Images Caricaturée du Jour

The first cartoon is from William Banzai.

I am not worthy.

And the second was sent my way, artistic origins unknown.

 

 

 

 

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Justice For Some - Currency Wars - ECB Deposit Rates To -3%

Via Bloomberg, citing Handelsblatt:

Eurozone on road to deflation, and bonds remain [an] attractive asset because high demand meets scarce supply

ECB will reduce interest for cash deposits to minus 3% and the dollar [will] appreciate by 20%, reaching parity with euro in 2015.

This evening Zerohedge reports that there is speculation that the ECB will cut interest rates paid to MINUS THREE PERCENT, and that the intention is to bring the dollar 20% higher to dollar parity.  That should do wonders for The Recovery.™

 

Currency wars.   And your meager savings and wages will be the cannon fodder.

 

This is not official, but it makes a great headline and a vector of things to come.  Maybe JPM is trying to make us feel better about their plans for charging us a single percent to hold our cash, ex fees.  Or maybe they are just snorting the ketamine of their own moral hazard, and riding the buzz into a k-hole.

 

This is hard to believe. 

 

But it is also hard to believe that the Fed slipped a back door bailout in the trillions to the Banks.  Nothing is as stupid as the bureaucratic desperation of the pampered princes, when they see the long awaited day of reckoning coming across the horizon.  So I am keeping an open mind.

 

An interest rate on savings deposits of negative three percent is a euphemism for the confiscation of the middle class' remaining funds.  The one percent are parked in subsidized rentier assets and tax havens.

 

These jokers are jumping up and down on a land mine, just to see what happens.

 

Silver continues to be the more interesting story for now in March, with the delivery notices continuing, although the warehouse inventories are more than adequate.

 

Gold is inactive this month, at least in the Comex bucket shop precincts.  Asia is another story.

 

How interesting were the markets today?  I apparently have some Greek heritage on my paternal great grandmother's side, via Italy.  Bohemia and Austria, with Prussia on the maternal side, I knew about, but not the Greek.  Yo, Demetrios.

 

That was how interesting the markets were today. I spent the afternoon perusing the old census records and family papers. 

 

This market is t - h - i - n, and heavily gamed by the bots.

 

The Department of Justice report on law enforcement in Ferguson, Missouri was released today, and it was interesting.   The report shows that Ferguson systematically used its law enforcement responsibilities to turn a minority, African Americans, into an ongoing revenue stream.

 

When you read this damning report, keep in mind that this abusive use of the law may be where the financial system is heading in its relationship with the ninety nine percent, with rents, fees, penalties, usurious loans and student debts, rigged markets, and of course, an unequal system of justice for some.

 

Non-farm payrolls on Friday.  This is an inactive month for gold.

 

I am continuing to watch the Sprott Silver fund to see what they do about their cash situation for expenses.   They have several options.  I do not know all of them, or which one they may pursue.

  

Currency wars, bitchez. 

 

And almost no one is talking about it.   Or the corrosive role of the Banks.

 

In 1999, on signing Gramm-Leach-Bliley into law, Clinton said, “This is a day we can celebrate as an American day” and that ” the Glass-Steagall law is no longer appropriate for the economy in which we live” and “today what we are doing is modernizing the financial services industry, tearing down these antiquated laws and granting banks significant new authority” and “This is a very good day for the United States.”

Columbia Journalism Review, Bill Clinton on Deregulation

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Fading Recovery, Skittish Market, Asset Bubble

I wonder how far they are willing to take this stock bubble?

It can keep drifting while there is no adverse geopolitical or economic news.

But the economic recovery is faltering. Or perhaps it would be more correct to say that the illusion is fading.

 

Zerohedge had an interesting article today about the ratio of Net Worth/GDP that may be signaling an asset bubble has already formed in the US.   The Fed's propensity to create asset bubbles in order to continue to sustain an inefficient and parasitical financial sector provides plenty of room for concern.  Their inability to provide the necessary reform because they are caught in a credibility trap is a recurring theme here.

 

It is a bit off the topic of markets, but Glenn Greenwald has an interesting story of how the US media manufacturers stories, and then tailors the narrative of the subsequent discussion of those 'stories' on their talk shows and panels to keep putting forward certain false and misleading propositions to the public.

 

I have seen some bloggers and internet trolls doing this, 'exposing' people as 'charlatans' but it is a bit jarring to see this done so readily by the mainstream media.

 

Have a pleasant evening.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Silver Remains Actively Sought for Delivery

 

This may be an 'inactive' month for gold, but not for silver.

 

As the latest clearing report from the Comex suggest, silver is getting an active declaration for delivery, with over 7 million ounces claimed so far in March. 

 

The latest Comex delivery report is below.

 

It may be a bucket shop for gold, but for some reason the Comex silver warehouses remain active, with bullion actually changing hands now and then, despite the obvious price antics practiced there.

 

The gold held at the Comex seems to have become largely symbolic, a reminder of what the pyramid of paper is said to represent.  It is like an old pier left in a bay that has silted over.  The gold markets have headed East.

 

Otherwise it was the same old, same old.  

 

Gold and silver are bid up on the overnight, and then slammed down with the London PM fix and then the opening of the NY Comex trade.

 

There is a message in this repetition.  And they continue on, despite the gathering storms on the horizon.  

 

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Stunned Into Apathy

"Most of them became wealthy by being well connected and crooked. And they are creating a society in which they can commit hugely damaging economic crimes with impunity, and in which only children of the wealthy have the opportunity to become successful. That’s what I have a problem with. And I think most people agree with me."

Charles Ferguson, Predator Nation

"I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that."

Captain Edward John Smith, RMS Titanic

The new record high of 5,000 Nasdaq, reminiscent of the last time we were here, at the height of the tech bubble, almost fifteen years ago, was short lived, at least for now. 

 

There is certainly no reason why it could not go higher, even much higher, again.   Their hypocrisy and shamelessness knows no bounds.  Especially now after so many successful frauds with so little in consequences.

 

What surprises me is not that men deceive and betray their fellow men.  Any student of history will know of this recurrent, almost obsessive tendency, of a careless few.

 

Rather, what surprises me is that they do it so recklessly, so wantonly, and relatively, for so little compared to the carnage and misery that they leave behind. 

 

 I still cannot quite get over Ben Bernanke's recommendation that the President be given special executive powers to declare a state of economic emergency, and to effectively suspend the rule of law.  As if a financial crisis is an unexpected, tragic act of God.   And not the consequence of reckless greed and the weakness of corruptible men who know what they are doing, and do it anyway.

 

Rough seas ahead, my mateys.

 

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

 

 

Nine Out of Ten Non-Regulators MIght See a Trend In Intraday Precious Metal Trading

'What is truth?' said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for the answer.

Francis Bacon

Here are the intra-day averages for the price of gold and silver for February.

 

Can you detect any pattern intraday? 

 

There does seem to be a pronounced pattern associated with the geographic location of the primary trading market's time zone.

 

As the dissembling Winnie the Pooh said to the angry nest of bees, 'I'm only a little black rain cloud,  pay no attention to me.'

 

Tut tut, looks like rain.

 

Storms gathering on the horizon.  Better get more buckets for the bucket shop.

 

 

Charts courtesy of Nick Laird at Sharelynx.com.