Gold Inches Toward $1,800…

April 21, 2021

* Currencies give back some gains on Tuesday & overnight

* Chuck to talk at the Money Show once again! 

Good day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! Well, it was April 20th, and if you looked outside yesterday, you saw snow falling and accumulating on tree limbs and tables… not on the streets though, as they’ve been warmed for over a month now… Strange sight, for sure!  Well, my primary doc was quite pleased with me yesterday… He told me I should celebrate my weight loss, and I said, “but then I would gain it back!” He laughed…  and I said, “ you don’t know how much I love to celebrate things”!  Well, my beloved Cardinals won Monday night, scoring 11 runs, with 4 home runs, and then they struggled to score 2 the next day and lose… UGH! Tyrone Davis greets me this morning with his song: Can I Change My Mind…  Los Lobos did a remake of this song, but nothing beats the original!

Well… guess what? My oncologist called yesterday, and said she needed to change my visit date from this week to next Monday… That means this won’t be THAT short, of a week for Pfennigs! You’re stuck with me for this Tub Thumpin’ Thursday, and that’s that! HA!

When I left you Monday morning, the currencies were forcing the dollar bugs back into the wall boards, and everything looked to be going in the right direction… The dollar was down, currencies and metals were up, the price of Oil was up, and Treasuries yields were down…  And the rest of the day on Monday pretty much played out the same way as it started, with only Gold & silver seeing major price manipulation to end up down on the day.

All the major bullion dealers were present and accounted for at the COMEX window with their respective arms filled with short Gold & Silver paper trades… This was a major effort to stem the price rise of Gold & Silver and it worked, but for only one day, as Gold & Silver rebounded on Tuesday…

On Tuesday, the currencies were still pushing the dollar bugs around most of the day, with the Dollar Index falling to 91.01 at one point, but when you least expect them to show up, they do… The Plunge Protection Team (PPT), that is…  And the Dollar Index rallied to end yesterday at 91.19…  But as I just said, Gold & Silver rallied, with Gold up $7.80 to close at $1,779.80, and Silver up one penny on the day to close at $25.92… After all those short paper trades on Monday, Gold was right back to where it began Monday at $1,779…  I’m just saying…

In the overnight markets… the PPT has made sure that there was more dollar buying, and the Dollar Index has risen to 91.42, with the euro falling to just above 1.20, and the Aussie dollar (A$) losing about 1/2-cent in the overnight trading.. Not all the currencies are losing ground this morning, currencies like the renminbi, real, and krone are still holding to their gains VS the dollar, and adding to them. 

Gold & Silver are up again in the early trading today… Gold is up $6.30, and Silver is up 4-cents…  As Gold creeps toward $1,800 again, one has to wonder when an engineered takedown will occur?  Maybe it will, maybe it won’t… You see, in my opinion, the Cartel heads have to be wanting Gold to rise, as it would fuel inflation fears, and getting inflation to really move does depend on consumer feelings… If they fear rising inflation they will go out and spend now before inflation eats away their buying power, and this will beget even higher inflation rates.. 

So, each time the price manipulators do one of their engineered takedowns of Gold, I can imagine the Cartel heads, banging their respective heads against a wall, and saying, “We told them to lay off these takedowns, why won’t they listen?” 

It’s really a shame that the price manipulators won’t listen… I wish we could get them to listen the same way my dad would get me and my sisters to settle down…  He would walk into the room, and hang his belt on the door knob… That would do the trick!  So… A memo to the Cartel heads, hang a belt on the door knob, and see if they listen then…  

I was going over things I want to talk about for Tomorrow’s virtual Money Show Panel that I will be participating in…  The thing I want to be careful of is not stepping on anyone’s toes… Omar Ayales, for instance is a Gold guru, and has been for many years, so I don’t want to dive into something he might want to talk about.. Pamela Aden is an asset chartist, and I don’t want to go there either…  I need to “stay in my lane”… Hopefully you’ll be able to log onto the show, and hear what I have to say!

The panel is only supposed to last 45 minutes, with 10 minutes at the end for Q&A…  So, I don’t see how I’ll be able to talk much, but… you know me, I’ll get my thoughts across! 

OK… back to the markets…  I was reading the 5 Minute Forecast by Dave Gonigam at Agora yesterday, and he printed something that I’ve talked about before, but this has more defined lines for us, and it refers to the crazy times we live in where things are being priced at outrageous levels for things that nobody needs… This is called the “mania Phase”…  I plan to talk about this tomorrow on the panel, so there’s your teaser…

On Monday’s FWIW I had an article on China allowing Gold imports again, and how much they these Gold Imports were rising… And then yesterday, the folks at GATA sent me a note telling me that Gold Imports in India are up 23% in the last year.. That’s investors looking to buy and own Gold at cheaper prices before it heads higher…

Yesterday, after returning home from the doctor visit, I sat down to read Doug Casey’s International Man article on Empires…  Remember Bill Bonner’s “Empire of Debt” book? Well, these two basically describe the same thing, in that Empires grow to large, deficit spend, raise taxes, and then collapse, Here’s Doug’s 10 steps of an Empires ruin…

  1. The reach of government leaders habitually exceeds their grasp.
  2. Dramatic expansion (generally through warfare) is undertaken without a clear plan as to how that expansion is to be financed.
  3. The population is overtaxed as the bills for expansion become due, without consideration as to whether the population can afford increased taxation.
  4. Heavy taxation causes investment by the private sector to diminish, and the economy begins to decline.
  5. Costs of goods rise, without wages keeping pace.
  6. Tax revenue declines as the economy declines (due to excessive taxation). Taxes are increased again, in order to top up government revenues.
  7. In spite of all the above, government leaders personally hoard as much as they can, further limiting the circulation of wealth in the business community.
  8. Governments issue bonds and otherwise borrow to continue expansion, with no plan as to repayment.
  9. Dramatic authoritarian control is instituted to assure that the public continues to comply with demands, even if those demands cannot be met by the public.
  10. Economic and social collapse occurs, often marked by unrest and riots, the collapse of the economy, and the exit of those who are productive.
  11. In this final period, the empire turns on itself, treating its people as the enemy.

Chuck again, Doug thinks that the U.S. is now at #8 going on #9…  I would say that I’m in agreement with him 100% on this… Every Empire that has collapsed in the history of Empires on Earth, have all come about by high taxes, currency debasement, and wars… Think about that… 

The U.S. Data Cupboard is still empty today… This is the craziest 3 days of no data that I ever remember seeing before! But it is what it is… And tomorrow, we’ll finally see something in the Weekly Initial Jobless Claims…

To recap… The currencies were going along very nicely pushing the dollar bugs around, until the PPT showed up and put a stop to the currency rally yesterday…  The Dollar Index had fallen to 91.01 before being rescued yesterday and finishing the day at 91.19… And have gotten sold more in the overnight markets… Gold & Silver rebounded Yesterday, from Monday’s truck load of short paper trades that pushed Gold & Silver prices down.  But after three days of trading Gold is right back to where it was Monday morning, before the onslaught of short paper trades… And Gold & Silver are up in the early trading today… 

For What It’s Worth…  Ok, the folks at www.wallstreetonparade.com have uncovered some news that find to be very interesting… It’s about the major banks being told to report to Congress in May for hearings, but not having any news on what the hearings will be about. This article can be found here: Wall Street’s Mega Bank CEOs To Be Hauled Before Congress in May; Nobody Will Say Why (wallstreetonparade.com)

Or, here’s your snippet: “We’ve been closely monitoring the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees for the past 15 years. We can think of no other time when the Committees issued a joint statement to announce they were hauling the most powerful men on Wall Street to testify, without offering a scintilla of information on the topic of the hearing.

The press statement simply indicated that the Senate Banking Committee would hold its hearing on Wednesday, May 26 at 10 a.m. and the House Financial Services Committee would hold its hearing the following day on Thursday, May 27 at 12 noon.

The announcement indicated that the following CEOs are scheduled to testify: Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase; David Solomon of Goldman Sachs; Jane Fraser of Citigroup; James Gorman of Morgan Stanley; Brian Moynihan of Bank of America; and Charles Scharf of Wells Fargo.

The joint press release did not give a title for the hearings nor the topic for the hearings. There is nothing on the websites for either Committee that sheds any further light on the matter.

The only conclusion that we can draw is that more than a month before the hearings are set to be conducted, the Chairs of these two Committees – Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Maxine Waters (D-CA) – wanted to send a message to Wall Street’s CEOs that they have them in their crosshairs.”

Chuck again.. my guess is that Congress wants to know about the Archegos failure… But then maybe, just maybe Congress will grill them like a well done steak, and get some answers from this group, eh? Yeah, like that could happen, Chuck… you know better than to even suggest that Congress would do their duty and get answers from these guys… The Congress I know is too yellow bellied, and naive…  I’m just saying… 

Market prices 4/21/2021: American Style: A$ .7714,  kiwi .7175,  C$ .7917, euro 1.2008, sterling 1.3898, Swiss $1.0893, European Style: rand 14.2768, krone 8.3861, SEK 8.4583,  forint 302.25,  zloty 3.7954,   koruna 21.5628, RUB 76.53, yen 108.04, sing 1.3306, HKD 7.7622, INR 75.52, China 6.4960, peso 19.90, BRL 5.5442,  Dollar Index 91.42,  Oil $60.91,  10-year 1.56%, Silver $26.09, Platinum $1,194.00, Palladium $2,851.00, Copper $4.26, and Gold… $1,786.10

That’s it for today, except to send out a GREAT BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my good friend, Frank Trotter! Frank is 11 months older than me. I recall years ago, when Frank was going to turn 50, his wonderful wife, Carol, asked me to send out a request to all his contacts to send him Happy Birthday emails, and on his birthday, his email box was filled with HB notes! Then when I turned 60 Frank returned the favor sort of, he sent out to some contacts of mine and asked them to send their notes to him, and then he put them all in one message, printed it and gave it to me… Frank was and is, the smartest man in the room, any room, any takers. And I’m so glad that we got to know each other way back in the 80’s at Mark Twain Bank! So… Happy Birthday, Frank!  With my new schedule I’ll be back tomorrow, full of you know what and vinegar, so be sure to tune in for that! HA! Well the snow stopped yesterday afternoon and the sun came back out! What a weird day for sure! A Flock Of Seagulls takes us to the finish line today with their song: Space Age Love Song…  “I saw your eyes, and you made me smile. For a little while, I was falling in love” I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday, and have some birthday cake for Frank! And I also hope that you will Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler