Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Organized Money

“We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace— business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.   They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs.   

We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Stocks managed to hold their ground today. No worries.

The metals gained back a little of what they have lost the past few days.

Nick Laird and the BullionStar Singapore gold mavens are estimating that the London 'gold float' remains thin at about 800 tonnes.

Have a pleasant evening.

Democrat Leadership Caught In Credibility Trap While Party Continues to Implode

This came out in June. And you have noticed the big change in their tactics and messaging, right?

Oh yeah, then there is Hillary's book, and its bold attempt to admit the party's problems and take personal responsibility with a commitment to change.

And then there is the most visible leader of the party, ex-President Obama, who has very comfortably slipped on the Big Money speech-making feedbag, shortly after leaving office.


Caution on language

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Big Banks Cometh

"While the largest banks can correctly claim that they have offloaded risky assets and bolstered the amount of cash on their balance sheets over the last decade, their business model has become fundamentally disconnected from the very people and entities it was designed to serve. Small community banks, which make up only 13 percent of all banking assets, do nearly half of all lending to small businesses.

Big banks are about deal making. They serve mostly themselves, existing as the middle of the hourglass that is our economy, charging whatever rent they like for others to pass through. (Finance is one of the few industries in which fees have gone up as the sector as a whole has grown.) The financial industry, dominated by the biggest banks, provides only 4 percent of all jobs in the country, yet takes about a quarter of the corporate profit pie."

Rana Foroohar, How Big Banks Became Our Masters, NYT

Why doesn't Washington reign in the obvious excesses and blatant frauds and abuses of the Big Banks?  I will let you answer that one for yourself.

The Dollar rally and a 'risk on' attitude continued to pressure the precious metals today.

Trump and crew have unveiled their tax 'reform' plan's framework.  It will be interesting to see how their latest legislative effort actually unfolds.  The special interests and Big Money are preparing to storm the swamp.

Is post-hurricane Puerto Rico going to be another Katrina?  Yet another failure in domestic humanitarian leadership?  Perhaps we can redirect some of our global nation building efforts towards something a little closer to home, to someplace where we do not covet their natural resources.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Another Option Expiration Opera Buffa

"The government is the potent omnipresent teacher. For good or ill it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.

To declare that the end justifies the means -- to declare that the government may commit crimes -- would bring terrible retribution."

Louis D. Brandeis

Today was another Comex options expiration for the precious metals. And it went as expected.

In a bit of good news, the GOP has pulled the plug on their pig of a healthcare plan, because that is what it what, despite all the obfuscating lipstick that they attempted to smear on it. It takes real talent to craft a plan that is worse than Obamacare, which was itself a recycled piece of flotsam from the Heritage Foundation.

Have a pleasant evening.