Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.
Monday 11.12.2012
Gold and Silver Prices Set to Explode
By Bob Kirtley - OilPrice.com
Now that the presidential election is over we can hopefully look forward to some respite from the perpetual bombardment dished out by both the Republican and the Democratic Party machines. President Obama has been re-elected so we can expect four more years of a Washington centric controlled economy with a rolling program of borrow, print, spend and pretend, similar to the last four years. The so called fiscal cliff will not be met head on, the approach will be one of extending some of the tax cuts now in place and a watered down strategy of fiscal prudence. Budget ceilings will come and go and the deficit will grow ever larger as the economic recovery will be considered far too fragile for any serious attempts at financial reform. All in all nothing has really changed, the slow motion train crash will continue and the fallout will affect everyone.
Gold Price to Soar Following Obama's Re-Election?
By Stuart Burns - OilPrice.com
The FT seems to think so, saying Barack Obama's election win is the "best possible result" for the gold price, as it is a vote for the status quo that has delivered a doubling in gold prices during his first term.
Not that the rise has been a steady progression. The gold price rose to a record in 2011 and has since traded within limits, making no ground for the last 12 months. The consensus is a combination of easy money and low interest rates, both of which are likely to persevere as far out as 2015, sets the scene for prices to rise towards year-end.
Gold Prices Rise as Safe-Haven Play
By Joe Deaux - TheStreet.com
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Gold prices moved higher Friday as investors continued to turn to the yellow metal as a safe-haven asset.
Gold for December delivery added $4.90 to settle at $1,730.90 an ounce at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gold price traded as high as $1,739.40 and as low as $1,726.90 an ounce, while the spot price settled down $1.10, according to Kitco's gold index.
Bernanke's stamp on Fed could tie hands of successor
By Jonathan Spicer
NEW YORK | Sun Nov 11, 2012 8:12am EST
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama's next choice to head the U.S. Federal Reserve could have his or her hands tied if Ben Bernanke and company continue to re-write the policymaking rule book at their current clip.
Under Chairman Bernanke, who is expected to step down when his current term expires in January 2014, the U.S. central bank has embraced the goal of making the historically shrouded business of setting monetary policy far more transparent.
Obama: Extend middle-class tax cuts immediately Fiscal-cliff talks to start next Friday Speaker Boehner, President Obama both
dig in and talk compromise
By Robert Schroeder and Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Talks seeking a deal to avert the fiscal cliff of spending cuts and tax hikes will get under way at the White House next week after President Barack Obama Friday asked bipartisan congressional leaders to meet with him on the issue.
"The American people voted for action, not politics as usual. And in that spirit, I have invited leaders of both parties to the White House next week so we can start to build consensus around the challenges that we can only solve together," Obama said in a statement at the White House.
Coming of the Next Bubble with Thomas Woods 11/09/2012
Tom Woods, Senior Fellow of History at the Mises Institute, discusses his upcoming documentary, The Bubble. He also talks about the best education he ever received - and it wasn't his PhD from Columbia.
Republicans say deal can be done on U.S. "fiscal cliff"
By Alister Bull
WASHINGTON | Sun Nov 11, 2012 5:27pm EST
(Reuters) - A senior Republican senator voiced confidence on Sunday that U.S. lawmakers would forge a deal on the year-end "fiscal cliff," while a top aide to President Barack Obama signaled a willingness to compromise over raising tax rates on the rich.
Republican Senator Bob Corker said increasing tax revenues from wealthier Americans would have to be part of the plan, but he stressed closing loopholes rather than raising top tax rates as many Democrats favor, provided spending is also tackled.
It's Not a Fiscal Cliff, It's a Fiscal Fast
By Derek Thompson - TheAtlantic.com
Americans are fond of unrealistic new year's resolutions, especially regarding weight loss, and this year, Washington is in on the tradition. According to current law, the U.S. government has promised itself that it will slim the deficit by raising taxes by about $400 billion and cutting spending by tens of billions in 2013. This is the mother of all fiscal diet plans. It would shrink our budget shortfall so quickly that we'd fall into a short, sharp recession, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
World cannot afford second Fiscal Cliff
after Europe’s failed attempt The Taxpayer Protection Pledge signed before witnesses by 238 US congressmen does not leave much wiggle room as the fiscal cliff arrives.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
It is a solemn oath to the American people -- under pain of political perjury -- crafted by my old friend Grover Norquist to block retreat.
Each member of the covenant vows to "oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rate for individuals and business; and two, oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates".
[UK] We've been on the back foot
with the EU ever since we joined Can we agree to lead separate lives – or must it be divorce?
By Roger Bootle - Telegraph.co.uk
Last week, the EU crisis was hotting up. Chancellor Merkel met Prime Minister Cameron amid a sense that Britain and the EU are drifting apart. Over here, a referendum on EU membership is in the air. Over there, exasperation with Britain is mounting.
As it happens, I was in the lion's den, addressing a group of MEPs. If you think that Westminster exists in a bubble, you should try Brussels.
For the 18th successive year, the auditors have failed to approve the EU's accounts. Meanwhile, the EU wants much more money.
The Tragedy Of The Euro! What About Germany?
By Brecht Arnaert - GoldSilverWorlds.com
2012 has been a year of great turmoil for the euro. But our economy is not the only thing that is in crisis. Our economic theory is too, and even more so: for decades macro-economic policy has been conducted within a Keynesian framework, and while no Keynesian economist has predicted this crisis, or even is able to explain it’s causes, we are still listening to them today to get out of the mess they brought us into. I would say that this is a problem of legitimacy.
Greeks protest again as leaders vote on further budget cuts Tens of thousands voice anger
at second set of austerity measures in a week
By NATHALIE SAVARICAS - Indepencent.co.uk
Greece is expected to endorse a painful 2013 budget of further spending cuts demanded by its international creditors, as tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in Athens to vent their anger at the government's handling of the financial crisis.
The budget, which includes cuts to pensions, wages and social services, is a the second of two crucial steps Greece has taken in the past week in an effort to persuade the International Monetary Fund and other eurozone countries to release the next €31.5bn tranche of bailout funds.
Is it worth it to sacrifice democracy in Greece
for German banker bonuses?
By Richard Fields - TYIllc.blogspot.com
As the Greece economy continues to spiral down under the burden of its excess private and sovereign debt, democracy in Greece threatens to become a casualty.
I find this particularly troublesome because it would be easy to save Greece. Adopt the Swedish Model and require the banks to recognize upfront the losses on all the private and sovereign Greek debt.
The decision to save Greece comes down to how you answer the question of is it worth it to sacrifice democracy in Greece for German banker bonuses?
Keiser Report: Wacko Wizard World (E365)
In this episode, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss central bankers and governments from Iceland to Argentina attempting to tilt the global pinball game so that the ball goes in the 'right' hole while 'invincibility' tattoos fail to protect from the guns and knives of financial weapons in the real world. In the second half, Max Keiser talks to Tuur Demeester of Macrotrends.be about the recent report from the European Central Bank suggesting they are concerned about the new breed of decentralized digital currencies threatening their seignorage rights. They also discuss the financial jungle of Argentina where capital controls and economic chaos prove a great testing ground for new currencies
GS concealed 8.6 billion position Goldman in settlement talks with U.S. over trading loss
By Rueters - Yahoo.com
(Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc is in settlement talks with the U.S. government over an $8.3 billion position that one of the investment bank's traders had concealed five years ago, according to a published report.
The Financial Times said a settlement with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates U.S. futures and options markets, is expected in the coming weeks, citing two sources familiar with the plans.
The negotiation begins: Obama, Boehner dig in on taxes
By David Eldridge-The Washington Times
After sending signals this week that compromise was possible, both Barack Obama and John Boehner on Saturday reiterated their opposing positions on Saturday, with the president insisting on higher taxes on the wealthy and the Republican House speaker calling for tax code reform and overall lower tax rates.
President Obama, who has invited Mr. Boehner and other congressional leaders to join him in the White House next week to begin looking for a way to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” the series of automatic spending cuts and tax hikes set to kick in at the end of the year, said part of that solution will require higher taxes for those making more than $250,000.
Boehner Is Bluffing The House Speaker has no leverage on the Bush tax cuts.
We should stop taking him seriously.
By Matthew Yglesias - Slate.com
Remember the famous scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indiana Jones faces off against a guy who unsheathes a scimitar and wows the audience with his fancy swordsmanship--only to get shot in the chest by Indy? The swordsman—that’s House Speaker John Boehner right now on the Bush tax cuts. Whether it’s out of deference to the office, eagerness to have an interesting story to write about, or plain gullibility, every congressional reporter in town is now dutifully reporting on his negotiating strategy. But this fight is over. Boehner has brought a knife to a gunfight, only nobody seems to have told anyone in the conservative movement.
Compromise can save Obama from fiscal cliff "We’re not as cynical as the pundits believe,” proclaimed President Barack Obama last Wednesday. “We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions.”
By Liam Halligan - Telegraph.co.uk
When it comes to post-election oratory, few can match the 44thpresident of the US. Hoarse, even broken-voiced, after months of campaigning and the final desperate push, the most powerful person on Earth basked in the adoration of supporters in Chicago, as they reveled in his reelection.
As the crowd’s roar hit fever pitch, Obama’s rhetoric soared, his final sound-bite fitting snugly into television news bulletins across the globe, as was intended. “We remain more than a collection of red states and blue states,” the re-confirmed president thundered. “We are, and forever will be, the United States of America.”
Obama Needs Rainmaker to Steer Around Fiscal Cliff
By Albert R. Hunt - Bloomberg.com
There are striking parallels between Barack Obama’s re-election victory last week and that ofGeorge W. Bush in 2004.
Both incumbents began with mediocre job-approval ratings; each had a political albatross: theIraq war for Bush, the economy this time; and both managed to define the race and the opposition before their slow-to-react challengers could. They both narrowly won, with about the same popular vote margin, though Obama did much better in the Electoral College.
The Next Trillion-Dollar Stimulus? It's Immigration Reform
By Jordan Weissmann - TheAtlantic.com
Thanks to the electoral drubbing Republicans took from Latino voters on Tuesday, it's looking increasingly likely Congress might actually tackle comprehensive immigration reform some time this year. House Speaker John Boehner suddenly likes the idea. Even Fox News' Sean Hannity is a convert.
That's delightful news for any number of reasons. If it happens, millions of hard working people will be able to step out of America's legal shadows. But almost as importantly, it might just give the U.S. economy a trillion-dollar shot in the arm, as explained in a report published by the left-leaning Center for American Progress in 2010.
Share This Massive List Of Post-Election Firings And Layoffs
With Everyone You Can
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
The victory by Barack Obama on election night has resulted in a huge wave of firings and layoffs all over America. A large number of businesses seem to have suddenly shifted into panic mode. The number of layoff announcements that we have seen in the last 48 hours has been absolutely shocking. So why is this happening? Well, the truth is that the federal government is absolutely suffocating small businesses all over America with rules, regulations and taxes. If you have never tried to run a small business, then you have no idea how oppressive this system actually is for people that are trying to run small businesses successfully. It has steadily gotten worse over the years no matter who has been in the White House and no matter who has controlled Congress. So we shouldn't put 100% of the blame on Obama. Bush massively expanded government and made things harder on small business people too. But what many small business people were looking for on this election day was just a little bit of help. Many were desperately holding out hope that Obamacare would be repealed so that they would not have to get rid of some of their employees. Many were hoping to get a little bit of relief from the crippling regulations and taxes that are absolutely crushing them. But now that Barack Obama has been given another four years, they understand that there is no hope on the horizon and that things are only going to get worse. So they are making the hard decisions that they feel are necessary in order to survive in this economic environment.
Two million jobless set to lose unemployment benefits
By Tami Luhby - Money.CNN.com
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- More than 2 million jobless Americans will lose their federal unemployment insurance during the holidays if Congress doesn't extend the deadline to file for extended benefits.
And another 1 million who exhaust their state benefits will not be able to sign up for the federal program in the first quarter of 2013, according to the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group.
'Fighting Poverty' by Bashing Park Avenue Rich
Blaming Park Ave.: Ch.13's Rich-Bash
By Ira Stoll - New York Post
An anonymous former doorman at 740 Park Avenue describes the Upper East Side building's residents as "detestable" and complains about their tipping habits and the behavior of their 12-year-old children. Someone else says "some rich people are just dicks."
Stephen Schwarzman, who gave $100 million to the New York Public Library and who built a firm, Blackstone, that directly employs 1,700 people, is described as "the poster child of capitalistic greed in the last 10 years."
FOODSTAMPS SURGE TO ALL TIME HIGH
by WARNER TODD HUSTON - Breitbart.com
The Obama administration has finally released its report on the number of Americans receiving food stamps. This report was released days after the 2012 election, nine days past its traditional release date. The numbers show that Americans on food stamps is at an all time high. Worse, the report shows the highest one month jump ever recorded.
You may recall that just before the election, the Obama administration announced that Hurricane Sandy was going to delay the release of October's jobless numbers. Many watchers of politics were suspicious about the possible delay in the release of October's unemployment figures since the proper release date was to come just before the presidential election. While the unemployment report was ultimately released on schedule and before the election, now we find out about another report, the food stamp report, delayed for nine days after its traditional release date. This report was also supposed to have been released before the election.
Retirement funds could boost econ
By JOHN CRUDELE - NYPost.com
Dear John: Why don't you take your idea of allowing one-time withdrawals from retirement accounts for housing and let us spend the money on anything — a new car, home repairs, debt reduction, etc.? I know the only thing that keeps me from tapping my accounts for consumption is the tax penalty. M.G.
Dear M.G. Nearly 10 years ago, an economist and friend of mine named Walter J. Williams and I proposed that people should be allowed to tap into their retirement accounts as another way of stimulating the economy. Despite the fact that our nation is in dire shape right now — and out of ideas — our proposal has gotten nowhere.
Samsung hits Apple with 20% price hike
By MarketWatch
Samsung Electronics , the world's largest technology firm by revenue, raised the price of mobile processor supplied to Apple Inc. AAPL +1.73% by 20% recently, Chosun Ilbo reported Monday, citing a person familiar with negotiations between the two tech giants.
"Samsung Electronics recently asked Apple for a significant price raise in (the mobile processor known as) application processor," the person was quoted as saying in the report. "Apple first disapproved it, but finding no replacement supplier, it accepted the (increase.)"
Rising number of states seeing one-party rule
By Keely Brazil-The Washington Times
Divided government still rules in the nation's capital after last week's Tuesday's vote, but unity is increasingly the name of the game in cities such as Annapolis, Topeka, Concord and Little Rock.
In a little-noticed footnote to last week's election, state legislature elections this year have produced the highest number of states with one-party rule in 60 years. Democrats or Republicans now have sole control of the governorship and both legislative chambers in 37 state capitals around the country.
U.S. Regional Clashes Behind Obama Versus Romney
By Colin Woodard - Bloomberg.com
Last week's election demonstrated, once again, that America's most essential and abiding divisions are not between red states and blue states, conservatives and liberals, or even the faithful and the secular. They're cultural, the result of differences that can be traced all the way back to the rival colonial projects established on our continent three and four centuries ago.
Interior proposal would limit commercial oil shale development on federal lands
By Zack Colman - TheHill.com
The Interior Department on Friday issued a final plan to close 1.6 million acres of federal land in the West originally slated for oil shale development.
The proposed plan would fence off a majority of the initial blueprint laid out in the final days of the George W. Bush administration. It faces a 30-day protest period and a 60-day process to ensure it is consistent with local and state policies. After that, the department would render a decision for implementation.
What Happens with Keystone Now that Obama is Back In?
By James Stafford - OilPrice.com
We are going to highlight two energy issues for you this week. The first, oil and gas in East Africa—because this is the hottest place right now and we can't get enough of it. The second, what everyone's talking about on the energy scene and follow the re-election of Obama—because we can't ignore it.
With East Africa in mind, we had a chance this week to interview Andrew McCarthy, CEO of Canadian juniorEmperor Oil, which has operations in Sudan.
The most interesting point to come out of this interview was the change in risk perception.
Second term gives Obama chance
to adopt new tone with lawmakers
By Amie Parnes - TheHill.com
President Obama has many motivations to strike a new tone as he begins his second term at the White House in January. Warmer relations with Congress, the business community, and other power players outside his tight inner circle could help him make tangible progress across the board before lame-duck status looms.
Obama has been criticized throughout his first term for being an aloof and distant figure. And lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed disappointment that he hadn't reached out enough on the phone and in person.
An optimistic vision of Obama's second term
By Anatole Kaletsky - Reuters.com
President Barack Obama's re-election is good news for the world economy and financial markets. Of course a victory by Mitt Romney, unlikely though it was, might have been even better news, which is perhaps why stock markets fell sharply after the election. If Romney had won, his promised tax cuts and willingness to ignore budget deficits would have delivered a big stimulus to the U.S. economy and triggered a potential boom. But even without this fiscal boost, recent U.S. economic indicators, especially on housing, employment and bank lending, have pointed clearly in the right direction – and now there is every reason to expect these positive trends to accelerate.
Will Republicans Ever Win the Presidency Again?
By Ben Shapiro - PatriotPost.us
Will Republicans ever win the presidency again? In the aftermath of the reelection of the worst president since James Buchanan, the question must be asked. Clearly, the Republican Party is on the downswing. But why?
There are two easy answers. Neither of them is correct. The first answer is advanced by proponents of liberalism. They say that the 2012 election was an ideological election, the seminal, long-awaited decision of the American public to fully embrace their inner socialists. This argument posits that Mitt Romney was an extreme conservative, Barack Obama was an extreme liberal, and the American people cast their lot with the liberal.
President Obama Is The Second FDR, Not The Second Carter
By Mark Hendrickson - Forbes.com
I've thought a lot over the last few years about the axiom, "History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes" (often attributed, though not definitively, to Mark Twain). The question to me was whether the presidency of Barack Obama would "rhyme" with that of Jimmy Carter or Franklin Roosevelt. Given Tuesday's election results, FDR is the more apt precedent.
A Man Without a Plan
By Robert J. Shiller - Project-Syndicate.org
NEW HAVEN – During the United States' recent presidential election campaign, public-opinion polls consistently showed that the economy – and especially unemployment – was voters' number one concern. The Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, sought to capitalize on the issue, asserting: "The president's plans haven't worked – he doesn't have a plan to get the economy going."
Nonetheless, Barack Obama was reelected. The outcome may reflect the economy's slight improvement at election time (as happened when Franklin Roosevelt defeated the Republican Alf Landon in 1936, despite the continuing Great Depression). But Obama's victory might also be a testament to most US voters' basic sense of economic reality.
Nothing's impossible I have found,
For when my chin is on the ground,
I pick myself up,
Dust myself off,
Start all over again.
-- From the 1936 movie "Swing Time"
WASHINGTON -- Conservatives should jauntily sing as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers did in a year in which the country's chin was on the ground. Conservatives are hardly starting from scratch in their continuing courtship of an electorate half of which embraced their message more warmly than it did this year's messenger.
The election's outcome was foreshadowed by Mitt Romney struggling as long as he did to surmount a notably weak field of Republican rivals. His salient deficiency was not of character but of chemistry, that indefinable something suggested by the term empathy. Many voters who thought he lacked this did not trust him to employ on their behalf what he does not lack, economic understanding.
Romney the Great Manager?
Not Nearly as Good as Obama, the Election Proved
By Frederick E. Allen - Forbes.com
In the days since the election we have learned that PresidentBarack Obama's campaign had an amazingly advanced and disciplined ground game that knew just what precincts and even voters to target and how to target them, based on polling information that predicted how the vote was going with uncanny precision. Yet Mitt Romney was the man running as the experienced manager, the man whose years running a business uniquely qualified him to run the biggest, most complex organization on earth, the federal government. That was his main, most consistent claim to the office. Now it looks more as if, though he may have been very good at buying and selling companies and extracting profit from them, he wasn't nearly as good at heading an effective complex organization as President Obama.
The Republican Party:
The death of America's angry white man If the GOP wants to win next time, its leaders need to wrest power from the Tea Party fringe and embrace the changes in the US
By RUPERT CORNWELL - Independent.co.uk
They truly expected Mitt would win. Not just the right-wing talk-show hosts and the dedicated Republican pundits living in their parallel universe, but the top campaign brass, even the candidate himself, who had prepared only a victory speech. That incidentally may explain the brevity and grace of Romney's concession in Boston on Tuesday night. In the event, nothing became him in defeat so much as the way he took it.
And it wasn't just a defeat, it was a big one, whose dimensions were a surprise even to many Democrats: over 2 per cent in the popular vote and a crushing 332 votes to 206 in the electoral college, in what is supposed to be a 50/50 country. And this in a year when the struggling economy was the main issue, and Republicans were fielding a candidate whose selling point was his economic and business expertise. What went wrong?
'People Are Afraid of Change' Republicans got complacent. Now it's time to rethink.
By Peggy Noonan - PatriotPost.us
President Obama did not lose, he won. It was not all that close. There wasenthusiasm on his side. Mitt Romney's assumed base did not fully emerge, or rather emerged as smaller than it used to be. He appears to have received fewer votes than John McCain. The last rallies of his campaign neither signaled nor reflected a Republican resurgence. Mr Romney's air of peaceful dynamism was the product of a false optimism that, in the closing days, buoyed some conservatives and swept some Republicans. While GOP voters were proud to assert their support with lawn signs, Democratic professionals were quietly organizing, data mining and turning out the vote. Their effort was a bit of a masterpiece; it will likely change national politics forever. Mr. Obama was perhaps not joyless but dogged, determined, and tired.
Resignation Followed FBI Probe Into Email: Reports
By TheStreet Staff
WASHINGTON (TheStreet) -- Former CIA Director David Petraeus' resignation Friday over an extramarital affair followed an FBI probe into whether another person was using his Gmail account, according to published media reports.
The FBI came to believe that the woman with whom he was having the affair -- or someone she knew -- had tried to gain access to Petraeus' email account, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources briefed on the matter.
Israel fires 'warning shot' missile
into Syria after mortar hits Golan Heights
By DAN WILLIAMS - Independent.co.uk
The Israeli military has fired a missile into Syria, the first time Israel has been drawn into the fighting in the neighbouring country.
The military said it fired the missile as a warning shot today after a stray mortar from Syria hit a military post in the Golan Heights.
Israel captured the area from Syria in the 1967 war, known as the six-day war, and subsequently annexed it.
The military says no damage or injuries were reported inside Israel.
Iran warns U.S. over drone incident
By Kristina Wong-The Washington Times
Iran issued a bellicose warning to the U.S. over the weekend, after American officials disclosed last week that the Islamic republic had tried to shoot down a U.S. drone in international airspace near the Iranian coast on Nov. 1.
"Yes, we opened fire, and it was with warning shots. If they do it again, they can expect an even stronger response," said Gen. Amir-Ali Hadjizadeh, adding that the drone entered Iranian airspace and "had to turn around because of the immediate reaction by fighters of the Revolutionary Guards."
Iranian Aircraft Shoot At Unarmed US Predator Drone in International Waters
By Joao Peixe - OilPrice.com
The Pentagon has just announced that one of its unarmed, unmanned MQ-1 Predator drones was fired upon by Iranian aircraft whilst performing routine surveillance in international waters, 16 nautical miles off the Iranian coast.
George Little, a spokesman for the Pentagon, stated, "we believe this is the first time an unmanned aircraft has been shot at over international waters in the Arabian Gulf." The drone wasn't hit and managed to return to is base safely.
