Gold had quite a 'pop' during the early trade which looked very much like a classic 'flight to safety.' 

The cause of the rally was not clear, but it looked like a bad case of economic data jitters and geopolitical heebie jeebies.  Was it Iran or Greece, or both?

The emphasis was very much on gold with the gold/silver ratio soaring to 71.  That made me want to pick up just a little silver, but not much ahead of the usual nonsense at the end of the week. 

Let's see if the metals can make a decent showing of holding these levels for the next week before our enthusiasm burns brightly.

There was intraday commentary on the metals here.

Non-Farm Payrolls on Friday.   They may move the metals without regard to their validity or real significance.

There was negligible activity in the bucket shop's warehouses.

Tony Sanders asks how the Fed could consider raising rates with GDP threatening to contract in Q1.

Yep, the latest Atlanta Fed estimate of Q1 GDP is now.... wait for it.... zero.  As in one bip from contraction.

I know that is a rhetorical question, because Tony is well schooled in the real world, smarter than the average hare-brained economist staring uncritically at their dopey models.

Has something changed?  Does the Fed care about the real economy now, at long last?

Why did they blow asset bubbles leading to financial crises three times in the past twenty years?  It's not like they care about what happens to the public or anything like that.  They are all about the Banks, and let the devil take the middle class.

WWJD - What Will Jamie Demand?

The economy probably did show a real negative GDP in Q1, as if they would ever dare to print it in a leading number except with a screaming warning label of 'The Weather Did It.'  More likely we will see it in some little noted future revision when no one cares anymore.

Global warming is one serious problem, of course, but the global bullshit storms emanating from the world's financial centers are becoming even more deeply discouraging.

Have a pleasant evening.

Tsar Nicholas II: I know what will make them happy. They're children, and they need a Tsar! They need tradition. Not this! They're the victims of agitators. A Duma would make them bewildered and discontented. And don't tell me about London and Berlin. God save us from the mess they're in!

Count Witte: I see. So they talk, pray, march, plead, petition and what do they get? Cossacks, prison, flogging, police, spies, and now, after today, they will be shot. Is this God's will? Are these His methods? Make war on your own people? How long do you think they're going to stand there and let you shoot them? YOU ask ME who's responsible? YOU ask?

Tsar Nicholas II: The English have a parliament. Our British cousins gave their rights away. The Hapsburgs, and the Hoehenzollerns too. The Romanovs will not. What I was given, I will give my son. 

For his obsession with power and privilege Nicholas gave his son, his wife, and his daughters a hard death in a cellar. 

But their dresses were sewn with jewels.