11/19/09 Baltimore, Maryland – Long-time DR sufferers are already familiar with our friend and colleague Dr. Marc Faber – author of The Gloom, Boom and Doom Report, and one of the foremost contrarian economists working today.
Well, we’ve secured an exclusive interview with Dr. Faber – hosted by our own Dan Mangru – which will premier on Tuesday, November 24th at 2 PM…and it’s already creating quite a bit of buzz. Be sure to check out the trailer below, and click here to sign up for your access to this free event.
11/21/09 Falun, Sweden – Is it time for US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to consider resignation? As a result of his recent congressional testimony, shown in the video below, the topic’s now very top of mind.
This pressure comes in addition to the recent Rasmussen Reports survey that shows 42 percent of Americans think he’s done a “poor job” in handling the credit crisis and bailouts versus only 20 percent who found Geithner’s performance “good” or “excellent.”
According to The Business Insider, “they’re discussing it on CNBC, as a serious question, which is exactly what the Congressmen hoped.”
11/21/09 London, England – Okay! We’ll say what we’ve been thinking…
…that our children are going to spit on our graves!
First, Americans made a colossal mistake in the ’90s and the ’00s. They partied…they spent…they borrowed…running up huge debts in the private sector. Most kids could forget about inheriting anything from their parents; the geezers spent it years ago.
The boomer generation also made a mess of the biggest success story in world history – the United States of America. In the ’60s and ’70s – when boomers matured and began to take over – the US was still on top of the world. It had a positive trade balance…huge savings…massive investments abroad…and the strongest companies in the world.
They ruined it. The financial industry took over…replacing manufacturing. Instead of making things we could sell at a profit, Wall Street sold debt – mostly to us! In government, imperial ambitions pushed aside the restraints and good sense of the old republic. Overseas, military bases were set up in 120 countries. We now have unwinnable, trillion-dollar wars that could go on forever. At home, the sheep look to the government to solve every problem. Thirty-five million Americans – almost as many as the entire population of Spain – depend on the feds’ food stamp program for their daily bread.
At least, most Americans are making amends in their private lives. The old days, when the US was “the world’s mouth,” are over. We can no longer be counted on to buy up every gadget and gizmo produced in the world. We’re rediscovering the old virtues…Read more…
11/20/09 Falun, Sweden – Today the House Finance Committee approved the Ron Paul and Jim DeMint amendment to audit the Federal Reserve. It’s a step in the right direction, but the amendment still has some way to go before it sees the light of day. To build momentum, Paul and DeMint have written their opinion in the Wall Street Journal that the “trillion-dollar interventions in the economy merit scrutiny by taxpayers and their representatives.”
Since 1913, the Fed has been in place to defend the dollar while fulfilling its dual mandate of stable prices and full employment. Despite its efforts the US dollar has basically lost 95 percent of its purchasing power over the past 96 years.
Paul and DeMint argue that Fed transparency is required to reveal “who the Fed is giving money to, what types of securities are being purchased and what backs those securities, [and] how much money is being paid for those securities”.
As it stands, the Freedom of Information Act is not sufficient for making these facts public. Even with it in place, media like Bloomberg and Fox News are forced to litigate in order to gain access to the kind of financial crisis-related information that should be readily at their disposal.
Currently, the only Fed supervision in place is the chairman’s twice-yearly appearance before Congress to explain his decisions. As Paul and DeMint explain, “the idea that this constitutes any sort of oversight is laughable.”
See the full coverage from the Wall Street Journal on how …Read more…
ByByron King | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - | 11/20/09
It’s pretty clear that without tungsten, a lot of things in this world will — literally — grind to a halt.
Now let’s ask, where’s the world’s tungsten? Here’s a recent pie chart of world tungsten reserves.
In addition to its large reserve base (57%), China presently controls about 75% of the world’s output of tungsten. Characteristically,…Read more…
What happened yesterday? The Dow sold off 93 points. Investors had been hesitating. There’s supposed to be a recovery going on. But the latest news is unsettling. Housing and employment numbers are weak. What’s going on? Maybe this recovery is not a sure thing after all.
“Record numbers late on US loans,” says a headline in…Read more…
There is a crazy, night-and-day difference between Dubai and Mumbai. We were staying in the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, the most notable target of terrorist attacks this time last year. Much to their delight, the mastermind of those bombings – Hafiz Mohammad Saeed – was released to house arrest this morning after an odd…Read more…
In case you were wondering, there is no way to stop spending a debt-based currency once you start, which handily explains why Doug Noland, in his Credit Bubble Bulletin, asks “what about an exit strategy? Well, I see a ‘No Exit’ sign. These distortions have been going on for too many years and become too…Read more…
As I checked the currencies throughout the day yesterday, I noticed that as the day went on, the non-dollar currencies were stronger, led by the Big Dog, euro (EUR)… But then late last night, and I mean late last night, I checked them, and those gains had been wiped out.
So, when I arrived here this…Read more…
