The correct answer to the inflation vs. deflation debate...
The answer to whether we have inflation, or deflation, is the same as it's been for the last 2+ years...
We have both.
Here's an interesting piece that all gold bugs should read, it's from one of the best & brightest, Institutional Risk Analytic's Christopher Whalen.
us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com
-- Weekly FDIC bank resolutions show that bank assets are still overvalued by 25-35%.
-- Writedowns on assets are 3 x what they were in the 1990's.
-- Fiscal cuts are deflationary (Wisconsin today, 46 other US States tomorrow). And in regards to fiscal cuts, remember Pollock's First Law: debt which cannot be paid must default (when, not if).
-- New regulations, via Dodd-Frank and other progressive pathways, are greatly restricting private credit creation.
-- The Fed and the Obama Administration basically gave away the store to EU nations in the Basel III negotiating process. The result is a policy framework that further disadvantages housing-related assets, eliminates mortgage servicing rights, and ensures further shrinkage in the available bank balance sheet for home mortgage finance in America.
The Basel III process reinforces the cartel of large banks in the US as smaller banks are tossed into the furnace of FDIC resolutions.
-- Even though the Fed is successfully creating bubbles in the credit, commodities and financial sectors, the collateral value of US homes is still falling due to a lack of both buyers and practical financing. The sweet spot for FHA/FNM/FRE production today is 70% LTV and a FICO north of 700 despite what the news reports suggest.
This means well-more than half of all US homeowners are not bankable (in an economic model in which consumer spending represents 70% of GDP).
-- The moral of the story is that efforts to restore consumer activity and job creation in the US and EU may not be successful until debt service levels are reduced a la Iceland.
Whalen goes on to quote a commentary on the markets and the economy written by one of his longtime readers...
"The Russell 2000 is within 2.5% of the highest level it has "ever" been. The Nasdaq is just 28 points from the highest level it has been in more than 10 years. Today, the Treasury announced it will borrow $99 Billion next week which as usual will be purchased by the Federal Reserve.
It is assumed the Fed will be able to "print" $99 Billion dollars by next week. It is also assumed that actual 18% unemployment, record foreclosures in the millions, 800 more bank failures, 4 in 10 people on food stamps, record deficits and the largest amount of fiat money printing in the history of America will continue to be MEANINGLESS to Wall Street. "
The takeaway?
The keyword and concept being - "assumptions."
This recent move in gold and silver has been fueled by inflationary assumptions regarding Bernanke's QE II, government spending, and geopolitical instability in the Middle East.
Be careful about your longterm assumptions.
SOT "V" B
PS: Regarding the global governance coup d'etat by the multi-nationals and the international bankster-gangsters, ie:
"McDonald's, 29 other firms get health care coverage waivers."
usatoday.com
"Obama issues global warming rules in January, exempts GE-powered plant in February."
washingtonexaminer.com
Just in case you thought the exemptions being handed to large multi-nationals from Obamacare (McDonalds and 29 large multi-national corporations) and EPA exemptions being given to insider, crony corporations like MSNBC-Obama TV's GE are anomalies, please read the article below regarding the new tax breaks being given the large, multi-national banks under the guise of "financial reform" in the UK.
Tax havens and loopholes for them, and "hard sacrifices" and austerity for you...
"New Tax Laws - The Heist Of The Century"
guardian.co.uk
"Under the new proposals, companies will pay nothing at all in this country on money made by their foreign branches.
Foreign means anywhere. If these proposals go ahead, the UK will be only the second country in the world to allow money that has passed through tax havens to remain untaxed when it gets here.
The other is Switzerland. The exemption applies solely to "large and medium companies": it is not available for smaller firms. The government says it expects "large financial services companies to make the greatest use of the exemption regime".
The main beneficiaries, in other words, will be the banks.
WHODATHUNKIT?!?!
But that's not the end of it. While big business will be exempt from tax on its foreign branch earnings, it will, amazingly, still be able to claim the expense of funding its foreign branches against tax it pays in the UK.
No other country does this. The new measures will, as we already know, accompany a rapid reduction in the official rate of corporation tax: from 28% to 24% by 2014. This, a Treasury minister has boasted, will be the lowest rate "of any major western economy".
By the time this government is done, we'll be lucky if the banks and corporations pay anything at all.
In the Sunday Telegraph, David Cameron said:
"What I want is tax revenue from the banks into the exchequer, so we can help rebuild this economy."
He's doing just the opposite."
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And it's not just in the UK, remember the stories on Goldman Sach's 1% tax rate and the "offshoring" of it's profits?
Goldman Sachs’s Tax Rate Drops to 1%, or $14 Million
bloomberg.com
Billions in bailouts and record bonuses for them, and "necessary sacrifices" and austerity for you.
And it's not just Goldman, remember Exxon?
Exxon over the last few years has earned more money than any corporation in the history of mankind.
Curious as to what tax rate they paid?
How about "0" in 2009...
"GE, Exxon Paid No U.S. Income Taxes in '09"
abcnews.go.com
"The most egregious example is General Electric. Last year the conglomerate generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam. In fact, it recorded a tax benefit of $1.1 billion.
Avoiding taxes is nothing new for General Electric. In 2008 its effective tax rate was 5.3%; in 2007 it was 15%. The marginal U.S. corporate rate is 35%."
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It's a farce when politicans and corporate CEO's bitch and whine about US corporate tax rates being so high... because none of them pay anything near the standard rates, and many like Goldman, GE, and Exxon pay next to nothing. All thanks to offshoring their earnings in tax havens unavailable to small businesses, or you, and taking advantage of loopholes their lobbyists have hand-written into the tax code.
And remember the tax holidays given US corporations for repatriating offshore profits back to the USA?
Watch for another corporate "tax holiday" coming soon, just as they call for more cuts to Social Security, and necessary sacrifices from the American people...
bloomberg.com
America's sheeple had better break free from the false left-right paradigm, and soon. Have you heard Glenn Beck's latest call for all of us to make "hard sacrifices" for the good of America?
Beck is calling for anyone under the age of 60, to give up all claims to Social Security and Medicare, while encouraging tax cuts for corporations to re-stimulate the economy.
Funny how Beck didn't have his faithful millions march on Washington D.C. when Congress was in session and cramming 2,000 page bills it didn't read down our throats, (when it would have mattered), but instead had them march upon Washington D.C. when it didn't?
Carroll Quigley exposed the design of the false, left- right paradigm better than anyone...
"The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one perhaps of the Right, and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can 'throw the rascals out' at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.... [E]ither party in office becomes in time corrupt, tired, unenterprising, and vigorless. Then it should be possible to replace it, every four years if necessary, by the other party, which will be none of these things but will still pursue, with new vigor, approximately the same policies."
Unfortunately, "Tragedy & Hope" is not taught in the schools, (have you seen the NEA's website - it features Alinsky's Rules For Radicals" among it's recommended books for teachers).
nea.org
Unfortunately Tragedy and Hope isn't being spoon-fed to the sheeple in 10-second sound bytes, as it's a 1,000+ page primer for future CFR members, and bureaucrats being trained by the globalists.
Try turning of the TV and reading it, then give it to your kids, friends, familiy, and co-workers.
You can also access it online for free.
scribd.com
Read it. |