Ray Dalio - Whatever Dude!

Ray Dalio has some disturbing news for investors: "investors should expect to experience lower than normal returns with greater than normal risk."

According to Ray though, in an article appearing on Zerohedge, negative interest rates AND helicopter money may be coming. Good news? Maybe for asset prices and even then in the very short term.

But why should investors expect lower than normal returns? In a negative interest rate environment and helicopter money and sprinkle in a dash of fear of cash becoming done away with and gold will FLOURISH! Why doesn't Ray mention this?

The gold and silver sector have been completely bombed out over the last 4 years, some issues losing 90% of their value? Will the sector wither away and die? No more silver and gold to pull out of the ground? Not likely.

So in a realm of "lower than normal returns", let's revisit the stocks that I posted the other day and see how they're doing shall we?


First, IAM Gold, up from $2.005 to $2.44.

Next is Impact Silver, up from $.15 to $.19.


Onto McEwen Mining, up from $1.47 to $1.73.
And lastly, Yamana Gold, up from $2.386 to $2.665.



So despair if you want to, others are making excellent gains and this is just the beginning of what could be a multi-year bull market.

Cashless Society and Corrupt Apologists

Unless you are living in a cave you have heard of cashless society proposals. Readers of this blog will not be surprised that I have indeed run into people who have NOT heard of this. It pains me greatly. You too have probably encountered these troglodytes that have slime for brains. Such is life.

First we learned of the proposal to eliminate the €500 note and now we here chirpings from Larry Summers to eliminate the $100 note.

You can read more here from Zerohedge:

The War On Paper Currency Begins: ECB Votes To "Scrap" 500 Euro Bill

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/15/2016 - 19:54 Not a bad way to launch a global ban on paper currency ahead of a global NIRP regime, and all, of course, in the name of fighting "tax evasion, financial crime, terrorism and corruption."

Larry Summers Launches The War On Paper Money: "It's Time To Kill The $100 Bill"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/16/2016 - 08:45 "...a moratorium on printing new high denomination notes would make the world a better place."
- Larry Summers, Harvard Professor


So what's going on here? Why a push for a cashless society? At first glance you would think that it's an effort by incompetent and hopelessly corrupt governments to combat......wait for it......crime. In addition to crime, they claim it will help government officials across the world fight those nasty tax-evaders who are smuggling giant suit cases of cash to their private safe tax haven of choice. That's how it's done right?

Of course another reason that is conveniently ignored by mainstream media is the benefit to government should a bank run ensue. Your cash can be controlled and they can limit what you can take out Cyprus style. Not only that it will be much easier for them to reform the monetary system and make the changes invisible to the average dimwit. 

If you read the link above re: Larry Summers, you will read that he references a paper recently written by Peter Sands, a Harvard Wonk. Peter pushes the agenda of fighting crime and other things, corruption being last on the list. And for good reason.

Larry Summers states in his paper, "I remember that when the euro was being designed in the late 1990s, I argued with my European G7 colleagues that skirmishing over seigniorage by issuing a 500 euro note was highly irresponsible and mostly would be a boon to corruption and crime."

Do they really want to fight crime? Are they really interested in combating illegal, digital financial transactions?

Peter Sands, in his abstract, states clearly, "Yet despite huge investments in transaction surveillance systems, intelligence and interdiction, less than 1% of illicit financial flows are seized."

Suddenly I smell a rat. Think carefully how this could impact you. There's much more to say on the subject but I'll stop here. Other more informed people will surely be vetting this idea out over the coming weeks.

Canadian Gold and Brown's Bottom

Most everyone in the gold circuit by now has heard of the infamous gold sale by Gordon Brown of England's gold at the very start of the massive gold bull market we find ourselves embedded in (I know it doesn't feel like it).

Google "Brown's Bottom" and you will get 14.4 million hits! Rather than getting his 15 minutes of fame, Brown secured for himself 15+ years of infamy. The clock is still and will keep running.

Now we see that news has surfaced recently that Finance Minister Bill Morneau of Canada has decided the best course of action for Canada's gold is to be sold.

That they are doing this is not news in and of itself. Canada has slowly been divesting themselves of gold for years since Nixon closed the gold window. What's interesting is why discuss it now? 

The article I'm referring to, first found at GATA's website, was sourced at Global News, link here.

In the article one Ian Lee of the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University makes some pretty incredible statements.

Calling Canada's gold sale, "wise and astute", Lees says, "It gives them more strategic flexibility to sell the gold, take the money and invest in U.S. government bonds, or United Kingdom bonds or French bonds or German bonds,”.

He goes on to say, "Central banks can hold the government bonds of other countries, and they also hold actual dollars. The Chinese Central Bank actually holds hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars. Dollars are very liquid, so are government bonds, especially of a Western country.”

We will see how "wise and astute" this sale turns out to be. Not all central banks agree that gold has no place in today's current financial environment.

But to be clear, this is not the decision of Canada's central bank. They make that clear. The Bank of Canada says this, "Canada’s gold reserves belong to the Government of Canada, and are held under the name of the Minister of Finance,” explained a spokesperson for the Bank of Canada on Wednesday. “Decisions relative to gold holdings are taken by the Minister of Finance."

Now I consider THAT wise and astute; separating themselves from this decision and putting it squarely on the Finance Minister, Bill Morneau. 

Gold Is Done With $1,200.

Well gold has decided to blast through $1,200.00 for some unknown reason. These are times to be aware of my friends. We are living in a fantastic history book right now. I watch movies about WWII with shock and bewilderment. I always imagined what those people were thinking as they watched their lives turned upside down. Are we living those times?

John the next post is for you: Who's Missing the Rally In Gold and Silver Stocks? below.

Who's Missing the Rally In Gold and Silver Stocks?

As most people are fixated on the price of gold, the miners have been moving. Some of them like McEwen mining have been moving since last July!

Let's look at some of the gains people have already missed in this fledgling market.

Disclosure: I own these stocks except for IAMGOLD. I am not paid to promote these stocks.

IAM: Up 74% from lows.
Impact Silver: Up 97% from lows.
McEwen: Up 126% from lows.
Yamana: Up 72.9% from lows.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes the broader market to figure this out.

Monday I had a day that made my head spin. Many more are coming. Be brave and jump into the cold water!

Gold Miner Stealth Rally

It is my firm belief that too many are watching the price of gold as the miners are telling us that there is a (possibly) new bull market just beginning.

The miners rolled over in 2011 before the price of silver and gold started turning and it looks like the reverse is happening now.

People would rather own gold and silver physically in bear corrections and prefer mining stocks in bulls.

Read the following from Adam Hamilton over at 321gold.com: 

Gold, Miners Rocket Higher 

Feb 05, 2016 

Gold and its miners' stocks are rocketing higher as speculators and investors alike return to this left-for-dead sector. This sudden deluge of capital inflows has crowned gold stocks the best-performing sector of this young new year by far, shocking traders. And this stunning reversal of fortunes in both the metal and the companies producing it is only starting, so it's exceedingly important to understand what's going on. 

More here

Tanzania Joins Other Commodity Usurpers

The Tanzanian government is making a classic folly of a move. When you start seizing the assets of international companies guess what follows? Unemployment, capital outflows, no new investment funds, and other very unpleasant things. Just ask Evo Morales of Bolivia.

Congrats Tanzania. You have joined hands with other tyrannical, banana republics who have no real investment or governing sophistication. Jim Sinclair, whom I respect, may have made a grave error in trusting these people after the investors money has already been spent developing these mines.

I own this stock so this blog post does me no favors.

Tanzanian Royalty's Subsidiary Tanzam Provides Notice of Force Majeure

"This notice of Force Majeure is based upon the invasion and forced occupation by several hundred illegal miners of our mining properties including the South Pit and other areas within the Buckreef site, thereby endangering our team and preventing Tanzam from continuing its mining operations. This continuing intrusion into our mines now at night is well known to the government authorities, as are the active illegal mining operations taking place right on our border...."

"The Deputy Minister requested a meeting onsite in early January. During the meeting cell phones and note books were forbidden by the Deputy Minister's staff, but the Deputy Minister's speech was videotaped. We have the master of this videotape. This same Deputy Minister made many other requests to be accomplished within 14 days that were not contractual obligations or required by mining law. The Company was threatened with extreme sanctions without due process of law if the demands were not met."

"We have invested USD$71,000,000 in Tanzania and been a 99% Tanzanian company since our entry. We expect to bring these matters to a successful resolution, as these developments have been initiated by the new government apparently not familiar with the international contracts that exist between companies and their country."

 

So, said another way, the Tanzanians elected a government who have no idea what they are doing and are quite willing to strong arm and steal from international investors. That never ends well for a country who harms themselves in the international capital markets.