China

"2015 was like commuting by rollercoaster. There were heart-stopping drops, there were nearly vertical ascents, and when it was all over you got off just about where you started and it cost you money."

While the headline import price figure suggested there is some hope that import prices will improve at the headline level in the coming months, something else has emerged which suggests that the real importing of others' deflation is only just starting. Or rather, someone else. China.

Whether Beijing is questioning Guo about his habit of eschewing investments in China in favor of deploying capital overseas or whether Fosun did something “wrong” in the markets during the selloff is hard to know, but one thing’s for certain: “kill the chicken to scare the monkey” is alive and well.

• Win or Lose, Trump Has Already Left His Mark on Republican Primary (BBG)
• S&P 500 Futures Rise With Miners; Oil Erases Gains, Euro Drops (BBG)
• U.S. top court divided over affirmative action in college admissions (Reuters)
• San Bernardino Shooter Said to Have Planned an Attack in 2012 (WSJ)
• Gun buyer and gunman linked through marriage, previous plot (AP)

After yesterday's rollercoaster session in both the S&P and in oil, where initially stocks soared alongside oil, only to promptly tumble as stops were taken out and as the refiners' inventory strategy was exposed after the DOE's latest weekly numbers were released, it has been a quieter session so far, though maybe not for China where stocks jumped at the open only to fizzle and close at the lows in what appears to be ever less intervention by the market manipulating "National Team."

For the 5th day in a row, Onshore Yuan has tumbled against the USDollar. Absent the violent devaluation in August, this is the largest drop since March 2014, leaving the Chinese currency at its weakest level against the USD since August 2011. It appears that after showing some signs of 'stability' to appease The IMF's political decision, and following the weak trade data this week, China has decided to escalate the currency wars, perhaps in anticipation of (or in an attempt to stall) any market turbulence when The Fed hikes rates next week and withdraws up to $800bn in liquidity from global markets.

The U.S. is now experiencing the next stage of the great reset. Two pillars were put in place on top of an already existing pillar by the central banks in order to maintain a semblance of stability after the 2008 crash.  This faux stability appears to have been necessary in order to allow time for the conditioning of the masses towards greater acceptance of globalist initiatives, to ensure the debt slavery of future generations through the taxation of government generated long term debts, and to allow for internationalists to safely position their own assets.  The three pillars are now being systematically removed by the same central bankers. Why? They are simply ready to carry on with the next stage of the controlled demolition of the American structure as we know it.

The IMF has now been drawn into the U.S. Cold War orbit. On Tuesday it made a radical decision to dismantle the condition that had integrated the global financial system for the past half century... By doing so, it announced its new policy: “We only enforce debts owed in US dollars to US allies.”

With Turkey and Iraq still at odds over the former's deployment of between 150 and 300 troops along with two dozen tanks to Bashiqa, Russia told the Security Council on Tuesday that Ankara is acting "recklessly and inexplicably." Of course Moscow has a powerful friend among the five permanent members and on Wdnesday, Beijing weighed in on the Turkish troop issue for the first time.

When Australia released its October jobs data a month ago (printing an astonishing 58k increase - almost 6 times expectations of a 10k increase), the media threw up all over the farce of the best jobs gain in 3 years (amid commodity price collapses, mining industry bankruptcy fears, and China trade implosions) saying simply "don't believe the jobs figure for October." So we cannot wait to see what the men from downunder make of November's print. With expectations of a 10k drop, Australia added a mind-numbing 71,400 jobs - the most in 15 years!! This is equivalent to the US adding almost 1.75 million jobs in 2 months... They just don't care anymore!

Economists have put together models of how an economy works, but these models were developed years ago, when the world economy was far from limits. These models may have been reasonably adequate when they were developed, but there is increasing evidence that they don’t work in an economy that is reaching limits.

Gold is one of the few investments that every investor should have in their portfolio. We are now at the dangerous end-game period of a very bold but very reckless & disappointing experiment with the world's fiat (unbacked) currencies. If this experiment fails -- and we observe it's in the process of failing -- gold will provide one of the best forms of wealth insurance. But like all insurance products, it only works if you buy it before you need to rely on it.

With global freight costs collapsing, as China trade dries up, status-quo-hugging talking heads have point to America's car sales and picture some islandic isolation that means investors in US equities are immune. Well that little dream just burst. Rail freight carloads tumbled 5.1% in October, dramatically accelerating the 1.6% drop in Q3 as a strong dollar crimps exports, retailers whittle down excess inventory and energy investment stalls. Until recebtly, the one bright spot in rail traffic was auto shipments... but even that just plunged and is now at the seasonally weakest since 2008.

People understand nothing lasts forever. The bottom does not last forever. You want to buy low and sell high. Not only are we skipping along the lows, perhaps we can go lower but there is true value  here - in all aspects - not only in the gold and silver but also in the natural resource sector. as a whole with bargains all over the place.