“The world is ours, we are its lords, and ours it shall remain. As for the host of labor, it has been in the dirt since history began, and I read history aright.  And in the dirt it shall remain so long as I and mine and those that come after us have the power.

There is the word. It is the king of words—  Power. Not God, not Mammon, but Power. Pour it over your tongue till it tingles with it. Power.”

Jack London, The Iron Heel

The Comex had an options expiration today for the precious metals, and they certainly rose to the occasion.

If you wondered why such an unusual thing happened, it is because the October contract is not all that important, but it has some technical attractions given the option ‘hook’ which it offers.

There was some intraday commentary about why it happened as it did here.  

I admit that it went much higher than I thought it would, but it was well worth it as a bet. Sorry, but even in my old age I cannot resist the occasional wager, the call of the wild. lol.

Much more importantly, the physical bullion situation, or what some have been calling ‘the float,’ seems to be approaching some sort of crossroads, or even the elusive denouement that many of us have been long awaiting.

Gold is a bit easier to understand. The underpricing of gold and the stubbornly high demand from Asia is sucking the paper markets dry of their underlying bullion.   

Stated a bit flippantly but generally correcly, you underprice something that people want, and they ignore your clumsy PR campaigns and assorted devices, and empty your shelves of it.  Wow, what a concept. 

I keep wondering why so many people are missing this, even among the ‘pros.’ I am sure quite a few are parroting whatever they are instructed, but I do think that that quite a few are being misguided by the familiar. These are the ones who were deeply into the paper trade, knowing all its jargon, its nooks and crannies. They see the same old rubbish going on, but cannot being to imagine that incredible changes are taking places in other parts of the world of which they know relatively little.

So ignoring or deriding the great sea change in global monetery exchange that some call the currency war, they are fooled by the familiar.