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[DhBowT]

When the economy starts to get really bad, guys like this might need to stop smiling.

[jojo]

In that case, perhaps what you really need is a gold plated 250 magnum. 

[Mugwort]

As Greece slides into the old outhouse, rich Germans are urging the Greeks to bail themselves out by selling some of their nicer islands, where Germans can go to suntan in their speedos.

Would that work for the U.S.? Instead of bailouts next time, how about selling Florida to Israel or Martha's Vineyard to Monaco or Napa Valley to France?

[opetero]

Food for thought...

quote

Soros, Goldman, Hedge Funds Attack Greece, Euro
Financial Warfare Exposed - Soros, Goldman Sachs, Hedge Funds Attack Greece To Smash Euro
By Webster Tarpley
3-4-10
 

It has been evident for some time that the ongoing speculative attack on Greece, along with such other countries as Spain, Ireland, Portugal, and Italy, was not primarily a reflection of their economic fundamentals, nor yet a spontaneous movement of "the market," but rather an orchestrated action of economic warfare. The dollar had been relentlessly falling through the late summer and autumn of 2009. It obviously occurred to various Anglo-American financiers that a diversionary attack on the euro, starting with some of the weaker Mediterranean or Southern European economies, would be an ideal means of relieving pressure on the battered US greenback. Since these degenerate elites are incapable of directly solving the problem of the dollar through increased production, full employment, and economic recovery, one of the few alternatives remaining to them is to create a situation in which the euro is collapsing faster, leaving the dollar as the beneficiary of some residual flight to quality or safe haven reflex.
 
This is what emerged during the first week of December with a speculative assault or bear raid against Greek and Spanish government bonds as well as the euro itself, accompanied by a scurrilous press campaign targeting the "PIIGS," an acronym for the countries just named, coming from inside the bowels of Goldman Sachs. I have discussed this phenomenon several times over the last two to three weeks on my radio program on GCN.
 
Now comes concrete proof of this conspiracy in the form of a Feb. 8 "idea dinner," held at the Manhattan townhouse of Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co, a boutique investment bank. Among those present were SAC Capital Advisors, David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital (a veteran of the fatal assault on Lehman Brothers in the late summer of 2008), Donald Morgan of Brigade Capital, and, most tellingly, Soros Fund Management. The consensus that emerged that night over the filet mignon was that Greek government bonds were the weak flank of the euro, and that once a Greek debt crisis had been detonated, all outcomes would be bad for the euro. The assembled predators agreed that Greece was the first domino in Europe. Donald Morgan was adamant that the Greek contagion could soon infect all sovereign debt in the world, including national, state, municipal and all other forms of government debt. This would mean California, the UK, and the US itself, among many others. The details of this at dinner were revealed in the headline story of the Wall Street Journal on Friday, February 26, 2010. (See article at
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB40001424052748703795004575087741848074392.html

continued... http://rense.com/general90/euro.htm

[Mugwort]

That's truly sickening, and another foreshadowing of the big world economic disaster. It's a circle of hyenas in pinstripes chowing down on some helpless beast even before it actually falls. Maybe Canada could get ready to put Newfoundland up for sale. Premier Danny Williams likely would want Uncle Sam to make an offer.

[DhBowT]

Here are some fake bars.

Tungstengold Tungsten Gold Wolframgold Wolfram Bars

[Sweejak]

Interestingly, GATA’s Bill Murphy speculated about this back in 2004;
“Why is Rothschild leaving the gold business at this time my colleagues and I conjectured today? Just a guess on my part, but suspect something is amiss. They know a big scandal is coming and they don’t want to be a part of it… [The] Rothschild wants out before the proverbial “S” hits the fan.” — BILL MURPHY, LEMETROPOLE, 4-18-2004

I remember that well and there was a lot of discussion on Trausti's forum, BTW has that disappeared in total?

A top-of-the-line fake gold bar should match the color, surface hardness, density, chemical, and nuclear properties of gold perfectly. To do this, you could could start with a tungsten slug about 1/8-inch smaller in each dimension than the gold bar you want, then cast a 1/16-inch layer of real pure gold all around it. This bar would feel right in the hand, it would have a dead ring when knocked as gold should, it would test right chemically, it would weigh *exactly* the right amount, and though I don’t know this for sure, I think it would also pass an x-ray fluorescence scan, the 1/16″ layer of pure gold being enough to stop the x-rays from reaching any tungsten. You’d pretty much have to drill it to find out it’s fake.

http://www.viewzone.com/fakegold.html

[opetero]

in full

http://goldtent.net/wp_gold/2010/03/21/via-midas-and-the-nia/

The EVIL Healthcare bill and GOLD!

Andy Hoffman

Per my article from two days ago, you are all aware of my view that, if passed, Obama’s healthcare bill will be, WITHOUT COMPARISON, the most damaging Congressional decision in the history of the United States. America’s financial condition is already terminal under all possible scenarios, but passage of this bill will dramatically accelerate the end game, i.e. a collapsing dollar against the value of REAL MONEY (gold and silver) and REAL ITEMS OF VALUE such as food, clothing, shelter, and medicine.

The extremely brief, concise summary of the issue at the bottom of this message will be eye-opening to even the least financially literate, addressing in a nutshell why I have been adamantly telling Americans to PROTECT THEMSELVES against the coming onslaught of inflation. Hyperinflation, in my view, is a near certainty already, and passage of this bill will surely guarantee it. And, once again, my views have nothing to do with politics, just economics. I am neither Democratic nor Republican, and care only for what is in the best interests of our country. Sadly, little if anything has been done in the best interests of this country for a long, long time.

By the way, before you read the article, I’d like you to take a look at what I’ve been watching for the past eight years in the “paper gold” market, the U.S. COMEX gold futures market. Like clockwork, the “paper price” is commonly attacked at 10:00 am EST just minutes after the London P.M. fix, when the last remaining “physical gold” market closes for the day. I have seen literally dozens of such $20-$50 plunges in the gold price over the eight years I have been in this market, as the evil Gold Cartel continues to try and silence inflation expectations by “shooting the messenger”, in other words defusing the historical inflation barometer, gold. By the way, Friday is their favorite day for attacking, in order to keep public opinions controlled during the weekends when they catch up on the week’s events.

Irrespective, gold is up this year for the tenth year in a row, despite still being less than half the level of its inflation-adjusted value (compared to the 1980 market top) of roughly $2,500/oz.. The chart below depicts gold’s performance over the past decade against the Dow, the FTSE (UK), the DAX (Germany), the Nikkei (Japan), and the U.S. Dollar. Government/media propaganda will tell you that gold is a “barbarous relic”, but the reality is that it has been the best performing asset class for the past decade, not just in America but globally. And in my view, the gold bull is only in its second inning of a potentially extra inning game. Not only individuals have been acquiring gold at a record pace, but so now are government Central Banks, as depicted in the following article, www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-18/central-bank-gold-holdings-expand-at-fastest-pace-since-1964.html. And, by the way, I assure you they have purchased a lot more than the enormous amounts that they have disclosed publicly.

As sure as the aforementioned inflation expectations will eventually be realized (likely sooner rather than later), gold will reach that inflation-adjusted price at a minimum. To simply “balance the books” between available gold supply and the totality of (printed) fiat currency in circulation, the price of gold will have to reach roughly $10,000/oz.. This formula is the same formula that predicted the $900/oz. top in the gold market in 1980, when the U.S. money supply was roughly 10% of what it is today.

Of course, if hyperinflation does take hold, the sky’s the limit on the gold price. Under that scenario, the price becomes meaningless because the currency is depreciating so rapidly. Below, take a look at the charts of silver and gold priced in German Reichsmarks during the Weimer Republic Era following World War I. During this hyperinflationary period, the price of gold rose from roughly 100 marks/oz. in 1919 to 100 trillion marks/oz in 1924, while the price of silver rose from roughly 10 marks/oz. to 1 trillion marks/oz.. And once this happened, a fellow named Hitler took over Germany. Per my repeated commentary about the topic, I firmly believe that conditions are ripening rapidly for the emergence of a Hitler-like demagogue in America. If and when it happens, 250 years of American progress will be dissipated and forgotten forever.

Irrespective of this added commentary, I URGE you to read the brilliant synopsis of the ramifications of the healthcare bill at the bottom of this message.

PROTECT YOURSELF!

Andy

Healthcare Bill to Cause U.S. Hyperinflation By 2015

FORT LEE, N.J., March 20 /PRNewswire/ — The National Inflation Association - inflation.us - today issued a warning to all Americans of a potential outbreak of hyperinflation in the U.S. by year 2015 caused primarily by the healthcare bill and rising interest payments on our national debt.

Medicare was created in 1966 at a cost of $3 billion per year and the House Ways and Means Committee estimated in 1966 that in 1990 the cost of Medicare would reach $12 billion per year. Instead, the actual cost of Medicare in 1990 was $107 billion (792% more than what was projected) and today Medicare costs $408 billion annually. In 2003, the White House Office of Management and Budget estimated that the Iraq War would have a total cost of $50 to $60 billion. So far, we have already spent $713 billion on the Iraq War (over 1,000% more than what was projected).

The Congressional Budget Office is estimating that the healthcare bill will cost $940 billion over the next 10 years, but if history is any indication, the actual cost will likely be several trillion dollars. NIA believes the healthcare bill will be the final nail in the coffin of the U.S. economy and will just about guarantee that we will see hyperinflation by the year 2015.

The U.S. government last week reported a record monthly budget deficit for February 2010 of $220.9 billion. Total tax receipts for the month were only $107.5 billion compared to outlays of $328.4 billion. The total U.S. deficit for the first five months of fiscal year 2010 was $651.6 billion, with tax receipts of $800.5 billion and outlays of $1.45 trillion. The deficit was up 10.5% for the first five months of fiscal year 2010 over the same period in fiscal year 2009.

We are now at a point where if the U.S. government taxed Americans 100% of their income, the tax receipts generated would not be enough to balance the budget. Likewise, if the U.S. government cut 100% of its spending including defense, but kept paying Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, we would still have a budget deficit. NIA believes it will be impossible for the U.S. to have a balanced budget ever again.

The U.S. national debt is now $12.67 trillion of which $8.061 trillion is public debt. Due to the Federal Reserve’s artificially low interest rates of 0% to 0.25%, interest payments on our national debt last month were only $16.9 billion, an interest rate of only 2.548% on our public debt. The reason for the spread between our 2.548% interest rate on the public debt and the federal funds rate of 0 to 0.25% is that a portion of our national debt is made up of long-term bonds at higher interest rates.

Our debt ceiling was recently raised to $14.3 trillion, which we are on track to reach in less than a year, sending our public debt up to about $10 trillion. If the Federal Reserve raises the federal funds rate up to just 2% during the next year, NIA believes the interest rate on our public debt could rise to 5% and our annual interest payments will likely rise to $500 billion or 23% of projected 2010 tax receipts of $2.165 trillion.

The White House is not projecting for interest payments on the national debt to break the $500 billion mark until fiscal year 2014. By then, even if we go by White House projections that the deficit will be cut to $828 billion in 2012, $727 billion in 2013 and $706 billion in 2014, in 2014 we will still be looking at a national debt of over $18.5 trillion with a public portion of around $13.14 trillion. We find it shocking that the White House is projecting an interest rate on our public debt in 2014 of only around 4%.

All of this means that the While House expects the Federal Reserve to leave interest rates at artificially low levels almost indefinitely. However, we know it will be impossible for them to do so without creating a huge outbreak of inflation in the prices of food, energy, clothing, and just about everything else Americans need to live and survive. In order to prevent hyperinflation, we need interest rates to be higher than the rate of inflation.

NIA believes the real rate of U.S. inflation to already be approximately 5%. If the Federal Reserve doesn’t raise the federal funds rate to above 5% in the short-term, in our opinion, an outbreak of double-digit inflation is inevitable. By 2014, it is possible the Federal Reserve will be forced to raise the federal funds rate up to above 10% and the public portion of our national debt could exceed $15 trillion. Therefore, in 2014 we could see the interest payments on our national debt reach $1.5 trillion, about triple what is currently being projected and 43% of the government’s projected tax receipts that year of $3.455 trillion.

Besides the cost of the healthcare bill and rising interest payments on our national debt, another major catalyst for hyperinflation will be social security payments, which adjust to the CPI-index. As the government’s CPI-index rises, so will the social security payments that it owes. This could cause a death-spiral in the U.S. dollar. Inflation is still the last thing on the minds of most Americans, but soon it will be their primary concern.

To receive NIA’s latest updates about inflation and the economy, sign-up for the free NIA newsletter at: inflation.us

About us:

The National Inflation Association is an organization that is dedicated to preparing Americans for hyperinflation. The NIA offers free membership at www.inflation.us and provides its members with articles about the economy and inflation, news stories, important charts not shown by the mainstream media; YouTube videos featuring Jim Rogers, Marc Faber, Ron Paul, Peter Schiff, and others; and profiles of gold, silver, and agriculture companies that we believe could prosper in an inflationary environment.

Contact: Gerard Adams, 1-888-99-NIA US (1888-996-4287), editor@inflation.us

[VKTD]

hyperinflation was a concern a long time before the health Care bill came into action.

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



Lets admit that if anything, health care will add substance to the economy of the US and slow the advent of hyperinflation... which should have happenned already.  Lucky for the US they have nukes.

lets not throw the baby in the kettle with the bathwater.

The main cause of hyperinflation is a massive and rapid increase in the amount of money that is not supported by a corresponding growth in the output of goods and services. This results in an imbalance between the supply and demand for the money (including currency and bank deposits), accompanied by a complete loss of confidence in the money, similar to a bank run. Enactment of legal tender laws and price controls to prevent discounting the value of paper money relative to gold, silver, hard currency, or commodities, fails to force acceptance of a paper money which lacks intrinsic value. If the entity responsible for printing a currency promotes excessive money printing, with other factors contributing a reinforcing effect, hyperinflation usually continues. Often the body responsible for printing the currency cannot physically print paper currency faster than the rate at which it is devaluing, thus neutralizing their attempts to stimulate the economy.[7]

When china stops buying 2 billion dollars of US debt per day ... more clear and present danger than hyper inflation... resulting from something that would actually provide goods and services in a bare economy.  if anything Healthcare is the saving grace from Hyper inflation.  This economist should be shot.  No ifs ands or buts target that man and shoot him.

The NIA ... ?  Peter c'mon.  I know you have an interest in gold.  these people... Peter c'mon.
we can make gold work without these liars.

[Lady Lilya]

There is still a lot of debate about whether we will ever see hyperinflation. 

I think it is clear that they don't intend to maintain the value of the dollar.  Even without the new plans to spend, they wouldn't have been able to get out of debt without inflating.

But HYPER inflating?  Why can't they continue inflating a few percent a year like they have been doing?  It has been working so far.  Things have stayed comfortable enough for people that they continue about their routines quietly.

[VKTD]

But yes the cost (or investment) in health care will be several trillion dollars.  They are right about that. 

That is peanuts compared to what the US dollar should be worth now.  several trillion X nothing is still nothing.  The currency markets have been manipulated to prop up the greenback in a league where it really doesn't belong right now.  No investor will invest in a risk, when you have solid dollars or as you like commodities to invest in.  The US dollar is technically junk right now.  It is artificially inflated.  It is a good thing that it is artificially inflated or Obama would have never got this health bill through.  At least the riots in the streets were delayed.  But the question is were they delayed so that Health can be blamed, or so health can be passed?

healthcare yes is an investment... but it also the only stimulus the US economy has had in a good 10 years.  This is an injection of goods, and jobs, the likes of which americans will not be able to fathom.  How that would contribute to hyper inflation.  The problem is, we want to blame health care for hyperinflation.  Not that Healthcare is an actual cause of hyperinflation.

[Carlitos Crow]

VKTD:
I'm an intelligent and overpayed white man,

Crow:
...Yet evidently still illiterate.  <grin>

I've been invited to China, go figure!  Censored, eh.  We'll soon see...

[VKTD]

lol

yes I am.... yes I am.

[Carlitos Crow]

I guess you know vegetation killed the dinosaurs though.

<smile>

[VKTD]

I have the recording somewhere.