Here’s Why Gas Prices Are Skyrocketing Right Now

This report was originally published by M.K. Matthews on The Organic Prepper

Global economy and geopolitics are underpinning the oil price surge and gas prices are going up.

Who recalls the oil embargo of 1973? That was when the Arab-dominated Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced they were cutting oil exports to the United States and other countries that provided military aid to Israel during the Yom Kippur War of October 1973.

In six months’ time, gas prices had quadrupled. Prices remained higher even after the embargo ended in March 1974.

But that could never happen again…Or could it?

The current members of OPEC are made up of twelve countries:  Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

Let’s look at some of the OPEC members and their current interactions with their friends, frenemies, foes, other random players, and the resultant alliances.

For weeks, tensions have been rising between Iran and Israel, It began in February when, according to Israel, an armed Iranian drone originating from Syria penetrated the Israeli airspace. Israel downed the drone, then attacked the caravan which launched the drone from the T-4 airbase deep in Syrian territory. An Israeli F-16 jet was brought down by a Syrian missile while over Israeli territory. At this point, Israel launched an extensive retaliatory strike on Syrian air defenses and Iranian forces in Syria. This all occurred in one day. It was remarkable because no Israeli plane had been brought down since 1982.

Two months later. seven Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed in an airstrike on a Syrian air base, which Iran blamed as being done by Israel. Mutual threats of retaliation have since been issued by both Iran and Israel.  Ultimately the conflict between the two countries depends on the fate of the nuclear deal. On May 12th Trump is anticipated to issue his decision on the deal.

Meanwhile, Iran is dealing with numerous internal issues. To name a few: a struggling economy, the worst drought in 25 years, increasing civil discontent, public demonstrations, and labor strikes. Last week Iranian President Hassan Rohani banned money exchangers from selling U.S. dollars and Euros. Travelers to nearby countries are limited to purchasing just 500 Euros ($615), while those traveling to more distant countries are limited to purchasing 1,000 Euros. Iranians may not hold more than 10,000 USD or 10,000 Euros.

In Israel, longstanding anti-Netanyahu demonstrations against government corruption have gained in size and sentiment. Saturday’s march in Tel Aviv numbered upwards of 4,000 people. Other more recently organized demonstrations, arranged by the Hadash party and composed of Arab Israelis, protested U.S. strikes on Syrian outside the U.S. Consulate in Haifa this weekend.

Meanwhile in Venezuela. Bloomberg outlines the catastrophic economic crisis:

“Venezuela, which holds the world’s largest oil reserves, has seen a steady decline in production amid lack of money for maintenance and exploration. Venezuela imports about 2 million barrels of heavy naphtha per month, and all of it comes from U.S. Gulf refiners, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.  The U.S. is leaning toward imposing oil-sector sanctions on Venezuela before the country holds April 22 elections that opposition leaders have vowed to boycott, according to a senior State Department official.  The official, who asked not to be identified discussing private talks, stressed that no decision has been made and the U.S. is still weighing the impact such sanctions would have on ordinary Venezuelans as well as on U.S. refiners that import heavy Venezuelan crude.”  (source)

A fire on the Libyan oil pipeline has dramatically reduced their output. Libya suffered a major fire on its major export pipeline that was attributed to terrorist activities this past weekend reducing their oil production from 300,000 barrels per day by at least 80,000 barrels per day. It is unknown how long it will take to make the necessary repairs.

Here’s the conclusion reached by OPEC.

OPEC has been meeting this last week and Reuters reported that a Joint Technical Committee meeting held Thursday found that the glut of global oil supplies has been virtually eliminated, citing two sources familiar with the matter.

“Industry sources have linked this shift in Saudi Arabia’s stance to its desire to support the valuation of state oil company Aramco ahead of the kingdom’s planned sale of a minority stake in an initial public offering.

The supply cut has helped boost oil prices this year to $73 a barrel, the highest since November 2014. Oil began a slide from above $100 – a price that Saudi Arabia endorsed in 2012 – in mid-2014 when growing supply from rival sources such as U.S. shale began to swamp the market. But the kingdom wants the rally to go further. Two industry sources said a desired crude price of $80 or even $100 was circulated by senior Saudi officials in closed-door briefings in recent weeks.” (source)

Some OPEC nations and their allies have pushed for the extension of the output curbs beyond  2018 and up to the middle of  2019, Iraq’s Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi said last month in Baghdad.  (source)

But things are going well for Russia, China, and Qatar.

Bilateral relations between Russia and Qatar have been blossoming lately. This is very likely related to the blockade imposed by Qatar’s Arab neighbors. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt, who collectively imposed a unilateral blockade on Qatar on June 5, cutting diplomatic ties and closing their land, air, and sea borders over Qatar’s alleged support for terrorism.

In response to the blockade, Qatar, the world’s top producer of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), diversified and expanded their opportunities and opened the door to tens of billions in income by selling LNG to China. They are planning on increasing production by 30% by 2024 to meet the demand of the Asian market. China has stepped up to do more business with tiny Qatar in other areas as well. (source)

Old alliances are dissolving and new ones are being created

Plans are being made. Are we just one more hurricane away from losing more of our domestic oil and gas production? Are global geopolitical tensions where they were in the 1970’s?

No, not yet, but there isn’t a lot of margin for error as the world plays a risky game.

Please feel free to share any information from this article in part or in full, giving credit to the author and including a link to The Organic Prepper and the following bio.

Daisy Luther is the author of The Pantry Primer: A Prepper’s Guide To Whole Food on a Half Price Budget.  Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca</e

Cost Of Housing Has Soared So High Americans Are Sliding Into Poverty

Housing prices in the United States continue to rise at unprecedented rates, forcing many into poverty. This worsening epidemic is explained well in a video by The Money GPS and it’s been engineered this way.

As nations increase taxes and regulations, the price of complying also goes up. Many of these hikes are passed onto to those who are already living paycheck to paycheck forcing them to live in poverty. “You came here for the truth, so let me unveil that for you,” says Money GPS.

 

Severe damage to the nation’s economy can occur when people don’t have disposable income. “People are spending a larger and larger share of their income on their housing. This is something they can’t avoid. It’s not as if they are buying a home and can be renting instead, we are talking about people who rent their homes. It’s very serious,” The Money GPS says.

“There’s definitely an issue with the amount that people spend on shelter, electricity, food, and other basic essentials…we have a big problem on our hands. It’s not being addressed and the bubble just keeps getting larger…they keep saying there’s a limited supply [of housing options].”

“The median asking rent for vacant rental units is consistently rising. when you rent prices continuously increasing specifically for vacant rental units.” All this is happening as the rate of homeownership declines as well. So perhaps there is some correlation between market saturation and prices, but we fail to account for the fact that property taxes put a heavy burden on homeownership and those taxes are passed on to renters in the form of higher rents.”

But the YouTube channel Bull Boom Bear Bust says this is all just a part of the global elitist’s plans to force more people into rentals and out of homeownership. According to the description of their video about this issue, it is becoming more and more clear that the central banking fiat currency system was designed to extract wealth from the poor and middle class and further enrich bankers that are creating a nation [sic] of debt servants.

“It’s a global plan,” says the narrator of the video. “These disasters and downturns in the economy are opportunities for the big money and big investors to come in and actually buy these homes.” He then discusses the reasons banks have for not foreclosing on properties right away, and it’s as simple as a wealth transfer from the middle and lower classes to the billionaires and investors:

“A reason why in some cases the banks don’t foreclose on the property right away, not only to keep the home off the market, but it also keeps the financial responsibility of the property onto the previous homeowner. So things like back due property taxes and fines for failure to keep the property up, banks don’t want to take on that responsibility, so technically in many cases, they’ll not take immediate foreclosure proceedings and in some cases, years and then the unpaid debt can come back and destroy the previous homeowner’s credit, and not hurt the bank.”

“This whole system…of the middle class being wiped out and the poor getting poorer, the increase in homelessness, the increase in people going into more and more debt, the shift from home ownership to home occupied to financial companies and institutions and investors owning these homes. This whole system has been engineered from the top down.”

He continues to explain that it all goes back to the Federal Reserve and was designed to break the average family while benefiting those already at the top. We often refer to these people as elitists. They are the politicians who are bought and paid for by corporations who push laws and regulations on the middle class that they themselves are exempt from and can profit immensely by doing. The entire system has been rigged to transfer wealth to the elites in the government and the deep state who pulls the strings.

Peter Schiff: ‘The Price Of Gold Is Going To Soar’ And ‘The Dollar WILL Collapse’

Peter Schiff recently attended the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference. While he was there, he did an interview with Daniela Cambone of Kitco News and Schiff said gold is going to soar.

But Schiff (who predicted the 2008 recession) also explains why he believes now may be a good opportunity to invest in physical gold. Schiff said that the standard sentiment shared by many is that once the Federal Reserve jacks up interest rates, gold will stay level and unaffected. But that didn’t happen. Schiff said that the yellow metal has surprised the initial expectations that it would fall when the Fed raised rates; gold has climbed 9% since the Fed hiked last month.

Gold has not really rallied. It’s been going up, right? But it’s been creeping higher. Now, everybody expected it to fall. Everybody believed that as soon as the Fed hiked rates, gold’s gonna tank. And it didn’t tank. It rallied. -Peter Schiff

Investors tend to sell the rumor of rate hikes and buy the fact when in reality, the higher interest rates are not bearish for gold. But as Peter points out, that mindset still exists in the market.

But you know, the Fed keeps raising rates a little bit, every once in a while, and everybody still believes that, well, the Fed is raising rates, so that’s bearish for gold. So, everybody expects gold to fall, yet it continues to creep higher. But I think once it overcomes some of this resistance –  it has a lot of resistance around $1,350 – and I think if we can decisively move above that and then get above $1,400, just to make sure it’s cleared out, then I think it’s off to the races.

Schiff also touched on the optimism in the markets, as he so often does, claiming still that the tax cuts won’t help much because the size of government hasn’t shrunk.  He also says the rising interest rates will suck up the benefits of those tax cuts either way.

 These tax cuts are not going to provide the economic boos that everybody believes.

I think the impact of rising interest rates and rising consumer prices will more than offset whatever benefits are to be had from the tax cuts. So, I think the economy is going to be weaker despite the tax cuts. I still think we’re heading into recession.

It’s rare to have this much optimism, but there are more problems now than there’s probably ever been, yet everybody is overlooking that. So, at some point, people are going to rush into gold, and the problem is there’s no one that’s going to rush out. So the price, I think, is just going to soar. I think you’re going to see 50 or 100 dollar moves per day up in the price of gold, once we break out.

Schiff holds firm that the consequence of the Federal Reserve manipulating the economy will be the crash of the dollar.

They actually made the bubbles bigger than the ones that popped. So now, the dollar’s collapse is going to be that much bigger, because it’s now a bigger bubble with more air to come out of it. And I think they have no more tricks up their sleeves. When this happens – it’s over.”

 

 

Peter Schiff: Bitcoin Heading To $0, Many Bitcoin Investors Will Lose EVERYTHING

Investor Peter Schiff is warning once again about Bitcoin’s massive speculative bubble. Schiff, who is well-known for predicting the 2008 financial crash, is saying it’s those who are buying in now will be the most vulnerable when Bitcoin hits $0.

“People who got it years ago, even people who got it at the beginning of the year have the opportunity to cash out and make a lot of money. But people who are buying it at these prices or higher prices are going to lose practically everything,” Schiff told RT International Channel. Bitcoin is speculative bubble set to burst at any time, and when it does, many will lose everything.

Schiff’s main concern with Bitcoin echoes that of many preppers, including Mike Adams, the Health Ranger.  “These currencies are going to trade to zero or pretty close to it when the bubble pops,” predicts Schiff. “Right now, the only reason why people are buying bitcoin is because the price is going up. When it turns around, they are not going to sell it for the same reason. There is no value in bitcoin, you can’t use it as money,” Schiff points out. “It’s too slow, too expensive and too vulnerable.”

It also doesn’t physically exist in the way gold and silver do. According to Schiff, there is a problem with fiat currencies. However, there are 1,300 digital currencies with massive inflation. “Even bitcoin itself has spun off bitcoin cash, bitcoin gold. There is no limit to supply of bitcoin-branded worthless tokens that can be created,” he said. But as soon as the price begins a downward trend, Bitcoin will implode.

In the video below, Schiff discusses whether or not buying into Bitcoin is like buying a lottery ticket.

“The only value in the cryptocurrency now is the fact that it’s going up,” Schiff says. “And people are buying it because they believe they’ll be able to sell it to somebody else who also thinks it’s going to keep going up because he can buy it, he can sell it to somebody else who has the same outlook. But as soon as the currency really starts to decline, it’s gonna implode and eventually, it will go down to its true value…I think the ultimate value is going to be $0.”

Schiff says cryptocurrencies are also fiat currencies and stands by his assessment that gold is a real alternative to the mess created by all of the fiat currencies (including the United States’ dollar) which have no real value in the end.

Pharma company threatens shortages to hike up cancer drug prices by 4000%

There is not lack of controversy in the pharmaceutical industry, particularly when it comes to drug prices. Unethical, profit-generating tactics used by Big Pharma have never been clearer than the recent actions taken by South African Aspen Pharmacare. This company tried to drive up the price of five different cancer drugs as much as 4,000 percent. Moreover, it threatened to stop supplying the much-needed medication if health authorities didn’t agree to the higher prices.

Foul Tactics Used to Increase Cancer Drug Prices

Aspen Pharmacare purchased the rights to five different cancer drugs from British firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in 2009. As part of the deal, GSK became one of Aspen’s main investors. It received 16 percent stake in the company, which it sold off in 2013 and 2016.

In 2012, Aspen started to raise cancer drug prices in major European markets such as Britain, Spain, and Italy. The Times reports:

The price rises meant that the cost of busulfan, used by leukaemia patients, rose from £5.20 to £65.22 a pack in England and Wales during 2013, an increase of more than 1,100 per cent. The price of chlorambucil, also used to treat blood cancer, rose from £8.36 to £40.51 a pack in the same year.

When Aspen purchased the rights from GSK, it dropped the brand names. In Britain, the drug maker was able to exploit a loophole that allows companies to raise drug prices for unbranded generics.

In mainland Europe, Aspen targeted health authorities with its price hikes. The Times claims that it has documents and internal emails that show how Aspen “took an ‘aggressive’ approach to negotiations, sometimes creating shortages of the medicines or threatening to stop supplying the drugs altogether to force health authorities to accept its demands.”

For example, Aspen pressured Italian authorities to pay price increases of up to 2,100 percent. The increase took effect over only three months. Moreover, Spanish authorities faced price hikes of up to 4,000 percent. The Spanish Ministry did not agree to pay the higher prices. As a result, Aspen stopped supplying the Spanish market with its five cancer drugs.

In addition to busulfan, Aspen purchased rights to mercaptopurine, a treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which occurs in children. Some of Aspen’s medicines treat several types of cancer particularly prevalent among the elderly.

Big Pharma’s Price Gouging in the U.S.

Price gouging by drug makers is not exclusive to Aspen Pharmacare or the European region. Currently, the United States is one of the most lucrative markets for Big Pharma. This isn’t just because of the sheer amount of people in the U.S. population who take prescription medications. More importantly, in the U.S. drug companies are charging up to 10 times as much for pharmaceuticals when compared to other developed countries.

Alex Pietrowski is an artist and writer concerned with preserving good health and the basic freedom to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. He is a staff writer for WakingTimes.com and Offgrid Outpost, a provider of storable food and emergency kits. Alex is an avid student of Yoga and life.

This article (Pharma Company Threatens Shortages to Hike Up Cancer Drug Prices by 4000%) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Alex Pietrowski and WakingTimes.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement.

Morgan Stanley: Used car prices may crash 50%

For months we’ve been talking about the massive lending bubble propping up the U.S. auto market.  Now, noting many of the same concerns that we’ve highlighted repeatedly, Morgan Stanley’s auto team, led by Adam Jonas, has just issued a report detailing why they think used car prices could crash by up to 50% over the next 4-5 years. 

Here’s the summary (flood of supply, poor lending standards and desperate OEMs who need to keep new car sales elevated at all costs):

• Off-lease supply: This has already more than doubled since 2012 and is set to rise another 25% over the next 2 years.

• Extended credit terms: Auto loans are at record lengths and lease assumptions (residuals, money factor) are at record levels of accommodation.

• Rising rates: Starting from record low levels in auto loans.

• Overdependency on auto ABS: The outstanding balance of auto securitizations has surpassed last cycle’s peak.

• Record high deep subprime participation:32% of subprime auto ABS deals were deep subprime (weighted average FICO < 550) in 2016 vs. 5% in 2010.

• Record high units of new car inventory:2016YE unit inventory levels were near 10% higher than 2015YE, and are continuing to trend higher in 2017.

• OEM price competition: Car manufacturers have capacitized to a 19mm or 20mm SAAR. At this point in the cycle we start seeing more money ‘on the hood’ to move the metal. As new car prices fall, used prices look relatively more expensive, which necessitates a decline in used prices to equilibrate the supply/demand imbalance.

• Increased ADAS penetration: We expect auto firms to achieve nearly 100% active safety penetration by 2020, creating an unprecedented safety gap between new and used vehicles, accelerating obsolescence of the used stock. Rising insurance premiums on older cars could accelerate this shift

• Trouble in the car rental market: Due to a number of secular shifts, including how consumers access transportation options (e.g. ride sharing), car rental firms are facing stagnant growth, weak pricing and over-fleeted conditions. As these cars hit the auction, the impact on prices could be significant.

All of which Morgan Stanley thinks could spark a 50% decline in used car prices over the next couple of years.  So, for all of you pension funds out there scooping up all of the AAA-rated slugs of the latest auto ABS deals for the ‘juicy yield’, now might be a good time to review what happened to the investment grade tranches of MBS structures back in 2009 when home prices crashed by similar amounts.

And here are the stats…

Off-lease volumes have already doubled since 2012 and are only expected to get worse…meanwhile, lending standards have gradually gotten worse and worse…

…as further revealed by the growing share of ‘deep subprime’ loans in auto ABS deals.

Of course, so far negative equity hasn’t been a problem for car buyers because lenders have been all too willing to roll those debt balances into new loans.  And, courtesy of low rates and stretched out terms, consumers haven’t really cared that their debt balances are ballooning so long as their monthly payments remain low.

Meanwhile, none of the warnings about a flood of used car volumes about to hit the market has impacted new car volumes being pushed on to dealer lots.

All of which results in this fairly brutal outlook for used car prices:

Dear OEMs, the first step is admitting you have a problem.

Via Zero Hedge

Featured Image: Zelda Richardson/Flickr

With A Phony Stock Market At 20,000 “Only Precious Metals Give Opportunity To Make REAL Gains”

This article was written by Stefan Gleason and originally published at Money Metals Exchange.

Editor’s Comment: While there is no guarantee about what will happen in the future, it seems certain that holdings in stock are paper thin and vulnerable as hell. Real assets aren’t there; bubbles go bust and boom, and the effect of Federal Reserve stimulus-retreat will leave everything open for manipulation – or even the big crash.

Under these circumstances, and other volatile economic factors, holding onto a certain investment in gold and silver seems only prudent, and perhaps one of the wisest investments an individual can make. Holding physical gold ensures control over the asset itself, and the slip and slide loss on investment in the markets means that these tangible commodities would only increase and appreciate in value during a major economic decline or monetary reset period (such as a transition away from the petrodollar into sort some of digital, global currency, etc.).

Though the state has often attempt to seize and control the trade of gold and silver and its store of wealth, reality dictates that possession of wealth is still an important factor, whether bartering, trading or hedging against a faltering and inept system. At least some of these precious materials should be considered by every serious prepper as one of the most favorable means of exchange during times both rough and relatively normal.

Stock Market Highs Make Strong Case For Precious Metal Buys

by Stefan Gleason

Dow 20,000 was ushered in with great fanfare. Traders on the New York Stock Exchange sported “Dow 20,000” hats. Even President Donald Trump joined the celebration.

Trump told ABC News he was “very honored” that the stock market gave his presidency a symbolic vote of confidence. “Now we have to go up, up, up. We don’t want it to stay there,” he said.

Everyone loves a bull market. Expecting stocks to go up forever, however, is a dangerous mindset to have as an investor. Recent history suggests that major milestones for the Dow should be viewed less as cause for celebration and more as warning signs.

What 1999 Can Teach Us About 2017

A case in point: Dow 10,000. On March 29, 1999, the Dow Jones Industrials closed above 10,000 for the first time ever.

The financial media, of course, cheered the milestone, feeding the public Wall Street propaganda rather than healthy skepticism.

Sure, the perma-bulls will always concede, there might be a pullback at some point. But books like Dow 36,000, released in 1999, bolstered the conventional wisdom that stocks were destined march higher over the next decade.

In fact, stocks went nowhere for 11 long years. The Dow suffered two crashes – one in 2002 and a bigger one in 2008.

In mid 2010, the blue chip average was right back where it was on March 29, 1999. The Dow crossed back above 10,000, as it had dozens of times before, to little fanfare.

It turned out to be the 10,000 cross that mattered. Finally, more than 11 years after the Dow first hit 10,000, stocks were in a new bull market. The Dow was on its way to 20,000.

Anyone thinking of buying stocks at today’s lofty valuations would be well advised to take heed of what happened to investors who bought at Dow 10,000 in 1999 and held on through today.

Yes, they did double their money (before dividends) in nominal terms.

But in real terms, the Dow hasn’t made any progress.

Investors would have been better off selling stocks when the Dow hit 10,000 and using the proceeds to purchase gold bullion.

Back in March 1999, silver sold for $5.20/oz and gold prices traded at a mere $285/oz. Gold values got as high as $1,900/oz in mid 2011 and today come in at $1,200/oz – still more than four times their 1999 levels.

That puts the Dow’s nominal rise from 10,000 to 20,000 in perspective. The index has merely flat-lined, at best, in real terms since 1999. Going forward, it may not even manage to do that.

Trump Knows He Inherited a Bubble

The price/earnings ratio on the Dow is now arguably in bubble territory. Valuations have been artificially inflated in no small part by the Federal Reserve. Last September, candidate Donald Trump called the Fed-fueled market “a big, fat, ugly bubble.”

President Donald Trump no longer sees it that way. Dow 36,000 here we come!

It will come eventually – even if only because of currency debasement. That doesn’t necessarily mean the next 5,000 point move in the Dow will be to the upside.

History suggests that investors will have better odds of making real gains in stocks by waiting to buy at lower valuations. A bear market in equities could commence at any time, and a final bottom could be years away. In the meantime, stocking up on alternative assets including precious metals will give you other opportunities to make real gains regardless of where the Dow heads over the next few years.

Will Trumpflation Be to Metals What Stagflation Was in the 1970s?

Gold and silver markets have posted some of their biggest up moves when the stock market has been down or flat. The stagflationary late 1970s weren’t kind to stocks, but they gave rise to a spectacular bull market in precious metals. It culminated in January 1980 with the price of an ounce of gold briefly equaling the quote on the Dow Jones Industrials.

From 1980 – 2000, Dow to gold ratio moved from as low as 1:1 to as high as 43:1. From 2000 – 2011, it fell to as low 6:1. The Dow to gold ratio now stands at around 17:1. Should it ultimately revisit the 1:1 ratio, we’d be looking at a massive stock market crash, an explosive move higher in precious metals prices, or some combination of both.

Could gold prices one day meet the Dow at 20,000 or some other number? A return to the 1:1 ratio is an extreme scenario, to be sure. But it’s not far fetched at all to suppose that history might repeat itself.

Even if Dow to gold only got back to a 4:1 ratio, moving out of stocks and into precious metals at current levels would be the trade of a lifetime. It would imply a potential $5,000 gold price to a 20,000 Dow – a 317% return on gold versus a 0% return on stocks in this hypothetical scenario.

In any major bull market for precious metals, the more volatile metal – silver – can be expected to post the bigger returns. Silver, being both a precious metal and an industrial metal, may also be well suited to benefit from Donald Trump’s pro-industrial policies. Silver is essential in many areas of manufacturing, especially electronic and high-tech products.

Silver is also one of the world’s most enduring forms of money. Along with gold, silver stands as a “hard” alternative to depreciating fiat currencies and bubbly financial assets.

Stefan Gleason is President of Money Metals Exchange, the national precious metals company named 2015 “Dealer of the Year” in the United States by an independent global ratings group. A graduate of the University of Florida, Gleason is a seasoned business leader, investor, political strategist, and grassroots activist. Gleason has frequently appeared on national television networks such as CNN, FoxNews, and CNBC, and his writings have appeared in hundreds of publications such as the Wall Street Journal, TheStreet.com, Seeking Alpha, Detroit News, Washington Times, and National Review.

This article was written by Stefan Gleason and originally published at Money Metals Exchange.

How investors can profit from the growing Lithium boom

As Tesla fires up its $5-billion (USD) battery gigafactory to mass produce lithium-ion batteries in a historical turning point, lithium prices are set to explode, there has never been a better year to be a lithium company. 

Tesla began mass production of lithium-ion batteries in the first week of January 2017, and by the end of the year, it will have led to a doubling of global battery production capacity. By 2018, Tesla predicts it will churn out 35 gigawatts of batteries per year. It’s a massive amount that surpasses more than what the rest of the world combined produces.

To put it more succinctly, Tesla’s Nevada Gigafactory alone will lead to a doubling of global battery production capacity next year already—and with such limited supply availability, it means a bull run for lithium. If lithium grows at its expected rate of 16 percent annually, it will be the fastest-growing commodity of the century–and junior lithium companies may turn out to be the fastest-growing companies of the century.

Lithium X Energy Corp. (TSX.V: LIX) (OTCQB: LIXXF) is a small-cap lithium company with a large resource (> 1 million tonness LCE) and a dream team that has stormed the new supply scene in a way that would have been unthinkable just a couple of years ago.

Not only does the company have a world-class lithium resource in one of the sweetest lithium spots in the world, but it also has a world-class technical and financial team with a strategic vision that has the potential to turn this into a billion-dollar company.

Here’s why:

#1 Flawless Sector Fundamentals

Lithium stocks continue to rise, and analysts view 2017 as the strongest lithium rise yet because of Tesla’s Model 3 demand. The demand is not even in question: Tesla’s already got some 370,000 reservations and is looking to deliver 100,000 before the end of the year. It’s more a question of supply meeting demand at this point.

Lux Research, a leading independent research, and advisory firm, believes the electric vehicle market will grow to $10 billion within the next four years, while Navigant Research forecasts sales of electric vehicles to increase from 2.6 million in 2015 to over 6 million in 2024.

Last month saw the highest number of EV sales in the U.S.—ever, with sales up 37 percent in 2016 from the previous year. The consensus is that the startup of Tesla’s battery gigafactory will boost that sales growth further and faster.

In the meantime, Tesla isn’t alone—it’s got competitors, and the battery gigafactory scene is heating up quickly. Those competitors need lithium, too.

Demand is set to soar. According to Deutsche Bank, demand for lithium will rise from 209,000 tonnes in 2016 to 534,000 tonnes in 2025.

#2 Prime Lithium Land

When we talk about lithium, we aren’t talking about very many prime locations. More than 70 percent of the world’s known lithium reserves are in the ‘lithium triangle’ of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile. In the U.S., not only is Nevada ground zero for the American lithium boom, but it’s also host to the only lithium mine in the United States—and Lithium X has prime projects in both places.

LIX has a market capitalization of $110 million (USD), but its lithium properties tell a story with a potentially much higher price tag. Other lithium companies operating in the ‘lithium triangle’ have markets caps ranging from $15 million (USD) to $1 billion (USD).

The company is developing its 8,156 hectare Sal de Los Angeles project, situated in the prolific ‘lithium Triangle’ in Salta Province, Argentina. LIX owns the right to mine lithium on 32 claims here, nearby major miner FMC Corp’s Fenix deposit at Salar de Hombre Muerto—one of the biggest lithium operations in the world. Here, Lithium X and its predecessors have already invested some $20 million (USD). And so far, resource estimates confirm the significance of the deposit.

More importantly, Lithium X is also the largest land holder in Nevada’s Clayton Valley, the only producing lithium area in the entire United States. The company has over 15,000 acres in Clayton Valley, adjacent to Albermarle’s Silver Peak mine, the only American lithium producer right now, and about three hours from Tesla’s gigafactory, where flipping the on switch has just created the start of a market frenzy.

#3 Best Operational Team in the World

Though lithium is the hottest commodity of our time, lithium companies—in their purest form—are actually rare. There are only a small number of lithium mining companies on the TSX.V compared to the enormous number of gold companies listed.

What this means from an investor’s viewpoint is that talent is everything with this commodity, and real talent is hard to come by because few have the raw lithium industry executive experience necessary to develop this commodity in a sudden demand surge atmosphere.

It also means that there is a heated battle on to steal the best lithium executives because everyone knows this is where the winners and losers will be determined on this playing field.

It’s also what makes Lithium X stand out. A brief look at the executive set-up here and it all becomes clear: We’ve got people, projects and capital, the three pillars of the mining business and the key to identifying the most promising early-stage mining opportunities.

• Eduardo Morales leads the operating team and has 36 years of experience, former CEO of Rockwood Litio Ltd. And former President of Rockwood Lithium Latin America, who developed Salar de Atacama from grass roots all the way up to a world leader in the production of battery grade lithium carbonate. Thanks to Morales leadership, Rockwood was sold to Albermarle Corporation in 2014 for $6.2 billion (USD).

• Paul Matysek, Lithium X’s executive chairman, is a geochemist and geologist and also a corporate entrepreneur. He’s built up and sold four companies in the past 10 years for over $2.3 billion (USD)—and that includes lithium. 

Brian Paes-Braga, founder and CEO of Lithium X, is a visionary whose touch has so far turned pretty much everything to gold.

• It also helps immensely that equity financing and corporate structuring are the purview of Fiore Advisory, led by Frank Giustra, a Canadian business mogul who really needs no introduction and whose mining prowess is legendary. Giustra’s reputation for financing high-level, successful natural resource deals means capital follows him around automatically. In fact, the industry calls it the “Giustra Premium”. This is where we see the ‘smart money’ getting into lithium at the right time.

And there’s no question about commitment, with roughly 20% insider ownership. They won’t settle for anything short of another big success.

Indeed, from their perspective, success is imminent. The company is advancing full speed ahead and looking to convert resources into reserves at a fast pace. In Argentina, construction on a 2,500-tonne pilot ponding facility should be permitted within the next 6 months, or sooner, in a JV agreement, and the contractor for this project is ready to mobilize. This will be a major step towards full-scale lithium production.

The LIX dream team has extensive experience and demonstrated success in Argentina, and just as importantly, the capacity to raise money. And in the emerging lithium boom, those who advance fastest in the race to production will be rewarded handsomely. LIX is working on its feasibility study, which is the last technical step to production–where investment turns into profit.

With Tesla already fired up and the hunger for lithium-ion batteries more voracious than ever before, the race to new lithium production is on, and it will be the best and brightest executive team that win when the dust on this energy revolution settles.

Elon Musk has already said Tesla “needs to absorb the entire world’s lithium production” adding that he, “will seek American lithium sources first. ” With Tesla already inking early stage supply agreements in the Clayton Valley region already… the time to move on this opportunity is now.

We fully expect Lithium X (TSX.V: LIX) (OTCQB: LIXXF)—whose ambition is to become a billion-dollar company—to emerge on the top when that happens. 

By James Burgess of

By James Burgess of Oilprice.com



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Myth-Busters: Trump To Give Us ‘Always Higher Prices’?

President-Elect Trump held his first press conference in quite some time. While it may be entertaining to watch him battle with the media, there are some tough and challenging consequences heading our way when it comes to Trump’s stated policies. Ron Paul discusses on today’s Myth-Busters!

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Proof Gold Prices Are Manipulated: Plot to “Negate Long-Term Hoarding By U.S. Citizens”

This article was written by Clint Siegner and originally published at Money Metals Exchange.

Editor’s Comment: For years, those close to gold and silver investing have understood the ongoing suppression. Having competing currencies and alternate stores of value invades upon the hegemony of the fiat currency system. With the set up of a futures market, the bankers could have it all – limit the physical holdings in gold, and collect money of the suckers in the bubble. Trading on 90%+ non-existent commodities, the financial markets did what they have done with other assets – make it difficult for outsiders to store value and get ahead.

In the long run, however, the fiat currency system is doomed to collapse, and those who are prepared will always have back-ups, fail-safes and other alternatives to turn to. With hard evidence of manipulation, perhaps prosecutions and regulation reforms could even peg gold back near reality sometime in the foreseeable future. What is today trading at $1191 may really be worth $3,000, $4,000 or $5,000 grand. The question is: who controls reality?

Gold Prices Are Being Hacked

by Clint Siegner

Major U.S. and international banks cheat their customers and rig markets. Revelations have been piling up since the 2008 financial crisis. Hundreds of billions have been paid in fines, penalties, and settlements. The fraud, price manipulation, lying, and theft – once considered conspiracy theories – are now incontrovertible conspiracy facts.

This reality is dawning now in the precious metals industry. GATA, the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, labored for years making the case for price manipulation in the markets. They, and others, made a powerful argument complete with price charts and trading patterns that simply could not be explained in free and fair markets.

But their argument was universally disregarded by regulators and largely ignored by major players inside the industry. Gold and silver miners, refiners, and users never took meaningful action to combat price rigging, even as price volatility wreaked havoc in their business. GATA lacked enough “smoking gun” evidence, and most people simply assumed their claims couldn’t be true.

The recent settlement deal in which Deutsche Bank handed over 350,000 pages of internal documents and more than 70 voice recordings is changing that. Attorney’s behind class action suits against a handful of major banks say the trove of information is “smoking gun” evidence of a widespread and systemic campaign to cheat customers and rig markets.

It is one thing to look at trading data and surmise that someone is trying to manipulate prices. It’s another to see chat logs where traders laugh about actually manipulating prices and sticking it to unwitting market participants:

June 8, 2011

UBS [Trader A]: and if u have stops…

UBS [Trader A]: oh boy

Deutsche Bank [Trader B]: HAHA

Deutsche Bank [Trader B]: who ya gonna call!

Deutsche Bank [Trader B]: STOP BUSTERS

Deutsche Bank [Trader B]: deh deh deh deh dehdehdeh deh deh deh deh dehdehdeh

Deutsche Bank [Trader B]: haha16

The chat above, and a host of others like it, demonstrate what GATA has been saying for almost 20 years. The metals markets are a playground for unscrupulous bankers, and price discovery is completely dishonest.

It looks more and more like these phony markets are working just as officials in our government hoped. Here is an excerpt from a memo sent from London to the U.S. Treasury Department in 1974, compliments of Wikileaks:

TO THE DEALERS’ EXPECTATIONS, WILL BE THE FORMATION OF A SIZABLE GOLD FUTURES MARKET. EACH OF THE DEALERS EXPRESSED THE BELIEF THAT THE FUTURES MARKET WOULD BE OF SIGNIFICANT PROPORTION AND PHYSICAL TRADING WOULD BE MINISCULE BY COMPARISON. ALSO EXPRESSED WAS THE EXPECTATION THAT LARGE VOLUME FUTURES DEALING WOULD CREATE A HIGHLY VOLATILE MARKET. IN TURN, THE VOLATILE PRICE MOVEMENTS WOULD DIMINISH THE INITIAL DEMAND FOR PHYSICAL HOLDING AND MOST LIKELY NEGATE LONG-TERM HOARDING BY U.S. CITIZENS.

The “expectations” were spot on. The futures markets have been plagued by extraordinary volatility, paper trading is hundreds of times bigger than physical trading, and ownership of bullion today is a tiny fraction of what it once was.

A conspiracy theorist might say our government has an interest in undermining gold as money, in favor of the fiat dollar.

Officials view the futures markets as an essential tool for achieving those ends.

Price volatility, concentrated short selling, and pain for metals investors serves to discourage ownership so regulatory agencies like the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) turn a blind eye.

After all the CFTC spent five years investigating price rigging in silver and failed to prosecute a single case. One wonders how they managed to miss what appears to be overwhelming evidence of systemic cheating, and if the trove of documents and voice recordings now available will be grounds enough to reopen an investigation.

The civil courts, not the regulators, appear to be metals investors best shot at recovery of some of what has been stolen from them in these rigged markets, and for moving toward free and honest price discovery. The Deutsche Bank settlement and the evidence it produced is changing the game.

Last week, Keith Neumeyer of First Majestic Silver, one of the largest primary silver producers in the world, announced he hopes to join in the class action. He is also working to recruit other big players in the industry. Mr. Neumeyer will be our guest on the Money Metals podcast to discuss these issues Friday. Stay tuned.

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Clint Siegner is a Director at Money Metals Exchange, the national precious metals company named 2015 “Dealer of the Year” in the United States by an independent global ratings group. A graduate of Linfield College in Oregon, Siegner puts his experience in business management along with his passion for personal liberty, limited government, and honest money into the development of Money Metals’ brand and reach. This includes writing extensively on the bullion markets and their intersection with policy and world affairs.

This article was written by Clint Siegner and originally published at Money Metals Exchange.