Are All G20 Bank Depositors Exposed to a Cyprus Style Seizure of Deposits for a 'Bail-in?'

Dave from Golden Truth has let me know of an interesting quote from an article by Eric Sprott titled Caveat Depositor which *could* explain why countries like New Zealand and Canada are quietly tilting towards seizing bank deposits to recapitalize failed banks.

"If there is a risk in a bank, our first question should be: ‘Ok, what are you the bank going to do about that? What can you do to recapitalise yourself?’ If the bank can’t do it, then we’ll talk to the shareholders and the bondholders. We’ll ask them to contribute in recapitalising the bank. And if necessary the uninsured deposit holders: ‘What can you do in order to save your own banks?’”

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, March 26, 2013

Apparently this template has already been agreed to by the G20 according to Dave.

"Because the use of taxpayer-funded bailouts would likely no longer be tolerated by the public, a new bank rescue plan was needed. As it turns out, this new "bail-in" model is based on an agreement that was the result of a bank bail-out model that was drafted by a sub-committee of the BIS (Bank for International Settlement) and endorsed at a G20 summit in 2011.

For those of you who don't know, the BIS is the global "Central Bank" of Central Banks. As such it is the world's most powerful financial institution. I sourced a copy of this Agreement here: LINK...

...the agreement references specifically avoiding more taxpayer bailouts. It also refers to bank deposits in excess of Government insured amounts as "uninsured creditors." This is essentially the standard legal bankruptcy model which uses creditor hierarchy (secured lenders, unsecured lenders, preferred equity, equity) and applies to the rescuing of banks.

This is very important to know about and understand because what is commonly referred to as a "bail-in" in Cyprus is actually a global bank rescue model that was derived and ratified nearly two years ago. It also means that bank deposits in excess of Government insured amounts in any bank in any country will be treated like unsecured debt if the bank goes belly-up and is restructured in some form.

Because this is a legal Central Banking agreement that will be applied globally, it also means that U.S. bank depositors will not be immune to this rescue mechanism. It means that no one should keep any amount in any bank that exceeds the FDIC guarantee. In fact, I would recommend only keeping enough money in the bank to fund your monthly or quarterly bill paying requirements. Any amount in excess of FDIC deposit insurance will be exposed to the risk bankruptcy."

You may read the entire article at Dave's blog Golden Truth.

I would assume that if Dave's reading of this document is correct, unless there is a specific and unequivocal denial by your local government Administration, then this is the operative plan for another series of bank failures in the G20 countries, including the US, Germany, France, Italy, and the UK.  This would explain how these stealthy depositor seizure plans have been bubbling up from diverse countries.

I would not be satisfied if there was merely a dismissal of the possibility, that Cyprus was somehow a 'special case' because of the way in which their banks were capitalized, and so heavy with deposits.  In the event of a global derivatives meltdown, no capital structure will stand, and no bank can maintain a so-called 'fortress balance sheet' while they are gambling wildly with speculative leverage on the side.

I do not wish to seem to be an alarmist, but this additional information and some of the other events which are occurring has created a rather significant shift in my thinking.  Cash is not cash and deposits are no longer deposits as we once thought of them in this non-transparent, post-Glass Steagall financial world of ours. 

Congratulations. You may now be an unsecured creditor of your local TBTF bank if your and yours have any money on deposit there, either directly or indirectly.    You say you have money in a pension fund and an IRA at XYZ bank?  Oops, it is really on deposit in you-know-who's bank.  You say you have money in a brokerage account?  Oops, it is really being held overnight in their TBTF bank.  Remember MF Global? 

Who can say how far the entanglements go?  The current financial system and market structure is crazy with hidden risk, insider dealings, control frauds, and subtle dangers.  Jim Chanos says that the  cheating is so widespread and unpunished that it becomes almost a fiduciary responsibility to break the rules.

 No wonder people are so edgy.  I think the plutocrats have gone too far, but are so detached and out of touch that they have not figured it out yet.  And when the awaking comes, it will be quite a surprise to many.

To my correspondents who say they have spoken to their elected representatives about this and received assurances, I would not assume that they are aware of this international agreement which the US has presumably signed.  I was not.

And if you think they will stand up against any plans to take your deposits during a banking emergency, against a vociferous and overwhelming flood of objections from their constituents, remember how quickly the Congress caved on TARP and Cyprus' Parliament gave way to the EU and ECB.

Welcome to the abyss.

Remembering the 45th Anniversary of Martin Luther King's Last Speech

“The tyrant dies and his rule is over;  the martyr dies and his rule begins.”

Søren Kierkegaard

Martin Luther King's Last Speech

3 April 1968, Church of God in Christ, Memphis, Tennessee



On 4 April 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and abuse those whom God has sent as messengers to you.

How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings. But you would not let me.

As you willed, your house is now yours, but is made desolate.’”

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Canada Takes Cyprus Model - Bolivar Failing - Global Pigfest

There was a very obvious hit on the precious metals market today. You could not miss it if you were watching the tape intraday.

I have posted some commentary on that here and here.

The Non-Farm Payrolls Report is on Friday. The ADP report came in light today, and ISM Services missed as well.

There were a couple of surprises today in that things which we have seen are now starting to penetrate the mainstream consciousness.

Jim Chanos observed that the moral hazard is now so bad that 'cheating is a fiduciary responsibility.' Nice tone that the governments are setting in Washington and London.

Even nations are getting in on the action as Venezuela is allowing the financiers to front run its devaluations.

"Unlike the first devaluation however, the second was done behind closed doors with local financial interests placing bids on dollar exchange transactions ahead of the country’s citizenry...

The chart shows that when measured against gold, the Venezuelan Bolivar has “collapsed” from Bs. 860 in 2005, to what appears to be over Bs. 20,000 today. This represents an over 23-fold move (2300%) in gold over the last eight years.

Additionally, the CBC seems to have confirmed that Canada is concerned about bank failures and is adopting the Cyprus model for their own bailout plans.

It seems a bit dodgy that both NZ and Canada have taken these steps, while reassuring everyone, rather smugly, that their banks cannot fail.

Are you kidding me?  In the event of a major global derivatives event, I would imagine that nothing in the banking system is safe.

And lastly, I hear from Bloomberg that American Banks with European money market funds intend to deal with their negative returns by quietly 'breaking the buck.'  Bail-in, everybody.

If the above does not give you a sense of foreboding then you may wish to check your pulse.

And with the gold and silver action we are seeing, and the dissembling about the safety of the banking systems and the economy,  it is as if the local authorities are trying to keep people on the beach, generating commercial activity by spending money and saving paper currency, while they themselves make their own provisions for an incoming tsunami of financial disaster.

Right. I'll send you a postcard from higher ground, eh?

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Whoops

The economic news this morning was a bit thin as the ISM Services missed estimates a bit, while the ADP employment report missed consensus by quite a bit more.

In my own way of thinking, the stock markets took a big retrenchment after hitting the SP 500 chart's intermediate chart objective yesterday of 1565-1570.

All eyes should be on the Non Farm Payrolls report on Friday, as well as the growing crisis in the global banking sector. You may not be aware of it, but the smart money certainly is.

The financial system is inherently unstable now, and I would take defensive measures as one might be able.  When the time comes, there will not be time.

The VIX rose but is still relatively benign.  I will be a bit surprised if the market does not take at least one more run at a new high, but I am a bit discouraged of that unless the June futures can regain the big support area north of 1550.

I did shed some of the volatility which I purchased yesterday during the market's sojourn in the land of the lotus eaters.  I am in a more defensive posture here including bullion bought on weakness.

CBC: Canada To Adopt the Cyprus Model of Depositor 'Bail-In' In Case of Bank Failure

The smugness of the Canadian politicians is reminiscent of the Bank of New Zealand. 

Perhaps that is what the political do when they are making plans for a gathering storm and they wish for everyone to remain on the beach in the meanwhile.

I could be wrong, but in my judgement nothing in the global banking system is safe if the massive derivative bubble collapses. 

It will not only take down the private banks, but quite a few sovereign countries as well.

I am of the opinion that in the States there will not be the same sort of 'bail in' but a 'print in' in which the Fed will supply as much money as is required, taking value from all who hold Dollars including foreign holders.  So in that sense, the US is 'safe.'  It is all the holders of dollars around the world who are not.

You may wish to take some protective measures if you have not done so already.   When the times comes, there will be no time.

Ottawa weighing plans for bank failures
By Neil MacDonald
April 3, 2013

Buried deep in last month's federal budget is an ambiguously worded section that has roiled parts of the financial world but has so far been largely ignored by the mainstream media.

It boils down to this: Ottawa is contemplating the possibility of a Canadian bank failure — and the same sort of pitiless prescription that was just imposed in Cyprus.

Meaning no bailout by taxpayers, but rather a "bail-in" that would force the bank's creditors to absorb the staggering losses that such an event would inevitably entail.

If that sounds sobering, it should. While officials in Ottawa are playing down the possibility of a raid on the bank accounts of ordinary Canadians, they chose not to include that guarantee in the budget language.

Canadians tend to believe their banks are safer and more backstopped than elsewhere in the world. The federal government enthusiastically promotes the notion, and loves to take credit for it.

It may well be true, even if Canada's six-bank oligopoly isn't terribly competitive, at least in comparison to the far more diverse American banking universe.

But in the ever-more insecure world that has unfolded since the financial meltdown of 2008, it is also increasingly clear that nothing is safe anymore, not even blue-chip bank stocks and bonds or even, in the case of the Cyprus bail-in, private bank accounts.

And now, Canada is making a bail-in official government policy, too...

Read the rest here.

Net Asset Value Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds - Part Deux

Blatant as can be.

In general, it is 'open season' on small investors in the markets, so why should gold and silver be otherwise?

The only thing that the precious metals are correlated to here is manipulation.

Canada Weighs Cyprus Solution For Bank Failures - CBC

Non-Farm Payrolls on Friday.

Net Asset Value Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds - Cheating Is de Rigueur

“Our government teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.”

Louis D. Brandeis

Thinner.

The funds and bullion banks have a full court press on. 

Smells like teen spirit.  or desperation. 
Life imitates high school.

Jim Chanos observes that there is now A Fiduciary Duty to Cheat.

And the love of many will grow cold...

Jack London: The People of the Abyss

"Woe to you, you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites; you are like whited sepulchres, fair in outward show, but inwardly full of dead men’s bones, and all manner of filth and corruption."

Matthew 23:27

"An' now," said the sweated one, the 'earty man who worked so fast as to dazzle one's eyes, "I'll show you one of London's lungs. This is Spitalfields Garden." And he mouthed the word "garden" with scorn.

The shadow of Christ's Church falls across Spitalfields Garden, and in the shadow of Christ's Church, at three o'clock in the afternoon, I saw a sight I never wish to see again.

There are no flowers in this garden, which is smaller than my own rose garden at home. Grass only grows here, and it is surrounded by a sharp-spiked iron fencing, as are all the parks of London Town, so that homeless men and women may not come in at night and sleep upon it.

As we entered the garden, an old woman, between fifty and sixty, passed us, striding with sturdy intention if somewhat rickety action, with two bulky bundles, covered with sacking, slung fore and aft upon her. She was a woman tramp, a houseless soul, too independent to drag her failing carcass through the workhouse door. Like the snail, she carried her home with her. In the two sacking- covered bundles were her household goods, her wardrobe, linen, and dear feminine possessions.

"Are there no workhouses? Are there no prisons?"

We went up the narrow gravelled walk. On the benches on either side arrayed a mass of miserable and distorted humanity, the sight of which would have impelled Dore to more diabolical flights of fancy than he ever succeeded in achieving. It was a welter of rags and filth, of all manner of loathsome skin diseases, open sores, bruises, grossness, indecency, leering monstrosities, and bestial faces.

A chill, raw wind was blowing, and these creatures huddled there in their rags, sleeping for the most part, or trying to sleep. Here were a dozen women, ranging in age from twenty years to seventy. Next a babe, possibly of nine months, lying asleep, flat on the hard bench, with neither pillow nor covering, nor with any one looking after it. Next half-a-dozen men, sleeping bolt upright or leaning against one another in their sleep.

In one place a family group, a child asleep in its sleeping mother's arms, and the husband (or male mate) clumsily mending a dilapidated shoe. On another bench a woman trimming the frayed strips of her rags with a knife, and another woman, with thread and needle, sewing up rents.

Adjoining, a man holding a sleeping woman in his arms. Farther on, a man, his clothing caked with gutter mud, asleep, with head in the lap of a woman, not more than twenty-five years old, and also asleep.

It was this sleeping that puzzled me. Why were nine out of ten of them asleep or trying to sleep? But it was not till afterwards that I learned. IT IS A LAW OF THE POWERS THAT BE THAT THE HOMELESS SHALL NOT SLEEP BY NIGHT.

On the pavement, by the portico of Christ's Church, where the stone pillars rise toward the sky in a stately row, were whole rows of men lying asleep or drowsing, and all too deep sunk in torpor to rouse or be made curious by our intrusion.

"A lung of London," I said; "nay, an abscess, a great putrescent sore."

"Oh, why did you bring me here?" demanded the burning young socialist, his delicate face white with sickness of soul and stomach sickness.

"Those women there," said our guide, "will sell themselves for thru'pence, or tu'pence, or a loaf of stale bread."

He said it with a cheerful sneer.

But what more he might have said I do not know, for the sick man cried, "For heaven's sake let us get out of this."


Jack London, The People of the Abyss, 1903

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Non-Farm Payrolls Week Hit on the Metals

I was expecting a hit on the precious metals this week, and today would certainly qualify.

Non-Farm Payrolls on Friday.

Stocks and the precious metals are running inversely here which is a change from the past.

I think that is because both stocks and the precious metals were rising in a reflationary environment.

We are now past that reflation and stocks have entered bubble territory. That bubble is soaking up quite a bit of excess liquidity and funds are being created for financial paper by selling positions in commodities. And the metals are prime targets.

The lack of volume in the stock rally is a huge warning sign of trouble ahead.

IF the market expected a serious recession, would stocks be rallying so hard? No. But how does this square with the meme that commodities are falling due to decreasing demand?

I believe this is a monetary phenomenon in an unreformed market. IF that is correct we should see a rather violent reversion to the mean, or norm, sometime this year, probably in two steps. Step one is probably going to be a 'market break' that will scare the stocks bulls for a time, until the Fed calms their fears with more liquidity. The second break could be rather impressive.

I am not necessarily expecting a market 'crash' of 20+% although that is possible.  I think there will be a dislocation in the financial-political realm that will have far-reaching effects.

But no one can predict the future and that certainly includes me. 

At the same time, I am seeing a rally in paper financials and corporate profits, and at the same time increasing despair amongst consumers and the public, with very little signs of sustainable recovery. 

This divergence is being ignored by policy makers and influencers, who are taking a 'Shut Up Savers' stance towards their base of support.

So let's see what happens.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - New Highs and Complacency Returns.

The SP 500 tagged my intermediate chart objective of 1565 to 1570 intraday today.

Stocks are in a Fed-induced bubble now.

They are not expensive based on a multiple of earnings. However, the earnings are not sustainable.

The most illustrative chart is to compare the growth of corporate profits and the median wage.

The world is slipping into a recession, approaching depression in some errors, all due to a policy error on the part of the group think of the global elite and their hangers-on.

There will be a serious break at some point, perhaps as early as this summer.

Non-Farm Payrolls this Friday, ADP and ISM services tomorrow.

Net Asset Value Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds

"Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive."

Sir Walter Scott, Marmion

Thin premiums on another 'record day' for stocks.

I bought volatility when the SP 500 June Futures tagged 1568 intraday.  As you know volatility is just another name for uncertainty.

That is close enough to my intermediate target of 1570 to have a go at it. We may get back up there for a couple more tests.

I think the hit on the metals today was rather heavy-handed and obvious. The Gold/Silver ratio is approaching an extreme.

Remember that Non-Farm Payrolls is on Friday.  I was therefore expecting a hit on the metals, and here it is.  It may not be over. 

The COT seems to indicate that this is in the hands of the hedge funds and momentum funds in addition to the usual suspects.  They tend to move quickly when there is a turn.

As you may recall I tend to take a long view of the precious metals bull market as the progress of the ongoing currency war which will result in the establishment of a new global currency regime to replace what we have called 'Bretton Woods II' based on the fiat US dollar.

I believe gold will play a role in this, and probably silver as well, if not in a formal way, then as a modifier or a 'hedge.'

Respect your timeframes and your ability to endure risk, because there will be risk aplenty no matter what you may do.
It is probably better to leave leverage to the professionals.

Administrative Note: Matières à Réflexion Is Back

The Matières à Réflexion list of news links is back on the left hand side of the blog.

Thank you for bearing with this while Google was repairing things.

As a reminder, I don't necessarily put up things with which I agree, but things rather which I think are interesting. If two people in an organization always agree on everything, one of them is probably unnecessary.

I have a very low tolerance for racial and religious prejudice, and blatant propaganda, so please be advised if you write in.  

And I always appreciate your opinions, thoughts, and correction for my occasional errors.  I am certainly far from perfect;  my wife is an authority on this.  I think she keeps a list.

Links for Tuesday, 2 April

"I intend to do what little one man can do to awaken the public conscience, and in the meantime I am not frightened by your menaces. I am not a giant physically; I shrink from pain and filth and vermin and foul air, like any other man of refinement; also, I freely admit, when I see a line of a hundred policeman with drawn revolvers flung across a street to keep anyone from coming onto private property to hear my feeble voice, I am somewhat disturbed in my nerves.

But I have a conscience and a religious faith, and I know that our liberties were not won without suffering, and may be lost again through our cowardice. I intend to do my duty to my country."

Upton Sinclair, Letter to the Los Angeles Chief of Police, 17 May 1923

You may check back on occasion as I sometimes add things during the day. I will put those additions at the top of the list.

I am pleased to report that the "Links List" function in Google's Blogger is now repaired.  I will return to using that format tomorrow.

Links for Today

Danger In Bank Accounts - Macleod

Walmart Customers Complain of Empty Shelves

Unemployment In Eurozone Reaches Record High

The Great Disconnect Between Paper and Physical Silver

Cyprus May Be Model For Future Bailouts - Der Spiegel

Cypriot Banks Write Off Loans to Politicians

Minimum Wage Should Be Substantially Raised, Not Cut in UK

Cypriots Feel Betrayed By European Union

Top Court In India Denies Novartis Patent

Global Drug Companies Will Try to Punish India - Baker

Why Was Paul Krugman So Wrong? - Nation

Shut Up Savers! - Surowiecki (disgraceful arrogance)

Bank of England Given Power to Regulate the City

Chris Hedges On the Power of the Modern Media and Fox News

“He who dictates and formulates the words and phrases we use, he who is master of the press and radio, is master of the mind. Repeat mechanically your assumptions and suggestions, diminish the opportunity for communicating dissent and opposition. This is the formula for political conditioning of the masses.

The big lie and monotonously repeated nonsense have more emotional appeal in a cold war than logic and reason.

The continual intrusion into our minds of the hammering noises of arguments and propaganda can lead to two kinds of reactions. It may lead to apathy and indifference, the I-dont-care reaction, or to a more intensified desire to study and to understand. Unfortunately, the first reaction is the more popular one...Confusing a targeted audience is one of the necessary ingredients for effective mind control.

The eternal demagogue will arise anew. He will accuse others of conspiracy in order to prove his own importance. He will try to intimidate those who are neither so iron-fisted nor so hotheaded as he, and temporarily he will drag some people into the web of his delusions. Perhaps he will even wear a mantle of martyrdom to arouse the tears of the weak-hearted. With his emotionalism and suspicion, he will shatter the trust of citizens in one another."

Joost Meerloo M.D., The Rape of the Mind

Hedges specifically discusses Fox News, and deservedly so,  because it has set the tone for the modern news programs. There were never more ironic words than their slogan, 'fair and balanced.'  But he could have included a few other corporate copycat channels as well, including the financial channels which have become little more than infomercials for Wall Street and the one percent.

Most 'news shows' in the states have become extended op-ed's where paid professional hucksters and 'strategists' spout slogans and sound bytes at one another, with a fairly cavalier attitude towards an intelligent exposition of the facts. 

Emotions are more powerful than facts in the modern mass media. Frighten the people, anger them, give them an object for their fear and anger, and in their rage you can move them in whatever direction you wish.

And you can look to the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, the weakening of the FCC, the proliferation of cable channels with hours of programming to fill, and the concentration of the media in the hands of a few corporations, or perhaps more correctly global conglomerates, for the cause of this terrible decline in what is lightly these days called journalism. And in the destruction of a literate news media, thereby lies the deterioration in public and political discourse.

This is not about right versus left.  It is about politicians, financiers, and intellectuals of a predator class who think they can strike a Faustian bargain, and unleash the will to power, and control it for their own ends.

But the madness serves none but itself.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Goldman's Risky Business - Memento Mori

I see where Goldman has registered a dodgy credit fund as a publicly traded company.  It is nice to see that it is so easy for Goldman to dodge the Volker Rule and play the risky debt markets while being succored on the breast of the Federal Reserve's subsidies for depository institutions.  And they are also protected by the JOBS act as well.

Coutts Bank has warned its toney customers of the risk of the global debt markets.

I remember, about thirty years ago, sitting with a gentleman banker, who was wearing formal dress with tails, as we discussed an account at Coutts. I had been recommended by a man named Jonathan Solomon who is no longer with us, God rest his gentle soul.  He was my friend.  It occurred to me today that when he passed on he was younger than I am now.  Getting older, with its sweep of memories and experiences of places and past events, is like traveling through time.  Just slowly.

The primary advantage of an account at the Queen's bank was that one never had any difficulty writing a cheque at any of the antiquarian bookshops, or theaters, and so forth, certainly anywhere in the UK and much of Europe, which was quite handy if they did not happen to accept American Express.  

Like the old antiquarian bookshops, which are still there but somewhat paling beside the all reaching internet, genteel London bankers are becoming a thing of the past, in favor of the artful dodgers of Canary Wharf. The days we knew and loved are gone, forever.

I would take this as further evidence that the smarter money is heading towards higher ground and firmer assets.

And on the brighter side, Winter Is Coming.

Well at least that is the meme from The Game of Thrones which kicked off its third series, or season, in the US last night. It is the most widely pirated program on television these days as sci-fantasy fans seek out the product from overseas.

Apparently the HBO to Go servers bogged down and crash in the first hour that the series premiere was available last night. Or at least the young man at University has informed me so.

I introduced him to the series after having read all the books by George R. R. Martin. Like so many I am faithfully waiting for Mr. Martin to complete the next to last book in the series.  This co-watching of the series with my son, and having read the books along with him, reminds me of how I watched him 'grow up' along with Harry Potter.  Children help us to relive the things which we have forgotten, and to experience the joy of learning all over again.

At least GOT gives us something more diverting to talk about than Digital Signal Processing and imaginary numbers of the non-economic variety. Although his advanced maths skills helped me explore the more arcane mysteries of Bitcoin. He is my joy and my consolation. Happy 21st pal.

If you like the series, try the books.  They are definitely good airplane and hotel reading.

Non Farm Payrolls on Friday. Consensus is 192k but the whisper is 210+.

ISM was weak this morning taking down stocks.

Silver had a couple of sucker punches intra-day from the metal shorts. Gold did slightly better.

Have a pleasant evening. 

S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo
Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,
Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Stocks Pull Back on After Quarter Hangover

Stocks pulled back today a bit but the SP futures held 1550 which is big support now.

The putative reason was the weak ISM Index number today which signaled slowing manufacturing activity, but I think it was as much a bit of a 'hangover' from the tape painting that occurred at the end of quarter last week.

Non-Farm Payrolls coming up on Friday. Whisper number is 215,000.

I would tend to buy the dips or take short profits on pullbacks while the SP stays above 1550. My own preference is to dally along the short side with agility, especially by playing the VIX. Why? Because as steady as this rally has been, there is a significant event risk which makes me uneasy about the straight long side.

Volatility has come up a bit but is still low.

Net Asset Value Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds

How Much Gold Is There in the World? - BBC

Links for Monday, 1 April - No Fooling

"The corporations that profit from permanent war need us to be afraid. Fear stops us from objecting to government spending on a bloated military. Fear means we will not ask unpleasant questions of those in power. Fear permits the government to operate in secret. Fear means we are willing to give up our rights and liberties for promises of security. The imposition of fear ensures that the corporations that wrecked the country cannot be challenged. Fear keeps us penned in like livestock."

Chris Hedges

Links For Today

Moody's Review May Dent Bank Ratings

Game of Thrones Third Series Set for UK Debut

US Manufacturing Slows

Caroline Kennedy to be Named Ambassador to Japan

Money Laundering Banks Still Get a Pass from the US - Simon Johnson

Asteri Capital and the London Whale

US Deploys Stealth Fighters to South Korea

BRICs Go Over the Wall - AsiaTimes

As Market Heats Up, Trading Slips Into the Shadows

As Banks In Cyprus Falter, Other Tax Havens Step In

At Banks, Board Pay Soars Amid Cutbacks (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)

More Stockman - Krugman

Big Business Believes in Subsidies, Not Free Markets - ataxingmatter

Canada Walks Out of UN Convention on Droughts

The Super Supercapacitor

The Treason of the Intellectuals - Hedges

Too Big To Jail - Mike Hudson

Links For Saturday, 30 March

"Are we often weary, disheartened and sad? Do we feel weighed down by our sins? Do we think that we won’t be able to cope? Let us not close our hearts, let us not lose confidence, let us never give up: there are no situations which God cannot change, there is no sin which he cannot forgive, if only we open ourselves to him."

Francis I, Easter Vigil, 2013

Links For Today

Bill Moyers: The Hypocrisy of 'Justice for All'

David Stockman: We've Been Lied To, Robbed, and Misled (podcast)

Afghan and Iraq Wars To Cost US From $4 to 6 Trillion

Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The Shame of the Three Strikes Law - Rolling Stone

Inside the Three Strikes Project: An Inmate's Letter - Taibbi

Cyprus Depositors May Have Up to 60 Percent Seized

SAC's Steinberg Gets a Perp Walk - NYT

A Tale of Two Londons - Vanity Fair

Wall St Burden's the Public Debt - Michael Hudson

$600 Million Ponzi Scheme Collapse in North Carolina

Lesser Known Aspect of Currency War and the US Dollar - Rubino

Nation's Only State-Owned Bank the Envy of Wall Street

How G. W. Bush Won the Iraq War - Palast

Median Household Income Down 7% Since Start of Recession

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts

"Totalitarianism, however, does not so much promise an age of faith as an age of schizophrenia. A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial: that is, when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud. Such a society, no matter how long it persists, can never afford to become either tolerant or intellectually stable...

Totalitarianism demands, in fact, the continuous alteration of the past, and in the long run probably demands a disbelief in the very existence of objective truth.

George Orwell

End of quarter today, and gold and silver were under pressure as the punters were pushing the SP 500 higher for that bright, shiny new high.

I took a counter bet to that into the weekend.

Intraday commentary here.

See you Sunday night.  Happy Easter.