NAV Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds

"She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her."

Proverbs 3:15

As you may recall this proverb is about Wisdom.  But the pronoun is apt.

My wife is on vacation with the girls at grandma's house in Georgia. So I am keeping things running without her.  A family without a father is a burden, but a home without a wife and a mother is just a house. 

Fed Minutes at 2:00 PM.

Otherwise just another lazy Summer day in the kleptocracy.

The fundamental things apply, as time goes by.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Cap, Cap, Cap

If I were of a mind to discredit the precious metals, I would not continually suppress the price.

For one thing, this is not practical, since the lower the price goes the more strain it creates on supply by incenting those who are not buying the story about gold's irrelevance to buy even more of the metal. 

Rather, once I got the price down to a level with which I was comfortable for the management of perception purposes, I would inject all sorts of uncorrelated and meaningless volatility into the market, both up and down.

Nothing discredits an asset with the hallmark as a safe have than uncorrelated and almost incomprehensible volatility. Prices shoot up and down for no particular reason. Who wants to base their wealth in that sort of thing.

The paper metals are a charade. The day of reckoning comes a little close with each passing cycle of shenanigans. And the central bankers and their Banks and sycophants fear it.

They may act even more bold to hide their fears, which is their wont to do.  The bigger the lie, the more brazen the delivery.

But at the end of the day they will have to stand and deliver. What they will deliver is a pile of paper IOUs, lies, and a load of outrageous bollocks to be gobbled up by the bourgeoisie who will all be the powerless outsiders.  And no one will be held accountable.  It will be MF Global writ large.

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Blue Skies As Far As One Can See

So how do you like the big turnaround.

Not too long ago stocks were dropping, and the bears were slavering for a market break and talking crash.

And today the punters are talking about new highs, and 20% returns on the year for the SP 500 with permanent prosperity for the rentier class.

Its a wash and rinse. Or as Al Capone put it, "It's a racket."

I wonder if we have time for another cycle before the Alibab IPO in September.

Have a pleasant evening.

US Minimum Wage Compared to Other Countries

"The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield."

George Orwell

I think we can stipulate that these charts do not compare US minimum wages to some of the worst sweatshops of Asia and the Southern hemisphere with whom US workers are expected to compete thanks to undiscriminating 'free trade' treaties. 

And so human rights and the public good are invariably and consciously driven towards the lowest common denominator of cruel and abusive government corruption.

These charts are from Tim Taylor at the Conversable Economist.

I am sure people will draw from them whatever they wish to support their own policy biases and pre-conclusions.

But the one thing we need to internalize is that the US has become all about setting policies and enforcing laws to create and maintain a working underclass as a vulnerable food source for the predator class, a condition that is inimical to a thriving democracy.

And people are becoming more aware of this now that a good portion of the former middle class is falling into that underclass category that lives from hand to mouth, paycheck to paycheck. 

It is becoming undeniable that the political class is no longer listening to 'the people,' but to the richest and most powerful individuals and the organizations that support them and give them that power.

This is not 'capitalism.'  This is crony capitalism, and the deadly corruption of oligarchy.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Lies, Damn Lies, and the Irresponsibility of the Status Quo

"We run carelessly to the precipice after we have put up a façade to prevent ourselves from seeing it.”

Blaise Pascal

Gold was under some pressure, with silver capped.

The market decided that since shooting had not broken out in the Ukraine that all is well and it was time to bulk up on the risk trade, albeit with low volumes.

This is a very cynical, Fed-fueled market.

The lies are flying thick and fast if you are following any of these geo-political events.

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Fearless

As long as nothing has gone wrong in the last 24 hours the bulls are almost fearless in these low volume, highly technically traded markets.

I feel as though my skeptical cynicism of this stock market has been vindicated. As if anything good can come of this. lol

Have a pleasant evening.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Option Expiration Dipsy Doodle

Gold and silver were hit early in the trading session in a pretty obvious takedown.

Gold gained much of it back by the close. Silver not so much.

There was a decent scare today as Ukraine announced that it had destroyed many trucks in a Russian armoured convoy. Russia denied that they had any military presence across that border. The truth will come out, eventually. For those who will have eyes to see it.

Have a pleasant weekend.