"When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood and smothers truth under indifference or insult, a nation turns its back on progress and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe." … Frederic Bastiat
Evil talks about tolerance only when it’s weak. When it gains the upper hand, its vanity always requires the destruction of the good and the innocent, because the example of good and innocent lives is an ongoing witness against it. So it always has been. So it always will be. And America has no special immunity to becoming an enemy of its own founding beliefs about human freedom, human dignity, the limited power of the state, and the sovereignty of God. – Archbishop Chaput
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Simply put - as the situation in Europe further deteriorates (yesterday the market YAWNED at the $125 billion Spain bailout), Italy is now coming into focus. Strangely enough, the US equity markets somehow think all of this is inconsequential as the bulls there continue to be giddy with delight.
Their attitude is best described by an old Steve Wariner song, "Some Fools Never Learn". You play with the fire, you're gonna get burned".
Considering just how tenuous things are, the degree of complacency that exists among equity bulls is nothing short of astonishing. The situation can best be described by looking at a chart of the VIX, or Volatility Index.
While the index has indeed risen from some of its lowest levels down near 14, it is still generating relatively low readings. Apparently traders could care less about potential headwinds; either that or they have already factored in what in their minds is a worse-case scenario. Personally, I think it is symptomatic of the Pavlovian response by this generation of short-sighted economic ignoramuses who believe in the allmighty power of modern Central Bank money creation to plaster over everything that dares arise that might challenge the comfort of the casino players, aka, hedge funds.
I suppose it will work until it just stops working one day and that will be that. Then maybe we will see some economic sanity prevail.
Back to gold however... The metal was intially weaker early in the session but uncovered a strong surge of buying that some say was linked to the ETF. Regardless of the reason, the fact is that the metal is moving higher and once again looks like it is setting up a challenge of that tough overhead resistance level that comes in near $1620. If it can overcome the bullion bank selling at this level, it should once again make a run towards $1650 and test to see whether it can this time mount a breakout.
Downside support still looks firm.
