skip to main |
skip to sidebar
It looked as though we might get some action in stocks today, and sure enough, on the 'better than expected' news from IBM the markets rallied hard, led largely by tech. Obama and the Congress threw the market a bone and hinted that there might be a resolution to the debt ceiling 'crisis.'
So far this is just a counter trend relief rally. It may have further to go, but a downdraft is just a news headline from Europe or Washington away, so be careful.
I suspect that this short term symmetrical triangle and intermediate "W formation" will show its hand when the US debt ceiling issue is resolved.
The fibo levels at 1307 and 1295 are powerful chart points, and the 1287 and 1322 indicators may be helpful in confirming any moves, sorting out the fakeouts.
Keep an eye on VIX and gold.
Gold and Silver have risen quickly to a very important resistance level. I do not yet consider this an achieved breakout.
There are strong cross currents in these markets, the global sovereign debt situation in Europe, and the less remarked situation in the domestic US, highlighted but not captured by the debt ceiling debate which is more of a showpiece than a serious change and prioritization.
I suspect that if the US comes to a resolution of its troubles, for a few days at least the markets will rally, and the metals and perhaps Treasuries will be beaten like rented mules.
However, the looming crisis in Europe, which has the banks salivating for cheap national assets, is going to continue to weigh on markets by posing systemic risk in the manner of Lehman Brothers.
And as a reminder, the August Comex Options Expiration is next week.
I thought it was interesting that the US dollar has failed to rally along with Gold and Silver, at least to the same extent of breaking out to new highs.
Robert Baer, a distinguished ex-CIA officer, published a warning from his own knowledge and sources about a regional conflict in the Mideast in September between Iran and Israel. For now I consider this 'sabre-rattling,' and if Baer had not chimed in I would not even bother to mention it.
I would keep an eye on any developments, although these concerns are not new. Such a conflict, if it occurs, would have some benefits to a powerful few, but pose a significant risk to the many. Macro events and crises such as war can be used to hide a multitude of sins, but like most deadly things involving the will to power, they sometimes are difficult to control for other ends.
The SP held the important support at 1295, and actually closed at the psychological number of 1300.
The sovereign debt situation around the world is hanging on the market, as well as the deteriorating domestic GDP fundamentals.
We are now well into earnings season, and we should find the push and pull of the short term and the macro to provide interesting cross currents.
In other words, this is a traders' market.
Gold and Silver are at heavy resistance, and on the verge of breaking out. More on this in the gold and silver commentary this evening.
The Sprott Physical Gold Trust continues to underperform a bit on premium because the market is still digesting its follow on offering at $14. The numbers have been updated to include the details on shares and ounces of gold release thus far.
Although priced at $14.00, the fund paid a commission to the underwriters amounting to about $10.6 million, or about .56 per new unit offered, roughly 4 percent. So the effective revenue to the fund is about $13.44. I assume this is the price that the underwriters, Morgan Stanley and RBC Capital Markets, will pay for any over allotments which they take.
"The Trust has granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional 2,850,000 trust units at the public offering price, less underwriting commissions, within 30 days of the date of this prospectus supplement, to cover any over-allotments."
Although the nominal US corporate tax rate of 35% seems high, and especially so given all the corporate funded propaganda promoting more tax cuts and givebacks, in fact the realized corporate rates are relatively low both in terms of historical experience and comparable developed countries. This is because of the many loopholes, subsidies, and accounting gimmicks available to its more influential corporate citizens from a corporate friendly government.
One could make the case that the tax burden is falling disproportionately on smaller businesses and individuals that do not have the infrastructure and latitude to take advantage of the loopholes available to the bigger business lobby companies.
State and local taxes appear to be regressive. The top echelons of corporations and private individuals seem to be doing rather well for themselves. When the fortunate complain that the bottom percentiles pay little Federal tax, they overlook how regressive the consumption taxes on gasoline, food, and consumer non-discretionary items fall on those with little income. Even with property taxes, the wealthy often use the guise of 'farms' to avoid a sizable share of their local taxes by raising a few cows or a token crop.
No wonder that the corporate class economists promote increased consumption taxes, and the oligarchs spend millions to persuade the naive that their hell is a heaven.
P.S. 'Like a dog returneth to its vomit,' so a few readers have made comments by email that rely on the efficient market hypothesis, some idealistic and simple model of macroeconomics, and the 'trickle down' theory of economic progress.
There is little more theory than well worn slogans behind this line of argument, and if I ask them about it they don't understand how it fits together. They have little knowledge other than sound bytes they have learned by rote from the corporate media and pundits, and a 'common sense' that is so far removed from reality as to be almost delusional. It reminds me of socio-economic discussions at university, very long ago, with dour faced suburban devotees of Chairman Mao.
To wit, if corporations pay more taxes, they will just raise prices, raising costs for the consumer. So we should reduce their taxes and take the 'savings.' And if the government raises more revenue from corporate taxes, it will reduce economic growth and freedom and waste more money on illegal immigrants, the unfortunate, and greedy old people.
Men do act madly in herds, especially with the right instruction and incentives, but regain their sensibility one at a time, but too often on viewing the wreckage produced by their devices. And this is what makes the herding instinct dangerous. No matter how artful the deceitful shepherd, the madness serves only itself.
Download Ten Charts from Center for American Progress
“The last duty of a central banker is to tell the public the truth.”
Alan Blinder
"When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime."
Thomas Paine
As the US Federal Reserve System approaches its 100th Anniversary in a few years, and as central banks and their political allies around the world promote the bailout and enrichment of the biggest banks and wealthiest individuals, to be paid for by the impoverishment and sacrifice of the people, it might be well to remember the lessons of history with regard to a fiat currency controlled by private corporations under the guise of an 'independent monetary authority.'
"The paper system being founded on public confidence and having of itself no intrinsic value, it is liable to great and sudden fluctuations, thereby rendering property insecure and the wages of labor unsteady and uncertain.
The corporations which create the paper money can not be relied upon to keep the circulating medium uniform in amount. In times of prosperity, when confidence is high, they are tempted by the prospect of gain or by the influence of those who hope to profit by it to extend their issues of paper beyond the bounds of discretion and the reasonable demands of business; and when these issues have been pushed on from day to day, until public confidence is at length shaken, then a reaction takes place, and they immediately withdraw the credits they have given, suddenly curtail their issues, and produce an unexpected and ruinous contraction of the circulating medium, which is felt by the whole community.
The banks by this means save themselves, and the mischievous consequences of their imprudence or cupidity are visited upon the public. Nor does the evil stop here. These ebbs and flows in the currency and these indiscreet extensions of credit naturally engender a spirit of speculation injurious to the habits and character of the people. We have already seen its effects in the wild spirit of speculation in the public lands and various kinds of stock which within the last year or two seized upon such a multitude of our citizens and threatened to pervade all classes of society and to withdraw their attention from the sober pursuits of honest industry.
It is not by encouraging this spirit that we shall best preserve public virtue and promote the true interests of our country; but if your currency continues as exclusively paper as it now is, it will foster this eager desire to amass wealth without labor; it will multiply the number of dependents on bank accommodations and bank favors; the temptation to obtain money at any sacrifice will become stronger and stronger, and inevitably lead to corruption, which will find its way into your public councils and destroy at no distant day the purity of your Government."
Andrew Jackson, Farewell Address, 1837
Someone asked me again, what is the significance of this inventory decline?
It is not that the world is running out of silver, far from it. There are allegedly 309,738,781 ounces of silver in the SLV Silver Trust. I think the bullion in GLD and SLV is often comprised at least in part by paper swaps and other forms of metal that are not unencumbered bullion.
It is that the amount of silver available for sale, in large quantities and the appropriate forms, is in increasingly short supply, down to record levels AT CURRENT PRICES.
This is significant for two reasons.
Such supply/demand imbalance, in the absence of supply or demand shocks, is often the result of long term artificial price manipulation and external forces in the market that prevent a market clearing price.
Eventually the market imbalance will be resolved, one way or the other.
I am trying to document what is happening and make people aware of it, so that they can't say 'no one knew.'
So let's see what happens.
History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Freefall, of a more enjoyable sort
"A clique of U.S. industrialists is hell-bent to bring a fascist state to supplant our democratic government and is working closely with the fascist regime in Germany and Italy. I have had plenty of opportunity in my post in Berlin to witness how close some of our American ruling families are to the Nazi regime. . . Certain American industrialists had a great deal to do with bringing fascist regimes into being in both Germany and Italy. They extended aid to help Fascism occupy the seat of power, and they are helping to keep it there."
William E. Dodd, U.S. Ambassador to Germany, 1937
Sprott Physical Gold Trust Prices Follow-on Offering of Trust Units In An Aggregate Amount of US$266 Million
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - 07/15/11) - Sprott Physical Gold Trust (the "Trust") (TSX:PHY.U - News)(NYSE:PHYS - News), a trust created to invest and hold substantially all of its assets in physical gold bullion and managed by Sprott Asset Management LP, announced today that it has priced its follow-on offering of 19,000,000 transferable, redeemable units of the Trust ("Units") at a price of US$14.00 per unit (the "Offering"). As part of the Offering, the Trust has granted the underwriters an over-allotment option to purchase up to 2,850,000 additional Units. The gross proceeds from the Offering will be US$266 million (US$305.9 million if the underwriters exercise in full the over-allotment option).
The Trust will use the net proceeds of this Offering to acquire physical gold bullion in accordance with the Trust's objective and subject to the Trust's investment and operating restrictions described in the prospectus related to this Offering. Under the trust agreement governing the Trust, the net proceeds of the Offering per unit must be not less than 100% of the most recently calculated net asset value per Unit of the Trust prior to, or upon determination of, pricing of the Offering.
The Units are listed on the NYSE Arca and the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols "PHYS" and "PHY.U", respectively. The Offering will be made simultaneously in the United States and Canada by Morgan Stanley and RBC Capital Markets.
These are the offically reported reserves of the countries as of the end of June according to the World Gold Council.
It should be noted that these do not include any private holdings, which may be quite significant especially in certain countries like India and the Middle East.
It also does not reflect the reserves of certain countries that may be more opaque in providing this information, such as China.
PHYS is down 1.6% after hours on news of a follow on offering. You can read it here.
TORONTO, ONTARIO, Jul 14, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Sprott Physical Gold Trust (the "Trust"), a trust created to invest and hold substantially all of its assets in physical gold bullion and managed by Sprott Asset Management LP, announced today that it has launched a follow-on offering (the "Offering") of transferable, redeemable units of the Trust ("Units").
The Trust will use the net proceeds of this Offering to acquire physical gold bullion in accordance with the Trust's objective and subject to the Trust's investment and operating restrictions described in the prospectus related to this Offering. Under the trust agreement governing the Trust, the net proceeds of the Offering per unit must be not less than 100% of the most recently calculated net asset value per Unit of the Trust prior to, or upon determination of, pricing of the offering.
The Units are listed on the NYSE Arca and the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols "PHYS" and "PHY.U", respectively. The Offering will be made simultaneously in the United States and Canada by Morgan Stanley and RBC Capital Markets.
I took the day off so I have not followed the market closely this day, and have no active positions.
Tomorrow will be an interesting day with all the cross currents and the options expiry.
![]()
![]()
Lost your place in the gold and silver bull run?
For those that haven't, Shout and Feel It by Count Basie.
Remember the price for liberty that was paid by those who went before us.
The pivotal .50 retracement support at 1307 held again today on the close.
Tomorrow is options expiration.
Obama is calling for a meeting this weekend at Camp David to discuss the debt ceiling.
Watch it, this market may take off one way or the other over the next three weeks.
The deliverable dealer silver inventory at the Comex dropped to another new low of 27.37 million ounces.
If the Comex runs into troubles with a temporary inability to deliver on contracts and approaches a de facto default, most of the regulators and pundits will say they 'never saw it coming.'
Well, here it is.
Hard to miss an almost 70% drop in deliverable inventory like this in a little over two years.
UBS remarked today that they see a choke on the supply in gold, but not in other metals.
Yes, there is plenty of silver available, but at higher prices. How high, only the market can tell.
At some point, even if it is for a brief period of time, silver bullion may not be available at any price, at least in dollars.
Just another day in the Pax Goldmana. "They create a desert, and call it recovery."
![]()
I am not so optimistic about Europe, with the hedge funds and their Ratings Agencies dogging them. The saber rattling by Moody's at the US is merely to provide cover for the next assault on Ireland and Italy.
The solution is obvious, but difficult to achieve. A single currency for a range of economies is simply not feasible without transfer payments and a single financial authority as exist among the States in the US. Some states give more and others receive more as the necessary resolution of regional currency inflexibility.
A two-tiered system would work, as would spinning off a few of the PIIGs into a system which would allow them to devalue currencies as required. It would hamper the strong economies' regional exports, but that is the price they would pay.
The stumbling block is the CDS market and the debts owed to the French and German banks, and to a lesser extent the English and the Americans. This is why the Wall Street banks can ruthlessly press a default scenario as just another Goldman opportunity.
And in the meanwhile, Asia bides its time. The next eighteen months should be interesting.
MarketWatch
Stock index futures fall after Moody's warning
By Carla Mozee
July 13, 2011, 6:13 p.m. EDT
U.S. stock index futures fell Wednesday evening after Moody's Investors Service warned that it may cut its triple-A rating on U.S. government debt. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures recently fell 79 points, to 12,346 from its settlement Wednesday afternoon.
S&P 500 Index futures /quotes/zigman/1277190 SP1U -0.38% fell 9 points to 1,303, and Nasdaq 100 Index futures /quotes/zigman/876546 ND1U -0.48% shed 15 points to 2,330.
The U.S. dollar index /quotes/zigman/1652083 DXY 0.00% , which measures the U.S. unit’s performance against a basket of six other major currencies, fell to 75.01 and reached as low as 74.93. The benchmark was above 75 before the news. The euro /quotes/zigman/4867933/sampled EURUSD +0.44% and the Japanese yen each strengthened.
Moody’s said the review was prompted by the possibility that the U.S. debt limit will not be raised in time to prevent a missed payment of interest or principal on outstanding bonds and notes.
“As such, there is a small but rising risk of a short-lived default,” Moody’s said, adding that it considers the probability of a default to be low but no longer minimal.
“An actual default, regardless of duration, would fundamentally alter Moody’s assessment of the timeliness of future payments, and a Aaa rating would likely no longer be appropriate,” it said. If lowered, the rating would most likely be somewhere in the Aa range, said Moody’s.
Jeffrey Goldstein, the U.S. Treasury’s under secretary for domestic finance, said in a statement that Moody’s assessment “is a timely reminder of the need for Congress to move quickly to avoid defaulting on the country’s obligations and agree upon a substantial deficit-reduction package.”
Earlier Wednesday, a stalemate between lawmakers appeared to be breaking after Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid lauded a proposal from his Republican counterpart to let President Barack Obama raise the debt ceiling on his own. Reid praises Republican debt-ceiling proposal.
I thank Blythe, for her enormous support for this rally in attempting to suppress the price of bullion through paper shorts and derivatives.
But I should also thank Benny, for blowing a big wet monetary kiss to the financiers and Wall Street today, and giving an extra lift to the metals.
By the way, Benny was technically very correct when he told Ron Paul that 'gold is not money.' As defined by currency, or legal tender laws, it is not. But he did say that gold is an asset, and in fact he is correct on this as well.
When one uses gold or silver to conduct a transaction these days, typically one converts the bullion into the local currency first and THEN makes the exchange. If gold and silver were money, there would be no conversion and no profit or loss realized on that conversion. Money is a denominator, a way of keeping score in a transfer of wealth, the oft heard 'medium of exchange.'
So I think some of my fellow metals people are jumping overboard on this one. When they say gold and silver are money, what they are really saying is that they have been and should be money again. If they were really money now as they were under the metals standards, the discussion would be moot. But they are correct in the broader historic definition. Indeed, gold and silver are the ONLY money in the more universal sense, across the sweep of history. Take your paper dollars to some time in the past, and I will take gold and silver, and we will see who obtains the greater value.
And as usual some of the blogs are going the Daily News and Drudge Report route with their headlines, posturing sensationalism for clicks. I thought Ron Paul could have asked much more penetrating questions of Ben. This is just a distraction. There are serious problems at hand.
The US is not prepared for a gold standard now any more than it is ready for austerity. Think of an accident victim in a hospital that needs to change their ways, but not by entering an Iron Man competition on release. The economy is out of balance, and fraud and excess still pervades the financial system. Austerity is a prescription for a heart attack. And stimulus is just a cosmetic, although in the right form it could help to get the patient back on its feet through infrastructure investment of the right sorts.
Gold and silver are not money, in the sense of currency or legal tender, at this time almost anywhere in the world. This is the purview of governments to declare. However, as a store of value, as a superior asset class, it is clear that they are among the best.
Gold and silver have been money, in various places and times throughout recorded human history. But they are not so now. They may yet be so again. And so the central banks still maintain their gold, although note that few of them hold silver. It is a traditional remnant at this time. Most do not exchange their gold in settlement of debts.
But as we saw today, the metals were a definite safe haven and reacted sharply to the reassurances of further dollar devaluation to come in order to resolve the collapsed credit bubble.
Support at 1307, the 50 fibonacci level, held again today. The 1295 level is the .618 as you may recall.
The market popped on Benny's reassurances that QE3 awaits the next stumble, but it did not stick, which is far from bullish action.
Friday is options expiration.
We are in earnings season, and the accounting and financing gimmicks may make them look rather rosy. But watch the guidance.
The US economy will absolutely not recover until the wager earners get back on their feet. This implies increased employment AND an increasing median wage. The headwinds against this are strong, and far from cyclical. The rentiers are sapping the life out of the working classes, and especially the middle class.
Question of the Day: Does Dennis Gartman really post at the Kitco forum under the name PwnedNoob?
![]()
Hey Blythe, Let's Dance!
This clip reminds of the contemporary metals markets.
Just when the house gets jumping, look out, the scheiße patrol!
If this is just a correction it will not stick a close below 1295, which it touched briefly today, because that is the fibonacci retracement of .618. The futures closed at roughly the .50 at the end of trading. If it does break support then we would likely be looking to retest the old bottom from this rally.
As a reminder this is an early option expiration for stocks this week, it being the third Friday of the month. So shenanigans are de rigeur.
Be very careful. This market is a flat foot floogie with a floy, floy.
Andrew Maguire's interview with KWN was released today and you can read my comments and listen to the interview from here.
Both gold and silver were hit by a sharp bear raid starting around 10:30 NY time, as an intro to Obama's press conference on the US debt ceiling folderol.
I think that deal is all but done, and we are in the theatrics stage now, as both parties wish to impress their respective constituents and frighten them into complacent acceptance.
Mr. Obama is a skillful negotiator and rather crafty, but seems to lack a moral compass. In other words, a consummate politician, but not a leader for a global crisis, in the manner of a Kennedy, Churchill, or Roosevelt.
I do not wish to be rude, but alas, the other choices amongst his peers of both parties do not seem particularly enticing. There seem to be few attractive alternatives these days in that venal and craven Munchkinland called the US intellectual and political leadership, amongst all the self-seeking opportunists, corporate sock puppets, narrow ideologues, mean spirited frat boys, and servile sycophants.
The equity markets pulled back sharply today, down to our support levels, as they had a bit more difficulty ignoring the debt situations in Europe and the US.
The key pivot level on the SP Futures is from 1305 to 1307.50.
Let's see if this support level will hold. Alcoa reported a revenue beat and an earnings miss after the bell. Earnings news from individual companies will present a set of cross currents to the macro developments.
So we might have a stock picker's market with the important caveat to watch the overall global situation and be prepared to react to it.
I am fairly confident that Obama and Boehner have already reached a deal of sorts, with some details still to be provided closing some tax loopholes and allowing tax cuts to expire in a couple of years, with overall budget cuts around 2.5 trillion or so. It remains to be sold to the House, and the Senate will approve.
Both sides will claim victory.
No real problems will be solved.
The actual resolution will come as a response to the next financial crisis. It will probably be messy, and sub-optimal, but seemingly the only choice left on the table.
Until then they will continue to serve up politically based and increasingly bizarre concoctions for Benny and the real economy to watch, increasingly in despair of something worthwhile and substantial.
Watching these jokers at work is emotionally draining, like prune juice for the soul.
An interesting discussion about the opening of the China-based Pan Asia Gold Exchange and its potential impact on the global gold, silver, and currency markets.
My own expectation is that it will be met by concentrated gaming from the paper trade on the various exchanges, until things eventually sort themselves out and the market finds a truer price discovery based on actual supply and demand.
I suspect there will be an initial surge, and then a great push back, and finally a tug of war until the paper trade capitulates and leverage is resolved. Do not forget that this leverage and the existing imbalances were built up over a period of twenty years, and they have only been ten years in the unwinding so far, and are caught up in what I have called the currency wars.
The timing will be highly dependent on the context of the other markets and sovereign debt. I suspect that once the financiers are done messing about with Europe, they will turn once again to Asia.
I concur with Andrew's analysis of how the short side leverage will break down. One may choose not to participate in the metals investment, but I think it is becoming almost insane to short it, except perhaps on a day trade. The danger of a market dislocation is becoming too large for all but the TBTF firms to bear.
And although the percentage gains may ultimately be greater in the instruments such as miners, with of course the commensurate increased risk, I think bullion will continue to lead the way, since the reform of the naked shorting of equities will be dependent on changed demanded as the result of a breakdown first in some other market scheme, like the metals paper manipulation with the excessive use of leverage and the abuse of market pricing.
And although the Comex seems to be the focal point of all this discussion, there are some things that suggest that scandals may rock the London and even the Canadian exchanges and their banking systems, reaching perhaps to the higher levels of government. There seems to be a new Triangle Trade in fraudulently misrepresented financial instruments going across the Atlantic, which includes the Caribbean and some of the other tax havens.
Andrew Maguire Interview on King World News.
Gold soared this morning on a flight to safety from the European debt crisis.
Then suddenly it started dropping sharply around 10:30 NY time.
What could have happened?
Oh, the Bloomberg is reporting that Obama will be addressing the nation in a Press Conference around 11:00 AM.
It doesn't get much more obvious than this.
As the news commentators just noted, gold is flat and the Treasuries are rallying, so why worry?
My stock index shorts from Friday are doing well as this overextended rally continues to pull back. I took a portion of them off the table as the SP futures reach down to support around 1312. I also took the miners off in the first hour, and trimmed back the bullion plays a little after that.
I suspect the major players will reach some agreement on the debt ceiling by July 22, and throw a portion of the American public under the bus, to everyone's relief that a horrible crisis has been averted, while largely maintaining the real status quo and the primacy of the Wall Street monied interests.
It's MMT all the way. Not only Modern Monetary Theory, but Modern Management Theory, and the management of perceptions is everything in the Potemkin economy.
Later: I am watching Obama speak now, and it's pure theater. He said he wants a 'fair and balanced' solution. He is posturing quite a bit, but obviously concerned with giving his Republican colleagues cover with the more vocal wing of their constituency.
I have great sympathy for him, as he has inherited a terrible mess created in large part by his predecessors. The pigmen and their comrades are in a feeding frenzy, and the social fabric is stretched thin. Enough is never enough for them as they are addicted to greed and the will to power.
A bright fellow no doubt, but unseasoned by things like family, tradition, and the personal experience of hardship: a great story teller, a rationalizer, a perpetual outsider, and a thoroughly modern relativist. You have to keep your eye on what he does, rather than what he says. But that is a given with all modern managers.
No wonder gold and silver were hit so hard. They are the untarnished standards that stubbornly resist all rhetoric and relativism.
"...Surely, there is at this day a confederacy of evil, marshalling its hosts from all parts of the world, organizing itself, taking its measures, enclosing the church of Christ as in a net, and preparing the way for a general apostasy from it. Whether this very apostasy is to give birth to Antichrist, or whether he is still to be delayed, we cannot know; but at any rate this apostasy, and all its tokens, and instruments, are of the Evil One and saviour of death.
Far be it from any of us to be of those simple ones, who are taken in that snare which is circling around us! Far be it from us to be seduced with the fair promises in which Satan is sure to hide his poison!
Do you think he is so unskillful in his craft, as to ask you openly and plainly to join him in his warfare against the truth? No; he offers you baits to tempt you. He promises you civil liberty; he promises you equality; he promises you trade and wealth; he promises you a remission of taxes; he promises you reform...
He shows you how to become as gods. Then he laughs and jokes with you, and gets intimate with you; he takes your hand, and gets his fingers between yours, and grasps them, and then you are his."
J.H.Newman, The Times of Antichrist
