Inside Job Part Deux?

If you've never seen the movie, Inside Job, you might not know who this man is:

R. Glenn Hubbard. Gotta wonder what he's doing there. Given that he is paid $250,000 per year to serve on the board of MetLife and given all the troubles with Obama (non)care, surely he's up to no good. Some think he's in the falsifying business.

Read this from Poets and Quants:

"Columbia Business School, which came in for a critical drubbing by the Academy Award-winning documentary “Inside Job,” has approved more stringent rules for disclosing potential conflicts of interest among faculty.

The documentary was especially discomforting to Columbia Business School Dean R. Glenn Hubbard and Columbia B-school professor Frederic S. Mishkin. Both granted the filmmaker Charles Ferguson on-air interviews that did not show either of them in the best light. Hubbard, who among other things is a MetLife director, came off as imperial and arrogant when asked about his consulting arrangements."

Watch this, it will make you feel all warm and fuzzy:

FED Meeting: No Taper

I give it two days tops if not this very day, the Fed will roll out the bobble heads to claim tapering is right around the corner. Nearly guaranteed.

And for the record, I'm calling for an increase in QE at the December meeting.

From Zerohedge:

Fed Does Not Taper, Keeps QE At $85 Billion

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/30/2013 14:02 -0400

 

Just as everyone expected, the Fed (absent its Press Conference) statement confirms they are data-driven, data is not good 'enough', therefore, no-taper:

• *FED SAYS IT WILL AWAIT `MORE EVIDENCE' BEFORE QE TAPER
• *FED SAYS ECONOMY `CONTINUED TO EXPAND AT A MODERATE PACE'
• *FED SEES IMPROVEMENT IN ECONOMY EVEN WITH `FISCAL RETRENCHMENT

There were no clear comments that markets are growing a little too comfortable with the Fed's free-money. Full Redline below...
Pre-FOMC: S&P Futs 1761, VIX 13.98%, 10Y 2.48%, Gold $1353, USD 79.46
Just before the statement hit, the market broke again! Gold started to rise, USD fell (led by EUR strength), VIX was smashed lower...

• *NASDAQ HAS DECLARED SELF HELP AGAINST NASDAQ-BX

By way of interest, in the next 5 days, we will see an overload of Fed Speakers: Tracy, Bullard, Kocherlakota, Lacker, Powell, and Lacker again... It seems they have no need for a press conference.

WHO is Jeff Christian?

Read here and find out. It may be more than you bargained for.

Paxman and Russell Brand

I normally don't comment on popular culture but it's no wonder the comments section have been disabled for this video as Paxman clearly demonstrates his ignorance. He criticizes Russell and claims he doesn't believe in democracy but I would ask Paxman where in the world "Democracy" is being practiced today.

After Russell soulfully and confidently informs Paxman of the certainty Paxman is out of refutations. He just sits there and listens in amazement.

If you don't listen to this all the way through you're really missing something.

I like about the last 30 seconds the most.

Apogee Silver Vs Tinka Resources

I like both of these companies right now. There are several things that may come together for Apogee that make it an outstanding value. They are very near to production and have a low CAPEX cost to get there. There's also plenty of resource growth potential on their properties.

Tinka does have a lower share structure but will be diluting over the years to finance their project. There resource should grow at the same time so there's still plenty of upside potential.

Make sure you check out the Interesting Chart below to view timelines of explorers/pre-production miners.

Geologix Explorations Provides Corp Update!

Very positive information from Geologix on their way to production:

Geologix Provides Operational Update

Oct 23, 2013 06:31:28 (ET)


VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, Oct 23, 2013 (Marketwired via COMTEX) -- Geologix Explorations Inc. (otcqx:GIXEF)(frankfurt:GF6)(berlin:GF6)(stut:GF6)(mun:GF6) ("Geologix," or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update regarding both its operational progress and its preparations for arranging the financing required to commence operations at the Company's Tepal Project in Mexico.

In August of 2013, Geologix engaged Auramet Metal Trading Inc. ("Auramet") as a financial advisor. Auramet, a metal trader, possesses extensive experience in both syndicated debt financing and negotiating agreements with precious metal refiners, royalty and streaming companies, and smelters.

"Auramet's experience is an ideal match for Tepal's unique production profile, which is 50% precious metals and 50% copper," stated Dunham Craig, Geologix's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Tepal's precious metal and copper contents are designed for production in dore and concentrate, respectively. Geologix's previously completed technical work has proven that this concentrate is exceptionally clean, metallurgically favorable for cost effective smelting, and of a desirable grade - three particularly appealing qualities for smelters. The concentrate quality and the significant precious metal production are Geologix's best assets when arranging project financing from these non-bank sources, and we intend to leverage both accordingly. Auramet's background in both precious and base metals has already proven an asset in preparation for this financing."

In September of 2013, Geologix processed representative material from Tepal's three pits through a pilot plant at G&T Laboratories located in Kamloops, British Columbia. Processing this material will facilitate concentrate marketing by creating sufficient concentrate for various off takers' test work and analysis. Data derived from the pilot plant will also be used for final Feasibility Study environmental considerations and equipment sizing.

"We are very pleased with the results we received from the pilot plant," continued Mr. Craig. "The concentrate data met our Prefeasibility Study ("PFS") quality expectations, and our PFS equipment specifications were confirmed. Also, the tailing results were exceptionally clean, which will result in well contained operational and environmental costs."

Also in September of 2013, Geologix submitted Tepal's environmental permit application and risk assessment to SEMARNAT, the Mexican regulatory agency responsible for mine permitting. Information for this submission was extracted from both Tepal's PFS and the environmental baseline work the Company has conducted over the past three years. As Geologix has not yet completed Tepal's final Feasibility Study, management expects that SEMARNAT will request additional detailed information prior to issuing approval. Much of this information will be supplied as the Company progresses towards the final Feasibility Study, and the Company anticipates receiving all necessary approvals in time for Tepal's financing and construction.

"We are satisfied with our progress in advancing Tepal towards development," concluded Mr. Craig. "2013 has proven to be a challenging year for mine development and exploration, and unpredictable capital markets have forced Geologix to be particularly conservative in exploring options for Tepal's financing. However, we believe that leveraging both the quality of our base metals concentrate and our meaningful precious metals production potential provides our Company with a route towards not only financing Tepal's construction and funding further development costs, but also minimizing share dilution. Due to the high technical quality of Tepal's work to date, we are currently in advanced negotiations to pursue this objective.

"While we believe these advanced negotiations will result in continuing to advance Tepal towards development, we also believe it is prudent to revisit our original timelines for the project. We now forecast initiating construction by late 2014 or early 2015. However, this forecast is conservative, and we will endeavor to move more expediently should the opportunity to do so present itself."
On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Dunham Craig, President & CEO
About Geologix


Geologix Explorations Inc. is a mineral exploration and development company focused on acquiring, exploring, and developing mineral resource opportunities with the potential to host profitable mining operations. The Company's primary focus is the Tepal Gold-Copper Porphyry Project in Michoacan state, Mexico. In March 2013, the Company announced a Prefeasibility Study for the Project that indicated an 11.5 year mine life with payable production of 1.12 M oz. gold and 503 M lbs., resulting in a post-tax NPV of $421 million at a 5% discount rate. The positive results of this study have led the Company to continue to work towards both completing a Feasibility Study for the Project and arranging the necessary financing to advance the Project to production.

This press release contains statements which constitute forward-looking information, including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of the Company, its directors, or its officers with respect to the future business activities and operating performance of the Company. The words "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company, or its management, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future business activities or performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that the Company's future business activities may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Such risks, uncertainties and factors are described in the periodic filings with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities, including the Company's Annual Information Form and quarterly and annual Management's Discussion & Analysis, which may be viewed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com . Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not be as anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements.

Contacts:
Geologix Explorations Inc.
Investor Relations
604-428-3664
ir@geologix.ca

SOURCE: Geologix Explorations Inc.

Should You Buy Gold?

Ponder this chart for a few and you'll have your answer:

(edit: when I say gold of course I also mean silver. Silver is better value right now.)

Intersting Chart

This is an interesting chart to reference (Brent Cook)

Walmart and EBT Failure; Piece of the Future For You

Food-stamp frenzy backfires

dailymail.co.uk / By Alexandra Klausner / 12:39 EST, 14 October 2013

WalMart is on the hook for up to hundreds of thousands of dollars of groceries bought by food stamp recipients after a computer glitch gave them unlimited funds on their government-issued credit cards.

In a spending spree described by local officials as 'worse than Black Friday,' dozens of welfare families with Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards picked bare the shelves at the stores in Springhill and Mansfield, Louisiana, in just a few hours on Saturday - carrying away up to ten shopping carts of meat and other groceries.

‘We did make the decision to continue to accept EBT cards during the outage so that they could get food for their families,’  Walmart representative Kayla Whaling told KSLA.

Police officers were called in for crowd control and safety monitoring.

‘It was definitely worse than Black Friday. It was worse than anything we had ever seen in this town.'

There was no food left on any of the shelves, and no meat left. The grocery part of Walmart was totally decimated,’ said Springhill Police Chief Will Lyn.

‘I saw people drag out 8 to 10 grocery carts,’ the officer told ABC news.

From 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., a frenzy of shoppers filled their carts to the brim with as much food as they could get their hands on. When the cards came back online at 9 p.m., people literally abandoned their carts full of food in the middle of the Walmart and left.


End


Dozens! Dozens of families! Folks, that's a lootin'.

Now how about a future scenario if/when an outage happens again causing a similar situation where tens of thousands of people are involved? The only difference is that the next time, in the future, it's due to a national emergency as a result of a meteor strike or a dollar failure.

The next time EVERYONE knows that extreme danger is imminent and that law and order were more like luck and pray; it's game on.

Who's going to stand there and pay? 

How about this one. A guy standing in line watches as the person in front of him charges up as much as she can in two carts because that's the limit. Not the limit on the card because that's infinite, I mean the limit placed by the store on the number of carts allowed per person.

So this guy walks up to the register with his GINORMOUSLY stuffed cart, the cashier rings him up and the register reads back, "denied!" The cashier explains to him that it only says, "insufficient funds." He says, "What do you mean "insufficient funds", as he pulls out his i Phone 93 to check his account balance. "That woman just walked through with two heaping carts! And that's only because of "store policy!"

"I'm sorry sir", she says sympathetically. "I can't approve more than the card will read."

He says, "My account says I have two-hundred and fifty dollars." 

"I can approve you for that much."

"I have to buy gas", he exclaims!

"Ohhhhhhhhh", he starts thinking to himself as a broodenin' takes him over and starts pulling stuff off of his cart and putting it in a cart next to the cashier. He gets it down a little below the amount in his account, cashes out and storms out of the store.

A few minutes later the cashier looks over as she's hurriedly packing a bag and sees that same man walking out the door with a heaping cart full of groceries, right past and behind all the cash registers, the "in way", and out the door. As he passes by, with his free hand he grabs the previously discarded goods in the cart next to the cashier and walks out the same way he came in. She doesn't bother, as the panic ensues.

Beware these are not trial runs and we are all but guinea pigs.

Bart Chilton's Friends At It Again!

It appears I was justified in my email to Bart Chilton after all......

“Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men's protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked: 'Account overdrawn.'”  - Ayn Rand

"Watch for the day when it bounces, marked: 'Account overdrawn.'”

Are you prepared for this day? Do you believe it's coming?

Bitcoin vs FBI (For the Ages)

This may go down as one of the most amusing articles of our current times....follow the link for the full story.

Bitcoin 1 - 0 FBI

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/08/2013 18:05 -0400

 

Submitted by Pater Tenebrarum via Acting-Man blog,

The Dread Pirate's Cash Stash is Still Safe

As a quick addendum to our recent post on the Silk Road bust and what it means for bitcoin (surprisingly little), here is something that strikes us as truly funny. Apparently the FBI finds itself unable to confiscate the Dread Pirate's stash of bitcoins:

“Closing down the Silk Road and arresting its alleged operator has left the FBI in uncharted territory. After shuttering the hidden site, law enforcement went to work confiscating the money and materials belonging to supposed drug kingpin Ross Ulbricht, but this usually routine procedure is proving especially troublesome in this case. The cache of more than 600,000 bitcoins in Ulbricht’s personal fortune are still inaccessible to the FBI. The only way to move Bitcoins out of a private wallet is to have the corresponding private key to authorize the transaction. The FBI has been unable to get through the encryption protecting Ulbricht’s wallet, leaving all those Bitcoins — amounting to roughly $80 million at current rates — out of reach. Based on publicly available data, this is about 5% of all Bitcoins in existence right now.

Funds held by users of the site, however, were not so well-protected. Before completing transactions on the Silk Road, users would load Bitcoins into an escrow account on the site. The agreed upon coins would only be transferred to the seller’s private wallet once the buyer had verified delivery of the goods. When the feds took over the Silk Road, there were over 26,000 Bitcoins in user accounts that were relatively easy to snatch up.

The FBI has transferred all 26,000-plus seized Bitcoins to its own personal wallet, but because Bitcoin transactions are tracked publicly, it didn’t take the internet long to find the FBI’s wallet address. Users have taken to transferring tiny fractions of a Bitcoin to the FBI with public comments attached decrying the war on drugs and the arrest of Ulbricht. Users have even helpfully tagged the wallet address as “Silkroad Seized Coins.” You can check out the comments as they come in by watching the blockchain for the FBI’s wallet.”