Two votes on Sunday

Vote one is the run-off for the presidency of Uruguay, part of a normal democratic process.

Vote two is the sham in Honduras. Rather than spill here, I suggest you go over the Honduras Coup 2009 post here that hits on the four main issues about tomorrow's smoke'n'mirrors espectaculaire in Honduras. Apart from making the mistake of giving any credence to an apologist called Boz it's an excellent round-up of things and looks carefully at all sides of the issue. Here's how the article ends

Far from "starting from zero", as President Obama suggested, the situation in Honduras on Monday will stay precisely where it is-- with added sources of conflict provided by what will without a doubt be disputes about the Sunday vote.

UPDATE: Holy crap! Even Foreign Perfidy sees the light (h/t delacour at LANR)

The Friday OT: Radiohead; Everything In Its Right Place

In a recent article in The UK Times (ok, they're going to be Britbiased, but WTF) Radiohead's Kid A came out as the best album of the decade. I agree. It's sad on one level that the best came out in the year 2000 and it's been downhill since then. On the other hand, when I read the article the memories of jawdrop-stunned when listening to it for the first time came flooding back.

This is a non-official video made by some arty type that I found on youtube. It's not bad, but you'll do just as well to listen to the track and flick over to another tab on your interwebs....and i betcha if you do you won't be able to concentrate on any reading until the music stops.

There are two colours in my head.

Trading Post (sand in your eyes edition)

ECU Silver (ECU.to) down 4.1% at $0.70 and here's a map of how this thing gets recommended by its scammy pumpers.
Anybody interested in an ECU.to placement sweepstakes? I say 60c plus half a warrant at 80c....any other ideas out there? i'm still short, BTW. No point in covering til the financing is announced. GO HALF PRICED GATA!

Fortuna Silver (FVI.v) up 0.5% at $2.08 and displaying an attribute of solid companies that I always look for; that of grace under pressure.

Ventana Gold (VEN.to) down 15.1% at $9.50 on heavy volumes. My best bet is that there's more downside to come but I'm not short the stock, let's make that clear. Not long, either, just avoiding as always, be that right or wrong. Fundamental DD and opinion on Sunday, subbers.

Rusoro (RML.v) down 5.7% at $0.50 and getting some just desserts from the scumball trick pulled by Agapov Senior. I'm glad to say that one treasured subscriber got the 57c out yesterday before the real downmove began. Meanwhile note another 4.8m insider sales filed today...that's about 6.2m total (i think). Really disgusting way of treating shareholders, made even worse by the late late filing of trades that date back to September. I hope the normally whussy OSC slaps an exemplary fine on his tush, not the toothless grand or so of always.

Mining PRs and the Ottotrans™, Part 14

Welcome to the latest edition of our occasional series in which we take the gobbledygook news releases published by junior mining companies and translate them into something more understandable. Today's example comes from Longview Capital Partners (LV.to), a company about to change its name to Resinco. So no more bushing around the beat......

This is what they wrote:

Vancouver, BC -- Longview Capital Partners Incorporated has changed its name to Resinco(tm) Capital Partners Inc. ("Resinco" or "the Company") and has a new corporate identity. Shares of Resinco will continue trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol LV until the end of trading on November 27, 2009. On Monday, November 30, 2009 trading will begin under the new symbol of RIN.

The new trademarked name reflects the subtle change applied to Resinco's investment mandate and emphasizes the fact that the Company will be evaluating and executing investments across a broader range of natural resource categories leveraging historical strength in hard rock minerals and precious metals and increasing the scope in the areas of rare-earth minerals, oil, gas, water and renewable energy.

The announcement was made originally by the President and CEO of the Company, John Icke, in the shareholder letter dated November 19, 2009.

"The name Resinco Capital Partners heralds a new beginning for the company," said John Icke. "The identity helps us to communicate our intent to broaden our investment scope within the natural resource sector."

The name change is one of a number of initiatives designed to reposition Resinco for sustainable success.

And this is what it means:

Vancouver, BC -- Longview Capital Partners Incorporated has changed its name to Resinco(tm) Capital Partners Inc. ("Resinco" or "the Company") and has a new corporate identity. The new trademarked name reflects the subtle change applied to Resinco's investment mandate and emphasizes the fact that the Company is fed up to the back teeth as being known as the one that Damien Reynolds drove into the ground by buying crappy uranium juniors in Paraguay.

The announcement was made originally by the President and CEO of the Company, John Icke, in the shareholder letter dated November 19, 2009.

"The name Resinco Capital Partners heralds a new beginning for the company," said John Icke. "The identity helps the market to forget about Reynolds' stupid bets and the chart below."

Quotes of the day

Gordon Brown, British PM, November 27th 2009:

Gordon Brown was today forced to step in and attempt to calm growing panic over the threat of British exposure to Dubai's debt crisis.

".....we can be sure that this is something that is both containable and is localised.”

Henry Paulson, then US Treasury Secretary, 23rd July 2007

"There has been a very significant housing correction. I think we're at or near a bottom there," Paulson said on CNBC television. "I don't deny there's a problem with subprime mortgages but...it's quite containable."

Paulson said the economy was "very, very healthy" despite the problems in the subprime mortgage lending sector.

No further comment necessary.

Ventana Gold (VEN.to): Oh Noes!!! Canadian Analysts Now Forced to Examine Colombia Political Risk Shock Horror

The most used phrase in many Canadian brokerages this morning is "Jeesh...what does this line mean? Hey, anyone speak Spanish round here?" as Ventana Gold (VEN.to), hotpot mining story of the year, announced after the bell yesterday that;

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - 11/26/09) - Ventana Gold Corp. (TSX:VEN - News) ("Ventana" or "the Company") has been advised that Sociedad Minera La Bodega Limitada (or the "Vendor"), the owner of the mineral rights to the La Bodega property in Colombia, is seeking an arbitration in relation to an option agreement (the "Option Agreement") with CVS Explorations Ltda. ("CVS"), Ventana's 100%-owned subsidiary. The Option Agreement provides for CVS to acquire the La Bodega property mineral rights through a series of staged payments as detailed below.

The request for arbitration is an attempt by the Vendor to invalidate the Option Agreement and have the property returned to the Vendor. CVS has operated under the Option Agreement for almost four years without any performance default or allegation of default. The Vendor's request for arbitration is based on arguments that the Option Agreement fails to comply with yada yada continues here

Well guess what, folks? After all my warnings about the total lack of attention paid by Canadian investment houses to the significant risk in that region of Colombia, I'm just going to get our friend the owl to comment on this development:

There'll be details and background in IKN31, out Sunday. In the meantime, here's a hint for all you guys playing catchup on the DD; check how many times the name "Gelvez" comes up in local political and administrative circles in the California/Santander region.

Chart of the day is......

.....gold, the hourly candle.

So it turns out the nasty boogieman wasn't a bomb dropped on an Iranian nuclear facility, or a Hurricane that knocked ot 30% of the US oil supply, but a small, endebted citystate known as Dubai. But whatevs, cos Naseem Taleb's phone must be ringing itself off the wall this morning. Here's what Deuschebank said today...

"The events in Dubai highlight the elevated level of sovereign risk heading into next year, the potential pockets of dollar strength that this can deliver."

.....and I think that's fair enough. It may be a total change in direction (unlikely) or it may be one of the DB "pockets of dollar strength" and from the looks of the gold rebound, there are still plenty of metals buyers out there. But one thing we can certainly do is call stupid on the "dollar is dead" chorus line of bleats, yeah? Because the US Dollar is still the place that money people run to when a problem hits.

UPDATE: Macro Man captures the sentiment well in this post, examining plenty of angles, too. Recommended.

Thanks Given to The Mex Files....

.....for the cartoon on display here. Very good.

Venezuela parallel exchange rate update

With the last few weeks seeing the Bolivar Fuerte (VEF/USD) parallel, or permuta, rate levelling out and trading in quite a tight band (typically between 5.3 and 5.5 to the dollar), I thought this update could take in the longer view chart. So here it is.

(click to enlarge)

Plenty of room to speculate the currency on the streets of Caracas...that must be why there are so many rich middle class that complain about a system that lets them.......hold on....something wrong there.....

Back to today, and with BCV currency reserves at U$33.644Bn and VEF liquidity (M2) at VEF227.13Bn as per the latest bank figures, this gives an exchange equilibrium theoretical of 6.75VEF for every dollar held by the BCV. Or put simply, the BCV head honchos can jawbone and bullshit all they like, cos if they don't stop printing VEF hand over fist the parallel rate will never drop to the pie-in-the-sky 3.6/1 exchange they're targetting.

Guarapitas served. The end.

Rusoro Mining (RML.v); we REALLY don't like late filing of insider trades, vlady

Man attacked by vampire bat

Hey, Agapov you dumbass...you know the best way of getting rid of any shady business family talk around you and your company? DON'T ACT LIKE A SHADY BUSINESS FAMILY.

Here below are the insider transactions filed by Vladimir Agapov yesterday (oh wow...today's Thanksgiving too...hoping we wouldn't notice, you diphead?). They go back to a veeeery late filed September 8th and are all sales. In total the dude has blown out one million, four hundred and fifty-nine thousand shares of Rusoro (RML.v) and only now decides to inform the public. WTF? They add up to CAD$769,000 in gross receipts, by the way. All direct ownership shares too, so the sell orders could only have come directly from you.

This humble corner of cyberspace slaps avoid like the plague on this stock as from today. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice.............

Insider name: Agapov, Vladimir Pavlovich
Issuer name: Rusoro Mining Ltd.
Nature of transaction	Number	Price	Trans date	File date
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-5000	0.4700	08/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-75000	0.4600	09/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-100000	0.4500	10/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4600	14/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4600	14/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4600	14/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4600	14/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4500	14/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-7000	0.4700	14/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4600	15/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4600	15/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4600	15/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4600	15/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4700	15/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4700	15/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4600	15/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-2000	0.4800	15/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4600	15/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4800	16/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4900	16/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4800	16/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4800	16/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4800	16/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4800	16/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4800	16/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4900	16/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-20000	0.4600	17/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-8500	0.4600	17/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-8500	0.4600	17/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-4000	0.4600	17/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-10000	0.4700	17/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-8000	0.4700	17/09/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-22500	0.6000	16/11/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-8500	0.6000	16/11/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-40000	0.5900	17/11/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-40000	0.5900	18/11/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-40000	0.5800	18/11/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-40000	0.5900	18/11/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-40000	0.5800	19/11/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-40000	0.5800	19/11/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-40000	0.5900	19/11/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-40000	0.5800	19/11/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-40000	0.5800	20/11/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-40000	0.5800	23/11/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-40000	0.5700	23/11/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-40000	0.5800	23/11/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-40000	0.5700	23/11/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-80000	0.5700	23/11/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-80000	0.5700	24/11/2009	25/11/2009
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market	-80000	0.5800	24/11/2009	25/11/2009

Chart of the day is.....

...a screenshot from Fox News, brought to you via Felix Salmon.


Works on so many levels. Nice catch, Salmon.

Trading Post (green machine edition)

B2Gold (BTO.to) up 22.5% at $1.20 and today's star turn. Volumes enormous too. Subscribers got the buy call on this stock on November 5th and had all the time they wanted to buy up prices in the 80c range. Happy daze.

Minera Andes (MAI.to) up 4.1% at $0.77. Sure enough, frustration gets the better of me and I let the position held for nine months go, then three weeks later she pops over the 75c barrier. Dem's da breaks.

Riverside Resources (RRI.v) up a penny at 60c and just a cent off its 52week high here. More newsflow today as the company adds to the headcount.

Vena Resources (VEM.to) up 9.4% at $0.35. VEM has had a quite couple of trading weeks but as soon as volume reappears (154k traded today in Canada and 65k in Lima, too....not shabby) the price rebounds. This is good. Very cheap and offering exceptional value. Newsflow catalysts are all that's missing from the short-term jigsaw puzzle.

TheNewCrystallex (EC.v) down 5.3% at $0.73. News from Brazil is that the official inquiry into its shady dealings is uncovering more muck and lies. This is a stock owned by either crooks, idiots or ignorants and it will all end in tears.

Corrupt Peru government update

After the revelations of Peru's ex Housing Minister and Twobreakfasts sycophant Francis Allison yesterday, we now hear from his lawyer that his arrest for false testimony and contraband of U$50,000 (in cahoots with his wife) was "an innocent confusion". So let's think about this. If you too had 50 grand hanging in a bank account in the USA and wanted to get it over to your home country, what are the options?

• Credit card transfer. Yes, but that means you have to pay tax and also declare the origins of the money.

• Wire transfer. Yes, but that means you have to pay tax and also declare the origins of the money.

• Interbank transfer. Yes, but that means you have to pay tax and also declare the origins of the money.

Get the picture yet? I could go on, but let's just skip to..

• Stuff banknotes in your pockets and get on a plane. Illegal, but why do they make these silly rules anyway?

So this Francis Allison, ex-Minister, wife's family in Miami, widely travelled, knows the rules backwards, recently forced to resign due to shady dealings with illegal and very lucrative wiretapping business...... but decides to smuggle the money out of the USA instead of declaring it. If this is an innocent confusion Pol Pot was a peace prize winner. I'll be very interested in finding out just how many points this Allison dude has on his frequent flyer card, too, cos U$50,000 is a chunk, but I'll betcha dollars to donuts that it's the tip of a very smelly iceberg.

(b2) GOLD IS BETTER THAN (ecu) SILVER

Just think, ten days ago the GATA sheep could have swapped a share of ECU.to for a share of BTO.to...same price.

Disclosure: This author is:

• Short ECU.to
• Long BTO.to
• Tempting hubris
  

there's something about Mary

After the O'Grady post of yesterday, I now realize how much time was wasted in writing it. The Mex Files does all it so much better and with succinct turns of phrase, too:

"O’Grady makes shit up."

Thufferin' Thuccotash

Totally OT. Not LatAm, not stocks, not politics and a tiny weeny sliver of economics I suppose. But hey, my blog and I'll do what I want with it. By the way, ten Yuan is a touch under U$1.50, so what with the lack of flesh on a typical moggy I'm guessing that it's a delicacy and not a cheap substitute (tastes like turkey, they say....enjoy lunch tomorrow!). From China Daily:

More than 800 cats, locked up in rows of iron cages in a store in Tianjin municipality, would have been transported to Guangzhou, Guangdong province, and slaughtered had it not been for about 30 residents who rallied for nearly 24 hours, negotiating with the trader and police, to free the animals on Tuesday.

Pet lovers and animal welfare volunteers started pouring into a neighborhood in Hongqiao district of the municipality, 120 km from Beijing, minutes after photographs of the caged cats were flashed on the Internet on Monday night.

The trader said the cats, which he bought for 10 yuan apiece, were to be sent to Guangzhou, slaughtered and served as food at restaurants in South China continues here

What good is a dollar?

This fabbo image...

.....and more of the same style (there's a dragon, a camera, a penguin and a scorpion... the scorpion is my fave) are from this post at Humble Student of the Markets today. Cam Hui adds even more value to the origami with an observation on the dollar that I agree with totally.

Today's must see.

Chart of the day is....

....LME copper inventory, 30 day chart:
The elephant in the room.

You want context? We do context:

So whatever makes you think the Twobreakfasts government is corrupt, Otto?

Francis James Allison (for it is he)

Oooooooooh...just an inkling of mine.

On November 5th (but the news just came out today), a dude named Francis James Allison Oyague was arrested in Miami airport. Now this guy just happened to be Minister of Housing in the Twobreakfasts government until very recently, when he was forced to resign because it turns out he had close links and dealings with a company called Business Track (BTR). By way of quick background, if you remember back to this IKN post in January it turned out that BTR were illegally phone-tapping all and sundry in Peruvian political and biz circles.

So, this Peruvian cabinet minister Allison had been collecting cash from a bunch of industrial spies before becoming minister. He "forgot" to mention the connection at the time, was found out and then resigned.

So that brings us up to this month when the Allison dude was arrested along with his wife by US ICE customs officials for contraband and false testimony as they tried to smuggle over U$50,000 in cash out of the USA stuffed in their pockets. Here's a PDF link to the criminal complaint and it says that:

• The limit of cash they could take out on their person was U$10,000 each

• Allison and his wife knew this and also signed a statement on it

• Officers made a routine inspection and found U$30,250 on the couple.

• Therefore the officers made a more thorough search and found another U$20,000 on Allison's person concealed in his inner jacket pockets.

• The couple were then arrested (they were about to get on a plane to Peru (!) via Panama (!) but never made that final call) and have now been released on U$100,000 bail, which has been stumped up by a 'family member living in Miami (oh, ain't that just da lucky?)

Slush funds for governments anyone? This one could run and run.

UPDATE: Now the top story in El Comercio (and all other media) in Peru

Mary Anastasia O'Grady, winner of this week's coveted award

And before you say anything, it's not the politics, either. Yeah, sure we all know Mary Anastasia O'Grady is right wing and we know her employer is right wing. Look...ok....fine...she's going to try and win one for Dubya and Gipper and although not a personal taste, it's not STFU material. What we're talking about here is a serial ignorance of Latin American affairs that has no excuse possible amongst sentient beings.

• When she writes about Honduras, people who really know about Honduras (eg Rhodes' scholars living and working there) spot the glaring factual errors in nanoseconds.

• When she writes about Bolivia, people who really know about Bolivia (as well as a whole bunch of eggheads) blow away her false statements and blather without even pausing for breath.

• When she writes about El Salvador, her deceptions and lies even manage to evoke the ire of a Lutherian minister who is a leading authority on the country (e.g. invited election observer, many years in country, trusted by all the political spectrum etc etc).

• When she writes about Ecuador, her blatantly false accusations piss off the country's President so much that he slaps a lawsuit on her paper's tush.

And you'll note (to spare us all some pain) I haven't even mentioned Venezuela on that list. So please, Mary Anastasia O'Grady, for once in your life do a bit of fact checking and pretend that your readership are not morons just waiting to get their brains washed, rinsed and repeated.

Either that or just

Trading Post (dogs on roofs edition)

ECU Silver (ECU.to) down 1.3% at $0.77. I dunno 'bout you dude, but I think I can make out a pattern in the recent days on this stock....hmmm....
As Rolf Harris would say, "Can you see what it is yet?". I'm kinda aiming for $0.65 to close the short, but let's see how things develop.

Fortuna Silver (FVI.v) down 3.1% at $2.16 and taking a day off from its recent blastup. A day like today was going to happen at some point. It happened the day after Dines called it a buy. Hoodathunkit, eh?

Nadagold (NG) up 3% at U$5.46 thanks to a new fundamental analysis report published by a buncha dudes known as Red Chip. But hey, read the smallprint and you'll see that Red Chip got U$25,000 to produce this pumperooney wonder (whaaaat? No mention of the class action lawsuits? $1.2Bn NAV for Rock Creek?? No mention of the pig's breakfast they made of the Nome ops? Shome mishtake shurely ossifer!) as well as another U$25,000 per month for the next 12 months to keep on a-pumpin' it...and 100,000 options at $3.77, too. Thus Rick! gets round the fact that any self-respecting analysis house wouldn't touch this PoS with a barge pole any longer.

Mirasol Resources (MRZ.v) up 53.8% at $1.03 and the star turn of the day, all on the back of this presser that sees them hitting a very wide piece of very cool Ag mineralization down in SC, Argentina (check it out for yourself). Main man Brent Cook tipped this one moons ago to his faithful. He nailed it.

Having a left wing or right wing government in South America has made no difference at all to regional economic performances

A great post over at Gran Combo that compares South American countries' economies, specifically by exports and FDI. Here's one of the charts available (go over to Rendon's post for the others).

Apart from the recent winner being Bolivia (YAY!) the pattern is pretty clear over the region. They're all in the same boat. As for the source material used, the stats come from the United Nations via its favoured (and pretty darn sharp) macro-economy studio in LatAm, Chile's ECLAC/CEPAL. The English language report is available right here. As Rendon writes (translated)

"I don't sympathize with the Bolivian or Venezuela models, but the numbers at the moment indicate there is little difference with other countries."

Dynasty Metals (DMM.to): An apology

On August 10th 2009, IKN published the article linked here entitled "The Incredible Toronto Summer Sale!!!" in which the price of Dynasty Metals (DMM.to), then sitting at between CAD$3.00 and CAD$3.10, was indicated by this author to be a particularly good bargain level and worthy of a double by December 2009.

We were wrong. We should have said "November 2009", not "December 2009" and therefore offer our apologies. Here below is the full post as it appeared that day in August:

The Incredible Toronto Summer Sale!!!

Great news, my friend the owl:
Yes really. Roll Up Roll Up!! Courtesy of Can&Corn Inc, purveyors of quality retail neurosis since 1988, the bigtime summer sale is now on!! HURRY HURRY!!, for you too can get two shares of Dynasty Metals for the price of one* if you're slick and quick and make it to the counter now NOW NOW!!

Satisfaction guaranteed or we'll refund your money!**

Call Now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(this message was brought to you by Canadian SheepClip™, professional tools for all your shearing needs)

*December 2009 prices
**some restrictions apply, sucker

News roundup (we nibble at the applecores that others nonchalantly toss over their shoulders)

US GDP third quarter GDP revised down. Krugman got the insight needed. We got a cool chart above. Dow coming back down? Pimco seems to think so, judging by the bonds trade Billy G has just made.

Peru's Shining Path scumballs are trying to get themselves into the next set of elections by setting up a 'democratic' party. How anyone can even consider this as viable is beyond me. These people are responsible for tens of thousands of murders, some in the most horrific ways possible. There is a case for censorship in modern society and these people do not deserve a voice or the right to free speech.

Today's 'No Shit Sherlock' award goes to the government of Paraguay, which called the recently uncovered coup plot against Fernando Lugo "illegal". Ain't gonna hear many arguing the use of that adjective, dudes.

In a clear communist plot to take over the world, Venezuela donates 5.1 million energy saving lightbulbs to Ecuador to help lighten the energy crisis load brought on by the local drought.

Argentina's INDEC stats office does something unheard of in more than two years of macro country reporting and tells the truth. Unemployment is recorded up at 9.1% in Argentina for the third quarter, up 1.3% YoY.

Sandspring Resources (SSP.v): Lost in the post, probably.....

So back on November 18th I received a mail concerning this post covering Sandspring Resources (SSP.v) from its main shareholder John Adams, who kindly confirmed his identity (as seen in the post+update+comment on that link). In his polite and educated mail, he offered to answer any questions I might have about the project. That was kind of him, so I sent him a short mail with three or four questions. Here's an extract of my words to him;

".....thanks due for the offer of finding out more about Toroparu. I suppose the first thing I'd want to know are the chances of the resource growing significantly from the 43-101 number already published. What kind of blue sky does the asset offer? And as for ..."

So I've given it a full week but still no response from Adams on those. He's either a busy man and just hasn't had time to respond, or he did in fact write an answer but from some interwebnetpìpes snafu or other it didn't arive in my mailbox. I can't think of any other reason why the response hasn't arrived yet

Useful LatAm opinion filter, available now free of charge

A simple yet very useful filter for cutting crap on LatAm political opinion as written in English language media is now available to you, dear reader.

If, in the next few days, you read op-eds that include the terms 'Brazil, 'Iran', 'Lula' 'Chávez'* and 'Good Left' and then the author of the piece professes either anger or confusion over Lula's position, you can strike that person off your list of people worth reading on LatAm affairs forever.

Caipirinhas served. The end.

*yep, Chávez..that's the biggest clue, in fact. Only in the minds of those with axes to grind will the President of Venezuela be mentioned in a story that concerns Iran and Brazil

Charts of the day are.....

.....the US Dollar versus local currencies, three month chart and 12 month chart.

Here's the 90 day variety...

...with Mexico the only country on the losing side to the dollar recently (even the Argy Peso (ARS) is appreciating a touch, to the relief of all those gringo plumbers who moved there a couple of years ago to reinvent themselves as professional photographers now renting their lofts in Palermo Soho). But the Chilean Peso (CLP) is the big winner in recent days, with the currency up 10% against the USD thanks to a simple macro equation; good economic policy+early action against crisis last year+copper over $3/lb= Chile's coming out of recession faster than the rest.

The 12 month chart also has Chile up there battling with regional big boy Brazil

Meanwhile, Fitch-downgraded Mexico and wunderkind Peru have performed like-for-like this year........draw your own conclusions from that one (hint: IMF likes Peru)

deja vu all over again

I first saw this a few months ago....

(click to enlarge)

...and at the time it was just funny. Not so funny anymore.

Trading Post (laugh at the dumbasses edition)

I was sent this today. I've read it seven times so far and still don't know what it means.

2009-11-20 17:30 ET - In the News: International Speculator in its Nov. 2, 2009, issue, refreshes its buy of AuEx Ventures Inc. at $3.05, officially, "Buy under C$2.50." The newsletter said buy five times between June 1, 2006, and Oct. 3, 2008, at prices ranging from $1.32 to $2.11. He then said sell -- perhaps half -- on March 2, 2009, at $2.58. Assuming an investment of $1,000 for each of the five buys, selling half of the $5,000 investment at $2.58 yielded a profit of $1,125. He then said buy on Oct. 1, 2009, at $2.85. Assuming another $1,000 investment, and taking into consideration the remaining $2,500 investment after the March 2, 2009, half sale, the Speculator's total $3,500 investment is worth $5,341. The writer comments that AuEx has a lot more going for it than the Long Canyon project in Nevada, but that is the star of this show. The "buy under $2.50" stipulation raises the question that with a double in the cards, he may confuse subscribers. He meets this issue head on, saying that if he were not already long, he might just buy at or close to market. However, with profits already taken, "It takes an extra appealing price to get us to take on new risk." He then adds (on the other hand), "Make no mistake, this is one of our favorite picks."

Jeesh, that Louis James is one serious dumbass of a writer, but gotta say that if he is reco'ing XAU.to (and i think he is...though it does look like he's in the process of writing calls on it til the $2.50 comes around...or not...damn, i'm confused again) he's picked a fair vehicle. We had news on XAU.to in the Weekly yesterday and it was all good. All good.


AuEx Ventures (XAU.to) up 2.4% at $2.99. Stop clocks and all that jazz.

Dorato Resources (DRI.v) down 7.2% at $0.90. O RLY?

Fortuna Silver (FVI.v) up 3.7% at $2.23 and was as high as $2.35 at the bell this morning because Jim Dines rec'd it to his flock again over the weekend and they all had to pile on at exactly the same time, didn't they? Dumbasses.

ECU Silver (ECU.to) down 1.3% at $0.79. Talking of dumbasses.........

MAG Silver (MVG) (MAG.to) up 3% at U$5.70. Dumbass mgmt will get more than it deserves here.

Radius Gold (RDU.v) down 6.3% at $0.225. If you sold this today you're a dumbass.

TheNewCrystallex (EC.v) down 3.6% at $0.81. It's a little-known fact, but the word 'dumbass' was specifically created for people who actually think this company is going to get drill permits for its Zarza project.

The Year-To-Date Small Silvers Sweepstakes (new update)

It's been a couple of weeks since the last update, so let's see how things are developing.

(click to enlarge)

Endeavour Silver (EDR.to) has had the most magnificent month, moving up a full 100% (benchmarked to its Jan 1st price) so far this November. Top job, guys.

Personal fave Fortuna Silver (FVI.v) is now a firm second place, also having a good time this month. Great Panther (GPR.to) slips from 3rd to 4th and the ones below are basically in the same position as before. Wonderdog ECU Silver (ECU.to) is actually net negative for 2009 again...mindblowing on one level, but check the books and it's perfectly logical, really. Half price GATA next year looking evermore likely.

Dorato Resources (DRI.v): Bad news for the bullshit pumpers at the can of corn....

...along with the company and Henk's whores in Frankfurt, too. I had to laugh this morning when I saw Dorato (DRI.v) being pumped in Canaccord's 'Morning Coffee' publication for the second time in the last two weeks. Those guys are utterly shameless.

This report tells the story of how locals in the Cenepa region of North Peru (where DRI.v is pretending to explore, along with fellow bullshitter company NDR.v amongst others) have taken five members of IAMGold staff hostage in the last week, along with three others from a company called Sierra Dorada (that's trying the same alluvial scam on the Marañon river as CMIN.ob). The eight mining staff members are being held by locals because they don't want any miners in their hood. Simple as that.

But the real bad news for the Canadian pump machine and the parasites that latch on is that IAMGold is pulling out of the area next year. apparently not for the "warm welcome" they get from locals, either (though it can hardly help). Nah, the reason given by Louis Gariepy, manager of IAMGold Peru, is that (translated)

"we are going to abandon the concession next year when the next license renewal comes around. We now realize that it (exploration in the zone) is very costly. This is the reason why it’s very probable that we will not return.”

So let's see.......Cenepa is very hostile and anti-mining, is abandoned as not cost effective by a serious mining company.....but pumped by a bunch of bullshitters in cahoots with the sleaziest brokerage in Canada. What say you, owl?

UPDATE: Oh look, somebody with 50,000 shares reads this blog.
Say it, owly: