Jesse's Café Américain

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Making Room for Alibaba - For All That

The wiseguys were raising cash to participate in the Alibaba IPO tomorrow.

It should price tonight by about 5 PM Eastern US. The mid range pricing is $66 to $68 per share.

So there was little surprise that we saw a pump in stocks today and a big drop in volatility.

The metals held up well but that is not saying much after the multi-day smacking they have taken.

The vote on Scotland's Independence is today and the results should be announced this evening. The polls, for what they are worth, are 'too close to call' although they show the 'no' votes with the lead. Whatever the results I wish the Scottish people well.

There is an impulse to freedom in the world these days, that seems to have certain select parties very nervous. They do not care for independent thinking, and individual liberty. They dislike groups that question authority or attempt to hold it to account. And they certainly shrink at the thought of gold and silver.

These are the cadres of would-be professional rulers and managers, for whom oligarchy seems to be the natural form of governance. They wish for the ascendancy of the State, the bigger and more comprehensive the better, as long as they are within the circles of its power.

Not that I am all that concerned about their motives per se, or willing to speculate upon them. But any group that believes that they have been pre-selected, whether by birth or by talent, to rule strikes me as one group that ought never to have access to an exceptional power over others. They are certainly most likely to continue on a foolhardy path of their own, despite all other evidence to the contrary. God help the common people and soldiers led by such a one as these.

Speaking of leaders pursuing an unfortunate path despite all evidence to the contrary, there was intraday commentary which you may wish to view both here and here. I think the Anglo-American financiers have made a truly Faustian bargain, and seem to be determined to pursue it to the bitter end.

One of the greatest features of the American independence movement of 1776 was that it was founded on the assertion, however unfortunately and incompletely implemented, that 'all men are created equal. And that they are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.'

From our own privileged vantage point we tend to take such a bold assertion for granted. But it was a truly revolutionary idea given that it was uttered in a milieu which was still very much ordered by class distinctions, and the divine right of kings, and the presumed natural superiority of the few. In many ways it turned the world-that-had-been upside down. As you may recall, this is the tune that the British army under Cornwallis played as they surrendered at Yorktown: The World Turned Upside Down.

And that message reverberated around the world, and was echoed by the Scotsman Robbie Burns in his wonderful song written in 1791, A Man's a Man For All That.'

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - There Goes Larry Ellison, Here Comes Alibaba

"A swath of early investors in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will be able to sell more than $8 billion worth of shares on the day the Chinese e-commerce company goes public, an unusual arrangement that is influencing how bankers price the offering.

Alibaba plans to price its shares at $66-$68, which at the midpoint would give it a valuation of about $165 billion.

Insiders and other investors in companies staging initial public offerings are generally required to hold on to shares for several months, in "lockup" arrangements banks design to help protect the stock's price in its early days.

But with Alibaba, a number of shares equal to about a third of what could be sold in the deal aren't covered by such restrictions, according to the company's public filings. In contrast, no pre-IPO shares of Facebook Inc. FB +0.84% were allowed to be traded when the social-media company made its market debut.

Demand for Alibaba's shares appears strong ahead of its expected IPO Friday...

WSJ, Alibaba IPO Gives Insiders Rare Chance to Sell Early

After the bell the word came out that Larry Ellison will be stepping down as the CEO of Oracle. He will remain as the Chairman and Chief Technology Officer. Bloomberg was gushing with the news.

The big news for tomorrow will be the results of the vote for Scottish Independence, which I view as a more political issue with implications for the Anglo-American banking cartel, if one subscribes to domino theories. Scotland's independence is dangerous in the same way that the peaceful demonstrations of Occupy were dangerous. It gives other people ideas.

And the big, big news will be the Alibaba IPO. It is being brought to market fairly briskly, on the day after they have ended their road show.

As you may recall, Goldman will be managing the order flow of shares tomorrow. If they were not holding the bag for unsold shares I might be a little more concerned.

The secondary market might be lively, because of general 'edge' to the market, and the number of insider shares that are not 'locked up' from trading on the first few days of the IPO.

I bought a little volatility today. I might buy more. I was talking with an acquaintance, and he asked me if the old saw 'sell Rosh Hashanah' might be in order this year (starts at dusk on 24 September). I said it might be a little late.

Let's see how the events of tonight and tomorrow go, and most particularly how we start off next week.

Have a pleasant evening.

European Sovereign Debt Levels to GDP Before and After the Bank Bailouts

What is even more clever than lining your pockets by ballooning the financial system into a great bubble by fraud and bad governance?

Getting the victims and bystanders to pay the price of your perfidy, and shifting the anger of the people to some unfortunates, while 'reforming' the system to make it even more efficient at looting so that you can do it all over again.

No wonder that any movement that threatens the status quo in the least bit gets these white collared reivers and their pampered princes in such a lather. It is important to make people think that no one else cares, and that they are alone.

Such a parcel of rogues in a nation.

"The sudden explosion of European sovereign debt is the direct and indisputable result of all our political parties deciding they would safeguard their mates’ and their own personal wealth (it is the top 10% who hold the bulk of their wealth in the financial products which would be destroyed in a bank collapse. NOT the rest of us!) by bailing out the private banks and piling their unpaid debts on to the public purse.

So whatever the trigger of the next crisis may be, they know any solution which saves the wealth and power of the over-class will have to involve piling new, private-bank bad-debts on to already indebted sovereigns and that, our leaders must be keenly aware, will not be easy to force on an already angry public. They know a whole range of the assurances they might like to give us about what must be done when the next crisis hits and how those things will undoubtably save us, will not be so easy to shove down people’s throats...

I think one of the cleverest things the 1% have done over the last few years is the way they have created a relentless public discourse, via their paid political front-men and women and their media empires, to insist on the need to ‘fix’ and protect the system, and the extreme danger to us all should the system not be ‘saved’. This has served as a perfect cover for making sure that not enough people have noticed that the system is, in fact, being gutted and replaced by something that better serves the interests of the 1%. We have not been fixing the banks, we have been feeding them."

Golem XIV, The Next Crisis Part One

“Why do you think we have a winner?,” President 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.”

Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games