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The Week In Review – April 30, 2010

April 30, 2010

The Week in Review

US regulators announced this week that Moore Capital Management LP agreed to pay $25 million to settle charges that they attempted to manipulate platinum and palladium futures two years ago. The number of futures contracts involved in the manipulation scheme is tiny when compared to the manipulation that’s been going on in the gold and silver market. Perhaps this is a positive sign that the CFTC will follow through on their investigation and will take JP Morgan Chase and HSBC to task as well.

Consumer sentiment fell in April, but was still better than expected. Richard Curtin, director of the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers said “Confidence in the economic policies and legislation promoted by the Obama administration remained at low levels, although confidence did record a small rebound in late April”

Moody’s downgraded nine Greek banks this week, even as a solution on the EU/IMF bailout appeared to be in sight, possibly as soon as this weekend. The price of having to use the bailout package will apparently be a complete overhaul of the Greek economy. As Amadeu Altafaj, a European Commission spokesman said: “The entire economy is going to have to be overhauled root and branch to ensure that not only the public sector finances are in order but the entire economy.”

After staying out of the news for quite some time, the trade disputes between the US and China flared up again this week. On Thursday, the US placed additional duties ranging from 30.82 percent to 135.8 percent on magazine quality paper from China. In response, China slapped duties on US poultry products.

The Home Buyer tax credits expire today, bringing to an end the largest incentive for consumers to go out and purchase a home. Some real estate companies are trying tactics to make it appear that buyers can still take advantage of the savings, but these schemes for the most part simply force the seller to take a loss and cover more costs so that the buyer will be more inclined to close the deal.

A glimmer of a solution on the horizon for Greece, along with better than expected economic data sent oil back over $85 a barrel.

The Fed left the language stating that rates would stay low for an “extended period” unchanged at the FOMC meeting this week, saying that inflation “was likely to be subdued for some time.”

The Euro continued its steady decline, leveling out at the end of the week on rumors that a solution for Greece was near at hand.

Federal prosecutors have opened an investigation into trading at Goldman Sachs. This may mean that there is a real possibility that criminal charges will soon be filed against them. The New York Post reported that Goldman Sachs would most likely settle its case with the SEC, but such a settlement would have almost no bearing on a criminal case brought about by federal prosecutors.

Friday to Friday Close

	Apr. 23^rd	Apr. 30^th	Net Change
Gold	$1155.00	$1180.00	25.00 + 2.16%
Silver	$18.22	$18.60	0.38 + 2.09%
Platinum	$1742.00	$1740.00	(2.00) – 0.11%
Palladium	$563.00	$553.00	(10.00) – 1.78%

Month End to Month End Close

	Mar. 31^st	Apr. 30^th	Net Change
Gold	$1114.00	$1180.00	66.00 + 5.92%
Silver	$17.50	$18.60	1.10 + 6.29%
Platinum	$1635.00	$1740.00	105.00 + 6.42%
Palladium	$478.00	$553.00	75.00 + 15.69%

Year to Date Close

	Dec. 31^st	Apr. 30^th	Net Change
Gold	$1098.00	$1180.00	82.00 + 7.47%
Silver	$16.95	$18.60	1.65 + 9.73%
Platinum	$1470.00	$1740.00	270.00 + 18.37%
Palladium	$407.00	$553.00	146.00 + 35.87%

Here are your Short Term Support and Resistance Levels for the upcoming week.

	Gold	Silver
Support	1160/1150/1125	18.40/18.00/17.50
Resistance	1185/1200/1225	18.80/19.00/19.50

	Platinum	Palladium
Support	1720/1700/1675	530/515/500
Resistance	1750/1775/1800	575/600/620

Volatility should be expected to continue. Even if a solution is announced for Greece this weekend, Europe and the Euro zone are far from becoming stable. Portugal, Ireland and Spain will all be expected to help fund the bailout that Greece receives, and their own debt situations are not much better than Greece’s. We issued a market alert on Wednesday indicating that precious metals prices appeared ready to explode to the upside and that still appears to be the case. The massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico may have far reaching impacts on the oil market, not the least of which will be the future of offshore drilling off the coast of the US. Fiat currencies are unstable, oil is unstable, the financial industry is under fire for their past and present actions with charges and lawsuits being filed right and left. In the face of so much uncertainty, one phrase keeps passing the lips of analysts and investment advisors across the world: “diversify your portfolio with precious metals.” We’ve been espousing that very idea for years as precious metals prices have moved higher and higher. If you’re waiting for prices to come down to start, or add to, your precious metals portfolio, if the upside price explosion that analysts are predicting comes to pass you’ll regret that you never had the courage to buy when prices were at relatively “cheap” levels. Remember, the key to profitability through the ownership of physical precious metals is to actually own the physical products and to hold them for the long term. Never over-extend your ability to maintain ownership of your product over the long term.

Trading Department – Precious Metals International, Ltd.

This is not a solicitation to purchase or sell.

The Week In Review – April 30, 2010
Posted by Worldwide Precious Metals on Friday, April 30, 2010

The Goldbugg Report – April 27, 2010

April 27, 2010

-DAVID ROSENBERG-NO FREE LUNCH

-IMF SAYS GOVERNMENT DEBT POSES RISK TO GROWTH

-JAMES TURK-HYPERINFLATION LOOMS

GOLD

-China should use more reserves to buy gold-researcher. China should use more of its massive foreign exchange reserves to buy gold to support its aim of raising the international role of the yuan currency, a senior government researcher said on Saturday.

Li Lianzhong, who heads the economic department of the Communist Party’s policy research office, said that Beijing should also encourage domestic enterprises to acquire foreign energy and natural resource assets by using part of the foreign exchange reserves.

“We can also consider buying some more gold because if we want to develop the RMB into an international currency, we must have some scale of gold reserves,” Li told a forum in Beijing. The yuan is also known as the renminbi.

China’s foreign exchange reserves, the world’s largest, rose to $2.4471 trillion by the end of March. China disclosed last April that its official gold holdings had risen to 1,054 tonnes from 600 tonnes in 2003, confirming years of speculation it had been buying.

But gold is still a small portion of its huge foreign exchange reserves, which are mostly invested in dollar-denominated assets. The tumbling U.S. dollar has threatened to weaken China’s buying power, fuelling a debate that the world’s third-largest economy should diversify into gold, oil and metals. Read more here-http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTOE63G00P20100417?type=marketsNews

-John Embry will be surprised if gold not up $500 in 6 months. Investment strategist John Embry sees nowhere for the price of gold to go but up. “If gold isn’t up at least $500 in the next six months, I will be surprised,” says, John Embry, Chief investment strategist at Sprott Asset Management.

Speaking on the Mineweb.com Gold Weekly podcast, Embry said that the price of gold is on the rise for two main reasons. The first of these is the rapid increase in sovereign debt among many Western nations and the risks attached to it. Embry says while Greece is the one at the top of the page right now it is just one of many countries or states including the UK and many in the Mediterranean and the US which have equally as serious debt issues.

He adds “We are in the early stages of what I think might turn into some sort of a hyper-inflationary condition because there are not enough savings in the world to even remotely service the amount of sovereign debt that is going to be created in the next few years. So you are going to see the creation of paper money the likes of which we have seldom, if ever, seen in history.

So, as the value of the paper money goes down because of its proliferation, by definition, gold, which is in limited supply, the price of it will go up in these paper currencies. “We have gone through a period of disinflation, certainly since about 1980. It’s over. We are heading into a period the likes of which we have never seen certainly in our lifetimes but maybe the world has never seen before.”

The second significant factor for Embry is the difference between the paper gold market and the amount of physical gold around to cover it. “If you have short positions and paper gold to the extent that you have right now, the whole situation is distorted.

The fact is, and I think there has been some really good work done on this recently, I mean there is so many paper claims on each good delivery bar, that if everyone decided one day that they didn’t want their paper gold, they wanted the gold that was supposedly underlying it and they demanded it. It would just blow the top off the market and I think, before this is over, that will occur.”

He adds, “I think that North America and Europe are going to become less and less a factor in the market, right now the price is being controlled in the paper market on the LBMA and the COMEX. I think that is in the process of changing, if the physical market takes over, as I think it will, there is nowhere for the price to go but up.” Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=103033&sn;=Detail&pid;=33

-John Embry April commentary. Read more here-http://www.sprott.com/docs/InvestorsDigest/2010/MPLID_042310_pg124Emb.pdf

-Gold advocate Eric Sprott interviewed by CNBC. Watch interview here-http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1469756672&play;=1

-The rising price of gold is far from over since paper money will continue to lose value, according to Marc Faber, editor and publisher of The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report. “If you have $100 today, you buy that much less in terms of a basket of goods and services then you did ten years ago paper money has already lost a lot of value and in my view it will continue to lose value.

The price of gold will adjust on the upside according to the loss of the purchasing power of money,” Faber said in an exclusive interview with Kitco News. Still bullish on gold, Faber views precious metals as currencies, not commodities. He said that precious metals are currently his currencies of choice.

Currently, stronger currencies such as the Canadian and Australian Dollar are still vulnerable to a slowdown in the Chinese economy, he said on the sidelines of the World MoneyShow in Hong Kong. Faber said that he continues to buy the yellow metal, “If someone is rich they should buy a ton every month. “

He also said that everyone should buy gold because of the low US interest rates, “At zero percent interest, I don’t see why someone would not have part of their money in gold and silver.” Faber said that “as far as the eye can see, interest rates under Bernanke will stay at zero and below.”

He noted that the current Vice Chairman of the Fed, “Janet Yellen, another totally, ignorant economist, removed from any reality, said herself six months ago, ‘if I could implement interest rates below zero, I would do it.’ So now you know what the policy in the US will be,” Faber said.

He also said that if gold prices substantially rise one day, there could be expropriation. “The Americans could force the Europeans to do the same once they have all the gold in the world they would re-value it at $10,000 an ounce,” Faber said.

On the subject of market manipulation talk, Faber said that if market manipulation exists then it is good for gold buyers since it keeps the price down. “If you have manipulation to keep the price down, it eventually goes ballistic.

So, all the people that are bitching about the manipulation of silver and gold should be happy that it is manipulated because it still gives them an opportunity to buy it at a depressed priced,” Faber said. Faber said he suspects that there may have been some efforts by Central Banks to keep the price down but wouldn’t go as far to call that manipulation.

“If someone talks about manipulation, well, I think the whole world through government intervention has become manipulated so it is very difficult to make forecasts,” said Faber. Read more here-http://www.kitco.com/reports/KitcoNews20100412J.html

-Gold boom has years to run, says $30 billion manager. BlackRock gold guru Evy Hambro believes central banks will power the gold price forward for years to come. Hambro says the supply and demand fundamentals of the precious metal are supportive of the current $1,150 price after some of the biggest central banks in the world became net buyers again.

Hambro manages around $30 billion in assets across a number of BlackRock funds, including the $13.3 billion World Mining and £2.1 billion Gold & General funds. But rather than focusing on metal prices in the short term, his investment strategy centres on analysing long-term supply and demand fundamentals. Read more here-http://www.citywire.co.uk/selector/-/news/fund-manager-interviews/content.aspx?ID=394123

-Since just above $300, gold has climbed a wall of worry and denial. You wouldn’t need more than your hands and maybe a few toes to count the number of “experts” who have stayed the bullish course along the way. The road is littered with former gold bulls and perma-bears, all of whom predicted gold’s demise (many more than once).

Once again we find ourselves at one of those speed bumps only this time the supposed land mine is one of those claims that just makes you laugh at the extent some go to in futile hopes of stopping the mother of all secular gold bull markets. The latest charade is the fear Paulson will have to sell his gold holdings because of the Goldman charges.

While I would expect such nonsense from the “Senior Analyst” (he ran out of legitimate excuses hundreds of dollars lower ago), I find it amusing (but not surprising) that this lame excuse has caused some real grief. Hello? Do you honestly think the rise in gold has been thanks even in part to Paulson?

Sure, he has purchased some credible positions in it, but I highly doubt without him having done so we wouldn’t be at this point anyway. Oh, and by the way, even if his fund was somehow force to sell (the chances of which I believe are slim and none), it’s my understanding that there’s a three-year freeze on redemptions.

If I told you once I told you a thousand times, the financial world and the media that covers it hate gold. It will never be widely accepted because ownership of it flies in the face of what makes their world go around stocks and bonds. This secular gold bull market takes no prisoners and this time will be no exception.

I believe the latest naysayers (not the permanent ones like you know who) will end up joining an ever-increasing list of bears who end up mauled by the big and bad gold bull. Peter Grandich-Read more here-http://www.grandich.com/2010/04/gold-update-3/

-Gold: safe haven from shrinking sterling and rising inflation. Read more here-http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ianmcowie/100005122/gold-safe-haven-from-shrinking-sterling-and-rising-inflation/

-You’ve heard of peak oil. How about peak gold? Peak oil has a close cousin in peak gold. “I think it’s similar to oil,” says Ronald-Peter Stöferle, international equities analyst at Erste Group Bank, an Austrian-based bank.

“Peak gold is only one part of my really positive scenario” for the metal, Mr. Stöferle notes, adding that he believes gold could ultimately double from current price levels, to $2,300 an ounce, the inflation-adjusted high it attained way back during the inflationary days of early 1980.

Besides dwindling output, Mr. Stöferle is basing his bullish call on the traditional view among some investors that the yellow metal is a refuge in times of financial uncertainty over debt and paper currencies. Read more here-http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/youve-heard-of-peak-oil-how-about-peak-gold/article1532444/

-Clive Maund gold market update. Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/CliveMaund/1271618448.php

-Ned Schmidt’s Gold Thoughts. Read more here-http://www.kitco.com/ind/Schmidt/apr192010.html

-Q1 gold price resilient on robust market fundamentals WGC. The latest edition of Gold Investment Digest from the World Gold Council attests to strong market fundamentals supporting the gold price during the first quarter. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page34?oid=103231&sn;=Detail&pid;=34

-DGG gold price predictions experts cautiously optimistic. Expert speakers at the Denver Gold Group’s European Gold Forum, all seemed to agree on a cautiously optimistic outlook for the gold price during the current year. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=102794&sn;=Detail&pid;=33

-Three scenarios for the gold price. Is the price going to double in the next year or two or is there a greater chance of it falling back toward $600? Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=103151&sn;=Detail&pid;=33

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

-Mines face high long-term sustainable costs GFMS. Total cash cost increases were well contained in 2009 but long-term sustainable costs are nowhere near as comfortable. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=102704&sn;=Detail&pid;=33

-Louise Yamada is legendary for her technical work on Wall Street and has made some amazing calls in her career including as an example; water all the way back in 1995 when no one was looking at water. In this interview Louise covers gold, silver, the stock market, U.S. Dollar, bonds and interest rates, oil and energy, leadership going forward and much more. Listen here-http://www.kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast_Gold+/Entries/2010/4/17_Louise_Yamada.html

-GATA Chairman Murphy interviewed by GoldSeek Radio. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/8555

SILVER

Gold to silver ratio at 80 to 1 with gold at $1,900 the silver price would be $23.75

Gold to silver ratio at 70 to 1 with gold at $1,900 the silver price would be $27.14

Gold to silver ratio at 60 to 1 with gold at $1,900 the silver price would be $31.67

Gold to silver ratio at 50 to 1 with gold at $1,900 the silver price would be $38.00

Gold to silver ratio at 40 to 1 with gold at $1,900 the silver price would be $47.50

Gold to silver ratio at 30 to 1 with gold at $1,900 the silver price would be $63.33

Gold to silver ratio at 20 to 1 with gold at $1,900 the silver price would be $95.00

Gold to silver ratio at 15 to 1 with gold at $1,900 the silver price would be $126.67

-Adam Hamilton on silver/gold ratio. Silver’s recent rallying action is starting to catch traders’ attention. Since the end of its latest correction in early February, this white metal has surged 23% higher. It has well outperformed gold, which only climbed 9% over this same 9-week span.

And based on silver’s strong historical relationship with gold, odds are today’s silver rally is only beginning. Silver’s gains should accelerate in the months ahead. The primary reason is silver remains seriously undervalued relative to gold.

The higher gold goes, the higher silver will ultimately go as well. When you plug higher gold prices into the recovery SGRs, the potential of silver is even greater. At $1200 and $1300, the 55 SGR yields about $21.75 and $23.50 while the 47 SGR yields around $25.50 and $27.50. The “normal” silver targets relative to gold quickly climb higher as gold rallies.

The bottom line is silver remains far too cheap relative to gold. 2008’s stock panic severed silver’s historical relationship to the dominant precious metal, and ever since silver has been recovering on balance. But despite silver’s great gains since the panic, its price still has a long way to go before it fully normalizes relative to gold. The reversion to its pre-panic relationship remains very much underway.

Thus the same anomaly that offered such amazing opportunities in silver and silver stocks over the past year and a half or so largely still exists. While the initial easy profits have already been won, silver still has big gains ahead of it. Its recovery relative to gold that had to be taken on faith emerging out of the panic is now established fact. Get deployed in silver and silver stocks and ride the rest of this reversion. Read more here-http://news.silverseek.com/Zealllc/1271439787.php

-Clive Maund silver market update. Read more here-http://news.silverseek.com/CliveMaund/1271618251.php

-Silver The Most Bullish Currency. Why is the case for silver so extremely bullish today? To get to this reason, one has to know what silver is. If one does not know what silver is then one will not understand what will drive the world’s great silver rush.

Silver has many uses, possibly superior to any metal or at least the equal of any. However, there is one use that makes the other uses virtually immaterial. That use is silvers’ use as money. Here we specifically refer to money’s feature called: store of value.

Now however, silver’s use as money is not quite as active as it used to be. Silver was demonitized many many years ago. Therefore the paragraph above, though true, is not quite an “active truth”. Silver’s investment demand, which is a measure of its demand as a store of value, is significantly smaller than demand for industrial and other application.

If silver has realised its true destiny as money, it should be the other way around; investment demand should be relatively much bigger than demand for industrial and other application. Read more here-http://news.silverseek.com/SilverSeek/1271684225.php

-Despite selloff, Ted Butler tells King World News he’s bullish, blasts LBMA. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/8553

CHARTS OF THE WEEK-QUOTES-QUICK HITS

-Chart of the week: Inflation. The latest annualized rate is 2.31%. The March 2010 Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers (CPI-U) is 217.631. The annualized inflation rate computed from this number is 2.31%, which marks the fifth month of mild inflation after a streak of 8 consecutive months of deflation. The annualized inflation rate of the last five months, however, is well below the 4.1% average since the end of World War II.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) began calculating the CPI in 1913 BLS historic data. Our chart now shows inflation back to 1872 by adding Warren and Pearsons’s price index for the earlier years. The spliced series is available at Yale Professor Robert Shiller’s website. This look further back into the past dramatically illustrates the extreme oscillation between inflation and deflation during the first 70 years of our timeline. Read more here-http://www.dshort.com/inflation/inflation-update.html

-Chart of the week: Alternate Inflation Data. The chart below includes an alternate look at inflation without the calculation modifications the 1980s and 1990s Data from www.shadowstats.com. The Alternate CPI puts the annualized inflation rate at 9.47%. Read more here-http://www.dshort.com/inflation/inflation-update.html

-Goldman Sachs has long been on our radar and the charges against them come as no surprise. We have had concerns about their trading/practices and are happy the SEC is finally looking into the “Giant Vampire Squids” actions.

This news temporarily dragged down the precious metals markets. Any dips such as the one we are currently experiencing should be looked at as a buying opportunity as situations like the Goldman fiasco are encouraging more people to get into physical precious metals such as Silver to protect their money.

Ted Butler stated on King World News this week, the SEC going after Goldman may open the door to the CFTC going after JP Morgan which could see Silver really take off. Lucas Bugg-World Wide Precious Metals-WWPMC.com

-Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi Discusses SEC’s Goldman Suit. Watch video here-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beb2jBijo-s&feature;=player_embedded#!

-I never lose sleep with my big gold position, but I do lose sleep when I have a big dollar position. I always see pullbacks in gold as buying opportunities. We’re now in a 10 year bull market in gold. We ran a twenty year bear market, so it might be a twenty year bull market. We may be only halfway through.

I’m not sweating $1100 gold as the top like so many others in this country. They see bubbles everywhere in gold. They never saw the bubble in real estate, never saw the bubble in stocks, never saw anything. However, all these people in the U.S. see a bubble in gold. I don’t see it. I sleep like a baby with my gold position. Fred Hickey-Read more here-http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-fred-hickey-if-we-continue-down-path-outlook-general-impoverishment-country

-The Fed and the Treasury are well aware that America is bankrupt and the only way it can continue to function is via the Fed’s ability to create endless amounts of money and credit. That is why credit spreads are at records.

As of late this year an additional $420 billion in additional interest expense will be added for this year and every other year, plus we are facing another $1.8 trillion deficit. Worse yet, the official projection is for an additional $1 trillion deficit annually for the next ten years.

Presently, as a result of policies of the Treasury and the Fed, real inflation is 8%, not the official number of 2.5% to 3%. All these parties, which include Wall Street, have no intention of allowing the reduction of spending and government. Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/InternationalForecaster/1271599200.php and http://news.goldseek.com/InternationalForecaster/1271859927.php

-Equity market corrections of 10% or more occur every 11 months, on average, over the past 80 years and we are long overdue. While the Goldman file is dominating the news flow, it still pays to heed Bob Farrell’s’ market rules to remember that it is the market that makes the news, the news does not make the market.

And this is becoming a more discriminating marketplace than the tide-that-lift-all-the-boats backdrop of the past year. We saw that on Friday because even before the SEC lawsuit was announced. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-According to the Shiller P/E ratio, the S&P; 500 is now 35% overvalued a full one standard deviation event. The April data was just updated and showed the inflation-adjusted normalized P/E, premised on “bird-in-the-hand” (as opposed to consensus earnings forecasts, which is historically more than 20% higher than we actually get one reason why Wall Street banks are dubbed “the sell side”) 10-year trailing profits, expanded to over 22x from 21x in March.

This is not nosebleed territory, but it is expensive; the historical average is 16.4x. So, this implies that the market is currently 34.7% overvalued benchmarked against the historical norm. It would be nice to say that a higher-than-normal P/E is justified by low inflation and low interest rates.

But frankly, real bond yields are not that far from their long-run averages; however, equity valuation is, and something is going to give at some point. Valuation metrics are not meant to be timing devices. Assets, securities, and currencies can stay overvalued for extended periods of time, but inevitably Bob Farrell’s rule number one on the concept of “mean reversion” will come into play.

The operative strategy is to buy low and sell high, not the opposite; and to be paid to take on risk as opposed to be paying for taking on the risk. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-New York State May Run Out of Money Before July, DiNapoli Says. New York’s general fund may run out of cash in June and will for the first time in state history end the months of May through August with a negative cash balance, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said.

The third-most populous U.S. state ended its past fiscal year on March 31 with $2.3 billion in its general fund after Governor David Paterson delayed disbursing $2.9 billion, mostly in tax refunds and school aid. Because those payments must be made in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, the general fund may run out of money before July, DiNapoli said. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=aCmKO_c7O.Ac

-California’s unemployment rate hit a modern record of 12.6 percent in March, though it rose only a fraction over the previous month, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday. Read more here-http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9F49LEO0&show;_article=1

-L.A. Mayor Axes Firefighters, Clerks to Fill Yawning Budget Gap. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called for eliminating more than 3,500 city jobs including 61 firefighters and 443 typists to help curb a deficit estimated to reach $485 million in the coming fiscal year. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=ahHlCYR5.f0I

-U.S. wholesale prices rose more than expected last month as food prices surged by the most in 26 years. But excluding food and energy, prices were nearly flat. The Labor Department said the Producer Price Index rose by 0.7 percent in March, compared to analysts’ forecasts of a 0.4 percent rise. A rise in gas prices also helped push up the index. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid;=aYoxl2DbrZU0

-Bank of Canada Keeps Benchmark Interest Rate at 0.25%. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid;=a3FlLV6bguUU

-Saudis Tighten China Energy Ties to Reduce U.S. Dependence. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid;=afA7qKyLK44s

-U.S. States Face ‘Staggered’ Recovery, Pew Center’s Urahn Says. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=aE.g8HmZ6Fwc

-Jim Rogers: Next Recession Is Coming and It Will Be Much Worse. The Great Recession that may have just ended will amount to nothing compared to the next one, says commodities expert Jim Rogers. The huge fiscal and monetary stimulus is what will cause the crisis, he says.

Rogers notes that the United States suffers a recession every four to six years on average. “When it (the next one) comes, it’s going to be much worse, because Washington can’t quintuple its debt again,” he told Newsmax.TV Money. Read more here-http://moneynews.com/Headline/jim-rogers-recession-worse/2010/04/20/id/356312

-Must Germany bail out Portugal too? Portugal, not Greece, poses the greater existential threat to Europe’s monetary union. Read more here-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/7604196/Must-Germany-bail-out-Portugal-too.html

-Now we know the truth. The financial meltdown wasn’t a mistake it was a con. Hiding behind the complexities of our financial system, banks and other institutions are being accused of fraud and deception, with Goldman Sachs just the latest in the spotlight. Read more here-http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/18/goldman-sachs-regulators-civil-charges

-500-Euro Bill Lifts Crime Risk, Bank of Italy Says. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid;=apbqDcYpHhdA

-U.S. Unveils New $100 Bill to Foil Counterfeiters. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=aoLIQa4G1s9g

-New speed cameras trap motorists from space. A new type of speed cameras which can use satellites to measure average speed over long distances are being tested in Britain. Read more here-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7608153/New-speed-cameras-trap-motorists-from-space.html

WWW.RARECOLOREDDIAMONDS.COM

-The Rare Colored Diamonds Historical Value Tracker system is the perfect tool for investors to view the potential future value of a rare colored diamond based on the current market trend of a particular type of diamond. Track the potential future value of colored diamonds here-http://www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com/HistoricalPriceTrackingsystem.html

-Watch BTV interview of Harold Seigel on colored diamonds and his website http://www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com/. Watch video here-http://www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com/watchnow.html and

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

-Auction Results-Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels Sale New York April 20 2010.

LOT 292-FANCY INTENSE YELLOW DIAMOND RING, 15,000-20,000 USD. Description-The marquise-shaped diamond of fancy intense yellow color weighing 2.32 carats, framed by round diamonds, mounted in gold and platinum, size 10¼. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 23,750 USD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=N08629&live;_lot_id=292

LOT 293-FANCY INTENSE YELLOW DIAMOND RING. 20,000-30,000 USD. Description-The cut-cornered rectangular modified brilliant-cut diamond of fancy intense yellow color weighing 2.28 carats, framed by round and marquise-shaped diamonds weighing approximately 2.75 carats, mounted in 18 karat white gold, size 4¼. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 25,000 USD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=N08629&live;_lot_id=293

LOT 305-FANCY DEEP BROWNISH GREENISH YELLOW DIAMOND RING. 20,000-25,000 USD. Description-The pear-shaped diamond of fancy deep brownish greenish yellow color weighing 6.04 carats, framed and flanked by round diamonds weighing approximately 2.75 carats, mounted in 18 karat gold and platinum, size 6¾. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 48,750 USD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=N08629&live;_lot_id=305

LOT 442-FANCY BROWN-YELLOW DIAMOND AND DIAMOND PENDANT-NECKLACE. 70,000-90,000 USD. Description-The heart-shaped diamond of fancy brown-yellow color weighing 22.24 carats, framed by round diamonds weighing 3.70 carats, suspended from a graduated necklace set with round diamonds weighing approximately 14.00 carats, mounted in platinum and 18 karat gold, length 17 inches, pendant detachable. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 200,500 USD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=N08629&live;_lot_id=442

LOT 443-FANCY PINK DIAMOND RING. 100,000-150,000 USD. Description-The pear-shaped diamond of fancy pink color weighing 2.09 carats, flanked by pear-shaped diamonds weighing .59 and .56 carat, mounted in platinum and 18 karat gold, size 3¾. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 164,500 USD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=N08629&live;_lot_id=443

LOT 450-DIAMOND AND FANCY YELLOW DIAMOND RING. 80,000-100,000 US. Description-The cut-cornered square modified brilliant-cut diamond weighing 5.09 carats, flanked by cut-cornered rectangular modified brilliant-cut diamonds of fancy yellow color weighing 1.13 and 1.12 carats, mounted in 18 karat gold and platinum, size 6. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 98,500 USD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=N08629&live;_lot_id=450

LOT 453-FANCY INTENSE YELLOW DIAMOND RING. 60,000-80,000 USD. Description-The emerald-cut diamond of fancy intense yellow color weighing 5.30 carats, flanked by marquise-shaped and tapered baguette diamonds weighing approximately 1.20 carats, mounted in 18 karat white and yellow gold, size 8. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 80,500 USD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=N08629&live;_lot_id=453

LOT 458-FANCY YELLOW DIAMOND RING. 120,000-150,000 USD. Description-The square emerald-cut diamond of fancy yellow color weighing 14.00 carats, flanked by round diamonds weighing approximately .60 carat, mounted in platinum and gold, size 3¼. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 260,500 USD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=N08629&live;_lot_id=458

LOT 514-FANCY LIGHT YELLOW DIAMOND RING. 50,000-75,000 USD. Description-The modified rectangular mixed-cut diamond of fancy light yellow color weighing 7.95 carats, flanked by trapeze-cut diamonds of yellow hue weighing approximately 1.30 carats, within a frame of small round diamonds of pink hue weighing approximately .70 carat, the shank set with near colorless round diamonds weighing approximately 1.75 carats, mounted in platinum and 18 karat white and pink gold, size 6¾. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 98,500 USD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=N08629&live;_lot_id=514

LOT 516-PAIR OF FANCY YELLOW DIAMOND EARSTUDS. 60,000-80,000 USD. Description-The cut-cornered rectangular modified brilliant-cut diamonds of fancy yellow color weighing 3.68 and 3.63 carats, mounted in 18 karat gold. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 76,900 USD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=N08629&live;_lot_id=516

LOT 532-PAIR OF DIAMOND AND COLORED DIAMOND EARCLIPS. 8,000-12,000 USD. Description-The flowerheads set with near colorless round diamonds weighing approximately 8.10 carats, set in the center with round diamonds of yellow hue weighing approximately 1.40 carats, mounted in 18 karat white gold. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 12,500 USD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=N08629&live;_lot_id=532

LOT 543-UNMOUNTED FANCY YELLOW DIAMOND. 400,000-600,000 USD. Description-The cushion-shaped diamond weighing 25.62 carats. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 494,500 USD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=N08629&live;_lot_id=543

LOT 557-RARE FANCY INTENSE PINKISH ORANGE DIAMOND RING. 2,500,000-3,500,000 USD. Description-The cut-cornered rectangular modified brilliant-cut diamond of fancy intense pinkish orange color weighing 7.67 carats, framed and flanked by round diamonds, mounted in platinum and 18 karat pink gold, size 5¾. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 3,106,500 USD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=N08629&live;_lot_id=557

LOT 565-MAGNIFICENT FANCY VIVID YELLOW DIAMOND NECKLACE. 2,000,000-3,000,000 USD. Description-Set with cut-cornered rectangular modified brilliant-cut and cut-cornered square modified brilliant-cut diamonds of fancy vivid color weighing a total of 100.17 carats, mounted in 18 karat gold, length 16¾ inches. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 3,554,500 USD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=N08629&live;_lot_id=565

LOT 579-FANCY INTENSE YELLOW DIAMOND RING. 400,000-600,000 USD. Description-The cut-cornered rectangular mixed-cut diamond of fancy intense yellow color weighing 27.80 carats, flanked by triangular-shaped diamonds weighing 3.50 carats, mounted in platinum and gold, size 7. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 602,500 USD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=N08629&live;_lot_id=579

LOT 580-PAIR OF FANCY INTENSE YELLOW DIAMOND AND DIAMOND EARCLIPS. 300,000-400,000 USD. Description-The cut-cornered square modified brilliant-cut diamonds of fancy intense yellow color weighing 12.75 and 12.29 carats, framed by round diamonds weighing approximately 14.10 carats, mounted in platinum and gold. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 488,500 USD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=N08629&live;_lot_id=580

-Auction Results-Christie’s Jewels: The New York Sale April 22 2010.

Lot 57-A BELLE EPOQUE COLORED DIAMOND PENDANT NECKLACE. Lot Description-Set with a pear-shaped fancy dark gray-yellowish green diamond, weighing approximately 5.84 carats, to the collet-set old European and marquise-cut diamond surround and foliate link, from a platinum fine link neckchain, spaced by collet-set old European-cut diamonds, mounted in gold and platinum, circa 1910, 17 ins. With report 2115721015 dated 4 March 2010 from the Gemological Institute of America stating that the diamond is fancy dark gray-yellowish green, natural color, VVS2 clarity; accompanied by a working diagram indicating that the clarity may be potentially internally flawless. Estimate $20,000-$40,000. Price Realized $104,500. Read more here-http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID;=5307375&sid;=6a6b8fcc-91e9-4685-89e0-efbb29d6bbaa

Lot 73-A COLORED DIAMOND RING. Lot Description-Set with a cut-cornered square-cut fancy intense yellow diamond, weighing approximately 10.17 carats, to the pavé-set yellow diamond prongs, gallery and tapered hoop, mounted in 18k gold, ring size 6¼. With report 2105821054 dated 1 February 2010 from the Gemological Institute of America stating that the diamond is fancy intense yellow, natural color, internally flawless clarity. Estimate $200,000-$300,000. Price Realized $242,500. Read more here-http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID;=5307391&sid;=6a6b8fcc-91e9-4685-89e0-efbb29d6bbaa

Lot 120-A BELLE EPOQUE COLORED DIAMOND NECKLACE. Lot Description-Suspending a pear-shaped yellowish brown diamond, trimmed with single-cut diamonds, swinging within an openwork single-cut diamond circular pendant of foliate motif, from a single and old European-cut diamond foliate double swag, suspending a drop-shaped diamond pendant, to the single and old European-cut diamond foliate neckchain of similar design, mounted in platinum, circa 1910, 15¼ ins. Estimate $20,000-$30,000. Price Realized $43,750-Read more here-http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID;=5307438&sid;=6a6b8fcc-91e9-4685-89e0-efbb29d6bbaa

Lot 129-A COLORED DIAMOND RING. Lot Description-Bezel-set with a cushion-cut fancy intense yellow diamond, weighing approximately 4.66 carats, within an old European and single-cut diamond surround, mounted in platinum. With report 2115662754 dated 1 February 2010 from the Gemological Institute of America stating that the diamond is fancy intense yellow, natural color, VS2 clarity. Estimate $30,000-$50,000. Price Realized $116,500. Read more here-http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID;=5307447&sid;=6a6b8fcc-91e9-4685-89e0-efbb29d6bbaa

Lot 130-A BELLE EPOQUE COLORED DIAMOND BROOCH. Lot Description-Centering upon a bezel-set pear-shaped fancy brownish pink diamond, weighing approximately 5.83 carats, within an old mine-cut diamond scalloped surround, topped by a bezel-set old European-cut diamond, the bottom suspending briolette-cut diamond drops with single-cut diamond foliate detail and and collet-set diamonds, mounted in platinum, circa 1910, (one briolette-cut diamond drop deficient). With report 1112662768 dated 1 February 2010 from the Gemological Institute of America stating that the diamond is fancy brownish pink, natural color, SI1 clarity. Estimate $80,000-$120,000. Price Realized $374,500. Read more here-http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID;=5307448&sid;=6a6b8fcc-91e9-4685-89e0-efbb29d6bbaa

Lot 161-A SET OF COLORED DIAMOND JEWELRY. Lot Description-Comprising a bracelet, designed as a graduated series of oval-cut fancy intense yellow diamonds, each within a circular-cut diamond surround, spaced by marquise-cut diamond florets; and a pair of ear clips en suite, mounted in platinum, bracelet 7 ins. With eleven reports dated from 29 February 1996 to 12 September 2003 from the Gemological Institute of America, stating that the oval-cut diamonds are fancy intense yellow, natural color. The total weight of the eleven fancy intense yellow diamonds is approximately 16.89 carats. Estimate $40,000-$50,000. Price Realized $128,500. Read more here-http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID;=5307479&sid;=6a6b8fcc-91e9-4685-89e0-efbb29d6bbaa

Lot 190-A PAIR OF COLORED DIAMOND EAR STUDS. Lot Description-Each set with a modified cut-cornered rectangular-cut fancy intense yellow diamond, weighing approximately 4.28 and 4.23 carats, mounted in gold. With reports 2115687693 and 1112687692 dated 8 February 2010 from the Gemological Institute of America stating that the diamonds are fancy intense yellow, natural color, VVS1 clarity; accompanied by a working diagram indicating that the clarity of the diamond, weighing approximately 4.23 carats, may be potentially internally flawless. Estimate $50,000-$70,000. Price Realized $134,500. Read more here-http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID;=5307508&sid;=6a6b8fcc-91e9-4685-89e0-efbb29d6bbaa

Lot 192-A COLORED DIAMOND RING. Lot Description-Set with a cut-cornered rectangular-cut fancy vivid yellow diamond, weighing approximately 9.83 carats, flanked on either side by two graduated baguette-cut diamonds, mounted in platinum and 18k gold. With report 10655670 dated 24 February 2010 from the Gemological Institute of America stating that the diamond is fancy vivid yellow, natural color, internally flawless clarity. Estimate $700,000-$1,000,000. Price Realized $1,010,500. Read more here-http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID;=5307510&sid;=6a6b8fcc-91e9-4685-89e0-efbb29d6bbaa

Lot 194-A COLORED DIAMOND RING. Lot Description-Set with a pear-shaped fancy intense yellow diamond, weighing approximately 8.68 carats, to the pear-shaped and baguette-cut diamond shoulders, mounted in platinum. With report 15882900 dated 24 May 2007 from the Gemological Institute of America stating that the diamond is fancy intense yellow, natural color, VS2 clarity. Estimate $60,000-$80,000. Price Realized $170,500. Read more here-http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID;=5307512&sid;=6a6b8fcc-91e9-4685-89e0-efbb29d6bbaa

Lot 247-A COLORED DIAMOND RING. Lot Description-Set with a marquise-cut fancy intense blue diamond, weighing approximately 1.84 carats, within a marquise-cut diamond surround, mounted in platinum. With report 5111720918 dated 3 March 2010 from the Gemological Institute of America stating that the diamond is fancy intense blue, natural color, VVS2 clarity; accompanied by a working diagram indicating that the clarity may be potentially internally flawless. Estimate $100,000-$150,000. Price Realized $386,500. Read more here-http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID;=5307565&sid;=e865df59-a85d-4479-aeae-224fc724805d

Lot 254-A COLORED DIAMOND RING. Lot Description-Set with a rectangular-cut very light pink diamond, weighing approximately 5.07 carats, flanked on either side by a tapered baguette-cut diamond, mounted in platinum. With report 5111510338 dated 21 December 2009 from the Gemological Institute of America stating that the diamond is very light pink, natural color, VS1 clarity. Estimate $100,000-$150,000. Price Realized $152,500. Read more here-http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID;=5307572&sid;=e865df59-a85d-4479-aeae-224fc724805d

Lot 282-A COLORED DIAMOND PENDANT. Lot Description-Bezel-set with a pear-shaped fancy light pink diamond, weighing approximately 7.02 carats, within a circular-cut diamond surround, to the circular-cut diamond bail, mounted in platinum and rose gold. With report 14863503 dated 8 May 2006 from the Gemological Institute of America stating that the diamond is fancy light pink, natural color, SI2 clarity. Estimate $300,000-$500,000. Price Realized $362,500. Read more here-http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID;=5307600&sid;=e865df59-a85d-4479-aeae-224fc724805d

Lot 292-AN EXCEPTIONAL COLORED DIAMOND RING. Lot Description-Set with a round-cornered rectangular-cut fancy vivid blue diamond, weighing approximately 3.43 carats, flanked on either side by a cut-cornered trapeze-cut diamond, mounted in platinum. With report 13287209 dated 1 March 2010 from the Gemological Institute of America stating that the diamond is fancy vivid blue, natural color, VS1 clarity. Estimate $1,500,000-2,500,000. Price Realized $3,106,500. Read more here-http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID;=5307610&sid;=e865df59-a85d-4479-aeae-224fc724805d

JAMES TURK-HYPERINFLATION LOOMS

-There is an interesting article in Canada’s Globe & Mail about the lack of growth in the US money supply. Ignoring for the moment that the quantity of dollars in circulation is significantly underreported, it observes:

“The money supply in the United States is doing something that almost never happens: it’s shrinking, after taking into account inflation. Similar episodes in the past have usually been scary times for investors. Declines in the amount of money in circulation have coincided with recessions, and some analysts looking at the current trend say it is a harbinger of trouble. Despite signs that the U.S. is in recovery, they worry that the money supply numbers indicate the economy remains vulnerable to the feared double-dip downturn, or is close to experiencing deflation.”

I agree with the first half of this proposition about a renewed economic downturn, but not the second. In fact, rather than deflation, the dollar is moving ever closer to hyperinflation. How is deflation possible when crude oil prices have more than doubled since their post-Lehman crash low?

Or more broadly, how can there be deflation when the price index of 19 commodities compiled by the Commodity Research Bureau rose 47% during this same period? It cannot of course, which means there is no deflation. The ongoing decline in the purchasing power of the dollar has been masked by wealth destruction as over-priced assets like houses fall back to realistic levels.

There is also the problem that the mainstream media broadcasts only the government calculated CPI, which is an inaccurate measure of the dollar’s eroding purchasing power. As John Williams of www.shadowstats.com notes: “Over the decades, the BLS [Bureau of Labor Statistics] has altered the meaning of the CPI from being a measure of the cost of living needed to maintain a constant standard of living, to something that no longer reflects the constant-standard-of-living concept.”

John reports that his “SGS-Alternate Consumer Inflation Measure, which reverses gimmicked changes to official CPI reporting methodologies back to 1980, rose to about 9.5%” in March from a year ago. So the Globe & Mail article is wrong about deflation, but I am not drawing attention to it just because I agree that “the economy remains vulnerable to the feared double-dip downturn”. Instead, this article unintentionally offers compelling evidence that the dollar is approaching hyperinflation. Read more here-http://www.fgmr.com/hyperinflation-looms-dollar-arrives-at-its-havenstein-moment.html

8 MORE U.S. BANKS FAIL-50 FOR THE YEAR

-8 banks close in Calif., Fla., Mass., Mich., Wash. Regulators on Friday shut down eight banks three in Florida, two in California, and one each in Massachusetts, Michigan and Washington putting the number of U.S. bank failures this year at 50.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over the three Florida banks: Riverside National Bank in Fort Pierce, with $3.4 billion in assets; First Federal Bank of North Florida in Palatka, with $393.3 million in assets; and AmericanFirst Bank in Clermont, with assets of $90.5 million. TD Bank Financial Group, a division of Canada’s TD Bank, agreed to acquire the deposits and nearly all the assets of the three Florida banks.

The FDIC also seized Innovative Bank, based in Oakland, Calif., with about $269 million in assets; Tamalpais Bank of San Rafael, Calif., with about $629 million in assets; City Bank, based in Lynnwood, Wash., with about $1.1 billion in assets; Butler Bank in Lowell, Mass., with $268 million in assets; and Lakeside Community Bank in Sterling Heights, Mich., with $53 million in assets. Read more here-http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100417/D9F4JQR00.html and http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid;=aYAIaUFyiq2M

IMF SAYS GOVERNMENT DEBT POSES RISK TO GROWTH

-The International Monetary Fund cautioned that rising government debt has replaced financial industry stress as the biggest threat to the global economy and cut its estimate for asset writedowns by 19 percent. Banks reduced the value of loans and securities by $2.28 trillion since 2007, two-thirds of which had been realized by the end of 2009, down from the IMF’s October estimate of $2.81 trillion, the fund said today in its Global Financial Stability Report.

About 39 percent of the writedowns were in U.S. banks, 29 percent in the euro area and 20 percent in the U.K., the IMF said. While the global economic recovery has “gained steam” and risks to the financial system have subsided, concerns are rising for sovereign debt issued by advanced countries that bailed out banks, the IMF report said.

Governments need “credible, medium- term” plans to reduce deficits and some nations need to do more to revive the flow of credit and boost growth. “The deterioration of fiscal balances and the rapid accumulation of public debt have altered the global risk profile,” the IMF said. “Vulnerabilities now increasingly emanate from concerns over the sustainability of governments’ balance sheets.”

Pacific Investment Management Co., manager of the world’s largest bond fund, earlier this year identified the U.S., Italy, France, Greece, Japan and the U.K. as economies sitting in a “ring of fire.” Each has debt above 90 percent of gross domestic product or the potential for it to rise there soon, slowing economic growth, Pimco said. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=aSuHPieVHOII

DAVID ROSENBERG-NO FREE LUNCH

-It is truly amazing how investors are missing the forest for the trees. A nascent recovery and V-shaped bull market completely premised on rampant government stimulus is going to have a payback. The day of reckoning is coming and sooner than many think.

Fixing the fiscal mess will not be achieved through spending restraint because spending is increasingly being dominated by locked-in mandatory entitlement spending and interest costs on the rapidly rising stock of public debt.

Unlike the key propelling factors behind the onset of the secular bull market in 1982, which were tax reduction, less government and lower interest rates, we will see none of that going forward.

Not that the Fed will be raising rates any time soon, but they can’t exactly be cut like they were in the early and mid 1980s. But taxes are going higher and on the most productive parts of society.

The Bush tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2002 expire on January 1st, 2011 and according to our friends at Hoisington, this will total $1.5 trillion in the ensuing decade or a 1% hit to GDP annually.

On that date, top marginal tax rates for individuals earning more than 200k and families making over 250k will see their tax rates rise to 39.6% from 35% (the current 15% rate on capital gains and dividends will also go back to 20% and 39.6%,respectively, on Jan 1, 2011).

A huge polarization is already emerging as the President’s policies have allowed 47 percent of households to avoid paying taxes up from 38% two years ago. Since the U.S. government got elected on a platform to redistribute income to the “have nots”, expect that ratio to rise even further in the future.

This is all reminiscent of how the New Deal was ultimately paid for the top marginal tax rate soared in the 1930s (before WWII) from 25% to 80%. Maybe that’s why the next secular bull market didn’t start until 1954. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

REAL ESTATE

-Existing U.S. Home Sales Climb to 5.35 Million Rate. Sales of U.S. previously owned homes rose in March for the first time in four months as buyers took advantage of a government tax credit and the weather improved. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=auUPgKK88r0Q&pos;=2

-Goldman Real Estate Fund Lost 98 Cents on the Dollar. Whitehall Street International, Goldman Sachs’ international real estate investment fund, has lost almost all of its $1.8 billion of equity following soured property investments in the U.S., Germany and Japan, according to the fund’s estimates.

By the end of 2009, the fund was down to its last $30 million, a paper loss of about 98 cents on the dollar, an annual report sent to investors last month said. The report said that Goldman was Whitehall’s largest investor, with a commitment of $436 million. Last year, Goldman took a loss of $1.76 billion from all its real estate principal investments.

The Whitehall disclosure is the latest in a string of losses reported by bank-owned property funds that relied on debt, and it comes as the Obama administration is seeking to restrict banks’ investment in private equity funds. Read more here-http://www.cnbc.com/id/36591654

The Goldbugg Report – April 27, 2010
Posted by Worldwide Precious Metals on Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The Goldbugg Report – April 20, 2010

April 20, 2010

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

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

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

GOLD

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SILVER

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1) Gold to Silver ratio

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

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

2) Inflation Past and Future

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

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

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

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

3) Increasing Silver Industrial & Investment Demand

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4) The Real Silver Advantages: Leverage & Availability

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

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

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

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

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

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

5) Dwindling Silver Stock Piles

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

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

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

6) Eventual COMEX Short Squeeze

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

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

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

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

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

7) Silver Leasing

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

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

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

Summary

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PLATINUM

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

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

CHARTS OF THE WEEK-QUOTES-QUICK HITS

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

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

Source: chartoftheday.com

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

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

Source: chartoftheday.com

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

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

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

Source: chartoftheday.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• 41% expect significant tightening of liquidity in 2010.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WWW.RARECOLOREDDIAMONDS.COM

-Watch BTV interview of Harold Seigel on colored diamonds and his website http://www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com/. Watch video here-http://www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com/watchnow.html and

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SOROS-MARKETS COULD BE DERAILED AGAIN

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

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

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

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

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

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

SOVEREIGN DEBT CRISIS

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

BANKING CRISIS

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

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

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

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

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

U.S. DEBT CRISIS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

REAL ESTATE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Week In Review – April 16, 2010

April 16, 2010

China trimmed its holdings of US Treasury debt by another 1.3 percent in February, the fourth time it has done so. Such moves, if they continue, may lead to the US government paying higher interest rates to finance its seemingly ever increasing budget deficit.

The number of new unemployment insurance claims rose unexpectedly last week, for the second week in a row. Economists had expected the figure to fall and, unlike last week, continuing claims also edged higher.

The situation in Greece continues to remain unresolved. This week Greece formally requested talks with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund regarding its sovereign debt issues. This is perhaps the first step to their receiving billions of euros in emergency loans via an aid package announced last Sunday by euro zone governments. Should that aid package be activated, a group in Germany is already planning to file suit. This group believes that aiding Greece by providing those loans would violate the “no bailout” clause of the EU treaty. They have firmly and publicly voiced their opinion that Greece should leave the EU, cease using the euro and go back to using their previous currency.

On Thursday, Congress successfully passed a measure to restore jobless benefits to those whose unemployment insurance had expired on April 5th. The republicans blocked the previous extension just prior to a two week recess of Congress. The measure extends benefits through June 2.

Foreclosure activity hit a new monthly record in March. One in every 138 households received a foreclosure notice for the quarter. Based on the March data, bank repossessions are on track to break last year’s record of 918,000.

Concerns over Greece, the US jobless data and China’s apparent moves at tightening and slowing their economy down helped push crude oil back under $85 a barrel.

Retail sales were up better than expected for March, perhaps showing that the consumer is becoming comfortable enough to start spending again despite unemployment levels that remain high. Consumer spending, along with housing, has long been believed to be the keys to speeding up the economic recovery. In a private survey released Friday however, consumer sentiment took a turn for the worse due to continued high unemployment and poor outlook on incomes.

The euro actually moved up against the dollar this week, with the yen trading essentially sideways.

On Friday, the SEC officially charged Goldman Sachs with fraud, accusing them of costing investors close to $1 billion with their collateralized debt obligations that were tied to risky sub-prime mortgages.

Friday to Friday Close

	Apr. 9^th	Apr. 16^th	Net Change
Gold	$1160.00	$1135.00	(25.00) – 2.16%
Silver	$18.39	$17.66	(0.73) – 3.97%
Platinum	$1723.00	$1690.00	(33.00) – 1.92%
Palladium	$514.00	$528.00	14.00 + 2.72%

Here are your Short Term Support and Resistance Levels for the upcoming week.

	Gold	Silver
Support	1130/1100/1080	17.80/17.50/17.00
Resistance	1160/1175/1200	18.50/18.70/19.00

	Platinum	Palladium
Support	1700/1675/1650	530/510/500
Resistance	1720/1750/1800	550/575/600

Volatility should be expected to continue. Congress continues to bicker amongst themselves, with democrats spending like the proverbial sailors, and republicans attempting to force them to find ways to pay for their programs instead of just continually adding to an already record budget deficit. Details concerning manipulation in the precious metals market by banks such as JP Morgan Chase and HSBC continue to surface. As more and more “whistleblowers” come forward and the charges keep racking up against these large banks, the chances that the CFTC will take action to stop the manipulation continue to improve. Many analysts feel that the stock market seems poised for a sharp correction while precious metals appear poised for a sharp move to the upside. Remember, the key to profitability through the ownership of physical precious metals is to actually own the physical product and to hold them for the long term. Never over-extend your ability to maintain ownership of your product over the long term.

As we mentioned in our memo last week, if you want the manipulation in the precious metals markets to come to an end we urge you to e-mail the Commodities Futures Trading Commission at this e-mail address: metalshearing@cftc.gov. Thanks to Ted Butler, you can use the following draft for your e-mail to the CFTC (remember to place your name after “Sincerely,” at the bottom):

“Dear Sirs; Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the issue of position limits for precious metals. Please establish a speculative position limit in Comex Silver of no more than 1500 contracts. Please restrict any hedging exemptions from those limits to legitimate hedgers. Please stop the levels of concentration in Comex silver futures that have been experienced over the past few years on the short side of the market. Sincerely, ______________”

The CFTC is only accepting comments from the general public through to the 26^th of April, 2010 so you only have 10 more days to take action. The more of us, as investors, who have and show an interest in the CFTC stopping and finally putting to a halt the manipulation that has been carried on by institutions such as J.P. Morgan Chase and HSBC, the better our chances in getting a positive reaction. Please CC your e-mails to Mr. Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer of Gold Anti-Trust Association at cpowell@gata.org.

Trading Department – Precious Metals International, Ltd.

This is not a solicitation to purchase or sell.

The Week In Review – April 16, 2010
Posted by Worldwide Precious Metals on Friday, April 16, 2010

The Goldbugg Report – April 13, 2010

April 13, 2010

-BOMBSHELL Whistle Blower Comes Forward With Solid Proof the Price Of Gold And Silver Is Being Manipulated By Major Financial Institutions

-Gold is the ultimate currency…

-Silver institute 2010 Q1 newsletter

GOLD

-Rob McEwen gold is the ultimate currency. Rob McEwen is sticking to his guns and his predictions when it comes to the price of the yellow metal. Speaking on the Mineweb Gold Weekly podcast, Rob McEwen, the CEO of US Gold and the founder and former Chairman of Goldcorp, retains his long-held views on the gold price (he has recently been quoted as suggesting gold will hit $2,000 this year on its way to $5,000).

He says that gold is being driven up by the massive amount of debt that’s in place right now and the huge spending programmes by the governments of the west. These countries, he says, are debasing their currencies in an effort to kick start their respective economies and, while this may work in the short term he says, “long and intermediate term we’re going to see the ramifications of this and it will look something like the Weimar Republic of the twenties”.

He adds, “First you have to appreciate that gold is money. Here it is an alternative currency, the ultimate currency because it can’t be manufactured the way all the paper currencies of the world are, the FIAT currencies. The supply of gold can only expand at the rate of annual production and that’s about 1% a year whereas the paper supply is just a question of how many zeros you put in and you can print out as much as you want.”

While McEwen admits that other factors, such as demand from Asia have a role to play in boosting the price of the yellow metal, in the end it comes down to money, how people keep it, store it and ensure its value doesn’t diminish.

“August 2007, to me that was the turning point,” he says, “that was the first time in probably the last 30 or 40 years that suddenly the entire banking system of the world appeared to be in jeopardy and the question was not of ‘how much do I earn on my money’, it is ‘how do I protect my money’, and gold has served that role over the millennium and it’s about to do it again.” Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page34?oid=101862&sn;=Detail&pid;=34

-Richard Russell gold commentary. The great bull market in gold is in its tenth year. The incredible thing about this bull market is that it is still ignored by the media and the public at the same time it’s hated by the central banks, although ironically, they are now actually buying gold. On top of that, the sovereign funds of the various nations are adding gold to their currency mix.

Since the year 2000 the best asset class to be in was precious metals and gold. Yet never was a huge bull market so ignored, so dismissed, and disliked. Even today after rising from 250 in 1999 to 1150 today, only a tiny fraction of Americans own so much as one single gold coin. Most Americans have never seen a gold coin, and I ask myself how long can this go on? Read more here-http://www.321gold.com/editorials/russell/russell040610.html and http://www.321gold.com/editorials/russell/russell040210.html

-Gold’s major trend has been up for nine consecutive years, yet the investing public has barely begun to invest. It’s not well known that this bull market even exists. This in itself is bullish because it means the 375% gain over the last almost decade will be pale compared to the potential this second phase of the bull market could have.

The markets are one big ball of mass emotions. And in many ways, the first nine years of the stock market’s mega bull market rise from the mid-1970s through the 1990s was similar to this bull market rise in gold. Chart 1 shows the S&P500; from the 1974 major low to the 2000 peak, compared to the gold market from its 2001 low to the present. Here you can see the similarities of the first nine years.

In both cases, the rise wasn’t generally noticeable because another overpowering market was the main focus. In 1974-1983 the gold market was the flurry, not the stock market. Since 2001, it’s been the stock market flurry, which carried over from the tech and global boom that has had more attention.

This is not to say that gold today is where the stock market was in 1983, ready to embark upon a mega decade bull market, but it could. These similarities and many others suggest that gold’s bull market has much further to run. Aden Sisters-Read more here-http://www.321gold.com/editorials/aden/aden040110.html

-James Turk: A “New Dynamic” in the Gold Market. Read more here-http://www.fgmr.com/new-dynamic-in-the-gold-market.html

-Bill Fleckenstein says “Buy Gold to Hedge Inflation.” Watch more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/avp/avp.htm?N=video&T;=4%2F5%20Fleckenstein%20Interview%20on%20Inflation%20Outlook%2C%20Advice%20&clipSRC;=mms://media2.bloomberg.com/cache/v1yHHCS4.F6M.asf and http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/ContrarianChronicles/inflation-warning-etched-in-steel.aspx?page=all

-Gold to the masses-China’s top bank partners with World Gold Council. The latest news out of China of gold marketing co-operation between the country’s largest bank and the World Gold Council will likely help underpin gold prices at the very least.

The news today that the state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the China’s largest bank by assets, is to co-operate with the World Gold Council to help promote gold in China, is but the next sign that the Chinese hierarchy is continuing to push gold as an investment to its general population. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=101831&sn;=Detail&pid;=33

-China, other Asian countries and gold why they underpin the price. Developments in China, India and elsewhere in Asia and the Middle East, look like they are underpinning the gold price nicely and limiting downside risk. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page72068?oid=102255&sn;=Detail&pid;=1

-Clive Maund gold market update. Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/CliveMaund/1270409127.php

-Ned Schmidt’s Gold Thoughts. Read more here-http://www.kitco.com/ind/Schmidt/apr052010.html

-Michael Berry: Finding Safety in the Precious Metals. Read more here-http://www.theaureport.com/pub/na/6007

-Jim Rickards: U.S. could be solvent again with gold at $5,500. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8519

-Very positive on gold outlook, bullish on platinum and palladium-John Licata. Gold prices continue to climb and John Licata, chief commodity strategist at Blue Phoenix Inc., says he sees reason to be optimistic about gold’s future. Interview with The Gold Report. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=101993&sn;=Detail&pid;=33

-The U.K.’s Royal Mint, established in the 13th century, said first-quarter gold coin production shrank 50 percent. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601012&sid;=as5Bmo1JJ97E

-Sorry Eric Sprott, There’s No Way You’re Buying Gold From The IMF. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8511 and http://www.businessinsider.com/eric-sprott-gold-imf-2010-4

-Eric Sprott Talks To Us About Gold, GATA, The IMF, And The Plunge-Protection Team. Read more here-http://www.businessinsider.com/eric-sprott-gold-etf-imf-2010-4

-UK Treasury Releases FOIA on Gordon Brown’s 1998 Gold Sale, Catches Tony Blair Lying, Questions US Treasury’s Good Delivery Standards. Read more here-http://www.zerohedge.com/article/uk-treasury-relases-foia-gordon-browns-1998-gold-sale-catches-tony-blair-lying-questions-us-

-Brown defied Bank of England warning over his £6bn gold giveaway. Read more here-http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1262683/Brown-defied-Bank-warning-6bn-gold-giveaway.html?ITO=1490

-The Latest Gold Fraud Bombshell: Canada’s Only Bullion Bank Gold Vault Is Practically Empty. Read more here-http://www.zerohedge.com/article/latest-gold-fraud-bombshell-canadas-only-bullion-bank-gold-vault-practically-empty Listen here-http://www.kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast/Entries/2010/4/7_Andrew_Maguire_%26_Adrian_Douglas.html

-King World News has more evidence of unbacked gold and silver certificates. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/8513

-Jim Richter: Are metals markets rigged? Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8512

SILVER

Gold to silver ratio at 80 to 1 with gold at $1,700 the silver price would be $21.25

Gold to silver ratio at 70 to 1 with gold at $1,700 the silver price would be $24.29

Gold to silver ratio at 60 to 1 with gold at $1,700 the silver price would be $28.33

Gold to silver ratio at 50 to 1 with gold at $1,700 the silver price would be $34.00

Gold to silver ratio at 40 to 1 with gold at $1,700 the silver price would be $42.50

Gold to silver ratio at 30 to 1 with gold at $1,700 the silver price would be $56.67

Gold to silver ratio at 20 to 1 with gold at $1,700 the silver price would be $85.00

Gold to silver ratio at 15 to 1 with gold at $1,700 the silver price would be $113.33

-Silver institute 2010 Q1 newsletter. Read more here-http://www.silverinstitute.org/images/pdfs/1q2010.pdf

-James Turk: Silver Looks Ready to Soar. Everything is lining up for silver, which looks ready to soar. The catalyst to launch silver like a rocket may very well turn out to be last week’s CFTC hearing, which revealed the huge naked short position in the precious metal markets.

In my annual forecast for 2010, I said: “We need to start thinking about silver hurdling above $50. If it doesn’t happen in 2010, this important event – which is unimaginable to many – will I expect happen in 2011.” The following chart suggests that my forecast is still on target.

Silver has formed a huge accumulation pattern. One could even make the case that it is a reverse ‘head & shoulders’ pattern, with two shoulders that are shallow compared to its deep head. The right shoulder is now being completed, and the pattern will manifest its bullish significance when silver climbs above the neckline around $20.

Looking at it from a pure technical point of view, this pattern can forecast silver’s price target. The difference from the neckline to the bottom of the head is about $13.50. When this difference is added to the neckline, the near-term objective on the breakout is $33.50. In other words, the upside breakout from this pattern could be breathtaking. Read more here-http://www.fgmr.com/silver-looks-ready-to-soar.html

-Silver couldn’t be more bullish, Ted Butler tells King World News. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/8505

-Ted Butler urges one more letter to the CFTC on position limits. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8517

-Clive Maund silver market update. Read more here-http://news.silverseek.com/CliveMaund/1270408897.php

-Silver Short Squeeze Could Be Imminent says National Inflation Association. On December 11th, 2009 NIA declared silver the best investment for the next decade. Read more here-http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/silver-short-squeeze-could-be-imminent-89838712.html

-The Gold-Silver Ratio: Is gold too high, or perhaps silver too low? With the gold-silver ratio still above its historic norm, will silver start to play catch-up? Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=102016&sn;=Detail&pid;=33

-Richard Daughty: The silver boom is coming. Read more here-http://news.silverseek.com/SilverSeek/1270405742.php

-Mike Maloney Discusses Silver, Gold Prices. Watch video here-http://www.bloomberg.com/avp/avp.htm?N=video&T;=Maloney%20Discusses%20Silver%2C%20Gold%20Prices%20&clipSRC;=mms://media2.bloomberg.com/cache/vUsFDWMsScsU.asf

-Have We Just Seen The End of The Big Rally in Silver? Read more here-http://news.silverseek.com/SilverSeek/1270672377.php

-Howard Ruff: Think Outside the Box: Maverick Investing in the Age of Obamanomics Part 4. Read more here-http://www.kitco.com/ind/Ruff/ruff_apr082010.html

-Marc Faber, Don’t Buy Stocks, Euro Oversold, Precious Metals the place to be. Watch video here-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iqIlq3j2YY

-King World News interviews John Williams of shadowstats.com. John discusses looming hyperinflation, gives an astounding prediction on future unemployment and also discusses some surprising inflation adjusted price possibilities for both gold and silver and much more. Listen here-http://www.kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast/Entries/2010/4/3_John_Williams.html

-Premiums Play a Role in Indicating Silver Manipulation. Read more here-http://news.silverseek.com/SilverSeek/1270668537.php

-Max Keiser covers silver market rigging on Russia Today network. Watch video here-http://www.gata.org/node/8506

CHARTS OF THE WEEK-QUOTES-QUICK HITS

-BOMBSHELL Whistle Blower Comes Forward With Solid Proof the Price Of Gold And Silver Is Being Manipulated By Major Financial Institutions, http://beforeitsnews.com/story/32124/BOMBSHELL_Whistle_Blower_Comes_Forward_With_Solid_Proof_The_Price_Of_Gold_And_Silver_Is_Being_Manipulated_By_Major_Financial_Institutions.html

-Chart of the week: Why The Gold-To-Oil Ratio Suggests Oil Could Go A Lot Higher. One remarkable aspect of the recent runup in oil is that it’s decidedly not the result of a weak dollar. That was not the case in 2007 and 2008 when oil was going nuts, and New York restaurants were pricing their menus with euro symbols.

There’s no surefire way to measure oil ex-dollars, but measuring it in gold is a reasonable approach, since it’s the anti-currency. So let’s look at little further. At the end of 2008, the number of barrels you could buy with one ounce of gold surged to ridiculous highs, the combination of a deflationary collapse (the oil drop) and global fear (the gold spike).

But look since 2000 and the trend is clear. One ounce of gold is buying you less and less oil. We appear to be reverting to trend. Oil can go a lot higher. Read more here-http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-oil-barrels-per-an-ounce-of-gold-2010-4

Source: chartoftheday.com

-Chart of the week: If China Keeps Growing, High Oil Prices Will Crush Us. It’d be great to inhabit a world where all economic growth were positive sum. They grow, we grow, everyone’s happy.

But where there’s a shortage of key resources, not everything is so rosy.

This chart, put together by HedgEye, shows a nice correlation between Chinese oil imports (measured in tons) and the price of oil, though obviously the price of oil swings more wildly. If China keeps growing and really, how will it not? Oil seemed destined only to go in one direction. Read more here-http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-oil-imports-to-china-vs-oil-price-2010-4

Source: chartoftheday.com

-Chart of the week: After the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) recently released its monthly personal income and outlays report, the major media cherry picked the data boasting the headline “Consumer Spending Rises Again in February” or some variant on this theme.

What wasn’t widely reported was the fall in personal disposal income together with a rise in personal consumption over this same period. The only way to balance that ledger is by taking on debt. Old habits die hard.

To get a better handle on a trend, we need a wide-angle lens. As today’s chart shows, personal income in the U.S. fell last year for the first time since 1969, the year the BEA began publishing the data. If a sustainable U.S. economic recovery hinges on an upturn in housing, neither is likely to happen if incomes in America continue falling, especially in the states most challenged by the crash in home prices. Read more here-http://www.caseyresearch.com/displayCcs.php?e=true

-Chart of the week: The Consumer Dies Again. Here it is, folks, the chart to break a million retailers’ hearts. It’s the Fed’s latest consumer credit reading, and after starting to come back, total outstanding consumer credit has fallen right back down, with a monster month-over-month decline. Read more here-http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-the-consumer-dies-again-2010-4

Source: chartoftheday.com

-“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.” H.L. Mencken

-“I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant.” H.L. Mencken

-A good friend of ours at UBS, Robert Procaccianti, periodically emails us his pithy market thoughts, and yesterday he sent us the following. Great digging into some now infamous quotes after the 1929-30 bear market and the widespread view at the time that the worst was over because, of course, Mr. Market said so… erroneously as it turned out. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

“[1930 will be] a splendid employment year.” U.S. Department of Labor, New Year’s Forecast, December 1929

“I am convinced that through these measures, we have re-established confidence.” Herbert Hoover, U.S. President, December 1929.

“While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed through the worst and with continued unity of effort we shall rapidly recover. There has been no significant bank or industrial failure. That danger, too, is safely behind us.” Herbert Hoover, U.S. President, May 1930.

“This is the time to buy stocks. This is the time to recall the words of the late J. P. Morgan that any man who is bearish on America will go broke. Within a few days there is likely to be a bear panic rather than a bull panic. Many of the low prices as a result of this hysterical selling are not likely to be reached again in many years.” R. W. McNeel, market analyst, as quoted in the New York Herald Tribune, October 30, 1929

“The Wall Street crash doesn’t mean that there will be any general or serious business depression. For six years American business has been diverting a substantial part of its attention, its energies and its resources on the speculative game. Now that irrelevant, alien and hazardous adventure is over. Business has come home again, back to its job, providentially unscathed, sound in wind and limb, financially stronger than ever before.” BusinessWeek, November 2, 1929

“Despite its severity, we believe that the slump in stock prices will prove an intermediate movement and not the precursor of a business depression such as would entail prolonged further liquidation.” Harvard Economic Society (HES), November 2, 1929

“The end of the decline of the Stock Market will probably not be long, only a few more days at most.” Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics at Yale University, November 14, 1929

“For the immediate future, at least, the outlook (stocks) is bright.” Irving Fisher, Ph.D. in Economics, in early 1930

“The outlook continues favourable” Harvard Economic Society Mar 29, 1930

-Our contemporary brand of socialism has one fatal flaw. It’s too expensive. When you try to shower benefits on so many recipients, you eventually must resort to subterfuge. Foremost among those tricks is money and credit expansion. Inevitably, you debase your currency. James Cook

-You live in a bankrupt country, along with 18 other major bankrupts, and you will soon learn how you are going to lose everything you have worked a lifetime for. A rise in interest rates of 5% adds $620 billion annually to the US debt in interest alone and that is rising exponentially. The US, nor any government, can survive such debt service. Bob Chapman-Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/InternationalForecaster/1270651222.php and http://news.goldseek.com/InternationalForecaster/1270400400.php

-So how are Americans coping with the pain? In a Harris Interactive online poll, 63% said they were purchasing more generic brands to save money, 45% brown-bagging their lunches, 39% going to the hairdresser or barber less often, 34% switching to refillable water bottles instead of purchasing bottled water and 33% canceling one or more subscriptions.

Around two in 10 said they had cancelled or cut back cable TV services and another 20% said they have considered doing so. Some are taking more drastic action. Twenty percent told Fox News/Opinion Dynamics pollsters they had taken money out of the market because of their concerns about the economy, 18% stocked up on food, bottled water or other staples, 11% bought a gun and 6% purchased gold. Read more here-http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/27/economy-polls-investing-opinions-columnists-karlyn-bowman_print.html

-Those who look upon Gold as a way to “make” money are the ones most likely to get burned. Those who understand that Gold is money, have not bothered to “time” their acquisition of it. They have simply been acquiring it as and when they can for many years now. They will continue to do so. Bill Buckler-The-privateer.com-13 March 2010

-We maintain our view that gold is in a secular bull-market and every investor should own some bullion as an insurance policy. Puru Saxena-Read more here-http://www.321gold.com/editorials/saxena/saxena040710.html

-Investors shouldn’t sell gold now as the metal may rise to “at least $2,000 by the end of the decade,” investor Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today, reiterating an earlier forecast. Bloomberg

-In the years ahead fortunes will be made by those holding large commitments in gold. But forget profits, fortunes will be saved (preserved) by those who hold quantities of gold. Richard Russell

-The vast majority of people do not understand what is happening. The printing of money is a counterfeiting racket run against them by their own government. To avoid being robbed, they must be in gold. This is why every organ of establishment opinion denounces gold and tries to scare you away from it. If you value your hard earned wealth, do not listen to them. Howard S. Katz-Read more here-http://www.321gold.com/editorials/katz/katz040510.html

-If sovereign bonds begin to break in the coming months, then Gold should benefit substantially. Obviously there are trillions sitting in bond markets and Gold is hardly a crowded market. Fundamentally, sovereign debt and currency problems are most bullish for Gold.

Meanwhile, the technical situation favours Gold. As stocks and commodities struggle at long-term resistance, Gold, once it completes its consolidation, will have virtually no resistance in front of it. It is a potentially explosive situation. Jordan Roy-Byrne-Read more here-http://www.321gold.com/editorials/roy_byrne/roy_byrne040210.html

-Yes, the Dow is within striking distance of 11,000, which sounds impressive until you realize we were also at this same milestone back on November 18, 1999. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-“Huge gains in short time periods like this are not necessarily bullish. In fact, the biggest declines typically generate the biggest reflexive rallies (with retests to follow) the duration of this largely uncorrected rally since March 9, 2009, is already in extreme territory and any extension from here should be watched for ending characteristics such as catching up of laggards and the development of sentiment extremes.” Bob Farrell

-So, no matter how we slice it, whether on a Shiller P/E basis, a one-year forward basis, a Tobin Q basis or a historical profit basis, the market is anywhere between 20% and 30% overvalued. Nothing says it can’t get more overvalued or that this overvalued state cannot linger for longer.

But reversion to the mean suggests that we will in fact, at some unknown point in the future, embark on the Farrell retest phase. Now wouldn’t it make more sense to buy on that opportunity than after a 75% virtually non-stop rally? This is not a time to be tempestuous and impatient. More than ever, it is a time to be exercise discipline and not to be tempted into chasing performance. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-The latest Investors Intelligence poll has the bulls at 48.9%, up from 48.3% a week ago, while the ranks of the bears have slipped further, to 18.9% from 19.1%. Bullish sentiment is now up in 7 of the past 8 weeks and bearish sentiment is down for the forth week in a row we are approaching extreme levels.

What is interesting is that the bulls have no clue why they are bullish except for the fact that they feel the need to play the momentum game. Sounds like 2007 all over again. This perception that the economy is into a strong and sustainable expansion is proving difficult to break few see just how fragile the backdrop truly is. Time to go back and re-read the Depression Diary of Benjamin Roth for a post-bubble reality check. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-Deflation on the prowl as Bernanke shuts down his printing press. The most audacious monetary experiment in modern history ended on April Fools’ Day. America must walk without crutches, on gangrenous legs. Read more here-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/7553511/Deflation-on-the-prowl-as-Bernanke-shuts-down-his-printing-press.html

-President Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget will generate nearly $10 trillion in cumulative budget deficits over the next 10 years, $1.2 trillion more than the administration projected, and raise the federal debt to 90 percent of the nation’s economic output by 2020, the Congressional Budget Office reported. Read more here-http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/26/cbos-2020-vision-debt-will-rise-to-90-of-gdp/print/

-Perhaps among the many shoes to drop are under-funded State pension plans. This is a disaster in the making and could have huge effects on asset allocation this got very little play yesterday, but an independent analysis of California’s three large pension funds found over a $500 billion hidden shortfall.

This is multiples of the $55 billion amount that had been officially reported and according to the NYT, more than six times the value of the State’s outstanding bonds. The fiscal drag that will be associated with cleaning up this massive gap is going to represent as big a tourniquet around the economy as is the case with Greece right now as it grapples with is fiscal mess. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-California’s three biggest pension funds are as much as $500 billion short of meeting future retiree benefits, a Stanford University report said. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest U.S. public pension fund; the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the second-biggest, and the University of California Retirement System are understating their future liabilities by using projected rates of return that don’t properly account for investment risk, the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy said today. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid;=aL0e5WpaHgzQ

-Social Security to See Payout Exceed Pay-In This Year. The bursting of the real estate bubble and the ensuing recession have hurt jobs, home prices and now Social Security. This year, the system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes, an important threshold it was not expected to cross until at least 2016, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Read more here-http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/business/economy/25social.html?hp

-Stephen King: A lesson in public finances history. Governments cannot increase borrowings indefinitely. Someone has to take the pain. Read more here-http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/stephen-king/stephen-king-a-lesson-in-public-finances-history-1936632.html

-Mighty America’s 5 stages of rapid decline. Read more here-http://www.marketwatch.com/story/story/print?guid=05A0DDF8-7903-409D-B7BA-C9E2F1F54833

-U.S. Standard of Living Unsustainable Without Drastic Action, Former Top Govt. Accountant Says. Who will bail out America? A longtime budget hawk and currently CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, David Walker says America’s growing long-term debt is dangerously close to passing a “tipping point” that could trigger soaring interest rates and a plummeting dollar.

In a worst case scenario, that could trigger a “global depression,” he says, warning: “Nobody’s going to bail out America.” With the U.S. facing $50 trillion in unfunded liabilities and around $62 trillion in total long-term debt, what worries Walker most is what happens after the recession dissipates, as detailed here.

“I’m less concerned with the short-term deficits than I am the fact that we’re not doing anything about those structural deficits that people used to call long-term,” says Walker, former U.S. Comptroller General and head of the Government Accountability Office.

“But the long-term is here.” What’s ultimately at stake may be nothing short of Americans’ faith in government and our standard of living. “There is a way forward. There is hope,” Walker says. “But we need to actually make some tough choices.” Read and watch more here-http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/u.s.-standard-of-living-unsustainable-without-drastic-action-former-top-govt.-accountant-says-458329.html?tickers=^dji,^gspc,dia,spy,tlt,IXJ,xlv

-Britain ‘could lose cherished AAA credit within 12 months’. Investment chief at Pimco warns of disaster facing UK’s public finances and banking. Read more here-http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/britain-could-lose-cherished-aaa-credit-within-12-months-1933967.html

-U.K.’s AAA Rating, Negative Outlook Affirmed by S&P.; Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=aIK7dZgqWU.E

-We all know that this recovery is based on unsound fundamentals. Massive spending and excessive stimulus have been the primary driving factors boosting the economy, which grew at an annual rate of 5.9% in the last quarter of 2009, the largest quarterly gain in six years.

So there has been a high price to pay for this recovery. It has come about because an unthinkable amount of debt has been taken on. Consider this. In the U.S., it took nearly 200 years for debt to reach the $1 trillion level. Last year alone the debt was almost twice that and it’s now near $13 trillion. This happened in a relatively short period of time and all U.S. debt now amounts to about $250,000 per person. Aden Sisters

-Nearly half of US households escape fed income tax. Recession, new tax credits have nearly half of US households paying no federal income tax. Tax Day is a dreaded deadline for millions, but for nearly half of U.S. households it’s simply somebody else’s problem.

About 47 percent will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009. Either their incomes were too low, or they qualified for enough credits, deductions and exemptions to eliminate their liability. That’s according to projections by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington research organization. Read more here-http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Nearly-half-of-US-households-apf-1105567323.html?x=0&.v=1

-Los Angeles will run out of cash on May 5, city Controller Wendy Greuel said today in a release in which she requested a $90 million transfer of reserve funds to pay bills. “The question I have been asked most often during the budget crisis is, ‘When will the city run out of money?” Greuel said in the e-mailed release. “Unfortunately, we finally have the answer.” Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=arnmmSbN5qLY

-Consumer credit in the U.S. declined in February more than anticipated, indicating Americans are reluctant to take on more debt without further improvement in the labor market. Borrowing fell $11.5 billion, the most in three months. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=atP8pvCXydOA&pos;=2

-Fed Officials Saw Recovery Curbed by Unemployment. Federal Reserve officials saw signs of a strengthening recovery that could be hobbled by high unemployment and tight credit, and some warned of raising rates too soon, according to minutes of their March meeting. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=abO08IU3FAsE&pos;=1

-Job Openings in U.S. Decrease to 2.72 Million. Job openings in the U.S. fell in February for the first time in three months, a sign employers will be slow to expand staff even as firings subside. Openings decreased by 131,000 to 2.72 million, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Fewer people were hired and the number of workers fired also decreased, the report also showed. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid;=aXb8reBRtcJk

-Jobless rate may rise as many are drawn back to labor force. The increase in jobs highlighted in the nation’s most recent unemployment report carried the sound of economic promise, but Obama administration officials said Sunday that the public shouldn’t expect any dramatic improvement in the jobless rate, largely because of the effect of thousands of “discouraged” unemployed people who have resumed their search for work.

Some economists assert that the unemployment rate, which held steady at 9.7 percent in March, is likely to be driven higher as many more such people are lured into looking for work by signs of recovery. Read more here-http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/04/AR2010040402964_pf.html

-33 states out of money to fund jobless benefits. With unemployment still at a severe high, a majority of states have drained their jobless benefit funds, forcing them to borrow billions from the federal government to help out-of-work Americans.

A total of 33 states and the Virgin Islands have depleted their funds and borrowed more than $38.7 billion to provide a safety net, according to a report released Thursday by the National Employment Law Project. Four others are at the brink of insolvency. Read more here-http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/08/news/economy/state_funds_jobless_benefits/index.htm

-Basic grocery prices up 6.2%. Rising demand and reduced supply drove supermarket prices for 16 basic foods up 6.2% in the first quarter, led by gains in staples such as cheese, vegetable oil and eggs, the American Farm Bureau Federation said.

The average cost of the items for a typical consumer each week rose to $45.54 from $42.90 in the fourth quarter of 2009, the group said Monday, citing an informal survey. Costs fell 4.3% from a year earlier. Rising the most were sliced ham, apples, bacon and boneless chicken breasts. Latimes.com

-Commodities are set for “violent price spikes” as constraints on investment in new supplies and emerging market demand lead to shortages, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Volatility in prices is driven by limits in the production and storage of commodities, rather than by financial investors, the bank said in an e-mailed report.

“Commodity markets have faced a growing physical imbalance over the last several years resulting from a lack of investment in underlying production, distribution and storage infrastructure,” Goldman analysts said in the report. ‘Not just rising price levels, but violent price spikes likely lie ahead for much of the commodity complex.” Read more here-http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-31/goldman-says-commodities-may-witness-violent-price-spikes-.html

-Crude oil is poised to rise above $100 a barrel as soon as September after breaking out of a six- month trading range, according to a technical analysis by Lind Waldock, a division of MF Global Inc. in Chicago. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=aKWGq9ZX9TDg

-Santelli: $4 Gas, $150 Oil Coming This Summer. CNBC CME floor reporter explains investors could flee equity markets for commodities, including energy and put a hurt on consumers. Read more here-http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2010/20100405165655.aspx

-Iran’s president said on Thursday he would not plead with opponents of Tehran’s nuclear program in order to avoid sanctions as Russia and the United States said new measures might be necessary. Read more here-http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6371EY20100408

-Iran missile will strike Tel Aviv if hit: Khamenei aide. Read more here-http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.870e381b1ca37a08fe027aaf4f7159fb.131&show;_article=1

-About 39.4 million Americans, the most ever, received food stamps in January, the government said. The number of recipients was up 22% from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The total of Americans getting the subsidy has hit records for 14 consecutive months.

The national unemployment rate has hovered at 9.7% since January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Beginning Oct. 1, an average of 40.5 million people are expected to get food stamps each month this year, rising to 43.3 million in 2011, according to White House estimates. Latimes.com

-The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season will produce an above-average eight hurricanes, four of them major, posing a heightened threat to the U.S. coastline, the Colorado State University hurricane forecasting team predicted on Wednesday. Read more here-http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6362ZE20100407?feedType=RSS&feedName;=topNews

-Scientists stumped as bee population declines further. The decline in the US bee population, first observed in 2006, is continuing, a phenomenon that still baffles researchers and beekeepers. Data from the US Department of Agriculture show a 29 percent drop in beehives in 2009, following a 36 percent decline in 2008 and a 32 percent fall in 2007.

This affects not only honey production but around 15 billion dollars worth of crops that depend on bees for pollination. Read more here-http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.bd2664988112b33ebe7091069cfec28e.8b1&show;_article=1

WWW.RARECOLOREDDIAMONDS.COM

-Watch BTV interview of Harold Seigel on colored diamonds and his website http://www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com/. Watch video here-http://www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com/watchnow.html and

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

-Blue diamond sells for $6.4m at Hong Kong auction. Watch video here-http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8608286.stm

-Fierce Bidding Pushes Blue Diamond Price Up to $6.4M. A number of high bidding prices and a biding war marked the results of Sotheby’s Hong Kong Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite sale on Wednesday, totaling $52.4 million.

The diamond Rivière necklace, the top selling item, sold for $6.7 million, followed by a 5.16-carat pear-shaped internally flawless fancy vivid blue diamond purchased for $6.4 million. The Rivière necklace is set with 50 D color internally flawless brilliant-cut diamonds ranging from 1.50 to 6.55 carats, with a total weight of 107.43 carats.

The star of the evening was the fancy vivid blue diamond, one of the 11 blue diamonds that were part of the De Beers Millennium Jewels Collection. Sotheby’s reported fierce bidding for the diamond that eventually sold to Moussaieff of London for a high $1.24 million per carat.

According to Quek Chin Yeow, head of Sotheby’s Hong Kong jewelry department, buyers and collectors in the current market are driven by the search for perfection and rarity, proven by the vigorous competition from bidders from across the world and included private collectors and traders. Read more here-http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullNews.asp?id=33893

“It’s a bargain and I got it at this price because everyone was asleep,” Moussaieff said in an interview. Her London-based boutique will change the gem’s mounting and offer the stone “to discerning clients, possibly in Asia,” she said. Asian buyers, especially the mainland Chinese, have been buying some of the most expensive gems at auction in recent years.

For Christie’s International, Sotheby’s top rival, Hong Kong has outsold Geneva and New York for two straight years as mainlanders park their growing wealth in rare art and gems. The auction record for a blue diamond was set by Hong Kong property tycoon Joseph Lau in May with his purchase of a 7.03- carat gem in Geneva for 10.5 million Swiss francs ($9.8 million).

Mainland Chinese bidding on the blue diamond was scarce because few understand that type of gem, said May. Among colored diamonds, they also prefer hues considered as lucky, such as red or pink, he said. “The Chinese are learning very fast and have a good eye for quality,” said Tamara Moussaieff, who flew in from Tel Aviv yesterday to help her mother, Alisa, decide on the purchase.

Alisa founded Moussaieff Jewellers with husband Sam half a century ago. The company supplies gems to royalty and stars, and owns rare stones such as the 5.11-carat “Moussaieff Red,” the world’s biggest natural fancy-red diamond. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid;=aMkjazedryaY

-Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels & Jadeite Colored Diamond Auction Results Hong Kong April 7 2010.

-LOT 1621-IMPORTANT AND RARE FANCY VIVID BLUE DIAMOND AND DIAMOND RING, “DE BEERS MILLENNIUM JEWEL 11.” 36,000,000-46,000,000 HKD-Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 49,940,000 HKD-Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1621

-LOT 1618-PAIR OF FANCY INTENSE YELLOW DIAMOND AND DIAMOND PENDENT EARRINGS. 1,350,000-1,550,000 HKD-Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 1,700,000 HKD-Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1618

-LOT 1616-FANCY VIVID YELLOW DIAMOND RING. 2,200,000-2,600,000 HKD-Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 3,980,000 HKD. Read more here- http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1616

-LOT 1599-DIAMOND AND FANCY INTENSE PURPLE-PINK DIAMOND PENDANT NECKLACE. 1,200,000-1,500,000 HKD-Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 1,460,000 HKD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1599

-LOT 1598-VERY LIGHT BLUE DIAMOND, FANCY LIGHT ORANGY PINK DIAMOND AND FANCY YELLOW-GREEN DIAMOND RING. 1,000,000-1,200,000 HKD-Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 1,340,000 HKD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1598

-LOT 1597-YELLOW DIAMOND AND DIAMOND BRACELET. 450,000-500,000 HKD-Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 668,000 HKD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1597

-LOT 1589-FANCY LIGHT PINK DIAMOND AND DIAMOND RING. 580,000-680,000 HKD-Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 980,000 HKD. Read more here-

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1589

-LOT 1560-DIAMOND AND PINK DIAMOND RING. 3,200,000-3,800,000 HKD-Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 4,220,000 HKD. Read more here-

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1560

-LOT 1559-DIAMOND AND PINK DIAMOND PENDANT. 400,000-460,000 HKD-Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 500,000 HKD. Read more here-

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1559

-LOT 1555-DIAMOND AND PINK DIAMOND RING. 350,000-400,000 HKD-Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 437,500 HKD. Read more here-

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1555

-LOT 1552-FANCY YELLOW DIAMOND AND DIAMOND RING. 320,000-420,000 HKD-Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 560,000 HKD. Read more here-

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1552

-LOT 1502-PAIR OF YELLOW DIAMOND AND DIAMOND EARRINGS. 120,000-170,000 HKD-Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 175,000 HKD. Read more here-

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1502

-LOT 1476-FANCY VIVID YELLOW DIAMOND AND DIAMOND RING. 90,000-120,000 HKD-Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 131,250 HKD. Read more here-

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1476

-LOT 1456-FANCY INTENSE YELLOW DIAMOND RING. 3,500,000-4,200,000 HKD. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 4,940,000 HKD. Read more here-

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1456

-LOT 1449-PAIR OF DIAMOND AND FANCY INTENSE PURPLISH PINK DIAMOND PENDENT EARRINGS. 4,100,000-4,800,000 HKD. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 4,820,000 HKD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1449

-LOT 1443-CONCH PEARL, PINK DIAMOND AND DIAMOND DEMI-PARURE. 3,300,000-3,800,000 HKD. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 4,820,000 HKD. Read more here-

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1443

-LOT 1442-FANCY LIGHT PINK DIAMOND AND DIAMOND RING. 1,800,000-2,300,000 HKD. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 3,140,000 HKD. Read more here-

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1442

-LOT 1441-FANCY VIVID YELLOW DIAMOND AND DIAMOND PENDANT. 3,800,000-4,500,000 HKD. Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 5,060,000 HKD. Read more here-

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1441

-LOT 1440-ALEXANDRITE, FANCY INTENSE PURPLISH PINK DIAMOND AND DIAMOND RING. 1,900,000-2,200,000 HKD. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 4,340,000 HKD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1440

-LOT 1437-FANCY LIGHT BLUISH GREEN DIAMOND AND PINK DIAMOND RING. 950,000-1,200,000 HKD. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 1,160,000 HKD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1437

-LOT 1435-COLOURED DIAMOND AND DIAMOND PENDANT NECKLACE. 550,000-650,000 HKD. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 740,000 HKD. Read more here-

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1435

-LOT 1432-FANCY YELLOW DIAMOND AND YELLOW DIAMOND NECKLACE AND PAIR OF MATCHING PENDENT EARRINGS. 1,400,000-1,600,000 HKD. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 1,700,000 HKD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1432

-LOT 1425-FANCY BROWNISH YELLOW DIAMOND AND DIAMOND ‘RIBBON’ RING. 70,000-100,000 HKD. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 87,500 HKD. Read more here-

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1425

-LOT 1405-PAIR OF YELLOW DIAMOND PENDENT EARRINGS. 320,000-380,000 HKD. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 387,500 HKD. Read more here-

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1405

-LOT 1402-FANCY INTENSE GREENISH YELLOW DIAMOND AND YELLOW DIAMOND ‘CROSS’ PENDANT. 380,000-450,000 HKD. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 475,000 HKD. Read more here-http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1402

-LOT 1388-YELLOW DIAMOND AND DIAMOND RING. 400,000-500,000 HKD. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 560,000 HKD. Read more here-

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1388

-LOT 1356-PINK DIAMOND AND DIAMOND ‘CROSS’ PENDANT. 100,000-130,000 HKD. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 125,000 HKD. Read more here-

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1356

-LOT 1353-PINK DIAMOND HAIR BAND. 70,000-90,000 HKD. Lot Sold-Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 125,000 HKD. Read more here-

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=HK0322&live;_lot_id=1356

-Sotheby’s to Auction Rare Red Diamond in Sydney. Sotheby’s Australia will hold its first jewellery sale on April 12, 2010 in Sydney. The company will auction a collection comprised of more than 250 lots of antique and contemporary jewelry that has a total presales estimate ranging between $3.5 million and $4.7 million.

The highlight of this sale will be a fancy purplish-red Argyle diamond ring with a presale estimate range of $642,000 to $916,000. Sotheby’s described this rare red diamond as the first of its kind to be offered for public auction in Australia.

The diamond comes accompanied by a letter from Argyle Diamonds attesting to the stone’s rarity. The oval diamond weighs 0.82 of a carat and is claw-et between a pair of fancy blue diamonds in a round, brilliant-cut diamond surrounded and mounted in platinum. Read more here-http://www.diamonds.net/news/NewsItem.aspx?ArticleID=30415 and http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullNews.asp?id=33876

MATT TAIBBI-LOOTING MAIN STREET

-How the nation’s biggest banks are ripping off American cities with the same predatory deals that brought down Greece. If you want to know what life in the Third World is like, just ask Lisa Pack, an administrative assistant who works in the roads and transportation department in Jefferson County, Alabama.

Pack got rudely introduced to life in post-crisis America last August, when word came down that she and 1,000 of her fellow public employees would have to take a little unpaid vacation for a while.

The county, it turned out, was more than $5 billion in debt meaning that courthouses, jails and sheriff’s precincts had to be closed so that Wall Street banks could be paid.

As public services in and around Birmingham were stripped to the bone, Pack struggled to support her family on a weekly unemployment check of $260. Nearly a fourth of that went to pay for her health insurance, which the county no longer covered. She also fielded calls from laid-off co-workers who had it even tougher. “I’d be on the phone sometimes until two in the morning,” she says.

“I had to talk more than one person out of suicide. For some of the men supporting families, it was so hard foreclosure, bankruptcy. I’d go to bed at night, and I’d be in tears.” Homes stood empty, businesses were boarded up, and parts of already-blighted Birmingham began to take on the feel of a ghost town.

There were also a few bills that were unique to the area like the $64 sewer bill that Pack and her family paid each month. “Yeah, it went up about 400 percent just over the past few years,” she says. The sewer bill, in fact, is what cost Pack and her co-workers their jobs.

In 1996, the average monthly sewer bill for a family of four in Birmingham was only $14.71 but that was before the county decided to build an elaborate new sewer system with the help of out-of-state financial wizards with names like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase. The result was a monstrous pile of borrowed money that the county used to build, in essence, the world’s grandest toilet “the Taj Mahal of sewer-treatment plants” is how one county worker put it.

What happened here in Jefferson County would turn out to be the perfect metaphor for the peculiar alchemy of modern oligarchical capitalism: A mob of corrupt local officials and morally absent financiers got together to build a giant device that converted human shit into billions of dollars of profit for Wall Street and misery for people like Lisa Pack. Read more here-http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/32906678/looting_main_street/print

REAL ESTATE

-Prepare to Pay 15% Less for New U.S. Homes. New-home prices may have to tumble 15 percent in the U.S. before sales start to rebound, according to Michael Panzner, an author and financial blogger. Read more and view chart here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid;=anKm.6VTGND4

-Foreclosures Are Rising. The new foreclosure wave is here. Yes, banks are ramping up loan modifications and ramping up short sales and ramping up deeds in lieu of foreclosure, but the plain fact is that as the systems are oiled, the loans are moving through faster, and the pig in the python is showing its face.

We won’t get the numbers until next week, but sources tell me they will likely be a new monthly record. Tens of thousands of loans have been hitting the “notice of trustee sale” bin, and that means they are coming to foreclosure.

The actual foreclosure numbers have been down recently because of all the modification efforts, but as we see more loans not qualifying for modifications and more loans defaulting on modifications, the foreclosure numbers rise. Read more here-http://www.cnbc.com/id/36195838/?source=patrick.net

-Predictions have flooded the Internet in China this week about the country’s runaway property market collapsing in 2011. Much of the chatter voiced little concern about the possible severe consequences, instead expressed hope for the crash to come.

Coming at a time when complaints about mounting housing prices are on the rise, the online debate has drawn enormous attention from ordinary residents, industry insiders, experts and received substantive media coverage.

Speculation started after a comparison was made between China’s property market and that of Japan. In 1991, Japan’s property bubble burst. Following the Japanese yen’s appreciation in 1985, large amounts of capital flowed into the country’s real estate, inflating prices artificially which eventually led to a burst.

Two decades later, some say the same is happening in China, both in sequence and pace: the yuan appreciated in 2005, capital flowed to property markets in 2006, resulting in soaring housing prices in 2007, and now the burst is imminent. Read more here-http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-04/03/content_9684907.htm

-UK house prices face prolonged bear market. The housing market may now be trapped in a long-term bear market and may not bounce back to the peaks it reached in 2007 for generations, a leading economic consultancy has warned. Read more here-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/houseprices/7557222/UK-house-prices-face-prolonged-bear-market.html

-Office vacancy rates are now at their highest level in 16 years, according to a report published Monday, as elevated unemployment levels across the country continue to temper the demand for space. Roughly 700 million square feet, or 17.2%, of the more than 4 billion of available office space nationwide was unoccupied as of the end of March, according to the real estate research firm Reis. The last time office vacancies were this high was in 1994. Read more here-http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/05/news/companies/office_vacancies/index.htm

-U.S. Apartment Rents Decline as Vacancies at Record, Reis Says. U.S. apartment rents dropped in the first quarter and the vacancy rate remained at a record as unemployment near a 26-year high limited tenant demand.

Actual rents paid by tenants, known as effective rents, declined 1.5 percent from a year earlier, Reis Inc. said in a report today. Asking rents fell 1.6 percent, according to the New York-based property research firm. Vacancies were unchanged at 8 percent, the highest level since 1980, when Reis began tracking the number, said Victor Calanog, director of research.

U.S. rental demand has slumped as employers cut 8.4 million jobs since the start of the recession in December 2007. The bigger drop in asking rents than effective rents in the first quarter signals that landlords are pricing their properties lower at the outset and minimizing concessions, Calanog said.

“Landlords are saying: ‘Even before we talk about the free month off, and even before we talk about the free gym, we want to lower the asking rents to get you through the door,’” he said in a telephone interview. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20603037&sid;=acQDX2fF_AHg

The Goldbugg Report – April 13, 2010
Posted by Worldwide Precious Metals on Tuesday, April 13, 2010

The Week in Review

April 9, 2010

The Week in Review

Some old familiar names are in the news again. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that 18 banks, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup, understated the debt levels used to fund securities trades by as much as 42 percent at the end of each quarter for the past five quarters. This had the result of making their balance sheets appear less risky than they really were. You’ll recall from previous memos that J.P. Morgan Chase has long been implicated in manipulating the precious metals markets, what a surprise that there may be some creative accounting going on!

The number of new unemployment insurance claims rose unexpectedly last week, bringing to an end a 5 week long streak of improvement. Continuing claims fell, however this number has long been suspect since benefits are expiring for many of those who have been out of work for extended periods.

The saga in Greece continues to drag on. Greece, trying to borrow from markets to ease its debt troubles, is finding the cost to do so skyrocketing. Chris Pryce, senior Greece analyst for Fitch said “Despite everything the EU and the euro zone have done there is still a lack of clarity and confusion about what they intend to do, when they intend to do it and how much would be involved.” He went on to tell Reuters “It is now up to the Greek government to go publicly to the EU and IMF and ask for the cash and the support.”

On Thursday, Federal Reserve officials again said they were committed to low interest rates for “an extended period.” They went on to say that any reduction in the size of the central bank’s balance sheet may take up to twenty years.

30-year mortgage rates rose to their highest levels in eight months due to the end of a government push for banks to keep rates down.

Crude oil continued to remain above $85 a barrel, causing speculation that the US consumer may tighten their belts again as gas prices rise for the summer.

Strong manufacturing data out of the US boosted the dollar up against both the euro and the Yen. The dollar hit a 7 month high against the Yen. Manufacturing data from other countries was also good, boosting the opinion that the recovery may finally be taking hold.

The euro continued to slide against the dollar for most of the week, while the yen edged up slightly.

China appears to be hinting that they may raise rates as early as this month, and may let the Yuan begin appreciating against the dollar by October.

In our February 5^th memo, which we consider to have been a major buy signal (which we also referred to in our March 5^th memo) the closing price of silver was $14.82. Congratulations to those of you who took advantage of those price levels to add to, or begin your precious metals portfolios! You are looking at roughly a 24% gain in just two months, and many analysts are predicting an explosive price move to the upside in the near future.

Friday to Friday Close

	Apr. 1^st	Apr. 9^th	Net Change
Gold	$1126.00	$1160.00	34.00 – 3.02%
Silver	$17.88	$18.39	0.51 + 2.85%
Platinum	$1665.00	$1723.00	58.00 + 3.48%
Palladium	$488.00	$514.00	26.00 + 5.33%

Here are your Short Term Support and Resistance Levels for the upcoming week.

	Gold	Silver
Support	1150/1130/1100	18.00/17.80/17.50
Resistance	1160/1190/1225	18.50/18.90/19.50

	Platinum	Palladium
Support	1700/1650/1600	500/480/450
Resistance	1720/1750/1800	515/525/550

Volatility should be expected to continue. On further analysis of the March 25^th CFTC meeting on position limits in the precious metals market, there were some interesting revelations regarding the London OTC metals exchange (LBMA). Adrian Douglas, of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee asserted that the volume of gold that the LBMA trades daily is so large that it cannot possibly be backed on a one to one basis by physical metal. His exact statement was “it’s fractional-reserve accounting, and you can’t trade that much gold – it doesn’t exist in the world.” Jeffrey Christian, founder of commodity consultancy firm CPM Group and supposedly one of “the world’s foremost authorities on the markets for precious metals,” surprisingly confirmed Mr. Douglas’ accusation, saying “The previous fellow was talking about hedges of paper on paper and that is exactly right. Precious metals are financial assets like currencies, T-bills, and T-bonds; they trade in the multiples of a hundred times the underlying physical and so people buying them are voting and giving an economic view of the world or a view of the economic world.” He then went on to clarify: “People say, and you heard it today, there is not that much physical metal out there, and there isn’t, but in the “physical market,” as the market uses that term, there is much more metal than that. There is a hundred times what there is.” Let’s reiterate that, since Mr. Christian said it twice himself: “100 times what there is”, meaning that paper gold represents 100 times more gold than actually exists in the market place. All it would take is for enough investors to demand delivery of physical product, in place of their paper representations, to make the prices explode through the roof. Remember, the key to profitability through the ownership of physical precious metals is to actually own the physical product and to hold them for the long term. Never over-extend your ability to maintain ownership of your product over the long term.

If you want the manipulation in the precious metals markets to come to an end we urge you to e-mail the Commodities Futures Trading Commission at this e-mail address: metalshearing@cftc.gov. Thanks to Ted Butler, you can use the following draft for your e-mail to the CFTC (remember to place your name after “Sincerely,” at the bottom):

The CFTC is accepting comments from the general public through to the 26^th of April, 2010. The more of us, as investors, who have and show an interest in the CFTC stopping and finally putting to a halt the manipulation that has been carried on by institutions such as J.P. Morgan Chase and HSBC, the better our chances in getting a positive reaction. Please CC your e-mails to Mr. Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer of Gold Anti-Trust Association at cpowell@gata.org.

Trading Department – Precious Metals International, Ltd.

This is not a solicitation to purchase or sell.

The Week in Review
Posted by Worldwide Precious Metals on Friday, April 9, 2010

The Goldbugg Report – April 6, 2010

April 6, 2010

POST CFTC HEARING

-Peter Brimelow: Gold price suppression suspicion now mainstream, http://www.marketwatch.com/story/radical-gold-bugs-vs-wall-street-2010-04-05

- Silver couldn’t be more bullish, Ted Butler tells King World News, http://www.kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast_Gold+/Entries/2010/4/2_Ted_Butler_on_the_Metals_Market.html

- Tim Iacono: Gold, silver, the CFTC, and conspiracy theories, http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1270188480.php

- James Turk: Silver looks ready to soar, http://www.fgmr.com/silver-looks-ready-to-soar.html

- James Turk: A new dynamic in the gold market, http://www.fgmr.com/new-dynamic-in-the-gold-market.html

- CFTC: Obey Your Plaque!

-John Rubino: The coming precious metals short squeeze, http://dollarcollapse.com/articles/the-coming-precious-metals-short-squeeze/

- Max Keiser covers silver market rigging on Russia Today network, http://rt.com/About_Us/Programmes/Keiser_Report/2010-04-01/558424.html

- Germany gets a full account of the CFTC hearing sensation, http://www.goldseitenblog.com/peter_boehringer/index.php/2010/04/03/zensur-der-goldsilber-manipulation-im-ma

GOLD

-China Gold Demand May Double Within Decade, WGC Says. Gold consumption in China may double within the next 10 years, boosting prices as supplies fail to keep pace with booming demand from investors and the jewelry industry, the World Gold Council said. “China has an insatiable appetite for gold, which looks likely to continue in an environment where domestic mine supply lags behind demand,” the council said in a report today.

China’s economy grew 10.7 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, the fastest pace in two years, after a 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus package spurred record lending and consumption. The world’s biggest gold producer has increased reserves by 76 percent to 1,054 metric tons since 2003 and has the fifth-biggest holdings by country, Hu Xiaolian, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, said in April.

“An uptick in China purchases could bring an impetus back to the gold market,” said Hwang Il Doo, Seoul-based senior trader with KEB Futures Co, by phone today. “Given China’s currency reserves and rising wealth, the impact from their buying on prices will be powerful, although it may take time.”

Bullion prices have gained 21 percent in the past year as the global recession spurred demand for haven assets and the dollar weakened 5 percent against six major currencies. “On the investment side, we see exponential growth,” Albert Cheng, the council’s managing director for the Far East, said in an interview in Beijing.

Chinese demand from investors and the jewelry industry, which account for 80 percent of purchases in the country, reached 423 tons in 2009, while domestic mine supply was 314 tons, according to the group’s data. The output shortfall will create a “snowball effect” as the country’s production fails to keep pace with the annual leap in consumption, the report said. China’s gold output rose 8 percent a year from 2006 to 2009, it said.

Higher mine development costs, potential supply disruptions, tougher safety regulations and depleting ore bodies could put a much higher floor under the gold price, according to the council. “Near-term inflationary expectations and rising income levels are likely to support the investment case for gold as an asset class, especially given that Chinese consumers are high savers and are looking to gold to protect their wealth,” the council’s report said. “Jewelry and investment growth are expected to be the chief drivers of demand.”

If gold jewelry buying in China reaches the same per capita rate as India, Hong Kong or Saudi Arabia, the nation’s annual demand could increase by at least 100 tons to as much as 4,000 tons, the Council said. “Historically, in the past five years, about 20 percent of gold was bought for investment, about 60 percent was bought for jewelry” and the rest for industrial use, Cheng said. “Last year there was a change. Jewelry has come down to about 50 percent and investment has grown to about 30 percent,” he said.

Policy makers in China “encourage some alternative investments, but they don’t want people to go crazy about property or the stock market,” said Wallace Ng, executive director of commodity derivatives with Fortis Nederland NV in Hong Kong. “So they might encourage them to buy other assets such as gold.”

The world’s central banks also hold gold as a component in their portfolio of reserves, but they don’t buy gold as a “trading mechanism,” Cheng said. In the past 15 years, central banks in the western world have generally sold gold and “rebalanced their portfolios,” he said.

Since last year, the world’s central banks have switched from selling to buying, Cheng said. Russia, India, China, Sri Lanka and Mauritius have all added to their reserves. “That is a big change,” he said. Gold accounts for 1.6 percent of The People’s Bank of China’s $2.4 trillion total reserves, according to the council’s report.

If the bank raised its gold holdings to the peak of 2.2 percent reached in the fourth quarter of 2002, the “incremental demand would amount to a further 400 tons at the current gold price,” the report said. Still, China’s central bank hasn’t stated whether it will add to its gold holdings, Cheng said. Read more here-

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid;=aH_vhx7LNgro and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/gold/7534497/Chinas-demand-for-gold-will-double.html

-Gold Buying From Arabia Will Likely Outpace China. Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/PeterCooper/1269955566.php

-McEwen Says Debt Levels, Money Printing to Boost Gold. Watch video here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid;=aks3otvEZRWE

-John Embry March commentary: Gold bullion price, new all time high dead ahead. Read more here-http://www.sprott.com/Docs/InvestorsDigest/2010/MPLID_032610_pg087Emb.pdf

-Why You Should Own Gold. Read more here-http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/24/gold-mining-personal-finance-investing-inflation-metals_print.html

-Gene Arensberg: Got Gold Report-Big Gold Shorts Covering Again. Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1269960098.php

-Gold Imports by India Jump Before 1 Million Weddings. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid;=am2H6PYM1A7U

-IMF Is Now Rejecting Prospective Buyers For Its Gold Stash. Read more here-http://www.zerohedge.com/article/imf-now-rejecting-prospective-buyers-its-gold-stash

-IMF rejects investment house bids for gold. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8471

-Janet Tavakoli: How to corner the gold market. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8486

-Sprott cites Murphy, Butler in interview with King World News. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/8475

-CFTC posts video of hearing on metals futures trading. Watch video here-http://www.gata.org/node/8470

-Dispute over curbs on metal futures. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8472

-Zero Hedge follows admission to CFTC that London gold market is unbacked paper. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8479

-GATA’s Murphy, Douglas, and Powell interviewed by King World News. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/8489

-Jason Hommel: CFTC hearing poised to act. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8485

-Toby Connor: Manipulation, fact or fantasy? Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8488

-GATA’s evidence of silver and gold manipulation at CFTC hearing. Testimony from GATA’s Bill Murphy to the CFTC hearing in Washington could be embarrassing for some major investment banks. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page72068?oid=101525&sn;=Detail&pid;=1

-CFTC whistleblower Maguire, GATA’s Douglas interviewed by King World News. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8483

-CFTC whistleblower injured in London hit-and-run. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8477

-New York Post notes attack on CFTC whistleblower. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8482

SILVER

Gold to silver ratio at 80 to 1 with gold at $1,600 the silver price would be $20.00

Gold to silver ratio at 70 to 1 with gold at $1,600 the silver price would be $22.86

Gold to silver ratio at 60 to 1 with gold at $1,600 the silver price would be $26.67

Gold to silver ratio at 50 to 1 with gold at $1,600 the silver price would be $32.00

Gold to silver ratio at 40 to 1 with gold at $1,600 the silver price would be $40.00

Gold to silver ratio at 30 to 1 with gold at $1,600 the silver price would be $53.33

Gold to silver ratio at 20 to 1 with gold at $1,600 the silver price would be $80.00

Gold to silver ratio at 15 to 1 with gold at $1,600 the silver price would be $106.67

-CFTC staff, chairman met Butler on day before hearing. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/8473

-A London trader walks the CFTC through a silver manipulation in advance. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/8466

-Why Silver Will Keep Shining. Silver a star performer over the past several weeks, still has plenty of room to shine. Analysts say demand for silver should remain strong as a result of both investment interest and increased use in electronics and other products as the economy recovers. Read more here-http://online.barrons.com/article/SB126843798928661257.html

-Waiting for silver’s big break. Patience and bravery are key to reaping the metal’s rewards. Read more here-http://www.marketwatch.com/story/story/print?guid=904816AE-6A1E-4E5A-8A06-0392BAF9C4CF

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

-When you factor in inflation and devaluation of the U.S. dollar, $850 gold in 1980 is $2,500 an ounce in today’s dollars. In other words, gold might be at 50% at $1,200, which is the highest of highs. Could there be a run to $2,500?

Your personal answer to that question will depend upon how confident you are in Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, President Obama, and Wall Street. If you have faith in our leaders of commerce, don’t buy gold. If you do not have faith in them, maybe you should buy gold or silver.

If the dead cat bounce dies and the Dow drops to 5,000 in 2010, as I predict, then the price of gold and silver may die with the dead cat of the Dow, as investors cling to cash. The next question you need to answer is, “If the Dow dies and the price of gold and silver drop, what should you invest in at the bottom…stocks, gold and silver, or cash?”

I know what I will do. I will buy more gold and silver. Why? The answer is because I trust gold and silver more than Central bankers, the Oval Office, and Wall Street. Gold and silver have been real money for thousands of years. Robert Kiyosaki-Read more here-http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/richricher/221388

-In 1980 the historic ‘70s gold bull market finally topped out at $850. After adjusting for inflation, to merely equal what it did in 1980, gold would have to go (only) to $2,300, and silver topped out at $50 in 1980. After adjusting for inflation since then, to merely make a new high, silver would have to go over $125 and gold to $2,300!

Silver is the poor man’s gold. Think of gold as large denomination money, and silver as small bills. A one-ounce gold coin is now worth more than $1000, but you can buy a roll of pre-1965, ninety percent silver dimes for under $60 a roll. Partly because it is so much cheaper, the potential buying pool is much larger, and industrial use is so much greater, silver will be more profitable than gold by at least one hundred percent!

Silver is by far the more important industrial metal. There are more than two thousand silver industrial applications, and Uncle Sam has zero stockpiles of silver. It can be polished to be more reflective than any other metal, which is why it is used as backing for glass to make mirrors. It has thousands of essential uses in industry. It is an essential component for the manufacture of all audio and videotape, and all film. But above all, it is routinely accepted as money, especially in India, China, and the Middle East.

And remember, silver went from under $2 to $50 in the last bull market, when the consensus was that there was many times more silver than gold above the ground. Now the ratio is reversed. There is five times more gold above ground than silver. Howard Ruff-Read more here-http://www.kitco.com/ind/Ruff/ruff_mar052010.html

-Silver may break previous high of $50 within 3 years, and at current levels it looks totally undervalued, Lakeshore Trading precious metals analyst David Levenstein said on Thursday.

“For this reason, I suggest every single investor should own some silver,” said Levenstein. Read more here-http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5378328&fSectionId;=615&fSetId;=662

-Is it Time for Silver to Outshine? Read more here-http://sovereignsociety.com/2010/03/05/%E2%80%9Cgold-should-get-ready-to-take-a-back-seat%E2%80%A6%E2%80%9D/

-There is a lot made of the silver-gold ratio. Silver probably will reach what I call the classic, or the monetary ratio, which is 16:1. It could even get down to the natural ratio, which at this time is about 10:1, but I don’t see it getting to any better ratio than that. Of course, this implies that silver is undervalued relative to gold.

We have a 10-year bull market behind us and in my view we have several more years to go. What happens is at the end of these great bull markets is you get into the euphoric or manic stage and this happens in almost all markets. You’ve seen it in the technology sector, when people were buying dot-com stocks that had no business plan and no equity, just an idea.

I think we’ll see the biggest run up of all time in gold and silver, especially the equities, a euphoric state of panic buying driven by fear and greed. I’ll probably face a lynch mob me when I say “sell,” because no one will want to trade physical metal for paper currency and I don’t blame them. Anticipating this, I’ve already planned some techniques to use to preserve our physical metal and still allow us to sell to a strong market, but those are days ahead.

When the panic hits, gold probably will go up to $2,000 and beyond the average person will wake up thinking, “Oh, I’ve got to get gold equities; I listened to my friends and I thought they were idiots and now I see the light.” Many will turn to silver because it’ll still affordable relative to gold.

Significant money will move in to the metals. And because silver is cheaper than gold, a lot of it will go silver, which will cause the ratio to spike relative to gold. You’ll see the ratio drop from 60:1 to 50:1 to 40:1 to 35:1 to 20:1, maybe to 16:1 or 10:1 because there’ll be more money, relatively speaking, moving into silver than in the past. And since silver is such a small market, any small increase in buying power will send the price far higher. David Morgan-Read more here-http://news.silverseek.com/SilverInvestor/1267220221.php

CHARTS OF THE WEEK-QUOTES-QUICK HITS

-Check out the chart below, which shows the government’s projection of debt held by the public in relation to GDP. And keep in mind that this is not what’s called the “National Debt,” which includes intragovernmental debt but just what can be considered “net debt,” or debt held by the public. Read more here-http://www.caseyresearch.com/displayCdd.php?id=381

-State Debt Woes Grow Too Big to Camouflage. California, New York and other states are showing many of the same signs of debt overload that recently took Greece to the brink budgets that will not balance, accounting that masks debt, the use of derivatives to plug holes, and armies of retired public workers who are counting on benefits that are proving harder and harder to pay. Read more here-http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/business/economy/30states.html?pagewanted=print

-“A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.” Proverbs 22:3

-”Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” John D. Rockefeller-Bio here-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller

-”The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.” Michelangelo-Bio here-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelangelo

-Greece will be put to the test in April when €15 billion of bonds have to be rolled over (through the end of May). David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-The eurozone debt problems have not gone away and Greek sovereign bonds suffered a sharp sell-off yesterday as investor concerns over the country’s financial health flared up again. The US is not immune to the debt crisis as California, New York, Illinois and other US states are showing many of the same signs of debt overload that has taken Greece close to bankruptcy. Goldcore.com

-Even though our debt reached its saturation point more than 40 years ago, it is certain that government will continue these failed policies for years to come. If they weren’t productive then and the government was still willing to continue, why would the government now stop, even when spending is not only bankrupting the economy, but providing negative returns?

In moving forward, the government will do what is has been doing since the beginning of time: spending and inflating. Gold and silver will continue its historical trend as well, providing a fail-safe against the plague of debt. Dr. Jeffrey Lewis-Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1269583620.php

-Sentiment is so negative on the U.S. Treasury market it’s not even funny. Everyone seems to focus strictly on supply without realizing that the only way to predict a price is by forecasting both supply and demand. On its own, supply looks worrisome given the Administration’s bent on running huge fiscal deficits (and it just unveiled a new set of initiatives to reverse the foreclosure crisis). David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-The big bad secret is that if banks and other financial companies reported their true financial positions they’d be out of business insolvent. The Fed and the SEC are certainly well aware of these problems, but the game goes on. The fraud is intentional and conscience.

They know there are two sets of books, that MBS on their books are virtually worthless, they just bought $1.1 trillion worth of the toxic waste and they are well aware that the shadow inventory on their books is at best worth $0.30 on the dollar. In fact, everyone within the beltway knows it, just like seven years ago they all knew Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were broke.

As you can see, there is no law; it is only what these people want it to be. Faithfully all regulators and our elected representatives look the other way. They allow corruption to flourish. One thing that can be guaranteed is that if you report any of these frauds nothing is liable to happen. Today that is the American way crime pays. Bob Chapman-

http://news.goldseek.com/InternationalForecaster/1269792000.php and http://news.goldseek.com/InternationalForecaster/1270047600.php

-What we have to constantly remind ourselves is that we are still in a secular bear market, that the S&P; 500, through all the numerous peaks and valleys, is still in the hole to the tune of 25% over the past decade. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-The market is now overvalued by over 25% but is also extremely overbought having gone 24 sessions without a decline of 1% or more, and 89% of the stocks in the S&P; 500 are now trading above their 50-day moving averages (see page M3 of Barron’s). The Dow has advanced in 17 of the past 21 days.

I mean, even if you are bullish on the outlook, one would have to admit that such a parabolic move is vulnerable to at least a modest pullback or more. I know what a broken record sounds like and this has been a confounding and confusing market for both the bears and many (though not all) of the bulls. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-From our lens, the rally of the last 12 months smacks of the 1930 snapback, and if memory serves us correctly, the S&P; 500 went on to hit new lows in subsequent years and the next secular bull market did not start until 1954.

I am sure that all the bullish pundits and ‘tape watchers’ were ridiculing the cautious folks back then just go and have a look at the Diary of Benjamin Roth and you will see how much giddiness there was over the bear market rally and that the worst was over back then.

Meanwhile, the lows were still more than a year away to everyone’s surprise except those who kept their eyes on the forest, not the trees. Deleveraging cycles take years to play out, even with massive doses of government intervention. David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-If you believe analysts’ estimates on stocks, the market’s trading at 14 times this year’s earnings. If you believe more of a top-down sort of a view, it’s about 20 to 23 times earnings. It’s kind of like in the tech bubble when everybody believed the operating earnings, not the reported earnings.

They figured, well, reported included writeoffs. But don’t worry about them they’re not about the future. People are looking more at operating earnings right now and saying the market’s cheap. If you look on a reported basis, it doesn’t look like it is. It’s trading at 20 to 25 times earnings and that’s pretty high. Tom Forester-Read more here-http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/30/pf/funds/forester_funds.fortune/index.htm

-Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said the U.S. jobless rate may remain higher than 9 percent at the end of this year, underscoring the potential need to keep interest rates low into 2011. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=azwOSDUoq1Z0

-Treasuries Find Greenspan’s Canary Fainting in Mine. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s warning that rising yields on government debt will drive up American borrowing costs is resonating with the world’s biggest bond traders, who say this month’s losses in the market for U.S. Treasuries are just the beginning.

Higher yields are the “canary in the mine,” Greenspan said in a March 26 interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt.” The increases reflect concern over “this huge overhang of federal debt which we have never seen before,” he said. The budget deficit, which hit $1.4 trillion in fiscal 2009, will drive Treasury sales to a record $2.43 trillion this year, a February survey of 10 dealers showed. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid;=apJKoFUkPD.c

-Last week’s bond auctions did not go well. It seems that Japan and China did not show much interest. The lack of bids was no better underscored than in the 7-year Treasury note auction where the median yield was 3.29% versus 3.05% a month earlier.

April is a cruel month for the U.S. Treasury market, with 10-year yields rising in each of the past 4 Aprils and in 6 of the past 7, and by an average of 25 basis points. (As Alan Greenspan said on Bloomberg News last week, higher yields are “the canary in the mine”.) David Rosenberg-Gluskin/Sheff

-Sell-off in US Treasuries raises sovereign debt fears. Investors are braced for a further sell-off in US Treasuries after dramatic moves last week raised fears that the surfeit of US government debt is starting to saturate bond markets. Read more here-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/7533014/Sell-off-in-US-Treasuries-raises-sovereign-debt-fears.html

-ADP Says U.S. Companies Unexpectedly Cut Payrolls. Companies in the U.S. unexpectedly cut payrolls in March, according to data from a private report based on payrolls. The 23,000 decline was the smallest in two years and followed a revised 24,000 drop the prior month, data from ADP Employer Services showed today.

Over the previous six months, ADP’s initial figures have overstated the Labor Department’s first estimate of private payroll losses by as little as 2,000 in February to as much as 151,000 in November. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid;=arbMRzsCxhzo

-U.S. Decline, Sloth Look a Lot Like End of Rome: Mark Fisher. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=apWu9PvexGoE

-Irish Banks Need $43 Billion on ‘Appalling’ Lending. Ireland’s banks need $43 billion in new capital after “appalling” lending decisions left the country’s financial system on the brink of collapse.

The fund-raising requirement was announced after the National Asset Management Agency said it will apply an average discount of 47 percent on the first block of loans it is buying from lenders as part of a plan to revive the financial system. The central bank set new capital buffers for Allied Irish Banks Plc and Bank of Ireland Plc and gave them 30 days to say how they will raise the funds.

“Our worst fears have been surpassed,” Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said in the parliament in Dublin yesterday. “Irish banking made appalling lending decisions that will cost the taxpayer dearly for years to come.”

Dublin-based Allied Irish needs to raise 7.4 billion euros to meet the capital targets, while cross-town rival Bank of Ireland will need 2.66 billion euros. Anglo Irish Bank Corp., nationalized last year, may need as much 18.3 billion euros. Customer-owned lenders Irish Nationwide and EBS will need 2.6 billion euros and 875 million euros, respectively. Read more here-

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601010&sid;=aRbf5whFOhvg

-Afghanistan’s weak central government is characterized by patronage, corruption and impunity that has hindered economic development and contributed to increased poverty, a United Nations report said. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=a3z91p9EfPRs

-CIA: Iran capable of producing nukes. Iran is poised to begin producing nuclear weapons after its uranium program expansion in 2009, even though it has had problems with thousands of its centrifuges, according to a newly released CIA report. Read more here-http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/30/cia-iran-has-capability-to-produce-nuke-weapons/print/

-Iran Nuclear Scientist Defects to U.S. In CIA ‘Intelligence Coup’. Shahram Amiri Disappeared Last June in Saudi Arabia, Reportedly Now Resettled in the United States. Read more here-http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=10231729

-There’s a multi-million-dollar battle brewing between superheroes. Just a month after a Batman comic knocked Superman from his perch as the highest-selling comic book ever, Clark Kent’s alias is back for revenge. A high-quality copy of Action Comics #1, which marks Superman’s 1938 debut, sold for $1.5 million on Monday. Read more here- http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/30/news/economy/Superman_comic_book/index.htm

-Toronto Drivers Face Longer Commutes Than in L.A., Star Says. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid;=apKv3d3eTcTE

-New York Yankees are best paid team in global sport. Read more here-http://in.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idINIndia-47300520100329

WWW.RARECOLOREDDIAMONDS.COM

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

-Christie’s is hosting its Hong Kong Sale of exquisite jewels, in which it will feature ‘The Sensational Six’, selection of six superlative gems that are a treasure for the serious gem collector. The sale is slated for June 1, 2010.

A superb 5.01 carat Fancy Vivid Blue VS2 heart-shaped diamond ring. It has a pure, straight blue hue. It shows no trace of a secondary colour, making it exceedingly rare, both commercially and naturally. Such rich depth of colour, combined with perfectly balanced tone and saturation, has secured the Gemological Institute of America’s coveted ‘Fancy Vivid’ colour grading.

A stunning pair of 2.48 carat and 2.03 carat Fancy Deep Blue heart-shaped and 10.12 carat D VS2 and 9.61 carat E VS1 pear-shaped diamond ear pendants. This pair of heart-shaped 2.48 and 2.03 carat diamonds, of the bluest blue, is exceedingly rare. Each blue heart suspends a dazzling white pear-shaped diamond of the highest quality. Read more here-

http://diamondworld.net/contentview.aspx?item=4813

-How diamonds are regaining their sparkle. They’ve been seen as a symbol of enduring love since the 16th Century and long been described as a girl’s best friend. But it is only recently that investors have taken a shine to diamonds. Now people are not only buying the world’s most precious stones to wear, but are also investing, just as they would do with stocks and shares.

While the clarity of diamonds has always been treasured, the multi-billion dollar industry has historically been one of the world’s most opaque, which has been seen as off-putting to potential investors. Paris-based jeweller Alexandre Murat says diamonds are a “paradox”.

“There is emotional implication from the customer as they are bought for happy occasions such as weddings, births and birthdays,” he says. Yet recently, Murat, CEO of Adamence, has had clients clamouring to invest in diamonds. “We have had some clients saying they would like to buy five or ten diamonds. They have explained that because of the financial downturn, they would prefer to invest in diamonds,” he told RFI.

Peter Temple, author of the Handbook of Alternative Assets, says that in a financial downturn people look to invest in assets that they can see, as they lose trust in stocks and bonds. He says this is why gold prices keep breaking records, and diamond prices are set to rise.

Temple says there are various similarities between gold and diamonds. “There’s the scarcity aspect, and both are priced in dollars. And they’re both portable,” he says. “Gold in particular is seen as a store of value, something that will protect your cash at times of high inflation. With diamonds, there is an extreme shortage of supply of high quality stones.”

He says that while gold has already benefitted from this recession, diamonds have some catching up to do. This is because diamond dealers typically rely on loans and credit, which were hard to obtain last year, so diamonds didn’t benefit as quickly as other alternative commodities such as gold, art or wine. He predicts that diamond prices may rise up to 15 per cent this year. Read more here-http://www.english.rfi.fr/print/18140?print=now

REAL ESTATE

-Home price dip extends to 4th month. The market seems to have pulled the rug out from under housing industry hopes for a sustained early recovery. After a five-month run-up in home prices starting last spring, prices have now fallen for four consecutive months, according to the S&P;/Case-Shiller Home Price Index of 20 cities, a gauge of market values, released Tuesday.

In January, prices were down 0.4%, compared with December and have fallen 0.7% from a year earlier. “The rebound in housing prices seen last fall is fading,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s. “Fewer cities experienced month-to-month gains in January.” Read more here-

http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/30/real_estate/January_Case_Shiller/index.htm and http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid;=aqYAKQFntJbc

-Half of Commercial Mortgages to Be Underwater: Warren. By the end of 2010, about half of all commercial real estate mortgages will be underwater, said Elizabeth Warren, chairperson of the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel, in a wide-ranging interview on Monday.

They are mostly concentrated in the mid-sized banks,” Warren told CNBC. “We now have 2,988 banks mostly midsized, that have these dangerous concentrations in commercial real estate lending.”

As a result, the economy will face another “very serious problem” that will have to be resolved over the next three years, she said, adding that things are unlikely to return to normalcy in 2010. Read and watch more here-http://www.cnbc.com/id/36085517

-Downtown Manhattan, where demand for office space began to surge three years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, is about to lose its spot as the best performing U.S. market. Vacancies may exceed 14 percent of the area’s 87 million square feet by late 2011, empty space that’s equivalent to four Empire State Buildings and the highest rate since 1997, according to property broker Cushman & Wakefield Inc.

That doesn’t include the 4.4 million square feet of offices in two towers now under construction at the World Trade Center site. Those are scheduled for completion in 2013. “The amount of space that’s potentially going to come to the market will increase availabilities and put pressure on pricing,” said Kenneth McCarthy, Cushman’s head of New York- area research. “It will be quite awhile before it can be absorbed.” Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=a3NKXZe6aJPE

-For some perspective into the all-important US real estate market, today’s chart illustrates the US median price of a single-family home over the past 40 years. Not only did housing prices increase at a rapid rate from 1991 to 2005, the rate at which housing prices increased.

That brings us to today’s chart which illustrates how housing prices have dropped 35% from the 2005 peak. In fact, a home buyer who bought the median priced single-family home at the 1979 peak has actually seen that home lose value (4.3% loss).

Not an impressive performance considering that over three decades have passed. It is worth noting that the median priced home has moved back to the top of a trading range that existed from the late 1970s into the mid-1990s. Read more here-http://www.chartoftheday.com/20100326.htm?T

Source: www.chartoftheday.com

The Goldbugg Report – April 6, 2010
Posted by Worldwide Precious Metals on Tuesday, April 6, 2010

The Week in Review

April 1, 2010

Now that the healthcare bill has been signed into law, corporate America is starting to tally up the damage. Here are the results so far on their first quarter numbers: ATT – $1 billion noncash charge, Deere – $150 million noncash charge, Boeing – $150 million income tax charge, Caterpillar – $100 million after tax charge, Prudential Financial – $100 million charge, 3M – $90 million charge. The list goes on, but the point has been made. The new health care bill just trimmed the per share stock earnings of most of the corporations in America.

Weekly jobless claims fell for the fifth straight week ahead of the upcoming March employment report. Analysts expect the upcoming report to show that the economy actually added jobs, but any jobs added were most likely due to temporary workers hired for the Census or simply delayed hiring due to the weather in the northeast US over the last few months. Lending credence to the “temporary improvement” opinion, the US private sector actually cut 23,000 jobs and planned layoffs were up nearly 61%.

Scott Mather, head of global portfolio management at PIMCO, believes Europe’s action on Greece will be ineffective in fixing that country’s problems and that Britain’s sovereign debt rating may be downgraded within a year. He also said “Miracles are needed in the next six months in order to keep economic growth in the developed world.”

Inflation in the Euro zone was significantly higher than expected in March, and their unemployment rate reached 10 percent in February. Unemployment in Spain alone is at 19%. The ongoing Sovereign Debt issues of Euro zone members, along with continued high unemployment may continue to wear on the euro.

Construction spending fell to its lowest rate in close to 7 and a half years last month in every major sector from homebuilding to public construction. Mortgage rates are back over 5% and the homebuyer tax credit will be expiring this month, so any further growth in the US housing sector looks as if it may be limited. Housing simply has not been able to resurrect itself from the ashes of the meltdown.

Crude oil prices surged to a 17 month high this week, touching $85 per barrel.

Friday to Friday Close

	Mar. 26th	Apr. 1st	Net Change
Gold	$1104.00	$1126.00	22.00 – 1.99%
Silver	$16.90	$17.88	0.98 – 5.80%
Platinum	$1595.00	$1665.00	70.00 + 4.39%
Palladium	$455.00	$488.00	33.00 – 7.25%

Month End to Month End Close

	Feb. 26th	Mar. 31st	Net Change
Gold	$1118.00	$1114.00	(4.00) – 0.36%
Silver	$16.55	$17.50	0.95 – 5.74%
Platinum	$1545.00	$1635.00	90.00 + 5.83%
Palladium	$435.00	$478.00	43.00 – 9.89%

Here are your Short Term Support and Resistance Levels for the upcoming week.

	Gold	Silver
Support	1110/1100/1085	17.50/17.00/16.50
Resistance	1135/1150/1165	18.00/18.80/19.00

	Platinum	Palladium
Support	1650/1600/1570	480/450/440
Resistance	1670/1700/1750	500/520/550

Volatility should be expected to continue. As we mentioned in our March 26^th memo, the word is out regarding the manipulation of the precious metals markets by banks such as JPMorgan and HSBC, courtesy of a meeting the CFTC held on March 25^th to discuss position limits in the precious metals futures market. Dennis Gartman, an admitted and vocal disbeliever in such manipulation, even begrudgingly acknowledged that it may actually be taking place on Business News Network in Canada this week. As more details emerge and people begin to demand not only action, but delivery of their product from the banks involved, prices may explode to the upside. The astute investor might view any price dips at these levels as an opportunity to add to, or begin, a precious metals portfolio. Remember, the key to profitability through the ownership of physical precious metals is to own them and hold them for the long term. Never over-extend your ability to maintain ownership of your product over the long term.

Trading Department – Precious Metals International, Ltd.

This is not a solicitation to purchase or sell.

The Week in Review
Posted by Worldwide Precious Metals on Thursday, April 1, 2010

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