Jake Towne

Lecture - Why the Stimulus Plan Will Fail (and a Better Alternative)

feed with videos embedded here towneforcongress.com/e...

Baltic Dry Index's Fall Misleads Investors

Steven - Interesting piece, especially the container counts. I was wondering if there is a way to assess retail values with the TEUs??

For instance, in bottled water will be a lot of TEUs but nowhere near the same value as TVs of sofas. Any slack in high value shipping demand I would expect to be taken up with lower value goods for awhile.

Will the Market Crash?

Dear SW Richmond -
On frac reserves, check out "Yes, Virginia, there are No Reserve Requirements" here

towneforcongress.com/e...

Yes, Virginia, There Are No Reserve Requirements (PART 2/2)

Dear Johnc222 -

I am not arguing for the req's on CD's, I am just simply pointing out that they do not exist right now but that they did earlier in time.

As you stated, most CD's typically can be withdrawn with a penalty, so "locked in" is not a good phrase in my humble opinion.


On Aug 12 10:08 AM Johnc222 wrote:

> why is the writer of this article arguing, for reserves on CD's..?
> When CD are lock in by time restrictions and can not be withdrawn
> on a whim.
>
> They can but penalty usually prevents that. CD are an asset to banks
> capital and not liabilities.

Today's Fed OMO (Open Market Operations) Update

Nice piece. We truly are living in a paper ticket era.

towneforcongress.com/e...

Yes, Virginia, There Are No Reserve Requirements (PART 2/2)

Some of the pics didnt come through all that well, check out
towneforcongress.com/e...

How Government Can Export Manufacturing Jobs

Good piece. But how about?

9. Destabilize the currency so that economic calculation is confused. Generate a negative rate of interest (bank savings rate minus real inflation rate) to destroy capital formation
towneforcongress.com/e...

Fractional Reserve Banking in Pictures

Dear Moon -
You wrote "Umm this is hopelessly behind the times" - yes about 15 years unfortunately. Your overall conclusion is correct, but not exactly the way you reached it. Stay tuned for Part 2.


On Aug 07 09:31 AM Moon Kil Woong wrote:

> Umm this is hopelessly behind the times. Today banks need not adhere
> to reserve requirement. They have created money market accounts to
> skirt the rules, thereby not needing to put reserves down because
> they are not supposed backed by the government since they aren't
> suppose to be FDIC insured even though we can see with the bailouts
> they are backed by the government after all. Thus banks blissfully
> overleveraged themselves.
>
> Then there is the loans which they dump to Fannie Mae and Freddie
> Mac so they can liberate their money and do it all over again as
> the Macs and Maes eat all the loss and charge it on the taxpayer.
> However, since the Macs and Maes play a vital role in loans now (no
> duh, who can compete with an operation run to intentionally loose
> money), it is business as usual.
>
> In fact it has gotten so bad the Fed now has to buy out their loans
> in order to let them keep gorging themselves on mortgage losses (no
> one knows how much the fed loses because they clain being a private
> entity means they don't need to be audited).
>
> Then there is Goldman Sacs that can create a velocity of money in
> the billions off of millions by playing patty cake with another brokerage
> (ummm I mean bank now) and trade thousands of times with each other
> every second (and hopefully execute your trade before it even hits
> the ticker tape). That way they can dominate the exchanges without
> even having enough assets on their books to meet the FDIC's VaR requirement
> with extra cash to pay $11 billion in bonuses.
>
> Top it off with funky derivatives that are now about 10x the entire
> net worth of the US government and you get a better picture of why
> this depiction of how the money multiplier is no longer pertinent
> and why our economic foundations are being destablized.
>
> You can also look at how the Fed, the auctioneer of US Treasury notes
> now has the ability to buy what he's auctioning off of loans from
> the government that needs money to loan top the Fed. If that doesn't
> tickle you pink I don't know what will.

Fractional Reserve Banking in Pictures

Dear D McHattie -
Glad you picked up on it. :)
If you check the rest of my articles, I bet you can guess what else I am long.

--
Jake Towne
2010 Candidate for US Congress, PA-15
TowneForCongress.com

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.” – Thomas Paine, “The American Crisis,” 1776


On Aug 07 09:12 AM D. McHattie wrote:

> You're being sarcastic in your long dollar comment, right? As in,
> you live in the US and pay for everything with USD so you have no
> choice but to be long the dollar.
>
> But otherwise you would invest in anything but the dollar, right?

Fractional Reserve Banking in Pictures

Well I still have a wallet and buy food in dollars... Gresham's Law, my friend....

On Aug 07 07:59 AM yellowhoard wrote:

> I hope you win your race but I wouldn't be long the dollar.

Delphi Bailout, Treasury's Actions Should Be Congress's Responsibility

Oops, forgot to add no position in Delphi, GM either.

Link to cartoon version of Road to Serfdom
mises.org/books/TRTS/

Unlocking the Money Matrix: Gold Price Suppression

Dear Dr Ydm -
It sounds like you are talking about Government Sachs. :)
towneforcongress.com/e...

In reply to your question, I believe sovereign wealth funds like Singapore's or China's could do this - not sure why not! but they may have an issue with transparency - shorting isn't so advantageous if everyone knows who is doing the shorting. I wrote an intro to futures markets and derivatives you may be interested in here
www.nolanchart.com/art...


On Jul 21 08:26 PM dr_ydm wrote:

> Jake,
>
> If those in power can do what you have suggested to Gold to manipulate
> its price, then couldn't the individuals currently in charge of the
> US Gold Reserves "sell" knowledge to perhaps "lobbyists" of specific
> moves that will be made with Gold Supplies at any given time. Since
> this commodity market is make to be volatile....then it looks like
> it is made to create big losers........yet the "chosen ones" would
> be set to be fantastic winners!!
>
> I am new to the investment world and don't understand much, but am
> learning steadily. From what I have observed though.....if you do
> short selling, and you do it right.......you could make alot of money
> for yourself (or nation).
>
> BTW....Are nations openly allowed to do short sales?
>
> How difficult could rounding up the necessary information to make
> the right Economic moves in the American Economy be...when all politicians
> have to do is (mis)use the Patriot Act to spy on Prime Movers?........its
> possible you know, in the name of "National Security"

On Social Security's $700,000 Resort Meeting and Our Future

Dear ED Hart -
Let's do #2 and #3 first!! :)
There might not be much left to tax when all is said and done.


On Jul 21 11:50 AM E.D. Hart wrote:

> My very simple ideas are:
>
> 1) Raise taxes
> 2) Cut spending
> 3) Vote and hold them accountable

Unlocking the Money Matrix: Gold Price Suppression

Dear Bron -
Volatility is a good point, plus it makes the gold price appear unstable when the truth is an ounce of gold, due to the stocks-to-flow ratio should be the stablest commodity on the planet - if you've run barrel of oil studies in dollars and goldgrams like Turk has, it is still apparent.

I didn't stress this point, but I did mention "waterfalls" and also the fact that its just as easy to profit from moving the price up or down - as long as you know the direction

However, the overall direction of the manipulation is suppression.


On Jul 15 09:03 AM Bron Suchecki wrote:

> Dean M has a point. The techinque propossed in this article for the
> suppression of the gold price is quite simplistic in my view. As
> I say in this article seekingalpha.com/artic...
> :
>
> "To kill gold you don't manipulate its price, you manipulate its
> volatility ... advantage of manipulating volatility rather than price
> is that your firepower lasts longer. All you need to do is start
> a trend, or help a trend along. Herd behaviour and chartist momentum
> will do the rest. Bullish or bearish, it doesn't matter. As long
> as the price moves wildly, your ends are served."

Unlocking the Money Matrix: Gold Price Suppression

Dear Dean -
I didn't say that the sellers would fetch the lowest price - merely that they would sell on the market to increase supply artificially. The whole point of the cartel is to suppress the price of gold to make their own fiat currencies look better than they really are.

If you read the Barrick Gold case document, you realize that yes, they do NOT intend to pay back the leased gold. Even with the recent gold collections all over the US, there simply isn't enough supply available.

I do not favor a return to a classical gold standard since this is just our friend, fractional reserve banking, in different clothes - although it would be better than fiat. Try reading this article on the gold standard if you like, I think you will better understand where I am coming from:

Bernanke's Great Lie: The Great Depression and the "Gold Standard"
www.nolanchart.com/art...

On Jul 15 12:25 AM Dean M wrote:

> Your description of the scheme makes no sense. GS leases the gold
> sells it under conditions orchestrated to fetch them the lowest possible
> price and then what? You don't mention how they return the gold.
> If it's leased, then aren't they supposed to give it back. If they
> are going to just keep making lease payments indefinitely, why would
> they do that. And why would they dump it, if they're so smart about
> manipulating markets, wouldn't they want to fetch the highest price?
> Maybe I'm missing something but it seems like anyone can publish
> an article on SA with the words "gold", "Goldman Sachs" and "conspiracy"
> and no one will question anything. Your starting quote about gold
> being "sovereign of all sovereigns" makes you a little hard to take
> seriously from the get go, that just smacks of idolatry. Do you
> fondle your Kruggerands? I would be happy to consider a rational
> argument for the gold standard, there are alot of factors that need
> to be taken into consideration and all sides need to have an open
> mind.