The Ignorance Is Willful - Dr. Burry

You might remember Dr. Michael Burry as the hedge fund manager who made hundreds of millions of dollars betting on the collapse of the housing market.  You, also, might remember everyone from the mainstream media (MSM) to the Federal Reserve claimed nobody could have seen the 2008 financial collapse coming.  

How did Dr. Burry know a financial catastrophe was on the way while most financial experts and media were totally in the dark?  This year’s commencement address at UCLA’s Department of Economics was given by Dr. Burry, and he says, “The ignorance is willful.”

(Click here to see Dr. Burry’s June 20, 2012,UCLA address.)  

“The ignorance is willful.”  I think you can say the same thing about the ongoing banking crisis.  Last Thursday, credit rating giant Moody’s downgraded the long-term credit ratings of 15 of the biggest North American and European banks.  All but four were cut at least two notches, and these are some of the biggest banks in the world.  RBC, JP Morgan, BNP Paribas, RBS and UBS are household names in Canada, U.S., France, UK and Switzerland.  (Japan’s Numara and Australia’s Macquarie were downgraded earlier by Moody’s.)  (Click here for a complete list of downgraded banks from Business Insider.)  

 I can’t find a time when a major credit ratings company like Moody’s has downgraded this many major banks in so many parts of the world at the same time.  Sure, critics of Moody’s will say they are way behind the curve, but the fact is the company has come out with bold and devastating bank downgrades when the world is being told it is in “recovery.” Please keep in mind, dozens of Italian and Spanish banks were, also, downgraded in the last few months by Moody’s.


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Emperor Max Keiser talks Silver (Money For Future Kings)

Emperor Max Keiser talks Silver (money for future kings) 

Silver is the key and removing the criminal bankers.

Greece To Quit The Euro Whatever The Poll Result

 

The next few days will be high stakes on global financial markets as the results of the Greek election are digested, and just as importantly, the G20's reaction to the outcome of the election, along with that of central banks.

The Australian equity market will remain skittish as investors grapple with so many global unknowns, as well as the potential for more local profit downgrades as company boards sign their company accounts for the June 30 year.

Companies that have suffered big share price falls in the past few weeks are the ones most likely to announce profit downgrades or big asset write-downs as ASIC has been reminding companies of their accounting rule obligations when it comes to asset impairment charges.

In the past year the All Ordinaries index has fallen almost 10 per cent, which has a knock-on effect on the annual financial year performance of super funds, particularly balanced funds, and reduce the returns of Australia's $1.3 trillion retirement savings.

The brutal reality is that local and global equity markets have been living in fear for the past three years, and that will not change in the short term.

World markets have been praying for a fairytale ending to the European crisis. What they have got is an unfolding nightmare that has left policy makers hoping that whatever the outcome of the Greek elections today, Greece will remain in the eurozone.

Ultimately, Greece will leave the euro, and the outcome of today's election is unlikely to temper that inevitability. Who wins the election will merely determine the speed. If the pro-bailout New Democracy Party claims victory, Greece's departure will be slow; if the extremist Syriza wins, it will be accelerated, and if there is an inconclusive election outcome, the timing of its departure will be unpredictable.

But in the short term, the behaviour of markets will depend on the effectiveness or otherwise of the G20 meeting in Mexico today, where the focus will be on how to prevent an immediate breaking up the eurozone and destabilisation of the world economy.

It is reaching a critical point were the problem is far greater than getting the right government to run Greece. Spain is in trouble and Italy looks likely to be months away from requiring its own rescue plan.

Unfortunately nobody has an answer, which has battered confidence around the world and heightened an already volatile market and has started to create social unrest in some European countries.

Greece is almost ungovernable these days, a function of its bankruptcy, the collapse of proper institutional structures, chronic tax avoidance, an alarming decline in living standards and the abandonment of hope.

But the problem is wider than economics. Social unrest has the potential to spread like wildfire.

In Australia, the problems in Europe have had an impact on market sentiment, confidence, credit markets and the dollar. If the problems get worse, they will ripple through China, one of Australia's biggest trading partners, as well as the US, which is already suffering from its own issues.

What happens in Greece over the next few weeks, followed by Spain and Italy, will dominate everything. Let's hope sense prevails and governments and the global financial system are well prepared. With the crisis going on for so long, there certainly ought to be.

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China's Gold Investment Demand to Grow More Than 10% - ICBC

Gold-investment demand in China may gain more than 10 percent this year as buyers seek a haven from Europe's debt crisis and the prospect of weakening currencies, according to the country's largest bullion bank.

"Investors here want to hold part of their assets in gold to hedge for the risks, especially now that the financial crisis has evolved into a sovereign crisis," Zheng Zhiguang, general manager of the precious-metals department at Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd., said in an interview in Shanghai.

China will topple India this year as the largest bullion market as rising incomes bolster demand, the World Gold Council forecasts. Gold may gain for a 12th year in 2012 as European policy makers strive to avoid a breakup of the euro zone and the U.S. Federal Reserve weighs more stimulus to aid the recovery. Investors in China, facing lackluster equity markets and property curbs, are looking more to the metal, Zheng said June 6.

"It's necessary for individual, institutional or even government investors to hold gold when the value of money is decreasing at a time of possible quantitative easing or excessive money-printing practices," said Zheng.

Investment demand in China was a record 98.6 metric tons in the first quarter, 13 percent higher the same period in 2011, according to figures from the producer-funded council. Last year, it climbed 38 percent to 258.9 tons compared with 2010, as overall demand gained 20 percent to 769.8 tons. China's total gold demand may reach 1,000 tons this year, the WGC has said.

Debt Crisis
Gold for immediate delivery traded at $1,599.02 an ounce at 12:41 p.m. in Shanghai, 2.3 percent higher this year. The price touched $1,526.97 on May 16, the lowest level since December, as Europe's debt crisis weakened the euro and investors favored increased dollar holdings.
While a stronger dollar may pressure bullion, "I'm optimistic on the gold prices in the long term because of the China demand," said Zheng. "There are too many uncertainties now in the global economy, politics and the financial sector."

ICBC represents more than 20 percent of the turnover on the Shanghai Gold Exchange, China's largest spot market for precious metals, and more than 30 percent of the gold-leasing business in China, according to Zheng. The lender accounted for about 16 percent of nationwide bullion sales last year.

Gold imports by mainland China from Hong Kong climbed 65 percent to a record 103.6 tons in April, according to data from the Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong government released on June 5. The increase came even as Lao Feng Xiang Co. (900905), the mainland's biggest gold-jewelry maker, said in May that gold-demand growth in China may stagnate this year as falling prices put off investors and an economic slowdown crimps sales.

Hurt Exports
The second-largest economy expanded 8.1 percent in the first quarter, the slowest pace in almost three years as Europe's crisis hurt exports. Should Greece exit the euro, the expansion may slow to 6.4 percent in 2012 without stimulus, China International Capital Corp. said on May 23.

China, which on June 7 announced the first cut in borrowing costs since 2008, has curbed property investments to avoid a bubble. The Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) declined 15 percent in the past year, while spot bullion gained 5.5 percent.

On a three-month basis, gold demand in China eclipsed India's over the past two quarters, according to the World Gold Council. The increased wealth of China's middle class is helping to drive consumption, Albert Cheng, the council's Far East managing director, said in an interview in May.

Last Resort
Greek voters are set to go the polls for the second time in two months on June 17 in a vote that may determine whether the country stays in the 17-nation euro. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) said gold remains the so-called currency of last resort, forecasting a rally by year-end, according to a May 9 report.

Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said on June 9 that he would request as much as 100 billion euros ($126 billion) in emergency loans from the euro area to shore up the country's banking system. That, coupled with weekend trade data from China, helped to boost stocks and commodities today.

As China allowed investors to buy and hold gold only in recent years, "there's explosive, pent-up demand because the Chinese have an attachment to gold," said Zheng, predicting that growth in investment demand will beat the expansion in jewelry sales. "There's great potential for expanding China's physical-gold investment market."

China's Gold Investment Demand to Grow More Than 10% - ICBC

Mr. Schiff Goes To Washington - Round 2

Peter Schiff Goes To Washington for the second time to testify before congress about government intervention in the property (real estate) market.

Interesting video - Peter has to restrain himself which is difficult for a man so passionate about his beliefs

They’re Robbing Us’: 12-Year-Old Exposes Canada’s Banking Flaws

 

Economists around the world are struggling to break free of the clutches of the financial crisis but a Canadian girl explains exactly what needs to be done. Victoria Grant, 12, became an overnight Internet sensation after a video of her slamming Canada’s banks and the government for robbing the people, went viral. “What I’ve discovered is that banks and the government have colluded to financially enslave the people of Canada,” she said at Pubic Banking Institute conference in Philadelphia. 

In her interview with RT, the child economist expressed her concern that the Canadian government has been borrowing money from private banks and putting the people into debt. “And they are not doing anything about this. So they are just standing by and watching the private banks make us pay compounded interest.” “It has become painfully obvious even for me, a 12-year-old Canadian, that we are being defrauded and robbed by the banking system and a complicit government,” Victoria stated in her speech at the conference.

Until the 1970s, the Canadian government borrowed money directly from the Bank of Canada. But in recent decades, it has been borrowing from private banks instead which results in the government paying extra in interest rates to cover private banks’ profit margins. 

The prodigy’s solution to her country’s financial problems is that the government “should stop borrowing from private banks and start borrowing from the Bank of Canada with little to no interest.” “The people will then pay fair taxes to repay the Bank of Canada. This tax money would in turn get injected back into our economic infrastructure and the debt would be wiped out. 

Canadians will again prosper with real money as the foundation of our economic structure,” she said. Victoria’s mother, Marcia Grant, principal at the Resurrection Christian Academy, told RT that her daughter becoming an Internet sensation is “quite exciting.” “We never knew when this project started what would happen with this. It’s exciting that we get people talking and doing their own research. Whether they agree or disagree, they are at least listening and exploring.”