then send you back home to continue denying everything Wall Street’s fat-cat bankers, the real Gordon Gekkos, are doing every day to destroy capitalism, destroy democracy, destroy your retirement portfolio. Read more here-http://www.marketwatch.com/story/story/print?guid=75B6904A-8B10-48B3-9AB6-9A82C430F90D

REAL ESTATE-MORTGAGES-FORECLOSURES

-Sales of New U.S. Homes Dropped to Lowest on Record. Sales of new homes in the U.S. unexpectedly fell in February to a record low as blizzards, unemployment and foreclosures depressed the market. Purchases decreased 2.2 percent to an annual pace of 308,000, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. The median sales price climbed by the most in more than two years.

New-home sales are vying with foreclosure-induced declines in prices for existing homes in an economy where unemployment is forecast to average 9.6 percent this year, close to a 26-year high. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner yesterday said it would take a “long time” to repair the market as the administration takes steps to overhaul real-estate financing and regulation.

“Americans remain downbeat on the housing market,” said David Semmens, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank in New York, who forecast a 300,000 sales pace. “We expect the continuation of poor sales to lead to a resumption of downward price pressure.” Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=aGCXFE1N36xc&pos;=1

-Existing U.S. Home Sales Fall for Third Month. Sales of existing U.S. homes fell in February for a third month, and the number of properties on the market climbed by the most in almost two years, casting a pall over the prospects for a recovery.

Purchases dropped 0.6 percent to a 5.02 million annual rate, the lowest level in eight months, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed today in Washington. There were 3.59 million houses for sale, a 312,000 increase from January that marked the biggest gain since April 2008.

“The housing market is trying to heal, but it’s still choking on inventory,” said Zach Pandl, an economist at Nomura Securities International Inc. in New York. The figures showed the extension and expansion of a federal tax credit that helped stabilize housing in 2009 has yet to spark sales this year. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=aP5DPzk0mAvo&pos;=1

-More than half of U.S. borrowers who received loan modifications on delinquent mortgages defaulted again after nine months, according to a federal report. The re-default rate of loans modified in the first quarter of 2009 was 51.5 percent by the end of the year, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision said in a joint report today.

The figure, which measures payments at least 30 days late, climbed to 57.9 percent for changes made in the prior 12 months. U.S. homeowners are struggling to make payments as depressed housing prices leave them owing more than their properties are worth. About 24 percent of properties with a mortgage were underwater in the fourth quarter, First American CoreLogic said last month.

The median price of a U.S. home was $165,100 in February, down 28 percent from its peak in July 2006, according to the National Association of Realtors. Modifications are “clearly not working well and it’s not a surprise,” said Sam Khater, a senior economist at First American CoreLogic in Tysons Corner, Virginia. “It’s pointless to rewrite these loans because they’re underwater.”

The number of homes with mortgage payments at least 60 days late climbed 2.39 million in the fourth quarter, up 13.1 percent from the prior three months and 49.6 percent from the year earlier period, the quarterly Mortgage Metrics report said. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=aVYxPZ56vjys&pos;=5

-Microcosm of Housing Crisis on an Arizona Street. Read more here-http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/business/23lend.html?source=patrick.net

-Whistle-Blower: Banks Give Homeowners the Runaround. 800-Numbers Lead to Runaround as Banks Refuse to Modify Mortgages. Read and watch more here-http://abcnews.go.com/WN/saving-middle-class-whistle-blower-banks-helping-americans/story?id=10178938

© 2012, Worldwide Precious Metals Canada Ltd.
www.wwpmc.com

The Goldbugg Report – March 30, 2010
Posted by Worldwide Precious Metals on Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Subscribe to
receive timely
information on
precious metals.

• Home
• About Us
• Info Request
• Open An Account
• Bullion
• Newsroom
• Testimonials
• Contact Us
• Client Login
• Sitemap