But it is too soon to say for sure. I have drawn a short term downtrend line on the gold chart that is a 'must take' for the bulls.
If they can take it out, that's a nice bull flag there on the chart that gets activated.
Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday and the Euro-whiz kids meet again on the 9th to puzzle through their Gordian knot of a currency and political system.
I read the book Currency Wars by Rickards over the holiday. It was interesting, and is worthwhile for those not familiar with the money and metals markets. His history of the currency wars and old is enlightening. There is not as much 'meat on the bone' in this book as there was in Econned for example, and it is an easier read, but Rickards knows what he is talking about and says his piece well.
I took a 'test' that estimates one's political orientation last week, and it confirmed that I am still almost dead center, just a little to the liberal side but not much. I thought that this was the case and was glad to see the confirmation. 2012 is not going to be a good year for moderates.
I read somewhere today that sociopaths and psychopaths in business are not a problem because people just shun them eventually so the market is naturally self-policing and self-correcting. Ah, if only this pretty piece of idealism was the case. Of course it is just another variation of the efficient markets hypothesis .
This used to be a favorite argument of Bill Buckley and William Rickenbacker when they used to discuss the issue of market regulation. Anyone who has been in security or fraud investigation knows it is utter nonsense.
Conmen are like cockroaches. And the better class of white collar crooks are exceptionally devious and manipulative, and often set up sinecures and monopolies that are rather long-lived in addition to their various frauds which are easily replicated and recycled from place to place.
But people keep drifting back to the assumption that information is symmetric and transparent, markets inherently fair, and most people are good. Like a dog returns to its vomit, so idealists and the deluded return to the natural goodness of business and markets to justify some of the most outrageous howlers of arguments over and over again.
The number one son and his friends are home from University so this dad is deep into computer repairs and cooking favorite meals. It does not get much better than this.
