This Town: America's Gilded Capital

"Tim Russert is dead.
But the room was alive.

Big Ticket Washington Funerals can make such great networking opportunities. Power mourners keep stampeding down the red carpets of the Kennedy Center, handing out business cards, touching base. And there is no time to waste in a gold rush, even (or especially) at a solemn tribal event like this.

Washington—This Town—might be loathed from every corner of the nation, yet these are fun and busy days at this nexus of big politics, big money, big media, and big vanity. There are no Democrats and Republicans anymore in the nation’s capital, just millionaires. That is the grubby secret of the place in the twenty-first century. You will always have lunch in This Town again. No matter how many elections you lose, apologies you make, or scandals you endure.

In This Town, Mark Leibovich, chief national correspondent for The New York Times Magazine, presents a blistering, stunning—and often hysterically funny—examination of our ruling class’s incestuous “media industrial complex.”

Through his eyes, we discover how the funeral for a beloved newsman becomes the social event of the year. How political reporters are fetishized for their ability to get their names into the predawn e-mail sent out by the city’s most powerful and puzzled-over journalist.

How a disgraced Hill aide can overcome ignominy and maybe emerge with a more potent “brand” than many elected members of Congress. And how an administration bent on “changing Washington” can be sucked into the ways of This Town with the same ease with which Tea Party insurgents can, once elected, settle into it like a warm bath..."

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - B-O-R-I-N-G

The metals held their levels even while stocks took a fresh leg down on the usual kicks, bangs and thrills of the Federal Reserve and its endless taper talk.

August delivery is entering its last seven days, and so the action may pick up into its culmination next week. So far we have been very quiet, as most seasoned traders have taken off for their summer vacations in the European manner.

I will let you know if there are any big changes in COMEX inventory. But as I said, if a problem occurs it will not show up here first, since the COMEX has become largely a paper market.

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts

The FOMC brought a little more action today to the downside although they did not say all that much which is new.

I figure we will follow the downside momentum on the SP futures to the bottom of the uptrending channel with an overshoot, maybe for one day or intraday. So we have a little more downside to go, and then we might see a bounce on Friday into the weekend, or next week.

If stocks keep going and take out that uptrending channel and exceed the 50% retracement by quite a bit then we might be in for a real trend change, although August seems early.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Light Volume Drift

FOMC minutes are coming out tomorrow afternoon, otherwise most traders seem to be on vacation.