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The Goldbugg Report – August 17th, 2010

August 17, 2010

-Peter Schiff: The golden decade. Read more

- China the world’s No. 1 gold producer and No. 2 gold consumer is encouraging gold investing by its rapidly growing middle class, and will likely have to increase imports to meet this new demand. See whole article

-James Turk: Is silver ready to move higher?

GOLD

-Frank Holmes: Ready, Set, Gold! Best Months Are Just Ahead. Global economic conditions are now favorable for gold as a safe-haven investment. The U.S., Western Europe and Japan are close to buckling under the weight of their sovereign debt loads, government budget deficits remain large and persistent and, as a result, faith in major paper currencies is low.

On top of this, China the world’s No. 1 gold producer and No. 2 gold consumer is encouraging gold investing by its rapidly growing middle class, and will likely have to increase imports to meet this new demand.

If history is any guide, gold is about to get even more attractive because we are heading into the fall and winter gift-giving season. This is the time of year that gold jewelers typically do their biggest business.

The clear trend can be seen on the seasonality chart for spot gold. In a typical year, the September price rises 2.5 percent above the August price. And to make the case even more compelling, the gold price has risen in 17 of the 21 Septembers since 1989, by far the best success ratio of any month of the year. In September 2009, the gold price jumped nearly 6 percent, well above the long-term average.

Based on the long-term record, this may be a good time for investors to consider establishing or adding to a gold or gold-stock position in advance of seasonal demand growth. Historical patterns may be a useful guide and improve the chances for investment success, but of course, there are no guarantees that the fall of 2010 will follow the well-established trend. Read more here-http://www.321gold.com/editorials/holmes/holmes081010.html and http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1281365291.php and http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=109485&sn=Detail&pid=33

-Gold and silver are in primary bull markets with years of upside still ahead. After all, gold and silver are the original money with 5,000 years of history. Nothing else even comes close. Larry LaBorde-Read more here-http://www.321gold.com/editorials/laborde/laborde080610.html

-I have a $1,375 target on gold this year; it’s a forecast I put out at the beginning of 2010. I’m still very comfortable with that forecast. We still have a long way to go before the end of the year. The fact that gold prices are still high compared to historical standards means that we’ve had an opportunity to sell off multiple times in recent months.

Yet, we’ve always managed to find gold buyers on dips, and we’re still hovering around $1,200. I think the sellers had their chance to drive down the price of gold and they’re out. The 5% decline that we’ve seen in the gold price was not met by increased selling pressure it was met by buyers looking for a cheap way to play the yellow metal. That $1,375 is still very much achievable this year. John Licata-Read more here-http://www.theaureport.com/pub/na/7023

-Precious metals are best performing assets. Precious metals such as gold were the best performing asset class of the first half of the year, according to research by Lloyds TSB. Read more here-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/7935121/Precious-metals-are-best-performing-assets.html

-Goldman Goes For Gold: “Gold Market Poised For A Rally As US Real Rates Head Lower”. Read more here-http://www.zerohedge.com/article/goldman-goes-goo-goo-gold-gold-market-poised-rally-us-real-rates-head-lower

-Gene Arensberg: Chinese put under the gold price. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8905

-Gold’s upward path will be volatile but direction and magnitude are assured Nichols. As investors get used to current gold prices so increased demand from India and China likely to see prices rise significantly higher. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=109595&sn=Detail&pid=33

-The Indian gold jewelry love affair and its global significance. Unlike the West, Indians see gold jewelry as an investment and insurance against hard times, while the West sees it purely as decoration. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=109581&sn=Detail&pid=33

-China pushes for gold; India follows suit. Hot on China’s heels, India’s Central bank is mulling over a proposal to allow banks to trade in gold. If cleared, the move will only strengthen the validity of the bull case in gold. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=109472&sn=Detail&pid=33

-Christopher Barker: China opens the floodgates for gold and silver. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8895

-John Hathaway, manager of the $1.4 billion Tocqueville Gold Fund, interview with Barron’s called “The Golden Mean.” Read more here-http://webreprints.djreprints.com/2467711363988.pdf

-’Committee to Save the World’ is wrecking fiat currencies, John Hathaway tells KWN. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/8908

-Richard Russell-Fiat money in retreat all over the world. Read more here-http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2010/8/11_Richard_Russell_-_Fiat_Money_In_Retreat_All_Over_The_World.html

-Richard Russell Slams Robert Prechter, Praises Gold, Tells Readers To Get Out Of Stocks. Read more here-http://www.zerohedge.com/article/richard-russell-slams-robert-prechter-praises-gold-tells-readers-get-out-stocks

-Darryl Robert Schoon: Hedging Chaos with Gold. Read more here-http://www.321gold.com/editorials/schoon/schoon080510.html

-Peter Schiff: The golden decade. Read more here-http://www.321gold.com/editorials/schiff/schiff080910a.html

-Ned Schmidt’s Gold Thoughts. Read more here-http://www.kitco.com/ind/Schmidt/aug092010.html

-David Levenstein: The Fundamentals Driving the Gold Price have not Changed. Read more here-http://www.kitco.com/ind/Levenstein/aug092010.html

-CBGA gold sales minimal as IMF sales continue. The BIS activity serves to strengthen gold’s role as a non-fiat currency and the IMF programme could be completed this year. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=109370&sn=Detail&pid=33 and http://www.gata.org/node/8897

-Gold Holdings Decline Isn’t Signaling `Big Exit’: Chart of the Day. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-09/gold-holdings-decline-isn-t-signaling-big-exit-chart-of-the-day.html

-Gold to Gain, Revive Inverse Link With Dollar: Chart of the Day. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-06/gold-to-gain-revive-inverse-link-with-dollar-chart-of-the-day.html

-Good thing Iran hasn’t the wit to buy gold and take delivery. Iran announced plans Monday to get rid of its dollar and euro reserves in response to the latest United Nations sanctions over its contested nuclear program. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8907

-Gold council CEO helps The Economist put investors to sleep. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8900

-If you can fractionally reserve gold,1 ounce is worth 40, 50, or 100. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8893

-Real gold or paper gold which do you own? Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8894

-Hinde Capital On Whether GLD Is A New CDO In Disguise. Read more here-http://www.zerohedge.com/article/hinde-capital-whether-gld-new-cdo-disguise

-Murray Pollitt: When it comes to gold, The Economist and FT are like Pravda. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8909

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

-The manipulations of markets by the PPT around the world are now so blatant that only a total dolt could not see it. Witness the takedown of the gold and silver prices by JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and/or Deutsche Bank just like clockwork every option expiration day.

And heaven forbid that gold should exceed $1,200 per ounce, or silver $18.50 per ounce, lest the entire universe come to an end. Well, we have some news for the Illuminati. The universe of the would-be lords of the universe is going to come to an end, and much sooner than they think. They are well on their way to losing control of world financial systems. Bob Chapman-Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/InternationalForecaster/1281537289.php and http://news.goldseek.com/InternationalForecaster/1281283200.php

-James Turk: Is silver ready to move higher? It is gold – and not silver – that gets all of the attention being given to the precious metals these days, and why shouldn’t it? After all, gold has risen nine years in a row against the US dollar and appreciated during this period at an impressive average annual rate of 17.1%.

In a continuation of this trend, gold is up 9.9% year-to-date, making it one of this decade’s best performing asset classes. But don’t overlook silver. Though it has risen only seven of the past nine years, silver’s 17.6% average annual rate of appreciation during this period is actually higher than that achieved by gold. This year silver has risen 9.7%, approximately the same as gold.

The implication of these similar rates of appreciation is that the gold/silver ratio, which is the number of ounces of silver that equals the value of an ounce of gold, is little changed this decade. This result though masks silver’s characteristic volatility.

Though the gold/silver ratio is little changed from the beginning of the decade to the present, it has been in a broad trading range that actually extends for nearly two decades, bound between 46 and 84 ounces of silver to equal one ounce of gold. This trading range is delineated by the horizontal red dotted lines in the following chart.

There are three clear conclusions from this chart. Given the fluctuations in their ratio, silver is a lot more volatile than gold. Just look at how the ratio rose in the 1980s from 17 at the beginning of the decade to 100. That level of volatility means that silver is not for everyone.

The second conclusion is that compared to gold, silver is still relatively cheap. In other words, their ratio remains relatively high compared to historical experience. Third, note the downward sloping red lines on the above chart. The gold/silver ratio is in a downtrend, meaning that from 1990 to the present, silver has outperformed gold.

So should you own some silver in your precious metal portfolio? The fact that it is still relatively cheap compared to gold is only one compelling reason to answer this question in the affirmative. There are other reasons too.

Ignoring for the moment their different price, owning an ounce of physical silver is like owning an ounce of physical gold. Both accomplish the same thing. Both are tangible assets, and that means they do not have counterparty risk because physical metal is not a financial asset. The value of gold and silver does not depend upon anyone’s promise. But there is another important factor to consider.

Silver has never been confiscated by any government. This characteristic alone makes it worthwhile to seriously consider owning some physical silver. Another factor to keep in mind is that the following chart is very bullish.

Silver has been an accumulation pattern for more than three years. It is now near the neckline of that pattern, which itself is drawing to a conclusion. If silver completes this pattern in a way that one would normally expect by breaking higher and as a result hurdles above $20.50 or so, silver would likely be starting another leg higher. The target for this next leg would be $30, using normal technical analysis measurements.

So there are several compelling reasons to consider adding physical silver to your precious metal portfolio, but why isn’t silver receiving the same attention as gold? Silver is still in stage one of its bull market, while gold is already in stage two.

Bull market first stages are always marked by apathy, if not downright neglect, and disbelief that any uptrend is sustainable. Those conditions explain what happened to gold, for example, when it was under $1,000 an ounce. Only when it hurdled that psychological barrier did gold start receiving widespread attention of its attributes and upside potential.

It is the same kind of attention silver will be receiving when it enters its second stage, which is when it clears $50 per ounce its record high price going all the way back to January 1980. That achievement would definitely put silver at centre stage.

So if you can handle the volatility, silver makes sense for your precious metal portfolio. A mix of 70% gold and 30% silver gives a portfolio the opportunity to take advantage of silver if it outperforms, but without subjecting it to too much volatility. And of course, if you do decide to add some silver, the prudent choice is to make sure it is physical silver and not any of the paper-silver varieties that have become so prevalent. Read more here-http://goldmoney.com/gold-research/is-silver-ready-to-move-higher.html and http://www.gata.org/node/8903

-Morgan cuts gold and silver shorts, maybe permanently, Ted Butler says. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/8898

-Speculators Hike Silver Long Positions Considerably In CFTC Data. Read more here-http://www.kitco.com/reports/KitcoNews20100809DeC.html

-CFTC to start anew this month in devising commodity position limits. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8910

-Pat Heller: Dollar plunges and commodities soar, but not gold and silver. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8899

-Jim Rickards: Portfolio recommendations as Fed walks tightrope. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/8906

-Money, Inflation, Fear, and Industry: The Basis for Capital Gains in Precious Metals. Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1281550672.php

-Howard Ruff: Why Gold and Silver Seem Stuck. Read more here-http://www.kitco.com/ind/Ruff/ruff_aug092010.html

CHARTS OF THE WEEK-QUOTES-QUICK HITS

-Chart of the week: The Eurozone Crisis Returns. Europe’s PIIGS economies, the soft underbelly of the Eurozone, are back in the spotlight. Fresh concerns have emerged in the news regarding Spain, Greece, and Ireland’s finances. Yet if the wave of news stories isn’t enough to convince you that something is up, then check out the latest move for credit default swaps.

As shown below, credit default swap spreads are rising again for all of the PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain). We’re heading back towards past peaks, the Eurozone crisis is back. Read more here-http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-credit-default-swap-spreads-2010-8

Source: chartoftheday.com

-“In the new-normal world, there are structural problems, which require structural solutions.” Bill Gross-Pimco-Read more here-http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/weekinreview/08schwartz.html and http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/opinion/07phelps.html

-The financial system experiences a crisis “every five to seven years,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon told the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in January. By that measure, the next crash could come by 2015 years before new banking reforms are in place. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-09/crash-of-2015-won-t-wait-for-regulators-to-buckle-wall-street-safety-belts.html

-There are legions of folks who still think we are in a cyclical bull market completely oblivious to the fact that the TSX and the S&P 500 are at the same level today that they were eight months ago. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-So, we had a huge bounce off the lows, but we had a similar bounce off the lows in 1930. The equity market was up something like 50% in the opening months of 1930, and while I am sure there was euphoria at the time that the worst of the recession and the contraction in credit was over, it’s interesting to see today that nobody talks about the great run up of 1930 even though it must have hurt not to have participated in that wonderful rally. Instead, when we talk about 1930 today, the images that are conjured up are hardly very joyous. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-Finally, the best way to describe the financial backdrop is that it is truly a meat-grinder market. The S&P 500 was at 1,090 back on October 14, 2009. It’s at 1,090 today. That means 208 trading days of doing nothing. Nada. While I am sure there were gems beneath the surface, we are talking about an entire asset class here you were better off clipping coupons for the past nine months.

Yes, yes, we had an 80% bounce off the lows. That ended a while ago but we can understand the need for nostalgia we’re human. But this resembled the 50% bounce in 1930, which nobody seems to recall and that 80% bear market rally of 2009 will also very likely fade in our memory banks too.

Yet, what is amazing is the extent of the volatility 208 days of nothing except a market that has moved up and down on a daily basis by 1,028 points (including 25 trading days of 2% declines or more since the March 2009 lows; the Dow has now fallen 200 points or more 11 times). David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-The yield on the 10-year note hit its nearby peak on April 5, at 4.01%, and has since plunged nearly 120 basis points. Declines of this magnitude very often presage the onset of bear markets and recessions.

Typically, equities and then economists are late to the game. Nothing we are seeing is any different from the past, at least on this score. What is key to note is that the bond market is the tail that wags the stock market’s dog it leads. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-Well, it took some patience but it looks like the economic environment I was depicting this time last year just shortly after I joined GS+A is starting to play out. Deflation risks are prevailing and a growing acknowledgment over the lack of sustainability regarding the nascent economic recovery.

Extreme fragility and volatility is what one should expect in a post-bubble credit collapse and asset inflation that we endured back in 2008 and part of 2009. History is replete with enough examples of this balance sheet recessions are different animals than traditional inventory recessions, and the transition to the next sustainable economic expansion, and bull market (the operative word being sustainability) in these types of cycles take between 5 to 10 years and are fraught with periodic setbacks.

I know this sounds a bit dire, but little has changed from where we were a year ago. To be sure, we had a tremendous short-covering and a government induced equity market rally on our hands and it’s really nothing more than a commentary on human nature that so many people rely on what the stock market is doing at any moment in time to base their conclusions on what the economic landscape is going to look like. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-In the U.S.A., we received more news today that the housing crisis is far from over with 325,229 properties moving into default or bank repossession last month up 4% from June. Lenders seized 92,858 homes, the second highest on record (RealtyTrac data).

Things are so bad that the Administration is now pumping in another $3 billion into programs to prevent the unemployed from losing their homes. What’s amazing is how $3 billion hardly sounds like a big sum of money any more in the context of a $1.2 trillion deficit! Tell me this isn’t a depression. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-I don’t believe in all the stories about China collapsing. In fact, if there is a bullish story to be told, it is that the secular growth paths in not only China, but India, Indonesia and Korea and that will continue to ensure that the resource sector remains a core holding, with oil and food retaining geopolitical significance and gold remaining a critical hedge against ongoing reflationary policies that weakens the U.S. dollar in coming months as a critical mid-term election approaches. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-Agflation fears grow as Russia halts grain exports. Russian premier Vladimir Putin has ordered a halt to all exports of wheat and other grains from August 15, raising the stakes dramatically in the crisis over wheat supplies.

“This is very serious,” said Abdolreza Abbassanian, chief grain economist at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. “It’s a desperate situation because it has caught everybody off guard. We’re not facing the situation of two years ago but there is a risk of destabilising panic.”

The shortage may trigger a bout of “agflation,” posing a quandary for central banks. Professor Charles Goodhart from the London School of Economics fears that rising food prices will add 0.5 percent to Britain’s sticky inflation, already testing market tolerance. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8896

-Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Commodity spike queers the pitch for Bernanke’s QE2. Don’t be fooled: a food and oil price spike is not and cannot be inflationary in those advanced industrial economies where the credit system remains broken, the broad money supply is contracting, and fiscal policy is tightening by design or default. Read more here-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/7933235/Commodity-spike-queers-the-pitch-for-Bernankes-QE2.html and http://www.gata.org/node/8904

-Buffett Shortens Bond Holding Duration After Inflation Warning. Warren Buffett shortened the duration of bonds held by his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. after warning that deficit spending could force inflation higher. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-10/buffett-shortens-duration-of-bond-portfolio-after-warning-about-inflation.html

-U.S. Federal workers earning double their private counterparts. Read more here-http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/income/2010-08-10-1Afedpay10_ST_N.htm

-Social Security in the red this year. Social Security will pay out more this year than it gets in payroll taxes, marking the first time since the program will be in the red since it was overhauled in 1983, according to the annual authoritative report released Thursday by the program’s actuary. Read more here-http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/aug/5/social-security-red-first-time-ever/

-Battle Looms Over Huge Costs of Public Pensions. There’s a class war coming to the world of government pensions. The haves are retirees who were once state or municipal workers. Their seemingly guaranteed and ever-escalating monthly pension benefits are breaking budgets nationwide.

The have-nots are taxpayers who don’t have generous pensions. Their 401(k)s or individual retirement accounts have taken a real beating in recent years and are not guaranteed. And soon, many of those people will be paying higher taxes or getting fewer state services as their states put more money aside to cover those pension checks.

At stake is at least $1 trillion. That’s trillion, with a “t,” as in titanic and terrifying. Read more here-http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/your-money/07money.html?_r=2&ref=business

-Governments Go to Extremes as the Downturn Wears On. Plenty of businesses and governments furloughed workers this year, but Hawaii went further it furloughed its schoolchildren. Public schools across the state closed on 17 Fridays during the past school year to save money, giving students the shortest academic year in the nation and sending working parents scrambling to find care for them.

Many transit systems have cut service to make ends meet, but Clayton County, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta, decided to cut all the way, and shut down its entire public bus system. Its last buses ran on March 31, stranding 8,400 daily riders. Read more here-http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/us/07cutbacksWEB.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

-US Postal Service loses $3.5 bln in third quarter. The U.S. Postal Service reported a quarterly net loss of $3.5 billion and said it will likely have a cash shortfall going into 2011. The agency, which delivers nearly half the world’s mail, has reported net losses in 14 of the last 16 fiscal quarters. Read more here-http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0517225620100805

-Matthew Simmons, Investment Banker, Peak Oil Theory Advocate, Dies at 67. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-09/matthew-simmons-investment-banker-peak-oil-theory-advocate-dies-at-67.html

-Matthew Simmons’ Excellent Presentation On The Coming Oil & Water Shortage. Read more here-http://www.businessinsider.com/matthew-simmons-oil-and-water-shortages-2010-8

-Doug Casey: War Is Coming. Read more here-http://www.caseyresearch.com/displayCwc.php?id=67

-Russian oil giant LUKOIL has resumed gasoline sales into Iran in partnership with China’s state-run firm Zhuhai Zhenrong, even as the United States urges the international community to be tough with Tehran. Read more here-http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFLDE67A17G20100811

-Chinese missile could shift Pacific power balance. Nothing projects U.S. global air and sea power more vividly than super carriers. Bristling with fighter jets that can reach deep into even landlocked trouble zones, America’s virtually invincible carrier fleet has long enforced its dominance of the high seas. China may soon put an end to that. Read more here-http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100805/ap_on_re_as/as_china_us_carrier_killer

-Richer Countries Have Fewer Bacteria on Banknotes, Netherlands Study Finds. The richer and more economically free a country, the fewer bacteria its banknotes carry, according to a study of paper money in 10 countries ranging from Burkina Faso to the U.S.

Researchers found a “strong correlation” between the amount of bacteria per square centimeter (0.16 square inch) on banknotes and a country’s ranking on the Index of Economic Freedom, Wageningen University in the Netherlands said on its website today. Currencies studied included the euro, U.S. dollar, British pound, Chinese yuan and Mexican peso. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-09/richer-countries-have-fewer-bacteria-on-banknotes-netherlands-study-finds.html

-Vending Machines Of The Future. Your thumbprint might soon be the key to an afternoon candy bar. A Massachusetts based vending machine company is joining the growing ranks of companies that are field-testing new technologies.

Next Generation Vending and Food Service is experimenting with biometric vending machines that would allow a user to tie a credit card to their thumbprint. Read more here-http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/your_money/consumer/vending-machines-of-the-future-20100807-lgf

-A new superbug from India could spread around the world in part because of medical tourism and scientists say there are almost no drugs to treat it. Read more here-http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67A0YU20100811

-Thousands of online banking customers have accounts emptied by ‘most dangerous trojan virus ever created’. Read more here-http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1302062/New-trojan-virus-Zeus-v3-empties-online-bank-accounts.html

-Superman Comic Saves Family Home From Foreclosure. Unexpected Find of Action Comics No. 1 Could Fetch Upwards of a Quarter of a Million Dollars at Auction. Read more here-http://abcnews.go.com/Business/superman-comic-saves-familys-home/story?id=11306997

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’s of Harold Seigel on colored diamonds. Watch video here-http://www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com/watchnow.html and http://www.b-tv.com/features/watch-now.html?id=326

-Smithsonian Extends Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond Exhibit. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History is extending the Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond exhibit to September 1, 2010. The blue, 31.06-carat diamond is currently on display in the Harry Winston Gallery at the museum, adjacent to the renowned Hope Diamond, in the Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals.

The Wittelsbach-Graff diamond’s properties once suggested a possible link to the same mines in India that produced the 45.52-carat Hope Diamond. However, that theory was dispelled by Jeffrey Post, the museum’s curator of gems and minerals. “There is an uncanny resemblance, but they are different,” Post explained. “They are not part of the same crystal or rough. Perhaps they are distant cousins, but not brothers and sisters.”

The rare Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond has a history that extends back to 1664, according to the Smithsonian, when Philip IV of Spain gave it to his daughter, the Infanta Margarita Teresa, upon her engagement. In 1722, the diamond went to the Wittelsbachs, members of the ruling House of Bavaria. In 1931, the crown jewels of the House of Wittelsbach were said to be sold at a Christie’s auction.

However, the Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond actually disappeared before the auction, where it was replaced by a worthless glass replica. It resurfaced in Belgium in 1951 and was eventually displayed without attribution at the “World Exhibition” in Brussels in 1958. The diamond was correctly identified by Joseph Komkommer, a Belgian gem expert, in 1962.

In December 2008, the stone was acquired by Laurence Graff at an auction held in London. Graff’s expertise in gemology enabled him to see the potential in repolishing the stone and this process brought the stone to its current weight of 31.06 carats.

According to the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), the diamond “is the largest flawless or internally flawless, fancy deep blue, natural color we have graded to date.” Read more here-http://www.diamonds.net/news/NewsItem.aspx?ArticleID=32071

AMERICA IS BANKRUPT

-America Is ‘Bankrupt Mickey Mouse Economy’: CIO. America is a “Mickey Mouse economy” that is technically bankrupt, according to Jochen Wermuth, the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) and managing partner at Wermuth Asset Management. “America today looks like Russia in 1998. Consumers, companies and the government are all highly indebted. America as a result is a bankrupt Mickey Mouse economy,” Wermuth told CNBC.

The comments followed news that the Fed was extending its quantitative easing program following what the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) described as a fall in the pace of growth in output and employment. Read more here-http://www.cnbc.com/id/38654017

-U.S. Is Bankrupt and We Don’t Even Know It: Laurence Kotlikoff. Let’s get real. The U.S. is bankrupt. Neither spending more nor taxing less will help the country pay its bills. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-11/u-s-is-bankrupt-and-we-don-t-even-know-commentary-by-laurence-kotlikoff.html

-Soaring Federal Aid Bails Out U.S. States, Cities: Chart of the Day. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-11/soaring-federal-aid-bails-out-u-s-states-cities-chart-of-the-day.html

-Reagan insider: ‘GOP destroyed U.S. economy’. Commentary: How: Gold. Tax cuts. Debts. Wars. Fat Cats. Class gap. No fiscal discipline. Read more here-http://www.marketwatch.com/story/story/print?guid=C387638C-41A3-499B-9315-5AF8940C47DD

-When Will Financial Armageddon Begin? Read more here-http://usawatchdog.com/when-will-financial-armageddon-begin/

-John Williams: Times That Try Our Souls. Read more here-http://www.theenergyreport.com/pub/na/7005

-San Francisco Fed: Here Are The Real Reasons Why We’re At Risk For A Second Recession. Read more here-http://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-fed-second-recession-2010-8 and http://www.zerohedge.com/article/san-francisco-fed-recessionary-relapse-significant-possibility-sometime-next-two-years

U.S. DEFICIT-DEBT

-Deficit in July Totals $165.04 Billion. The U.S. government spent itself deeper into the red last month, paying nearly $20 billion in interest on debt and an additional $9.8 billion to help unemployed Americans.

Federal spending eclipsed revenue for the 22nd straight time, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. The $165.04 billion deficit, while a bit smaller than the $169.5 billion shortfall expected by economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires, was the second highest for the month on record. The highest was $180.68 billion in July 2009.

The government usually runs a deficit during July, which is the 10th month of the fiscal year. So far in fiscal 2010, the government spent $1.169 trillion more than it made. That figure is about $98 billion lower than during the comparable period a year earlier.

For all of fiscal 2009, the U.S. ran a record $1.42 trillion deficit. Fiscal 2010 might run a little higher the Obama administration sees $1.47 trillion. Read more here-http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704901104575423601722830706.html and http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-11/budget-deficit-in-u-s-narrowed-more-than-forecast-to-165-billion-in-july.html

-U.S. Trade Deficit Unexpectedly Widens to $49.9 Billion in June. The U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly widened in June by a record $7.9 billion as imports rose and shipments abroad declined. The $49.9 billion gap was the biggest since October 2008 and followed a $42 billion shortfall in May, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. Exports dropped by the most in more than a year. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-11/u-s-trade-deficit-unexpectedly-widens-to-49-9-billion-as-exports-decline.html

-U.S. debt and economy in charts. Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1281040234.php

U.S. QE

-What Is Quantitative Easing? Read more here-http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-quantitative-easing-2010-8

-Fed Looks to Spur Growth by Buying Government Debt. Federal Reserve officials decided to reinvest principal payments on mortgage holdings into long-term Treasury securities, making their first attempt to bolster growth since March 2009 to keep the slowing U.S. economy from relapsing into recession. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-10/fed-to-reinvest-principal-on-mortgage-proceeds-into-long-term-treasuries.html

-US Federal Reserve starts ‘QE-lite’ to placate markets. America’s central bank attempted to reinvigorate the country’s fading economic recovery by starting what has been dubbed “Quantitative Easing-lite” by one economist. Read more here-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/7937724/US-Federal-Reserve-starts-QE-lite-to-placate-markets.html

-James Bullard’s Seven Faces of “The Peril”. Read more here-http://www.ciovaccocapital.com/sys-tmpl/quantitativeeasingbullard/

-Credit Easing Goodbye, Quantitative Easing Ahoy! Read more here-http://www.321gold.com/editorials/merk/merk081210.html

-Stiglitz Says U.S. Faces `Anemic Recovery,’ Needs More Stimulus. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz said the U.S. economy faces an “anemic recovery” and the government will need to enact another round of “better designed” stimulus measures. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-05/stiglitz-says-anemic-u-s-recovery-means-obama-should-seek-more-stimulus.html

-Clive Maund on QE2. Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/CliveMaund/1281565522.php

GROSS-FED WON’T RAISE RATES FOR 2 TO 3 YEARS

-Pimco’s Gross Says Fed Won’t Raise Rates for 2 to 3 Years. Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Bill Gross said the Federal Reserve is unlikely to raise interest rates for two to three years as it seeks to keep the economy from slipping back into recession.

An overdependence on debt has the global economy entering a period of fundamental transformation that Gross, 66, calls the “new normal.” Pimco says mounting deficits and tighter financial regulation will dampen growth in the U.S. and the euro zone for the next three to five years.

Excessive leverage led to over employment in finance, mortgage, investment banking and government jobs, Gross said. The U.S. economy faces long term structural unemployment near 7 percent, according Gross, which makes “a significant statement about the future of the U.S. economy and the safety nets that will be necessary for it.”

U.S. lawmakers need to institute some kind of industrial policy or state-oriented capitalism after promoting consumption and extending unemployment benefits, Gross said. Specific measures should be directed at investments in infrastructure, re-education and green energy instead of “pushing money into the consumption hole,” he said.

“What they really need to do is hearken back to something like the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) or the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, something that sounds so old that it isn’t applicable to the modern era, but really would keep and put people back to work in a specifically directed area,” Gross said. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-06/pimco-s-gross-says-fed-isn-t-likely-to-raise-rates-for-two-to-three-years.html

109 U.S. BANKS HAVE FAILED THIS YEAR

-Illinois Bank Ravenswood Shut as Failures This Year Reach 109. Ravenswood Bank, a Chicago-based lender with $265 million in assets, was shut by regulators as the number of U.S. failures this year reached 109.

Northbrook Bank & Trust Co. acquired Ravenswood’s $270 million in deposits and two branches, according to a statement posted today on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. website. The failure cost the FDIC’s deposit-insurance fund $68.1 million.

Regulators may close the most banks this year since 1992 as borrowers struggle to keep up with payments amid weak hiring and bad residential and commercial loans impair capital levels. Failures in 2010 will surpass last year’s total of 140, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said last month in a Bloomberg Television interview.

“If the economy remains weak and we don’t see material workouts of these problematic commercial loans, we would expect to see a material number of failures spilling into 2011,” Frederic Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co. in Lake Oswego, Oregon, said today in a phone interview.

Ravenswood is the 13th Illinois lender shut this year, the statement said. The FDIC included 775 banks with $431 billion in assets on the confidential list of problem lenders as of March 31, an increase from 702 banks with $402.8 billion at the end of the fourth quarter. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aMcewddNjMCw

TALEB-AVOID STOCKS-GOV BONDS TO COLLAPSE

-Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who warned that unforeseen events can roil markets in “The Black Swan,” said he is “betting on the collapse of government bonds” and that investors should avoid stocks. “I’m very pessimistic,” he said at the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit in Johannesburg today. “By staying in cash or hedging against inflation, you won’t regret it in two years.”

The financial system is riskier than it was before the 2008 crisis that led the U.S. economy to the worst contraction since the Great Depression, Taleb said. Prior to the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008, Taleb warned that bankers were relying too much on probability models and were disregarding the potential for unexpected catastrophes.

His book labeled these events black swans, referring to the widely held belief that only white swans existed until black ones were discovered in Australia in 1697, and said that they were becoming more severe. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-11/-black-swan-author-taleb-says-he-bets-on-collapse-of-government-bonds.html

WHALEN-WALL STREET’S NEXT BUBBLE STRUCTURED NOTES

-Wall Street banks are creating the “next investment bubble” by selling opaque and unregulated structured notes to investors hunting for yield, according to Christopher Whalen, managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics.

Using the same “loophole” that allowed over-the-counter sales of collateralized debt obligations and auction-rate securities, firms are pitching illiquid structured notes whose value is partly derived from bets on interest rates, Whalen wrote today in a report.

Whalen, who predicted in March 2007 the collapse of the mortgage-backed securities market, said that these structured notes “promise enhanced yields that go well into double digits” and “often come with only minimal disclosure.” Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-09/structured-notes-are-wall-street-s-next-bubble-institutional-risk-says.html

JOBS

-Chart of the week: The Scariest Jobs Chart Ever Takes A Turn For The Worse. We run this chart every month that Calculated Risk puts together when the jobs data comes out, and it’s always ugly, but this time it shows something really stark. That red line which shows the trajectory of our recovery has now clearly taken a sharp line back down, after (for awhile) curving back higher. Ugly. Read more here-http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-percent-job-lossess-in-post-wwii-recessions-2010-8

Source: chartoftheday.com

-Chart of the week: Last Friday, the Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate held steady at 9.5%. Assuming that the recession ended in June 2009, the current unemployment rate is exactly where it was at the end of the recession (9.5%).

For some perspective on the current state of the labor market, today’s chart illustrates the amount of time it took for the unemployment rate to ultimately dip below (and stay below) its recession-end level for each recession since the late 1940s. For example, at the end of the recession that ended in November 1982, the unemployment rate stood at 10.8%.

As the chart illustrates, it took two months for the unemployment rate to drop below (and stay below) the recession-end level of 10.8%. It is noteworthy that, over the past two decades, it has taken significantly longer (on average) for the unemployment rate to drop below its recession-end level.

The reasons for this increased time for the unemployment rate to turn around varies. However, one explanation has it that following World War II, the US found itself in a strong/dominant economic position. It took time, but eventually many of the remaining world economies began to recover and we are currently witnessing increased competition as a result of the rise of the rest. Read more here-http://www.chartoftheday.com/20100806.htm?T

Source: chartoftheday.com

-Chart of the week: Employment-To-Population Ratio Back To October 1983 Levels: The Only Chart That Matters. The administration thinks it can pull a fast one by pretending the unemployment rate is better when millions of people are allegedly leaving the labor force in droves? That’s fine however, there is nothing Christina Romer’s replacement can say to put lipstick on the below piggly chart.

The ever critical ratio of civilian employment to population is now at 58.4%. It was last this low (to the upside) in October of 1983. At least in one way Obama has caught up to the Reagan administration. Read more here-http://www.zerohedge.com/article/employment-population-ratio-back-october-1983-levels-only-chart-matters

-U.S. Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Climb to Five-Month High. More Americans unexpectedly filed applications for unemployment insurance last week, signaling firings stepped up as the economy slowed. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-12/jobless-claims-in-u-s-unexpectedly-climb-to-five-month-high.html

-Youth Unemployment Hits Record High. Global youth unemployment has hit a record high following the financial crisis and is likely to get worse later this year, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Thursday. The report from the ILO says 81 million out of 630 million 15-24 year olds where unemployed at the end of 2009, some 7.8 million more than at the end of 2007. Read more here-http://www.cnbc.com/id/38674003

-At the rate the economy is creating jobs 654,000 so far this year we will not get back to the previous peak in employment until 2017. Just to get back to the 8% unemployment rate that the White House had forecasted we would require job creation of at least 2.5 million. At the rate we are going, that will take longer than two years to accomplish. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-The employment rate has declined now for three months in a row, back to where it was at the start of the year, and smartalecks who see this recovery as anything but disturbing don’t realize that this employment rate, at 58.4%, is down from 64.0% at the 2007 high. This was the largest drop in the post-war era and what it means is that the economy is 12 million jobs shy of being at full employment.

Instead of declaring an outright war on unemployment, we instead have a government bent on measures to boost spending on cars and homes that nobody really wants since, at the margin, all people want to do is boost their once-depleted savings rates and get out of debt; or at least a half dozen housing plans to help distressed mortgage borrowers.

Or infrastructure spending that so far seems to have helped line the pockets of public sector union officials with no obvious payback in terms of job creation. At least FDR paid people to work, even if it meant skyscrapers, bridges, monuments and national parks.

They didn’t get paid do sit idle for 99 weeks so they can then drop out of the labour force and into oblivion (almost 45% of the unemployed have been so for more than 26 weeks in no other recession in the past six decades did this share ever cross above 26%).

Almost half of the ranks of the unemployed have been looking for a job fruitlessly for at least six months. Let’s get these people re-engaged in the labour market, get them re-tooled and retrained for the skill set that businesses need now and in the future. Give these folks a shovel from 8 to 12 and engineering courses from 1 to 5 in return for their jobless insurance check.

It’s time to get creative and aggressive with minimal cost to the taxpayer. If we can win this fight against unemployment, it’s amazing what other positive things will fall into place, from housing demand to government revenues to consumer credit quality. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

ENERGY

-China Is Winning the Energy Race. Stop the presses. The United States is no longer the world’s biggest consumer of energy. After topping the energy consumption charts for more than a century, the U.S. has been left behind as China leapfrogged past.

According to the International Energy Association’s (IEA) latest report, China burned its way through 2,252 million tonnes of oil equivalent last year about 4% more than the U.S. (The oil-equivalent measure is a bundle of all forms of energy consumed, including crude, coal, nuclear, natural gas, and renewable resources.)

That’s an astonishing turnaround, according to IEA chief economist Fatih Birol, who noted that as recently as 2000, the U.S. consumed twice as much energy as China. Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1281036619.php

-Argentina Has Colder Winter Than Antartica, Spurring Record Power Imports. Argentina is importing record amounts of energy as the coldest winter in 40 years drives up demand and causes natural-gas shortages, prompting Dow Chemical Co. and steelmaker Siderar SAIC to scale back production.

Electricity supplied from Brazil and Paraguay rose to a daily combined record of about 1,000 megawatts on July 12, while consumption peaked at 20,396 megawatts three days later, according to Buenos Aires-based energy broker Cammesa. Shipments of liquefied natural gas are set to double this year. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-03/argentina-colder-than-antarctica-spurs-record-power-imports-shuts-plants.html

REAL ESTATE

-As we predicted, new home sales tumbled in May to a revised seasonally adjusted annual rate of 267,000, the slowest pace on record dating back to 1963. New home sales rose to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 330,000 in June but don’t be surprised if this figure is revised downward next month as has been standard practice the past few months.

Even with the rosy figure for June, it’s still 16.7% below the same month of last year and the second slowest pace on record. The new homebuyer tax credit expired on April 30, so a rush to qualify for this credit pushed home sales forward. The next few months of data will likely reflect this rush in April with lower sales volume and prices for new homes. Clearly the housing market is not out of the woods yet. Casey’s Charts-Read more here-http://www.caseyresearch.com/displayCdd.php?id=502

-Owners cut prices on one-quarter of U.S. homes listed for sale in July, a fourth straight monthly rise, as job market fallout trumped record low mortgage rates, real estate website Trulia.com said on Wednesday.

Sellers in the 50 largest cities slashed $30.1 billion from prices on houses on the market as of August 1, up from $27.3 billion in the prior month, San Francisco-based Trulia said in a report provided to Reuters before official release. Read more here-http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6783N820100811?type=domesticNews

-Foreclosure Crisis Spreads Across U.S. as Idaho Defaults Mount. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-12/foreclosure-crisis-spreads-across-u-s-as-defaults-jump-in-idaho-illinois.html and http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/12/real_estate/July_foreclosure_totals/index.htm

-The number of U.S. homes lost to foreclosure surged in July, another sign lenders are moving quicker to take back properties from homeowners behind in payments. Lenders repossessed 92,858 properties last month, up 9 percent from June and an increase of 6 percent from July 2009, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday. Read more here-http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100812/D9HHQE2O0.html

-20% of mortgages are underwater. More than 20% of the nation’s mortgage borrowers owe more than their homes are worth. At 21.5% for the third quarter, it is a small improvement over the previous quarter, when 23.3% of loans were underwater, according to real estate website Zillow.com. Read more here-http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/09/real_estate/fewer_underwater_borrowers/index.htm and http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-09/fewer-u-s-homeowners-under-water-as-california-prices-foreclosures-jump.html

-Buy and Bail’ Homeowners Get Past Loan Restrictions. Harvey Collier, a mortgage broker in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, says he gets as many as 10 calls a month from people planning to default on their loans. The twist: They first want financing to buy another home.

Real estate professionals call it “buy and bail,” acquiring a new house before the buyer’s credit rating is ruined by walking away from the old one because it’s “underwater,” or worth less than the mortgage. It’s an attempt to escape payments on a home whose value may never recover while securing a new property, often at a lower price with a more affordable loan. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-10/-buy-and-bail-homeowners-get-past-mortgage-hurdles-from-fannie-freddie.html

-Feds rethink policies that encourage home ownership. Just how much should Uncle Sam do to help Americans buy their own homes? For 70 years and for the last 15 in particular the answer has been: Whatever it takes. Now, policymakers are pausing to reconsider.

In the next few months, they’ll weigh whether there can be too much of a good thing when it comes to helping families finance the American Dream. The rethink could mean a shake-up for a mortgage market addicted to government subsidies. “This process of figuring out the government’s role is going to involve some hard choices,” says Alyssa Katz, author of Our Lot: How Real Estate Came to Own Us.

“The moment you start changing the nature of what is guaranteed by the government, what is subsidized, you start to change the alignment of winners and losers. We took for granted that anyone could get a mortgage.” Using guarantees and tax breaks, the government pushed homeownership past 69% in 2004. Then it all came crashing down. Read more here-http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2010-08-11-housing11_cv_N.htm

-Main Street may be about to get its own gigantic bailout. Rumors are running wild from Washington to Wall Street that the Obama administration is about to order government controlled lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to forgive a portion of the mortgage debt of millions of Americans who owe more than what their homes are worth.

An estimated 15 million U.S. mortgages one in five are underwater with negative equity of some $800 billion. Recall that on Christmas Eve 2009, the Treasury Department waived a $400 billion limit on financial assistance to Fannie and Freddie, pledging unlimited help.

The actual vehicle for the bailout could be the Bush-era Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP, a sister program to Obama’s loan modification effort. HARP was just extended through June 30, 2011. Read more here-http://blogs.reuters.com/james-pethokoukis/2010/08/05/an-august-surprise-from-obama/

-Freddie Mac says needs $1.8 billion from taxpayers. Mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac on Monday said it would need another $1.8 billion in aid from taxpayers, bringing its total request since it was taken over by the government two years ago to more than $64 billion.

The second largest U.S. residential mortgage funds provider reported a loss of $6.0 billion, or $1.85 per diluted share, in the second quarter, including a $1.3 billion dividend payment to the government.

That compares with an $8.0 billion loss in the prior quarter and is the best three-month performance in a year. The firm lost $840 million in the second quarter of last year. The company said losses stemmed primarily from loans purchased or guaranteed between 2005 and 2008. Read more here-http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Housing/idUSTRE67826A20100809

-Fannie Mae, the mortgage-finance company operating under federal conservatorship, is seeking $1.5 billion in aid from the U.S. Treasury Department after a 12th straight quarterly loss. A decline in costs from bad loans helped narrow the second quarter loss to $1.2 billion from $14.8 billion in the same period a year earlier, the Washington-based company said today in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Fannie Mae has accrued more than $148 billion in consecutive losses since 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Treasury seized Fannie Mae and McLean, Virginia-based Freddie Mac, the biggest sources of U.S. mortgage funding, in 2008 as souring subprime loans pushed the companies to brink of collapse.

Including today’s request, Fannie Mae has drawn $86.1 billion in aid. The growing tally has helped spur the Obama administration to solicit proposals to fix the companies, and prompted some lawmakers to demand their closure. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-05/fannie-mae-seeks-1-5-billion-from-u-s-treasury-after-12th-straight-loss.html

-U.K. Housing Gauge Shows First Price Drop in a Year. A U.K. housing-market gauge signaled the first decline in prices for a year in July as demand for homes fell, a sign the economic recovery may be losing steam. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-09/u-k-housing-gauge-shows-first-price-drop-in-a-year-as-home-demand-weakens.html

-To give you an idea where China’s real estate market may be going, look at this chart.

-China Takes The Property Bubble To A Whole New Level: An Explosion Of (Vacant) Inland Cities Is Coming. Read more here-http://www.zerohedge.com/article/next-chinas-property-bubble-step-function-explosion-vacant-inland-cities

-The 11 Most Expensive Homes You Can Buy Right Now. Read more here-http://www.businessinsider.com/americas-most-expensive-homes-2010-8

The Goldbugg Report – August 17th, 2010
Posted by Worldwide Precious Metals on Tuesday, August 17, 2010

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