Good afternoon, readers, I hope you enjoyed the holiday weekend! I certainly did, although I spent a good deal of it writing, given how “the hits keep coming” in the never-ending drama that is the final death spiral of the U.S. dollar-based GLOBAL fiat currency system. Thus, you are in for a treat today!
Let’s go back to Friday, a half-day of trading and historically one of the thinnest of the year due to the preponderance of businesses closing for the four-day weekend. The Dow had one of its worst weeks of the year, sovereign debt rates were soaring, and the PPT’s inspired Dow goosings at both the NYSE open and the in the last five minutes of trading failed miserably.
Meanwhile, the Greeks, not intent on ratifying the ridiculous “50% haircut” deal proposed a month ago (come to think of it, where did that deal go?), decided that 50% was not enough, and that 75% is more like it…
Greeks Restart Bond Haircut Negotiations, Demand Lower NPV, Bypass IIF In Creditor Discussion
…sounds like all those French banks holding Greek debt are now officially “walking dead,” and even the Bank of France knows it…
Bank of France’s Noyer Speaks, Says Europe Is In A “True Financial Crisis”
…which doesn’t bode well for France’s evil twin, Belgium, as the two nations spat over who will accept the most losses from their co-opted investment of death, Dexia…
And (Long Overdue) Scene: Belgium Downgraded By S&P From AA+ To AA, Outlook Negative
Meanwhile, Eric Sprott appears to be launching the next offensive in his war against the Cartel, starting with last week’s filing of a $1.5 billion shelf for his silver bullion closed-end fund, PSLV, and following up with an open letter to silver producers to withhold production…
Billionaire Eric Sprott Asking Silver Producers to Save in Silver
Don’t be surprised if a company or two takes him up on his offer, as mining CEOs at some point will have to think out of the box if they desire to ever see their stock prices rise. Very few have been outspoken about the manipulation that has cost them millions of profits, and their shareholders significant equity losses, so it was refreshing to see one of the industry’s true mavericks, Keith Neumeyer of First Majestic, bring the “taboo” subject of manipulation to light. Only time will tell if the mining industry adapts to the times, but given how low global gold and silver production is, on an ABSOLUTE basis, it wouldn’t take many “outliers” like Neumeyer to put a major dent in the Cartel’s suppression operations.
The Silver Market Lacks Integrity
The weekend was eerily quiet, as even global economic collapses need to “pause” so that all involved parties can take a breath. However, the steady stream of “horrible headlines” kept flowing, just without the same fanfare during this major holiday weekend.
For example, we saw silly rumors, such as that the IMF (i.e. the U.S. government) was going to bail out Italy to the tune of €600 billion, quickly denied. I mean, just how dumb do they think we are?
IMF Package Denial Sends ES And EURUSD Tumbling
We saw corruption, such as this study highlighting that the Fed’s $16 Trillion of secret, zero-interest loans in 2008-09 achieved nothing except FREE PROFITS to Citibank, Bank of America, and the rest of the cadre of EVIL banks that cumulatively CAUSED the crisis…
Multi-Trillion Bank Bailout Leads to Multi-Billion Bank Profit Bloomberg Finds
…we saw numerous WARNINGS of pending doom, such as from the Bank of France’s Noyer (article above) and Moody’s…
Moody’s: “The Probability Of Multiple Defaults By Euro Area Countries Is No Longer Negligible”
…and simple math, such as the fact that if you have $7 TRILLION of worthless assets, and your balance sheet is collapsing, you will do anything possible to sell them…
European Banks Frantically Trying To Dump $7 Trillion Of Crap Assets — But No One Will Buy Them
…and still more rumors, although this one has a 99% chance of being true. Since the U.S. dollar still has the “world’s reserve currency,” the Fed will be asked to monetize EVERY bad corporate, municipal, mortgage, and Treasury bond possible. They will, of course, execute much of this monetization COVERTLY, but not all. “Operation Twist” remains alive and well, and each day the global economy sinks further into the morass, the more pressure will be put on them to increase OVERT monetization, such as the inevitable purchase of the $545 billion of mortgage bonds cited below, and eventually, QE3 – COUNT ON IT!
Dealers See Fed Buying $545B Mortgage Bonds
And remember, per the brilliant analogy of this article by GATA’s Rob Kirby, in the 100% manipulated world we live in (markets, media, politics), “black is white” and “white is black.” In the movie “Truman Show” with Jim Carrey, he was the only real person in his world, which is precisely how I feel sometimes.
Tom Foolery at Its Finest: The Truman Show Redux
In other words, all one needs to do to “make things better” is announce “ NEAR RECORD BLACK FRIDAY SALES.” I discussed Black Friday in Friday’s RANT, “THE EUREKA MOMENT,” proclaiming it one of America’s most vile traditions, which continues to make new lows in bad taste each year.
Yes, Black Friday sales were the SECOND HIGHEST EVER, so that MUST mean all’s well.
No matter that U.S. consumer debt and U-6 unemployment are at record highs, while the U.S. savings rate, at just above ZERO, is near a record low.
Or that inflation has contributed to increased retail sales.
Or that Black Friday sales have risen because, in recent years, retail chains have placed a far greater emphasis on Black Friday, in other words heavily front-end loading holiday sales with deep discounting that cuts into profits and reduces later season sales.
Or that many Americans are maxing out credit cards because they already KNOW they can never pay them off, and thus plan on defaulting, particularly those that have been granted temporary reprieves from mortgage payments because banks haven’t yet foreclosed (due to large backlogs, “robosigner” lawsuits, or a desire to avoid writedowns of impaired real estate assets, particularly during year-end bonus season).
Perhaps the single-best argument of how meaningless Black Friday sales are, or, alternatively, how ominous they can be, is that the BEST EVER BLACK FRIDAY occurred in…..drum-roll please…November 2008, when the stock markets had just collapsed by 40%, Lehman Brothers had just gone bankrupt, unemployment was exploding upwards, and GDP was in freefall.
Black Friday Shopping Like There Is No Tomorrow?
I’d say “nuff said,” but the only better way to describe what Black Friday has become in America is through this 48-second video, of savage animals fighting over $2 waffle irons at Walmart…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkywyGoQ2yU
OK, now that that’s off my chest, I see the “Black Friday effect” has brought in a dead-count bounce in the PPT-inspired Dow, which continues to rise while gold, which had been mercilessly mauled in the past week, somehow is stuck right at the top of its prescribed 2% daily appreciation gap. So we should get at least a day’s respite from market hell, as Goldman, JPM et al plot how to push the Dow up for another month so they can book “record bonuses” despite having LOST money for much of the year.
Oh well, since the GOVERNMENT ALGOs which make up the overwhelming majority of trading volume currently have PAPER gold and silver programmed as “risk assets,” we, too, will likely receive a respite from major attacks until the reality of GLOBAL FINANCIAL COLLAPSE II re-establishes itself, which can, and likely will, happen any day.
The topic of today’s RANT is TPTB’s URGENT PRIORITY to influence public PERCEPTION to believe “all’s well,” and consequently the DESPERATE measures they are taking to achieve that end. In a world where HOPE is quickly being crushed under the weight of trillions of debt, scarce jobs, and rising inflation, the ONLY remaining tool of TPTB is their ability to PRINT MONEY and INJECT IT into financial markets, which in turn inspires the puppet, Polyana media to report “things are improving.”
No one drives this point home as well as the venerable Richard Russell, at 87 still one of the top prognosticators in the market. I cannot be more critical of his silly, obsolete “Dow Theory” charts, but as to his recognition of “primary trends,” no one has done it better, and he has the current situation down pat today as well. In this short blog, he outright states that the fate of the near-term economy rests on PERCEPTION created by the Dow’s movement, particularly its ability to maintain the key, PSYCHOLOGICAL 10,000 point level.
With the Dow falling to the 10,800 level last week and clearly in danger of taking a quantum leap downward toward 10,000, there was no doubt that every possible manipulative trick would be utilized this week to prop it up, a la what we are seeing today. NOTHING the PPT has done in the past decade compares to what we have seen since GLOBAL MELTDOWN II commenced this summer, coincident with the most INTENSE attacks I have EVER seen the Cartel execute on PAPER gold and silver, such as what we have seen this Fall.
Richard Russell: Crumbling Debt to Crush Everything in its Path
On Friday, I watched one of the most heinous combinations of PPT support and Cartel suppression EVER, and consequently was inspired to write the third installment of “COMEX GOLD MANIPULATION PICTORIAL” this weekend, a 70-page opus depicting the minute detail of gold suppression operations from September 6th, 2011 (the commencement of “OPERATION PM ANNIHILATION”) through last Friday, November 25, 2011.
The first two editions, depicting DAILY manipulation operations from, cumulatively, July 2010 through June 2011, clearly demonstrate exactly how the Cartel works, and should be read utilizing the June 2011 RANTS, “CARTEL SECRETS REVEALED, PARTS I AND II,” as reference.
http://babybulltwits.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/ranting-andy-cartel-secrets-revealed/
http://babybulltwits.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/ranting-andy-cartel-secrets-revealed-part-ii/
The third edition, which I am presenting to you BELOW, confirms that the EXACT SAME manipulative tactics we have seen since over the past 18 months (particularly since “D-Day” on November 9th, 2010) are being used on a DAILY basis today, with such embarrassing predictability that even a second grader would understand.
Please use this document, together with the first two COMEX GOLD MANIPULATION PICTORIAL editions, to further EMPOWER yourself to move your hard-earned capital out of depreciating fiat currencies and into REAL MONEY, i.e. PHYSICAL gold and silver. When you finish reading, I am POSITIVE you will no longer possess the slightest shred of doubt that ALL major gold and silver declines are simply Cartel attempts to influence PERCEPTION by attacking the un-backed PAPER gold and silver markets, NOT “investor fear” resulting in the selling of REAL, PHYSICAL positions.
COMEX GOLD MANIPULATION PICTORIAL #3, FALL 2011 EDITION
PROTECT YOURSELF, and do it NOW!