Daily Archives: April 10, 2011

The Money Illusion

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In economics, money illusion refers to the tendency of people to think of currency in nominal, rather than real, terms. In other words, the numerical/face value (nominal value) of money is mistaken for its purchasing power (real value). This is false, as modern fiat currencies have no intrinsic value and their real value is derived from their ability to be exchanged for goods and used for payment of taxes.

 

 

Note how the stagnant stock market in the 70′s was actually a brutal decline in real value. The 1982 dollar was worth only 1/3 of the 1965 dollar … inflation ate that much value.

via Money illusion – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

japanese nuclear disaster NOT directly because of quake

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Contrary to common belief, the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was not adirect result of the 9.0 earthquake which hit Northeastern Japan on 11 March. In fact, all 16 reactors in the earthquake zone, including the six at the Fukushima plant, shut down within two minutes of the quake, as they were designed to do. But Fukushima is a relatively old nuclear facility – also known as second generation – which requires continuous power supply to provide cooling (the newer third generation reactors are designed with a self-cooling system which doesn’t require uninterrupted power).

When the quake devastated the area around Fukushima, and the primary power supply was cut off, the diesel generators took over as planned, and the cooling continued. But then came the tsunami. Around the Fukushima plant was a protection wall designed to withstand a 5.2 metre tsunami, as the area is prone to tsunamis. However, this particular one was the mother of all tsunamis. When a 14 metre high wall of water, mud and debris hit the nuclear facility, the diesel generators were wiped out as well. But the story doesn’t end there, because Fukushima had a second line of defence – batteries which could keep the cooling running for another nine hours, supposedly enough to re-establish the power lines to the facility. However, the devastation around the area was so immense that the nine hours proved hopelessly inadequate. The rest is history, as they say.

Niels Jensen
Absolute Return Partners

 

Iceland rejects debt deal to repay UK, Dutch

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Voters in Iceland have rejected a government-approved deal to repay Britain and the Netherlands $5 billion for their citizens’ deposits in the failed online bank Icesave, referendum results showed Sunday.

With about 90 percent of the votes counted, the “no” side had 59.1 percent of the votes and the “yes” side 40.9 percent.

The result reflects Icelanders’ anger at having to pay for the excesses of their bankers, and complicates the country’s recovery from its 2008 economic collapse.

Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir said the results were disappointing but she would try to prevent political and economic chaos ensuing. She said the repayment dispute would now be settled by a European trade court — which could impose harsher terms on Iceland than those rejected in Saturday’s vote.

Britain and the Netherlands said they would fight to get their money back.

via The Associated Press: Iceland rejects debt deal to repay UK, Dutch.

Guess Who’s Almost Out Of Silver

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According to Jamie Dimon, he did America a favor when he agreed to take bailout money from taxpayers (and we didn’t even have the decency to thank him).  Last week ,we learned that the JP Morgan CEO likes his catastrophe’s predictable,  but as Mick Jagger once observed, “You can’t always get what you want.”

So in case you’re wondering who might be stupid enough to buy silver at $40, chances are extremely high it’s going to be  the guys who sold at $15, $20, $25, 30, 31, 32, 33…..  On April 6, Bloomberg reported Comex Silver Stockpiles as of April 5, and if you scroll down through the report, you’ll notice that JP Morgan has enough silver to fill, wait for it, 6 contracts. Yep 30,844 troy ounces, that’s all.

Now consider this:  Since December, JP Morgan and their customers (whoever they may be) have sold more than  12.2 Million Ounces of physical silver (net).   Here’s JP’s activity year-to-date from the Comex report:

I will not insult your intelligence by explaining this any further.

Shine on you crazy Dimon!

via Guest Post: Guess Who’s Almost Out Of Silver | zero hedge.