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The World Financial Report – December 28th, 2011

December 28, 2011

GOLD

-”It certainly gets lonely out there when the voices of gold all turn negative.” Jim Sinclair

-”Close your eyes, cover up with puppies, turn the heat down, light a wood fire and take a nap. Gold is headed for $4,500 in the normal manner it always does 5 steps forward and 4 back. Relax!” Jim Sinclair

-Jim Sinclair: The Gold Panic & What to Expect in 2012. When KWN asked if he has ever seen this kind of fear and panic in the gold market, Sinclair responded, “Not in the first gold market (1970s), not in the gold market we are in now, not in the correction (in ‘08 & ‘09), which took us down after the first move through $1,000 and back under $800.”

When asked what to expect from gold in 2012, Sinclair stated, “Well into the high $2,000s. And as Truman said, ‘If you can’t stand the heat, you’ve got to get out of the kitchen.’ But let me tell you that when this year is over, the only hands left holding physical gold and gold shares are the strongest hands on the planet.

Every possible weak hand has been shaken out. Every person with emotions even latently capable of overwhelming their intellect, overwhelming their judgement, will have already overwhelmed it this week. After this week, the people who are left are people who will never give up their positions.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bo9ta6f

-Jim Sinclair: The Bearish Gold Predictions Forget One Important Market Reality. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6vknqge

-”Debasement of the dollar will become increasingly clear in 2012. As a consequence, it is logical to expect much higher prices for gold and silver in the year ahead.” James Turk

-”Despite the sharp shakedown seen on December 14 gold remains in a bull market. The conditions that created the gold bull market remain in place. The global debt deleveraging remains a work in progress and as governments print money in an attempt to slow down or stave off the collapse their currencies are devalued. These remain ideal conditions for gold as an alternative currency.” David Chapman

-”We know this decline is unnerving but keep focused on the big picture and hold your open positions. Gold is oversold and this is still the time to be buying and accumulating during weakness.” Aden Sisters

-Richard Russell: I Will Stay with Gold & Gold Stocks to the End. My advice sell any stocks you still own sell into all rallies, or stay out of stocks completely. I continue to like gold in all its forms, but I’m afraid that gold mining stocks will tend to go with the general market. Personally, I’m staying with my gold mining stocks until the bitter end.

I continue to believe that we’ll see a final hysterical blow-off in gold (the metal) that will carry the mining stocks with it. I see my pen-pal Dennis Gartman, has turned bearish on gold and has sold all his holdings. Sorry, Dennis, I disagree with you. Gold is not in a bear market.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c6n3kau

-James Turk: Gold Set to Close Higher for 11th Straight Year. I can’t count how many times over the past decade we’ve seen gold and silver take a drubbing, like the one we just witnessed over the last couple of weeks, only for the metals to climb back off the canvas and fight their way to higher prices.

The sentiment numbers show that we’ve not been this negative on gold and silver since the days of the Lehman collapse. I find that quite ironic, given that nothing fundamental has changed to suggest the bull market in precious metals has ended. If anything, the case for owning gold and silver is getting stronger as the Western world’s banking system continues to disintegrate.

I keep coming back to the theme that we’ve stressed together so many times over the years, to not let emotion impact your investment decisions, but instead to use logic. In this regard, gold, silver and the mining shares are all exceptionally undervalued. In light of all of this, it is reasonable to expect much higher prices for them in 2012.

Gold is set to close higher for the eleventh straight year. The fact that there is such extreme pessimism, notwithstanding the fact that gold is 17% higher year to date and up for eleven years in a row, is absolutely stunning.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cuprsdy

-London Trader: We are Witnessing a Historic Bottom in Gold. “The Chinese have continued to take delivery of both physical gold and silver directly from the ETF’s GLD and SLV. They are also going directly to producers. Entities are bypassing the COMEX altogether and going straight to gold mining companies. Every single month producers have a certain amount of gold and silver they sell.

Normally they sell it to the bullion banks and the bullion banks, of course, leverage this gold and sell up to 100 times that in paper markets to control prices.” Interestingly, so many people are bearish on gold right now and looking for a collapse in the price of gold. They don’t understand what is happening in the physical market. The bullish fundamentals I just described to you have enormous implications.

We are making a historic bottom right now. The paper gold, or virtual gold market, has diverged so far from the physical market that it’s no longer a credible marketplace. That’s the key thing that came out of a very important meeting I was in yesterday where we had some serious players. The people I was meeting with are all on the buy side and have been since the lows last week.

There are massive physical orders, sitting, waiting for any more discounts, and yet everyone else seems to be short. So you have huge fuel for a rally here. You have to keep in mind this recent plunge was orchestrated with borrowed gold and that borrowed gold is now gone. That’s why gold can’t go much lower. Any dips in price will be aggressively purchased. As I said earlier, right now we are witnessing a historic bottom.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bs69zck

-Pierre Lassonde: This Gold Bull Market is Far From Over. When asked about the plunge in gold, Lassonde responded, “On the correction, I would say to people don’t panic. If you look back at history, for example, the 1970s bull market, between 1971 to 1980 there were no less than nine corrections. The corrections ranged from 11% to 43%. A lot of them were in the 15%, 20%, 28%, 30% (range).”

“This bull market now, since 2001, has had six corrections, this is the seventh one. Nothing unusual at all. I would say this is just par for the course, the climbing of the famous wall of worry and I suspect we are going to have a few more corrections before this bull market is over.

My feeling is that the gold price will have a bit of a headwind for the coming six to twelve months. It will have headwinds coming from Europe. The Germans are so insistent on deflating the European economies that they are in recession, but they are flirting with, literally, depression. That is not good for gold in the short-run.

In the long-run what are they going to do? They are going to print money. You just have to look at the European Central Bank reserve and their reserves have doubled in the last three years, which means they are printing money. But they are not telling anybody.

My personal view is that it might be challenging for the gold price in the short-run, the next six to nine months, to do a heck of a lot better than it did last year. When asked where he sees a floor in the price of gold, Lassonde responded, “Around the $1,500 mark. I think there’s an 80% chance the gold price will bottom out in the $1,500s. After this consolidation we will resume the gold bull market. It’s not over, far from it.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/dygwg6k

-Jeff Clark: Look for an Entrance, Not an Exit. It wasn’t a fun week for gold. By the close on Friday, the metal was down 6.7% (based on London PM fix prices), the biggest weekly decline since September. It got downright irritating when the mainstream media seemingly rejoiced at gold’s decline. Economist Nouriel Roubini poked fun at gold bugs in a Tweet.

Über investor Dennis Gartman said he sold his holdings. CNBC ran an article proclaiming gold was no longer a safe-haven asset (talk about an overreaction). While the worry may have been real, let’s focus on facts. Have the reasons for gold’s bull market changed in any material way such that we should consider exiting?

Instead of me providing an answer, ask yourself some basic questions: Is the current support for the US dollar an honest indication of its health? Are the sovereign debt problems in Europe solved? How will the US repay its $15 trillion debt load without some level of currency dilution? Is there likely to be more money printing in the future, or less?

Are real interest rates positive yet? Has gold really lost its safe haven status as a result of one bad week? And one more: What is the mainstream media’s record on forecasting precious metals prices? Our take won’t surprise you: not one fact relating to the trend for gold changed last week. We remain strongly bullish.

Would I buy now? Given that each metal has already met its average decline, and that both have seen more corrections this year than any other, we’re likely closer to the bottom than the top. Either way, my advice is to spend a little more time watching the drivers for gold and a little less time worrying about the price. Until those things change, look for an entrance, not an exit. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c4lsh9d

-Many market participants and non gold and silver experts tend to focus on the daily fluctuations and “noise” of the market and not see the “big picture” major change in the fundamental supply and demand situation in the gold and silver bullion markets particularly due to investment and central bank demand from China, the rest of an increasingly wealthy Asia and creditor nation central banks.

Support for the price of gold should come from the rising global money supply coupled with increasing investor and central bank purchases which have been driven by falling real interest rates and concerns about the euro, the dollar and other fiat currencies as stores of value. Tighter monetary policies, as seen in the late 1970’s, would likely help alleviate fears of further currency debasement but it is extremely unlikely that this will be seen in 2012.

Indeed, ultra loose monetary policies, debt monetization, competitive currency devaluations and global currency wars look set to continue if not intensify. Gold will likely reward investors internationally in 2012 as it did in 2011 and will again be an essential diversification for anyone wishing to protect and grow wealth in what will be a very volatile 2012 and in the coming volatile years. Goldcore

-Aden Sister: A Year For The History Books. As the year draws to a close, it’s easy to say that it’s been a difficult one. That’s mainly because of the high volatility in the markets, in reaction to the daily ups and downs on the world stage. All of this drama and volatility have both raised many questions. And following are some of the most frequently asked questions we’ve recently received. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/dyyynzf

Q. If gold is a “safe haven,” why does it go up and down so often with the stock market?

A. Great question and that has been the case lately. This happens at times but over the long haul, gold is the ultimate safe haven and it will go its own way, based on the underlying fundamentals. Over the past decade, for example, gold has risen 645% while the Dow Industrials has only gained 13%. We believe this will continue based on the vulnerable global debt situation, the weak currency markets and many other factors we’ve often discussed. In fact, gold has maintained its safe haven status for thousands of years and there is not another investment, including any currency, that can make that claim.

Q. When you say, use weakness to accumulate gold, does that also apply to silver?

A. Yes.

Q. Is gold manipulated?

A. Probably yes, at times. But since the major trend is always more powerful, manipulation effects will be temporary.

-Jeffrey Nichols: Twelve bullish factors driving gold to $2,000 and higher despite recent setback. I have no doubt that gold will move up sharply in the years ahead, reaching heights that might lead some to label me a “gold bug.” I believe that the price of gold will, over the course of this decade, reach a multiple of recently prevailing prices.

Prices of $3,000, $4,000, and even $5,000 an ounce are very likely during the course of this long-lasting bull market, a bull market that still has years of life left to it. Notwithstanding the recent sharp price decline, I’d be very surprised to see gold dip into “three-digit” territory that is below $1,000 an ounce ever again. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/ced64tq

-Gold Could Hit $2,500 Next Year. Gold prices will rally again in 2012 to reach $2,000 to $2,500 per ounce because demand is still strong and the precious metal is still seen as a safe haven, according to Sabine Schels, a commodities strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6p2vr58

-Gold bottoming around $1,600, $2,100 likely early in 2012, Hinde report says. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10808

-Chris Whalen: Expect Bank Holidays in Europe & Higher Gold. When asked if that meant gold is going higher, Whalen responded, “Oh definitely. I don’t trade it, I don’t advise clients on it, but I think all commodities, whether it’s gold or platinum or any of the big industrial metals, are going to continue to be your best hedge against inflation. Some real estate, to a degree, but remembering location, location, location. I think that’s where I would tell my clients to hide their money. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bnoake2

-Rick Rule: I Personally Bought Over $10 Million This Week. When asked about the recent plunge in the price of gold, silver and the mining shares, Rule replied, “For a lot of the financial interests in gold, they’ve had their credit lines cut, they can’t hold it. We saw that in 2008 also. Because of recent weakness in the euro, the dollar has become the safe haven trade. So there has been strength in the dollar, hence the weakness in gold.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bvpzlr3

-Rick Rule: Here is What Investors Need to Look for in 2012. KWN wanted to find out from Rule what investors and speculators should be looking for in 2012. Here is what Rule had to say: “It’s going to be an interesting time. This is going to be a really good year for gold and silver stock speculators and for gold and silver owners.

I think the gold price goes higher and the silver prices goes higher over the next two years, but I think it goes higher in extremely choppy fashion.” This means you will have plenty of opportunity to buy on sales. For people who aren’t good at dealing with volatility, it’s going to be a rough couple of years. For people who are good at dealing with volatility, it’s going to be a very good couple of years.

I think you are going to see some temporary solution to the problems facing the eurozone, in terms of public debts. When I say temporary, I really do mean temporary because those economies are over-indebted. But you’re going to see a bit of confidence returning to the system, which I think will be bad for the gold and silver price.

That is good for people who have a long-term or intermediate-term interest in gold and silver because it gives you the opportunity to add to your positions at advantageous prices. I do think gold and silver bullion over the next year or two will do well. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/blm2z2s

-Michael Pento: Here’s How Central Planners will Impact Gold. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7edmvsl

-Jim Rickards: This Will Send the Price of Gold to the Moon. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6ty6twy

-Jim Rickards: The US Treasury Shorts the Dollar. “Well, I always think it’s important to separate fundamentals and long-term trends. That’s one thing you have to understand and get right. But there are short-term technical factors as well. Gold responds to both.

In the long-run the fundamentals will prevail, but in the short-run the technicals can definitely dominate and this was a week where the technicals dominated.” “Let me explain what I mean by that. One thing that is going on is there is a massive run on the banks globally. It is primarily centered in Europe, but also around the world. There is a huge demand for dollars.

There’s a liquidity shortage and people just need dollars. So let’s just say, hypothetically, I have gold and I like gold for the long-run and think it’s a good investment. I’m a bank let’s say and they (depositors) are withdrawing money and I need dollars. Well, I will sell the gold to get the dollars, even though I like my gold position and I think it’s going higher.

I may have to sell it to get cash to meet these other obligations in a liquidity crisis and we are seeing a liquidity crisis. So the action this week is technically driven, but the fundamentals are still intact. The fundamentals have everything to do with the excess of paper money relative to gold and the potential loss of confidence in paper money that’s coming from over-printing.

The ECB will print when they see some deflation. “The Fed will print if the dollar gets stronger because the Fed needs the dollar to be weaker. With all of this printing coming on stream, you can rest assured the price of gold is going to go a lot higher.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/caob9fv

-John Williams: Gold to Prevail as System Falls into Disorder. “Dollar Debasement Has Just Begun. Despite all of Wall Street’s negative hoopla over gold during the price volatility of the last week, the precious metal still is on track to outperform the Dow Jones Industrial average, meaningfully, for the year. That would be the eighth consecutive year of doing so.

Irrespective of any recent or future extreme price swings, however, I look at gold as the long-term hedge against all that has started to unfold in the ultimate debasement and destruction of the U.S. dollar.” “My outlook has not changed a bit. The underlying fundamentals have not changed a bit.

The domestic and global financial systems, however, appear to be on the brink of massive instabilities. This environment is one where prudent investors in a U.S. dollar-denominated world should be looking to preserve their wealth and assets, using assets that are liquid and that preserve the purchasing power of invested funds.

Accordingly, gold, and related hedges such as silver; and stronger currencies such as the Swiss franc, Australian dollar and Canadian dollar; should be held for the long term. Irrespective of short-term market instabilities, such assets will prevail as the system falls into disorder.

A much weaker dollar and higher oil prices are likely in the near future, as the Fed remains locked in a position where it likely will be forced to act publicly in support of the banking system, with some new round of systemic liquefaction or easing. The effects of that should push the exchange rate value of the U.S. dollar much lower and push oil prices, domestic inflation and the price of gold much higher. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7sxx9az

-Gene Arensberg: Gold’s testing its 200-day moving average again. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10793

-Clive Maund: Gold Market Update. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8yzq5b3

-Martin Armstrong: What’s Up With Gold? Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/chrtsmy

-Martin Armstrong: Money is Not Safe Here, Buffett’s Silver Play. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c7k3rr8

-Bullion Stacks Up Better Than Coins For Gold Investors. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cjgrt6r

-Brett Arends: Will the Europeans have to sell their gold? Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10802

-Central banks are steadily losing their cover in the gold market. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10789

-Some Experts Warn Gold Could Drop to $1,000. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d9v4upo

-Gold to drop in Q1, far from retesting record high: Reuters poll. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cqs853m

-Zero Hedge: Did GLD and other gold ETFs kill gold stocks? Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10797

-Lawrence Williams: Gold the protector as democracies move toward totalitarianism. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10804

-Peter Brimelow: Even bullion bank UBS now hints that central banks torpedoed gold. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10795

-New Thunder Road Report denounces market intervention, cites GATA. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10796

-Gold market manipulation losing force, Grandich tells Resource Clips. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10812

-Naylor-Leyland tells CNBC Europe that gold is ‘a rigged market.’ Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10811

-KWN: The weekly precious metals review with Bill Haynes and Dan Norcini. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/10791

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SILVER

Gold to silver ratio at 50 to 1 with gold at $2,000 the silver price would be $40.00

Gold to silver ratio at 40 to 1 with gold at $2,000 the silver price would be $50.00

Gold to silver ratio at 30 to 1 with gold at $2,000 the silver price would be $66.67

Gold to silver ratio at 20 to 1 with gold at $2,000 the silver price would be $100.00

Gold to silver ratio at 15 to 1 with gold at $2,000 the silver price would be $133.33

Gold to silver ratio at 50 to 1 with gold at $2,500 the silver price would be $50.00

Gold to silver ratio at 40 to 1 with gold at $2,500 the silver price would be $62.50

Gold to silver ratio at 30 to 1 with gold at $2,500 the silver price would be $83.33

Gold to silver ratio at 20 to 1 with gold at $2,500 the silver price would be $125.00

Gold to silver ratio at 15 to 1 with gold at $2,500 the silver price would be $166.67

-”Buying silver under $30 today is like buying it at $5 ten years ago.” Colin Hayward, Gearology

-London Trader: There are Tremendous Silver Shortages. “It is so tight, the silver market is so tight that we’ve been waiting three weeks plus, before this takedown, for deliveries of size to arrive. I’m talking about tonnage orders. This is also key, most of the silver being delivered was refined after the orders had been placed, and again, that was before the takedown. You can just imagine how long the wait times will be going forward.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7brdbx3

-Rick Rule: Silver Update. When asked about silver specifically, Rule stated, “Eric (Sprott) continues to point, I think wisely, to the fact that there is a very, very broad paper market in silver and a much more constrained physical market in silver. He (Sprott) has also said that to the extent the silver price has declined, financial interests would continue to buy silver and this is exactly what has taken place.

The tipping point where the paper longs exhaust the physicals could come and if we had a failure to deliver in the futures market, the upside would be truly explosive. If it does occur it will be a spectacular financial event.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bvpzlr3

-Myra P. Saefong: Silver’s a bargain under $30, but watch volatility. Silver is ready to finish a dramatic year near the level it started, and some analysts predict big gains, and heavy volatility, for the white metal in 2012. “Silver went parabolic when it broke above $29 back in March of this year,” said James Carrillo, senior portfolio adviser for Swiss America Trading Corporation. “It fulfilled its parabolic blow off at $50 shortly thereafter and is now testing the break point.”

“In the latter half of the year, panic selling at both the personal level and institutional level brought silver down as investors had increased anxiety over world economic events,” said Paul Mladjenovic, author of “Precious Metals Investing for Dummies.” The white metal hasn’t held up as well as gold because silver’s dual nature kicks in, he said. “Since silver is also an industrial metal and silver is a smaller market, panic selling has a more pronounced effect and the moves are more violent.”

“When people need money to cover margin increases, debt or other liability, they will sell and silver was part of this dynamic,” said Mladjenovic. But “nothing changed in the fundamentals for silver they, in fact, keep getting better.” Futures prices for gold are poised to end the year with a gain of around 11%, while silver’s trading 5% lower which would be its smallest year-on-year decline since 2001, according to data from FactSet Research. Starting in 2002, silver had gained every year except 2008.

If prices hold above $28, silver may “resume its upward march next year,” said Carrillo. “I would be a buyer of physical gold and silver at these levels, with gold being massively supported at $1,500 and silver at $28,” he said. Colin Hayward, who’s been a precious metals investor for more than 30 years, said the odds greatly favor silver finding a bottom in the short term, within the next one month to three months, considering the “extreme pessimism of silver bugs today.”

Silver will then begin a run similar to what occurred after the 2008 “correction.” When the commodities sector bottomed in 2008, silver bottomed around $9 and then marched all the way to $49 over the next 31 months, representing a rise of over 5.5 times “a bull market advance if ever there was one,” he said, adding that gold’s advance was about 2.8 times or around half that of silver’s. Silver is a bargain below $30, said Hayward, who’s also president of Gearology, which sells gold and silver-themed consumer products.

“Buying silver under $30 today is like buying it at $5 ten years ago.” With silver oversold during the second half of 2011, Mladjenovic expects to see a strong rebound in the metal, which could take out $50 during the first half of 2012 and during the rest of the next year, see support at that level and challenge the $60 level by the fall.

“Demand for physical silver is relentless as individual buyers across the globe and industrial buyers in Asia continue taking advantage of silver’s relatively low price,” said Mladjenovic, who believes this “will overcome the paper market’s current pullback.” “If demand changes or if the manipulation lawsuit is resolved (or both), you could see silver in the $75-$100 range,” he said, referring to the ongoing Commodity Futures Trading Commission investigation of possible manipulation in silver markets. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c432nk8

-David Morgan: $60 Silver and $2,500 Gold for 2012. Listen here-http://tinyurl.com/cjpmqdj

-Silver to average 34/oz in 2012 and $37/oz in 2013: BofAML. Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML) estimated that there is a good upside potential in 2012 Silver prices. As per the bank, prices should average $34/oz, followed by $37/oz in 2013, because of continued interest in the metal. Also, the bank believes that $30/oz silver is justifiable at present. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7gg8xts

-Paul Tracy: Why Silver Could Take-Off From Current Levels. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cczo7dz

-Clive Maund: Silver Market Update. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/892ql33

-Sprott’s Call for Silver Producers to Hold Back Metal Strikes Chord. “I think the price should already be substantially higher,” Sprott said. “The trade should be 16:1 gold-silver ratio. That implies that at $1,600/oz gold, silver should be $100/oz. At $3,200/oz gold, silver should be $200/oz. The outlook for gold is phenomenal and silver is going to go up even faster. That is why I think that this next decade will be the decade for silver,” Sprott predicted. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cz39y5o

-Ted Butler: Don’t stop complaining about shorting of SLV. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10799

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CHARTS OF THE WEEK-QUOTES-QUICK HITS

-CHART OF THE WEEK: World Interest Rates. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cpcjz7b

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Disaster Losses for 2011. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7s8r66m

-”I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people under pretence of taking care of them.” Thomas Jefferson

-”At some point, the absurdity of what Jim Grant calls the “return-free risk” of lending money to the US government in order to lock in a negative real return will wear thin on investors. Why on Earth should people freely lend money to Uncle Sam, if they are only going to be repaid in grossly devalued dollars, with a yield that is well below the US inflation rate?” Goldmoney

-ECB cash to give indirect boost via banks. The European Central Bank’s offer of cheap long-term cash is an attempt to prevent a rapid bank deleveraging shock rather than U.S. style money printing that will filter through to the real economy and leach into other markets.

The borrowing of 490 billion Euros by over 500 banks the largest ever amount of liquidity pumped into the financial system represents nearly two thirds of all the European bank bonds maturing in 2012. It is almost 1-1/2 times the 2012 combined sovereign bond issuance of Spain and Italy. The ECB will follow up with another similar operation in February in a move designed to directly help banks which need to raise capital. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/83hrc4y

-Five Things Investors Have to Worry About in 2012. Here are five areas to watch for 2012: 1) Conflict with Iran, 2) North Korea’s New Kim, 3) Iraq Civil War?, 4) Pakistan-U.S. alliance weakens, 5) Russian Election Uncertainty. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bt8auc4

-Gary Shilling Sees ‘Severe’ Recession for Europe. Watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/coy7d78

-Gerald Celente: Sneak Peak of the Top Trends for 2012. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bmgz8bz

-50 Economic Numbers From 2011 That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8xbbtuf

-There’s A 82% Chance That California’s Public Pension System Will Run Out Of Money. New study finds California’s big government worker retirement funds short $498 billion. California is on a destructive path of grossly expanding debt to finance public worker pensions, much like many European nations. Unless dramatic steps are taken soon, the Golden State will suffer its own version of Greek tragedy.

The state’s public worker pension problem has worsened since last year when the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research reported obligations far outstripped the state’s ability to pay benefits owed for the three major retirement systems the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), California State Teacher Retirement System (CalSTRS) and the University of California Retirement Plan (UCRP).

The three systems collectively have promised $498 billion in payments they can’t fully pay, the Stanford study concluded. That’s a 17 percent increase in two years. Putting off a solution adds about $3.4 million to the tab for each day of delay. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cblsxze

-Missing $4,155? It Went Into Your Gas Tank This Year. It’s been 30 years since gasoline took such a big bite out of the family budget. When the gifts from Grandma are unloaded and holiday travel is over, the typical American household will have spent $4,155 filling up this year, a record.

That is 8.4 percent of what the median family takes in, the highest share since 1981. Gas averaged more than $3.50 a gallon this year, another unfortunate record. And next year isn’t likely to bring relief. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cqfno5v

-Stolen Credit Cards Go for $3.50 at Amazon-like Online Bazaar. In mid-September, a European hacker nicknamed Poxxie broke into the computer network of a U.S. company and, he said, grabbed 1,400 credit-card numbers, the account holders’ names and addresses, and the security code that comes with each card.

With little trouble, he sold the numbers for $3.50 each on his own seller’s site, called CVV2s.in, to underworld buyers who have come to trust the quality of his goods, he said. “The main thing in any business is honesty,” Poxxie said, without any trace of irony. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7l4j5c4

-U.S. population grows at slowest rate since 1940s: Census. The population of the United States is growing at its slowest rate in more than 70 years, the U.S. Census Bureau said. The country’s population increased by an estimated 2.8 million to 311.6 million from April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2011. The growth rate of 0.92 percent was the lowest since the mid-1940s. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bnwfman

-Allen Stanford Found Mentally Fit for Fraud Trial. R. Allen Stanford is mentally fit to stand trial and will face a jury next month on charges he swindled investors of more than $7 billion, a U.S. judge ruled. The trial is to begin with jury selection on Jan. 23. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/dyvecu3

-Even The Ancient Roman Empire Wasn’t As Unequal As America Today. Rome’s top 1% controlled 16 percent of the wealth, compared to modern America where the top 1% controls 40 percent of the wealth. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7wbaadl

-Bankers Join Billionaires to Debunk ‘Imbecile’ Attack on Top 1%. Jamie Dimon, the highest-paid chief executive officer among the heads of the six biggest U.S. banks, turned a question at an investors’ conference in New York this month into an occasion to defend wealth.

“Acting like everyone who’s been successful is bad and because you’re rich you’re bad, I don’t understand it,” the JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO told an audience member who asked about hostility toward bankers. “Sometimes there’s a bad apple, yet we denigrate the whole.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/dxw4vyn

-US Asks Journals to Censor Articles on Flu Virus. For the first time ever, a government advisory board is asking scientific journals not to publish details of certain biomedical experiments, for fear that the information could be used by terrorists to create deadly viruses and touch off epidemics. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7d8mxd9

-Bird Flu in H.K. Sparks Culling of 19,451 Birds. Hong Kong culled 19,451 birds and banned the sale and import of live poultry until Jan. 12 after the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus was found in a chicken carcass at a wholesale market. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/blf3dx9

-As markets plunge, Asia’s wealthy flock to art. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cxgtlrv

-£1 million 24-carat gold Rolls-Royce is unveiled. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/dy5e7vy

-London Penthouse Said to Sell for About $157M. A penthouse apartment in London’s Knightsbridge neighborhood was purchased for about 100 million pounds ($157 million), a person with knowledge of the transaction said. The undisclosed buyer paid about 7,000 pounds a square foot for the unfurnished duplex in the Bulgari Hotel and Residences, according to the person, who requested anonymity because the deal was private. A second penthouse unit in the development is on the market for 69 million pounds, the person said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cgnglb5

-15 Of The World’s Most Bizarre Vending Machines. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7reqn7w

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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://tinyurl.com/6l4thaf

-Rarecoloreddiamonds.com Featured Diamond of the Week. This week’s Diamond is a 0.37 carat radiant cut fancy intense purplish pink Argyle Diamond. The Argyle mine supplies 90% of the world’s pink Diamonds. With the mine set to shutdown in 6 short years, pink Argyle Diamonds have the ability to jump substantially in price in the years ahead. Harold Seigel-See video of the Featured Diamond here-http://tinyurl.com/cjkhn76

-At the recent Christie’s New York Magnificent Jewels Sale, Oct 18 2011, New York, Rockefeller Plaza. Lot 325 was a ring set with a pear-shaped fancy purplish pink diamond, weighing approximately 8.20 carats, flanked on either side by a modified triangular-cut diamond, mounted in platinum signed Tiffany & Co. Estimate $1,250,000-$1,800,000. Price Realized $2,042,500. See more here-http://tinyurl.com/6hl45l5

-Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels Sale, Dec 7 2011, New York. Auction Results here-http://tinyurl.com/cjxkvvn or http://tinyurl.com/cwtjtgv

-Petra Sells Blue Diamond for $300K Per Carat. Diamond achieves highest price per carat for a rough diamond sold by the company. Petra Diamonds sold a 4.8-carat blue diamond for $1.45 million or $300,000 per carat at its most recent tender held in December, the company reported. The diamond was mined at the company’s Cullinan mine in South Africa and achieved the highest price per carat for a rough stone sold by Petra to date. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bwchlxb

-For wise investors, diamonds are forever. Gold may have been the commodity story of the year, but now diamonds are also being touted as an investor’s best friend with demand rising in India, China and the Middle East. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cxou29r

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QE

-Draghi Tells Financial Times Bond Buying Unlikely as ECB Abides by Mandate. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi damped expectations that the bank will step up bond purchases to tame the sovereign debt crisis, saying it can’t overstep its mandate.

“People have to accept that we have to, and always will, act in accordance with our mandate and within our legal foundations,” Draghi told the Financial Times in an interview, confirmed by the Frankfurt-based ECB. “The important thing is to restore the trust of the people citizens as well as investors in our continent. We won’t achieve that by destroying the credibility of the ECB.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cndufdu and http://tinyurl.com/cmofd4e

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SOVEREIGN DEBT

-Euro’s Preservation Worth Costs, Nobel Laureate Sims Says. Nobel Economics Laureate Christopher A. Sims said Europe needs to preserve the euro and that the only obstacle to a functioning currency union is better fiscal coordination. “It’s worth paying a price to preserve the euro,” Sims, who is in Stockholm to attend an award ceremony for the Nobel economics prize he won in October together with Thomas J. Sargent, said in an interview. “It needs to be a true fiscal union. That means there should be some kind of euro-wide tax instrument. There should be euro bonds.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bwkc9h3

-Europe Channels $195 Billion to IMF. Europe bolstered its anti-crisis arsenal, channelling 150 billion Euros ($195 billion) to the International Monetary Fund as the European Central Bank widened its support for sagging bond markets. Four countries not using the single currency also pledged to add to the IMF war chest while Britain refused to commit, in a sign of the difficulty of attracting outside cash to ease the euro area’s home-grown debt burdens. The U.K. will “define its contribution” in early 2012, euro finance ministers said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7stwrve

-’Bubblegum’ treaty will mean the end of Euro within 12 months. London Mayor Boris Johnson said European leaders should abandon ‘hysterical’ efforts to rescue the eurozone and recognise that some countries have to drop the single currency. ‘I would be amazed if we were all sitting here next year and the euro had not undergone some sort of change.’ ‘I think it highly likely that there will be a realignment in the sense that some countries will fall out and we all know who the likely candidates are. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c65kzbw

-Greece’s Creditors Resist Push for More Losses. Greece’s creditors are resisting pressure from the International Monetary Fund to accept bigger losses on holdings of the indebted nation’s government bonds, said three people with direct knowledge of the discussions.

Lenders want the 70 billion euros ($91 billion) of new bonds the government will issue in return for existing securities to carry a coupon of about 5 percent, said the people, who declined to be identified because the negotiations are private. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d38kz37

-European CEOs Move Cash to Germany In Case of Euro Breakup. Grupo Gowex a Spanish provider of Wi-Fi wireless services, is moving funds to Germany because it expects Spain to exit the euro. German machinery maker GEA Group AG is setting maximum amounts held at any one bank.

“I don’t trust Spain will remain in the euro zone,” said Jenaro Garcia, founder and chief executive officer of Madrid- based Grupo Gowex, which provides Wi-Fi access in 15 countries. “We moved our cash and deposits to Germany because Spain will come back to the peseta.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bwhcqqc

-Britain draws up plans to rescue expats if Spain and Portugal are hit by financial oblivion. Evacuation plans for British expats stranded in Spain and Portugal if their banking systems collapse are being drawn up by the Foreign Office.

The contingency plans are being put in place to help thousands of Britons if they were unable to get to their money in the event of a catastrophic banking collapse in two of the most vulnerable eurozone economies. Around one million British expats live in Spain, particularly around Marbella and Malaga, and some 50,000 in Portugal. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cly3j2e

-Drachma Threat Confronts Greeks as Country Teeters on Edge of Losing Euro. Athens restaurant owner Mike Zoulas says generations of his family have paid the price for a divided Europe and now is the time to fight to keep it together. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/csly46w

-China Debts Dwarf Official Data With Too-Big-to-Finish Alarm. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bpakjc7

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U.S. DEBT-DEFICIT

-Congress Clears $1 Trillion Budget Measure in Rare Bipartisan Compromise. The U.S. Congress cleared a $1 trillion spending bill to avert a government shutdown. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/ckw9rr9

-James Turk: In the first two months of the current fiscal year that began on October 1st, the US national debt has grown $320 billion. That is $21 billion more than the same 2-month period last year, which illustrates that the growth of the national debt continues to accelerate. The reason of course is the federal government’s huge operating deficit, which is not getting any smaller. This point is illustrated in the following chart.

Hyperinflation is always the outcome of unchecked government spending. The spending leads to ever greater deficits, which requires the government to borrow ever greater amounts of money. Eventually a point is reached when the government needs to borrow more money than lenders have the capacity or willingness to lend. Thereafter the government can take either of two alternative paths.

Either the government cuts back its spending, facing the reality that it has run out of money. Or the central bank steps in to create ‘out of thin air’ the money the government wants to spend. This second alternative inevitably leads to hyperinflation. A government’s decision to take the hyperinflationary alternative is what I call the “Havenstein moment”, with the dubious distinction going to the ill-fated governor of the Reichsbank whose decisions lead to the massive hyperinflation that destroyed the economy and devastated the middle class of 1920s Germany. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7bngemb

-Alasdair Macleod: Money supply explosion will lead to accelerating inflation. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cg63ff5

-U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK), Releases New Report on Wasteful Government Spending in 2011: “Wastebook 2011.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/89qxmy6

-Million-Dollar Nurses Show California’s Struggle to Cut Payroll. California has paid Lina Manglicmot $1.5 million since 2005, an average of $253,530 a year, to work as a prison nurse in the agricultural town of Soledad. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d5s7j7p

-Detroit Faces Review in ‘Probable Financial Stress.’ Detroit’s finances need a more thorough review that may lead to state intervention or a takeover, Michigan Treasurer Andy Dillon said. The city of 714,000 is in “probable financial stress” and may run out of cash by April, Dillon said today in a preliminary state examination, citing more than $12 billion in long-term liabilities. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/clals93

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BANKING

-ECB to Lend Greater-Than-Forecast $645 Billion as Banks Line Up for Funds. The European Central Bank will lend euro-area banks a record amount for three years in its latest attempt to keep credit flowing to the economy during the sovereign debt crisis. The Frankfurt-based ECB awarded 489 billion Euros ($645 billion) in 1,134-day loans.

The ECB said 523 banks asked for the funds, which will be lent at the average of its benchmark interest rate currently 1 percent over the period of the loans. “It was obviously an offer the banks could not refuse,” said Laurent Fransolet, head of fixed-income strategy at Barclays Capital in London. “It shows the ECB is not out of ammunition and it gives banks security on liquidity for a few years. On the other hand it means banks will rely on the ECB for longer.”

Europe’s debt crisis has increased the risk of government and bank defaults, making institutions wary of lending to each other and driving up the cost of credit. The ECB is trying to ensure that banks have access to cheap cash for the medium term so that they can keep lending to companies and households. In addition to the longer-term loans, the ECB has widened the pool of collateral banks can use to secure the funds. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bwg37gj and http://tinyurl.com/cd8qael

-French Banks Struggling to Raise $48 Billion for First-Quarter Debt Needs. BNP Paribas SA, Societe Generale SA, Credit Agricole SA and Groupe BPCE, France’s biggest banks, are struggling to fund about 37 billion euros ($48 billion) of debt payments due in the first quarter. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d5vsk9u

-Regulators Close Banks in Arizona, Florida. Regulators on Friday closed a bank in Arizona and another in Florida, bringing the nationwide tally of bank failures up to 92 for the year. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bujjexb

-Bank Failures Cost U.S. $88 Billion. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8yqh7un

-Fed ‘Punted’ on Capital, Liquidity Limits. The Federal Reserve’s plan to boost supervision for U.S. banks stopped short of setting minimum liquidity levels and delayed decisions on risk-based capital and leverage until international regulators weigh in. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/77qqqhr

-Fed Strengthens Its Tools for Preventing Collapse of Large Financial Firms. The Federal Reserve sought to curb the threat of financial turmoil by compelling the biggest banks to follow a tougher standard for risk management and demanding stricter oversight by companies’ boards of directors.

The proposed rules would set triggers for regulatory enforcement for weak firms and require boards of directors to oversee and approve plans for limiting liquidity risk. The Fed delayed releasing rules for supervision of foreign firms and for risk-based capital and leverage requirements. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8ymlr7z

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MF GLOBAL

-Barry Ritholtz: The systemic risk revealed by MF Global’s collapse. Watching the MF Global saga unfold, I had to wonder: “How was it possible for a broker dealer to tap segregated client monies to speculate in risky assets and lose billions?” MF Global’s story, as you will soon understand it, raises serious concerns for any investor.

That the activities that led to MF Global’s collapse were possibly legal is stunning. The details are complex, but follow them through to the end and you will see all of the problems of our system political corruption, excess leverage, focus on short-term profit at the expense of survival in one sordid affair. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8×72xl2

-Missing MF Global customer money ended up with JPMorgan, NY Times says. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10806

-Lots of gold and silver went missing at MF Global. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10798

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OIL

-Oil: Iran’s Hormuz Strait Threats Could Wreak Global Economic Havoc. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7rtkmat

-Saudi Oil Breakeven Now at $91, says Alia Moubayed, senior economist at Barclays Capital. Watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/cw5r7to

-Canada Is ‘Very Serious’ About Selling Oil to Asian Markets, Harper Says. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he is ‘very serious’ about the idea of selling the country’s oil to markets in Asia, and that Canada no longer wants to export its energy only to the United States. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/ccycza7

-Cuba Oil Drilling Tests U.S. on Protecting Florida. Four U.S. inspectors armed with safety glasses and notebooks will set out on a mission next month to protect Florida’s beaches from a Cuban threat. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bvl42ob

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STOCK MARKET

-‘Raging Bull’ Powers Citigroup U.S. Stock Call. Stocks are poised to begin a “raging bull” market within 18 months as the children of baby boomers reach their peak savings years, according to Tobias Levkovich, Citigroup Inc.’s chief U.S. equity strategist. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cahqgda

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Missing ‘January Effect’ May Be Lost for 2012. Anyone expecting the so-called January effect to turn shares of smaller U.S. companies into market leaders may end up waiting in vain, according to Steven G. DeSanctis, a strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “We do not think we will see a January effect occur in the remainder of this month or next month,” DeSanctis wrote in a report. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7v35dve

-Younger Investors Not Shy About Stocks. More younger U.S. workers saving for retirement have a higher allocation to stocks than a decade ago, two groups that studied buying patterns said. About 60 percent of 401(k) investors in their twenties had more than 80 percent of their accounts invested in equities at the end of 2010 compared with about 55 percent of investors in 2000, according to a report by the Investment Company Institute, a trade group for the mutual-fund industry, and the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a nonprofit. “Younger investors are pursuing a diversified investment strategy that still relies heavily on stocks,” said Sarah Holden, senior director of retirement and investor research at ICI. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cl8mnnr

-Investors Lose Faith in Stocks as Billions Pour Out of Funds. Investors appeared to have lost faith in stocks this year. Just over a week ago, equity mutual funds globally had the second-biggest one-day outflow of money in 2011, capping four straight weeks of net redemptions, according to data from EPFR Global. Worldwide, investors have yanked $34 billion out of equity funds this year and put $75 billion into bonds. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7pudozj

-China Pension Fund to Spend $1.6 Billion to Boost Stocks. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bqd2ex6

-FBI Pulls Off ‘Perfect Hedge’ to Nab New Insider Trading Class. Almost five years ago, in a conference room 23 stories above the plaza, FBI agents David Chaves and Patrick Carroll surveyed the midtown skyline to the north, home to much of the world’s financial industry. They had received some disturbing intelligence: a surge in profits at hedge funds might be the result of an epidemic of insider trading. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/73qtwof

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REAL ESTATE

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Single-Family Home Building Headed For Worst Year on Record. More than two years after the U.S. recession ended in June 2009, construction of single-family homes is heading for its worst year on record. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ykgtvw

-U.S. Existing Homes Sold Since ‘07 Revised Down by 14%. The number of existing homes sold in the U.S. was revised down by an average 14 percent since 2007, magnifying the depth of the slump that contributed to the last recession. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7z952vx

-U.S. Housing Starts Jump 9.3%, to Highest in Year. Builders broke ground in November on more houses than at any time in the past 19 months, led by a surge in multifamily units, signaling the market is stabilizing heading into 2012. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c895m3d

-Smallest Drop in Home Values in Four Years: Zillow. U.S. home values probably will have their smallest decrease in four years in 2011 after the decline in property prices slowed, Zillow Inc. said. The total value of the country’s housing probably fell by more than $681 billion, about 35 percent less than the $1.1 trillion lost in 2010. A projected decline of $227 billion from July to the end of this month compares with $454 billion lost in the first half of the year, according to Zillow. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7y4m5lc

-Zillow CEO on housing market: ‘Not good’. Watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/cgepljt

-60 Minutes: There Goes the Neighborhood. Across America, recession-fueled foreclosures and plummeting home values have left countless properties abandoned and vulnerable to looting. As Scott Pelley reports, the problem has gotten so bad in Cleveland, Ohio, that county officials have demolished more than 1,000 homes this year – and plan to demolish 20,000 more – rather than let the blight spread and render nearby homes worthless. Read and watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/7fkxrq9

-Cleveland Disassembles Itself in Face of Property-Value Plunge. Demolition contractor Craig Crawford has a foundation-level view of Cleveland’s housing market, and he sees a lot of unbuilding ahead. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bvp9mgm

-U.S. Foreclosures May Delay Housing Rebound. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6t2blnc

-This Woman Re-Occupied Her Foreclosure After Getting Evicted 11 Months Ago. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/clz7szw

-No Relief for Homeowners Shut Out by U.S. Marc and Emily De La Torre would love to lower their mortgage bills to offset the costs of raising their 3-month-old baby. Instead, they’re among millions of Americans left out as the government tries again to make refinancing possible for borrowers with little or no equity. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/863wq3q

-BofA Agrees to $335M Lending Settlement. Bank of America Corp. (BAC) agreed to a record $335 million settlement of a U.S. Justice Department probe into fair-lending lapses at its Countrywide Financial Corp. mortgage unit. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7zx3pqp

-Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Sued by California Attorney General. Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac were accused in a lawsuit by California Attorney General Kamala Harris of hindering her probe into mortgage lending and foreclosure practices. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/ckczwmk

-China’s November Home Prices Post Worst Performance This Year Amid Curbs. China’s home prices posted their worst performance this year with more than half of the 70 biggest cities monitored in November recording declines after the government reiterated plans to maintain property curbs. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d28kk9w

-U.K. Home Sellers Cut Property Asking Prices in December, Rightmove Says. U.K. home sellers cut asking prices in December, according to Rightmove Plc, which said the property market will remain “challenging” next year. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bnnmot4

-Canadian housing market showing signs of a classic bubble: Merrill Lynch. A report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch says Canadian home prices are now showing many of the signs of a “classic bubble.” “We estimate the housing market nationwide is about 10 per cent over valued.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cd8ggw7

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GEOPOLITICAL

-Panetta: Iran will not be allowed nukes. The U.S. Secretary of Defense said that Iran will not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. In an interview, Leon Panetta, said despite the efforts to disrupt the Iranian nuclear program, the Iranians have reached a point where they can assemble a bomb in a year or potentially less. Read and watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/6ljd9fl

-U.S. Joins EU in Push for Iran Oil Embargo in Effort to Stop Nuclear Plans. The Obama administration and European governments are seeking help from Arab and Asian allies to reduce Iran’s oil revenues in the dispute over its nuclear program, while trying to avoid causing a surge in prices that may threaten the global economic recovery. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d2aooyu

-Baghdad Blasts Kill 57 as Political Tensions Rise. Civilians were targeted in bombings across Baghdad that killed 57 people amid an escalation of political infighting in Iraq that has followed the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c2rbdmh

-Afghans Negotiating Long U.S. Presence: Karzai. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said his government is negotiating with the U.S. to establish an “enduring partnership” that may entail a long-term presence of U.S. forces in the South Asian country. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cbrsjjk

-Chavez Rolls Back Seizures as Shortages Hurt Re-Election Bid. Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez is enlisting Mexico’s Gruma SAB, French retailer Casino and other international companies to boost supplies of milk, corn flour and cement as shortages threaten to dent his bid for re-election in 2012. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cytcm8k

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

The World Financial Report – December 28th, 2011
Posted by Worldwide Precious Metals on Wednesday, December 28, 2011


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