Crumbling Narratives
The comments below are an edited and abridged synopsis of an article by Bill Holter
Holter’s main prediction for 2022 was that several narratives would collapse; it didn’t take long to begin. Boris Johnson ended Covid protocols in England, followed by WHO backing off boosters for children. We await further actuary numbers of deaths from the insurance industry, and raw numbers will be hard to spin.
Another area to watch is the financial markets. The only thing holding society together is the stock markets, which are close to all-time highs but seriously wobbling. If markets had not been goosed to ridiculous levels, Holter believes we would have had extensive riots and violence. Only rosy statements have acted as salve on a wounded society.
Any central bank that tightens will face collapsing equities.
As for metals, over 100 tons of December Comex gold contracts stood for delivery, an all-time monthly record. Two-thirds of the way through January, 18 tons are standing, also a record. Eighteen tons was normal for one of the four major delivery months just a few years ago. It looks like a stampede for delivery in the making.
Silver is even more interesting. Over the last eight months, Comex claims to have shipped contracts representing over 800 million ounces to London for delivery. The world produces slightly less than 800 million silver ounces annually; were there really 800 million ounces laying around London to be delivered? After two full years of outsized delivery claims?
Eight hundred million ounces is also the amount that Bank of America is said to be short. Why is any bank short of silver, especially since CFTC head Rostin Behnam said last year that ‘they’ had to tamp down silver, otherwise there would be problems. They kicked the can down the road for a year; is it filled with close to 1 billion short ounces of silver and too heavy to kick any farther?
We we are at a crossroads, and we need answers. If the answers include narratives failing left and right, life will be drastically altered. Crumbling equities and higher real estate prices along with higher interest rates and inflation will make for an exploding misery index. Coupled with precious metals and commodity indexes finally trading at true market price, it is almost the perfect storm. Of course, perfection will only arrive with the breakdown of supply chains; that should do it for anyone with their head in the sand.