I’ve been drinking Deschutes Jubelale, a festive winter beer from Bend, OR, for quite a number of years now.  Well, surprise, surprise what my trip to the grocery turned up tonight!  A fresh off the line six-pack of Jubelale 2009!!!  Yea!  That “time of year” is finally here!  I wrote about it on a whim last season and have decided to continue in that tradition.

This year’s batch is just in time, too!  This is normally the type of beer that is oh-so satisfying during the winter months.  Well, here in Missoula…we apparently skipped fall and moved head on into winter.  At the moment, we’ve got snow on the ground and single digit temperatures at night…perfect weather to be thinking about a soul warming winter brew!

Perhaps it’s the amount of time between batches, as it’s a seasonal and only seen during late fall and winter months, but it seems to me that the beer takes on different dynamics with each successive year.  Some years, I’ve literally fallen in love with it, and yet others, it doesn’t quite draw me in that far, but it’s still good.  My impression of my first bottle of the year?  Fantastic!!!!  Reaching for my second as I write this post.

It seems with this year’s batch, the hops profile is more revealing and forward than it has been in years past.  I’ve always appreciated the dark malted goodness this beer offers, but as a big-time fan of IPA’s (India Pale Ale), I like a beer that isn’t afraid to use hops to liven things up a bit.  With this hop-forward lunge, it could possibly turn out to be my favorite of all the batches I’ve tasted.  I remember the 2004/2005 years, and oh were they good like that…but it seemed that 2006/2007/2008 batches were much more muted with the hops, allowing the dark malt to largely dominate the taste buds.

Then again, the season is still early.  This is a beer that ages with time and it’s dynamics change from month to month.  It does seem a bit early for the Jubelale…but I’ll be interested to see how it develops with this coming winter season.

Cheers to you!

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I learned today, with great sadness, that one of my friends and one of our great patriots has passed away.  Don Harkins, founder and editor of the Idaho Observer, left us early this morning due to complications from a rapid onset of acute myeloid leukemia.

I learned about two weeks ago that he had entered intensive care, shortly after returning from a trip to Montana.  The news was quite disheartening, but I knew that many people would be praying for him and that he would receive the best care.  Over the course of two weeks, it would seem that his condition was rapidly improving – he regained consciousness, he was able to get off life support, and was ultimately able to leave the ICU.  It would seem that our prayers were being answered, but in hindsight, it was just a moment for him to know that he was loved by many people and to spend time with his closest loved ones.

From what I understand, he was ready to go and knew that he was going to see our Creator.  He was around all his closest people and, thank God, he was able to say goodbye and leave on the best of terms.

I am quite sad to see him go – I have read his paper, the Idaho Observer, for the last several years and worked with him closely in both Washington and Idaho’s Ron Paul presidential campaigns.  He was a great patriot who dedicated his life to informing the people, spent countless hours trying to make this world a better place and one who stood up for truth and justice, even when it wasn’t the most popular stance.  He was far too young to leave us, but I know he is in a better place now and I hope that he is able to look upon the legacy that he has left.

Don Harkins – you were deeply loved, will be greatly missed and I pray that I may see you again.  In memoriam.

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I watched this video, where a statement was made that took me by surprise.  They stated that if a person spent a million dollars a day, since the day Jesus was born (year zero), that it would take until now to reach what Congress has spent in the last few months on the various bailout packages.

This seemed so outlandish that I broke out the calculator and as it turns out, that wasn’t entirely true.  It would actually take until the year 2192, spending a million dollars a day, to reach the 800 billion dollars that have been spent on bailouts in the last few months.  So, it was off by a couple hundred years.  By now, you would have only spent about 766 billion dollars!

$1,000,000 x 365 x 2192 =$800,080,000,000.00

I couldn’t resist taking that one step further by using the same exercise to find out how long it would take, spending a million dollars a day since year zero, to equal the current US national debt of 10.8 trillion dollars.  I was almost afraid to figure it out and when I started having to go into year 10,000 plus, I really started to get alarmed.

It would take spending a MILLION dollars a DAY for twenty nine thousand six hundred YEARS to spend the 10.8 trillion dollars that is the US national debt.  And even that doesn’t quite get us to where it’s at today…rounding off didn’t really make that big a difference from my perspective.

$1,000,000 x 365 x 29600 = $10,804,000,000,000

If that doesn’t put our current situation into perspective for you, I don’t know what will.  I think it’s time for me to write a letter to Congress.  If this at all concerns you, I would adivse you to do the same.

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I recently received an interesting email that the US Treasury has apparently sold out the entire remains of the United States gold to the Federal Reserve for a steal – at nearly $900 per ounce less than current market values.  I have read several articles as of late relating to the balance statements of the Federal Reserve and it’s been pretty clear that there have been some drastic changes in the last few months.  My research has indicated that the balances are further out of whack than has ever been seen historically.  To put it simply, the percentage of loans vs. the retained assets of the Federal Reserve have been heavily skewed towards the loan side.  To put it in layman’s terms, it would similarly relate to a person making $30,000 a year taking out a loan for a million bucks.

Here is the copy of the email I received:

The entire 260,540,028 oz of Gold that was previously held by the U.S. Treasury has been issued to the Federal Reserve during the period of Feb 11-18, 2009 at a cost of $42.22 per troy oz.  The Federal Reserve issued credits to the U.S. Treasury  in the amount of $11 billion in federal reserve notes.  This transfer of gold represents the nation’s entire official gold stock.  In other words, a private bank, never having an independent financial audit, now  has all our nation’s real wealth!!!

It’s bad enough selling our gold, but why not at current market price of $950.00??  Are the taxpayer’s getting ripped off once again???

(The above information was released by the Fed on Feb 19,2009 in their Factors Affecting Reserve Balances–H4.1, table 8, page 1.)

I am not inclined to believe this information without first confirming it through the sourced references.  I was quickly able to find the sourced reference on the web, directly from the Federal Reserve’s web site.  You can check the information for yourself.

Though I am not an expert in these matters, I have had a fair amount of difficulty deriving the supposed stated facts from the sourced reference.  Specifically, I noted that the table referenced does not directly indicate any specific gold purchases, nor do any of the supposed values or purchase prices add up anywhere in the tables.  There is a row for gold certificate accounts which indicates zero change from both last week and last year.  So, with that said, I’m not entirely ready to believe the information I received in the email.

Through this research, though, I did take note of something interesting however, and I would like to bring it to your attention.  The assets relating to the Federal Reserve balances did increase at an abnormal rate.  If you look at the total assets and their reported changes compared to the previous week and previous year, you’ll see an asset increase on the magnitude of 72 billion dollars since February 11th.  Some simple math indicates this increase is just under twice the average week-over-week increase that we typically see.

Of deepest concern though is WHERE the increase of assets is coming from.  Interestingly, when looking at the referenced table, it’s pretty clear the largest increase has come from “securities, repurchase agreements, term auction credit and other loans.”  These are typically not real, tangible “right now” assests, but rather promises to pay and other IOU based assets.  Even more alarming is the breakdown of these sources and the elements that make them up.  If you take note, the “mortgage backed securities” increased this week at a rate 46 TIMES higher than the average week over week increases.  Some quick math shows the average weekly increase (total yearly divided by 52) is about 1.25 billion dollars.  In just this last week, that very same element increased by almost 58 billion dollars!

So what’s the deal?  Well, if you did any research on “mortgage backed securities” through the link I provided in the last paragraph, you’ll find that these are typically mortgage based loans, primarily in the residential markets.  Boiled down, that means that mean the Federal Reserve just bought a rather hefty percentage of the home loans and other property loans in the United States.  They’re well on there way to owning you, your life and your property.  No longer is it primarily the US taxpayers “promises to pay” (e.g. US Treasury bonds) that are backing up the dollar, but now your homes and property is what is giving it value.  That’s a very deep concern for me, especially considering it’s the private bankers at the Federal Reserve that have gotten us into this mess to begin with.

Even deeper, though, if you look at the other reported figures that millions may be defaulting on their home loans over the course of 2009 due to the economic recession…this could spell out a recipe for disaster.  As the Fed takes possession of our former homes, one-by-one they will begin to own and control huge percentages of personal property out there.  These guys are smart – they have the power to do this and they are beginning to exercise it.  They’re the biggest bank on the block and they’re priming themselves to control America, all the way down to our land and structures.

I did expect some increase of assets by the Fed though I wondered how they were going to do it.  It was essential because the huge loans that are being made to the US for bailouts and other disreputable causes have thrown the Fed’s balance sheet far too out of whack.  Foreign countries, banks and investors are looking at this to derive the stability and desirability of the US dollar and treasury bonds – getting too far out of balance would result in these entities going elsewhere for their investments.  I think we’ve reached the teetering point where the US taxpayers no longer have the ability to repay the huge debts that have been created – and now, the Fed is putting our private property on the line too.

The times, they are a changin’!

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I’ve been keeping an eye on those metals – especially the silver market.  Fairly recently, I wrote about the blatant manipulation we’re seeing in these markets – how it’s done and why it’s being done.  I also mentioned how the market was stressing from supply issues and how many sources were charging significant percentages over “spot” price, simply because the market was fed up with the ridiculously low prices.  I learned to keep an eye on E-Bay for current market values – and even when prices were down as low as $10.00-11.00/oz for silver, people were paying upwards of $15.00-$20.00 simply because physical possession was difficult all around the country.  E-Bay, oddly enough, shows the fairest market prices that I’ve been able to discover anywhere – after all, it clearly indicates what people are willing to pay.

I’ve wondered to myself how they can keep the prices so artificially low for so long.  Well, I think we’re finally starting to see the dam break and it’s coming back with a vengeance.  Since the first of the year, we’ve seen silver go from $11.00/oz up to about $14.50 at last check, or about a 31% slide upwards.  Compare that to other commodities, such as crude oil prices, and you’ll find nowhere near the same response.  In fact, oil has been steadily falling since the beginning of the year.  Corn shows the same trend, as does canola, wheat, cattle and nearly every other commodity out there.  (Source)

So, the commonly spewed logic that gold and silver generally follow the same trends as other commodities is clearly being blown out of the water.  With this being the case, there would seemingly be no logical reason for the prices of silver to have fallen from the low 20’s back down to the low tens over the course of late 2008.  It obviously has a mind and life of it’s own, completely independent of other markets.  Logically so, too…gold and silver have inherent actual value whereas other commodities are only as good as the price people are willing to pay for them.  I suppose this could be said about gold and silver as well – but it’s truly an odd world when the charts say it’s worth “X” and people out there are paying “X” plus ten to a hundred percent.

I guess the point here is that I wanted to dig on the idiotic logic of all those economorons out there who consistently stated that gold and silver follows other commodity trends.  I told you so.  Look at the numbers and charts.  Explain away.  Can you see it yet?

Lalalalala…I’m not listening.

I expect silver to at least hit $25/oz this year and gold will probably touch $1250/oz.  Maybe more…maybe a LOT more.  There’s a lot of wild and unpredictable factors swirling about right now and a whole house of cards that could come tumbling down even further.  I wish you all well this 2009…and I’d highly recommend you get out of stock and commodity markets and into something you can have and hold.  Pure silver and gold!

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I have been facing the magnitude of our current economic crisis for some time now.  I expected it long before we ever got here…it’s just logical progression for those that are aware of the facts.  I have struggled, however, in the ways I can use to communicate the severity of the crisis.

The puppet heads in the media really aren’t saying what this crisis is.  They want to look at the housing market or the stock market…the companies and the malinvestments.  They just simply aren’t looking at the facts.  The problem has been and will be inflation – the creation of money out of thin air, by the Federal Reserve, without anything of substance to give it value.  This crisis is essentially the systematic destruction of the US dollar by central bankers, fueled by an ignorant and fearful Congress.

I found a video that pretty much sums it up.  The sheer numbers on a graph, when compared against historical records, illustrate quite well the maginitude of what we face.

Click here to view the video!

For those who may not get what these numbers mean, essentially this is the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve.  Imagine that I have $1,000 worth of something valuable (say, gold for example) and that is used as collateral to give value to something that has no inherent value, such as a printed dollar.  Then, say, you come to me and borrow a thousand printed dollars.  I’m now at a one-t0-one ratio, right?  I have $1,000 worth of value and $1,000 worth of debt…not a bad place to be.

But then imagine, I all of a sudden say that I’ll now borrow out $5,000 of intrinsically worthless paper…but I don’t increase my reserves.  You borrow the $5,000 paper dollars…I’m now at a 5 to 1 ratio, right?  The value of those dollars has not increased, but rather decreased because I still only have $1,000 in reserves.  If you wanted to buy that $1,000 worth of gold, it would cost you the whole $5,000 because that’s what the gold now represents.

Take that to where we are today.  The graphs in the above video illustrate what would happen if I all of a sudden said I now have tens of thousands of dollars that I can borrow out…but still, refuse to increase that which gives those dollars value.  Again, the perceived value of all those tens of thousands of dollars are decreased by the ratio of reserves to loans.

The danger of this situation is significant…both to me, the originator of such loans and to you, the borrower.  Why?  As we increase this ratio, the perceived value of those paper dollars becomes less and less attractive.  The risk comes when you, the borrower, starts to see the impacts of this devaluation and consider other options that may be less risky.  That’s where the danger comes in – if the significant borrowers of my paper money become disinterested in borrowing from me….all of sudden the system fails and both you and I are hung out to dry.

This is the rapidly approaching situation that we face, aleit simplified by magnitudes.  We cannot turn a blind eye to what is really going on with our economy these days, as scary as it is to face it.  The sooner we accept what the problem  really is, the sooner we can come to terms on how we can fix it.

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Well, it seems appropriate around this time to provide my very own “State of the Blog Address” where I can tell you where we’ve been…and more importantly, where I’m going with this blog.

Come this February, jeffwhiteside.com will be turning a whole two years old!  Yep, I claimed it…so all you poser wanna-be Jeff Whiteside’s out there have to suck it up and take it.  You’ve got to listen to my Libertarian crazed criticisms and forever hope that someone doesn’t mistake me for one of you.  Sorry ’bout that if it happens.  I’m just conceited enough, though, to think it might actually *help* you. 

Over the last couple years, my site’s design has changed a few times.  What stated as a little web page hosted off one of my servers at home has now seen two different web hosts.  I’ve been able to pursue my interests of providing online videos and now have the knowledge (but not the motivation) to do a video log.  I’ve also (barely) ventured into the realm of social networking.  I’ve toyed around with the so-called “Web 2.0″ with dynamic information relevant to my life.

I still don’t have a MySpace account and I surprisingly haven’t become the next millionaire blogger.  Some things will never change.

In the coming four years, you can expect more of the same from me.  I don’t promise change…no…I vow to stay the same.  I promise to keep ever vigilant and critical against violations of our civil rights, unwise governance and an out-of-control world.  I hope to continue my own personal education and efforts to share that which I learn, and to inform those who are interested by writing about that which I feel is important.  I seek to hone my skills as a battered in blood political activist and to follow through on my commitment to restore what I think is great about this nation, America, in which I live.

You see, the last two years of this blog have seen great growth.  Admittedly, I only manage to write a handful or two postings a month…and sometimes ya’ll won’t see me for months on end.  Call it a vacation…I still probably put more time in than Bush did during his eight years.  But you see, that’s not what’s important here…it’s how I feel as a person.  I guess one could say that I finally feel like I have a place in this world.  And this blog has been part of it.

I do wish I was blessed with the motiviation and inspiration to write every day or nearly every other day – but, sadly, it simply wasn’t in the cards.  Nonetheless, I think the last couple years of this blog have shown a marked improvement in quality over the term of it’s existence.  I suppose it’s a natural progression of “learning to blog,” if you will, but it’s also about (in my case) forcing myself to find the creative outlet with words.  It’s about being inspired enough to actually go and write about it while resisting the urge to bore you with insignificant facts like, “I flossed my cat today.”  It’s also about resisting the urge to be apathetic and lazy.

And with that, comes even deeper clarity and perspective.  This blog has become me.  Not my specific interests, not my deepest desires, nor a representation of any of that.  It’s the journey…the process…the growth of one individual amongst a sea of others.  Where I stand and what it’s worth amongst that sea, I do not care…it’s more for me then it is for you.  It is the documentation of myself and my work, my thoughts and my hopes, my fears and my state.

So as we go into the next several years, I hope to maintain this effort and have an historical account of my life and the path that it’s on.  I hope to reconnect with those I have met in the past and look forward to meeting those who have yet to come.  I anticpate knowing what I have never known and resolve to do the best that I can with what I’ve got.  I thank you for your interest and hope you too will find your place in the world.

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So, I’m inspired today because of a video I watched over lunch.  Now that our country is swinging back to left, it’s time to vigilantly guard our right to bear arms.  Rumors are a flying about gun bans and so forth and I thought I’d put a subtle reminder out there about why we have such rights to begin with.

This video is case in point why we will NEVER surrender them in this country.

Click here to view the video!

I also wanted to put my 2 cents in about the Obama thing now that he’s our President and all.  I haven’t quite gotten on board yet, but I must say that I appreciated his inaugural speech.  Of course, the words “LIE” and “You’ll never be able to do that” were coming to my head far too frequently while watching…but nonetheless, I listened and I want to believe the speech.

SOOOOOOO…for those of you who didn’t get it, what he’s telling us is that it’s up to US to do what he’s talking about.  He didn’t say, “Go back to your homes, watch your TV and let me take care of it.”  He said we need to ACT and I fully agree with him.

So all your Democrats and koolaid drinkin’ Republicans out there…let’s particpate in this Republic again.  Get educated.  Write a letter to Congress.  Join an activist group.  Start a cause.  Do something.  I say that as much for myself as I do any others that might come across this.  Let’s hold him to the fire!

You want to end the wars?  Make it known.  You want sound monetary policies because you see our nation spiraling into debt?  Demand it.  You want to keep every firearm in your arsenal?  Defend them.  You want end the corporate bailouts?  Protest them.

If WE don’t, WHO will????  Not the politicians, I can guarantee you that.

Out.

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I was reading a fantastic article awhile ago that inspired me to post to my blog.  This informative article deals with the blatant manipulation of gold and silver prices.  As a precious metals investor for the past several years, I have had to deal with these manipulations which clearly make no sense at all.

I remember a time, just a few months ago, where silver had just fallen from it’s crest of $20 an ounce down to less than $10 an ounce.  Yet, when I would call every single silver dealer where I could take physical delivery, the actual selling price was upwards of $15 per ounce!  That is, if you could take delivery at all!  Pretty much every dealer I talked to was completely sold out and was expecting 5 to 6 week delays on resupply!  For those that actually could deliver, silver was going for $18+ an ounce!  Demand was huge, supply was extremely short and yet “official” trading prices maintained unreasonable levels for months!

Today, it’s not all that different, although slightly less extreme.  If you want physical delivery, it’s going to cost somewhere between $2 and $3 dollars over it’s going rate.  So, currently silver is trading for about $11 an ounce…but if you actually want it’s physical form, you’ll be paying $13 or $14 per ounce!  This compared to just a year ago where it was common to pay anywhere from a quarter to seventy five cents over it’s going rate.  It’s clear that something has been going on in these markets for some time.

In short, the commodities (paper gold & silver) are being used to manipulate and cap the market when the prices begin to rise to their natural levels.  Supply and demand theories completely go out the window when artificial gold and silver are utilized to manipulate the values of the real assets.

I particularly liked this article because it graphically represents trends using historical charts and deals with both the gold and silver markets.  If you have some time and have the interest, I recommend you read the following article.

The Manipulation of Gold and Silver Prices

Here is an article you may want to forward to your favorite mining CEO.

This article deals with the blatant manipulation that has been occurring in the gold and silver markets, and offers a solution. While this scandal has been going on for many years, at last more and more people are becoming aware that it is going on.

One of the first people to document the ongoing attempts to suppress the gold price was Frank Veneroso. Next was Bill Murphy of GATA.org. GATA continues to press the issue. Gata has discovered that the IMF instructed its member banks to treat gold that had been leased to bullion banks and sold into the market as if it were still in the vault! Imagine if an entrepreneur was running his business in this underhanded manner – how long would the government allow that?

A few years ago John Embry, while he was Portfolio Manager at RBC Global Investment Fund – a multi-billion dollar resource fund at the Royal Bank – prepared a memo for the bank’s clients that detailed the manipulation in the gold market.

Ted Butler has written extensively on the manipulation in the silver market.

This is something I have observed first hand since I became interested in silver in the mid-1960’s. It seemed that every time silver reached a peak, an invisible hand came out of nowhere and knocked the price back down to the starting point again. I wrote an article about this titled: ‘Once upon a time, in Never-Never Land.’

Every time a geo-political event, or a serious economic happening, such as the collapse of Bear-Stearns, causes gold to rise, (as it would be expected to do since it has always been a ‘safe haven investment’), the price immediately gets trounced, and investors and producers accept this new price as ‘THE price,’ since the new event has now been discounted.

Whenever common sense tells you something is happening that should cause a rise in the price of gold and silver, you can count on intervention to cap the price. As a result, millions of investors and mining companies have lost billions of dollars that they would have earned if these markets had been allowed to run their normal course.

The manipulation is obvious in the following charts:

This chart shows steady buying interest that took price from the low at 955.00 on July 14th to 985.00 the next day. The buying took place in Asia, then Europe, and carried over for about an hour in New York, when suddenly, in the space of minutes, an unseen entity dumped gold in the form of futures contracts (green line), without any attempt to obtain the best price possible. In about 5 minutes the gold price was down by 15.00, and the rise was over, as price drifted sideways for the rest of the day.

It was discovered later that several large banks, suspected to be HSBC (HBC) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and possibly one other bank, had switched from being ‘net long’ 5,381 gold contracts at the beginning of July 2008, to being ‘net short’ 87,609 gold contracts by the end of July. That is a 94,000 contract ‘turnaround’ and smacks of blatant interference in the market place, since these banks do not produce gold, nor are they likely to be hedging against that much gold in the vaults, since they do not own physical gold. Such a dramatic switch without any change in fundamentals is beyond reason.

Featured is the daily gold chart from October 13th. The blue line shows steady demand followed by consolidation early on Oct 14th, as recorded via the red line. Then a mysterious seller showed up shortly after the COMEX began trading in New York, and in the space of minutes the price was knocked down by 30.00. This is totally illogical, since the seller has no interest in obtaining the best price. His only interest is to destroy the price.

“In 1980 we neglected to control the price of gold. That was a mistake.” Paul Volcker.

“Central banks are ready to lease gold, should the price rise.” Alan Greenspan during Congressional testimony July 24/1998).

Featured is the price action right after the COMEX began trading in New York on October 16th. Within a few minutes the price was knocked down by 35.00 (green line), after the price had established a solid trading range between 830.00 and 850.00 during the previous two days (red and blue lines). This illogical dumping of gold contracts caused margin related selling to bring the price down another 15.00 before bargain hunters were able to level the price around the 800.00 mark.

These are just some of the examples of ‘irrational behavior’ on the part of several large traders on the COMEX, whose actions are not being controlled by the people who oversee the COMEX. While this article deals primarily with gold, the same manipulation exists in the silver markets. To repeat an earlier comment, ‘millions of investors (including miners), have lost billions of dollars because of the manipulation.’ The US government is able to interfere in the markets by way of the Exchange Stabilization Fund which is run by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department. The size of the manipulation referred to in this article could not take place without the encouragement that is very likely provided by people who are highly placed in government.

CAUSE AND EFFECT

The effect of this manipulation in the gold and silver markets is an artificial low price. In view of the fact that bullish events are not being allowed to permit prices to rise, nevertheless these events will eventually have a positive effect on the price. The cause is real, but the effect is delayed. The steam in the kettle continues to boil, despite the lid being clamped down. The artificial low price stops the development of mining projects that would have been profitable at the higher price. The artificial low price also cuts into profit margins at every producing mine, making it more difficult to obtain funding for exploration to increase resources. Every mine in the world is at all times a ‘depleting asset’ and needs exploration to postpone the day when the last ounce is mined.

THE MANIPULATORS ONLY HAVE TWO WEAPONS

The ammunition used by the manipulators is provided by two sources: Central banks (including the IMF), and the COMEX. While there is nothing anyone can do about the gold selling that originates with the central banks, there are ways to choke off the amount of precious metal that flows into the COMEX warehouses.
Those of us who are tired of the manipulators picking our pockets need to become active.
In 1978 – 1979 it was a rising silver price that caused gold to rise – silver was the leader. It makes sense therefore to concentrate on silver, especially since the central banks do not have hoards of silver.

A SOLUTION!

Mining companies that supply silver to the COMEX need to find a way to turn their silver into small bars (1 oz to 100 oz), and 1 oz rounds and sell these to the public. Already some mines are doing this by selling from their website, and they are obtaining a hefty premium over the spot price. If your production is limited, join forces with a mine that is already merchandising silver products, or form a sales organization with other small mines. Hire some cracker-jack salespeople; there is a big market out there! Starve the COMEX if you want to see silver sell to realistic prices. Adjusted for inflation, the silver price of 48.00 that we saw in February of 1980, is trading at 4.00 today. (In 1980’s dollars, silver is now selling for 4.00 an ounce!)

Next, (and still communicating to mining CEO’s), instead of keeping money in the bank, or in various kinds of short-term notes, store up silver, and show us that you believe in the product you are producing. Instead of cash on hand, buy futures contracts, and keep rolling them over.

Coin dealers and wholesalers need to buy 5,000 oz bars from the COMEX, take delivery, and contact a refiner who will turn the silver into retail products. If your operation is not large enough for a 5,000 oz purchase then buy silver from people like Jason Hommel, who was smart enough to start doing this on a large scale.

Investors who can afford to spend $55,000.00 should consider buying a silver contract from the COMEX and taking delivery. James Sinclair at JSMineset.com will show you how to go about that.

Finally, anyone who holds any kind of a certificate that promises to deliver silver, needs to make sure that the bank or institution that stores the silver, is willing to provide bar numbers. Otherwise when the day comes to collect, you may find that the silver does not exist. On my website you will find an article that I wrote about a fund that stores gold and silver at a bank in Western Canada. They invite auditors twice a year to audit the inventory.

Cartoon courtesy Gary Varvel, Indy Star.

The Madoff scheme is but one example of the lack of oversight on the part of people who have been placed in the position of protecting the public. In the US Congress, two of the people responsible for the mess that was created by Freddie Mac (FRE) and Fannie Mae (FNM): Congressman Barney Franks and Senator Chris Dodd, are now part of the group that is trying to ‘fix’ the problem. The foxes are in the henhouse! It was Franks and Dodd, who for years received money from Fannie and Freddie, while they stood in the way of people who wanted to tighten the lending standard at these two mortgage lending institutions. Whatever happened to responsibility? Where is the outrage?

Featured is the weekly gold chart. Price is ready to breakout on the upside. The supporting indicators are positive (green dashed arrows). The 7 – 8 week cycles have been short (twice at 6 weeks). We are due for a longer cycle. A close above the blue arrow will indicate that week #4 is the start of a run up to the green arrow. Once 925.00 is reached, then 975 is next. Since Labor day, the Federal Reserve’s assets (including huge amounts of toxic assets), have increased from 905.7 billion to 2.3 trillion dollars. This, along with the increase in the monetary base is going to add to price inflation and will cause a lot of investment money to enter the gold market. The gold rally that started in November has only just begun.

Featured is the weekly silver chart. Price has been rising since late October. The supporting indicators are positive (green dashed arrows). A close above the blue arrow sets up a target at the green arrow.

Thanks to Eric Hommelberg for the idea to use ‘historic spot charts’ to make my case. I applied the 11th commandment: “Thou shalt use every good idea thou comest upon.”

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Earlier this year, I heard some rumblings that Oregon was considering shifting their gas tax to a mileage based tax.  The idea is to maintain or increase state road revenue by charging “by the mile” instead of “by the gallon” as a measure to combat fuel usage reductions with more fuel efficient cars on the road.  I wrote it off at the time considering the technology to do so would be impractical for quite some time – but it would appear they’re now positioning some leverage against auto manufacturers to support this technology.

As has been the case for years now, going “green” will by no means be a less expensive alternative.  We have to pay more for organic foods, shell out more cash for “green” energy, and dish out more for seemingly any “green” option that’s available.  It would appear that the systems of taxation are right on top of this…they’ll figure out a way to make you pay, even if you’re using less.

The necessary technology behind the effort is alarming to me.  Somehow, fuel providers (and who knows whom else) must “download” data from one’s vehicle to determine how many miles had been driven since the last fuel up.  Theoretically, this information could be tied into GPS systems frequently found in today’s vehicles through safety technologies like OnStar, which also concerns me a great deal.  This means that interested parties could use this information to determine where your vehicle has been, not just how many miles had been driven.

With every technology, I am always aware of the potential results if such information were hackable, which will always be the case.  (If the Pentagon gets successfully hacked, an auto manufacturer has zero chance of a secure system.)  A techno-criminal could theoretically access this information and determine where your house was and your regular travel patterns could be assessed for when you were commonly away from home.

Even if we were assured that GPS data would not be tied into the download and that our government or hackers would never receive our personal driving habits, I ask the fundamental question of whether it’s good to have such technology that can track our vehicle usage over any period of time.  Why not show the real intent and create a separate (higher) tax for hybrid and fuel-efficient vehicles?  The next challenge would be how to determine the difference between a gas guzzling rig vs. a fuel efficient model vehicle.  Simply have a different fuel tank mechanism that can tell the pump what kind of vehicle you have.  Outfitting fuel tanks and gas pumps to detect fuel efficient cars seems no more difficult than outfitting cars and pumps to be ready to download mileage data – and no personal information needs to be collected.

Anyhow, that’s what I know on this front.  Hope you’re feeling better informed!

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So, I’ve been keeping an eye on the alleged change to digital TV transmissions for the last several years.  My interest, considering I don’t really watch TV, comes more from being curious about how the market will handle the government declared transition to a digital TV format.  It occurred to me the other day that the deadline for this transition is a mere two months (or less) away.  If you’ve been following this, you’re aware that the supposed deadline has been pushed back at least a couple times due to readiness concerns.

Within the last year, I set up a media center PC and HDTV antenna that would be capable of receiving HD broadcasts.  I did this for the technical knowledge and the event of an emergency.  I’ve found that I am simply no longer able to watch television after over a decade without it – it insults my intelligence and I am no longer drawn in by it’s assault on cognitive thought.

The results of my HDTV experiment were astonishing to me, considering the deadline was nearly a year away at the time.  In Spokane, Washington – out of the dozen channels that were supposedly available “over the air” – I could only receive about 4 of them.  Now that I’ve moved to Missoula, MT and set up my HD rig…I was shocked to see that I can only receive 3 channels!  Both Fox and CBS cannot be received at my home.  The broadcast antennas were simply too far away for me to receive the signal for these channels.  CBS doesn’t even have a plan to broadcast off a nearer tower, whereas Fox will supposedly be broadcasting off the closer tower post-conversion.

Also, after getting the rig set up, it was apparent to me that much of the programming on the boob tube is still standard definition format.  I’ve read countless articles how news crews aren’t set up for HDTV broadcasts and it’s shocking to see that only a handful of broadcasts are actually in HD format.  Not just that, but I’m pretty certain that millions are still not set up to receive the new digital format.  Additionally, I noted that the digital broadcasts were volatile – it seemed fairly common in my limited experience that “down time” was a common theme.  It’s pretty clear that the market just isn’t ready for the conversion, despite the government’s whim on the matter.

Perhaps the cable and satellite providers have the edge – from reports from my friends, there’s dozens of HD channels up and operational.  For me though, there’s just simply no way that I’m paying $50+ a month for something I’ll hardly use – and not just that, I’m offended that I would have to pay “extra” for HD programming.

This is the typical result of a government mandate being pushed on the market.  The market and individuals have to scramble and spend billions of dollars in new equipment to comply.  It’s no wonder that there’s some resistance and delays associated with it!  I’ll be really curious to see if the nation will be ready for this change next year.  I suspect that it won’t come without a slew of complaints once the old “analog” system is turned off.

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“All truth passes through three stages.  First, it is ridiculed.  Second, it is violently opposed.  Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”  -Arthur Schopenhauer

I’ve been talking about “world government” for almost a decade now.  At first, I met a high degree of scepticism and disdain…people called me a conspiracy theorist or a nut.  Later on, it became a concept that was tangible to the people – they could see it, but outright denied it.  Now, it would seem that the people and the media have outright accepted it’s plausibility.

I have noticed an alarming trend, as of late, that these ideas of global governance are now being widely reported in the media.  People are seeing how we’re facing a near perfect storm for such a thing to come into the light.

I suppose the concept of global rule, to some regards, is nearly inevitable.  As our economic and social backgrounds become ever more blurred through the advancement of technology, it becomes logical, if not even sensible, to embrace others around this world in common cause.  Anyone who’s read H.G. Well’s, “The Open Conspiracy” has likely gotten a good dose of the human-centric idealism that a lot of pro “one worlders” have in the back of their minds.

When thinking through these concepts with a critical eye, however, one must recognize some serious faults with the destruction of nationalism.  Is a homogeneous culture really beneficial to human kind?  What happens if one power gains a foothold and turns sour?  Once we traverse into this realm of unified governance, how can the people resist an oppressive regime?    How do we avoid the inevitable political and social conflicts that such a plan will create?  What if a mistake is made…is it too much to affect the whole world?  These are just a handful of questions that come to mind.

The following article, from the highly respected Financial Times, is a must-read for anyone that cares to know what’s going on.  I felt it to be an honest investigation into the plausibility of the plan to create a new world.

And now for a world government

I have never believed that there is a secret United Nations plot to take over the US. I have never seen black helicopters hovering in the sky above Montana. But, for the first time in my life, I think the formation of some sort of world government is plausible.

A “world government” would involve much more than co-operation between nations. It would be an entity with state-like characteristics, backed by a body of laws. The European Union has already set up a continental government for 27 countries, which could be a model. The EU has a supreme court, a currency, thousands of pages of law, a large civil service and the ability to deploy military force.

So could the European model go global? There are three reasons for thinking that it might.

First, it is increasingly clear that the most difficult issues facing national governments are international in nature: there is global warming, a global financial crisis and a “global war on terror”.

Second, it could be done. The transport and communications revolutions have shrunk the world so that, as Geoffrey Blainey, an eminent Australian historian, has written: “For the first time in human history, world government of some sort is now possible.” Mr Blainey foresees an attempt to form a world government at some point in the next two centuries, which is an unusually long time horizon for the average newspaper column.

But – the third point – a change in the political atmosphere suggests that “global governance” could come much sooner than that. The financial crisis and climate change are pushing national governments towards global solutions, even in countries such as China and the US that are traditionally fierce guardians of national sovereignty.

Barack Obama, America’s president-in-waiting, does not share the Bush administration’s disdain for international agreements and treaties. In his book, The Audacity of Hope, he argued that: “When the world’s sole superpower willingly restrains its power and abides by internationally agreed-upon standards of conduct, it sends a message that these are rules worth following.” The importance that Mr Obama attaches to the UN is shown by the fact that he has appointed Susan Rice, one of his closest aides, as America’s ambassador to the UN, and given her a seat in the cabinet.

A taste of the ideas doing the rounds in Obama circles is offered by a recent report from the Managing Global Insecurity project, whose small US advisory group includes John Podesta, the man heading Mr Obama’s transition team and Strobe Talbott, the president of the Brookings Institution, from which Ms Rice has just emerged.

The MGI report argues for the creation of a UN high commissioner for counter-terrorist activity, a legally binding climate-change agreement negotiated under the auspices of the UN and the creation of a 50,000-strong UN peacekeeping force. Once countries had pledged troops to this reserve army, the UN would have first call upon them.

These are the kind of ideas that get people reaching for their rifles in America’s talk-radio heartland. Aware of the political sensitivity of its ideas, the MGI report opts for soothing language. It emphasises the need for American leadership and uses the term, “responsible sovereignty” – when calling for international co-operation – rather than the more radical-sounding phrase favoured in Europe, “shared sovereignty”. It also talks about “global governance” rather than world government.

But some European thinkers think that they recognise what is going on. Jacques Attali, an adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, argues that: “Global governance is just a euphemism for global government.” As far as he is concerned, some form of global government cannot come too soon. Mr Attali believes that the “core of the international financial crisis is that we have global financial markets and no global rule of law”.

So, it seems, everything is in place. For the first time since homo sapiens began to doodle on cave walls, there is an argument, an opportunity and a means to make serious steps towards a world government.

But let us not get carried away. While it seems feasible that some sort of world government might emerge over the next century, any push for “global governance” in the here and now will be a painful, slow process.

There are good and bad reasons for this. The bad reason is a lack of will and determination on the part of national, political leaders who – while they might like to talk about “a planet in peril” – are ultimately still much more focused on their next election, at home.

But this “problem” also hints at a more welcome reason why making progress on global governance will be slow sledding. Even in the EU – the heartland of law-based international government – the idea remains unpopular. The EU has suffered a series of humiliating defeats in referendums, when plans for “ever closer union” have been referred to the voters. In general, the Union has progressed fastest when far-reaching deals have been agreed by technocrats and politicians – and then pushed through without direct reference to the voters. International governance tends to be effective, only when it is anti-democratic.

The world’s most pressing political problems may indeed be international in nature, but the average citizen’s political identity remains stubbornly local. Until somebody cracks this problem, that plan for world government may have to stay locked away in a safe at the UN.

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Barry Cooper, former Texas police officer, has made it his mission to expose the heavy handed tactics that police are using these days to fight the war on drugs.  There are quite a few cops that have seen the light and now oppose the incendiary and ineffective war on drugs.

It was fantastic.  They rented a house and set up a couple of Christmas trees under high powered lights, similar to those used in a marijuana grow operation.  And then they waited.  Sure enough, 24 hours later, the cops came busting in the door – only to find benign Christmas trees and a lawyer waiting for their arrival.

One question.  Where’s the probable cause??????

I can pretty confidently say that pine trees and marijuana do not smell at all similar.  Obviously if a cop had *seen* the plants, he would have rightly come to the conclusion that they do not look similar either.  Interestingly enough, the Austin cops are refusing to release the search affidavit – which, in this case, is clearly full of lies and false statements.  Just to be clear, lying to get a judge to sign a search warrant is highly illegal and is very dangerous to a free society.

Click here to view the video!

For those that know me, you know that I support the libertarian viewpoint on drug legalization.  I say legalize ‘em all.  The argument is very simple and has three major points.

First, for over 30 years, the war on drugs has done very little to actually reduce the amount of drugs on the streets.  Instead, it has caused prices to rise, further increasing the alure for young kids and law-dodging entrepreneurs to make huge sums of money.  The underlying effect has been to actually increase supply.  It’s been proven over and over, especially during the times of prohibition, that when a “popular” thing is made illegal, it does not go away and it concentrates the activity into less-than-desirable underground movements.

The second is that legalization would do nothing to increase usage.  I ask every pro-drug-war proponent this question:  “If drugs were legalized tomorrow, would YOU go out and start dropping heroin and meth?”  The answer is by and large no, and that truth stands for me as well.  Those who will experiment will experiment, regardless of what the law says.  The difference is that legalization would bring things out in the open, where dangers could be warned against at the time of sale.

The fundamental argument is whether we are allowed to put whatever we want into our bodies, so long as it does not harm others.  The problem of addiction is a health matter, not a criminal one.  Causing harm to others is all ready against the law – so things like hurting another person or driving under the influence are illegal regardless of the status of drug legalization.

In conclusion, I give my props to Barry Cooper and his group KopBusters for performing this little stunt.  The trap they laid was awesome and will hopefully go a long way to expose the police, judges and other parties that were involved in this.

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Are you on the terrorist list?  Think you’re not doing anything wrong and so you have nothing to worry about?  Well, as us watchdogs have been telling you for years, you don’t have to be doing anything wrong to be labeled as a terrorist in America these days.

I read this article from the LA Times this morning and it just further confirms that we must remain vigilantly on guard against being tossed down the path of being a “homegrown terrorist.”  Even if you’re a nun.

Spying on pacifists, environmentalists and nuns

Reporting from Takoma Park, Md. — To friends in the protest movement, Lucy was an eager 20-something who attended their events and sent encouraging e-mails to support their causes.

Only one thing seemed strange.

“At one demonstration, I remember her showing up with a laptop computer and typing away,” said Mike Stark, who helped lead the anti-death-penalty march in Baltimore that day. “We all thought that was odd.”

Not really. The woman was an undercover Maryland State Police trooper who between 2005 and 2007 infiltrated more than two dozen rallies and meetings of nonviolent groups.

Maryland officials now concede that, based on information gathered by “Lucy” and others, state police wrongly listed at least 53 Americans as terrorists in a criminal intelligence database — and shared some information about them with half a dozen state and federal agencies, including the National Security Agency.

Among those labeled as terrorists: two Catholic nuns, a former Democratic congressional candidate, a lifelong pacifist and a registered lobbyist. One suspect’s file warned that she was “involved in puppet making and allows anarchists to utilize her property for meetings.”

“There wasn’t a scintilla of illegal activity” going on, said David Rocah, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a lawsuit and in July obtained the first surveillance files. State police have released other heavily redacted documents.

Investigators, the files show, targeted groups that advocated against abortion, global warming, nuclear arms, military recruiting in high schools and biodefense research, among other issues.

“It was unconscionable conduct,” said Democratic state Sen. Brian Frosh, who is backing legislation to ban similar spying in Maryland unless the police superintendent can document a “reasonable, articulable suspicion” of criminal activity.

The case is the latest to emerge since the Sept. 11 attacks spurred a sharp increase in state and federal surveillance of Americans. Critics say such investigations violate constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and assembly, and serve to inhibit lawful dissent.

In the largest known effort, the Pentagon monitored at least 186 lawful protests and meetings — including church services and silent vigils — in California and other states.

The military also compiled more than 2,800 reports on Americans in a database of supposed terrorist threats. That program, known as TALON, was ordered closed in 2007 after it was exposed in news reports.

The Maryland operation also has ended, but critics still question why police spent hundreds of hours spying on Quakers and other peace groups in a state that reported more than 36,000 violent crimes last year.

Stephen Sachs, a former state attorney general, investigated the scandal for Gov. Martin O’Malley — a Democrat elected in 2006. He concluded that state police had violated federal regulations and “significantly overreached.”

According to Sachs’ 93-page report and other documents, state police launched the operation in March 2005 out of concern that the planned execution of a convicted murderer might lead to violent protests.

They sent Lucy to join local activists at Takoma Park’s Electrik Maid, a funky community center popular with punk rockers and slam poets. Ten people attended the gathering, including a local representative from Amnesty International.

“The meeting was primarily concerned with getting people to put up fliers and getting information out to local businesses and churches about the upcoming events,” the undercover officer reported later. “No other pertinent intelligence information was obtained.”

That proved true for all 29 meetings, rallies and protests that Lucy ultimately attended. Most drew only a handful of people, and none involved illegal or disruptive actions.

Using the aliases Lucy Shoup and Lucy McDonald, she befriended activists. “I want to get involved in different causes,” she wrote in an e-mail, citing her interest in “anti-death penalty, antiwar and pro-animal actions!!!”

Max Obuszewski, a Baltimore pacifist who leads antiwar protests, said Lucy asked about civil disobedience, but didn’t instigate any. “She never volunteered to do anything, not even hand out leaflets,” he said. “She was not an agent provocateur.”

Greg Shipley, a state police spokesman, said that no one in the department had been disciplined in connection with the spying program. Lucy, who has not been publicly identified, would not consent to an interview, he said.

The surveillance, Shipley said, was inappropriate. And the listing of lawful activity as terrorism “shouldn’t have happened, and has been corrected.”

Most of the files list terrorism as a “primary crime” and a “secondary crime,” then add subgroups for designations such as antiwar protester.

Some contain errors and inconsistencies that are almost comical.

Nancy Kricorian, 48, a novelist on the terrorist list, is coordinator for the New York City chapter of CodePink, an antiwar group. She serves as liaison with local police for group protests, and has never been arrested.

“I have no idea why I made the list,” she said. “I’ve never been to the state of Maryland, except maybe to stop for gas on the way to Washington.”

Josh Tulkin, 27, a registered lobbyist with the Virginia state Legislature, is cited under “terrorism — environmental extremists.” Tulkin was deputy director of Chesapeake Climate Action Network, an environmental group that claims 15,000 members and regularly meets with governors and members of Congress.

“If asking your elected officials a question about public policy is a crime, then I’m guilty,” he said.

Barry Kissin, 57, a lawyer who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2006, heads the Frederick Progressive Action Coalition, a group that works “for social, economic and environmental justice,” according to his police file. Their protests “are always peaceful,” it added.

He was labeled “Terrorism — Anti-Government.”

Nadine Bloch, 47, runs workshops for protest groups that seek corporate responsibility and builds huge papier-mache puppets often used in street marches. Her terrorism file indicates she participated in a Taking Action for Animals conference in Washington on July 16-18, 2005.

Animal rights, Bloch said, is one of the few causes she doesn’t actively embrace. Besides, she was attending an educators conference in Hawaii that week as a contractor for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“This whole thing,” she said, “is so absurd.”

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I’ve been meaning to get the time to comment on Obama’s recent choices for his cabinet appointments.  Things are shaping up exactly how I thought they would.  The power circle will remain with the reigns of the “haves” that always have.

First, and probably foremost, we can’t ignore the Secretary of State position that has been offered and accepted to none other than Hillary Clinton.  While this makes some of those rabid leftist Clintonites happy, I’m sure…this is a very clear throwback to not-so-way back.  ‘Nuff said.

Next in the line up, Eric Holder…appointed to Attorney General…who’s history as #2 in the Clinton Justice department is another clear regression back to Clinton era politics.  Here we have a guy who advocated the pardoning of Marc Rich, an international commodities trader who was convicted of tax evasion and illegal oil-trading with Iran during the Iranian hostage crisis.  A man who clearly respects the law, I’m sure.

Then of course we have Biden’s Chief of Staff, Ronald Klain who served as Al Gore’s Chief of Staff.  You starting to see a pattern here yet?  Klain also acted as one of Fannie Mae’s political lobbyists.  Nothing says “insider” like a reprise act…this “change” is starting to look like margarine vs. bovine growth hormone infused butter.

John Podesta, head of Obama’s presidential transition team, served as Clinton’s chief of staff.  Mmmmm…margarine.  He’s also the CEO of the liberal think tank American Progress who ignorantly blames Bush for our economic woes, yet also promotes and advocates tax-payer bailouts.  Apparently they haven’t done any historical research and they believe that such things actually work.

Oh, and to fill the “change” out even further, we have Rahm Emanuel as Obama’s chief of staff, who conveniently served as one of Clinton’s advisers.  Next up, Greg Craig, who formerly represented Clinton in his many legal troubles.  We’re also going to see further former Clinton team members in Obama’s cabinet, such as William Daley, Carol Browner and Federico Pena.

It was once said that, “There’s nothing new under the sun.  There’s only history you haven’t learned yet.”  So true that is.

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Well, I don’t entirely hate myself from last night’s drunkin’ blogging debauchery.  I didn’t go and say something entirely stupid, so I guess I’ll keep it around.  Oh, that good old Jubelale…it’s like the beer equivalent of Jose Cuervo. 

As to the future of drunkin’ blogging, I think it remains to be seen.  Overall, I think I prefer sober blogging – probably because it’s easier to find those keys and I find it better when I have clear subject in mind.  Last night’s effort was more like, “Wheeeee…let’s see what happens when you combine beer & blogs?!?!?!”

As for the rest of this morning…one word.  Coffee.

Sobered up Jeff….out.

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What the hell.  I decided to give it a spin. 

Under normal circumstances, I opt to not blog whilst intoxicated – but it occurred to me that I had never done it before.  So, why not give it a whirl.  I have a backspace, right?

I’m making a mix album at the moment, for reasons I will not specify.  Essentially, it’s a CD that compiles several songs that I feel describes a moment in my life.  At this time, I’m listening to it in it’s entirety to insure it suits the purpose for which it’s been created.  So far, so good.

I love winter time.  It’s the time of year where Deschutes Jubelale comes about and this years batch returns to it’s roots of the yummy pre-2006-era batches.  This years batch is particularly drinkable & festive – it warms the soul rather well.  I’ve enjoyed the recent six pack and have also discovered a venue that sports it on tap.  (Hard to do when you’re hundreds of miles from the brewery!!)

I hope it snows soon.  I’m feelin’ the need for winter and over the last several years, have become accustomed to significantly more active winterness than my hometown of Portland, OR.  I’ve come to love travelling around Montana this time of year, with the many snow-capped mountains we have here.

I love music.  It is my diffuser, my friend, my lifelong companion.

End of drunkin’ blog post

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It was particularly dark on my drive home from Billings, Montana last night.  Montana is an exceptionally dark state with our expansive tracts of rural land and matters of darkness were amplified by the new moon that cast little or no additional light.

So there I was in the middle of nowhere, cruising along & rocking out to some tunes, when I noted two very bright lights in the southern sky.  These lights were bright – like staring down a 747 with their landing lights on.  Problem was, I was able to rule out aircraft very quickly when they didn’t really move anywhere.

It was hard to judge the distance of the lights due to their brightness…but my guesstimation was that they were “surface to air missile” close.  I’ve seen my share of celestial bodies – stars, comets, shooting stars and planets – and nothing had struck me as bright and near as these two points of light in the sky.

So, naturally, with the absence of any rational explanation, I assumed they were UFO’s.    (I think my discussions with Peter Davenport, director of the National UFO Reporting Center are getting to me!)  I thought about calling Peter, but I decided to do a little research first.

Well, interestingly enough…Venus & Jupiter happen to be hanging out at night right near the very patch of sky that I was looking at.  Mystery explained.  Montana’s a hot bed for UFO activity, according to some of my cursory research…but thankfully, this time it’s just a couple planets.

Apparently, tomorrow night (Nov. 30th), the pair of planets will appear closest together.  The following night, the crescent moon will intersect with the pair, briefly creating a momentary “unhappy face” in the sky.

I’m still taken aback by how bright, clear and near these reflections of the sun seemed.  I think I’m still not accustomed to the very dark darkness out here and the increased elevation is also certainly playing a role.

The words “Big Sky” have new meaning for me today.  I love the Montana sky.

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For the last several years, I’ve successfully avoided the insanity of Black Friday by practicing the counter cultural equivalent, Buy Nothing Day.  I’ve found great pleasure in avoiding the illicited consumer orgy of obscene spending, crowd herding and pointless gift gathering.

While millions huddled around advertisements and oogled over cheap crap that nobody needs, I didn’t even bother to crack the newspaper.  Waking up this morning, I sipped coffee and tooled around with my blog while Americana consumer-bots trampled each other and fought for their right to surrender their hard earned cash to corporate executives.  As America heaved their day’s acquisitions into their cars and homes, I took pride that not one new possession entered my home.

I was a little worried this year – there was a chance I might’ve had to buy a thing.  But, as it turns out, it’s 8:30PM and I don’t forsee needing to crack the wallet any time in the next several hours.

Some days, it feels good to not do something.

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I recently read an article reporting that an internal Citigroup memo is predicting some pretty dire economic circumstances for 2009 and/or 2010.  The memo even suggests that civil disorder is likely to occur and also provides some visibility into the recent doubts over the credit stability of several S&P AAA rated nations.

On the flip side, they do (logically) project that gold prices could surge through $2,000 an ounce as world markets recover from severe inflationary injections or we continue the downward spiral into depression.

To those of us who are paying attention and have a realistic understanding of fiat currencies and credit based markets, this comes as no surprise.  It’s interesting to see the world come to grips with it, though.

Continue to read the whole article.

Citigroup says gold could rise above $2,000 next year as world unravels

Complete Article at Telegraph.co.uk.

Gold is poised for a dramatic surge and could blast through $2,000 an ounce by the end of next year as central banks flood the world’s monetary system with liquidity, according to an internal client note from the US bank Citigroup.

The bank said the damage caused by the financial excesses of the last quarter century was forcing the world’s authorities to take steps that had never been tried before.

This gamble was likely to end in one of two extreme ways: with either a resurgence of inflation; or a downward spiral into depression, civil disorder, and possibly wars. Both outcomes will cause a rush for gold.

“They are throwing the kitchen sink at this,” said Tom Fitzpatrick, the bank’s chief technical strategist.

“The world is not going back to normal after the magnitude of what they have done. When the dust settles this will either work, and the money they have pushed into the system will feed though into an inflation shock.

“Or it will not work because too much damage has already been done, and we will see continued financial deterioration, causing further economic deterioration, with the risk of a feedback loop. We don’t think this is the more likely outcome, but as each week and month passes, there is a growing danger of vicious circle as confidence erodes,” he said.

“This will lead to political instability. We are already seeing countries on the periphery of Europe under severe stress. Some leaders are now at record levels of unpopularity. There is a risk of domestic unrest, starting with strikes because people are feeling disenfranchised.”

“What happens if there is a meltdown in a country like Pakistan, which is a nuclear power. People react when they have their backs to the wall. We’re already seeing doubts emerge about the sovereign debts of developed AAA-rated countries, which is not something you can ignore,” he said.

Gold traders are playing close attention to reports from Beijing that the China is thinking of boosting its gold reserves from 600 tonnes to nearer 4,000 tonnes to diversify away from paper currencies. “If true, this is a very material change,” he said.

Mr Fitzpatrick said Britain had made a mistake selling off half its gold at the bottom of the market between 1999 to 2002. “People have started to question the value of government debt,” he said.

Citigroup said the blast-off was likely to occur within two years, and possibly as soon as 2009. Gold was trading yesterday at $812 an ounce. It is well off its all-time peak of $1,030 in February but has held up much better than other commodities over the last few months – reverting to is historical role as a safe-haven store of value and a de facto currency.

Gold has tripled in value over the last seven years, vastly outperforming Wall Street and European bourses.

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