Following awful Thanksgiving retail sales news, on Wednesday the Potemkin Village of u.s. economic “recovery” was dealt additional body blows as 1) the MBA's weekly refinancing index plunged by an astonishing 13%; 2) November unit labor costs – i.e. wages – unexpectedly plunged 1.0%; 3) the PMI services index printed at its lowest level since April; and 4) the ADP employment report massively missed expectations, producing its lowest November print since 2010. I can't wait to see what the Ministry of Truth cooks up Friday on the BLS release.

BullionVault, an online service for investors to buy and sell physical gold and silver, said its Gold Investor Index rose in November as prices declined. The gauge, which measures the balance of buyers against sellers, increased to 52.1 from 51.9 in October. Clients in the Euro Zone bought the most gold since April last year.

In aggregate, the combined Shanghai and Crimex silver inventory is at new all-time lows.

Consistent with other flow indicators reported on these pages, it turns out that the Rydex Precious Metals stock fund actually had small inflows off of extremely low levels, and (post- Nov. 1) no liquidations whatsoever.

Ukraine Watch: Incredibly, the cabal looting of the Ukraine goes on in broad day light. After looting Ukraine's gold and using black ops to haul it off in the middle of the night, the parasite guild “government” in Kiev has brought in non-Ukrainian bankster carpetbaggers to run the Economic and Finance ministries.

The new finance minister, Natalie Jaresko, is a former U.S. State Department official. After leaving State Department, she ran Ukraine-based private equity firm Horizon Capital.  She and handful of others were only granted Ukrainian citizenshipon they day of their appointments so they can legally hold government position.

The post of “Economy Minister” was just given to an asset management firm partner from Lithuania, and the “Health Minister” is from Georgia.