ZIRP til at least late 2014 - Sounds like a healthy outlook! [not]. But - alas - sell your paper metals. 

Damned joke of an economy just keeps chugging along with the same background tune.

We finally did it! We discontinued cable service and went over the air for free HD TV. Had some help from my son, but it went really well. bought a $60 antenna, and a $24 amplifier, returning the amp as it was not needed. we wired through the existing satellite dish wiring so our son was able to go home with all his coax wiring untouched. also switched to VOIP phone service. Was able to keep same phone # and become unlisted for free. Again, all the same wiring from cable phone was used so that the phones upstairs still plug into the wall. I wasn't sure how that would work, but it did. I am very happy!

It will be an adjustment, but we really needed a better diet of news than what we were getting from cable. and the price we had to pay for their total crap!

Monday was our last day. all the news was Walmart mexican corruption. well, what about MF Global corruption? And I could go on about corruption in the western developed nations, but won't. during that time on Monday, zero hedge posted that the Russian exchanged literally closed due to emergency. Any news on that? not a thing, all day long.

Did I miss any updates on the russian exchange? is there any news about it floating in the Ethernet?

I just checked out Apmex and they have lots of junk silver/90% right now.  Most of the premiums seem high and I'm not into buying a dime for well over $3.00 right now.  What I want to buy more of is gold and I'm not in that type of spending mood right now.

I think I'll wait and see what the man behind the microphone has to say today. My guess is that it will be mostly neutral and not very accommodating and that the Fed is silently concentrating more on the EU then on any announcement today of QE for the U.S. markets

Stealth QE has probably been happening this whole time and just enough to keep the U.S. market afloat and bobbing up and down. I think they'll hold onto their QE ammo just a bit longer and hold off on any asset purchases or however they'll characterize it.

Today we'll get double talk from the bearded one and then a steady parade of Fed Heads over the next few days and this weekend to totally frame and mischaracterize everything you thought you heard today.  The MSM is a powerful Fed tool and they'll use it for all it's worth and it doesn't cost anything at all. Pretty cost effective if you ask me. If I were them I'd milk it for everything they can squeeze out of it. Isn't that what they're currently starting to do already with greater frequency? 

Surreal or business as normal?

First post, registered to comment on AAPL.    Is Apple stock reminding anyone of Cisco in 1999?  People calling for the first trillion dollar market cap (only on inflation if so).  Apple Shareholders Hang On.   This is crazy:

Watching Apple shares soar more than 77 percent over the past 12 months...

Practically none of them said they plan to sell, a loyalty that gives some of their financial planners heartburn.  That's not to say they aren't treating themselves - or breathing a little easier.

Marinovich said the comfort of his Apple investment cushion means more freedom in his spending habits. He recently bought himself a $2,000 Omega watch and is shopping for a new Audi to replace his Volkswagen Jetta.

Retiree Pat Harshbarger, 79, has seen her $13,800 investment inApple rise to $46,000. That paper wealth has made the former nurse comfortable enough to consider taking a few more trips to Maine to visit family and one to Las Vegas, where she and her husband want to try their hand at the slot machines, she said.

Seventy-one years old Stan Merkin, a retired Dell and IBM programmer whose portfolio has gained about $100,000 just by buying Apple since late last year, said he will buy another 50 shares if the stock hits $650. "What I have made in Apple gives me comfort about how I can live in retirement," he said.

Many loyal Apple shareholders see the stock as a "safety net" for their futures, one they believe only goes up.

Cisco was invincible at one time too.   And like Cisco, Apple's chart is looking like a rhino horn.   As a long time trader, I know to always sell rhino horns (or unicorns, if that's your thing).

I feel bad for a lot of these folks.

Brief intro: world traveler, with 3 passports, but no true home.  While currently staying in the US, no longer consider the US my home.  Stacking internationally, investing in resource stocks, and trading other markets as I see fit.   Trying to avoid overbearing govts as best I can.

I think I just missed the Fed news while typing that last post. The comments above me indicate no news or anything surprising.  

No surprise here.

Takes resolve to stay the ground after that knee-jerk reaction in gold and silver prices. 

So, between now and the next FOMC meeting, anything can happen:

1. Israel attacks Iran

2. Arab spring 2.0

3. Pain in Spain

4. Hollande wins

5. N. Korea nuke test

Feels like a bottom for now. I'm sticking this out! 

Good call Turd!

wow. they're coming out of the woodwork today (or is it generally around FOMC meetings?). 

looks healthy.

good call on the silver, Turd.

When I saw Gartman on CNBC after FOMC, I just knew I had to stay the course! 

No QE for a long, long time, he says.  Big moves up may not require a QE catalyst (the world's a big place with many central bankers!).

!

if i've ever seen one

The Fed bought 61% of all the U.S.'s debt last year.  Without the Fed buying this debt there would quickly be failed auctions which would cause interest rates on the debt to shoot up which would quickly make its cost prohibitive while simultaneously making mortgage rates shoot up and thereby crushing the value of real estate.

The Fed never stopped Quantitative Easing.

We don't need to read tea leaves or sift through the entrails of a goat sacrificed outside the Marriner Eccles building to figure out what ambiguous phrasings from Bernanke actually portend for the possibility of quantitative easing.

It never stopped.  It can't. 

THE FED, THE TACTICS & THE RESULT

The United States and the world heads closer to a systemic breakdown, and the DOW heads higher, and GOLD & SILVER get clobbered once again.  Here is an update to my DOW vs GLD-SLV-HUI chart:

Just look how far they have pushed down the HUI index compared to the DOW JONES.  The FED's tactic is to crush gold-silver and to destroy any motivation to buy the precious metal stocks whatsoever.  With their FOMC minutes, investors think there is no QE coming.  SILLY INVESTORS... QE never stopped.  Jim Willie will probably have this written on his grave stone "WILL QE 3 COME?"

Jim Willie is just as tired of the fricken FARCE as I am.  Let's take a look at the Currency in Circulation:

This is a one year chart of CIC.  From the beginning of 2012, there is another $30 billion dollars of currency in circulation.  Let's take a look at the M2 Money Supply:

That's a nice chart....but here's the exact figures:

The M2 Money Supply has risen a nice $215 billion in the past 3+ months... or $70 billion a month.  WHERE ON EARTH DID THIS COME FROM?  I imagine out of the THIN FRICKEN AIR.

I have seen another Metal Analyst from Hawood Securities say the following about SILVER:

Although Haywood Securities' silver price forecast remain unchanged at US$36 per ounce this year and long-term US$20/oz, analyst Chris Thompson advises that he continues to see potential for higher near-term silver prices at an average of US$36 per ounce this year.

Haywood Securities has forecast a silver price of $32.50 in 2013, $29.50 in 2014, $28 in 2015 and $24 in 2016.

Meanwhile, provided the economic environment stays supportive for the development of a number of key silver projects, Haywood sees potential growth in mined silver supply from 716 million ounces last year to more than 1 billion ounces of annual silver production in 2016.

-----------------------------------------------

$24 dollars an ounce for silver in 2016.  Does Mr. Thompson have any idea what the cost will be to produce a ounce of silver in 2016?  Haywood also states that there will be a BILLION ounces of silver  mined by 2016.  Let me tell you all something... there is no way silver mining will increase 31% in five years.  If Chile is having so much trouble getting energy to mine Copper, how the HELL will the mining industry produce this much silver??

You see that sort of LUNACY I have to read every day.  The most frustrating part about this to me is that these CLOWNS get paid big bucks to write this sort of NONSENSE, while I do it for free.   That is why my wife thinks I am crazy.