How I did these shots! (Live youtube video)

All of these shots were taken at the exact same spot, within minutes.  Here's the video on how I did it (I call it the reverse custom white balance technique)

DEBT LIMIT HAS BEEN RAISED - I TOLD YOU IT WOULD

I also told you (read below) that all three ratings agencies are going to keep the USA at AAA rating, and that this whole thing will quietly disappear from the media until past the next election.  This afternoon Fitch and Moody's just kept the USA's AAA rating, and S&P I am sure will keep it too.  Which makes no sense.  Greece just got cut to CCC because IT'S IN THE SAME SITUATION WE ARE - in danger of default.

Unbelievable.

The USA is a spoiled, petulant little bully of a boy who doesn't want to give up its Kim Kardashian handbags in OK Magazine.  But month after month, your purchasing power is going away (look at the price of gas).  

Hyperinflation is coming to the US.  It's the only way to get out of this 1:1 debt to GDP ratio unless of course, the economy takes off, which it won't.  

I always ask the two most important questions when evaluating an asset.  1) is the value perceived or real?  2) is the price change sustainable?

When you ask those questions, it's super easy to see where, as Alan Greenspan said about financial forecasting - "it's determining where imbalances will ultimately resolve".  Reading Greenspan's book was an amazing experience because he's so book smart but has no real common sense about human behavior and greed.

Gold hit a huge number today - breezed right by $1,650.  It's up 40% in the last 12 months, and has been trending upward since I started telling y'all about it when it was $254/oz.  What other asset class does this?

Here's another thing.  I've only ever lost in one investment.  It was Iomega stock, and my dad told me it was a hot tip.  

I have never, ever lost a dollar in any investment in my whole life where I researched the asset, using the two questions above.  That's all you need to know, it's that simple.

Obama's Next Week Speech, Today

He'll go on the tube sometime this coming week and say:

• He will call the so-called "debt crisis" over
• He will congratulate Congressional leadership for putting partisanship aside and our country's needs first
• ... something about a time for healing
• ... and now we must move on
• America has asked for less debt, and it's going to be a time of shared sacrifice.
• ... he'll outline the steps - but a lot of them won't kick in until past the 2012 election
• He will reiterate that debt backed by the US Government is solid - it has been for 239 years.  While partisan bickering is at a fever pitch, when it comes right down to it, America understands that when it takes a debt, it will pay it back

Federal Reserve will buy a chunk of treasuries by selling gold this time.  Dumping gold will make the price go down, (probably a lot) and buying treasuries will of course, increase the return on treasuries which will do two things: 1) entice the international investor that treasuries is a fast cha-ching and that 2) it will show that Gold went up because of the Fear Factor.

Even though the ratings agencies said that they'd lower the AAA rating of US Backed paper, they won't because of the "dramatic decrease in Government spending that was signed into law by the bill that is about to pass the house (you know, the one to raise the debt ceiling) and to restore credibility to the Agencies - news outlets in the US are going to say that this is the right call, because Greece isn't realistic about cutting their spending, so the U.S. is different.

Lastly, news will move to something else, just like it did about the big oil spill in the Gulf.   Do you remember that?  Whatever happened to the "worst environmental crisis in history?"

Remember, every man for himself.  This is great for Obama.  Great for the Tea Party.  Great for center-line republicans.  Great for wall street.  Gret for stress-relief.  Great for China, Japan and all of the countries who don't want to see their trillions of dollars in Treasuries go worthless in an instant.

But the pressure remains.  Remember - financial forecasting is predicting how imbalances will ultimately resolve.  And of course comes my value question - is this trend sustainable?

YOU HAVE GOT TO SEE THIS!

HE WON'T RETURN THE PRESIDENT'S PHONE CALLS

I may have underestimated the lengths half of the U.S. will go through to make things tough on Obama.  Members of the house have been saying they'll do anything they can to vote against the President.  I just never thought they'd have the anger and hatred would extend to self-destruction, but this is fanaticism.  I think people will do whatever they can to make Obama's Presidency a rough one.

They passed the first 4pm deadline, which they wanted to meet before the Asian markets opened.  It's still at a stalemate.

My question is this.  Does having the speaker of the house refusing to answer the President's phone call in the best interest of the country?  What if Obama called to say, "I'll take your deal".   He had no idea what the phone calls was about.  Gold is up $26 today because of the possibility of default.  I thought this was a ploy, but this is really a suicide mission.  The republicans want power so bad, they'll topple the country to make sure this administration has a disaster under his watch.  

But we will remember - it was Boehner who did this.