Postcards from the edge

I'm barbecuing pizzas on the back deck, a sliver of a glimpse of the Pacific, the sky not quite sunset yet but looking like the painted sky ceiling of the shops at Caesar's Palace, and hoping this Great American Ponzi Scheme can keep going for a few more years, a few more decades for the kids' sake...

Central bank independence in North Korea

Times Online:

The North Korean official who oversaw last year’s disastrous currency revaluation has been executed by firing squad, according to reports from South Korea.

Pak Nam Gi, the former finance director of the ruling Workers’ Party, was shot in Pyongyang last week, according to the Yonhap news agency and a South Korean newspaper.

Yonhap quoted an unidentified North Korean source saying that the official had been convicted of treason for “ruining the national economy as the son of a big landlord who infiltrated the ranks of revolutionaries”.

It is more likely that he has been made a scapegoat for one of the most unpopular moves by the North Korean regime since the deadly famine of the 1990s.

Know any other central bankers who have been printing money to prop up a cult-of-personality regime and ought to ponder this?

HT: Skeptical CPA

California Treasurer: Blame the shorts!

Taking a page from Lehman's Dick Fuld ("I will hurt the shorts, and that is my goal."), California Treasurer Bill Lockyer sent a letter (pdf) to Goldman Sachs insisting that California isn't as rotten as Lehman and all our problems are caused by those darned CDS buyers.

Data reported in the news media and other sources show that the prices, or spreads, on California CDS wrongly brand our bonds as a greater risk than those issued by such nations as Kazakhstan, Croatia, Bulgaria and Thailand.

HT: T-Dub.

No gold for you!

Frank Holmes, CEO of US Global Investors, says he's spoken to Canadian hedge fund giant Eric Sprott. Sprott tried to buy the allegedly remaining 200 tons of IMF gold and was refused.

"I just spoke with Eric Sprott, who bid to buy [the IMF's remaining gold on the block] and they refuse to sell it." As Kitco points out, "the IMF might be holding out for a bigger buyer or a central bank or for higher prices. But Holmes argues the IMF's rejection of Sprott's bid means markets are being manipulated." Back to Holmes: "I think there is a lot of manipulation done by governments around the world in the currency markets which affect the bond markets so to me it's just normal course."

The gold market is impossible to pin down with certainty, as you have conspiracy kooks on one side and shady banks, opaque exchanges, and dirty central banks on the other. But the preponderance of evidence certainly seems to indicate that there is not enough physical gold to go around. If the Sprott story is true, it aligns with the physical shortage we've written about before. The U.S. Mint still won't produce proof or uncirculated American Eagles, claiming that they have directed all production to bullion (cheaper versions of the same coins that have been touched by grubby hands). If that's true, where are are the 2009 and 2010 bullion American Eagles? Good luck getting your hands on them.

If I didn't just buy an overpriced Zimbabwe Ben house, I'd be buying all the physical gold I could find at these prices. If you've been to a dealer lately, I'd love to hear what coins are available and what the premium over spot is.

UPDATE: Local San Diego channel checks show good availability of bullion coins at $50 - $65 over spot.

Which side are you on?

ZombieTime is a photoblogger who was in San Francisco at several of the events I went to in 2005-07, but I never met him.

He's covering more ground now, and was in Searchlight and Los Angeles at rival protests. Which group represents your views? Which represents Reid/Pelosi/Obama's?

What do you call a woman with no arms and no legs who's blocking your TV?

A: SMACK!!!

A St. Paul man beat up a quadruple amputee because he was angry that she was blocking his view of the television, according to a criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court.

Jacoby Laquan Smith, 33, was charged with fifth degree assault, a misdemeanor, and interfering with a 911 call, a gross misdemeanor.

According to the complaint, St. Paul police were called on a domestic assault case at 6:49 a.m. March 22, and found a 28-year-old woman sitting in a wheelchair.

"Officers observed that all four of her limbs were amputated, her arms below the elbow and her legs above the knee," the complaint said.

The woman told police she shared an apartment with Smith on Jessie Street in St. Paul's East Side and an argument started because Smith became angry at her for getting in front of the television, the complaint said.

"The defendant threw the victim to the floor and punched her with a closed fist in the mouth and face more than ten times," the complaint said.

UPDATE: All's well that ends well:

Smith, 33, said the dispute with Bell, 28, started with an argument over whether she was seeing another man.

"I had been dealing with her cheating on me," Smith said.

Smith said the argument escalated after "I turned on the TV and she got mad."

"She punched me in the groin" Smith said. He said Bell also hit him with a coffee canister and a bedpan.

"It was full of pee," he said.

In response, "I hit her once and that was it," Smith said. "Maybe twice."

Although Bell had both hands and part of both legs amputated because of a childhood illness, Smith said she can still be violent when she loses her temper.

"She'll swing, push me down and choke me with her nubs," Smith said. He said she also hit him with her wheelchair.

Bell on Monday agreed there was hitting on both sides. She said she plans to marry Smith and doesn't want him to serve jail time.

"We both need anger management," she said.

Love will keep us together!

Crazy guy who threatened to kill Eric Cantor is son of Obama donor -- Norman LeBoon

33-year-old Norman LeBoon of Philadelphia has been arrested after threatening in a YouTube video to kill Rep. Eric Cantor.

As long as the media and Democrats are having so much fun with this guilt by association stuff, let's note that a Norman Leboon Sr. listed as disabled/retired in Philadelphia is an Obama donor.

UPDATE: Apparently Psycho Boy himself, not his father, is "Norman LeBoon Sr." Scary to think there might be a Norman LeBoon Jr.