nasty info,the damage is already done..there is no recovery, & no visionary to save us!..the resilience of central banking, another little joke, blew his timing, but Sinclair says the fuse is now short indeed..this day’s report bellies up to the bar beside Golem xiv’s missle of today..visionary to save?..

Lots of “truths” embedded in those remarks above.

On the Subject of QE to Infinity:
On the subject of FED madness and their Quantitative Easing, or QE (. . . “ssshhh, let’s not say it’s money printing; we have to coin a fancy, new phrase, so let’s call it QE. That way, the public won’t know the truth…”)

Now, the QE will be PERPETUAL:
One of the brightest and most informed minds on this subject is none other than Jim Rickards. About 3 or 4 weeks ago, Jim Rickards was interviewed on King World News. Go here to listen to Jim’s prescient remarks:
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast/Entries/2011/3/12_Jim_Rickards_files/Jim%20Rickards%203%3A12%3A2011.mp3

In brief, he indicated that the FED’s balance sheet is so unbelievably large now (well over $ 3 trillion) that the FED does not have to start a “new QE” in June, because:
a) they’ll have approx. $750 billion each year (based on rollovers and maturing US Treasury debt), and
b) the FED can continue to buy approx. $750 billion annually in newly issued US government bonds.

So this coming summer, the Obama administration will make perpetual QE a matter of “policy,” and they, together with the FED, will not discuss “QE” any more . . . thereby deluding themselves into believing that the phases of QE have ended.

Got physical gold?
Got physical silver?

You must realize that the monumental change in the ME is not positive for the West in any shape, manner or form.

I have asked this question before and the Editor kindly replied briefly. I want to ask it again because I would like to know what happens to national, corporate and individuals’ investments when there is a World War.

It may be that the question is wholly unanswerable, but I would like to read the imaginations and guesses of people on ArabianMoney. What happens to any kind of saving both at the beginning of a World War and as it continues?

Suppose in a Third World War that the state of Israel really does cease to exist as Israelis fear and Muslims hope. Suppose that Jerusalem is nuked during the course of this war so that Israel ceases to function and then to exist. Just humour me for a moment, and suppose and imagine.

What will happen to shares, bonds, commodities and, of course, gold investments?

If the nuclear Third World War is very destructive of human populations, what difference will a smaller global population make to, say, the price of gold? Would silver reach $300 per ounce when there are fewer people alive on earth?

Just read that radioactivity has reached Glasgow from Japan, so what would life be like on the planet if nuclear bombs had been exploding all over the place? What would investment life be like?

Unanswerable, I guess, but can you have a hunch as to what would happend to the price of gold? My guess is that it would fail to reach $5,000 to $12,500 an ounce because of severe human depopulation.

Ed Note: We don’t buy the World War theory at all. The US has more armed forces than the entirely rest of the world, and with that kind of imbalance an imperfect Pax Americana is the only possible outcome. But destabilizing wars and anarchy in parts of the Middle East are with us now and growing in size and number. You probably are missing the trees and seeing a wood where there isn’t one. Still this is subject to take up – we can speak more freely in the subscription newsletter.

Here’s a new update to Jim Rickards “perpetual QE” comments made earlier this month.

29Mar’11 Update:
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast/Entries/2011/3/27_Jim_Rickards_files/Jim%20Rickards%203%3A27%3A2011.mp3

Scary, but probably correct.
Today we have consumer confidence DOWN. CNBC TV reporting that it looks like a double dip in housing may already be under way. US oil at $105. Gasoline in the USA at $3.46 a gallon. At $4 in some places. A treasury auction at higher than expected rates. The Canadian & Australian dollars worth more than the US dollar. Is the New Zealand [One beautiful place, and with satellite TV, you can live on a dark farm away from the big city light pollution, have your own observatory, and not be cut off from the world. How nice is that!] dollar next? And the stock market has a big rally? QE 3 must be expected, or bonds are being sold, and the money going into stocks. Could that blow a huge stock bubble as rates rise, at least for a year or so, until the inflation hits corporate profits. I think so. My 13,000 Dow end of year guess still looks good. (I own NO stocks.)
I’m hearing more & more thinkers on the radio say that trouble in S.A. IS possible. I doubt it, but I’m not over there. Yemen is right on their soft underbelly. Some ex-CIA guy said yesterday that the USA will invade if the oil flow is threatened. He said, “We have no choice.” How much will China get? They don’t have much of a blue water navy, or foreign bases for resupply or from which to launch air attacks. WW II showed how important they are. Hopefully, some agreement will be reached.
The energy sector, industrials, and materials are what are pushing the Dow up & up. It will be interesting to see how far the next bubble expands. Cramer must believe Jim Sinclair. I was rather surprised when, one day on CNBC, he said that ALL his retirement money was in gold. At least, I think that is what I heard him tell Erin Burnett, when she asked him some question about gold. He is a little different, but he IS smart.
If any of you math lovers want to see something AMAZING, PLEASE go to YouTube and search for ‘Jake teaches us Calculus 2′ I used to do a little of that. It does have a beauty of its’ own. I can remember doing an integration two different ways. When I finally got to the second answer, and it came out the same as the first time I did it, I realized how powerful calculus was. I sat back in my chair and thought, “WOW, how cool is this.” I can remember thinking that I had finally discovered what mathematicians mean when they describe the beauty of mathematics. After that, my curiosity was satisfied, and I lost interest. Plus, I wasn’t smart enough to be really good at it. Bill Gates gave up a math major at MIT after he found out that others were better, or so the story goes. That was a good move. The modern world could not exist without calculus. Jake will do fine in ANY economic conditions. There was an article about him in the Mail Online a few days ago. I liked the video of him explaining the life cycle of stars that were destined to become black holes, when he was about 9. The dog was inside for that video. Too bad Hawkins is now in such bad shape. Imagine if they could collaborate!
Now my computer weather bug warning is flashing. Probably a tornado watch for the cold front. A small tornado hit a few homes a couple of miles from here a few weeks ago. Never a dull weather moment around here. Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and an occasional ice storm.

@ John Mark … Answering the Un-answerable:
While there could likely be a new “world war” at some point in the distant future, I believe the type of global events that you describe are not possible for a variety of political, economic and military reasons (I agree with the Editor’s points in his response).

For example, while some MENA countries, especially the dictatorship countries, lust after nuclear weapons, it is widely recognized by the developed world powers that nuclear weapons are “outdated”. Only the foolhardy (e.g. an extremist country like Pakistan, which has nucs) would consider using them in a desperate situation (or if Arab extremists take over Pakistan, then launch a few towards Israel).

As for the price of gold, silver, platinum (i.e. PM group), my best guess i that their prices would skyrocket; gold would likely go to $10K an ounce. But the prices of other metals, such as rare earth metals, would also go to the moon (ditto other commodities such as oil, etc.), as fiat paper currencies move towards zero.

Hi, Obewon, it’s nice to talk to you again. I’ve had problems with my computer and my father-in-law so have been out for a while. Thank you for responding to my unanswerable problem.

I am reassured by you and Ed. that bullion is as good as it gets for investment in the event of a global war. This is encouraging since I’m almost entirely in silver and would like to purchase some more over time.

It’s really a matter of belief whether there is going to be a global war shortly. I wasn’t wanting to scare people but to ask what is likely to happen to bullion if this scenario occurred. I won’t pursue arguments for total war here, especially as I think Ed. would rather have it discussed elsewhere, if at all.

Ed Note: Total war has always been very good for bullion. It is an universally accepted money without a counterparty. Gadaffi sat on 150 tons of gold in Tripoli does not need a bank to accept his payment for arms – a gold bar is perfectly acceptable.

@ John Mark:
Two points that all people in the world, including me, often need to be reminded of: 1) as Peter stated above, gold needs no counter-party, and 2) investment diversification is always prudent; this includes diversification in precious metals investing. More below.

Gold Needs No Counter-Party:
Without question, the most important intrinsic quality of gold (and silver, to a lesser extent) is that it needs no counter-party. It’s worth is intrinsic and self-evident. And this is precisely why gold is feared and hated by governments and central bankers around the world.

As Alan Greenspan said back in 1996, “without a gold standard in place, there is little to prevent governments from indulging in wild credit creation. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights.”

Investment Diversification in Precious Metals:
It’s always a good idea to have some of our investments in both gold as well as silver. While silver will outperform gold over the next year or two, the gold bull market will likely last longer, if the silver miners are able to bring the silver supply up above the current/ future demand. Obviously, if the silver miners are not able to do this, then the bull market in silver will continue for a longer period as well.
But rest assured, at some point in the distant future, the gold and silver bull market will end, probably not by crashing, but by ebbing slowly.

Obewon, I was watching a Utube yesterday by a chap surnamed Christian who runs a website on silver. He was being interviewed as an expert, and he made it clear that he was only investing in silver at the present time.

Now, one expert doesn’t make a summer, so to speak, but I think diversification includes the idea of having a capacity to diversity in a hurry.

This guy, Christian, has all his silver coins hidden somewhere in his garden so that diversifying out of silver is complicated for him. He has to dig up his garden in the middle of the night; he has to get the silver coins to someone who can sell them for him.

My capacity to diversify when I want to is very different from his and involves a click of a mouse button. On GoldMoney.com, I can sell my silver and buy gold without even cashing my silver sale.

So, my level of diversification is low at the moment, deliberately so, but my capacity to diversify is high because I don’t bury my silver in the garden at home.

@ John Mark:

Interesting points. Regarding physical silver, it’s gonna be a while (maybe 3 years? maybe more.) before one needs to consider selling some of their holdings.

What constitutes “diversification” to one person may not seem suitable to another. Similarly, people have different levels of risk tolerance.

In my case, I “diversify” in and out of gold/ silver by buying/ selling gold and silver mining stocks; and my decisions (i.e. whether to buy or to sell, and how much to buy or sell, etc.) are a function of my risk tolerance at that particular moment in time (e.g. my risk tolerance 3 or 4 weeks from now will not be the same as my risk tolerance today, etc.).

Obewon, I get the impression from your last post that you are into miners’ shares but not into the real physical metal. I ask this because you have written strongly about owning the metal. If you are into the metal, you don’t seem to mention diversifying from it or within it or being quickly able to do this if the need arose.

@ John Mark:
Your impression is incorrect.

Over the past few years, I’ve written many times on this website about the need to own the physical metal. And if one owns it, they shouldn’t trade it.

================
@ Bill Simpson, near or in Slidell:
I have always had a natural love for math, since it was one of my undergraduate degrees; so I can relate to what you’ve said in your long, but interesting remarks above. In brief, theoretically, all things can be explained by using math. It has inherent beauty and an intrinsic truth . . . much like gold has.

Interestingly, although math is “truth” when applied correctly, the unscrupulous can manipulate math to distort the truth (e.g. the math PhDs who work for the big investment banks), much like the bankers manipulate gold by issuing “paper gold” derivatives.

19April Update:

Here’s an interesting commentary from Marc Faber, who says people should be their own Central Bank, by buying physical gold and silver.

Go here for info:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/42639020