Author: Petros

Waist inflation

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Most of us have heard of economic inflation, grade inflation, and other such bubbles.  Here is one that is perhaps new to folks: waist inflation.  This is the phenomenon where the a size, such as 38 inches men’s waist size, will actually fit someone much larger, say 41-42 inches.  As I am now in slimming mode, I’ve found that my 40″ Hanes stretchy trousers are too lose at 40.5 inches, yet they still fit when my waist was 44″.  Thus, I could easily deceive myself that I was only a size 40 when I was really 44.  Deception is the name of the game when it comes to phoney markets and economies.

A couple times now, men have told me: “I’m a 38″, when in fact they were manifestly fatter than me when I was at 42″+.  In their cases, they were wearing Levis.  Denim is a fabric that shrinks upon washing and drying and stretches to size in the first few minutes of wearing.  Thus, these men convinced themselves that they had 38″ waists.  Levis, size 38″, fit nicely when one is 41”.

The manufacturers of these products, particularly Hanes, know what they are doing. They know that if someone thinks he’s a 36, and tries on a 36 and it’s too snug, he will reject that particular label for a one with a size 36 that fits him better.  So they make trousers about one size too big, just to appeal to the vanity and lack of realism on the part of the consumer.  And they also created trousers with stretchy waistbands just so that a man may maintain his pants size while allowing his belly to go to pot.

The result of this waist inflation is too often adverse health related to obesity.  A man who can claim to be a waist that is as much as four inches smaller than his real size deceives himself and may delay necessary lifestyle adjustments.  In my case, the lifestyle adjustments came as result not of acknowledging realistically my girth but of finally understanding that many of my adverse symptoms were related to high blood sugar:  peripheral neuropathy, arthritis, and chronic levels of fatigue after eating.

Many of our serious problems in Western culture require a denial of reality.  Our debt-based money system makes us think, for example, that we can continue to borrow and never pay back.  But illnesses will set in, killing the organism, if lifestyle changes don’t occur.  The pathologies related to waist inflation, thus, are analogous to the sickness of the debt-based economy in which we live.  We deny the disease which is ultimately killing us.

The physical gold market vs. phoney gold markets

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The phoney silver and gold markets, e.g., the London and New York exchanges, trade in multiples of paper in relationship the actual available physical metal.  Today, a call to my local coin dealer shows that the market price is far too low.  The Canadian PMX expects to have one ounce physical coins including silver American Eagles, Silver Rounds, Maple Leafs, Philharmonics, and bars; and 1 oz gold Maple Leafs, bars, and Philharmonics only by the middle of January.  This means:  (1) the mints can’t keep up with the investor demand because the current market price is too low; (2) no one who actually already owns physical species of precious metals in the Toronto area are bringing their coins to Canadian PMX to redeem them at these pathetically low market prices.  Thus, those with physical metal know that they are holding value, while the current paper market in which traders pass back and forth many multiples of paper metal with little physical backing is an absolute farce.

I remember those who came from manipulated markets in the Soviet bloc countries during the cold war had severe supply demands.  I heard a testimony once that people would stand in line at markets for a long time, not even knowing what was for sale.  When you final came to the front of the line, they might be selling left shoes size ten, and you would buy them, as many as you could, because you never knew when you might have another chance to buy something.

Currently, the physical market is very tight. If buyers have a chance to put their hands on physical metal, they should.  You never know the next time you’ll have a chance.

Disclosure:  I currently have positions in Sprott Physical Gold Trust and Sprott Physical Silver Trust.

1.5 Billion Sprott Physical Silver Trust Share Offering Closed

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The 1.5 billion dollar Physical Silver Trust appears to have sold out, at least whatever allotment that TD Waterhouse reserved for their clients.  That took less than 24 hours.

Update:  The following article says that the PSLV raised only 270 million.  That is still an enormous amount of silver.

Sprott Physical Silver Trust Prices Follow-on Offering of Trust Units In An Aggregate Amount of US$269,575,000

New Public Offering ($1.5 billion) of Sprott Physical Silver Trust

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Eric Sprott has publicly stated that he would like to be the to whom the silver market says that there is no more physical silver to be found and that they fail it is to him that it fails to deliver. Will this be the final squeeze that pushes out the paper market?

Sprott Physical Silver Trust Announces Follow-on Offering of Trust Units

Nov 8, 2012

TORONTO, Nov. 8, 2012 /CNW/ – Sprott Physical Silver Trust (the “Trust”) (NYSE: PSLV) (TSX: PHS.U), a trust created to invest and hold substantially all of its assets in physical silver bullion and managed by Sprott Asset Management LP, announced today that it has launched a follow-on offering (the “Offering”) of transferable, redeemable units of the Trust (“Units”).

The Trust will use the net proceeds of the Offering to acquire physical silver bullion in accordance with the Trust’s objective and subject to the Trust’s investment and operating restrictions described in the prospectus related to the Offering. Under the trust agreement governing the Trust, the net proceeds of the Offering per Unit must be not less than 100% of the most recently calculated net asset value per Unit of the Trust prior to, or upon determination of, pricing of the Offering.

The Units are listed on NYSE Arca and the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols “PSLV” and “PHS.U”, respectively. The Offering will be made simultaneously in the United States and Canada by underwriters led by Morgan Stanley and RBC Capital Markets in the United States and RBC Capital Markets and Morgan Stanley in Canada.

Copies of the U.S. prospectus related to the Offering may be obtained by contacting Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, New York 10014 Attention: Prospectus Department (telephone 866-718-1649 (toll free) or 917-606-8474) or by e-mailing prospectus@morganstanley.com, or RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, Three World Financial Center, 200 Vesey Street, 8th floor, New York, New York 10281-8098 (telephone: 212-428-6670, fax: 212-428-6260). Copies of the Canadian prospectus related to this Offering may be obtained by contacting RBC Capital Markets, Attention: Distribution Centre, 277 Front St. W., 5th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5V 2X4 (fax: 416-313-6066) or Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, New York 10014 Attention: Prospectus Department (telephone 866-718-1649 (toll free) or 917-606-8474) or by e-mailing prospectus@morganstanley.com. The Offering in Canada is only being made by the Canadian prospectus, which includes important detailed information about the Units being offered.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the Units, nor shall there be any sale of the Units in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.

SOURCE: Sprott Physical Silver Trust

Election day: Get revenge, vote!

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Cross-posted from the Isaac Brock Society

I am living, for now, in exile from my land of birth. In a new article at iexpats.com, George Prior explains my situation, “FATCA Critic Fears Arrest by US Authorities“. When George Prior contacted me, I had no idea he would write an article about me nor that he would focus on my fear of returning to the United States. This article appears on Election Day=Revenge Day.

While campaigning, Obama said to a crowd booing Romney, “Get revenge. Vote.” Well, US expats who have suffered the indignities of being treated like criminals without probable clause through the requirement of revealing private information, threats of imprisonment and excessive fines, can get revenge. Some expats who joined the OVDI program have received extortionate penalties designed for homelanders who put money in Swiss bank accounts to hide it from the IRS and avoid paying taxes. I have Canadian accounts to be sure. But I live here in Canada and I pay more taxes than the majority of homelanders—Homelanders have never even heard of GST/HST. I pay my fair share.

I can’t vote as I was forced to give up my US citizenship and my right ever to return and to live again in my country of Birth. I and many others here have suffered at the hands of President Barack Hussein Obama. He has allowed the IRS to hound expats, one could even say that he has sicked his dog on expats. Who is to blame: Republican George ‘Dubya’ Bush for signing 2008 HEROES Act which instituted an exit tax for those who would relinquish their citizenship. A democratically controlled Congress pass the legislation and Barack Obama voted for it. The same democrats in Congress passed the 2010 HIRE act, and President Obama signed it; HIRE included the FATCA legislation which tries to force our banks to rat on US expats, even when we are dual citizens of our countries of residence. Yes, Democrats are to blame. But then the lamentable Reed Amendment, which bans those who expatriate for tax purposes, was passed by a Republican Congress and signed by a Democrat President Bill Clinton. We are hounded by dogs of both breeds.

Thus, I urge people to vote against Obama–while not endorsing Romney. I can’t vote. I’ve already lost my citizenship and fear returning to the United States. This is Obama’s America: persecuting and torturing United States citizens living abroad. Yes, I consider forcing an expat to give up the right to return to his or her native land a form of torture:

Exile is torture, and torture is universally condemned around the world. The Ex-Patriot Act would permanently separate persons from their heritage and their families — children from parents, brothers from sisters, nieces and nephews from beloved aunts and uncles. It tears people away from communities and friends. Exile would destroy their lives. It is psychological warfare, condemning people to years of regret, bitterness, and rage.

The above words, I wrote about the torture of being banned as a result of the Ex-Patriot Act. But my fear of arrest at the border for spurning the FBAR filing requirement also results in exile and torture.

Please, there is a way to avenge me and thousands of other expats in my situation. Vote for Obama, NOT.

PS: I will likely e-mail this to members of my family.