UN Wants New Global Currency to Replace Dollar
September 8th, 2009Around 70.79, two doors emerge: Behind Door #1: The dollar will stage a massive rally/dead cat bounce/short squeeze from Hell. (Don’t ask me how this would happen.) Behind Door #2: A wildcard event; a system transformation. System transformation is lingo from International Relations. It means paradigm change; a break from past normative assumptions about the system and the actors within it. New rules.
There’s nothing but air under 70.79 and I doubt that the Them will just let the rocket sled of doom hit the wall at a thousand miles per hour. They’ll try some kind of nonsense, a New and Improved Global Confetti Currency, or maybe fewer national confetti currencies. The Amero, perhaps. Something of this nature.
—Gold Is Probably About to Put on a Show
Via: Telegraph:
The dollar should be replaced with a global currency, the United Nations has said, proposing the biggest overhaul of the world’s monetary system since the Second World War.
In a radical report, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has said the system of currencies and capital rules which binds the world economy is not working properly, and was largely responsible for the financial and economic crises.
It added that the present system, under which the dollar acts as the world’s reserve currency , should be subject to a wholesale reconsideration.
Although a number of countries, including China and Russia, have suggested replacing the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, the UNCTAD report is the first time a major multinational institution has posited such a suggestion.
In essence, the report calls for a new Bretton Woods-style system of managed international exchange rates, meaning central banks would be forced to intervene and either support or push down their currencies depending on how the rest of the world economy is behaving.
The proposals would also imply that surplus nations such as China and Germany should stimulate their economies further in order to cut their own imbalances, rather than, as in the present system, deficit nations such as the UK and US having to take the main burden of readjustment.
“Replacing the dollar with an artificial currency would solve some of the problems related to the potential of countries running large deficits and would help stability,” said Detlef Kotte, one of the report’s authors. “But you will also need a system of managed exchange rates. Countries should keep real exchange rates [adjusted for inflation] stable. Central banks would have to intervene and if not they would have to be told to do so by a multilateral institution such as the International Monetary Fund.”
The proposals, included in UNCTAD’s annual Trade and Development Report , amount to the most radical suggestions for redesigning the global monetary system.
Although many economists have pointed out that the economic crisis owed more to the malfunctioning of the post-Bretton Woods system, until now no major institution, including the G20 , has come up with an alternative.
Charlie Sheen: Twenty Minutes with the President (PR Stunt)
September 8th, 2009Punkd: This is fake.
What really happened on 9/11 enters the realm of yetti and hobgoblins.
Via: Infowars:
I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with our 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama, while he was out promoting his health care reform initiative. I requested 30 minutes given the scope and detail of my inquiry; they said I could have 20. Twenty minutes, 1200 seconds, not a lot of time to question the President about one of the most important events in our nation’s history. The following is a transcript of our remarkable discussion.
CryptoFib: Automatically Generate Fibonacci Retracement Levels in EasyLanguage
September 8th, 2009WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
I was looking for an indicator that automatically generates Fibonacci retracement levels when a move exceeds a specified number of pips over a specified number of bars.
There must be some indicators out there that do this, but I couldn’t find any in the vast sea of free EasyLanguage code out there.
I decided to write my own. It’s hamfisted, but it’s working as intended. This thing is pretty useless on its own, but maybe someone out there is looking to combine it with other stuff.
Notes:
This is set to look at bullish retracements. Minimumdelta is the change in pips (or whatever units your asset uses) that must have occurred over the high/low extremes of your LookBack length. The high (oHighest) and low (oLowest) become the pivots from which the Fibonacci levels are calculated. Format the indicator in TradeStation/MultiCharts to display as points.
//CryptoFib
//Written by Kevin Flaherty – cryptogon.com – 2009//
Inputs:
LookBack (100),
MinimumDelta (.0030);
Variables:
oLowest (0),
oLowestBarsAgo (0),
oHighest (0),
oHighestBarsAgo (0);
//Find Low
Value1 = ExtremesFC(Low, LookBack, -1, oLowest, oLowestBarsAgo);
//Find High
Value2 = ExtremesFC(High, LookBack, 1, oHighest, oHighestBarsAgo);
Condition1 = (oHighest-oLowest) > MinimumDelta
and oHighestBarsAgo – oLowestBarsAgo < 0;
If condition1 then begin
plot1 (oHighest-(oHighest-oLowest)*.382, ".382");
plot2 (oHighest-(oHighest-oLowest)*.500, ".500");
plot3 (oHighest-(oHighest-oLowest)*.618, ".618");
end;
Here’s how it looks in MultiCharts. It’s active in subchart 1 with the candles:
Gold Rallies to 18-Month High on Dollar’s Weakness, Inflation
September 8th, 2009Via: Bloomberg:
Gold rose to the highest price since March 2008, passing $1,000 an ounce, while silver climbed to a 13-month high as a weaker dollar and concern that inflation may accelerate boosted the appeal of precious metals.
Bullion for immediate delivery surged to $1,007.70 in London, taking this year’s increase to 14 percent. Gold, which reached a record $1,032.70 in March 2008, is set for a ninth yearly gain. Crude-oil futures and all six industrial metals on the London Metal Exchange rallied as the Dollar Index lost as much as 0.8 percent. Raw materials typically move inversely to the U.S. currency.
Governments have cut interest rates and boosted spending to fight the worst recession since World War II, spurring investors to buy bullion as a hedge against potential inflation and debasement of currencies. Gold, silver and palladium holdings in exchange-traded funds have advanced to records.
“We don’t see any immediate recovery in the dollar and gold is one of the better alternatives,” said Bernard Sin, head of currency and metals trading at bullion refiner MKS Finance SA in Geneva. “From here, the next technical level is $1,040, and at the rate it’s going it might not be difficult. There’s a lot of new money coming into gold.”
Gold last traded at more than $1,000 on Feb. 20, the first time the metal had reached that price since March 2008. Spot prices then retreated as low as $864.97 on April 17. The metal added 0.9 percent to $1,004.31 at 10:05 a.m. in London. Bullion for December delivery surged as high as $1,009.40 on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange and was last at $1,005.90.
Quick Note on Gold
September 8th, 2009WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
UPDATE: USDX Prints 77.22 Intraday
*SPLAT*
Next leg down.
UPDATE: USDX Prints 77.46 Intraday
Gold longs, I’d strongly consider some defensive September and/or October puts on GLD with that major resistance overhead at $1032.
To those of you who are going to try to get through $1032 heavy and unhedged: Good luck.
If it breaks down again, it’s not like gold bugs aren’t used to being foiled… yet again. If your outlook is short term, know that a breakdown from these levels could be interpreted as a double top, which is very bearish.
UPDATE: Gold Over $1000, U.S. Dollar Index Must Break Down Here
77.49 is the support. It’s at 77.51 right now.
Say it with me now: LEEEEEEEEEAN!
—End Update—
As gold is toying with $1000 ($999.40 right now) some emails are coming in. Please see this recent post. $1000 isn’t a big deal. $1032 is a big deal.
If the USDX does not break below 77.49, gold longs, watch out.
Australia: Unconfirmed Claims of Police Officer Involvement in Michael McGurk Murder
September 8th, 2009Via: The Australian:
THE NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption is to investigate the murder of Michael McGurk, amid unconfirmed claims a police officer could have been involved in the Sydney businessman’s death.
NSW police and the corruption-fighting body met yesterday, with the police handing over undisclosed evidence, understood to include a tape recording that allegedly contains claims of government corruption related to the property sector.
A new twist in the increasingly murky case was aired on Seven Network news yesterday, with associates of Mr McGurk reportedly saying the businessman had told them he had visited Sydney’s Surry Hills police station just hours before he was murdered last Thursday.
They said Mr McGurk had feared for his life and that an influential Sydney businessman had bribed a corrupt detective to frame him. It was alleged the detective had become aware of Mr McGurk’s complaint and had contacted the business associate.
But NSW police quickly issued a statement hosing down the latest claims.
They said they had no record of Mr McGurk attending Surry Hills “or any other police station” on the day of his murder.
A police spokesman said Strike Force Narrunga, which is investigating Mr McGurk’s murder, was not investigating any allegation of police corruption made by Mr McGurk.
The ICAC said it was undertaking a “preliminary investigation” into Mr McGurk’s murder after meeting NSW police, but would not comment further.
Research Credit: cptmarginal
For Your Health, Froot Loops
September 8th, 2009Related: Toxic Sludge is Good For You by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton
Via: New York Times:
A new food-labeling campaign called Smart Choices, backed by most of the nation’s largest food manufacturers, is “designed to help shoppers easily identify smarter food and beverage choices.”
…
Eileen T. Kennedy, president of the Smart Choices board and the dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, said the program’s criteria were based on government dietary guidelines and widely accepted nutritional standards.
She said the program was also influenced by research into consumer behavior. That research showed that, while shoppers wanted more information, they did not want to hear negative messages or feel their choices were being dictated to them.
“The checkmark means the food item is a ‘better for you’ product, as opposed to having an x on it saying ‘Don’t eat this,’ ” Dr. Kennedy said. “Consumers are smart enough to deduce that if it doesn’t have the checkmark, by implication it’s not a ‘better for you’ product. They want to have a choice. They don’t want to be told ‘You must do this.’ ”
Dr. Kennedy, who is not paid for her work on the program, defended the products endorsed by the program, including sweet cereals. She said Froot Loops was better than other things parents could choose for their children.
“You’re rushing around, you’re trying to think about healthy eating for your kids and you have a choice between a doughnut and a cereal,” Dr. Kennedy said, evoking a hypothetical parent in the supermarket. “So Froot Loops is a better choice.”
Research Credit: dilinger
The Fall of Lehman Brothers
September 7th, 2009Via: Independent:
It is time to “spray foam on the runway”, Tim Geithner told his sleep-deprived officials on Sunday afternoon. Lehman was going to crash.
…
The best defence of the decision to let Lehman fail is that it shocked Congress into providing funds to recapitalise the banking system – something it might not have done without the scenes of Lehman staff carrying their boxes into the street. If the credit crisis had continued to play out slowly, largely hidden from public view, America’s sclerotic political system may never have mustered the energy to react.
U.S. Considering $10 “Tourist Fee” to Pay for Promoting Tourism
September 7th, 2009Via: Gadling:
A proposal currently under consideration in the U.S. Congress may soon charge visitors to the United States a $10 entry fee.
The fee will go into a fund used to pay for promoting tourism. By now, I can imagine you are laughing about this (unless you don’t live in the U.S.). The concept of having tourists pay for the PR activities of a country they are already visiting is completely insane.
Van Jones
September 7th, 2009I’m baffled by the interest Cryptogon readers have in this story. It has been sent in using email, the suggestion form and posted to the subreddit. Maybe I’m too numb at this point to see why people find this story interesting.
Is it the 9/11 part?
I mean… Come on guys. Don’t tell me that any of you are surprised that someone who hasn’t totally internalized the official story has been shown the door.
At least Jones hasn’t been detained in a mental hospital because of what he believes happened on 9/11.
Via: Independent:
The White House was smothering the odour of disarray last night as conservatives celebrated the ouster of a key adviser on green policy who had stood accused of making crude remarks about Republicans and allegedly supporting claims that 9/11 might have been abetted by the Bush administration.
