'A Contained Depression'

[WhiskeyGirl]

"Fed and Bank of Japan caused gold crash"

My view is that the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan "caused" the gold crash. The rest is noise. The Fed assault began in February when it published a paper warning that the longer quantitative easing continues, the harder it will be for the bank to extricate itself.

The report was co-written by former Fed governor Frederic Mishkin, often deemed Ben Bernanke's "alter ego". It said the Fed's capital base could be wiped out "several times" once borrowing costs climb. The window will start shutting by 2014, with trouble then compounding at a "dramatic" pace.

'...interest rates are low, and the work needs to be done...' - Obama, my paraphrase from memory...borrow more money and build...

The world is still in a contained depression. Sliding commodities tell us global money is if anything too tight. "There is a threat of deflation almost everywhere. A lot of central banks will have to follow the Bank of Japan, whatever they say now," said Lars Christensen form Danske Bank

read more here - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/10001937/Fed-and-Bank-of-Japan-caused-gold-crash.html

[WhiskeyGirl]

Global economy faces 'chronic' crisis if reforms are not completed, warns IMF

A growing trend towards excessive risk-taking and lack of action to repair broken bank balance sheets could trigger a “chronic” new phase in the financial crisis, the International Monetary fund has warned.

 ::snipping2::

The fund said that some US public pension funds had significantly increased risk exposure, and in some cases were using investors’ money to gamble on complex derivatives and hedge funds in a bid to generate higher returns. It said the weakest funds had increased “alternative investments” to “about 25pc of assets in 2011 from virtually zero in 2001.”

Pension collapse?

read more here - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/10000918/Global-economy-faces-chronic-crisis-if-reforms-are-not-completed-warns-IMF.html