Author: Petros

Fear a normal US dollar correction

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The US dollar is correcting against gold this morning

Stockhouse has a great piece this morning, Don’t fear a normal gold correction, except that is exactly wrong. Gold doesn’t “correct”. Gold is real money with intrinsic value that has been of great worth for thousands of years. The dollar is a fiat currency with only symbolic value and it is constantly going down in value against real goods like precious metals, oil and food. So if anything, the United States dollar, like all fiat currencies, to the degree that anyone accepts them in exchange for real goods and services, is technically in bubble territory. Here, we see in the inverse Kitco chart, that this morning, the dollar is correcting against gold. This correction will continue with a high degree of volatility (meaning that it won’t be a straight line down), until the US dollar is worth nothing and people will stop attempting to determine the value of gold and other real things in dollar terms.

Randall Hoven’s offensive free-loader piece at the American Thinker

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I like Randall Hoven, normally.  But this article at the American Thinker really pissed me off (Why doesn’t the world imitate the US):

We all know that the U.S. has been defending Europe and the “free world” since World War II.  But the U.S. spends just 4.06% of its GDP on defense, according to the CIA World Factbook.  France spends 2.6%, and the U.K. spends 2.7%.  That 1.5%-of-GDP gap is not significant in explaining the differences in wealth.

Take Canada, which spends only 1.1% of its GDP on defense and is one of the wealthier large countries.  It is 83.9% as wealthy as the U.S.  If you net out what we both spend on defense, it is still only 86.5% as wealthy as the U.S.  Defense spending does not explain the large differences in wealth between the U.S. and most of the world.

So, yes, the free world freeloads off us for defense.  But that’s a minor part of its total freeloading portfolio.

Now I don’t take issue with Hoven’s view that the US is innovative.  But the number of “patents” argument is lame in some respects, since US companies own patents, like Apple owns how your IPad reacts when you touch it with your finger, and they have even sued one of their Asian suppliers (Samsung) if they make knock-offs that resemble in any respect their products.  The Americans have likely patented the wheel so that they can sue Toyota, Mercedes and BMW for making better cars than GM, Ford and Chrysler.  Give me a break.
I wrote the following in the comment stream:

Mr. Hoven, have you considered the impact of the United States ability to export its currency into this question of foreigners “free-loading”? Consider this is an extremely offensive manner to describe the post-WWII alliances that the US has with the world, where some countries were literally forced to cede their right to provide their own security and to accept US military bases in their countries–so yes, the US provides security for the world. But the rest of the world agrees to accept worthless US dollars (worthless since Nixon took the US dollar off the gold standard). Who’s freeloading off of whom? We foreigners, because you provide security for us, or you yanks, because you can buy our goods in exchange for essentially worthless currency that your Fed Chair conjures out of the thin air of Federal debt-balance sheet?

Americans are free-loading off the rest of the world too. Just remember that when you drive your foreign-made car and you put Canadian gas in it, and you go to Walmart to buy goods made in China that you can buy these things because you are able to export worthless currency that required you next to nothing to create, while the exporters offer you real things made out of real raw materials. This trade of free goods for security may not last much longer. Enjoy it while you can.

Where is Ron Paul when you need him?  It seems that he is the only politician in the United States who has told the Americans how they have been free-loading off the rest of the world by exporting their worthless fiat currency.

Diane Swonk’s broken window fallacy

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Marketwatch picked up Diane Swonk’s twitter fee.  An “economist”, Swonk says that Hurricane Sandy will lead to “perverse stimulus”, ironically even mentioning the replacement of broken windows.  Evidently, Bastiat and Hazlett are not on her reading list.  Here is why economist like Swonk, who follows in line with the even greater idiot-economist, Dr. Paul Krugman, are perpetuating a fallacy:


The ironic thing is that Zerohedge pointed to this video yesterday for those who would talk about all the jobs that Sandy will create.

In the case of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, we can be sure that the Federal government will “stimulate” by borrowing money.  But since the government is already over-leveraged, the Federal Reserve’s Bernanke (also an PhD economist) will provide quantitative easing and create these repair dollars out of nothing, which will in turn result in devaluation of the currency. Is Hurricane Sandy the straw which will break the hyperinflation back, sending the US into uncontrollable currency debasement?  This remains to be seen.  It does not bode well in my view.

Pump and Dump is protected by First Amendment

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The practice of pump and dump is scheme whereby a person takes a long position and then uses media outlets (internet, TV, print) to pump up the stock, hoping that the public would buy the stock. The pumper then dumps the stock at a profit.  Short-selling and then offering negative opinions is an equivalent scheme.  Perhaps there should be a term for this like:  “Short and Dump on”; or “Dump on and Cover Short”.

The Financial Post reports that U.S. court gives short-sellers freedom of speech shield in Silvercorp ruling:

Vancouver-based Silvercorp, which operates in China, was one of the most high-profile companies targeted by short-sellers last year. Anonymous websites Alfredlittle.com and Chinastockwatch.com posted reports within days of each other, both suggesting the reported production and resource figures from the company’s Ying mine were too good to be true.

Silvercorp fought back. It figured out who was behind the anonymous sites and named them as defendants in a defamation and stock-manipulation suit. The company is disappointed it was dismissed, and has already filed an appeal.

I suppose this means that SEC should return Jonathan Lebed his money, since what he did as a fourteen year old was far more innocent.

Whitecap Resources to pay dividend in 6-12 months

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Whitecap Resources’ CEO Grant Fagerheim speaks to Enercom Consultants.  He says that Whitecap is planning to reward shareholders with regular dividend starting within 6-12 months.  As a former shareholder of Midway Energy (which Whitecap took over earlier this year in a shares and cash deal), this will be a realization of my hopes: that my shares in Midway would turn into a dividend payer.  I’m crossing my fingers.