Baltic Dry Index. 799 -27
LIR Gold Target by 2019: $30,000. Revised due to QE programs.
No word yet what mischief Europe’s Great
Leaders’ summit has in store for the hapless
Euroserfs next year, but we expect details later today. Below from part of the
FT’s coverage. President Van Rompuy, Belgian, unelected, ineffective but
earning more than President Obama, seems to be putting everything back until
after Mrs Merkel’s re-election attempt next September. Rip Van Europe is apparently
going to sleep until next October! Stay long physical precious metals. Even if
the markets would let them, which I doubt, events in America, China and Japan
will likely come crashing in. As will an early election in Italy, and the collapse
of old socialist France by mid-year.
"When it becomes serious, you have to lie"
Jean-Claude Juncker. Luxembourg Prime Minister and president of the Euro Group of Finance Ministers. Confessed liar.
Live: eurozone crisis
----Last night, however, Herman Van Rompuy, president of the
European Council, circulated a final draft of the summit communiqué, and we got
our hands on it.
The 12-page document differs from a version circulated last week in several significant ways – most notably completely dropping a timetable for creating a fiscal and banking union in the eurozone.
The 12-page document differs from a version circulated last week in several significant ways – most notably completely dropping a timetable for creating a fiscal and banking union in the eurozone.
----Rather than come to any conclusion on the issue, the draft says
it will be addressed again at a March summit “after an informal process of
consultations with Member States”.
Similarly, Van Rompuy seems to show somewhat less ambition
towards creating a eurozone budget, once one of the cornerstones if his reform
plans. In the previous text, he explicitly talked about creating a so-called
“fiscal capacity” sometime after 2014. Now, that language is removed entirely,
and the draft says any discussion of “a shock absorption function” – the new,
more limited eurocratese for what was once a eurozone budget – are to be put
off indefinitely:
----Van Rompuy’s draft suggests it
won’t be taken up until “after the election of a new European Parliament and
the appointment of a new Commission” – which will not happen until the end of
2014.
more
Next, European President Barroso, (there are
three European President’s in an effort to reduce EU unemployment,) unelected,
ineffective, former communist, tells Italy’s former Prime Minister until
deposed in coup last November, just how high to jump, should he get re-elected
next February. In Euroland democracy is
dying by the day.
Italy is not technically part of the Third World, but no one has told the Italians.
P. J. O’Rourke
EU's Barroso tells Berlusconi Italy needs stability, reform
BRUSSELS |(Reuters) - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Thursday he had stressed the importance of stability and reform in Italy in a conversation with former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Barroso told reporters he had a private discussion with Berlusconi on Wednesday.
"I'm not going into detail. It was a personal conversation," Barroso said, but added that he had stressed in their phone call the need to keep Italy on this "path of stability and reform".
In
other EU news, the leader of Mrs Merkel’s coalition party, blames the Eurozone’s
failures on Britain. Britain may cause EU disintegration he says! If only we
could be so lucky! Some 400 million Europeans would have a chance at wealth
creation again. Club Med’s youth would regain the chance to get a job, and
finally get on the first rung of the ladder of wealth creation. Europe’s
entrepreneurs would be rid of the dead hand of diktats from Brussels self
serving Eurorats. Millions of useless Euro M.P.s would no longer collect
bankster fees, merely for shuttling off to Strasbourg once a month. Sadly he is
the sound of one hand clapping. Germany’s Free Democrats, just like the UK’s
joke Liberal Democrats, are headed for annihilation at the next election. Sadly
Britain will not be so lucky as to cause EU disintegration. Happily though, on
present policies, the EU is heading there without any help from doomed
coalition Britain.
The finance of the country is
ultimately associated with the liberties of the
country… If the House of Commons by
any possibility lose the power of the
control of the grants of public
money, depend upon it, your very liberty will be
worth very little in comparison.
That powerful leverage has been what is
commonly known as the power of the
purse – the control of the House of
Commons over public expenditure.
William Ewart Gladstone, 1891
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Britain may cause EU "disintegration": senior German lawmaker
BERLIN |(Reuters) - A leading member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition accused Britain on Thursday of adopting an uncooperative attitude towards the European Union that could cause a "disintegration" of the bloc.
Rainer Bruederle, parliamentary leader of the Free Democrats (FDP) who share power with Merkel's conservatives, told German Radio he wanted Britain to stay in the EU but that he was getting increasingly frustrated with London.
"Our British friends ... constantly give us advice about what we in the euro zone should do but they don't join in themselves. They are not even prepared to agree to the rules for financial markets," Bruederle said.
"If things stay like this and the stance doesn't change - among British Conservatives but also in the Labour Party - you will see alarming developments of disintegration in Europe's structures," he added.
----While Germany agrees with Britain on
the need to cut EU spending, it has grown increasingly exasperated by what it
sees as Cameron's semi-detached stance, which it fears could lead to Britain
sliding out of a bloc distrusted by British public opinion.
More
We end for the week with China upping the ante with
Japan over the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea. Japan’s new government
next week, likely to be led by the Liberal Democratic Party’s Shinzo Abe,
is likely to come under immediate pressure from China. Mr Abe will have to live
with his China bashing election rhetoric. Stay long precious metals. In 2013
this fight could become red hot. Unfortunately for Japan’s government, Japan’s
economy is slowing again, while China seems to be growing again at closer to
its usual pace.
China calls on Japan to halt entries into disputed waters
BEIJING |(Reuters) - China's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that Japan should halt entries into seas and airspace near disputed islets in the East China Sea, after Japan protested a flight over the islands by a Chinese plane.
The Chinese plane's flight, which prompted Japan's military to scramble eight F-15 fighter jets, was "completely normal" Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said during a regular news briefing.
Sino-Japanese relations have been strained since Japan
bought the tiny islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, from a private Japanese owner in September.
Japan Calls for Calm After China Plane Enters Disputed Airspace
By Isabel Reynolds - Dec 14, 2012 4:13 AM GMT
Japan said it would respond calmly after the first-ever incursion by a
Chinese plane into Japanese- controlled airspace near disputed islands
ratcheted up tensions days ahead of an election. A Chinese marine surveillance propeller plane was spotted by the Coast Guard near the uninhabited islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. While Japan dispatched eight F-15 fighter jets, the plane had already left the area and China responded by calling the flight a normal activity in its own airspace.
-----The incident came three days before Japanese elections that the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, which has called for a more assertive approach with China, is forecast to win. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s purchase of the islands in September sparked sometimes violent protests in China, damaging a $340 billion bilateral trade relationship and hurting Japanese exporters like Toyota Motor Corp. (7203)
----Chinese vessels have entered Japanese-controlled waters around the islands 17 times since Sept. 11 and have been warned off by the Coast Guard. Under Japanese law, incursions by aircraft require a response by the military, raising further potential risks.
“What
happens if Japan tries to force Chinese planes out of our airspace and they do
not comply?” Kayahara said. “That might lead to a forced landing and something
could go wrong.”
Japan
called in China’s envoy yesterday to make an “extremely severe protest” about
the incident and an incursion by four Chinese ships the same day. Chinese
foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters yesterday in Beijing that
China’s activities were “completely normal.”
“China
requires the Japanese side to stop illegal activities in the waters and
airspace of the Diaoyu islands,” Hong said.
Morehttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-14/japan-calls-for-calm-after-china-plane-enters-disputed-airspace.html
China HSBC factory flash PMI fuels recovery hopes
BEIJING |(Reuters) - China's vast manufacturing sector expanded in December at its fastest pace in 14 months as new orders and employment rose, a survey showed on Friday, adding to evidence of a pick up in the economy that helped to boost market sentiment.
The HSBC flash purchasing managers' index for December rose to 50.9, the highest level since October 2011 and the fifth straight monthly gain. A figure above 50 indicates that growth is accelerating, while one below 50 shows slowing growth.
The flash survey -- issued earlier in the month than usual ahead of the Christmas holidays -- provides a further sign for leaders meeting this weekend to chart an economic policy course for 2013 that Chinese growth is reviving.
Growth had slowed for seven consecutive quarters to 7.4 percent in the third quarter. Although it is expected to quicken slightly in the fourth quarter, China is on track this year for its slowest full-year GDP expansion since 1999.
The improved conditions were primarily driven by domestic demand, said Hongbin Qu, China chief economist at HSBC.
More
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/14/us-china-pmi-hsbc-flash-idUSBRE8BD03B20121214
China electricity consumption growth gathers pace
BEIJING,
Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- China's electricity consumption, an important barometer of
economic activities, continued to gather pace in November, data from the
National Energy Administration (NEA) showed Friday.
China's
electricity usage went up 7.6 percent year on year to 413.9 billion
kilowatt-hours (kwh) last month, higher than October's 6.1-percent rise. It
also marked the second straight month of acceleration, according to NEA data.
The
country's electricity consumption climbed 5.1 percent in the first 11 months
compared with one year earlier. The pace of increase was also higher than the
4.9-percent growth registered during the January-October period.
The
pick-up echoed other key economic indicators that showed China's economy is
improving after posting a 7.4-percent expansion in the third quarter, the
weakest growth in more than three years.
Morehttp://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-12/14/c_132040375.htm
“This is crossing the
Rubicon, after which there will be no more sovereign states in Europe with
fully-fledged governments and parliaments which represent legitimate interests
of their citizens, but only one State will remain. Basic things will be decided
by a remote ‘federal government’ in Brussels and, for example, Czech citizens
will be only a tiny particle whose voice and influence will be almost zero. …
We are against a European superstate.”
Czech President Vaclav Klaus. 2003.
At the Comex silver depositories Thursday final figures were: Registered 41.02
Moz, Eligible 105.49 Moz, Total 147.51 Moz.
Crooks and
Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
Now Sweden’s
gone heavily Eurosceptic. More and more of Europe is waking up to the European
nightmare: the euro’s not working for the best interest of most Europeans
anymore. Gordon Brown was a Saint.
Sweden’s Euro Hostility Hits A Record
Wednesday, December 12, 2012 at 5:53PM
----Sweden is a special case. It joined the EU in 1995 after its people had
graciously been allowed to express their will in a referendum in 1994—with
52.3% voting in favor. As every country that joins the EU, Sweden signed an
accession treaty that obligates it to adopt the euro, but without deadline. So
in 2003, the government thought time had come to make the move. It asked the
people in a non-binding referendum if they wanted to accede to the Eurozone.
September 14 was the day.The people rebelled. They demolished the euro, with 55.9% voting against it and 42% for it. They didn’t want to trade in their beloved krona for the newfangled currency. They didn’t want to give up sovereignty over their monetary policy. It shook up eurocrats, member governments, finance ministers, and heads of state around the continent. And the European power structure learned a lesson: don’t let the riffraff decide; it was the last time that people in the EU had been allowed to vote on the euro.
But in Sweden, the euro is on the table twice a year via a survey by the Swedish statistical agency that asks people how they’d vote if a referendum were held “today” on joining the euro. The results of the survey conducted in November just came out. Sobering results: 82.3% would vote against joining the euro, only 9.6% would vote for it, and 8% were betwixt and between. The euro’s descent into utter unpopularity hell set a new record.
More
http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/2012/12/12/swedens-euro-hostility-hits-a-record.html
"Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the 'hidden' confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights."
Alan Greenspan, 1966. Before he fell off the wagon.
Another
weekend, another week closer to Christmas, another week closer to America’s “fiscal
cliff,” another week closer to the end of the euro as we know it. Have a great
weekend everyone.
The monthly
Coppock Indicators finished November:
DJIA: +103 Up. NASDAQ: +123 Up. SP500: +125 Up. Time
is running out for the Santa Clause rally, unless there is a fiscal cliff
agreement.
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