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THE INTERNATIONAL FORECASTER WEDNESDAY, April 7, 2010 040710(2)IF P. O. Box 510518, Punta Gorda, FL 33951-0518 An international financial, economic, political and social commentary. Published and Edited by: Bob Chapman NOTE: NEW E-MAIL ADDRESSES For correspondence to Bob: [email protected] For subscription and renewal: [email protected] CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE www.theinternationalforecaster.com 1-YEAR $159.95 U.S. Funds US AND CANADIAN SUBSCRIBERS: Make check payable to Robert Chapman (NOT International Forecaster), and mail to P.O. Box 510518, Punta Gorda, FL 33951-0518. Please include name, address, telephone number and e-mail address. Or: We accept Visa and MasterCard charges. Provide us with your card number and expiration date. We will charge your card US$159.95 for a one-year subscription. You can email us in two separate emails (1- the Credit Card Number with full name, address and your telephone number and (2- the Expiration date on the card. NON US OR CANADIANS SUBSCRIBERS: Due to the time that it takes for your mail to arrive to us from a foreign country, we would like for you to email us as above the CC information in two separate emails. Note: We publish twice a month by surface mail or twice a week by E-mail. [email protected] or [email protected] RADIO APPEARANCES: To check out all of our radio appearances click on this link below: http://www.theinternationalforecaster.com/radio NEXT ISSUES Every Saturday and Wednesday in April Bob Chapman makes regular radio interviews that can be heard over the air or online. Visit The Bob Chapman Youtube Channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/TheBobChapmanChannel) to listen to recordings of Bob's broadcasts on the markets, politics, metals, the economy, currencies, and current events. Many of the websites linked on this page provide players that allow you to listen to their programs from within your web browser. Many of them, however, provide links to live internet broadcasts which may require additional software. Recommended players: VLC (Windows download, Mac download) iTunes (Windows users click “Get Itunes for Windows” near bottom of page) Windows Media Player (Comes with Windows, Mac download) ***** Discount Gold & Silver Trading Co. For the best in pricing and service for gold and silver coins, call Melody at 1-800-375-4188. Be sure to listen to DGSTC with Bob Chapman live on Short-wave 7.415Mhz M-F 4:00PM ET, Replays Tuesday thru Friday 8pm RT 7.465Mhz 3.215 MHz M-F 11PM ET and weekly archives at discountgoldandsilvertrading.net 1 JOHN STADTMILLER – Republic Broadcasting Network www.republicbroadcasting.org – every Tues. at 5:00-7:00 pm EST GOLDSEEK RADIO – Every Thursday SAM BUSHMAN - LRT Radio http://www.libertyroundtable.com Every first and third Monday of the month 10 am to 11 am DALE WILLIAMS - Free West Radio Program – http://www.freewestradio.com - Every first Tuesday of Month JOHN BRYANT– 7 p.m. EDT - network www.firstamendmentradio.com Dr. STAN MONTEITH - Every Monday 4 p.m. & 8 p.m. PST. www.radioliberty.com, or to our shortwave broadcasts on WHRI at 5.745 MH weekdays from 3-5 pm and 8-10 pm Pacific Time 5070 and 7465. Shortwave: Daily M-F 3:00 - 4:00 PM: PST 5.070 Mhz 4:00 - 5:00 PM: PST 7.465 Mhz 8:00 - 9:00 PM: PST 5.875 & 6.110 Mhz THE MERIA HELLER SHOW –every 2nd Tuesday of the month – www.Meria.net THE POWER HOUR– GCN.live.com – Every other Monday - April 12th, & April 26th 2010. PAT GORMAN – Sunday April 4, 2010 Stephen Lendman – April 8, May 13th, 2010 - Progressive Radio Network every 2nd Thursday of each month. ALEX JONES - GCN.live.com -Noon on shortwave 1st hour: WWCR 9.985 and 2nd & 3rd Hour: Every Friday – noon CST. WWCR 9975 - Here are some of the recent Alex Jones shows that Bob has appeared on. Mon thru Fri Noon to 4 pm EST, 12160 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIQ1Qrv_AUE BUTCH PAUGH – May 12th June 16th - 9 p.m. EST - Also on your computer on www.gcnlive.com <http://www.gcnlive.com/> . LIVE FM STATIONS 9:00 PM EST.-88.3 FM ROTX Campbell, TX- 92.7 FM Lexington TN-102.9 FM in Lutz, FL-89.7 FM Nettie, WV-89.7 FM North Branch, MN-91.9 FM Kerrville, TX97.5 FM Dallas, TX-91.1 FM Austin, TX-97.5-91.1 FM Austin, TX-91.7 FM Fredericksburg, TX-91.7 FM Johnson City, TX-90.1 FM Round Rock, TX-90.1 FM Austin, TX-96.3 FM Austin, TX-95.7 FM Dallas, TX93.3 FM Valparaiso, IN-90.7 & 88.5 FM Cosby, TN-88.3 FM Meadsville, PA-100.3 FM Kamia, ID-89.7 FM Presque Isle ME-97.7 FM Greenville, SC-107.1 FM Oklahoma City, OK-90.1 FM Gatlinburg, TN-102.7 FM Tampa, FL-KGGM 93.5 FM Delhi, LA LIVE AM STATIONS 9:00 EST.-WIJD 1270 AM Mobile, AL, KIOU 1480 AM Shreveport, LA,WFAM 1050 AM Augusta, GA-WELP 1360 AM Greenville, SC-WCPC 940 AM Tupelo, MS-WROL 1340 Providence, RI-WITK 1550 AM in Scranton/Wilkesboro, PA-WNNY 1090 AM Pensacola, FL-WARL 1320 AM Attleboro, MA-1380 WLRM AM Chattanooga, TN-WYYC 1250 AM York, PAWNVY 1070 AM Pensacola, FL-KGEZ 1600 AM Kalispell, MT REBROADCAST FM STATIONS- 91.9 FM Macon, GA 7:00 AM-91.9 FM Freedom radio Jones City, GA 8:00 AM Est. REBROADCAST AM STATIONS-KCKN AM 1020 Roswell, NM 10 PM Est.-KMET 1490 AM 11 AM Pst. - WASB 1590 AM Brockport, NY 5-6 PM Est.- WRSB 1310 AM Canandaigua, NY 5-6 PM Est.-WBCR 1470 AM in Alcoa, TN 78 AM Est.-WVOG 600 AM New Orleans, LA 5:00 PM Est. ERSKINE: - every 3rd Thursday – 2:00 pm CST GCN.live.com Drew Raines: - Drew Raines: - Every Thursday 2200 GMT <5pm E.S.T. 4pm C.S.T.> “A Marines Disquisition” Carried by BlogTalkRadio & Windtalkers Networks Worldwide: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/drew-malone-raineshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hesYUFCe2_U GNC-LIVE FREQUENCIES: http://www.gcnlive.com/Schedule_Shortwave.html KEVIN GALLAGHER & John McGowan – Every first Friday at 9 pm EST. Time Out Productions - www.youtube.com/kgallagher01 Bruce McDonald - The Politics of Common Sense: 6-8 p.m. CST [email protected] Rob Johnson –April 13th & April 27th – May 11th & May 25th on Pappas Telecommunications’ -840 KMPH. Stockton/Modesto, CA Reuben Torres 646-591-3551; - [email protected] "Lets Get Real With Reuben Torres "airs every Tuesday evening from 9:00 pm to 10:00 pm unless otherwise noted. - Next: April 20th & May 4th. Farren Shoaf – April 3rd The Real News Radio <http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=81009&cmd=tc> Derek ENGLER –Derek Dreamer – May 26th & June 23rd - 4pm CST.- www.NutriMedical.com <http://www.blogtalkradio.com/derekdreamer1 Ralph Evans – Sovereign Economist http://sovereign-economist.com - Every Wednesday from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm CDT. http://texasbroadcasting.net 2 Ralph Evans Show on the Texas Broadcasting Network Guy Chapman – Green T Hour – Every 1st Thursday of each month Here is the link to your show. Please use it as you see fit. Good show Bob http://www.blogtalkradio.com/green-t-hour/2010/04/02/green-t-hour We were talking about gun rights this week and here is the feed for our show with the NRA if you want to listen it talks about the mayor of New York wanting to take control of our guns. This guy has really overstepped his boundaries and really needs to be exposed for being a communist. What can we do about people like this I really don't know? I have been blogging and trying to expose him. Here’s the link to your show please use it as you see fit. Thanks for all the hard work great how and sorry for the tech problems. See ya next month and thanks again http://www.blogtalkradio.com/green-t-hour/2009/12/04/green-t-hour James Corbett – 4/20, 5/18 and 6/04, 2010 – 10 am EST – The Sat. issue will have the April, May and June dates posted. Bob Chapman of The International Forecaster joins us once again to discuss the reality behind the economic and political headlines. This month we discuss the looming US sovereign debt crisis, the absolute proof of manipulation in precious metals markets and the ills of Obamacare. We also discuss the alternative media movement that is threatening to topple the systems of control that have held sway over our economy and political structures for so long. http://www.corbettreport.com/mp3/2010-03-31%20Bob%20Chapman.mp3 Bill Deagle – 4/28 & 5/26 GCN – 3/30/10 Radio Interview with Mike McSorley http://krms1150.com/krmsradio/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout =blog&id=12&Itemid=24 ***** The Chicago Resource Expo is being held on April 23rd and 24th, 2010 at the Rolling Meadows Holiday Inn Convention Center in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. The Expo features 25 natural resource companies that range from gold miners to uranium explorers. The Chicago Resource Expo is one of the oldest natural resource conferences in the United States, the event began in 1977. The Expo is Chaired by Rich Radez, a veteran in the natural resource industry. The event begins on Friday afternoon at 2:30pm and concludes on Saturday afternoon at 4pm. Q & A Discussion featuring newsletter writers, geologists, and analysts at 7pm Friday evening. Working Lunch Q & A at noon on Saturday, includes lunch buffet. Both Friday and Saturday afternoon feature a cocktail reception. Special teleconference featuring Bob Chapman of The International Forecaster begins at 3pm on Saturday. Hellix Ventures will be an exhibitor and welcomes you to visit their booth. To read more about this FREE event, and to pre-register, please visit <http://www.chicagoresourceexpo.com> <http://www.chicagoresourceexpo.com> . Email any questions to [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> ***** US MARKETS Almost every day in almost any currency your purchasing power in terms of gold is less and less. Thus, these currencies in which you save the fruits of your labor are cheating you out of your savings. The US dollar is particularly vulnerable because of its staggering debt even though it is the world reserve currency. In fact the debt is so onerous that we believe the quality rating of the dollar could be lowered by the end of the year. Many other currencies face the same dilemma and in the final analysis only gold will be worth what it is today or in the future. Unless the US government expropriates Americans’ retirement plans they won’t be able to fund their sovereign debt. This situation is exacerbated by continued fiscal deficits of some $1.8 trillion. The administration and the Democratic Party are bound and determined to destroy America financially. Between government, Wall 3 Street and banking America is being destroyed. This did not just happen that way; it was planned that way. When people discover what has been done to them there will probably be a revolution. Government spends excessively, as free trade and globalization keeps America under a staggering load of unemployment in what has become a corporatist fascist nation controlled by Wall Street and banking and run by Marxists, who for years have operated in the shadows as bureaucrats. Many American states are on the edge of bankruptcy. Their only hope is massive layoffs and reduced services adding to the already massive unemployment that plagues our nation. The situation is close presently to resembling the 1930s and that is after trillions of dollars created out of thin air permeated the economy. Worse yet, nothing has been done deliberately to solve the problems. One might think the antics of government; banking and Wall Street were deliberate-unfortunately they are. It won’t be long before everything will be nationalized and corporatist fascism will be in full flower. We now have medical health care reform that will cost hundreds of billions of dollars annually adding to a wildly growing deficit, which becomes more un-fundable every day. As you all know this legislation was passed illegally. As you all know this legislation was passed illegally and will be challenged in the Supreme Court. Can you imagine 2,700 pages that no one in Congress read, that was passed, so we could see what was in it. Every Democrat deserves to be thrown out of office for this piece of criminality. Corruption in government, Wall Street and banking knows no end. This in addition to the looting of funds for Social Security and Medicare, that the Treasury now must fund, when they cannot even fund current debt without having the Fed buy it with money created out of thin air. Talk about inflation – it is surely on the way. If we use GAAP accounting, not the US government’s cash figures, the deficit is really in the vicinity of $4.5 to $5 trillion, not $1.8 trillion. This, of course, is nothing new and the same lying and secrecy is in force worldwide. All that people have saved worldwide has been stolen from them - they just do not know it yet. The phenomenon of government workers making far more than workers in industry has to end. Unionized workers make double private industry. Is it no wonder there is deficit spending to hold up this terrible financial burden. There is no end to the demands of these parasites that are sucking the public dry. The situation in Europe is so bad that all of Europe is attacking Germany because they save and do not spend enough and their balance of payments surplus is obscene to other spenders not only in the euro zone, but in the entire EU as well. Their thought is Germany should be losers like we are. Then there are the PIIGS who care about little or nothing. We know we lived for years in all of these countries and fully understand where they are coming from. They all wanted socialism and it has doomed them, as has the euro zone and the European Union. They are about to discover socialism and debt are about to destroy them. You have made yourselves into economic and financial zombies. There is no one left to bail you out. Subsidizing everything doesn’t work as they are soon to find out. When Europe and America fail unfortunately they are going to in part take the entire world down with them – no one is going to be spared. What a world we now live in. Under the “healthcare” legislation everyone can now be “chipped,” so that government can soon catalog everything about you, so on demand they can control you. Hitler and Stalin didn’t have the technology, but had they had it they would have used it, just as our Illuminist masters are about to do. Government wants to totally control your lives. 4 We have an economy in a state of collapse and part of the reason for that is free trade, globalization, offshoring and outsourcing, which since 2000 has cost America some 8 million good quality jobs. Where are you Smoot-Hawley now that we need you? There are many reasons why the American economy is collapsing and free trade, British mercantilism, is one of them. As we have said for months there is a multilateral change coming in currencies. A massive devaluation of all currencies and a debt settlement between countries. When that happens consumers worldwide will lose 2/3’s of their purchasing power on the final leg down into deflationary depression, which is probably 1-1/2 to 2 years away. Your only protection against such events is holding gold and silver related assets. Those who have opted for general stock investments since 1998 have come out even if they were lucky and that includes massive market manipulation by our government. Not just failed policies. The creation in August 1988 of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets” has been a disaster for free markets and a gift to dictators and would be tyrants. The markets are a giant scam and their underpinnings are about to collapse. There has been little or no growth over those years. Real estate bubbles in residential and commercial markets have collapsed and the stock market will soon follow. Hitting you right in the forehead is almost a 4% yield on 10-year Tnotes that could well become 5% by yearend, which we predicted late last year. That will put the 30-year fixed rate mortgage at 6-1/4% to 6-1/2%. What do you think that will do to real estate, markets and profits? This is mainly because of sovereign debt that grows exponentially every minute of every day. These pyromaniacs in the White House and Congress add to the conflagration all day every day. The result has been a 25% loss in the S&P since March of 2000, and a loss versus gold of 75%. Gold has risen from $252 to $1,224 and silver from $3.50 to $20.00 with massive government and Fed suppression. Where do you think your money should have been and where your money should be? In gold and silver bullion, coins and shares. Yes, as usual we were crazy and we were right and we are going to continue to be right, because we understand what the Illuminists are up too. You live in a bankrupt country, along with 18 other major bankrupts, and you will soon learn how you are going to lose everything you have worked a lifetime for. A rise in interest rates of 5% adds $620 billion annually to the US debt in interest alone and that is rising exponentially. The US, nor any government, can survive such debt service. We are calling inflation, real inflation, not the official variety of 3%, but at 8%. John Williams says on the things you buy every day it is 10%. We should easily see 14-5/8% inflation by the end of the year just as we did 2-1/2 years ago. The Fed has ended its $1.25 trillion program of buying toxic debt from lenders. We do not know if that is the correct figure, we do not know from whom they were purchased and we do not know what was paid for the MBS, because it is a secret. This purchase has put downward pressure on interest rates for the past 15 months. This is an abnormal procedure and it can be expected that interest rates would move higher. It also means that the fed will now be a seller in the market as the FDIC is attempting to be. If sold these securities will put downward pressure on these bonds and force higher rates in a market that is already subject to crowding out by the treasury. In addition, quantitative easing is being phased out, putting further upward pressure on rates. The Fed if it continues these policies may stem hyperinflation but they run the distinct risk of having deflation run out of control, which could easily drive the economy into deflationary depression. This is a super human feat we do not see being accomplished without major damage, at the least. 5 Rate volatility is going to increase dramatically, as the Fed works to hold the 10-year T-bill rate below 4%. This is what they did previously at great cost to savers and taxpayers. As rates climb the dollar carry trade becomes much less attractive and as it is unwound borrowed money is pulled from other investments, such as bonds putting more upward pressure on rates and at the same time downward pressure on stocks, which have been purchased with borrowed money. If the Fed tightens, as they might on Wednesday, yields will move even higher. If that happens those in the carry trade and bonds and shares will see gains evaporate and sales of both bonds and stock will ensue, as the carry trade is unwound. This is what markets are now facing. This takes us to municipal bonds and particularly California, which has $85 billion in debt, that has to be paid by its citizens, of which about 40% do not pay any taxes. In addition it officially has 12.4% unemployment, which is really about 25% and getting worse daily. This is a state with $1 trillion to $3.5 trillion in unfunded pensions and the world’s 8th largest economy. This is a state that, via federal subsidy, sold “Build America Bonds”, bonds yielding 6.3%, or 2.4%, higher rates than Treasuries. California is on the edge of bankruptcy and their municipal bonds should be sold, as many from other states should be sold as well. States won’t work out of their problems for years. Last week the Dow rose 0.7%; S&P 1%, the Russell 2000 0.7% and the Nasdaq was unchanged. Banks rose 0.3%; broker/dealers 0.8%; cyclicals 0.8%; transports 1.2%; consumers 1.2%, as utilities fell 1.8%. High tech fell 0.3% as semis gained 1.1% and Internets fell 0.2%. Biotechs fell 0.2%; gold gained $12.00; the HUI rose 6.2% and the USDX fell 0.6% to 81.17. Two-year Treasury bills rose 6 bps to 1.02%; the 10-year T-notes rose 10 bps to 3.95% and the 10-year German bund fell 7 bps to 3.08%. The Freddie Mac 30-year fixed rate mortgage rose 9 bps to 5.08%; the 15’s rose 5 bps to 4.39%; one-year ARMs fell 15 bps to 4.05% and jumbos rose 1 bps to 5.83%. Fed credit declined $7.4 billion. Fed foreign holdings of Treasury, Agency debt rose $7.2 billion to a record of $3.020 trillion. Custody holdings for foreign central banks increased $64.5 billion just year-to-date, and year-on-year 15.7%. M2 narrow money supply fell $10 billion. Total money market fund assets fell $30 billion to $2.983 trillion, the first time below $3 trillion since 10/07. Year-to-date it is off $311 billion and year-on-year it is off 22.2%. Commercial paper fell $5.2 billion, or 20.8% ytd and 24.9% yoy. America’s debt is now $31 trillion, or 2-1/2 times US GDP. Americans on average only own 11% of their home the remainder is debt. Home prices are headed lower until 2013, so 20% lower prices are a certainty. In some areas homes have already fallen 60% to 75%. This situation will feed on itself for years and bankruptcies and inventory for sale will flourish for years. About 45% of homes have mortgages. We wrote five years ago that the government wants to own and nationalize those homes, so they can control the public. As we wrote earlier we expect another large stimulus plan soon and the Fed to reverse gears and flood the world with money sometime soon. This should be the last rescue and the result will be hyperinflation followed by collapse and a deflationary depression. This is the last chance to buy gold and silver inexpensively. If you do not think there was inflation in 2007 and 2008 homeowners insurance rose 24%, in 2008 it rose 31% and again in 2009-10 it rose 31%. 6 Treasury debt is on the ropes and is about to cause the Illuminists real trouble, along with higher interest rates. Later this year or early next year debt as a percentage will reach 95%. From there on its collapse. How can anyone conceive deficits of more than $10 trillion over the next ten years? One of our subscribers tells us before the President went to Afghanistan this past week he went to China to beg for money. The Chinese said they have no more to lend. The President went away empty handed. This shows you the veracity of mainline media reporting and the needless secrecy in government. This Intel came from people in china who are highly placed in the government. The ISM Non-Manufacturing Index release by the Institute for Supply Management rose in March to 55.4 from 53.0. The index reached the highest level since November of 2007. The increase to 55.4 was above market expectations of an increase to 53.3. The data shows that the economic activity in the US continues to improve. More Americans unexpectedly signed contracts in February to buy previously owned homes, signaling government efforts to support the market will start pay off. The index of purchase agreements, or pending home sales, rose 8.2 percent, the second-biggest gain on record and the largest since October 2001, after a revised 7.8 percent drop in January, the National Association of Realtors announced today in Washington. Buyers may be vying to take advantage of an Obama administration tax credit that requires a contract be signed by the end of April, indicating a rebound in sales will soon emerge. Sustained gains in employment would ensure sales continue to rise even after the government incentive expires, raising the odds the economic recovery is maintained. Hedge funds that aim to profit from macroeconomic upheavals have had a lacklustre start to 2010, in spite of some of the biggest international monetary crises in more than a decade. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b8e7ab2e-400f-11df-8d2300144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss - The Greek debt crisis and steep falls in value for both the euro and sterling have failed to translate into noticeable gains for most macro managers, many of whom predicted a stellar year on the back of huge global economic rebalancing. So-called global macro hedge funds, which specialise in bets on interest rates, sovereign bonds and currencies, have on average lost 1.25 per cent on investments so far this year, according to industry data compiled by Hedge Fund Research, a Chicago-based index compiler. Many of the hedge fund industry’s biggest names have so far failed to turn market crises to their advantage often in spite of fervent political criticism linking them to damaging market “speculation”. The 5-foot alligator lurking in the algae-green waters of the community swimming pool was not the worst thing code-enforcement officers have found in recent years at AAA Apartments in Cocoa. Bathrooms infested with mold. Walls with gaping holes where air conditioners had been ripped out. Garbage and trash strewn about the 52-unit complex. The city began issuing code-violation fines in 2007, back at the beginning of the housing slump, and the apartments' co-owners soon owed the city $1.8 million more than three times the current list price of the property, and enough money to motivate the now-former coowners to try bribing a code-enforcement officer. AAA Apartments, now bank-owned, may be an example of things to come. As home foreclosures continue to mount throughout Central Florida, code-enforcement 7 officers say apartments, condominiums and other commercial buildings are being abandoned by their owners and repossessed by banks in growing numbers. A surprise Fed announcement eclipsed the disappointing March Employment Report on Friday. Yes, it is a disappointment despite the media and permabull spin, because the Street expected March NFP to exceed 200k. One forecast had the job gain at 400k. But only 48k temporary Census workers were recorded. So only 162k NFP were reported. Birth Death Model jobs are 81k, even though ADP, who actually does a count, showed small business lost 112k jobs. Professional services gained 11,000 jobs, but 40,000 were part-time jobs. Review and determination by the Board of Governors of the advance and discount rates to be charged by Federal Reserve Banks. Traders quickly surmised that if the Fed is going to allow public access to an emergency meeting to discuss a possible discount rate hike, the probability is very high that a discount rate will occur soon. The probable reason for the public airing is to disabuse the notion that the Fed’s secrecy keeps the public in the dark about its operations while it tips coming policy to insiders who profit on the inside info. Most of the financial media ignored the Fed notice and reported the dollar surged because the jobs report indicated the economy had turned the corner. How is this possible when the number of jobs were below the consensus forecast? Other financial media types spun the disappointing NFP as good news because it means the Fed cannot hike rates. But the dollar rally contradicts this notion…If anything, SPMs jumped on asset allocation, which will be a temporary boost for stocks. Perhaps the past months’ upward revisions were a factor. The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for January was revised from 26,000 to +14,000, and the change for February was revised from -36,000 to -14,000. Once again we see chicanery in the March Employment because the Household Survey shows a gain of 264k jobs but ‘Men 20 years & over’ accounted for a 290k job gain. ‘Women 20 years & over’ LOST 42k jobs. This is absurd. You might recall that we noted that the January Employment Report recorded a 541k jobs increase in the Household Survey due to an increase of 529k of jobs for ‘Women 20 years & over’, while ‘Men 20 years & over’ LOST 1k jobs. This is impossible! Now we see the opposite scheme ‘Men 20 years & over’ gained 290k jobs; women lost 42k jobs. The Household Survey shows an increase of 308,000 jobs, but the BLS did not report this in the preamble to the report. Most of the gain is due to 233,000 gain in ‘Men 20 years and older’. ‘Men 16 year and older’ account for 297,000 of the 308,000 jobs gain in the Household Survey! For February, ‘Women 20 years of age and older’ increased only 11,000. Wages fell 0.1% (+0.2% expected), a record for the data series; but it only goes back to 2006. Wages should increase before employment increases due to the high cost of benefits. U6, comprehensive unemployment, increase 0.1 to 16.9% in March. ‘Unemployed for 27 weeks or more’ hit a record 44.1%. Per Alan Abelson, the odds of finding a job sank to 18.7% from Feb’s 20.1%. The Exhaust Rate (people that have exhausted unemployment benefits) hit 54.01% for February. Gallup Daily tracking finds that 20.3% of the U.S. workforce was underemployed in March. [The 149,268 consumer bankruptcies filed in March 8 represented the highest monthly consumer filing total since Congress overhauled the Bankruptcy Code in 2005.] For the week ended Wednesday, the Fed’s balance contracted $5.992B due to the sale of $5.103B of MBS. The Fed monetized $1.5B of agencies. US banks earned $2.5bn last year from an accounting rule that enables them to book gains – known as “Christmas capital” by buying assets at a discount, a new study shows. More than half of all acquisitions of failed banks last year resulted in such gains, according to SNL Financial, which compiled the data. Administrations release unpleasant news on Friday evening because fewer people pay attention and the media cycle is more favorable. You can imagine why Team Obama released the following nugget on Good Friday. In one of its first steps to carry out the new health care law, the Obama administration announced Friday that it was establishing a temporary insurance pool where uninsured people with medical problems could buy coverage at reduced rates. Federal health officials said the program would be available from late June of this year to Jan. 1, 2014, when private insurers will be required to accept all applicants without varying premiums on account of a person’s medical condition. Under the new law, Ms. Sebelius can sign contracts with states to operate insurance pools meeting federal standards. The federal government can operate the pool directly or hire a nonprofit organization to run it in any state that does not want to do so. To qualify for the high-risk pool, a consumer must have a pre-existing condition and must have been uninsured for the six months before filing an application. You can’t make up stuff like this! Rep. Phil Hare (D-IL) responding to a constituent who asks about the Constitutionality of Obamacare, says, “I don't worry about the Constitution on this to be honest. More than 1 in 5 jobless Americans have been without work for a year or more, potentially leading to a loss of skills that will hurt the economy, according to a study by the Pew Fiscal Analysis Initiative. About 3.4 million people, or 23 percent of the unemployed in December, were jobless for at least 12 months, the study showed. And, while the long-term job loss spans industries and age groups, those who are 55 and older have had the hardest time finding new positions, according to the report said. A short workweek, a surge in permanent firings, and the slump in home values signal that the problem of extended unemployment is likely to persist even as the labor market and economy recover, the report said. The federal government may spend five times as much on jobless benefits this year than in the years leading up to the recession, it said. Policy makers “will be under pressure to take additional action before the recovery takes hold and the long-term unemployment rate returns to a lower level,’’ Pew said in the report. While more experienced Americans are less likely to lose their jobs, once unemployed they face an increasing chance of being out of work longer, the report showed. Almost 30 percent of unemployed workers aged 55 and older have been without work for a year or more, the highest share of any age group. Across age groups, people with a high school diploma or less were most likely to be unemployed for more than a year. Even so, education did not guarantee a short stint of unemployment. Twentyone percent of jobless workers with a bachelor’s degree have been out of work for a year or longer, compared with 27 percent of high school graduates and 23 percent of those without a high school diploma. 9 Those who are unemployed for such a length of time can lose job skills and face the largest cuts in weekly earnings once they do return to work, the report showed. Manufacturing, construction, and wholesale and retail trade were among the industries that had the highest number of people unemployed for at least a year. The problem of long-term unemployment is not likely to diminish soon, according to the report. A workweek near record lows indicates that companies can give current employees more work before having to take on more staff. Also, a surge in permanent firings signals many of those jobs are not coming back. CA Inc., the second-largest maker of software for mainframe computers, said it will cut about 1,000 jobs as part of its 2010 restructuring plan. CA also said its 2010 profit will be at the low end of its forecast range. Junk bond sales reached a record this month… Companies worldwide issued $38.3 billion of junk bonds in March, passing the previous high of $36 billion in November 2006… Yields fell 0.95 percentage point to within 5.96 percentage points of government debt, the narrowest gap since January 2008. This is ‘an almost ‘Goldilocks’ environment for leveraged credit markets,’ JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts led by Peter Acciavatti said. Sales soared as investors plowed a record $33.6 billion into speculative-grade funds this quarter, according to research firm EPFR Global.” [Chasing yields continues and can only end in tears.] The leveraged-loan market climbed to a 21-month high this week as rising prices spurred companies including Cedar Fair LP and IMS Health Inc. to obtain buyout loans during the quarter, making it the busiest period for such funding since July-through-September 2008. Since Jan. 1, companies have raised more than $5 billion in the high-yield, high-risk leveraged-loan market to finance buyouts. Demand for collateralized loan obligations is reviving, according to Citigroup Inc. CLOs, shunned for their role in causing $1.76 trillion of bank write downs, buy leveraged loans and then use the payments as collateral for bonds. Citigroup last month priced a $525 million deal in the first new issue in a year. Leveraged, or junkrated, loans typically fund buyouts. ‘More deals are expected in the course of the year,’ analysts led by Ratul Roy wrote. Leveraged loans prices rose to 91.7% of face value this week, the highest since June 25, 2008. The gauge fell to a low of 59% in Dec. 17, 2008. [Investors learned nothing from the MBS-CDO and ABS crash.] Emerging-market companies and governments are borrowing at a record pace to take advantage of all-time low yields. Developing-nation issuers sold $157 billion of bonds in the first quarter, the busiest start to a year since Bloomberg began compiling the data in 1999, as the yield on JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s benchmark EMBI Global Diversified Index fell as low as 6.22% on March 17. Investors flooded risky companies with money in March even as the government prepares to shut down a key engine driving one of the greatest corporatebond rallies in history. A total $31.5 billion in new high-yield debt… hit the market through Tuesday, exceeding the previous monthly record in November 2006. Partly propelling the activity: The Federal Reserve’s massive mortgage-buying program, which comes to an end… By buying $1.25 trillion of mortgage securities, the Fed absorbed a flood of assets that otherwise would have needed buyers. That kept money in the hands of investors, who went searching for something else to buy. The Fed's underpinning encouraged investors to seek riskier, higher-yielding securities. A natural choice: corporate bonds. A bond program funded by the Obama administration’s stimulus bill will save state and local governments billions in borrowing costs, the Treasury Department said. 10 A Treasury analysis of the “Build America Bonds’’ program found that it will reduce borrowing costs by $12.3 billion for governments building capital projects such as schools, hospitals, and transportation. Governments use the stimulus bonds, which pay taxable interest to investors, instead of the tax-free bonds that state and local governments normally issue. Investors demand higher interest rates on the stimulus bonds because of the taxes, but the Treasury covers 35 percent of the governments’ interest payments. That lowers the governments’ net borrowing costs to below what they would pay on taxexempt bonds. The federal government gets back most of the 35 percent subsidy — about 28 percent — by taxing the investors, the administration said in its annual budget request. The Treasury would not provide an estimated cost to the government of the remaining 7 percent subsidy. The Treasury does not have access to the necessary data on investors’ taxes, an official said. The program is a net transfer of money from the federal government to state and local governments. Some industry officials dispute that, saying the federal government is getting back a lower percentage of the subsidy in taxes, and that the program costs more than the government is acknowledging. President Obama has proposed making it permanent in a modified form. The Treasury says the bonds open municipal finance to new classes of retail and institutional investors, including life insurance companies. The federal government announced yesterday that it is relaxing some rules to make it easier for communities to spend funds on redeveloping abandoned and foreclosed properties. The changes, effective immediately, will allow cities, counties, and states to buy properties in mortgage default and uninhabitable homes with lingering code violations through the $4 billion Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The program was started in the midst of the nation’s foreclosure crisis, but a year later about a third of more than 300 local governments that got grants have barely made a dent in them, according to a recent report from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Some city, state, and county officials say they have had trouble spending the grant money because federal rules are confusing and cash investors have often outbid them for residential properties. “It became clear to us that the Neighborhood Stabilization Program as originally designed was too restrictive and limited the ability of our local partners to put this funding to work quickly,’’ Mercedes Marquez, HUD’s assistant secretary for community planning and development, said in a statement. “We need to be more flexible so our local partners can respond to market conditions and reverse the effects of foreclosure in these neighborhoods as quickly as possible.’’ James Miller, spokesman for the Florida Department of Community Affairs, which got $91 million to distribute to 24 cities and counties, called yesterday’s announcement wonderful news. “It just broadens the pool of available properties that local governments can target,’’ he said. “This opens up more possibilities for them.’’ The new rules give communities a broader pool to work from. Now a community can buy a property that is at least 60 days delinquent on its mortgage if the owner has been notified, or if the owner is 90 days or more delinquent on tax payments. HUD also expanded the definition of an abandoned property to include homes where no mortgage or tax payments have been made for at least 90 days or a code 11 enforcement inspection has determined that the property is not habitable and the owner has taken no corrective action. Employers in the U.S. created more jobs in March than at any time in the past three years, showing the recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s is broadening and becoming more entrenched. Payrolls rose by 162,000 workers, the third gain in the past five months and the most since March 2007, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. The increase included 48,000 temporary workers hired by the government to conduct the census. Unemployment was 9.7 percent for a third month. The government revised the January and February job count up by a combined 62,000, putting the March gain at 224,000 after including the updated data. The jobless rate was unchanged even after Americans who had previously dropped out of the workforce decided to resume the job hunt, pointing to growing confidence that the world’s largest economy will continue to expand. California's sole auto plant shut down Thursday in Fremont as the last car rolled off the assembly line and thousands of now unemployed workers walked out the doors, some crying. A red Toyota Corolla was the last of nearly 8 million vehicles that have moved through production at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., known as NUMMI, and a throng of workers accompanied it on the final leg of the line. "I saw a whole lotta men crying in there when things started going quiet and we said our goodbyes. It made me choke up," said David Guerra, who has worked at NUMMI for 25 years -- as long as the plant's been open. The plant, established in 1984 as a joint venture between GM and Toyota Motors Corp., employed 4,700 workers. More Americans filed for bankruptcy protection in March than during any month since the federal personal bankruptcy law was tightened in October 2005, a new report says, a result of high unemployment and the housing crash. Federal courts reported over 158,000 bankruptcy filings in March, or 6,900 a day, a rise of 35 percent from February, according to a report to be released on Friday by Automated Access to Court Electronic Records, a data collection company known as Aacer. Filings were up 19 percent over March 2009. The previous record over the last five years was 133,000 in October. “Even with the restrictive new law, we’re back up over where we were before the law changed,” Mike Bickford, president of Aacer, said in a phone interview Thursday from his headquarters in Oklahoma City. He faulted the stagnant economy, saying a surge in bankruptcies generally follows economic contraction by 6 to 18 months, and he pointed to March as a historically busy month for bankruptcy filings. Other experts point out that filings invoking Chapter 7 of the bankruptcy code, a simple and inexpensive option, are rising faster than more complex Chapter 13 reorganization filings, under which consumers repay a portion of their debts so they can keep their homes, suggesting that more homeowners are simply walking away from underwater mortgages. “Fewer people are trying to save their homes,” Katherine M. Porter, a University of Iowa law professor and bankruptcy expert, said in an interview by phone on Thursday. “They realize their payments are not affordable, and bankruptcy judges do not have the power to adjust the mortgages to make them more affordable.” Statistics from the United States Trustee Program, the Justice Department office that oversees bankruptcy cases, show that Chapter 7 filings as a percentage of all bankruptcies have increased to about 73 percent in 2009 from about 62 percent in 12 2006-07. Of the 158,141 bankruptcy filings in March, 118,505, or 75 percent, were Chapter 7s and 38,241 were Chapter 13s, the Aacer report says. “We think that means fewer and fewer families think they’re really going to save their homes,” Professor Porter said. “They don’t have any equity, so why try to keep up with their home payments?” The nation’s high unemployment rate is one more reason for people to choose Chapter 7, Professor Porter said. “To file Chapter 13, you need ongoing income, and to the extent we have more people who are unemployed, they can’t use Chapter 13 because they don’t have that income to pay into the plan,” she said. Finally, Professor Porter said, March is the high season for bankruptcy filings because many people in financial distress get a tax refund check that they can use to pay the $1,500 to $3,500 that a bankruptcy lawyer charges. “People use their tax refunds to pay their attorney fees,” she said. Subprime-mortgage securities are rising at an accelerating pace as the U.S. begins to encourage reductions to homeowners’ balances, which may lead to fewer foreclosures and a quicker end to the housing slump. A Markit ABX index of creditdefault swaps tied to 20 subprime-loan bonds rated AAA when created in the first half of 2006 climbed 3.2% last week. New York Governor David Paterson is asking state workers’ unions to give up a 4% pay increase agreed to under the previous administration to help close a budget gap of $9.2 billion, he said. Wikileaks has obtained and decrypted this previously unreleased video footage from a US Apache helicopter in 2007. It shows Reuters journalist Namir Noor-Eldeen, driver Saeed Chmagh, and several others as the Apache shoots and kills them in a public square in Eastern Baghdad. They are apparently assumed to be insurgents. After the initial shooting, an unarmed group of adults and children in a minivan arrives on the scene and attempts to transport the wounded. They are fired upon as well. The official statement on this incident initially listed all adults as insurgents and claimed the US military did not know how the deaths occurred. Wikileaks released this video with transcripts and a package of supporting documents on April 5th 2010 on http://collateralmurder.com. The just completed 3 Month and 6 Month Bill auctions were the weakest ones conducted so far in 2010. Out of 14 auctions conducted so far across both maturities this year, the 3 Month closed at the highest rate seen since December, at 0.175%, coupled with the lowest Bid To Cover over the same period, coming in at 3 month low of 3.6. The same is true for the 6 Month: the closing high rate of 0.265% was the highest in 2010, combined with the weakest Bid To Cover YTD, at 3.63. Direct bidders once again came in to save the day. The fastest growth in global currency reserves since the credit crisis is blunting a rise in Treasury yields even as concern increases about record U.S. borrowing to finance an unprecedented budget deficit. Worldwide reserve assets climbed 18 percent to $7.8 trillion in the 12 months ended in March, the biggest increase since the collapse of Bear Stearns Cos. in March 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Bank of America Corp. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc forecast that growth in reserves, led by Asian nations, will sustain demand as Greece’s fiscal woes raise concern about the risk of holding sovereign debt and corporate bonds offer the slimmest yield premiums over Treasuries since November 2007. 13 The Obama administration is counting on foreign investors, who own half of the outstanding $7.4 trillion in marketable Treasury debt, to continue buying while the Federal Reserve begins a shift in monetary policy. Bonds with built-in protection against rating cuts are making up a record share of debt issues as investors hedge against a slowdown in the economic recovery. Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, the brewer of Budweiser and Stella Artois, is among companies issuing so-called step-up bonds, whose interest increases if a borrower is downgraded. Sales surged to $37.3 billion in March, or 12.4 percent of all debt issued, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Most of the notes are sold in the U.S., where almost half of bonds rated as so-called junk or on the cusp of noninvestment grade include the protection. Investors are concerned that debt-laden companies are at increasing risk of being downgraded this year, even as the global economy emerges from the deepest recession since the 1930s and credit markets rally. Reductions in corporate ratings and credit outlooks outpaced increases by 150 percent in the first quarter, according to Moody’s Investors Service. “The recent use of step-ups shows some investors are still concerned about downgrade risks, despite a rally in corporate debt,” said Sarwat Faruqui, a director of capital markets origination at Citigroup Inc. in London. Step-up interest coupons are typically used by companies rated at or below Baa1 by Moody’s and BBB+ by Standard & Poor’s, two notches above non-investment grade. Sales of the bonds globally are up from $16.6 billion in February and $8.4 billion a year ago, according to Bloomberg data. In the U.S., such borrowers sold a record $32 billion of the debt last month, or 46 percent of all bond issuance, the data show. The Chicago Federal Reserve Bank said on Tuesday its Midwest manufacturing index slumped in February, largely on a reversal from January's robust growth in auto production. The index fell 0.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted 82.6 from an upwardly revised 83.2 in January, which was originally reported at 83.1. Compared with a year earlier, Midwest output edged down 0.5 percent, significantly lower than the 2.0-percent national increase. The U.S. Federal Reserve could keep interest rates ultra-low for even longer than investors anticipate if the outlook worsens or inflation drops, minutes from the central bank's last meeting suggested. The minutes released on Tuesday showed lingering concern about the U.S. economy's prospects, with policymakers indicating they were in no hurry to raise interest rates. Officials believed their promise to keep rates low for "an extended period" would not unduly constrain the central bank if it felt the need to tighten monetary conditions. "The duration of the extended period prior to policy firming might last for quite some time and could even increase if the economic outlook worsened appreciably or if trend inflation appeared to be declining further," the minutes said. "Such forward guidance would not limit the (policy-setting) committee's ability to commence monetary policy tightening promptly," they said. The state of New York’s history of budget manipulation is contributing to its chronic deficits and cash squeeze, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said. "New York needs to stop playing games with the deficit," DiNapoli said in a statement. By shifting money between accounts in a "fiscal shell game," state officials and lawmakers "cover cash shortfalls and avoid making the difficult decisions needed to align spending with revenues," DiNapoli said. 14 In the year ended March 31, the state used $6.4 billion of funds shifted and borrowed between accounts, and rolled $3 billion of payments into the current year, which began April 1, the report said. Lawmakers haven’t agreed on a plan to close a deficit of more than $9 billion this year in a $135.2 billion budget proposed by Governor David Paterson. "We agree with much of the Comptroller’s report," said Matt Anderson, a spokesman for the Division of Budget. "That’s why we are focused on recurring spending cuts to close deficits instead of one-time transfers," he said. Paterson has said he wants 75 percent of the budget gap closed by reoccurring cuts that would also shrink future deficits. The Division of Budget’s summary of spending begins with the state operating funds budget, which was $79.3 billion last year, "to help avoid the confusion of transfers with the general fund," Anderson said. The general fund budget was $54.2 billion last year, and the all-government funds, a measure that includes capital spending and federal aid, was $134 billion. Maybe the IMF will be needed to back loans to California? Good thing the US doesn’t need the IMF help to print money. Los Angeles will run out of cash on May 5, city Controller Wendy Greuel said today in a release in which she requested a $90 million transfer of reserve funds to pay bills. The staggering amount of unfunded debt stands to crowd out funding for many popular programs. Reform will take something sadly lacking in the Legislature: political courage. The state of California's real unfunded pension debt clocks in at more than $500 billion, nearly eight times greater than officially reported. That's the finding from a study released Monday by Stanford University's public policy program, confirming a recent report with similar, stunning findings from Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. To put that number in perspective, it's almost seven times greater than all the outstanding voter-approved state general obligation bonds in California. Why should Californians care? Because this year's unfunded pension liability is next year's budget cut to important programs. For a glimpse of California's budgetary future, look no further than the $5.5 billion diverted this year from higher education, transit, parks and other programs in order to pay just a tiny bit toward current unfunded pension and healthcare promises. That figure is set to triple within 10 years and -- absent reform -to continue to grow, crowding out funding for many programs vital to the overwhelming majority of Californians. How did we get here? The answer is simple: For decades -- and without voter consent -- state leaders have been issuing billions of dollars of debt in the form of unfunded pension and healthcare promises, then gaming accounting rules in order to understate the size of those promises. If you think Greece is bad take a look at California. On a scale of 10 to 1, 10 being highest, Greece is a 2 and the Golden State is a one. The honeymoon for both is over - the entitlements are about to end. Because of a $45 million budget gap, the New York City Housing Authority may have to revoke rental-assistance vouchers from more than 10,000 low-income tenants, a drastic move that could cause families to lose their apartments. Izolda Mandelblat and her husband Moisey Frenkel, immigrants from Ukraine, had been on a Section 8 waiting list for 13 years. Their benefits finally started in November, but they now face losing them as the New York City Housing Authority tries to bridge - a $45 million deficit. 15 The federal government gave the housing authority less money for the voucher program, known as Section 8, than the authority expected. But the authority made matters worse by continuing to issue new vouchers until December, eight months after the government warned it to stop doing so because the program was likely to run a deficit. Individuals who don’t purchase health insurance may lose their tax refunds according to IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. After acknowledging the recently passed health-care bill limits the agency’s options for enforcing the individual mandate, Shulman told reporters that the most likely way to penalize individuals that don’t comply is by reducing or confiscating their tax refunds. Speaking at the National Press Club on Monday, Shulman downplayed the IRS’s role in enforcing the recent overhaul of the health insurance industry by claiming the agency would not aggressively target individuals who don’t purchase coverage. He noted that the health-care bill expressly forbids the agency from freezing bank accounts, seizing assets or pursuing criminal charges, but when pressed said the IRS would most likely use tax refund offsets to penalize those that don’t comply with the mandate. The IRS uses refund offsets to collect from individuals that owe the federal government a delinquent debt. “These are not the kinds of things we send agents out about,” Shulman said. “These are things where you get a letter from us. Congress was very careful to make sure there was nothing too punitive in this bill.” Many reports have claimed that enforcement of the individual mandate will be non-existent, but Shulman’s answers indicate differently. According to BusinessWeek, starting in 2015 Americans who don’t purchase insurance will be subject to a fine of $325 and that sum increases to $695 in 2016. However, the commissioner seemed confident that in most cases individuals would either receive subsidies to purchase insurance or simply do so on their own in order to comply with the law. “The vast majority of American people have a healthy respect for the law and want to be compliant with their tax obligations,” Shulman said, mentioning letters, collection notices and offsets as among the various ways the IRS will reach out to people without coverage. During his speech Shulman said threats against the IRS have not risen despite media reports to the contrary. He disagreed that it has become more dangerous to work for the IRS following the February incident in which a disgruntled pilot flew his plane into the agency’s Austin, Texas office, killing one employee. “There’s been a lot of stuff in the press around increased threats, which is actually inaccurate,” Shulman said. “What there has been is increased chatter on the Internet that has an anti-government sentiment.” He also said it is too early to know what additional resources or how many employees the IRS will need to enforce compliance with the mandate and clarified his reasons for using a professional tax preparer. “I wouldn’t read into anything about me doing it now,” Shulman said. “I’m just a busy guy and have had good service for the past 15 years.” SAToday reports IMF’s managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, warning investors that global banks are still clueless. They “remain saddled with too many toxic securities and have not yet shown an understanding of the need to embrace farreaching operational reforms … Bad loans must be disposed of before banks can play their customary role in financing economic growth.” So what’s new? Sounds like they’re trapped, as always, in the same old mindset of blind greed and hyper-optimism. The IMF boss, a French economist, did made specific comments that suggest our “too- 16 political-to-fail” banks are setting the world up for another, more lethal meltdown … and possibly the dreaded “Great Depression 2″ that we recently dodged: “All around the world, you still have a lot of undisclosed losses” … “You never recover until the cleansing of the banks’ balance sheet has been done, and now we’re not at the point where this has been totally done.” “I’m rather pessimistic … politicians seem to have drawn the lesson that they need to change the way they’re working if they want to manage the global economy” but “the banking sector — very little lessons have been drawn in terms of behavior.” Ouch! And that’s direct from the International Monetary Fund’s boss. You really have to wonder if we’re headed for another meltdown soon. And since the US doesn’t have another $23.7 trillion (nor the political will) to bailout Wall Street’s “too-greedy-to-fail” banks again, investors better wake up fast and prepare for that dreaded “Great Depression 2″ we barely dodged in last year’s financial “near-death” experience. President Obama said Monday that he was revamping American nuclear strategy to substantially narrow the conditions under which the United States would use nuclear weapons, even in self defense. But the president said in an interview that he was carving out an exception for “outliers like Iran and North Korea” that have violated or renounced the main treaty to halt nuclear proliferation Mr. Obama described his policy as part of a broader effort to edge the world toward making nuclear weapons obsolete, and to create incentives for countries to give up any nuclear ambitions. To set an example, the new strategy renounces the development of any new nuclear weapons, overruling the initial position of his own defense secretary. Mr. Obama’s strategy is a sharp shift from those adopted by his predecessors. For the first time, the United States is explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty, even if they attacked the United States with biological or chemical weapons, or launched a crippling cyberattack Obama’s removal of the US’s most precious bargaining chip ‘big stick’ is unfathomable. Obama’s move will further harm Democratic prospects in November because the two issues that have plagued Democrats for eternity are: 1) They want to destroy US capitalism and replace it with some form of socialism; and 2) they want to disarm the US and form a global Kumbaya circle. Now, countries that assumed the US nuclear umbrella would protect them and deter their adversaries from strikes against them have to quickly formulate monumentally different strategies and outlooks. This includes: Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Last night, officials from China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, the Taliban and Al Qaeda went incontinent from laughter. The world no longer respects the US as an economic and financial power. Do our adversaries fear Apple, Wall Street, hedge funds, Wal-Mart or McDonald’s? No! They fear US nuclear capabilities. So besides having to contemplate an economy and financial system with unprecedented government and Fed intervention and duplicity, we now have to consider Obama’s unfathomable game changer. Rasmussen Consumer Index Consumer and Investor Confidence Jumps Following Jobs Report The Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures the economic confidence of consumers on a daily basis, is up seven points since Friday morning to 85.3. Thirty- 17 five percent (35%) of adults nationwide now believe the economy is improving. That’s up six points since the government reported that 162,000 new jobs were created last month. Still, a plurality of adults (45%) continue to believe the economy is getting worse State and local governments collected $360 billion in tax revenue in the fourth quarter of 2009, up 0.8% from the same quarter a year ago. Property taxes, the primary source of funding for many local governments, rose 5.8% to $170 billion. Personal income taxes fell 4.7% in the fourth quarter of 2009 versus the same period a year earlier. Saudi central bank to head new Gulf monetary union By TAREK EL-TABLAWY CAIRO The head of Saudi Arabia's central bank on Tuesday was named the first chairman of a council that will serve as the precursor to a regional central bank in the latest step toward a unified Gulf currency and greater economic integration. Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency head Mohammed al-Jasser's appointment came during the first meeting of the newly-created Gulf Monetary Council -- a body that groups together the OPEC kingpin, as well as Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar. Two other Gulf Arab states, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, have opted out of the plan. The meeting in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, appeared to underscore a directed push to move ahead with a broader unification and single currency process that has been thwarted for years by political bickering, economic challenges and infighting, analysts said. "From Saudi Arabia's position, it shows a clear commitment to bring all the countries closer together and move toward the currency union," said John Sfakianakis, chief economist at the Riyadh-based Banque Saudi Fransi-Credit Agricole Group. "It offers the Monetary Council, and the rest of the states, the ability to tap into the technical resources of Saudi Arabia and that of the (regional) central bank." "The rest of the countries are seeking the needed leadership, and Saudi Arabia is demonstrating a clear commitment," he said. The new council is charged with drawing up the framework of the single currency, including an exchange rate system and setting up the regional central bank with an eye on developing a MidEast equivalent of the European Union. But the process has hit repeated roadblocks, the most recent being when the UAE -the Arab world's second largest economy -- pulled out of the plan after Saudi Arabia, home to the world's largest proven reserves of crude oil, was selected to house the proposed central bank. The UAE's withdrawal was widely viewed as a reaction to being snubbed as headquarters for the new council and central bank. Oman had earlier said it would not participate because it did not feel it was ready to fully integrate its economy into a broader regional body. Still to be determined about the single currency is whether it would be pegged to a basket of currencies, the U.S. dollar or some other currency. All six Gulf Cooperation Council nations peg their currencies to the dollar except for Kuwait which relies on a basket. The new council's deputy chairman will be Bahrain's central bank head, Rasheed alMaraj. Both he and al-Jasser will hold the jobs for one year before the slots rotate to Kuwait and Qatar. 18 Officials had said they wanted to set up the unified currency by this year, but that deadline appeared unrealistic from the outset. Analysts said the new target is around 2015, but even meeting that tentative timeframe and moving on with greater integration requires overcoming hurdles that are obstructing efforts to set up a Gulf customs union, and agreements on transfer of labor, services and capital. "In order for them to move toward giving a timeline for the currency union, they need to make important progress in the technical aspects," said Sfakianakis. He said the meeting in Riyadh, and the ongoing discussions, reflects "an important political statement and commitment from the four countries that they're moving on despite, the exit of Oman and the UAE BONUS POINT: The person with the mortgage is Michele Reagan, a State Rep from the State of Arizona. Using tips that sound like something out of recently-held Freedom's Phoenix workshops on mortgages (hmmmm!), Reagan is being sued by her bank after asking them to prove they actually own her note DESPITE NOT EVER MISSING A PAYMENT! "In doing research, I began to wonder if the lender even owned the note to my home,” she said. “So I sent them a letter and asked them and asked them several things. I want to know who owns my property. Am I paying the right person?” Soon after, Colonial Savings filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against Reagan and her husband. The company says the couple is trying “to rescind their home loan,” or back out on the loan. “We're not interested in walking,” Reagan said. “We're not interested in saying we're not going to pay. We just need a little help with the interest rate." “I'm current on my loan. Never missed a payment. We've never been late. We were sued for asking too many questions,” said Reagan. As a state lawmaker, Reagan said she had been hesitant to speak out about her ordeal. “This has now snowballed into something so much bigger and scarier than refinancing and asking who owns your note,” she said. ***** Feds Prepare To Use Anarchists To Provoke Tea Party Violence http://www.infowars.com/feds-prepare-to-use-anarchists-to-provoke-tea-party-violence/ ***** Obama's Private Army http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGW136RLhSM ***** Utah Passes Law to Seize Federal Land http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0EJLVi8h00&playnext_from=TL&videos=2s37IL9zn 90&feature=recentf ***** Cops & CPS Seize Child From Parents For Mistrusting Government http://www.infowars.com/cops-cps-seize-child-from-parents-for-mistrustinggovernment ***** Obama Says Talk Radio is “Troublesome http://www.infowars.com/obama-says-talk-radio-is-troublesome/ ***** Cabal Owns Regulatory Apparatus and Everybody is Afraid to Regulate Them http://www.infowars.com/cabal-owns-regulatory-apparatus-and-everybody-is-afraid-toregulate-them/ 19 ***** Cop Cleared By Grand Jury For Tasering Great Grandmother During Speeding Stop http://www.prisonplanet.com/cop-cleared-by-grand-jury-for-tasering-greatgrandmother-during-speeding-stop.html ***** Government to help uninsured get coverage within months http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/04/03/government_to_he lp_uninsured_get_coverage_within_months/ ***** Updating Lynne Stewart's "Love Struggle" - by Stephen Lendman http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/04/updating-lynne-stewarts-love-struggle.html ***** US tightens foreign airport security check New screening, data measures for direct flights http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/04/03/us_requires_new_ security_checks_at_foreign_airports/ ***** Moves to garnish pay on rise nationwide http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2010/04/02/moves_to_garnish_pay_on_rise_ nationwide/ ***** China's Documentation of US Human Rights Abuses - by Stephen Lendman http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/04/chinas-documentation-of-us-human-rights.html ***** Bill Dudley Speaks: Hints At The Endgame - Dollar Devaluation http://www.zerohedge.com/article/bill-dudley-speaks-hints-endgame-dollar-devaluation ***** Latest Pedophelia Scandal Rocks the Vatican - by Stephen Lendman http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/04/latest-pedophelia-scandal-rocks-vatican.html ***** Jobs Increase by 136,000; Unemployment Rate Holds at 9.7%; BLS Refused To Address My Question On Seasonality; Part-Time Work up by 738,000 in 2 Months http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/04/jobs-increase-by-136000unemployment.html ***** March Non Farm Payrolls: +162K, Below Consensus, Unemployment Rate 9.7%, Ex-Census, Weather and Birth-Death NFP Change Is -67K http://www.zerohedge.com/article/march-non-farm-payrolls-162l-below-consensusunemployment-rate-97-hourly-earnings-down-01 ***** US Government Issues $333 Billion Net In Marketable Debt In March, Second Biggest Ever http://www.zerohedge.com/article/us-government-issues-333-billion-net-marketabledebt-march ***** Residents of NJ city say cops worse than criminals http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100403/ap_on_re_us/us_drug_charges_dropped ***** 20 Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac Bankrupt, Federal Takeover Coming! Big Impact on Economy, Rates, Housing & Employment … and Your Retirement Nest Egg? http://wallstreetwarzone.com/plan-to-reshape-mortgage-market-fannie-mae-freddiemac-insolvent-new-federal-takeover-coming-soon-huge-impact-on-economic-recoveryinterest-rates-housing-employment-will-it-hurt-your/ ***** The Guys Who Got It Wrong Obama's Economic Brain Trust By PAM MARTENS http://www.counterpunch.org/martens04022010.html ***** Underemployment Hits 20% in Mid-March http://www.gallup.com/poll/126821/Underemployment-Hits-20-MidMarch.aspx?utm_source=email%2Ba%2Bfriend&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign =sharing&utm_term=Underemployment-Hits-20-Mid-March&utm_content=morelink ***** Timothy Geithner is a Sniveling Scamster By Mike Whitney http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25125.htm ***** Obama to Crush Economy with Massive CO2 Taxes as Early as Next Week http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/21566 ***** Janet Napolitano Lied, Rob Krentz Died http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=36298 ***** Looting Main Street http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/32906678/looting_main_street ***** Hoarding, Penny-Pinching And Buying Gold http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/27/economy-polls-investing-opinions-columnistskarlyn-bowman.html?partner=email ***** EXTEND & PRETEND: Hitting the Maturity Wall! http://home.comcast.net/~lcmgroupe/2010/Article-Extend_PretendHitting_the_Maturity_Wall.htm ***** Health tax may wallop towns [This is the medical plan that was not going to increase costs. Isn’t Marxism great?] http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2010/04/05/mass_communities_likel y_to_feel_cost_of_employees_cadillac_plans/ ***** EAIF: Map: Majority-Minority Milestone in the South Public schools http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jacobandesau/attachments/folder/917846928/ite m/1559102326/view ***** Winning The Cartel’s Musical Chairs Game http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1270141200.php ***** US-Committed Atrocities in Afghanistan - by Stephen Lendman http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/04/us-committed-atrocities-in-afghanistan.html 21 ***** RED ALERT: British Assassination Plot on Obama? Tea Party & Militias being framed, LEAKED by LPA TV http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLMgDAEeT_c ***** On the Edge with Max Keiser - 02 April 2010 - (1/4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN-xqLFp4Pk On the Edge with Max Keiser - 02 April 2010 - (2/4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Od0DV9PJJ8 On the Edge with Max Keiser - 02 April 2010 - (3/4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0sN-PuUzWM On the Edge with Max Keiser - 02 April 2010 - (4/4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PButumaug7w ***** Ron Paul on MSNBC 4/1/10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glqoing1lBc ***** Rosenberg On Central Planning, The Truth Behind NFP, And The Unmasking Of "Facts" http://www.zerohedge.com/article/rosenberg-central-planning-truth-behind-nfpand-unmasking-facts ***** State plan fines feds $2,000 over gun rules 2 years in jail also possible for agent enforcing U.S. regulations on firearm http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=127787 ***** EXTEND & PRETEND: Hitting the Maturity Wall! http://home.comcast.net/~lcmgroupe/2010/Article-Extend_PretendHitting_the_Maturity_Wall.htm ***** Ratigan Discusses Wikileaks Video, Observes Implications On US Rules Of Engagement And Foreign Response To US Actions http://www.zerohedge.com/article/ratigan-discusses-wikileaks-video-observesimplications-us-rules-engagement-and-foreign-resp ***** William Engdahl: US won't recover for at least 15 years http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmWQxNKOD7U ***** Benazir Bhutto - Bin Laden was Murdered http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrlD6K60h5w&playnext_from=TL&videos=5VELtzT JUlw&feature=recentlik ***** Four Days to Defend the Open Internet http://www.savetheinternet.com/ ***** Will The American Dream Become A Nightmare? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk7iIrfjOyc ***** Government and Gasoline http://www.24hgold.com/english/news-gold-silver-government-andgasoline.aspx?contributor=Ron+Paul&article=2782356456G10020&redirect=False 22 ***** "Fraud is the business model" http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/828.html ***** Doctor tells Obama supporters: Go elsewhere for health care http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=11170 ***** More Americans Give Up Citizenship As IRS Gets Aggressive Overseas http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/americans-citizenship-irs-gets-aggressiveoverseas/ ***** Ron Paul Discusses America's Moral Decline & Economic Collapse (2/2) http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=11179 http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=11180 ***** The No-Pay Movement http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/ ***** Greek 6M-1Y Curve Inverted, Spread Difference Between 3M And 6M almost 300 bps. http://www.zerohedge.com/article/greek-6m-1y-curve-inverted-spread-differencebetween-3m-and-6m-almost-300-bps ***** The Micro Chipping of Americans? Relevant clauses of the House and Senate Health Bills http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18512 ***** Weakest 4 Week Auction Since July 2009 Closes at 0.16%, Bid To Cover Of 3.56 Lowest Since August 2009 http://www.zerohedge.com/article/weakest-4-week-auction-july-2009-closes-016-bidcover-356-lowest-august-2009 ***** Office vacancy rate hits 16-year high http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Office-vacancy-rate-hits-rb-754689373.html?x=0&.v=3 ***** Bank of Mom and Dad Shuts Amid White-Collar Struggle http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704207504575130171387740744.htm l?mod=rss_whats_news_us ***** Rubin and Greenspan to face crisis inquiry http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fad283d8-4019-11df-8d23-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss ***** More Than 200,000 Could Lose Unemployment Benefits This Week http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/05/more-than-200000-could-lo_n_524790.html ***** From a Fellow Subscriber who is a bail bondsman: Hi, Mr. Chapman: 23 I hope all is well. I hope as a bail bondsman I can offer some clarification on the video posted on your 4/3/10 edition of the IF, in which a lady has members of the Sheriff's Department and a Bail Enforcement Agent enter her home without a search warrant. I know that in the last 3-4-successive presidential administrations, the rights of the Americans people have been more and more withdrawn; however, in all fairness, this video is not an example of loss of rights on the part of the American people. Whoever the sheriff and bail enforcement agent were looking for was out on bail. I know this for a fact because a "Bail Enforcement Agent", aka Bounty Hunter, is employed by a bail bonds company when clients forfeit their bond. When someone is "out on bail", they are in the "custody" of the bail bond company; the advantage being, of course, that unlike being behind bars, they can go about their lives----jobs, family, etc.,...and they can appear in court as a civilian and not as someone who is "in custody"----which looks very prejudicial against a defendant. When a client forfeits or "jumps" bail, it is the duty of the bail bond company to either find the client, or, having failed to do so, pay the full face amount of the bond. Unlike the police, if a bail bond company has reason to believe a client is in a certain home (for example, if an address were provided by the client or his indemnitor on the application), then by law, a search warrant is not required. This has always been the case throughout American history. BUT, and it looks like this was done on the part of the Bail Enforcement Agent, instead of just willy nilly going to someone's house, entering and having the appearance of breaking and entering, what a Bail Enforcement Agent will do is when they have reason to believe that a bail jumper is in a certain locale, they will contact the local sheriff's department and say---"Hey, Deputy Chapman, I have so and so out on my company's bond who has forfeited. I believe they are in this location. I just want you to know ahead of time that I'm going here to look for them---that way, you know that I'm not merely some guy who may be breaking and entering a home in case you are called." They will provide supporting documentation to this effect. And sometimes the police will accompany them, though they act in a passive capacity....more of the authority of their presence. What I think happened is that when the bail enforcement agent provided the name and address of the forfeiture to the deputy department, they too, ran a check on the individual in question. They either found a warrant for his arrest--in addition to learning that the defendant had jumped bail---and the warrant could be for his failure to show up in court----and so they accompanied him (the Bail Enforcement Agent)---to make sure that everything would be OK were an arrest to take place....though to be sure, the arrest for the bail forfeiture would have to be done by the Bail Enforcement Agent...NOT the Sheriff Deparment If anything, Mr. Chapman, this video shows the foresightedness of the bail agency----whoever they are---I don't know, in involving the sheriff's department, instead of just going their on their own. 24 Best regards, ***** From a Fellow Subscriber: Dear Bob You are also right the professionals are not dumb enough to believe all the phony numbers. I have 2 friends who trade on the floor in Chicago, they say they all laugh about how the numbers being reported are all from cooked books. They also say that the traders are literally sitting around doing nothing on most days because there is very little trade volume, its mostly blackbox trading, very, very little trading from Joe public, and most trading volume magically appears in the last half hour everyday. ***** From a Fellow Subscriber: Bob: I just wanted to tell you that my local bank reversed the three overdraft fees, finally. I wanted to tell you/your readers that it's best not to call customer service more than once. They just have a script and can't do or say anything unless it's written on their script. I didn't get any resolution to the problem with my bank until I wrote two emails directly to the supervisor with exact dates and an exact chronological, but brief, explanation of why I thought their actions were unjust. Several days later, $106.00 (overdraft fees) was reversed to my account. So, there are happy endings.....Finally, I learned that banks are CONSTANTLY monitoring customer satisfaction (I got several emails to that effect) because there's a war on for new, preferably responsible, customers amongst the banks. We must not forget about fractional banking. A customer may only bring in $30, 000-$40,000 per year, but with fractional banking times 30 or 40 according to you, that's a handsome sum of money per average customer. ***** COMMODITIES The CRB index jumped 3.4% (down 2.5% y-t-d). The Goldman Sachs Commodities Index (GSCI) surged 4.8% (up 2.5% y-t-d). Spot Gold, which traded today, increased 1.1% to $1,120 (up 2.0% y-t-d). Silver surged 5.8% to $17.89 (up 6.2% y-t-d). May Crude jumped $4.87 to $84.87 (up 6.9% y-t-d). May Gasoline rose 5.1% (up 13.2% y-t-d), and May Natural Gas rallied 4.0% (down 27% y-t-d). May Copper advanced 5.3% (up 7% y-t-d). May Wheat declined 2.2% (down 16% y-t-d), and May Corn fell 3.4% (down 17% y-t-d). The most profitable supertanker market in more than a year is heading for a 35 percent slump as oil refineries from Japan to the U.K. shut for maintenance and leave a surplus of vessels. Shipping costs will fall to an average of $28,758 a day this quarter from $44,576 on April 1, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 13 analysts, traders and shipbrokers. Rates to hire the ships, each bigger than the Chrysler Building, averaged $49,908 a day in the first quarter, the most since the last three months of 2008. The most extensive shipbuilding program in three decades is adding supplies and fewer tankers are being used to store crude, swelling the number of available vessels just as global oil demand drops for the first time in a year. Frontline Ltd., the 25 world’s biggest operator of supertankers, would lose money on any ship it hired out at the survey’s median forecast. GOLD, SILVER, PLATINUM AND PALLADIUM The latest short positions in major gold and silver shares are a mixed bag. In AEM, Agnico Eagle shorts fell from 7,443,800 to 7,213,300: Silver Standard SSRI showed an increase from 1,817,700 to 1,863,700; the Goldcorp short GG fell from 2,643,300 to 2,354,700 and Minefinders, MFN saw its short last week fall from 2,643,300 to 2,354,700. On Monday spot gold rose $7.80 to $1,132.90, as May rose $6.70. Spot silver rose $0.23 to $18.10 as May rose $0.21. Silver has risen $1.50 in seven sessions. Gold open interest fell 6,101 contracts to 479,936, as silver OI fell 1,189 to 117,442. The 10-year note traded to 4% and ended at 3.99%, helping gold and silver prices was platinum, which traded $35.30 higher to $1,70510, palladium rose $11.60 to $502.95, copper rose $0.05 to $3.63, oil rose $1.95 to $86.82, gas $0.03 to $2.35, natural gas $0.22 to $4.30, all helped gold and silver prices. The CRB rose 3.08 to 279.51. The HUI rose $4.26 to $432.30 and the XAU gained 1.79 to 173.07. The yen rose .0039 to $.9429; the euro fell .0001 to $1.3485; the pound rose .0100 to $1,5287; the Swiss franc rose .0013 to $1.619; the Canadian dollar rose .0083 to $.9979 and the USDX fell .18 to 81.11. In addition the 30-year T-bond yield has broken above its 80-month moving average – very ominous for interest rates and the stock and bond markets. The big question now is does the Fed have the power to beat back the challenge, or do they want too? It’s a very tall order. At a 4-1/2% ten-year T-note the 30-year fixed rate mortgage will be 5-5/8%. At 5% the mortgage will be 6-1/4%, or 61/2%. That will be very bad for real estate. In addition those higher commodity prices spell higher inflation. The evidence presented at the CFTC hearings two weeks ago proved beyond any doubt that the LBMA exchange in London has nothing backing their accounts and their operation is a fractional reserve accounting scam. We have been reporting that for 22 years but it was only 11 years ago that anyone verified what we have had to say. This is a gold exchange that is trading $15 to $20 trillion a year, which is larger than the US GDP. The Dow gained 46 to 10,974, S&P 76 and Nasdaq 161 Dow points. On Tuesday spot gold rose $2.20 to $1,135.10, as the outside month rose $1.40. Spot silver fell $0.18 to $17.92, as May fell $0.15. Gold open interest rose 1,116 contracts to 481,052, as silver OI fell 51 to 117,391. The HUI fell 1.68 to 430.62 and the XAU fell .49 to 172.58. The Dow fell 3 to 10,970; the S&P rose 18 and Nasdaq rose 44 Dow points. The yen rose .0061 to $.9367; the euro fell .0078 to $1.3486; the pound fell .0017 to $1.5271; the Swiss franc fell .0055 to $1.0676; the Canadian dollar rose .0020 to $.9987 and the USDX rose .23 to 81.33. Oil rose $0.12 to $86.75; gas rose $0.01 to $2.35 and natural gas fell $0.15 to $4.12. Copper was unchanged at $3.36; platinum fell $5.30 to $1,698.50 and palladium rose $1.75 to $508.75 and the CRB fell .99 to 278.52. As of 3/23 COT gold contracts by commercials of net shorts fell 18,472 contracts to 223,823, down from 304,000 at their high. Normally the figure is 95,000. That net short position fell from 48.8% to 45.2% of net contracts. This is the lowest figure since late April of 2009. Gold was trading at about $900 at that time. The government has given up defending gold at these levels. That means gold is moving higher and they will short again at some higher level. So here's the deal: a few weeks ago, hedge funder and investor Eric Sprott started up a physical gold bullion ETF that trades under the ticker "PHYS." 26 The ETF IPO'd on February 26th with 40 million shares outstanding and the trust has listed assets of 13,685 ounces of gold owned, according to Jesse's Cafe Americain. Meanwhile, in mid-February, the IMF decided to sell a ton of gold. Specifically, 403.3 metric tonnes of the stuff. It sold 200 tonnes to the Reserve Bank of India, 10 tonnes to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, and 2 tonnes to the Bank of Mauritius, a total of 212 tonnes. That left 191.3 metric tonnes left available for purchase to qualified buyers, which include central banks and sovereign nations. According to Kitco, Eric Sprott bid to buy the remaining 191.3 tonnes and the IMF refused to sell it. It caused a lot of commotion and got some people heated up about the matter. It was characterized as Sprott calling the IMF's bluff. So we called the IMF to get the full story. We spoke with Alistair Thomson, external relations officer at the IMF, who cleared up the matter for us. Here's the breakdown of what he told us: The IMF is only selling gold though a qualified agent. There is only one of these agents at the moment and due to the nature of the gold market, they won't reveal who or what that agent is. The IMF is also phasing out the gold sale and does not intend to dump it all at once because to do so would disrupt markets, which is obviously not their intention. Sprott can't buy the gold directly because they do not deal with institutional clients like hedge funds, pension funds, etc. The only buyers can be central bankers and sovereign nations, that sort of thing. The IMF board agreed months ago how they wanted to approach the sale of the gold. Sprott is welcome to buy from central banks who have bought from the IMF, but not from the IMF directly. And there you have it. It's simply a matter of protocol and Mr. Sprott not adhering to it. For Sprott to buy up 191.3 metric tonnes, which is equal to 6,747,908.92 ounces, in US dollars at the current price of $1129.40 would cost him, well, a lot. More than anyone can afford. Perhaps he should go the route of buying through central banks. That or he could always hit the Yukon with a pan. The great bull market in gold is in its tenth year. The incredible thing about this bull market is that it is still ignored by the media and by the public At the same time that it is hated by the central banks, although ironically, they are now actually buying gold. On top of that, the sovereign funds of the various nations are adding gold to their currency mix. Since the year 2000, the best asset class to be in was precious metals and gold. Yet, never was a huge bull market so ignored, so dismissed, and so disliked. Even today, after rising from 250 in 1999 to 1120 today, only a tiny fraction of Americans own so much as one single gold coin. Most Americans have never seen a gold coin. And I ask myself, how long can this go on? Gokhran, Russia's state gems and precious metals repository, plans to buy up to 2.5 tonnes (80,000 ounces) of gold from producers this year, 1.4 percent of the country's output and half of what it bought last year. A Gokhran source told Reuters on Monday the decline resulted from an increase in the number of loans granted to producers by private banks, which have to be repaid in gold. Stocks of Gokhran, which is part of the Finance Ministry, are considered a state secret. In December, Gokhran sold 30 tonnes of gold worth $1 billion to the country's central bank in order to keep the metal inside Russia and channel the proceeds to the federal budget. Russia plans to produce 207 tonnes of gold this year. ***** Andrew Maguire finally exposes systemic fraud by CFTC & JPMorgan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLxoeLqQMlw&feature=player_embedded 27 ***** Gold Manipulation OFFICIALLY CONFIRMED http://www.24hgold.com/english/news-gold-silver-gold-manipulation-officiallyconfirmed.aspx?article=2782557110G10020&redirect=false&contributor=Eric+de+Car bonnel ***** Manipulating Gold and Silver: A Criminal Naked Short Position that Could Wreck the Economy http://www.deepcapture.com/manipulating-gold-and-silver-a-criminal-naked-shortposition-that-could-wreck-the-economy/ ***** For our German speaking Subscribers: Zensur der GoldSilber-Manipulation im Mainstream http://www.goldseitenblog.com/peter_boehringer/index.php/2010/04/03/zensur-dergoldsilber-manipulation-im-ma ***** Comex can easily go bankrupt, get physical gold/silver! Peter Schiff Wall st unspun http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd57H_QxID4&playnext_from=TL&videos=YAI6Nxw6W0&feature=recentlik ***** Is Your Safe Haven a House of Cards? http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2010/04/05/is-your-safe-haven-a-house-of-cards.aspx ***** Agnico-Eagle acquires Meliadine gold project in Nunavut http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=2765477 ***** Deflation on the prowl as Bernanke shuts down his printing press http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/7553511/Deflati on-on-the-prowl-as-Bernanke-shuts-down-his-printing-press.html ***** Alex Jones Covers the WikiLeaks Pentagon Snuff Video http://www.infowars.com/alex-jones-covers-the-wikileaks-pentagon-snuff-video/ ***** Chase Sued: Allegedly Told Homeowner To Stop Payments, Then Foreclosed http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/06/chase-sued-allegedly-told_n_527031.html ***** Report: Detroit bankruptcy looms without drastic change http://www.detnews.com/article/20100406/METRO01/4060342/1409/Report--Detroitbankruptcy-looms-without-drastic-change ***** California's Cap-Trade Law Faces Fall Ballot Challenge http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304620304575165843688369042.htm l?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_news ***** Stop paying taxes! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzYg9KQl9nU&playnext_from=TL&videos=UHEhED EjOOM&feature=recentlik ***** Obama home country is Kenya http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk3OMRqO7aY&feature=player_embedded 28 ***** Raises sought for bilingual federal workers http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2010/04/05/AR2010040504585.html?wpisrc=nl_cuzhead ***** It's Ponzimonium in the Gold Market http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-lewis/its-ponzimonium-in-the-go_b_519893.html ***** 1/6 Bill Murphy: Paper gold, Whistleblower Andrew Maguire, market manipulation and more http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGFuN05z-JU 2/6 Bill Murphy: Paper gold, Whistleblower Andrew Maguire, market manipulation and more http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jw3HYP7cOg ***** 3/6 Bill Murphy: Paper gold, Whistleblower Andrew Maguire, market manipulation and more http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKNAXPUvm6o ***** 4/6 Bill Murphy: Paper gold, Whistleblower Andrew Maguire, market manipulation and more http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifP_XNd9WQg ***** 5/6 Bill Murphy: Paper gold, Whistleblower Andrew Maguire, market manipulation and more http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aolxchAHpZU ***** 6/6 Bill Murphy: Paper gold, Whistleblower Andrew Maguire, market manipulation and more http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOhGCeaEFb ***** SacramaniacsMC DOC with Daniel Estulin March 31 2010 pt 1/7 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6p3OC5cGHA&feature=related ***** IRS Launches New Global Program to Target ‘High Wealth Individuals' http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/63761 ***** 'Something's Got To Give': Massive Pension Fund Shortfalls Threaten To Bankrupt States http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/05/somethings-got-to-givema_n_525860.html ***** Major Government, Military Corruption Trillions Missing at Defense Department http://www.wanttoknow.info/corruptiongovernmentmilitary ***** U.S. No Longer A 'Free' Country, According To Heritage Foundation http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/06/us-no-longer-a-freecount_n_527072.html?ref=email_share ***** F.C.C. Rules for Broadband Fairness Set Aside by Court http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/technology/07net.html 29 ***** Attack Video Reveals Why Pentagon Wanted To “Destroy” Wikileaks http://www.prisonplanet.com/attack-video-reveals-why-pentagon-wanted-to-destroywikileaks.html ***** CANADA From a Fellow Subscriber: Bob, this isn't the first time I've heard about outrageous reports coming from this part of the country. Towns in this area are older than the border itself. In fact, there are still houses, libraries and businesses which actually straddle the border; the front door may be in Canada and the back door in the United States. Cartographers effectively drew lines through peoples' houses two centuries ago and they are still there. There was a time when Canadians got a friendly welcome into the United States with only a cursory inspection and vice versa. Here in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls region, huge malls were constructed (the Walden Galleria being the largest) for the benefit of Canadian shoppers just miles away. ALL of the malls fly the American and Canadian flags side by side. I realize that's hard to comprehend if you live in Texas or California but that's the way it is here. Does anyone in western New York, other than the guys who fly the F-16s to the Niagara River before making a U-turn and heading back east think Canada's poses any threat to the United States? In a fit of political expediency, where Americans had been convinced by Fox News, Kay Baby Hutchison and Max Baucus that the "9/11 terrorists" had sneaked across the border from Canada (as opposed to landing at JFK with valid U.S. visas) the U.S. government decreed that Canadians must now have a passport to enter the United States. I can tell you as a resident of Western New York, this is a textbook example of cutting your nose off to spite your face. Many Canadians simply won't travel to the U.S. out of principle. We actually get a friendlier reception in Mexico now! I have a little bit of land near El Paso, Texas, near the Mexican border. I can tell you, from my own observation, if the United States Border Patrol were as vigilant and aggressive with the Mexicans crossing over as it is with these heathen Canadian terrorists, this country wouldn't be in as much trouble as it is today. Unfortunately for the United States, my fellow Canadians are not interested in coming over here to scrub toilets, pick oranges and do landscaping for next-to-nothing. I'm willing to wager this border patrol agent was one of many who have been transferred to the northern border from the southern border. They've brought their warzone mentality with them. Recently, after finishing work in Niagara Falls, Ontario, I was returning back to New York. The customs officer asked "what d'yall have in the (pickup) truck?" I'm not a native New Yorker, Bob, but I've been here long enough to know that the word "y'all" isn't generally used once you get north of Albany. As an aside, A few years ago I was traveling on an overnight bus from El Paso to Albuquerque. The bus was pulled over near Truth or Consequences and the border patrol boarded the bus and demanded our papers. Since I was about the only white guy on the bus besides the driver, the acne-faced kid asked me, "American citizen?" I showed him my U.S. immigration card and said, "No. Canada." He looked at me and 30 said, "Canada? Okay, whatever." And moved on. I guess he'd never met a real live Canadian before. This really is sad, Bob. When I was a kid, the line between the United States and Canada truly was the world's friendliest border. I'm not calling for a North American Union, but the U.S. government really should deploy its resources where it's needed. And in the case of this family from New Brunswick, the border patrol is 2,500 miles north of where it needs to be. Our two countries worked just fine for 130 years before this nonsense started. ***** STRANGE STORY OF THE QUEEN AND THE CHILDREN WHO 'DISAPPEARED http://disc.yourwebapps.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=129218%3E ***** Canadian researchers reveal online spy ring based in China http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/canadian-researchers-revealonline-spy-ring-based-in-china/article1524228/?cmpid=nl-news1 ***** EUROPE European banks may face a 156 billion-euro ($209bn) shortfall in funds needed to refinance commercial real-estate debt in the next two years, DTZ Holdings Plc estimates. About 480 billion euros of property loans will mature by the end of 2011… Banks won’t be able to refinance all of the debt, particularly when loans exceed the value of the properties backing them. More than half of the shortfall will occur in the U.K. and Spain, DTZ said. EU: Sentix Investor Confidence : 2.5 in APR vs. -7.5 in March. Switzerland's consumer price index rose as expected by 0.1% in March, matching February's growth rate. Year-over-year, the Swiss CPI followed suit, also as forecast, increasing 1.4% in March, up from 0.9% in February. Little or no good news emanating out of Greece with reports like this one saying that Greek citizens and corporations are moving their cash off-shore. A colleague of mine likens this whole Greek situation with the Bear Stearns situation of two years ago and he feels the real problem will emerge when the Lehman Brothers equivalent (Spain or Portugal) turns up. The Euro group’s pledge to provide a last-resort rescue net for Greece was specifically crafted in a way that enables euro countries to stand back from the special loan scheme if they wish, The Irish Times has learned. However a high-level source in Brussels, with knowledge of how the statement was written, said the language was purposely nuanced to give countries the option of not taking part without breaching the letter of the pledge. The statement from euro group leaders said: “As part of a package involving substantial International Monetary Fund financing and a majority of European financing, euro area member states are ready to contribute to coordinated bilateral loans.” According to the source, the fact that this part of the statement did not make reference to “the euro area member states” – specifically the absence of the word the reflected the need to give countries the choice of standing aside from any rescue if they could not or did not wish to take part. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: the IMF should impose default on Greece to end the charade the model is the Uruguay default in 2003, conducted under the auspices of 31 the IMF when she was working at the Fund. “Everybody got together in a civilized way, and it was very successful,” she said. The average haircut was 13pc. Maturities were shuffled. Uruguay was praised all round. Greece is a tougher nut to crack. French banks with €80bn and German banks with €40bn (and British banks too) that bought so much Greek debt at a few basis points over German Bunds in 2006 and 2007 will have to accept a bigger discount to atone for their epic error, perhaps 25pc though Prof Reinhart did not put a figure on it. This “pre-emptive restructuring”, in IMF lingo, has to be handled with care. “When people say there is no contagion risk because Greece is small, they are completely wrong. Thailand was a lot smaller in 1997, and look what happened.” Indeed, it set off the Asian financial crisis. A Greek default would be twice the size of the two largest defaults in history put together Argentina and Russia at least in nominal terms, nearing €300bn. The “demonstration effect” in a long string of countries both inside and beyond EMU might be chilling. On a parting note, Professor Reinhart says the only budget deficit that matters in a crisis is the “cash deficit”, and this reached 16pc of GDP in Greece last year not the 12.7pc officially registered under “accrual” accounting. As countries near default, they typically find all kinds of way to disguise their troubles, by shifting debts between government agencies and delaying payments. ***** German stand on loan rates to Greece http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e1370d50-409a-11df-94c2-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss ***** Why Greece Will Default http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2010/04/why-greece-will-default.html ***** Greek Deputy Prime Minister Calls Germans Racist; Believes Germans See Greeks As Bunch Of Lazy Drinkers And Dancers By Tyler Durden Created 04/05/2010 - 16:26 Just because attacking the nation that is critical to making sure your bailout package is instituted is always a good idea (together with the US and the IMF of course), the Greek Prime Minister has accused Germans of being "prejudiced and racist" in their treatment of Greeks. Apparently demanding fiscal prudence (or lamenting the lack thereof) is now equivalent to stereotyping based on the color of one's skin or something. Spanish newspaper El Pais reports that Theodoros Pangalos, who previously demanded reparations from the Germans for WW2 acts, in an interview with the Portuguese Journal of Business, claims German citizens still see Greeks as lazy, and that Germans are resorting to "racially motivated" reasons to avoid providing a bigger helping hand to Greeks. El Pais quotes Pangalos as saying: "Greeks have problems. But why? Because they did not work hard. And why did they not work hard? Because they have a lovely climate, music and wine, and are not as serious as the Germans." http://www.zerohedge.com/article/greek-deputy-prime-minister-calls-germans-racistbelieves-germans-see-greeks-bunch-lazy-drin ***** 32 Greece Rebels, Does Not Want IMF Participation In Bail Out; Fears IMF's "Intolerably Stringent Conditions" http://www.zerohedge.com/article/greece-rebels-does-not-want-imf-participation-bailout-fears-imfs-intolerably-stringent-cond ***** Mercedes-maker in global bribery scandal http://www.news.com.au/business/luxury-carmaker-daimler-in-global-briberyscandal/story-e6frfm1i-1225848882384 ***** ENGLAND ***** Great-grandmother given an electronic tag and curfew for selling a goldfish to a 14 year-old http://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/pets/7538391/Great-grandmother-given-anelectronic-tag-and-curfew-for-selling-a-goldfish-to-a-14-year-old.html ***** LATIN AMERICA Brazil’s industrial output rose 18.4% in February from the year-ago month, the national statistics agency said. Brazil’s central bank said the cost of bringing accelerating inflation back to its target may be ‘significant.’ Consumer prices will increase 5.2% in 2010 and 4.9% in 2011, compared with 4.3% in 2009 ‘he necessary cost to bring inflation back to the target trajectory may be significant. The recovery of commodity prices and the steep recovery of the domestic activity level have become important risk factors for prices. ASIA South Korea’s exports rose faster than economists expected in March. Overseas shipments advanced 35.1% from a year earlier to $37.68 billion. South Korean manufacturers’ confidence for April rose to the highest level in more than seven years as the nation’s economic recovery strengthens. Thailand’s industrial production rose for a sixth straight month in February, confirming the nation’s economic recovery and putting pressure on the central bank to raise interest rates. Manufacturing output climbed 30.3% from a year earlier. CHINA ***** Email from a Chinese on China's Real Estate Bubble http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/04/email-from-chinese-on-chinasreal.html ***** JAPAN February Coincident Index up to 100.7 from100.3. February Leading Economic Index increase to 97.9 vs. 96.7. AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND 33 RIME Minister Kevin Rudd has appointed Tony Burke as the nation's first population minister, amid growing concerns the number of Australians will rise to unsustainable levels. Mr. Burke will be responsible for drawing up a national population strategy and will retain his other portfolio of agriculture, fisheries and forestry. Mr. Rudd has been under pressure to better examine the nation's population, which is on a trajectory to reach 35.9 million by 2050. He told reporters in Canberra the announcement came after a month of consideration. "Many Australians have legitimate concerns about the sustainability of the population levels in different parts of the country,'' Mr. Rudd said. "Particularly its impact on urban congestion, its impact on the adequacy of infrastructure, its impact on the adequacy of housing supply, its impact on government services, its impact also on water and agriculture and on our regions.'' Mr. Rudd has previously said he supports a "big Australia'' - and doesn't believe growth has to be a bad thing. In devising the strategy, he said Mr. Burke must be "acutely mindful'' of the positive implications of growth on the economy. "Our challenge is to make sure that we get our future population levels as right as possible, and against that analysis make sure we're planning properly,'' he said. Mr. Burke said his new portfolio touched every area of service delivery, and he would consult widely as he developed the strategy over the coming 12 months. "These issues have never previously been coordinated at a government level and they require a high level of cooperation with every level of government,'' he said. An early priority of the strategy will be identifying the opportunities of a growing population and how regional areas could be developed. It will also consider the social and economic infrastructure Australia will need in the future, and address the challenges of growth on the environment, water and urban congestion. Australia’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to 4.25 percent and signaled further increases, dismissing warnings that higher borrowing costs are already eroding consumer spending. Governor Glenn Stevens boosted the overnight cash rate target from 4 percent, the Reserve Bank of Australia said in a statement in Sydney today. The fifth increase in borrowing costs in six meetings was predicted by 13 of 23 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. The Australian currency and bond yields rose after Stevens said the move was a “further step” in returning interest rates to average levels. Today’s decision indicates central bank concerns that inflation and house-price increases will surge without greater monetary restraint, even after retail sales and home construction dropped in February. “We’ve got a way to go before we see rates at normal levels,” said Adam Carr, a senior economist at ICAP Australia Ltd. in Sydney. “There’s a good case we’ll see much stronger than normal growth rates with much higher than normal inflation and I think the RBA is aware of that.” The strong trend in jobs growth in the Australian economy continues with the latest ANZ data showing a 1.8% increase in job ads in the month of February. ***** War on publicly displayed weapons 34 http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/war-on-publicly-displayed-weapons/commentse6freon6-1225849263075 ***** AFRICA S. Africa slaying stirs racial tensions [This is the beginning of the end of any sense of stability in South Africa, where we once lived. The ANC has gone a step too far. Anybody who does business in South Africa has to be insane. Stay out of the country. Needless to say, don’t purchase any South African securities.] http://www.boston.com/news/world/africa/articles/2010/04/05/white_supremacists_call _south_african_killing_a_declaration_of_war/ ***** Malema: 'We want the mines' http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-04-04-malema-we-want-the-mines ***** South Africa: The End of Our Democracy is Here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H9-YgNZySk# ***** Zille warns of 'tidal wave' of rage http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/News/1059/b7cdcacd54aa44fb8849ed4b 0906bb64/06-04-2010-08-06/Zille_warns_of_tidal_wave_of_rage ***** HEALTH ORAL HEALTH The scientific community now agrees that amalgam dental fillings leach mercury into the oral cavity. How much leaks out? The studies vary on the level of toxicity and much of the research is disputed, which allows for dental amalgam to continue to be used unless you live in Norway, Denmark or Sweden. In a 2006 and International survey found that 72% of people did not know mercury was a component of amalgam dental fillings. In 1993 the FDA published a study where 50% of Americans believed that mercury fillings caused health problems. Most dentists do not inform patients of the material composition of the fillings. Your gamma-2 phase amalgam dental filing has contained since 1970; silver (40%), tin (32%), copper (30%), zinc (2%) and mercury (3%). The WHO reports that 53% of total mercury emissions are from amalgam and laboratory equipment. The mercury in amalgam fillings is treated as a hazardous substance and dentists have a protocol for handling it. When amalgam fillings are removed, they are treated as hazardous waste. HISTORY Metal fillings are nothing new. The first recorded silver paste fillings were used in China around 659 A.D. Before most metal materials were used, dentists used stone, resin, cork, gum, lead and gold leaf to restore teeth. The amalgam filling got its start in 1603 when a German, Tobias Kreilius, created the metal filling by mixing copper sulphide with strong acids then adding mercury and bringing it to a boil and pouring it onto the tooth. The French preferred to use liquid minerals and poured it onto the tooth which made a cement. Later, the French also added mercury to this mixture and by 1826 this became known as the “Father of Amalgam” fillings. In the 1840’s silver, tin, lead and other alloy substances made up the amalgam filling. However, the US dental text books called amalgam “the most pernicious material that has ever been employed for filling teeth.” In 1843, The American Society of Dental Surgeons (the only US dental 35 association of that time) stated that using amalgam fillings was malpractice and its members were banned from using it. However, by 1844 most fillings being done in NY were amalgam because it was easier to apply, was cheaper and less painful for the patient. Prior to this the only options dentists gave their patients were to have the tooth removed or have hot gold hammered into the tooth. The American Society of Dental Surgeons had to go along with amalgam fillings to get along. By 1859 the American Dental Association was founded and over the next fifty years several different metal combinations were used. The mercury ratio in amalgam fillings was modified in 1959 changing the amount of mercury from 8.5 to 1.1 ratio. In 1963 a copper dispersion alloy was added but this did not stop corrosion and then added tin creating your current gamma-2 phase amalgam filling. STUDIES Studies done by scientists and researchers outside of the FDA and ADA, such as the one done by Freiburg University in 2005, found that the mercury from dental amalgam is responsible for nephrotoxicity (neurobehavioral changes), autoimmunity, oxidative tissue stress, autism, skin and mucosa alterations and possible contributions to Alzheimer’s disease and MS. How can they make such a claim? They tested their research by removing the mercury-riddled dental fillings in patients and there was permanent improvement of these various, chronic conditions. Another study from Sweden and Germany in 1997 found that 23% of patients with mercury fillings tested positive for systemic allergic sensitivity to inorganic mercury. This group of patients suffered from symptoms similar to chronic fatigue syndrome. They had the mercury fillings removed and replaced with metal-free ceramics and reported a 78% improvement in overall health. This and other research confirming the allergy sensitivity showed up in the National Institutes of Health paper. Then in 2001 a survey of 31,000 Americans by the US National Health and Nutrition was published by the National Center for Health Statistics finding that dental fillings correlated with; cancer, thyroid disease, mental health problems, MS and other nervous system disorders, urinary system disorders, vision problems, circulation and respiratory conditions. This and other research prompted a product warning from the FDA that pregnant women and children should use caution with mercury fillings. Funny that mercury is also included in childhood vaccines and now they vaccinate pregnant women. Do dentists tell women that mercury accumulates in the body and damages hormones, enzymes, adrenal and pituitary glands, brain and the various systems of the human body? No. WARNINGS The WHO in 2003 published an official list of conditions from mercury toxicity. In the report it is estimated that amalgam fillings expose the patient to 1 to 12.5 units per day with an average of 5 units of exposure. Gum chewing and tooth grinding enhances this risk. They also found that the mercury fillings in MS patients altered their red blood cells, haemoglobin, T-cells (immunity) and toxic levels of mercury were found in their hair. YOUR MOUTH IS A BATTERY You may have heard that when dissimilar metals (such as gold, mercury silver, nickel and tin) are in the mouth that they react to saliva causing electrical charges on the filling creating a battery effect. Continuous exposure to this stresses the endocrine glands and depresses immune function. Different companies make different amalgam compositions. Some manufacturers use a primary component of ground glass with 36 quartz fillers and other additives. These filling composites are cured to the tooth with either chemicals or light. TAKING TOXICITY OUT OF TEETH There are many trained dentists now using more natural or less toxic substances to fill cavities. Removing the old amalgam fillings is a cautious process and care should be given to prevent further toxic exposure to the blood system. The white fillings most dentists are opting to use now not only for aesthetics but also for less toxicity. The trade off is that the less toxic fillings may not wear as long and need replacing sooner. This has been one of the big hurtles dentists have had since insurance companies did not want to pay to replace the white fillings. NATURAL TOXIN REMOVAL Even if you don’t have the money to remove your amalgam fillings and replace them with less toxic material, you can minimize toxin damage. Using your system organ cleanses will help prevent toxin build-up. Your bowel, urinary, prostate, liver, gall bladder and blood herb cleanses. Protect yourself further with immune boosting herbs to keep your T-cells functioning. (Your Echinacea root, astragalus root and formulas with garlic.) Use natural plant calcium with magnesium and boron already paired with calcium for strong teeth and jaw. Herbs such as oat straw, horsetail and lobelia contain these elements. Help keep bacteria and oral infections away with a combo of Echinacea root, bayberry root, oak gall bark, peppermint leaf, cayenne and tea tree. You will find your Organ Cleanses, Immune boosting formulas, Calcium Formula and Tooth & Gum Formula (most in liquid form) at Apothecary Herbs http://www.thepowerherbs.com 866-229-3663, International 704-875-8010. For IF readers call now for their April stock-up special and save 15% off. Use this discount code in the online store or when ordering by phone: IF15. SAVE 15% ON NATURAL ALLERGY- FIGHTING PRODUCTS If sinusitis is a problem, you’ve got to check out Echinacea Deluxe herb liquid at Apothecary Herbs. At the first sign of pressure take this product and avoid an infection. If you already have an infection taking this product shortens recovery time without antibiotics. Under $20 with a money back guarantee. Call Apothecary Herbs 866-2293663 or http://www.thepowerherbs.com. THE POWER HERBS e-BOOK. By popular demand The Power Herbs e-book is available with symptom/herb reference guide, information on organ cleansing and how to make your own herbal tinctures plus a whole lot more. Go to http://www.thepowerherbs.com and click on The Power Herb book cover on the right side of the home page to order. You must have email to order and receive the e-book download version of The Power Herb book for just $14.99. At this time, we do not offer this title in hard copy. “HERB” ECONOMIC STIMULUS STILL IN FORCE – Apothecary Herbs is offering 15% off your total order before shipping when you print off your shopping cart order online or fill out the catalog order form and mail in your order with your check or money order. Get prepared, healthy and save – what could be better than that? International customers can send an International Money Order and save 15%. Apothecary Herbs Inc., P.O. Box 918, Huntersville, NC 28070 USA. 866-229-3663, International 704-8758010 http://www.thepowerherbs.com. 37 POWER HERB KIT – contains 13 concentrated herbal liquids for numerous uses and is a good starter kit and comes in a portable carry case. Call Apothecary Herbs toll free 866-229-3663, International 704-875-8010 or http://www.thepowerherbs.com. HERBS FOR PETS - Dog & Cat Immune Booster Formulas plus Kennel Cough Kits plus toxic-free flea and tick collars, shampoo and spray at Apothecary Herbs. Call now toll free 866-229-3663, International 704-875-8010 or http://www.thepowerherbs.com. Portuguese Sea Salt® - imported from the traditional salterns (a 2000-year tradition) along the coast of Algarve, Portugal. Salt crystals are harvested by hand and sundried. This is a true artisan sea salt providing richness as well as a smooth and elegant flavor to food. 1/2 pound ground unrefined Portuguese Sea Salt® just $8.50 at Apothecary Herbs 866-229-3663, International 704-875-8010 http://www.thepowerherbs.com. #10 CANS SURVIVAL www.freezedryguy.com. FOOD – call Freeze Dry Guy 866-404-3663 or ***** Obama Gives Key Agriculture Post to Monsanto Man By Gary Ruskin http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18499 ***** NEXT ISSUES Every Saturday and Wednesday in April 38