QUESTION: Marty, Do you think it will be time to short the bonds with the ECM? Gold had bounced off the Downtrend line instead of electing the bearish reversals and it rallied after the Pi turning point. You said if gold peaked with the bottom of the ECM it could then fall back to retest support. It looks as if that happens, the Fed will lose the battle and interest rates will rise after the ECM. Is this all a set up like the gold rally back in 1979 following the Afghan invasion? It looks too familiar.

HB

ANSWER: Ah, you have a good memory. It would have been much better had gold made a new low, held the 1980 high, and then rallied with the ECM turn in 2020. That would have clearly been a long-term sustainable trend. Bouncing off of the Bear Reversals & Downtrend Line and then rallying with the Pi turning point 2018.89, pointed to a rally into the next ECM (2020.05). I warned that given that pattern we would rally to test the Yearly Bullish at 1432 and at the WEC I warned that a close above that pointed to a rally into the January 18th turning point with the next resistance at the 1585 level.

The spike up in gold is clearly reminiscent of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan on December 24, 1979. That was under the pretext of upholding the Soviet-Afghan Friendship Treaty of 1978. As midnight approached, the Soviets organized a massive military airlift into Kabul, involving an estimated 280 transport aircraft and three divisions of almost 8,500 men each.

Currently, our system resistance has stood at 1585 followed by 1620 with technical resistance in the 1575-1595 level. We most certainly have to be concerned if gold peaks with the ECM. This will not be a good omen and I agree it is reminiscent of the pattern of 1980. The interest rates the exploded and peaked in May 1981 with the top of the ECM back then.

With the Repo Crisis and the Fed desperately trying to prevent interest rates from rising, which was opposite back in 1979-1981, we still have to be very cautious about how all the markets line up on our model for this turning point. Back then, gold peaked on its own cycle on January 21, 1980, while the interest rates rallied further peaking with the top of the ECM precisely – 1981.35.

We will do the gold report after the ECM turn.

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong and thank you for what you are doing for us regular people. For my first ever question for you, would you please explain as simply as possible exactly what the REPO market is and how it works and how it affects our multi-faceted financial world.
I am truly grateful for your work and communication.
GLH

ANSWER: The REPo Market is where banks will post AAA securities and borrow against them for the night. Normally, the big banks like J.P. Morgan provide over $300 billion in liquidity daily which allows banks, hedge funds, and institutions to raise cash for the night. When the banks withdrew from lending into the Repo Market, the Fed was compelled to inject cash and thereby lending into the Repo market to prevent the short-term interest rate from rising as it did to 10% on September 17th, 2019.

A Reverse Repo (RRP) injects the purchase of securities with the agreement to sell them at a higher price at a specific future date. The party selling the security to raise cash in the market agrees to repurchase the securities (repo) from the lender at a future point in time which is known as a Repurchase Agreement (RP). Repos are classified as a money-market instrument, and they are usually used to raise short-term capital.

This is not a market that is open to the public. However, it is the basic market where everything else is factored on top of this rate. If the Fed did not intervene, then short-term rates would rise and instead of the consumer paying even 20% on a credit card, it would have jumped as must as 10%.

QE was where the Fed was trying to lower long-term rates after the mortgage-backed crisis hit in 2007 so they were buying 30-year bonds. This is the short-term which has nothing to do with QE. Here the Fed is trying to prevent short-term rates from rising rather than lowering long-term rates which they can only “influence” since the Fed posts only short-term rates like the discount rate (wholesale rate) which banks can borrow at.

Here the economy is not declining and unemployment is back to the 1960s. All the talk about QE makes zero sense for these people do not understand what is taking place and it takes professionals in the field to grasp this issue and they cannot speak since they are under confidentiality agreements.

QUESTION: Marty, you laid out gold’s forecast back in October 2018 which has been amazing long-term. While you said if gold would rally after the Pi turning point from a bounce off the downtrend line, then it should rally into the bottom of the ECM. Will you now publish the gold report? I know you have been really busy. But it would be nice to hear from you. Socrates has been bullish since that turn back in 2018. That has been great. It would be nice to see a report with gold in all the currencies.

Happy New Year
LM

ANSWER: Yes it is getting time to do the Gold report. Let us see if that forecast proves correct since we are approaching the target.

COMMENT: Marty, just wanted to say thank you for Socrates. It has been great on gold and even in the miners it has distinguished the lagers like Barrick from Newmont without worry of who is getting paid to pitch what stock.

Can’t wait for the sector overviews.

Happy New Year

PB

REPLY: It is tracking over 1,000 instruments each day. I do not have the time to write about everything. I am working on the sector overview. That should be ready with the turn in the ECM. I am so glad people are getting the hang of Socrates. I do have an expiration date and have no desire to write forever.

HAPPY New Year to All.

“Manipulating the World Economy” is now available on Amazon for pre-order. Amazon expects the book to be in stock on Christmas day, but you can purchase your copy of the book today. We do not control when Amazon lists the book and we have no idea how long it will last in stock. The price was kept low at $95 to enable everyone of all means to be able to purchase the book. This is already the second edition – 466 pages completely illustrated in full color.

Italy is again helping a troubled bank. The government approved an emergency ordinance to support the Volksbank Popolare di Bari on Sunday and provided grants of up to 900 million euros. Volksbank Popolare di Bari was founded in 1960 as a cooperative bank. However, funds from the Ministry of Finance will not go directly to the bank because of the no-bailout policy in Europe. Instead, the capital of the state development bank Banca del Mezzogiorno-Mediocredito Centrale (MCC) is to be increased and this combined with the deposit guarantee fund FITD. This new scheme is indirectly restructuring of the Volksbank Popolare di Bari.

In recent years, the Italian state has repeatedly had to bailout banks, including the Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), which is the oldest bank in the world. Because of the long-standing economic downturn, the banks in Italy still have bad loans on the books because Europe refused to engage in a bailout as was the case in the United States. Instead, the ECB kept lowering rates in the hope that the banks would make up the losses. But the economy has never recovered beyond just superficial images. The bank’s losses have reached one billion euros. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte reiterated on Sunday that everything will be done to protect savers and hold those responsible accountable, but those responsible are running the ECB.

Within the European Union, bank deposits up to 100,000 euros per customer are legally protected. In the case of Bari, however, according to press reports, there are around 70,000 small savers who have not invested their money in savings accounts but have invested in share certificates in the bank. These small shareholders could face total loss if the bank collapsed. This would also have serious social impacts in the Mezzogiorno region.

Obviously, our European readers should NOT own ANY bank stocks in Europe. Get out before you lose 100% in these bail-in actions.

QUESTION: Marty; It seems when Goldman Sachs makes a recommendation, it tends to be the kiss of death. They came out and said the stock market was going to crash at the end of 2017 just before it broke out. Now they are pitching gold but they have been the ones who controlled the warehouses. They are claiming the central banks are the buyers so that is an indication of a bull market. Any comments on Goldman’s analysis?

HC

ANSWER: Yes, it often seems to be the old trick that was played by the Salomon Brothers. Their analysts would be quoted widely touting to buy some bond and they were inevitably the sellers. Goldman said cash was king in November 2018, not stocks. Five of the top investors in 2018 all said the stock market would crash as reported in Money Magazine. Goldman was bearish if Trump won, as reported by the New York Times on October 31, 2016. Even Goldman Sachs told everyone to sell in 2019. This is the problem when you put out forecasts based upon fundamentals. They are just sophistry, for you can spin them any way you like. How many times have we heard a stock declines on positive news and the excuse is that the street was looking for better numbers.

Goldman Sachs’ new claim saying “gold’s strategic case still strong” pointing to central bank buying is highly questionable. It is a statement that seems to be a half-truth. Because the euro is paying a negative interest rate, the only way for central banks to diversify has been to buy gold and equities. Otherwise, all they have are dollars. There are people on the board at the European Central Bank proposing that they too begin to buy equities in Europe.

The amount of gold added to central bank portfolios was tiny in comparison to equities. They bought more than $1 trillion of equities in 2018. The central banks bought only about $57 billion of gold in the past 3 years. This story is very misleading. It makes it sound like gold is being bought because the banks know the dollar will crash. The truth is so far from the implications.

If you are going to pretend to make a forecast based upon fundamentals, then tell the FULL story and do not leave out the other parts