11 Facts Govt Doesn't Want You to Think About...

FACT #1: The official national debt now stands at $12.68 trillion — an amount equal to about 88.5% of all the goods and services our economy produces in an entire year.
FACT #2: Contingent obligations for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans, and pensions now stand at an additional $108 trillion over and above the “official” national debt. (?)
FACT #3: State, county and local governments are nearly $3 trillion in debt. Many can’t pay and will ultimately demand that Washington assume responsibility for that debt as well.
FACT #4: Total federal, state and local government indebtedness now stands at a mind-blowing $123.6 trillion.
FACT #5: Last year, Washington added $1.4 trillion to the debt. In this fiscal year, the Obama administration will add another $1.6 trillion!
FACT #6: In addition to funding the current trillion-dollar-plus deficits, the U.S. Treasury must borrow MORE each year to replace bills, notes and bonds that are maturing.
FACT #7: This record-shattering borrowing by the Treasury has resulted in a Mt. Everest of Treasury obligations being dumped onto the market, which naturally depresses bond prices and drives interest rates higher.
FACT #8: In a desperate attempt to keep interest rates low, the Bernanke Federal Reserve has created $1.25 trillion out of thin air to buy mortgage-backed securities … another $300 billion to buy U.S. Treasuries … and yet another $170.6 billion to buy other government bonds — a total of nearly $1.7 trillion in all.
FACT #9: From September 10, 2008 to March 10 of this year, Bernanke increased the nation’s monetary base from $850 billion to $2.1 trillion — a 250% increase in just 18 months.
FACT #10: Despite this massive money-printing, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note has STILL risen by more than one-fifth — from 3.2% to 3.86% — since December.
FACT #11: Because of this massive money-printing, the U.S. dollar has lost nearly 10% of its value in the past 12 months alone.

Infamous Quotes from 1930 Great Depression

* "I am convinced that through these measures, we have reestablished confidence."
— Herbert Hoover, U.S. President, December 1929.
* "While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed through the worst — and with continued unity of effort we shall rapidly recover. There has been no significant bank or industrial failure. That danger, too, is safely behind us."
— Herbert Hoover, U.S. President, May 1930.
* "This is the time to buy stocks. This is the time to recall the words of the late J. P. Morgan ... that any man who is bearish on America will go broke. Within a few days there is likely to be a bear panic rather than a bull panic. Many of the low prices as a result of this hysterical selling are not likely to be reached again in many years."
— R. W. McNeel, market analyst, as quoted in the New York Herald Tribune, October 30, 1929
* "The Wall Street crash doesn't mean that there will be any general or serious business depression ... For six years American business has been diverting a substantial part of its attention, its energies and its resources on the speculative game ... Now that irrelevant, alien and hazardous adventure is over. Business has come home again, back to its job, providentially unscathed, sound in wind and limb, financially stronger than ever before."
— BusinessWeek, November 2, 1929
* "The end of the decline of the Stock Market will probably not be long, only a few more days at most."
— Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics at Yale University, November 14, 1929

Head and Shoulders Top on Short Term and Long Term Treasury Chart

Technical picture of gold 03/17/2010

A picture speaks a thousand words

Gold at key level

The next couple of days will be decisive for gold. A breakout move above the triangle wedge pattern might signal a definitive bottom. A failure to breakout will likely mean further downside.