gold and silver in paper markets that doesn't exist for a little while longer...This will end in a bubble.These bankers, AIG CEO, CountryWide CEO and the rest of them must be kicked out of United States. These people are stealing Americans money by creating these loans that the money payment increases over time. These people are crooks... They force U.S. officials to change the laws so that they can get away with it.Buy silver today, if it performs this well over the next ten years you can dramatically increase your wealth & that of your kids. (im sure it will actually outperform the last ten years as industrial use & investment demand increases) 74% gains in 2010 compared to gold with 24% gains. BUY SILVER TODAY, DONT BE LEFT OUT WISHING YOU HAD.
13 Ekim 2012 Cumartesi
Welcome to the Era of 'Ugly' Inflation
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Where everybody losesby Charles Hugh SmithThursday, September 27, 2012, 8:33 PM
A year ago, in the wake of the then-announced additional monetary easing measures by the Federal Reserve (which since sent stock prices on a rocket ride for the next nine months), many of our readers feared a major decline in the dollar was imminent. To add some balance to our site content, we asked Peak Prosperity contributing editor Charles Hugh Smith to argue the case for a strengthening dollar. He graciously accepted, and in the year since writing Heresy and the US Dollar, America's currency did indeed strengthen notably vs. its fiat counterparts. Now, after the Fed's announcement of QE3 (plus), many of us are girding once again for dollar weakness. So we've invited Charles to once again play devil's advocate.
Where everybody losesby Charles Hugh SmithThursday, September 27, 2012, 8:33 PM
A year ago, in the wake of the then-announced additional monetary easing measures by the Federal Reserve (which since sent stock prices on a rocket ride for the next nine months), many of our readers feared a major decline in the dollar was imminent. To add some balance to our site content, we asked Peak Prosperity contributing editor Charles Hugh Smith to argue the case for a strengthening dollar. He graciously accepted, and in the year since writing Heresy and the US Dollar, America's currency did indeed strengthen notably vs. its fiat counterparts. Now, after the Fed's announcement of QE3 (plus), many of us are girding once again for dollar weakness. So we've invited Charles to once again play devil's advocate.
The Siren Song of 'Beautiful Deleveraging'
In a world of rising sovereign debts and an overleveraged, over-indebted private sector, history suggests there are only three possible ways out: gradual deleveraging, defaulting on the debt, or printing enough money to inflate away the debt.Ray Dalio recently described the characteristics of a “beautiful deleveraging” in which equal doses of austerity, write-downs, and inflation gradually lighten the load of impaired debt. This might be called the Goldilocks Deleveraging, as the key feature of this “beautiful” solution is that each component is “not too hot, not too cold” – inflation is modest, write-downs of bad debt are gradual, and austerity is not too severe. Given enough time, the leverage and debt are worked off without requiring any structural change to the Status Quo.Understandably, the Status Quo has embraced this solution for the appealing reason it doesn’t change the power structure at all. Everyone currently in charge remains in charge, and everyone who owns outsized wealth continues owning outsized wealth. Rather than falling onto the politically powerful “too big to fail” banking sector, the pain of deleveraging is spread over the entire economy. There is no such thing as painless deleveraging, so the “solution” is to distribute the pain over hundreds of millions of people. That’s what makes it “beautiful” to the Status Quo: It doesn’t cost them either their power or their wealth.http://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/79761/welcome-era-ugly-inflation?utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter_27&utm_source=newsletter_2012-09-28&utm_medium=email_newsletter&utm_content=node_title_79761Why Germany Is Going to Exit the Eurozone
Simply put, it has no choiceby Alasdair MacleodTuesday, September 25, 2012, 12:24 AMIt's becoming clear that there is only one sensible solution ahead of us as the Eurozone’s problems evolve: Germany and the other countries suited to a strong currency should leave. If they do, the European Central Bank (ECB) will be free to pursue the easy money policies recommended by Keynesians and monetarists alike. It's increasingly clear that Germany has no option but to behave like any creditor seeking to protect its interests – and do its best to defuse the growing resentment against her from the Eurozone’s debtors.However, leaving the Eurozone is a political and legal, even seismic wrench, reversing decades of historical progression towards political and economic union.The saga of the Eurozone reads like an old-fashioned novel – with a beginning, a middle, and presumably an end. In the beginning we are introduced to the characters, the middle is where the action is, and the end is plainly predictable. There are two broad types of story: fairy tale and murder mystery. A fairy tale starts with a handsome prince, who meets and conquers evil and woos the princess, and at the end they marry and live happily ever after. A murder mystery starts with a murder, the middle is littered with clues (many of which are designed to put the reader off the scent), and the perpetrator of the crime is revealed at the end. The starry-eyed visionaries behind the Eurozone embarked on a fairy tale and instead have found themselves as characters in a murder plot. The difference is not the outcome, but how many pages we have left to turn to the end of the story.The victim, of course, is the great European ideal, the political project that was meant to unite the European nations. The murderer is sound economic theory, which has been ignored, even trampled underfoot, but has resurfaced in the guise of reality. None of the actors foresaw (let alone can accept) this turn of events, and to get a flavour of the current mood we only have to listen to Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, whose response is to retreat into yet more regulation and statist control in denial of all reality.Germany and France are centre-stage; in the post-war years they were partners in forming an economic and political block on Soviet Russia’s western boundary, containing the spread of communism. And by uniting the nations of Continental Europe, the reasons for war between them would be neutralised. These objectives were achieved, not so much by the formation of the European Union, but because the USSR’s communist model ensured the eventual economic collapse and disintegration of Russia and her satellites. And after the Franco-Prussian War and the First and Second World Wars, Germany lost all appetite for belligerence anyway.France, with a little help from her Anglo-Saxon friends, was cock-of-the-roost after the two world wars, so much so that De Gaulle, France’s post-WW2 leader, was confident enough to refuse to join NATO, building France’s own arms capability instead. This sharply contrasted with Germany, who disavowed any military capability of her own and submitted completely to the military jurisdiction of NATO. This was reflected in post-war politics, with Germany quietly rebuilding her shattered economy, basing it on the preservation of savings, while France sought to build the state. The background to our story is one involving neighbours presenting a common front, but with very different attitudes toward life.http://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/79685/why-germany-exit-eurozone?utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter_27&utm_source=newsletter_2012-09-28&utm_medium=email_newsletter&utm_content=node_title_79685Nanex: Investors Need to Realize The Machines Have Taken Over
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From Chris Martenson's Peak Prosperity.
The blink of an eye is a lifetime for HFT algosby Adam TaggartSaturday, October 6, 2012, 2:24 PM
High Frequency Trading (HFT) deeply concerns Eric Hunsader, founder of Nanex. He worries that today's investors, our regulators, -- heck, even the HFT algorithms themselves -- don't fully understand the risks market prices face in the brave new era of bot-dominated trading.For instance, Hunsader estimates that HFT algorithms are responsible for 70%(!) of all completed transactions on our exchanges, and for 99.9%(!!!) of all exchange quotes.The pictures of trading floors you see on TV, where the people in bright jackets appear frantically busy in making their trades, have no bearing -- claims Hunsader -- on the actual trading action. The real action happens across fiber-optic cables, on racks of servers in cooled rooms; where an arms race defined by cable length and switching speeds is being wagedThe reality is that the machines have taken over. When you buy or sell a security, the odds are extremely high the other side of the trade is being placed by an algorithm -- one that cares nothing for the fundamentals of the underlying instrument. It simply is looking to make a quick profit, oftentimes measured in fractions of pennies. And this has vast repercussions for the stability and the fairness of our financial markets.Because of speed advantages, HFT algos can see and react to prices faster than you can. Ridiculously faster. A second on the clock, to an HFT algo, is an eternity. The deep pockets of the firms emplying HFT algos combine with this speed to move asset prices around, sometimes wildly so, faster than most of us can comprehend. In the time it takes for your "real-time" quote system to refresh, an individual stock could have traded many percetages up and/or down -- and you would have no idea. This unfair advantage, along with the short-term profit outlook of the algos, creates the potential for deadly market price downdrafts. Algorithms prefer predictability. If something spooks them (e.g., unexpected breaking news, a delay in the market's opening), they simply stop trading. And -- poof! -- 70% of the market has just disappeared. With no support and no bids, prices can drop dizzyingly fast. Making matters worse, the "smarter" algos can recognize a downdraft in process, and begin piling back into the market on the short side, exacerbating the price declines.The Facebook IPO provides a recent example of the vulnerability of our system:For more follow the linky: http://www.peakprosperity.com/podcast/79804/nanex-investors-realize-machines-taken-over
What is the point of prosperity?Though few people ever voice this question openly, the general assumption is that prosperity and wealth increase happiness. The pursuit of happiness (famously grouped with “life” and “liberty” in the Declaration of Independence as an inalienable right) has become the pursuit of prosperity and wealth.That physical comfort and security grease the skids of happiness is self-evident; living a hand-to-mouth existence inside a cardboard box is not as conducive to human happiness as having a comfortable home and secure income.But it is equally self-evident that a secure dwelling and income do not guarantee happiness; rather, they provide the physical foundation for the much more elusive qualities of happiness. We can make the same distinction between the civil liberties that underpin the pursuit of happiness and the actual pursuit of happiness. The first is a political system devoted to safeguarding liberty; the second is a messy, dynamic process that continues through all of life.If the basic political and material foundations for the pursuit of happiness are in place, we might anticipate a broadly happy society. If prosperity and wealth are causally linked to greater happiness, we might expect to find that prosperous people are generally happy.America has great material wealth, but is happiness as abundant as wealth? And if not, why not?Numerous psychologists have made a career of studying happiness, and as with all social sciences, the field is wide open for cherry-picking data to support a prepackaged view. But data from studies of happiness is suspect for the usual reasons. People tend to report what they sense is expected of them; they tend to make themselves appear more successful (i.e., “happier”) than they really are, and the results can be skewed by the questions and procedures of the study. The vast majority of such studies of happiness are conducted within a specific cultural mindset. Happiness is an individual issue. Fundamentally, “it’s all in your head” and “the system enables happiness, so unhappiness is your fault alone.” The “fix” for unhappiness in this paradigm is a carefully apolitical network of pressure relief valves – counseling, therapy, motivational speakers, and so on – all focused on “fixing” the flaws within individuals that are assumed to be the exclusive cause of their unhappiness.As a result of my work writing Resistance, Revolution, Liberation: A Model for Positive Change, I now question the assumption that our happiness is disconnected from the society and economy that we live in. What if unhappiness is not only just an individual failure, but also the consequence of a deeply distorted society? If this is the case, prosperity in the sense of material wealth cannot possibly yield anything but the fleeting pleasure of consumption.
The blink of an eye is a lifetime for HFT algosby Adam TaggartSaturday, October 6, 2012, 2:24 PM
High Frequency Trading (HFT) deeply concerns Eric Hunsader, founder of Nanex. He worries that today's investors, our regulators, -- heck, even the HFT algorithms themselves -- don't fully understand the risks market prices face in the brave new era of bot-dominated trading.For instance, Hunsader estimates that HFT algorithms are responsible for 70%(!) of all completed transactions on our exchanges, and for 99.9%(!!!) of all exchange quotes.The pictures of trading floors you see on TV, where the people in bright jackets appear frantically busy in making their trades, have no bearing -- claims Hunsader -- on the actual trading action. The real action happens across fiber-optic cables, on racks of servers in cooled rooms; where an arms race defined by cable length and switching speeds is being wagedThe reality is that the machines have taken over. When you buy or sell a security, the odds are extremely high the other side of the trade is being placed by an algorithm -- one that cares nothing for the fundamentals of the underlying instrument. It simply is looking to make a quick profit, oftentimes measured in fractions of pennies. And this has vast repercussions for the stability and the fairness of our financial markets.Because of speed advantages, HFT algos can see and react to prices faster than you can. Ridiculously faster. A second on the clock, to an HFT algo, is an eternity. The deep pockets of the firms emplying HFT algos combine with this speed to move asset prices around, sometimes wildly so, faster than most of us can comprehend. In the time it takes for your "real-time" quote system to refresh, an individual stock could have traded many percetages up and/or down -- and you would have no idea. This unfair advantage, along with the short-term profit outlook of the algos, creates the potential for deadly market price downdrafts. Algorithms prefer predictability. If something spooks them (e.g., unexpected breaking news, a delay in the market's opening), they simply stop trading. And -- poof! -- 70% of the market has just disappeared. With no support and no bids, prices can drop dizzyingly fast. Making matters worse, the "smarter" algos can recognize a downdraft in process, and begin piling back into the market on the short side, exacerbating the price declines.The Facebook IPO provides a recent example of the vulnerability of our system:For more follow the linky: http://www.peakprosperity.com/podcast/79804/nanex-investors-realize-machines-taken-over
The Pursuit of Happiness
Putting prosperity in contextby Charles Hugh SmithWednesday, October 10, 2012, 7:21 AMWhat is the point of prosperity?Though few people ever voice this question openly, the general assumption is that prosperity and wealth increase happiness. The pursuit of happiness (famously grouped with “life” and “liberty” in the Declaration of Independence as an inalienable right) has become the pursuit of prosperity and wealth.That physical comfort and security grease the skids of happiness is self-evident; living a hand-to-mouth existence inside a cardboard box is not as conducive to human happiness as having a comfortable home and secure income.But it is equally self-evident that a secure dwelling and income do not guarantee happiness; rather, they provide the physical foundation for the much more elusive qualities of happiness. We can make the same distinction between the civil liberties that underpin the pursuit of happiness and the actual pursuit of happiness. The first is a political system devoted to safeguarding liberty; the second is a messy, dynamic process that continues through all of life.If the basic political and material foundations for the pursuit of happiness are in place, we might anticipate a broadly happy society. If prosperity and wealth are causally linked to greater happiness, we might expect to find that prosperous people are generally happy.America has great material wealth, but is happiness as abundant as wealth? And if not, why not?Numerous psychologists have made a career of studying happiness, and as with all social sciences, the field is wide open for cherry-picking data to support a prepackaged view. But data from studies of happiness is suspect for the usual reasons. People tend to report what they sense is expected of them; they tend to make themselves appear more successful (i.e., “happier”) than they really are, and the results can be skewed by the questions and procedures of the study. The vast majority of such studies of happiness are conducted within a specific cultural mindset. Happiness is an individual issue. Fundamentally, “it’s all in your head” and “the system enables happiness, so unhappiness is your fault alone.” The “fix” for unhappiness in this paradigm is a carefully apolitical network of pressure relief valves – counseling, therapy, motivational speakers, and so on – all focused on “fixing” the flaws within individuals that are assumed to be the exclusive cause of their unhappiness.As a result of my work writing Resistance, Revolution, Liberation: A Model for Positive Change, I now question the assumption that our happiness is disconnected from the society and economy that we live in. What if unhappiness is not only just an individual failure, but also the consequence of a deeply distorted society? If this is the case, prosperity in the sense of material wealth cannot possibly yield anything but the fleeting pleasure of consumption.
A Radical Critique of Happiness
Though we think of happiness as a private pursuit, in aggregate the pursuit of happiness becomes what we might call a “public happiness.” As author Garry Wills observed, public happiness is the test and justification of any government. If individual happiness is made difficult by the State, then that State must be judged a failure.Public happiness is not just the aggregation of individual happiness; it is a reflection of the social and political orders' success in enabling the common good, one expression of which is the potential for individual fulfillment.In our carefully cultivated cultural atmosphere of individuality, it feels like heresy to question the assumption that individual fulfillment is apolitical. This Status Quo breaks the causal connection between private alienation and the political order so that the atomized individual doesn’t connect his own unhappiness with the sociopathologies of the consumerist-State social order.The isolated “consumer” doesn’t look at the social order as a potential contributor to his unhappiness, but instead looks to religion, psychotherapy, or medications as private solutions to the sociopathology he inhabits.The spiritual and psychological traditions of religion and psychotherapy serve as coping mechanisms for individuals as they navigate the many challenges of human existence. Intended to provide insight and solace for the voyage through life, these traditions were not designed to analyze pathological social orders. They are apolitical because they address problems from the point of view of faith and inner understanding.That we have no field exclusively devoted to understanding systemic sociopathologies is not surprising once we understand the politics of self-interest. How many mortals would place their own prosperity at risk by undermining the intellectual foundations of the Status Quo to which they belong? History suggests that few individuals have the courage to risk status and wealth by undermining the social order that bestows their perquisites.Social orders that excel in creating and distributing what I term social defeat will necessarily be populated with unhappy, depressed, anxious, and frustrated people, regardless of the material prosperity they possess.In my lexicon, 'social defeat' is a spectrum of anxiety, insecurity, chronic stress, powerlessness, and fear of declining social status.One aspect of social defeat is the emptiness we experience when prosperity does not deliver the promised sense of fulfillment. Here is one example: A recent sociological study compared wealthy Hong Kong residents’ sense of contentment with those of the immigrant maids who serve the moneyed Elites. The study found that the maids were much happier than their wealthy masters, who were not infrequently suicidal and depressed. The maids, on the other hand, had a trustworthy group – other maids they met with on their one day off – and the coherent purpose provided by their support of their families back home.The “American Dream” (as well as the “Chinese Dream”) presumes the opposite would be true, and this explains why reaching material abundance is not the promised fount of fulfillment: It fails to recognize the other necessary conditions of human happiness. It is a monoculture of the spirit, as brittle and prone to collapse as any other monoculture.For more go here:http://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/79635/pursuit-happiness12 Ekim 2012 Cuma
American's at their best
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Peter Foley/BloombergPeople in line at the Apple Inc. store on Fifth Avenue in advance of the sale of the iPhone 5 in New York, on Sept. 17, 2012. The iPhone 5 is expected to go on sale at stores on Sept. 21.Apple Inc. (AAPL) surpassed $700 in late trading after announcing record first-day orders for the latest iPhone, fueling optimism that the company will keep generating the revenue growth that transformed it from a niche computer manufacturer into the world’s most valuable business.Enlarge image
Apple Inc. shares surpassed $700 in late trading after announcing record first-day orders for the latest iPhone. Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergShares climbed as high as $700.44 after reaching a record $699.78 at the close in New York. The stock has advanced 73 percent this year.The iPhone 5, which features a bigger screen, faster chip and a lighter body, sold 2 million units in first-day orders, more than double a record set by the previous model, Apple said. Since its 2007 debut, the device has become Apple’s top-selling product, accounting for about two-thirds of profit. Signs of robust demand reinforced expectations that Apple will withstand accelerating competition from Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) and Google Inc. (GOOG) in the $219.1 billion smartphone market.“It leaves me in awe,” said Rex Ishibashi, chief executive officer of Callaway Digital Arts Inc. (2326), which develops games for the iPhone. “It’s reflective of how important these devices and these digital technologies have become in our lives.”Apple’s surge gathered steam Sept. 14, after it began taking orders for iPhone 5. Apple’s website said new orders wouldn’t ship until Sept. 28, a week after the handset is due in stores, an indication that supply may be running thin.“The initial batch is sold out,” Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., said in an interview. He raised his sales estimate for the quarter ending in September to 26 million units, from 23 million. “We think that could turn out to be conservative.”
GENEVAMarie de Medici wore it at her coronation as Queen Consort of Henry IV in France in 1610, and now the Beau Sancy diamond is a lavish accessory owned by an anonymous bidder who paid $9.7 million for it at Sotheby's auction.The spring auction season for jewelry and watches is upon Geneva, where elegant lakefront hotels fill with well-heeled buyers and bidders in a scene far removed from the debate over European austerity.Five bidders fueled the price on Tuesday at the Sotheby's sale for the Beau Sancy, a 34.98 carat diamond that had passed among the royal families in France, England, Prussia and the Netherlands. It was sold by the Royal House of Prussia, the line of descendants that once ruled Prussia.Another historical item, the Murat Tiara, sold for $3.87 million. The pearl-and-diamond tiara was created for the marriage of a prince whose ancestors included the husband of Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister. A diamond brooch known as the "Bonnie Prince Charlie" sold for $968,085. The brooch features a yellow diamond once owned by Charles Edward Stuart, whose attempt to regain the British crown led to the Battle of Culloden in 1745. At a Christie's auction Monday to benefit 32 charities favored by the Lily Safra Foundation, Safra's donated jewelry fetched nearly $38 million in sales — almost double what was expected.http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0516/Diamond-sells-for-9.7-million-at-Swiss-auctionAnd did you happen to know this?
MOSCOWRussia has just declassified news that will shake world gem markets to their core: the discovery of a vast new diamond field containing "trillions of carats," enough to supply global markets for another 3,000 years.http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2012/0917/Russia-reveals-shiny-state-secret-It-s-awash-in-diamonds
We don't need jobs. We just need an iPhone
Apple Reaches $700 as IPhone 5 Shatters Sales Record
By Adam Satariano and Ryan Faughnder - Sep 17, 2012 4:47 PM ETPeter Foley/BloombergPeople in line at the Apple Inc. store on Fifth Avenue in advance of the sale of the iPhone 5 in New York, on Sept. 17, 2012. The iPhone 5 is expected to go on sale at stores on Sept. 21.Apple Inc. (AAPL) surpassed $700 in late trading after announcing record first-day orders for the latest iPhone, fueling optimism that the company will keep generating the revenue growth that transformed it from a niche computer manufacturer into the world’s most valuable business.Enlarge image
Apple Inc. shares surpassed $700 in late trading after announcing record first-day orders for the latest iPhone. Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergShares climbed as high as $700.44 after reaching a record $699.78 at the close in New York. The stock has advanced 73 percent this year.The iPhone 5, which features a bigger screen, faster chip and a lighter body, sold 2 million units in first-day orders, more than double a record set by the previous model, Apple said. Since its 2007 debut, the device has become Apple’s top-selling product, accounting for about two-thirds of profit. Signs of robust demand reinforced expectations that Apple will withstand accelerating competition from Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) and Google Inc. (GOOG) in the $219.1 billion smartphone market.“It leaves me in awe,” said Rex Ishibashi, chief executive officer of Callaway Digital Arts Inc. (2326), which develops games for the iPhone. “It’s reflective of how important these devices and these digital technologies have become in our lives.”Apple’s surge gathered steam Sept. 14, after it began taking orders for iPhone 5. Apple’s website said new orders wouldn’t ship until Sept. 28, a week after the handset is due in stores, an indication that supply may be running thin.“The initial batch is sold out,” Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., said in an interview. He raised his sales estimate for the quarter ending in September to 26 million units, from 23 million. “We think that could turn out to be conservative.”Exxon, Microsoft
Apple surpassed Exxon Mobil Corp. to become the biggest company in the world by market capitalization last year after overtaking Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) as the most valuable technology company in 2010. Before his death in October, co-founder Steve Jobs mastered a strategy of pushing Apple beyond its core business of selling computers into new markets, including digital music and mobile phones. Each new family of products helped the company boost revenue while inducing investors to snap up more shares.http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-17/apple-reaches-700-as-iphone-5-shatters-sales-record.htmlAnd what are the really rich buying?Diamond sells for $9.7 million at Swiss auction
Diamond sells for $9.7 million in an auction in Geneva. Marie de Medici wore the 34.98 carat Beau Sancy diamond at her coronation as Queen Consort of Henry IV in France in 1610.
By John Heilprin, The Associated Press / May 16, 2012
GENEVAMarie de Medici wore it at her coronation as Queen Consort of Henry IV in France in 1610, and now the Beau Sancy diamond is a lavish accessory owned by an anonymous bidder who paid $9.7 million for it at Sotheby's auction.The spring auction season for jewelry and watches is upon Geneva, where elegant lakefront hotels fill with well-heeled buyers and bidders in a scene far removed from the debate over European austerity.Five bidders fueled the price on Tuesday at the Sotheby's sale for the Beau Sancy, a 34.98 carat diamond that had passed among the royal families in France, England, Prussia and the Netherlands. It was sold by the Royal House of Prussia, the line of descendants that once ruled Prussia.Another historical item, the Murat Tiara, sold for $3.87 million. The pearl-and-diamond tiara was created for the marriage of a prince whose ancestors included the husband of Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister. A diamond brooch known as the "Bonnie Prince Charlie" sold for $968,085. The brooch features a yellow diamond once owned by Charles Edward Stuart, whose attempt to regain the British crown led to the Battle of Culloden in 1745. At a Christie's auction Monday to benefit 32 charities favored by the Lily Safra Foundation, Safra's donated jewelry fetched nearly $38 million in sales — almost double what was expected.http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0516/Diamond-sells-for-9.7-million-at-Swiss-auctionAnd did you happen to know this?
Russia reveals shiny state secret: It's awash in diamonds
'Trillions of carats' lie below a 35-million-year-old, 62-mile-diameter asteroid crater in eastern Siberia known as Popigai Astroblem. The Russians have known about the site since the 1970s.
By Fred Weir, Correspondent / September 17, 2012
MOSCOWRussia has just declassified news that will shake world gem markets to their core: the discovery of a vast new diamond field containing "trillions of carats," enough to supply global markets for another 3,000 years.http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2012/0917/Russia-reveals-shiny-state-secret-It-s-awash-in-diamonds
Romney is so out of touch with reality that it makes me wonder why anyone would vote for this clown. QB
Romney Government-Dependent ‘Victims’ Remark Roils Message
The U.S. economy returned to the forefront of the presidential campaign today even as Mitt Romney’s message against President Barack Obama was again distracted, this time by the release of a video where he calls many Americans “victims” dependent on government.“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what,” the Republican presidential nominee says in a secretly recorded video from a fundraiser that was obtained by Mother Jones magazine from an unidentified person. It also was posted online by the Huffington Post.“All right -- there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent on government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them,” Romney says on the video, adding that they “believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing.”http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-17/romney-distracted-by-comments-on-government-dependent-victims-.htmlWelcome to the Era of 'Ugly' Inflation
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Where everybody losesby Charles Hugh SmithThursday, September 27, 2012, 8:33 PM
A year ago, in the wake of the then-announced additional monetary easing measures by the Federal Reserve (which since sent stock prices on a rocket ride for the next nine months), many of our readers feared a major decline in the dollar was imminent. To add some balance to our site content, we asked Peak Prosperity contributing editor Charles Hugh Smith to argue the case for a strengthening dollar. He graciously accepted, and in the year since writing Heresy and the US Dollar, America's currency did indeed strengthen notably vs. its fiat counterparts. Now, after the Fed's announcement of QE3 (plus), many of us are girding once again for dollar weakness. So we've invited Charles to once again play devil's advocate.
Where everybody losesby Charles Hugh SmithThursday, September 27, 2012, 8:33 PM
A year ago, in the wake of the then-announced additional monetary easing measures by the Federal Reserve (which since sent stock prices on a rocket ride for the next nine months), many of our readers feared a major decline in the dollar was imminent. To add some balance to our site content, we asked Peak Prosperity contributing editor Charles Hugh Smith to argue the case for a strengthening dollar. He graciously accepted, and in the year since writing Heresy and the US Dollar, America's currency did indeed strengthen notably vs. its fiat counterparts. Now, after the Fed's announcement of QE3 (plus), many of us are girding once again for dollar weakness. So we've invited Charles to once again play devil's advocate.
The Siren Song of 'Beautiful Deleveraging'
In a world of rising sovereign debts and an overleveraged, over-indebted private sector, history suggests there are only three possible ways out: gradual deleveraging, defaulting on the debt, or printing enough money to inflate away the debt.Ray Dalio recently described the characteristics of a “beautiful deleveraging” in which equal doses of austerity, write-downs, and inflation gradually lighten the load of impaired debt. This might be called the Goldilocks Deleveraging, as the key feature of this “beautiful” solution is that each component is “not too hot, not too cold” – inflation is modest, write-downs of bad debt are gradual, and austerity is not too severe. Given enough time, the leverage and debt are worked off without requiring any structural change to the Status Quo.Understandably, the Status Quo has embraced this solution for the appealing reason it doesn’t change the power structure at all. Everyone currently in charge remains in charge, and everyone who owns outsized wealth continues owning outsized wealth. Rather than falling onto the politically powerful “too big to fail” banking sector, the pain of deleveraging is spread over the entire economy. There is no such thing as painless deleveraging, so the “solution” is to distribute the pain over hundreds of millions of people. That’s what makes it “beautiful” to the Status Quo: It doesn’t cost them either their power or their wealth.http://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/79761/welcome-era-ugly-inflation?utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter_27&utm_source=newsletter_2012-09-28&utm_medium=email_newsletter&utm_content=node_title_79761Why Germany Is Going to Exit the Eurozone
Simply put, it has no choiceby Alasdair MacleodTuesday, September 25, 2012, 12:24 AMIt's becoming clear that there is only one sensible solution ahead of us as the Eurozone’s problems evolve: Germany and the other countries suited to a strong currency should leave. If they do, the European Central Bank (ECB) will be free to pursue the easy money policies recommended by Keynesians and monetarists alike. It's increasingly clear that Germany has no option but to behave like any creditor seeking to protect its interests – and do its best to defuse the growing resentment against her from the Eurozone’s debtors.However, leaving the Eurozone is a political and legal, even seismic wrench, reversing decades of historical progression towards political and economic union.The saga of the Eurozone reads like an old-fashioned novel – with a beginning, a middle, and presumably an end. In the beginning we are introduced to the characters, the middle is where the action is, and the end is plainly predictable. There are two broad types of story: fairy tale and murder mystery. A fairy tale starts with a handsome prince, who meets and conquers evil and woos the princess, and at the end they marry and live happily ever after. A murder mystery starts with a murder, the middle is littered with clues (many of which are designed to put the reader off the scent), and the perpetrator of the crime is revealed at the end. The starry-eyed visionaries behind the Eurozone embarked on a fairy tale and instead have found themselves as characters in a murder plot. The difference is not the outcome, but how many pages we have left to turn to the end of the story.The victim, of course, is the great European ideal, the political project that was meant to unite the European nations. The murderer is sound economic theory, which has been ignored, even trampled underfoot, but has resurfaced in the guise of reality. None of the actors foresaw (let alone can accept) this turn of events, and to get a flavour of the current mood we only have to listen to Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, whose response is to retreat into yet more regulation and statist control in denial of all reality.Germany and France are centre-stage; in the post-war years they were partners in forming an economic and political block on Soviet Russia’s western boundary, containing the spread of communism. And by uniting the nations of Continental Europe, the reasons for war between them would be neutralised. These objectives were achieved, not so much by the formation of the European Union, but because the USSR’s communist model ensured the eventual economic collapse and disintegration of Russia and her satellites. And after the Franco-Prussian War and the First and Second World Wars, Germany lost all appetite for belligerence anyway.France, with a little help from her Anglo-Saxon friends, was cock-of-the-roost after the two world wars, so much so that De Gaulle, France’s post-WW2 leader, was confident enough to refuse to join NATO, building France’s own arms capability instead. This sharply contrasted with Germany, who disavowed any military capability of her own and submitted completely to the military jurisdiction of NATO. This was reflected in post-war politics, with Germany quietly rebuilding her shattered economy, basing it on the preservation of savings, while France sought to build the state. The background to our story is one involving neighbours presenting a common front, but with very different attitudes toward life.http://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/79685/why-germany-exit-eurozone?utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter_27&utm_source=newsletter_2012-09-28&utm_medium=email_newsletter&utm_content=node_title_79685Japanese Utility Admits For First Time That Nuclear Disaster Was Avoidable
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October 12, 2012by: Eyder Peralta, NPRThe admission marked a reversal for Tokyo Electric Power Co., which had defended it preparedness before the 2011 tsunami.
Anonymous/APSmoke rises from Unit No. 3 of the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant after the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami.In a dramatic reversal, Tokyo Electric Power Co. admitted for the first time that if it had fixed known safety issues, Japan's nuclear disaster following the March 2011 tsunami could have been avoided.
The Associated Press says the utility company made the admission in a statement released Friday. The AP reports the company said it delayed implementing the safety measures because of political, economic and legal pressures.
http://app1.kuhf.org/articles/npr1350046829-Japanese-Utility-Admits-For-First-Time-That-Nuclear-Disaster-Was-Avoidable.html
Kelp For Farmers: Seaweed Becomes A New Crop In AmericaOctober 12, 2012by: Craig LeMoult, NPRSeaweed farms off the coast of Connecticut may provide financial relief for farmers and environmental benefits for the ocean, not to mention tasty inspiration for chefs. The plant is used in many products from biofuels to cosmetics. But the big question is: Will Americans eat the stuff?http://app1.kuhf.org/articles/npr1350027157-Kelp-For-Farmers-Seaweed-Becomes-A-New-Crop-In-America.html
October 12, 2012by: Eyder Peralta, NPRThe admission marked a reversal for Tokyo Electric Power Co., which had defended it preparedness before the 2011 tsunami.
Anonymous/APSmoke rises from Unit No. 3 of the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant after the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami.In a dramatic reversal, Tokyo Electric Power Co. admitted for the first time that if it had fixed known safety issues, Japan's nuclear disaster following the March 2011 tsunami could have been avoided.The Associated Press says the utility company made the admission in a statement released Friday. The AP reports the company said it delayed implementing the safety measures because of political, economic and legal pressures.
http://app1.kuhf.org/articles/npr1350046829-Japanese-Utility-Admits-For-First-Time-That-Nuclear-Disaster-Was-Avoidable.html
Kelp For Farmers: Seaweed Becomes A New Crop In AmericaOctober 12, 2012by: Craig LeMoult, NPRSeaweed farms off the coast of Connecticut may provide financial relief for farmers and environmental benefits for the ocean, not to mention tasty inspiration for chefs. The plant is used in many products from biofuels to cosmetics. But the big question is: Will Americans eat the stuff?http://app1.kuhf.org/articles/npr1350027157-Kelp-For-Farmers-Seaweed-Becomes-A-New-Crop-In-America.html
JPMorgan's profit surges 34% on mortgage growth
October 12, 2012, 6:10 a.m.JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s profits surged 34% in the third quarter as the country's largest bank by assets saw its mortgage business boom and market share grow.JPMorgan, which also reported strong growth in its units such as credit card and commercial banking, said it earned a record $5.7 billion, or $1.40 a share, in the third quarter, up from $4.3 billion, or $1.02, the same period a year ago.“Importantly, we believe the housing market has turned the corner," Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive, said in a statement. The bank reduced its reserves for loan losses by $900 million as credit conditions improved.JPMorgan has come under scrutiny since it disclosed a multibillion-dollar trading loss due to risky derivative bets made in the bank's London office.The Chief Investment Office losses, which JPMorgan had pegged at $5.8 billion as of the second quarter, continued to grow, but only modestly -- by $449 million, the bank said.http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-jpmorgan-profit-up-34-20121012,0,1607338.story11 Ekim 2012 Perşembe
American's at their best
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Peter Foley/BloombergPeople in line at the Apple Inc. store on Fifth Avenue in advance of the sale of the iPhone 5 in New York, on Sept. 17, 2012. The iPhone 5 is expected to go on sale at stores on Sept. 21.Apple Inc. (AAPL) surpassed $700 in late trading after announcing record first-day orders for the latest iPhone, fueling optimism that the company will keep generating the revenue growth that transformed it from a niche computer manufacturer into the world’s most valuable business.Enlarge imageApple Inc. shares surpassed $700 in late trading after announcing record first-day orders for the latest iPhone. Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergShares climbed as high as $700.44 after reaching a record $699.78 at the close in New York. The stock has advanced 73 percent this year.The iPhone 5, which features a bigger screen, faster chip and a lighter body, sold 2 million units in first-day orders, more than double a record set by the previous model, Apple said. Since its 2007 debut, the device has become Apple’s top-selling product, accounting for about two-thirds of profit. Signs of robust demand reinforced expectations that Apple will withstand accelerating competition from Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) and Google Inc. (GOOG) in the $219.1 billion smartphone market.“It leaves me in awe,” said Rex Ishibashi, chief executive officer of Callaway Digital Arts Inc. (2326), which develops games for the iPhone. “It’s reflective of how important these devices and these digital technologies have become in our lives.”Apple’s surge gathered steam Sept. 14, after it began taking orders for iPhone 5. Apple’s website said new orders wouldn’t ship until Sept. 28, a week after the handset is due in stores, an indication that supply may be running thin.“The initial batch is sold out,” Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., said in an interview. He raised his sales estimate for the quarter ending in September to 26 million units, from 23 million. “We think that could turn out to be conservative.”
GENEVAMarie de Medici wore it at her coronation as Queen Consort of Henry IV in France in 1610, and now the Beau Sancy diamond is a lavish accessory owned by an anonymous bidder who paid $9.7 million for it at Sotheby's auction.The spring auction season for jewelry and watches is upon Geneva, where elegant lakefront hotels fill with well-heeled buyers and bidders in a scene far removed from the debate over European austerity.Five bidders fueled the price on Tuesday at the Sotheby's sale for the Beau Sancy, a 34.98 carat diamond that had passed among the royal families in France, England, Prussia and the Netherlands. It was sold by the Royal House of Prussia, the line of descendants that once ruled Prussia.Another historical item, the Murat Tiara, sold for $3.87 million. The pearl-and-diamond tiara was created for the marriage of a prince whose ancestors included the husband of Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister. A diamond brooch known as the "Bonnie Prince Charlie" sold for $968,085. The brooch features a yellow diamond once owned by Charles Edward Stuart, whose attempt to regain the British crown led to the Battle of Culloden in 1745. At a Christie's auction Monday to benefit 32 charities favored by the Lily Safra Foundation, Safra's donated jewelry fetched nearly $38 million in sales — almost double what was expected.http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0516/Diamond-sells-for-9.7-million-at-Swiss-auctionAnd did you happen to know this?
MOSCOWRussia has just declassified news that will shake world gem markets to their core: the discovery of a vast new diamond field containing "trillions of carats," enough to supply global markets for another 3,000 years.http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2012/0917/Russia-reveals-shiny-state-secret-It-s-awash-in-diamonds
We don't need jobs. We just need an iPhone
Apple Reaches $700 as IPhone 5 Shatters Sales Record
By Adam Satariano and Ryan Faughnder - Sep 17, 2012 4:47 PM ETPeter Foley/BloombergPeople in line at the Apple Inc. store on Fifth Avenue in advance of the sale of the iPhone 5 in New York, on Sept. 17, 2012. The iPhone 5 is expected to go on sale at stores on Sept. 21.Apple Inc. (AAPL) surpassed $700 in late trading after announcing record first-day orders for the latest iPhone, fueling optimism that the company will keep generating the revenue growth that transformed it from a niche computer manufacturer into the world’s most valuable business.Enlarge image
Apple Inc. shares surpassed $700 in late trading after announcing record first-day orders for the latest iPhone. Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergShares climbed as high as $700.44 after reaching a record $699.78 at the close in New York. The stock has advanced 73 percent this year.The iPhone 5, which features a bigger screen, faster chip and a lighter body, sold 2 million units in first-day orders, more than double a record set by the previous model, Apple said. Since its 2007 debut, the device has become Apple’s top-selling product, accounting for about two-thirds of profit. Signs of robust demand reinforced expectations that Apple will withstand accelerating competition from Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) and Google Inc. (GOOG) in the $219.1 billion smartphone market.“It leaves me in awe,” said Rex Ishibashi, chief executive officer of Callaway Digital Arts Inc. (2326), which develops games for the iPhone. “It’s reflective of how important these devices and these digital technologies have become in our lives.”Apple’s surge gathered steam Sept. 14, after it began taking orders for iPhone 5. Apple’s website said new orders wouldn’t ship until Sept. 28, a week after the handset is due in stores, an indication that supply may be running thin.“The initial batch is sold out,” Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., said in an interview. He raised his sales estimate for the quarter ending in September to 26 million units, from 23 million. “We think that could turn out to be conservative.”Exxon, Microsoft
Apple surpassed Exxon Mobil Corp. to become the biggest company in the world by market capitalization last year after overtaking Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) as the most valuable technology company in 2010. Before his death in October, co-founder Steve Jobs mastered a strategy of pushing Apple beyond its core business of selling computers into new markets, including digital music and mobile phones. Each new family of products helped the company boost revenue while inducing investors to snap up more shares.http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-17/apple-reaches-700-as-iphone-5-shatters-sales-record.htmlAnd what are the really rich buying?Diamond sells for $9.7 million at Swiss auction
Diamond sells for $9.7 million in an auction in Geneva. Marie de Medici wore the 34.98 carat Beau Sancy diamond at her coronation as Queen Consort of Henry IV in France in 1610.
By John Heilprin, The Associated Press / May 16, 2012GENEVAMarie de Medici wore it at her coronation as Queen Consort of Henry IV in France in 1610, and now the Beau Sancy diamond is a lavish accessory owned by an anonymous bidder who paid $9.7 million for it at Sotheby's auction.The spring auction season for jewelry and watches is upon Geneva, where elegant lakefront hotels fill with well-heeled buyers and bidders in a scene far removed from the debate over European austerity.Five bidders fueled the price on Tuesday at the Sotheby's sale for the Beau Sancy, a 34.98 carat diamond that had passed among the royal families in France, England, Prussia and the Netherlands. It was sold by the Royal House of Prussia, the line of descendants that once ruled Prussia.Another historical item, the Murat Tiara, sold for $3.87 million. The pearl-and-diamond tiara was created for the marriage of a prince whose ancestors included the husband of Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister. A diamond brooch known as the "Bonnie Prince Charlie" sold for $968,085. The brooch features a yellow diamond once owned by Charles Edward Stuart, whose attempt to regain the British crown led to the Battle of Culloden in 1745. At a Christie's auction Monday to benefit 32 charities favored by the Lily Safra Foundation, Safra's donated jewelry fetched nearly $38 million in sales — almost double what was expected.http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0516/Diamond-sells-for-9.7-million-at-Swiss-auctionAnd did you happen to know this?
Russia reveals shiny state secret: It's awash in diamonds
'Trillions of carats' lie below a 35-million-year-old, 62-mile-diameter asteroid crater in eastern Siberia known as Popigai Astroblem. The Russians have known about the site since the 1970s.
By Fred Weir, Correspondent / September 17, 2012MOSCOWRussia has just declassified news that will shake world gem markets to their core: the discovery of a vast new diamond field containing "trillions of carats," enough to supply global markets for another 3,000 years.http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2012/0917/Russia-reveals-shiny-state-secret-It-s-awash-in-diamonds
Romney is so out of touch with reality that it makes me wonder why anyone would vote for this clown. QB
Romney Government-Dependent ‘Victims’ Remark Roils Message
The U.S. economy returned to the forefront of the presidential campaign today even as Mitt Romney’s message against President Barack Obama was again distracted, this time by the release of a video where he calls many Americans “victims” dependent on government.“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what,” the Republican presidential nominee says in a secretly recorded video from a fundraiser that was obtained by Mother Jones magazine from an unidentified person. It also was posted online by the Huffington Post.“All right -- there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent on government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them,” Romney says on the video, adding that they “believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing.”http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-17/romney-distracted-by-comments-on-government-dependent-victims-.htmlWelcome to the Era of 'Ugly' Inflation
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Where everybody losesby Charles Hugh SmithThursday, September 27, 2012, 8:33 PM
A year ago, in the wake of the then-announced additional monetary easing measures by the Federal Reserve (which since sent stock prices on a rocket ride for the next nine months), many of our readers feared a major decline in the dollar was imminent. To add some balance to our site content, we asked Peak Prosperity contributing editor Charles Hugh Smith to argue the case for a strengthening dollar. He graciously accepted, and in the year since writing Heresy and the US Dollar, America's currency did indeed strengthen notably vs. its fiat counterparts. Now, after the Fed's announcement of QE3 (plus), many of us are girding once again for dollar weakness. So we've invited Charles to once again play devil's advocate.
Where everybody losesby Charles Hugh SmithThursday, September 27, 2012, 8:33 PM
A year ago, in the wake of the then-announced additional monetary easing measures by the Federal Reserve (which since sent stock prices on a rocket ride for the next nine months), many of our readers feared a major decline in the dollar was imminent. To add some balance to our site content, we asked Peak Prosperity contributing editor Charles Hugh Smith to argue the case for a strengthening dollar. He graciously accepted, and in the year since writing Heresy and the US Dollar, America's currency did indeed strengthen notably vs. its fiat counterparts. Now, after the Fed's announcement of QE3 (plus), many of us are girding once again for dollar weakness. So we've invited Charles to once again play devil's advocate.
The Siren Song of 'Beautiful Deleveraging'
In a world of rising sovereign debts and an overleveraged, over-indebted private sector, history suggests there are only three possible ways out: gradual deleveraging, defaulting on the debt, or printing enough money to inflate away the debt.Ray Dalio recently described the characteristics of a “beautiful deleveraging” in which equal doses of austerity, write-downs, and inflation gradually lighten the load of impaired debt. This might be called the Goldilocks Deleveraging, as the key feature of this “beautiful” solution is that each component is “not too hot, not too cold” – inflation is modest, write-downs of bad debt are gradual, and austerity is not too severe. Given enough time, the leverage and debt are worked off without requiring any structural change to the Status Quo.Understandably, the Status Quo has embraced this solution for the appealing reason it doesn’t change the power structure at all. Everyone currently in charge remains in charge, and everyone who owns outsized wealth continues owning outsized wealth. Rather than falling onto the politically powerful “too big to fail” banking sector, the pain of deleveraging is spread over the entire economy. There is no such thing as painless deleveraging, so the “solution” is to distribute the pain over hundreds of millions of people. That’s what makes it “beautiful” to the Status Quo: It doesn’t cost them either their power or their wealth.http://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/79761/welcome-era-ugly-inflation?utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter_27&utm_source=newsletter_2012-09-28&utm_medium=email_newsletter&utm_content=node_title_79761Why Germany Is Going to Exit the Eurozone
Simply put, it has no choiceby Alasdair MacleodTuesday, September 25, 2012, 12:24 AMIt's becoming clear that there is only one sensible solution ahead of us as the Eurozone’s problems evolve: Germany and the other countries suited to a strong currency should leave. If they do, the European Central Bank (ECB) will be free to pursue the easy money policies recommended by Keynesians and monetarists alike. It's increasingly clear that Germany has no option but to behave like any creditor seeking to protect its interests – and do its best to defuse the growing resentment against her from the Eurozone’s debtors.However, leaving the Eurozone is a political and legal, even seismic wrench, reversing decades of historical progression towards political and economic union.The saga of the Eurozone reads like an old-fashioned novel – with a beginning, a middle, and presumably an end. In the beginning we are introduced to the characters, the middle is where the action is, and the end is plainly predictable. There are two broad types of story: fairy tale and murder mystery. A fairy tale starts with a handsome prince, who meets and conquers evil and woos the princess, and at the end they marry and live happily ever after. A murder mystery starts with a murder, the middle is littered with clues (many of which are designed to put the reader off the scent), and the perpetrator of the crime is revealed at the end. The starry-eyed visionaries behind the Eurozone embarked on a fairy tale and instead have found themselves as characters in a murder plot. The difference is not the outcome, but how many pages we have left to turn to the end of the story.The victim, of course, is the great European ideal, the political project that was meant to unite the European nations. The murderer is sound economic theory, which has been ignored, even trampled underfoot, but has resurfaced in the guise of reality. None of the actors foresaw (let alone can accept) this turn of events, and to get a flavour of the current mood we only have to listen to Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, whose response is to retreat into yet more regulation and statist control in denial of all reality.Germany and France are centre-stage; in the post-war years they were partners in forming an economic and political block on Soviet Russia’s western boundary, containing the spread of communism. And by uniting the nations of Continental Europe, the reasons for war between them would be neutralised. These objectives were achieved, not so much by the formation of the European Union, but because the USSR’s communist model ensured the eventual economic collapse and disintegration of Russia and her satellites. And after the Franco-Prussian War and the First and Second World Wars, Germany lost all appetite for belligerence anyway.France, with a little help from her Anglo-Saxon friends, was cock-of-the-roost after the two world wars, so much so that De Gaulle, France’s post-WW2 leader, was confident enough to refuse to join NATO, building France’s own arms capability instead. This sharply contrasted with Germany, who disavowed any military capability of her own and submitted completely to the military jurisdiction of NATO. This was reflected in post-war politics, with Germany quietly rebuilding her shattered economy, basing it on the preservation of savings, while France sought to build the state. The background to our story is one involving neighbours presenting a common front, but with very different attitudes toward life.http://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/79685/why-germany-exit-eurozone?utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter_27&utm_source=newsletter_2012-09-28&utm_medium=email_newsletter&utm_content=node_title_79685Manhattan Apartment Rents Near Peak With September Surge
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Manhattan apartment rents surged in September, coming within 2.1 percent of the peak, as improving employment boosted competition among tenants.The median monthly rent jumped to $3,195, up 10 percent from a year earlier and 3.2 percent from August, according to a report today by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and broker Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate. The number of new leases signed last month jumped 55 percent from a year earlier to 2,535, as renters facing sharp renewal increases moved out in search of better deals, said Jonathan Miller, president of New York-based Miller Samuel.“This is not a fluke,” he said. “This is where the die has been cast for the next year or two years.”Improving employment in the city has increased demand for leasing, putting monthly rents on course to surpass the 2006 peak of $3,265 in the first quarter of 2013, according to Miller. Newly hired potential tenants are competing for housing in a market already crowded with would-be homebuyers who are lingering in their apartments because they can’t get a mortgage, he said. New York City added 77,400 jobs in the 12 months through August, according to the state Labor Department.Available rental apartments stayed on the market an average of 39 days this year through September, the shortest time in two decades of record keeping, according to Miller.Carol Incarnacao-Schirm and her husband, Derick, were among those who took jobs in the area this year -- she as a lawyer in Manhattan and he as an associate at trading firm Knight Capital Group Inc. (KCG) in Jersey City, New Jersey -- requiring a move from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Brick masonry students train at the San Diego Job Corps Center in San Diego, California. Photographer: Sam Hodgson/Bloomberg
3:35Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Fewer Americans than forecast filed first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week, which may reflect difficulty adjusting the data for seasonal swings at the start of a new quarter. Applications for jobless benefits dropped 30,000 to 339,000 in the week ended Oct. 6, the fewest since February 2008, Labor Department figures showed today. Betty Liu, Dominic Chu and Michael McKee report on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop." (Source: Bloomberg)
5:57Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Gary Shilling, president of A. Gary Shilling & Co., talks about U.S. labor, student loan debt and global economies. He speaks with Tom Keene and Scarlet Fu on Bloomberg Television's "Surveillance." (Source: Bloomberg)
5:13Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Pete Selleck, chairman and president of of Michelin North America, talks about the company's growth and manufacturing model. He speaks with Tom Keene and Scarlet Fu on Bloomberg Television's "Surveillance." (Source: Bloomberg)Applications for jobless benefits dropped 30,000 to 339,000 in the week ended Oct. 6, the fewest since February 2008, Labor Department figures showed today. Economists forecast 370,000 claims, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. One state accounted for most of the plunge in claims, a Labor Department spokesman said as the data were issued to the press.Waning dismissals may help clear the way for bigger hiring gains with any improvement in demand. At the same time, the global economy cooling and a lack of clarity on U.S. fiscal policy are hurdles for faster gains in employment.The report “is consistent with a labor market that is gradually getting better,” said Guy Berger, a U.S. economist at RBS Securities Inc. in Stamford, Connecticut, who had predicted a decline in claims. “Layoffs are at a low level and don’t seem to be going anywhere. Hiring is still very muted.”Estimates for first-time claims ranged from 355,000 to 377,000 in the Bloomberg survey of 49 economists. The Labor Department revised the number of applications for the prior week up to 369,000 from a previously estimated 367,000.
Pulled from StockTwits
Manhattan apartment rents surged in September, coming within 2.1 percent of the peak, as improving employment boosted competition among tenants.The median monthly rent jumped to $3,195, up 10 percent from a year earlier and 3.2 percent from August, according to a report today by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and broker Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate. The number of new leases signed last month jumped 55 percent from a year earlier to 2,535, as renters facing sharp renewal increases moved out in search of better deals, said Jonathan Miller, president of New York-based Miller Samuel.“This is not a fluke,” he said. “This is where the die has been cast for the next year or two years.”Improving employment in the city has increased demand for leasing, putting monthly rents on course to surpass the 2006 peak of $3,265 in the first quarter of 2013, according to Miller. Newly hired potential tenants are competing for housing in a market already crowded with would-be homebuyers who are lingering in their apartments because they can’t get a mortgage, he said. New York City added 77,400 jobs in the 12 months through August, according to the state Labor Department.Available rental apartments stayed on the market an average of 39 days this year through September, the shortest time in two decades of record keeping, according to Miller.Carol Incarnacao-Schirm and her husband, Derick, were among those who took jobs in the area this year -- she as a lawyer in Manhattan and he as an associate at trading firm Knight Capital Group Inc. (KCG) in Jersey City, New Jersey -- requiring a move from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
China Cabinet
Knowing they couldn’t replicate their previous $1,700-a- month, two-bedroom unit with use of a pool near the beach, their expectations for New York were more modest: a one-bedroom for about $2,500 that could fit a china cabinet for her wedding crystal and an L-shaped couch, Carol Incarnacao-Schirm said.The bigger challenge was speed. The couple, armed with a tape measure, would often arrive to view an apartment only to find out it was no longer available, she said. Sometimes an available unit they were considering was leased to someone else just after they left.“Not more than three to four hours after seeing the place, we’d get a call saying its not there anymore,” said Incarnacao- Schirm, 27, an international-business attorney.Working through John Brandon, a Citi Habitats broker, the couple found a walk-up unit on West 76th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues. The one-bedroom apartment, with loft storage space, was listed for $2,800, which they agreed to pay, putting down a deposit immediately in order to avoid it being shown at an open house the next day. They moved in last month.http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-11/manhattan-apartment-rents-near-peak-with-september-surge.htmlJobless Claims in U.S. Fall to Four-Year Low
Fewer Americans than forecast filed first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week, which may reflect difficulty adjusting the data for seasonal swings at the start of a new quarter.Enlarge imageBrick masonry students train at the San Diego Job Corps Center in San Diego, California. Photographer: Sam Hodgson/Bloomberg3:35Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Fewer Americans than forecast filed first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week, which may reflect difficulty adjusting the data for seasonal swings at the start of a new quarter. Applications for jobless benefits dropped 30,000 to 339,000 in the week ended Oct. 6, the fewest since February 2008, Labor Department figures showed today. Betty Liu, Dominic Chu and Michael McKee report on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop." (Source: Bloomberg)
5:57Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Gary Shilling, president of A. Gary Shilling & Co., talks about U.S. labor, student loan debt and global economies. He speaks with Tom Keene and Scarlet Fu on Bloomberg Television's "Surveillance." (Source: Bloomberg)
5:13Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Pete Selleck, chairman and president of of Michelin North America, talks about the company's growth and manufacturing model. He speaks with Tom Keene and Scarlet Fu on Bloomberg Television's "Surveillance." (Source: Bloomberg)Applications for jobless benefits dropped 30,000 to 339,000 in the week ended Oct. 6, the fewest since February 2008, Labor Department figures showed today. Economists forecast 370,000 claims, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. One state accounted for most of the plunge in claims, a Labor Department spokesman said as the data were issued to the press.Waning dismissals may help clear the way for bigger hiring gains with any improvement in demand. At the same time, the global economy cooling and a lack of clarity on U.S. fiscal policy are hurdles for faster gains in employment.The report “is consistent with a labor market that is gradually getting better,” said Guy Berger, a U.S. economist at RBS Securities Inc. in Stamford, Connecticut, who had predicted a decline in claims. “Layoffs are at a low level and don’t seem to be going anywhere. Hiring is still very muted.”Estimates for first-time claims ranged from 355,000 to 377,000 in the Bloomberg survey of 49 economists. The Labor Department revised the number of applications for the prior week up to 369,000 from a previously estimated 367,000.
Stock Futures
Stock futures extended gains after the report. The contract on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index maturing in December rose 0.5 percent to 1,433.50 at 8:37 a.m. in New York. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed to 1.72 percent from 1.67 percent late yesterday.Unadjusted claims typically surge at the start of a quarter as people receiving benefits reapply in order for the government to recertify their applications, the Labor Department spokesman said. The year’s increase was smaller than projected, because one large state showed a drop rather than an increase, the spokesman said. The breakdown by state will show up in next week’s report.The U.S. trade deficit widened in August as exports dropped, a report from the Commerce Department also showed today. The gap grew 4.1 percent to $44.2 billion from $42.5 billion in July.The four-week moving average for jobless claims, a less- volatile measure, fell to 364,000 from 375,500.Jobless Benefits
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-11/jobless-claims-in-u-s-fall-to-four-year-low-as-quarter-starts.htmlPulled from StockTwits
Market Warning Signs
- Posted by Joe Fahmy
- on October 9th, 2012
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