Shanghai Gold Exchange Withdrawals in 2015 Rise to 91% of Annual World Gold Production

The situation is nicely captured in these two simple charts.

The strains on supply are obvious, although it does take quite a bit of work to estimate the shrinkage of the 'gold float' of available supply.

Nothing here that could not be remedied by higher prices, if they were simply allowed to rise in reponse to physical tightness.

Gold is trading with an unusual duality:  as a synthetic derivative like those associated with the highly leverage financial paper markets , and as a commodity susceptiable to physical supply and demand.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Hearts of Darkness

Gold and silver were trading a bit weakly most of the day, as the dollar rallied higher as shown in the third chart below.

But they held their own, even against a rally in equities that had all the appearances of another technical bounce that was able to accelerate a bit into the close on light volumes.

There were a couple spotty deliveries and a little warehouse movement with the precious metals at The Bucket Shop.

There was intraday commentary about the markets and the lack of reform thereof here.

Let's see if anything develops next week.  So far its been pretty much status quo the New American Century and its currency wars.

For those who asked, the family dog is doing much better thanks to a trio of pills, eyedrops, and some tender loving care.  She even toddled off her little dog bed and managed to see what we were having for dinner, first time in over a week.  She didn't get anything, of course, but she likes to keep herself informed.  And she did dine very well on fresh boiled rice and poached chicken, our 'go to' doggy sickness comfort food.

Bonne nuit et bonne chance.

And have a pleasant weekend.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - And Here's the Bounce

And the big bounce off these lows finally came, and they were not only able to stick it, they even rallied it into the close, after the rest of the world had gone home or to bed.

So what next.

Let's see if they can keep this going next week past some basic retracement levels.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Saving the Banks and Fabulously Enriching a Few On the Back of the Real Economy

"Give a small number of people the power to enrich themselves beyond everyone's wildest dreams, a philosophical rationale to explain all the damage they're causing, and they will not stop until they've run the world economy off a cliff."

Philipp Meyer


"Wall Street is not being made a scapegoat for this crisis: they really did this."

Michael Lewis


"My daughter asked me when she came home from school, “What’s the financial crisis?” and I said, it’s something that happens every five to seven years."

Jamie Dimon


"The greatest tragedy would be to accept the refrain that no one could have seen this coming, and thus nothing could have been done. If we accept this notion, it will happen again."

Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (2009–2011)

The US has been in a cycle of bubbles, busts, and crashes since at least 1995, and more likely since Alan Greenspan became the Chairman of the Federal Reserve in August, 1987.

The cycle is the same, only the depth and duration seems to change in a continuing 'wash and rinse' of the public money and the real economy.

It has become a machine for transferring income, wealth, ownership, and power to the very top.

This is not 'the new normal.'   This is financial corruption and the erosion of systemic integrity.

Are there any markets that have not been shown to have been systematically manipulated, for years?

This is just institutionalized looting.