Last Chance For France

Before I get started, I must recommend that this weekend, you listen to yesterday’s third installment of the Miles Franklin Silver All-Star Panel Webinar – hosted by myself, and featuring David Morgan, Steve St. Angelo, and Craig Hemke.  Nowhere on the internet – much less, for free – will you receive such vitally important information about the world’s most undervalued asset class.  And given the Cartel’s all-time high silver short position – amidst a veritable blizzard of potentially short-covering catalysts – there’s no better time to educate yourself of the TRUTH of silver’s historically tight physical market conditions; from, in my view, the industry’s most brilliant minds.  And if it convinces you to buy or store silver, we hope you’ll call Miles Franklin – in our 28th year of business, without a single registered complaint – and give us a chance to earn your business.

As for said undervaluation, what more do the powers need to prove that they are doing everything in their power to subvert reality via market manipulation?  To the point that historic bubbles – even when compared to 1929, 1999, and 2007; have been formed, that must inevitably collapse.

I mean, what part of unprecedented financial engineering and debt accumulation does a chart like this not get across – regarding just how close the world is to an unprecedented, fiat-currency-destroying disaster?

All Central banks are doing it – including the Chinese; who, since their “Eastern Point of No Return” realization two years ago, have been manipulating their own stock market – utilizing their self-described “national team” – with the same fervent regularity as the “President’s Working Group on Financial Markets” – i.e., the PPT – has in the U.S. since its establishment in 1987, just after Alan Greenspan was appointed Fed Chairman.  Who, I might add, yesterday espoused that not only are socialism and stagflation here to stay, but the Euro currency is destined to collapse.

However, NOWHERE is such manipulation more blatant than in Precious Metals.  Which, contrary to the relentless “barbarous relic” propaganda, are as vital to monetary stability today as they were 5,000 years ago.  To wit, the aforementioned, unprecedented silver short position – despite no visible crisis to justify it; and subsequently, the gargantuan, historically blatant efforts to protect it, that just happen to coincide with gold’s and silver’s attempts to not only exceed their 200 week moving averages for the first time in four years (of $1,246/oz and $18.14/oz, respectively); but the “downtrend line” created by 5½ years of price suppression since dollar-priced gold was viciously attacked after hitting its all-time high in September 2011; in gold’s case, at roughly $1,285/oz.

This week alone, we saw gold attacked viciously on Monday – after a three-day weekend featuring not only Friday’s horrifying retail sales report (which caused the Fed to lower its 1Q GDP “growth” estimate to a two-year low of 0.5%, and money markets to no longer discount a June rate hike); but a dramatic escalation of geopolitical tensions in North Korea.  As seen below, the Cartel attacked PMs at all “key attack times” – from the typical “Sunday Night Sentiment” capping at $1,295/oz; to the “2:15 AM” open of the London paper pre market; to the 8:20 AM COMEX opening; the 12:00 PM “cap of last resort”; and finally, the 2:00 PM “crybaby attack” time – when “Goldman Steve” Mnuchin was trotted out to say NOTHING incremental, as described in great detail in Tuesday’s Audioblog (scripted Monday night, out of sheer, unbridled anger).

Next, we had the back-to-back $3 billion “notional” paper gold dumps on Tuesday and Wednesday morning – as usual, just after the COMEX open, and just before the 10:00 AM EST London Fix; i.e., the #1 “key attack time” of the past two decades.  The former, as interest rates were hitting their post-Election Day lows; and the latter, as the dollar index was doing the same; in both cases, as gold dared challenge its aforementioned 5½ year “downtrend line” at roughly $1,285-$1,290/oz.

And last but not least, yesterday’s monstrosities; when, after gold was again “Cartel Heralded” at the “2:15 AM” London paper market open; as it again challenged its 5½ year downtrend line – whilst silver was given the same “business,” as it again breached its 200-week moving average; we again saw both “waterfall declined” just before the 10:00 AM London Fix; and again at the 12:00 PM “cap of last resort.”  No doubt, this afternoon’s COMEX “COT” report will be quite revealing; potentially, depicting an even larger silver short position than even last week’s all-time high level – which I assure you, will decidedly NOT make the Cartel feel “comfortable.”

And yet, after all that – as we head into this weekend, when the first round of France’s historic Presidential election is to be held – gold is again trading, as I write early Friday morning, right up against its 5½ year downtrend line; with silver just a hair’s breadth from again re-taking its 200-week moving average.  Not to mention, interest rates are still barely above their post-Election Day lows; whilst the dollar, despite the prospect of Marine Le Pen moving one step closer to a “BrExit times 100” victory that could utterly destroy the Euro, is still below the key psychological level of 100.  Throw in oil desperately clinging to the “oil PPT’s” year-long “line in the sand” at $50/bbl – this, after gargantuan efforts to convince markets that a “production cut” extension is likely next month – and you can see how the “Trump-flation” meme that was created as “cover” to attack Precious Metals, and support historically overvalued stocks, is rapidly dying.

As for the French election, I could of course be wrong regarding my staunch belief that Marine Le Pen will win; let alone, that April 23rd – i.e., Sunday – could represent a “turning point for the 99%.”  This, despite her “betting line” odds of roughly 27%, being roughly twice what the (equally rigged) betting lines were assuming the BrExit’s chance of passing were to be morning it was voted upon; and similarly, Donald Trump’s chances on Election Day morning.

However, after having been through the BrExit and U.S. Presidential election spin (and rigging) cycles; not to mention, 2015’s Greek “OXI” and Catalonian secession referendums – both of which, were “predicted” to fail, but dramatically succeeded –we’ve all learned the powers that be’s’ “playbook,” of doing everything in their power to convince voters that voting against the establishment is a “lost cause.”  In turn, voters have themselves realized how this “game” works; and that, no matter what efforts are undertaken, legal and illegal, to “influence” the result, the will of the people is still king.  At least, in first world cultures like Greece, Spain, the UK, and the U.S.  Frankly, the only such vote that was never in question was in Italy, where Matteo Renzi’s Constitutional Reform referendum was never truly considered – despite equally valiant propagandist efforts – likely to pass.  More on that soon, when Italian “snap elections” are inevitably announced, setting up the potential for the “ItaLeave”-supporting Five Star Movement to seize control.

When I turned on my computer this morning, the litany of PiMBEEB headlines was so powerful, and broad, it became more difficult to envision a Le Pen defeat than ever – let alone, at the hands of a second rate, universally despised, Johnny-Come-Lately likely Emmanuel Macron.  Most importantly, the worldwide stories of “99%” misery – in my view, caused by the horrific economic, social, and financial ramifications of history’s largest, most destructive fiat Ponzi scheme; which clearly, is amidst its malignant terminal stage.  Such as…

• America’s insomnia problem is even worse than before the Great Recession
• More 18-34 Americans now live with their parents than a spouse
• A quarter of millennial’s living at home neither work nor study
• Subprime Auto – the next “Big Short?”
• 40% of Spanish Children live in poverty
• Greeks need to start having babies again, or face financial oblivion
• All I have is hunger – Many Venezuelans too weak to protest, despite Maduro misery
• Retail sales data shows consumers cutting back on necessities of life
• Neiman Marcus finds even wealthy shoppers want better deals
• Trump says Paris terror attack “will have a big effect on the election,” as French police hunt second suspect

And most telling of all – as if Obama didn’t learn his lesson last year, when admonishing Brits to reject the BrExit or be put at the “back of the queue”…

• In apparent sign of support, Obama calls Macron days before the election

Again, I could be wrong – but it won’t be until May 7th when we know for sure.  Or perhaps Sunday night, although I’d guess the odds of Le Pen NOT making it through the first round – despite the French government overtly sabotaging her, by mailing two voting cards to the 500,000 expatriates most likely to vote against her – as slim to none.  To the contrary, I think such blatant rigging efforts will only embolden her armies of supporters further – and trust me, if the smoke clears Monday with Le Pen as one of the two remaining candidates, said armies will feel as strengthened as the steam engine in Back to the Future III, after Doc Brown supercharges it with rocket fuel.  And TRUST ME, if she does emerge as one of the top two candidates – which I strongly believe will be the case – the next two weeks will witness an equally supercharged level of market volatility, as market participants attempt to gauge where the roughly 50% of French votes that went to the losing candidates will be channeled on May 7th.  Which, given the aforementioned all-time high Cartel silver short position; as both gold and silver fight to not only win the “200 week moving average” and “5½ downtrend line” wars; could make for some historically “interesting” trading.

Either way, the near-term fate of the European Union; the “Troika” that must “bail out” Greece this summer; and the Euro currency itself lies in the balance.  And if France ignores its “last chance” for economic and cultural survival, the ramifications for one of history’s oldest, proudest nations will be catastrophic.