We spotted this article earlier today on Silver Investing News which we thought you may find interesting. This is another great website containing all sorts of data about silver and silver stocks, well worth the book mark. I know that we send you hither and dither to read posts but it is important to read as widely as you possibly can.

Investors seek protection in silver

Each category of investment products has its pros and cons. For those whose goals involve safety and protection, a recent roundtable hosted by Kerry Lutz,

LONDON — Twice burned, once shy?

Maybe not for hedge funds looking to make money in Greek bonds.

Ever since last summer, when it became clear that private sector bond investors would need to take a loss to ease Greece’s debt burden, some hedge funds have been betting large sums of money on different outcomes. And for the most part, the funds have lost their collective shirt as the value of the investments sank.

Now their investment noses are twitching again, this time at the prospect of buying the cheapest Greek bonds on the street: long-term, local-law bonds that currently trade at 19 cents on the euro — a knock-down price that reflects Greece’s current condition. A number of funds of late have been assessing the debt as a potential investment, according to brokers and traders with knowledge of the matter.

Of course, the hedge funds are well aware of Greece’s woes, even after it was

With the Greek crisis nearing a climax, The Doc spoke with Eric Sprott of Sprott AssetManagement this week to discuss the Euro debt crisis, silver fundamentals, and the sourcing of silver for the PSLV's recent $350 million follow-on offering. 

Eric also discusses his goal in life to have a silver issue where he is unable to source the last bar,

This week, President Obama released his $3.8-trillion budget for fiscal year 2013. The plan calls for new taxes on the wealthy, a restructuring of the tax code, and short-term infrastructure spending aimed at boosting the economy (albeit artificially).

Also included in the budget are limitations on subsidies for oil and gas companies, an end to the Bush tax cuts, and a proposal to raise taxes on dividends, which could be as high as 39.6% for households making over $250,000 per year.

Although Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) dismissed the proposal as "a campaign document," the White House claims the measure would generate $206 billion in revenue over 10 years.

David Morgan at the California Resource Investment Conference: courtesy of Kitco news

This is his full presentation, "Myths and Misinformation in the Silver Market", from the Cambridge House "California Resource Investment Conference" in Palm Springs/Indian Wells.

Jim Sinclair

The following is a missive that we received from Jim Sinclair today, who is the host of a web site called Jim Sinclair's MineSet in our humble opinion its well worth the time spent on reading what he has to say. The above link will take to his site and his updates via email are free, so you have nothing to lose by signing up for them.

Dear Friends,  

The Gold Aficionado's greatest fear is totally without basis. The price of gold will not fall significantly from its points of true standard valuation and the introduction of a new currency system.

As we all know, two things affect the price of all things tangible and intangible – supply and demand.

On the supply side, Gold stays remarkably fixed. It is mined at a very consistent rate year round with factors such as weather and temperature having much less influence than other markets such as soft commodities. In addition to this, supply can only vary rather gradually from a mining standpoint, given that it takes around a decade to bring a new find into production. However, any seasonality in the gold price must be attributed to variations in supply and demand during different times of the year, since supply could also be increased by non-mining entities, such as investors selling their holdings.

Below is the average monthly trend in gold prices since 1969. To find this, we simply add the returns for each month in every year since 1969 and divide them by the number of observed years – 43.

To construct this graph we create an index for gold prices. Day one of each year is set as the base of 1.00. Each successive day is compared to the previous; if day 2 is higher than day 1, the index rises by the percentage increase over the two days, and vice versa.

Every picture tells a story

The Carolingian union is all that anybody in French public life can really remember. It worked marvellously for two generations, levering French power on the global stage, and the euro was of course their own creation, intended to tie down a reunited Germany with “silken cords”. How can they now face the awful truth that this elegant strategy has blown up in their faces, enthroning Germany as undisputed hegemon?

Yet they can hardly ignore the evidence. While German unemployment has fallen to a post-Reunification low of 5.5pc, France’s jobless rate has crept up to a post-EMU high of 9.9pc and is certain to rise further as recession bites again.

While both countries had the same sorts of export surplus in the early 1990s, they have diverged massively since the D-Mark and franc were fixed in perpetuity. Germany has a current account surplus of 5pc of GDP: France has a deficit of 2.7pc, anathema for Colbertistes.

First, there was an unprecedented outpouring of negative public sentiment about the Congressional bills SOPA (House) and PIPA (Senate); they are legislation that would have thrown a large governmental monkey wrench into the relatively smooth-running cogs of the Internet. Millions of Americans signed online petitions against the bills after seeing websites' various protests. Google shrouded its search page in black; Wikipedia and Reddit went dark entirely (although Wikipedia could be accessed if one read the information available via clicking the sole link on its protest page); Facebook and Twitter urged users to contact their representatives; and many other core Internet businesses also raised their voices in opposition.

Such was the outpouring of dissent that even Washington, D.C. had to listen. The bills, which a week earlier had seem assured of swift passage, suddenly turned to poison. Supporters, forced to concede that the public really was pissed off this time, fled. Leadership in both houses tabled the legislation, pending further review and revision.

But before we get too self-congratulatory, however, it's wise to note that this victory dish is probably best enjoyed with a serving of caution. As Casey Extraordinary Technology editor Alex Daley summed up the situation for us here at Casey Research: "Be sure this will come back again, likely post-election, and snuck through as part of a bigger package. It arrests power from the judiciary, and the legislature likes nothing more than to thumb its nose at those ridiculous judges and all their due process this and Constitution that. It will eventually pass, just not like this." We can't now go to sleep on this one.

Endeavour's silver production is forecast to rise 16% in 2012 to 4.3 million ounces (oz) and gold production is anticipated to increase 24% to 26,000 oz (5.6 million oz of silver equivalent production at the current silver:gold ratio of approximately 50:1) as shown in the table below.