Nonsexist Alternative Language or Effemination of our Society

This whole "nonsexist alternative language" has me thinking about the "effemination" of our society.  (You may want to research the effects of effemination of males in regard to their traditional roles within society.)

Therefore, in keeping with current nonsexist terms, please refrain from using the following words and substitute the words following the "colon:"

1. Master Bedroom: Please use "Owner's Suite."
2. Freshman: Please use "First-year Student."
3. Chairman of the Board: Please use "Chair of the Board."
4. Mankind: Please use "Humanity."
5. Policeman: Please use "Police Officer."
6. Fireman: Please use "Fire Fighter."
7. Congressman: Please use "Member of Congress."
8. Cleaning Lady: Please use "Cleaner."
9. Fisherman: Please use "Fisherfolk."
10. Man-size Task: Please use "Demanding Task."
11. Master Key: Please use "Master Copy."
12. Railwayman: Please use "Railway Worker. 

Men, I would appreciate your total cooperation in the utilization of the above "nonsexist alternative language" in your daily conversations.  Only you can speed-up the "effemination process" of our gender.

Sallie Mae

As WSJ reports, Sallie Mae (SLM), the nation's largest non-government student lender just cancelled a $225 million debt offering as investors decided they simply were not getting paid enough for risk - amid rising student loan defaults.  This sounds a whole lot like 2007 when the leaks to the sub-prime mortgage bubble were first notices.  And, of course, that did not end well.  Oh, by the way, he total student loans outstanding are in excess of $1 trillion.  Simply look at the following chart, and one might conclude that this is 2007 all over again.  But, this time is going to be worse. 

Record Number of Households on Food Stamps

The latest available data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) shows that a record number 23 million households in the United States are now on food stamps.  That equates to 1 out of every five (20%) households are on food stamps (EBT Cards).

Elliott Wave Theorist: Lows of Generational Proportions?

Please keep-in-mind that I am simply the messenger of the following forecasts put-forth by Robert Prechter of “The Elliott Wave Theorist." 

The latest edition of  “The Elliott Wave Theorist,” dated April 23, 2013, puts forth the following projections for Gold, Silver, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average between now and 2016:

1. Silver will eventually take out its 1993 low of $3.51/ounce.
2. Gold will fall below $200/ounce.  
3. Equity markets should top out no later than Friday, May 3, for a 90% decline.  From today’s close of 14,719.46 on the DJIA, which would put the average at 1,472. 

What kind of economic scenario would bring about such low price levels for financial assets between now and 2016?  Answer: Deflation/Depression
 

$SLV: How Low Can It Go?

Happy Tax Day!

 In regard to taxes, how many miles constitute the U.S. Tax Code?  Answer: ≈13 miles!  The U.S. Tax Code is 73,954 pages long.  A standard sheet of paper is 8.5 inches in width by 11 inches in length.  If we multiply the length of the paper (11 inches) by 73,954 pages, we get 813,494 inches, which equals 67,791 feet.  A mile is 5,280 feet long.  Divide the 67,791 feet by one mile and you get 12.84 miles of tax code!

Spring Cleaning

I decided to take a couple of days off from posting on my blog in order to do some office cleaning. From the looks of it, I may need more than a couple of days :-(

How Many Working Age Americans do not Have a Job?

The answer is 101,709,000!  Yes, over 101 million working age Americans do not have a job. But, everything is just great in the "World of Oz"  At least, that is what we are being told.  As of July 2012, the population of the United States stood at 313,914,040.  Therefore, in relation to the population, 32.4% of working age Americans do not have employment.  But wait, you say the unemployment rate that was just announced last week was only 7.6%.  In other words, we have a major disconnect?  The Obama Administration is getting unemployment to go down by pretending that millions upon millions of unemployed Americans simply do not want jobs anymore.  We saw this once again in March 2012.  According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), more than 600,000 Americans dropped out of the labor market during that month alone.

I guess is just doesn't pay to work anymore. Various studies support that conclusion.  One study reported that a family of four, collecting all the benefits for which they were entitled, would have to earn $65,000 per year to have the same after-tax purchasing power.   According to Gary Alexander, the Secretary of Public Welfare for the state of Pennsylvania, a "single mom is better off earning gross income of $29,000 with $57,327 in net income & benefits than to earn gross income of $69,000 with net income and benefits of $57,045." If you work, you must be a sucker.

Now, back to the construction of the 101 million working age Americans that do not have jobs.  According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there are 11,742,000 working age Americans that are officially unemployed.  Plus, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that there are 89,967,000 working age Americans that are not in the labor force.  Therefore, the sum of the two equates to 101,709,000 or 32.4% of the population of the United States of American do not have employment. 

Check out the details of the above content at Zero Hedge.

$SLV, Now What?

Let the Truth be Told!

David Blanchflower, a former Bank of England policy maker who now teaches at Dartmouth, said the following: “The reason that stocks have erased all their losses is entirely because of QE (fallacy of so-called free money).  To argue that that’s independent of the actions of the Fed shows no understanding of what the Fed is doing and what they did.”  So, there you have it.  Through the Fed's policy of so-called "free money," not real economic growth or real job growth, you have the explanation on why the market is completely disconnected from economic reality.  As I stated many time previously, the main benefactor has been Wall Street, not Main Street.

What do Farmland Real Estate and Student Loans Have in Common?

Both "farmers and students" are taking on mounting debt that is totally unsustainable going forward, which has "bubble" written all over both of them.  Student loan debt today exceeds $1 trillion. Yes, that is trillion.  As of December 31, 2012, the delinquency rate on student loans has surpassed that of credit card debt.  Why?  According to a TransUnion study’s analysis of government data, more than half of the college graduates under the age of 25 are unemployed or underemployed.  

Now, in regard to farm real estate, farmland prices in the heart of the "Corn Belt" have increased at a double-digit rate in six of the last seven years, according to a study by the Federal Reserve.  "The study states that farmland prices were up 15% last year in the most productive part of the corn belt, and 26% percent in the western corn belt and high plains."  (In other words, the Fed's QEs have not only manipulated equity prices but farmland prices.)  With the rise in farmland prices has come a disturbing trend in the balance sheets of farmers.  According to the Kansas Farm Management Association (see the above link), the number of farmers with debt to equity ratios (financial leverage or risk factor) today of at least 40% is higher than it was in 1979, shortly before the farmland crash of the 1980s.  Further, those farms with a debt to asset ratio of over 70% are "three times as numerous today.

Therefore, we have the real potential of "TWO BUBBLES for the PRICE of ONE."  And, we thought the sub-prime mortgage bubble was bad.  However, we haven't seen anything yet with these two bubbles getting ready to burst!

Lies, Lies, and More Lies

The following memo from the Central Bank of Cyprus sent on February 11, 2013 to ensure everyone that "restricting the property rights of depositors" is unconstitutional."  In other words, the entire memo was one "big lie."  Worse yet, according to a "confidential memo," a “haircut” of 50% on its sovereign bonds is the next step, which will destroy the financial sector of Cyprus.

 

Deja Vu Again?

I know those infamous words on everyone's tongue, which are, "But, it is different this time." Maybe, but I doubt it!  Just take a look at the following chart, and you may just agree that it may not be so different this time.

$SLV Update

The critical price support for $SLV remains at $26. As indicated in the following chart, the odds do favor an eventual break of that price support.  The main factor for a break of $26 is due to its current Stage 4, Selling Phase.

Savers Beware!

The Cyprus Banking Woes Should Not Have Been a Surprise to Anyone!

Three weeks ago the Cyrus banking system passed the so-called European stress test for financial institutions.  That means that the ECB and IMF did not have Cyprus or its banks on any watch list.  Therefore, one would conclude that what has happened in Cyprus is not a "one off" situation but systemic throughout the entire European banking community.  Just as the following chart implies, the Cyprus banking implosion should not have come as a surprise to anyone!  Who is next in European?

Obama’s Limo Breaks Down

 

Israeli workers had to scramble Wednesday, March 20, to find transportation for President Obama after his limousine that was to have taken him around the country broke down.  I know it is the fault of "sequestration."  The Administration just could not afford the cost of changing the oil.  By the way, is that limo in the picture a GM vehicle.  Yes, indeed!  Well, I guess it is just poetic justice for all those GM bondholders who lost everything so that the UAW could remain whole. 

Obamacare: Projected Premium Increases by State

"I (President Obama) will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family's premium by up to $2,500 a year."  So much for that political promise.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has put together the following table that projects premium increases by state:

Yes, I know ObamaCare advocates are saying that generous subsidies will be forthcoming to offset those ominous premium increases.  But wait!  Someone has to pay for those increase premium costs.  Right?  To that end, Obamacare’s exchange subsidies are estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to cost over $1.2 trillion over 10 years.  Pray tell, how are we, as a Nation, going to pay for this trillion dollar plus subsidy?  Oh, I know!  It will be accomplished through deficit spending that will be monetized by the Federal Reserve System, which will further debase your purchasing power of your dollar.  So, your health insurance premiums will definitely go up along with the debasement of your dollars.  My advise.  Get a large jar of K-Y Jelly, or better yet, buy two; because the reamer is within sight.

Do You Really Know the Legal Ramifications of Your Bank Deposits?

Between 1929 and 1933, 9,000 banks in the United States closed their doors.  President Roosevelt shut down all banks for a short time after his inauguration.  In December 2001, the government of Argentina froze virtually all bank deposits, barring customers from withdrawing the money they thought they had.  Over the weekend, Cyprus decided to confiscate up to 10% of bank depositors' funds on orders from the ECB and IMF.  As of today, Tuesday, March 19, Cyprus banks and stock exchanges are still closed while waiting on a vote by its Parliament.  Sometimes such restrictions happen naturally, when banks fail; sometimes they are imposed as Cyprus found out over the weekend.  Sometimes the restrictions are temporary; sometimes they remain for a long time.

Why do banks fail?  For nearly 200 years, the courts have sanctioned an interpretation of the term “deposits” to mean not funds that you deliver for safekeeping but a loan to your bank.  Let’s repeat that in another way.  Your bank balance, then, is an IOU from the bank to you, even though there is no loan contract and no required interest payment. Thus, legally speaking, you have a claim on your money deposited in a bank, but practically speaking, you have a claim only on the loans that the bank makes with your money.  If a large portion of those loans is tied up or becomes worthless, your money claim is compromised.  A bank failure simply means that the bank has reneged on its promise to pay you back.  The bottom line is that your money is only as safe as the bank’s loans.  In boom times, banks become imprudent and lend to almost anyone.  In busts, they can’t get much of that money back due to widespread defaults.  If the bank’s portfolio collapses in value, say, like those of the Savings & Loan institutions in the U.S. in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the bank is broke, and its depositors’ savings are gone, or as Cypriots are finding out those savings can be simply confiscated by the government. 

Why Wealth Confiscation Will Occur in the United States

Well, it seems that Cyprus has decided to extend its so-called bank holiday until Thursday of this week.  (Banks in Cyprus were suppose to open on Tuesday.)  Who is next in line to confiscate wealth of its citizens? Italy? Spain? United States?

Ok, why will the United States have to confiscate a portion of your wealth?  The answer lies in the simple fact that within two years the government of the United States will only have sufficient tax revenues to fund "Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and Interest on its National Debt," which by the way corresponds to the end of the Shemitah on September 13, 2015.  For example, last year Medicare took in slightly more than $200 billion; however, between Medicare and Medicaid, our government spent slightly more than $1 trillion.  Now, keep-in-mind, our government only took in approximately $2.3 trillion.  That leaves $1.3 trillion for everything else, which, of course, was not enough because our deficit was over $1 trillion.  That deficit of $1 trillion was for all practical purposes monetized (Created money out of thin air to buy the debt, which in itself is illegal. But then again, our government doesn't seem to be too concerned about the rule of law.  Remember GM bondholders.) by the Federal Reserve System.  If the Federal Reserve System stops its policy of monetizing the debt, or is forced to by the market, the only option for the government will be a Cyprian type measure of wealth confiscation.  If the Fed continues to monetized the debt, your wealth (currency) will be completely debased (destroyed) through hyper-inflation, which will be the same as a direct confiscation of your bank and retirement accounts.  Therefore, you just might want to consider a greater allocation of your wealth into precious metals.