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Silver soars to 31-year high
Gold rose over 1 per cent to a near-record and silver surged Thursday as dollar weakness, inflation worries and a European debt crisis powered bullion to its biggest one-day gain in about seven weeks.
Silver futures soared to their highest since 1980, rising more than 4 per cent for their biggest one-day gain since November, as strong investment and speculative buying sent the gold/silver ratio to a low.
Gold received a boost from inflation worries triggered by a crude oil rally and data showing rising U.S. core producer prices in March, and as higher-than-expected jobless claims knocked the dollar.
“The combination of higher oil prices, weaker dollar and the resurrection of discussions of Greek sovereign risk problems has galvanized the gold market. It’s particularly impressive because we ran into selling above the market yesterday,” said James Steel, chief commodity analyst at HSBC.
Spot gold rose 1.4 per cent to $1,474.30 an ounce by 4:02 p.m. ET, within striking distance of its record $1,476.21 set on Monday. U.S. gold futures for June delivery settled up $16.80 at $1,472.40 an ounce.
Investors grew jittery on talk of debt restructuring by Greece, the first euro zone member to receive a bailout a year ago in the crisis Read more…
World Bank: Food prices have entered the ‘danger zone’
Robert Zoellick, World Bank president, said food prices are at “a tipping point”, having risen 36pc in the last year to levels close to their 2008 peak. The rising cost of food has been much more dramatic in low-income countries, pushing 44m people into poverty since June last year.
Another 10pc rise in food prices would push 10m into extreme poverty, defined as an effective income of less than $1.25 a day. Already, the world’s poor number 1.2bn.
Mr Zoellick said he saw no short term reversal in the damaging effect of food inflation, which is felt much more in the developing world as packaging and distribution accounts for a far larger proportion of the cost in the advanced economies.
Asked if he thought prices would remain high for a year, Mr Zoellick said: “The general trend lines are ones where we are in a danger zone… because prices have already gone up and stocks are relatively low.”
Rising prices have been driven by the changing diet of the ballooning middle classes in the emerging markets. “There is a demand change going on, with the higher incomes in developing countries. People will eat more meat products, for example, that will use more grain.
“I am not suggesting that the improved diets in the developing world are the source of the problem but it means it takes longer to Read more…
Solar Activity Heats Up
April 14, 2011: If you’ve ever stood in front of a hot stove, watching a pot of water and waiting impatiently for it to boil, you know what it feels like to be a solar physicist.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded this X1.5-class solar flare on March 9, 2011. [movie]
Back in 2008, the solar cycle plunged into the deepest minimum in nearly a century. Sunspots all but vanished, solar flares subsided, and the sun was eerily quiet.
“Ever since, we’ve been waiting for solar activity to pick up,” says Richard Fisher, head of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC. “It’s been three long years.”
Quiet spells on the sun are nothing new. They come along every 11 years or so—it’s a natural part of the solar cycle. This particular solar minimum, however, was lasting longer than usual, prompting some researchers to wonder if it would ever end.
News flash: The pot is starting to boil. “Finally,” says Fisher, “we are beginning to see some action.”
As 2011 unfolds, sunspots have returned and they are crackling with activity. On February 15th and again on March 9th, Earth orbiting satellites detected a pair of “X-class” solar flares–the most powerful kind of x-ray flare. The last such eruption occurred back in December 2006.
Another eruption on March 7th hurled a billion-ton cloud of plasma away from the sun at five million mph (2200 km/s). The rapidly expanding cloud wasn’t aimed directly at Earth, but it did deliver a glancing blow to our planet’s magnetic field. The off-center impact on March 10th was enough to send Northern Lights spilling over the Canadian border into US states such as Read more…
World sea attacks surge with more violent pirates
AP
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Sea piracy worldwide hit a record high of 142 attacks in the first quarter this year as Somali pirates become more violent and aggressive, a global maritime watchdog said Thursday.
Nearly 70 percent or 97 of the attacks occurred off the coast of Somalia, up sharply from 35 in the same period last year, the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur said in a statement.
Attackers seized 18 vessels worldwide, including three big tankers, in the January-March period and captured 344 crew members, it said. Pirates also murdered seven crew members and injured 34 during the quarter.
“Figures for piracy and armed robbery at sea in the past three months are higher than we’ve ever recorded in the first quarter of any past year,” said the bureau’s director Pottengal Mukundan.
He said there was a “dramatic increase in the violence and techniques” used by Somali pirates to counter increased patrols by international navies, putting large tankers carrying oil and other flammable chemicals at highest risk to firearm attacks.
Of the 97 vessels attacked off Somalia, he said 37 were tankers including 20 with more than 100,000 deadweight tonnes.
International navies have taken a tougher stance against pirates, with the Indian navy alone arresting 120 mostly Somalian pirates over the past few months. The U.S. and other nations have also prosecuted suspects caught by their militaries, although some were released as countries weigh legal issues and other factors.
Mukundan said the positions of some of the attackers’ mother ships were known and called for stronger action to be taken against these mother ships to prevent further hijackings. Pirates held some 28 ships and nearly 600 hostages as of end-March, the bureau said.
Elsewhere, nine attacks were reported off Malaysia and five in Nigeria in the first quarter.
Nigerian vote must succeed for Africa: Ghana ex-president
(AFP)
ABUJA — Nigeria must hold a credible presidential election this weekend since failing to do so could set a disastrous example for the rest of the continent, Ghana ex-president John Kufuor said Thursday.
ex-president of Ghana John Kufuor
Kufuor, widely respected for having bowed out gracefully following his two terms in office in nearby Ghana, is heading an observer team from the African Union in Saturday’s election in the continent’s most populous nation.
“It’s very important that we should get this election right for the good of the image of Africa,” the 72-year-old told AFP in an interview.
“There are other elections pending in many parts of our continent. If things should go awry here, I am afraid to think of what may transpire elsewhere. Nigeria is too important for Africa.”
Kufuor stepped down in Ghana in 2009 after two four-year tenures in a peaceful transition after a closely fought election in which his party’s candidate lost to the opposition by less than one percent.
On what Nigeria, also Africa’s largest oil producer, could learn from Ghana’s elections, Kufuor said, “Nigeria, I believe, should serve itself well by playing by the rules… That’s all they need to do.”
Parliamentary polls held last weekend were seen as a major step forward for the country, which is seeking to break from a series of violent and deeply flawed elections.
But a first attempt to hold the polls a week before had to be postponed after personnel and materials failed to arrive in a large Read more…
BRICS demand global monetary shake-up, greater influence
(L-R) India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev, China's President Hu Jintao, Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff and South African President Jacob Zuma attend a joint news conference at the BRICS Leaders Meeting in Sanya, Hainan province April 14, 2011. The development banks of the five BRICS nations agreed in principle on Thursday to establish mutual credit lines denominated in their local currencies, not in dollars. REUTERS/How Hwee Young/Pool
SANYA, China (Reuters) – The BRICS group of emerging-market powers kept up the pressure on Thursday for a revamped global monetary system that relies less on the dollar and for a louder voice in international financial institutions.
The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa also called for stronger regulation of commodity derivatives to dampen excessive volatility in food and energy prices, which they said posed new risks for the recovery of the world economy.
Meeting on the southern Chinese island of Hainan, they said the recent financial crisis had exposed the inadequacies of the current monetary order, which has the dollar as its linchpin.
What was needed, they said in a statement, was “a broad-based international reserve currency system providing stability and certainty” — thinly veiled criticism of what the BRICS see as Washington’s neglect of its global monetary responsibilities.
The BRICS are worried that America’s large trade and budget deficits will eventually debase the dollar. They also begrudge the financial and political privileges that come with being the leading reserve currency.
“The world economy is undergoing profound and complex changes,” Chinese President Hu Jintao said. “The era demands that the BRICS countries strengthen dialogue and cooperation.”
In another dig at the dollar, the development banks of the five BRICS nations agreed to establish mutual credit lines denominated in their local currencies, not the U.S. currency.
The head of China Development Bank (CDB), Chen Yuan, said he was prepared to lend up to 10 billion yuan to fellow BRICS, and his Russian counterpart said he was looking to borrow the yuan equivalent of at least $500 million via CDB.
“We think this will undoubtedly broaden the opportunities for Russian companies to diversify their loans,” Vladimir Dmitriev, the chairman of VEB, Read more…
Busted: TSA lied about promise not to grope children
TSA has defended the groping of a 6 year-old girl, saying it followed policy. Yet in Nov. 2010, TSA vowed no ‘enhanced’ pat-downs for children under 12.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) contradicted itself, even to the point of outright lying, in responding to controversy about a 6 year-old girl who received a groping pat-down AFTER already being sent through a body scanner. The video went viral after appearing on DrudgeReport.com and many other sites. TSA typically explained away this unnerving experience that left the girl in tears by arguing that the action is perfectly normal, follows all procedures and keeps us safe from terrorism, all, of course, in the name of ‘safety.’
You see, the TSA rationalized in its latest defense that, “terrorists are willing to manipulate societal norms to evade detection.” Thus, TSA would have it, we must abandon societal norms [and laws] like not touching children in their private parts, and instead subject them to pre-crime inspections. According to the logic, no women & children, little old ladies or men handicapped in wheelchairs or implanted with modern medical devices, no body Read more…
Stink bugs hit fruits, vegetables, field crops, also go into houses
A female version of the brown marmorated stink bug.
The Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) reported the coming of Asian stink bugs in January, and a report Monday morning said they are confirmed in Ingham, Eaton, Genessee and Berrien counties.
They do not bite or sting, but well, they do stink.
And, as is a big concern to the MDA and producers, they ruin fruit and other crops.
“Exotic pests such as the brown marmorated stink bug pose a serious threat to the economic health of Michigan’s $71.3 billion agri-food industry and our 53,000 farmers,” said Keith Creagh, MDA director. “MDA and Michigan State University researchers will work in concert to both identify control recommendations for our agriculture community, as well as monitor this pest’s spread in the state.”
For those who like to get technical, they are the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) or Halyomorpha halys (Stål).
The complete story appears in the Tuesday, April 12, 2011 edition and is available at coldwaterdailyreporter.mi.newsmemory.com.Report Asian stink bugs
BMSB superficially resembles several common species of stink bug native to Michigan. To distinguish them from other stink bugs, look for lighter bands on the antennae and darker bands on the membranous, overlapping part at the rear of the front pair of wings. They have patches of coppery or bluish-metallic colored punctures (small rounded depressions) on the head and pronotum. Those who believe they may have the pest should contact the local Michigan State University Extension office at (517) 279-4311.
For more information on brown marmorated stink bug, one can visit http://www.michigan.gov/mda.
China-Russia relations and the United States: At a turning point?
By Dr. Richard WeitzSince the end of the Cold War, the improved political and economic relationship between Beijing and Moscow has affected a range of international security issues. China and Russia have expanded their bilateral economic and security cooperation. In addition, they have pursued distinct, yet parallel, policies regarding many global and regional issues.
Yet, Chinese and Russian approaches to a range of significant subjects are still largely uncoordinated and at times in conflict. Economic exchanges between China and Russia remain minimal compared to those found between most friendly countries, let alone allies.
Although stronger Chinese-Russian ties could present greater challenges to other countries (e.g., the establishment of a Moscow-Beijing condominium over Central Asia), several factors make it unlikely that the two countries will form such a bloc.
The relationship between the Chinese and Russian governments is perhaps the best it has ever been. The leaders of both countries engage in numerous high-level exchanges, make many mutually supportive statements, and manifest other displays of Russian-Chinese cooperation in what both governments refer to as their developing strategic partnership.
The current benign situation is due less to common values and shared interests than to the fact that Chinese and Russian security concerns are Read more…
Details Emerge on North Korean Missile Launch Site
North Korea’s second missile launch complex is five times bigger than its first site and seems to be better shielded from a potential attack, the Korea Herald reported on Monday (see GSN, Feb. 18).
In addition to being much larger than the first launch installation at Musudan-ri, the Dongchang-ri complex along the North’s west coast is also closer to China, which is likely to make any attack on the site more complicated for South Korean and U.S. forces, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported.
An underground missile fueling center has been constructed at Dongchang-ri in order to escape monitoring by U.S. spy satellites. The facility also has the ability to house liquid fuels for extended periods of time, according to the article.
Work on the facility started in 2002, 10 years after the Musudan-ri site was set up, government sources told the Chosun Ilbo. Recent reports have suggested that construction of the Dongchang-ri site has been completed.
Dongchang-ri is located just 43 miles from the Yongbyon nuclear complex where North Korea has carried out much of its nuclear weapons development efforts. The proximity to Yongbyon would lessen the time and expense of transporting nuclear warheads for attachment to missiles at the new launch site, analysts said.
Pyongyang is not believed to have yet developed the ability to miniaturize nuclear warheads for fielding on long-range ballistic missiles (Song Sang-ho, Korea Herald, April 11).
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