Apologies for missing numbers yesterday.  Despite a huge juicing of the fed, adding 11.059B for the week ending on Wednesday, we had a minor fall yesterday, almost 77 points on the INDU's.  Gold continues to rise, and the "when's it going to fall" question is the wrong one to be asking right now... especially since I'm watching MSNBC with a Wall Street trader talking about waiting for it to fall.  You could literally bet against everything they recommend, and probably be right 75% of the time.

Fascinating week, excited to see how my below rant turns out.  I actually started writing this yesterday and got sidetracked by that pesky job stuff... enjoy.

Broken Eggs
Being in a specific industry, it is unfortunate to watch any time regulators from Washington DC with no understanding whatsoever of how things operate decide to step in and tell those who have done it professionally for years and decades what to do.  It is always fortunate when it is not your company, but in a niche industry like tangible precious metals, many sit with bated breath.  There are emotional arguments on both sides and the outcomes should prove very telling of how the politicians that be truly feel regarding this small, but very prominent industry.  Having been following this story for a number of months personally and professionally, I feel that we are witnessing a regulation committee complaining about a company doing exactly what they claim to, which to me feels like a witch hunt; my opinion is understandably biased.  However, the witch hunt is not asking that the companies involved be burned at the stake, but simply provide understandable disclosure.  The Austrian in me argues that companies to a fine enough job putting themselves out of business when people realize there are better alternatives, but there's always a few broken eggs along the way, and in this country, the minority of broken eggs have established an impressively loud voice and are pandered to. 

At least as much as I've read thus far, H.R. 6149 does not request any information that shouldn't be part of the deal anyway, so we'll see what this animal could morph into, but I am less concerned than perhaps I should be.  But both parties involved have legitimate arguments and the defendants (so to speak, although this isn't a trial, it kind of feels like one) claim to already provide all the information the committee is requesting... which brings back my comment of witch hunt.

Ultimately, this is an issue of taking your beatings gracefully.  The stock market crashes so everyone wants to sue Wall Street.  Housing prices lose value so everyone blames the realtors.  The gold coins drop in value dramatically (or are priced way to high to begin with) so sue the dealers.  I've purchased vehicles before, should I sue the car dealer when I can't sell my car at a profit?  I wonder if that's coming?

Here's a link to the Committee on Energy and Commerce website, read the "briefing memo" first, and as of this morning, Friday, you can read through the testimonies if interested.  CLICK HERE!!!