So the Top 25 Commercial Banks in the US have a combined Total Asset Value of 8.6 Trillion, and at the same time have outstanding Derivative Positions Valued at 230 Trillion.

Talk About Leverage!…This is a Ticking Time Bomb!

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2012/05/derivs%20by%20bank.jpg

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica and ARMONK, N.Y., May 10, 2012 — /PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) officially opened today its new Costa Rica Delivery Center, in America Free Zone, Heredia. IBM will invest US$300 million over 10 years, and intends to employ up to 1,000 people by 2014. The new center will provide high-value services for clients around the world, reaffirming Costa Rica’s position as a strategic services hub for IBM. The facility will support clients in the areas of IT security, data storage, business analytics, cloud computing, and other services in demand by IBM clients.

The new center will provide cloud infrastructure support and management, to help clients simplify and enhance operational efficiency. Cloud computing provides clients with the ability to reduce their IT infrastructure costs, have a standardized, virtualized platform, and enhance their process automation. Additionally, the center will provide technology capabilities that can anticipate and help prevent fraud and IT hacker attempts.

IBM IT experts will support global clients with service management, data storage services, automating data backup and providing support for a variety of storage platforms and tools. Business analytics capabilities will help clients analyze complex data and enable smarter decision-making.

“With IBM’s state-of-the-art facilities, thousands of Costa Ricans will be able to showcase their talent, pushing Costa Rica further down the path of innovation, knowledge and technology; a path that we have bravely undertaken with courage and commitment, but most of all, with great confidence in the talent of our people,” said Costa Rica President Laura Chinchilla.

http://thecostaricanews.com/new-ibm-delivery-center-opens-in-costa-rica/11716

Jim Rogers is hedging his gold (and silver) positions reflecting that this is normal, following such a tremendous run, and that this is good for the precious metal in the long-run. In his discussion with Maria Bartiromo this afternoon, he notes India’s anti-gold ‘protectionism’ (and its potential balance of payments issues) that are trying to force the hoarding into risky ‘productive’ assets (as others might say). The immutable commodity maven suggests JPMorgan (and its peers) could be behind the drops in the overall commodity complex as the uncertainty of their positions (andliquidation potential to raise cash as bank examiners begin their forensics) becomes more important. He holds the USD, which he hates; has a number of equity shorts; and is most fearful of banks – specifically admitting he is a serial seller of calls on JPMorgan.

Eduardo Saverin, the billionaire co- founder of Facebook Inc. (FB), renounced his U.S. citizenship before an initial public offering that values the social network at as much as $96 billion, a move that may reduce his tax bill.

Facebook plans to raise as much as $11.8 billion through the IPO, the biggest in history for anInternet company. Saverin’s stake is about 4 percent, according to the website Who Owns Facebook. At the high end of the IPO valuation, that would be worth about $3.84 billion. His holdings aren’t listed in Facebook’s regulatory filings.

Saverin, 30, joins a growing number of people giving up U.S. citizenship, a move that can trim their tax liabilities in that country. The Brazilian-born resident of Singapore is one of several people who helped Mark Zuckerberg start Facebook in a Harvard University dorm and stand to reap billions of dollars after the world’s largest social network holds its IPO.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-11/facebook-co-founder-saverin-gives-up-u-s-citizenship-before-ipo.html

From the moment we all got to peek behind the over-leveraged financial system reality thank to Lehman’s collapse, the-powers-that-be have made every attempt to stop this whole thing unraveling. Eric Sprott humbly suggests, when the CNBC anchor in the following clip questions recent gold price action as evidence of something wrong in his thesis, that just as Jim Grant opines, “All markets are manipulated” and that Central Banks (who are desperately trying to revive the dying system in every extreme monetary scheme possible) simply do not want to see the price of gold rising. He then notes that Silver is likely to be the investment of the next decade (although offers no strong thesis other than levered gold). Shrugging off the obfuscation from Omaha, “People who sell paper gold and paper silver can rule the markets in the short-term but physical participants will win the day in the long-run”. Detailing some fundamental drivers for gold’s advance, as the investment of the last decade and so for those three gentlemen (Buffett, Gates, & Munger) who missed it, I don’t know that I should respect their opinion at this point in time.

Trade Alert!…Taking Profits on Targets 1 and 2

4/19/12–Initial Trade Reco — Short Gold and Buy USD

Trade Run Down

Shorted Gold on 4/19/12 at 1650.00

It went a little sideways for about 8-9 days, nothing major, nowhere near our stop

S of May 1st Gold Futures got close to hitting the 50 MA and and have been going down since then.

Profit Target 1–1625.00 was taken out in the early morning session at 8:19 for a gain of 25 points or 1 1/2%.  In the Futures Market this equates to a $2,500.00 gain

Profit Target 2 — 1600.00 was taken out in the regular session at 11:05 this morning for a gain of 50 points or 3%.  A gain of 5,000 on 1 Futures contract

Profit Target 3 is subjective and is basically worked thru a trailing stop– this last postion will fully exit this trade.  So with a Trailing Stop set at 20 points from the low, We now have a Hard Trailing Stop at 1615.00

The Banco Nacional (BN) and the online payment firm PayPal announced last Thursday, April 26th, an alliance to facilitate electronic commerce in Costa Rica, thus allowing companies to use an internationally recognized system to send and receive payments in a faster and easier way.
Although e-commerce has grown in the past years, internet sales have faced several limitations in Costa Rica, especially when it comes to receiving payments from abroad.
Until recently, companies interested in selling their products internationally were required to open a US bank account.
However, this process could take up to two months, and transferring funds to the local bank was also a complicated and expensive process, which represented a burden to most business.
According to both PayPal and the BN, their goal is to provide a solution to this problem, as well as provide ways to improve Costa Rican e-commerce.
Currently, PayPal has an estimate of 110 million users in more than 190 countries. Its alliance with Banco Nacional (BN) will contribute to consolidate the firm as the leading online payment method in Latin America.

http://thecostaricanews.com/banco-nacional-announces-alliance-with-paypal/11581?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TCRN+%28The+Costa+Rica+News%29

The full moon has a reputation for trouble, such as raising high tides, but you just might want to set your alarm or stay up for this one. It will be 14% bigger and 30% brighter than any other full moon in 2012.

The scientific term for it is ‘Perigee Moon’, which is explained in this video, along with other interesting facts about it. The big 2012 SuperMoon will be at its grandest at 11:34 PM (EDT) on Saturday night, May 5. (3:27)

It appears Ron Paul fans aren’t the only gold bugs roaming around out there.

For the second straight year, an annual Gallup poll has found that a plurality of Americans believe gold is the single safest long term investment option. Safer than savings accounts. Safer than real estate. Safer than stocks. A full 28 percent of adults ranked gold as their top choice, down from 34 percent last year, a drop just outside the five point margin of error. It was most popular among older Americans, those without a college a degree, and individuals who earned between $30,000 and $75,000 a year.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/24k-nation-americans-crazy-think-190121319.html