Last Updated: Mar 25th, 2013 - 16:46:15 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 19 December 2008 Thought for the Day MERRY XMAS *** MERRY XMAS *** MERRY XMAS AND HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR Dec 19, 2008, 11:23 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 19 December 2008 Battling Debt and Deflation, Fed Damned Either Way Japan dropped its interest rate to zero 16 years ago. This strategy didn't work for them. Will the same strategy work for the USA? We don't know. Dec 19, 2008, 10:47 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 19 December 2008 'People Used to Buy Certificates. Now They Want Physical Gold.' It is very interesting watching the change in attitude towards gold and silver over the last two years. Many people with a lot of wealth to protect are shifting from paper assets to gold. Silver has become even more rare than gold and people are buying up silver bars as well. Meanwhile the USA has reduced its rate of interest to "somewhere between zero and one quarter of a percent". The penny is starting to drop and journalists are keen to spread the news. Things are getting interesting. 2009 should be a "fun" year! Dec 18, 2008, 12:51 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 19 December 2008 Does the US Government Now Control the Gold Market?? I received this email yesterday from Chris Powell. This suggests an interesting move back to a gold standard by the US government: *** *** *** "Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: Fear of deflation lately has been convulsing world markets, causing liquidation of most assets into dollar cash and government bonds. Unchecked, that sort of thing must lead to the cessation of all industrial and agricultural production, and everybody freezes and starves. Having triggered the deflationary collapse by stomping on the commodity markets a little too hard a few months ago, central banks now have desperately reversed their policies and are striving to revive prices by devaluing their currencies and inflating debt away with the "helicopter money" Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke long had promised to unleash. Central banks have used gold in currency devaluation to avert deflation before, and the growing concentration - near monopolization - of the commercial short positions in gold and silver on the New York Commodities Exchange may be a clue that such a scheme is under way again. This growing concentration hints that the gold carry trade is over and that the gold and silver short positions are now almost completely in the hands of the U.S. government through its agent, JPMorganChase, and that the cost of the gold price manipulation - what appears to be a controlled retreat with gold - now can be borne entirely by the government with some of the magic money being contrived into existence. The higher the gold price goes, the less real metal the government will have to produce on the Comex and the more the gold side of the reflationary policy can be sustained with magic money - and, perhaps, the more suspicions of market manipulation will subside. But not, of course, with any help from GATA." *** *** *** from: CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc. Dec 18, 2008, 10:42 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 19 December 2008 The Manipulation of Gold Prices To have a successful economy we need to have a small government leaving the entrepreneurial work to business enterprises in the private sector. Helen and Michael have given us a clear demonstration of Economic Transformation as their increasing central control tied up the private sector in red tape and high tax while employing more and more policy analysts to tell us all what to do. In 2005 we had a small recession and in 2006 we dropped two more places down the OECD table of wealthy nations. In 2008 we have been in recession all year and 2009 looks like being a very tough year for all. Apart from all that we discovered that money is no longer what it used to be. Investors who have been troubled by inflation of money supplies have spent many hours analysing and writing about how our money system is manipulated by Central Bankers to the disadvantage of ordinary savers and investors. If we don't get our money right our economy will fail. This article discusses some of the manipulations. Understand this and protect yourselves! Dec 17, 2008, 09:32 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 19 December 2008 Ben Bernanke's Pretense of Knowledge Most of what we are told about modern economics is based upon false premises. This cannot be explained here as it would take too long but this article discusses how it is currently working to our great disadvantage. The economists at our banks, and in government are behaving as if they can control our economies. The fact that they can't is evident in the continual problems we have with inflation and deflation - booms and busts. The more they try to fix them the worse the problems become. They are set to "fix" the current "Credit Crunch" problem by showering us with money so that we can spend our way out of the impending "deflation". This will lead to an even greater inflation. Then what? [ Visit Website ] Dec 16, 2008, 13:28 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 19 December 2008 THE GOLDEN SEXTANT This article was written in 1991 and its sentiments are even more true today. Paper money has indeed wrought the inflation and money problems of the modern world. The interesting conclusion of this article is that not only is it possible for one country to start and stay with their own gold standard this action would lead to other countries joining up and would be the best method of introducing a gold standard in this modern age. [ Visit Website ] Dec 15, 2008, 11:30 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 19 December 2008 Quote for the Week As G.K. Chesterton put it, "The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite. Life is not an illogicality; yet it is a trap for logicians. It looks just a little more mathematical and regular than it is; its exactitude is obvious, but its inexactitude is hidden; its wildness lies in wait." Oct 19, 2008, 11:03