Shanghai On Track For Record Year With 69 Tonnes Gold Withdrawn In Latest Week

"A lie would make no sense unless the truth were felt to be dangerous."

Alfred Adler

Pet rocks.

When The Wall Street Journal finally notices China.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Rebound - Option Expiration Next Week

“In a room where
people unanimously maintain
a conspiracy of silence,
one word of truth
sounds like a pistol shot.”

Czesław Miłosz

Gold led a stiff rebound off support at 1180 today as it just was not going to go any lower, and the wiseguys grabbed some profits off the table.

This was a very obviously short term oversold condition. 

Now we will see if gold and silver can put in a real bottom here, or something else.

Next Tuesday will be the August metals expiration at The Bucket Shop.  August is also an active month for gold.

I have included the latest 'owners per ounce' charts from Nick Laird at sharelynx.com.  They were able to knock down the open interest a bit, but could not produce more physical bullion for sale yet.

The Fed accidentally leaked its staff projections about rate hikes today.  It looks like one for this year and four more next year for about 1.26%.

I hope they wait for The Recovery to get on their magic bus.

Have a pleasant weekend.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Slippery Slope

 

US equities continued to slide today as the recent makeover rally designed to put some lipstick on some new tech pigs has continued to retreat.

Stock had their worst week of the year. I hope you were able to take something off the table.

New housing sales slumped badly according to this morning's economic data.

We are obviously in the rinse cycle now of the usual wash n' rinse mo-mo scam that substitutes for market price discovery these days.

Let's see if it keeps going or continues to stay well-behaving and responsive to the whims of the algos and insiders.

Have a pleasant weekend.

 

NAV Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds

The discount on CEF is remarkable.

The gold to silver ratio is quite high.

 

Both metals are oversold.

If the precious metals rebound silver will have quite a bit of catching up to do, and will likely outperform to the upside as they have outperformed to the downside.   Beta giveth, and beta taketh away.

Silver has done this over the last six months for example.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Though the Heavens May Fall

"No one today likes truth: utility and self interest have long ago been substituted for truth. We live in a nightmare of falsehoods, and there are few who are sufficiently awake and aware to see things as they are. Our first duty is to clear away illusions and recover a sense of reality.

If war should come, it will do so on account of our delusions, for which our tormented conscience attempts to find moral excuses. To recover a sense of reality is to recover the truth about ourselves and the world in which we live, and thereby to gain the power of keeping this world from falling apart."

Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev

There was intraday commentary titled The Epicenter of the Next Financial Crisis and overnight commentary on the precious metals, Free Markets at Work.

I get the feeling sometimes that we have become a nation of conmen and their servants, who plague the great mass of people who are preoccupied with raising families and just getting by.

As we have seen, in the latter part of the 20th century, people had forgotten, or more properly had been persuaded to disregard, the lessons of history and the reforms put in place in the 1930's.   And to our regret the conmen and their enablers were able to get their hands in our pockets, and grab hold of our wallets.  And we have not been able to get their slimy hands out of pockets yet. 

How fitting that in the next election we can once again consider voting for a Bush or a Clinton.  Some choice.

When the time comes, and it is coming as it always does, we should forgive, but not forget. 

And we should let justice be done, though the heavens may fall. 

Have a pleasant evening.

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Reavers: Time To Go

Simon: I don't understand.

Zoe: You've never heard of Reavers?

Simon: Well, campfire stories of men gone savage on the edge of space, killing and—

Zoe: They're not stories.

Simon: What happens if they board us?

Zoe: If they take the ship, they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh and sew our skins into their clothing. And if we're very very lucky, they'll do it in that order.

Joss Whedon, Serenity

It looks like equities are getting set up for another 'big short.' 

It is not quite clear whether we are at full apogee or not yet.  If the international situation clears up, there is always plenty of paper left to take it higher.

This market is now an artificial construct.  It is a wealth extraction machine, more poorly regulated than the average casino.

It is hard to tell where safety may lie.   The usual suspects have most of the usual places covered.

But fortunately the abusers of civil society among us these days are not archcriminals, are not like the mythical hordes of the past. and most are not even extraordinarily intelligent, enough to hold and be successful in a legitimate profession.

They do not allow most of the normal prohibitions of conscience or human empathy to give them pause.  They tend to be verbally acute, emotionally shallow, and mildly delusional.  They may dress well and have admirers amongst the media and the public.

On the positive side, they are not too lazy to steal.  Madoff may have worked very hard, but at the end of the day he was just a gangster.    Most are just sociopaths who have chosen to hold a pen instead of a gun.

And it is not just Wall Street.  People are great imitators,  And when illicit behaviour and monopoly business tactics become tolerated they can soon enough become commonplace.   The corruption and lack of moral principle and judicious moderation in Big Pharma and other 'service sectors' are appallingly fashionable.

If we can ever find enough honorable people to uphold the law, and give them the support that they deserve, we may find that a fear of physical punishment will have most of these modern day crooks cutting deals and turning state's evidence, or running for other places in their jets, like vermin scattering when a light shines upon them. 

And that will be a good day.

Have a pleasant evening.