Free Republic

Highlights from the just released G-7 statement: G7 Says Will Take Every Action to Stabilize Financial Markets G7 says it will commit to secure liquidity in market G7 will cooperate closely on currency market actions G7 says it will be in close contact next few weeks G7 says disorderly moves in markets hurt economy G7 says currency rates should be decided by markets But the winning bullet point of the year is... G7 says currency rates should be decided by markets

To those who think that buying food in the corner deli is becoming a luxury, we have five words: you ain't seen nuthin' yet. U.S. consumers face "serious" inflation in the months ahead for clothing, food and other products, the head of Wal-Mart's U.S. operations warned Wednesday talking to USA Today. And if Wal-Mart which is at the very bottom of commoditized consumer retail, and at the very peak of avoiding reexporting of US inflation by way of China is concerned, it may be time to panic, or at least cancel those plane tickets to Zimbabwe, which is soon coming...

HERSHEY, Pa. (AP) -- Chocolate is going to cost a little more green. The Hershey Co. on Wednesday said it raised wholesale prices by 9.7 percent, because its own costs have risen. The candy maker says the price increase takes effect immediately. It cited higher costs for raw materials, packaging, fuel, utilities and transportation as driving the hike.

Two thousand years ago, Marcus Cicero said “any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.” By such logic our species is idiotic indeed. For our ability to pass knowledge down through the generations applies only to the physical sciences. In the realms of the social decision making, where humility and realism are so often the dupe of hubris and self-delusion, each generation is condemned to relearn the mistakes of generations past. The abuse of political power, wars and popular uprisings are as prominent in ancient history as in today’s newspapers. In the 5th century BC...

Recently, BOE head Mervyn King came out with a very surprising warning to his compatriots, accompanied with an apology that our own Ben Bernanke will never offer, namely: "I sympathise completely with savers and those who behaved prudently now find themselves among the biggest losers from this crisis." Of course, the US central bank believes it has completed its third mandate job now that the US stock market, not to mention commodities, are starting to be reminiscent of the parabolic phase of the Harare stock market. But back in Europe, even as the EURUSD is surging (killing the dollar, and...

NEW DELHI: India is determined to ensure steady crude oil supplies from Iran and is even considering settling payments with gold in the short term before the two countries agree on a mutually accepted currency and a bank to clear the transactions.

Fed Governor Hoenig shocked many observers yesterday when he stated, “The gold standard is a very legitimate monetary system...We're not going to have fewer crises necessarily. You will have a longer period of price stability or price level stability, but I don't know that you'll have lower unemployment, I don't know that you'll have fewer bank failures.” King World News immediately interviewed Jim Rickards who has worked with both the Fed & US Treasury, and who also has a background in national defense as well as consulting with government directorates around the world.

ROME, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Global food prices rose in December, with the FAO Food Price Index at a record high, the U.N Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Wednesday, past 2008 highs when rising food prices sparked riots in a number of countries.

Between 1716 and 1720, John Law tried to rescue the French government from bankruptcy with a scheme that came to be called “The Mississippi Bubble”. His strategy was to set up two entities: a bank whose purpose was to issue paper money, and a company whose primary but undeclared function was to refinance government debt. Law realised that he had to confiscate all gold and silver other than smaller quantities, and force French citizens to pay their taxes and buy shares in the Mississippi Company, only with the bank’s newly issued notes. These were the three essential elements of his...

We now live in a world where governments print worthless pieces of paper to buy other worthless pieces of paper that combined with worthless derivatives, finance assets whose values are totally dependent on all these worthless debt instruments. Thus most of these assets are also worth-less.

QE explained, even for your grandma and brother in law. Brilliantly done. Pass it on and bump it.

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) –- The president of the World Bank said in a newspaper editorial Monday that the Group of 20 leading economies should consider adopting a global reserve currency based on gold as part of structural reforms to the world’s foreign-exchange regime.

Bondholders are penalizing Bank of America Corp. the most of any of the largest U.S. financial firms as the investigation into the foreclosure crisis expands. Credit-default swaps on the country’s largest bank by assets rose above those of its peers by a record margin, according to data provider CMA. The contracts, which imply Bank of America has lost its investment-grade rating, exceed Citigroup Inc.’s by the most ever and surpassed Morgan Stanley’s this week for the first time in a year.

No, the headline is not a misprint. According to CNBC, the Federal Reserve bought approximately 80 percent of the U.S. Treasury securities issued in 2009. In other words, the Federal Reserve has been gobbling up the massive tsunami of U.S. government debt that has been created over the past year. This is absolutely unprecedented, and it is yet another clear indication that the U.S. financial system is on the verge of a major economic collapse.

Since up is down and left is right in an anchorless fiat currency world, one must keep a perspective on things. As a Gold investor, I am not exactly bullish on the U.S. Dollar. However, I also am not bullish on other international paper currencies, either. I wouldn't place faith in the Euro, the British Pound, the Swiss Franc, the Japanese Yen or the Chinese Yuan over the next few years. When the chips are down and the global economy falters, every country now seems to have an endless ability to create more debt and start the party up again...

The following story in italics is a potential fictional time line for the day the dollar died. I hope not to instill fear or loathing but to give everyone some perspective on a POSSIBLE outcome which does not really take much of a reach to come to any conclusion. Despite popular belief and promises from those who wish to rob you of your savings and investments, the collapse of the dollar might just be an event measured in hours, not days as their control is not what it seems…..

The International Monetary Fund announced today the sale of 2 metric tons of gold to the Bank of Mauritius, the nation’s central bank. The sale was conducted on the basis of market prices prevailing on November 11, 2009 with proceeds equivalent to US$71.7 million (SDR 44.7 million). This transaction is part of the total sales of 403.3 metric tons approved by the Executive Board in September 2009 (see Press Release No. 09/310), and it adds to the 200 metric tons already sold to the Reserve Bank of India (see Press Release No. 09/381).

Leave it to Switzerland's version of Dr. Doom to make the latest apocalyptic pronouncement on the future of the U.S. dollar -- and the outlook for gold prices. Marc Faber, investment advisor and fund manager to the uber-wealthy, says gold will forever stay above $1,000 an ounce. If you're unfamiliar with Faber's pitch-black outlook for the future of the Western economies and the developed world in general, well, he's probably best known as the author of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report. Enough said.

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka's central bank on Saturday said it has been buying gold to diversify its reserves amid volatile currency markets, days after India announced it had purchased 200 tonnes of the precious metal. Central Bank assistant governor Nandalal Weerasinghe declined to confirm analysts' estimates that the tropical island nation had purchased around five tonnes of gold. "We have been observing that prices of gold have been going up so we have been strategically buying gold over the past several months as part of a reserve management process of diversifying our portfolio," he told AFP.

In concert with the claims I made in the prior Martenson Insider post, The Fed bought $7 billion in Treasuries today and even more yesterday. This is at the upper end of their recent range of already exceptional purchasing activity. If things are so rosy that every single dip is being bought in the stock market with a vengeance, I wonder why these printing operations are really necessary? This $14 billion plus buying activity by the Fed represents fresh money created out of this air that was exchanged for the sovereign debt of the US. However, since the Fed has,...