Gordon Long: The Markets Are in A Delusional Phase

Investor Gordon Long says the stock market hitting one all-time high after another, despite all the economic headwinds, shows the public is in a “delusional phase.” 

The latest nuclear war threat from North Korea shows the extreme delusion going on, and Long contends, “This is about as clear of an example as you are going to get. This is more serious than the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the fact the market has not even blinked during this tells you we no longer know how to price risk. It’s not being priced correctly... 

It’s almost pure speculation at this point, and maybe straight out gambling.” When is it all going to come crashing down? Long predicts, “I think there is a scare coming this fall. That scare will allow central banks to start more quantitative easing and other programs. 

They will be guaranteeing the markets and guaranteeing assets because they can’t have this pension system collapse, and it’s all in the stock market. I think we are talking about the spring of next year.” (When it all totally implodes.)

- Source, USA Watchdog

China's ICO Crackdown Boosts Hong Kong's Hopes Of Becoming Blockchain Hub

China’s decision to shutter digital-currency exchanges based on the mainland, a strategy meant to extinguish the rampant fraud and abuse associated with initial coin offerings, or ICOs, is brightening Hong Kong's hopes of asserting itself as a hub for blockchain technology.

As Bloomberg reports, while China has at least nominally embraced blockchain technology - even building a prototype digital yuan – Hong Kong’s city government has gone a step further by encouraging blockchain startups to set up shop in the city. One firm run by Johnson Leung, who has found success in finance and shipping, and now runs a blockchain startup, is focusing on applications for container ship operators.

The city’s embrace of blockchain is its latest attempt to nurture a domestic technology industry that could compliment the city’s dominance in banking and shipping. But as Bloomberg notes, betting on blockchain, a technology that has generated a ludicrous amount of hype, much of it undeserved, could be a risky proposition. Despite Hong Kong’s status as a financial hub, the city, one of the most expensive in the world for average working families, has zero “unicorns” – a term for startups valued at over $1 billion.

Skeptics say it’s a risky bet on an unproven technology - one with more than its fair share of hype and, in some cases, fraud. But a growing number of Hong Kong entrepreneurs and policy makers are convinced the online ledger system that underlies cryptocurrencies like bitcoin will eventually reshape everything from financial services to supply chains. They say the city’s laissez faire approach toward regulation, along with its expertise in finance and logistics, make it a natural hub for blockchain startups.

“I don’t see why Hong Kong can’t be a leader of blockchain technology,” said Leung, who co-founded 300cubits.tech after more than a decade in the financial industry that included stints as a research analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Jefferies Group LLC. “It’s so new that it’s not like any country has a huge advantage compared to us.”

As Bloomberg explains, the city’s government has been throwing resources at the technology, developing its own digital currency and testing different blockchain use-cases.

The city’s monetary authority is developing its own digital currency and is testing blockchains for trade finance, mortgage applications and e-check tracking. Hong Kong’s securities regulator has joined R3, a global consortium that develops blockchain technology for financial transactions, while a government-backed research institute has worked on a blockchain-based system for tracking property valuations, among other initiatives. Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., the city’s publicly-traded exchange monopoly, plans to start a blockchain platform for early-stage companies and their investors next year.

“Blockchain is a very high priority for us,” said Charles d’Haussy, head of fintech at InvestHK, a government economic development agency...

- Source, Zero Hedge, read more here.

The Evil Plan By The Elites To Control Humanity

With continued uncertainty around the globe, today the man who has become legendary for his predictions on QE, historic moves in currencies, spoke with King World News about the evil plan by the elites to control humanity and $15,500 gold.

The Evil Plan By The Elite

Egon von Greyerz: “For news to be read and understood by a great number of people, it must be simple, sensational and forgettable. Most individuals are not interested in “heavy” news or complicated issues. Just compare television and newspapers today to say 50 years ago. At that time, newspapers had very few pictures. Instead, newspapers covered serious matters with in depth analysis. The same was true with television…

In Volatile Markets, Is Wealth Preservation King?

In a King World News interview I spoke with the man who predicted the Swiss National Bank would experience staggering losses and that the Fed would also experience massive losses that will destabilize the global financial system! His company is the only one in the world offering a precious metals investment service outside the banking system, with direct ownership and full control by the investor. He has also become legendary for his predictions on QE, historic moves in currencies, and major global events.

Egon von Greyerz continues: 

“In the 1960s there was serious news and many programs which raised important issues in society or politics, which many people listened to and grasped. But today everything must be dumbed down to the lowest common denominator of readers or viewers. For a paper to sell or a television station to receive advertising revenue, any news must be superficial and short. Most content must have an entertainment or gossip value. Same with television. All serious matters are either left out or covered very briefly. We are now in the age of instant gratification. People’s attention can only be kept by short, superficial language, lots of big images and constant change of focus. On television, no camera position must remain on one subject for more than a few seconds because people’s attention span only lasts for a brief moment.

Purposeful Dumbing Down Of The Masses…

This has led to most people either becoming ignorant or misinformed. The political correctness contributes to the misinformation since, to a great extent, a small group of individuals determine what is politically correct...

- Source, King World News, Read More Here

China and Russia Have a Long Term Plan and Its Gold

China and Russia’s geopolitical strategy has been evolving long enough for observers to understand it and the implications for the West. We can assume the strategic thinkers and intelligence agencies of all the major players have a reasonable grasp of the implications, including America, which is determined not to lose in this Great Game. That was the point behind Steve Bannon’s candid interview with Politico.

Bannon was deluded about the extent of America’s economic and financial power. He is now out. We are back to geopolitics being decided by the military. Meanwhile, China’s interests have almost certainly moved firmly towards dumping the dollar. This can only be done successfully by linking the yuan to the characteristics of physical gold, the market which China has effectively cornered.

If gold crosses the $1300 Rubicon, it may be taken as an early sign that China’s long-term plan of monetising her gold is progressing towards the next stage. The oil-for-yuan futures contract is due to be launched very shortly, allowing countries like Iran to buy gold freely, paid for by oil sales.

Alternatively, if China defers securing the yuan to gold, the dollar still looks like weakening against other currencies, reflecting a US economy isolated from the positive Asian story. The pace of the rise in the gold price might be slower, but the direction seems equally certain.

Eventually, gold will need to rise to a level where the Chinese are prepared to set a conversion rate. Expect China to use its control over physical gold markets to achieve it at a time of its own choosing. Leaving the $1300 price behind could well be the start of the move towards this objective.

- Source, Alasdair Macleod via Gold Money

Bitcoin, Sour Grapes and Jamie Dimon

If I had a bitcoin for every time some pundit declared bitcoin is a bubble, I’d be a billionaire. There are three problems with opining that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are bubblicious:

Everything is in a bubble now: stocks, bonds, housing, heck, even bat guano is bubblicious. Exactly what insight is being added by yet another guru repeating the BTC is a bubble meme?
What’s the value proposition in declaring BTC is in a bubble? Spotting bubbles is like shooting fish in a barrel; the value proposition is in identifying the price/time tipping point at which bubbles pop.

Declaring bitcoin is a bubble is starting to sound like sour grapes. Sour grapes defined: those who missed the 10-bagger (never mind the 100-bagger) feel better by dismissing the whole thing as a fad and a bubble, but as BTC continues marching higher, it looks like they missed the boat but are too proud to admit they didn’t grasp the significance of cryptocurrencies and BTC in particular.

Take J.P. Morgan CEO and President, Jamie Dimon.

He came out recently and called Bitcoin a fraud.

Well, here’s a quick question for you, Mr. Dimon: which words/phrases are associated with you and your employer, J.P. Morgan?

Looting, pillage, rapacious, exploitive, only saved from collapse by massive intervention by the Federal Reserve, the source of rising wealth inequality, crony capitalism, privatized profits-socialized losses, low interest rates = gift from savers to banks, bloviating overpaid C.E.O., propaganda favoring the financial elite, tool of the top .01%, destroyer of democracy, financial fraud goes unpunished, free money for financiers, debt-serfdom, produces nothing of value to society or the bottom 99.5%.

Jamie, if you answered “all of them,” you’re correct.

The only reason you have a soapbox from which you can bloviate is the Federal Reserve saved you and your looting machine (bank) from well-deserved oblivion in 2008-09. That, and the unprecedented, coordinated campaign by global central banks to buy trillions of dollars of bonds and stocks.

J.P Morgan would have done very well in the past eight years if they’d replaced you with a crash-test dummy. In fact, the shareholders would have done much, much better if the crash-test dummy had a Post-It note on its chest reading “buy bitcoin.”

Compare the return for an investor who “bought the dip” in J.P. Morgan stock (JPM) at $57 in early February 2016 and the investor who bought bitcoin (BTC) at $376 at the same time.

The buyer of JPM has certainly done well, earning a return of around 77% over the 19 months (JPM has risen from $57 to $91, a gain of $44, not counting dividends). But the buyer of bitcoin has earned about a 10-fold increase, gaining $3,200 per bitcoin at the current price around $3,560. (A few weeks ago, an owner of BTC could have skimmed an additional $1,000 per coin.)

The buyer of 1,000 shares of JPM for $57,000 gained $44,000 plus dividends, yielding a total of around $93,000, while the buyer of $57,000 worth of bitcoin at $376 (roughly 150 BTC) gained $478,000 and has a total of $534,000.

The buyer of JPM could sell his shares, pay the capital gains tax and buy a modest mid-sized car with the gains. The buyer of bitcoin could sell his bitcoins, pay the capital gains tax and buy a very nice house or flat in all but the most overvalued markets with his gain, and buy a brand-new vehicle with whatever cash is left.

Some initial coin offerings have made gains that make this mere 10-bagger look like small change.

And a lot of institutional fund managers are angry that they’ve missed out.

This might look like a speculative side-game, but for institutional money managers, it’s getting serious. As we all know, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to manage money such that the returns on the managed money exceed the return of an S&P 500 index fund.

If a passive index fund does better over five years than an actively managed fund, then what the heck are we paying the fund managers big bucks for?

- Source, The Daily Reckoning, Read More Here

The Mexican Congress Debates the Monetization of the Libertad Silver Ounce

On September 13th I participated in the Forum for "The Promotion of Savings by Mexicans" organized by the group "Legislators in Favor of Savings by the People" who are members of the Chamber of Deputies (i.e. "Congressmen") in the Mexican Federal Congress; the group is led by Congressman Francisco Javier Pinto. The fact that this meeting took place at the seat of one the Legislative Houses of the Mexican Republic is extraordinary news, because there are few things so important for the development of the national economy and the economy of Mexican families, as savings.

According to the poll taken by the "National Poll Regarding Financial Participation in 2015", 32% of the population saves informally, that is to say, by "stuffing money under the mattress" and other invented measures, and only 15% saves in a formal manner, for example, by depositing money in a bank account, or by purchasing Government Treasury Certificates ("CETES") or by voluntary contributions to their official retirement account ("AFORES").

These options are preferable than just saving pesos, though they are not winners, nor do they allow Mexicans to retain the purchasing power of their savings: they are only alternatives that provide less loss of purchasing power.

It is just for this reason that it is imperative to go further. At the Forum we insisted on the proposal to give a stable value to the Mexican silver coin. I'll explain in few words.

The central feature of the proposal is that the Central Bank of Mexico (Banxico) shall determine a value in pesos for the "Libertad" silver ounce; and that this value shall be slightly higher (by a percentage that would be defined in the corresponding Law) than the price of silver in the international market, in order to provide Banxico with an assured profit in minting and placing these coins in monetary circulation.

Today, for example, at the present rate of exchange and the present price of silver, the Mexican silver ounce is worth $320 pesos. Now suppose the Proposal requires an overprice of 10%. In that case, Banxico's monetary quote for the "Libertad" silver ounce would be for $352 pesos.

If the price of silver should plunge tomorrow to $250 pesos to the ounce, for example, the Mexican central bank would keep the monetary value of the "Libertad" ounce stable. In that way, the saver would not loose and the silver coin would remain "in circulation". (Actually, the public will scarcely use the silver "Libertad" ounce as money, due to Gresham's Law; practically all ounces will be held as savings for the long term or for emergencies, and the public will choose to keep on spending fiat money for daily needs, because it is money of no quality at all).

As a matter of fact, all the coins we carry around in our pockets are also worth less as plain metal, than their stamped nominal monetary value, and when their metal is worth more than the stamped value on the coins, they go out of circulation and are replaced by cheaper coins. (Why do you think we no longer see coins for 5, 10 or 20 centavos (cents) any more, and you hardly ever see the yellow 50 centavo coins?).

On the other hand, if the price of silver should shoot upward, Banxico would have to issue new, higher quotes for the "Libertad" silver ounce (according to the formula to be established by Law). In this way, again, the coin will remain "in circulation", and since it has no nominal price stamped on it, it will avoid ending up - like all the old silver coins that had stamped values - at the refineries.

Most of those old silver coins, once their content was worth more than the peso stamped value on their faces, ended up in the refineries. The holders of the coins sold their coins at a profit, for their silver content.

This won't happen with the "Libertad" silver ounce, whose value will be adjusted upward, and benefit the saver, who will thus retain his purchasing power no matter what may happen with inflation. Thanks to owning silver "Libertad" ounces, the public's savings will float on the ocean of currency through the years.

The great peace of mind for the investor, great or small, will encourage savings and financial responsibility better than any other policy of public stimulus.This is not the first time that this proposal comes before the Mexican Congress, but we pray that this time it becomes a reality. We hope so. It's for Mexico, the world's Número Uno producer of silver!

- Source, Plata

Chris Martenson: Central Banks Are Terrified

Resource analyst and futurist Chris Martenson points out, “The Dow is hitting all-time highs. So, it can’t be that bad, right? The Dow is used as a signaling device, and it says have faith in your leadership and everything is fine. Under the covers, obviously, things are not fine. 

The people I talk to are nervous and worried. One reason is because it’s fall, and that is sometimes when we see these corrections, but the other reason is everything we track is getting more and more fragile. These markets are held together by confidence...

I can’t tell you the number of people that used to be investors that say they just don’t trust these markets. They are rigged and they understand that. They don’t want any part of that.” 

In closing, Martenson contends, “By many metrics, this market has never been more expensive,What goes up has to come down. I am convinced the central banks are so petrified to let a 1% or a 2% correction happen...

What does it mean when the central banks are so petrified that they can even allow a correction to get started? That’s what people should be focused on.”

- Source

Blowing the Roof Off the Debt, Fiat Money Out of Control

Peter Schiff discusses the recent debate surrounding the debt ceiling and how it will be raised once again. The can has been kicked down the road, over and over again and at this point is barely movable because of how large it is getting.

How long can the US continue, before it loses control and its debt spirals out of control? Peter Schiff explains this recent news.


- Video Source

Keiser Report: Modi's Demonetization

Max and Stacy discuss India’s disastrous ‘demonetization’ programme which has resulted in the opposite of what Modi’s government claimed was their intention. In the second half, Max continues his interview with Michael Pento of PentoPort.com on gold returning to a bull market amidst the emerging market meltdowns.

- Source

Gold Would Be Higher But Buyers Are Jumping Ship to Bitcoin

As gold loses steam after rallying to 12-month highs, one market expert says he is seeing bitcoin take a chunk out of the yellow metal. "I think it's a big part of the problem in terms of stalling gold's rally. 

In my eyes gold is always a currency play not a safe-haven play, now that you have other currencies getting real traction they are taking part of the buyers away from gold," said Todd 'Bubba' Horwitz, founder of bubbaatrading.com In mid-July, Bitcoin was trading around $1,985 per coin before continuing its rise higher. 

As hostilities increased between North Korea and the U.S., it broke the $3,000 mark before slicing through the $4,000 level with ease. But fret not gold trackers, Horwitz added that another yellow metal rally is coming.

- Source, The Street

John Rubino Federal Reserve to Blame for Boom and Bust Cycles

John Rubino believes that the Federal Reserve and interest rate manipulation is to blame for the boom and bust cycles and says how important the balance sheet is.

- Source, Jay Taylor Media

With Debt Ceiling Looming, Gold Is The Hedge You Want

The gold market is looking ‘buoyant,’ this according to Tocqueville portfolio manager Doug Groh, who called the recent rally in gold back in March of this year. ‘We got through the summer downturn, and it has now become a constructive gold market,’ Groh said.

Groh, who manages Tocqueville’s $1.25-billion gold fund, said it was important for gold to break through the $1,300 - $1,303 level, which it managed to do earlier this week. Groh said that the conversation now becomes focused around the debt ceiling, “[I]nvestors will look at their equity portfolio and want to make sure they are finishing off the year in good form – [they are saying], I'm going to take some money off the table and hedge my position, gold is a perfect diversifier for that.” 

He also commented on the rise of cryptocurrencies, which he called ‘faddish.’ ‘The thing about cryptocurrencies is that there is risk to the system you participate in, whereas gold around the world is recognized as a monetary instrument.’

- Source, Kitco News

The Bear Market For Gold is Officially Over, Next Stop $1,370

Gold prices ended Thursday with good gains and were poised to finish with a bullish 10-month high close. One technical analyst is so convinced by the metal's chart action that he is calling for the official end of the bear market. "I thought the move up to $1,331 was healthy, and the pullback was actually healthier. 

I'm not concerned about the dollar anymore, gold is becoming a new currency for a lot of people," said Todd 'Bubba' Horwitz, the founder of BubbaTrading.com. "I am calling the bear market for gold officially over - $1,370 will be our next major stop," he said. Many traders saw early price weakness as a value-buying opportunity and jumped on board the long side. A weaker U.S. dollar index also worked in favor of the precious metals market bulls. December Comex gold was last up 0.77% at $1,324.20 an ounce.

- Source, Kitco News

Martin Armstrong: The Next Great Depression Is Going To Be A Collapse Of Bonds And Governments

The infamous Martin Armstrong discusses the unavoidable collapse that the world faces and how it is going to begin. How will governments around the world handle the next collapse?

- Video Source