Comedians: The Witch Hunt Broadens and Continues

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Twilight of the Gods

"I was satisfied that I wasn't personally to blame and that I hadn't known about those things. I wasn't aware of the extent of the crimes.

But one day I went past the memorial plaque which had been put up for Sophie Scholl in Franz Josef Strasse, and I saw that she was born the same year as me, and she was executed the same year I started working for Hitler.

And at that moment I actually sensed that it was no excuse to be young, and that it would have been possible to find things out."

Traudl Junge, Hitler's Secretary

Know well whom and what it is that you serve, for that is whom you will love, and eventually become.

I will be leaving a bit early today to take Dolly to the veterinarian for her annual checkup.

The markets were rising steadily on the questioning of the new Fed chairman Jay Powell, and on the stiff action by President Trump to diminish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is a thorn in the side of the Banks. Financial stocks were certainly responding positively to this.

But the news later came out that North Korea has fired another missile, as reported by the Japanese Coast Guard, and later confirmed by the US military, and stocks fluttered a bit, but then resumed their rally led higher by the SP 500 futures and the financial stocks.

I grew tired of the exuberant prevaricators on financial television, and flipped over to the National Geographic channel to watch 'Hitler's Final Days' which chronicled the last 11 months of the Third Reich. I thought it was interesting that the Berlin Philharmonic played Wagner's Twilight of the Gods to a packed house, even as the Allies and the Soviets were closing in from both east and west. How fitting.

If anything happens to dramatically change the charts I will publish something later on. Otherwise I will true things up tomorrow.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Godzilla - Options Expiration on the Comex

"Consequences are unpitying."

George Eliot


"Nemesis is long delayed sometimes, but it comes in the end.”

Agatha Christie

The sounds emanating from the markets and the news feeds can mean only one thing—  a page in history is turning, and a new chapter is about to begin.

Today was a precious metals December futures options expiration on the Comex. As you may recall, December is one of the biggest months for the metals futures.

That should tell you quite a bit about the price action.

Those new holders of futures contracts, thanks to holding an in-the-money call into expiration, will probably get a 'gut check' on price at some point, depending on how the numbers went. We will not know this for a day or two.

Much of the physical exchange of gold is being conducted off-market over the counter through 'Exchange for Physical' (EFP) transactions.

The real insights into the physical gold market are to be found as they can in Asia, and to some extent in London.  New York remains remarkably opaque, despite its scrupulous attention to reporting lots of details—  with a deniable linkage to the underlying reality, one might add.  Just read the disclaimer on their reports.

Is there is a risk in this lack of full disclosure?  Of course there is.  The question is whom does it advantage, and disadvantage? 

But alas, this controlling of information for advantage is the sordid tale of our society, where figures who blatantly lie to Congress are later cited as the principle information sources for claims and issues of great national preoccupation and importance.

The scene in Washington becomes increasingly embarrassing, eerily resembling the Third World.   The status quo is doubling down again and again on their perceived advantages.   And this will not be sustained.

Stocks were largely unchanged today.  The prognosticators are looking forward to a continuation of this asset inflation, without a corresponding stimulus and growth in the real economy.  And thereby it is the best of times, and the worst of times, as the saying goes.

Have a pleasant evening.