2013 Silver Eagle Sales Set New Monthly Record of 7,498,000; 150,000 Ounces of Gold Sold in January

2013 Silver Eagle Sales Set New Monthly Record of 7,498,000; 150,000 Ounces of Gold Sold in January

Silvertards, keep stacking!
  

COUNTRIES Calling back their GOLD: There was a guy called Charles de Gaulle in 1965 I guess...

There was a guy called Charles de Gaulle in 1965.
Watch the vid and remember his words:

The fact that many countries accept as a principle dollars being as good as gold for the payment of the differences existing for their advantage in the American balance of trade. This very fact leads Americans to get into debt, and get into debt for free at the expense of other countries at least in part with dollars only they are allowed to emit. Considering the serious consequences a crisis would have under such a system we think that measures must be taken in time to avoid it.
We consider necessary that international trade be established as it was before the great misfortunes of the world on an indisputable monetary base, one that does not bear the mark of any particular country.
Which base?
In truth, who can see, how one can have any real standard critereon, other than gold?

what was his name again? Nostradamus?

Strongman out

MUST-READ :The Real Reasons that Germany Is Demanding that the U.S. Return Its Gold

The Real Reasons that Germany Is Demanding that the U.S. Return Its Gold

Posted on January 21, 2013 by WashingtonsBlog

Why Is Germany Demanding 300 Tons of Gold from the U.S. and 374 Tons from France?

The German’s are demanding that the U.S. return all of the 374 tons of gold held by the Bank of France, and 300 tons of the 1500 tons of bullion held by the New York Federal Reserve.
Some say that Germany is only demanding repatriation of its gold due to internal political pressures, and that no other countries will do so.
But Pimco co-CEO El Erian says:

In the first instance, it could translate into pressures on other countries to also repatriate part of their gold holdings. After all, if you can safely store your gold at home — a big if for some countries — no government would wish to be seen as one of the last to outsource all of this activity to foreign central banks.

As we noted last November:

Romania has demanded for many years that Russia return its gold.
Last year, Venezuela demanded the return of 90 tons of gold from the Bank of England.
***
As Zero Hedge notes (quoting Bloomberg):

Ecuador’s government wants the nation’s banks to repatriate about one third of their foreign holdings to support national growth, the head of the country’s tax agency said.
Carlos Carrasco, director of the tax agency known as the SRI, said today that Ecuador’s lenders could repatriate about $1.7 billion and still fulfill obligations to international clients. Carrasco spoke at a congressional hearing in Quito on a government proposal to raise taxes on banks to finance cash subsidies to the South American nation’s poor.

Four members of the Swiss Parliament want Switzerland to reclaim its gold.
Some people in the Netherlands want their gold back as well.

(Forbes notes that Iran and Libya have recently repatriated their gold as well).
The Telegraph’s lead economics writer – Ambrose Evans Pritchard – argues that the German repatriation demand shows that we’re switching to a de facto gold standard:

Central banks around the world bought more bullion last year in terms of tonnage than at any time in almost half a century.
They added a net 536 tonnes in 2012 as they diversified fresh reserves away from the four fiat suspects: dollar, euro, sterling, and yen.
The Washington Accord, where Britain, Spain, Holland, South Africa, Switzerland, and others sold a chunk of their gold each year, already seems another era – the Gordon Brown era, you might call it.
That was the illusionary period when investors thought the euro would take its place as the twin pillar of a new G2 condominium alongside the dollar. That hope has faded. Central bank holdings of euro bonds have fallen back to 26pc, where they were almost a decade ago.
Neither the euro nor the dollar can inspire full confidence, although for different reasons. EMU is a dysfunctional construct, covering two incompatible economies, prone to lurching from crisis to crisis, without a unified treasury to back it up. The dollar stands on a pyramid of debt. We all know that this debt will be inflated away over time – for better or worse. The only real disagreement is over the speed.
***
My guess is that any new Gold Standard will be sui generis, and better for it. Let gold will take its place as a third reserve currency, one that cannot be devalued, and one that holds the others to account, but not so dominant that it hitches our collective destinies to the inflationary ups (yes, gold was highly inflationary after the Conquista) and the deflationary downs of global mine supply.
***
A third reserve currency is just what America needs. As Prof Micheal Pettis from Beijing University has argued, holding the world’s reserve currency is an “exorbitant burden” that the US could do without.
The Triffin Dilemma – advanced by the Belgian economist Robert Triffin in the 1960s – suggests that the holder of the paramount currency faces an inherent contradiction. It must run a structural trade deficit over time to keep the system afloat, but this will undermine its own economy. The system self-destructs.
A partial Gold Standard – created by the global market, and beholden to nobody – is the best of all worlds. It offers a store of value (though no yield). It acts a balancing force. It is not dominant enough to smother the system.
Let us have three world currencies, a tripod with a golden leg. It might even be stable.

How Much Gold Is There?

It’s not confidence-inspiring that CNBC’s senior editor John Carney argues that it doesn’t matter whether or not the U.S. has the physical gold it claims to hold.
In fact, many allege that the gold is gone:

Cheviot Asset Management’s Ned Naylor-Leyland says that the Fed and Bank of England will never return gold to its foreign owners.
Jim Willie says that the gold is gone.
***
Others allege that the gold has not been sold outright, but has been leased or encumbered, so that the U.S. does not own it outright.
$10 billion dollar fund manager Eric Sprott writes – in an article entitled “Do Western Central Banks Have Any Gold Left???“:
If the Western central banks are indeed leasing out their physical reserves, they would not actually have to disclose the specific amounts of gold that leave their respective vaults. According to a document on the European Central Bank’s (ECB) website regarding the statistical treatment of the Eurosystem’s International Reserves, current reporting guidelines do not require central banks to differentiate between gold owned outright versus gold lent out or swapped with another party. The document states that, “reversible transactions in gold do not have any effect on the level of monetary gold regardless of the type of transaction (i.e. gold swaps, repos, deposits or loans), in line with the recommendations contained in the IMF guidelines.”⁶ (Emphasis theirs). Under current reporting guidelines, therefore, central banks are permitted to continue carrying the entry of physical gold on their balance sheet even if they’ve swapped it or lent it out entirely. You can see this in the way Western central banks refer to their gold reserves.

Indeed, it is now well-documented that the Fed has leased out a large chunk of its gold reserves, and that big banks borrow gold from central banks and then to multiple parties.
As such, it might not entirely surprising that the Fed needs 7 years to give Germany back its 300 tons of gold … even though the Fed claims to hold 6,720 tons at the New York Federal Reserve Bank alone:
Even Pimco co-CEO Bill Gross says:

When the Fed now writes $85 billion of checks to buy Treasuries and mortgages every month, they really have nothing in the “bank” to back them. Supposedly they own a few billion dollars of “gold certificates” that represent a fairy-tale claim on Ft. Knox’s secret stash, but there’s essentially nothing there but trust..  When a primary dealer such as J.P. Morgan or Bank of America sells its Treasuries to the Fed, it gets a “credit” in its account with the Fed, known as “reserves.” It can spend those reserves for something else, but then another bank gets a credit for its reserves and so on and so on. The Fed has told its member banks “Trust me, we will always honor your reserves,” and so the banks do, and corporations and ordinary citizens trust the banks, and “the beat goes on,” as Sonny and Cher sang. $54 trillion of credit in the U.S. financial system based upon trusting a central bank with nothing in the vault to back it up. Amazing!

And given that gold-plated tungsten has turned up all over the world, and that a top German gold expert found fake gold bars imprinted with official U.S. markings, Germans may have lost confidence in the trustworthiness of the Fed.  See this, this, this and this.
This may especially be true since the Fed refused to allow Germans to inspect their own gold stored at the Fed.

Currency War?

The gold repatriation is – without doubt- related to currency.
As Forbes notes:

Officials at the Bundesbank … acknowledged the move is “preemptive” in case a “currency crisis” hits the European Monetary Union.
***
“No, we have no intention to sell gold,” a Bundesbank spokesman said on the phone Wednesday, “[the relocation] is in case of a currency crisis.”

Reggie Middleton thinks that Germany’s demand for its gold is part of a currency war.
Jim Rickards has previously said that the Fed had plans to grab Germany gold:

Jim Rickards has outlined possible plans by the Federal Reserve to commandeer Germany’s and all foreign depositors of sovereign gold at the New York Federal Reserve in the event of a dollar and monetary crisis leading to intensified “currency wars” and the ‘nuclear option’ of a drastic upward revision of the price of gold and a return to a quasi gold standard is contemplated by embattled central banks to prevent debt deflation.

Is that one reason that Germany is demanding its gold back now?
China is quietly becoming a gold superpower, and China has long been rumored to be converting the Yuan to a gold-backed currency.
The Telegraph’s James Delingpole points out:

Back in the mid-1920s, the head of the German Central Bank, Herr Hjalmar Schacht, went to New York to see Germany’s gold. However the NY Fed officials were unable to find the palette of Germany’s gold bullion. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Benjamin Strong was mortified, but to put him at ease Herr Schacht turned to him and said ‘Never mind, I believe you when you when you say the gold is there. Even if it weren’t you are good for its replacement.’ (H/T The Real Asset Company)

But that was then and this is now. In the eyes of the Germans – and who can blame them? – America has lost its mojo to such a degree that it can no longer be trusted honour its debts, even in the unlikely event that it were financially capable of doing so. Which is why, following in the footsteps of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez (who may be an idiot but is definitely no fool), Germany is repatriatriating its gold from the US federal reserve.  It will now be stored in Frankfurt.
***
[Things] may look calm on the surface, but this latest move by the Bundesbank gives us a pretty good indication that beneath the surface that serene-seeming swan is paddling for dear life.
If you want a full analysis I recommend this excellent summary by Jan Skoyles. The scary part is this bit:

Every few months there is a discussion regarding what China are planning on doing with the gold they both mine and import every year, with many believing they are hoarding the metal as an insurance against the billions of US Treasury bonds, notes and bills they hold. Many believe they will issue some kind of gold-backed currency in the short-term and dump its one trillion dollars’ worth of US Treasury securities. Whilst, at the moment the US seem to take their monopoly currency for granted, should the Chinese or anyone else behave in such a manner, the US will need to respond – most likely with gold, which on its own it does not have enough of.

Anyone who thinks this isn’t going to happen eventually should read Peter Schiff’s parable How An Economy Grows And Why It Crashes. If something can’t go on forever, it won’t.

In other words, Rickards and Skoyles appear to argue that Germany may be repatriating gold in the first round of musical chairs in which China is preparing to roll out a gold-backed Yuan.   Under this theory, the rest of the world’s currencies will sink unless their nations’ can scramble to get their hands on enough gold to lend credibility to their paper.
Postscript: Michael Rivero thinks that the war in Mali is connected:

Mali is one of the world’s largest gold producers. Together with neighboring Ghana they account for 7-8% of world gold output. That makes them a rich prize for nations desperate for real physical gold. So, even as Germany started demanding their gold back from the Bank of France and the New York Federal Reserve, France (aided by the US) decided to invade Mali to fight “Islamists” working for “Al Qaeda.” Of course, “Islamists” has become the catch-all label for people that need to be killed to get them out of the way of the path to riches, and the people being bombed by France (aided by the US) are not “Al Qaeda” but Tawariqs, who have been fighting for their independence for 150 years, long before the CIA created “Al Qaeda”. Left to themselves, the Tawariqs could sell gold to whoever they want for whatever they want, and right now China can outbid the US and France.

LEAVE JP MORGAN ALONE!

PLEASE STOP ATTACKING JP MORGAN

WATCH THE VID!

I NEVER get tired of this vid.

US MINT = NO SILVER. SLV ETF : adding lots of tons... silver manipulation people?

Ok guys, Bix Weir has a point and I am posting it right now.
Strongman out:

 

 

 

Most of you have heard that the US Mint has once again stopped selling Silver Eagles because they have "sold out". A few years back it was 100% against the law for them to stop production as they were legally obligated to buy silver at any price.  Now Silver Eagle program can only be stopped with the authorization of the US Treasury Secretary....which was no doubt done this time. They have also said that they will be rationing in the future. They are also raising the premiums on all silver coins. Those of you who already have Eagles hang on to them for dear life!! Those who don't should buy pre-1965 silver coins by the BOAT FULL before they are gone too.

 

On top of all this shortage stuff SLV, the big Silver ETF run by JPM and friends, added 20M ounces to their inventory. How come the banks can get 20M ounces in a matter of days and yet the US Mint can't seem to find any? Boy, that Blythe Masters must have more silver hidden in her bra!

 

And while we're on the topic...why don't we all send an email to Bart Chilton and his crack staff asking how the US Mint can sell out of silver and 20M ounces of silver can be bought for the silver ETF and yet THE PRICE OF SILVER HASN'T RISEN TO REFLECT THE SHORTAGE OR MASSIVE BUYING?!

 

Ah, one of those many mysteries for the CFTC to tuck away in their "Active Investigation" drawer!

 

 

Source:

 

Bix Weir

www.RoadtoRoota.com  

 

US SILVERTARDS in full ATTACK early in JAN 2013: US Mint Temporarily Sold Out of 2013 Silver Eagles

the United States Mint has informed authorized purchasers that 2013 American Silver Eagle bullion coins are temporarily sold out. This follows intense demand for the silver bullion coins since the initial release on January 7, 2013.
On the first day of availability for 2013-dated Silver Eagles, authorized purchasers had placed orders for 3,937,000 of the one ounce coins. This seemed to mark the highest one-day sales in the entire history of the program. The strong demand has continued with sales now having reached 6,007,000 according to the latest information posted on the Mint's website.
The frenzied pace of orders for 2013 Silver Eagles has been driven by the typical rush to acquire the most recently dated coins, as well as pent up demand following three weeks of unavailability. The US Mint had unexpectedly sold out of the 2012-dated coins on December 17, 2012 with no coins available to order until the launch of the 2013-dated coins.
The US Mint expects the temporary sell out of the 2013-dated coins to last until on or about the week of January 28, 2013. At that point, sales will be resumed under an allocation process. During previous periods of strong demand for gold and silver bullion coins, the Mint has used an allocation process to ration available supplies amongst their primary distributors.
Periodic suspensions and rationing of Silver Eagle bullion coins had become almost commonplace between the years of 2008 and 2010. This situation would led to the cancellation of collector versions of the coins in 2009 and a 2010 Congressional hearing which highlighted the inefficiencies of the Mint's bullion coin programs. The Mint managed to work its way out of these problems by implementing process improvements at the West Point Mint, increasing the number of precious metals blank suppliers, and adding supplemental Silver Eagle production at the San Francisco Mint, while at the same time demand for silver bullion coins had lessened. For much of 2011 and 2012, the Mint had managed to keep up with demand for their bullion coins and had resumed the traditional numismatic offerings.
The past month seems to be a return to the times of old. The US Mint has not been able to keep up with higher levels of demand, and once again resorted to sales suspensions and rationing as they try to catch up.

http://news.coinupdate.com/us-mint-temporarily-sold-out-of-silver-eagles-1815/

Germany Repatriating Gold From NY, Paris 'In Case Of A Currency Crisis'

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In 'Die Hard with a Vengeance' Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson try to stop criminals who steal gold from the NY Fed - Photo credit: Wikipedia

Germany’s central bank announced Wednesday it will repatriate gold reserves held at the New York Fed and the Banque de France in order to have “the ability to exchange gold for foreign currency […] within a short space of time.”  Officials at the Bundesbank indicated they have no intention of selling gold, but acknowledged the move is “preemptive” in case a “currency crisis” hits the European Monetary Union.  While they tried to minimize the importance of the move at the Bundesbank, repatriating gold is a clear indication of public loss of confidence on foreign central banks and the integrity of the monetary union.  Over the past few years, Venezuela, Libya, and Iran have also repatriated their gold holdings.
“No, we have no intention to sell gold,” a Bundesbank spokesman said on the phone Wednesday, “[the relocation] is in case of a currency crisis.”  The argument is mildly paradoxical: the officially stated reasons for the repatriation of part of its gold holdings is to build trust and confidence domestically, and to have the ability to sell gold quickly If needed.

Specifically, the Bundesbank will be bringing to Frankfurt all of its 374 metric tons stored at the Banque de France (11% of its total reserves), and 300 metric tons held in the vault of the New York Fed, reducing its share in the U.S. from 45% to 37%.  At market prices, that’s about €27-billion ($36 billion) worth of physical gold bars.  According to the Financial Times, it will be the biggest planned gold transport on record.
The German central bank is looking to relocate 50% of its total reserves to Frankfurt by 2020; the EU’s largest economy is the world’s second largest holder of gold reserves, trailing only the U.S.  Why 50%, one may ask?  “It’s just a benchmark that makes sense,” a spokesman explained.
In a statement, the Bundesbank justified its relocation of gold reserves held in France as a natural consequence of the adoption of the euro, noting that as they hold the same currency, there is no need to keep the bars there if the situation arose where they would need foreign currency quick.  Reserves in London are to remain steady at 13% or 445 metric tons.  It’s repatriation of U.S. reserves are just part of their plan to keep 50% at home; the Bundesbank will keep more than 1,200 tons in New York.
Germany hasn’t bought or sold gold since 1973, and tried to keep its reserves “as far west as possible” during the Cold War, according to Bundesbank board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele, who prepared an important presentation (in German) on the matter.  Frankfurt brought back 940 tons from the Bank of England in 2000/1 in order to avoid storage costs, according to the FT, and has sold about 5 to 6 metric tons a year to the finance ministry to mint coins.  Interestingly, neither the New York Fed nor the Banque de France charge Germany to store its gold.
The move appears a response to public outrage over the Bundesbank’s oversight of its gold holdings.  Last October, federal auditors questioned the Bundesbank surveillance of its gold bars, asking whether officials had actually verified the existence of their holdings.  The Bundesbank insisted this was an independent decision and that there was “no loss of confidence” in fellow central banks, the spokesman told Forbes.  Yet the timing, and the fact that only Venezuela, Iran, and Libya have recently repatriated gold, and in their case over fears of asset seizures, casts doubt over the Bundesbank’s move.
While Thiele didn’t speak of how it would be transported for security reasons, the gold coming from the U.S. will probably have to be flown in.  This will probably have to be done in 3 to 5 ton shipments, the maximum insurance companies will cover, meaning it will take between 60 and 100 flights.  In 2011, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez brought 160 tons of gold from New York to Caracas at an estimated cost of $9 million.  Gold from France could easily be moved by truck.
It was unclear whether the move would have a direct impact on gold prices, which were down 0.2% to $1,679.90 an ounce by 12:47 PM in New York.  Major gold miners were all in the red on Wednesday, with Goldcorp, Barrick Gold, Freeport McMoran and Newmont Mining all down between 0.7% and 1.5%, while silver slid 0.4% to $31.40.
Germany’s gold repatriation raises questions as to their belief in both the strength of the global economy and the European Monetary Union, and their trust of fellow central banks.  It also suggests the Bundesbank, with a reputation for independence, has felt the pressure of the public, and those federal audits.

source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2013/01/16/germany-repatriating-gold-from-ny-paris-in-case-of-a-currency-crisis/
 

It Begins: Bundesbank To Commence Repatriating Gold From New York Fed

 

In what could be a watershed moment for the price, provenance, and future of physical gold, not to mention the "stability" of the entire monetary regime based on rock solid, undisputed "faith and credit" in paper money, German Handelsblatt reports in an exclusive that the long suffering German gold, all official 3,396 tons of it, is about to be moved. Specifically, it is about to be partially moved out of the New York Fed, where the majority, or 45% of it is currently stored, as well as the entirety of the 11% of German gold held with the Banque de France, and repatriated back home to Buba in Frankfurt, where just 31% of it is held as of this moment. And while it is one thing for a "crazy, lunatic" dictator such as Hugo Chavez to pull his gold out of the Bank of England, it is something entirely different, and far less dismissible, when the bank with the second most official gold reserves in the world proceeds to formally pull some of its gold from the bank with the most. In brief: this is a momentous development, one which may signify that the regime of mutual assured and very much telegraphed - because if the central banks don't have faith in one another, why should anyone else? - trust in central banks by other central banks is ending.
Much more importantly, it is being telegraphed as such, with Buba fully aware of just what the consequences of this (first partial, and then full; and certainly full vis-a-vis the nouveau socialist regime of Francois Hollande which will soon hold zero German gold) repatriation will be in a global monetary arena, which is already scraping by on the last traces of faith in a monetary system that is slowly but surely dying but first diluting itself to oblivion. And in simple game theory terms, the first party to defect from the prisoner's dilemma of all the bulk of global gold being held by the Fed, defects best. Then the second. Then the third. Until, in this particular case, the last central bank to pull its gold from the NY Fed and the other 2 primary depositories of developed world gold, London and Paris, just happens to discover their gold was never there to begin with, and instead served as collateral to paper gold subsequently rehypothecated several hundred times, and whose ultimate ownership deed is long gone.
It would be very ironic, if the Bundesbank, which many had assumed had bent over backwards to accommodate Mario Draghi's Goldmanesque demands to allow implicit monetization of peripheral nations' debts has just "returned the favor" by launching the greatest physical gold scramble of all time.

more:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-14/it-begins-bundesbank-commence-repatriating-gold-new-york-fed

 

FEDERAL RESERVE issues Cease and Desist orders against JP MORGAN! Calling the Silver Liberation Army

Press Release

Release Date: January 14, 2013

For immediate release

The Federal Reserve Board on Monday issued two consent Cease and Desist Orders against JPMorgan Chase & Co., New York, New York (JPMC), a registered bank holding company. The first order requires JPMC to take corrective action to continue ongoing enhancements to its risk-management program and its finance and internal audit functions, particularly in regard to JPMC's Chief Investment Office (CIO). The Board's order follows the disclosure of significant losses in a large synthetic credit portfolio that was managed by the CIO. The second order requires JPMC to take corrective action to enhance its program for compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and other anti-money laundering requirements at JPMC's various subsidiaries.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Monday issued two similar Consent Orders against JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Columbus, Ohio.
Attachment (21 KB PDF)
Attachment 2 (22 KB PDF)

2013 Enforcement Actions

 

Last update: January 14, 2013 

 

source:

 

http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/enforcement/20130114a.htm

 

The Middle Class In America Is Being Wiped Out – Here Are 60 Facts That Prove It

The following are 60 facts that prove that the middle class in America is being wiped out…
#1 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the middle class is taking home a smaller share of the overall income pie than has ever been recorded before.
#2 As the middle class shrinks, more Americans than ever have been forced to become dependent on the federal government.  Federal spending on welfare programs has reached nearly a trillion dollars a year, and that does not even count Social Security or Medicare.  Welfare spending is now 16 times larger than when the “war on poverty” began.
#3 Median household income in the U.S. has fallen for four consecutive years.  Overall, it has declined by over $4000 during that time span.
#4 The U.S. economy continues to trade good paying jobs for low paying jobs. 60 percent of the jobs lost during the last recession were mid-wage jobs, but58 percent of the jobs created since then have been low wage jobs.
#5 The number of Americans living in poverty has increased by more than 15 million since the turn of the century.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t
• 

#6 The number of Americans on food stamps has grown from 17 million in the year 2000 to more than 47 million today.
#7 Back in the 1970s, about one out of every 50 Americans was on food stamps.  Today, about one out of every 6.5 Americans is on food stamps.
#8 According to the Pew Research Center, 61 percent of all American households were “middle class” back in 1971.  Today, that figure has fallen to 51 percent.
#9 In the United States today, 35 percent of all households live on $35,000 or less each year.
#10 One recent survey discovered that 85 percent of all middle class Americans believe that it is harder to maintain a middle class standard of living today than it was 10 years ago.
#11 62 percent of all middle class Americans say that they have had to reduce household spending over the past year.
#12 According to one survey, 77 percent of all Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck at least part of the time.
#13 In 1989, the debt to income ratio of the average American family was about58 percent.  Today it is up to 154 percent.
#14 Total U.S. household debt grew from just 1.4 trillion dollars in 1980 to a whopping 13.7 trillion dollars in 2007.  This played a huge role in the financial crisis of 2008, and the problem has still not been solved.
#15 While debt loads for middle class families are going up, the net worth of those same families is going down.  According to the Federal Reserve, the median net worth of families in the United States declined “from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010“.
#16 The percentage of working age Americans with a job has been below 59 percent for 40 months in a row.
#17 Today there are about 3.25 million Americans that say that they want a job but that have not searched for a job in more than a year because they believe that it is so hopeless.
#18 When you total up all working age Americans that do not have a job in America today, it comes to more than 100 million.
#19 The unemployment rate for African-Americans rose dramatically from 13.2 percent in November to 14.0 percent in December.
#20 The unemployment rate for Americans in the 18 to 29 year-old age bracket is 11.5 percent overall.  For African-Americans in that age group, the unemployment rate is now up to 22.1 percent.  Millions of young people believe that the system has totally failed them.
#21 Families that have a head of household under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent.
#22 Last year, an astounding 53 percent of all U.S. college graduates under the age of 25 were either unemployed or underemployed.
#23 Today, approximately 25 million American adults are living with their parents.
#24 According to the Tax Policy Center, the recent fiscal cliff deal will raise taxes more for those making between $30,000 and $200,000 a year than it will for those making between $200,000 and $500,000 a year.
#25 According to a Gallup survey, only 60 percent of all Americans say that they have enough money to live comfortably.
#26 One recent survey found that 63 percent of all Americans believe that the U.S. economic model is broken.
#27 Each year, the average American must work 107 days just to make enough money to pay local, state and federal taxes.
#28 Consumer debt in America has risen by a whopping 1700 percent since 1971.
#29 There are now 20.2 million Americans that spend more than half of their incomes on housing.  That represents a 46 percent increase from 2001.
#30 The average American household spent approximately $4,155 on gasoline during 2011, and electricity bills in the U.S. have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.
#31 According to USA Today, many Americans have actually seen their water bills triple over the past 12 years.
#32 Health insurance costs have risen by 23 percent since Barack Obama became president. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption back in 1980.  Today they account for approximately 16.3%.
#33 In 1999, 64.1 percent of all Americans were covered by employment-based health insurance.  Today, only 55.1 percent are covered by employment-based health insurance.
#34 According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 46 percent of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and 29 percentof all American workers have less than $1,000 saved for retirement.
#35 The United States has lost an average of approximately 50,000 manufacturing jobs a month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.
#36 The United States has lost more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities since 2001.
#37 According to the Economic Policy Institute, America is losing half a million jobs to China every single year.
#38 In 2000, there were more than 17 million Americans working in manufacturing, but now there are less than 12 million.
#39 Back in 1950, more than 80 percent of all men in the United States had jobs.  Today, less than 65 percent of all men in the United States have jobs.
#40 Since 2000, U.S. multinational corporations have eliminated 2.9 million jobs in the United States and have added 2.4 million jobs overseas.
#41 According to Professor Alan Blinder of Princeton University, 40 million more U.S. jobs could be sent offshore over the next two decades if current trends continue.
#42 According to one study, between 1969 and 2009 the median wages earned by American men between the ages of 30 and 50 declined by 27 percent after you account for inflation.
#43 At this point, one out of every four American workers has a job that pays $10 an hour or less.  If that sounds like a high figure, that is because it is.  Today, the United States actually has a higher percentage of workers doing low wage work than any other major industrialized nation does.
#44 According to the Pew Research Center, only 23 percent of all American workers believe that they have enough money to get them through retirement.
#45 According to the Economic Policy Institute, the wealthiest one percent of all Americans households on average have 288 times the amount of wealth that the average middle class American family does.
#46 In the United States today, the wealthiest one percent of all Americans have a greater net worth than the bottom 90 percent combined.
#47 According to Forbes, the 400 wealthiest Americans have more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans combined.
#48 The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have a net worth that is roughly equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans combined.
#49 At this point, the poorest 50 percent of all Americans collectively own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States.
#50 The United States now ranks 93rd in the world in income inequality.
#51 The average CEO now makes approximately 350 times as much as the average American worker makes.
#52 Corporate profits as a percentage of GDP are at an all-time high.  Meanwhile, wages as a percentage of GDP are near an all-time low.
#53 Today, 40 percent of all Americans have $500 or less in savings.
#54 One recent survey found that 28 percent of all Americans do not have a single penny saved for emergencies.
#55 Shockingly, at this point 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be “low income” or are living in poverty.
#56 According to one calculation, the number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds the combined populations of “Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.”
#57 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, an all-time record 49 percent of all Americans live in a home where at least one person receives financial assistance from the federal government.  Back in 1983, that number was less than 30 percent.
#58 According to U.S. Census data, 57 percent of all American children live in a home that is either considered to be “poor” or “low income”.
#59 For the first time ever, more than a million public school students in the United States are homeless.
#60 According to a stunning new Gallup survey, 65 percent of all Americans believe that 2013 will be a year of “economic difficulty”.


source and more:

http://thetruthwins.com/archives/the-middle-class-in-america-is-being-wiped-out-here-are-60-facts-that-prove-it

US PETITION:Perform an assayed public audit of all the Treasury's claimed 8,100 tons of gold and net of swaps, loans & sales.

As of 12/31/2012 the US Treasury claims to hold 261 million ounces of gold at Denver, Fort Knox, West Point and at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. This bullion was last subjected to a full physical audit in 1953. The gold bars need to be assayed and weighed. Once the gold is verified the paper trail must be audited to determine who really owns the gold; i.e. how much has been loaned to bankers and dealers and sold or swapped to non-Treasury entities including foreign governments. The audit must include professional auditors outside of the Mint, Treasury, GAO, Inspector General and Federal Reserve system.


https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/perform-assayed-public-audit-all-treasurys-claimed-8100-tons-gold-and-net-swaps-loans-sales/rGyFTLwD