Government Spending Run Amuck.

[SpartanStu]

Originally Posted by spartans134

Nail on the head. I can't believe so many people STILL BLINDLY trust the federal government. Now is the perfect time for a revolution. Ron Paul and his supporters woke me up, now it's up to us to spread the message. Bring back constitutional government, it is a much better system than the "one size fits all" approach we have now. Choosing between the Republicans and Democrats is like choosing between watered down Coke and Pepsi.

I wouldnt go that far. Sewage or Cespool.

[DeHannen]

Originally Posted by ChicagoMark

All temporary. This could end up being the last ditch effort of a dying financial cartel to manipulate prices on a day when the FOMC chose to keep rates unchanged.

We are now at a fantastic buying point for precious metals. There may be some minor downside yet, but it is time to load the boat! I personally made a big buy in silver and a small buy in UNG (nat gas) and will be very well positioned for the coming financial/$USD collapse starting this fall.

People...you have 3 weeks to a month to prepare!

CM, the dollar just broke out today, silver is down 10% in three days, and the Canadian dollar is getting crushed. Not that I want to see the US in the toilet, but WTF.

[ChicagoMark]

Originally Posted by DeHannen

CM, the dollar just broke out today, silver is down 10% in three days, and the Canadian dollar is getting crushed. Not that I want to see the US in the toilet, but WTF.

It is not Oct. (fall) yet.

Aug. is a crazy month for evrything. Volumes are very low (lowest of the year) so small amounts of money can cause big moves. This is a great time to watch and prepare. Look at Silver last Aug., it crashed hard down to $11 only to nearly double by March to over $20.

My question would be...What has changed? Nothing. The dollar is enjoying a nice respite from its decline - nothing goes straight down. The action in all markets will start late Sept.

[DeHannen]

Originally Posted by ChicagoMark

It is not Oct. (fall) yet.

Aug. is a crazy month for everything. Volumes are very low (lowest of the year) so small amounts of money can cause big moves. This is a great time to watch and prepare. Look at Silver last Aug., it crashed hard down to $11 only to nearly double by March to over $20.

My question would be...What has changed? Nothing. The dollar is enjoying a nice respite from its decline - nothing goes straight down. The action in all markets will start late Sept.

The dollar just broke out of a six month trend on very strong volume, especially for the months of July and August. It cleared two solid resistance points within a week. I got stopped out of the Canadian dollar. Somebody thinks the credit crisis is over. Unfortunately, I don't think we are out of the woods yet, because the last of those teaser ARMS don't expire until September. But in the mean time I'm taking up the butt trying to be "disciplined."

[ChicagoMark]

Originally Posted by DeHannen

The dollar just broke out of a six month trend on very strong volume, especially for the months of July and August. It cleared two solid resistance points within a week. I got stopped out of the Canadian dollar. Somebody thinks the credit crisis is over. Unfortunately, I don't think we are out of the woods yet, because the last of those teaser ARMS don't expire until September. But in the mean time I'm taking up the butt trying to be "disciplined."

My advice - for what it is worth - is that if you are a trader, you need to take the month of August off and sit in cash. Wait for the market to come to you.

If you are a longer-term investor, precious metals are a seriously good buy right now. Could they go down? Yes. But I think we are talking nickels to the downside, dollars to the upside. These are the opportunities you look for/dream of in Bull markets - Fear is everywhere! Buy the Dips!!

The $USD is toast. Just wait for it. However, I don't really like any currencies, they are all fiat.

[tuff bob]

Originally Posted by DeHannen

Somebody thinks the credit crisis is over. Unfortunately, I don't think we are out of the woods yet, because the last of those teaser ARMS don't expire until September. But in the mean time I'm taking up the butt trying to be "disciplined."

Somebody else thinks its time for Europe to hurt a little:

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

We are now seeing a lot more negative surprises coming out of Europe than from the U.S., more so than any time during this credit shock,'' said Jim McCormick, head of currency strategy at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in London. ``At the same time, you've got some pretty strong capital inflows to the U.S. We kind of have the perfect circle of fundamentals bumping into strong technicals.''

[DeHannen]

Originally Posted by ChicagoMark

My advice - for what it is worth - is that if you are a trader, you need to take the month of August off and sit in cash. Wait for the market to come to you.

If you are a longer-term investor, precious metals are a seriously good buy right now. Could they go down? Yes. But I think we are talking nickels to the downside, dollars to the upside. These are the opportunities you look for/dream of in Bull markets - Fear is everywhere! Buy the Dips!!

The $USD is toast. Just wait for it. However, I don't really like any currencies, they are all fiat.

Dollar up strong again today.

Gold down 3.5% and broke serious support.

Silver down 5.3%

Oil down, despite the Russian shenanigans.

Your nickels are quickly turning into quarters.

[ChicagoMark]

No question, the metals are getting creamed!! Just like last August. However, we doubled in price from those Aug. lows in 6 months.

Fundamentally nothing has changed for the dollar. What you are seeing is a major and very ugly squeeze on the shorts. Personally I find it laughable, like the huge short squeeze on the shorts in the Financials. I get the feeling that this may be a set-up for something big this fall on the geo-political front, as well as, the domestic financial front.

[Scully60]

Originally Posted by ChicagoMark

This kind of fiscal irresponsibilty will be able to continue up to the point when it won't. That point when we will actually have to pay these debts with real wealth and not printed up Treasury notes is vastly approaching. Our "leaders" are anything but, and it doesn't matter which party they represent.

• A new housing law, signed last week, commits the government to backing some $300 billion in troubled mortgages.
• •A higher education bill adds $169 billion over the next five years.
• •The GI bill that extends education benefits to veterans or their family members will cost $62 billion over 10 years.
• •Congress boosted the statutory debt ceiling by $800 billion to $10.6 trillion. That's $4.8 trillion more than it was at the end of 2001.

Moreover, last week the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) projected the US budget deficit for the next fiscal year to be $482 billion, the largest deficit in US history in nominal terms.

U.S. spending obligations surge | csmonitor.com

You are suggesting we solve the deficit problem by going after the small items. I think we are in a position that we have to go after every item, but to suggest our deficit is because of the programs you mention:
$300 Billion over 15-30 years(Mortgages) = 10-20 Billion/year
$169 / 5 years = 33.8 billion/year
$62/10 years = 6.2 billion/year.

or even “earmarks” (Less than ½ of 1% of the entire federal budget) misses the point. The 2006 budget was $2.7 trillion! If you were a purchasing agent for a corporation that makes widgets, would you focus on the components that were a large percentage of the final product, or the smaller components in the final product?

In 2006 we paid $557 Billion for defense, $549 Billion for Social Security, $516 billion for Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP, $250 billion for Safety net programs, $227 billion for Interest on the national debt, $500+ billion for health care and other benefits to veterans and retirement benefits to retired federal employees, assuring safe food and drugs, protecting the environment, and investing in education, scientific and medical research, and basic infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and airports.

Where Do Our Tax Dollars Go?, Revised 5/15/07

To solve some of the problems:

• Adopting recommendations of Congress’ Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which could
generate substantial savings;
• Increasing the Medicare premiums that affluent beneficiaries pay;
• Instituting vigorous research programs to determine the comparative effectiveness of different
health care treatments and procedures as well as what is causing the huge differences in health
care costs across the country, and using the results as the basis for new policies to restrain health
care costs without compromising health care quality;
• Curbing or eliminating outdated or unproductive tax expenditures;
• Switching to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ alternative, more accurate Consumer Price Index in
computing the annual cost‐of‐living adjustments in Social Security and other entitlement
programs (while taking steps to shield low‐income and other vulnerable beneficiaries) and the
annual inflation adjustments in the tax code;
• Reforming farm price supports; and
• Adhering to Pay‐As‐You‐Go rules for both increases in mandatory programs and tax cuts.

[DeHannen]

Well, I'm gonna post this again because I don't know what happened to CMark's thread this morning.

Silver down another 10%, today alone.

Dollar up.

Gold down 23% from its high and in official bear territory now.

The trend is your friend and the trend is OUT OF METALS, as the short dollar is unwound away from the EURO.

[DeHannen]

Originally Posted by ChicagoMark

All temporary. This could end up being the last ditch effort of a dying financial cartel to manipulate prices on a day when the FOMC chose to keep rates unchanged.

We are now at a fantastic buying point for precious metals. There may be some minor downside yet, but it is time to load the boat! I personally made a big buy in silver and a small buy in UNG (nat gas) and will be very well positioned for the coming financial/$USD collapse starting this fall.

People...you have 3 weeks to a month to prepare!

Well, it's about a month later, let's see how things are going:

Gold down 12% since 8/5/08

Silver down 25% ...

US Dollar up 8% ...

UNG (nat gas) down 18%

[GRR Spartan]

October is the witching hour and next April will be either show we are climbing out of the trough or going down in flames.

Who ever is elected is going to be faced with a huge mess that will still need work long after their 4 or 8 years in the White House are over.

[DeHannen]

So we get news that the government is going to backstop Freddie and Fannie, and yet the US dollar is still up, gold is down, silver is down another 6% IN ONE DAY, and oil falls $3 a barrell.

US Market =