One would be forgiven for thinking that watching today's markets and, even more to the point, reading the mainstream economic and financial commentary and analysis which purports to "interpret" today's markets would be a thankless task. It certainly can be, but there are compensations. One of these is the frequent paroxyms of laughter which afflict your humble scribe when he reads some of the stuff.
Here's a small sample, one amongst VERY many. It is in regard to the Consumer Price Index data released on June 15: "Wall Street chose to focus on the lower-than-expected core reading, believing the Federal Reserve will be happy such underlying inflation pressures are beginning to ease and will leave interest rates alone at their meetings for the rest of the year.
The CPI reading for May was 0.7 percent, the biggest in 20 months. The "core" reading (minus food and energy costs) was 0.1 percent. The story was similar for the PPI released earlier in the week. The reading was 0.9 percent, but the "core" reading was 0.2 percent.
Isn't it wonderful what Wall Street chooses to "focus on"? Is it not wondrous that ANYBODY takes them seriously anymore?
Anybody who lives in the US, or anywhere else in the world, knows only too well what is happening to prices and to their cost of living. They know that a claim that prices are rising at a 0.1 percent rate goes well beyond the farcical into the realms of the perversely absurd. The only thing that an announcement of a 0.1 percent US consumer price "index" deserves is a gargantuan raspberry blown by 300 million people followed by a collective belly laugh which by its volume would startle intelligent life residing on planets circling distant stars.
For a picture of what is going on in the REAL US economy, and is starting to be replicated in many other places around the world, a good start is to take a look at a link which appeared today on USAGold. The link is to a page which shows a long series of pictures taken of the city of Gary, Indiana in the middle of a business day. Here it is (warning - bandwidth intensive)
What we are looking at here is a modern "ghost town". A place whose very life has been leeched (sic) away by the manipulation of "financial assets" (read debt paper) of all descriptions which is what is now claimed to be what makes an economy "strong". This is what happens to any nation which aspires to an "elastic currency" when the stretch reaches its limits and the mechanism snaps. It hasn't snapped on Wall Street yet, but it IS snapping for more and more people in more and more places in the US and across the West.
To go back to the quote on the latest US CPI report (see above). Wall Street believes that the Fed will be happy with the "core" reading. Of course the Fed will be "happy" with it. The Fed is a creature of the US government, just as much as are the US Treasury and the US Department of Commerce from which issue the statistical prestidigitations which result in these blatant fabrications. The majority of Americans, according to polls taken over the past six months, now "believe" that the US Government deceived them into supporting the attack and occupation of Iraq. How long will it take until the simple connection is made. If they were deceived there, how much greater and more long-lasting has been the deception regarding the economy in which they all live and work?
When the Fed and its partners in economic "oversight" were NOT "happy" with the (M-3) money supply numbers which their own formulas were spitting out, they cut the "gordian knot" and stopped reporting them. When these same august bodies are dealing with an economic statistic that they don't dare stop reporting, they resort to changing the method of calculation in order to get a result they are "happy" with. This is so blatantly obvious that it is ultimately hilarious to see so many hanging so breathlessly on each new number and taking it so seriously.
A well-honed sense of the ridiculous is a very helpful thing to have. There is a great and most understandable tendency to choke with indignation in the face of what is going on at present. It is counter-productive. The best reaction to all chartlatans is a combination of derisory laughter and dismissive contempt.
If it makes no sense - IT'S NONSENSE! Nonsense should never be taken seriously. What SHOULD be taken seriously is the absolutely inevitable consequences of the nonsense, such as the pictures of a ghost town standing where once was a city. "Put not your faith in Princes". That was the adage back in feudal times. Its revival is long overdue, and thanks to the internet in large part, that is happening slowly but surely.
The "powers that be" - wherever they happen to be - have no choice but to perpetuate for as long as they can the fictions which are bandied about as "news" every day in mainstream economic and financial "analysis". To do otherwise would be to be tipped onto the slippery slope at the bottom of which lies the end of their political power. Their are two core weapons in their arsenal. One is to overwhelm the populace with noise and numbers all claiming that there is nothing amiss. The other is to cut off all the exits.
Gold is public enemy number one to all economic manipulators of any hue for one very simple reason. It is the exit from their system. It provides an ALTERNATIVE to having all one's eggs in the establishment basket. And it cannot be manipulated in any way, shape or form. The ownership of Gold is that VITAL first step towards being able to wake up in the morning, turn to the overnight financial/economic "news", and clear one's palate for breakfast with a good old fashioned belly laugh.
Given the absurdity of what we are seeing around us every day, a well honed sense of the ridiculous is a very desirable thing to have. Grab some Gold or grab some more. It's an essential step towards peace of mind - and without that - nobody laughs.
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