SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - VIX to a Six Year Low

The VIX, the indicator of volatility, dropped to a six year low today as the US equity markets shook off weak economic data out of China, and the downgrade of Italian debt, to move to fresh highs in the touristy Dow.

The SP futures have a measuring objective of 1570. They closed around 1555 today.

I took a long in volatility towards the close of US trading today to balance some other things out for the most part.

US Unemployment Rates Adjusted For a Constant Labor Participation Rate

These charts courtesy of chartmaster Gary at NowAndFutures.com

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - God's Mills Grind Slowly

Gold and silver would not be denied, despite some fairly determined efforts.

Silver did the heavy lifting.  The intra-day charts are included below.

"Gottes Mühlen mahlen langsam, mahlen aber trefflich klein,
Ob auß Langmuth er sich seumet, bringt mit Schärff er alles ein."

Friedrich von Logau, Göttliche Rache

Have a pleasant weekend. See you Sunday evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Selling Freedom, Playing For Time

I picked up a little volatility insurance near the close today.  

My timeframe on this is to the end of March.

It was hard to miss the big non-confirmation in the NDX today.

"The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
The vapours weep their burthen to the ground,
Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,
And after many a summer dies the swan."

Alfred Lord Tennyson, Tithonus

I am curious to see which black swan comes home to roost first: Europe or China.

Ed Lazear, the distinguished economist from Stanford, formerly chief economic advisor for G.W. Bush, and now a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, thinks a good approach to immigration reform would be for the US to sell its citizenship on the open market to the highest bidders. 

He was expounding this after the close on Bloomberg television, which is a bastion for all things of the swinish persuasion.  He calls it 'importing human capital.' It sounds remarkably like indentured servitude.

As related by the Wall Street Journal:

"To ensure that not only the wealthy could gain citizenship, the sale of immigration slots could be coupled with a loan program that allows people to borrow the fee and to pay it back out of their earnings over an extended period. To minimize default, the loan payments would be automatically withheld from their paycheck, just as income and payroll taxes are today."

In a similar vein the US could reinstitute a military draft, but sell exemptions to the highest bidder.  And in fairness the government could offer loans to cover the cost of course, adminstered by the Banks of course.  This would have the additional benefit of opening up slots in the National Guard which have formerly been taken up by the idle sons of the wealthy.

There are similar proposals for rationing life saving medical care that are already on the table.

Personal air and water meters implanted at birth?  Think of the possibilities. 

There was a movie written along these lines called In Time.  In it people are fixed with meters that measure out their life.  They are able to buy additional time to live, at market prices.  I wonder if Ed has seen it.  It is the perfect market-based, technological solution for maximizing the output of human capital.

"I have always thought that all men should be free; but if any should be slaves it should be first those who desire it for themselves, and secondly those who desire it for others."

Abraham Lincoln, "Speech to One Hundred Fortieth Indiana Regiment" March 17, 1865

See you on Sunday evening.