Deliverable Gold Falls To a New Low Of 725,000 Ounces

There was a transfer of 43,575 ounces out of the deliverable (registered) category to eligible storage with the JP Morgan warehouse, bringing the total gold in the registered category to 725,030 ounces.

Friday will be the last day for August delivery. The next delivery month will be October.

Total gold in the COMEX warehouses remained steady at about 7 million ounces.

Without higher prices it does not seem realistic to expect those with their gold stored in the warehouses to move it to registered and to offer it for delivery.

As I have said, I do not expect the problems with gold and silver to reach a climactic resolution at the COMEX in the form of a default.  That is more likely to be a secondary effect of a greater scandal or failure that will begin with the physical market, and probably overseas. 

What will trigger this reckoning?  Perhaps some large owner or even a central bank will not accept that their gold is missing as readily as the Bundesbank has done, with their gold apparently having been rehypothecated away for the profit of the private bullion banks.

Be that as it may, the leverage within the paper market is obviously at elevated levels, providing a risk factor that sets the bar for counterparty risk rather low.  This could facilitate a rather energetic short squeeze at some point.  I hear that at least one very significant market participant is positioned to benefit from such an eventuality.

Weighed, and found wanting.

Stand and deliver.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Though the Heavens May Fall

"When a man takes an oath, he's holding his own self in his own hands, like water. And, if he opens his fingers then, he need not hope to find himself again...If we lived in a state where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us saintly. But since we see that abhorrence, anger, pride, and stupidity commonly profit far beyond charity, modesty, justice, and thought, perhaps we must stand fast a little, even at the risk of being heroes."

Thomas More

Silver was quite volatile as the new holders of September contracts were given a wild ride last night and today, with gold largely riding on the silver surfer's wave.

The drums are playing a martial tune, and the markets wait with some anxiety.

The bears had all they could manage to keep the price of gold and silver in check today given the importance, in the short term, of the outcome of this week to them. For if they lose control now, they have little hope of making it into the year's end. 

The action around 1420 tends to confirm the neckline. This is all endgame, and delay.  And so there is less doubt in my own mind now that, for the long run, the tide has turned.

This market distortion will not stand, until those who stand entrapped within a tangled web of their own lies and misdirections, finally stand and deliver. And so we will find, at long last, that justice is satisfied.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - The Gathering Storm

The Biggest Wall Street Banks Are Doing Fine, Set To Beat 2009 Pay Levels

Not bad for a small set of TBTF Banks that are still being heavily subsidized by the sacrifice of the public.

But they work really hard, and have a lot of very important expenses with which to maintain their lifestyles.

"When his Golden House was finished in its ruinously prodigal style, Nero would say nothing more about it in way of appreciation except that he could at last begin to live like a human being."

Suetonius

There is something particularly indecent about a society in which the heavily subsidized, pampered princes of finance can spend more on a redecorating a single office than the average family can afford to spend on the health and education of their family over a lifetime.  And this after ruining the national economy by engaging in massive control frauds, for which none have ever been punished.

Winning...

CNNMoney
Wall Street bonuses to top 2009
By Stephen Gandel

"The nation's five biggest banks are on track to pay out $127 billion in total compensation, including at least $23 billion in bonuses, this year. That's up from the $114 billion the banks shelled out to their employees in 2009. It translates to $149,472 per full-time employee for 2013, and is roughly triple the pay of the average American. The figures come from financial filings and the calculations of a top Wall Street compensation consultant.  [That average pay is somewhat misleading because pay is highly skewed to the top.  Jesse]

In an article in Tuesday's New York Times, [Hank] Paulson said he was disappointed by the size of the bonuses banks paid in the wake of the financial crisis and subsequent bailout. The former Treasury Secretary says he was dismayed about the timing of the large 2009 bonuses. He believes the payouts turned the public against the government's Wall Street bailout, but I don't think it was ever that popular, bonuses or not..."

Read the rest here.

"Experience should teach us wisdom. Most of the difficulties our Government now encounters and most of the dangers which impend over our Union have sprung from an abandonment of the legitimate objects of Government by our national legislation, and the adoption of such principles as are embodied in this act.

Many of our rich men have not been content with equal protection and equal benefits, but have besought us to make them richer by act of Congress. By attempting to gratify their desires we have in the results of our legislation arrayed section against section, interest against interest, and man against man, in a fearful commotion which threatens to shake the foundations of our Union.

It is time to pause in our career to review our principles, and if possible revive that devoted patriotism and spirit of compromise which distinguished the sages of the Revolution and the fathers of our Union. If we can not at once, in justice to interests vested under improvident legislation, make our Government what it ought to be, we can at least take a stand against all new grants of monopolies and exclusive privileges, against any prostitution of our Government to the advancement of the few at the expense of the many, and in favor of compromise and gradual reform in our code of laws and system of political economy."

Andrew Jackson, Veto of the Second Bank of the United States