Hal.P.'s Comments

Bernanke Calls U.S. Recovery 'Fragile'

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:15:24 -0500

So is mine, as is my confidence in the US economy at this point. 2010 is going to be one of those make or break years I think.

On Dec 08 09:41 AM tunaman4u2 wrote:

> My confidence in Ben is fragile

Gold Is Rallying: Now Where Do We Keep It?

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:59:59 -0500

Now this is fascinating news to me. Very telling of market future and players.

Gold ETFs - Big Surprise at Tax Time

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:03:25 -0500

If it breathes I think it's precious to the IRS. LOL that word "precious" just made me think of a rather famous fantasy character from the mind of Tolkien.

GM: Still a Long Road to Hoe

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:25:46 -0500

I saw this on the morn on CNBC. I was later discussing it with my brother and it was his opinion that the marketing department was telling them to repay it.

The idea being that news casters when ever they discuss gm generally talk about it being government motors and since as citizens they are now owners they should be able to get a deal. So the press has been bad. Don't know if this is the reason for the sudden payback even after they show $1 Billion loss. But sounded interesting. Taking a look at the tool I use to track precious metals, I see that platinum is up in a big way ($1440.40 right now) and I wonder if this isn't related to the auto news as it's such a key ingredient in catalytic converters.

Beware the Current Bull Market in Derivatives

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:03:30 -0400

I wish the news media would target this area for closer inspection too, but I don't think anyone can wrap their heads around what the derivatives market is and how it relates to them. Heck I can hardly get my head around it. The world wide number is... well... it's a heck of a lot bigger.

FDIC's Latest Proposal Will Simply Help Big Banks Engineer Healthy Balance-Sheets

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:59:17 -0400

Kind of sorta sounds like a shell game. And the American public is the one trying to find the pea, supply the pea, and ain’t going to eat the pea.

Gold and Silver 'Bubble' Has Long Way to Go

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:25:59 -0400

I agree with your thoughts too. I don't think we anywhere close to a bursting bubble of gold. The debt our country is taking on and the printing of money, let alone the use of that money to buy our own debt is not something that bode's well for the dollar. So I think for now the precious metals are a good place to store the value of ones wealth.

Green Shoots Everywhere (Except They're Actually Weeds)

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:19:17 -0400

Yeah. I'm going to agree with a lot of what you are saying too, Ray. And Larry, I like the fertilizer metaphor. The trouble with that much fertilizer is it can seriously burn the plants.

What CIT's Troubles Really Mean

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:29:38 -0400

What makes you think the government won't cut it's nose off to spite it's face? It does that all the time. Of course anymore it seems the noses it prefers to cut have been the American public.

What's Behind This Bear Market Rally

Tue, 19 May 2009 10:07:55 -0400

Yeah. I saw that video this morning on ZH.

Scary.

It's hard to see stuff like that and not think market manipulation. Makes me wonder about that our government is directly involved in inflating the markets. At this point propaganda has become the big game in the market place.

It's more and more about how image and marketing psychologically affects the markets.

Of course I'm left wondering just how long that will work.

On May 19 07:12 AM CautiousInvestor wrote:

> Zero Hedge has posted a video of a Fox News interview with Doreen
> Morgavero and two other players. It's worth the trop over to ZH to
> watch this video which offers some shocking revelations and insight
> about recent market activity. From the transcript of the video:

>
> "Something strange happened during the last 7 or 8 weeks. Doreen
> you probably can concur on this -- there was a power underneath the
> market that kept holding it up and trading the futures. I watch the
> futures every day and every tick, and a tremendous amount of volume
> came in a several points during the last few weeks, when the market
> was just about ready to break and shot right up again. Usually toward
> the end of the day – it happened a week ago Friday, at 7 minutes
> to 4 o’clock, almost 100,000 S&P futures contracts were traded,
> and then in the last 5 minutes, up to 4 o’clock, another 100,000
> contracts were traded, and lifted the Dow from being down 18 to up
> over 44 or 50 points in 7 minutes. That is 10 to 20 billion dollars
> to be able to move the market in such a way. Who has that kind of
> money to move this market?
>
> On top of that, the market has rallied up during the stress test
> uncertainty and moved the bank stocks up, and the bank stocks issues
> secondary – they issues stock – they raised capital into this rally.
> It was perfect text book setup of controlling the markets – now that
> the stock has been issued…”

The Banking Panic Isn't Over

Tue, 12 May 2009 10:45:48 -0400

Good article. I think we are yet to see the worse to come too. Like then, what is taking place is an attempt to not face the bad decisions head on and accept the consequences and let banks and investments fail. The hope is that by merging good with bad that the good will somehow heal or spread the failure across the system so that it won't hurt as much.

But that's not how it's going to work. Gangrene has set in and must be cut off. Merging is only going to spread the sickness and increase it bringing everyone down hard, just like it did back in the 1930's. It's one of the reasons that China is doing it's best to shore up their gold holdings and get rid of as much US debt holdings as they can. They see the dollar as a dead man walking.

GDP Report: Another Painful Quarter

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:52:46 -0400

It is good to see that the markets today are shrugging this news off. But as someone closer to main street then wall street I am left shaking my head. I and a good many of my compatriots are taking a good deal of our earnings and applying that to debt (mainly credit card) and savings. We don't quite see it as being out of the woods yet and I think there is an overall feel that another shoe is about to drop (credit cards and commercial mortgages).

I'm looking at widget ExactPrice right now and the fact that gold and silver remain fairly high tells me that others are still feeling a bit of wariness.

A Telling Tim Geithner Anecdote

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:51:02 -0400

There are too many politicians in DC and the Treasury. How do we get them out of there?

I'm sick of the double speak and wishy washy answers. In fact the more I see of DC moves the more I think their main game is to enslave fold through debt.

Banks And Consumers Say No to More Debt

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:30:29 -0400

Great article.

Totally agree that the consumer gets it and DC doesn't. The thing with DC is power, and debt equals power for them.

Gem Hudson said, "He who has the gold makes the rules."

Well, start getting some gold and savings and getting out of debt.

Debt Deflation, Money Creation and the Aftermath

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:06:24 -0400

One of the things this means is that you better have some gold and silver in hand to protect ones self till all this shakes out.

I've seen more talk this morning that China views the dollar as dead

moneynews.newsmax.com/...

Not good as they are one of our biggest buyers of debt supposedly helping to finance our recovery.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:28:37 -0400

This is crazy. Our free market society was supposed to liquidate these bad banks to begin with. That’s what it does with failed businesses. It’s what keeps the markets strong and thriving. Should have liquidated them to begin with. No business or country for that matter is too big to fail.

What’s too bad is I doubt that the advice of liquidating them will be heeded.

Another Reason Why Inflation Is a Good Idea

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:49:40 -0400

Yeah. I'm going to say that we are very much likely to see some not so targeted inflation coming down the pike. Hopefully it won't be so massive that it will kill us.

FDIC Watch: Agency's Insurance Commitments 34% Higher than Reported

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:28:58 -0400

Great insights here. Thanks for the in depth work on putting this together. It is indeed a giant Ponzi scheme. Legal of course because the government declares itself exempt from the law.

U.S. Debt Surpasses $11 Trillion But Day of Reckoning Is Still Ahead

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 09:53:36 -0400

This is exactly why gold skyrocketed something like $75 an ounce. I expect that the trend will be a steady rise. The new bubble is the dollar and when it's burst. Look out. Looking at the free ExactPrice widget ( www.learcapital.com/ex... ) right now the spot of gold is $956.50. Silver is continuing it's up tick too at $13.64.

I wonder how long till they retest last year's highs.

Does Gold Beat the DJIA? It Depends

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:22:46 -0400

I agree with many of the comments. A fair number of folk see gold as a long term store of their wealth. It's not a lump of metal that returns dividends like the stocks of some companies. It is an item that holds it's monetary value over time and performs it's task when needed.

Is Gold on a Deflationary Death Watch?

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:14:11 -0400

Great article. Well thought out and argued, Justice.

You last point about the ups and downs of the gold market are dead on.

I tend to think that silver is another to work at accumulating over time.

The Reign of Cash Might Be Over

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:05:41 -0400

The key here being cash and not credit.

Of course in our fiat currency, cash pretty much is credit.

Credit Card Cancer

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:59:44 -0400

I couldn't agree more with Schiff. Our government seems to be doing whatever they can to perpetuate this credit fallacy and the outcome I don't think will be good. The best thing we can is prepare for the coming inflation and shake off our personal debt and build savings. Get some gold, silver, and food. Anyone else notice how much people are turning to growing food at home?

U.S. Debt Default, Dollar Collapse Altogether Likely

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:32:04 -0500

It's hard not to look at the debt that the dollar is carrying and the trillions in debt that the government is borrowing/robbing from future generations and think that the dollar is ok.

It's looking like toast as one other commenter noted. It's not end of the world stuff we're talking here. It's just "cover yourself" talk. Be prepared.

TARP: A Self-Reinforcing Accounting Sham

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 12:22:48 -0500

Great article. I agree with a lot of the comments too. The whole thing is a looking more like a con game. It's not looking good in the long run.

I'm an average guy and I'm doing what I can to protect myself. What with what's taking place in Russia today, I can't help but wonder how long till that's going on here.

The dollar is toasted.

Lessons the Market Taught Us in 2008

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 13:11:38 -0500

Opps. here's the links i forgot to add for the videos:

I.O.U.S.A.
www.iousathemovie.com/

How Iceland Collapsed:
online.wsj.com/video/h...

Lessons the Market Taught Us in 2008

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 13:10:04 -0500

Sound advice. The coming year is indeed going to be uncertain I think. There's a large number of issues at play globally that are going have direct impact on our wallets.

I just finished watching the I.O. USA video and it scares me quite a bit as we go into the new year.

Here's another video from the Wall Street Journal worth looking at: How Iceland Collapsed.

I think a lot of people are going to be turning toward saving money. And gold probably will be one of the modes to that end because I think the dollar will be toast. I see from ExactPrice that gold is taking off after close today and is at 883.90 right now. Given it all I am beginning to wonder if Peter Schiff's prediction isn’t right about it going through the roof in ‘09. He claims $2,000 an ounce will likely be hit.

Despite Falling Price of Gold, Mines Still Profitable - Dundee Securities Analyst

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 11:49:04 -0500

This is good news. I been seeing that a number of mining companies are well positioned in cash and now with the lower fuel costs they appear well leveraged to make it through what to many is going to be a difficult economic season.

U.S. Treasury: Stealthy Impotence

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 10:18:37 -0400

I agree with you that "feelings" are definitely a commodity that affects the market place. Indeed it greatly influences the way many Americans run their lives on a day to day basis.

But I'm not sure I fully agree with the impotence argument of the bailout. Though I do appreciate your view on it and the argument you've made. I personally find disturbing the plans of the government to buy stakes in banks and businesses. I do not find that historically that is good in the long run and will hurt the economy. Of course, such a thing has yet to fully materialize. And if it doesn't, then, yes, the claim would be impotent.

Ignore the Hype - Gold as Currency is Dead

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 10:08:13 -0400

I'm going to agree with oldgoldbug and several others. Gold is a means of savings that people can draw upon during difficult times. Is it currency? No, thanks to big government. But it is a commodity. It does hold value and so can be exchanged for currency.