It appears both Italy and Greece will have crises in February.

Greece it appears will have elections.

Italy, whose 10-year bond temporarily hit 6.7% before falling back to 6.4%, will run out of cash flow in February.
(&% is reckoned to be the point of no return on interest rates.)

And while the failure in Cannes was grabbing media attention, back in Brussels the MEPs were discussing extending welfare benefits to new immigrants (Even illegals) from non-EU countries. What part of BROKE don’t they understand? Les Idiots!

You bought shares in one of your companies, Big AL. Which one? Did I miss the 3-day announcement?

For &% above read 7%.

Does BIG AL or the Sage TraderRog have anything to say about the apparent change in margin requirements by the CME announced late on Friday?

Performance Bond Requirements
All Products
Initial / Maintenance Ratio: Current= Various New=1.0

see http://www.cmegroup.com/tools-information/lookups/advisories/clearing/files/Chadv11-399.pdf

Like your site but unfortunately, iy’s not iPad compatible and consequently have not listened to any of your interviews since I got my iPad. Any chance this will change in the future?

there is enough ” GAS and WIND” in WASH DC..to run the country for the next 1000 years.

AL…..Don’t worry about the coal miners….china will take all the coal we have…
do some heads up reading, they have been trying to get nat. gas going since 1970….as long as there is Big Oil…it IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. It IS ALL POLITICAL , BIG OIL PUTS
THE PRESIDENT IN OFFICE…and has since NIXON..that is HISTORY…
Steve,SEC 3, needs to do some more reading…on the background of big oil , coal,and.nat. gas..
I under stand OBAMA is looking at condos…in DOWN TOWN ATHENS.,.IN EXCHANGE FOR
MORE BAIL OUT MONEY

Joe, I listen to the interviews and daily insights here on my iPad all the time. You should be able to, as well. Just click where it says “Download show,” next to where the Flash audio streaming box is. A player will come up. If it doesn’t start playing, just click the play button.

On a side note, but I’d guess quite urgent, what are we all going to do before Sunday night/Monday morning, to protect ourselves before the margin hikes bring about maybe another crash in silver and related investments (ie., shares and ETF’s, like AGQ)?

This CME hike seems very scary to me. Dan Norcini has a lot to say about it:

http://www.traderdannorcini.blogspot.com/

bob seg8…
…AL….”is a man ahead of his time….”,,,(better early than late)

….BOB….”is a man for all times…..”,,, (even when you don’t like what he says).

Great show…thanks…ootb…jerry

re: segment 2. Very interesting comments concerning Obama’s 12 months left & it taking longer for that for policy change to kick-in.

Sure, he wants 2 terms. Wouldn’t be surprised if with all this domestic havoc in the US & ‘occupies’ gaining momentum & the ensuing uptick in protests, civil unrest etc, that closer to Nov 2012, Obama calls marshall law & ‘postpones’ the elections.

Am I just being a wee bit too conspiratorial?

Mind you, Cameron & his clowns aren’t too bright over here either!

Big Al,
I want to comment on JOBS today. Lets face it, the govenment numbers are nowhere near John Williams’ at shadowstats. The added jobs, IMO, are seasonal retail jobs, minimun wage, part time, short term no benefit jobs.
I spend some time volunteering at food banks, i recommend that you and your readers stop by one (in your neighborhood) and talk to the people. The first thing that you will notice it that they look just like you and me. Two stories from yesterday:

Real estate agent (wife) Painter (husband), Husband has not had a job in 3 weeks. Stated that everyone is a painter now. (licensed or not) We all know that real estate is hard due to lack of funding, for many reasons. They are living on credit cards (obtained during the good times). Are able to make their house payments and car payments and truck payments. However they have had to cancel all medical insurance, medications for her MS and heart issues and cut back on everything else. She was happy to recieve a package of meat for their dinner.
Another quick story was about a working lady, low wage, received a raise of .25 ah hour for doing a good job. This raise put her over the limits for food stamps and therefore had to see if the Christian food bank could help.
I would urge all readers to Open their eyes and count their blessings if they can still place a meal on their table for their family.

Bobby

REMEMBER ALL YE “INVESTORS,” THE DOW IN “CONSTANT DOLLARS” IS STILL DOWN THIRTY PER CENT SINCE 2000AD! WE ARE DEALING HERE WITH “MINI-DOLLARS!” DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE WORD “FIAT” MEANS? WE WILL SOON HAVE TO TRADE IN “MICRO-DOLLARS!” ERGO, ARGENTUM ET AURUM COMPARENDA SUNT! OREMUS! FINIS!

Al: As per second segment with Steve Taylor, I tend to side with Steve on your discussion. My opinion from a political economic point is, the market is doing well because it anticipates the US removing Obama from Washington next year. This in part is similar to what happen when Reagan was running against Carter, only much sooner because during 1980 before nomination the market was unsure about who would run against Carter and what the outcome to the economy would be. This time the political economics is telling us that to the Nation it does not matter who runs against Obama, because anyone is better. So in effect the markets are reacting positive to Obama’s negatives in the electorate.

Bob Moriarty is an idiot. Last on your show, he said Ag was a bad investment. Now he says Au may go down to 500$ but would buy more because of deflation. What garbage!! Stay away from his site. He is wrong 90% of the time. Yeah the mining shares may be a good buy now, but that is pretty much a general concensus.

A must read by everyone. Why the existing financial system is collapsing. A very good and short synopsis.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-collapse-our-corrupt-predatory-pathological-financial-system-necessary-and-positive

Hi Al,
The most important fact in all this is that the global policy makers, (G20), will dictate what the countries will do to resolve the existing mess. I cannot agree with Bob because the G20 will not allow any country to break away form the EU. They will do whatever is needed to prop everyone up which is money printing. We will have inflation around the world.

Al and Steve,
You did not cover one of the best new applications for natural gas–a fleet of trucks operating on LNG. Westport Innovations already has demonstration trucks on the road and West;port holds over 100 patents defining their technology. The concern here is safety as you can imagine but considerable progress is being made.

The US is the “cash cow” for the world. National distinctives, ie. (borders, language, and culture) are insignificant. We are all citizens of the “World” now. America, the wealthiest nation, is being used to even out the economic and social disparities around the globe. After all, it’s completely immoral and unjust that one nation should be so rich and others so poor, right?(tongue in cheek) We are witnessing the greatest transfer of wealth that the world has ever seen. And we’re supposed to just shut up and go along with this wholesale robbery of a nation, and accept our place as “serfs” for the greater good of the central banksters, robbers, and barons. Right! Not me! Au/Ag all the way!! Look for runs on banks and bank holidays, coming to a city near you.

Al do you think we’ll get a QE3 when the economy seems to be doing better than expected?

Big Al:
You can put me on the list of people who think you do NOT have to give 3 days notice before buying stock. I think it is nice and honourable that you have done that on many occasions in the past, but I just think that more often than not, you’d probably be hurting yourself because the price could easily be higher by giving that 3 days notice. As far as I’m concerned, just buy the stock when YOU want, period.

It looks like the CME news was misinterpreted in the blogosphere, and is nothing to worry about, after all:

http://truthingold.blogspot.com/2011/11/cme-margin-news-confusion.html

Hi Al; On the issue of giving 3 days notice, I am in the same position with my newly launched website http://www.myronswinningjuniors.com and my conclusion is that since I rarely put more than $1000. into any one position I am not likely to move the market. Since the market itself has very high volatility the chances are just as good that prices will DROP over a 3 day period as that they will rise, and I have verified that with recent purchases. Since you can’y please everybody no matter what you do I would be inclined to go with the majority responses.

AL: Since you regularly discuss economics from an Austrian point of view and most people are so brainwashed they are unable to objectively look at things from a mathematically sound perspective, you might just learn something from the following essay that pulls no punches and discloses things rarely discussed by economists in general. ENJOY!

Subject: Myron’s Musings – Compounding in Reverse

The essence of capitalism is embodied in the well known phrase, “the magic of compounding” and any economist worth his salt has used it to promote various and sundry financial instruments that have proliferated over the decades. I could give myriad examples of the difference in results over 20 yrs. or 40 yrs. of simple things likes cutting mutual fund fees by a quarter percent, or a mortgage rate by 2 or 3/10th percent for example. For many people that may seem insignificant, but can make a dramatic difference over a long enough period of time. This premise was the foundation of the popular, but now severely flawed mantra to “Buy & Hold” put out by Wall St. & Bay St. to keep people invested in their products, like mutual funds for example. As we will learn, there is a darker side that is only now being exposed.

Suffice it to say that in past decades, under the capitalist system, it indeed made sense to SAVE and put aside money regularly as soon as possible in your working or business career. The more you saved, the sooner you saved, the greater the compounded result. This was in preparation for a secure retirement, and it worked for many people for the past few decades. The truth today is it is almost impossible to find a debt instrument that will pay a true return in excess of actual non manipulated government statistics on inflation, but who understands and has explained WHY?

Today we face a totally new paradigm most investors and average income earners have not yet grasped or adjusted too. Given current economic conditions in the world I think it is time we took a long hard look at the opposite side of the equation of the popular mantra referred to as, “the magic of compounding” through investment in debt instruments.

With interest rates at basically ZERO, even below the rate of inflation, the incentive to save has largely been removed, to say nothing of people being enticed to borrow at “teaser interest rates” making instant gratification almost ir-resistable for people wanting all the new toys, big screen televisions, I Pods, I Pads ad infinitum. It is so painless until you over extend yourself as we now see even governments have done. Politicians tend to promise the world to get elected and then run deficits to keep at least enough of their promises to get re-elected.

This train of thought was triggered while reading an excellent essay by John Mauldin on the potential for hyper inflation, and while he concludes it will not happen here, I am not as certain as he is. The subject is much in the news these days with the sovereign debt problems in Europe engulfing half a dozen nations, to say nothing of the profligate uncontrolled spending creating a fiscal dilemma for the United States that can also have world wide implications. I highly recommend you read Mr Mauldin’s article for balance, which you can access at the following URL: http://howestreet.com/ from which I quote: “to understand the incomprehensible scope of the German inflation, maybe it is best to start with something basic — like a loaf of bread. (To keep things simple we will substitute dollars and cents for marks and pfennings. You’ll get the picture.) In the middle of 1914, just before the war, a one pound loaf of bread cost 13 cents and 2 years later it was 19 cents.
Two years more and it sold for 22 cents. By 1919 it was 26 cents. (Double in value on a mere 12% compound inflation – JM). Now the fun begins.

In 1920, a loaf of bread soared to $1.20, and then in 1921 it hit $1.35. By the middle of 1922 it was $3.50. At the start of 1923 it rocketed to $700 a loaf. Five months later a loaf went for $1200. By September it was $2 million. A month later it was $670 million (wide spread rioting broke out). The next month it hit $3 billion. By mid month it was $100 billion. Then it all collapsed [as if a roughly 8 billion times rise in cost wasn’t already collapse! Hint of irony here. – JM] ” COMMENT: Indeed, talk about a snowball rolling down hill, note the rapid escalation once inflation took over the market!

These statistics are readily available, and have been quoted by many writers, but the interesting thing is that in all the reams of words and debate over the weeks and months about how to SOLVE our current financial problems it all seems to revolve around creating even MORE DEBT, when excessive DEBT is already the problem.
I have not heard of anyone in positions of power and ability to make constructive changes ask questions about whether “excessive debt” is an indication of a STRUCTURAL PROBLEM with our monetary system? All solutions proposed it seems to me, are attempts to “save the system” while using demonstrably FAILED tactics that do not deal with fundamental flaws in the system. Brings to mind one definition of insanity; “doing the same things and expecting different results” and I could elaborate extensively on that, but wish to stay focussed on my titled thesis.
I submit that the German experience in the 20’s is a classic example of “compounding in reverse” the dark side of the fractional reserve, fiat, debt financing system, that lacks “checks and balances” since we went off the gold standard in 1971. WHY are economists not thinking outside the box and asking whether growth has to be financed by debt instead of savings? Has anybody ever suggested government on behalf of the people extend credit for needed infrastructure using our natural resources and available labour, taxing it back interest free over the life of what is created, instead of in-debting people to private bankers to finance it with DEBT, and ending up paying DOUBLE?
They might also ask, WHY do a certain class of people have a monopoly on essentially counterfeiting actual money (gold and silver) with what are in effect debt based I.O.U.’s created out of thin air? There are better ways of structuring our financial system that are simply not being explored because of powerful financial interests that benefit from our debt enslavement.
Now comes the controversial statement establishment trained and educated thinkers will at first have trouble comprehending, and will probably vehemently protest it as preposterous and disparage it as nonsense, but simple mathematics says otherwise.
INTEREST AS A LONG TERM CONCEPT IS MATHEMATICALLY IMPOSSIBLE!
WHY you ask, very simple, because under the fractional reserve system “every bank loan is a new creation of money, and when it is paid back it ceases to exist” testimony of Graham Towers then Governor of the Bank of Canada in 1939 before a Parliamentary Committee under oath. What this means in practical terms, is that since ONLY the principal is created when the loan is made, but over the course of a 25 year mortgage at average rates, an EQUAL amount is paid back in interest, as well as the original amount of the loan being cancelled out.
“Net result, on average over 25 years, TWICE as much currency is taken out of circulation as was originally created out of thin air as DEBT that must be repaid with interest. This is only possible through continual and growing indebtedness on a collective (societal) basis. The bankers get a free ride, while we the taxpayers (through bailouts) pick up the tab for their profligate unsound loans and generally risky behaviour, if not criminal attempts to keep us enslaved to a monopolistic and corrupt system of perpetual debt, cleverly disguised and deliberately mislabelled as CREDIT! ”

Practically then, the only way that uncreated interest can be paid, is by an exponential increase in the number and size of loans. In other words, the uncreated interest simply accumulates into an ever growing pyramid of debt that ultimately becomes un-payable because eventually banks run out of viable collateral against which to make new loans. Equally relevant, it says nothing about a lack of bank reserves to do so, because people are unable to save under this very oppressive system. It is not only unconstitutional as Ron Paul consistently points out, but I contend should be outlawed for the Ponzi scheme that it so obviously is, and the perpetrators charged with FRAUD!
I submit based on the evidence of our economic situation today that we have reached, if not surpassed, that point of no return where the system is no longer viable in its present form. In other words, the “magic of compounding” has now turned against us, and what we are compounding is now “DEBT” constantly adding new layers stacked upon previous layers that can not be paid, and at best keep getting rolled over into a growing debt pyramid.
That can not continue much longer since we have progressed (sic) from a family living comfortably on one salary, to barely being able to make ends meet at near zero interest rates, when BOTH parents are working. With rising taxes (as high as 50% disguised interest) maybe even adult children are living at home to make ends meet while they pay off student loans, a recent layer of new debt that can not be discharged in a bankruptcy, so they are stuck for life as a debt slave, and some may not even be able to find a job and end up recruited as cannon fodder in some new war contrived as a pretext to revive the economy.
SCARY when the only solution being offered is additional new layers of debt the politicians and bankers want to saddle the taxpayer with for endless generations. All to try and save a system that has made them rich and turned 95% of the population into debt slaves with an increasing number of people impoverished, if not outright destitute as they lose jobs and homes, to say nothing of the plight of retiree’s on fixed incomes.
The architects of this pyramid scheme are running scared because they are beginning to grasp that once the dominoes begin to fall it could quickly be curtains for their nefarious scheme and it could well be triggered by derivatives which famous investor Warren Buffet correctly labels as “financial weapons of mass destruction”!
My conclusion is that: “the magic of compounding ” is quickly turning into the nightmare of fiscal collapse.

AL, do you still like Exeter Resource T.XRC ?

I was actually paraphrasing from a ? to Bob Chapman re: My Moriarty
The ? was Subject: Bob Moriarty
Do you know this guy? On the Korelin report, he said that we shouldn\’t be surprised if silver went back down to 20 before going back up again. What do you think? Thanx, George

Bob Chapman’s answer was:

That tells you that Moriarty is short silver and is getting his head handed to him. This guy is a first class skunk.
Over the years I only know of twice that Moriarty was right and to think I helped him get his site underway 15 years ago.

Well said Matthew and to Clay in his reply above- Moriarty may not be the “good” guy you think he is, including his intentions

Regarding the CME margin discussion: This dust-up started because of the upsets at MF Gobal. The first remarks and reactions were quite dire and then the CME clarified the rules. Customers transferring out of MF GLobal to other clearing houses need some space and breathing room. The CME is setting the initial margin upcharge to zero. This charge is normally applied to customer accounts when they get a margin call. This is a fluid situation. Our broker has said nothing on this this morning so for now we see no changes. I think the CME is making it easier for customers to transfer and not have to install more capital to trade; especially on open trades. We will be monitoring the situation and will produce a response when more is learned and or changed on this Monday morning – Traderrog

Hi Big Al and Trader Rog,
Thanks for a great show, profitable format, and your selection of guests. Like many of your readers(apparently), I do not always agree with all your guests all the time, the most recent example being Bob Moriarty. One thing I’ve learned in my short 50 years of living is that there are as many opinions as people, and I will seldom if ever, completely agree with someone all the time. That being said, while I disagree with some of Bob’s forcasts and outlooks, he does have some worthwhile things to say(noone is always wrong all the time). I like being able to pick and choose, slice and dice, pick and poke, analyze and discern, and then take away what I believe is useful for me and fits into my plan and program. I like it that way. The alternative would be to be spoonfed just exactly and only what I need, which is unacceptable to me along with being practicably impossible to achieve. Those that criticize Bob M. so ardently, might want to consider what the alternative would be if you did not have people like him on. By the way, Bob is no “idiot”. That’s a rather harsh, knee-jerk, estimation. We may not agree with someone, but does that make them the idiot and me the genius? Only if we are myopic and only choose to see things from own little vantage point. Considering alternate and variant viewpoints is healthy, even if we choose to discard them in the end. It rounds out and fills in the blank spaces in our “big picture” view of life. Best to you both.

Ok , I agree, Moriarty is not an idiot, that was a bit harsh. How ’bout a skunk who is wrong most of the time. Now, I did not call him a skunk initially. I took that term from Chapman who has had personal experience w/him.

Yes Al, I know but let’s not go there. It’s a beautiful day here in the NE

AL . Dont feel guilty about ITH.. I for one, & i believe i speak for everyone else on this site, TRUST & RESPECT YOU. How you spend your money is your business. You dont push these company’s so what’s the problem.