Economic Weather Report 3-18-2011

The battle between paper money and commodity based money is underway in a very big way

3/9/11  PIMCO:  World’s largest bond fund has sold all of its U.S. government-related securities, including U.S. Treasuries and agency debt, from its flagship Total Return fund, as of the end of February 28, according to the firm's website on Wednesday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/09/us-pimco-debt-idUSTRE7285M020110309

3/10/11   Banks move to limit debit card withdrawals to under $100:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LChlxqrWe3A

Last November, clearing house ICE Europe began accepting gold bullion as initial margin for crude oil and natural gas futures. This year, JPMorgan Chase announced that it would accept physical gold as collateral for a number of transactions. According to the Wall Street Journal, stock exchanges in New York, Chicago and Europe recently agreed to accept gold as collateral for certain trades, too. The World Gold Council is gaining traction in its push to have the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision accept the precious metals as a Tier-1 asset for banks, along with government bonds and currencies. Private and public institutions alike are clearly rethinking their attitude toward gold.

Perhaps most telling of all, the world’s central banks were net buyers of gold in 2010 and in 2009, after being net sellers for the previous 20 years. As World Bank President Robert Zoellick said last November, gold has become the "yellow elephant in the room" that needs to be acknowledged by policymakers of major economies.

No one can predict exactly how this will all shake out, but Doug Casey has long said that a return to a gold standard, or some modern equivalent, is almost inevitable. That’s because, for the reasons Aristotle outlined 2,000 years ago (it’s durable, divisible, consistent, convenient, and has intrinsic value), gold is hands-down the world’s best money.

3/11/11  Forbes: Utah -Two-thousand miles away from Washington, Utah sent a strong message yesterday that the nation’s monetary system is dysfunctional. A bill authorizing gold and silver as legal tender passed the statehouse and with the governor’s signature will become law. This pushback against the Federal Reserve was truly a bottom-up effort, initiated by a group of activists and two freshman legislators keenly aware that the debt-based dollar is a significant drag on the U.S. economy. And it paves the way for more grassroots efforts to challenge the status quo and Ben Bernanke, something previously unthinkable.  http://blogs.forbes.com/richdanker/2011/03/11/utah-signals-dollar-distress/

The Federal Reserve is under attack by Anonymous and others from all sides.  But, this time the effort at exposure will be ratcheted up very high.  This pressure plus a brewing dollar crises may be its undoing.

 

Hacker Group ‘Anonymous’ Brings Peaceful Revolution To America: Will Engage In Civil Disobedience Until Bernanke Steps Down

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/12/2011 22:30 -0400

The world's most (in)famous hacker group - Anonymous - known for effectively shutting down their hacking nemesis security firm (with clients such as Morgan Stanley and, unfortunately for them, Bank of America)- has just launched communication #1 in its Operation "Empire State Rebellion." The goal - engage in "a relentless campaign of non-violent, peaceful, civil disobedience" until Ben Bernanke steps down and the "Primary Dealers within the Federal Reserve banking system be broken up and held accountable for rigging markets and destroying the global economy effective immediately.  Here is there first communiqué and their demands.   Article: http://www.zerohedge.com/article/hacker-group-anonymous-brings-peaceful-revolution-america-will-engage-civil-disobedience-unt

Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D6neBzTnOQ & website: http://ampedstatus.org/network/groups/a99/

3/24/11  Nation Wide Planned Protests for March 24th at ALL 12 Regional Federal Reserves.

Demonstrations will take place at each of the 12 district banks and the Board of Governors in Washington, DC:

District 1: Boston: 600 Atlantic Avenue
District 2: New York: 33 Liberty Street
District 3: Philadelphia: Ten Independence Mall
District 4: Cleveland: 1455 East Sixth Street
District 5: Richmond, VA: 701 East Byrd Street
District 6: Atlanta: 1000 Peachtree Street NE
District 7: Chicago: 230 South LaSalle Street
District 8: St Louis: One Federal Reserve Bank Plaza
Broadway and Locust Streets
District 9: Minneapolis:90 Hennepin Avenue
District 10: Kansas City, MO: 1 Memorial Drive
District 11: Dallas: 2200 North Pearl Street
District 12: San Francisco: 101 Market Street
Board of Governors:  20th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20551

Your Liberty at Risk

TIME: Everything’s Tracked- Get Over It

March 13, 2011

In an astounding cover story for the March 21 issue of TIME called ‘Your Data for Sale,’ author Joel Stein tells readers to simply “get over” constant surveillance. The tagline, “Everything about you is being tracked– get over it” puts the issue in your face.

You can regain a bit of privacy.  Opt out tool.  http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp

The NAI Opt-out Tool was developed in conjunction with our members for the express purpose of allowing consumers to "opt out" of the behavioral advertising delivered by our member companies.

Using the Tool below, you can examine your computer to identify those member companies that have placed an advertising cookie file on your computer.