Dollar Index Below 80 And Pm's Down?

Also consider the manipulation by the big banks with contracts on the COMEX.

one word = manipulation

Yes good observation, many of you have noticed this. I see this sort of thing all the time myself.

It is clear, the market is sending a message regarding PMs- lower prices are coming. Markets are always forward looking and repricing assets...in this case, I feel the market is discounting the need for PMs going forward and that prices need to be discounted for now to measure up to the current economic conditions.

Yes I know, sounds wild and doesn't make sense. But the fact is money is flowing to the stock market and diffrent sectors and so it appears money is rotating out for the time being out of PMs and into other assets.

IMHO it appears gold and silver are slowly grinding lower and therefore there will be some good buying opportunities as time goes on.

As I have said in many posts, as you see the price tumble, dont blow your whole wad of cash, but nibble because longer term I think the PMs are showing weakness...... the clue to me that lower prices are around the corner is the the negative reaction PMs had with the recent Fed statement, nothing but selling.

I look forward to lower prices because I would like to get back into collecting Pandas and buy a whole sheet at a time :D

Per John Williams of Shadow Stats dot com, inflation in the US as of November was 9.4%. This is calculated via the US Gov's own method prior to 1995 when they stopped counting food and fuel in the CPI. This does not seem particularly low to me.

Of course, a lot of the money that Uncle Ben is printing is going to the banks in exchange for their near-worthless "investments" at full value and not real value and the banks then turn around and buy US Treasury paper with the money. The banks get rid of the glop that is pulling down their financial status plus a bit of interest with almost no effort on their part, the Fed congratulates itself again for "shoring up the banks" and doing a wonderful job of it, and the US Gov gets more money to squander that future Govs and citizens will have to deal with. What about today's citizens, you ask? Well, they get hosed... as usual.

Works both ways, Hock, as we seem to be on the same page almost all the time.



Ah, I see what you are saying now. Yeah, a lot of the money that is out there is not circulating. Last I read, about $8T are sitting on the investing sidelines. If that money were to go into investments other than money markets, we would see quite a market surge. Likewise, if it were to go into the economy via buying things, inflation would take a big jump upwards.



Agreed but for a different reason. I have been watching the effects of these QE programs and it looks to me as if the market response to QE is becoming less with each subsequent program. There seems to be a diminishing returns effect at work in this, so it is only a matter of time before a new QE is announced that has virtually no effect whatever. If the Fed is silly enough to push QE that far, they will very likely regret it.



Even for those of us who have not been frequenting the restaurants lately due to many holiday meals at home, for example, the prices in the grocery stores are telling the tale as well. My wife and I are pretty good about shopping the sales and using coupons but even with that we are seeing a substantial rise in the prices of many food items. She thought that I was just being weird when I insisted on buying $1500 worth of groceries at Costco last spring. Part of this was for our emergency larder stash but a lot of it was due to an expectation for higher food prices because of the lousy growing season in 2012. Pancake syrup, flour, sugar, honey, beans, rice, and anything containing corn or wheat are up significantly over what they were last spring. The same is true for meat, which is why we bought about 300 lbs of various meats for the freezer towards the end of summer. Farmers and ranchers have thinned their herds and flocks because feeding them costs so much now.

Not to worry, though, because I am sure that Uncle Ben will be spinning the tale of 3% inflation for 2013, while the real number rises past 10%.

Deflation is a boogeyman that cannot be found. IMO, the deflation that some claim exists is nothing more than the air coming out of multiple bubbles that have been created via incompetent Fed and Gov policies. The fact is, air SHOULD come out of bubbles... slowly, if possible, so as to avoid any loud BANG! sounds. Note that those who think that deflation is a problem virtually always underestimate the amount of and problems caused by inflation.

Deflation is harmful to sellers of goods but not to buyers of goods. A deflation scenario to those who have money is nothing more than a great buying opportunity that just gets better and better. Yes, there will be long-term complications but we're in for some of those anyway, thanks to the artificially low interest rates that we now have had for far too long.

My grand parents once told me that they could get anything they wanted during the Great Depression IF they had money, so there was no shortage of goods. Problem was, money was scarce and few had much of it.

Agreed, Hock, and it is this continuous messing with the economy that is preventing the best features of capitalism from working as they should. Excesses NEED to be squeezed out of the economy but are not thanks to all this meddling. Instead, they are being papered over which does not remove them. In fact, it actually encourages more of them to form. If this meddling does not cease, this whole thing will end VERY badly. Of course, those of us who have real money will do much better during an economic collapse than those who do not. It will still be a rotten time for our nation; perhaps even worse than the 1930s.