All the gold in California
Is in a bank in the middle of Beverly Hills in somebody else’s name
So if you’re dreaming about California
It don’t matter at all where you played before, California’s a brand new game
Today's news (thanks to Jerid for sharing it) that Bundebank (that's the German Federal Bank) is withdrawing its gold holdings from the New York branch of the Federal Reserve as well as those in Paris. Read into this whatever you want, but you have to wonder what's got the Germans spooked. I'm not buying the "we're doing this to save the storage costs" theory. Those fees are a drop in the bucket compared to the value of the roughly 3,396 tons of gold held by Germany.
So if Larry were writing this song today, it might sound more like:
All the gold in New York City
Is not controlled by those in the U.S. of A but by those who didn't sell
So if you are thinking
That gold will save us, you've got a snowball's chance in hell.
Where's The Money At?
The Wall Street Journal reported this week (and evidenced by this graphic from them) that money appears to be flowing into equity funds and out of bonds and Treasurys. Is this a bullish sign for the Suburban Dad Nation to get back into equities?
On January 2 of this year, the first trading day that the fiscal cliff deal was reached, stocks rose nicely on a 19% increase in volume on the S&P. Yet at the close of business today, the 50 day moving average of the S&P is at 540 million shares, down from 557 million on January 2. Yet that same average is up 0.6% in that same time period - nothing to sneeze at.
What's it all mean? Candidly, I have no idea....yet. If we start seeing higher trading volumes, I suspect the bulls are right and the markets will continue upward, especially if inflation concerns set in. I would continue to watch for buying opportunities in metals. But that's just me.
Happy Birthday, MLK!
Dr. King would have been 84 today.
We celebrate his achievements and honor his memory for promoting liberty. And Dr. King himself was no stranger to the benefits of liberty, as Hsoi reminds us of Dr. King's regular exercise of his Second Amendment rights. That's correct. Martin Luther King, who gave us his famous "I Have A Dream" speech, packed heat for his own protection. He was even denied a carry permit.
We must not let emotion trump truth and logic. We will preserve our Second Amendment rights. If we've learned anything from Sandy Hook and subsequent events, it's:
- We need to do a better job educating people about firearms.
- We need to improve our mental health system.
- We need to improve the data sharing functions for the background check system.
- We need to do a better job of training educators on how to handle emergencies, both man-made and natural.
One More Reason To Get Healthy
The Texas Department of Insurance reported this week that thousands of Texans with health insurance should expect their premium to rise between 10 to 36 percent.
Why? According to the Department, it is
largely due to the Affordable Care Act. The Texas Department of Insurance expects that more than 163,000 consumers throughout the state will see double-digit increases in their premiums due to the provisions of the federal health care law. The law does not go into full effect until 2014, but several of its provisions will be enacted this year in an effort to ease the transition to an overhauled health care system.
Get yourself healthy. Regardless of what you think of Obamacare, it's clear that premiums are going up, and that we need to start relying less on health insurance to keep ourselves well.
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