Shanghai Composite Index Compared To Nasdaq 'Dot Com' Bubble

This could prove to be an interesting comparison.

Let's see if it stays on track.

There are quite a few protracted distortions in the global markets. 

And quite a few of them have nothing to do with Asia.

Here is a picture of the 2008 Shanghai stock bubble collapse.

'Owners Per Ounce' of Gold at the Comex

The trend of the 'owners per ounce' on the Comex is climbing as the amount of paper bets increases and the ounces of gold bullion for sale at these prices decreases.

There is more than sufficient gold in private hands to satisfy the demands of the increasingly paper leveraged Comex. Just not as these prices perhaps, despite the heavy handed attempts to knock the open interest out of the hands of the longs.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - No Soup For You

The fingerprints of the Exchange Stabilization Fund and their Banks, presumably JPM and Citi, were all over the markets today, from commodities to equities.

Stocks were rallied hard off the bottom, as some fearless buyer stepped in and sparked a short covering rally.

Gold languished, but silver managed to take back the 15 handle at least.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Have No Fear, Buy the Dip

They came in selling, but someone took the bull by the horns and bought the dip in stocks as they were threatening key support.

Who that might be who can say.

But it might be useful if we could have a peek into the operations of the Exchange Stabilization Fund, aka 'The Plunge Protection Team.'

But one thing we have discovered in the past. Not all dips are created equal.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

 

First, They Come For the Weakest...

...and then they come for the others: the dissidents, the different, and the other.

And sometimes, for those who just happen to be where we do not wish them to be.

Once people have been sufficiently desensitized, over time made utterly apathetic to the condition of their fellow human beings, and provided an official rationale in the form of symbols and slogans, for murder, torture, and even the most heinous crimes out of fear and a taste for violence, almost anything is possible.

And in the end, the people are driven mad by their apathy and their complicity.   First they imagine themselves as other than human, as some type of superior being.  But as that illusion falters, and the romantic allure of their symbols and slogans become tattered, they find their otherness merely as beasts.

Great worldly power can at first appear to be awe inspiring, almost beautiful, in its scope.  How can we possibly oppose something so majestic, so shocking, so vast in its scope and reach.  But as we draw closer, we may at times perceive the smell of decay, and corruption, the rot beneath the appearance of the glamour.  And perhaps, drawing close enough, we may even catch a glimpse of the diseased eyes and evil leer behind the mask.  But by then, alas, we are his.

The wounded, the crippled, and the dead are, in this great charade, swiftly carted offstage. They are war's refuse. We do not see them. We do not hear them. They are doomed, like wandering spirits, to float around the edges of our consciousness, ignored, even reviled.”

Chris Hedges

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Rally 'Round the Swag

"Today, in view of the common good, there is urgent need for politics and economics to enter into a frank dialogue in the service of life, especially human life. Saving banks at any cost, making the public pay the price, forgoing a firm commitment to reviewing and reforming the entire system, only reaffirms the absolute power of a financial system, a power which has no future and will only give rise to new crises after a slow, costly and only apparent recovery."

Francis I

As a cultural note, 'swag' in this case is the older definition of the ill-gotten gains of criminals as in 'loot.'

It is not the modern usage of the term 'swag,' derived I think from 'swagger,' which means to dress up in ridiculous fashion accessories and outfits, and prance around like a nincompoop.

Could there have been any doubt how the markets would end up today?

On the overwhelming 'no' vote from Greece, gold and silver popped and the stock futures opened down around thirty points.

 

This was legitimate I think simply because the 'establishment' had mismeasured the Greek spirit so badly. They must have thought they were the Americans or the English who have a patience for oppression from 'their betters' that is truly impressive.  I would say a solid twenty percent seem to be serial masochists for the most transparent and grotesque demagogues imaginable.   I wish they could all come to some sort of private arrangement and keep the rest of us out of it. 

But soon enough it was clear that the financial engineers would be spreading the calming effects of easy money and highly leveraged derivatives around to cap gold and silver, and provide reassurances that those awkwardly positioned in the financial assets bubble need suffer no harm; their job is to inflict distress on the innocent and outsiders and not on their powerful 'friends'.

And of course this gave the pundits who have had this wrong all along a chance to redeem themselves with new sets of predictions, the most dubious of which are posed as 'questions.'   If you pose it as a question, you can claim it as a win if it is right, but you get a 'mulligan' if you are wrong because you are only asking a question, after all.

The Varoufakis resignation was pre-planned, and anyone who says he was 'sacked' by Tsipras is most probably deluded. It was a very smart play, and entirely consistent with everything they have been doing in the conduct of their negotiations right along.  

Gold and silver are obviously being manipulated. Gold is being done so because it now considered a 'currency cross' and is being shoved around by both official and speculative interests like any other currency, and with the same rationale of managing the economy while skinning the 'little people.'    I mean at this point can anyone doubt the markets are rigged?  Which ones aren't is a better question.

The stock market is being banged like an ATM by the one percent who are using a fairly impressive array of financial scams and loopholes to continue to loot the real economy, and with a surprising amount of cooperation from 'the establishment' to use an phrase from a previous generation.

History suggests that these sorts of schemes will end badly. Exactly when is not possible to predict until it is on top of you.  Although you can pay quite a few people to obtain their latest guesses.  And if those don't work, they have more.

A number of innocents will be harmed, because the people have allowed themselves to be manipulated by their darker emotions of hatred and fear.  And many of the perpetrators will continue to pile up great fortunes and political power and influence, relying on the people's credulity in the face of the big lie.  I think the wages they will be collecting in the longer term, however, are death.

The only certainty is change.

Have a pleasant evening.


Related:  Ray Dalio Bought 463,000 Shares of Silver Wheaton

 

 

 

 

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Putting the 'Con' in Confidence

"Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man, and make gentle the life of this world."

Robert F. Kennedy

Today's market action was a twofold operation to

1)  give the people 'confidence' that a Greek default would be a non-event for the financial markets
2)  allow the financiers who were terribly off-footed by their mistaken belief that the Greeks would accept the Troika's domination some time to square up their accounts in their mispricing of risk.

Have a pleasant evening