With American and British equity markets closed on Monday, there wasn’t a lot of activity in the gold and silver markets either. Both got sold off a tad in Sunday night electronic trading and during Monday in the Far East…but both recovered during European trading hours at, or after, London opened for the day. The highs…such as they were…were after the London close.

On Monday evening a more serious seller showed up in the New York access market, and by the close of Tuesday afternoon trading in Hong Kong, gold had about $17 shaved off its price. That was its low of the day, and a rally ensued in London that lasted until Comex trading began in New York at 8:15 a.m. yesterday morning, when another not-for-profit seller showed up. The New York low in gold was at precisely 9:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. From there, another rally lasted until shortly

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By now, you have surely heard that our elitist banks passed their recent government sponsored “stress test”? Forget about it! Relying on this incestuous bunch to grade themselves is like putting Madonna in charge of screening convent applicants. Take no comfort in shams of this nature.

There are bigger fish being fried. The entire American nation is in the crosshairs and will be severely tested like never before.

Very few people comprehend the scope of the problems that continue to unfold. The Dow is up a couple of thousand points so everything must be normalizing, no?

No! Look deeper.

The US Hits the Treadmill

The core of our problems lies deep in the roots of the overall system.

The US economic model has been extremely flawed for more than an entire generation. Our “money” holds no intrinsic value. We follow the consumption mantra instead of the production model. ...

The weekend news from every corner of the globe [especially Europe and Britain] was absolutely wretched…and gold and silver did exactly what one would expect the moment that trading began in the Far East on Monday morning…they took off to the upside. However, for some strange reason, gold couldn’t make it above $960…and shortly after London opened…the gold price was under pressure once again. Then, at precisely 9:00 a.m. in trading on the Comex in New York…the rug, once again, got pulled out from under the price. The gold price began to rally again the moment that London closed for the day, but got stopped dead in its tracks at half past lunchtime in New York.

Gold made a new low for the move in after-hours electronic trading, and never recovered.

click to enlarge

The assault on silver was

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I was just sent a quote by my good friend and mentor in the Precious Metals industry Mr. Simon Heapes, Director at Anglo Far-East.

Every now and then a few simple sentences clarify what sometimes takes pages upon pages of rhetoric, argument, and bureaucracy.

Heres the quote:

To buy government debt paper amounts to investing in government tax collectors. These tax collectors will go out into the civil and private economy to extort the money needed so that the government can service its debt as interest rate payments become due and eventually return the principal sums lent. It would be hard to think of a more vicious act against one’s fellow men and women. Buying government debt amounts to an investment in state-organized extractions and coercion.

-Bill Buckler.

And Simon’s Comment to me:

You might want to think about that when your money is in the bank collecting interest as to how

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Pack a lunch and blow the froth off a cool one…as I’ve got three days of gold and silver market activities to talk about…and lots of fascinating reading as well.

Wednesday, November 26th

This was the last day for all parties to get their gold and silver contracts switched to the 2009 year…or they would have to stand for delivery on Friday. With the U.S. in holiday mode almost from the beginning of trading, the tiny rally at the Comex open was stepped on and never recovered. But it hardly mattered…as volume was virtually non-existent. Silver was the same. Call the day a big zero. However, the shares reacted otherwise. Even though gold was down ten bucks at the close of the equity markets, the HUI still managed a surprising 6% increase…the second day in a row that gold has been flat or down…and the HUI up. Hmmm!

Open interest on Tuesday showed

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