Silver's Rise

I did an interview with Germany's investigative reporter, Lars Schall, last week. We covered everything from the Middle East Uprisings to Oil Prices to Silver Prices to the still weak global economy. He put the transcript up on his website yesterday. Here's the tidbit on silver, given today's continued hike in that metal:

Question: In general, do you think both metals (silver and gold) will go much higher?

Answer: Yes, I think they will. There is a fundamental weakness in the global economy. There is a fundamental weakness in the U.S. economy. The Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, President Obama, and Treasury Secretary Geithner are all talking about this recovery we are supposed to be in. Apparently, to them, we have been in a recovery since the middle of 2009, but real individuals don’t see that. The less they are finding jobs, the longer they are out of jobs, the more expensive it is to buy food, gas, and other basic items, including their health care, and the more people facing foreclosures amidst the month of lowest housing prices since this ‘recovery’ officially started, the more apparent it is, that we aren’t in a recovery.

We are in a weak, not a stable, situation despite all this talk. The dollar is weak, and that takes money out of the pockets of for instance, Americans, that pay more for imported items, and get less on exporting them. Also, our Treasury debt has gone up from $5.4 to $9.4 trillions in two years, that is an exceptional amount and increase. This is debt with which the government buys its own currency and circularly, its own debt, but it doesn’t get out into the real economy. As long as that is the case, as long as the economy is weak and immense debt is used to prop the dollar, and as long as there exists speculative capital seeking somewhat sure investments, at least short-term, the metal market will continue to go up. There might be days where it comes down on profit taking or other reasons, but in general it will climb higher.

The rest of the interview is here. What do you guys think?

Did Tim Geithner really say something that dumb?

It's been at least a week or two (or maybe I've just been paying attention to other things that he doesn't appear to be noticing), since Tim Geithner reminded us how little he understands (or cares) about - everything. But, his Bloomberg Breakfast statement this morning, just nailed it. 

"The global economy is in a much stronger position to handle rising oil prices than it was in 2008 when crude shot up to a record US$147.27 a barrel in New York... Central banks have a lot of experience in managing these things.”

I mean, really ?!? What part of the global economy basking in the stability of its strength would that be, Tim?

The part uprising in the streets, in nations where a third of the population lives in utter poverty? The part getting kicked out of homes, while lenders stash their subsidization money with the Fed, and get interest on it? The part that has all but stopped searching for employment, as the pool of applicants drowns the drop of available jobs? The part that can't afford to eat? The part being asked to give up their right to collective bargaining, so that the part that collectively bargains constantly (under the corporate collective bargaining label 'lobbyists') can defund state and federal revenues while chewing on unnecessary tax breaks?

What part?

A significant chunk of the Middle East and Northern Africa is in revolt against corrupt governments and soul-destroying economic conditions - chief amongst those, a hopeless level of unemployment, particularly for the growing youth populations in those regions (and by the way, Tim - also in our own country), as well as a paralyzing financial chokehold unleashed by record high food and agricultural prices and rising oil ones. No, Tim, the global economy doesn't need more pain.

But wait. Tim, maybe you've got a point about crisis management. Central banks, especially ours, are really good at managing crises on behalf of - banks. They are brilliant at manifesting any required amount of money to subsidize the crisis creators, and patting themselves on the back when that money pumps up stock market prices, corporate cash reserves, and commodity costs. And, when this wall of 'so-called recovery' that you talk about, shows fractures you strive to conceal, due to the reality of an anemic, depressed economy, our central bank is excellent at springing to action. Bernanke just lobs a QE maneuver to inflate the value of our debt and deflate the value of our currency, much the same way the ECB moans a bit, each time a Greece, or an Ireland, or a Portugal begs for a reprieve from the international capital regime that colluded with their local banking systems to trash their citizen economies.

And you, Tim, so heroically helped our central bank manage the crisis, as the Treasury department issued $4 trillion of debt (in two years!) while now, nervously talking about budget spending cuts and deficit reduction and hoping no-one will remember your part in the financial imbalance that is our national economy. This, in co-hoots with a reckless Federal Reserve determined to pretend that the cheap money it continues to pump into the speculative class has nothing to do with the inflation in commodity prices it refuses to acknowledge, and that the trillions of dollars manufactured to enable our negligent, accountability-immune (h/t to the magnificent Matt Taibbi) banking system to remain functional was no hardship to our country, whereas say, advocating the raising of taxes and revenue seeking measures on those recipients would be.

Yeah. Nothing like management experience.