Infinite Unknown

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- Charlie Munger: Gold Is For Holocaust-Era Jewish Families To Sew Into Their Garments; Civilized People Don’t Buy Gold

Got gold and silver?

- Must Read: “Another Perspective” (ZeroHedge, May 14, 2012):

From Paul Brodsky and Lee Quaintance of QBAMCO

Another Perspective (pdf)

Two weeks ago, before Jamie Dimon’s thoughtful diversion, Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway instructed viewers of CNBC that “civilized people don’t buy gold, they invest in productive businesses”. Munger was right in that civilized people invest in productive businesses and was right to imply that gold is a non-productive rock, but, in our humble opinion, he was wrong to suggest that gold does not have significant upside as an investment currently (even more than BRK/A?).

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Tags: Ben Bernanke, Berkshire Hathaway, Bonds, Central Bank, Charlie Munger, China, Debt, Economy, EU, Europe, Fed, Federal Reserve, Global News, Gold, Goldman Sachs, Government, Greece, IMF, Larry Summers, Politics, QBAMCO, Silver, Stock Market, Timothy Geithner, U.S., Unemployment, Wall Street, Warren Buffett

- Report says 230,000 unemployed losing benefits over weekend (The Hill, May 13, 2012):

More than 230,000 unemployed workers will lose their jobless benefits this weekend as portions of federal programs expire across several states.

All told, 409,300 long-term unemployed Americans in 27 states will have lost upward of 20 weeks of federal unemployment benefits by this past Saturday, even as the many state jobless rates remain high, according to a new analysis by the National Employment Law Project (NELP).

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Tags: Collapse, Economy, Global News, Government, Politics, Society, U.S., Unemployment

- Biderman Sums Up Europe’s Problem In 30 Seconds (ZeroHedge, May 8, 2012):

After an extended and detailed rant against the BLS and their ineptitude, which is worth watching in its own right, Charles Biderman (CEO of TrimTabs) sums up Europe’s troubles and hopes in 30 seconds. Towards the end of the clip, Biderman notes that Monsier Hollande is saying that governments should borrow more money so they can give more money to more people and THAT will create economic growth. Instead, Charles sees Europe sliding down a slippery slope faster and faster with no end in sight.

The initial BLS rant is worthwhile but from 3:45, Biderman bashes Europe’s hope…

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Tags: Barack Obama, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Government, Obama administration, Politics, Society, U.S., Unemployment

YouTube Added: 04.05.2012

Tags: Banking, Barack Obama, Economy, Global News, Government, Max Keiser, Obama administration, Politics, Society, U.S., Unemployment

YouTube Added: 04.05.2012

Tags: Barack Obama, Economy, Global News, Government, Obama administration, Peter Schiff, Politics, Society, U.S., Unemployment

Source: Unemployment Rate Drops To 8.2% For One Simple Reason: The Number Of People Not In The Labor Force Is Back To All Time Highs: 87,897,000

- Why There Are No Jobs (Intel Hub, May 4, 2012):

What a week. On Tuesday the DOW finished the day at 13,279, its highest close since December 2007.  In terms of the stock market, we’ve crossed the great divide…December 2007, remember, was pre-financial crisis.

In fact, it was nearly a year before Lehman Brothers vanished from the face of the earth and black swans relentlessly descended upon the LIBOR like common ravens upon fresh Southern California road kill.  If you recall, when the sky was falling in late 2008, spread movements that were statistically not possible in a million years, somehow, happened every day.

Money market shares of the Reserve Primary Fund did the impossible…they broke the buck – falling to $0.97 cents a share.  Still, while the stock market may be back to where it was over four years ago, the world is dramatically different…

For one thing, back in December of 2007 you could buy a 10-year Treasury Note yielding 4.23 percent.  Today the 10-year Note Yields less than half that.  Of course, December 2007 was before TARP, CPFF, MMIFF, TAF, ZIRP, QE, QE2, Operation Twist, and all sorts of other harebrained schemes were put into practice to “reflate” financial markets.

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Tags: Bailout, Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, Bonds, Collapse, Debt, Economy, Fed, Federal Reserve, Global News, Government, Politics, Stock Market, U.S., Unemployment, Wall Street

- Young Italians flock to become shepherds (Telegraph, May 3, 2012):

Pay is poor and the hours are long, but there is job security, fresh air and as much pecorino cheese as you can eat.

As Italy’s unemployment rate topped 10pc this week, it emerged that young people are flocking to become shepherds.

Traditionally the preserve of older men, the profession has recently attracted 3,000 young Italians, according to agricultural body Coldiretti.

They are choosing a simple life in the great outdoors because their aspirations to become doctors, lawyers or engineers have been thwarted by Italy’s negligible economic growth, which has been compounded by grinding austerity measures.

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Tags: Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Italy, Society, Unemployment

- St. Louis Fed’s “Not In Labor Force” Data Is Now Officially Off The Chart (ZeroHedge, May 4, 2012):

The comedy continues: the April “Not in labor force” seasonally adjusted print: 88,419,000. And yet, the maximum reading permitted by St Louis Fed Not in Labor Force (LNS15000000) graph: 88,000,000. The data has now officially dropped off the chart. No further commentary necessary.

Tags: Barack Obama, Collapse, Economy, Fed, Federal Reserve, Global News, Government, Obama administration, Politics, Society, U.S., Unemployment

- Eric Sprott: “When Fundamentals No Longer Apply, Review the Fundamentals” (ZeroHedge, April 28, 2012):

When Fundamentals No Longer Apply, Review the Fundamentals

This may not come as a surprise, but we’re still not seeing it. We’re not seeing a US recovery.

Here we are, well into 2012, and the fact remains that the US housing situation is still a bust. There is simply no housing recovery happening in the United States. US New Home Sales fell for the fourth time in a row month-overmonth in March, representing a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 328,000, down from 353,000 in February.¹ Do you know what the annual rate of New Home Sales was back in 2006? About 1.21 million.² No recovery there.

Same goes for US Existing Home Sales, which fell unexpectedly by 2.6% in March to an annual rate of 4.48 million units.³ Again – would you care to know where they were in the same month back in 2006, before the financial system fell apart? Approximately 6.92 million units.⁴ No recovery there either.

Then there’s unemployment. Judging by all the recent earnings-release cheerleading, March’s jobs numbers seem to have been forgotten, but they were plainly weak. The US Labor Department showed US hiring slowing to a mere 120,000 new jobs in March, below expectations of 200,000+.⁵ That’s not a recovery. That’s simply weak data.

Same goes for the most recent jobless claims numbers, which have been running above 380,000 for the last two weeks, above the 375,000 threshold that supposedly signals future unemployment increases.⁶ Again – this is not positive data, this is weak data. How high will it have to go before the economists admit that it’s weak? 400,000? 425,000? We’re asking – we’d like to know.

Then there are US tax receipts, which continue to point in the same direction. If the US is recovering so strongly, then why are employment tax receipts only up 2%? ($484 billion fiscal year-to-date as of March 2012 vs. $475 billion over the same period to March 2011).⁷ A 2% increase is explainable by inflation alone, which was last reported running at 2.7% according to the Bureau of Labour Stastics.⁸ Shouldn’t the tax receipts be much higher than that? Wasn’t unemployment down so far this year? As the Associated Press plainly states, “The unemployment rate has fallen to 8.2% in March [2012] from 9.1% in August [2011]. Part of the drop was because people gave up looking for work. People who are out of work but not looking for jobs aren’t counted among the unemployed.”⁹ Oh! Sorry,… now the numbers make more sense. There hasn’t been any net new employment at all. Question: if everyone “gives up” looking for work next week, will the US unemployment rate go to zero? We’re asking – we’d like to know.

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Tags: China, Collapse, ECB, Economy, Eric Sprott, Eric Sprott Management, EU, Europe, Global News, Gold, Government, IMF, Politics, Real Estate, Society, U.S., Unemployment

Related info:

- Europe’s Scariest Chart Just Got Scarier

This is not a recession. This is the Greatest Depression.

- Spanish unemployment hits record 5.64 million (BBC News, April 27, 2012):

Spanish unemployment has hit a new record high, official figures have shown.

The number of unemployed people reached 5,639,500 at the end of March, with the unemployment rate hitting 24.4%, the national statistics agency said.

The figures came hours after rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Spanish sovereign debt.

Official figures due out on Monday are expected to confirm that Spain has fallen back into recession.

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Tags: Banking, Bonds, Debt, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Government, Politics, Spain, Standard & Poor's, Unemployment