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Image | Running on Fumes
Running on Fumes
 PREVIEW
by Chris Martenson

The stock market blasted higher, with the Dow crossing the 14,000 mark because the jobs report came in well under expectations.  In today's world, one follows the other.

In yesterday's world, the one where logic and reason ruled the day, that first sentence would not have been written.  Economic weakness would not have been rewarded with a big surge in stocks.

But this all makes perfect sense in today's world, once you tilt your view to the "new normal" and get with the program.

I titled this piece 'running on fumes' because, in one very real sense, that's exactly what this current market is doing.  The fumes in this case happen to be thin-air money that the Fed is injecting into the financial markets to the tune of $85 billion per month, or roughly $4 billion per working day.

When an engine finally runs out of gas and turns to fumes, the last act of that engine is to run really hot – to race for a while – before finally quitting.
Running on Fumes
 PREVIEW by Chris Martenson

The stock market blasted higher, with the Dow crossing the 14,000 mark because the jobs report came in well under expectations.  In today's world, one follows the other.

In yesterday's world, the one where logic and reason ruled the day, that first sentence would not have been written.  Economic weakness would not have been rewarded with a big surge in stocks.

But this all makes perfect sense in today's world, once you tilt your view to the "new normal" and get with the program.

I titled this piece 'running on fumes' because, in one very real sense, that's exactly what this current market is doing.  The fumes in this case happen to be thin-air money that the Fed is injecting into the financial markets to the tune of $85 billion per month, or roughly $4 billion per working day.

When an engine finally runs out of gas and turns to fumes, the last act of that engine is to run really hot – to race for a while – before finally quitting.
Image | Off the Cuff: Negative Numbers
Off the Cuff: Negative Numbers
 PREVIEW
by Chris Martenson

 

In this week's Off the Cuff podcast, Chris and Mish discuss:

  • The GDP Surprise
    • Is the economy stalling?
  • Housing
    • Is there reason for optimism?

Chris and Mish weigh in on the surprising negative GDP growth seen in Q4. Lots of noise in that data – as we've been animatedly discussing here.

Off the Cuff: Negative Numbers
 PREVIEW by Chris Martenson

 

In this week's Off the Cuff podcast, Chris and Mish discuss:

  • The GDP Surprise
    • Is the economy stalling?
  • Housing
    • Is there reason for optimism?

Chris and Mish weigh in on the surprising negative GDP growth seen in Q4. Lots of noise in that data – as we've been animatedly discussing here.

Image | The Siren Song of the Robot
The Siren Song of the Robot
by Gregor Macdonald

The quest for cheap energy and cheap labor is a conquering human urge, one that has played out with notable ferocity starting with the Industrial Revolution. The introduction of coal into British manufacturing and the more recent outsourcing of Western manufacturing to Asia have marked key thresholds in this ongoing progression.

But despite the harvesting of additional productivity gains from the more recent revolution in information technology, the suite of macro data suggests that the rate of advancement in physical production has slowed, notably, in the past thirty years.

Seen in this light, the greatest gains to global industrial production were probably enjoyed from the late 18th century (when coal extraction and use began in earnest) into the mid-20th century (when oil reached broad distribution). In contrast, computers, the Internet, and the leveraging of developing world labor might eventually be seen as the finishing touches on this great industrial wave.
The Siren Song of the Robot
 by Gregor Macdonald

The quest for cheap energy and cheap labor is a conquering human urge, one that has played out with notable ferocity starting with the Industrial Revolution. The introduction of coal into British manufacturing and the more recent outsourcing of Western manufacturing to Asia have marked key thresholds in this ongoing progression.

But despite the harvesting of additional productivity gains from the more recent revolution in information technology, the suite of macro data suggests that the rate of advancement in physical production has slowed, notably, in the past thirty years.

Seen in this light, the greatest gains to global industrial production were probably enjoyed from the late 18th century (when coal extraction and use began in earnest) into the mid-20th century (when oil reached broad distribution). In contrast, computers, the Internet, and the leveraging of developing world labor might eventually be seen as the finishing touches on this great industrial wave.
Image | James Turk: Central Banks are Losing the War to Suppress Gold & Silver Prices
James Turk: Central Banks are Losing the War to Suppress Gold & Silver Prices
by Chris Martenson

My guess is that 2013 and 2014 are going to be big up year for the precious metals, but we still have to contend with the central planners and the various government policies, which have been actively trying to keep the gold and silver prices from reaching fair value. The central planners are losing the war. They may win an occasional battle or two, but they’re losing the war, and eventually gold and silver are going to go higher.

So predicts James Turk, founder and Chairman of GoldMoney.com.

From James’ perspective, gold is not an investment. It’s a sterile asset, meaning it does not generate income. What it is, is money. Its function is to store wealth.

But money, like investments, can be overvalued or undervalued. And what we’re witnessing on the world stage is a gross mispricing of money as central banks engage in depreciation of their fiat currencies via inflation (i.e., money printing).

The process causes a transfer of wealth from those holding overvalued money to those who hold undervalued money. That’s what’s been going on for the past decade as the price of gold has steadily marched upwards versus fiat currencies.

But this process is not efficient. Mass awareness of this wealth transfer is low, so confidence in paper currencies is still high, supporting their perceived value. Market intervention by central banks and other parties conspires to keep the prices of precious metals artificially low and suspect.

This maintains an arbitrage for individuals to buy gold and silver at a discount to true value, which James believes will be slowly realized in full over the next several years as the bull market in precious metals approaches its third and final phase.

A factor in this rise will be the increasing fragmentation of coordination among the central banks. Increasingly, central banks outside the influence of the U.S. Federal Reserve are treating the precious metals as true money, and becoming net buyers of bullion for their reserves.

Ultimately, Turk predicts the price of gold will move to somewhere between $8,000-10,000/oz and that we'll see even higher price appreciation in silver.
James Turk: Central Banks are Losing the War to Suppress Gold & Silver Prices
 by Chris Martenson

My guess is that 2013 and 2014 are going to be big up year for the precious metals, but we still have to contend with the central planners and the various government policies, which have been actively trying to keep the gold and silver prices from reaching fair value. The central planners are losing the war. They may win an occasional battle or two, but they’re losing the war, and eventually gold and silver are going to go higher.

So predicts James Turk, founder and Chairman of GoldMoney.com.

From James’ perspective, gold is not an investment. It’s a sterile asset, meaning it does not generate income. What it is, is money. Its function is to store wealth.

But money, like investments, can be overvalued or undervalued. And what we’re witnessing on the world stage is a gross mispricing of money as central banks engage in depreciation of their fiat currencies via inflation (i.e., money printing).

The process causes a transfer of wealth from those holding overvalued money to those who hold undervalued money. That’s what’s been going on for the past decade as the price of gold has steadily marched upwards versus fiat currencies.

But this process is not efficient. Mass awareness of this wealth transfer is low, so confidence in paper currencies is still high, supporting their perceived value. Market intervention by central banks and other parties conspires to keep the prices of precious metals artificially low and suspect.

This maintains an arbitrage for individuals to buy gold and silver at a discount to true value, which James believes will be slowly realized in full over the next several years as the bull market in precious metals approaches its third and final phase.

A factor in this rise will be the increasing fragmentation of coordination among the central banks. Increasingly, central banks outside the influence of the U.S. Federal Reserve are treating the precious metals as true money, and becoming net buyers of bullion for their reserves.

Ultimately, Turk predicts the price of gold will move to somewhere between $8,000-10,000/oz and that we'll see even higher price appreciation in silver.
Image | The Deadliest Jobs in America
The Deadliest Jobs in America
by JW

When thinking about switching jobs or making the leap to the agrarian life, it is important to consider the physical, life threatening risks that come with the job. An infographic for the work-related, on-the-job deaths in 2011 for U.S. workers.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/01/08/168897140/the-deadliest-jobs-in-america-in-one-graphic

The Deadliest Jobs in America
 by JW

When thinking about switching jobs or making the leap to the agrarian life, it is important to consider the physical, life threatening risks that come with the job. An infographic for the work-related, on-the-job deaths in 2011 for U.S. workers.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/01/08/168897140/the-deadliest-jobs-in-america-in-one-graphic

Image | Slamming Face-First into the Limits to Growth
Slamming Face-First into the Limits to Growth
 PREVIEW
by John Michael Greer

Executive Summary

  • Escalating costs of resource extraction and associated pollution are key headwinds on future economic growth
  • For the first time in generations, the same limits to growth that handicapped pre-industrial society are reasserting themselves
  • Our economic and political leaders are misdiagnosing the root problem, and therefore prescribing the wrong treatments
  • Remember stagflation? Get ready to experience it again – with a vengeance

If you have not yet read The Tangled Relationship between Wealth & Money available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

The forces driving today’s ongoing economic crisis were sketched out decades ago in the pages of the Club of Rome’s epochal 1973 study, The Limits to Growth.  Mention that book to most people nowadays, and those who admit they’ve heard of it at all routinely insist that it made false claims about the future.

The irony – and it’s not a small one – is that this simply isn’t true…

A society in this situation can expand its production of goods and services – its 'wealth economy,' in the terms used in Part I – up to the limits of the environment’s ability to provide resources and absorb waste. Once those limits appear in the rearview mirror, though, any further expansion of the wealth economy runs into two insurmountable difficulties…

Slamming Face-First into the Limits to Growth
 PREVIEW by John Michael Greer

Executive Summary

  • Escalating costs of resource extraction and associated pollution are key headwinds on future economic growth
  • For the first time in generations, the same limits to growth that handicapped pre-industrial society are reasserting themselves
  • Our economic and political leaders are misdiagnosing the root problem, and therefore prescribing the wrong treatments
  • Remember stagflation? Get ready to experience it again – with a vengeance

If you have not yet read The Tangled Relationship between Wealth & Money available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

The forces driving today’s ongoing economic crisis were sketched out decades ago in the pages of the Club of Rome’s epochal 1973 study, The Limits to Growth.  Mention that book to most people nowadays, and those who admit they’ve heard of it at all routinely insist that it made false claims about the future.

The irony – and it’s not a small one – is that this simply isn’t true…

A society in this situation can expand its production of goods and services – its 'wealth economy,' in the terms used in Part I – up to the limits of the environment’s ability to provide resources and absorb waste. Once those limits appear in the rearview mirror, though, any further expansion of the wealth economy runs into two insurmountable difficulties…

Image | The Tangled Relationship Between Wealth & Money
The Tangled Relationship Between Wealth & Money
by John Michael Greer

One of the most dangerous mistakes possible to make in trying to understand the shape of the economic future is to think of the fundamental concepts of economics as simple and uncontroversial.  They aren’t. 

In economics, as in all other fields, the fundamentals are where disguised ideologies and unexamined presuppositions are most likely to hide out, precisely because nobody questions them.
The Tangled Relationship Between Wealth & Money
 by John Michael Greer

One of the most dangerous mistakes possible to make in trying to understand the shape of the economic future is to think of the fundamental concepts of economics as simple and uncontroversial.  They aren’t. 

In economics, as in all other fields, the fundamentals are where disguised ideologies and unexamined presuppositions are most likely to hide out, precisely because nobody questions them.
Image | Gregor Macdonald: What the End of Cheap Oil Means
Gregor Macdonald: What the End of Cheap Oil Means
by Chris Martenson

On the heels of Chris' recent report clarifying the global net energy predicament, he and PeakProsperity.com contributing editor Gregor Macdonald sit down to talk in depth about the broken relationship between energy costs and economic growth.

For much of the twentieth century, the developed world saw a steady march upwards in wages and living standards, due primarily to huge quantities of cheap, high-yielding liquid hydrocarbon. As we find ourselves bumping along the plateau of Peak Oil's apex, suddenly we find "growth" is a lot harder to come by.

Gregor Macdonald: What the End of Cheap Oil Means
 by Chris Martenson

On the heels of Chris' recent report clarifying the global net energy predicament, he and PeakProsperity.com contributing editor Gregor Macdonald sit down to talk in depth about the broken relationship between energy costs and economic growth.

For much of the twentieth century, the developed world saw a steady march upwards in wages and living standards, due primarily to huge quantities of cheap, high-yielding liquid hydrocarbon. As we find ourselves bumping along the plateau of Peak Oil's apex, suddenly we find "growth" is a lot harder to come by.

Image | Off the Cuff: “Hand-to-Mouth” Tightness Seen in Silver Inventories
Off the Cuff: “Hand-to-Mouth” Tightness Seen in Silver Inventories
 PREVIEW
by Chris Martenson

In this week's Off the Cuff podcast, Chris and Ted Butler discuss:

  • Germany's Gold Grab
    • What impact with the reserve repatriation by the Bundesbank have?
  • Silver's Screaming Fundamentals
    • The size of the silver market is TINY
  • The Future Price of Silver
    • Betting on higher prices still seems the smart move here
Off the Cuff: “Hand-to-Mouth” Tightness Seen in Silver Inventories
 PREVIEW by Chris Martenson

In this week's Off the Cuff podcast, Chris and Ted Butler discuss:

  • Germany's Gold Grab
    • What impact with the reserve repatriation by the Bundesbank have?
  • Silver's Screaming Fundamentals
    • The size of the silver market is TINY
  • The Future Price of Silver
    • Betting on higher prices still seems the smart move here
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