• HMRC Extends Tax Deadline by 2Days for Self Assessment Online Filing
  A strike by HMRC staff on the 31st of January 2012 has prompted the Inland Revenue to extend the tax deadline by 2 days to cope with the annual last minute rush by upto 2 million people to complete online personal self assessment tax returns on the last day.
  Strike action on the 31st of January may have meant that many of those calling the HMRC for advise and guidance may have not been able to get through.
• RBS CEO £1 Million Bonus for Failure Should be Scrapped, Bankster Fraud on Taxpayers Continues
  The RBS board has awarded the CEO a bonus of £1 million in addition to his £1.2 million salary for effectively being an abysmal failure on any recognisable measure.
• Stock Market Glass Ceiling Revealed
  Following up on our most recent post “Glass Ceiling Bullish or Bearish,” today, we unveil the two markets illustrated in that feature.
  Below, we display the two phantom price charts presented for side-by-side comparison. We had mentioned that both were popular indices, and hinted that we had rendered one of the charts with monthly closes and the other using a chart of daily closes.
• It’s Time to Get into Gold Junior Miners
  Philip Ker, a mining analyst for Canada-based Union Securities Ltd., says while current market conditions are affecting the junior mining space, they are also helping investors to identify low-risk opportunities and projects that may provide future value growth. In this exclusive interview for The Gold Report, Ker discusses how the industry will need to continue to see positive news, especially from senior and midtier producers, which should trickle down to the juniors.
• Stock Market Let’s Not Get Too Optimistic!
  In investing much is said about the folly of following the crowd.
  It’s voiced in age-old maxims like “The market will do whatever it must to fool the majority”, and Warren Buffett’s advice to “Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful”.
• U.S. Economy Waist Deep in the Big Muddy
  With its announcement this week that it will keep interest rates near zero until at least late 2014, the Federal Reserve has put another large crack into the foundations underlying the US dollar. In a misguided attempt to provide clarity and transparency, Ben Bernanke has instead laid out a simple road map for economists and investors to follow. The signposts are easily understood: the Fed will stop at nothing in pursuing its goals of creating phantom GDP growth, holding down unemployment, propping up stock and housing prices, and monetizing government debt. To do so, it will continue to pursue a policy of negative interest rates, while ignoring the collateral damage of unsustainable debt, virulent inflation, misallocated resources and credit, suffering yield-dependent retirees, and a devalued U.S. currency.
• Central Bank Gold Joining the Dots
  Yes, central banks are holding more gold. But they’re holding very much more wood-pulp on top…

  THE GOLD PRICE on Wednesday broke up through the downtrend starting at last summer’s record high. Or so a technical analyst studying the price chart would tell you.

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• Stock Market and the Dollar Sustain the Bullish Environment for Gold and Silver
  This week marked the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese calendar, and according to Chinese mythology, Dragon years bring powerful changes and optimism representing imperial power, prosperity and good luck. This year is supposed to be even more auspicious since it’s a Water Dragon year, something that occurs once every 60 years. We admit that we don’t yet use the Chinese Horoscope as a technical indicator, and who knows, perhaps we should. One thing is certain—the Year of the Dragon began with an auspicious move for precious metals. 
• Market Trading Technical Indicators Love Hate Relationship
  Trading using technical indicators — such as the MACD, for example — can do one of two things: help you or hurt you.
  Elliott Wave International’s Jeffrey Kennedy explains what he loves and hates about technical indicators and shows you how he uses them to his advantage in this excerpt from his FREE eBook, The Commodity Trader’s Classroom.
• With Friends Like These Does Gold Need an Official QE3?
  Although the trading week started quietly for precious metals, gold and silver surged after the Federal Reserve’s latest Federal Open Market Committee meeting. On Wednesday, the Fed announced it will not increase its benchmark interest rate until at least late 2014, citing that record-low interest rates are still needed to help boost the sluggish economy. Furthermore, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke explained that quantitative easing is “an option that certainly is on the table.”
• Stocks Thump Yields as Economic Growth Looks On
  It is not a new development for US GDP growth to be largely driven by a build- up inventories (+1.9% contribution is highest since Q1 2010) in contrast to weak contribution from real final sales (+0.80% is lowest since Q1 2011). If this is a signal to future growth prospects, then how will the ultra low yields-driven stock go on?
• Great Green Opportunities from Dangerous Q.E.
  “Prior to the 2008 financial crisis, the eight central bank balance sheets were less than 15% the size of world stock markets and falling. In the immediate aftermath of Lehman Brothers’ failure, these eight central bank balances swelled to 37% the capitalization of the world stock market. But keep in mind that the late 2008/early 2009 peak was due to collapsing stock market values combines with balance sheet expansion via ‘lender of last resort’ loans.
   
  “Recently, the eight central banks balance sheets have spiked to 33% of world stock market capitalization. This has come about not by lender of last resort loans, but rather by QE expansion…
   
  “Central banks are ruling markets to a degree this generation has not seen. Collectively they are printing money to a degree never seen in human history.”
   
  Bianco Research 01/25/2012
• U.S. Economy GDP on Recession Track
  The headline real GDP number of 2.8% does not sound too bad until you dig beneath the surface. A full 1.9 percentages points of that 2.8% was inventory replenishment. Real GDP vs. a year ago is +1.6% and that is on a recession track as well.
• Gold GLD ETF Investors Mass Exodus
  Gold is enjoying an awesome January, rallying strongly out of its oversold late-December lows.  But last month’s hyper-pessimistic sentiment deserves some reflection before it totally fades from memory.  One of the core theses of the bears resolutely predicting sub-$1400 gold prices soon was the notion that there would be widespread liquidations in the flagship GLD gold ETF, a mass exodus of capital.
• Is the United States in a Liquidity Trap?
  If nothing else, we’ve learned that the liquidity trap is neither a figment of our imaginations nor something that only happens in Japan; it’s a very real threat, and if and when it ends we should nonetheless be guarding against its return — which means that there’s a very strong case both for a higher inflation target, and for aggressive policy when unemployment is high at low inflation.
• Gold Has Foundation to Build Next Move Higher Following FOMC Catalyst
  WHOLESALE MARKET gold prices were headed for their biggest one-week rise since the start of December Friday lunchtime in London, climbing back through $1720 an ounce – a weekly gain of over 3%.
  Silver prices meantime hovered around $33.60 per ounce – 4.2% up on last week’s close – while other stocks and commodities were broadly flat and US Treasury bond prices slipped.

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• The Broken U.S. Dollar
  It has been my theory that this year we would see one of the worst performances by the stock market since 2008. However that has always been dependent on Bernanke not being able to break the dollar’s rally out of its three year cycle low. As of this morning the dollar has printed a failed daily cycle. More often than not a failed daily cycle is an indication that an intermediate degree decline has begun.
• Economic Austery is a ‘Loaded Word’ Says World Bank President
  Bloomberg TV’s Erik Schatzker spoke to World Bank President Robert Zoellick this morning about the economic woes facing Italy. Zoellick said that Germany and other European nations can do more for Italy, and that austerity is a “loaded word.”
• Tail Events, Isolation, New Normal Of Hyper Monetary Inflation
  The year 2012 has started out in strange ways. While celestial forces augur for rare tail events, the assurance of man-made events that stretch far into the extreme tail of probability are not only very likely but will be of a type to reflect the change in the global balance of financial power. The Paradigm Shift mentioned over the course of the last two to three years is at work, having moved into a higher gear. The gold is moving from the West to the East, along with the power. We will not see the process reverse in our lifetime. The sanctions set against Iran have been devised by a former global leader nation that is beset by insolvency, fraud, and lost integrity. The backfire has consolidated forces into a more fortified position against the USDollar.
• Gold Touches 7 Week High on Fed Euphoria
  INVESTMENT DEMAND to buy gold continued to push wholesale prices higher Thursday morning in London, after the US Federal Reserve vowed to keep Dollar interest rates at zero until at least 2014 – one year later than previously promised.

  The global market’s AM Gold Fix here in London was set at $1713 per ounce, more than 3.8% higher from Wednesday afternoon and the highest level since Dec. 8th.

• Slow Boat To China, Oil and Global Trade
  An article of 26 January published by Bloomberg put it this way:
  Container ships can’t go any slower.  Shipping lines are running out of options to stop losses as sailing speeds reach their lower limit, exhausting a solution that helped restore profitability in 2010.
• America’s Shadow Banking System, A Web of Financial Fraud and Criminality
  The Wall Street Journal reported on January 19th that the Obama Administration was pushing heavily to get the 50 state attorneys general to agree to a settlement with five major banks in the “robo-signing” scandal.  The scandal involves employees signing names not their own, under titles they did not really have, attesting to the veracity of documents they had not really reviewed.  Investigation reveals that it did not just happen occasionally but was an industry-wide practice, dating back to the late 1990s; and that it may have clouded the titles of millions of homes.  If the settlement is agreed to, it will let Wall Street bankers off the hook for crimes that would land the rest of us in jail – fraud, forgery, securities violations and tax evasion. 
• Gold Breaks Above $1700 on Continuing Negative Real Interest Rates
  Gold’s London AM fix this morning was USD 1,713.00, GBP 1,091.10, and EUR 1,300.59 per ounce.
  Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,659.00, GBP 1,064.08, and EUR 1,277.04 per ounce.
• I Stand By Silver $140 In 2012
  There is a well-established relationship between how silver and gold trade. They often trade similar in the same time period, but also at similar milestones, although those milestones are sometimes reached at different times. This can cause silver or gold to be the leading indicator, depending on the particular milestone.
  I have previously used this relationship to predict how silver will trade. Below, is an extract of that update:
• Money-Markets, CDs, and Bonds: The Ups and Downs of Stashing Your Cash
  Don Miller writes:
  In today’s volatile markets many investors are faced with the same troublesome question – "Where should I park my cash?"
  In fact, investors have withdrawn a net total of $328 billion from the stock market since 2007, according to Strategic Insight.
  Ever since, a big portion that cash has been looking for a home.

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• UK Recession 2012 Certain as Bank of England Prepares to Ramp Up Money Printing Presses
  The UK Economy was thrown into reverse gear in the final quarter of 2011 by contracting by GDP 0.2%, which may not sound like much but this does send a shock wave warning through the economy that a second recession is now near certain to be declared in April 2012 as measured by 2 consecutive quarters of GDP contraction.
• Straightening Out the Strait
  Recently some of the fears that investors had focused on in the 11th hour debt negotiations in Greece have drifted southeastward towards the Strait of Hormuz. An increasingly bellicose Iran threatens to throw the world economy into confusion with the potential closure of one of the world’s most important sources of energy. Catastrophic failure in Athens or the Gulf could plunge the world into severe recession if not depression. Having discussed the Eurozone at length, we focus this week on the threats posed by Iran.
• Return of the Gold Commission? Would it Raise the Gold Price? Confiscation?
  Newt Gingrich
  The answer to this question is threefold

  It depends on him being elected to a position where he can put this into action.
  It depends on how serious he is on the matter.
  It depends on what his objective really is.

• Gold and Silver Market Manipulation Video
  Angie Miles interviews Janet Tavakoli. There’s a rich history of price manipulation in the commodities markets. Look for price anomalies as options expire tomorrow.
  Many view gold as a currency alternative as central banks print money and debase their currencies.
• Gold "Still Respecting" Post-Lehman Crisis Trend
  SPOT MARKET gold bullion prices dropped to $1653 an ounce Wednesday morning London time – down 1.7% from Monday’s high – while stock markets, commodities and the Euro all slid and US Treasuries gained after the head of the International Monetary Fund suggested the European Central Bank could take losses on its Greek bond holdings.
  Silver bullion fell to $31.67 – down 1.8% for the week so far.
• Four Natural Gas Companies Investors Can Buy Right Now
  Jason Simpkins writes:
  Natural gas companies are hurting – there’s no doubt about it. But that doesn’t mean natural gas companies are bad investments.
  In fact, some of these companies are currently on the bargain rack. You just have to know where to look.
• Home Depot Options Strategy to Play the Housing Market Bottom
  Larry D. Spears writes:
  After more than two years of false starts, the battered U.S. housing market may have finally found a bottom.
  If so, that prospect offers options investors a chance to earn higher returns on lower costs using a Home Depot (NYSE: HD) straddle. (More on that later…)
• Restoring the American Dream: State of the Union Pitches an U.S. Economy
  Martin Hutchinson writes:
  In a speech before the nation last night, President Obama’s State of the Union Address spoke of a new American economy that is "built to last."
  Of course, in the wake of the dot com bubble, the subprime mortgage fiasco and the funny money of the last decade, that’s certainly an objective all of us can heartily agree with.
• IMF’s Grim Outlook to Davo’s Sunny Slopes – Gold Shines
  Gold’s London AM fix this morning was USD 1,659.00, GBP 1,064.08, and EUR 1,277.04 per ounce.
  Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,669.00, GBP 1,072.69, and EUR 1,282.17 per ounce.

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• Absence of Far East Demand Sees Gold Succumb to Profit Taking
  WHOLESALE MARKET gold prices retreated to roughly where they started the week during Tuesday’s morning session in London, making a 1% drop from yesterday’s 6-week high to $1665 an ounce.
  Silver prices slipped to $31.91 an ounce – a 1% drop on Friday’s close – as stocks and commodities also fell following news that Greek debt agreement remains elusive after yesterday’s Brussels finance ministers meeting.
• Stock Market Topping Out or Just Pinning the Fed?
  The Dollar bounced off 79.75 this morning, nothing to crow about for Dollar bulls as the Euro remains just over the critical $1.30 mark and the Pound is solidly over $1.55 for the moment.
  You could say it’s a bearish sign that the Dow and the NYSE stopped dead at our breakout levels but that’s to be expected on a first attempt at breaking out – even if they have already attempted the same move back in late October, when the Dow was 5% lower in it’s test and the NYSE was testing the same line (7,866).
• Japan Gold Buying on TOCOM Again Supports
  Gold’s London AM fix this morning was USD 1,669.00, GBP 1,072.69, and EUR 1,282.17 per ounce.
  Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,675.00, GBP 1,076.55, and EUR 1,294.94 per ounce.
• Sovereigns Declare War on US Dollar
  Iranian Crisis Evolving into Dollar Hegemony and Western Power Challenge
  Profoundly significant news came out of the Middle East on Monday January 23, 2012.  The headline via DEBKAfile* reads:
• Five Tech Stocks to Avoid: RIMM, HPQ, YHOO, ORB, GRPN
  Michael Robinson writes:
  After a rocky 2011, tech stocks have gotten a nice bounce so far this year.
  The Nasdaq 100 index is up about 7% so far, well above the 4.6% rise in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.
  Strong earnings last week from Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC), Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) and International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) have drawn still more attention to tech stocks.
• Greek Private Bondholders Reject Greece ‘Haircut’ Debt Default Deal
  Reuters reports Euro zone ministers reject private bondholders’ Greece offer

  Euro zone finance ministers Monday rejected as insufficient an offer made by private bondholders to help restructure Greece’s debts, sending negotiators back to the drawing board and raising the threat of Greek default.

• Chinese Whispers about China’s Economy
  Jan Skoyles writes: Back in the 1980s any activity in the Chinese economy would have failed to interest anyone in the Western world. Back then they were only a seventh of the size of the US and their economic policies would have barely registered.
  Since the 1980s China has seen an impressive transition from an emerging to an almost fully emerged economy. In just one generation’s time the Chinese economy will grow to $123 trillion – three times more than the entire world output of the year 2000. Robert Fogel predicts that by 2040 the Chinese economy will dwarf that of the US by growing to 3 times its size.
• Stock Market Glass Ceiling Bullish or Bearish?
  We have all heard of the proverbial “glass ceiling” in the business world where one attains a certain level of achievement and is unable to advance any further.
  Well, the same thing happens to share values from time-to-time. They reach a certain price level, and no matter how hard they try, they are simply unable to shatter the glass ceiling overhead.
• How to Work Out of the Long and Painful Debt Deleveraging Process
  This week we look at a report called “Working Out of Debt,” about debt and deleveraging, from the McKinsey Global Institute. This is a well-done summary of their longer paper, which has been updated, called “Debt and deleveraging: Uneven progress on the path to growth.” I discussed the original paper both in my regular letter and in Endgame. It is one of the best, most definitive pieces on the topic I have read. For those trying to understand how the deleveraging process will affect their particular world, I think it is a must-read. I have been spending more and more time thinking about the whole process of deleveraging, and am coming to think deleveraging is the critical and fundamental factor shaping the economic environment and impacting every decision countries and businesses are faced with. This paper was done by Karen Croxson, Susan Lund, and Charles Roxburgh; and they are to be especially commended for their insight and work.

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• Ron Paul Needs to Escape His Libertarian Handlers for Chance of Winning Republican Nomination
  If Ron Paul’s libertarian handlers and support base could escape their ideology, Ron Paul could be much better positioned to win the Republican nomination.
  Here are some suggestions.
• America’s Great Divide Between Rich and Poor
  In 1962, Michael Harrington’s "The Other America" exposed the nation’s dark side, saying:
  "In morality and in justice, every citizen should be committed to abolishing the other America, for it is intolerable that the richest nation in human history should allow such needless suffering."
• Psychology of Tyranny for a Philosophy of Despotism
  The underpinnings that fallaciously attempt to justify despotic regimes rely upon the perverted practice of controlling the public mindset in weak societies. The indisputable evidence that civilization is regressing at lightening speed is all us. Governments are becoming irrelevant with the passage of illegitimate authority consolidating into the hands of oligarchic cabals and global tyrants. An objective study of the voluntary abandonment of individual sovereignty is worthy of an entire scholarly discipline. However, before confused citizens seek psychoanalysis on a couch of technocrat design, the basic principles of a classical education should be applied.
• Currency Wars – Iran Banned From Trading Gold and Silver
  Gold’s London AM fix this morning was USD 1,675.00, GBP 1,076.55, and EUR 1,294.94 per ounce.
  Friday’s AM fix was USD 1,646.00, GBP 1,064.68, and EUR 1,274.29 per ounce.
• The Only New Dividend Aristocrat Stock You Should Buy Today
  Kerri Shannon writes:
  If you are looking for a steady stream of safe dividends in today’s troubled markets, the list of "Dividend Aristocrats" is a good place to start.
  Compiled and tracked by Standard & Poor’s, Dividend Aristocrats are companies that have consistently increased their dividend payouts for 25 consecutive years.
• A Hundred Billion Reasons to Invest in Robotics Technology
  Michael Robinson writes:
  Here’s a 100 billion reasons why space technology should be on your radar screen -especially if you’re interested in robotics.
  According to the journal Nature, the Milky Way Galaxy alone contains at least 100 billion planets.
• Stock Market Rotation to Growth Begins
  In early January, the bear market correction ended. In response, money began to flow out of defensive assets such as bonds and the US dollar and move back into growth (Chart 1). By mid-January, equities were now outperforming fixed income for a first time since July.
• Stock Market Reversal is Due
  SPX: Very Long-term trend – The very-long-term cycles are down and, if they make their lows when expected, there will be another steep and prolonged decline into 2014.
  SPX: Intermediate trend – Intermediate uptrend still intact, but short-term top… or more, is now very close.
• Bullish Set Up on US Dollar
  The US Federal Reserve meets next week (Jan 24/25) and many are expecting Bernanke to release the next financial QE details. The markets are poised for Ben next market leading action.

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• Stock Market Coming Off A High
  “There were two conflicting cultures. One rewarded professionalism, honesty, and entrepreneurship. This culture recognized that without individual investors, the markets could not work. The other culture was driven by conflicts of interest, self-dealing, and hype. It put Wall Street’s short-term interest over investor interests. This culture, regrettably, often overshadowed the other.” Take on the Street: What Wall Street and Corporate America Don’t Want You to Know (2002) Former Chairman of the SEC, Arthur Levitt, pg 7
• Euro, Gold on the Move
  Purely from a technical perspective, let’s notice that the Euro/US Dollar hit a one-week high this morning at 1.2985 off its low at 1.2620 (+2.85%). It has since corrected and turned up from 1.2890, which happens to be the recent upside breakout plateau of a two-week base-like formation that projects to 1.3080-1.3120.

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• UK Gold and Real Interest Rates, A Free Nation Drowining in Debt
  Take record-high debt, add record-low interest rates, and what do you get in gold…?

  SECOND ONLY to Japan, the UK now wears the greatest debt burden of any major economy today – in total, more than 5 years’ entire economic output.

• Roubini Says Greece Will be a Credit Event, Regardless of Debt Deal
  Bloomberg Exclusive: Nouriel Roubini and Ian Bremmer spoke with Bloomberg Television’s Margaret Brennan about the state of the global economy.
  Roubini said that the “probability of a recession in the United States is lower than 60 percent right now.” On Europe, he said that even if an agreement is reached on Greece, “there are going to be so many holdouts that then they’ll have a problem” and “either way you’re going to get a credit event.”
• Gold Stock Upleg Cycles
  Despite gold’s powerful secular bull over the past decade, gold stocks remain vexing to investors and speculators.  Though this metal’s miners have yielded truly colossal bull-to-date gains, they failed to leverage the record-high gold prices seen in much of 2011.  So naturally traders aren’t very enthusiastic about this sector at the moment.  But they sure would be if they understood the gold-stock upleg cycles.
• Platinum’s Upside Potential
  There are certain dogmas held sacrosanct by precious metals investors and one of them is that platinum is supposed to be more expensive than gold. That’s just the way it is. Quite a few eyebrows lifted and jaws dropped last fall when the yellow metals price overtook that of platinum. The historic switch took place on Sept. 2nd when Comex gold futures settled at $1,875.25 per troy ounce, just above platinum’s closing price of $1,873 per ounce. When you consider the price history of the two precious metals—platinum has traded at a $200 to $400 premium to gold—the reversal was astounding. Just to give you a better idea, before the 2008 Lehman Brothers crash, platinum was trading at more than $2,270 per ounce while gold was trading under $990 an ounce.
• Southern Europe Permanently Crippled, The Only Tool Left is Hyper Inflation
  Any perusal around the world these days features Southern Europe crippled, preparing for the inevitable Greek Govt Bond default. It features a crippled US housing market, a mockery of statistical accounting in the US Gross Domestic Product, the plight of the COMEX with established veterans clearing out desks (not trading), the extreme physical demand reported by the London Trader, and the indictment of the SLV iTrust Silver Fund tool used by the cartel. The survey does not look favorable toward stability. The banking, economic, and political leaders have not pursued reform and remedy in any remote sense.
• Investors Great Opportunities in Gold and A Dangerous Trap
  “The Fed doesn’t have a clue about markets or economics. They are dangerous people. Printing money is not good for the world and will lead to more problems for the world….
   
  “What the Federal Reserve is doing now is ruining an entire class of investors.” Jim Rogers, Bloomberg Interview, 6/29/11
• The U.S. Economic Recovery Is Producing Surprises
  In 2008 it was a sure thing the bursting of the real estate bubble, the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market, the freeze-up of the banking system, the ravages of the ‘Great Recession’, collapse of the auto industry, bailout of mortgage- insurance giant AIG, bankruptcy of General Motors and Chrysler, etc., would wind up with the economy in the next Great Depression.
  It was then a sure thing that the massive stimulus and bailout efforts would not work, and the costs would bankrupt the country and drop it into third-world economy status.
• The World Economy Stalls; Meanwhile Dubai Bounces Back: So what’s The Secret?
  One of the few interesting things about Dubai is that it serves as a barometer for economic activity that happens largely outside of government and outside of OEDC.
  I’m not talking blood diamonds or drug money, Dubai services a region that extends thousands of miles in all directions and the only thing that happens there that doesn’t happen elsewhere and is “illegal” in many of the places it services, is economic freedom. What’s interesting is that you can measure the pulse the global free-market by measuring the pulse of Dubai.
• Gold Down for the Week Down in Euros, Up in Dollars
  WHOLESALE MARKET gold bullion prices in Dollars dropped to $1646 an ounce Friday lunchtime in London – down 1.4% on yesterday’s high – as China prepared for the week-long Lunar New Year holiday.
  Commodities also traded lower, while stock markets were broadly flat overall.
  Prices for silver bullion dropped to $30.39 per ounce – though still 2.0% up on last week’s close.

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• Eye on U.S. Dollar vs Commodity Index
  One chart set-up that we need to watch closely in the coming hours and days is the comparison of the dollar and commodity indexes, as their directional price implications could have a major impact on a cross-section of markets.
• Banking Analyst Brad Hintz: ‘We Should Tip Our Hat to Morgan Stanley’
  Bloomberg TV’s Margaret Brennan spoke to banking analyst Brad Hintz this morning, who told Bloomberg TV, “We should kind of tip our hat to Morgan Stanley. They pulled one off here in terms of reducing some of their potential exposure to some of the weaker European banks.”
• Gasland – More Drama Than Documentary, Don’t Frack Me Up
  Marin Katusa, Casey Research writes: To many walking the planet, fracking has a seriously bad reputation. Thanks to hyperbole and misinformation, fracking opponents have convinced a lot of people that the operators who drill and then hydraulically fracture underground rock layers thumb their noses at and even hate the environment.
  Anti-fracking claims may be twists on reality – for example, that a legislative loophole makes fracking exempt from the America’s Safe Drinking Water Act, when really this federal legislation never regulated fracking because it is a state concern. Then there’s the completely absurd, such as the idea that frac operators are allowed to and regularly do inject frac fluids directly into underground water supplies.
• Living In A Real World House Of Lies: How Do We Foreclose?
  If you go to the corner of 8th Avenue and 42nd Street near Times Square in Manhattan, just down from the Wax Museum and around the corner from the bus station, and look up, you’ll see an oversized billboard for Showtime’s, fast -paced “House of Lies,” a new cable TV series that is more like a realistic docudrama about the world of hard-charging management consultants.
• JP Morgan Chase Accused of ‘Brazen Bankruptcy Fraud’
  Maybe this was their warm up for the shenanigans in the MF Global bankruptcy case. Or their long term manipulation of the silver market. 

  If these allegations are true, why doesn’t the California Attorney General or the Justice Department investigate this criminal conspiracy to abuse the legal system? (rhetorical question).

• China to Aid Saudi Arabia in Nuclear Power Development
  Ever since the end of World War Two, the U.S. has come to regard Saudi Arabia as almost its exclusive oil producing enclave.
  In February 1945, after the Yalta Conference with Soviet General Secretary Iosif Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, on his way home U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and King Ibn Saud met aboard the New Orleans-class heavy cruiser U.S.S. Quincy in the Suez Canal’s Great Bitter Lake. During the meeting, instigated by Roosevelt, he and Ibn Saud concluded a secret agreement in which the U.S. would provide Saudi Arabia military security, including military assistance, training and a military base at Dhahran in Saudi Arabia, in exchange for secure access to supplies of oil.
• Key Pillars of Gold Bull Market Intact
  WHOLESALE PRICES to buy gold and silver with Dollars both eased back after touching new 5-week highs in London, rising 1.3% and 3.0% respectively for the week-so-far as the US currency fell further from this week’s 17-month high to the Euro.

  Global equities rose for the fourth day running, with shares in Bank of America adding 6.1% in pre-market US trade after it reported better-than-forecast quarterly earnings.

• Gold and Silver Market Price Manipulation, Look for Motive
  Regulators haven’t been able to keep up with price manipulation in the commodities markets or any other market. Why do games persist? The short answer is because they can, and because they can be very profitable in the short run.
  If you’ve Googled gold or silver, you’ve probably come across sites that are breathless about the possibility of manipulation of metals prices. The problem with the internet is that it’s new, too new to capture the rich history of the financial markets. Manipulation of metals prices–and the prices of many other commodities–is an old tradition. Here’s one example adapted from An Alchemists Road: My transition from medicine to business, by Dr. Henry Jarecki (Dr. Jarecki is currently Chairman of Gresham Investment Management LLC.), October, 1989. This publication is not available on the internet.
• Gold Rises for Fourth Day – IMF $500 Billion Hopes Create Concerns
  Gold’s London AM fix this morning was USD 1,664.00, GBP 1,076.53, and EUR 1,289.62 per ounce.
  Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,657.00, GBP 1,077.09, and EUR 1,290.80 per ounce.

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• When Gold New All Time High?
  By Jeff Clark, Casey Research : Some investors are frustrated and a few are worried that gold seems stuck in a rut. This stall in price has happened before, of course, but since 2001 it’s always eventually powered to a new high. Unless one thinks the gold bull market is over, it’s natural to wonder how long might we have to wait before seeing another new high.
  Absent some sort of global shock that sparks another rush into gold (easily possible in today’s climate), I think the answer may lie in examining the size and length of past corrections and how long it took gold to reach new highs afterward.
• World Bank Global Economy Warning: Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst
  In case your domestic financial press fails to deliver this important message to you so clearly, as the World Bank has done for the rest of the world’s leadership.  

  Hope for the best, and prepare for the worst.

  Equities are pricing in a rosy scenario, but the bonds and precious metals are saying ‘beware.’

• Resource Stocks Breaking Out Of Bases and Forming New Uptrends
  The end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012 greeted investors with spooky market stories to scare investors. A prominent cartoon in the Wall St. Journal depicted a pretty lady shrieking, “The DOW Sank 17%”. Another balloon read “The US Loses Its AAA Rating”. She is screaming, “Who Will Fix Europe?”. Another caption reads, “$71 Billion Yanked From U.S. Stock Mutual Funds”. Another hysterical cry exclaims, “I Want Treasuries!”.
• Ignore the New CPIâ„¢ at Your Peril
  Paul Owen writes: The Corruption Price Index™ (CPI™)
  Modern companies and organizations have a great need to quantify the processes and corruption level(s) of our current form of crony capitalist government. The Corruption Price Index™ (CPI™) does this. The CPI™ index will allow for prior planning to prevent poor performance. It will guarantee that you will not make major a faux pas when dealing with economic and legislative issues. Also as individual investors you will begin to understand why most of our major problems will never get fixed and why you must plan for the worst case scenario.
• Banking Sector Analysis
  Sign up for a free 15-dBelow is a newly created daily sector chart for the big investment & trading banks accompanied by a chart of the cash S&P 500 for comparison and relative strength purposes.
  The SPX currently is on a bullish signal. Only a decline that breaks 1277.50 will neutralize the signal.
• Will China Unleash More Stimulus and Boost Gold Prices?
  On Tuesday, China reported GDP growth of 8.9 percent in the last quarter of 2011, which is the slowest growth increase in more than two years.  Although analysts were only expecting growth of 8.7 percent, the slowdown gave investors hope that the world’s second largest economy will inject more stimulus into its economy to fuel growth.  As a result, gold jumped $24 to climb above $1,650 per ounce, while silver surged 60 cents to settle above $30 per ounce.  However, investors should reign in expectations of more stimulus being unleashed in China during the early part of 2012.
• The Intrinsic Value of the U.S. Dollar and Gold
  If you ask most investors what is the main driver for the price of gold they are likely you tell you that it’s the direction of the U.S. dollar. Therefore, the only due diligence most investors perform is a perfunctory glance at the Dollar Index (DXY). While it is true that the purchasing power of the dollar is a key metric to judge the direction of gold prices, the DXY will only tell you what the dollar is doing against a basket of 6 other flawed fiat currencies.
• India Economy 2012: What to Expect
  The political situation in India remains murky, and elections will be held in key states early this year. Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, will hold elections in seven phases, which will unfold during most of February. Punjab, a significantly smaller state in terms of population, will also hold elections in January and March.
• Natural Gas Glut 2012
  Not since the late 1990s have natural gas prices been this low in the dead of winter. That includes the aftermath of the 2008 crash, when oil bottomed briefly under USD30 a barrel. US inventories of the clean fuel hit a record of 3.852 trillion cubic feet in November and remain at a record for December, 11.4 percent above year-earlier levels.
  Heating demand that’s nearly 20 percent below normal so far this season is at least partly to blame. Roughly half of Americans heat their homes with natural gas. This shortfall has been offset somewhat by a jump in gas’ share of electricity generation to nearly 30 percent from an average of only about 20 percent in recent years.

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