Here are some quick thoughts
and observations. I will get to the point on most of them. I won’t bore
you with the repetitive nature of the backdrop behind these stories. You can
check those out for yourselves on my links to the right because most of my
thoughts haven’t changed.
Gold & Silver
As I expected, after seeing
a rebound off the massive correction from highs on both metals, it would
appear as though a downtrend is now resuming. Forget he manipulation stories.
The fact that of the matter is that the world needs cash. The world is broke.
There is no funny business going on with any attempt to supress
the price of either metal. We are merely seeing everyone running to cash.
This is reflected in all asset classes including the stock market. My
prediction is for gold to re-trace to at least $1600.00 and silver down to
$27.00 or thereabouts. I don’t see the fundamentals in place for both
metals to rocket higher. We have our crisis moments during which both metals
fail to react the way we suspected. Yes I remain cautiously optimistic longer
term but for now, I wouldn’t want to be holding either metal.
Stocks
Goodbye. If you haven’t
noticed the financial sector has led the way and this sector tells me we are
headed back towards at least 10,000 on the Dow Jones Industrials. The
fundamentals, largely ignored, tell us that the economy of the United States
and that of the world are collapsing. There is simply too much debt out there
and not just government debt but personal debt is going to break the camel's
back. Everywhere I turn I see people complaining about debt or an increasing
ability to make payments or tackled their debt loads. This isn’t going to
go away overnight.
Europe
Our brothers and sisters
in Europe are in a world of hurt. It has been over a year now and the Union
hasn’t done a single thing to get Greece going again. Greece itself
hasn’t helped its own cause either by continually missing targets and
expectations. What is to say they are ever going to get their books balanced?
Now we can add Italy’s political joke to the mix (I wrote about Italy
months before the mainstream finally caught on that their problems were
bigger than what were being reported) and now we
get this more recent news out of Spain. Don’t think for a moment that
any news that attempts to paint over the current situation is genuine. The
European Union is closer than ever to dissolution and break up. The experiment
has failed but the suits in charge are too ashamed to admit to it.
Finally, one last word
for today after watching news report after news report about this “occupy
wall street or ‘fill in the blank’” bullshit that is taking
the world by storm.
Get off your asses and
if you are lucky enough to have a job, get back to work and stop making fools
of yourselves. This movement will not change the way things are done and in fact
makes those that participate in such events look like a bunch of conspiracy
theorists. In the same vein as “buy a silver round to collapse
JPM” didn’t work (and it was never going to work), so too will
these protests do nothing but infuriate the lives of those who are impacted
by these protests. I sat in Toronto traffic half hour longer while these
nitwits occupied the area I need to drive by. Please…if you are one of
these protesters, get a grip. Protesting the banks while all your money is
sitting in them does you no good. Given that you are being paid little to
zero interest on your money to begin with, take your money out…run the
banks so to speak… that will hurt them more than a bunch of signs and
chants.
It always seems to me that
these people that protest economic inequality are the ones who aren’t
motivated to work. Perhaps if their motivation to work and earn a living equalled their motivation to set up tent cities and
loiter, they wouldn’t be battling economic inequality. I remember the
words my father gave me when I was a teenager. He said “If you want to
work and look hard enough, there is always something for you to do”. He
was right. I have no sympathy for those that hang out in parks chanting about
economic inquality when thousands of others are
hitting the job market looking for work. If they are truly motivated to find
work, they will find something. That can’t be said for the tree-huggers
lining our city parks.
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