drbubb

How sad and utterly foolish! The bears are now winning the battle, the market is beginning to slide, and he's running around trying to make himself a target for one of the last bullets. If he was my friend, I'd slap him hard on both sides of the face and say: "What are you doing, man! You've waited this long, and your going to 'throw in the towel' just as the market starts to move your way!" Getting frustrated, and not 'giving a shit anymore', is a great way to lose money. When fools like this wake up, and realise that they have lost much of their wealth, they will get little sympathy from those who have disciple and real strength in their convictions. == == Whoops! that was 2006, so then you can read on and see what happened.... "NO OFFERS. Not even "cheeky" offers. Viewing stopped altogether about 2 months ago along with the general slowdown in sales nationally and now the reality begins to dawn. They are not going to sell it for anywhere near £355k... they will sustain a large loss. So the only option left is to rent it out and move on. The only problem is that moving on is proving difficult." The "tough love" would have been correct, if it had worked, and stopped the purchase.

... from the Benjamin Fulford thread (on Fringe) ...

Right he is! The villain bankers are gorging themselves fat on the "blood" of the savers: EXCERPT The other key component of banking profits is zero interest rates. Banks such as HSBC, Lloyds and RBS would not be delivering profits at all had the Bank of England not slashed the cost of borrowing to the lowest level in 300 years. This has been a no-lose bet for the bankers. They borrow at 0.5% and then lend it out again at many times that to homebuyers and small businesses – or, rather, they don’t because the banks don’t really like lending to small business. They’d much rather use the cheap money to buy government securities or other bonds which give them a guaranteed profit without any risk. It is, quite literally, money for nothing. By the way, anyone interested in how all this works would do well to consult my top holiday reading tip: Freefall by the Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who is coming – appropriately enough – to the Edinburgh Book Festival later this month. Freefall is a brilliant piece of work written in a clear and engaging style free from economic jargon or the mystifications of the financial services industry. Stiglitz, the former chief economist with the World Bank, reveals how the public in America and Britain have been taken for the greatest ride in history by monopoly financial institutions that have been given access to almost unlimited sources of public finance. They brought the world to the brink of financial disaster, and they were rewarded with a blank cheque. The handful of banks that have emerged from the 2008 crash are now bigger and badder than ever, precisely because they know beyond doubt that when the next crunch comes, they can rely on governments to ride to their rescue. There has been no serious attempt to restructure the banks, to separate casino investment banking from retail lending or to break up the monopolies. == Banks are carrying their assets at fictitious valuations, which allows them to report big profits, and pay excessive bonuses. Instead: + 80% of banker bonuses should be retained in bank preferred stock, paid out over 5 -10 years from award date + Banks should not be allowed to lend more than 70%, and if they do, it should be from subsidiaries financed by preferred stock from banker bonuses - Let the villains take "first loss", not the poor taxpayers ! + Top bankers (like Fred Goodwin*) should be forced to give speeches, up and down the land, entitled; "How to get away with it", explaining how he managed to legally steal so much, so taxpayers would understand how the system works. (And Gordon Brown should be forced to sit in the front seat, and applaud his every pause.) == == VAMPIRE ? A senior banker has compared the public condemnation of Sir Fred Goodwin (above), the disgraced former chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, with the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany. Sir Angus Grossart said that the attacks on his "good friend" bore "shades of Kristallnacht", a 1938 anti-Jewish pogrom. Grossart, who chairs the private bank Noble Grossart Limited, said Goodwin had been made a "scapegoat" for the banking crisis in which RBS had to be bailed out by the government to the tune of £20bn. Goodwin left his native Scotland for a hideaway in the south of France after the furore over his £16.9m pension pot, which was later halved under pressure from the government and the new management of the bank. In an interview with Scotland on Sunday, Grossart said: "A lot of people, including those in government, were also involved in mistakes and they did not have bricks thrown through their windows." /see:

Bekkum: How do you foresee the governments of the world responding to the military implications of worm hole technology? Mammad: Well, answering to this question needs citing some psychological facts. I think people most commonly terrify of the phenomena that do not know and have an unpleasant feeling – by the instinct – toward something they cannot recognize. When a place, a stuff or a face is unfamiliar to you, your natural behavior is taking a defense guard, up to habituating with the surrounding. Therefore, what is the source of this sense? Survival! Disregarding suicide committers among some humans and dolphins, all organic systems try to live and stay alive, longer and better. Wormhole technology, like any sort of communicational technology, has one basic goal: taking something from the point A, to the point B (safer, and more rapidly). Remember the history of with-wire and wireless telephones, cars and tanks, planes and fighters, telescopes and satellites, missiles and shuttles, ships and submarines, etc and see how they found application in the wars. All of them have the role of contact, deliver something to another, and gather more information for a better knowledge. Wormhole technology can be analyzed within this frame. I’ve heard there is a motto in Texas, which is: “God created the people and Colt made them equal,” but equal in what? Killing each other! Well, that’s the American style of living and has some good and some bad features. No matter how much you’re strong, if you can hurt or kill me, I might be unable to hurt you, but I can kill you. Now, generalize this picture to a world where every country has the capability of achieving others without any serious trouble. For instance, White House might be afraid of conventional bombs of the North Korea, not even the unconventional ones! == == Interesting. On wonders what technologies are out there, waiting to be unleashed

Welcome, DrNO. How'd you find us? You make some great points People in the US and the UK have focused on bailout money - some of which has been repaid - but the real subsidy has been in the near zero funding provided to the banks - the proximate cause of the crisis. Savers are being robbed to reward villains. And the average guy is being forced into unwanted speculations to make any income at all, while the banks can just gear up on near zero cost money, and buy T-Bonds. On top of that, the banks have been given license to hide losses, and pay themselves big bonuses. In effect, the average guy is being robbed so bankers can be over compensated. I think it would be better to let more banks go, give depositors a small haircut (5-10%) so they will be more cautious, and try to get new, and better focussed banks to start up. The OTC derivatives business is mostly nothing but selling expensive casino chips, and it should be downsized. Does a single politician have the courage to talk about this outrage? A wise government would be making it easier to start new businesses, with less red tape, and lower taxes, rather than handing out money to unemployed people, many of whom would rather work. Like you say, essentials are going up in price, and money in the bank earns nothing. So people are driven into speculations, and the most useful speculative investment is a start-up business, but they are weighed down now by higher medical costs, taxes, red tape, and uncertainties about future laws. In the US, only the area around Washington is thriving.

Rightmove reports a price fall of 1.7% Overview New seller supply continues to outstrip demand, and as the holiday season continues, Rightmove reports an average asking price fall of 1.7% (£4,091) across the 117,000 new properties added this month. This is the biggest reduction in asking prices we have measured so far this year, and follows on from the drop of 0.6% in July. Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove comments: “No one really wants to come to market in August unless they have to. It shows these new sellers have a compelling need to sell, as they have lopped over £4,000 off the average asking price. Those who marketed earlier in the year but have yet to find a buyer may have to do a bit of pruning of their own to beat this new competition. Holidaying buyers can relax on the beach while back at home sellers are reducing the cost of their future property by the price of the family holiday”. August and December are the two months of the year that traditionally see price falls. However, it should be noted that this is the second consecutive monthly fall in a year that, until July, had only seen rises. Following gains of 7.0% from January to June, prices have now fallen back by 2.3% in the last two months. We predict that the gains made so far this year will have dissipated by year end, although there could be some individual monthly rises in the more active months of September and October. However, market conditions bear some similarities to the second half of 2008. Then prices fell by 7.1% between August and the end of the year as buyers unwilling or unable to proceed left agents with unsold stock levels similar to those currently being recorded by Rightmove. Shipside adds: “There needs to be a spur to cause prices to rise. However, as mortgages won’t become available to the masses and last year’s stock shortages show no sign of re-appearing, we can’t see it happening during the remainder of 2010. /more: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/news/files/2010...august-2010.pdf == == == Mon.: Rt'move: Na'wide Hali.SA Hali.nsa: H&Nindex : mom :DelusIdx ========== J. : : 237,767 : 170,111 166,203 166,395 : £168,253 :- 0.55% :140.5% Jl : : 236,332 : 169,347 167,425 16X, - - - : £16X,- - - : A : : 232,241 : mom: -1.73%: -0.45% : +0.74% :

Here's a Key point: + Prices of Essentials can rise (thanks to cost pressures, and weak currencies), while + Prices of Assets fall In fact, the pressures (mostly ZIRP) driving people to speculate, tend to generate BIG SWINGS in asset prices, over the long term, rather than steady appreciation. Holding cash, during the inevitable downswings, can be a very good thing. And playing the swings well (if you can manage to do it), can get you ahead of the price rises in essential items, like food and energy. But it is a tough game to win, and it is not good that some many of us have been driven to this !

Wholesale Price Index : US$1.00 equals July 1914 :........ 1.0 : ..... 4.2 Mark Jan. 1919 :........ 2.6 : ..... 8.9 Mark July 1919 :........ 3.4 : .... 14.0 Mark Jan. 1920 :...... 12.6 : .... 64.8 Mark July 1920 :......... .... : .... 39.5 Mark Jan. 1921 :....... 14.4 : .... 64.9 Mark July 1921 :....... 14.3 : .... 76.7 Mark Jan. 1922 :....... 36.7 : ... 191.8 Mark July 1922 :...... 100.6 : ... 493.2 Mark Jan. 1923 :... 2,785.0 : .. 17,972 Mark July 1923 : 194,000.0 : . 353,412 Mark Aug. 1923 :.............. : 4.6million Mark Sep. 1923 :.............. : 98.million Mark Oct. 1923 :............... : 25.billion Mark Nov. 1923 726 Billion... 4.2trillion Mark Chart /source: /my old Weimar.co.uk site : http://www.goldstock.co.uk/weimar.htm

I have some physical, but only a few handfuls of 1-oz. coins, stored in a bank vault. And a smallish holding at GM. I am not comfortable holding large amounts of Gold in a bank vault. So if I go "big into physical", I may use GM, or have to come up with another solution. I have a friend who lives in HK, who keeps a large amount of Gold in a bank vault in NZ. But is something disastrous occurred, he needs to get down there before he can use his giold. I like GLD because I can buy options, and have limited cash invested, carrying a big position. Believe me, I know how to use leverage. I used to teach options course, at one of the big banks. So you need not fear I will misuse it. Question, how much money would you tie up in Gold?

Still pondering... Source 4

I can buy into that only if you are predicting a massive increase in money velocity. Is that what you have in mind? And what do you see triggering that rise ?

As posted elsewhere... That doesn't work... Because SOMEBODY has to buy the potatoes, so the money arrives from someone somewhere. Who? in your example? Do you imagine that foreigners were all flying to Germany to buy potatoes? Of course, spending by those with stronger currencies is part of the explanation, but not enough to explain the whole thing (BTW, I should roll my eyes, I ask intelligent questions, and get half-arse partial answers. Sorry for the insult, GF, but I am just retruning what I get here !) My main point is this: The Fed or the Treasury will have to do something MORE RECKLESS than we have seen so far, if we are going to see hyperinflation. The hyperinflationist here were predicting HYPERINFLATION BY NOW, and we are not seeing it now - instead we have mild inflation in essentials, and asset price deflation (in some areas). My question (How will the money get into people's hands?) gets more and more important as the predicted high inflation receeds further and further into the future - That's how I see it, anyway.

But the whole episode only took a few months, so those two stages were weeks apart

In the period BEFORE going into full-blown hyperinflation, the economy picks up (temporarily) This apparent success is one of the things that drives the reckless progrma forward.

Well, obviously: 1. The Bond vigilantes will arrive someday (many think) 2. Bond prices will wobble 3. The Bond vigilantes will call in the Currency vigilantes 4. The Dollar will wobble, and start to fall, which will mean: 5. The Bond vigilantes will demnd even higher yields That is the expected mechanism, I suppose; OR: The Chinese will start to sell their bonds, and everyone else will panic too.

Interesting. To get hyperinflation, the Fed (or someone) needs to be desperate enough to find a way to get spending money into people's hands, and at first, the economy will seem to be making a dramatic recovery, as spending spurs demand back into life.

Adding EWI Banner Maybe ... ====================== New ones : 2 3 4 ==================> : : : :

I think they may know from my statements here. I don't think in Percentages, because my NW goes up & down. So I think of the $xmn figure as suitable insurance. But it is heavily hedged right now. And I will make money if stocks fall now. I have never been Net Short gold. But I presently I hold more cash (C$, HK$, and US$) than I hold in Gold

That is why I will not mention a %. Also, I am not really sure what the aggregate NW figure is. But I am many million miles from being a billionaire, and I do report all that I am meant to report to various authorities

My target has been to hold $1mn* or more, and to hedge it when needed In fact, that is why I held onto the GLW.t shares, despite being "mildly bearish" I think the resilience in Gold over the last 2-3 weeks has been impressive. It looks like it wants to come out of a seasonal low, but I still think that can be derailed by a selloff in Equities. Having said that, as equities fell over the last two days, I am downsizing my Aug. puts, since expiry is fast-approaching == == *(Gold, GLD, and some gold-proxy shares, like GLW and PHYS, are used in this calculation.)

Take a look at Gold Wheaton & its business model - it is very close to being Gold How would you evaluate GLD Call spreads? + The number of ounces they control? + The net value of the Long options & Short options? It is not as simple as you may think. I wanted to maintain my 65 GLD calls (that's about 650 oz*. BTW) and the calls I have sold, and puts I have bought are a way of financing them and neutralising them, until I get more bullish. *650 oz x $1200 = $780k . which would be a very meaningful slice of my NW. Add the GLW shares, and it is $1mn. I also hold some Gold coins in a vault. So you can see that I am not "dangerously bearish" on Gold. But I am far from "wildly bullish", as this position is much neutralised by options around it.

I said that I had "neutralised" my Gold/GLD position -which is true* and that: I was still long some Junior stocks -GLW.t is the Biggest, by far. (abt. 70,000 shares) & also many MLA.v wts. If gold runs here, I will do fine, but I will double or triple my exposure, if Gold falls back to below $1100. == == == *It is quite complex: Essentially, I am long lower strike GLD calls, and short higher strike GLD calls, so I benefit from time decay. I also own some GLD puts Although I am "mildly Bearish" on Gold, I was never willing to go net short. I made money on Gold through the (surprising?) run-up in GLW.t - (up $0.75 from its low, is worth over $50k to me) and the time decay on GLD calls, which I am short. Some of my other Juniors have also moved up, but that is more due to rises in Uranium stocks Sometimes these complex positions pay off for me (this is one of them), sometimes they are just a complex hodge-podge.

Indeed. If we get a Big slide in stocks, I will be amazed if the Juniors can hold. But I am still net Long in that sector

For those who think I am "dangerously Bearish" on Gold, I thought you might want to see this post from the Y-shaped thread I am not the only one looking for a dip in Gold. So does TFNN's Tom Obrien (the top Gold forecaster, I believe), and Pierre Lasonde: http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Bro..._Lassonde_.html Lassonde sees Gold falling back to $1050-1100. BTW, I still have a long exposure to Gold and some Gold stocks. I have made money in recent weeks, given the strength in GLW.t, and the way the GLD position is hedged: