Golden Minerals Company

I wholeheartedly agree that the move in G&S is more a panic move to USD, however silly that may seem! In the next few days the sheeple will come to realise that the USD is also in deep brown doggy stuff, they are just much better at hiding it. Then they will move back into other currencies to only come again to another realization that that currency too is a bad move... sooner or later more and more people will see that silver & gold are the only real safe places to be, which may cause the exact effect talked about today on Agoracom - the massive upswing in the POS.

What is really important however is to clarify my personal reasons for the current crisis here and it is not due to socialist policies (at least not alone). It is far more complex than that. We also have loads of similar programs here in Switzerland (for instance, if you lose your job you receive 80% of your previous wages for up to 2 years!) but we are not in a similar crisis. Neither is Germany which also has very beneficial programs. Neither is France (at least not as seriously) and they are the kings of all social programs. In fact Ireland is pretty weak on social programs in comparison, so I think this argument is quite weak, or at least incomplete and over simplified. That's not a dig, just a retort...

The problem is the past decade, the credit crisis, the bailouts and Hedge Funds. Due to a number of reasons, the 2000's were largely marked by growth driven not by expansion of trade, or a real increase in wealth, but in a false creation of wealth based on debt & ridiculous housing booms, primarily in... you guessed it, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, the UK and to a lesser degree Greece. The massive tax breaks in the US, the push for people to get out and spend, the decrease in regulation of banks, the creation of complex financial products all helped to drive the rise and subsequent fall. The construction booms immediate crash has really, really hurt some of the European countries... primarily Spain. Think back over the past decade... who were the darlings of the 2000's economic boom? The Celtic Dragon (Ireland), the Spanish (who had a massive upswing in personal wealth), Dubai...etc. All are now in trouble. Dubai has massive problems and NO social programs at all, it's a pure a follower of capitalism that currently exists (no taxes & no assistance for anybody).

However what is happening now is pure evil at work. Hedgies. They create the rumors in the media, short the nations assets, help to drive up the cost of borrowing and basically push nations which may not have a crisis into a crisis. Look at Ireland, there was a deep financial problem, but NO crisis. Until, that is, the media starts speculating on their ability to pay their debt and starts whipping up a whirlwind of interest. Suddenly the cost of borrowing skyrockets, everyone stops buying their government bonds and a crisis is born. This is not an accident. The Hedgies make billions off of this and the banks make even more. Where does the EU get the money to lend to the nations in crisis? The banks. The Hedgies have a 'hit list'; and it stared with Greece. They laid low for a while and then hit Ireland. Now they will wait a bit longer and go after Portugal... then Spain, then the UK. But the BIG Kahuna, the grand daddy of them all... is to hit the US.

Think about it... look at the real financial bottom line in the US, how much pushing would there need to be to create a real crisis there? Everyone is already skeptical about the US, its economy, its massive debt load, and there is a firm belief that Americans will never, ever change their ways, never accept an austerity plan, will never accept a drop in living standards... therefore they will borrow themselves into crisis. A self-fufilling prophecy. Imagine the money the Hedge Funds could make by shorting the US into the ground... I'm sure they are imagining it. Never ever underestimate greed.

if you disagree, please do a little research and go look into the cost of social programs. Then go look into the cost of corporate tax loopholes, bank bailouts and manipulation of the financial system. I'm sure you will see there is NO comparison. However, it is a very convenient and effective tool to blame social programs and ignore the real culprits. When someone reads it in the media, they think... yah how can we be just giving away all this money to poor people, sick people and unemployed! Those people should just get off their butts and get jobs/ get better/ stop whining etc. It's a great tool for whipping up your average reader into a frenzy, especially readers who are healthy & employed. The masters in this realm are FOX (they are propaganda GODS - I literally bow to their simple effectiveness), but ALL media are culprits, they should all be blamed for fanning the flames... liberal, conservative, alternative... whatever... as you say often pic, two heads of the same snake.

I'm not saying those programs don't have a cost... they DO! However, I think it's minor in comparison... imagine if the news was filled with articles about how the banks and hedge funds are ripping off all of us! Imagine the hospitals, schools, libraries, fire halls etc. one could have built with all the bail out money handed over to the crooks on Wall Street?

Personally I look at the European crisis and I don't blame their way of life, I blame the invisible hand behind the scenes orchestrating crisis after crisis in the name of greed. If it was as simple as social programs, these crisis would have crippled Sweden, Norway, Denmark etc. first... but it didn't... in fact they are relatively unscathed. Iceland however got burned and burned badly... by BANKS. Ireland got burned and burned badly by... bailing out BANKS.

Anyhow, rant over... I like silver & gold. Actually I love it. Why, because no other form of currency has any real value. And if the world wants to play dumb and drop the price every once and I while so I can buy more... well, good for me :) Let them buy USD. In fact I have some "Mrsoul dollars" here at my home if anyone is interested? Printed them myself and declared them to be worth the equivalent of 1 oz. silver each. So... if you want to trade your worthless metal to me for REAL HARD COOL Mrsoul dollars, write to me and I'll give you the address to send your silver.

it's a STEAL!

Soul

P.S. I don't expect anyone to agree with me 100% and I definitely do not think I am providing an argument without flaws... but I would like you to think hard about what I'm saying here. Whose the real enemy? The lazy arse benefit fraud down your street or the Sacs boys?