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Iron ore imports 50M tonnes over demand BEIJING: China's iron ore imports have exceeded actual demand by about 50 million tonnes so far this year and the oversupply leaves no room for further price rises, a senior official of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) said on Monday. "We believe the Chinese iron ore price is largely influenced by speculation on the market," CISA's Vice Chairman Luo Bingsheng told reporters at the sideline of an industry conference in Beijing. China imported 405 million tonnes of iron ore in the first eight months of this year, up 32 percent from...

Rumors are flying that secret meetings are taking place between Arab states, China, Russia, Japan and France, to dump the dollar and replace the U.S. currency’s role in the pricing of oil. The dollar fell against the euro, yen and Swiss franc, while gold hit new highs of $1,041 an ounce. Is there any truth to the rumors that the dollar is being replaced by a basket of foreign currencies, and what will be the impact your investments and the U.S. economy?

Nutrition and public policy expert Marion Nestle answers readers' questions in this column written exclusively for The Chronicle. E-mail your questions to food@sfchronicle.com, with Marion Nestle in the subject line. Q: I saw you on "The Colbert Report" (Aug. 19) talking about sugar policy. Explain, please. I don't understand why sugar policy is a topic for Comedy Central. A: Neither did I until I saw Stephen Colbert douse himself with 5 pounds of sugar over the impending "crisis." We have a sugar crisis? According to processed food manufacturers, we are about to run out of sugar. Horrors! Earlier in August,...

And then...Presto! Just like magic through stimulus and some fancy footwork the economy begins to look like it is improving, but is it really? Knowing that stimulus money must eventually run out, that the number of American's out of work continues to grow, that Europe's unemployment is at 10 year highs, and that some Asian countries are starting to falter how can we believe this? We shouldn't and through our knowledge of that we should be looking for opportunities to capitalize on the bear market rally's turn around. In particular we should be looking to banking stocks, auto manufacturing stocks,...

Every so often I'm asked to describe the role of juniors in the commodities industry. And I simply reply, "They're like rabbits". Rabbits are seemingly insignificant and useless animals. But in actuality they serve a critical role in the food chain as a valuable source of nourishment for larger animals. Like rabbits, juniors are seemingly insignificant. But their function in commodities lifecycles is indispensable. And also like rabbits, juniors are a valuable source of nourishment to their predators. One of their major roles is to feed the larger resource companies, ultimately serving to provide sustenance and longevity. The primary purpose...

Sometime people do learn from history, though the number that intentionally do so are few. Perhaps one of the largest groups of people that seem to lack the ability to learn from history is composed of economists. The facts that they choose to intentionally ignore are near mind boggling. Two asset bubbles, technology and housing, were claimed to be non existent, until they collapsed. Now, that same group of myopic number crunchers believes that economic growth in Western economies is about to reignite. Is some skepticism appropriate? Now again, in the aftermath of the Federal Reserve doubling its assets, we...

Do you have to be a power-plant owner to really understand the natural gas market? Should makers of aluminum siding being the only ones allowed to buy aluminum? These are the kinds of questions being raised in many commodities markets today. The issue is speculators versus users of fuels, metals and agricultural products. Both of these groups are big investors in commodities. Users buy these goods to consume them. Speculators buy without any intention of ever using them. A speculator looks purely to make a profit by buying and selling the rights to a pound of copper or a barrel...

Think about it. Chinese banks are lending three times as much during the most severe world economic downturn since the depression as they did when the Chinese economy was booming last year. A tripling of lending would inevitably lead to the financing of numerous negative net present value projects even in normal times. In current circumstances, the waste of resources must be astounding. As I’ve written before, massive government stimulus like that being undertaken in China and being funneled through the banks can lead to increases in measured output. But the return on the projects funded is usually negative, and...

The sugar market is watching the heavens as bad weather in Brazil and India, the world’s two largest producers, threatens crops and pushes prices skyward. Traders and industry executives say, in rare agreement, that prices could hit a 28-year high – above 19.73 cents per pound – this year because of poor weather, steady consumption and low global inventories.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., under fire for reaping record trading profits in the teeth of the financial crisis, is now fighting to defend one of its major sources of revenue -- commodities trading -- as regulators consider setting limits on Wall Street speculators. Goldman and other big investment firms are scheduled to appear at a series of hearings held by the Commodity Futures Trade Committee starting Tuesday, as the Obama administration launches its biggest move yet to clamp down on commodities speculation, which has roiled prices from oil to corn and wheat in recent years. At issue for the investment...

In November of 1997, my partner and co-editor of The Casey Report, Doug Casey, wrote an article titled "Foundations of Crisis," which leaned heavily on the research of Neil Howe and the late William Strauss. Howe and Strauss have written many books on how generations determine the course of history and how they will shape America's future. Their forecasts on a wide variety of indicators have turned out to be amazingly accurate. As eye-opening as Doug's predictions were, they brought us only to the onset of the current crisis. Consequently, we thought it both timely and important to check back...

GM is finishing up its bankruptcy and will emerge today. Futures look to open modestly lower after Chevron warned about it's second quarter earnings. The Dow looks to be off 60 points, the NASDAQ 5, and the S&P 8. The Dow will likely test 8100 before the trading day is over.

* we still have record levels of debt to pay down; * we have no economic model in place in the U.S. to provide the jobs to pay off this debt (our GDP is 30% based on a financial sector, which was built on a house of derivative cards) and fully two thirds of our GDP is based on consumer spending, which is a bit circular in terms of helping to support further consumer spending; * we have an aging population of baby boomers that just lost 40-50% of their retirement and significant home value but they are going to...

hina is directing their mountain of reserves away from acquired mining firms and toward managed hedge funds. This is a new direction for Beijing, clearly in response to the refusal by Rio Tinto to permit a $19 billion stake from the Chinese aluminum giant Chinalco. They were frustrated and angered by the other refusal with the failed Unocal dea in 2005. Clearly, whether stated openly or not, the Chinese are thwarted by USGovt and UKGovt hidden leaders from investing in strategic firms. From their point of view, tarnished by ill feelings, their money is good for credit supply but not...

US stocks dropped sharply on Monday as commodity prices weakened and investors worried about the pace of economic recovery. Commodity stocks surged during the first four sessions of last week, as the price of oil rose and the dollar dropped amid rising fears of inflation. EDITOR’S CHOICE Overview: Fears for financial system cut risk appetite - Jun-15 SGX mulls OTC derivatives clearing - Jun-15 China doubts weigh on commodities prices - Jun-15 Dollar invigorated by Russian remarks - Jun-15 AstraZeneca lifted but Footsie dips steeply - Jun-15 ECB writedown alert knocks banks - Jun-15 However, they fell back on Friday...

Commodities staged a broad retreat on Monday, with oil dipping below $70 a barrel, as a stronger dollar and cautious comments from Chinese premier Wen Jiabao over the durability of his country’s economic recovery weighed on prices. Mr Wen’s suggestion that the drop off in foreign demand for Chinese goods could hamper the country’s economic growth knocked the faith of investors convinced that a sharp upturn in Chinese demand would reinvigorate the commodities markets. EDITOR’S CHOICE Aluminium defies laws of supply and demand - Jun-15 Video: Javier Blas on the doubling of the oil price - Jun-12 Lex: Oil price...

May 29, 2009 "Hussein will Make Jimmy Carter look like E.F. Hutton" (That of course is not a positive statement toward Carter but rather just how horrendous the results of Obama's prodigality will be.) as MrArbitrage explains...

Euro Pacific Capital or Puplava Securities

China on buying spreeJohn Garnaut, Beijing May 14, 2009 CHINA has shifted from merely the fastest-growing consumer to the biggest buyer by far of Australia’s key metals since the start of the financial crisis. China set import records in April for copper, aluminium, zinc, nickel and iron ore, in each case beating the previous record, set in March. The unprecedented Chinese buying spree, at a time when the rest of the world is shutting down, has caused metals analysts to dust off the belief that the Chinese economy can grow strongly without help from the United States. "Decoupling is alive...

Kudos to Dr. Faber for his continued insightful education to the investment community and the public at large. Each video is about nine minutes long and discusses inflation, particular market opportunities such as mining, real estate and short opinions about President Bush/President Obama.