Double Layered Tin Foil Hat
I am well aware that gold and silver are useless investments that hold no value over what anyone is willing to pay for them. Not like stocks or real estate which are priced 100% correctly at all times based upon set parameters known to all. Only fools buy the metals and most metal heads are crazy conspiracy nuts anyway.
Some other conspiracies that have yet to be proven true, oh wait, they have:
-The Market Protection Team that guns stock futures in times of need
-The Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) backdoor bailout
-Threats of street violence to extort TARP money
-FED breaking own charter to exchange treasuries for toxic paper
-The FED coordinating to drop gold price with England in the early 2000's
There are more but I just wanted a sampler.
Sometimes my double layered tin foil hat sits heavy on my brow as a firm believer in the future of the last real money. Sometimes I find it hard to not go all conspiracy crazy though, and here is a case in point:
Whistleblower Exposes JP Morgan's Silver Manipulation Scheme
Now JP Morgan's silver manipulation from a massive short position in silver is well known to hard core metal watchers. Catching them o a paper trail is a bit new though. From the piece:
On March 23, 2010, GATA Director Adrian Douglas was contacted by a whistleblower by the name of Andrew Maguire. Maguire is a metals trader in London. He has been told first-hand by traders working for JPMorganChase that JPMorganChase manipulates the precious metals markets, and they have bragged to how they make money doing so.There is much more and I would suggest you check it out. Also required is this piece form Jesse's Cafe Americain:
JP Morgan Manipulation Whistleblower
So what's the big deal? Nothing except this (via Jesse):
Whistleblower to CFTC in JP Morgan Silver Struck by Hit and Run Car
I am glad that although Mr. Maguire and his wife are shaken they will apparently be all right.
The related story on his allegations regarding manipulation in the silver market is here.
I hesitate to say anything more at this point, except curiouser and curiouser.
As reported by Adrian Douglas, the Director of GATA who has been the contact for Mr. Andrew T. Maguire
"On March 25th at the CFTC Public Hearing on Precious Metals GATA made a dramatic revelation of a whistleblower source, Andrew Maguire, who has first hand evidence of gold and silver market manipulation by JPMorganChase, and who had tipped off the CFTC in advance of manipulation in gold and silver some months ago.
On March 26th while out shopping with his wife, Mr. Maguire's car was hit by a car careening out of a side road. The driver of the vehicle then tried to escape.
When a pedestrian eye-witness attempted to block the driver's escape he accelerated at him and would have hit him had the pedestrian not jumped out of the way. The car then hit two other cars in escaping. The driver was apprehended by the police after police helicopters were called in and following a high speed chase.
Andrew and his wife were hospitalized with minor injuries. They were discharged from hospital today and should make a full recovery."
Now in a statistical run down:
-Your odds of being hit by a crazy driver are pretty low
-The odds of being hit as said on any specific day are very low
-The odds of being hit as said and on a day not 4 days removed from the manipulation story being out are almost impossibly long
Now I am sure this is all pure coincidence, but my head is itchy from keeping my tin foil hat on all day. Strange indeed.
For more metal mania:
IMF Is Now Rejecting Prospective Buyers For Its Gold StashI would think the IMF would want to get rid of something as useless as gold when paper money is the better option. Weird.
In an exclusive report, Kitco has just released yet another stunner in the world of precious metals. It turns out that Eric Sprott has attempted to purchase gold from the IMF, according to information provided to Kitco by Frank Holmes, CEO of US Global Investors. "I just spoke with Eric Sprott, who bid to buy [the IMF's remaining gold on the block] and they refuse to sell it." As Kitco points out, "the IMF might be holding out for a bigger buyer or a central bank or for higher prices. But Holmes argues the IMF's rejection of Sprott's bid means markets are being manipulated." Back to Holmes: "I think there is a lot of manipulation done by governments around the world in the currency markets which affect the bond markets so to me it's just normal course." Holmes concludes "with an election year there may be a gold rally that could be two standard deviations, or $300 dollars, to the upside. So you could see gold run to $1300 to $1500 quite easily." This all is occurring as ever more pundits finally realize that as fiats are discredited across the world, the only safe, non-dilutable resource is gold.
Boxing History
I have re-fallen in love with boxing and through the miracle of YouTube almost any fight I can think of is available for viewing!
Hector "Macho" Camacho was one of the best fighters I had ever seen. A super fast southpaw (left handers are hard to fight) with almost uncanny defensive skills, Camacho was well on his way to becoming an all time great. Can one punch change an entire career? It can, and a left hook from Edwin "Chapo" Rosario in round 5 of their fight sent Camacho on a career path of more running around the ring than fighting. I wonder how he might have turned out otherwise (punch comes after the 45 second mark):
He was never the same fighter after this one and I also scored the fight for Rosario but Camacho got the decision.
The greatest fight I have ever seen was my hero Alexis Arguello and Aaron Pryor in 1982. Two great fighters at the top of their game. It was troubling that Pryor likely used illegal substances during the fight, and to this day I think he was on something. Nobody can take the right hand that Arguello lands at the 4:38 mark and stand up unless on some thing:
I still get upset at the end of the fight.
Sugar Ray Leonard is a smart guy. He waited until Marvelous Marvin Hagler got old to fight him. A Hagler in his prime was a top 5 all time fighter and would have killed Leonard. As it was, when they met the fight was exciting and sad. Hagler is a Massachusetts native and very beloved yet he fought the dumbest fight ever against Leonard. At the time I thought Hagler was robbed in the fight, but now when I score the fight I have Leonard winning by 2 points. Most exciting part? Between rounds 11 and the final round 12 Sugar Ray's trainer Angelo Dundee scream "We got 3 minutes!", the referee comes over rand says "one more round and the fight is over" and Dundee yells "You bet NEW CHAMPION, NEW CHAMPION!" and Leonard gets up off the stool ready to go (watch from 3:10 mark on):
An amazing comeback for Sugar Ray.
One punch knockout? How about Michael Nunn's KO of Sumbu Kalambay? What was funny is that Nunn could not knock out a child usually so this was weird:
Nighty night!
Last one!
Julio Cesar Chavez find a way to put Meldrick Taylor away with 2 seconds to go in a fight he could not have won on points. Watch the last minute of round 12 starting at the 6:12 mark:
GOOSEBUMPS!
Have a good night.
12 comments:
Well, the single greatest fight I've ever seen was the first match between Roberto Duran, whom I consider the best fighter pound for pound that ever lived, and Sugar Ray Leonard. That was a fight.
I saw all of the great ones. Ali vs Frazier, Ali vs Norton, Ali vs Foreman. Those were some brawls. And I've seen most of the fights you've mentioned. There are some epic battles in that list.
But for my money the greatest fight ever was Duran vs Leonard.
What happened after that is the stuff of fodder for the news. I'm just talking about the fight, that one fight. It was the best.
Duran took it to Leonard and took it from Leonard. I've never seen anything else like it.
Not that there haven't been other great fights, you understand. I can think of numerous others that made history. But Duran vs Leonard was the best fight I've ever seen.
I picked a name!
Lurker,
wundaful! Great song ideas by the way.
Gawains,
The first Leonard/Duran fight is amazing. A real contest between great fighters! "Los Manos De Piedra" won it and it was a brutal fight. Good pick.
For me, and I am biased, Alexis Arguello was about the best fighter I have ever seen.
Love the title to your post. There's actually more to the IMF story. This is from Ed Steer's daily newsletter:
Coincidentally, GATA learned this week on the best authority that a financial house far bigger than Sprott also recently tried to purchase gold from the IMF, also was refused, and wasn't very happy about the refusal." [I know which "financial house" it is... but I've been sworn to secrecy. - Ed]
I have a feeling the "financial house bigger than Sprott" is a European bank...
By the way, GYC, you know one of the greatest upsets of all time was when Buster Douglas took out Mike Tyson. That was a shocker to many, but not to me.
I never liked Tyson, always thought he was a brawler and not a boxer. But King knew how to rig a fight, which is why he never allowed Tyson to fight a top-10 competitor, always only signed him to fight washouts like Tucker and Tubbs he knew Tyson could knock out in three rounds. It was a sham, and I believe that was the beginning of the end of boxing.
But people bought the hype. Oh, Mike Tyson this, and oh, Mike Tyson that. He's the greatest fighter who ever lived! And I kept saying, put him in the ring with a real boxer and watch what happens.
Well, it all come true that fateful night when Douglas took the ring on a mission. He fought Tyson exactly how a real boxer should. With jabs to the face, stick and move, set him up, then POW! knock him out. It was beautiful.
I watched that fight and felt a great deal of vindication, because everything I had always said was proven to be true. Neither Tyson nor the heavy weight division has recovered since.
All the action these days is in the light and welter weight divisions. Middle and heavy weight, when was the last time you saw an epic battle in those divisions?
I think it's sad. Because I remember back in the day, the late 60s and 70s, when boxing was real. 15 rounds of hard fought combat. God, those were some fights. Ali vs Frazier, both men left a third of themselves in the ring that night. Ali fought for fourteen rounds with a broken jaw!
The Rumble in the Jungle, the Thrilla in Manilla. Who could forget those?
Roberto Duran, what did he go? Like 71 consecutive victories, with 59 knockouts. Unheard of. That's why I consider him the best boxer, pound for pound, ever.
Although Ali in his prime probably was the greatest. Few people realize that his unique talent was the ability to punch forward while stepping back. That won him a lot of fights, poetry in motion. And the "invisible punch," wow. They had to show it in slow motion just to believe he actually threw it. That's how fast he was.
Gawains,
interesting take on Tyson. I actually though up until the Spinks fight he showed that he was a very good fighter.
Roberto Duran, los manos de piedra, indeed may have been the best ever. His ability to fight inside was unique and when he was in shape tenacious was a good word for him. I remember a heavy snowed in night when he beat Iran Barkly for the middleweight title, it was a special win.
True that, GYC. Back in the day, I don't believe Tyson could have made it as a sparring partner. Which is why King wouldn't sign him to fight Foreman. Hey, even at age 40, Foreman would have wiped up the mat with that punk.
Yeah, Duran was the best, for about ten years anyway. But he peaked when he defeated Leonard. After that, it was all downhill.
There was a lot of controversy surrounding their rematch, the infamous "No Mas" fight. Some say that Duran had eaten bad food and gotten food poisoning, so he felt sick going into the ring. I don't know. To me it seemed like Duran, even if he was sick, came to fight, stand toe-to-toe in the ring. But Leonard kept dancing around, acting like a clown. And Duran wasn't willing to let the judges give Leonard style points, so he walked away. That was how I looked at it.
However, Duran almost made a comeback when he took on Hagler for the middle weight crown. That was good fight.
Anyway, I just finished reading the Zero Hedge article on market manipulation in precious metals. Scary stuff. These guys are trading paper on one hundred times the physical inventory they have? There is no way that ends well.
This is why I've always thought real estate was the most sound investment. What you have to go through to purchase a house or a tract of land, the paper work involved, is mind-numbing. But at the end of the day, you have free and clear title and physical ownership of property.
It didn't used to be like that. In fact, the first real estate commissions were started in the early 1900s. First in California, then in Texas. This was because of all the fraudulent land deals going on, people selling title to land they didn't own and what not.
"Give me the money, I'll give you the land." That sort of thing. Right.
So commissions were formed, laws were enacted, agents were licensed to put an end to all of the rip-offs. For good effect, I might add.
I suspect that much the same thing will happen in the financial and precious metals markets eventually.
But a lot of people are going to have to lose a whole lot of money first. Which is exactly what is happening now.
If you do not have physical possession of the underlying property, the paper that says you own it is worthless. A hard lesson to be learned.
Gawains,
Duran had some great fights after the "No Mas" fight. I agree he basically was not going to clown around with Leonard in the rematch and I think he id dthe right thing. Watch the you tube of Duran, in New York's MSG, beat Davey Moore for the Jr middleweight title and the whiole crowd is chanting for Duran even though Moore was from Brooklyn! Unreal.
Super fight that never happened: Roberto Duran vs Alexia Arguello at 135lb lightweight fight. I honestly have no idea who would win.
Yeah, the metals stuff is wild. JP Morgan is short silver more than exists in the world. Good luck with that.
Well, Duran had a couple of good fights after Leonard II, but he was never the same.
When he was in his prime, he was invincible. Manos de piedras, indeed. 71 consecutive victories, 59 knockouts. I don't think anyone will ever match that record.
I always like Arguello, thought he was a tough fighter. Moreover, the man had class.
If Duran and Arguello had met in the ring, it would have been one hell of a fight. And it really is hard to say who would have won. Absent a knockout, the judges probably would have scored it a tie.
I guess it would have depended on which point in their respective careers both men were. If each were at his prime, there really is no telling. But it would have been a battle for the ages.
Yeah, I'm freaking out on these metals markets. I'm wondering what the hell is going on. And I'm beginning to believe that there is no market that is not manipulated.
Woe to the lowly investor.
By the way, when was the last time you watched the Wizard of Oz? You know it's all about the gold standard, right? The book is actually more clear in its analogy, as Dorothy wears silver slippers, not ruby. (The point here being that according to the Constitution, the dollar is denominated in silver.)
Dorothy represents the common man. Toto, her little dog, the tea totalers. The Scarecrow, the farmers. The Tin Man, the industrial workers. The Cowardly Lion, the Populists. The Wizard, the President. The Wicked Witch of the East, the money center. The Wicked Witch of the West, the water center. The Good Witch of the North, the Union. The flying monkeys, the Pinkerton sercuity guards. It's a fascinating book, full of allegory on late 19th and early 20th century politics.
I suspect it has high relevance these days.
Gawains,
spot on re Duran/Arguello. The saddest thing in boxing is that you can never get two fighters at their best at the same time to fight. What would happen if a 1984 Hagler fought a 1981 Sugar Ray? Hagler kills him. Instead we get an old Hagler chasing Leonard for 12 rounds.
Chavez vs Taylor is as close to an ultimate fight as was Arguello vs Pryor (tto bad Pryor was on drugs). I so love boxing though and Youtube is a great help.
The thing abut the metals markets is that over the last 10 years the metals going out to inevstors are not coming back into circulation. Many hold them with no thought of sale (Thats me). This will cause problems with the paper metal market, and soon.
I always enjoyed the May 18, 2002 fight between Micky Ward and Arturo Gatti.
I always loved a guy with a vicious left hook to the body that could end fights...
It is a shame how Aaron Pryor screwed up his life, he could have truly been great. His father always hoped for a comeback, but he couldn't shake the drugs.
I always felt sorry for his Dad, he always had so much hope.
A good technical boxer will always beat a brawler if they can take the punishment, Tyson was a hack.
I would have loved to have seen Tyson/ Foreman, or Tyson/Lewis.
That would have been a fight, two fighters against a brawler with no legs who did not like to get hit...
@ GawainsGhost,
I have also studied the monetary allegory of the Wizard of Oz, and enjoyed it greatly.
I am just one of those crazy metalheads...
I guess I forgot to enter my name, the above post was me.
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