Gold and silver popped today and the soaring dollar dipped as wage growth, as plotted by the ECI, was shown to be at a twenty year low.

What a surprise.

Keep in mind that the ‘dollar index' DXY is hopelessly outdated, and is little more than the inverse of the Euro. And brother does the euro have problems. 

So it might make the dollar look good when in fact it is fundamentally deteriorating as well, just not on the same timescale.

A strong dollar does what again? Oh yeah, it stifles exports and domestic manufacturing. Perfect policy choice, but not if you are a predatory financial vulture looking to buy up foreign assets on the cheap with overpriced dollars. 

There was intraday commentary on the gold market here. The precious metals market is going to blow up at some point if it continues in this manner. 

I am not looking for a default on the exchange since it is set up to be settled in more paper. Rather, I am thinking of a serious break in confidence in the markets overall, at long last, as sort of ‘a con too far.' How many frauds in major markets have been exposed in the past ten years.   Are there any markets that are not manipulated by the financiers?

The problem is that the wiseguys get all full of themselves, and the easy victories fill them with puffery and bravado.  And so they keep pressing their bets until they hit the wall. And the last two times we bailed them out. Big mistake.

It is the outcome of almost every financial fraud that has ever been. They never know when to quit, and certainly cannot stop themselves. They are like addicts.  And it works for them.

It may not be the precipitant of the financial event, but it will be in the mix. It looks like an accident waiting to happen, all of it, just like the 2007-08 mess that everyone denied until it rolled over on us.

Non-Farm Payrolls next week.

Have a nice weekend.