Charts at the Market Close on 'Hump Day' - Don't Worry Baby

"Sanders laid out the dilemma facing the Democratic Party. The Democrats must find their way back to a connection with ordinary people, and this will require a complete change in the way they do business. He's convinced that the huge expenditure of time and mental effort the Democrats put in to raise more than $1 billion for the Clinton campaign in the past year ended up having enormous invisible costs...

'I've seen it for years. I've seen a media, which has basically ignored the declining middle class, that doesn't talk about poverty at all, and has no sense of what is going on in the minds of millions of ordinary Americans. They live in a bubble, talk about their world, worry about who's going to be running 18 years from now for office. Meanwhile, people can't feed their kids. That's something I knew.

Talking about those issues, seeing that they resonated, that did not surprise me. How quickly they resonated did surprise me. How weak the Democratic establishment was, and how removed they were from the needs of ordinary people, that also surprised me.'"

Matt Taibbi, Bernie Sanders On Where We Go From Here


"There are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Neither is independent of the other or more important than the other. Without art science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery. The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous."

Raymond Chandler

The economic news came in 'better than expected' this morning with Chicago PMI and the ADP Employment change beating estimates in particular.

The Dollar was stronger, and thereby we had some down moves in the precious metals priced in dollars.  This does not always happen, but depends upon the reason for which the dollar is stronger.

The warehouses were boring as usual.  I posted the first December delivery report last night which shows that we will likely see a 'livelier' month than we have had in November.

Non-Farm Payrolls looms on Friday, but do not forget about the Italian referendum on the weekend.

Trump is filling out his initial cabinet appointments.   It so far looks like he is not draining the swamp, but rather changing out one set of alligators for another.

And then there is the upcoming FOMC meeting in which one might be stunned if the Fed does nothing again.  Not necessarily anything useful or significant, but they will likely do something.

Have a pleasant evening.

And the December Gold and Silver Contract 'Deliveries' Begin

For the first day of December, 493,800 ounces of gold have been taken for delivery at 1187.50.  This represents a nominal first day delivery value of $586,387,500.

The 'big customer' at Goldman and the house account at Macquarie continue to disgorge their gold positions, in size, through the delivery process.

The buyers of these positions are the house accounts at HSBC, Nova Scotia, and JP Morgan, in addition to the big 'customer' at Morgan.

As for silver, the big deliverers of the December contract positions were customers at Goldman and Intl FCStone, and a smaller amount from the house account at Nova Scotia.

The big takers of December silver were the house accounts at Macquarie and JP Morgan.

As you may recall, JP Morgan is holding the biggest hoard of silver on the Comex in its warehouses, with over 81 million of the almost 179 million ounces of silver on deposit.

Still, if history is any indicator, these gold deliveries are merely the pushing of paper claims for a smaller percentage of physical silver around the plate, with little physical metal actually going anywhere.

Not so for silver, which continues to see large inflows and outflows of physical metal, especially in the warehouses of wholesaler CNT.

Charts at the Market Close On a Rainy Tuesday

"Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough."

Franklin D. Roosevelt

3Q came in 'better than expected' this morning, but that was not enough to keep the fire lit under equities after this post-election euphoria.

Gold was under a little pressure and silver less so, as November winds down and we enter the more important trading contract of December.

As you may recall, my operating theory has been that the 'free float' of physical gold available to fulfill physical delivery in the markets of Asia has been diminishing, to the point now that the card sharps of the West are concerned a bit about the calling in of their monumental paper leverage.

I had thought the denouement would have occurred during this Summer, but some stores of physical gold were found in the hands of some unfortunate nations, and that has served to keep the game going.

But as the last calculation of the free float showed, the winding down continues, slowly but surely.  All pools and schemes and frauds, if you will, that run against reason and free choices of the markets run down and fall apart eventually, worn out by the artificiality and the energy required to sustain them.

As the old saying goes, 'the bigger they come, the harder they fall.'

Non-Farm Payrolls later this week.

It was very rainy here day, pouring quite steadily for the most part.  I had to take the queen to the hospital for some check ups and blood work.  I could not help but wonder how a little adverse weather, like rain or snow, seems to bring out a kind of mindless aggression in some drivers and a carefulness almost to a fault in others.

We can be like that with words as well.  I see people saying things some times that are almost incredible, and you cannot imagine them saying that sort of thing if they were there in person, or at least for most of them.

As adversity or some obstacles or disappointments frustrate us, we can become mindlessly aggressive and reckless with our words, and our actions, especially when we have the cover of anonymity, of an electronic vehicle, as people do with automobiles or ideologies or a devotion to some pet theory.

They use them as rationales to behave- inhumanly.   Certain in ways that they would not ordinarily even consider, and would be embarrassed if it were pointed out to them.  They forget themselves.

We all have this tendency, to get caught up in the moment.  Let us remember who we are at all times, and whom we serve.  And when such injustice is done to us, that we should forgive it, and understand from whence it comes.  And regret our own culpability in such bad examples, and try to do them no more.

Yes, there is violence and injustice in the world. There always has been. We may have been on the receiving end of it. Cruelty and aggressive anger is most often a sign of fear or weakness or a harsh upbringing with an abusive parent. And it breeds nothing good, only more of the same.

So let it end with us.

One does not have to be cruel or rude to be tough, to be a pillar of support to those whom he loves.

Have a pleasant evening.

Charts for a Quiet Post Holiday Monday - Non-Farm Payrolls on Friday - It's Back

The markets were quiet today, and perhaps a bit more thoughtful as they gave back some of the recent outsized gains in some areas, and declines in others.

Gold gained more than silver which was a bit odd. Yes, it was a risk re-assessment sort of a day, but in London some of the industrial metals like lead and zinc had done quite well.

This market is likely to be more data and less euphoria driven over the next few weeks, as we have the Non-Farm Payrolls along with a few other goodies like the second estimate of Q3 GDP and the ISM Index.

This coming weekend there will be a referendum on the constitution in Italy that may take on a Brexit-like significance.  We'll have to keep an eye on that one.

The Fed will be getting its last chance for this year to raise rates by 25 to 50 basis points in December.  I doubt they will be deterred by anything short of shockingly bad economic news.

And finally, that back breaker of utopian monetary theories, the Zimbabwe Dollar, is making a post hyper-inflationary comeback.  They ought to have listened to Tim Allen and given their monetary policies more power.

Yeah, India's Modi knows what we're talking about—  a little monetary wet work to flush out the old fiatscos and take a strong grip on the value of your currency by the vulnerable parts.

Have a pleasant evening.

The Incredible Lightness of Thinking In the Liberal Professional Class and the Ascended Masters of Hypocrisy

"Listening to the leading figures of the Democratic party establishment, however, you’d never know it. Cool contentment is the governing emotion in these circles. What they have in mind for 2016 is what we might call a campaign of militant complacency. They are dissociated from the mood of the nation, and they do not care...

What our modernized liberal leaders offer is not confrontation [with corporate corruption] but a kind of therapy for those flattened by the free-market hurricane: they counsel us to accept the inevitability of the situation."

Thomas Frank


"Too many of America's elites-among the super-rich, the CEOs, and many of my colleagues in academia-have abandoned a commitment to social responsibility.  They chase wealth and power, the rest of society be damned."

Jeffrey Sachs


"This elite-generated social control maintains the status quo because the status quo benefits and validates those who created and sit atop it.  People rise to prominence when they parrot the orthodoxy rather than critically analyze it. Intellectual regurgitation is prized over independent thought. Real change in politics or society cannot occur under the orthodoxy because if it did, it would threaten the legitimacy of the professional class and all of the systems that helped them achieve their status.

Kristine Mattis, The Cult of the Professional Class

The continuing reaction of the liberal elite to the repudiation of the Democratic establishment by their traditional constituencies of the young and working people is a wonder to behold.  They thrash back and forth between a denial of their failure, and disgust at everyone else they can blame for it.

cf Paul Krugman, The Populism Perplex.

It could not possibly be because of anything they might have done or failed to do.   And so they are caught in a credibility trap.

It is frustrating because they do not know how to extract themselves from it, admit their errors and reform the system, without undermining the very assumptions that entitle them, in their own minds at least, to rule as the highly honored insiders, the elect of professional accomplishment.  

Caution on language.

History Lesson

Tsar Nicholas II:   I know what will make them happy. They're children, and they need a Tsar!  They need tradition.  Not this!  They're the victims of agitators.  A Duma would make them bewildered and discontented.  And don't tell me about London and Berlin. God save us from the mess they're in!

Count Witte:   I see. So they talk, pray, march, plead, petition and what do they get? Cossacks, prison, flogging, police, spies, and now, after today, they will be shot.

Is this God's will?  Are these His methods?  Make war on your own people?   How long do you think they're going to stand there and let you shoot them?  YOU ask ME who's responsible?  YOU ask?

Tsar Nicholas II:   The English have a parliament.   Our British cousins gave their rights away.   The Hapsburgs, and the Hoehenzollerns too.  The Romanovs will not. What I was given, I will give my son.

"People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage. Intellectual myopia, often called stupidity, is no doubt a reason. But the privileged also feel that their privileges, however egregious they may seem to others, are a solemn, basic, God-given right. The sensitivity of the poor to injustice is a trivial thing compared with that of the rich."

John Kenneth Galbraith