ENTER THE CLOWNS

Don't bother to pardon the misspelled names, done to disguise the identities of clowns within our midst. The Jackass is fully capable of errors, usually admitted quickly. My biggest arena for errors has been long-term USTreasury Bond yields, due to interventions, interference, and monetizations. Other errors have been made, hoped to be minor in nature. An extraordinary amount of information must be digested, absorbed, and integrated into any editorial analytic work that covers a complex and treacherous financial world. Errors come since we are human. But what follows is not ordinary, and speaks to an arena tilted toward deception delivered with motive. My work has an objective to analyze correctly, to highlight connected factors, to explain complexities, to forewarn with lead time, and to make forecasts. The string of solid forecasts is my carrying card. Other foibles are carried. My body is adorned by moles, one just like my mother's. More than a few wild long hairs grow from my eyebrows, making some wonder if General Elmo Zumwalt was a distant uncle. My eyes are uneven, one lower, but no glasses are needed to correct vision. My head is balding, but hats keep it warm. My right foot is pigeon toed, that results in a hook in the soccer kick. The left kick is more adept. But my work is factual, helped along by wonderful reliable sources and numerous newshound friends. Minor errors are committed along the way. One should care not about a minor typo within articles offered in the public domain, despite my usual final proofread pass. What follows is a list of elements inside the gold community, often doing a notable disservice.

Why are the US financial airwaves polluted by Denis Gartmann and his consistently incorrect and shallow preachings? His fund is down, not down hard, as he maintains his negative opinion of the gold asset story. He hedged a gold position with an offsetting currency position, resulting in a total waste of investment funds. Gold just happens to be the biggest story and one of the best performing assets in the last half decade. One might conclude such strong performance is worthy of disdain, disrespect, and disrepute. NOT! A contact of mine is considering a new Anti-Gartmann Fund, with a double leverage component that takes the opposite position of the Gartmann fool. Given his steadily shallow analysis and lack of comprehension of the gold market, one might conclude that Gartmann has a secondary income source from Wall Street firms. He might indeed be paid to denigrate the Gold Bull market, despite the tarnish to his reputation. An aside on Gartmann, who used to speak as the Cambridge House gold conferences alongside the Jackass. He appeared in 2005, much to my surprise, since he is so incredibly lacking in insight. From the podium, in front of over 1000 people, he delivered probably the stupidest speech ever to penetrate my ears. Gartmann actually claimed, one year before the housing bust struck, that the USEconomy was still grossly under-leveraged. He actually made numerous points about how the assets within the Untied States still had countless additional collateral from which to draw credit. He actually spoke of numerous new avenues to extend credit, and how the extra funds to surge within the channels of the American system would result in much greater economic growth. He concluded that the best days of the USEconomy were well ahead of us. He praised the merits of risk. Then came the bust. One must wonder if the 1000 people remember the idiotic preachings and drivel from the man that day in Vancouver. The Jackass sure does, one of only a handful who emitted laughter during the Gartmann ideological face plant in the snow. What is his latest correct forecast??

The same conference featured Doug Kasey, who went galactic in a mindless harangue. He spoke of the eventual cap on commodity prices from mining asteroids in the solar system. You see, they are rich in iron and other base metals. He ignored the cost of mining in the deep solar recesses, and how the high cost would impose a cost cap, but one perhaps 50 to 100 times the current commodity prices. After all, in order to exploit the vast asteroid metal supply, one must escape the earth's orbit, at a heavy cost, an overlooked factor. The conference management might have done well to give Doug a face to face check before he stepped up to the podium. Man oh man!! That was a memorable conference with two icons displaying their unwaxed cross-eyed viewpoints for all to see. One must give Kasey credit for many speeches that challenge the honesty and integrity of the USGovt and USMilitary enterprises.

Next take Pablo Van Eaton. The man sounds good, looks great, has a great speaker voice, and is a nice fellow. But he carries a distinction above all others. Van Eaton provides the most eloquent and well constructed arguments for consistently wrong forecasts, and has done so for several years. He had one good call a few years ago on mining stocks hitting a peak, but that call has been eclipsed by a long list in a row that seems not to end. It is like he was a champion on his school forensic team, burdened by arguing the merits of a plainly wrong position, but excelled. When gold was meandering in the low to middle 900 level for months earlier this year, he forecasted a move in the gold price down below 800, as the deflation threat would take its toll. However fallible, he is still invited to appear as a panelist on the dinner hour shows for the Canadian Business Channel. The major investment houses must love his steady disdain shown for the gold market. His subscribers are welcome to switch over to the Hat Trick Letter, where correct forecasts are not only important but are regularly given. Pablo attracts crowds at the conferences. Bless them one and all who hang on his every word, as they must have very short memories. What is his latest correct forecast??

A vivid memory is etched in the Jackass mind from the Calgary conference in 2004, offered also by the Cambridge House. Van Eaton shared generously a taxicab with the Jackass to the airport. The conference had ended. During the taxi ride, Van Eaton expounded on why the USDollar would suffer a serious decline from May to the end of the 2004 year, since Asian sovereign funds would diversify away from the USDollar. In direct rebuttal, the Jackass explained in simple terms that the US Federal Reserve had begun to raise the official interest rate, and would continue for several more meetings. The Jackass rebuttal argument was that we live in a bond driven world, and as long as the official US interest rate was rising, the USDollar would continue to rise in a surprisingly counter-trend rally from basic bond speculation. The point was made quietly, tactfully, professionally, since Pablo was paying for the taxi. Furthermore, my extended argument was that the Asians would hold off on a major dumping of US$-based assets, and instead sell after a year or two had passed. Score one more correct call for the Jackass, and one more wrong forecast for Van Eaton, who shared the same fallacious argument before 1000 people at the same Calgary conference. IN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS, THE USDOLLAR ENJOYED A POWERFUL UPWARD RALLY IN PURE COUNTER-TREND FASHION. It ended when the USFed halted the rate hikes, as forewarned. One must wonder where Pablo takes his cues, or who pays his clandestine paychecks. One must not become too enamored of that charming foreign accent, which delivers a flow a words like a melody. The Jackass does not care if a hillbilly accent is worn when the mental acumen comes through in brilliance. Take TBoone Pickens. His homey folksy Texan accent is charming, and sounds nowhere near as intelligent and alluring as Van Eaton. But Pickens is as consistently correct on forecasts as Van Eaton is wrong.

Another lame entry is Richard Burnedstein, the respected economist from Merrill Lynch. This week he said gold has no driving fundamentals that justify its rising price. Clearly Burnedstein loves the paper game, and surely maintains a high derived price on all things paper. His paycheck is also high, derived from a major paper merchant firm. One must excuse Richard since he at least comes forth with the Merrill Lynch name attached to his own, including all appearances. So his preachings are a much more genuine acknowledged compromise of mental processes. He is paid to represent his firm, whereas Gartmann could easily be receiving large funds from the back door, where his allegiance lies and influence of partners is more hidden. Never forget that Wall Street earns almost zero investment banker fees from gold or the mining firms. It is like dogs selling cat food; they don't do it! What mining firms do solicit in funds for stock issuance is largely conducted in Toronto and Vancouver. So the gold fundamentals are lacking in the man's compromised view. What is his latest correct forecast??

One must suppose that skyrocketing gold investment demand and rush to diversify out of a collapsing dollar do not qualify as fundamental. And the absence of metals exchange gold inventory also does not qualify as fundamental. And the Chinese pledge to lift their gold reserves 10-fold to 10 thousand metric tonnes in eight to ten years, that is not fundamental either. And the G-20 pledges to formally move toward an IMF basket of currencies, known as the Special Drawing Rights, and away from the USDollar, that is not fundamental either. And the Saudi announcement of a phase-out of sales for crude oil in US$ terms over the next few years, neither is that a fundamental. And the grossly insolvent banks in the Untied States, England, and Europe, which are simultaneously struggling, unable to extend loans, desperately suckling from government teats, that is not fundamental either. Burnedstein plainly fails to recognize that the entire world is grasping for something tangible within the global monetary system overrun by toxic paper, and that anchor reached for is gold.

The last two figures that complete the clown show are more closely tied to websites and their associated businesses. Bobo Moriarity is the owner and editor of a formerly prominent website. He shows a surplus of his own articles on his website, usually to extol the merits of some stock he owns. Many thrive and do very well. Not many other analyst articles appear. In Spanish, a bobo is an idiot, a dunce, by the way. Big Bobo, who is reportedly wonderful on field trips to visit mine properties, has called the $1190 gold high of last week a top. He did not use the word bubble, but he expects a notable correction and a long period to achieve new highs. The gold price has gone north instead, laying waste to his forecast, which was correct, but only for approximately one day. Maybe when the gold price reaches $1250 per ounce, he will retract his forecast. He has shown a disproportional disrespectful critical insulting tone to the lowly Jackass from an error committed. It is admitted. The pre-1964 dimes were silver coated but with copper core (not zinc), and besides, in earlier years the dimes were only 93% silver anyway (not 100%). Points taken! Beat me with a stick, but not a golden rod! The switch from majority silver to negligible silver in US coinage escapes Moriarity to this day. His criticism includes great departures from the reality of my correct forecasts and command of the English language, even sentence construction. He is way out of bounds! He finds no merit in the entire tungsten story, and urges proof put on the table. Proof comes but not soon, since murder is often an obstacle to arriving at such press conferences. Maybe when the gold price reaches $1300 or $1500 per ounce, he will understand the Global Paradigm Shift and why gold has risen in a powerful manner in the last two months. Maybe he is not aware that the Chinese are major buyers, and even control the price rise step by step. Surely he does. The most basic Head & Shoulders Reversal Pattern dictates a price target of 1300. The Christmas season is traditionally strong, another factor ignored by Bobo. So he thumbs his nose at seasonal strength and aint a chartist either. To the good Captain, let the gold battle cry be "1-2-3 GOLD" !!

Then we have Jon Needler, who must be the son of the website owners where he displays his anti-gold propaganda. To point out Needler's erroneous forecasts and perspectives would require a full article at least 15 pages in length. He seems the most likely to receive a secondary clandestine remuneration for his diligent work in denigrating the gold market. He comprehends precious little about gold or silver. His arguments are so full of holes that a high school economics student could easily challenge him. His forecasts are consistently not just wrong, but wrong in powerful directional thrusts. Yet his work continues to be posted, despite little or no value. Precisely zero rebuttal will be given, since his work is so extraordinarily devoid of substance or quality. In fact, Needler serves as a salesman for paper gold certificate who openly admits his preference for gold coins. What is his latest correct forecast??