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The Goldbugg Report – April 20, 2010

April 20, 2010

-7 Reasons Why Silver Will Make You Rich! I know most investors are looking for that one ultimate investment that will right all of their past wrongs. You know, make up for all the losses or non-starters they may have accumulated over the years.

That one investment that will perhaps buy them a permanent vacation somewhere with white sand beaches, a nice cabin in the mountains, get them into the house of their dreams, or whatever does it the most for them.

I want to take a moment to talk about why I am very, very bullish on silver; the metal which is overlooked by most but will make the few who own it extremely rich. While gold will have a spectacular performance over the course of this bull market, it is silver that will be the MVP. Silver is about as close as you can get to a sure bet. Here are 7 reasons why silver will make you rich. (See SILVER section of Report)

GOLD

-Gold in Perspective. As the price of gold rises and the inevitable quacking begins again about the “barbaric” metal being overvalued, we thought a quick check-in with the historical perspective might prove useful. The first of two charts that follow shows the long-term picture of gold from 1970 to the present, correctly adjusted for inflation.

In this second chart, we overlay the inflation-adjusted price of gold from the last secular gold bull market in the 1970s, with the secular bull market we’re now in.

As you can see, if the current bull ends with the sort of grand finale we saw at the end of the last big blow-off, then prices have a long way to go from here. That said, a credible case can be made that this time around, the price could go much higher. Read more here-http://www.caseyresearch.com/displayCdd.php?id=399

-Gold climbed $36.00 last week, a substantial 3.2% weekly gain. Importantly, gold has finally hurdled above resistance around $1140. In fact, it literally blew right through it. It has been nearly a month since I wrote that we should “note how strong gold has been throughout this correction.”

Even though gold at the time remained stuck below $1140, I believed its trading action to be “very significant because it signals the power of the underlying demand for physical metal.” As a consequence, I concluded back then that the demand for physical metal “will soon send gold hurdling above $1140 and to overhead resistance around $1200.”

Importantly, that demand has not diminished. It continues to drive gold higher, so look for $1200 to be reached soon, which is an outlook confirmed by the gold chart. Gold’s chart patterns remain very bullish.

Look closely at the upper right-hand corner of the above chart in order to focus on the trading pattern that gold has etched out in recent weeks. Gold has formed a clear “head & shoulders” pattern, but look closely at the ‘head’ of this pattern. Unbelievably, gold has also formed another H&S; pattern within the ‘head’ of the larger pattern.

H&S; patterns typically signal that a base is being formed. So the patterns in the above chart provide visible evidence of the accumulation now occurring in gold. This chart is very bullish, but there is always reason for caution.

As gold climbed higher this past week, open interest on the Comex has soared. Clearly, the gold cartel tried to stop gold at $1140 again, but this time they failed. However, if they continue to offer paper at the same rate, the gold cartel may shake out some weak players on the Comex, which could cause a correction in the gold price back to test support at the $1140 break-out level.

Regardless of the frantic efforts by the gold cartel, the demand for physical metal has not diminished. Even with gold’s big jump this past week, buyers of physical metal are still accumulating, which is not hard to understand. Given the ongoing financial crisis and growing sovereign debt worries, the integrity of government promises and other debtors is becoming increasingly doubted.

So tangible assets like gold are being accumulated as a simple and practical way to avoid the risk of financial assets. In the final analysis, the demand for physical metal always drives the gold price. Consequently, if the paper shorts are unsuccessful in driving the gold price lower, they have to deliver metal, buy back their shorts, or default.

A default would mean ‘game-over’ for the gold cartel, and as a consequence, the gold price would soar much higher to its free-market level. The gold cartel obviously doesn’t want that outcome, so they are stuck with only one alternative. The gold cartel must keep selling paper in an attempt to cap the gold price in the hope that the gold price will climb only a little before the demand for physical metal subsides.

In that way, the gold price would fall back in a correction, and the gold cartel would use that opportunity to cover this week’s new shorts. Given that the market is becoming increasingly aware from GATA’s efforts that the gold cartel is a naked short, it is unlikely that the demand for physical metal will subside here. I expect in fact that it will continue to grow.

After all, what would you rather own? Physical gold, or a piece of paper purporting to represent your ownership of gold? Or a comparison even more stark, would you rather own physical gold or the debt of Greece, UK, Spain, the US or any other overleveraged debtor? Read more here-http://www.fgmr.com/gold-hurdles-above-usd1140.html

-Yuan Revaluation to Boost Gold’s Appeal, UBS AG Says. An expected revaluation of the yuan will boost the appeal of gold among Chinese investors, as the move would make the metal cheaper for holders of the currency and may also fuel concern about inflation, UBS AG said.

“First and foremost gold will become cheaper in yuan terms and this should stoke additional interest in the yellow metal,” Edel Tully, London-based analyst of the bank, wrote in a report. “And if the yuan revaluation is interpreted as a signal of government confirmation that inflation is indeed a problem, this would likely boost gold’s appeal.”

China may allow the yuan to appreciate by June 30 to curb inflation while avoiding a one-time jump in value that might curb exports, a survey of analysts showed. Gold consumption in China may double within the next 10 years as the nation’s economy continues to expand and increase national wealth, the World Gold Council said on March 29.

“China’s role in the gold market is now much more significant than in 2005,” Tully said. “There’s little doubt that one of the reasons behind gold’s additional popularity in China this year is the inflation hedging angle.” Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid;=aJy7.M7FrChk

-Gold hits record high for British investors. The price of gold has risen to an all-time high in sterling and euro terms. Read and watch more here-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/gold/7570991/Gold-hits-record-high-for-British-investors.html

-When Will Gold Hit $1,200? Watch video here-http://www.thestreet.com/video/10722201/when-will-gold-hit-1200.html#76986830001

-On the line with gold price forecast. Year-end $1226 predicted. Martin Murenbeeld’s gold price forecast for 2010/2011 as presented at the DGG’s European gold forum. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=102737&sn;=Detail&pid;=33

-David Levenstein: Gold may re-test all time high of USD1225 in the next few weeks. The yellow metal has already made record highs in sterling and euro terms and sovereign risks continue to worry investors. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=102573&sn;=Detail&pid;=33

-Gold’s Rally May Pause Before Advancing to Record, GFMS Says. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid;=avxAnO_h1Ong

-Mining entrepreneur McEwen suspects gold market rigging. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/8528

SILVER

Gold to silver ratio at 80 to 1 with gold at $1,800 the silver price would be $22.50

Gold to silver ratio at 70 to 1 with gold at $1,800 the silver price would be $25.71

Gold to silver ratio at 60 to 1 with gold at $1,800 the silver price would be $30.00

Gold to silver ratio at 50 to 1 with gold at $1,800 the silver price would be $36.00

Gold to silver ratio at 40 to 1 with gold at $1,800 the silver price would be $45.00

Gold to silver ratio at 30 to 1 with gold at $1,800 the silver price would be $60.00

Gold to silver ratio at 20 to 1 with gold at $1,800 the silver price would be $90.00

Gold to silver ratio at 15 to 1 with gold at $1,800 the silver price would be $120.00

-Pring.com’s Martin Pring particularly likes the silver outlook: “Silver may well experience a great rally in the period ahead.” Read more here-http://www.marketwatch.com/story/story/print?guid=C71E6E66-9AEB-429C-B5ED-3DCCDC291D3E

-7 Reasons Why Silver Will Make You Rich! I know most investors are looking for that one ultimate investment that will right all of their past wrongs. You know, make up for all the losses or non-starters they may have accumulated over the years.

That one investment that will perhaps buy them a permanent vacation somewhere with white sand beaches, a nice cabin in the mountains, get them into the house of their dreams, or whatever does it the most for them.

I want to take a moment to talk about why I am very, very bullish on silver; the metal which is overlooked by most but will make the few who own it extremely rich. While gold will have a spectacular performance over the course of this bull market, it is silver that will be the MVP. Silver is about as close as you can get to a sure bet. Here are 7 reasons why silver will make you rich.

1) Gold to Silver ratio

Historically the gold to silver ratio has been maintained between gold and silver where a certain amount of silver could buy 1 oz of gold. In fact a long time ago, there used to be a US law that fixed the gold silver ratio at 1:15, which then allowed 15 silver ounces to buy 1 ounce of gold. Since 1840, the gold to silver ratio has ranged from 1:15 to as high as 1:97.

Today’s gold to silver ratio sits at about 1:63. Many analyst believe that this ratio is currently out of whack and will return to historical levels which according Ted Butler and others has averaged 12-15 oz of silver to 1 oz of gold. If the ratio returns to historical levels it would require a substantial rise in the price of silver. At $1150 gold, silver would need to be around $76/oz.

2) Inflation Past and Future

Just as gold is a great inflation hedge, so is silver. As you know silver has been known as the poor man’s gold. The dollar has lost over 98% of its value as clearly shown in my article, Gold vs Dollar, What A Knock Out! This is just considering the inflation effect over the past 100 years or so, but what about right now and the near future?

The erosion of dollar continues but at an accelerated pace not seen before in the history of this country, and thus makes it imperative to take the necessary precautions to protect the value of your savings now. I have not seen anything more compelling than silver to protect and dramatically increase my wealth at the same time.

The Federal Reserve is working overtime printing dollars and inflating the money supply which means every new dollar they create is taking away value from every one of the dollars in your pocket! This is where gold & silver really shine since this type of monetary expansion has always driven up the price of gold and silver historically.

You can see just over the last year or two how the fed has really kicked it into overdrive. The inflationary effect of the spike you see on the graph has not yet hit, so it is still time to get positioned for the inflation tsunami and load up on silver while you can and while it’s still cheap. There is no end in sight and they plan to print more dollars until their little printing press breaks. Wait till you see what they do to the dollar for an inflationary encore.

3) Increasing Silver Industrial & Investment Demand

Last year global silver demand hit 888 million ounces, while worldwide mining production totalled only 680 million ounces, thus creating a 208 million ounce deficit. Many people don’t know that silver is the most used commodity in industry next to oil. Industrial demand continues to pick up with new applications for silver coming to the market all the time, like silver zinc batteries.

The silver zinc battery market alone is forecasted to be a large driver going forward for silver. If you are looking for more reasons, then how about Ten Thousand Reasons To Buy Silver, which goes into more detail about the numerous industrial applications that require silver. Yes, there are many of them from water filters and band-aids to electronics such as cell phones and RFID tags.

Silver investment demand is on the rise as well and perhaps may soon surpass that of industrial demand. Just like people are turning to gold in the great flight to quality, silver is also starting to attract demand from investors. One of the biggest wildcards in the mix is China. Until recently, the Chinese government did not allow its citizens to buy precious metals.

They have done a complete reverse and now highly encourage all of their 1.3 billion citizens to buy, buy, buy. Don’t forget about their neighbors, you know, the other country that has a 1 billion plus people in it, India. The Indians have a long history and tradition of buying both gold and silver. I believe silver demand in India will increase as the price of gold rises.

Demand is also picking up in the United States, with the US Mint reporting record silver eagle coin sales for January 2010, it was the best silver eagle sales in the history of the US Mint for the month of January. Furthermore, the mint recently announced more record silver eagle coin sales for the month of March 2010 and for the first quarter of 2010.

The US Mint sold over 9 million silver eagles during 1Q2010! At this rate, silver eagle coin sales will consume all the US silver production for 2010, which is typically around 40 million ounces of silver annually. This is very significant because, whoever typically buys US based silver will need to go and find it elsewhere since the US Mint by law, is required to use only silver produced in the United States.

Don’t even think about getting it from China, because they consume every ounce of gold and silver produced in their country and will not export any gold or silver. I wonder what the US Mint will do when the silver demand exceeds the amount of silver of produced in the US?

4) The Real Silver Advantages: Leverage & Availability

Since more people are waking up and running to gold for asset protection due to the erosion of the dollar and other fiat currencies, gold will naturally not be as affordable as silver. One could argue that we have already reached this point. People will come to reason that they can get the same level of protection as purchasing gold, but at a more affordable price by purchasing silver instead.

The late comers to the party who missed out on the chance to buy gold when it was only $250/oz will want the next best thing which is silver. Likewise, many investors will also see that they can get a much higher leverage on purchasing silver. So if gold is starting to get too expensive for your wallet, then why not get some leverage by purchasing silver?

The best time to buy is whenever the prices are falling. Since you get way more ounces of silver for your money than gold, you naturally get more leverage. Leverage coupled with a great investment, equals great profits!

Silver availability is like a game of musical chairs, when the music stops someone will be without a chair. The amount of above ground silver has been just about exhausted over the past century. I have seen estimates as high as 1 billion ounces of silver world-wide above the ground.

Even in this worse case scenario and assuming that all this silver is for sale ( which most of it is not), all the silver in the world could be bought for just $18 billion dollars! This is a drop in the bucket when compared to much larger markets like gold, oil, US Bond Market, etc.

So silver availability is a huge advantage for silver investors as there is trillions of dollars that is very likely to one day come chasing a very tiny silver market. I have seen silver stock pile estimates around 300 million ounces and lower.

5) Dwindling Silver Stock Piles

Going back in history, governments around the world use to have huge silver stock piles. Around the 1950’s, the US government alone had 3.5 billion ounces of silver, the largest stock pile in history. Since then according to the CPM group, just about all of these stock piles have been sold off/consumed. The CPM data shows that world silver stock piles have gone from over 2 billion ounces in 1990 to under 300 million ounces in 2007.

Furthermore, silver demand has outpaced silver production by 156% annually for 19 consecutive years. According to Ted butler’s article, Why Silver is More Valuable Than Gold, more silver has been consumed than produced for over 60 years now. Available silver stockpiles have tanked to an estimated 140 million ounces or only a four-month supply of silver!

No matter whose estimates you believe, the real point to get from all of this is that the quantity of silver has been disappearing at an alarming rate while demand is substantially increasing. Conditions are ripe for a shortage. Now contrast this to gold, which after mining for the past 5,000 years, we still have about 90% of all that gold still here with us. All the silver mined over the same period is now mostly gone!

6) Eventual COMEX Short Squeeze

Some people just like to play with dynamite for one reason or another. There are a handful of bullion banks that fit this description that hold excessive short positions in both gold and silver. However, the short positions held for silver are much larger, in fact, the largest for any commodity.

At varying points, there have been a silver short position 80 times greater than gold short positions. These bullion banks according to Ted Butler and Gata.org are primarily led by JP Morgan and HSBC. Although it is hard to imagine anyone willing to make such stupid bets, the bullion banks known as commercial traders have shorted more than 200 percent of all known silver inventory!

The problem with shorting, is that eventually the short positions have to be bought back. Finally when the stars align and the conditions are right, you will see the mother of all short squeezes perhaps ever seen before. I talked about this in my article, A Gold Price Explosion Just Around the Corner?

If the futures long traders would just demand physical delivery instead of cash settlements and contract rollovers, we would see this short squeeze happen a lot sooner than later. This one of the primary reasons everyone should buy physical silver and gold instead of paper claims to gold & silver.

These commercial bullion banks are offering a lot of paper contracts that are impossible deliver on. A silver short squeeze has not been seen in more than 20 years, since the Hunt brothers demanded physical delivery of their silver. Which shows that massive short selling to manage the price of silver and gold works until it doesn’t right.

7) Silver Leasing

According to Ted Butler in his article, Silver Leasing or Silver Fleecing, there are/were about 150 million ounces of gold and about 1 billion ounces of silver that have been leased out. What doe this mean? It means that some gold & silver producers at one time or another did not have enough gold or silver to sell to their customers, so they leased (borrowed) the metals from others (like central banks) that had ample supplies at the time.

The producers then would sell these metals to their customers. The leasing created a phantom supply of gold and especially silver. The problem here is, all of this leased gold and silver has to eventually be produced or paid back. It is the equivalent of borrowing money and living off of it with the plan of paying it back at some point in the future.

The problem is, when pay back comes you have to come up with the borrowed money and you still have to come up with additional money to continue to live off of. So the 1 billion ounces of silver has to be produced/repaid at the some point, all the while silver demand continues to increase along with yearly silver deficits. According to Guide to Investing in Gold & Silver, it would take a 100% mining devotion for two years to repay all the gold and silver leases outstanding.

Summary

Silver is perhaps one of the greatest investments one can make at this point in time. Investors looking for a safe and very profitable investment should definitely have silver as a part of their investment portfolio. Read more here-http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_08/edwards041210.html

-Jeffrey Lewis: Grab a Calculator Before the CFTC Investigation. As the CFTC begins to investigate claims by a whistle blower that the precious metals markets have been manipulated by several large US banks, investors are left to ponder: “What will happen to silver if manipulation is found?” Can you say, payday?

Silver’s Current Price-At just over $18 per ounce, silver is heavily underpriced considering both its historical prices, as well as the amount of inflation in the years since. Since 1913 and the creation of the third US central bank, the Federal Reserve, the price of silver has advanced at a small discount to the actual rate of inflation.

The monetary base has grown from a few billion dollars to more than $1.6 trillion since 1913, all while silver has only increased by 3000%. Though 3000% has been enough to accurately track the change in prices, it has done little to keep up with real inflation, that is, changes in the money supply.

Silver Consumption-Another factor in the price of silver is how much the metal is actually consumed in processes such as manufacturing electronic devices, creating silver jewelry, or processing film. In the last decade, silver has been readily consumed almost as quickly as it has been produced, with the largest driver of growth coming from the electronics sector.

In the same computer you’re using to read this article, there are several grams of silver, most of which will never be recovered due to the economic costs of removing precious metals from electronics. Some many years later, your computer will be thrown away, the silver will be hidden in a landfill, and it will never come back to the surface. For all intents and purposes, it will remain unrecoverable, never to be used again.

What Happens When Manipulation is Found?-If the CFTC declares that the silver markets have, in fact, been manipulated, it is certain that the price of silver will skyrocket. Most silver analysts think that the price of silver isn’t being manipulated by pure trading.

Instead, they’re convinced that the amount of silver being traded on the futures market is not 100% represented by physical metals. This means there is more electronic silver being traded in the form of futures than what actually physically exists. Therefore, as rare as silver is thought to be today, it will be even rarer than we once believed if the markets are being manipulated with excess futures.

Grab a Calculator-If you were to extrapolate the amount of currency in circulation in 1913 (roughly $10 billion) to today’s figure of $1.6 trillion, you would find that the amount of money has actually grown by a figure of 160 times, or 16,000%. Silver, by contrast, has earned 30 times its 1913 price, or 3000%.

Clearly, there is a huge discrepancy in the numbers, opening up the possibility that should the markets be found to be manipulated by excess futures supplies, the price of silver could rocket from $18 per ounce to $90 per ounce just by calculating the differential in the change of the amount of money and the performance of silver over time.

Take these figures to the bank. If the silver markets are manipulated, silver will sky rocket. If they aren’t (by some miracle), you lose nothing. Now that’s a bet worth taking! Read more here-http://news.silverseek.com/SilverSeek/1271269807.php

-Jeff Clark: Why Are Silver Sales Soaring? Everyone talks about gold, myself included, but a meaningful portion of one’s precious metals portfolio should be devoted to silver. The market is tiny, making the price potentially explosive. Remember that in the ‘70s bull market gold advanced over 700%, but silver soared over 1,400%. Read more here-http://news.silverseek.com/SilverSeek/1270840329.php

-Ted Butler: Maguire story at CFTC hearing made big difference. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/8526

-Jim Cook interviews Ted Butler. Read more here-http://news.silverseek.com/SilverSeek/1271170061.php

-New York Post: Trader blows whistle on gold, silver price manipulation. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8529

PLATINUM

-Is platinum the new gold? Platinum is becoming the precious metal of choice for many fund managers. Read more here-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/gold/7563958/Is-platinum-the-new-gold.html

-Platinum Will Outperform ‘Yesterday’s Jewelry’ Gold. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601012&sid;=ajoXUflv_5nM

CHARTS OF THE WEEK-QUOTES-QUICK HITS

-Chart of the day: Why the Coming Wall Street Movie Really Does Portend Another Crash. Some have wondered whether the forthcoming release of Wall Street II movie by Oliver Stone portends a market crash, considering that the last Wall Street was released right before the crash of 1987. Actually, this line of reasoning understates the case.

There was actually another movie called Wall Street that came out in 1929. Of course, the market collapsed that year, too. The release of the movie got pushed back to September, so we got a reprieve. But if history is any guide, we’re heading for trouble later this year. Read more here-http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-dow-and-the-wall-street-movies-2010-4

Source: chartoftheday.com

-’Free money’ is stocks’ secret weapon. Read more here-http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/13/news/free_money.fortune/index.htm

-Chart of the day: As you can also see in the chart, when the QE ended and it ended because, like the America of today, the piling of debt on top of debt was speeding the country toward bankruptcy the stock market ran out of steam and plummeted to its crash lows. Read more here-http://www.caseyresearch.com/displayCdd.php?id=401

Source: chartoftheday.com

-Chart of the week: For some perspective on the current state of the stock market, today’s chart presents the long-term trend of the Nasdaq. Today’s chart illustrates the degree by which the tech-laden Nasdaq plunged during the dot-com bust (2000-2002). The Nasdaq then rebounded sharply into 2004 whereby it continued its uptrend (albeit at a relatively modest pace) during the real estate boom.

Beginning in late 2007, the trend turned sharply to the downside as fears of an outright collapse of the financial sector took hold. As it became apparent that the financial sector would survive, stock prices rebounded sharply with the Nasdaq currently trading fairly close to what was once pre-crisis support (green line).

It is worth noting, however, that the post-crisis rally has been slowing over time and is currently approaching resistance (red line). Read more here-http://www.chartoftheday.com/20100409.htm?T

Source: chartoftheday.com

-Chart of the week: The persistently elevated unemployment level continues to drain the federal and states’ unemployment insurance systems. The number of states forced to borrow from the Federal Unemployment Trust Account (FUTA) to continue sending out weekly unemployment checks has grown 50% from 22 to 33 over the last six months.

And the total amount borrowed has surged 100% from $19.2 to $38.5 billion. Not exactly the “stabilizing” in employment that the government officials like to claim is underway. FUTA was intended as a self-funded system via a yearly, per-employee tax paid by employers.

However, the federal budget for fiscal year 2010 allocated “advances” to the fund specifically earmarked for “loans to states.” So, it appears that the bankrupted state programs are using FUTA as another backdoor bailout, with Uncle Sam’s loyal taxpayers footing the bill. Read more here-http://www.caseyresearch.com/displayCcs.php?id=89

-Chart of the week: Distressed debt, defined as bonds or bank debt of companies or government entities that are in default, under bankruptcy protection, or heading toward such a condition, has been under significant pressure since the housing bubble popped. The nominal amount of debt entering distress has jumped 451% since 2007, while the number of issuers in trouble rose 160%.

In a commissioned report from Debtwire, a global financial data provider, 100 distressed debt investors were interviewed, including hedge fund and asset managers. Their outlook:

• 64% said the peak in distressed debt has not been reached

• Real estate, consumer products, and financials will provide the largest flow of workouts, in particular commercial real estate

• 41% expect significant tightening of liquidity in 2010.

Lax FASB accounting standards may allow institutions to mask their debt with bogus financial statements, but there’s no disguising the market realities from the distressed debt investors on the front lines. Sightings of a “V” shaped recovery seem premature. Read more here-http://www.caseyresearch.com/displayCcs.php?e=true

-Optimism could be dangerous if it leads the country to underestimate its continued vulnerabilities to new financial shocks, to new shocks to household budgets (as from rising resource costs), to new deterioration in housing markets, to continued drag from an unemployment problem that remains very serious. At this point in any recovery, complacency is the enemy. All observers want this to be 1983, but it very well might turn out to be 1937. Read more here-http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2010/04/business_cycles

-”The U.S. has one huge advantage, the U.S. alone can print the paper which its debts are denominated in. This is why the reserve status of the dollar is so critical to the survival of the U.S. Should the U.S. lose its reserve status, the result would be an economic collapse.” Richard Russell

-”When Americans understand that they have been betrayed in that they have been working and saving for worthless (non-intrinsic) “money,” there’ll be holy hell to pay. That’s my prediction, and amid a state of national anger, I believe we’ll see the termination of the Federal Reserve, probably the greatest fraud ever foisted on the America people.” Richard Russell

-The giddiness over Dow 11k is also quite palpable but because so many investors live in the moment they can’t recall that the blue-chip index first broke above this level on May 3rd, 1999, barely more than a month after piercing the 10k threshold (sounds vaguely familiar).

The Dow was last here on September 26th, 2008 this latest foray above the 11k milestone is the tenth such time that the Dow has crossed this level (what is truly amazing is headlines like this on page B1 of the NYT “Move to Aid Greece Helps Dow Close Above 11,000” you have got to be kidding me. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-Our U.S. equity models point to roughly a 15% overvaluation right now for the S&P; 500. The range on our models is 955 to 1200. The Shiller P/E is at 20.6x versus the historical average of 16.4x, so this estimate would suggest a 30% overvaluation for the S&P; 500. The Canadian market is only overvalued by 8% or by half as much. The min-max on out TSX models is 10,900 to 11,520. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-The Shiller normalized P/E ratio may not be a timing device but the starting points are always useful in terms of foreshadowing what the future holds in terms of expected returns. Currently, this ratio is sitting near 21x, which would be in a range consistent with future 10-year returns of 5.6% annually going forward.

The bottom line is that investors should be expecting lower returns ahead of an environment of weakening demographics (expected in virtually every part of the planet outside of India and Latin America), capacity-led deflationary pressure, and the starting point on most equity valuation metrics. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-We see that the folks at the Bespoke Investment Group also see that three of every four stocks in the S&P; 500 right now are in overbought terrain. Bullish sentiment in the investment surveys has risen now in seven of the past eight weeks. This has been and remains a dangerous time to be excessively long this market, especially in the U.S.A. where valuations are more stretched than in Canada.

We acknowledge that this will only be clear when we look back on this period several months from now when the economic and earnings landscape fall short of delivering that “V” shaped expansion that is now very clearly being priced in. In fact, our models suggest that at current S&P; 500 levels, the U.S. equity market has gone ahead and discounted 5% real growth in the coming year. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-The S&P; 500 has broken above the 1,200 threshold in style. It may be worth noting that the first time it pierced this milestone back in mid-2005, the 4-quarter trailing EPS (the bird in the hand, not some consensus forecast) was running at around $75.

If we take the consensus estimate for Q1 ($18) and tack on the prior three quarters, then the trailing EPS as of now is less than $65. So conceivably we have on our hands a market that is 15% ahead of the profit fundamentals.

Not only are earnings currently 20% below the last time the S&P; 500 pierced the 1200 threshold, but the consensus sees operating EPS rising more in the next four quarters ($85) than was the case back then ($80 forecast) despite the fact that we had operating rates more than 10 percentage points higher than is the case currently and unemployment rates that were 5 percentage

points lower (not to mention that bank lending was expanding at a 10% rate).

The consensus is actually calling for EPS of 97.20 for 2011 basically in line with the 2007 peak. Quite an amazing feat if it ends up being accomplished this early in the cycle and with all the excess capacity lingering in the labour, product and housing markets.

Sentiment is wildly bullish now with the ratio of bulls to bears from the Investors Intelligence survey at levels last seen as the market rolled off its cycle highs (bull share up to 51.1% from 48.9% a week ago and the bear share stayed at 18.9%).

This is just another way of saying that this is a market operating on fumes right now and is seriously overbought, overextended and overpriced. But momentum is taking over. The experience of 1999 and 2007 serve as a reminder that the market can remain frothy for an extended period before reality sets in. After finishing at the high for the day, the S&P; 500 is shy of hitting its next key

retracement level of 1,225. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-Paul Farrell: Yes, we hit 11,000. Propaganda. Yes, we’ll quietly sneak past 11,722 (Dow’s 2000 peak). Yes, we’ll happily climb to 14,164 (Dow’s 2007 peak). Maybe. But you’re being conned: Even a new record of 14,165 barely equals CPI inflation the past 10 years. Get it?

Wall Street’s lost more than 20% of your money the past decade. Now they’re blowing a new bubble, filled with more toxic costly hot air. Yes, the bull’s back. But not the bull market kinda “bull.” The “happy talk” kinda “bull” propaganda. Read more here-http://www.marketwatch.com/story/story/print?guid=FEEBB134-9D38-4322-BB73-ABA14F02A97B

-One reason why interest rates cannot rise is because if they do, there will never be a sustained improvement in the pace of economic activity. Housing is the classic leading indicator, and the most interest-sensitive sector, and until it revives, it seems highly unlikely that bond yields will rise on any sustained basis or that the Fed will embark on a path towards higher policy rates.

For a truly sombre assessment on the prospects for a housing recovery, see what Robert Shiller has to say on page 5 of the Sunday NYT biz section. (“Don’t Bet The Farm on the Housing Recovery”). David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff-Read more here-http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/business/economy/11view.html

-Yes, yes, we are seeing a stimulus-led recovery in the statistics and the YoY data now appear boom-like in the USA as the data are calculated off the worst levels from March of last year. If truth be told, the level of retail sales in March was no higher than it was three years ago. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-Of course, the U.S. labour market is on the mend how many more jobs can be lost after a massive 8.4 million slide in the past two years? A normal recession typically sees no more than 2-3 million employment declines.

But the problem is that 30% of the employment pie is not coming back those parts most damaged by the collapse of the credit bubble, we are talking about financial, construction and state/local government.

What made this employment downturn unique sinister is more like it is that of that 8.4 million net job decline, 6 million of those were due to permanent shutdowns, not merely a reflection of a cyclical decline. This is why over half of the ranks of the unemployed have been looking fruitlessly for a job for at least six months now which is unprecedented. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-The Jobs Picture Still Looks Bleak. Many outsourced jobs will never return, and median income will likely continue to fall just like it did during the last so-called recovery. Read more here-http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304222504575173780671015468.html

-NBER Says Premature to Declare End of U.S. Recession. The panel responsible for deciding when U.S. recessions begin and end said it’s too soon to declare the current slump is over. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=aQgDSuxGlHgU

-Richard Koo’s Presentation on The Real Reason Why This Recession Is Completely Different. Read more here-http://www.businessinsider.com/richard-koo-recession-2010-4#-1

-The U.S. Postal Service may run out of cash as early as October unless Congress drops a requirement to prefund health benefits for retirees, Postmaster General John Potter told lawmakers today. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=aDsliso7FbLg

-Home-grown, solo terrorists as bad as Al-Qaeda: FBI chief. Read more here-http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.715a7668fe9975340c7a6290b761a373.01&show;_article=1

-Iran Could Block Oil Transit Strait of Hormuz, Pentagon Says. Iran could generate the enriched uranium needed for a nuclear weapon in one year and already has built defenses capable of shutting a major Persian Gulf oil- transit route in a confrontation, Pentagon officials said today. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=arqVQdla_GZQ

-Iran’s Ahmadinejad Says U.S. Is Practicing ‘Nuclear Blackmail.’ Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=aXRAnS9PaMlI-

-A reactor being built by Russia at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant is scheduled to open in August, the head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation said on Wednesday. Read more here- http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1413223820100414

-Vampire Tops Forbes Fictional Rich List as Uncle Sam Collapses. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid;=afXUjvl_R6Uc

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

-Rio Tinto reported that its share of production across its three diamond mines fell 36 percent to 3.497 million carats in the first quarter of 2010. The company explained that a lower feed grade at its fully owned Argyle mine in Australia and frequent stoppages of the process plant due wet weather led to the decline in production. Output at Argyle decreased 43 percent to 2.531 million carats during the quarter. Read more here-http://www.diamonds.net/news/NewsItem.aspx?ArticleID=30576

-Sotheby’s Geneva to Auction 52.82-Ct. Diamond Ring. Sotheby’s Geneva will hold its spring 2010 sale of Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels at the Beau-Rivage Hotel May 11, 2010. Stunning pieces include outstanding diamonds and colored stones, glamorous signed pieces by prestigious design houses and important jewels with noble provenance.

David Bennett, chairman of jewelry for Sotheby’s Europe & the Middle East, said, “Our sales in Geneva this spring will bring together a superb assortment of top quality gemstones and an exceptional group of glamorous and sophisticated jewels of noble provenance.”

At the heart of this Magnificent Jewels sale will be an emerald-cut diamond weighing 52.82-carats as well as a highly important pear-shaped fancy vivid blue diamond weighing 5.02-carats, both of which are set as rings. The extremely rare 52.82-carat diamond was determined to be type IIa, D, flawless with excellent polish and symmetry as graded by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and Sotheby’s estimated the ring would fetch more than $7 million.

The spectacular 5.02-carat blue diamond is set in the form of a toi et moi ring, which is the design and creation of Alexandre Reza. The blue stone is mounted alongside an exceptional 5.42-carat diamond of the same shape. This ring comes to Sotheby’s from a private collection and is estimated to sell for $4 million to $7 million.

Among other offerings of colored stones, Sotheby’s presents a rare cushion-shaped fancy intense blue diamond ring weighing 7.64-carats and estimates this jewel to fetch $4 million to $6 million. Sotheby’s also presents an impressive oval brilliant-cut 33.77-carat, G, VS1 diamond ring mounted in platinum and estimates this ring to sell for $1.3 million to $2 million. A 10.73-carat, D, internally flawless diamond ring, signed Van Cleef & Arpels, carries an estimate of between $600,000 and $900,000. Read more here- http://www.diamonds.net/news/NewsItem.aspx?ArticleID=30531

-Moussaieff Pays $6.4 Million for Blue Diamond at Hong Kong Sale. Moussaieff Jewellers Ltd.’s founder Alisa Moussaieff paid HK$49.9 million ($6.4 million) for a 5.16-carat blue diamond at a Hong Kong auction, beating Asian rivals with a price she says is less than the gem’s real worth.

Moussaieff, 80, says the fancy-vivid, internally flawless gem has a market value of about $1.5 million per carat and that she would have raised her bid had her rival persisted. A blue diamond of that size and caliber is so rare that it’s worth about $2 million a carat and high-street stores like Moussaieff could ask for $3 million, said Donald May, a Hong Kong-based jeweler who was also at the sale. A carat is a fifth of a gram.

“It’s a bargain and I got it at this price because everyone was asleep,” Moussaieff said in an interview. Her London-based boutique will change the gem’s mounting and offer the stone “to discerning clients, possibly in Asia,” she said.

Asian buyers, especially the mainland Chinese, have been buying some of the most expensive gems at auction in recent years. For Christie’s International, Sotheby’s top rival, Hong Kong has outsold Geneva and New York for two straight years as mainlanders park their growing wealth in rare art and gems. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid;=aMkjazedryaY

SOROS-MARKETS COULD BE DERAILED AGAIN

-Railway porter-turned-billionaire financier George Soros delivered a stark warning last night that the financial world is on the wrong track and that we may be hurtling towards an even bigger boom and bust than in the credit crisis.

The man who ‘broke’ the Bank of England (and who is still able to earn a cool $3.3 bln in a year) said the same strategy of borrowing and spending that had got us out of the Asian crisis could shunt us towards another crisis unless tough lessons are learned.

Soros, who worked as a porter to pay for his studies at the London School of Economics after emigrating from Hungary, warned us to heed the lesson that modern economics had got it wrong and that markets are not inherently stable.

“The success in bailing out the system on the previous occasion led to a superbubble, except that in 2008 we used the same methods,” he told a meeting hosted by The Economist at the City of London’s modern and impressive Haberdashers’ Hall.

“Unless we learn the lessons, that markets are inherently unstable and that stability needs to the objective of public policy, we are facing a yet larger bubble. “We have added to the leverage by replacing private credit with sovereign credit and increasing national debt by a significant amount.”

One crumb of comfort could be the 10-year period between the 1998 Asian crisis and the 2008 credit crisis. If the pattern is repeated, it should at least mean we have another 8 years to go before the next crash. Read more here-http://blogs.reuters.com/fundshub/2010/04/14/markets-could-be-derailed-again-warns-soros/

SOVEREIGN DEBT CRISIS

-Sovereign debt crisis at ‘boiling point’, warns Bank for International Settlements. The Bank for International Settlements does not mince words. Sovereign debt is already starting to cross the danger threshold in the United States, Japan, Britain, and most of Western Europe, threatening to set off a bond crisis at the heart of the global economy. Read more here-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/7564748/Sovereign-debt-crisis-at-boiling-point-warns-Bank-for-International-Settlements.html

BANKING CRISIS

-US bank accounting ‘masks true debt levels’. Major Wall Street banks are using accounting techniques similar to those utilised by Lehman Brothers in its final days to mask the size of their balance sheets at the end of reporting periods. Read more here-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/7572887/US-bank-accounting-masks-true-debt-levels.html and

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304830104575172280848939898.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

-Bank Profits Dimmed by Prospect of Home-Equity Losses. Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. may have to set aside an additional $30 billion to cover possible losses on home-equity loans, an amount almost equal to analysts’ estimates of profit at the three banks this year.

The cost of these reserves was calculated by CreditSights Inc., a New York-based research firm whose prediction almost four years ago proved prescient after banks reported unprecedented mortgage-related writedowns. Recognizing the home- equity loan losses is unfinished business from the housing bubble, CreditSights said in a March 29 report.

Potential writedowns on the loans are casting a shadow over earnings, as analysts try to determine how much, and how quickly, loan-loss expenses will decline from the industrywide peak reached in June 2009. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601010&sid;=a1QwuyKzLcro

U.S. DEBT CRISIS

-Budget Deficit in U.S. Narrowed to $65.4 Billion. The U.S. posted a budget deficit for a record 18th straight month in March, reflecting gains in government spending to bolster the economy. The excess of spending over revenue declined to $65.4 billion last month, compared with a shortfall of $191.6 billion in March 2009, according to Treasury Department figures released today in Washington.

The year-over-year narrowing reflected a decline in outlays for the Troubled Asset Relief Program to shore up financial firms. A deficit that’s forecast to reach a record $1.6 trillion this fiscal year illustrates the challenges facing President Barack Obama and Congress as they struggle to spur the recovery while keeping the budget gap manageable.

Deterioration in the government’s balance sheet in coming years raises the risk of higher interest rates. “We can’t keep this up,” said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor’s in New York. “We’re getting more revenue, but we’re still spending. That’s the problem. You’ve got to start paying your way.” Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=a6d30KbsVtf4&pos;=3

-Nation’s soaring deficit calls for painful choices. Read more here-http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-04-12-deficit_N.htm

-The state and local government figures are in for 2009 and showed a record revenue slide of 6% for the year. And even with unprecedented efforts to stem the rising tide of red ink, with tax hikes, furloughs and cuts to services, the collective deficit is running at $35 billion. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-LAPD detectives sidelined by city budget crisis. he city’s budget crisis and cap on overtime is forcing homicide detectives to stop work for days at a time, hurting their ability to solve cases, authorities said. Some detectives said they had to delay interviewing witnesses to killings after supervisors ordered them to take days off.

“Could this cause us to not solve a case? Sure,” said Detective Chris Barling, who oversees the LAPD’s South Bureau homicide unit. The 11 detectives in the Southeast Division’s homicide squad had to take off 700 hours in February despite opening five new investigations. Nine of 14 killings reported in the area this year are unsolved.

“That is horrible compared to our typical rates,” said Detective Sal LaBarbera, division supervisor. “A few of them would likely already be solved, if I could just let my guys loose to work.” The worst economic decline since the Depression, a steep drop in tax revenue and burgeoning expenses have led to the city’s dire financial situation.

The city has a $212 million budget deficit that some have estimated could grow to $1 billion in four years without drastic cuts. The Police Department typically spends about $100 million a year in overtime but plans to allocate less than $10 million for the upcoming fiscal year.

Homicide detectives are among the first officers to be sent home in significant numbers because they routinely rack up overnight and weekend hours. Typically, a third of detectives’ pay comes from overtime. Police Chief Charlie Beck said the overtime limits were painful. Read more here-http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/12/AR2010041203044_pf.html

REAL ESTATE

-Morgan Stanley Property Fund Faces $5.4 Billion Loss. Morgan Stanley has told investors in its $8.8 billion real-estate fund that it may lose nearly two-thirds of its money from bum property investments, according to fund documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

That would likely make it the biggest dollar loss $5.4 billion in the history of private-equity real-estate investing. Over the past 20 years, Morgan Stanley’s real-estate unit was one of the biggest buyers of property around the world, doing some $174 billion in deals since 1991, mostly with money raised from pension funds, college endowments and foreign investors.

The losses come from investments in properties such as the European Central Bank’s Frankfurt headquarters, a big development project in Tokyo and InterContinental hotels across Europe, among others. Read more here-http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303695604575182022093645864.html?mod=WSJ_hps_LEFTWhatsNews

-China Real Estate Is Overheated, Nomura Asset Says. China’s real-estate market is overheating and investors should stay cautious on developers after the shares fell the most in the main equities index this year, according to Nomura Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd.

“In the first-tier cities, property markets are obviously overheating,” Shen Xiaomin, portfolio manager at Nomura Asset, said in a Bloomberg Television in Hong Kong today. “There is too much money in the economy.”

Property prices in China rose at the fastest pace in almost two years in February, spurring warnings of asset bubbles. Hedge fund manager James Chanos said last week that China is “on a treadmill to hell” and that the land market is a bubble that may burst as early as this year. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid;=a0_R9tCprSnQ and http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid;=an0ehK2dtdXg

-Downtown Manhattan Office Market Deteriorating, Broker Says. Downtown Manhattan’s office availability rose to 13.5 percent of the area’s total in the first quarter and is heading higher, commercial property broker CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. said today.

“A storm is brewing,” the Los Angeles-based broker said in a report, citing about 1.5 million square feet of offices likely to come on the market in the next 21 months. “While the increase is significant, it will not be the Category 5 hurricane some have predicted.”

Downtown asking rents fell 10 percent from a year earlier to an average of $38.81 a square foot, CB Richard Ellis said. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=aCH8KodUeKF8

-U.S. Foreclosure Filings Rise 16% as Bank Seizures Set Record. Foreclosure filings in the U.S. rose 16 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier and bank seizures hit a record as lenders stepped up action against delinquent homeowners, according to RealtyTrac Inc.

A total of 932,234 homes, or one out of every 138 households, received a default or auction notice, or were repossessed by banks, the Irvine, California-based firm said today. In March, filings rose 8 percent to the most in any month since RealtyTrac began publishing reports in January 2005.

“The banks are finally working through it,” Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac’s executive vice president for marketing, said in a telephone interview. “We’re seeing a resolution for properties that were in foreclosure but where seizure was delayed.”

Unemployed and “underwater” homeowners, or those who owe more than their property is worth, are driving foreclosures. The U.S. jobless rate was 9.7 percent in March, unchanged for a third month, the Labor Department reported April 2. More than a fifth of mortgaged homes were underwater in the fourth quarter, according to real estate data firm Zillow.com.

Bank repossessions climbed to 257,944 in the quarter. Scheduled auctions totaled 369,491, also the most since RealtyTrac began releasing data. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=a0OljkCr_BFQ&pos;=7

-10 foreclosures for every home saved. The Obama administration’s mortgage-modification program is not keeping pace with the deluge of foreclosures hitting the market, a government watchdog found.

Only 168,708 homeowners have received long-term mortgage modifications under the president’s plan, as of February, a small fraction of the 6 million borrowers who are more than 60 days behind on their loans, according to the Congressional Oversight Panel’s latest report, released Wednesday.

The president’s foreclosure-prevention plan will likely assist only 1 million troubled borrowers, short of the administration’s original goal of up to 4 million homeowners. The program is funded with $50 billion in Troubled Assets Relief, or TARP, funds, putting it under the panel’s purview. Read more here-http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/14/real_estate/COP_foreclosure_mitigation_report/index.htm

-Foreclosures Hit Rich and Famous. The rich and famous now have something in common with hundreds of thousands of middle and lower-class Americans: The bank is about to take their homes.

Houses with loans of $5 million or more will likely see a sharp rise in foreclosures this year, according to a RealtyTrac study for The Wall Street Journal.

Just this week, a Tudor mansion in Bel-Air belonging to film star Nicolas Cage was in foreclosure auction and reverted to the lender. On Wednesday, Richard Fuscone, a former top Wall Street executive, declared personal bankruptcy, forestalling a foreclosure auction that had been scheduled this week on his 14-acre Westchester mansion.

Last month a Manhattan condominium owned by Italian film producer Vittorio Cecchi Gori was sold in a foreclosure auction for $33.2 million. In February alone, 352 homes nationwide in this category were scheduled for foreclosure auction, the final step before a bank acquisition. That is the largest monthly number of these so-called notices of sale since the financial crisis began. By comparison, in all of 2009, there were 1,312 such notices.

Economists say the super-wealthy are among the last to lose their homes in a mortgage crisis because they usually have high savings, better access to credit and other means for staving off foreclosure. But many of them work in financial services and other industries hit especially hard by the crisis, and have seen their wealth shrink in the market crash. Read more here-http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304198004575172303998670976.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsForth

-Fannie Mae, the government-backed mortgage company under conservatorship, was toppled by conflict between its mission to foster homeownership and profit demand it faced as a publicly traded company, former regulators said. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid;=a6_3Jd3pOEEI

-”The Worst of All Worlds”: Fannie and Freddie Losses “Can’t Be Calculated” Kenneth Posner author of Stalking the Black Swan Says. Read and watch more here-http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/%22the-worst-of-all-worlds%22-fannie-and-freddie-losses-%22can%27t-be-calculated%22-posner-says-464813.html?tickers=FNM,FRE,XLF,JPM,MS,BAC,C

-Before Washington Mutual collapsed in the largest bank failure in U.S. history, its executives knowingly created a “mortgage time bomb” by making subprime loans they knew were likely to go bad and then packaging them into risky securities, a congressional investigation has found.

In some cases, the bank took loans in which it had discovered fraudulent activity such as misstated income by borrowers and rolled them into mortgage securities sold to investors without disclosing the fraud, according to the report released Monday by the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

The actions were driven in part by greed, according to the committee report, which pointed out that WaMu’s pay practices rewarded loan officers and processors based on how many mortgages they could churn out. Read more here-http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wamu-inquiry13-2010apr13,0,395793,print.story

© 2010, Worldwide Precious Metals.
www.wwpmc.com

The Goldbugg Report – April 20, 2010
Posted by Worldwide Precious Metals on Tuesday, April 20, 2010

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