The Pot Calling The Kettle Black

"We are deep in the pickle jar, and it seems likely that, in terms of economic pain, 2009 will be the worst year in the lives of the majority of Americans, Brits, and others. So break a leg, everyone!" - Jeremy Grantham

Alert! Alert! Beginning with the close of business on January 16 thru the close of business on January 22, over 3 MILLION ounces of Silver has left the CRIMEX Warehouse.
http://meltdown2011.wordpress.com/category/silver-gold/vaporize-comex-countdown/

Geithner Says China Manipulates Its Currency
As Timothy F. Geithner moved closer yesterday to confirmation as Treasury secretary, he signaled a more confrontational approach toward China, bluntly stating that the new administration thinks Beijing is "manipulating" its currency and it will act "aggressively" using "all the diplomatic avenues" to change China's currency practices.

Geithner's comments are almost sure to anger China, which has bristled at less aggressive comments by outgoing Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. Answering U.S. charges, China in the past has countered that lax regulation and faulty policies are to blame for the U.S. crisis. It has cautioned that China should not be made a scapegoat in a time of crisis.

It remains unclear, however, whether the Obama administration intends to go one step further and declare to Congress that China is manipulating the yuan to gain an unfair trade advantage. Such a move could spark punitive action and countermeasures from China.

"It was very interesting to see that Geithner has stated that China is manipulating its currency," said Eswar Prasad, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "Things are going to get quite heated on the China-U.S. front this year. This statement was clearly a shot across the bow, signaling that this administration does not plan to mollycoddle the Chinese."
Geithner's comments to the Senate Finance Committee came just before the panel approved his nomination as the next Treasury secretary, despite concerns about errors on his tax returns in recent years.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/22/AR2009012203796.html

How do you spell dumb ass? When your country is bankrupt, it is not the most brilliant of ideas to run around and accuse your biggest creditor of being a currency manipulator. In fact, it is a bit hypocritical, don't you think? Probably the Mother Of All Currency Manipulators would undoubtedly be the United States Of America. It sounds a bit like the pot calling the kettle black, eh?

It's time to get one fact straight about Timothy "I don't pay my taxes" Geithner. He is NOT a financial wizard, never has been, never will be. He is quite simply a political horse head. He is a puppet for the new administration that will be used to run around and point the finger of blame anywhere and everywhere in an effort to deflect this global financial crisis' cause from being laid at the feet of the US Fed and Treasury. He will defend ALL actions, past and present, of both the Fed and Treasury with regard to this global financial crisis, and attempt to blame others in the global financial community for causing the meltdown and not doing enough to help end the crisis.

It is so typically American to point the finger of blame. It is so typically Liberal Democrat to shirk responsibility and play the blame game. Look no further than the trial lawyers lobby. It is "always" somebody else's fault...so sue them....is The American Way. Just ask McDonald's how hot their coffee is.

China IS NOT the Problem. China did not cause the Problem. The Problem is the US Federal Reserve, the US Treasury, greed, and a mountain of stupidity named Financial Derivatives. Blaming the Chinese, or any other nation for that matter, will not solve the problem...it will only make it exponentially worse. When you're facing a one TRILLION dollar PLUS fiscal deficit, you don't piss off your biggest source of credit. Not unless you're planning to go hungry...for a very long time.

China notes U.S. yuan charge, to hold anger in check
SHANGHAI/BEIJING, Jan 23 (Reuters) - China will make clear its displeasure at U.S. accusations of currency manipulation but hold its anger in check in the belief that President Barack Obama is simply posturing, Chinese analysts said on Friday.

Under U.S. law, formally labelling China a currency manipulator would require the Treasury to begin "expedited" negotiations with Beijing to reduce China's huge trade surplus with the United States and eliminate any "unfair" currency advantage.

"China is going to be extremely unhappy, to say the least," Tao Xie, an expert on Sino-U.S. relations at the Beijing Foreign Studies University. "For administration officials, I do not think any one has ever pointed a finger so strongly at China."

Chinese anger at Geithner's choice of words, written in response to questions at his Senate nomination hearing, will add to simmering tensions over the global financial crisis.

Chinese officials have accused the United States of regulatory failings that sparked the meltdown. When Henry Paulson, former U.S. Treasury chief, said that the high Chinese savings rate had helped sow the seeds of the crisis, a firestorm of criticism ensued in China.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/marketsNewsUS/idUKPEK3984220090123?pageNumber=2

How the Financial Crisis Was Built Into the System
In 1910, seven men held a secret meeting on Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia. It's estimated that those seven men represented one-sixth of the world's wealth. Six were Americans representing J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and the U.S. government. One was a European representing the Rothschilds and Warburgs.

In 1913, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank was created as a direct result of that secret meeting. Interestingly, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank isn't federal, there are no reserves, and it's not a bank. Those seven men, some American and some European, created this new entity, commonly referred to as the Fed, to take control of the banking system and the money supply of the United States.

In 1944, a meeting in Bretton Woods, N.H., led to the creation of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. While the stated purposes for the two new organizations initially sounded admirable, the IMF and the World Bank were created to do to the world what the Federal Reserve Bank does to the United States.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon signed an executive order declaring that the United States no longer had to redeem its paper dollars for gold. With that, the first phase of the takeover of the world banking system and money supply was complete.

In 2008, the world is in economic turmoil. The rich are getting richer, but most people are becoming poorer. Much of this turmoil is directly related to those meetings that took place decades ago. In other words, much of this turmoil is by design.
http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/richricher/124339

U.S. Mint discouraging gold ownership
Coin market analyst Michael Zielinski, editor of the Mint News Blog, has analyzed the actions of the U.S. Mint over the last six months and gotten awfully suspicious. Zielinski concludes:

"Whether or not it was the U.S. Mint's intention, every significant action they have taken since August has either limited gold availability, eliminated gold product options, or increased the cost of acquiring gold. Has it all just been a consequence of surging global demand for gold, supply chain mismanagement, and bad timing for policy decisions? Or is there something else going on here?"

The Mint's explanation -- a gold shortage -- isn't terribly persuasive if one believes the claim of its parent agency, the U.S. Treasury Department, that it still owns more than 8,000 tonnes of gold. Further, federal law requires the Mint to produce as many gold and silver coins as are necessary to meet the public's demand, and rather than diminish production or draw down the Treasury's gold stock the Mint could simply buy more gold, as on the New York Commodity Exchange.

Of course that would drive up the gold price, the surreptitious suppression of which lately has seemed to be the Treasury Department's first priority.
http://goldandsilverblog.com/actions-of-the-us-mint-discourage-gold-ownership/

Gold is shifting from West to East – along with the balance of power
What other free market shows such a consistent behaviour over time? Unless, of course, it's not a free market and the invisible hand of Big Brother is getting involved. Many of you will have read about manipulation of the gold price, and heard that there is a deliberate conspiracy to suppress the price of gold.

Every time I hear the words 'manipulation' or 'conspiracy', my every instinct screams 'No'. There must be a less Machiavellian solution – most conspiracy theories are poorly researched and facile. But several people have done excellent research into this one, including James Turk of Goldmoney, the people at GATA and Paul Mylchreest in his Cheuvreux-Credit Agricole Report.

Why would anyone want to manipulate the gold price? Well, despite the fact that is is of barely any industrial use, gold is a highly political metal and a runaway gold price – which, by the way, we will eventually see, I am sure – tells you 'something is rotten in the state of Denmark'. If people are rushing to buy gold, it shows they do not trust the government to maintain the value of paper currency. So the aim of the manipulators, the theory goes, is to devalue gold and preserve the status of unbacked government currencies such as the dollar.

One reason for the theory is that there is more gold and silver sold on the Comex (the US commodities exchange) than is actually possible to deliver. In the case of silver, more is sold than is actually mined on an annual basis.

And certainly, the remarkable trading pattern of the London PM and AM fix adds more weight to the theory that the West is selling gold during Comex opening hours, possibly to suppress the price.

On the other hand, of course, we have Occam's Razor – lex parsimoniae. This is the principle that the simplest solution is the best. So, rather than resorting to some mass conspiracy theory, could the answer be that Asians are buying gold and Westerners are selling just because Asians like, value and appreciate gold more than we do?

Whatever the reason for this price pattern, this transfer of gold from West to East is yet another demonstration, if you needed it, of the generational shift in wealth and power that is taking place. After all, they say that 'he who owns the gold makes the rules'.
http://www.moneyweek.com/investments/precious-metals-and-gems/is-the-gold-market-really-rigged-14501.aspx