SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Can't Stop Dancing While the Music's Playing

This bubble and bust is going to leave a mark.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

 

 

 

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Choices About the Central Gold Trust?

'The Banks must be restrained, and the financial system reformed, with balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustainable recovery.'

There will be a time when this message is taken to heart-- most likely because there is no other viable choice left to the plutocrats.

I had this from a reader:

"Would appreciate your opinion on the following matter. In my mail today I received a request from Polar Securities asking basically that I vote for their nominees in the upcoming election for the positions of trustees on the board of Central Gold Trust. Their contention is that the trust has consistently traded below NAV which they feel is a disservice to its unit holders. Their aim is to make amendments so that the trust functions more like the Sprott fund including the ability to be redeemed in either cash or actual gold. I was wondering if you had heard of this and also if you have any opinion of Polar Securities about whom I know exactly nothing."

 I don't think I would vote in favor of such a change personally if I were a unit holder of the Central Gold Trust without some serious information  and safeguard that would prevent the fund from being stripped of its gold on the cheap by funds and bullion banks.

It sounds like a move to make the fund an instrument of short term arbitrage which would significantly change its character as a long term investment holding.

A discount to NAV is not a problem if is it constant.   Sure you may sell the units at a discount to NAV but if you also buy them at a similar discount what is the difference?   If done recklessly a change to the charter might provide a 'one-time' kick to the price, but then open the door to something deleterious to the trust.

It depends on why one hold the fund and what the specifics might be.  So obviously I cannot render an opinion based on what I know, and I doubt that any unit holder could do so either.

But I did think it was interesting that this is apparently happening and wanted to pass it along.

P.S. I found this with a web search. The objections of the shareholder were pretty much the thoughts that crossed my mind, but again, not strongly without knowing all the details.

It sounds like a move by speculators that would significantly change the nature of the fund.

Long Term Central Gold Trust Investor Joins Mounting Opposition

I also found this pro-change statement from the other parties.

Unlocking Unit Holder Value

'Unlocking Unit Holder Value' sounds like a flip and strip.  It might not be but I would vote no based on what I have read if I were a person who viewed the Gold Trust as a long term investment.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Shuffling Sideways

 

Stocks were moving sideways today as the markets waited for earnings and economic news.

 

Volumes are still light.  I think that the risks are being mispriced and overlooked, and willfully so.

 

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

 

The Message from the 22 Year Old Suicide at the Nation's Capitol

Suicide is a prohibited form of violence in my own belief, as are all other forms of murder.  Therefore I would not hold this type of protest up as an example to anyone.

However, an even worse offense would be to completely ignore the message which this young man delivered, as most of the mainstream media has done in the US.

I did not even know what really happened until I read this article below from Wall Street On Parade today.  The police and media referred to it as a 'social protest.'   

 

Before he killed himself, the young man held up a sign that said "Tax the One Percent."

Perhaps an even more pointed message might be 'shut down the loopholes for the Top .01%.'  Those who make their money from wages and ordinary income pay fairly significant taxes. 

However, the uber-rich have so many loopholes and tax avoidance schemes that they often pay much lower percentage than even those in the lowest income levels.    The top .01% use the upper middle class as shields for their antics.
 

You may read the entire article about this here.

Rather than one young light be extinguished and quickly overlooked by the powerful, perhaps it would be better if a million people were to march on the Capitol, and effective shut it down in protest this Summer.  That might get their attention.   Alas, the apathy in the people is pervasive, at least for now. 

Wall Street On Parade

22-Year Old Commits Suicide at Capitol to Send Congress a Message

By Pam Martens: April 14, 2015

At approximately 1:07 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, April 11, during the annual Cherry Blossom Festival celebrating springtime in the Nation’s Capitol, a 22-year old man took his own life with a gun on the Capitol grounds with a protest sign taped to his hand. According to the Washington Post, the sign read: “Tax the one percent.”

Yesterday, the Metropolitan Police Department released the young man’s name. He was Leo P. Thornton of Lincolnwood, Illinois. Based on what is currently known, the young man had traveled to Washington, D.C. for the express purpose of making a political statement with his sign and then ending his young life.

The Chicago Tribune reported that “Thornton’s parents filed a missing persons report on the morning of April 11 after he never came home from work on April 10, Lincolnwood Deputy Police Chief John Walsh said.”

Those are the tragic facts of the incident itself. But there is a broader tragedy: the vacuous handling of this story by corporate media. The Washington Post headlined the story with this: “Rhythms of Washington Return after Illinois Man’s Suicide Outside Capitol.” The message he delivered to his Congress – tax the one percent – has yet to be explored by any major news outlet in America in connection with this tragedy.

Was the message of Leo P. Thornton of Lincolnwood, Illinois a critical piece of information for this Congress to hear at this moment in American history. You’re damn right it was. Outside of Wall Street’s wealth transfer system, provisions in the U.S. tax code are the second biggest wealth transfer system to the one percent. Together, these two systems have created the greatest income and wealth inequality since the economic collapse in the Great Depression. They threaten a repeat of the 2008 financial collapse because the majority of Americans do not have the wages or savings to support the broader economy...