Goldman posted a $2.2 billion first quarter profit on Tuesday, though, so they continue to laugh all the way to...themselves, I suppose. The attack on gold appears to be a coordinated raid that began with the dumping of 500 tons of naked shorts on the markets on Friday. Bob Rinear reports on Boston: I was sickened by what I saw. An unattended bomb left in an area where completely innocent folks will be maimed and killed is the ultimate in coward maneuvers.
The fallout from the recent turmoil in the precious metals markets continues to rock markets. The data on the carnage that tore through gold prices Monday is still coming in and it's staggering. The 20-year 5-day rolling average indicates that the 15% plunge in gold was a 7 sigma drop, i.e. an event rare enough that it indicates something very strange is happening under the surface. So far, there is a lot of finger-pointing.
Goldman is blaming it all on the recent news that Cyprus is being forced to liquidate much of their gold holdings to cover their still-expanding bailout. Of course, this is the same Goldman that more than covered their $1450 short position from last week but refuses to close it out, instead lowering their target to $1400. Goldman posted a $2.2 billion 1st quarter profit on Tuesday, though, so they continue to laugh all the way to...themselves, I suppose.
Citigroup, meanwhile, is positing that the gold plunge “may” be related to “some break in technical levels” and a growing appetite for risk, which hardly sounds like an evidence-based analysis. And any number of establishment hacks are opining that this represents the bursting of the goldbugs' “bubble” and the final victory of Ben Bernanke and the QE-Infinity printing press gang.
The truth is likely a much darker story. The attack on gold appears to be a coordinated raid that began with the dumping of 500 tons of naked shorts on the markets on Friday. The huge short positions were fed into the market in intervals to maximize its impact, first sending gold prices down to technical support levels and then with a further flood of shorts to drive it down and kick in the algorithmic sellers. The initial dumping of 100 tons of future contracts at market opening was rumoured to have been routed through Merrill Lynch's floor team and source back to a single entity. According to Andrew Maguire (the whistleblower who shot to fame in 2010 after correctly predicting a JP Morgan-led raid on the silver market in February of that year) says that the trades source back to agents of the Federal Reserve. Given that the Fed gang has the most to gain from a takedown of precious metals (thus continuing to prop up the illusion of dollar strength), this explanation rings true, although more facts need to come out.
The precious metal raid seemed to have a knock-on effect on other commodities, especially Brent Crude which is now flirting with the $100 level. The lower support level for gold also impacts gold miners, who are now flirting with the $1300 threshold where the cost of mining starts to overtake potential profits.
As of press time on Tuesday, prices are once again rising towards $1400 once again as investors flood back in to buy the dip. If the events of the past few days have demonstrated anything, though, it is the extent of the disconnect between the paper and physical markets. Even as investors scramble to get out of gold ETFs, reports are flooding in from bullion and jewelry dealers from across the globe of record buying as individuals see the new low as a bargain price. They aren't the only ones either; the likes of Bill Gross, Marc Faber and John Hathaway are contending that this really is a buying opportunity and although we may not have hit the new bottom yet, the market will be on the way back up shortly. As Faber puts it: “The bull market in gold is not completed.”
Who Did It?
By Bob Rinear
There's no one alive in the US that doesn't know that on Monday afternoon two bombs went off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. While not the gigantic explosions that can take down buildings like we saw with Timothy McVeigh, the damage psychologically was just as effective. When you go to a sporting event, the last thing on your mind is that you're going to hear a boom and then see parts of your body being torn off. So, when someone pulls this off, it leaves that imprint on everyone's mind and it makes going to large group events ever more "anxious". That is exactly what a "terror" event is supposed to do, impart terror into your mind. Make you fear. Break you from the inside.
Now first off let me express this so you don't think I'm a monster of sorts. I was sickened by what I saw. An unattended bomb left in an area where completely innocent folks will be maimed and killed is the ultimate in coward maneuvers. You have to be an incredibly sick individual if you get your kicks, or if you want to "send your message" to people by killing innocents. I have a special place in my head for folks like that, and it is only by the grace of God that I don't get to them first. So the act was despicable, and my prayers go out to the folks and families that have had their lives torn apart by this.
Once you get past the deranged lunacy of the act and the pain and horror of the victims, then you have to look at the who, what and why of it all. As of my writing of this on Tuesday morning/afternoon, no one has come forward to claim responsibility for it. But I want to make a few observations, and then of course make a couple comments. Observation one is that it took less than 2 hours for someone on the news media to start mentioning things like "maybe this is the act of a patriot making his case against Government". and "right wing extremist groups often get worked up around April 15th because that is when taxes to fund the Government are due". Well folks, I do not possess the literary expertise to explain in writing how abjectly putrid those statements are to me. In my mind Patriots do NOT kill innocent women and children with anonymous bombs. In my mind right wing extremists want to push their political agenda. In my mind "Murdering scumbags with no backbone, and no conscience" did this. So using an event like this to try and push your particular political agenda is pretty low in my mind.
Now, the main stream media is already hoping and praying they find some Republican gun owning "nut" that they can showcase as the whole reason that more and more folks should just turn in their guns and believe the state will protect them. But that isn't the point that is important to me. Again, whomever did this, whether a foreign terrorist, a homegrown nut that needs a lobotomy or some twisted mind in our own Government as they use the terror to increase domestic police spending, that still isn't the bottom line. The bottom line is that what just happened proves to you that it isn't "guns" that are a problem. AR 15's didn't injure those people. Some form of homemade bomb did. And that bomb couldn't have been built unless a human being got the parts, put them together and then placed them with their timers or cell phone receivers.
The bomb didn't do it. A deranged person did. The guns don't do it. Deranged people do. Are you getting the drift here folks? Just last week a nut stabbed and hacked up 13 people with an xacto knife. That knife didn't do a thing. The person wielding it did it. This is exactly why I get so upset when people that might not understand that their push to "do something" in the long run ends up being the wrong thing to do. Take the parents of the kids in Newtown Connecticut. If a gun has killed your child then yes your first reaction is to say "get rid of the guns”. It is a normal reaction, I understand it. But the gun didn't do it. The deranged mind did it. Flip this around and it would be a different story. Doesn't anyone find it odd that when you are facing a criminal with a gun, you call a policeman with a gun to fix it?? If those teachers had been allowed to be armed; that attack wouldn't have been attempted. If somehow it was, the effects would have been much less damaging. I wish those that were affected could step back from their emotions and understand the big picture. Wayne LaPierre was correct. The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is to call good guys with guns. We've been doing it for 100+ years.
We need to fix people. You can take away the guns and they'll use bombs. Take away the bombs and they'll use box cutters, bats, hammers etc. Look at the drug problem we have here in the states. On every corner of every town you'll find a church. A couple blocks away you'll find a drug outreach. Despite drugs being illegal, they permeate every square inch of our country. Drug use is NOT down as the politicians would have you believe, it is just better hidden. In the 60's folks smoked their pot in the open. In the 80's they snorted their coke in the club bathroom. In the 90's it all went underground, but they became even more willing to experiment. People snort everything from bath salts to kitchen cleansers. Can I ask a question? How "off" does your mind need to be to find yourself snorting household cleansers? Is there maybe a problem here?? Why do people think they need to inject bath salts to enjoy life? Has life been reduced to such a low form that sucking drano up your nose feels better?
The bombing was horrible and I hope that whomever pulled it off is caught and roasted slowly. I have no compassion, no turn the other cheek, none of that. But once again we will hear about the bombs, the guns, the agendas, the politics, ect etc etc... and nothing about the mind of a person that is ready and willing to do such a thing. This world is chock full of very evil people, people that for what ever reason lack the ability to reason compassion, humanity, love, or any other emotion we need to reign in. They're sick from the deepest depths of their mind.
Now here's the question. It won't go over well with an awful lot of you, but I have to ask it. Where did we go wrong? Have we not had 2000 years of Christianity? We have, yet it hasn't solved the problems. Haven't we had the same or more years of Islam? We have, but it hasn't fixed things. Haven't we had every manner of Government from dictator to communism, to socialism to republic? We have. It didn't solve the problem.People die in China, Japan, Russia, the US, you name it. All for worthless reasons. We've had centuries to learn how to live comfortably and peacefully with each other. Here it is thousands of years later and all we do is build more nuclear bombs, wage more wars, kill more neighbors, take more drugs, kill more kids. We're missing something folks, something big.
The reason I'm such a staunch and vocal supporter of all "SANE law abiding" citizens being able to carry a concealed weapon is because of "all the above". We're in a sick sick world full of people that have lost decency. More and more people are acting like feral animals instead of God's highest creatures. As a global society we're "devolving" into creatures instead of aspiring to be better humans. Well, I can't protect myself against the scumball that plants a bomb in a trash can at my kids graduation. But I want the ability to protect myself and my family from the nut with a box cutter, the insane "baseball fan" with a bat, the road rage lunatic with a crowbar, etc. If I can identify the threat, at least give me the tools to equalize it.
The bombing was horrible. I want the folks involved to pay the price for it. But my hope is that the incident isn't used to increase the police state we already live in. I can't forget the fact the Dept of Homeland defense has ordered 2 billion bullets. I can't forget the fact they have armored carriers. I can't ignore the fact that the military has been more and more involved in police actions. Frankly, I don't want to live in a Country so bound in fear that we are willing to give up our supposed freedoms for some perceived safety of the Government. Government didn't stop that bomb. Government won't bring those 3 people that died back, nor give new legs to the amputees. Government cannot keep you safe no matter what propaganda they shovel at you.
Stay aware.