From the Summit of the Moral High Ground

A little over a month ago,  we reported  that following a year of record-shattering imports, China finally surpassed India as the world's largest importer of physical gold. This was hardly a surprise to anyone who has been following our coverage of the ravenous demand for gold out of China,  starting in September 2011 , and tracing it all the way to the present. China's apetite for physical gold, which is further shown below focusing just on 2012 and 2013, has been estimated by Goldman to amount to over $70 billion in bilateral trade between just Hong Kong and China alone. Yet while China's gold demand is acutely familiar one question that few have answered is just what is China doing with all this  physical  gold, aside from  filling massive brand new gold vaults of course . And a far more important question: how does China's relentless buying of physical not send the price of gold into the stratosphere. We will explain why below. First, ...

What is happening in Argentina provides a valuable lesson in why governments in every country on earth control the education of the nation’s children. Argentina is suffering the ravages of government debasement of the currency — i.e., inflation, the process by which government pays for its ever-increasing debts and bills by simply printing more paper currency. The expanded money supply results in a lower value of everyone’s money, which is reflected in the rising prices of the things that money buys. According to the New York Times ,   last year prices in Argentina rose nearly 30%. This year, they’re expected to increase by 45%. Not surprisingly, the government’s inflation of the money supply is causing economic chaos within Argentine society. From butchers who are now posting price increases on scraps of paper, to women filing for increases in alimony payments, to café owners who are selling less, to wholesalers who are having trouble pricing imported goods, the government’...

So today it is time to look back at one of my favourite subjects, the Public Markets, founded on its current site in 1804 and left more or less untouched since it was rebuilt in 1884. It is now 2014 so our ancestors 130 years ago built something which has stood the test of time and weathered everything that has happened in our island in all that time. The Public Markets Law  and Regul ations  are available on the Jersey Law website.  Article 3 of the Law states  "The States of Jersey have the right to make regulations for the order, policing and maintenance [of the Markets], and may, as in the past, rent shops, stalls and floorspace in order to meet the expenses of the administration and maintenance of markets. States are also authorized to establish regulations for the control and maintenance of Public Abattoirs, and to regulate the flow of meat, both within and outside [the] markets.   Regulations emanating under this Article shall remain in force un...

I have just been switched onto fibre broadband and I am greatly enjoying the increase speed of browsing, kudos to Mr Ozouf however he may not enjoy the results of that particular innovation. Recently the JCRA produced their report on the relative price of retail goods in Jersey compared to the UK and concluded (in the papers at least) that Jersey was 20% more expensive, except for clothing, shoes and accessories (my business) which is 8% cheaper. That got me thinking... I wonder how competitive our government is and I wonder if that has any effect on retail prices in Jersey? We shall be referring to the UK government expenditure figures HERE And the Jersey GROSS government figures HERE  on page 4 So first let's calculate the headline figure... £11,236.31 per head in the UK and £8,340.00 in Jersey but that's a little unfair as they are not like for like figures. So from out of the UK (who kindly provide Defence, Foreign Affairs free of charge for us) we will strip ...

 Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf  One of the most curious features of the Ozouf treasury is the 'we must make a return for the Public on their assets'. This sounds almost exactly like the duties of the director of a company who must, 'make a return for the shareholders'. There is a slight difference though, firstly the shareholders of a company may or may not also be customers of the company, secondly shareholders have voluntarily invested their savings in those shares and may at any time sell those shares (assuming they can find someone to buy them). They would also expect to see some sort of monetary return of that investment coming into their personal bank accounts, not into the bank account of the stockbroker who bought the shares for them. Another term for a shareholder, is a member. Members of the Public by contrast are only members of choice, notionally. No one ever asked them if they wanted to join, there is no obvious mechanism for leaving the associa...

I wish the freedom to live my life in any peaceful way I choose, and to honour and respect the peaceful choices you make. I believe you should be free to do as you choose with your own life and property, as long as you don’t harm the person or property of others. I want a caring, people-centred approach to politics. I want to break the chains of poverty, to enable the disabled, to live in a content community. I want a system which encourages us all to discover the best within ourselves, and to make the most of it, to unleash the positive creative powers of each individual and to create a peaceful, prosperous world.  I want to solve community issues with community solutions, not with government. Politicians too frequently forget that their laws and regulations affect real human beings. They should never lose sight of the fact that each individual is unique and has great potential.  A ‘safety net’ is essential if individuals are to be encouraged to grow, but it should ...

Higher equity prices will boost consumer wealth and help increase confidence, which can spur spending. — Ben Bernanke, 2010 Across all financial media, political parties, and among most mainstream economists, the “wealth effect” is noted, promoted, and touted. The refrain is constant and the message seemingly simple: by increasing people wealth through rising stock and housing prices, the populace will increase their consumer spending which will spur economic growth. Its acceptance is as widespread as its justification is important, for it provides the rationale for the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented monetary expansion since 2008. While critics may dispute the wealth effect’s magnitude, few have challenged its conceptual soundness. Such is the purpose of this article. The wealth effect is but a mantra without merit. The overarching pervasiveness of wealth effect acceptance is not wholly surprising, for it is a perfect blend of the Monetarist and Keynesian Schools. While i...

How’s this for irony - In our modern monetary system, the term ‘fiat currency’ refers to this absurd notion of paper currency that is conjured out of thin air by central bankers and backed by nothing but hollow promises. ‘Fiat’ is a subjunctive conjugation of the Latin verb ‘fi?’; literally translated, it means “let it be” as in “Let there be light.” Or in this case… ‘let there be paper money,’ which pretty much crystalized the absurdity of our monetary system. Former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke summed this up nicely in a 60 Minutes interview he gave a few years ago in which he said, “We can raise interest rates in 15 minutes. . .” And he was right. Central bankers can change interest rates whenever they want. If you think about it, interest rates are nothing more than the ‘price’ of money. It’s the rate that people pay when they ‘demand’ money in the form of loans based on the supply of money available. But this price of money is incredibly influential around the wo...

Real austerity for individuals means living a highly restricted lifestyle. The best example is the monk who lives on a subsistence-level diet, wears simple clothing, possesses a few basic pieces of furniture, and uses only necessary utensils. His days consist of long hours of work and prayer with no leisure activities and he may not even enjoy indoor heating or plumbing. Austerity applied to whole countries, is not necessarily so harsh or ascetic. It simply means that the government has to live within its means. Real austerity involves cutting government budgets by reducing salaries, employee benefits, and retirement benefits. It also involves selling government assets and even repudiating government debt. Instead of increasing taxes, the Austrian approach advocates decreasing taxes. President Barack Obama has recently released his budget in which he calls for an “end of austerity.” This is an amazing statement from a president whose government has spent the highest percenta...

The desperation of the Anglo-American leadership, guided by the steady corrupt banker hands, has never been more acutely high, nor obvious in full view. The entire Ukraine situation is a travesty. It includes Langley agents killing police and street demonstrators from rooftops, the confirmation coming from the Estonian Embassy (translation of scripts). It includes thefts of official Ukrainian Govt funds, again sent to the Swiss hill sanctuary. It includes sanctions delivered by a US Paper Tiger, sure to cause horrific backlash. It involves the last gasp attempt to obstruct the Gazprom energy pipelines, which will inevitably corner the European market in monopoly. It involves subterfuge with the NATO card (aka Narcotics And Treachery Outlaws) with missiles placed on the Russian borders. Look for NATO members to find a back door to exit the spurious treaty. It involves playing with nitro-glycerine in the Petro-Dollar room. It involves putting tremendous risk for much more clear isolat...