Weekend Viewing: Echos from the Last Great Depression

An uncanny echo from times gone by...

Charlie Chaplin, The Great Dictator, October 1940



Mohandas K. Gandhi, The Power of Civil Disobedience and Non-Violence



Adolf Hitler, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, 1933-1938

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12

Beware the will to power, for madness has no master. We become what we hate, what we have sworn to destroy, and take up its methods, and serve it faithfully on this earth, thinking we are serving ourselves, forswearing all others, in defiance and expediency even God, to our own inevitable destruction. The beast prospers none, consuming all.

"Having fallen from the eternal, the Evil One's desires are endless, insatiable. Having fallen from pure Being, he is driven by the desire to possess, to fill his emptiness. But the problem is insoluble, always. He is compelled to have and to hold, to possess and consume, and nothing else. All he takes, he destroys." Denis de Rougemont

SP 500 September Futures Daily Chart and Gold Chart at the Close: Option Expiry Bear Raid

I had thought that the SP 500 would fail at a slightly higher level, the blue resistance trendline, but apparently that is not the case, at least for now.

Earnings misses in the banks and key tech bellwethers is driving the selling, and not coincidentally on the option expiration Friday for July. Michigan sentiment came in at a very low 66.5 which was well below expectations. At least for now belief in the recovery is off the table.

I beefed up my short positions in the financials as part of the short stocks / long gold & silver paired trade the other day, and this appears to be working reasonably well, giving me some room to play behind the shorts to add selectively at throwaway prices in the better miners and in bullion.

I am looking for a move down to the 1050-1060 area before the SP tries to back and fill itself on support. If it breaks down from there then the 1000 level looks possible. Keep in mind that this is a trader's market, and fundamentally it isn't telling us much of anything, except that a lack of financial reform has made the US a nation dominated by frivolous speculators who add no value and tax real GDP through price distortion.



Gold and silver were hit very hard with yet another bear raid, with the paper crowd trying to trigger selling by smashing prices with program selling at key moments and price points, running the stops and scaring the weak hands out. This is how the game is played, and particularly so in this environment of big players and lax regulations.

I don't think this precious metals selling will last much longer, but we have to keep one eye on stocks to see if there is a great move to a general sell off and act accordingly. That means little or no leverage, conservative positions, and hedging against loss. Or better yet, don't bother with the market at all except in long time frames.



Despite the rumours and rationales spread by hedge funds and trading desks like this commentary here, this was obviously a bear raid tied to today's stock options expiration. No profit motivated professional trader dumps positions like this and sells against themselves unless the motive is to drive down the price and run the stops, clearing out the weak hands and taking profits from short positions in related trades. Now that 'sales by the IMF' has gotten tired through repetition it looks like 'liquidation by John Paulson' (JP) is the new bear trade precious metals boogeyman. More likely "JP" is in reality "JPM."

A Modest Proposal

ShadowStats: CPI-Alt Running 4.3%, Gold $2,382, Silver $139

Something Weimar this way comes?

There is almost no doubt in my mind that we will see these prices of $2382 for gold and $139 for silver. I am just not sure exactly how we will get there, and when. But we should expect the unexpected, or at least that which is not expected by the many.

The gold / silver ratio between those prices is 17, which is close to the historically important ratio of about 16. The legal ratio of gold to silver set in France in 1803 was 15.5, and this was emulated in England and later in the US.

Obviously I am thinking of a possible return to a bi-metallic 'weak standard' through the inclusion of both gold and silver in the basket of currencies that will be replacing the US dollar as a unit of value in international trade. There are also several movements in the developing world to adopt silver for domestic use as a store of value and at least partial backing for their currency when the more prominent fiat currencies begin to hyperventilate. I think these movements will gain some traction as the currency wars intensify.

The current ratio is about 67. I cannot help but feel that silver is going to be simply amazing when its time comes, in part due to the decades of price suppression by US banking institutions.

According to the latest report from Shadowstats:

Alternative Consumer Inflation Measures

"Adjusted to pre-Clinton (1990) methodology, annual CPI inflation was roughly 4.3% in June 2010, versus 5.4% in May, while the SGS-Alternate Consumer Inflation Measure, which reverses gimmicked changes to official CPI reporting methodologies back to 1980, was about 8.4% (8.37% for those using the extra digit) in June, versus 9.2% in May.

The SGS-Alternate Consumer Inflation Measure adjusts on an additive basis for the cumulative impact on the annual inflation rate of various methodological changes made by the BLS. Over the decades, the BLS has altered the meaning of the CPI from being a measure of the cost of living needed to maintain a constant standard of living, to something that no longer reflects the constant-standard-of-living concept. Roughly five percentage points of the additive SGS adjustment reflect the BLS’s formal estimate of the impact of methodological changes; roughly two percentage points reflect changes by the BLS, where SGS has estimated the impact not otherwise published by the BLS.

Gold and Silver Highs

Adjusted for CPI-U/SGS Inflation. Despite another recent all-time high in the price of gold in the current cycle, gold and silver prices have yet to approach their historic high prices, adjusted for inflation. Even with the June 28th historic high gold price of $1,261.00 per troy ounce, the earlier all-time high of $850.00 (London afternoon fix, per Kitco.com) of January 21, 1980 has not been breached in terms of inflation-adjusted dollars. Based on inflation through June 2010, the 1980 gold price peak would be $2,382 per troy ounce, based on not-seasonally-adjusted-CPI-U-adjusted dollars, and would be $7,689 per troy ounce in terms of SGS-Alternate-CPI-adjusted dollars.

In like manner, the all-time high price for silver in January 1980 of $49.45 per troy ounce (London afternoon fix, per silverinstitute.org) has not been hit since, including in terms of inflation-adjusted dollars. Based on inflation through June 2010, the 1980 silver price peak would be $139 per troy ounce, based on not-seasonally-adjusted-CPI-U-adjusted dollars, and would be $447 per troy ounce in terms of SGS-Alternate-CPI-adjusted dollars.

As shown on page 22 in the Hyperinflation report, over the decades, the price of gold has more than compensated for the loss of the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar as reflected by CPI-U inflation, while it has effectively fully compensated for the loss of purchasing power of the U.S. dollar based on the SGS-Alternate CPI."

Consumer Metrics Institute: Growth Index Update Vs. US GDP

The relationship between CMI's Growth Index as an indicator of US GDP is interesting. If it continues its correlation the US GDP is in for a serious slump, if not a double dip. The Fed is likely to initiate a new round of quantitative easing in response, although they will try to jawbone their way around the monetization issues.

Growth Index Past 4 Years



The Consumer Metrics Institute's 91-day 'Trailing Quarter' Growth Index -vs- U.S. Department of Commerce's Quarterly GDP Growth Rates over past 4 years. The quarterly GDP growth rates are shown as 3-month plateaus in the graph. The Consumer Metrics Institute's Growth Index is plotted as a monthly average.

Consumer Metrics Institute's Contraction Watch



The comparison of the 91-Day Growth Indexes during the 'quarter' immediately following the commencement of a contraction. The quarterly GDP growth rates are shown as 3-month plateaus in the graph. The Consumer Metrics Institute's Growth Index is plotted as a monthly average. The contraction events of 2006, 2008 and 2010 are shown against the same scale of annualized contraction.

Charts by the Consumer Metrics Institute