Silver is doing great

Congratulations to silver longs. One ounce spot is now over $11.10. My physical holdings are at about a 17% increase. SLW stock is up 83% since I bought it. Also my gold is up 6.5%; I've taken profits from this.

This more than makes up for Icelandic CDs which analysts have said hit a bottom and will recover. I'm migrating all foreign currency to CAD, EUR, and JPY only as the outlook for those currencies are more stable and bullish.

Are your savings/proceeds beating the housing slump? I am up about $8K from the markets, and my old house has lost $20K in value. The deviation should grow.

ABC News starting to report the aftermath

The housing bubble popped late last year and if you are reading this, it is not news to you. What is interesting is that the mainstream media is finally getting some stories out. They are more of historians than anything.

Thanks to bpl_200_mbps from a Housing Panic comment for this ARM victim video. We are not trying to ridicule people, but more so educate others so they don't make avoidable mistakes.

Iran Oil Bourse on hold

The Iran Oil Bourse was suppose to be unveiled today, but it did not happen. There have been reports that it could be delayed for months; even a year. The Iranian Oil Ministry denied its existence. Sources

The USD will continue to be in demand.

Dodging bullets

The Senate finally got around to bumping up the deficit ceiling to $9 trillion. Bush still needs to sign it, but US government was so close to defaulting on debt.

Senate Votes to Raise Debt Limit

Will we see the day that they can lower this ceiling??
Bush has been the biggest spender in US history. I think I read somewhere he spent more than the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th top spending presidents combined!!

How much is your city overvalued?

Santa Rosa, CA is overvalued 58.8% according to CNNMoney. This list of 299 metros is highly accurate in my opinion. Good job Les Christie!

The "fair market value" according to Zillow for my old house is $540K (if you are lucky to sell for that price now). I purchased it for $300K in 2001. The adjusted value would be $223K which I agree is a fair price.

Iran officially threatens oil distribution

I was wondering when Iran was going to pull this card.
Iran Threatens to Use Oil as Weapon in Nuke Standoff
Bush/Cheney/Rice have vowed for the US that Iran cannot pursue nuclear ambitions. Iran desires to continue their interest in the technology. Russia has been trying to get the parties to compromise and to provide enriched uranium to Iran in a supervised fashion. No one is agreeing to anything and threats have been shot across the bow. US even declared a two week deadline.

That deadline comes right up right before the unveiling of Iran's Oil Bourse. The media doesn't ask the questions of this coincidence. The media seems to also dismiss the deficit ceiling.

Does anyone feel safe from political and monetary consequences?

Update: Here is a graphic showing Iran's options.

MTBE deadline could be a market driver

From Bloomberg:
"Gasoline is pulling crude oil lower,'' said Phil Flynn, vice president of risk management with Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. "The speculators are dumping gasoline ahead of the switchover from MTBE. Basically nobody wants to deal with the MTBE liability.''

Let's celebrate $10+ silver

Silver broke through $10 today. I don't know if this will be sustainable especially since it was such a large spike. But someone must have hoarded a ton on the open market.
On related news SLW spiked up 10% as well.