A loose collection of things for you to consider on this fine, Friday morning.
We might as well begin with the charts. Look, I know this stinks. It has now been nearly 14 months since silver briefly peaked at $49. Gold has been under attack since early September of last year. It's painful and it's no fun. In the grand scheme of things, it's also irrelevant. In fact, it's beneficial...at least if you've been using this time to increase your physical holdings. There's certainly a lot of angst and nervousness out there regarding future price. Whatever. I, for one, am getting bored with it all. I know (in general) what is going to happen and I know (in general) how this will ultimately play out. The timeline of getting from here to there is the only thing in question. Please remain patient and resolute. You are doing the right thing. Your physical metal is your only financial protection. Don't let the day-to-day machinations of The Bullion Bank Cartels dissuade you.
So, here are two charts. Gold is still simply contained in the same $100 range in which it has traded for the past 6 weeks. Big deal. Sheesh. A couple of downticks and the world is ending. All the AGAs come out and claim that $1300 is next. It's not. Silver is currently below $27 and out of its $27-29 range but, so what. Two weeks ago it was above $29 and out of the range, too. History would suggest that anything below $27 represents a wonderful buying opportunity, not a horrific panic opportunity. Keep your wits about you, please.
One of the themes I'm going to be pounding for the remainder of this year and beyond is the ultimate removal of the U.S. dollar as basis for international trade settlement. I laid out some of the details here: https://www.tfmetalsreport.com/blog/3866/dot-connecting. Well, ZH has posted this morning an excellent summation of all the recent headlines in this area. You should check it out. Again, I'm no genius. I'm simply paying attention. Even the late Jeff Healey could have seen this one coming from a mile away.
"When the US Dollar is ultimately dethroned as the world's reserve currency (and finally gets rid of all those ridiculous three letter post-Keynesian economic "theories") nobody will have seen it coming. Well, nobody except for the following headlines: ""World's Second (China) And Third Largest (Japan) Economies To Bypass Dollar, Engage In Direct Currency Trade", "China, Russia Drop Dollar In Bilateral Trade", "China And Iran To Bypass Dollar, Plan Oil Barter System", "India and Japan sign new $15bn currency swap agreement", "Iran, Russia Replace Dollar With Rial, Ruble in Trade, Fars Says", "India Joins Asian Dollar Exclusion Zone, Will Transact With Iran In Rupees."
And this is interesting. Our pal, Chris Powell of GATA was on CNBC Asia overnight and he was actually allowed to discuss gold manipulation. In the brief amount of time he was allotted, Chris did his usual fantastic job of laying out the rationale of why gold is manipulated and by whom.
https://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000097894&play=1
And, lastly, this is fun. Yours truly was interviewed last evening by Rahul at https://www.altinvestors.com/. It's only about 15 minutes long but we covered a number of topics. I hope you find it helpful and interesting.
Well, that's it for now. The CoTs today probably won't be very exciting but I'll update you with my opinions later, regardless. Have a great day and a relaxing weekend.
TF
