A South Carolina state politician wants the state to develop its own gold and silver-based currency in case the US dollarhttp://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelo...a-lawmaker-wants-separate-currency-for-state# collapses and hyper-inflation ensues.
"If folks lose faith in the dollar, we need to have some kind of backup," State Sen. Lee Bright told the Spartanburg Herald Journal's Stephen Largen. His bill asks a committee to look into the development of a state currency, citing the Constitution and Supreme Court precedents to prove the bill's legality.
Slate's Annie Lowrey tracks down similar bills in Georgia and Virginia, and points out that the legislation reflects a larger trend of state politicians wading into monetary policy. A bill in Georgia would require all debts to the state be paid in pre-1965 gold and silver coins. The Virginia proposal would let the state print its own money. Meanwhile, one politician in Utah wants to cut out the middleman entirely and allow the state's residents to run their very own mints.
All commodities up.DOW up.Unemployment up.Inflation up.
Cotton at fresh new highs and i mean REALLY high.(201.90 cents per pound,up 3.5% more today,or 200% from a year ago).
Silver back to 9 cents from 30 year highs and on a tear upward.
Here is a set of nice charts.Shows the DOW priced in gold.It is the best that I can do to prove the current market is up only due to inflation.When priced in Gold the DOW has never stopped going down and there is no recovery.I am sure most realize that now.
Silver. 32.80 currently.If you had purchased it on the first day of this post in September you would be up 50%.If you purchased silver a few years ago you would be up 200%+
I see silver hitting $60.00 by late summer and as high as 140-180 by the end of the year.
From the article.
"World food prices rose 28 percent in the past year, reaching a record in January, according to the United Nations. Riots partly linked to food inflation ended Zine el Abidine Ben Ali’s 23-year rule in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak’s three-decade- long rule in Egypt. Finance ministers from the Group of 20 nations last week signaled concern that surging commodity costs are driving inflationary pressures around the world."
Crop Prices Surge
"Grain futures rallied this month to the highest since 2008 on the Chicago Board of Trade. Corn surged 95 percent in the past year to $7.2025 a bushel as of Feb. 18, wheat jumped 71 percent to $8.5575 a bushel, and soybeans advanced 44 percent to $13.81 a bushel. Rice gained 11 percent to $15.075 per 100 pounds."
Corn price up 95% year over year...but there is no inflation
A little more of the article.
"Grains weren’t the only commodities to rally. Raw-sugar futures in New York rose to a 30-year high this month of 36.08 cents a pound, and cotton reached a record $2.0893 a pound on Feb. 18 after doubling in the past year. Hog futures advanced this month to the highest since at least 1986 on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, cattle touched a record in January, and milk futures rose to a 31-month high last week"
Housing data may have understated extent of collapse: report | Reuters
"
. CoreLogic says NAR could have overstated home sales by as much as 20 percent.
An over-count of home sales may mean that there is a bigger backlog of unsold homes and that it will take longer for the U.S. housing sector to climb out of the deep hole it is already in, dragging on the broader economic recovery."
And things may get a lot worse, said Robert Shiller, a Yale economist and half of the Case-Shiller team, in a web conference after the report's release.
"There's a substantial risk of home prices falling another 15%, 20% or 25% more," he said.
Just a little FYI.Lybia is less than 2% of the worlds oil production.Yet the disturbance there sent oil up 10% in less than 8 hours.Has to be speculation/dollar value.Just fast money chasing quick returns,but destroying what is left of the consumer in the process.
Over 43 million now on food stamps. 14.1 % of the entire US population.
Source is the USdA monthly data sheet(January report,I am sure it is higher now given the trend).
All US based banks combined made a total of 21.7 billion in profits last quarter.Of that The top 3 JPMorgan,Wells Fargo,and Goldman sacks(yes Goldman is considered a bank now)made 10.6 billion,or more than 50% of the profit from all banks in the USA.There are over 7800 FDIC insured banks in the USA.
The Federal reserve now owns 37% more Treasury bonds than China.It will hold more than China and Japan combined in the next month.The Feds balance sheet is now 2.5 Trillion,up from just over 500 billion in 2008.
US Gross Domestic Product has been revised to a 2.8% increase in the fourth quarter, from the 3.2% advanced estimation, disappointing markets expectations of an upward revision to 3.3%.