Change: Trading Of Over The Counter Gold And Silver To Be Illegal Beginning July 15

Hmmh.


Trading Of Over The Counter Gold And Silver To Be Illegal Beginning July 15 (ZeroHedge, June 18, 2011):

One small step toward Executive Order 6102 part 2, and one giant leap for corruptcongressmankind.

From: FOREX.com <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, Jun 17, 2011 at 6:11 PM
Subject: Important Account Notice Re: Metals Trading
To: xxx

Important Account Notice Re: Metals Trading

We wanted to make you aware of some upcoming changes to FOREX.com’s product offering. As a result of the Dodd-Frank Act enacted by US Congress, a new regulation prohibiting US residents from trading over the counter precious metals, including gold and silver, will go into effect on Friday, July 15, 2011.

In conjunction with this new regulation, FOREX.com must discontinue metals trading for US residents on Friday, July 15, 2011 at the close of trading at 5pm ET. As a result, all open metals positions must be closed by July 15, 2011 at 5pm ET.

We encourage you to wind down your trading activity in these products over the next month in anticipation of the new rule, as any open XAU or XAG positions that remain open prior to July 15, 2011 at approximately 5:00 pm ET will be automatically liquidated.

We sincerely regret any inconvenience complying with the new U.S. regulation may cause you. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact our customer service team.

Sincerely,
The Team at FOREX.com

So far we have only received this warning from Forex.com. We are waiting to see which other dealers inform their customers that trading gold and silver over the counter will soon be illegal.

It appears that Forex.com’s interpretation of the law stems primarily from Section 742(a) of the Dodd-Frank act which “prohibits any person [which again includes companies]from entering into, or offering to enter into, a transaction in any commodity with a person that is not an eligible contract participant or an eligible commercial entity, on a leveraged or margined basis.”

Some prehistory from Hedge Fund Law Blog:

Read moreChange: Trading Of Over The Counter Gold And Silver To Be Illegal Beginning July 15

Ireland: Struggling Families Flock To Care Centre For Meal

Struggling families flock to care centre for meals (Irish Independent, June 18 2011):

ENTIRE families are going to homeless centres for their dinner every evening.

Before the recession, the Capuchin Day Centre for the homeless in Dublin would rarely have seen children coming through its doors — but now up to 10 families a day are coming coming in to get fed.

Read moreIreland: Struggling Families Flock To Care Centre For Meal

Italy And Spain Dragged Into Greek Crisis

Spain is to big to bail out, unless Europe turns on the Weimar printing press.


Italy and Spain dragged into Greek crisis (Irish Independent, June 17 2011):

CONTAGION fears returned yesterday as both Italy and Spain were dragged into the debt crisis that has engulfed Greece.

The failure to manage the crisis in Greece is now shaking investor confidence in markets in countries that had been left relatively unscathed by the financial crisis.

Bond yields for Spain rose sharply yesterday to the highest level in more than a decade, and the country struggled to sell its government bonds for the first time this year. Following the Irish bailout, Spain was ranked as on of the weakest of eurozone bond issuers but this year the country successfully “de-coupled” from the distressed periphery.

Read moreItaly And Spain Dragged Into Greek Crisis

IMF Cuts US Growth Forecast, Warns Of Crisis

See also:

The No.1 Trend Forecaster Gerald Celente: Collapse – It’s Coming! Are You Ready? (06/14/2011)

China’s Rating Agency: ‘In Our Opinion The United States Has Already Been Defaulting’-

Germany’s Rating Agency Feri Downgrades US Government Bonds: AAA to AA!

China Warns US Debt-Default Idea Is ‘Playing With Fire’ (Reuters)

St. Louis Federal Reserve President Sees US Default As Big Global Risk (Reuters)


IMF cuts U.S. growth forecast, warns of crisis (Reuters, June 17, 2011):

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for U.S. economic growth on Friday and warned Washington and debt-ridden European countries that they are “playing with fire” unless they take immediate steps to reduce their budget deficits.

The IMF, in its regular assessment of global economic prospects, said bigger threats to growth had emerged since its previous report in April, citing the euro zone debt crisis and signs of overheating in emerging market economies.

Read moreIMF Cuts US Growth Forecast, Warns Of Crisis

Fort Knox US Gold Reserves to be Independently Audited and Assayed? Congressman Ron Paul Pressures US Treasury

The US gold reserves where never audited since the 50ties and even that audit was not a real audit!

IS THERE GOLD IN FORT KNOX?


Fort Knox U.S. Gold Reserves to be Independently Audited and Assayed? Congressman Ron Paul Pressures U.S. Treasury (ZeroHedge, June 17, 2011):

Congressman Ron Paul, the Republican presidential candidate who is chairman of the U.S. House Financial Services subcommittee and chairs the House’s Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy plans to question U.S. Treasury officials next Thursday (June 23) about the U.S. gold reserves and get them to testify regarding the authenticity of the nation’s gold reserves.

This is an important question given the increasingly precarious state of the U.S.’ finances and is important to the gold market as the unaudited U.S. gold reserves are the largest holdings of gold bullion in the world.

Paul, who has said he thinks it’s possible there is no gold at Fort Knox, recently said that the government is asking the American people to trust that all the gold is there, while not allowing site visits or an audit.

Paul has introduced legislation that would require an independent audit of the 5,000 plus tons of gold bullion that is believed to stored in the Fort Knox, Kentucky vault.

The audit would include other U.S. gold reserves held in government facilities in Denver, West Point and the New York Federal Reserve Bank in lower Manhattan.

Paul is also calling for some of the bars to be assayed and tested by a laboratory in order to prove that it is investment grade gold bullion as the U.S. Treasury Department says. There have been unconfirmed reports that the Chinese received a shipment of large gold bullion bars from the U.S. that contained tungsten.

Read moreFort Knox US Gold Reserves to be Independently Audited and Assayed? Congressman Ron Paul Pressures US Treasury

Europe’s ‘Lehman Moment’ Looms as Greek Debt Unravels Markets: Euro Credit – Lloyds Warns Clients Of Armageddon Scenarios

Europe’s ‘Lehman Moment’ Looms as Greek Debt Unravels Markets: Euro Credit (Bloomberg, Jun 16, 2011):

The European Union’s failure to contain the Greek debt crisis is sending fresh shockwaves through currencies, money markets, equities and derivatives.

The euro lost more than 2 percent against the dollar in the past two days and the cost of protecting corporate bonds soared to the highest level since January, with credit-default swaps anticipating about a 78 percent chance that Greece won’t pay its debts. Equities declined around the world, while a measure of fear in fixed-income markets jumped the most since November.

Read moreEurope’s ‘Lehman Moment’ Looms as Greek Debt Unravels Markets: Euro Credit – Lloyds Warns Clients Of Armageddon Scenarios

NSA Allies With Internet Carriers To Thwart Cyber Attacks Against Defense Firms

Sure!

See also:

Every 6 Hours The NSA Collects As Much Data As Is Stored In The Entire Library of Congress.


NSA allies with Internet carriers to thwart cyber attacks against defense firms (Washington Post, June 16, 2011):

The National Security Agency is working with Internet service providers to deploy a new generation of tools to scan e-mail and other digital traffic with the goal of thwarting cyberattacks against defense firms by foreign adversaries, senior defense and industry officials say.

The novel program, which began last month on a voluntary, trial basis, relies on sophisticated NSA data sets to identify malicious programs slipped into the vast stream of Internet data flowing to the nation’s largest defense firms. Such attacks, including one last month against Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin, are nearly constant as rival nations and terrorist groups seek access to U.S. military secrets.

Read moreNSA Allies With Internet Carriers To Thwart Cyber Attacks Against Defense Firms

America Is Being Raped … Just Like Greece and Other Countries

America Is Being Raped … Just Like Greece and Other Countries (ZeroHedge, June 16, 2011):

Preface: The war between liberals and conservatives is a false divide-and-conquer dog-and-pony show created by the powers that be to keep the American people divided and distracted. See this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this and this. So before assuming that privatization is a good thing, read on.

If these resources had always been in the private sector, that would be fine … that would be free market capitalism.

But if they were purchased with our taxpayer funds and then sold to the big boys for cheap, that is looting.

Greece is thinking of selling some islands. Austria is thinking of selling mountains to pay off their national debt. Cities throughout the U.S. are thinking of privatizing their parking meters.

What’s going on?

Read moreAmerica Is Being Raped … Just Like Greece and Other Countries

Greenspan Says Greece Default ‘Almost Certain,’ May Trigger US Recession

A Greece default may trigger a US recession??? Greece???

So with the US being already in the GREATEST DEPRESSION a Greece default would actually save America then!!!

Under normal circumstances a Greece default would have not been able to trigger a German fart (Please forgive me people of Greece, I am on your side.), but that has changed since all those bankster bailouts intentionally bankrupted Europe.

The bankster bailouts around the world have been the biggest planned bank robbery in world history and the elitists (the bank robbers) controlling the MSM, the banksters and the governments got away with it.

The real financial crisis has only just begun. Everything so far has been ‘peanuts’ compared to what is coming.

Anyhow, who still believes a single word that this old reptile Greenspan is saying?


Greenspan Says Greece Default ‘Almost Certain,’ May Trigger U.S. Recession (Bloomberg, Jun 17, 2011):

Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman, said a default by Greece is “almost certain” and could help drive the U.S. economy into recession.

“The problem you have is that it’s extremely unlikely the political system will work” in a way that solves Greece’s crisis, Greenspan, 85, said in an interview today with Charlie Rose in New York. “The chances of Greece not defaulting are very small.”

Read moreGreenspan Says Greece Default ‘Almost Certain,’ May Trigger US Recession

UK Is Preparing To Return To ‘Glass-Steagall’

The UK Is Preparing To Return To “Glass-Steagall” (ZeroHedge, June 16, 2011):

In a very surprising move, the AP reports that the UK finance minister George Osborne has announced a major overhaul of British banks, the key provision of which will be the separation of bank retail and investment business “in order to help avoid another financial crisis” – an act which is in essence a reintroduction of Glass-Steagall. What is stunning about this development is that the banking cartel has allowed the UK to get so far as to effectively repeal Gramm-Leach-Bliley, the act that ended Glass Steagall and allowed unprecedented deregulation to convert formerly safe banks into the mastodon, 50x levered, TBTF hedge funds they are now. And if this is happening in the UK, how long before Europe adopts the same overhaul in order to placate its austerity-ired population, and deflect populist anger where it belongs: the banking oligarchy which continues to defy nature, and the simple laws of bankruptcy, and demands that there is never even the smallest impairment of senior claims. All this may very soon be changing.

From the AP:

Osborne backed the findings of the government-appointed Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) which earlier this year called for a “ring-fencing” of retail businesses.

“Today I have told the Commission that the government endorses both these proposals in principle… We will make these changes to banking to protect taxpayers in the future,” he said.

Read moreUK Is Preparing To Return To ‘Glass-Steagall’

Lehman Deja Vu: There Goes Market Liquidity

European liquidity just went into Defcon 1. Presenting the FRAOIS spread. Oops.

And now moving to a US near you…


An explanation from a trading desk:

So the fact that Greece itself was stretched further on the rack was not the be all and end all of the new credit crisis and catalyst of the latest Libor jitters.

In reality, analysts immediately warned that the ramifications of any action on the ‘threat’ of French Bank downgrades was this time a significant event in the financing market.

When other EuroZone Banks had been downgraded or threatened with downgrades, the markets were to some extent immune because any shortfalls in Euro funding were continually topped up via swapped Dollars.

However, this ‘$-Funding’ has been dominated by the Big French Banks and now we see the reality of such a polarized or skewed funding profile for Europe.

Not only are these French Banks significant players in the short-term $ markets, but many investors have large exposures to these entities either via CP?CD/ABCP or the Repo Markets.

**Based on the current market info on their money-market activities, we are told that the 3main French Banks collectively account for as much as 50% of all Eurozone CP/CD exposure as at recent month-end (31st May)…and, furthermore, they account for almost 15% of $ Repo Markets as per the end of Q1 2010 (31st March).!!!**

The No.1 Trend Forecaster Gerald Celente: Collapse – It’s Coming! Are You Ready? (06/14/2011)

See also:

The No.1 Trend Forecaster Gerald Celente’s Dire Warning For The World

Urban Danger (Free Documentary) – Congressman Warns: ‘Those Who Can, Should Move Their Families Out of the City’


If Nostradamus were alive today, he’d have a hard time keeping up with Gerald Celente.
– New York Post

When CNN wants to know about the Top Trends, we ask Gerald Celente.
– CNN Headline News

There’s not a better trend forecaster than Gerald Celente. The man knows what he’s talking about.
– CNBC

Those who take their predictions seriously … consider the Trends Research Institute.
– The Wall Street Journal

A network of 25 experts whose range of specialties would rival many university faculties.
– The Economist

KINGSTON, NY — Everything is not all right. And things are going to get worse… much worse. The economy is on the threshold of calamity. Wars are spreading like wildfires. The world is on a razor’s edge.

Not so, say world leaders and mainstream media experts. Yes, there are problems, but the financiers and politicians are aware of them. Policies are already in place and measures are being taken to correct them.

Whether it’s failing economies, intractable old wars or raging new wars, the word from the top always maintains that steady progress is being made and comforts the populace with assurances that the brightest minds and the sharpest generals are in charge and on the case. On all fronts, success is certain and victory is at hand. Only “patience” is required … along with more men, more time and more money.

As far as these “leaders” and their media are concerned, the only opinions that count come from a stable of thoroughbred experts, official sources and political favorites. Only they have the credentials to speak with authority and provide trustworthy forecasts. That they are consistently, if not invariably, wrong apparently does nothing to diminish their credibility.

How can any thinking adult possibly imagine that the same central bankers, financiers and politicians responsible for creating the economic crisis are capable of resolving it? Within days of its announcement, we predicted that Bush’s TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) was destined to fail, and subsequently predicted the same for Obama’s stimulus package (The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act). They were no more than cover-ups; there would be no recovery.

Meet the New Plan, Same as the Old Plan

Read moreThe No.1 Trend Forecaster Gerald Celente: Collapse – It’s Coming! Are You Ready? (06/14/2011)

Priced In Gold, The Median US Home Price Is Down 80% In The Past Decade

And gold is money, the real money:

James Turk on the US Dollar, the Euro, Hyperinflation, Gold And Silver

So the (median) value of US homes is REALLY, REALLY down 80%.


Priced In Gold, The Median Home Price Is Down 80% In The Past Decade (ZeroHedge, June 13, 2011):

It is kind of the fine folks who compile the Case Shiller index to finally “definitively” tell us that home prices have now officially double-dipped (or is that quadruple dipped when one adjusted for the pro forma impact of QE1 and 2?). Well, below is a chart that cuts right through the noise and semantics, and shows that when expressed in a currency that has not been battered and diluted endlessly, the true normalized value of housing is really down 80% not just since the housing peak but since the turn of the millennium.

Median home price priced in gold.

Now It Gets Interesting: Goldman Sachs Gave A Paid Internship To Libyan Official’s Brother

See also:

Goldman Sachs Investigated Over $50 Million Libyan ‘Bribe’

Goldman Sachs Traded $1.3 Billion In Libyan Funds (Reuters)

Matt Taibbi: Why is the Federal Reserve Bailing Out Gaddafi?

Libya: John Perkins: It’s Not About Oil, It’s About Currency and Loans – Rothschilds Finish Off Gaddafi – ‘The Price of Freedom’, Highest Standard of Living in Africa


Now It Gets Interesting: Goldman Gave A Paid Internship To Libyan Official’s Brother (Business Insider, Jun. 13, 2011):

Finally the allegations that Goldman Sachs bribed Libya for access to its sovereign wealth fund get interesting.

Goldman apparently hired an intern who was a Libyan official’s brother.

From the Financial Times:

Goldman confirmed that Haitem Zarti, brother of Mustafa Zarti, the Libyan Investment Authority’s former deputy head, worked for the bank in London and Dubai for almost a year. An initial three-month stint was extended due to good performance.

Mustafa Zarti was reportedly very “taken” with glossy Wall Street names like Goldman Sachs.

Initially his brother, Haitem, was hired for a standard 3-month paid internship (internships at banks are almost always – if not always – paid. They work like employees and get paid like employees.) in June 2008, but then his internship was extended “for good performance.”

Haitem is 29 now, making him 26 when he was an intern at Goldman.

Argentina’s Economic Collapse (Full Documentary)

Very important flashback!


Documentary on the events that led to the economic collapse of Argentina in 2001 which wiped out the middle class and raised the level of poverty to 57.5%.

Central to the collapse was the implementation of neo-liberal policies which enabled the swindle of billions of dollars by foreign banks and corporations.

Many of Argentina’s assets and resources were shamefully plundered.

Its financial system was even used for money laundering by Citibank, Credit Suisse, and JP Morgan.

The net result was massive wealth transfers and the impoverishment of society which culminated in many deaths due to oppression and malnutrition.

Official name: Memoria del Saqueo by Fernando Solanas 2003.

JP Morgue and HSBS INCREASED Their Silver Short Position By 10 MILLION Ounces In May!

?- JP Morgue and HSBS INCREASED Their Silver Short Position By 10 MILLION Ounces In May (June 10, 2011):

If a rational trader found himself massively on the wrong side of a major bull market, one would expect that trader to take extreme steps to COVER his short position during a sell-off of 36% of said commodity.  This is only rational.

In perhaps the best evidence of silver manipulation to date, the CFTC’s Bank Participation Report for June shows that from May 4th to June 7th, the silver short position held by 4 large US banks increased from 20,613 to 22,628 short contracts.  This means that the 4 largest US banks increased their short silver position from 103,065,000 ounces when silver was trading near $50 in early May, to 113,140,000 on June 7th.

Basically, The Morgue and HSBS ADDED 10 MILLION OUNCES OF SILVER TO THEIR SHORT POSITIONS WHILE SILVER DECLINED 36% IN PRICE!

Lets look at this another way.  COMEX silver inventories are down to 28.7 million ounces. This means that in 1 months time, The Morgue and HSBS have added NEW short positions equal to 1/3 of the remaining physical silver supply on the COMEX.

This means that these 4 US banks are currently short roughly 4x the amount of silver remaining on the COMEX.

Read moreJP Morgue and HSBS INCREASED Their Silver Short Position By 10 MILLION Ounces In May!

‘Good Morning’ Europe: Greek, Portuguese and Irish CDS All At Record Wides

Greek, Portuguese and Irish CDS All At Record Wides (ZeroHedge, June 13, 2011):

Good morning Europe: do you know where you record wide PIIGS CDS are? From Reuters: “The cost of insuring Greek government debt against default rose to a record high of 1,600 basis points on Monday, hit by concerns that any second rescue of Greece will trigger a credit event or at least multi-notch rating downgrade of its debt. Five-year credit default swaps (CDS) on Greek government debt rose 58 bps on the day to 1,600 bps, according to data monitor Markit.  The Markit iTraxx index of western European sovereign CDS was up 9 bps on the day at 220 bps, near a record high of 221 bps hit on January 10. Portuguese CDS were up 40 bps at 773 bps, while Irish CDS were 33 bps higher at 745 bps, both at record highs. Spanish CDS were up 13 bps at 289 bps.” The slow motion European implosion is now accelerating as the reality that there is no spoon, nor rescue plan, is finally appreciated.

Prof. Nouriel Roubini Says a ‘Perfect Storm’ May Converge on the Global Economy in 2013

See also:

Greece: Default Is Inevitable

Germany’s Rating Agency Feri Downgrades US Government Bonds: AAA to AA!

China’s Rating Agency: ‘In Our Opinion The United States Has Already Been Defaulting’

St. Louis Federal Reserve President Sees US Default As Big Global Risk (Reuters)


Roubini Says a ‘Perfect Storm’ May Converge on the Global Economy in 2013 (Bloomberg, Jun 13, 2011):

A “perfect storm” of fiscal woe in the U.S., a slowdown in China, European debt restructuring and stagnation in Japan may converge on the global economy, New York University professor Nouriel Roubini said.

There’s a one-in-three chance the factors will combine to stunt growth from 2013, Roubini said in a June 11 interview in Singapore. Other possible outcomes are “anemic but OK” global growth or an “optimistic” scenario in which the expansion improves.

“There are already elements of fragility,” he said. “Everybody’s kicking the can down the road of too much public and private debt. The can is becoming heavier and heavier, and bigger on debt, and all these problems may come to a head by 2013 at the latest.”

Read moreProf. Nouriel Roubini Says a ‘Perfect Storm’ May Converge on the Global Economy in 2013

Ireland Seizes $7 Billion From Its Pension Fund To Boost Employment

Hopeless!

See also:

Former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: Revolution is the Only Answer (For Greece, Ireland etc.)

Irish Bombshell: Government Raids PRIVATE Pensions To Pay For Spending!

True Finns Party Chairman: Greece, Ireland and Portugal Ruined; Gangrene Spreads; Enron Looks Simple; Spain Next Zombie


Ireland Seizes $7 Billion From Its Pension Fund To Boost Employment (Business Insider, Jun. 12, 2011):

THE GOVERNMENT WILL use the last €5 billion in the National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF) to help create employment although it will need approval from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Europe before doing so.

The Sunday Times reports today that the money will be used by the government to create as many as 80,000 jobs in Ireland. The paper cites government sources in reporting that the use of the money would be seen as more viable then the proposed sale of semi-state assets in the current weak market.

One source says that the view of the troika of IMF, the European Union and the European Central Bank is that if you have money it should be spent rather than drawing on outside funding or money from selling off assets at the wrong-time.

Read moreIreland Seizes $7 Billion From Its Pension Fund To Boost Employment

China’s Net Purchases of Japan’s Long-Term Debt Rises to Record in April – China’s Secret Plan

Makes perfectly no sense, unless China has a secret plan, …

… leading to the unwinding of the Japanese/US carry trade as Max Keiser suggests, with all Japanese wealth draining out of  the US, putting China in control of the US markets.


China’s Net Purchases of Japan’s Long-Term Debt Rises to Record in April (Bloomberg, Jun 8, 2011):

China’s net purchases of Japan’s long-term debt reached a record as the larger nation seeks to diversify the world’s biggest currency reserves.

China bought a net 1.33 trillion yen ($16.6 billion) in Japanese long-term bonds in April, the biggest amount since records began in January 2005, according to data released today in Tokyo by Japan’s Ministry of Finance. The nation sold a net 1.47 trillion yen of short-term debt, the data shows.

Read moreChina’s Net Purchases of Japan’s Long-Term Debt Rises to Record in April – China’s Secret Plan

The American Dream (Video)

For those that still haven’t seen this yet.


Description:

The AMERICAN DREAM is a 30 minute animated film that shows you how you’ve been scammed by the most basic elements of our government system. All of us Americans strive for the American Dream, and this film shows you why your dream is getting farther and farther away. Do you know how your money is created? Or how banking works? Why did housing prices skyrocket and then plunge? Do you really know what the Federal Reserve System is and how it affects you every single day? THE AMERICAN DREAM takes an entertaining but hard hitting look at how the problems we have today are nothing new, and why leaders throughout our history have warned us and fought against the current type of financial system we have in America today. You will be challenged to investigate some very entrenched and powerful institutions in this nation, and hopefully encouraged to help get our nation back on track.

Greece: Default Is Inevitable

Greek Default Is Inevitable (Market Watch, June 10, 2011):

The European Central Bank, with its staunch opposition to sovereign debt restructuring in Europe, is making a bad situation worse. By threatening to withdraw support for banks in countries such as Greece if they restructure their debts, the ECB is practically inciting runs on banks.

The argument that Greek state paper could no longer be used as collateral in such cases hardly justifies such a potentially destabilizing step. The ECB is effectively the lender of last resort to such banks. If depositors believe it is about to pull out, then they will withdraw money from the banks — and we will face a self-fuelling downward spiral.

The debt problem of peripheral Europe is structural. It cannot be solved by piling debt on debt. There is an analogy to a Ponzi scheme, under which more money is continually paid in to keep the pyramid-like edifice from collapsing. The debt/GDP ratio increases over time because new loans are given to pay old debt and to finance the remaining fiscal gaps.

Read moreGreece: Default Is Inevitable