As the editor of the Silver Bear Cafe, I spend most of my time researching current events. I explore the markets, the economic war that is being waged on the middle class, precious metals, the Federal Reserve, energy, and how to go about surviving financially. In this weekly column I will attempt to condense the week's events and examine how the news might affect your pocketbook. JSB

Financial Markets

Making money use to be the highest and most meaningful contribution a free man in a free market could make to the economic vibrancy of our society. The Constitution originally contained the words: "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Property". Through the application of each individual's energies, in the "Pursuit of Property", the standard of life in our country was progressively raised for everyone. The Protection of property rights is the basis and cornerstone of a free society.

Unfortunately, through an insidious misinformation campaign, we have been duped by those whose wealth and position have allowed them to be tempted by, and then to succumb to, the lure of avarice and greed. They have decided that anything less than everything is not enough. "The Dark Side" has thwarted the essence of capitalism by engineering the demise of the Gold Standard. Through their incipient use of "political puppets" they have, over the course of the last two hundred years, finally succeeded in channeling the wealth and property, which comes as a result of human toil, into their coffers. The producers and savers of our county, it's life blood, are being methodically fleeced. Soon, the last meaningful productive job in America will be exported to China. On that day American society will become a zoo, and we, as citizens, will be reduced to the station of animals in a cage, totally dependent on the zoo-keepers for our food and shelter.

From Bill Bonner:

A kiss is still a kiss. A sigh is still a sigh…

And a bubble is still a bubble.

When a kiss is over, it's over. When a bubble pops…well…that's all she wrote! All kisses end – even the wettest "French" kisses. And so do all bubbles – even sloppy mega-bubbles of liquidity. This one will be no exception. But of course, it's not the certainties that make life interesting…it's the uncertainties – the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns, as Mr. Rumsfeld says. We are all born of woman and end up where all men born of women end up – dead. But that doesn't mean we can't have some fun between baptism and last rites.

You'll remember we said that this worldwide financial bubble is both worldlier, and more financial than any in history.

Meanwhile, the experts, commentarists, kibitzers and analysts are saying that there is a whole new phase of the giant bubble about to unfold; things could get a whole lot crazier. Even many of our respected colleagues are pointing to a text by the great Austrian economist, Ludwig von Mises, for a clue. What we have here, they say, is what Mises described as a "Crack-Up Boom."

Before we go on, readers should be aware that the "Austrian school" of economics is probably the best theory about the way the world works. Like The Daily Reckoning, it is suspicious of efforts to control the natural workings of an economy, in general…and suspicious of central banking, in particular. The fact that it was a one-time "Austrian," Alan Greenspan, who became the most celebrated central banker in history, only increases our suspicions. He was able to master central banking, we imagine, because he understood what it really is – a swindle.

What is a "Crack-Up Boom?" Von Mises explains:

"'This first stage of the inflationary process may last for many years. While it lasts, the prices of many goods and services are not yet adjusted to the altered money relation. There are still people in the country who have not yet become aware of the fact that they are confronted with a price revolution which will finally result in a considerable rise of all prices, although the extent of this rise will not be the same in the various commodities and services. These people still believe that prices one day will drop. Waiting for this day, they restrict their purchases and concomitantly increase their cash holdings. As long as such ideas are still held by public opinion, it is not yet too late for the government to abandon its inflationary policy.'

"But then, finally, the masses wake up. They become suddenly aware of the fact that inflation is a deliberate policy and will go on endlessly. A breakdown occurs. The crack-up boom appears. Everybody is anxious to swap his money against 'real' goods, no matter whether he needs them or not, no matter how much money he has to pay for them. Within a very short time, within a few weeks or even days, the things which were used as money are no longer used as media of exchange. They become scrap paper. Nobody wants to give away anything against them.

"It was this that happened with the Continental currency in America in 1781, with the French mandats territoriaux in 1796, and with the German mark in 1923. It will happen again whenever the same conditions appear. If a thing has to be used as a medium of exchange, public opinion must not believe that the quantity of this thing will increase beyond all bounds. Inflation is a policy that cannot last."

Mises is describing the lunatic phases of a classic inflationary cycle.

At first, no one can tell the difference between a real dollar – one that is earned, saved, invested or spent – and one that just came off the printing presses. They figure that the new dollar is as good as the old one. And then, prices rise…and people don't know what to make of it. Later, they begin to catch on…and all Hell breaks loose.

On the Economic War Front

Those of you that are familiar with my rants are already aware of my frustration with the present state of our democracy. So, in an attempt to clarify my feelings concerning our democratic system I will elucidate.

There are two fatal flaws in our current system. Curiously, they would seem to be offsetting on the surface, but upon closer examination they emanate from the same collective mind set. If these two flaws could be remedied, our Constitutional way of life could be preserved. Unfortunately, the underlying causes have been so ingrained in the system, that their effects are probably irreversible.

The first flaw was initiated by FDR when he started handing out taxpayer money and thereby created "the dole". Since then politicians have refined their ability to use taxpayer money to buy votes until it has evolved into a catastrophically successful ploy to redistribute the wealth of, and as a result decimate, America's middle class. If "We the People" demanded that a law was enacted that would prohibit anyone from voting, in a national election, so long as they remained "on the dole", (OTD), half of the problems with our "bastardized democracy" would immediately go away. If the people couldn't vote for a hand out, politicians couldn't simply pander a handout in return for a vote, which is essentially all they do now.

I'm not simply talking about welfare recipients, although they make up a significant portion of those who should not be eligible. I'm talking anyone who is OTD. Any receiver of any Federal support should not be eligible to vote. The Constitution provided no Federal support for anyone, period. This would include grant recipients, those who receive Federal entitlements, farmers receiving subsidies, employees of any Federally subsidized business, even employees of companies benefiting from trade sanctions. Taken to the extreme, we should un-entitle Federal employees including members of the Armed Forces, Congress, Federal Law Enforcement, Treasury Department, Justice department, and the Judicial Branch. You see, each one of these persons harbors a personal agenda and is apt to vote for whoever promises him/her more. When you're OTD, staying OTD is job one. Have you noticed the most important thing for a politician to accomplish while in office these days, is to get re-elected. That's the problem with the "Free Lunch" mind set. There is no such thing.

The second flaw concerns the passing down of institutional wealth. The "Dark Side" is peopled with old money. The patriarchs that initially created the wealth were probably deserving of the power that came with it. Their wealth came as a result of their courage, intellect, creativity, ambition and perhaps even ruthlessness. Their progeny, on the other hand, are not deserving. In fact, it is the unentitled wielders of this "institutional wealth" that, to a large degree, make up the controllers of the Fabian Socialists. These are the people that pull the strings behind the scenes in Government, and whose main goals include world domination. It is vanity and narcissistic nepotism that can motivate an individual to suppose that his offspring are more capable of directing the course of humanity than anyone else. This is total hooey. Rather than maintaining some altruistic vision for the future, these, "I didn't do anything that would make me qualified to rule the world other than I was born into it" elitists are generally far less qualified, having never been confronted with the need for mustering of the courage required to create the wealth in the first place. The system, as it stands, provides for the perpetration of a monarchial power structure that should have been abandoned with our first revolution 228 years ago, but wasn't.

I do not suggest that the heirs of a fortune should not be able to reap the benefits of their parents successes, but rather that they be restricted from misusing the power that comes with the institutional wealth their parents amassed. How about a system where you could leave your children $50,000,000.00 each. That ought to be enough to get them started in this cold, hard world. If they can't get by on that much, they surely aren't qualified to handle any more. I suggest that if a person has more in his estate than enough to leave his spouse and each of his children $50,000,000 when he/she goes to the happy hunting grounds, (or where ever he/she goes), that it should be directed toward the renewal of our country's infrastructure, its roads and bridges. Its water purification and delivery systems. There is a myriad of directions that the wealth could be directed that would not constitute a socialistic trend, but rather a positive evolution to a better standard of life for all Americans.

With the elimination of people OTD affecting the outcome of an election, and the restriction of the passing of institutional wealth, which effectively provides for the support of a monarchial system, the American System of Democracy could be an efficient and just system. Until these changes are made it will not be.

From Ol' Remus:

Now we have an economy run like some rent-to-own ghetto scam, with a bubble-based financial system peddling the exact funny money the founders thought they'd abolished, and farcical entitlements designed to drain their funding many times over, all urged on by a Malthusian central government staffed top to bottom with the otherwise unemployable. We have imminent and actual collapse of central banks with confiscation of depositor's funds as their backup plan. We have a four hundred thousand-strong army of occupation with their own armored corps, secret police, informer's network and disinformation service. They tell us it's to protect the homeland. They tell us security requires zero tolerance, which is exactly how Goebbels put it.

We have a system which favors the violently improvident-by-choice while the conscientious and productive who support them are held personally responsible for their every failure in perpetuity. Noticing this has gone from "not quite nice" to an actionable offense if said at a public venue, a beating with ten-foot poles if said elsewhere. Overwhelmingly despised bills are proposed and passed in the small hours of the morning, unread, although regulators, mostly activists and corrupt shills, still create more criminals than legislatures do. So corrupted is the process politicians now elect their voters, but traditional America is the all-purpose notional enemy and doesn't make the list, so they're voting at real estate offices and gun shops and precious metals outlets. What could go wrong?

We have "leftover skyline" cities eagerly and successfully modeling themselves after Mogadishu, latter day reservations with beggar-based financing and more malcontents per square foot than a prison yard. We have no-tell abortions and show-and-tell sex classes and morning-after pills for grade school girls, almost as if schools are being reconfigured to fill a niche once served by ballet academies. We have lobbyists and extremists appointed to high office by an unvetted president who counts former practicing terrorists and current race supremacists among his sponsors. When it seems things can't get worse, they do. The more "systemically critical" institutions they bail out, the longer the list gets. Duh. It can't be any other way in a rentier model. Now the mainstream press is warning of a World Depression, if not outright revolutions, beginning in Europe as is the custom. And they call preparationalists nuts.

America of the 1950s arranged itself to have options, and it exercised them selectively and decisively. We could isolate and resolve crisis, even safely ignore those likely burn themselves out. Over time we foreclosed all options other than bad or worse, so we stumble from pratfall to pratfall and become ever more irrelevant in the doing. It's said that a collapse can be reliably forecast not by the crisis themselves but by the interval between them. When crisis come closer and closer together, then overlap, reinforcing and amplifying each other, they overpower the support structure and it simply gives way. And so it is today. Yes, there really was a crisis-free America. It was the first chapter of a cautionary tale.

Precious Metals

From 1913, until 1933, under the authority of the U.S. Congress, the Federal Reserve held control of all of our country's gold. They then proceeded to loan us back our gold, at interest. We paid interest for the use of our own gold! What's wrong with this picture? What could have incited our Senators and Representatives to allow that to happen? In order to keep up with the ever rising debt service, we borrowed more of our own gold. We kept borrowing more and more of our own gold to pay more and more interest, until all the gold was gone. At that point, the country went bankrupt. Guess what happened next.

The bankers foreclosed on America. I know what you're thinking. Me too.

On March 9, 1933, the U.S. declared bankruptcy, as expressed in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Executive Orders 6073, 6102, 6111, and 6260.

On April 5th, 1933, one month after his inauguration, President Roosevelt declared a National Emergency that made it unlawful for any citizen of the United States to own gold, (see death penalty above), and "unconstitutionally" ordered all gold coins, gold bullion, and gold certificates to be turned into the Federal Reserve banks by May 1st under the threat of imprisonment and fines. This was technically, a national confiscation of gold and silver. This unlawful precedent set by Roosevelt would eventually lead us to the catastrophic situation we find ourselves in today.

Our bankrupt nation went into receivership and was reorganized in favor of it's creditor and new owners, a private corporation of international bankers. (Since 1933, what is called the "United States Government" has been a privately owned corporation, and the property of the Federal Reserve / International Monetary Fund.)

Without a word of truth to the American people, all our good faith and credit was pledged as the surety for the debt by the same slime ball Congressmen who created the mechanism that allowed it to occur.

Those Congressmen, knew such "De Facto Transitions" were unlawful and unauthorized, but were mysteriously coerced into sanctioning, implementing, and enforcing the complete debouchment of our monetary system, and the resulting changes in all aspects of government, society, and industry in the United States of America .Since the thirties, the problem has grown exponentially and has become one of an "international nature".

From Tekoa Da Silva:

I had the opportunity yesterday to speak with one of the western world’s most courageous and astute women, Karen Hudes, Former Senior Counsel to the World Bank—now turned whistle-blower.

It was a powerful conversation, as Karen spent 20 years with the World Bank as an attorney and economist, before being “let-go” after reporting internal fraud and corruption.

During the interview Karen indicated that the world is rapidly changing, with western power structures breaking down, economic & political influence gravitating to BRICs nations, all amid a pending currency transition which will highly favor precious metals.

Starting out by discussing the shocking centralized power she witnessed while working at the World Bank, Karen explained that, “A study done by three [Swiss] systems analysts who used mathematical modeling [shows] how the [world's] 43,000 transnational corporations were being controlled through interlocking corporate directorates. There’s a group of 147 companies, most of them are financial institutions, and what they’ve done, is through the interlocking directorates, they control 40% of the net worth of these [43k] companies, and 60% of their earnings…so that group has been using the presidency of the World Bank as kind of a puppet to dominate the world—that’s [now] finished.”

A major shock to that centralized power base, according to Karen, was the recent move by BRICs nations leaders to bypass the World Bank for their financing needs, by establishing their own development bank. “As the BRICs [nations] economic power grows,” she explained, “they’re not going to be strangled anymore through the grabbing [of] their resources…So their decision to start their own development bank was their way of letting [world] governments know…that its time to end this corruption.” 

Major moves toward monetary independence are also being made by growing numbers of U.S. states, Karen added. She explained that, “The states are starting to have legislation recognizing gold and silver bullion as legal currency. This is [also] a very strong signal the states are sending to the federal government, that the time to get serious about ending the corruption in the financial system is now here.”

Energy

In 1859, upon the introduction of petrol extraction technology, the world started running out of oil. There is only so much of it, and we have now reached a point where more than half of it has been used up.

What most people do not realize is that 60% of all hydrocarbon resources have be applied to food production. Through the use of petrochemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, diesel fuel for tractors and harvesters, gasoline for farm-to-market transport, gas generated electricity for refrigeration, plastics for packaging and storage, the lion's share of this resource has been used for food production.

Here's the rub. Through the application of the world's petro-resources in this manner, "the Dark Side" has enriched itself by artificially creating a market to sell to.

Oil based agriculture is primarily responsible for the world's population exploding from 1 billion at the middle of the 19th century to 6.3 billion at the turn of the 21st. As oil production went up, so did food production. As food production went up, so did the population. As the population went up, the demand for food went up, which increased the demand for oil. The price of food will now skyrocket because of the cost of fertilizer will soar. The cost of storing (electricity) and transporting (gasoline) the food that is produced will also soar.

In order for the planet to continue to support humanity, it's numbers will have to be reduced dramatically. Because of the misinformation campaign that was launched in the first quarter of the game, "the Force" is way out of position. As I stated earlier, most don't even know there's a game going on, much less that they're playing.

I foresee many lives being snuffed out within the next two decades as a result of the inability to afford food, (starvation), or through the involvement in the dozens of disputes that will arise over allocation of the world's remaining hydrocarbon resources, (war). Remember, "the Dark Side" is on both sides of all wars. Population contraction is absolutely essential to the planet's ability to support human life.

From Christian Ford:

You may not know it, but food is cheap. As a percentage of total family income, food is cheaper, actually, than ever in history, anywhere. Families in the United States spend an average of 10% of their income to buy food. That is not an accident. It's policy.

Blame it on the 70s, when an enormous sale of wheat to the Soviet Union collided with a bad harvest. The result was skyrocketing prices and political blowback from the American electorate. So Nixon turned to his Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butz, and told him to make it go away.

Boy, did he.

What he did was trash the New Deal era system that lent farmers money to keep grain off the market, thus preventing the overproduction spiral that always crashed prices. Butz replaced it with a system that just paid the farmers for the grain they couldn't sell. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this is a huge incentive to grow as much grain as you can, regardless of whether there's a market for it. But by changing the government's role from supporting farmers in tough times to subsidizing lower prices, Butz vaporized the public protest.

He also told the farmers that he expected them to "get big or get out" and indeed they did. Harvests rose and so did the acres planted until US farmers were putting out 500 extra calories per consumer per day. Farms weren't the only ones on their way to getting big.

These days, you can see Earl Butz' living legacy in the form of fat. The United States is the fattest nation on earth, with 35% of the population obese (not overweight, mind you, obese). In the doctor's office, obesity eats up 17% of our total medical spending, or $168 billion dollars. Projections, by the way, are calling for that number to climb to $344 billion in 2018, a full one-fifth of total medical spending. Call me a pessimist, but I have to believe that number will climb as the obese population ages.

The Fed

There are two groups in the U.S. that don't pay taxes. Those two groups consist of the very poor, and the ultra rich. As a result, the middle class has been bestowed with the sole economic responsibility of repaying the obscene abomination known as the national debt. It's not enough for the middle class to support those who are unable to work as well as those who choose not to, but to also provide the a major source of wealth that is being siphoned off by the Central Bankers and distributed to the elitists. I believe their motives have always stemmed from a desire to redistribute the wealth of the middle class to the ultra rich. This is a basic ploy right out of the collectivist's handbook. In this way they are, in the words of Omar Khayyam, attempting to "tear it down, and rebuild it in their own image." They are preparing for the intended eminent worldwide financial Armageddon.

In order to continue to supply the Government with more and more funny money, the Fed has to keep creating it. Obviously, the more they create, the more it is diluted and the less valuable it becomes. They have positioned the U.S. dollar on a huge playground slide, placed a piece of waxed paper under it, and let it go. Its accelerating decent has become big news. Even the sycophantic rah-rah rooters on CNBC are talking about it. The dollar is visiting lows not seen in almost twenty-five years.

From Jeff Nielson:

What do we see with our politicians, bankers, economists, and media talking-heads? Bludgeon your way through all of the obfuscation; and we see that most of our economic problems are derived directly from two, failed policies: excessive money-printing and excessive debt.

Yet what are the only two "solutions" for these problems being proposed by Western governments (and their apologists in the Corporate Media) today? Even more-extreme money-printing, and even more-extreme debt-creation. Putting out the fire with gasoline. Insanity.

Has anyone actually paid attention to any of the so-called sovereign "bail-outs" which have occurred over the past five years? In every instance it has involved lending vast sums of money to hopelessly insolvent governments.

Supposed I owe $10,000, but require a "bail-out" because I can't service this debt; and my Rescuer lends me another $5,000. Please explain to me how I've been "bailed out" when I now owe $15,000? Obviously if I couldn't make payments on my debt when I owed $10,000; it's mathematically impossible to do so when I now owe $15,000.

I haven't been "bailed-out." Instead, my bankruptcy has been temporarily delayed, but at the cost of a much larger bankruptcy down the road. This is precisely the opposite manner in which this is handled in the private sector.

In the private sector (unless you're a Too Big To Fail bank); insolvency is resolved as quickly as possible – with either a genuine "restructuring" (i.e. less debt rather than more) or a formal bankruptcy proceeding. It is universally understood that this is always the process which minimizes economic losses (and the misallocation of resources).

But this is only the foundation for our insanity. On top of this initial layer of insanity; we have multiplied this quest for self-destruction with (arguably) even greater insanities.

What is the only, possible valid reason for repeating a strategy which has already failed repeatedly? We conclude that "the Plan" itself was valid, but the execution of that plan was faulty. In which case, the only sane course of action is to get different people (hopefully better) to attempt to execute the Plan.

What do we see instead? Employing the same Cast of Clowns (Criminals?) who have already failed repeatedly to remain in charge of executing the Plan – expecting that this time the Clowns will perform admirably. Employing the same Cast of Clowns to repeat a failed strategy which is universally understood to be the precise opposite of what they should be doing

Financial Survival

The turn of the 21st century brought with it a paradigm shift in economic policy in America. With the flight of the domestic manufacturing sector, America's balance of trade rapidly became extremely unbalanced. In an attempt to keep the economy afloat, the Fed targeted the American Consumer as a replacement for the American Producer as the chief contributor to the U.S. economy. To insure the American Consumer would be, at least temporarily, capable of such a task, "Bubbles" Greenspan lowered short-term interest rates to their lowest level since 1958. This action, combined with the introduction of a plethora of reckless mortgage products, (ARMS, interest only loans, etc.), provided for an unprecedented number of new home purchases. Over thirty percent of those purchases were made by lower income individuals who had previously been unable to qualify for mortgage loans. The result was a boom in residential construction, and all related industry. The domestic housing market had effectively filled the void that resulted from the flight of the manufacturing sector and, in doing so, became a primary contributor to the American economy. That, coupled with a wave of refinancing, spurred on by the lure of cheap credit, allowed homeowners to bury themselves in debt. The application of this new found cash provided borrowers the means to buy new SUVs and invest in stocks, which effectively held up the automotive industry, as well as helping to keep the markets inflated.

Fast forward to the present. Real unemployment is running around 12%. Wages have been stagnant for the past five years. Almost everyone who wanted to refinance has already done so. Their refi money has already been spent. The automotive industry, and the housing industry are both slowly sinking. Rising energy costs, which are a result of a growing scarcity, as well as inflation, are exacerbating the situation. The DOW, which is setting new highs when valued in U.S. dollars. has remained basically flat over the last six years, when valued in gold. It is substantially down when valued against the Euro, the Rand, the Yen and several other major currencies. The continuing devaluation of the dollar has provided the DOW with the appearance of strength, at least to the American public. More smoke and mirrors. In order to continue to lure foreign investment, the illusion that the economy is healthy and robust is of paramount importance. This is apparent when considering the recently orchestrated manipulation of the precious metals futures market (COMEX). The truth is, our economy is in the throes of a terminal illness. The Fed is desperate to come up with a new source of support.

Enter, Social Security Reform. Now politicians are suggesting that federal withholding revenues be redirected into the stock market. Wow! What an idea. That should keep the markets inflated for a little while longer. It could certainly give the Fed a new a new source of wealth to siphon off. But wait. One of the biggest myths about Social Security is that there is any money in the Social Security trust fund. The fund has been systematically tapped and squandered by every administration since its inception. It was an unconstitutional sleight of hand to begin with. It is, and has always been a Ponzi scheme, which depends on new workers to pay the old workers. Maybe that is why the present administration is doing everything in its power to tear down the borders and accommodate as many illegal aliens as possible. Maybe that's why they're attempting to raise the age of retirement. The privatization of Social Security is simply one more scheme to siphon off the wealth of the middle class through commissions and fees, and keep the stock and bond markets inflated for a little while longer. Do you see a pattern emerging here?

From Greg Hunter:

Trader and forecaster Rick Ackerman says, "As far as the Fed getting off the easing regimen, it's not possible . . . You'd kill the system right now.

There's no way out, and although we put off the day of reckoning, it can't be put off indefinitely." Obama Care is one of the biggest headwinds facing the economy. Ackerman says, "January 1st, everybody is going to get socked with at least a 30% increase in their insurance premiums . . . Obama Care is the worst bill ever . . .I don't see how the economy can survive it."

Ackerman does not believe gold prices will skyrocket but contends, "One thing I have always been absolutely confident about is that gold, relative to any other asset you can think of, will hold its purchasing power."

Ackerman fears confiscation of bank deposits and says, "All depositors everywhere should be scared for their money. Cypress should have spooked the whole world, and it did! I think it makes the likelihood of some sort of black swan event even greater."

You must first realize that there are, present in our lives, enemies. You must then know who those enemies are and act accordingly.

Eliminate as much debt as possible, especially “variable rate” debt, such as credit cards and lines of credit. Interest rates will be rising, so the elimination of debt offers a “real return” of escaping rising rates by creditors.

Get some control over some fresh water.

If you are depending on Social Security, stop.

Follow the course opposite to custom and you will almost always do well...

Its not what you don't know that will screw you up, it's what you know that is wrong. The spin you hear from the mainstream media is intended to mislead you. Open your eyes and face the future. If you leave your head in the sand and ignore it, you are only leaving your butt exposed for the world to kick. This all may sound like gloom and doom, but when you get a handle on what is going to happen, you will have a future filled with opportunity. Fortune favors the Informed.

More next week...

May the Great Spirit be with you always,

Johnny Silver Bear
Chief cook and bottle washer, The Silver Bear Cafe

Disclaimer

All statements and expressions are the sole opinions of the editor and are subject to change without notice. A profile, description, or other mention of a company in the newsletter is neither an offer nor solicitation to buy or sell any securities mentioned. While we believe all sources of information to be factual and reliable, in no way do we represent or guarantee the accuracy thereof, nor the statements made herein. The staff of Silver Bear Cafe are not registered investment advisors and do not purport to offer personalized investment related advice. The publisher, editor, staff, or anyone associated with, or associated to the Silver Bear Cafe may own securities mentioned in this newsletter and may buy or sell securities without notice.