What’s up with SLV?

I have written about money and perhaps even a bit about precious metals manipulation here before (check in the “economics” section), but I just saw something worthy of note, I think, as I also saw it yesterday, but was unable to capture the evidence.

Today, I caught it before it disappeared. First, whether you already believe it or not, in the spirit of any good audience, please willingly suspend disbelief, and humour me in my thinking that the precious metals markets are so heavily unbalanced and manipulated that it is almost silly to still keep calling them “markets” at all.  It is more like a show being put on to keep the unsuspecting entertained, but more importantly, afraid of buying real metal. Some people might have the secret-decoder 3-D glasses, though, and I will here try to share my dim spectacles with you.

Below is a screen-shot of a TD “Active Trader” streaming quote and trading platform, and in the top right is a 1-minute (per “candlestick”) chart of the SLV ETF taken this morning, February 2 2011. Focus on the “inverted hammer” with the giant white “shadow” poking up to $27.82 that occurs at about 12:32 pm, at the very right of the chart, which occurred during a single minute with a share volume of over 220 thousand shares traded. It means that at least one of those shares traded hands at $27.82, or about a 30-cent premium over the current “market price” (click to enlarge).

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The visualization of progress

Here is a fascinating view of the last two hundred years of global economic activity.  As Dennis Gartman might say, we do indeed seem to be moving from the bottom left to the top right, from poor and unhealthy towards rich and healthy.  Whither the next step?

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Chinese fortunes, cookie!

Christy and I try to stay apprised of world events and developments, but we may not always read the same stuff. I had bumped into the following document by HSBC (the division that isn’t kiting gold on the LBMA;-) at zerohedge and found it interesting, and different than my ill-informed impression gleaned from miscellany.

This document, though lengthy, paints a China that is less centrally-controlled than we might from the outside believe.   True, if you want to get any power you still need to climb the communist party ladder, but the degree of autonomy “granted” to (assumed by?) provinces and larger cities is greater than I would ever have suspected.   There also appears to be more diversity and specialization within the country from a politico-economic perspective than I had imagined.  The half-empty bullet trains I expected.

It seems like China has embraced the “growth is good” story from the west in a bear-hug, and given the way incentives are working within their system, it is unlikely the pedal will come off the metal any time soon. Especially if no-one listens to Beijing. Should we expect the end-game there to turn out any differently than it did for “us”?

Long but informative, enjoy.

A Guide to China’s Regions, Provinces and Cities

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Nigel Farage strikes again!

This guy knows how to spout truth about the EU!  I couldn’t agree more about the poor Irish, who have been suckered by the bankers.  If they, like Iceland, defaulted and restructured around a new Irish currency instead of lining up at the EU trough, they (and everyone else!) would be much better off.

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Let’s get physical!

Having seen that cute animation about “the quantitative easing”, I just had to give it a shot.  So I went to XtraNormal.com, signed up, and the content grew out of the limited selection of settings and characters I could use for free, and it morphed into a Max Keiser video. I think Max Keiser’s idea to crash JP Morgan by buying silver is hilarious, and I am in.  Everyone, give someone a silver coin for Christmas!  If it is to hell in a handbasket we go, we might as well have some fun along the way.  Over to Queenie and Tex…

The scary thing, of course, despite my trying to make fun of it all, is that it is all true. The west is imploding, the east won’t, can’t and should feel no obligation to save us, and it sure feels to me that the end of at least some stuff is nigh, despite myriad failed similar prophecies.  Step one is to stabilize money.   So put some physical precious metal (ie real money) under the mattress!  Our central banks are having a fire sale, and it would be a shame if it was in their vault instead of your basement when the implosion occurs.

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Some inconvenient truths – Hot tempers at EU hot air

I bumped into this at zerohedge.com and have to share.  Nigel Farage, British MP and leader of the UK Independence Party, tells it like it is to the bozos who just don’t get it at the EU.  I have spent a bit of this slow trading day (US is closed for Thanksgiving) surfing Euro-news.  It is getting ugly over there, folks.  I feel like the mood is swinging, and people will no longer put up with the deceit, disinformation, and the devaluing of their lives in favour of the political elites and in particular the bankers.  The people now know, or at least are now finding out, that the massive debts that their governments incurred in bailing out the banks will be theirs to pay, and they are tired of it.  I can only watch so many videos of demonstrations and clashes with police before I am full, and I don’t want to re-post them all here, it is too depressing, but this one rant is worth it.

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The American Experiment in Government

I have been watching an excellent set of interviews on a website called Uncommon Knowledge, conducted by Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institute at Stanford University.  Focussing on economics and current world affairs, the quality of the interviewees is astonishing.  From Thomas Sowell to the very interesting Prince Hans-Adam II, who has reigned in Liechtenstein since 1989, the conversations range through time from the Romans to present day, and cover the planet, from China to the Middle East to North America.  They discuss forms of government, policy, war and jurisprudence.  I highly recommend watching these.  Each interview is about 30 minutes long, and well worth the time. Here is an interview with economist Gary Becker, to whet your appetite:

Uncommon Knowledge can be found at http://www.hoover.org/multimedia/uncommon-knowledge

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The new Brazilia: It’s in Mongolia!

There is a “consensus opinion” – if that term still has any validity post-ClimateGate – that the booming Chinese economy is going to pull the world out of the second dip in our current global economic maelstrom.  One scoop or two? Just one, please, sheh-sheh.

But for China to boom, they must be doing sensible things, economically speaking.  Are they?  Take a look at the images Time magazine shows us of Ordos.  I had a Brazilian once joke to me about his own country: “Brazil.  The country of the future.  And it always will be!”

Ordos, the Chinese city of the future.  Caveat emptor.

The full story can be found here.  The full image gallery can be found here.

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Crash JP Morgan, buy silver: The first google-bombing

Max Keiser offers up a very different world view than you’ll get on any of the major media.  So does Alex Jones at InfoWars (!).  The combination has recently proven explosive.  A quick googling just now for the exact phrase “crash jp morgan buy silver” produced 266,000 hits.   The variant “buy silver crash jp morgan” returns just 3930 [ed: Nov 24 google hit update – 330,000/20,400].  Try it when you read this to see if the numbers are growing or shrinking.  This video should explain what is happening.  Basically, a new viral mechanism has just been spawned on the ‘net.  Watch the videos (even if you think Alex Jones is a kook), then I will follow up by explaining why this is happening, and what it means.  Shorting JP Morgan might be a good idea around now…

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What a Beautiful Day

It is a gorgeous day today in Ottawa. When I came out the door to walk the dog there was a cardinal on my frozen(!) birdbath. I love feeding the birds (my birds, I often think), despite the squirrels and those nominal birds, the pigeons. I inherited my birdbath from my parents’ house in Toronto, and it reminds me fondly of my father. It is made of cement, and has a squirrel climbing the base. It came from a peculiar cement casting shop in Fesserton, Ontario, a small town on the way to our cottage on Georgian Bay. My father and mother bought all sorts of stone creatures from this shop and they festooned their “funny farm” near Fesserton with them, a strange property they bought on a whim as it saved us when the weather or the nightfall prevented our getting to the cottage by boat. Now they festoon our house in Ottawa, and having caught the bug, we also have two large lions guarding our front porch bought from the same shop.

Here is a picture I took a while back of some Raspberry Finches enjoying the bath.

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