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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: carranza2 who wrote (150632)	9/8/2019 9:36:31 PM
From: Lazarus	2 Recommendations Recommended By ggersh pak73 Respond to of 218494

yeah, but in the mean time, people in China and other parts of the world still want to breath...

To: carranza2 who wrote (150632)	9/8/2019 9:38:21 PM
From: Lazarus	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 218494

In the 1970's when you passed through LA you could barely see the buildings. California passed strict emissions standards The difference today is incredible. [source: native Californian]

To: carranza2 who wrote (150632)	9/12/2019 8:51:48 AM
From: TobagoJack	Respond to of 218494

More wonderful ideas from the french <<... backs a kind of capital handout for the public –- a variant of helicopter money. Piketty’s “inheritance for all’’ would grant all French citizens a lump sum of 120,000 euros ($132,000) when they reach the age of 25. And he advocates a wealth tax to enshrine the idea that ownership of property above a certain value can only be “temporary’’. In France, for example, the scale would range from a 0.1% charge on wealth below the national average of 200,000 euros, to as much as 90%.>> bloomberg.com Thomas Piketty Is Back With a 1,200-Page Guide to Abolishing Billionaires William Horobin September 12, 2019, 12:00 PM GMT+8 Thomas Piketty Photographer: Fred Dufour/AFP via Getty Images French economist’s last major book sold millions across world Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. Thomas Piketty’s last blockbuster helped put inequality at the center of economic debates. Now he’s back with an even longer treatise that explains how governments should fix it –- by upending capitalism. The French edition of “Capital and Ideology,’’ weighing in at 1,232 pages, comes out on Thursday (English speakers will have to wait till next year for a translation). It’s a sequel to “Capital in the 21st Century,’’ which has sold more than 2.5 million copies in 40 languages since 2013, according to its publisher. Nobody can be sure how many of that book’s buyers actually got through all 900-something pages. But its impact has been undeniable. Six years on, there are more politicians pledging to redress the skewed distribution of income and wealth. (One of them, U.S. presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren, worked with two former Piketty aides to design a wealth-tax proposal.) And it’s become common to hear inequality described as an urgent problem by billionaires like Warren Buffett and Ray Dalio. Read More: Why U.S. May Have Reached ‘Peak Plutonomy’ All that suggests policy makers and investors would do well to acquaint themselves with Piketty’s latest thoughts -- which sound pretty radical. Sacred Property“The time has come to exit this phase of making property sacred, to go beyond capitalism,’’ the economist told French magazine L’Obs. Piketty says he’s improved as a writer. “If you read one of them, read this one,’’ he told L’Obs. And he says his new book addresses two shortcomings of the last one, which was too focused on Western economies, and didn’t give enough space to the political ideologies that lie behind inequality. A Gilded AgeThe share of pre-tax income going to the top 1% of earners has risen sharply across most major economies in recent decades Source: World Wealth and Income Database (WID) Note: Piketty was among the founders of the WID, which draws on research by more than 100 economists globally “Capital and Ideology’’ ranges across time and geography, with analysis of colonial, slave-owning and communist economies, and references to India, China and Brazil. “In this book I will try to convince the reader that the lessons of history can be leaned upon to define a more demanding norm of justice and equality,” he writes, in an extract from the new book published by Le Monde newspaper. Piketty says his conclusion is that it’s a mistake to see inequality as rooted in nature, or driven by changes in technology. Its real causes are to be found in politics and ideology -- and that makes it easier to challenge. But the fixes proposed by Piketty under the banner of “participatory socialism’’ would involve dramatic upheaval for the world’s developed economies –- and the success of his ideas at the ballot box has been limited. The Socialist candidate he backed in France’s 2017 election crashed out in the first round, though President Emmanuel Macron’s government has at least echoed the language of Piketty’s call to rethink capitalism. They’ll Have to ShareIn the new book, according to L’Obs, Piketty argues that no shareholder should control more than 10% of voting rights at a company –- even if they hold a much bigger stake. He backs a kind of capital handout for the public –- a variant of helicopter money. Piketty’s “inheritance for all’’ would grant all French citizens a lump sum of 120,000 euros ($132,000) when they reach the age of 25. And he advocates a wealth tax to enshrine the idea that ownership of property above a certain value can only be “temporary’’. In France, for example, the scale would range from a 0.1% charge on wealth below the national average of 200,000 euros, to as much as 90%. “The system I propose makes it possible to own several million euros, or even tens of millions, at least for a while,’’ Piketty told L’Obs. “But those with several hundred million euros, or several billion, will have to share power.’’

To: carranza2 who wrote (150632)	9/13/2019 10:51:09 AM
From: TobagoJack	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 218494

Something about gold and pricing. Nothing we do not suspect, but definitely MSM... Sounds bullish even as we may detect hesitation barrons.com China and Russia Are Buying Gold and They Don’t Care How Much It Costs By Myra P. Saefong Updated Sept. 13, 2019 9:36 am ET / Original Sept. 13, 2019 5:30 am ET Photograph by Michaela Handrek-Rehle/Bloomberg“Central bank buying is, of course, important to the supply/demand dynamic for the metal, but is much more important in terms of sentiment toward the metal,” says Brien Lundin, editor of Gold Newsletter. When central banks are “buying as heavily as they are, it provides cover and a rationale for other central banks to do the same.” Russian central bank gold reserves stand at 2,219.2 metric tons, according to the World Gold Council, or WGC, based on the latest data available in September from sources including the International Monetary Fund. China’s holdings are at 1,936.5 metric tons. Given the latest prices, with the most-active gold futures contract settling at $1,503.20 an ounce on Wednesday, and about 32,151 troy ounces in one metric ton, the value of Russia’s gold reserves is at roughly $107 billion. The moves are due to concerns about the outlook for currencies, including the dollar and the euro, says Mark O’Byrne, research director at GoldCore in Dublin. “While the gold tonnage demand from central banks in recent months has been significant and near records, gold remains a tiny fraction of most central banks’...foreign-exchange reserves,” he says, adding that the trend is “sustainable and indeed may accelerate.” O’Byrne added that the risk of the trade war descending into a currency war may also be feeding central bank diversification into gold. Central banks had a record first half of the year, collectively buying 374 metric tons of gold through June, says Juan Carlos Artigas, director of investment research at the WGC. That was the highest first half of the year since central banks became net buyers in 2010. Net purchases from central banks year to date are still below those of 2018, but with the significant level of central bank purchases this year, “we will likely be above the 10-year average,” says Artigas. The price of gold, which has climbed to six-year highs on and off since June, hasn’t hurt that appetite for the precious metal. Gold futures settled at $1,560.40 on Sept. 4, the highest finish since April 2013. “Price is not the determining factor in central bank buying—rather, [the banks] are more likely being guided to secure an allocation of a percentage of their overall foreign-exchange reserves in gold bullion,” says O’Byrne. The central bank diversification and hedging are likely to support gold at these levels and could be a driver of higher prices in the coming months, he says. The WGC reported that gold holdings in Russia represent 19.6% of its total foreign reserves, while gold holdings are a mere 2.8% share of China’s total foreign reserves. “China and Russia are obviously intent on insulating themselves from a dollarized global economy, and gold seems to be a very important part of that strategy,” Lundin says. “While gold still represents a relatively small portion of China’s total foreign reserves...[the Chinese] seem to feel that gold will become more valuable over time, while the dollar will become less so.” The rush of central bank gold buying doesn’t say much about where near-term prices of gold are headed, but it does say “a lot about where it’s going over the long term, or at least where the banks believe it’s going,” Lundin says.

To: carranza2 who wrote (150632)	9/14/2019 6:43:27 PM
From: TobagoJack	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 218494

am unsure why the fellow used the term "watch and observe" I supposed it is better than using "brief & kibitz" I still prefer "watch & brief" am conflicted, because on the one hand I wish to collect some mining shares, but on the other I like to keeping shorting puts even as I keep clocking up the admittedly stingy premium https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-13/tug-of-war-grips-gold-investors-reluctant-to-betray-the-haven Tug-of-War Grips Gold Investors Reluctant to Betray the Haven Justina Vasquez 14 September 2019, 05:53 GMT+8 When you ask Chad Morganlander about the gold market, he wants to talk about The Clash. To him, there’s no better way to describe the tug of war gripping bullion investors than the band’s classic “Should I Stay or Should I Go.” Futures in New York have posted three straight weekly losses, tempering one of the best rallies in commodities this year. Relations between Beijing and Washington are starting to thaw, plus the U.S. economy’s biggest pillar -- the consumer -- is proving resilient. That should cut demand for havens like gold, and while investors have certainly started backing way, so far at least, there’s no mass exodus. “Unfortunately, we know that these situations turn on and off with one tweet, so we still prefer to just take a longer view point and *watch and observe*,” said Morganlander, a fund manager at Washington Crossing Advisors, which oversees more than $3 billion in assets. Gold is coming off a rally that spanned the last four months and pushed prices to a six-year high of $1,566.20 an ounce less than two weeks ago. That’s helped metals in the broader precious complex reach multi-year highs of their own. Silver and platinum rallied three straight months through August, with silver nearing a three-year high and platinum topping $1,000 an ounce for the first time since early 2018. Meanwhile, palladium notched an all-time high on Thursday. But the good times are slowing down, and some investors are starting to cash in. In the week ended Sept. 10, hedge funds reduced their gold net-long position by 15% to 247,728 futures and options, according to U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data published Friday. The holding, which measures the difference between bets on a price increase and wagers on a decline, reached a six-week low. The move came as long-only holdings dropped 13%, the most since May. What’s interesting, though, is that those declines are not as pronounced as they could be given how prices have fared lately. The funds’ net-long holding is still near the record high of 290,709 contracts set a week earlier. That trend also holds for exchange-traded funds: Assets in State Street’s SPDR Gold Shares have only slipped 1.7% since reaching a more than two-year high earlier this month. It’s a sign that at least some investors are taking the long view and betting that easy monetary policy will keep supporting the metal. The European Central Bank said Thursday it would restart quantitative easing. Meanwhile, money managers -- and President Donald Trump -- are eyeing the Federal Reserve’s key rate setting meeting scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect U.S. central bankers will trim interest rates by a quarter percentage point next week, and again in December. From 2008 to 2011, the Fed bought $2.3 trillion of debt, sending gold to a record that year. “You’re seeing, on the whole, asset allocators keep a bit of gold in their portfolio just because we are getting some relatively volatile moves in wider markets, and gold is always a little bit more stable in that environment,” said Colin Hamilton, managing director for commodities research at BMO Capital Markets. “The wider trend is that you’ve still got central banks in easing.”