10 January 2017

Charts For a Quiet Tuesday - US Government's Key Role In India's Crash Cash Suppression Fiasco


"The business interests of the US-companies that dominate the global IT business and payment systems are an important reason for the zeal of the US-government in its push to reduce cash use worldwide, but it is not the only one and might not be the most important one.

Another motive is surveillance power that goes with increased use of digital payment. US-intelligence organizations and IT-companies together can survey all international payments done through banks and can monitor most of the general stream of digital data. Financial data tends to be the most important and valuable.

Even more importantly, the status of the dollar as the worlds currency of reference and the dominance of US companies in international finance provide the US government with tremendous power over all participants in the formal non-cash financial system. It can make everybody conform to American law rather than to their local or international rules."

Norbert Haering, A Well Kept Open Secret


"...and where they make a desert, they call it peace."

Tacitus

I hear that the speculation which I had about the US government's involvement in India's  heavy handed program of cash suppression may in fact be true.

Thanks to Harald Malmgren et al. for passing along this blog which was originally published in German.

I certainly concur with the various motives ascribed to the India crash cash suppression campaign.  The rentiers want everyone hooked on their digital dollars:  one ring to rule them all.  And to them, the public at large is just collateral damage, and their national interests are at best irrelevant, and most likely a genuine impediment to the broader 'globalisation' of the system ruled by the Anglo-American Banks.

But with regards to the big rush and the timing of this, I suspect that the Anglo-Americans are desperate to staunch the flows of physical gold and silver into Asia.  Crushing the cash economy and driving the people of India into a digitalized banking system might have done the trick, in some alternate universe.  If this is all true, talk about crazy desperate ideas from the bowels of the credibility trap.

Stocks were lackluster, with tech stocks once again playing their role as financial crisis bubble-born revenant.

Gold is struggling to take back the ground that it gave up into the year end, while silver continues pushing higher, trying to regain the 17 handle.

Let's see if the metals can break out.

As for stocks, it might not be bad to keep 'buy the election and sell the inauguration' in mind.

The Dems wish to de-legitimize the Trump presidency, and would like to set him up for a fall, and a possible impeachment. In that sense, they are certainly no better than the GOP, which would have followed a similar strategy it seems. Both parties are more like rival crime families than public servants.

Thanks to William Banzai (I am not worthy) and Zerohedge for reminding us all of one of Stanley Kubrick's classics, probably worth watching again as the ghosts of unscrupulous politicians past slither once again in new forms along the halls of power.

On the good news bad news front, President Obama will be giving his 'farewell address' tonight in Chicago.   The bad news is that hope and change has left the building, and the worse news is that it actually happened sometime around 2008, when Mr. Obama sold out the American people to the Banks.

I would not exactly call myself 'hopeful' about the next four years.  But they could be very good for things like gold and silver.   If the world can escape from the neo-cons' dreams for a New American Century, and the proposed tyranny of the United States Dollar.  Six to the six to the six-wise.  lol.

Have a pleasant evening.





09 January 2017

Charts for Stocks and Metals - Three Kings


Interesting divergence in stocks today as the tech sector led the way to new highs there, but the SP 500 was lower on the day, and the Dow Industrials, industrial in name only these days, once again not only failed to close above that 20,000 level, but actually gave up some additional ground.

This is bubble action.  Whether it is late stage or not remains to be seen, but I keep thinking that the Wall Street wiseguys are just executing the same gameplan they would have followed regardless of who won the election, with perhaps some variation on the sectors they pushed.

So, in other words, can we expect them to 'buy the election, and sell the inauguration?'

That would be an appropriately cynical outcome for very cynical times.

Gold and silver managed to inch higher after the December drubbing they took into deeply oversold territory.

I suspect that was an 'end of year' thing.

The Comex warehouses and deliveries were the usual snooze.  The real metals action is taking place in points East.

Yesterday marked the end of the Christmas season with the feast of the Magi, or the Three Kings.

But hopefully the Christmas spirit will live in our hearts throughout the year.

Have a pleasant evening.




06 January 2017

Charts for End of the First Week of the New Year - A Hazy Shade of Winter


Here Homer with his nervous arms
Strikes the twanging harp of war,
And even the western splendour warms,
While the trumpets sound afar:
But, what creates the most intense surprise,
His soul looks out through renovated eyes.

John Keats, Ode to Apollo


"Love does not make you weak, because it is the source of all strength, but it makes you see the nothingness of the illusory strength on which you depended before you knew it...

In the end, the only real tragedy is not to be a saint."

Léon Bloy


But my own abilities would not have been enough for this,
If in my mind there had not been struck
A flash of lightning, from which came this wish.

Here my strength has failed my utmost dreams:
But now there is a change, in my will and my desire,
Even as a wheel that turns around is moved,

To that Love alone which moves the sun, and other stars.

Dante, Divina Commedia, last verse

Can there be any sound more plaintive, than a lost soul crying out for its love.

Stocks drifted upwards, and the metals downward, in another session of lazy trading.

The Non-Farm Payrolls report came in light on the numbers added, and shows a weak 'weekly hours worked' as would be characteristic of the part time servants recovery.

I would have expected a stronger hit on the metals.  Let's see how they do next week.

There was little activity in the metals on the Comex, except for the usual ins and outs for silver in the warehouses, which is more of a sign that they are used as a delivery mechanism adjunct to the casino.

I enjoyed Koos Jansen's article, paraphrasing the title that the West Is Selling Physical Gold Into an Asian Black Hole.

Sounds like 'gold is moving from west to east.'   In a big way, with high leverage and distorted pricing.  And it is not likely to be coming back anytime soon.  What could go wrong?

But like most of the big changes and what happens next, 'no one could have seen it coming.'

Try to remember God's little ones, all of His creatures, when the weather is hard.

How many of us have left, and how many will be left standing at this time next year?

One thing for certain is that all of us will one day will truly understand what it was all about.

And what may create the most intense surprise, our souls will look with renovated eyes.

Have a very pleasant weekend.





05 January 2017

Charts at 3:00 PM - Non-Farm Payrolls Report Tomorrow


“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”

William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well

Stocks are mixed today with tech up against overhead resistance, and the SP 500 backing off from its own.

Gold has a nice pop today to 1180ish. Let's see if it can hold its gains through the December Non-Farm Payrolls report tomorrow.

Snow tonight. And so I am baking something appropriate for such nasty weather. It fills the house with good smells and warmth.

Have a pleasant evening.


Nomi Prins with Lars Schall on the Next Financial Crisis


Two of my favorite people, financial expert and author Nomi Prins and investigative journalist Lars Schall, discuss the ongoing financial crises, how the Banks play a key role in creating them through monetary existentialism, and why the next crisis will be the worst yet.





04 January 2017

Charts at Market Close - The Duty of Delight - Cup and Handle


"How necessary it is to cultivate a spirit of joy. It is a psychological truth that the physical acts of reverence and devotion make one feel devout.  The courteous gesture increases one's respect for others.  To act lovingly is to begin to feel loving, and certainly to act joyfully brings joy to others which in turn makes one feel joyful. I believe we are called to the duty of delight...

People say, what is the sense of our small effort? They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time. A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. Each one of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that."

Dorothy Day

Today was the weekly trip to the butcher and the baker. We tend to be a little picky about quality, so we do drive a little distance but it is well worth it.

It is the little things that make life worth living.  Maybe that is why those who have too much, and think too much about themselves, are so often rather hard to please, and among the most miserable of God's creatures.   Greed can never be filled, and therefore the greedy heart is never at rest.

Stocks were in a lazy upward drift for the better part of the day, with silver following and gold in a sideways chop.

Kohl's and Macy's cut forecasts after the bell, and both stocks are getting slammed lower. Just another sign of the great and glorious consumer recovery.

The first one hundred days of Trump's administration are sure to be interesting. He is not even sworn into office and is already making a big splash.

Just to reiterate what I said yesterday, if gold and silver can break out from here, it will look like a rather long handle (ladle?  lol) in a cup and handle, with measuring objectives as initially indicated, and most likely much higher from here by year's end 2017.

But first the breakout attempt and a confirmation.  One step at a time.

Have a pleasant evening.