Fail

Apparently, the TSA is fed up with some of us peasants making such a choice, and so they have begun the process of removing the voluntary opt-out option. Despite a 96% failure rate, the TSA’s response is to double down and begin the process of making body scanner use mandatory.

Amid ongoing efforts by Indian authorities to monetize (read confiscate) the citizenry's precious metals (which we most recently detailed as an utter failure here and here), it appears the current suppressed low prices for gold have reignited demand and thus smuggling. Following the biggest seizure of smuggled gold earlier this year, The Guardian reports a 42-year-old-man, claiming to be a government official, was caught smuggling$15,000 of gold bars (hidden in his rectum) after police noted him "walking suspiciously."

President Obama has released a statement on the persecution of christians around the world...

In an unexpected turn of events, the disappearance of not just synthetic but very physical dollars has hit one region much harder and much faster than we expected. Africa.

• Oil up after U.S. crude stocks drop, still close to 11-year lows (Reuters)
• Global Stocks Rally; Mining, Metals Shares Lead Gains (WSJ)
• OPEC Sees Demand for Its Crude Oil Falling for Rest of Decade (BBG)
• The Trouble With Sovereign-Wealth Funds (WSJ)
• U.S. Calls for 256% Tariff on Imports of Steel From China (BBG)
• Iraqi troops expected to drive ISIS from Ramadi in days (Reuters)

"The most important channel through which the Dragon's Tail scenario can affect other markets is trade, although financial linkages and market contagion could also have a significant impact on some markets and asset prices."

With the market now back to oversold conditions and redemptions complete, it is now or never for the traditional “Santa Rally.” Statistically speaking, the odds are high that the market will muster a rally over the next couple of weeks. While the short-term trends are indeed still bullishly-biased, the longer-term analysis (monthly) reveals a more dangerous picture emerging.

Since our Keynesian central bankers have no clue that their prodigious money printing resulted in the drastic underpricing of credit and capital over the course of the past two decades, they are flying blind. They simply fail to see that the global economy is now swamped in more excess capacity than at any time since the 1930s, and probably even then. So they keep expecting the commodity cycle to momentarily bottom and prices to rebound, thereby reflating CapEx and household spending.

In the final throes of empire-decline, we invariably observe the more sociopathic trends of a failing power, such as we’re seeing today from the US. First and foremost, any empire declines as a result of economic mismanagement. Decline from within (pandering to the populace with “bread and circuses”) and without (endless conquest and/or maintenance of dominance over far-flung geography) drain even the wealthiest government. But the leaders of a collapsing empire invariably make a fatal mistake: they assume that all the goodwill the empire gained when it was on its rise is permanent – that it will continue, even if the empire behaves like the world’s foremost bully. This is never the outcome.

“If you’re pushing for lower management fees to save minimal basis points on a fund where you are unhappy with performance, as a fiduciary, you have to decide whether you want to keep that fund at all.”

If this trendline fails to hold (like it did for the VLG in August), then the market may be in for a further decline. And considering the magnitude of the trendline being broken, it may not be just your “average” decline.

For a brief few minutes, overnight saw exactly the reaction that central planners had hoped for when The Bank Of Japan announced it would buy 'moar' stock ETFs and extend bond duration buying ad nauseum. However, within just 15 minutes something happened that we haven't seen since the world embarked on this experimental nightmare. Despite the front-ran promises to buy Japanese stocks "whatever it takes" traders sold... and sold large.

It is widely assumed that the gold price must decline when the Federal Reserve is hiking interest rates. It seems logical enough: gold has no yield, so if competing investment assets such as bonds or savings deposits do offer a yield, gold will presumably be exchanged for those. There is only a slight problem with this idea. The simple assumption “Fed rate hikes equal a falling gold price” is not supported by even a shred of empirical evidence.

"The party's over and bond investors who always tend to be more sober types, realize this and have headed for the exits whereas equity investors are so intoxicated they haven't realized that the music has stopped. Equity investors are still gyrating around the dance floor - just as in 1999 and 2007... I believe the Yellen Fed will soon be treated with the same contempt the Greenspan Fed was in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. And they will deserve it."

U.S. President Barack Obama is not just the world’s best gun salesman, he’s also the world’s worst gun control spokesperson.