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What Bad Economy? It Looks Pretty Good Down Here in Miami.
Monday’s daily was without my personal comments. I lost four pages by not paying attention to what I was doing and didn’t have the energy to re-write it.
On Tuesday, gold was down into New York and then the bullion banks pulled their bids and dumped contracts and the computer-driven hedge funds bailed, as usual.
I can hardly wait to see what Ranting Andy has to say in our afternoon newsletter. He will be out of control – and I would add, “like the markets are now,” but actually the markets ARE IN CONTROL. Very much in control. There is some support at $1,550. Let’s see if that holds.
Let’s see what else Jim Sinclair has to say about this – he is pretty vocal these days:
Today’s Massive Attempt To Break Gold – jsmineset.com
April 2, 2013, at 8:32 am
by Jim SinclairMy Dear Extended Family,
This is a massive attempt to break gold in order to camouflage the weakening Western banking sector. Paid bashers are flooding in to all pro-gold sites and many other pro-gold sites are under attack in other ways.
Gold banks are flogging the paper market seeking to depress the price but without selling too much.
It is so obvious that this is a gold bank organized strategy to keep gold under $1600. Old lows will hold and the reversal will be at a spiritual level.
My strategy is to simply to do nothing.
Jim
_______________________________________________
System Designed To Collapse Ahead Of New World Currency – jsmineset.com
April 2, 2013, at 1:45 pm
by Eric KingDear CIGAs,
Today Jim Sinclair spoke with King World News about the tremendous importance of the operation the central planners are executing in key markets right now. He also told KWN that the current financial system is designed to fail, ahead of the introduction of a new world currency. Below is what Sinclair, who was once called on by former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker to assist during a Wall Street crisis, had to say.
Eric King: “If you are in the shoes of the central planners here, Jim, what are you executing today and why are you executing this? For what purpose?”
Sinclair: “I want the general financial public to accept ‘bail-ins’ as a valid method of approaching further banking problems, which I want to the public to believe will not occur. In order to accomplish that, those items which trigger an alarm must be muted.
We live in an alarm-less society. Since Bretton Woods we’ve removed every single economic crisis alarm in currency, bond, and in fact all of our key markets….
_______________________________________________
Russia & China Loot Western Gold While JP Morgan Sells Silver – jsmineset.com
April 3, 2013, at 1:54 am
by Eric KingDear CIGAs,
Today Jim Sinclair told King World News that Russia and China are looting Western gold while JP Morgan sells silver. He also said that all of this chaos is taking place as central planners conceal serious financial problems from the general public. Below is what Sinclair, who was once called on by former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker to assist during a Wall Street crisis, had to say.
Sinclair: “If you watch the market throughout the night and into the morning, as we have to, there is only one conclusion you can come to, and that conclusion is that this takedown has been totally orchestrated. It has been executed using tremendous strategy, and it was perfectly timed.
This has involved entities acting in unison for the purpose of affecting price and psychology, while at the same not necessarily selling volume. This has been a pure operation….
_______________________________________________
There’s really not a lot to talk about now; not until the Gold Cartel backs off and the mindless funds stop selling. My writing takes a different focus today but it all ties in.
If Backwoods Jack lived down here in Miami, he would be absolutely positive that the economy is roaring and people like me and Ranting Andy have gone off the deep end. Problems? What problems? Jack, and his minions think we’re crazy and the economy is on the way (up). You see, Jack gauges the strength of the economy on how crowded the roads are, how full the restaurants are and what he hears on CNBC. And here in Miami in the month of April, the restaurants are full and the roads are crowded. I’m waiting for him to chuckle and say, “If the world is falling apart, how come gold is falling?” That is the essence of the smack down, you know. Kill the messenger. Jack’s question is exactly the result the Cartel is hoping for.
But Miami is not a realistic place to use as an economic barometer. Miami is very unique. It is part fantasy world and a party land. The beautiful weather attracts wealthy people from all over the North East that come here to retire or bask in the sun for half the year. The Miami area it is also a magnet for the very-well-to-do from Russia, Israel and South America.
Living here six months out of the year, for the last two years, has opened my eyes to the over-the-top wealth that is concentrated in the hands of the top one percent. Remember, the top one percent of Americans control 80% of the country’s wealth and with a little back of the napkin math, that means around 3.15 million people are sprinkled around the US with most of the money, but they are not evenly dispersed. A lot of them reside up and down the Florida coast. (And let’s not forget that there are hundreds of thousands of ultra-wealthy foreigners who reside here and visit here during the winter months too.)
In checking out America’s top 10 richest cities in 2013, quite to my surprise, not one Florida city makes the list. Number one is Stamford, CT but that should not be a surprise. That’s where the banksters and hedge fund sharks live. Number two is San Jose, CA and that’s where the Silicone Valley wizards live. Washington D.C. is number three, home to the wealthy lawyers, lobbyists and politicians. Next on the list are San Francisco, Trenton, Thousand Oaks, Boston, Boulder, and Napa.
Four of the top ten richest cities are in California. Considering California has the highest state taxes in America, that is somewhat of a surprise, but never sell great weather short! I am really shocked that cities like Palm Beach, Del Ray Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, Aventura, Naples, Boca Grand and Miami Beach didn’t make the list. Oceanside real estate in Florida is very expensive and much in demand, but the wealth tapers off rapidly as you move inland.
If you look for the highest-income places in the United States, nine of the top ten cities are in Florida. Fisher Island is number one, Jupiter Island is second, Gulf is five, Manalapan is seven and Orchid is nine. (I’ve never even heard of the last three cities.) But if you narrow it down the with the highest-income places with a population of at least 50,000 there is not one single Florida city in the top 100. (Two Minnesota suburbs, adjacent to where Andy and I own homes are in the top 30.)
There is a big difference between where the big money lives and where the most money can be earned. There are a lot of lower-middle class workers in Florida; Lot’s of low paying service jobs (lawn care, handy man, fast food, service jobs) in Florida. The Miami area is a good example of both the tremendous concentration of wealth here and the discrepancy of the way it is dispersed. Lots of money – lots of people just hanging on.
My grandson stayed with us for a week. Actually, he just left at 5:30 this morning (Wednesday) to head back home to be with Andy. I took him for a ride on Monday. I wanted him to see Miami Beach – he had never seen it and it is very interesting down there.
Miami Beach is 18 miles south of where I live. Aventura is rather like a new suburb next to the old city. We drove to South Beach, at the southern tip of Miami Beach, which is populated with young people of every variety and pastel-colored Art Deco buildings that have stunning architecture. Then we headed up the coast on Collins Avenue (A1A) back toward where I live, in Aventura. We started off on 8th St. and drove all the way up to 213th St. There are luxury high rises, packed one next to the other, along most of the drive. These high rise buildings have at least 100-250 condos per building. That’s the equivalent of up to 10 city blocks of people, where I live, per building. We’re spread out in the Midwest, but here, the population goes straight up and it is very condensed.
In the newer buildings, prices average over one million per unit – and up. It’s a huge concentration of wealth. There are less than a dozen buildings like this in the entire Minneapolis – St. Paul metro area.
I can see more than 100 luxury high rises from my balcony, and at night, where they are lit up, it is spectacular. My view, looking south toward Miami stops around 183rd St; but the buildings continue all the way down to Miami Beach,15 miles away. The high-rise condos also run north of here, all the way up the coast. When I drive 30 miles north to see Joel Kravitz in the Miles Franklin office in Del Ray Beach, or go further North to West Palm Beach, the entire drive is populated with huge mansions and luxury multi-level condos. If you’ve never seen it, believe me, it’s an amazing concentration of wealth – and yet these cities do not show up on the richest cities in America. Maybe it’s because a lot of the very wealthy people here in south Florida are just seasonal visitors and by April 1st, they head back to Venezuela, Mexico, Argentina, Russia and Israel – and Philadelphia, Boston, New York and Stamford. Their properties lay vacant until they return the following holiday season.
There aren’t many Minnesota people on the East Coast of Florida. Minnesotans who do come down here seem to congregate on the gulf coast in Naples. Minnesota “snow birds” tend to go to Phoenix and Palm Springs.
Being around all this wealth, I occasionally ask myself, “Who has all the money?” I checked out a few lists to see “who is making what?” I started with pro-athlete salaries.
Alex Rodriguez tops the list with a $275 million contract, followed by Albert Pujols, Joey Votto, Prince Fielder, Derek Jeter, Joe Mauer, and Mark Teixeira… all the way down to number 20, Johan Santana of the New York Mets at $137.5 million. Bring your sons up to be baseball players!
Kobe Bryant (NBA, the first non-baseball player on the list) is at 21, and then you get a lot of $100 million to $136 million contracts spread out between pro basketball, pro football and pro baseball. Oh yeah, there are four pro hockey and one race car contract in the list too. The list ignored pro golfers, and some, like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are up there with their tournament purses and endorsements, but they are not salaried. I don’t remember seeing any soccer players on the list, but this list is U.S. only and they would show up on a similar list in Europe and South America.
Top CEO compensation goes to John Stumpf, Wells Fargo; Michael Duke, Wal-Mart; then Gregg Steinhafel, Target; Robert Benmosche, AIG; Jeff Immelt, GE; They all make from 250 to over 1,000 times their typical employee pay. Suffice it to say, the top of the food chain on Wall Street make more money than one can justify. Where was Goldman (the human squid) on the list? It seemed a mistake that they weren’t on the list!
When you have a disparity of income like we do now, it often leads to social unrest. I think we are in the anger and jealousy stage now (Obama’s class warfare); revolt is just a bit further down the line.
But I want to make something clear here – $250,000 a year or even $400,000 a year is NOT wealthy in today’s lopsided world. This kind of income is the equivalent of the UPPER MIDDLE CLASS that I grew up with. It’s not even close to what passes for wealth down here in South Florida.
When do you ever see one of the top one percent, especially the bankers, go to jail? They can launder drug money, manipulate markets and do just about anything and all they get is a lecture and a small fine. When they make bad investment decisions and flirt with bankruptcy, we bail them out (us, the taxpayers). Why? Because Hank Paulson (former Goldman Sachs, of course) decided they are too big to fail and now it gets worse; Eric Holder has mandated that they are too big to prosecute.
But where can these banksters hide when the “people” get really fed up and mobs roam the streets? Perhaps they should all take a lesson from Marie Antoinette.
At some point, all of their despair will turn to anger and then to rage. The mobs will be large – because if you factor in the disabled; those who can’t find a job and have given up; those who want to work full time but can only find minimum wage part time work; and add them to those who are counted, there are over 24% of Americans who should be counted as unemployed! I figure the anger and riots will happen when the government’s welfare vouchers and unemployment checks no longer pay for basic food, medicine and shelter, and that is right around the corner, when hyperinflation pays us a visit – when the dollar loses its “reserve currency” status. John Williams warns to expect hyperinflation by the summer of 2018. Gerald Celente is right there with him. Let’s hope they are wrong. Stay tuned.
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2013-04-03 10:33:55
Source: http://blog.milesfranklin.com/what-bad-economy-it-looks-pretty-good-down-here-in-miami
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