Implode-Explode Heavy Industries news feed

New home sales rose 25% in October

Thu, 05 Dec 2013 15:04:11 GMT

New home sales rose 25% in October, suggesting that a critical sector of the economy is continuing to gain strength as the end of the year approaches.
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The question mark is when household formation will rebound, after an extended shortfall, Levenson said. The number of households has historically risen by about 1.5% a year, as young people graduate from school or college and leave their parents' homes, according to Census data. That rate fell by two-thirds during the recession.

Gold as Part of Gresham's Law for Interest Rates - Tom Fischer (interviewed)

Thu, 05 Dec 2013 15:02:04 GMT

``So, gold is in backwardation when its interest rate, which is also called the "gold lease rate", is higher than that of the Dollar. The question is now: why should the interest rate of gold be higher than that of the Dollar? In my opinion, the answer is obvious: gold is the much better currency, so, you should have to pay up to get a loan in it. I would call this a version of Gresham's Law for interest rates.''

Biden gets sharp rebuke in China

Thu, 05 Dec 2013 14:51:48 GMT

``A meeting between Biden and China's President Xi Jinping scheduled for only 45 minutes this week turned into a two hour ordeal and ended with the US senator-turned-second-in-command offering brief remarks but answering no questions before a press scrum in Beijing.''

How to Hide Your Gold and Silver - Mike Maloney

Thu, 05 Dec 2013 04:09:20 GMT

``For gold and silver bullion buyers, the question arises of where to take delivery of and safeguard your precious metals. ''

Grant Williams - Gold "Fix" Investigation Will Precipitate Market "Reset"

Thu, 05 Dec 2013 04:07:25 GMT

``It's not just a slap on the wrist and it's not just a fine that's going to be handed out -- the gold is going to be gone. The gold is not going to be there. The gold is going to be in very, very strong hands. The gold is going to be in China, India, and in wealthy individuals' private vaults. And there is really not much you (the West) can do about that unless you get kind of crazy and start confiscating gold, but that's really not going to work in the East. People aren't going to let governments confiscate their gold in the East. So what do you do? You have to reset this thing (gold) much, much higher, and I suspect ultimately that's what will have to happen."''

Korea Exchange to begin physical gold trading

Thu, 05 Dec 2013 04:04:06 GMT

Korea Exchange Inc. will begin physical gold trading on March 24 as Park Geun Hye's government seeks to wring tax revenue out of a market that's dominated by illegal transactions. The exchange will use 1 gram units of bullion of 99.99 percent purity to spur liquidity and delivery will be in 1 kilogram bars, the bourse said in a statement today
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South Koreans hold seven times as much gold as the 104.4 metric tons in their central bank's vaults and the majority of trading is on the black market to evade import duty and value- added tax, according to government estimates.

OECD educational report: Pisa fever is causing east Asia's demographic collapse

Thu, 05 Dec 2013 04:01:32 GMT

``Education fever causes Korean parents to scrape and save to send their children to private Hagwon schools to push up their grades and give them a chance of a good university. (Sound familiar?) These are notoriously expensive. Social pressure to conform is strong. Parents simply cannot afford large families... Over-schooling is not the only reason why East Asian fertility has collapsed, but it is a big reason. There clearly comes a point when it is unhealthy. So as in all things in life, moderation and common sense are advised. And plenty of play.''

Ukraine President Yanukovych Government Survives No Confidence Vote After Surprise EU Snub, "Russian Turn"

Thu, 05 Dec 2013 03:58:29 GMT

`` the opposition missed the required vote count of 221 by a considerable margin. The Party of Regions remained loyal and defeated the motion. Its deputies all abstained from the vote -- with the exception of the one dissenter. The president's camp thus succeeded in bringing most of the doubters in its own ranks into line in time. Shortly before the vote, it was revealed that the influential head of the presidential office would remain in his post after all.''

Silver mining company says it's helpless against market manipulation

Thu, 05 Dec 2013 03:56:17 GMT

``Thanks for your email. We share your frustration about the silver price. However, we don't attempt to take action against the bullion bankers for manipulation because 1) it is primarily the responsibility of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, not the companies, to regulate these markets, so the companies would have to sue the bullion banks too; 2) manipulation is just too difficult to prove; 3) such a lawsuit would take many years and cost many millions of dollars with no certainty as to the outcome; and 4) every company invests its cash where it thinks it can create the biggest return to shareholders.''

America in Worse Fiscal Shape than Detroit-Professor Laurence Kotlikoff (interview)

Thu, 05 Dec 2013 03:55:29 GMT

``Dr. Kotlikoff estimates the long term debt and liabilities of America are more than $200 trillion! He is spearheading a bill in Congress called The Inform Act. It is an attempt to wake up the nation to our dire financial situation so something can be done to fix this enormous problem. Dr. Kotlikoff explains, "The bill has been endorsed by over 1,000 economists, including 15 Nobel Prize winners in economics . . .Never in the history of this country have this many top economists from all political persuasions endorsed a piece of legislation like this.''

JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup first U.S. banks to be fined in rate-rigging scandal

Thu, 05 Dec 2013 03:40:21 GMT

``On Wednesday, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup became the first U.S. banks fined for the alleged manipulation of benchmark interest rates that affect hundreds of billions of dollars in contracts around the world, including credit cards and mortgages. The European Commission slapped six financial giants, including Deutsche Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland, with a total of $2.3 billion in penalties for colluding to rig European and Japanese interest rates for profit.''

Bill Gross Explains What Keeps Him Up At Night

Thu, 05 Dec 2013 03:39:24 GMT

``... Deep in the bowels of central banks research staffs must lay the unmodelable fear that zero-bound interest rates supporting Dow 16,000 stock prices will slowly lose momentum after the real economy fails to reach orbit, even with zero-bound yields and QE.''

Households Raid Savings At Record Rate (UK)

Thu, 05 Dec 2013 03:37:46 GMT

``Households are pulling money out of their savings accounts at the fastest rate in modern record, according to Bank of England figures. In the past year, families have withdrawn £23bn from their long-term savings accounts to convert into cash and put into current accounts - the equivalent of around £900 for every household in the country.''

With Top 4 US Banks Holding $217 Trillion In Derivatives, Total Number Of US Banks Drops To Record Low - WSJ

Wed, 04 Dec 2013 23:01:12 GMT

``... as a result of a broken system that ever since the LTCM bailout has encouraged banks to become take on so much risk they become systematically important, and thus Too Big To Fail, there has been an unprecedented roll-up of existing financial institutions especially among the top, while the smaller, less "relevant", if far more prudent banks have been forced out of business. "The decline in bank numbers, from a peak of more than 18,000, has come almost entirely in the form of exits by banks with less than $100 million in assets, with the bulk occurring between 1984 and 2011. More than 10,000 banks left the industry during that period as a result of mergers, consolidations or failures, FDIC data show. About 17% of the banks collapsed."''

US Retailer Hell In One Chart

Wed, 04 Dec 2013 22:17:14 GMT

`` Simeon Siegel, an analyst with Nomura Equity Research, looked at the inventory carried by those and other specialty-apparel retailers at the end of the third quarter and compared it with his projections for the chains' fourth quarter sales. He found that in most cases inventory growth far outpaced sales growth. Normally, the two should be growing about the same. "The ratios are the worst we have seen in quite a while," Mr. Siegel said.''

Combined value of Detroit's most valuable art less than $2B, can't fix shortfalls

Wed, 04 Dec 2013 22:09:46 GMT

``The first phase, which involves valuing 496 pieces, shows the art is worth less than $2 billion, Orr said... "It will be much smaller than what people thought," Orr said... And not enough to fix what Orr claims is a $3.5 billion shortfall in the city's pension funds. Pension officials, however, contend the shortfall is much less.''

BullionVault: Buyers flock to gold on the dip

Wed, 04 Dec 2013 22:05:01 GMT

``Despite precipitous drops in the price of gold since 1978, private investor sentiment towards the commodity remains strong, with buyers outnumbering sellers by two to one, according to BullionVault, the online gold and silver exchange.''

Detroit Eligible To File Chapter 9; Pension Haircuts Allowed, Bankruptcy Judge Rules

Tue, 03 Dec 2013 22:47:05 GMT

``Judge Steven Rhodes appears to have confirmed Detroit is eligible for bankruptcy protection (after pointing out that the city's accounting was accurate and it is indeed insolvent) making this the largest ever muni bankruptcy.''

The "Google Maps" of Bitcoin Has Arrived -- Introducing CoinMap.org11

Tue, 03 Dec 2013 21:44:22 GMT

``The site is CoinMap.org and it serves as a sort of Google Maps for Bitcoin. The site attempts to plot the various brick and mortar retail locations across the globe that accept BTC.''

China is fully aware of gold price suppression and planning to overthrow it - Jansen (translations)

Tue, 03 Dec 2013 13:53:29 GMT

``"Especially noteworthy is that in the course of this international financial crisis, the United States shows a huge financial deficit but it did not sell any of its gold reserves to reduce debt. Instead it turned on the printer, massively increasing the U.S. dollar supply, making the wealth of those countries and regions with foreign reserves mainly denominated in U.S. dollars quickly diminish, in effect automatically reducing its own debt."''