Oil rose to near $100 a barrel Thursday in Asia after the U.S. Federal Reserve said it would keep interest rates at record lows at least until 2014 to help jump-start the world’s biggest economy.

As we suspected yesterday, crude oil prices edged higher after an overtly dovish FOMC announcement sank the US Dollar. The move higher was muted by a pickup in inventories however, where the weekly build more than doubled expectations. Looking ahead, a mixed set of US economic data is ahead, with expectations calling for a slowdown in Durable Goods Orders but improvements on the composite Leading Indicators index and New Home Sales. However, the earnings calendar may prove most market-moving as a hefty dollop of industrials report results, with traders particularly interested in guidance from the likes of Caterpillar Inc as a proxy gauge of the global business cycle (and thereby oil demand prospects).

The U.S. central bank, which has kept its benchmark interest rate near zero for three years, said Wednesday that it doesn’t plan to raise the rate before late 2014.

That caused the dollar to turn lower against major currencies, which makes dollar-priced oil less expensive for holders of other currencies.

“That would mean the U.S. dollar would continue to be cheap versus other currencies, and there is typically an inverse correlation between the value of the dollar and commodity pricing,” said Victor Shum, an energy analyst at consultancy Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.

The median sales price for a new home fell 2.5 percent to $210,300 last month, the biggest drop in four months. Compared to December last year, the median price was down 12.8 percent.

There were a record low 157,000 new homes on the market last month and at December’s sales pace, it would take 6.1 months to clear them, up from 6.0 months in November.

Spot Gold (NY Close): $1710.57 // +44.90 // +2.70% 

Not surprisingly, gold soared after the Federal Reserve extended its pledge to keep interest rates at “exceptionally low” levels to the end of 2014 from the previously promised mid-2013. With the central bank determined to keep borrowing costs near-zero for the foreseeable future and recent US economic data pointing to a pickup in activity, inflation expectations are understandably climbing and boosting demand for the yellow metal as a store-of-value hedge. Indeed, the 2-year breakeven rate – a measure of inflation expectations derived from bond yields – soared to the highest in nearly 7 months after the FOMC outcome crossed the wires.

Spot Silver (NY Close): $33.16 // +1.12 // +3.49%

As with gold, silver prices soared higher after the dovish FOMC outcome stoked future inflation bets, with more of the same seemingly likely ahead. Likewise in line with its more expensive counterpart, the spotlight now turns to US economic data to see if positive momentum resumes or falters, with the latter scenario likely to defuse what will otherwise almost certainly amount to another major advance for precious metals. Prices are testing resistance in the 38.78-33.30 region, with break higher exposing 35.30. Near-term support lines up at 31.04.

WND reported this week when Obama outlined a defense strategy for a number of state-level challenges to his candidacy in 2012 which argue that states have nothing to do with the eligibility of presidential candidates.

“Presidential electors and Congress, not the state of Georgia, hold the constitutional responsibility for determining the qualifications of presidential candidates,” Obama’s lawyer argued in a motion to quash a subpoena for him to appear at the hearings in Atlanta Jan. 26.

“The election of President Obama by the presidential electors, confirmed by Congress, makes the documents and testimony sought by plaintiff irrelevant,” the lawyer said.

Judge Michael M. Malihi, however, took a different view.

“Defendant argues that ‘if enforced, [the subpoena] requires him to interrupt duties as president of the United States’ to attend a hearing in Atlanta, Georgia. However, defendant fails to provide any legal authority to support his motion to quash the subpoena to attend,” he wrote in his order, released today.

Post Continues on www.wnd.com

This is revealed by a quick look at Romney’s top contributors. An Open Secrets page on top Romney contributors reads like a Who’s Who of Wall Street and the financial cartel. The top contributor is Goldman Sachs, followed by Credit Suisse Group, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, UBS, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Barclays – major players in the Wall Street and City of London bankster constellation.

It is not clear why Mr. Lee opposes Obama – his campaign contributors are almost a carbon copy of Mitt’s. Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan (where Lee worked), Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, USB and many of the same players donated heavily to Obama’s campaign in 2008.

It should be obvious by now that the dog and pony show known as the “election cycle” in the United States is a musical chairs affair with the same gaggle of bankers and transnational corporations calling the shots.

Next time you hear Michael Savage, Mark Levin or some other bankster media whore rant and rave about the “communist” Obama and then declare their support for the “capitalist” Romney, you should realize they are selling the same poison designed to kill our republic.

There is virtually no difference between any of the establishment candidates – they are all onboard with the globalist agenda for war and the economic destruction of America as their masters and puppeteers move to consolidate their stranglehold over humanity and impose a dystopian one-world government and a high-tech control grid over the entire world.

Bain Capital is also on the list. It is a “financial services” and investment firm co-founded by Romney. Bain owns the establishment media propaganda conglomerate Clear Channel, which explains why “conservative” talk show hosts like Limbaugh, Hannity and Levin are supporting Romney, especially with the strong showing of Ron Paul in the primaries. Both Savage (real name Weiner) and Levin have gone so far as to call Paul a threat to the country.

In December, Mitt refused to release the identity of his “bundlers,” or people who gather contributions from many individuals in an organization or community and give the cash to the campaign.

In other words, the above list is only the tip of the iceberg. Romney’s lack of transparency about his bundlers indicates he is getting money from sources that want their identity concealed.

In November, it was reported that Jimmy Lee, a veteran Wall Street investment banker, and three other top executives at JPMorgan Chase & Co hosted a $2,500-per-person reception for Romney.

“I am committed to doing all that I can to help his campaign because I also believe he is the strongest challenger to President Obama,” Lee told Reuters. Lee said he has known Romney for almost all of his Wall Street career and that he made one of the first loans to Romney at Bain Capital.

Kurt Nimmo, Infowars.com, January 17, 2012

The proposal to switch to the ruble and the rial was raised by President Dmitry Medvedev at a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in Astana, Kazakhstan, at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the ambassador said. The meeting was in June of last year.

Iran has replaced the dollar in its oil trade with India, China and Japan, Fars reported.

The European Union, the United States and the United Nations are applying sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. Iran says its nuclear efforts are for civilian purposes and to generate electricity, while the United States and several major allies say the program represents a weapons threat.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant will reach full electricity-generating capacity on Feb. 1, Fars news agency reported Sunday, citing Fereydoun Abbasi, head of the country’s Atomic Energy Organization.

The plant’s 1,000-megawatt maximum output will meet 2.5 percent of the Islamic Republic’s power needs, Abbasi was cited as saying. Iran is ready to export nuclear energy services to nations such as those in Africa that hold uranium resources, he also said.

China’s Defendence of Iran’s oil Trade

BEIJING – China gave no hint on Wednesday of giving ground to U.S. demands to curb Iran’s oil revenues, rejecting Washington’s sanctions on Tehran as overstepping even as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner lobbied for Beijing’s support.

“On economic growth, on financial stability around the world, on non-proliferation, we have what we view as a very strong, cooperative relationship with your government and we are looking forward to building on that,” Geithner told Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping earlier in the day.

Geithner is touring Asia to muster support for U.S. sanctions on oil revenues flowing to Tehran, which Western governments say wants to develop the means to make nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for civilian uses, not weapons proliferation.

President Barack Obama authorized a law on New Year’s Eve imposing fresh sanctions on financial institutions that deal with Iran’s central bank, its main clearing house for oil payments. That will make it difficult to pay for Iranian oil.

Beijing is crucial to Washington’s pressure on Iran: China is Iran’s biggest oil customer, and has long argued that sanctions will not defuse the nuclear dispute.

China faces pressure to go along with the U.S. sanctions by cutting what it pays for Iranian oil, if not the volume it buys.

But China made it clear that, whatever the commercial or political calculations driving ups and downs in its crude orders from Iran, it rejects in principle unilateral U.S. sanctions.

“Iran is also an extremely big oil supplier to China, and we hope that China’s oil imports won’t be affected, because this is needed for our development,” Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun told a news conference in answer to a question about whether Beijing could curtail crude from Iran under U.S. pressure.

“We oppose applying pressure and sanctions, because these approaches won’t solve the problems. They never have,” Zhai told the briefing about Wen’s six-day visit to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

“We hope that these unilateral sanctions will not affect China’s interests.”

China has backed U.N. Security Council resolutions calling on Iran to halt uranium enrichment activities, while working to ensure its energy ties are not threatened. As a permanent member of the council, China wields a veto.

January 10, 2012

If there is any one more vivid confirmation of Mayer Rothschild words “Let me issue and control a nation’s money and I care not who writes the laws” then we have yet to find it. Today Hungary, which had “valiantly” defied Europe and the IMF in ignoring pressure to make its central bank more “malleable” finally folded, following a recent explosion in its bond yields, a surge in CDS to records, and a collapse in its currency. And to think how easy it is to subjugate a state to slave status in our “globalized” days without shedding one drop of blood. Reuters reports: “Hungary’s government is ready to consider modifying disputed legislation if the European Commission deems it necessary, Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi told the bloc’s executive and European Union partners. “We fully respect the authority of the European Commission, the guardian of the EU treaties,” Martonyi wrote in a letter dated January 6 and published by his ministry on Tuesday. “We stand ready to consider changing legislation, if necessary.”” As Rothschild foresaw so effectively over 200 years ago, selling out your sovereignty only takes a few pieces of (paper) silver.

More:

Hungary, which wants to secure a multibillion euro financing deal with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union, is locked in a legal dispute with the European Central Bank and Brussels over a new central bank law.

The European Commission last month asked for the law, which it worried will compromise the bank’s independence, to be repealed.

Martonyi said the government was ready to conduct dialogue with anyone who raised concrete concerns.

Hungary is merely the first case study of how the annexation of non Eurozone countries will proceed shortly, once it becomes clear that anyone who is not with a failed European experiment, is against it.

That’s roughly equal to the value of all goods and services the U.S. economy produces in one year: $15.17 trillion as of September, the latest estimate. Private projections show the economy likely grew to about $15.3 trillion by December — a level the debt is likely to surpass this month.

“The 100% mark means that your entire debt is as big as everything you’re producing in your country,” says Steve Bell of the Bipartisan Policy Center, which has proposed cutting nearly $6 trillion in red ink over 10 years. “Clearly, that can’t continue.”

Long-term projections suggest the debt will continue to grow faster than the economy, which would have to expand by at least 6% a year to keep pace.  President Obama’s 2012 budget shows the debt soaring past $26 trillion a decade from now. Last summer’s deficit reduction deal could reduce that to $24 trillion.

Many economists, such as the Brookings Institution’s William Gale, say a better measure of the nation’s debt is how much the government owes creditors, not counting $4.7 trillion owed to future Social Security recipients and other government beneficiaries. By that measure, the debt is roughly a third less: $10.5 trillion, or nearly 70% the size of the economy.

That is still high by historic standards. The total national debt topped the size of the economy for three years during and after World War II. It dropped to 32.5% of the economy by 1981, then began a steady climb under President Reagan, doubling over the next 12 years. The combination of recession and stimulus spending caused it to soar again under Obama.

Among advanced economies, only Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan and Portugal have debts larger than their economies. Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Italy are at the root of the European debt crisis. The first three needed bailouts from European central banks; Italy’s books are monitored by the International Monetary Fund.

The White House and Congress agreed in August to cut about $1 trillion from federal agencies over 10 years. An additional $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts looms beginning next year if lawmakers can’t agree on a better way to do it.

Economist Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics says reaching the 100% mark shows “the grave need to address our long-term fiscal problems.”

This story first appeared in USA Today.

Published: Monday, 9 Jan 2012 | 11:23 AM ET

It took forever to find a second source for confirmation of this story and both relatively mainstream media outlets are in Israel. With one source saying the military deployment and corresponding exercises are to occur in January, the source providing most of the details suggests it will occur later this spring. Calling it not just an “exercise”, but a “deployment”, the Jerusalem Post quotes US Lt.-Gen Frank Gorenc, Commander of the US Third Air Force based in Germany. The US Commander visited Israel two weeks ago to confirm details for “the deployment of several thousand American soldiers to Israel.” In an effort to respond to recent Iranian threats and counter-threats, Israel announced the largest ever missile defense exercise in its history. Now, it’s reported that the US military, including the US Navy, will be stationed throughout Israel, also taking part.

While American troops will be stationed in Israel for an unspecified amount of time, Israeli military personnel will be added to EUCOM in Germany. EUCOM stands for United States European Command.

In preparation for anticipated Iranian missile attacks upon Israel, the US is reportedly bringing its THAAD, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, and ship-based Aegis ballistic missile systems to Israel. The US forces will join Israeli missile defense systems like the Patriot and Arrow. The deployment comes with “the ultimate goal of establishing joint task forces in the event of a large-scale conflict in the Middle East”.

The Jerusalem Post reports that US Lt.-Gen Frank Gorenc was in Israel meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Brig.-Gen Doron Gavish, commander of the Air Defense Division. While there, the US General visited one of Israel’s three ‘Iron Dome’ anti-missile outposts. The Israeli Air Force has announced plans to deploy a fourth Iron Dome system in the coming months. Additional spending increases in the Jewish state will guarantee the manufacture and deployment of three more Iron Dome systems by the end of 2012. The Israelis are hoping to eventually have at least a dozen of the anti-missile systems deployed along its northern and southern borders.

In a show of escalated tensions in the region, Iran test fired two long range missiles today. One, called the Qadar, is a powerful sea-to-shore missile. The other was an advanced surface-to-surface missile called the Nour. According to Iranian state news, the Nour is an ‘advanced radar-evading, target-seeking, guided and controlled missile’. Additionally, the Iranian military reportedly test-fired numerous other short, medium and long-range missiles. Yesterday, Iranian authorities reported that they test-fired the medium-range, surface-to-air, radar-evading Mehrab missile. Today is supposed to be the final day of Iranian naval drills in the Straits of Hormuz.

Iran recently made global headlines when it threatened to blockade the Straits of Hormuz if Europe and the US went ahead with their boycott of Iranian oil and the country’s central bank. One-quarter of the world’s oil passes through that waterway every day. President Obama has announced that a closure of the Straits was unacceptable and vowed to take whatever measures are necessary to keep the vital shipping lane open.

In response to the Iranian missile tests this weekend, French authorities were the first to respond, calling it a, “very bad signal to the international community.”We want to underline that the development by Iran of a missile program is a source of great concern to the international community,”the French Foreign Ministry said in a written statement. Israeli officials suggested the flamboyant Iranian military drills this weekend were a sign that international sanctions on the country were taking a heavy toll and that any additional boycotts, on its banks or oil industry, would be crippling.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the large missile tests showed, “the dire straits of Iran in light of the tightening sanctions around her, including the considerations in the last few days regarding the sanctions of exporting petroleum as well as the possibility of sanctions against the Iranian Central Bank.” While the chances of Iran going through with its threat of closing the Strait of Hormuz are slim, the deployment of thousands of US troops and naval ships to Israel shows the US isn’t taking any chances.

Now, with precious metals prices on the cusp of possibly the biggest price explosion in centuries, fake gold and silver products are becoming a booming industry say Global Piracy & Counterfeiting Consultants:

We have read about one Chinese counterfeiter openly bragging about producing 100,000 fake U.S. Silver Dollars per year, and that’s just one counterfeiter. At this point, we are telling all investors of gold, or silver coins, and or any type of precious metal bar to only buy from a reputable U.S. dealer, that has an established track record, and a money back guarantee. We fear this Chinese counterfeit gold, or silver coins, or bars, could be a multi billion dollar a year business, and we
greatly fear many innocent investors could be taken to the cleaners.

Based on our research some of the Chinese counterfeit coins, are of such high quality, it is not uncommon for even experts to be deceived. We think its smart for every investor to have gold, or silver, our big worry is pretty simple, what if they invest 10%, or 20% of their net worth in what are counterfeit precious metal coins, that are basically worthless? We would call this a disaster for the investor, and out big fear is there are probably tens of thousands of investors in the United States, who have been duped. Even worse, once again for all intents, and purposes the U.S. Federal Government is a no show-once again.”

“The world needs to come to grips with the largest counterfeiter in the world, the fact that 10% of China’s GDP is a direct result of counterfeiting. If it’s not knock off pharmaceuticals, that can kill people, it’s high tech smart phones, or electronics. Our new worry is pretty obvious related to Chinese counterfeiters bankrupting innocent precious metal, or coin investors,
with what could be their life savings. At what point do consumers in the United States, Europe, Japan, or the rest of the world say no thanks to any more Chinese products, given its uncaring attitude about flooding the global markets with counterfeits, or fakes?”

Source: GPCC via prweb

Gold and silver remain one of the few alternative investment methods to preserve wealth during crisis scenarios like inflation or government instability, but taking extra precautions now is absolutely essential to ensuring your wealth is protected when it comes time to sell.

Don’t assume that the dealer you are working with is legitimate, and even if they are, it is possible that they themselves have been duped by a counterfeit.

Those of our readers investing in gold and silver assets, especially if you are committing a large percentage of your net worth, should consider some
safeguards.

• Work with multiple dealers who have been in business for several years.

Like any investment strategy, diversifying your eggs into multiple baskets will protect you if one of them happens to fall. In this case, buying different products from multiple dealers, all with solid reputations, will prevent you from losing your entire investment in the event one of the dealers was duped by counterfeiters. While not exactly ideal, it’s better to lose just a portion of your investment than all of it.

• Trust but verify.

Buy from one dealer and get your investment appraised by another. If you’ve invested $5000.00 into precious metals, paying an additional $100 to have another dealer (most will take a look for free) verify the quality of the assets you purchased is not a bad idea. If you were sold a fake, you can then take immediate action against the offending dealer (as opposed to waiting five  years only to find out you’re holding a worthless metal).

• Understand dimensions and weight.

One of the best ways to determine if your asset is legitimate is to know what dimensions it should have (circumference, thickness, weight). Every government issued coin, and even privately issued rounds or bars, should have manufacturer dimensions available either online or by simply giving them a call (otherwise go with a different product). Get a digital scale and a caliper and take measurements. Even though fakes can come close to the real thing, the density of gold and silver are unique, so if a particular bar or coin shows an inaccurate weight or dimension, you’re likely looking at a fake. It may cost you a couple hundred dollars to acquire the appropriate tools, but if you’re investing multiple thousands of dollars into these investment then we’d consider the cost of doing business. Take the time to learn about your investments (it won’t take long) and you can save headache and heartache down the road.

• Gold and Silver Acid Tests.

Gold and silver have unique properties when mixed with certain chemicals. While not exactly ideal, because you’ll have to ‘damage’ a tiny portion of a particular bar or coin, an acid test can be one of the best tests to perform in order to ensure you have a legitimate precious metals product. You don’t necessarily have to go through and test every single one of your one ounce silver eagles, but testing a few coins out of each batch wouldn’t hurt.

• Try pre-1965 silver products.

They call it junk silver. Half dollars, quarters and dimes minted prior to 1965 contain 90% silver and are worth well more than their face value. While Chinese counterfeiters may be producing silver eagles, bars and other mints in mass quantities, they will likely shy away from US coin products for a couple of reasons: 1) why mint a fake quarter when you can mint a fake silver eagles worth significantly more? 2) minting fake US coins is Federal crime, and while the Chinese may not be worried to much about being investigated by Secret Service, pressure from the US may force China to act against counterfeiting, something the Chinese knock-off artists would like to avoid. Pre-1965 silver coins, in our opinion, are the only option for those making purchases on auction sites.

Counterfeits will always be a concern when you’re dealing with assets worth as much as $2000 an ounce, but you can take steps to protect yourself. Don’t let the fact that counterfeits are out there dissuade you from making a good investment decision. Just do your due diligence and don’t let emotion overcome
logic

On August 24, the CME raised gold margins, a step that’s proved difficult for silver to handle only a few months earlier, but there was more to gold’s decline. The reasoning and warning provided in the August 24 ETF Profit Strategy update is about as basic and common sense as it gets: ‘Even though gold is the logical fear trade, price action is also dictated by liquidity. At some point investors will have to sell holdings to pay off debt or answer margin calls. Commonly the most profitable asset is sold first. Gold has been the best performing asset for a decade and a liquidity crunch could produce sellers en masse.

Those losses had to be paid somehow. It’s human nature to sell off the most profitable asset class to cover losses. That’s when sales orders for gold and silver piled up.

All asset classes – even mighty gold and silver – are subject to liquidity and liquidity crunches.

Anyone holding gold and silver most likely had a heartattack this morning. Following an impressive surge in both metals, which saw silver soar from $26 all the way back to $30, after it was made clear that there was no behind the scenes liquidation of the metal but merely more piggybacked margin hikes this time out of China. Another factor that helped was Marc Faber’s appearance on CNBC earlier, who said that gold is now “quite oversold” and that he would be adding to the yellow metal in the “next two days.” In retrospect, he should have been adding today to his existing holdings. However, since he already has 25% in gold, he is forgiven.

Some of the key soundbites from Faber: “Gold is quite oversold and I would consider buying some gold in the next two days… We overshot on the upside when we went over $1,900. We’re now close to bottoming at $1,500, and if that doesn’t hold it could bottom to between $1,100-$1,200. “Both equity markets and gold markets have become very oversold, and I think a rebound is occurring. Following this rebound, which I expect to get underway this week, there will be a longer slowdown.”