Savers Told to Stop Moaning and Start Spending

I have another heaping pile of stories for you today. Here's a Bloomberg story from last Friday that I haven't had the space for until now. The headline reads "Brazil Crops Shrivel as Amazon Dries Up to Lowest Level in 47 Years". This is a disaster in the making... and will certainly affect commodity prices in the short and medium term. The link to this worthwhile article is here.

The following story is also a Bloomberg piece that's imbedded in a GATA release that's headlined "Argentina edges ahead in devaluation race; capital controls are next". The original Bloomberg headline read "Fernandez Busy Dollars in 'Draconian' Bid to Weaken Argentine Peso". Since the story was released, the headline has been changed to read "Fernandez Peso Proves Buying Dollars Can Work: Argentina Credit". The bottom line, please name a country that is not attempting to devalue its currency against the U.S. dollar? The link to the story is here.

Now Korea is at it as well. In a marketwatch.com story filed from Tokyo on Monday, South Korean authorities bought dollars on Monday to curb the won's rise to four-month highs. The headline reads "Bank of Korea reportedly intervenes to curb won"... and the link to this story is here.

Eric King over at King World News has a very short blog commentary from John Williams over at shadowstats.com. It's only a handful of paragraphs... and very much worth your time. The headline reads "John Williams - Dollar Crisis-of Confidence & Gold". The link is here.

The next article was story posted on Monday at yahoo.com. It's courtesy of reader Scott Pluschau. The headline reads "Romanian government in uproar amid austerity protests". Romanians took to the streets of Bucharest, the capital, several times last week to protest. Some 6,000 police angry over a 25 percent wage cut marched to the presidential palace on Friday and pelted it with eggs, shouting "Get out, you miserable dog!" This story isn't particularly long... and it's worth running through... and the link is here.

In an article posted over at zerohedge.com yesterday comes this story about the Plunge Protection Team in action. It's a wonderful interview on CNBC Europe that discussed the Federal Reserve's goosing the equities markets and preventing their collapse through bond purchases. The headline reads "Cazenove Strategist Discusses PPT And POMO Interventions To Keep Markets Ramping Higher". The video is a must watch... and the link is here.

In Monday's edition of The Telegraph in London comes this GATA release that's headlined "Bank of England tells savers: Screw you; we're debasing the currency". The headline from The Telegraph reads a slightly more genteel "Savers Told to Stop Moaning and Start Spending". This is the basic position of all governments and their respective central banks... but it's very disturbing to hear a Bank of England official say it out loud. This is a scary read... and it's a must read... and the link is here.

Here's a Bloomberg piece from early yesterday morning that was filed from Singapore. The headline reads "Dollar Is 'One Step Nearer' to Crisis on Burgeoning Debt Burden, Yu Says". Any appreciation of the dollar is "really temporary" and a devaluation of the currency is inevitable as U.S. debt rises, Yu said in a speech in Singapore. This story is well worth your time... and the link is here.

In a blog posted at The Telegraph on Monday headlined "Shut Down the Fed [Part 2]", Ambrose Evans-Pritchard apologizes "to readers around the world for having defended the emergency stimulus policies of the US Federal Reserve, and for arguing like an imbecile naif that the Fed would not succumb to drug addiction, political abuse, and mad intoxicated debauchery, once it began taking its first shots of quantitative easing." He goes on to say that "all those hillsmen in Idaho, with their Colt 45s and boxes of krugerrands, who sent furious emails to the Telegraph accusing me of defending a hyper-inflating establishment cabal were right all along. The Fed is indeed out of control." Ambrose is on a tear here... and it's a must read. The link is here. For E-P to admit this in public, is quite a paradigm shift, because up until now, he never met a printing press he didn't like.

Here's a GATA release from Monday's Financial Times. Chris Powell's headline reads "World Currency war has begun, Brazil's finance minister says". The headline from the FT states "Brazil in 'Currency War' Alert". It's not a big read... and you should at least skim through it... and the link is here.

The last word on currency devaluation comes from Hinde Capital CEO Ben Davies. In a King World News blog, he observes that "Within a single week, 25 nations have deliberately slashed the values of their currencies. Nothing quite comparable with this has ever happened before in the history of the world. This world monetary earthquake will carry many lessons." Davies' essay is headlined "The World Monetary Earthquake -- The Dash from Cash" and the link to this short must read story is here.

Here's an AP story that was posted over at usatoday.com on Monday that was sent to me courtesy of Washington state reader S.A. The very disquieting headline reads "Regulators to expand anti-terrorism rules for tracking money transfers". The Obama administration is proposing that banks report all electronic money transfers in and out of the country, expanding its anti-terrorism requirements for financial institutions. I'd say that this is getting the USA one step closer to currency controls. For those U.S. readers who might be affected by this, either now or in the future, it's a must read... and the link is here.

Here's another story about Ireland's banking problems that was posted in yesterday's edition of The Telegraph. This one is courtesy of reader Roy Stephens... and the headline states "Anglo Irish Bank's debt rating cut to almost junk status". This was amid fears that the cost of bailing out the lender has cost more that a fifth of Ireland’s GDP. It's only a handful of paragraphs... and the link is here.

While we're talking about bank failures, here's an interesting item that was sent to me by reader U.D. the other day. It's an interactive map of all 291 financial institutions that have failed in the U.S. so far this year. This was posted over at The Wall Street Journal on Sunday... and bears the headline "Tracking the Nation's Bank Failures"... and the link is here. It's a bit slow to load, so be patient.

Unlike yesterday, when it was wall-to-wall gold stories... I only have a couple today. The first is a CNBC video from Monday that was sent to me by reader James Anderson. The headline reads "ATMs That Sell Gold Bars Are Coming Soon to America". The Gartman interview, which mentions the ATMs in passing, is NOT worth listening to. It's embarrassing to watch Dennis [who should [and probably does] know better] make a complete idiot of himself on national television as he discusses gold and silver... and where their prices are headed. Both are linked here.

Lastly today is another offering from Eric King over at King World News. It's a short commentary from James Turk that bears the headline "James Turk - Upside Explosion, The Short Squeeze is On". It's a must read... and the link is here.