As part of my "vacation", I've spent the last two days at "FreedomFest" in Vegas. It has been terrific.
FreedomFest is a 3-day conference revolving around libertarianism and Austrian economics. Yep...right up my alley. And it was in Vegas! Also, right up my alley.
In the past two days, I've met with Ranting Andy and Mike Krieger. I've been interviewed by Kerry Lutz of the Financial Survival Network and I've made the acquaintance of Rick Rule of Sprott and Pat Heller of Liberty Coin Service. All of this was very cool.
However, the main thrill was yesterday. I attended a small luncheon where Steve Forbes introduced The Judge. Judge Napolitano went on to speak to the group for about 30 minutes and then field questions. I got my picture taken with him and he also gave me his business card. I hope to finally schedule that podcast that I've been dreaming about! Again, very cool. The Judge then gave a 45 minute speech to the entire convention. He's just awesome. Great stuff.
Great stuff in the metals today, too. The Big Bad Wolves huffed and puffed again yesterday but once again failed to bring the house down. Santa was right in two fronts: One, they attacked and two, they failed. By no means are we out of the woods yet but nothing too scary, either. Gold remains firmly within it's 10-week basing and bottoming range of 1535-1635. Silver, too, is still in its 27-29 range. The good part of these ranges is this: Once we break out and UP...and we will...it will be clear to absolutely everyone with half a brain that the metals have bottomed. The shorts will either get frightened or squeezed and prices will move up rather quickly. Just be ready.
Two interesting news items I found while surfing with my phone this morning. First, this link to ZH. You should check it out. https://www.zerohedge.com/news/cme-gold-collateral-and-its-unsurprising-london-based-custodian
And then, while at ZH, I saw that Swiss 2-year note is now yielding negative .43%. NEGATIVE POINT FOUR THREE PERCENT! The Germans are also getting in the act as their 2-year is now -0.05%. This is truly incredible. On a hypothetical new issue, for a 1,000,000 franc, Swiss 2-year note, you would have to pay the Swiss government about 10,000 francs for the privilege. Are you freaking kidding me? You've heard me mention ad nauseam how negative, real rates are extraordinarily bullish for gold. How about just plain, old negative rates?? Holy Toledo! https://www.zerohedge.com/news/swiss-2y-rates-plunge-43bps-all-trust-lost
Lastly, as we continue on our trip down Memory Lane, perhaps today would be a good day to review this idea of negative real interest rates. I wrote this piece back on 2/1/12 and today is as good a time as any to go back and review it. https://www.tfmetalsreport.com/blog/3325/case-you-missed-it
OK, that's all. I have to head to the airport soon so I better wrap this up. Please check back later today though as I plan to update this thread with thoughts on the CoT, once it's out. I probably won't be able to do it until this evening, however. It should be an interesting report. For the reporting week, gold was down $42 while total OI rose by 2000 or so. Silver was down $1.40 and saw its total OI climb by 1400.
Have a great weekend!
TF
