By Stephanie Quach

The US has long been the world’s superpower. In a world with a unipolar hegemony, the US gets to be the big bully of the playground while the other countries get to be little victims or supporters of the US who secretly yearn to be just as powerful. Of all the other countries, China seems to the most jealous of all. And they have been conscientiously working towards that goal of theirs. They are now the 5th largest gold reserve in the world, up 76% from 2002. Pretty impressive, I just wonder where they find space to hide their gold bars, considering the fact that China’s population is so large.

Ever seen those “Cash for Gold” advertisements on television and in the mall? I certainly hope that you were smart enough to not believe in those advertisements. Sure, they might actually give you a little cash for the gold you give them. However, it is really no use exchanging gold for cash since the value of the greenback has been dropping while the value of gold has been rising. Seriously, if I were president, I would eliminate every single one of those “Cash for Gold” stores and advertisements. And if you ever were so desperate for money, you could always go to a pawn shop instead. A further benefit of pawn shops is the wide variety of things that they accept. On top of gold , you can pawn off a whole portfolio of items such as watches, Channel handbags and so on.

On the other hand, China has been much smarter. They are doing the exact opposite. The Chinese government is urging people to buy gold and silver, rather than sell them away. Those that obeyed the government must be extremely happy since gold suddenly shot up to a high of $1006.40 on Sept 11, 2009.

Yes, the Chinese people do love gold, just like many Asians, but they are not buying gold just because they want to hang it around their necks or make new better quality dentures. Even the Chinese people seem to be losing faith in the greenback, and are getting rid of it by spending the dollar and replacing it with gold . Gold is certainly much more reliable as a store of value than the greenback.

The Chinese are definitely trying to snatch away the crown from the US and put it on their heads, so that they can be crowned as the world’s superpower. They want the renminbi to replace the US dollar as the world’s global reserve currency according to Ronald Fricke president of Regal Assets . If that ever happens, be ready to flock to China Banknote Printing and Minting (CBPMC), the company in charge of currency production. They will certainly be hiring workers and tree lumbers. That will be followed by a huge bonfire to burn useless greenbacks.

This situation has many implications. How would the yuan be valued? Currently, its value is determined by a basket of currencies, which includes the US Dollar. China would certainly not want to go down the drain with the greenback. Or will China peg its currency to gold? Or maybe even silver?

At this point, nobody knows what China will do. You will probably get sick of seeing Chairman Mao’s face on every single bill you have, especially considering the fact that he isn’t exactly that hot and is in need of some major eyebrow waxing and hair implants…

By Stephanie Quach

The title says it all. Do not believe anything the FDIC says. Do not believe Sheila Bair, Chairman of the FDIC. Firstly, she graduated from the University of Kansas, which is not an Ivy League school. Secondly, she failed to go to a better law school and attended the same school for her graduate studies. According to top-laws-school-rankings.com, University of Kansas ranks #65 in the nation, you do not even need a GPA of 3.5 to get in. Wow, and this lady is in charge of FDIC ? It is safe to say we are in hot soup. On top of being a chairman of the FDIC and a mother of 2 kids, she is also an author and wrote, Isabel’s Car Wash. Car Wash? I never knew we needed a book to teach us how to wash your car! Who knows, this book may be more effective than Nyquil.

Fine, let’s stop making fun of Bair. Let’s talk about her superpowers instead. Bair promises to insure $6.2 trillion in deposits, while having only $10.4 billion in reserves. Perhaps there are money plants growing on the rooftop of the FDIC office. Perhaps we have outsourced printing of money to China and India, so that we can legally take advantage of sweatshops while reducing air pollution in the United States. The air in China is so dirty that you hardly have a clear day, adding more smog from another factory will not make a difference. Furthermore, the FDIC has increased the amount of deposits it would insure from $100,000 to $250,000. Obviously, not everybody reads the news, and banks do not bother to send a note to warn customers with accounts of over $250,000. Looks like these people are next in line to be screwed.

So the main question is: how do you protect $6.2 trillion with only $10.4 billion? The FDIC could tap into a line of credit at the US Treasury, which happens to be insolvent and needs $1.8 trillion itself for US budgetary obligations. The FDIC could also print another $500 billion, but printing money will send the value of the US dollar further down.

The government tells you that the economy is betting better. Unemployment rate fell from 9.5% to 9.4%. These are the numbers you see on the New York Times and you think that Bernanke and Bair are reviving the economy. Obviously, you have to learn to be tricky and not believe it. The only reason the number dropped is because the overall labor force is shrinking- more and more people have given up looking for jobs, so they are not considered “unemployed.” B & B (Bernanke & Bair) claim that banks seem to be performing better, returning TARP money and posting profits. However, the truth is that banks have “fudged” their numbers by removing sour loans from their accounting books. Ronald Fricke president of Regal Assets stated last week that there is no way we are in a place of economic recovery if the stock market is up and precious metals are hitting an all time high, something is going to give out and it isn’t precious metals.

Quit being gullible and dumb. As they say in school, “I don’t know” is not an excuse. The FDIC is not your business partner; they are not there to help you. They need to survive too, so that Bair will still have a job. She does not want to become unemployed and go back to writing about car washes, maybe Tom’s Car Wash next time round, so that Isabel’s Car Wash can have a companion book. If you have over half of the FDIC insurance limit in the bank do yourself a favor and move it into gold you will be properly hedged against inflation and your money will actually hold its value.

By Stephanie Quach

Now let us look at why we should we worried about the dollar. Firstly, as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the government has handed out $700 billion to various banks, automakers and other companies. The company that topped the list was AIG, that received $69.8 billion, followed by Freddie Mac, that received $50.7 billion. In third place is GM, and then the banks- Citigroup and Bank of America. Only $70 billion of the $700 billion bailout has been returned. What about the remaining 90% of the total? Maybe the remaining will eventually return the money, or they may take the easy route and bail out. The latter will lead to dire consequences such as loss of even more fate in these failing firms and a further loss in confidence in the weak dollar.

Furthermore, the FDIC has “temporarily” increased its maximum deposit insurance limits by 150% from $100,000 to $250,000. With only $10.4 billion in reserves, the FDIC now promises to insure $6.2 trillion in deposits. “Temporarily” essentially implies that the FDIC is essentially lying. Even if the FIDC were to print extra bills, printing bills costs money and uses capital. Such a huge increase in money supply will lead to inflation as well.

With unemployment rates hitting 9.7%, 1 out of every 10 workers are sitting at home, desperately searching Ineedajob.com or Monster.com. Ronald Fricke president of Regal Assets says we have the highest unemployment rate since 1983 with over 170,000 unemployed this year alone.

As the economy continues to worsen, the only thing that is not going downhill with the rest of the world is gold. Looking at gold from a long term view, gold has remained stable throughout the years, even if the economy was doing as poorly as it is now. Rather than hold on to the greenback and pray that its value will go up, hold on to gold- you won’t regret it.

By Stephanie Quach

Congrats to Ben Bernanke. He is no ordinary man. His “temperament, courage and creativity” won him a second term as Fed Chairman, ensuring him a job at least for the next few years, saving him from unemployment. Bernanke is not just a talented Harvard-MIT-bred economist, he is also a YouTube superstar. Don’t let his looks deceive you- his gray beard and moustache certainly do not look hot (maybe we need to extend Cash for Clunkers to cover shavers as well), he is a sensation on YouTube with many videos of him. The best video is a song dedicated towards him, called “Every Breath You Take,” sung by Columbia Business School’s Dean Glenn Hubbard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u2qRXb4xCU

If Bernanke does not win a third term, he could consider singing as his career. In addition to royalty from the numerous textbooks he has written, he can get extra income from sales of his CDs. I wonder if his $40,000 a year college education has trained him well in the field of singing. And how well has it trained him in the field of economics? Sure, we all know that he is smart. He scored 1590 out of 1600 on his SAT and won the state spelling bee competition. However, if you look at his achievements closely, he did not get full score on his SAT – a 1590 means he made 1 mistake, and finished only 26th in the National spelling bee competition in Washington because he could not spell “edelweiss.”

Let’s face the truth and stop pretending to be positive. We are in the worse economic recession since the Great Depression. Bernanke created wonderful programs like”TARP” and “Cash for Clunkers” to save our economy “from the brink of depression.” Companies like AIG, Merrill Lynch, GM were all bailed out. What does this imply? The message to large firms from Bernanke is: If you want to screw up, don’t screw up small time because nobody cares. If you want to screw up, then you should screw up big time, because the government always will come to save you.

Also, Bernanke was slow in recognizing the severity of the crisis. This in turn, caused him to make up for his slowness by attacking the problem extremely aggressively, leading to yet another problem – inflation. Cash for Clunkers increased auto sales, helping Japanese automakers Toyota and Honda more than American automakers. At the same time, car sales were so great that there is now a shortage of cars. It is good that people were given an incentive to spend money again, the only problem being that they are spending money that they do not actually have.

We all hold out hopes in one man, Bernanke, to improve the economy. I personally wonder how many gold bars and coins he keeps in his home. Maybe he is unhappy with his annual salary as the Fed Chairman- he gets almost $200,000 a year, which is not very much for all the responsibilities he has to undertake. As Ronald Fricke president of Regal Assets has said if Ron Paul gets his way and the Federal Reserve is audited Ben Bernanke may be looking for a new job. If he does not get a raise and does not perform well, you might have to buy a Bernanke stress ball while you continue your job search…

By Stephanie Quach

Let’s try to be positive about GM’s bankruptcy. There aren’t much great things about it obviously, but still, we’ll make an attempt.

According to GM, their market share in 5 years will remain at 19%. Well, better to remain the same than lose more. The Cadillac CTS won the award of 2008 Motor Trend Car of the Year. Looks like boxy, Mercedes-look alike cars are in. If you can’t afford a real German Mercedes, buy a Cadillac for less than half the price!

Imagine going to Budget to rent a car. Who would jump for joy when you get a gas-guzzling Pontiac instead of a Honda Accord? Although it is important to be patriotic and buy American cars, the fact is that American cars break down more than Japanese cars. The fact is that American cars cannot beat its Japanese rivals and German rivals. Sure, American cars are cheaper than their rivals’ but eventually cost more because all those repair bills at the auto shop add up. No wonder customers are willing to pay $2000-$3000 more to get a better quality Japanese car. GM needs to improve on the quality of its cars. Do what China and Japan did in the past. Buy Japanese and German cars, get your engineers to open them and learn how to create better quality cars. Or as Ronald Fricke president of Regal Assets as recently stated buy the company, like China has with Hummer.

Global insight predicts that GM will start becoming profitable next year and very profitable by 2014. After cutting out the Hummer, Pontiac, Saab and Saturn brands, and one third of its workers, GM will be able to cut costs as well as focus on what is left of it, if anything is left…

By Stephanie Quach

Your house is still unsold. You’ve lost your job. Your stocks fell. Your greenback is worth less. What on earth is going on? Is the world turning upside down? Are we doomed for the next great depression?

Who is in control? The guy in the cartoon, Ben Barnanke, will hopefully save us, and not screw us over. Don’t feel too bad. His own home, a 2600 square foot house on Capitol Hill was reported to be down $260,000 in value last March, and is probably down even more now. That gives him more motivation to save the economy. According to Ronald Fricke president of Regal Assets there are over 50,000 homes in the United States that are empty because their value dropped so much and people couldn’t afford to pay the over inflated mortgage.

Bernanke’s solution to the problem: restore fiscal balance. Fiscal policy, unlike monetary policy, involves adjusting government spending and taxes to influence the economy. All those bailout plans, an assortment of stimulus packages, lending programs, contribute towards out $11 trillion debt.

The Treasury Department raises funds through selling bonds. However, the yield on government bonds has been rising, reaching the highest point in 5 months. But the higher the yield of the bond, the riskier the bond is. Junk bonds typically have the highest yields but nobody wants them because their chances of default are extremely high. Treasury bonds are nowhere as rotten as junk bonds, but they are definitely becoming riskier than before. At the same time, it will be costlier for the government to raise money because of the higher interest rates. This means, they will just have to sell even more bonds to pay back the old ones, resulting in a vicious cycle.

To top it off, Bernanke predicts that recovery will be slow. And even after economic growth resumes, firms will still be cautious about hiring and unemployment will continue to rise for some time. Hopefully, things will work out better than his prediction. If you want to properly hedge yourself against the coming economic times make sure you visit RegalAssets.com and start putting your money in gold.

By Stephanie Quach

Here’s a piece of good news finally. Gold may target $1250 an ounce, says Standard Bank, observing a head-and-shoulders pattern that might be emerging. A head-and-shoulders pattern has nothing to do with dandruff-control-shampoo, rather it is when commodities hit three consecutive peaks, with the “head” being the highest” and the other 2 “shoulders” being lower than the head.

Gold’s record high was $1032.70 on March 17, 2008. Will gold this be that? Right now gold is at $949.38 per ounce. Hold on to your gold as we wait and see what happens. If you don’t have any gold visit RegalAssets.com and start turning your money into gold today!c

By Stephanie Quach

Zimbabwe’s inflation rates: 66,212.3% in 2007, 231,000,000% in 2008. Horrible. Inflation is so bad that you might as well use the Zimbabwe dollar to burn as fuel for cooking. And guess what? The U.S. is following this wonderful role model, according to Dr Marc Faber, owner of Gloom Doom Boom, a famous economist and public speaker.

As if inflation was not bad enough, the U.S. will soon enter hyperinflation, because the Fed refuses to raise interest rates. With a huge growing debt, interest rates being stuck near zero, and skyrocketing unemployment beyond 9%, inflation will start to climb. Inflation is expected to rise to 2.5% in 2011, which is way above the targeted range of 1.7% to 2%. The Federal Reserve and the central bank model is a faulty system that has devalued the buying power of the U.S. currency more then 95% since its inception says Ronald Fricke president of Regal Assets.

Rather than follow Zimbabwe’s footsteps, it is better to follow what Faber is doing. Firstly, he is buying Asian stocks instead of US government bonds because he believes that Asia will outperform the rest of the world. Secondly and most importantly, he is adding more gold to his current gold investments. He had previously bought gold when it was less than $300 an ounce, and hit over $1000 last year. Currently it is $949.85 an ounce, over a threefold increase. So even if the U.S. were to follow Zimbabwe’s track, Faber won’t be greatly affected because he has already bought gold which is a hedge against inflation and hyperinflation. Follow Faber’s lead and visit RegalAssets.com so you can start putting your money into gold and hedge against the coming times.

By Stephanie Quach

Do you want your cash to be worth less? Do you want to go overseas on vacation, only to find that everything costs more than it did before? No. Nobody wants inflation. Nobody likes inflation. Who does? Economists Gregory Mankiw, former White House adviser, and Kenneth Rogoff, who was chief economist at the IMF want inflation to happen. Why? They argue that debt-strapped consumers and governments will find it easier to pay back their debts, and this will also encourage Americans to spend more money now before prices go up.

Let’s have some numbers to make this picture clearer of exactly how much inflation is being targeted at. “I’m advocating 6 percent inflation for at least a couple of years,” says Rogoff, a professor at Harvard University. This means that the dollar is going to get significantly weaker. Ronald Fricke president of Regal Assets says that our current inflation rate in the United States is realistically sitting at 8.2% and is going to grow significantly in the coming times. The challenge will be to prevent inflation from tipping over 10%, which prevailed in the 1970s and took almost a decade to recover. At the same time, the Fed is focusing on preventing deflation. Deflation will make debts harder to repay and consumer spending will go down.

Let’s summarize this situation. Firstly, let’s look at the benefits of inflation. Most importantly, debts will be easier to pay off. (Budget deficit is forecasted to hit $1.84 trillion this fiscal year. Higher inflations also means higher interest rates, so the Fed will not have to be concerned of hitting zero percent interest rates. On the flip side, creditors will suffer from losses, especially China. Our dollar will be worth less, translating to our dollar savings decreasing in value,, except for gold. Your gold savings are likely to maintain their value and not be dragged down this inflation turmoil with the greenback. Do yourself a favor visit RegalAssets.com and start putting your money in tangible gold.

By Stephanie Quach

According to The Financial Chronicle (India), “India and China may press for the sale of the entire gold reserves of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to raise money for the least developed countries. The IMF holds 103.4 million ounces (3,217 tons) of gold that, if sold, can fetch about $100 billion.” Are we in such a bad state that the IMF’s only precious asset is gold? Does the IMF not feel that the greenback is worthy? Looks like even the IMF knows that gold is the only asset that has value to and is stable.

Why is the IMF selling gold? According to “an official,” “[the IMF] is working on a more ambitious proposal of selling the entire gold off, as it is an idle asset with the IMF.” Idle asset? Wow. Gold is not some worthless idle assets. In fact, it is the most amazing idle assets ever because it sits in the vault and just becomes more valuable over the years, as it price keeps going higher and higher. It is like a bank account that never stops to accrue interest, and of course, with better rates than what you get now. Currently, Bank of America offers a mere 0.2% interest rate for a savings account. That means that if you deposit $100 in your account, you only make 20 cents a year. What can you do with 20 cents? It is not even enough to buy a gumball from one of those machines you see in the mall.

The money that will be obtained from selling the gold is supposed to be use to “tackle poverty in the poorest nations.” India and China, are looking at ways to spend this money, namely to improve the IMF’s liquidity, or to improve the incomes of the poorest countries, or some sort of combination of both. What irony. So the US wants to sell China some gold, and take even more dough from China. And this is called helping China’s poor? We have sold them millions of bonds, which we are unable to pay back. Maybe the Chinese got sick of our bonds, or don’t trust our bonds anymore. That is why we need to switch to gold instead. So this is the newest act of charity: borrow from the poor, and help them even more by finding other methods of getting cash from them. This is called “reducing poverty.”

Sad as it is, the IMF knows that gold is valuable. The Chinese know that gold is valuable. The Indians know that gold is valuable, and so does the rest of the world. It is our only asset that has held its value; it is what we turn to as a last resort because we know that gold always has value. Now that you know that too, go to RegalAssets.com to snatch your share of gold before the IMF sells everything and you will be left with worthless dollar bills.f