7/24-2011 - $75 Trillion Confirmed

Here's what the $1.2 Trillion money manager had to say in his April 2011 outlook:

I sit before you as a representative of a $1.2 Trillion money manager, historically bond oriented, that has been selling Treasuries because they have little value within the context of a $75 Trillion total debt burden. Unless entitlements are substantially reformed, I am confident that this country will default on its debt; not in conventional ways, but by picking the pocket of savers via a combination of less observable, yet historically verifiable policies - inflation, currency devaluation and low to negative real interest rates.
- Bill Gross, Head of PIMCO

http://seekingalpha.com/article/270...ble-dip-happens

Wal-Mart: Our shoppers are 'running out of money'

Wal-Mart (Fortune 500), which averages 140 million shoppers weekly to its stores in the United States, is considered a barometer of the health of the consumer and the economy. Wal-Mart's core shoppers are running out of money much faster than a year ago due to rising gasoline prices, and the retail giant is worried, CEO Mike Duke said Wednesday.

Wal-Mart has struggled with seven straight quarters of sales declines in its stores

With food prices rising, Duke said Wal-Mart is charging customers more for some fresh groceries while reducing prices on other merchandise such as electronics.

"We're seeing core consumers under a lot of pressure," Duke said at an event in New York. "There's no doubt that rising fuel prices are having an impact." "Purchases are really dropping off by the end of the month even more than last year," Duke said. "This end-of-month [purchases] cycle is growing to be a concern.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/27/new...ssure/index.htm

“Major Crash” Coming for Stocks. DOW 3300: Harry Dent

The good news, for those long, is Dent predicts the Dow will trade as high as 13,200 by mid-summer and the S&P 500 as high as 1430, or more-than 7% above current levels. The bad news is "then we could see another major crash," Dent says, forecasting the Dow could trade as low as 3300 in a worst-case scenario. "Bubbles go back to where they started or a little lower," he says. "The stock market bubble started at (Dow) 3800 in late 1994."

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/dail...080715-415.html

Billionaires Dumping Stocks, Fleeing Market

http://w3.newsmax.com/a/aftershock4/?PROMO_CODE=C490-1

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner threw a bomb at America’s financial future last night, saying he is “certain” another financial catastrophe is on the way and that there is no way of reaching agreement on the debt ceiling without increasing taxes on the wealthy.

And he blamed a combination of timid politicians and credit card-debt-ridden Americans, rather than Wall Street and the big banks, for the financial woes that have beset the country over the past three years.

http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/Tim...omo_code=C49A-1

Sell Fort Knox’s gold, some say. Asset sale urged to counter debt.

The United States may have run up a huge debt, but it is not poor. The federal government owns roughly 650 million acres of land, close to a third of the nation’s total land mass. Plus a million buildings. Plus electrical utilities such as the Tennessee Valley Authority. And the Interstate Highway System.

With the United States poised to slam into its debt limit today, conservative economists are eyeballing all that gold in Fort Knox.

There’s about 147 million ounces of gold parked in the legendary vault. Gold is selling at nearly $1,500 an ounce. That’s many billions of dollars in bullion.

http://www.journalgazette.net/artic...69957/1006/NEWS

Ron Paul: Sell The Gold In Fort Knox.

NEW YORK — The next big question on the federal debt limit could be whether to start selling the government’s holdings of gold at Fort Knox — and at least one presidential contender, Ron Paul, has told The New York Sun he thinks it would be a good move.

The report did not mention the possibility of selling the government’s holdings of bullion, though the 261.5 million ounces of gold the Treasury Department lists in its reserve position would, at a recent price of $1,492 an ounce, would theoretically fetch $390.2 billion. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that a group of Republican congressmen supports the idea of selling gold.

http://www.nysun.com/national/selli...next-big/87350/

Military coup possible in Greece

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency warned in a report that the tough austerity measures and the dire situation could escalate and even lead to a military coup, according to a report by Germany’s popular daily Bild.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n....eece-2011-05-29

Military Coup Could Oust Obama. Former White House Speechwriter Suggests

Former White House speechwriter John L. Perry has courted controversy by suggesting that the U.S. Military, upholding their oath to defend the Constitution against domestic enemies, could stage a bloodless coup to oust President Obama.

In an article originally posted on the Newsmax website, Perry wrote, “There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America’s military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the “Obama problem.” Don’t dismiss it as unrealistic.”

The article outlines how military officers, outraged at Obama’s “trampling” on the Constitution, nationalization of American institutions, rising deficits, unemployment and taxes, could peaceably seize power from the “radical-left commissars” of the Obama administration.

Perry warns that America could be unrecognizable by 2012, prompting a coup to “restore and defend the Constitution,” a prospect that is “weighing heavily on the intellect and conscience of America’s military leadership,” he writes.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/former-...oust-obama.html

Denmark unexpectedly entered a recession as the economy contracted for a second quarter as consumers and the government cut spending amid rising prices and a widening budget deficit.

Gross domestic product shrank 0.5 percent in the first quarter after contracting a revised 0.2 percent at the end of 2010, Copenhagen-based Statistics Denmark said today. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected growth of 0.5 percent in the first quarter, according to the average of four estimates.

“The figures are highly surprising,” Steen Bocian, an economist at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen, said in an e-mail. “The reason for the lower consumption is a combination of higher taxes and higher inflation, driven by raw material prices.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...s-spending.html

Credit tightening threatens China's 'giant Ponzi scheme'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...nzi-scheme.html

Bill Gross, Nouriel Roubini, Laurence Kotlikoff, Steve Keen, Michel Chossudovsky and the Wall Street Journal all say that the U.S. economy is a giant Ponzi scheme.

Virtually all independent economists and financial experts say that rampant fraud was largely responsible for the financial crisis. 

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index....articleId=22395

Largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has 44 million transactions everyday. If SBI earns 1 Ruppee profit from each transactions, then SBI earns Rs 4.5 crores profit everyday which comes to estimated Rs 1,125 crores profit every year for SBI.Understandably, SBI must be earning more than Rs 4.5 crores profit everyday. But SBI has displayed Rs 21 crores profit only for the fourth quarter ended March 2011 as against Rs 1,866.60 crore in the same quarter in the previous fiscal.

SBI is dealing with some bad loans, operating expenses including employee cost, Tax of over Rs 900 crore and transfer to some pension fund. Despite dismal performance, the bank maintained dividend at 300 per cent for 2010-11. SBI will pay dividend of Rs 30 per share on face value of Rs 10 after shareholders approval. Please confirm the above statements. India is the biggest buyer of gold and silver.


http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=224081