Political and market reporting

Gold and silver prices have been going up recently, so I took a look at Kitco commmentaries and see if I can get a handle on what's going on.

This essay was pretty downbeat and fits a mood that I've been having lately.  It confirms my opinion that the politicians are failing to come to grips with the problems and may even be making things worse.  I would call this a fundamentals type essay in that it covers the fundamentals for markets as opposed to technical analysis.  It makes the case for higher precious metals prices in the future on the basis of poor economic and political conditions, in which I tend to agree.

Another essay is of the technical variety.  I like to read this author as often as practical, as I think his commentaries are pretty well reasoned and tend to be useful.  To put it succinctly, he believes that the market is at a key point right now and could rise or fall from here, but the situation isn't clear yet.  This may appear to be saying nothing, but I think it does because the situation is always fluid.  Things may be bad, but maybe they are, or maybe they are even worse.  We don't know yet.  As far as I can tell, technical analysis is based upon crowd behavior and the so called wisdom of crowds.  The crowd may know ahead of time what may happen.  You can choose to believe that or not.  Not everybody thinks that technical analysis is any good.


I read recently that a deal may be in the works with respect to the current budget battle in Congress.  This is key.  If the Republicans fail to get a grip on spending, it will be downhill from here.  There shouldn't be any deal at all, unless the deal includes some very steep cuts in spending.  The whole reason that the Republicans are in power right now is for this very reason.  If they fail to do it, they may as well quit being a political party because they are totally useless.  According to the Constitution, the House has the power of the purse.  They don't have to increase the debt by a dollar unless they say so.  So, if they increase the debt, it will be all on them.  Anything that they do to avoid using their power, such as appears to be the case, will show them unable to meet the challenge.

This reminds me of the failure of Arnold Schwarzenegger in California.  He came into power with a lot of big talk, but he failed to deliver.  In the end, he was a complete failure.  The same could be happening to the Republicans now.  If they don't get truly steep cuts, they will have failed.  The Tea Party should split off and form a new party if at all feasible.  If not, there should be primary challenges even more ferocious than the last round.  This pressure cannot go away until they do what's necessary.  Making deals with the Democrats is not necessary.  It's the Democrats who need a deal.