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A Bearish View: Panic in to Physical Gold and Shorting South Korea

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January 11, 2009 – Comments (5) | RELATED TICKERS: EWS , GLD , GOLD

FYI - I took a retirement from CAPS back in Oct 08, because my vision is bearish evolving to uber-bearish.  Also I am focusing on other assets outside of stocks, which require my focus and time. To continue to “play” CAPS in a stock market that appears to be rigged by corrupt government bureaucrats and others entities seemed like foolish gambling. I am not in the market to gamble, I am interested in a return OF my capital and a return ON my capital. I can get a bank CD at 3% with FDIC insurance. Why lose 20-40% in the stock market? (ref “Ban on Short Selling” etc. FYI- On 21 Nov 08, I became Top Fool via AbitarePERFECT and high scorer in CAPS via abitare).

I am not getting paid to share my views. It may become more risky to be candid in the future. Rounding up “trouble makers” is common as things unwind in a country. The elites and politicians need scapegoats and distractions rounding up troublemakers works for this. In the US, being arrested or sued is a Net loss even if you win the case. You can go bankrupt defending yourself, even if you are innocent and did the right thing.

My recommendation to Fools, is to guard your privacy and watch what you say. Putting a video on youtube with your face, name and less then positive view is insanity, IMO, unless you have a good lawyer, deep pockets or a book to promote. You never know in the coming years, what can and will be used against you, if things continue to unwind.  People get thrown into camps without much regards to justice or civil rights or merits of the charge. (Ref Commanding Heights)

We are entering into some very interesting times. There appears to be a global competition to see which government can print the most money out of thin air and debase their currencies in order to “stimulate” their economies.

For Fools that do not know, socialism just makes the citizens poorer, the Elites and wealthy are usually not as affected.  In fact, many can move assets out of socialist countries and return after the socialist country collapses under their own bureaucratic weights and buy assets on sale. 

FYI- The reason socialism fails is detached government bureaucrats are not efficient employers of capital and assets. Eventually, socialism/communism makes everyone poorer by bureaucrats involving themselves in the capitalist process and clogging the efficiency of the market. The government has a role to enforce contracts, laws and maintain stability to support and protect the wealth of its production and citizens.

Shorting South KoreaHe that speaks truth must have one foot in the stirrup. –Turkish Proverb

I am looking for short positions in South Korea.

Here is a read why: 

Sell Korea short

January 10, 2009

Korea has arrested a blogger for telling the truth about the country’s economic problems.

“Minerva, a 30-year-old suspect, was detained on suspicion of spreading false information,” a senior prosecutor at the Seoul District Central Prosecutors’ Office told Reuters, identifying the man only by his Internet name but giving no details of the allegations.”

MY COMMENT:  If there wasn’t a problem in SK, why act in such a brutish ridiculous fashion?

Panic into Physical Gold

I like physical gold. I like owning some assets you can drop on your foot or you can sell at pawn shops and/or trade for food in an extreme circumstance. Having all paper assets, backed up by paper, promoted by proven inept and corrupt liars, seems like a bad idea to someone with a medium brain and a decent sense of history.  You can watch I.O.U.S.A. if you think the US is on solid ground financially or read:  A Bearish View, Legitimacy Dwindles.

The fact that many States, pension funds, city governments, etc… are underfunded or insolvent or poorly managed means protecting wealth might mean holding it at home.

I am reading more and more about people acquiring physical Gold.

NOT IN A BANK SAFETY DEPOSTIT BOX! (Ref: How Safe Is Your Safty Deposit Box? (HQ)

http://www.youtube.com/v/gMgarJNcPHo&hl=en&fs=1"> name="allowFullScreen" value="true">http://www.youtube.com/v/gMgarJNcPHo&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344">

Slycapital has the story: Gold bars

January 11, 2009

http://slycapital.com/

From Daily Telegraph:

Gary Dugan, the chief investment officer for the US bank, said there has been a remarkable change in sentiment. “People are genuinely worried about what the world is going to look like in 2009. It is amazing how many clients want physical gold, not ETFs,” he said, referring to exchange trade funds listed in London, New York, and other bourses.“They are so worried they want a portable asset in their house.

I never thought I would be getting calls from clients saying they want a box of krugerrands,” he said.Merrill predicted that gold would soon blast through its all time-high of $1,030 an ounce, and would hit $1,150 by June.The metal should do well whatever happens. If deflation sets in and rocks the economic system it will serve as a safe-haven, but if massive monetary stimulus gains traction and sets off inflation once again it will also come into its own as a store of value. “It’s win-win either way,” said Mr Dugan.

The rest is here:

Gold bars 

Also, Marc Faber stated last week that WW III, has begun on Bloomberg. If WW3 has begun, physical gold is as "solid" investment as any...

5 Comments – Post Your Own

#1) On January 11, 2009 at 11:05 PM, binv271828 (< 20) wrote:

Excellent post. Well said.

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#2) On January 11, 2009 at 11:13 PM, abitare (99.42) wrote:

FYI  - Marc Faber in Barons 11 Jan 09 

So, Marc, you're not too bullish this year.

Faber: Let's put it this way. A true market low will be lower, but in a hyperinflating economy, you can have nominal price gains while going lower in real, or inflation-adjusted, terms. Between the start of 2008 and November, almost every asset market collapsed, but the dollar was strong. After November the asset markets rebounded but the dollar went down again. There's an inverse correlation. Dollar weakness is a signal that the Fed has succeeded in pushing liquidity into the system. Some say the dollar will collapse this year, but collapse against what? The euro? The Russian ruble? These currencies are even weaker. In the very long run, each citizen must become his own central bank. Every responsible citizen must hold some physical gold, platinum and silver -- physically, not through derivatives.

Click here to read the rest of the article

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#3) On January 12, 2009 at 12:08 AM, anchak (99.84) wrote:

I think one REAL basis - we are in a for a secular bear for a long time - even though we can see nominal stock market reversal - but its going to be dwarfed by inflationary issues

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#4) On January 12, 2009 at 4:45 AM, SuperPicks (29.70) wrote:

ive been grateful for all your posts even past Oct 08.  I'm quite a fan-whore of yours.

Thank you and keep on doing what you do Abitare/Ares.

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#5) On January 12, 2009 at 10:57 AM, abitare (99.42) wrote:

FYi-

On to gold. You have to protect yourself against potential hyperinflation. All the central banks are printing money now. The bull market in gold was rather orderly for the first eight years. We haven't seen the blow-off phase you get in all bull markets. That's coming. In dollar terms, gold was up 5% or so last year. In Indian rupees it was up nearly 30%. The price of almost all other commodities collapsed. I own bullion, the gold ETF [ SPDR Gold Shares (GLD)], some gold stocks and coins. I couldn't get them as the year progressed because demand was so great. But my first pick today is Market Vectors Gold Miners, an ETF. It sells for 32 and mirrors the NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index, a modified market-capitalization-weighted index of publicly traded gold companies. The top five components are Barrick Gold [ABX], Goldcorp [GG], Newmont Mining [NEM], Kinross Gold [KGC] and Agnico-Eagle Mines [AEM].

How has it performed?

Hickey: The ETF dropped 26% last year, so while gold held up, the stocks didn't do as well. One reason is that oil prices were so high; oil is a key component in production costs. Now crude is falling, which will be a help to gold miners in 2009. The fund has $2 billion in assets. It has been around since 2006, and the expense ratio is 0.55%. It gives you broad exposure to the gold-stock business.

My second gold pick is Agnico-Eagle Mines . It fell about 6% last year, so it did relatively well. It trades for 51. Not every stock fell in the 1930s, either. Homestake Mining went from 65 a share in 1929 to 500 in 1935. It had two things going for it: rising production and an increase in the price of gold, against a devalued dollar.

Barron's Mike Santoli speaks with The High Tech Strategist Editor Fred Hickey, at the Barron's Roundtable, about the reaction to gold in the market and how it can be handled as 2009 progresses.

Zulauf: The U.S. was on the gold standard. It devalued the dollar and revalued gold relative to the dollar, and the price went up to 35 an ounce from 28.

Hickey: Gold could go to $2,000 an ounce this year, or next. The Fed is going to pump all kinds of money into the economy and it won't help. It won't get to corporations or the consumer. But it might get to gold and cause yet another bubble. Gold is one of the few assets that has performed well. And, there is a tremendous shortage of physical gold. In times of turmoil it is a classic hedge against inflation.

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