No Surprise

World leaders walk economic tightrope in Canada
World leaders pledge to slash deficits in half by 2013, but leave themselves wiggle room
TORONTO (AP) -- Wary of slamming on the stimulus brakes too quickly but shaken by the European debt crisis, world leaders pledged on Sunday to slash government deficits in the most industrialized nations in half by 2013, with wiggle room to meet the goal.

They generally sided with cutting spending and raising taxes, despite warnings from President Barack Obama that too much austerity too quickly could choke off the global recovery.

"Serious challenges remain," they cautioned in a closing statement set for release later Sunday. "While growth is returning, the recovery is uneven and fragile, unemployment in many countries remains at unacceptable levels, and the social impact of the crisis is still widely felt," according to the document from the Group of 20 major industrial and developing nations.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/World-leaders-walk-economic-apf-1514676877.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=

What a load of crap! Hell will freeze over before you see the USA cut it's deficit in half by 2013. Rising interest rates and increasing costs to service the country's debt alone will prevent this pipe dream from ever being smoked.

Interestingly, this entire plan rests on a growing world economy. LOL! The only thing that is going to be growing by 2013 are the costs of everything consumers will need just to survive. Of course you can count on government accounting to assure us that inflation is a "sign" of growth, and the deficits will have been cut in half "as a percent of GDP". This is better know as hyper inflating you way out of debt. A more Gold positive announcement could not have come from the mouths of these knuckleheads.

Geithner: Keeping recovery on track is top focus
TORONTO (AP) -- World leaders must work together to make sure the global recovery stays on track, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Saturday.

Geithner made his remarks as President Barack Obama has warned his counterparts from the Group of 20 nations to not reel in measures to stimulate their economies too quickly. The United States fears doing so could endanger the global recovery.

Some nations in Europe and elsewhere are shifting their focus on cutting deficits -- especially in the wake of Greece's debt crisis, which rattled world markets.

Asked if the global economy could slip back into another "double dip" recession, Geithner said the answer to that question hinges on decisions made by world leaders. "It is within the capacity of the people who are going to be in those rooms together in the next few days to avoid that outcome," he said.

One of the mistakes made in the 1930s was that countries pulled back their recovery efforts too soon, prolonging the Great Depression, he said.

Geithner said the United States doesn't want to see that happen again. "What we want to do is continue to emphasize that we are going to avoid that mistake," he said. "It's only been a year since the world economy stopped collapsing ... it will take some time to heal."

Although the world economy has recovered from the worst financial and economic crisis since the 1930s, many challenges remain, Geithner said.

"The scars of this crisis are still with us," Geithner told reporters. "If the world economy is to expand at its potential, if growth is going to be sustainable in the future, then we need to act together to strengthen the recovery and finish the job of repairing the damage of the crisis."
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Geithner-Keeping-recovery-on-apf-407278925.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=7&asset=&ccode=

It's been a year since the world economy stopped collapsing? Geeze, and I thought it was STILL collapsing. Well, Tiny Tim says it has stopped, so it must be collapsing at a breakneck pace.

If Geithner is running around the G20 telling everyone there will be an economic relapse if countries switch their focus to deficit reduction instead of continued unfunded spending, has there ever really been a recovery?

Obviously not. The "recovery" the US Government boasts about has been bought and paid for by government spending alone. Recoveries, genuine recoveries, are the result of private sector spending and investment, not by stealing from the private sector, and dumping money in the laps of criminal banking entities. If the US Government, and it's cohorts in the G8 must continue spending to "ensure" a recovery, then there never will be a recovery. Times like these prove that it is impossible to spend your way to prosperity.

The US government, along with the Europeans, have made a grave error in bailing out the banks and claiming to have "averted the next Great Depression". The private sector has been left bereft of capital because the banks are using all of their new found money to buy US Treasuries in an elaborate scheme to give the world the illusion that the US can endlessly spend money it doesn't have to keep the engine of capitalism going. In effect, the US government is pumping blood into a corpse with the notion that it will come back to life. Dead bodies stay dead. The US Government has destroyed the country far quicker than any enemy combatant could ever hope to.

Does ANYBODY really believe the Geithner drivel? If he and the messiah are serious about a recovery, they need to cut spending AND taxes NOW! Real recoveries come from the PRIVATE SECTOR, NOT from government spending on bank bailouts and legislative pork. But that will never happen, so again Gold is the big winner this weekend. The US will not officially default on their debt, they have opted to inflate it away instead. The US Dollar will be on life support by 2013.

Confidence Waning in Obama, U.S. Outlook
Americans are more pessimistic about the state of the country and less confident in President Barack Obama's leadership than at any point since Mr. Obama entered the White House, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

The survey also shows grave and growing concerns about the Gulf oil spill, with overwhelming majorities of adults favoring stronger regulation of the oil industry and believing that the spill will affect the nation's economy and environment.

Sixty-two percent of adults in the survey feel the country is on the wrong track, the highest level since before the 2008 election. Just one-third think the economy will get better over the next year, a 7-point drop from a month ago and the low point of Mr. Obama's tenure.

Amid anxiety over the nation's course, support for Mr. Obama and other incumbents is eroding. For the first time, more people disapprove of Mr. Obama's job performance than approve. And 57% of voters would prefer to elect a new person to Congress than re-elect their local representatives, the highest share in 18 years.

The results show "a really ugly mood and an unhappy electorate," said Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who conducts the Journal/NBC poll with GOP pollster Bill McInturff. "The voters, I think, are just looking for change, and that means bad news for incumbents and in particular for the Democrats."

Mr. McInturff said voters' feelings, typically set by June in any election year, are being hardened by frustration over the economy and the oil spill. "It would take an enormous and seismic event to change the drift of these powerful forces before November," he said.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703900004575325263274951230.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

The sleeping giant called America is waking, and boy is she pissed.

U.S. Q1 GDP revised lower to 2.7% increase
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - U.S. real gross domestic product for the first quarter was revised down to an increase of 2.7% annualized from the earlier estimate of a 3.0% rise, the Commerce Department said Friday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected first-quarter growth to be unrevised at up 3.0%. The revision to first-quarter GDP was largely due to weaker consumer spending and a widening trade deficit. A key measure of inflation was revised slightly higher but remained subdued. Core prices increased 0.7% in the first quarter, up from 0.6% reported earlier. Corporate profits increased a revised 8.0% quarter-to-quarter, compared with a 5.5% rise previously estimated.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-q1-gdp-revised-lower-to-27-increase-2010-06-25?siteid=bnbh

This revelation should come as NO SURPRISE to anybody reading this blog. Government accounting is pure fantasy, and doubtless conjured up to meet the needs of the moment. Can you say "propaganda". I will predict here and now that 4th quarter GDP wil be NEGATIVE.

General Stanley McChrystal, a great American and bonafide leader [something our President will never be] was fired late this past week for his comments on Team Obama. When will the politicians ever learn that generals run wars, not desk jockeys in Washington. Afghanistan is now officially a quagmire. I highly recommend reading this entire story that came out in Rolling Stone Friday. It portrays a realistic view of the war in Afghanistan and US policy. The general should be applauded for his candour and realism. Unfortunately he speaks too much of the truth and fails to portray the fantasy the clowns in Washington believe in.

The Runaway General
Stanley McChrystal, Obama's top commander in Afghanistan, has seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236?RS_show_page=1

Gold and Silver need to follow through on their thumping of the cartel bankers last week. A close above 1265 Gold, and 19.50 Silver, should open the door to 1300 Gold and 21 Silver. Caution is warranted as the CRIMEX goons are battered and bruised, and still holding record short positions in Gold.

The goons may capitulate here, and hope to regroup and attack on the potential profit taking that may result from a Gold strike at 1300. Gold support rests at last weeks 1224 low. Silver at 18.17. The Gold/Silver ratio is testing it's 50 day moving average at 65.60. 62 is major resistance, and we would most likely see this come into play should Gold run to 1300. We look to this week ahead with a cautiously aggressive posture...

Silver: "Looking Good Billy Ray - Feeling Good Lewis!"
Dave Kranzler: The Golden Truth
The bullish set up in silver (and gold) has turned insanely bullish. An astonishing amount of silver has been removed from the Comex warehouses over the past two weeks. Most of it from Scotia - who has unrefutedly been accused by many, including me, of operating a "fractional" bullion custodian operation - and from HSBC - who has by far the 2nd largest paper short position in silver, on the Comex and via OTC derivatives as per the latest Comptroller of the Currency's Q1/2010 Report on Bank Trading and Derivatives Activities.

Every day last week silver (and gold) traded up in the physical buying markets of Asia and India, only to undergo massive paper selling in London and on the Comex. What was incredibly bullish was the way silver recovered from repeated paper price attacks during the paper-only Comex trading sessions every day last week. I can't recall seeing price "snap-back" action like this in nearly nine years of trading silver. Silver closed the week slightly lower than a week ago, but closed nearly a dollar above it's intra-day trading low last week. This is an even more remarkable feat considering that the Dow and the SPX were demolished for the week.

The trading action I observed and participated in, combined with the amount of silver leaving the Comex, tells me that the paper shorts are having a hard time triggering any meaningful stop-loss selling, which is how the big Comex shorts (JPM, HSBC) have historically covered their short positions. Here is Ted Butler's comments from his weekly King News World radio interview:

There's not a lot of people out there looking to dump physical metal right now...and I can see situation developing where a lot people wake up and say they want to acquire big physical positions and that mismatch of no big physical supply and potential physical demand is what the doctor ordered for a big price explosion.

Here's the link to the entire interview - it's about 10 minutes and worth hearing: Ted Butler on silver
http://truthingold.blogspot.com/2010/06/silver-looking-good-billy-ray-feeling.html