Obama To Ban Gun Ownership? Attack on 2nd Amendment !

• Obama administration seems to be attacking the 2nd Amendment right of Americans to bear arms !
   
• I am not a fan of guns. But the federal government has increasingly attacked the constitutional rights of Americans, spying on citizens illegally, lying to get Americans to go to war…. Is the Feds planning for martial law? It will be easier to control citizens and oppress them if they don’t have guns! Do they plan to institute the military draft? When all your sons are serving in the military, who is going to defend their families? I do not trust the US government. They are becoming more and more fascist! Am I paranoid? Maybe?! But see also :
   
  21 States Declare Sovereignty – Rise of Secessionist Movement !
  Indiana Legislators Urge Feds to Cease and Desist !
  Battle Brewing Between US States & Federal Government!

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Demand for Gold Coins Soar!

Liberty Gold Coin

• Demand for gold is rocketing. Many people are so worried about the financial and economic health of the world that they are rushing to gold. Worried Investors Want Gold on Hand :
   
  Worried Investors Want Gold on Hand Some investors are so worried about the prospect of economic collapse that they are buying gold and having it delivered to them, rather than holding the precious metal in the form of futures contracts or other securities.
   
  The global recession and worries about the stability of the financial system have sent the price of gold to $1,000 an ounce. But more surprising is that buyers are taking the unusual and expensive step of taking possession of it.
   
  “We’re having some of our strongest months ever,” said Scott Thomas, president and chief executive of American Precious Metals Exchange, a precious-metals dealer in Edmond, Okla. “The bottom line is our numbers are probably double what they were last year, and last year was very busy.”
   
  Bob Coleman, who runs a bullion fund out of Nampa, Idaho, has taken multiple deliveries of gold and silver since last fall for his clients. The fund, Dollars and Sense Growth Fund, primarily invests in precious metals for high-net-worth individuals.
   
  “It’s more of a trust issue,” says Mr. Coleman. “Given all the turmoil in the market, people prefer to have access to the metal.” Sales of American Eagle gold bullion coins at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia more than doubled in the first two months of this year.
   
  Investors are also flocking to gold coins. At the U.S. Mint, a total of 147,500 ounces of American Eagle gold bullion coins were sold in the first two months this year, a surge of 176% from the same period last year.
   
  Demand is rising at the Comex, the metals division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, where investors increasingly are choosing to take physical delivery of gold, rather than cash, once their futures contacts expire.
   
  Rising delivery orders have kept Brink’s Inc., a major carrier for the Comex, busy. The Richmond, Va., company said it saw a large spike in clients shipping gold and silver from the exchange over the past few months.
   
  Tony Klancic, an account executive at Lind-Waldock, a Chicago commodities brokerage, says he has been taking calls since September from individual investors wanting to buy physical gold.
  These are “real people in rural America with money under the mattress, and wealthy individuals coming to the futures market strictly intending to take delivery,” Mr. Klancic said.
   
  In December, 4.5% of gold contracts ended in delivery, compared with 3.4% a year earlier, according to the exchange. Investors also are taking delivery of silver, with contracts ending in delivery rising to 7.3% from 4.7%. December is typically a big month for deliveries, and in January, deliveries remained higher than the year before.
   
  Jewelers and other users of metals are among the buyers who take possession of gold and silver. But with sales of jewelry down and other industrial users cutting back, it appears that investors are causing the increase.
   
  Gold deliveries peaked at more than 8% in the early 1980s, when Mexico defaulted on its foreign debt and the world economy was in recession. Deliveries dropped and have gradually fallen back to the range of 2% in recent years.
   
  Gold pierced the $1,000 level last Friday, the first time since March 2008. On Tuesday, the February contract closed at $969.10 per troy ounce. So far this year, the precious metal is up 9.7%. 
   
• With the world heading towards zero interest rate policy (ZIRP), gold is looking more and more like the real deal. Keep in mind that western governments have indicated they will move towards Quantitative Easing and Monetization of Debt. This is simply printing money out of thin air. Will there be a monetary collapse this year?
   
• Financial Times reports Gold coin shortage as demand soars :
    
  The rush by retail investors into bullion coins is creating shortages as mints across the world struggle to meet the surge in demand, dealers and mint officials say.
   
  The scarcity is lifting coin premiums to as much as 5 per cent above the spot gold price, a level reached briefly after the collapse of Lehman Brothers last September, when coin shortages also surfaced.
  Spot gold in London on Wednesday traded at $972 an ounce, below last week’s peak of $1,004.5.
   
  “There is demand for double or triple what the US mint is able to produce,” said Michael Kramer, president of MTB in New York, one of the four US gold dealers authorised to purchase bullion coins directly from the government’s mint.
   
  The US Mint has sold 193,500 ounces of its popular American Eagle gold coin in the first seven weeks of this year, the same amount it shipped during the whole of 2007 and about the same as in the first six months of last year.
   
  “The demand is extraordinary. All the coins we got on Monday are gone today [Tuesday] and we will not be able to take any order until the following week,” Mr Kramer said. “It is the same with other mints.”
   
  Bullion coins used to be bought mainly by collectors and gold bugs, but the financial crisis is leading regular retail investors to embrace them, dealers say. Although the surge in coin demand is a bullish signal for gold prices, the fact that mints cannot match demand means that the potential extra consumption does not push spot prices higher, but just drives premiums above normal levels.
   
  The Rand Refinery in Johannesburg, which mints the world’s most popular gold coin, South Africa’s Krugerrand, said demand was above its maximum capacity, even after doubling last month to 20,000 ounces from 10,000 ounces a week. 
   
  Johan Botha, head of precious metals sales at the Rand Refinery, said there was demand for more from international investors, pointing to strong sales to Switzerland, the UK and Germany. “If we were able to produce 30,000 ounces,the market would absorb it,” he said.
   
  Mr Kramer said MTB had Krugerrand orders equal to three months of refinery supplies to the company. The New Zealand Mint said it was doing as much business in a day as in a month a year ago, mostly servicing global investors. Michael O’Kane, head of gold sales at the New Zealand Mint, said: “Most mints and bullion manufacturers are struggling to meet current demand levels.” 
   
• Although gold price has come off their high last week of US$ 1000/ounce, this is just a normal correction in a bull run. Some say that this bull run still has 2 more years to go. The correction should be over by early next week and the price will breach US$1000/ounce easily. It will exceed the previous high of US$1035/ounce in March. How high? US$1250/ounce is not out of the question. If the Chinese come in and start to buy aggressively to build their gold reserves, how high it will go is any-body’s guess. The Chinese have indicated they will buy 4000 tons of physical gold to boost their reserves ie spend their US$2 T reserves to buy gold.
   
• See also :
   
  Gold About to SkyRocket ! China Worries about Treasuries and Diversify into Gold !
  Gold Price Set to Soar !
  What’s not to Like about Gold ?
  Dollar Devaluation, Debt Default & Gold
  Massive US Dollar Devaluation Against Gold During 2009
  Gold Rush Worldwide!
  Obama, Roosevelt, Gold Confiscation and Dollar Devaluation

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Bill Maher – Hang the Bankers ! (Humor)

• Bill Maher in his acerbic wit best! Half in jest of course. See also:
   
  Dana Carvey – Brokaw, McCain & Obama Impressions! (Humor)
  Wanda Sykes on Government Bailout (Humor)
  Wanda Sykes on Politics & Sarah Palin (Humor)
  David Letterman on Economic Stimulus Package (Humor)

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Eastern Europe – Hungary on the Edge of Bankruptcy!

• The news keep getting worse for Eastern Europe. Hungary is about to go bust ! The question is how many western European banks are affected?
   
• The Telegraph UK reports :
    
  Hungary is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy with its citizens struggling to pay off mortages and personal loans taken out in foreign currency during one of the post-Communist era’s most exuberant booms. 
   
  The birthplace of the Rubik’s Cube has provided its government with a multi-sided financial crisis that defies any ingenious solution.
   
  The forint currency has plummeted and unemployment has ballooned, creating a voracious debt trap that is sucking down banks backed by Western taxpayers, particularly those of Switzerland and Austria.
   
  Laslo Gulyas, a Budapest barman, is one of the lucky few who can still meet his repayments. “In times of trouble people need to keep drinking,” he bleakly noted at the counter of a handsome pub in Habsburg-era building.
   
  “But it is sure now that many people with mortgages that were taken because they were cheaper than local loans, have lost their jobs and can’t generate the money to make the repayments.”
   
  For almost a decade Hungary binged on cheap foreign loans taken out in Swiss francs and euros. It was a regional trendsetter. Foreign banks targetted the newly liberated central and eastern European states hoping to expand rapidly in new markets.
   
  “People’s desire for wealth was not bound by the forint,” said Laslo Czirjak, a Budapest fund manager. “They borrowed in Swiss francs, euros and, even for a time, Japanese yen was available – it was just nuts.”
   
  When forint interest rates proved stubbornly high, lower rate loans in Swiss francs and euros offered extra purchasing power. Statistics show that more that 60 per cent of Hungarian mortgages and car loans are denominated in foreign currencies. In one retropectively frenzied month – October 2007 – foreign currency loans represented 93 per cent of all lending.
   
  Hundreds of debtors in default have turned to a volunteer organisation, the Association of Bank Loan Victims, for advice on saving their homes from repossession.
   
  Rakitouszki Istvan, a builder, has not been paid for a year and lost his job in August. Last month the bank sold off his flat to a businessman who now wants to evict Mr Istvan and his family.
   
  “I bought my flat for stability in life and for my kids to inherit that,” he said. “I had no idea I was going to get laid-off. I thought as long as I could work I was alright but it’s dreadful. There’s no investment in construction. I’ve been all over the place and there’s nothing.”
   
  Despite losing his property, Mr Istvan remains liable for the entire loan and if he cannot repay, his children would be held liable for the debt. Mariann Lenard, a lawyer who runs the Association, said the law puts mortgage holders at the mercy of the lenders. “For a long time the ordinary man in the street is going to be involved in an unequal struggle with the banks.”
   
  It is not just individuals that are prey to the downturn. Hungary is experiencing its gravest crisis since 1946 when it suffered history’s worst bout of hyper-inflation. Today’s battered forint was introduced then to replace the pengo, which was destroyed after the government tried to wipe out a Second World War debt overhang. ….
    ….
  “There was a large bubble of consumption based on household debt,” said Janos Samu, an economist with Concorde Securities. “But now the exporters can’t gain on the collapse in the forint. It’s having a double impact on the economy.”
   
  The Hungarian government is attempting to guarantee the mortgage payments of everyone who loses a job in the crisis but it is already in receipt of IMF assistance and the pledge will mean more cuts in general expediture. International help has been sought. Switzerland has promised to provide all the Swiss francs the Hungarian government needs to meet repayment demands. Austria is demanding the EU to establish a 150 billion euro (£134 billion) fund to bail out East and Central Europe.
    ….. 
  Hungarians have become aware that the fall out from their folly will stretch far from the Danube’s banks. “What’s happening here means that all of Europe is going to suffer because you can’t have one country drop out of its element without affecting all the continent,” said Mr Gulyas.
   
• See also :
   
  Eastern Europe Collapsing !
  European Monetary System At Breaking Point ! Eastern Europe Bad Debts set to Bankrupt European Banks!
  Eastern Europe Contagion Fear ! Ukraine Crumbling !
  Next Wave of Banking Crisis to come from Eastern Europe
  Eastern Europe Economic Collapse & Looming Debt Defaults
   

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Ron Paul – Federal Reserve is the Culprit!

• Senator Ron Paul telling the Truth! The Illuminati central bankers who rule the world are the cause of our problems. The time has come to end the Federal Reserve! See also :
    
  The Federal Reserve: Secretive And Incompetent Organization ! The Creature From Jekyll Island.
  History of Money & Fractional Reserve Banking System
  How International Bankers Gained Control of America!
  Federal Reserve is a Private Company. 
   

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