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There's been no shortage of discussion about the weather among economists this year as "snow in the winter" took the blame for a bevy of bad data in H1 while summer is Citi's new scapgoat for any weakness in August and September payrolls. Meanwhile, unseasonably mild temps took the fall for poor October retail sales and now, going into the winter, it's all about El Nino.

In the next financial crisis, physical gold held outside the banking system in safe vaults in safe jurisdictions will prove to be a “financial cushion” to individuals, companies, pension funds, family offices,  and indeed nations.

It appears "Likes" just were not innovative enough after all...

If there were any questions if the US consumer was merely "strong" or "quite strong", after the abysmal results from Macy's first, and moments ago, Nordstrom, they should all be safely swept away now.

Gold bullion coin and bar demand surged in Q3 as gold’s continuing COMEX driven price weakness in July and sharp falls in stock markets in China and globally in August saw store of wealth buyers internationally again accumulate bullion.

"This court simply cannot, and will not, allow the government to trump the Constitution merely because it suits the exigencies of the moment,”

Now that there are "no taboos," and assuming the ECB doesn't take our advice on the '52 Mantles or the lumber, the only question is whether the central bank will pair a depo rate cut with the PSPP expansion (in whatever form it takes)....

It is important to note that the current weakness of gold is primarily in dollar and sterling terms. For investors in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the EU gold is once again acting as a hedge.

It's not HFTs; It's not global orchestrated central bank intervention in "markets"; it is not even confirmed manipulation of virtually every asset class by the Too Big To Prosecute banks, who instead of doing research spent time colluding in anonymous chat rooms how to manipulate everything from FX, to Treasurys, to gold. No: according to the SEC what is truly broken with the markets, and why two-thirds of Millennials have lost faith in stocks, are short sellers "manipulating" stock prices on twitter.

A suspect was in custody this morning for making online threats to shoot black students at the University of Missouri following the racial protests that prompted the school's president and chancellor to step down this week, campus police said. The announcement followed a post on the social media app Yik Yak on Tuesday, tagged for the college town Columbia. The posting read: "I'm going to stand my ground tomorrow and shoot every black person I see."

A victory for common-sense? Who knows anymore. But following the disgusting debacle on Mizzou's campus yesterday, Melissa Click - the media professor who incited mob violence against a reporter who was doing his job - has reportedly resigned. As NYTimes reports, Click noted in a statement, "I regret the language and strategies I used," which we suspect, roughly translated, means "I regret being caught bullying a reporter." The university seems to be distancing itself from Click, noting that her position was a "courtesy appointment."

• GOP debate winners and losers (Hill)
• European Stocks Rise as Dollar Weakens; Metals Decline on China (BBG)
• Global shares shrug off mixed China data, copper teeters near six-year low (Reuters)
• Fed's Evans: Looking forward to time when Fed can raise rates (Reuters)
• Alibaba’s Global Ambitions Face Counterfeit Challenge (WSJ)
• China Rebalancing Takes Hold as Output Slows, Retail Jumps (BBG)

Meet Melissa Click. Assistant Professor of Mass Media at the University of Missouri, and woman who was caught on video asking for “muscle” in order to physically remove a reporter from reporting on a story in a public place. Yes ladies and gentleman, welcome to America’s college campuses. If you haven’t seen this video, you must watch it immediately... (and put down any sharp objects before you do).

Empires, like adolescents, think they’ll live forever. In geopolitics, as in biology, expiration dates are never visible. When death comes, it’s always a shock. "At the beginning of the great unraveling, in 2015, I was still a young man. Like everyone else, I didn’t see this coming. Today, in 2050, fewer and fewer people can recall what it was like to live among those leviathans... Thirty-five years and endless catastrophes later on a poorer, bleaker, less hospitable planet, it’s clear that we just weren’t paying sufficient attention. Had we been listening, we would have heard the termites. There, in the basement of our common home, they were eating the very foundations out from under us. Suddenly, before we knew quite what was happening, all that was solid had melted into air."