Baltic Dry Index. 743 - +09
LIR Gold Target by 2019: $30,000. Revised due to QE programs.
The history of taxation shows that taxes which are inherently excessive are not paid. The high rates inevitably put pressure upon the taxpayer to withdraw his capital from productive business.
Andrew Mellon.
For more on the road to madness scroll down to
Crooks Corner.
We open for a change today, with the Republic of
South Africa, where rising labour unrest just keeps growing. Last August the
world was shocked by the police massacre
of 34 striking platinum miners. Since then, although largely under reported,
the labour unrest has spread out from mining to the agriculture and trucking
sectors. Stay long physical precious
metals, our modern interconnected global economy has never looked more
vulnerable to “unexpected” shock.
“There’s danger in just shoveling out money to people who say, ‘My life is a little harder than it used to be, at a certain place you’ve got to say to the people, ‘Suck it in and cope, buddy. Suck it in and cope.’”
Proper Charlie Munger.
Police fire rubber bullets at South Africa farm strikers
DE DOORNS, South Africa |(Reuters) - South African police fired rubber bullets to disperse hundreds of striking farm workers in the grape-growing Western Cape on Wednesday, the first clashes of a year that looked set to be dominated by fractious labor relations.
On the main highway through the region 100 km (60 miles) east of Cape Town, strikers set up barricades of burning tires and pelted passing vehicles with stones, according to a Reuters reporter.
Scores of riot police backed by at least one armored vehicle responded with volleys of rubber bullets to keep the protesters from the roadside.
Africa's largest economy saw waves of labor unrest last year that began in the platinum mining industry and swept through the trucking and agriculture sectors.
The unrest, including the police killing of 34 miners at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine in August, tarnished South Africa's reputation among overseas investors and led to downgrades of its sovereign debt.
With the gold and coal mines - which employ more than 250,000 people - due to open two-yearly industry-wide wage talks in the next few months, analysts expect labor relations to cast a shadow over the economy, which is expected to eke out growth of 3 percent this year.
More
Now back to more on the decline and fall of the United States of Europe. Italy’s youth unemployment problem has now soared above 37%. With a new general election coming next month, Italy looks to be headed towards the door marked EMU exit. Stay long physical precious metals. Nothing has been fixed in the house of cards called Euroland.
The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.Walter Bagehot.
Italy jobless records put heat on Monti in poll race
ROME |(Reuters) - Italy's jobless rate remained at a record high in November while youth unemployment jumped to a new peak above 37 percent, data showed on Tuesday.
Italy has been in a deep recession since the middle of 2011 and unemployment has risen steadily as businesses clamp down on staffing levels to cope with crumbling domestic demand.
The plight of the unemployed and particularly young people will be a crunch issue at the election and outgoing Prime Minister Monti, who heads a centrist group, has been criticized by opponents on the left and right of hurting the economy in his efforts to fix public finances.
----The youth unemployment rate, referring to 15-24 year-olds, jumped for the third month running in November to 37.1 percent, its highest level since records began in 1992.
Companies are reluctant to give new recruits regular contracts because strong job protection means it is hard to fire them. So young people tend to move from one temporary contract to the next, and opportunities have dried up in the recession.
More
Up next, Euroland suffers from a failure to communicate, says the French Finance Minister, one day day-tripping through Beijing. Just how dumb does Euroland’s politicians think the Chinese are? China’s concerns are legitimate and well founded. It’s Europe’s politicians that are delusional and in deep denial. The EMU must be reformed, with either the weakest of strongest nations leaving. The present pull-me-push-you euro is just wrecking much of Europe not bringing in the promised prosperity. It doesn’t take a genius to see the likely outcome. Better that the break up is planned, orderly, and competently handled, rather the product of some untimely sudden collapse.
P. J. O’Rourke
Chinese concerns over eurozone persist: French Finance Minister
BEIJING |(Reuters) - Chinese officials remain worried about the state of the euro, the visiting French finance minister said on Tuesday, while repeating assurances the euro zone has stabilized and that France is on track for recovery.
Pierre Moscovici, in Beijing for a one-day visit, said concerns over the future of the euro came up in all his meetings, even as the French side sought to attract Chinese investment, further nuclear cooperation and promote Paris as a place to do business in Chinese yuan.
"There was one point that came up in all our discussions, which I had to hammer away at because I am convinced. I sensed a strong question still remains here, perhaps due to a misunderstanding or a lack of information," he told reporters.
The questions on the state of the euro came from China's future premier, Li Keqiang, as well as from Lou Jiwei, the head of sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp (CIC), Moscovici said
More
We end for today with the big story in technology. Are Lithium batteries used in electric vehicles, cell phones and Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner passenger jet, safe? More importantly, while passengers travelling in a ground based electric vehicle whose lithium-ionbattery pack catches fire, have a reasonably good chance of bailing out and saving their lives, does the same hold true for li-ion use in airplanes? Even if the risk of li-ion failure is low when these batteries are new, what happens to the risk as thy age and go through multiple recharging cycles? Boeing, and to a lesser extent GM, have a lot of explaining to do. With the 787 barely in service, only about 50 are flying at present, there have been too many “teething problems” for comfort. Would you willingly put your loved ones on a 787 at present, if an alternative plane were available? An unfortunate, but legitimate question to ask.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from
magic.
Arthur C.Clarke
Analysis: Boeing problems put spotlight on battery technology
DETROIT/NEW YORK |(Reuters) - An electrical fire on Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner is drawing renewed scrutiny for lithium-ion batteries, an increasingly important component in planes and hybrid cars.
A Japan Airlines 787 experienced a battery fire while parked on the ground in Boston on Monday, causing substantial damage in an equipment bay. While the plane is designed to contain the smoke from such a fire in-flight, because it was on the ground the smoke entered the cabin.
The use of the new battery technology is among the cost-saving features of the 787, which Boeing says burns 20 percent less fuel than rival jets using older technology.
Boeing used electrical systems extensively on the 787 instead of traditional hydraulic equipment - a change that reduced the 787's weight but added to its complexity.
Lithium-ion batteries can catch fire if they are overcharged, and once alight, they are difficult to extinguish because the chemicals produce oxygen, Boeing's chief engineer for the 787, Mike Sinnett, said on a conference call with reporters Wednesday.
Engineers designed multiple onboard systems to prevent overcharging, contain a battery fire and siphon smoke away before it reaches the cabin, Sinnett said.
-
---The battery that caught fire was part of an auxiliary power unit designed to provide electricity when the plane is on the ground. The battery is about twice as large as a car battery and it has been extensively tested, both in the lab and in operation. "We've got 1.3 million operating hours on these battery cells in flight with no issues," Sinnett said.
A similar challenge confronts automakers and other users over lithium ion batteries, which are used in laptops and other electronics.
"It is always difficult to predict the level of safety precaution needed for new technology," said Menahem Anderman, a battery consultant who worked on the Boeing 777 battery systems when he was at Acme Electric Corp, in an email.
"One of the challenging design criteria that automakers are struggling with is whether it is necessary to ensure that if a single cell catches fire, the fire does not propagate to other cells," he said.
While Dreamliner passengers may not realize there is a lithium-ion battery inside the plane, drivers of electric cars do. The auto industry has been increasingly veering toward using lithium-ion batteries rather than the cheaper, but heavier nickel-metal hydride battery used by Toyota Motor Corp in its top-selling Prius.
General Motors Co, the largest U.S. automaker, uses a lithium-ion battery in its Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, while its smaller U.S. rival Ford Motor Co uses the technology in its green cars, including the recently launched C-Max hybrid.
The technology is favored in the latest generation of such cars for the same reason plane makers are keen to use it -- the batteries can be made lighter, smaller and in a way that retains capacity longer. Lithium-ion batteries are about half the weight of nickel-metal hydride batteries.
In 2011, a lithium-ion battery pack in a Volt caught fire three weeks after a U.S. safety regulators conducted a crash test. But after a two-month investigation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration determined that the Volt and other electric vehicles posed no greater risk for a fire than gasoline-powered vehicles.
More
At the Comex silver depositories Wednesday final figures were: Registered 39.53
Moz, Eligible 110.77 Moz, Total 150.30 Moz.
Crooks and
Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
Today, more on the
road to World War Three. Japan provokes China into defending the Diaoyu’s.
America intervenes on the side of Japan. As the world tumbles into chaos and
fiat currency collapse, America asks NATO to intervene on the side of team
Japan-USA. China asks for and gets support from Russia and the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation, and 1914 style the world stumbles into World War
Three. Since nuclear weapons have already been used and legitimised, there’s
little reason to think that WW3 won’t end up nuclear. Getting in first is all
that counts. The road to madness perhaps, but it’s Japan that is taking that
road. Thanks to America’s blank cheque, they have little reason to want to hold
back.
Japan and China step up drone race as tension builds over disputed islands
Both countries claim drones will be used for
surveillance, but experts warn of future skirmishes in region's airspace
Wednesday 9 January 2013
Drones have taken centre stage in an escalating arms race between China and Japan
as they struggle to assert their dominance over disputed islands in the East
China Sea.China is rapidly expanding its nascent drone programme, while Japan has begun preparations to purchase an advanced model from the US. Both sides claim the drones will be used for surveillance, but experts warn the possibility of future drone skirmishes in the region's airspace is "very high".
Tensions over the islands – called the Diaoyu by China and the Senkaku by Japan – have ratcheted up in past weeks. Chinese surveillance planes flew near the islands four times in the second half of December, according to Chinese state media, but were chased away each time by Japanese F-15 fighter jets. Neither side has shown any signs of backing down.
Japan's new conservative administration of Shinzo Abe has placed a priority on countering the perceived Chinese threat to the Senkakus since it won a landslide victory in last month's general election. Soon after becoming prime minister, Abe ordered a review of Japan's 2011-16 mid-term defence programme, apparently to speed up the acquisition of between one and three US drones.
Under Abe, a nationalist who wants a bigger international role for the armed forces, Japan is expected to increase defence spending for the first time in 11 years in 2013. The extra cash will be used to increase the number of military personnel and upgrade equipment. The country's deputy foreign minister, Akitaka Saiki, summoned the Chinese ambassador to Japan on Tuesday to discuss recent "incursions" of Chinese ships into the disputed territory.
China appears unbowed. "Japan has continued to ignore our warnings that their vessels and aircraft have infringed our sovereignty," top-level marine surveillance official Sun Shuxian said in an interview posted to the State Oceanic Administration's website, according to Reuters. "This behaviour may result in the further escalation of the situation at sea and has prompted China to pay great attention and vigilance."
China
announced late last month that the People's Liberation Army was preparing to
test-fly a domestically developed drone, which analysts say is likely a clone
of the US's carrier-based X-47B. "Key attack technologies will be
tested," reported the state-owned China Daily, without disclosing further
details.
Andrei
Chang, editor-in-chief of the Canadian-based Kanwa Defence Review, said China
might be attempting to develop drones that can perform reconnaissance missions
as far away as Guam, where the US is building a military presence as part of
its "Asia Pivot" strategy.
----China's state
media reported in October that the country would build 11 drone bases along the
coastline by 2015. "Over disputed islands, such as the Diaoyu Islands, we
do not lag behind in terms of the number of patrol vessels or the frequency of
patrolling," said Senior Colonel Du Wenlong, according to China Radio
International. "The problem lies in our surveillance capabilities."
Morehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/08/china-japan-drone-race
Inside the Ring: Chinese missile defense test?
By Bill Gertz The
Washington Times Wednesday, January 9, 2013
U.S. intelligence agencies are closely monitoring China’s missile facilities
in anticipation of a test of China’s missile defense interceptor, which also
doubled in the past as an anti-satellite (ASAT) missile.The officials commented in response to reports that China is set to conduct another potentially destabilizing anti-satellite missile test in space. In 2007, China fired a missile that destroyed a weather satellite and resulted in tens of thousands of dangerous pieces of debris that threaten manned and unmanned spacecraft.
The Washington Free Beacon reported in September on new intelligence reports that indicate China is preparing to fire its Dong Ning-2 missile into space, this time at a high-earth orbit target.
Then last week Gregary Kulacki, a specialist with the Union of Concerned Scientist, reported on his blog, “All Things Nuclear,” that Chinese officials recently circulated an internal notice of an upcoming anti-satellite missile test in space,
A U.S. official said a test at this point does not appear imminent. However there are signs an interceptor flight test is being prepared.
More
http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/9/inside-ring-chinese-missile-defense-test/?page=all#pagebreak
A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. The only value in our two nations possessing nuclear weapons is to make sure they will never be used.
Ronald Reagan.
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished December:
DJIA: +100 Down. NASDAQ: +123 Unch. SP500: +129 Up.
All three indexes are giving different
signals. A time for caution.
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