MisterPhi

Gold Bugs vs. Gold Haters

Couple of interesting things on gold.
1) Why is it that the mgmt company stopped issuing updates on the holding in the GLD @ the market top?
2) After the scale of the liquidation we've witnessed in the fund, I personally find it "interesting" that holdings have actually *increased* to a fresh 1'029t. Ahem?
3) The fine print on the GLD prospectus does nothing to allay any fears, I'm afraid.

So at the end of the day, there's really nothing that beats owning the real stuff. Which means taking delivery of real physical vs. buying the "virtualized" ETF version.

U.S. Mint Actions Discourage Gold Ownership

Just returning from a rapid visit to a small branch of Raiffeisenbank here in Switzerland. Gold demand still continues at very high rates, to the point that the bank's HQ has now decided to allow the sale of small bars that carry only the assayer's brand and not the bank's seal, in order to reduce turnaround time.
We find it particularly interesting to note that the price of gold has severely decorrelated from USD weakness during this past week. This might be *the* trigger that will cause the second gold rally - not in dollar terms, this time, but in other currency bases.
StudioPhi,
Mendrisio,
Switzerland

Free Trade Agreements = Evaporated Jobs Worldwide

Jobs are being "bubbleized" as Cos race around the world to find the new lowest cost. You create a temporary bubble of manpower (not wealth, mind you) then you prick it when you move elsewhere.
Bottom line is: life is expensive, good quality stuff is expensive, well being is expensive all the things you cherish most, since they have a moral value they can be priced too (and they're expensive).
Maybe we should collectively accept the fact that spending the right amount of $$$ does indeed create wealth and well being, it reduces waste, does not consume natural resources as fast.
The diametrically opposite theory would arrive to consider the value of human life and accomplishments at zero, and therefore our lives would neet to be priced at liquidation value. Next thing you know we've all collectively eliminated each other....

If Stupidity Got Us into This Mess, Why Can't It Get Us Out?

I'm more likely to stand behind Keller's opinions, since he was an investment banker and knows exactly how the system shafted the less aggressive / informed / astute investors ("sheeples").
How do we get out of here? Someone suggested a "stupid" answer to me just the other night, namely "...Claw back their ill-gotten profits, all the criminal bonuses of the past 10 years, and have all these "stupid geniuses" serve 10 years' community work..."
It doesn't sound less stupid than allowing banks to missstate what their stupid investments are worth (not)

How Naked Shorting Leads to the Creation of 'Temporary Money'

uhhhh ... I have a problem with that.
If I am short stock I need to go someone that does stock lending. I just can't get away with the trade as if nothing had happened. You just can't "disappear" stocks like that, my friend.
There is only one way you could do it - if the naked shorter is someone like G*ldm*n S*chs or JP M*rg*n... i.e. someone with very big ties to Washington deecee (as in deceipt)....

I Have a Bad Feeling About This Market

Re. Gold flows.
What we believe is that there is a rotation going on amongst holders of the metal. Namely if fresh individuals elect to commit fresh savings to gold, instead of treasuries, etc they will be doing so in quantities that are well above whatever gold they'd purchase for consumer purposes in form of jewelry. As a matter of pure statistics, one of our advisory accts who is a big tier goldsmith, buys 3x 400oz bars approximately every 6/8 weeks. For our discretionary accts, our recent diversification transaction amounted to 2'200 oz - i.e. 2 months of the goldsmith's historical demand (which he says is due to contract BTW).
Add the recent demand in the gold ETFs (GLD, IAU, ZGLD, etc) and you can easily see that whatever slack from the jewelry market is being IMHO amply compensated by investment flows.
The only worrisome aspect is that the retail investment buildup might be easily reversed by the same weak-handed, click-n-sell ETF investors.
Kind regards,
StudioPhi

The Madoff Affair: Were His Sons Actually Responsible?

Know what? When they went after the "complex" orchestrations behind the Parmalat collapse/fraud what investigators discovered was disarmingly simple. Forged documents, that's all.
And you don't need tons of 'em either. You just need them to be good enough to withstand the first scrutiny, and then time and the convinction of the other person / firms does the rest.
Same with the Kerviel guy @ SocGen. He produced all the documents that were needed to keep the compliance / audit off his back. His only problem was that the trades were way too big and could not possibly evade attention for too long. Yet another case of one lonely man winning vs. a very bureaucratic system that doesn't have enough time to really examine every single piece of evidence down to the very last penstroke.
Food for thought.

A Depression in 21st Century America Is Impossible

Don't agree.... he's talking about a "net reduction" not of a never-buy-imports-agai... attitude.
The whole thing could be exemplified by the the canadian yoghurt scandal (made w/ imported tainted milk) - where we have witnessed the most extreme nonsense, i.e. a coutnry rich in agri resources purchasing contaminated food from another country across the globe, with the only net benefit accruing to the wholesale operator and to the foreign producer.
Nothing should prevent you from buying dates from north africa, papayas from central america, cheese from france, etc, mind you. You can have free trade and profits - maybe they just don't grow as fast if good common sense is applied......


On Feb 02 06:16 AM Tradememe wrote:

> "I am a free trader – but not at the cost of a net reduction of jobs"
>
>
> If every country in the world abides by this definition, then free
> trade no longer exists.