“Just started to read the V article… The bloke’s a crackpot.”

Yep… ain’t that why we’re here, not there? He he heh.

Bill;

Just Choked on my French Toast!
Watching Fox Biz, Ron Paul came on with Stewart Varney and in a nut shell stated that we’ve got a Currency crisis coming. And when pressed by Varney as to what he’s investing in, Ron Paul said GOLD!
In fact he said he’s been buying GOLD since 1971 when it was @ $35.00 an ounce. And he continues to buy GOLD… “FOR THE PROTECTION OF MY FAMILY.”
One moment prediction of Doom, next breath BUY GOLD! Stewart Varney looked kinda funny.
This just happened not twenty minutes ago, and Gold Bounced to today’s high so far.
Dwight

Brought over from the Goldies Board.

——————————————————–

By Dave Nadig | 03/02/2010
PHYS: Not A Gold ETF, And A BAD Deal
In the words of Star Wars’ Admiral Ackbar:
“It’s a trap!”

I guess you know your town is on the map when the carnies show up and start taking the rubes.

Last week, the “Sprott Physical Gold Trust” started trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker PHYS. Almost immediately, the media starting singing its glory: “New Gold ETF Prospectus Reveals Exciting Feature,” wrote Seeking Alpha. Invest with an Edge had similarly glowing coverage, and ETFdb chimed in as well.

Unfortunately, PHYS is not an ETF. And its “exciting feature?”
Well, that turns out to be a trap.
Not An ETF
I define an ETF as an open-ended mutual fund that trades on an exchange and uses a creation and redemption mechanism to keep its share price in line with its NAV.

PHYS trades on an exchange, but the comparisons stop there.

The company doesn’t try to hide this. The prospectus states:

“The Trust is a closed-end mutual fund trust established under the laws of the Province of Ontario”

As a closed-end fund, PHYS comes with all kinds of warts that do not apply to ETFs.

For starters, PHYS was sold at a 5 percent commission.
That is, the price offered to initial investors in the fund was $10 a share, but the NAV took an immediate haircut to $9.50, because 50 cents went into the hands of the good folks at RBC Dominion Securities,
Morgan Stanley Canada, BMO Nesbitt Burns and other underwriters. ETFs never come with initial underwriting commissions.

That might not matter to investors who purchase it on the open market, but there are other warts that do.

For instance, as with all closed-end funds, there is no way for PHYS to issue new shares, which means there is effectively no way for the security to actually track the price of gold. Sure, it might, but if the shares trade at a premium, it’s impossible for an arbitrageur to go buy gold, turn it into shares, sell them on the open market and drive the market price back to NAV.

PHYS does have a redemption feature, but it’s severely crippled.

The PHYS redemption window is only open once a month, and it comes with a lag. Investors who want to redeem shares of the fund can submit a request to the company on the 15th of the month. If the redemption request is large enough (bigger than a single gold bar), the redemption
will be processed at least in part for physical gold at NAV at the end of the month (13-15 days later). If you’re redeeming lots smaller than a physical gold bar or just want cash, you get dinged for at least 5 percent off of the value of the fund.

That’s not exactly a liquidity option. Let’s just say that
market makers aren’t lining up to ride this “lightning-quick” 15-day flawed redemption process to ensure that the fund stays close to fair value.

LOL.  That one tickled me.

Getting the frypan out…..smoking things up…..good on you.

Hope you had a nice wine to complement the seafood

I would have picked a nice Sav Blanc or likely a gwertz to match the spices

Winedoc

This is what Jim Sinclar is tellin us            http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2010/03/march-3-2010-swaps-and-robbers.html

http://davegj13.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/fiat-money-and-the-fort-of-gold/

Since Barney and I are bacheloring it for a few days I have to clean up the kitchen now. We cooked some Texas toast first - one of Barney’s favorites. Then we blackened shrimp and scallops. Peel shrimp and then rinse and dry scallops and shrimp with paper towels. Then use blackening spice and olive oil and dredge the shrimp and scallops. We cooked these in a cast iron skillet on the grill at 600+ degrees and then turned the grill off and stirred in some already cooked rice and vegetables.

aurum

There are two ways at least to look at the improving economic numbers in most countries. First, the stimuli globally are helping (at least in the short term). Or, second, the economy cycles turned up as expected (again for the short term). The second is why the first seems to work IMO.

aurum (cycles)

tinyurl.com/yaycqk

Now here’s a chart that I like. It’s gold breaking upside out of a “head-and-shoulders bottom.” Gold is now trading above both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages. RSI and MACD are both in bullish trends, and there is great scepticism about the idea of gold moving any higher. There’s nothing like a bullish chart in the face of widespread scepticism.

Is it too late to buy gold? My answer is no, buy it. It the bull trend in gold continues (and I think it will) GDX and GSXJ will become increasingly. but first be sure you have a good position in bullion.

Makes me remember what Armstrong said that we could see some recovery as in housing till 1012 then it will continue to plummet down. Just heard that for working men0 in their prime it hasnt been this bad since 1948 That what makesthis different is the jobs lost like conmstruction finance and oursoursing are chrrnic unemployment since these markets will not return as was. People will have to retrain to other jobs but my question “what other jobs”?

You already posted this article earlier today.  I don’t see any reason to have it posted multiple times.

Best, ipso facto

by Spock @ 13:28 pm.

The Days of Woe are upon us and the people cower in fear. Uncertainty clouds our vision while evil stalks us through the background mist. Cries of grief in the blackness of the night go unheeded.  What lays before us is the road to oblivion. Behind us is Chaos. We are the Doomed Ones. Plan your exit from the Cities. Prepare for an onslaught of misery. We have but a few months to learn how to feed ourselves. Tell no one where your gold is hidden.

Ole and Sven die in a snowmobiling accident, drunker than skunks, and go to Hell.

The Devil observes that they are really enjoying themselves. He says to them
‘Doesn’t the heat and smoke bother you?

Ole replies, ‘Vell, ya know, ve’re from nordern Minnesooota, da land of snow an
ice, an ve’re yust happy fer a chance ta varm up a little bit, ya know.’

The devil decides that these two aren’t miserable enough and turns up the heat
even more. When he returns to the room of the two guys from Minnesota, the
devil finds them in light jackets and hats, grilling Walleye and drinking beer.

The devil is astonished and exclaims, ‘Everyone down here is in abject misery,
and you two seem to be enjoying yourselves?’

Sven replies, ‘Vell, ya know, ve don’t git too much varm veather up dere at da
Falls, so ve’ve yust got ta haff a fish fry vhen da veather’s dis nice.’

The devil is absolutely furious. He can hardly see straight. Finally he comes up
with the answer. The two guys love the heat because they have been cold all their
lives. The devil decides to turn all the heat off in Hell. The next morning, the
temperature is 60 below zero, icicles are hanging everywhere, and people are
shivering so bad that they are unable to wail, moan or gnash their teeth.

The devil smiles and heads for the room with Ole and Sven. He gets there and
finds them back in their parkas, bomber hats, and mittens. They are jumping
up and down, cheering, yelling and screaming like mad men.

The devil is dumbfounded, ‘I don’t understand, when I turn up the heat you’re
happy. Now its freezing cold and you’re still happy. What’s wrong with you two?’

They both look at the devil in surprise and say, ‘Vell, don’t ya know, if hell iss
froze over, dat must mean da Vikings von da Super Bowl’

Re: Minera Andes….. .90 seems like a shoe-in… knock on wood.  I’m looking for $2.

Someday over the rainbow… 

First Glimpse At Volcker Plan Impacts Firms Besides Banks

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/03/2010 14:59 -0500

• Fail
• Goldman Sachs
• Prop Trading
• Sovereign CDS
• Too Big To Fail
• Wall Street Journal
• Wells Fargo
• White House

An early glimpse at the detailed “Volcker Rule”, which is expected to be released this afternoon, indicates that not just bank holding companies are going to be targeted by the prop trading ban. The WSJ reports that “the White House’s push to limit, or in some cases ban, certain risky trading activities at financial companies also would affect companies that don’t own bank subsidiaries, according to a summary of proposed legislative language prepared by the administration.” This probably means that life for those pesky hedge fund scapegoatees is about to get even more unpleasant. And as for trading sovereign CDS, we suggest you novate all positions promptly.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The White House initially offered few details for how the “Volcker Rule” would work. And Senate lawmakers, locked in discussions about how to rewrite financial rules, are expected to water down the Volcker Rule by giving more discretion to regulators on how best to enforce size and risk limits at banks. This would stop short of the White House’s outright ban on certain activities.
The White House’s detailed proposal, which is expected to be released Wednesday afternoon, suggests the administration is likely to push for tougher rules as negotiations intensify.
A summary of the White House’s language details for the first time plans to bring more federal scrutiny to any “major” financial firm, even those that aren’t banks, which engage in proprietary trading. These companies would face tougher capital and liquidity rules and also be forced to “provide more information to the market about their risks.”
“Moreover, any financial firm that is identified for heightened supervision under the Administration’s regulatory reform proposal would be subject to additional capital and quantitative limits on these activities,” the White House’s summary said.
This is significant because it means even if companies such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. shed their commercial banking subsidiaries, they will likely face more regulatory scrutiny.

Something tells us Wells Fargo ain’t going to be doing much prop trading any time soon.

Volcker seems pretty set on preventing the continued expansion of Too Big To Fail into Too Biggest To Fail:

The White House’s proposal also would ban financial companies from controlling more than 10% of the liabilities of the financial system after an acquisition. This updates an older law that restricts banks from controlling more than 10% of U.S. deposits after an acquisition. The White House’s new proposal could make it much more difficult for large banks and other financial firms to grow.

And this concluding observation:

“Investors in private funds advised by banking firms must have no expectation that the banking firm would bail out the funds in times of stress,” a summary of the White House’s proposal said

Since all private funds are advised by banking firms in some capacity, does this mean that the fight with the hedge fund (aka prop trading) world just entered its second offensive? We will bring you the detailed Volcker plan as soon as it is available.

zerohedge

I think that tsunami warning was false alarm, good cuz people could be trapped in buildings. Smaller citys are still getting no help their only consentrating on bigger ones. Its sad that the country was pulling themselves into a stable economy then this happens. Although more self sufficiant than in Haiti  if they dont have enough canned food and water baby formula diapers thngs could get bad quick for many. Without water you cant cook dry foods. I cant believ that more help didnt come to that costal town where the water came in and drowned what 50 PERCENT because any resourses they may have had would probably be contaminated or washed away.I guess I would be working on desalinating ocean water and fishing and with little to no supplys wouldnt be fun. It has not only taken everything they haveebut it may be they have no jobs to go back to either. Im guessing why we are not hearing from expat in Chili, comunication lines probably down, I hope hes okay. Tto bad Churches can set up a system where people can send direct supplys to food water diapers blanket et all so things can be more widely distributed. I really think world wide they should set   something like that with listes in every town across the globe so people can immediatly send supplys “if they can get through”.

“The above financial history is IRREFUTABLE proof that an ever rising level of inflation will indeed decrease unemployment.”

The bloke’s a crackpot.  He takes a four year period, eight numbers and then says that rising inflation decreases unemployment!  There are all sorts of other factors that could have caused unemployment to fall!!  On the basis of his argument, Weimar should have had 0% unemployment, and Zimbabwe’s labour market would be bursting at the seams.

Everytime you see things that rose-y…….. think bubble about to burst.

In my parts of Qld, property never even dipped, just steamed ahead.  And rates here are now 4%.

….The Economic News up here in Canada is insanely Good…

….Yesterday the Auto Industry reported a HUGE increase in auto sales YOY and MOM

….even Toyota was up 25%

….Today the Real Estate Industry reported Feb was up in New Home Sales 77%…and in Toronto Prices are 20% HUGHER than last Year…!

….Things are Booming up here….its an unequivical Full Blow Massive Recovery….I dont get it

….But….the Bank of Canada has not started raising rates….same as in the USA…they say they will keep rates 1/4% for the forseeable future….meanwhile Australia is raising to beat the band !

…I dont get it…what happened to Armageddon ! ?

You can buy shares of phys,,,and trade the shares in for bullion monthly,,,?? if you buy at say 1100 per oz and then take delivery at 1200 will you owe tax on the 100. gain?? I will find out http://www.sprottphysicalgoldtrust.com/        Looks like its been tradin three days up .50,,,,I’m thinkin this could be a great boost for phy gold sales,,,what say you

 R640-Agree with you and maybe even the gold stocks are starting to confirm.

 Ipso - you think Minera can break the $.90 level this time around?