Bad is never good until worse happens.

~Danish proverb

Most people grow old within a small circle of ideas, which they have not discovered for themselves. There are perhaps less wrong-minded people than thoughtless.

- Marquis De Vauvenargues, 1715-1747, French Moralist

The most dangerous people are the ignorant.

-Henry Ward Beecher, 1813-1887, American Preacher, Orator, Writer

It is easy to be brave when far away from danger.

-Aesop, 620-560 BC, Greek Author

There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision, and for whom the lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the time of rising and going to bed every day, and the beginning of every bit of work, are subjects of express volitional deliberation.

-William James 1842-1910, American Psychologist, Professor, Author

One who has imagination without learning has wings without feet.

Joseph Joubert

1754-1824, French Moralist

Whenever, therefore, people are deceived and form opinions wide of the truth, it is clear that the error has slid into their minds through the medium of certain resemblances to that truth. (Socrates, BC 469-399, Greek Philosopher of Athens)

Hypocrisy in whatever may deceive the cleverest and most penetrating man, but the least wide-awake of children recognizes it, and is revolted by it, however ingeniously it may be disguised.

Count Leo Tolstoy
1828-1910, Russian Novelist, Philosopher

Men never plan to be failures; they simply fail to plan to be successful.

--William A. Ward

There are several discrepancies in the way unemployment figures are reported relative to reality. Don’t get me wrong. I am not inferring that the Department of Labor (DOL) is failing to report everything. They are reporting all the numbers needed to ascertain the actual number of unemployed persons who would like to be gainfully employed. However, they parse the numbers into categories and report the categories separately. You really have to dig into the data to get a sense of how many people are now unemployed.

DOL consistently attempts to put the employment situation into perspective (read: through a rose-tinted lens). Let’s look at the adjustments and categorizations individually and then in aggregate.

By nature man hates change; seldom will he quit his old home till it has actually fallen around his ears. - Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881, Scottish philosopher, author)

Gold has lately managed to surge past 960 and actually traded all the way to 1004 before rapidly pulling back. Even though the Dow has gone on to put in a series of new 52-week lows and has now traded well below 7000, gold has not surged to new highs, this suggests that the gold sector could be in for a sharp and short correction which could roughly last three months. If gold trades below 900 for more than seven days, the correction will probably gather steam, and at the very least gold should trade down to the 840-870 ranges. A weekly close below 840 could trigger a test of the 780 ranges.

Electricity and Coal

We do not quit playing because we grow old, we grow old because we quit playing.

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." (Confucius, BC 551-479, Chinese Ethical Teacher, Philosopher)

"Opportunities are never lost; someone will take the one you miss." (Author unknown)

In the 1926-1927 recession, the Dow roared from a low of 135 to a high of 200 towards the end of 1927, for a gain of 48%; more importantly though, it had recovered all its losses by the first quarter of 1927.

"Study the past, if you would divine the future." (Confucius)

(Source: Irrational Exuberance, 2^nd edition, by Robert Schiller)

"When one door closes, another opens. But we often look so regretfully upon the closed door that we don't see the one that has opened for us." (Helen Keller - 1880-1968, American Blind/Deaf Author, Lecturer, Amorist)

World Silver Supply and Demand (in millions of ounces)