Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts

There was some top calling after the big run up last week, especially given the ebullient cover of Barron's over the weekend.

Let's see if we get a trend break before the bears come out of the woods to pile on.

The capping on gold and silver is determined. When they break free, then we will see this market wiggle out of the grip of the pigmen, who are using it as their personal ATM.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Correctamundo

The equity markets corrected today after an extremely overbought run up last week, marked by an obtuse interpretation of the Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday.

The NDX took it on the chin, but the SP 500 hung stubbornly on to the more aggressive uptrend.

VIX climbed, but did not give any definite signal.

Let's see if this was just a correction, a one day wonder, or something more substantial.

The Triumph of Spectacle

“Sadism dominates the culture. It runs like an electric current through reality television and trash-talk programs...

Washington has become our Versailles. We are ruled, entertained, and informed by courtiers -- and the media has evolved into a class of courtiers. The Democrats, like the Republicans, are mostly courtiers.

Our pundits and experts, at least those with prominent public platforms, are courtiers. We are captivated by the hollow stagecraft of political theater as we are ruthlessly stripped of power. It is smoke and mirrors, tricks and con games, and the purpose behind it is deception...

A culture that does not grasp the vital interplay between morality and power, which mistakes management techniques for wisdom, and fails to understand that the measure of a civilization is its compassion, not its speed or ability to consume, condemns itself to death.”

Chris Hedges, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle


"As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods, They kill us for their sport."

William Shakespeare, King Lear

They would be as gods, and so revel in violence and death which, unable to create life, is their greatest power.   These will live and prosper, and those will live miserably, and die.  And the winners will owe their allegiance to the system.

They seek to master death with their illusions.  The prospect of their own death drives their fears into madness.

And they hide their nakedness with spectacle, and fill their empty being with excess, fads, and distractions.

Welcome to the Hunger Games. And may the odds be ever in your favor.

“Why do you think we have a winner?,” Snow asks while cutting a white rose.

"What do you mean?,” Seneca asks. “I mean, why do we have a winner?,” Snow repeats, before pausing. “Hope.”

“Hope?,” Seneca replies slightly bewildered.

“Hope. It is the only thing stronger than fear. A little hope is effective, a lot of hope is dangerous,” Snow declares.

“A spark is fine, as long as it’s contained. So, contain it,” Snow warns.

Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

Net Asset Value Premiums Of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds

Not exactly a crowded trade, and enthusiasm for silver seems subdued.

Gold made new highs in the Japanese yen.

Each currency takes its turn on the downward spiral of competitive devaluation and printing. The central bankers which to 'coordinate' this more closely, and silence gold as best they can.

They can only 'print' paper gold, and only for so long.