Durn! What in the world is wrong with me? Why can't I get with the 21st century? What can't I look at the news of markets hanging on Janet Yellum's next words at the meeting of Our Masters at (the appropriately- named) Jackson Hole & not feel that same warm enthusiasm that Winston Smith felt looking at Big Brother on the Telescreen? Why doesn't my heart melt with gratitude and why don't thankful tears run down my cheeks? Why do I continue in my stubborn, self-willed exile from the love of Big Brother? I reckon because it's all too durned silly, and I'm too much of a hick to recognize Our Masters, let alone respect them. Besides, if they really were Masters of The Universe, as they were touted, wouldn't they look better & smarter than Janet Yellum & all the rest? But look here at me! I hardly know how to scrape a hog, & here I am knocking my betters. I ought to be ashamed (but I ain't). Stock market's on another tear. Dow rose 80.85 (0.48%) to 16,919.59 while the S&P added9.86 (0.5%) to 1,981.60. It's the best of all possible worlds. Apparently these indices aim to put in a double top somewhere near or slightly above where they've been before. Dow today closed barely above that uptrend line from the March 2009 low. Recall it had fallen through that back at July's farewell. Stock strength and metal weakness today sent the Dow in Gold & Dow in silver soaring. Dow in silver rose 1.36% to 871.92 oz (S$1,127.33 silver dollars) & if it doesn't reverse soon will make a double top with the 1 June high at 892.99 (S$1,154.57). Rapidly approaching overbought on the RSI & full stochastic. Dow in Gold ended the day higher by 0.65%$ at 13.05 oz (G$269.77 gold dollars). This corrects a little over 50% of the fall from 9 June to 7 August, so this chart looks altogether different to the Dow in Silver. The 61.8% correction level is above at 13.12 oz. Buy the news, sell the rumor. We'll have to put up with this I reckon until Yellum speaks on Friday and nothing comes out of her mouth but hot air. Till then I just have to grin like a jackass eating sawbriars and bear it. Another thing not helping gold is the US dollar. It rose 31 basis points (0.38%) today to 81.93, finally breaking free of that consolidation either side of 81.50. Target is 82.75 at least. Euro today broke down from an even-sided triangle to make a new low for the move at $1.3321 (down 0.32%). Looks like the fun's just beginning for the Euro. Yen lost 0.33% to 97.18 & looks hopeless. Bond & note prices have been rising, anticipating that Big Mother will be announce low interest rates long into the future. We are now watching interest rates retrace the upward progress they made during 2013. Shoot, maybe the law of gravity is all wrong. Maybe it ain't no law a-tall. Maybe Our Masters really are alchemists who can turn paper into gold. Silver dropped 21.3 cents (0.56%) to 1938.7 cents today. Comex gold dropped $2.60 (0.52%) to $1,295.10. Nothing hit gold really hard. About 8:30 the US dollar, wino of fiat currencies, began to rise and about the same time gold began to fall. It began the day poking as high as $1,303.70, but dropped and dropped until 1:00 p.m, down to $1,294.70. Closed a bare 40 cents above the low. Well, it didn't close below $1,295, but it's only a hair above the uptrend line from the June low. Should gold break that line it would drop toward the uptrend line from the December low, which tomorrow stands at $1,270. Reversing upward requires a gold close above $1,325. Silver barely crossed under that downtrend from the August 2013 high today, not really enough to call it a breakdown. Just below about 1925c stands lateral support, and beneath that 1860c. Stepping back from the chart, the last 14 months seem to paint a bottom on both silver & gold, but the next couple of days could be as much fun as a self-directed tooth extraction with wire pliers and a hammer. On this day in 43 B.C. Octavian (Caesar), later known as Augustus, compelled the Roman Senate to elect him consul. In other words, he offered the Senate the same choice we have between Democrats & Republicans. On 19 August 1692 five more people were hanged for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. The total reached 20 in all. On 19 August 1839 the details of Louis Daguerre's first practical photographic process are released in Paris. The fundamentally same silver halide process is used today, and only in the last 10 years has begun to yield to electronic photography. When my friend Thomas Moore published his book, The Hunt for Confederate Gold, in 2005, I ate it alive. It's a mystery, thriller, and love story rolled into one, but most of all it is intelligent. It dramatizes the crises of runaway government, rogue federal agencies, the cult of political correctness, and the danger of a currency backed by nothing but the empty promises of a state. But don't think "dreary political sermon," because it's nothing like that. Passionate, suspenseful, filled with the pull of human loyalties, Hunt for Confederate Gold will bring tears to you eyes. I have fussed at Tom for years for letting the $30 hard copy go out of print, and now he is making it available in electronic format for $4.99. You can find the ePub, Mobi, & Pdf versions at Abbott Press, http://bit.ly/1qnk6ym. Kindle is available at Amazon, http://amzn.to/XyzgtM It's one of the best books you'll read this decade.
Argentum et aurum comparanda sunt —
Silver and gold must be bought.
— Franklin Sanders, The Moneychanger
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