GOLD; UP $14.05 to $1827.30

SILVER: $23.28 UP 29 CENTS

ACCESS MARKET:

GOLD $1828.50

SILVER: $23.27

.. OTC and London expire tomorrow Dec 31. Big question: will the crooks raid on first day notice?

Bitcoin: morning price: 48,019 UP 407

Bitcoin: afternoon price: 46,111 DOWN $1501

Platinum price: closing UP $1.75 to $967.95

Palladium price; closing down $69.55 at 1904.20

END

end

DONATE

Click here if you wish to send a donation. I sincerely appreciate it as this site takes a lot of preparation.

COMEX//NOTICES FILED

EXCHANGE: COMEX
CONTRACT: JANUARY 2022 COMEX 100 GOLD FUTURES
SETTLEMENT: 1,812.700000000 USD
INTENT DATE: 12/30/2021 DELIVERY DATE: 01/03/2022
FIRM ORG FIRM NAME ISSUED STOPPED

118 C MACQUARIE FUT 40
365 H ED&F MAN CAPITA 7
435 H SCOTIA CAPITAL 173
624 H BOFA SECURITIES 666
657 C MORGAN STANLEY 7
661 C JP MORGAN 1005 98
686 C STONEX FINANCIA 4
737 C ADVANTAGE 68
800 C MAREX SPEC 9
905 C ADM 13

TOTAL: 1,045 1,045
MONTH TO DATE: 1,045

NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED TODAY FOR JAN. CONTRACT: 1045 NOTICE(S) FOR 104,500 OZ (3.250 TONNES)

total notices so far: 1045 contracts for 104,500 oz (3.250 tonnes)

SILVER NOTICES:

1554 NOTICE(S) FILED TODAY FOR 7,770,000 OZ/

total number of notices filed so far this month 1554 : for 7.770,000 oz

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

GLD

WITH GOLD UP $14.05 TO $1813.25

NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD:

WITH RESPECT TO GLD WITHDRAWALS: (OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS)

GOLD IS “RETURNED” TO THE BANK OF ENGLAND WHEN CALLING IN THEIR LEASES: THE GOLD NEVER LEAVES THE BANK OF ENGLAND IN THE FIRST PLACE. THE BANK IS PROTECTING ITSELF IN CASE OF COMMERCIAL FAILURE

ALSO INVESTORS SWITCHING TO SPROTT PHYSICAL (phys) INSTEAD OF THE FRAUDULENT GLD//

THIS IS A MASSIVE FRAUD!!

GLD 975,66 TONNES OF GOLD//

Silver//SLV

WITH NO SILVER AROUND AND SILVER UP 29 CENTS: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/:

INVESTORS ARE SWITCHING SLV TO SPROTT’S PSLV

CLOSING INVENTORY SLV/ TONIGHT: 533.057 MILLION OZ

Let us have a look at the data for today

SILVER//OUTLINE

SILVER COMEX OI ROSE BY A FAIR 430 CONTRACTS TO 140,457 AND RESTS CLOSER TO THE NEW RECORD OF 244,710, SET FEB 25/2020.. WITH THE $0.14 GAIN IN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX ON THURSDAY. OUR BANKERS WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING THE PRICE OF SILVER DOWN (IT ROSE BY $0.14) AND WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING OUT ANY SILVER LONGS AS WE HAD A STRONG GAIN OF 855 CONTRACTS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES .

WE MUST HAVE HAD:
I) HUGE BANKER SHORT COVERING AS THEY ARE VERY ANXIOUS TO GET OUT OF DODGE!!/. II)WE ALSO HAD SOME REDDIT RAPTOR BUYING//. iii) A GOOD ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS iiii) A HUGE INITIAL SILVER STANDING FOR COMEX SILVER MEASURING AT 10.505 MILLION OZ V) GOOD SIZED COMEX OI GAIN.

I AM NOW RECORDING THE DIFFERENTIAL IN OI FROM PRELIMINARY TO FINAL:

THE DIFFERENTIAL FROM PRELIMINARY OI TO FINAL OI SILVER TODAY: CONTRACTS -27

HISTORICAL ACCUMULATION OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS DEC 31 ACCUMULATION FOR EFP’S SILVER/JPMORGAN’S HOUSE OF BRIBES/STARTING FROM FIRST DAY/MONTH OF DEC:

TOTAL CONTACTS for 23 days, total contracts: 20,123 or …average per day: 874 contracts or 4.37 million oz per day.

TOTAL NO OF OZ UNDERGOING EFP TO LONDON 20,123 CONTRACTS X 5,000 PER CONTRACT:

EQUATES TO: 100,615 MILLION OZ

LAST 8 MONTHS TOTAL EFP CONTRACTS ISSUED IN MILLIONS OF OZ:

MAY 137.83 MILLION

JUNE 149.91 MILLION OZ

JULY 129.445 MILLION OZ

AUGUST: MILLION OZ 140.120

SEPT. 28.230 MILLION OZ//

OCT: 94.595 MILLION OZ

NOV: 131.925 MILLION OZ

DEC: 100.615 MILLION OZ

RESULT: WE HAD A GOOD SIZED INCREASE IN COMEX OI SILVER COMEX CONTRACTS OF 430 WITH OUR 14 CENT GAIN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX// THURSDAY THE CME NOTIFIED US THAT WE HAD A GOOD SIZED EFP ISSUANCE OF 425 CONTRACTS( 425 CONTRACTS ISSUED FOR MAR AND 0 CONTRACTS ISSUED FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS) WHICH EXITED OUT OF THE SILVER COMEX TO LONDON AS FORWARDS THE DOMINANT FEATURE TODAY:/ AS WELL AS TODAY /HUGE BANKER SHORT COVERING AS THEY GET OUT OF DODGE//// WE HAVE A GOOD INITIAL SILVER OZ STANDING FOR JAN OF 10.505 MILLION OZ .. WE HAD STRONG SIZED GAIN OF 855 OI CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES FOR 4.275 MILLION OZ//

WE HAD 1554 NOTICES FILED TODAY FOR 7,770,000 OZ

GOLD//OUTLINE

IN GOLD, THE COMEX OPEN INTEREST ROSE BY A GOOD SIZED 3220 TO 508,368 , AND CLOSER TO OUR NEW RECORD (SET JAN 24/2020) AT 799,541 AND PREVIOUS TO THAT: (SET JAN 6/2020) AT 797,110.

THE DIFFERENTIAL FROM PRELIMINARY OI TO FINAL OI IN GOLD TODAY: -1382 CONTRACTS

THE GOOD SIZED INCREASE IN COMEX OI CAME WITH OUR GAIN IN PRICE OF $7.75//COMEX GOLD TRADING/THURSDAY/.AS IN SILVER WE MUST HAVE HAD HUGE BANKER/ALGO SHORT COVERING ACCOMPANYING OUR SMALL SIZED EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE. WE HAD ZERO LONG LIQUIDATION AS THE TOTAL GAIN ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES TOTALLED A GOOD SIZED 4770 CONTRACTS…

WE ALSO HAD A HUGE INITIAL STANDING IN GOLD TONNAGE FOR JAN AT 3.5614 TONNES

YET ALL OF..THIS HAPPENED WITH OUR GAIN IN PRICE OF $7.75 WITH RESPECT TO THURSDAY’S TRADING

WE HAD A GOOD SIZED GAIN OF 6152 OI CONTRACTS (19.135 PAPER TONNES) ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES

E.F.P. ISSUANCE

THE CME RELEASED THE DATA FOR EFP ISSUANCE AND IT TOTALLED A SMALL SIZED 1550 CONTRACTS:

FOR FEB 1550 ALL OTHER MONTHS ZERO//TOTAL: 1550

The NEW COMEX OI FOR THE GOLD COMPLEX RESTS AT 508,368.

IN ESSENCE WE HAVE A GOOD SIZED INCREASE IN TOTAL CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES OF 4770, WITH 3220 CONTRACTS INCREASED AT THE COMEX AND 1550 EFP OI CONTRACTS WHICH NAVIGATED OVER TO LONDON. THUS TOTAL OI GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES OF 4770 CONTRACTS OR 19.135 TONNES.

CALCULATIONS ON GAIN/LOSS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES

WE HAD A SMALL SIZED ISSUANCE IN EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS (1550) ACCOMPANYING THE GOOD SIZED GAIN IN COMEX OI (3220): TOTAL GAIN IN THE TWO EXCHANGES 4770 CONTRACTS. WE NO DOUBT HAD 1) HUGE BANKER SHORT COVERING ,2.) HUGE INITIAL STANDING AT THE GOLD COMEX FOR JAN. AT 3.5614 TONNES/. 3)ZERO LONG LIQUIDATION,4) GOOD SIZED COMEX OI. GAIN 5) SMALL ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL

SPREADING OPERATIONS

(/NOW SWITCHING TO GOLD) FOR NEWCOMERS, HERE ARE THE DETAILS

SPREADING LIQUIDATION HAS NOW COMMENCED AS WE HEAD TOWARDS THE NEW ACTIVE FRONT MONTH OF FEB.WE ARE NOW INTO THE SPREADING OPERATION OF GOLD

HERE IS A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF HOW THE CROOKS FLEECE UNSUSPECTING LONGS IN THE SPREADING ENDEAVOUR ;MODUS OPERANDI OF THE CORRUPT BANKERS AS TO HOW THEY HANDLE THEIR SPREAD OPEN INTERESTS:HERE IS HOW THE CROOKS USED SPREADING AS WE ARE NOW INTO THE NON ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF JAN HEADING TOWARDS THE ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF FEB, FOR GOLD:

YOU WILL ALSO NOTICE THAT THE COMEX OPEN INTEREST STARTS TO RISE BUT SO IS THE OPEN INTEREST OF SPREADERS. THE OPEN INTEREST IN WILL CONTINUE TO RISE UNTIL ONE WEEK BEFORE FIRST DAY NOTICE OF AN UPCOMING ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH (FEB), AND THAT IS WHEN THE CROOKS SELL THEIR SPREAD POSITIONS BUT NOT AT THE SAME TIME OF THE DAY. THEY WILL USE THE SELL SIDE OF THE EQUATION TO CREATE THE CASCADE (ALONG WITH THEIR COLLUSIVE FRIENDS) AND THEN COVER ON THE BUY SIDE OF THE SPREAD SITUATION AT THE END OF THE DAY. THEY DO THIS TO AVOID POSITION LIMIT DETECTION. THE LIQUIDATION OF THE SPREADING FORMATION CONTINUES FOR EXACTLY ONE WEEK AND ENDS ON FIRST DAY NOTICE.”

HISTORICAL ACCUMULATION OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS IN 2021 INCLUDING TODAY

DEC

ACCUMULATION OF EFP’S GOLD AT J.P. MORGAN’S HOUSE OF BRIBES: (EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL) FOR THE MONTH OF DEC : 46,658 CONTRACTS OR 4,665,800 oz OR 145.12 TONNES (23 TRADING DAY(S) AND THUS AVERAGING: 2028 EFP CONTRACTS PER TRADING DAY

TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA AS TO THE SIZE OF THESE EFP TRANSFERS : THIS MONTH IN 23 TRADING DAY(S) IN TONNES: 145.12 TONNES

TOTAL ANNUAL GOLD PRODUCTION, 2020, THROUGHOUT THE WORLD EX CHINA EX RUSSIA: 3555 TONNES

THUS EFP TRANSFERS REPRESENTS 145.12/3550 x 100% TONNES 4.08% OF GLOBAL ANNUAL PRODUCTION

ACCUMULATION OF GOLD EFP’S YEAR 2021 TO DATE

JANUARY: 265.26 TONNES (RAPIDLY INCREASING AGAIN)

FEB : 171.24 TONNES ( DEFINITELY SLOWING DOWN AGAIN)..

MARCH:. 276.50 TONNES (STRONG AGAIN/

APRIL: 189..44 TONNES ( DRAMATICALLY SLOWING DOWN AGAIN//GOLD IN BACKWARDATION)

MAY: 250.15 TONNES (NOW DRAMATICALLY INCREASING AGAIN)

JUNE: 247.54 TONNES (FINAL)

JULY: 188.73 TONNES FINAL

AUGUST: 217.89 TONNES FINAL ISSUANCE.

SEPT 142.12 TONNES FINAL ISSUANCE ( LOW ISSUANCE)_

OCT: 141.13 TONNES FINAL ISSUANCE (LOW ISSUANCE)

NOV: 312.46 TONNES FINAL ISSUANCE//NEW RECORD!! (INCREASING DRAMATICALLY)//SIGN OF REAL STRESS//SURPASSING THE MARCH 2021 RECORD OF 276.50 TONNES OF EFP

DEC. 145.12 TONNES//INITIAL ISSUANCE//

WHAT IS ALARMING TO ME, ACCORDING TO OUR LONDON EXPERT ANDREW MAGUIRE IS THAT THESE EFP’S ARE BEING TRANSFERRED TO WHAT ARE CALLED SERIAL FORWARD CONTRACT OBLIGATIONS AND THESE CONTRACTS ARE LESS THAN 14 DAYS. ANYTHING GREATER THAN 14 DAYS, THESE MUST BE RECORDED AND SENT TO THE COMPTROLLER, GREAT BRITAIN TO MONITOR RISK TO THE BANKING SYSTEM. IF THIS IS INDEED TRUE, THEN THIS IS A MASSIVE CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD AS WE NOW WITNESS A MONSTROUS TOTAL EFP’S ISSUANCE AS IT HEADS INTO THE STRATOSPHERE.

First, here is an outline of what will be discussed tonight:

1.Today, we had the open interest at the comex, in SILVER, ROSE BY A GOOD SIZED 430 CONTRACTS TO 140,368 AND CLOSER TO OUR COMEX RECORD //244,710(SET FEB 25/2020). THE LAST RECORDS WERE SET IN AUG.2018 AT 244,196 WITH A SILVER PRICE OF $14.78/(AUGUST 22/2018)..THE PREVIOUS RECORD TO THAT WAS SET ON APRIL 9/2018 AT 243,411 OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS WITH THE SILVER PRICE AT THAT DAY: $16.53). AND PREVIOUS TO THAT, THE RECORD WAS ESTABLISHED AT: 234,787 CONTRACTS, SET ON APRIL 21.2017 OVER 4 1/2 YEARS AGO.

EFP ISSUANCE 425 CONTRACTS

OUR CUSTOMARY MIGRATION OF COMEX LONGS CONTINUE TO MORPH INTO LONDON FORWARDS AS OUR BANKERS USED THEIR EMERGENCY PROCEDURE TO ISSUE:

MAR 425 ALL OTHER MONTHS: ZERO. TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 425 CONTRACTS. EFP’S GIVE OUR COMEX LONGS A FIAT BONUS PLUS A DELIVERABLE PRODUCT OVER IN LONDON. IF WE TAKE THE COMEX OI GAIN OF 430 CONTRACTS AND ADD TO THE 425 OI TRANSFERRED TO LONDON THROUGH EFP’S,

WE OBTAIN A STRONG SIZED GAIN OF 855 OPEN INTEREST CONTRACT FROM OUR TWO EXCHANGES.

THUS IN OUNCES, THE GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES 4.275 MILLION OZ,

OCCURRED WITH OUR $0.14 GAIN IN PRICE.

1/COMEX GOLD AND SILVER REPORT

(report Harvey)

2 ) Gold/silver trading overnight Europe,

(Peter Schiff,

3. Egon von Greyerz///Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com,

3. ASIAN AFFAIRS

i)FRIDAY MORNING THURSDAY NIGHT

SHANGHAI CLOSED UP 20.59 PTS OR 0.53% //Hang Sang CLOSED UP 285.66 PTS OR 1.24% /The Nikkei closed //Australia’s all ordinaires CLOSED DOWN 0.82% /Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) closed UP 6.3525 /Oil DOWN 75.74 dollars per barrel for WTI and UP TO 78.17 for Brent. Stocks in Europe OPENED ALL MIXED // ONSHORE YUAN CLOSED UP AT 6.3525 AGAINST THE DOLLAR. OFFSHORE YUAN CLOSED UP ON THE DOLLAR AT 6.3585: /ONSHORE YUAN TRADING ABOVE LEVEL OF OFFSHORE YUAN/ONSHORE YUAN TRADING STRONGER AGAINST USA DOLLAR/OFFSHORE YUAN TRADING STRONGER AGAINST THE DOLLAR /TRADE DEAL NOW DEAD..TRUMP RAISED RATES TO 25%

A)NORTH KOREA//USA/OUTLINE

b) REPORT ON JAPAN

OUTLINE

3 C CHINA

OUTLINE

4/EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

OUTLINE

5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

OUTLINE

6.Global Issues

OUTLINE

7. OIL ISSUES

OUTLINE

8 EMERGING MARKET ISSUES

COMEX DATA//AMOUNTS STANDING//VOLUME OF TRADING/INVENTORY MOVEMENTS

GOLD

LET US BEGIN:

THE TOTAL COMEX GOLD OPEN INTEREST ROSE BY A GOOD SIZED 3220 CONTRACTS AND CLOSER TO THE RECORD THAT WAS SET IN JANUARY/2020: {799,541 OI(SET JAN 16/2020)} AND PREVIOUS TO THAT: 797,110 (SET JAN 7/2020). AND THIS COMEX INCREASE OCCURRED WITH OUR GAIN OF $7.75 IN GOLD PRICING THURSDAY’S COMEX TRADING. WE ALSO HAD A SMALL EFP ISSUANCE (1550 CONTRACTS). . THEY WERE PAID HANDSOMELY NOT TO TAKE DELIVERY AT THE COMEX AND SETTLE FOR CASH. LOOKS LIKE OUR BANKERS ARE FINALLY BAILING OUT

WE NORMALLY HAVE WITNESSED EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS ISSUED BEING SMALL AS IT JUST TOO COSTLY FOR THEM TO CONTINUE SERVICING THE COSTS OF SERIAL FORWARDS CIRCULATING IN LONDON. HOWEVER, MUCH TO THE ANNOYANCE OF OUR BANKERS, THE COMEX IS THE SCENE OF AN ASSAULT ON GOLD AS LONDONERS, NOT BEING ABLE TO FIND ANY PHYSICAL ON THAT SIDE OF THE POND, EXERCISE THESE CIRCULATING EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS IN LONDON AND FORCING DELIVERY OF REAL METAL OVER HERE AS THE OBLIGATION STILL RESTS WITH NEW YORK BANKERS. IT SEEMS THAT ARE BANKERS FRIENDS ARE EXERCISING EFP’S FROM LONDON AND NOW THEY ARE LOATHE TO ISSUE NEW ONES.

EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE

WE ARE NOW MOVING TO THE ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF DEC.. THE CME REPORTS THAT THE BANKERS ISSUED A SMALL SIZED TRANSFER THROUGH THE EFP ROUTE AS THESE LONGS RECEIVED A DELIVERABLE LONDON FORWARD TOGETHER WITH A FIAT BONUS.,

THAT IS 1550 EFP CONTRACTS WERE ISSUED: ;: , DEC : 0 & FEB. 1550 & ZERO FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS:

TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 1550 CONTRACTS

WHEN WE HAVE BACKWARDATION, EFP ISSUANCE IS VERY COSTLY BUT THE REAL PROBLEM IS THE SCARCITY OF METAL AND IT IS FAR BETTER FOR OUR BANKERS TO PAY OFF INDIVIDUALS THAN RISK INVESTORS ESPECIALLY FROM LONDON STANDING FOR DELIVERY. THE LOWER PRICES IN THE FUTURES MARKET IS A MAGNET FOR OUR LONDONERS SEEKING PHYSICAL METAL. BACKWARDATION ALWAYS EQUAL SCARCITY OF METAL!

ON A NET BASIS IN OPEN INTEREST WE LOST THE FOLLOWING TODAY ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES: A GOOD SIZED 6152 TOTAL CONTRACTS IN THAT 1550 LONGS WERE TRANSFERRED AS FORWARDS TO LONDON AND WE HAD A GOOD SIZED COMEX OI OF 4602 CONTRACTS..

// WE HAVE A STRONG AMOUNT OF GOLD TONNAGE STANDING FOR JAN (3.5614),

HERE ARE THE AMOUNTS THAT STOOD FOR DELIVERY IN THE PRECEDING 12 MONTHS OF 2021:

DEC 2021: 112.217 TONNES

NOV. 8.074 TONNES

OCT. 57.707 TONNES

SEPT: 11.9160 TONNES

AUGUST: 80.489 TONNES

JULY: 7.2814 TONNES

JUNE: 72.289 TONNES

MAY 5.77 TONNES

APRIL 95.331 TONNES

MARCH 30.205 TONNES

FEB ’21. 113.424 TONNES

JAN ’21: 6.500 TONNES.

TOTAL SO FAR THIS YEAR (JAN- DEC): 601.213 TONNES

THE BANKERS WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN LOWERING GOLD’S PRICE //// (IT ROSE $7.75)

AND THEY WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN FLEECING ANY LONGS AS THE TOTAL GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES REGISTERED 14.836 TONNES, ACCOMPANYING OUR HUGE GOLD TONNAGE STANDING FOR JAN (3.5614 TONNES)…

WE HAD – 1382 CONTRACTS REMOVED FROM COMEX TRADES. THESE WERE REMOVED AFTER TRADING ENDED LAST NIGHT

NET GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES 4770 CONTRACTS OR 477,000 OZ OR 14.836 TONNES

Estimated gold volume today: 105,823 extremely poor

Confirmed volume on Friday: 123,694 contracts extremely poor

INITIAL STANDINGS FOR JAN ’22 COMEX GOLD DEC 31

Gold	Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers* Inventory in oz*	nil oz
Withdrawals from Customer* Inventory in oz*	6673.433 oz Brinks
Deposit to the Dealer* Inventory in oz*	nilOZ
Deposits to the Customer* Inventory, in oz*	nil
No of oz served (contracts) today	1045 notice(s)104,500 OZ 3.250 TONNES
No of oz to be served (notices)	100 contracts 10.000 oz 0.3110 TONNES
Total monthly oz gold served (contracts) so far this month	1045 notices 104,500 OZ 3.25 TONNES
Total accumulative withdrawals of gold from the Dealers* inventory this month*	NIL oz
Total accumulative withdrawal of gold from the Customer* inventory this month*	xxx oz

DEC 31 COMEX INVENTORY MOVEMENTS//AMOUNTS STANDING

For today:

No dealer deposit 0

No dealer withdrawal 0

No customer deposit 0

1 customer withdrawal

i) out of Brinks: 6673.433 oz

ADJUSTMENTS 0

CALCULATIONS FOR THE AMOUNT OF GOLD STANDING FOR JANUARY.

For the front month of JANUARY we have an oi of 1145 stand for JANUARY.

Thus by definition, the initial amount of gold standing for January is as follows;

1145 notices x 100 oz per notice = 114500 oz or 3.250 tonnes

FEBRUARY GAINED 1764 CONTRACTS TO 379,242

March has yet to initiate any contracts as of yet.

We had 1045 notice(s) filed today for 104,500 oz FOR THE JAN 2022 CONTRACT MONTH

Today, 0 notice(s) were issued from J.P.Morgan dealer account and 1045 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 1045 contract(s) of which 0 notices were stopped (received) by j.P. Morgan dealer and 98 notice(s) was (were) stopped/ Received) by J.P.Morgan//customer account and 0 notice(s) received (stopped) by the squid (Goldman Sachs)

To calculate the INITIAL total number of gold ounces standing for the JAN /2021. contract month,

we take the total number of notices filed so far for the month (1045) x 100 oz , to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of (JAN: 1145 CONTRACTS ) minus the number of notices served upon today 1045 x 100 oz per contract equals 114,500 OZ OR 3.5614 TONNES the number of TONNES standing in this NON active month of JAN.

thus the INITIAL standings for gold for the JAN contract month:

No of notices filed so far (1045) x 100 oz+ (1145) OI for the front month minus the number of notices served upon today (1045} x 100 oz} which equals 114,500 oz standing OR 3.5614 TONNES in this NON active delivery month of JAN.

TOTAL COMEX GOLD STANDING: 3.5614 TONNES (VERY STRONG FOR A JANUARY DELIVERY MONTH)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

COMEX GOLD INVENTORIES/CLASSIFICATION

NEW PLEDGED GOLD:

206,468.649, oz NOW PLEDGED /HSBC 6.42 TONNES

174,041.813 PLEDGED MANFRA 5.41 TONNES

54,339.114oz PLEDGED JPMorgan no 1 1.690

288,481,604, oz JPM No 2 8.97 TONNES

698,821.330 oz pledged June 12/2020 Brinks/27,96 TONNES

12,244.444 oz International Delaware: 0..3808 tonne

Loomis: 18,615.429 oz

total pledged gold: 1,653,017.372oz 51.42 tonnes

TOTAL REGISTERED AND ELIZ GOLD AT THE COMEX: 33,805,206.506 OZ (1051.48 TONNES)

TOTAL ELIGIBLE GOLD: 16,125,612.792 OZ (501.57 tonnes)

TOTAL OF ALL REGISTERED GOLD: 17,679,593.104 OZ (549.909 tonnes)

REGISTERED GOLD THAT CAN BE SERVED UPON: 16,026,574,0 OZ (REG GOLD- PLEDGED GOLD) 498.49 tonnes

END

SILVER COMEX DEC 31/2021

JANUARY 2022 CONTRACT MONTH

INITIAL STANDING FOR SILVER//DEC 31/2021

Silver	Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers* Inventory*	NIL oz
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory	18,705.784 oz Delaware CNT
Deposits to the Dealer* Inventory*	nilOZ
Deposits to the Customer Inventory	nil oz
No of oz served today (contracts)	1554 CONTRACT(S) 7,770,000 OZ)
No of oz to be served (notices)	547 contracts (2,735,000 oz)
Total monthly oz silver served (contracts)	7770 contracts 7,770,000 oz)
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Dealers* inventory this month*	NIL oz
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Customer* inventory this month*

And now for the wild silver comex results

we had 0 deposits into the dealer

total dealer deposits: nil oz

i) We had 0 dealer withdrawal

total dealer withdrawals: nil oz

We had 0 deposit to the customer account:

JPMorgan has a total silver weight: 184.663 million oz/355.703 million =51.89% of comex

ii) Comex withdrawals:

a) Delaware 8816.683 oz

b) CNT: 9889.100 oz

total withdrawal 18,705.785 oz

we had 1 adjustments dealer to customer:1) Brinks 5,037.690 oz

the silver comex is in stress!

TOTAL REGISTERED SILVER: 82.241 MILLION OZ

TOTAL REG + ELIG. 355.722 MILLION OZ

TOTAL NO OF CONTRACTS SERVED UPON THIS MONTH: 9019 CONTRACTS FOR 45,095,000 OZ

CALCULATION OF SILVER OZ STANDING FOR DECEMBER

JANUARY LOST122 CONTRACTS TO STAND AT 2101

FEBRUARY GAINED 40 CONTRACTS TO STAND AT 296

MARCH: GAINED 339 CONTRACTS TO 115,853

NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED TODAY: 38 NOTICES OR 700,000 OZ

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

silver open interest data:

Total oi for the silver complex: 140,457 contracts GAINING 430 contracts on the day

FRONT MONTH OF JAN OI: 2101 CONTRACTS LOSING 122 contracts on the day.

TOTAL NO OF CONTRACTS SERVED UPON THIS MONTH: 1554 CONTRACTS FOR 7,770,000 OZ

Comex volumes: 30,101 poor (est. today)

Comex volume: confirmed YESTERDAY: 32,428 contracts (poor)

To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in JANUARY. we take the total number of notices filed for the month so far at 1554 x 5,000 oz =. 7,770,000 oz

to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of JAN (2101) and the number of notices served upon today 1554 x (5000 oz) equals the number of ounces standing.

Thus the standings for silver for the JAN./2021 contract month: 1554 (notices served so far) x 5000 oz + OI for front month of JAN (2101) – number of notices served upon today (1554) x 5000 oz of silver standing for the JAN contract month equates 10,505,000 oz. .

the record level of silver open interest is 234,787 contracts set on April 21./2017 with the price on that day at $18.42. The previous record was 224,540 contracts with the price at that time of $20.44

END

GLD AND SLV INVENTORY LEVELS:

GLD

DEC 31/WITH GOLD UP $14.05 : NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 975.66 TONNES

DEC 30/WITH GOLD UP $7.75 NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 975.66 TONNES

DEC 29/WITH GOLD DOWN $5.00 TODAY:HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 2.03 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 975.66 TONNES

DEC 28/WITH GOLD UP $2.00 TODAY; NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 973.63 TONNES

DEC 27/WITH GOLD DOWN $2.05: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 973.63 TONNES.

DEC 23/WITH GOLD UP $9.85 TODAY//A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 4.94 TONNES FROM THE GLD/// INVENTORY RESTS AT 973.63 TONNES

DEC 22/WITH GOLD UP $12.85 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 978.57 TONNES

DEC 21/WITH GOLD DOWN $7.05 TODAY, NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 978.57 TONNES

DEC 20/WITH GOLD DOWN $9.65 TODAY; A BIG CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 1.37 TONNES INTO THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 977.20 TONNES

DEC 17/WITH GOLD UP $7.05 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 977.20 TONNES

DEC 16/WITH GOLD UP $33.05TODAY; A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 3.4 TONNES FROM THE GLD////INVENTORY REST AT: 977.20 TONNES

DEC15/WITH GOLD DOWN $7.80 TODAY/ A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.04 TONNES FROM THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 980.60 TONNES.

DEC 14/WITH GOLD DOWN $18.00 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 982.64 TONNES

DEC 13/WITH GOLD UP $3.20 TODAY/NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 982.64 TONNES

DEC 10.WITH GOLD UP $7.30 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 982.64 TONNES

DEC 9/WITH GOLD DOWN $9.10 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 982.64.

DEC 8/WITH GOLD UP $5.50 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 984.38 TONNES

DEC 7/WITH GOLD UP $5.15 TODAY; A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.74 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 984.38 TONNES

DEC 6/WITH GOLD DOWN $3.90 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 986.17 TONNES//

DEC 3/WITH GOLD UP $20.35 TODAY; A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 3.85 TONNES FROM THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 986.17 TONNES

DEC 2/WITH GOLD DOWN $19.80 TODAY; A HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.83 TONNES FROM THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 990.82 TONNES

DEC 1/WITH GOLD UP $7.05 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 992.85 TONNES

NOV 30/WITH GOLD DOWN $8.70 TODAY; NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESS AT 992.85 TONNES.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Inventory rests tonight at:

DEC 31/ GLD INVENTORY 975.66 tonnes

SLV

Now the SLV Inventory/( vehicle is a fraud as there is no physical metal behind them

DEC 31/WITH SILVER UP 29 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 533.057 MILLION OZ//

DEC30/WITH SILVER UP 14 CENTS TODAY; HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A HUGE WITHDRAWAL OF 4.624 MILLILON OZ FROM THE SLV.//INVENTORY RESTS AT 533.057 MILLION OZ//

DEC 29/WITH SILVER DOWN 22 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 537.681 MILLION OZ/

DEC 28/WITH SILVER UP 9 CENTS TODAY; A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.682 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 537.681 MILLION OZ//

DEC 27/WITH SILVER UP 6 CENTS TODAY NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 537.681

DEC 23/WITH SILVER UP 19 CENTS TODAY:A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.202 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV///INVENTORY RESTS AT 537.681 MILLION OZ//

DEC 22/WITH SILVER UP 29 CENTS TODAY; A HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.202 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 538.883 MILLION OZ/

DEC 21/WITH SILVER UP 19 CENTS: A BIG CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 2.728 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV///INVENTORY RESTS AT 540.085 MILLION OZ

DEC 20/WITH SILVER DOWN 22 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 538.282 MILLION OZ

DEC 17/WITH SILVER UP 9 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 538.282 MILLION OZ//

DEC 16/WITH SILVER UP 91 CENTS TODAY; A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV// A WITHDRAWAL OF 3.33 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV//INVENTORY REST AT 538.282 MILLION OZ

DEC 15WITH SILVER DOWN 38 CENTS TODAY; A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.48 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV///INVENTORY RESTS AT 541.612 MILLION OZ

DEC 14/WITH SILVER DOWN 38 CENTS TODAY; NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 543.092 MILLION OZ

DEC 13/WITH SILVER UP 11 CENTS TODAY; A HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV:A WITHDRAWAL OF 3.561 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 543.092 MILLION OZ//

DEC 10.WITH SILVER UP 19 CENTS TODAY; NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 546.653 MILLION OZ..

DEC 9/WITH SILVER DOWN 43 CENTS TODAY; A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV// A DEPOSIT OF 2.96 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV///INVENTORY RESTS AT 546.653 MILLION OZ/

DEC 8/WITH SILVER DOWN 7 CENTS TODAY; NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 543.693 MILLION OZ///

DEC 7/WITH SILVER UP 24 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 543.693 MILLION OZ..

DEC 6/WITH SILVER DOWN 25 CENTS TODAY; A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.110 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV///INVENTORY RESTS AT 543.693 MILLION OZ//

DEC 3/WITH SILVER UP 21 CENTS TODAY; A BIG CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV:A WITHDRAWAL OF 3.199 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 544.803 MILLION OZ//

DEC 2/WITH SILVER DOWN 6 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 548.002 MILLION OZ.

DECM 1/WITH SILVER DOWN 44 CENTS TODAY: A SMALL CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 740,000 OZ FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 548.002 MILLION OZ//

NOV 30/WITH SILVER DOWN 3 CENTS TODAY; A SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV// A WITHDRAWAL OF .555 MILLION OZ FORM THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 548.742 MILLION OZ///

CLOSING INVENTORY: 533.057 MILLION OZ//

PHYSICAL GOLD/SILVER STORIES

PETER SCHIFF

end

LAWRIE WILLIAM//,//Egon von Greyerz///Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com,James RICKARDS

END

Important gold commentaries courtesy of GATA/Chris Powell

Ted Butler…

The following is extremely important.

Ted Butler is now reporting from the once of month OCC report that the Bank of America is short 800 million oz of silver. They basically leased silver from the SLV who also received their silver leased to them from

JPMorgan. The SLV’s silver will at one point have to come back to JPMorgan. But the real problem is Bank of America: they have no way to repay the lease of 800 million oz of silver which has been sold into the market place.

Bank of America will have a problem as with Basel iii where is no liability for naked short silver. The fun begins in 2022

(Ted Butler/GATA)

Ted Butler: Bank of America’s silver short position is even larger than he thought

Submitted by admin on Thu, 2021-12-30 22:30 Section: Daily Dispatches

10:36p ET Thursday, December 30, 2021

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Following up today on his commentary earlier this week on the latest gold and silver derivatives report from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, silver market analyst Ted Butler suggests that Bank of America may have sold short as many as 800 million ounces of silver.

Such an amount, Butler notes, probably can’t be repaid in any practical sense, and if the silver price rises, the bank would lose billions of dollars.

Butler candidly acknowledges the suspicions of others that no bank would undertake such fantastic positions for its own book and that Bank of America’s silver short position is actually a U.S. government position. He writes that “proof is lacking” for such suspicion.

Maybe proof is lacking that the U.S. government is rigging the gold and silver markets this week, but there is much proof that the government has been rigging them as a matter of policy for more than 50 years:

https://gata.org/node/20925

And if the government is not rigging the gold and silver markets this week as well, maybe Butler can explain why the U.S. Commodity Futures Commission, which he has often properly criticized, repeatedly refuses to answer two crucial questions about market rigging, even when those questions are posted by a member of Congress:

— Does the commission have jurisdiction over market manipulation by entities trading for or at the behest of the U.S. government, or is manipulative trading in the government’s name perfectly legal?

— Is the commission aware of trading in the gold and silver markets undertaken by or at the behest of the government?

Butler’s analysis tonight is headlined “More Serious Than I Thought” and it’s posted at Goldseek’s companion site, SilverSeek, here:

https://silverseek.com/article/more-serious-i-thought

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

More Serious Than I Thought

December 30, 2021

Ted Butler

I’m taking the unusual step of publishing a follow up article to my recently posted public article on the recent stunning OCC derivatives report. What prompts this more serious turn on my part was a question from a reader of my public article who asked me if I thought he should transfer the securities he held at his Merrill Lynch brokerage account to another broker, seeing as Merrill is owned by Bank of America. I responded initially that I doubted that the banking authorities would ever let BofA go under since it was clearly in the too big to fail category. After a few moments I wrote back to the reader suggesting that he send my article and ask whoever was his contact at Merrill what they thought. I haven’t heard anything since then.

To be sure, the very last thing I would ever intend is to overly inflame the findings in the OCC report to the point of screaming fire in a crowded theater in an attempt to overly-sensationalize anything. That said, I am increasingly concerned about this matter for a number of reasons. For one thing, believe it or not, I may have been too conservative in stating the case to date. Included in the public article is a reference to another public article I wrote on this matter back in April, when Bank of America first showed up in full force in the OCC report.

https://silverseek.com/article/new-piece-puzzle

I had speculated roughly a year earlier on the occasion of 300 million ounces of silver being deposited into the silver ETFs (primarily SLV) that my guess was that the physical metal inflow was the result of JPMorgan leasing the silver to an unnamed third party (or parties). When the OCC report for Dec 31, 2020 came out (released at the end of March 2021), since the $8.3 billion suddenly reported for Bank of America, when divided by silver’s yearend closing price of $26.50, equaled 300 million oz, it was a confirmation of my original speculation closer than I could have ever imagined.

Here’s the problem – when using that same formula – dividing the Sep 30 holdings of BofA of $18.3 billion in the new OCC report by the $22.20 closing price of silver that day, the result is more than 800 million oz and not the 500 million oz stated by me on Sunday and in yesterday’s public article. I confess to using the 500 million oz amount because 800 million oz sounded “too high” to me and I reasoned that maybe some platinum and palladium was in the $18.3 billion figure listed in the OCC report. But who the heck am I to make such allowances? I didn’t make such allowances when BofA’s holdings were $8.3 billion as of Dec 30 and I can’t come up with any good reasons to do so now.

So, if there aren’t significant platinum and palladium derivatives in BofA’s derivative holdings in the new OCC report – and I have no reason to suppose there are – then BofA appears to have leased and sold short 800 million oz of silver, not the 500 million oz stated by me earlier. That’s equal to a full year’s mine production and last I looked; Bank of America doesn’t produce any silver – so what the heck is it doing selling short such an enormous amount?

As to why BofA would do such a thing, I have already concluded it was largely out of stupidity – primarily because precious metal leasing is inherently stupid and illegitimate. For the record, precious metals leasing is nothing more or less than the borrowing of physical metal followed immediately by the short sale of that same metal – exactly the same as short selling in stocks.

But I have a separate explanation for why BofA would have “doubled-down” and dramatically increased its stupid and manipulative silver leasing/short selling bet from 300 million oz to as much as 800 million oz.

The first 300 million oz tranche was leased/sold short at roughly $18/oz. At last year’s close of $26.50, BofA was out (in the hole for) $2.5 billion. By borrowing an additional 500 million oz at, say $26 (slightly above the average silver price for 2021), at $23 (close to the current price), the total combined 800 million oz short position is roughly now even on a strict mark to market basis – much better than the $2.5 billion open loss at yearend 2020. I wouldn’t be surprised if the head honcho’s at BofA rewarded themselves big bonuses for this performance.

The real problem is that BofA may now be short 800 million oz of physical silver without a chance of ever being able to pay that silver back, except at much higher prices – as it must do someday. At least, that’s the way I see it – based upon public data from the US Treasury Department and my knowledge of how nutty are these precious metals loans. In fact, I’ve been there and done that (and got the T-shirt) some 25 years ago with precious metals loans and watched gold mining companies like Barrick and AngloGold lose tens of billions of dollars, while silver miners like Pasminco and Apex went bankrupt – all because they ignored warnings of how dangerous and stupid was borrowing and shorting gold and silver by leasing.

Now, the whole nightmare (for those doing the borrowing) has reappeared, only instead of mining companies being on the hook, a major US bank, Bank of America, appears to be on the hook. Forget for a moment that this is incredibly bullish for silver going forward, just as it was when gold was under $300 and silver at under $5 at the peak of metals leasing 25 years ago, my point today is different. What could I say to someone concerned about Bank of America getting into real financial trouble when silver soars in price?

It shouldn’t be up to me to answer. Perhaps I’m all wet and dead wrong and Bank of America hasn’t done what the evidence in the Treasury Dept’s OCC report says it has done and there’s another completely different explanation to the published data than what I contend. In that case, shouldn’t we hear forthwith from those responsible for such things – including the Treasury Dept, and every other related regulator (SEC and CFTC), and particularly, Bank of America (and Merrill Lynch)? Shouldn’t all of them explain why none of this is of any real concern?

The seriousness of this issue is rooted in the scale of the numbers. If Bank of America is short 800 million oz of silver, as the data in the OCC report strongly suggests, then that means every dollar higher in the price of silver translated into an $800 million open (unrealized) loss. Every $10 move equates to an $8 billion loss. A hundred dollar move higher from here equates to an $80 billion loss. Can BofA fund such losses or will taxpayers be called upon to bail the bank out? Even the slightest hint of such a development should be enough to require immediate clarification from the regulators and BofA and there’s a lot more than the slightest hint in the OCC report.

The last thing I would ever intend to do is to disseminate false and misleading information, but I have to tell you that I am deeply concerned by all this. And I hope I’m wrong about all this and there is some other explanation and if there is, I promise to admit to same and acknowledge that alternative explanation. However, all of this is eerily reminiscent of my complaints about leasing decades ago which were brushed aside by those who should have known better.

Ted Butler Commentary

If you have an account at Merrill Lynch or Bank of America and share my concerns, please feel free to ask them about this and send them anything I’ve written – likewise with the regulators or anyone you can think of. I’m not in the business of sensationalizing or providing false information and desire very much to put this matter to rest.

As far as a yearend review, that seems rather beside the point now, but, in fact, I just gave you the actual review of silver over the past two years. The entire explanation for why silver has behaved as it has pricewise over this time is a combination of what transpired in COMEX futures positioning and as a result of Bank of America first borrowing and then selling short (dumping) that physical metal on the market. Everything else pales in comparison. As far as what happens from here, that is also exclusively dependent on paper trading on the COMEX and what BofA does next. I must say, however, I can’t conceive how it can borrow any more physical silver with which to sell short.

Finally, I know that many believe that it is the US Government behind the silver (and gold) manipulation, although definitive proof is lacking either that it is or isn’t. I’ve remained a skeptic about USG involvement (other than it being more than complicit in allowing it to continue), but I’m not dogmatic about it. Looking back at the past disastrous experience with precious metals leasing/short selling two decades ago, it wasn’t a case of the US or other world governments running the fraud; the central banks were duped (along with the mining companies) by the Wall Street rocket scientists who concocted the fraud.

Most relevant of all, of course, is whether a manipulation exists, rather than who is behind it. Still, if the US Government is behind the manipulation, then why in the world would they allow the US Treasury Dept to publish data pointing to that conclusion and risk exposing the observations I’ve made? Had the data on Bank of America not been published in the OCC report, I never could have raised the issue.

Ted Butler

OTHER COMMODITIES/LUMBER

END

CRYPTOCURRENCIES/

END

Your early currency/gold and silver pricing/Asian and European bourse movements/ and interest rate settings FRIDAY morning 7:30 AM

ONSHORE YUAN: 6.3525

OFFSHORE YUAN: 6.3581

HANG SANG CLOSED UP 285.66 PTS OR 1.24%

2. Nikkei closed DOWN 115.17 PTS OR 0.40%

3. Europe stocks ALL MIXED

USA dollar INDEX DOWN TO 95.95/Euro FALLS TO 1.1319-

3b Japan 10 YR bond yield: RISES TO. +.072/ !!!!(Japan buying 100% of bond issuance)/Japanese yen vs usa cross now at 115.14/ THIS IS TROUBLESOME AS BANK OF JAPAN IS RUNNING OUT OF BONDS TO BUY./JAPAN 10 YR YIELD IS NOW TARGETED AT .11%/JAPAN LOSING CONTROL OF THEIR BOND MARKET//

3c Nikkei now ABOVE 17,000

3d USA/Yen rate now well below the important 120 barrier this morning

3e WTI:: 75.74 and Brent: 78.17-

3f Gold UP/JAPANESE Yen DOWN CHINESE YUAN: ON -SHORE CLOSED UP// OFF- SHORE UP

3g Japan is to buy the equivalent of 108 billion uSA dollars worth of bond per month or $1.3 trillion. Japan’s GDP equals 5 trillion usa./“HELICOPTER MONEY” OFF THE TABLE FOR NOW /REVERSE OPERATION TWIST ON THE BONDS: PURCHASE OF LONG BONDS AND SELLING THE SHORT END

Japan to buy 100% of all new Japanese debt and by 2018 they will have 25% of all Japanese debt. Fifty percent of Japanese budget financed with debt.

3h Oil DOWN for WTI and DOWN FOR Brent this morning

3i European bond buying continues to push yields lower on all fronts in the EMU. German 10yr bund RISES TO -.0.177%/Italian 10 Yr bond yield RISES to 1.18% /SPAIN 10 YR BOND YIELD RISES TO 0.57%…ITALIAN 10 YR BOND YIELD/GERMAN BUND: 1.36: DANGEROUS FOR THE ITALIAN BANKING SYSTEM

3j Greek 10 year bond yield FALLS TO : 1.32

3k Gold at $1827.40 silver at: 23.23 7 am est) SILVER NEXT RESISTANCE LEVEL AT $30.00

3l USA vs Russian rouble; (Russian rouble DOWN 77/100 in roubles/dollar) 75.24

3m oil into the 75 dollar handle for WTI and 78 handle for Brent/

3n Higher foreign deposits out of China sees huge risk of outflows and a currency depreciation. This can spell financial disaster for the rest of the world/

JAPAN ON JAN 29.2016 INITIATES NIRP. THIS MORNING THEY SIGNAL THEY MAY END NIRP. TODAY THE USA/YEN TRADES TO 115.14 DESTROYING JAPANESE CITIZENS WITH HIGHER FOOD INFLATION

30 SNB (Swiss National Bank) still intervening again in the markets driving down the FRANC. It is not working: USA/SF this morning .9124 as the Swiss Franc is still rising against most currencies. Euro vs SF 1.0323 well above the floor set by the Swiss Finance Minister. Thomas Jordan, chief of the Swiss National Bank continues to purchase euros trying to lower value of the Swiss Franc.

USA 10 YR BOND YIELD: 1.505 DOWN 1 BASIS PTS

USA 30 YR BOND YIELD: 1.914 DOWN 1 BASIS PTS

USA DOLLAR VS TURKISH LIRA: 13.44

Futures Dip On Last Trading Day Of Blockbuster Year For Markets

FRIDAY, DEC 31, 2021 – 07:54 AM

US stock futures edged lower and global markets – at least those that were open – dipped in thin trading on the final session of 2021 as concerns about the fast-spreading omicron variant let some air out of what has been a solid Santa rally to end a year of strong gains: after a 27% gain for the S&P 500 Index this year, fueled by a recovery from the coronavirus-induced slump, investors are assessing the impact of covid with new cases globally exceeding a record 2 million for the first time since the pandemic began. Also in focus is easing concern about a standoff between the U.S. and Russia after the latter expressed satisfaction with the outcome of a phone call between the countries’ presidents about Ukraine. Oil prices retreated from $80 a barrel following their biggest annual gain since 2009, the 10-year Treasury yield dropped to 1.5% and the dollar, which had its best year since 2015 with a 6.7% rise , was steady against most major currencies.

With several markets in Asia and Europe closed on Friday, trading volumes were thin and most markets directionless. At 730am, S&P emini futures were down 8 points or -0.17%, Nasdaq futures were down 40 points or 0.25% and Dow futures were also down 94 points, or 0.26%.

While activity was thin, there were some notable US pre-market movers today:

Fathom Digital (FATH) soared 45% after bullish posts on Reddit about the maker of on-demand digital manufacturing platforms.
Some cryptocurrency-exposed stocks rise in U.S. premarket trading on Friday as Bitcoin advances for a second day, paring its biggest monthly drop since May. Marathon Digital (MARA) +2.9%, Riot Blockchain (RIOT) +1.9%, Bit Digital (BTBT) +3.5%.
Xeris Biopharma (XERS) shares gain 18% after the company said the U.S FDA approved Recorlev for treating endogenous hypercortisolemia in some patients. The risk-reward is attractive, according to Piper Sandler.
Tesla (TSLA) dropped again in pre-market trading after a 475,000 vehicle recall.

In the latest Omicron news, a growing number of countries are reporting record daily cases of COVID-19 because of the Omicron variant, and New Year celebrations were being scaled back by uncertainty about the spread of the virus. But after initially tumbling in December, stocks have recovered over the holiday period as investors became reassured economies could handle the surge in Omicron cases, and are heading back towards record highs.

“As far as COVID is concerned, for now, market participants may stay willing to add to their risk exposures, and perhaps push equity indices to new highs, as several nations around the globe held off from imposing fresh lockdowns, despite record infections around the globe the last few days,” said Charalambos Pissouros, head of research at Cyprus-based brokerage JFD Group.

Investors have held on to the resilience of the global recovery into 2022 and the prospect of further gains if money remains cheap and corporate profitability so high. This year’s “everything rally” has seen a wall of cheap central bank cash, government stimulus and strong economic rebounds out of the pandemic make it hard not to profit from soaring asset prices.

“As we look forward to 2022 the gains are probably going to be more modest than they’ve been in the past year or so” partly given where valuations are now, Jason Pride, chief investment officer for private wealth at Glenmede, said on Bloomberg Television. But there’s reason for optimism too since “we’re still in the recovery from the pandemic,” he said.

The spotlight was also on talks by telephone between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin said Putin was satisfied with the outcome of the discussions. The U.S. and its allies have raised alarm over a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The MSCI World Index was marginally higher and remains just 0.5% off record levels. The index has surged 17% in 2021, its third consecutive year of double-digit gains.

With most European markets closed or shutting down early on Friday, trading was thin as investors drew a line under a strong year for global equities as economies recovered from the pandemic. Emerging markets and Asian benchmarks lagged, partly due to China’s ongoing regulatory pressures and slowing economy. Bond investors are nursing losses as many central banks move toward tighter monetary settings to fight inflation. How the coronavirus and those policy shifts shape economic reopening are key for the outlook.

European equities fell in thin trading, with many major markets on the continent closed. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index dropped 0.2%, hovering close to a record close after advancing more than 22% this year, with trading volume about 86% lower than of the 30-day average as markets including Germany, Spain and Italy were closed. In the U.K., the FTSE Index fell 0.5%, while France’s CAC 40 Index also declined 0.5%.

The Stoxx 600 advanced more than 22% in 2021, on track for a seventh consecutive quarters of gains, the longest winning streak since 1998. European equities are hovering near a record, up about 75% from a pandemic low in March 2020, on the back of an unprecedented stimulus and a successful vaccination campaign against the coronavirus, which allowed economic activity to resume despite periodic flare ups in infections. Looking at the year ahead, Christophe Barraud, chief economist at Market Securities LLP in Paris, sees headwinds building up for European stocks, as the spread of omicron brings back restrictions, the economy slows and monetary policy support wanes.

“On the positive side, earnings could hit fresh record highs as nominal growth will remain strong, real rates are expected to remain low (TINA effect) and companies will still focus on buybacks and dividends,” he said.

Earlier in the session, Asian stocks gains as low liquidity and short-covering coupled up to boost Chinese technology shares that dragged the regional benchmark down this year. A rally in Hong Kong tech names followed a surge in U.S.-listed Chinese shares. The Hang Seng Tech Index rose 3.6%, while Chinese shares overall advanced. Those moves came in the wake of the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index’s biggest one-day jump Thursday since 2008, though it’s still down more than 40% for 2021.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced as much as 0.5% in 2021’s last trading session, with Alibaba and Tencent the biggest contributors to gains as investors snapped up China’s battered internet giants. The Hang Seng Tech Index rose 3.6%, while Hong Kong’s benchmark gauges led advances around the region in a shortened trading day.

“The fundamentals and regulatory environment haven’t changed,” said He Qi, a portfolio manager at Huatai Pinebridge Fund Management. “We need to monitor any news on the regulations and China-U.S. tensions in the new year” to decide whether China tech’s gains can continue, he added. MSCI’s Asian index is still set to clock an annual loss of more than 3%, underperforming the MSCI AC World Index by about 20 percentage points, the biggest gap since 1997. While measures in Vietnam and India surged the most this year, up about 36% and 24%, respectively, Chinese stocks dragged the regional gauge lower. The Philippine stock index was the biggest decliner in the region Friday, sliding nearly 3% as the Southeast Asian nation held back from further easing of mobility curbs amid rising Covid-19 cases. Japan, South Korea and Taiwan were among markets that were closed for year-end holidays.

The latest data showed China’s manufacturing sector continued to expand in December, providing some relief to Beijing as the world’s second-largest economy continues to struggle with a property market slump. Less positively, Hong Kong may be facing an omicron virus-strain cluster. The city’s stock market shut early and Japan is among those closed ahead of the New Year.

Traders are continuing to monitor China’s struggling property developers. A Chinese state-owned enterprise will take a 29% stake in China South City Holdings Ltd., in the latest sign of the authorities stepping up support for ailing real-estate firms.

In rates, Treasuries are little changed on light volume, edging higher amid weakness in U.S. equity futures on year’s last day. Yields are lower by less than 1bp across the curve, with the 10-year little changed at ~1.50%, below the 50-DMA that was breached to the upside Wednesday for first time this month. Except in auction sectors (2-, 5- and 7-year) yields are little changed on the week, higher on the month in which Fed announced a faster pace of asset-purchase tapering beginning in January and revised dot- plot of forecasts for fed funds target pointing to three hikes in 2022 and 2023

Despite heading for first annual loss since 2013, U.S. government debt has benefited as a hedge for stocks at record highs. SIFMA recommends a 2pm ET close for fixed income markets, and month-end Treasury index rebalancing at 1pm is estimated to extend its duration by 0.07yr, which may support the market.

On the last day of the year, Brent crude futures dropped 0.8% to $78.87 a barrel and U.S. crude oil weakened 0.94% $76.27 a barrel. Despite this weakness, commodity prices have enjoyed a strong year, with supply often falling short of a jump in demand as economies reopened and both Brent and WTI are up more than 50% in 2021, their biggest gains since 2009, spurred by the global economic recovery and producer restraint

In FX, the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index dropped 0.1%, trimming an almost 5% advance this year, the biggest since 2015; the Australian and New Zealand dollars outperformed peers as China PMI bolstered risk appetite, rising 0.2%. The euro, which has dropped 7.4% this year as investors bet the European Central Bank would be slower to end pandemic-era stimulus than rival central banks, rose 0.1% to hold above $1.13 . Japan’s yen, which has lost more than 11% to the dollar in 2021, dipped slightly again to 115.1 yen per dollar – not far from four-year lows touched earlier this month. Sterling was little changed against the dollar and the euro .The pound remains down for the year against the dollar but looks set for its best year since 2014 versus the euro. On Friday it rose to as high as 83.69 pence, its strongest since February 2020.

Elsewhere in currency markets, Turkey’s lira – by far the biggest currency loser in 2021 – fell for a fifth straight day. Turkey again tweaked the price-fixing method used to measure the returns of lira-protected deposits, less than two weeks after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the new instrument as part of efforts to shore up the weakening currency. Under new guidelines issued by the central bank, the so-called conversion rate will be set using foreign-exchange buying rates announced six times a day instead of once a day. The rate is used to measure the lira’s level against major currencies at the opening date of new accounts. By all accounts, it appears that Turkey is making it up as it goes along, and after the initial monster squeeze in the lira, cracks are reappearing as shorts return to what has been the worst performing currency of the year.

Crytocurrency prices rose, reversing some of their losses earlier in the week. Bitcoin added 2% to $48,091 and Ether gained a similar amount to $3,778

There is no economic data on today’s calendar.

Market snapshot

S&P 500 futures down 0.1% to 4,767.00
STOXX Europe 600 down 0.1% to 488.19
MXAP up 0.5% to 193.28
MXAPJ up 0.7% to 630.38
Nikkei down 0.4% to 28,791.71
Topix down 0.3% to 1,992.33
Hang Seng Index up 1.2% to 23,397.67
Shanghai Composite up 0.6% to 3,639.78
Sensex up 0.8% to 58,235.68
Australia S&P/ASX 200 down 0.9% to 7,444.64
Kospi down 0.5% to 2,977.65
Brent futures down 0.2% to $79.14/bbl
Gold spot up 0.2% to $1,819.08
U.S. Dollar Index little changed at 95.92
Euro little changed at $1.1332

Top Overnight News from Bloomberg

China’s manufacturing sector continued to expand in December, providing some relief to Beijing as the world’s second-largest economy continues to struggle with the ongoing property market slump.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is satisfied with the outcome of talks with U.S. President Joe Biden, which set the stage for three sets of negotiations on European security next month, the Kremlin said after a 50-minute call between the two leaders
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is offering employees the option of working from home in the opening weeks of 2022, and Citigroup Inc. is encouraging staff to log on remotely
South Korea’s inflation topped 3% for a third straight month in December, as still-high commodity prices, ongoing supply issues and resilient domestic demand all worked to lift consumer prices

3. ASIAN AFFAIRS

i)FRIDAY MORNING THURSDAY NIGHT

3 a./NORTH KOREA/ SOUTH KOREA

///SOUTH KOREA

END

3B JAPAN

end

3c CHINA

CHINA/XI’AN

The beautiful city (and historic) of Xi’an is paralyzed as body is allowed to go onto the streets to buy groceries

(zerohedge)

Xi’an Paralyzes By Panic As Millions Struggle To Buy Groceries

THURSDAY, DEC 30, 2021 – 07:20 PM

As the lockdown in Xi’an continues through its second week, 13M residents are getting a taste of what life was like for the millions in Wuhan who suffered through that city’s 70+ day lockdown back in the spring of 2020.

Xi’an has counted more than 1,000 cases, with none confirmed to be omicron (China has found some omicron cases in Shanghai and the southern part of the country). As a result, the city has been on total lockdown – with people only allowed to leave once every few days to buy essential goods like groceries.

According to a report in the Caixin business journal, many are struggling to buy groceries as city life grinds to a halt.

Residents in the capital of Shaanxi province have been told since Monday to stay at home unless they need to be out for nucleic acid testing. The city, home to almost 13 million residents, went into lockdown Dec. 23, with movement of the people curtailed and risk areas sealed, amid a growing delta outbreak traced to a Dec. 4 flight from Pakistan. The city has recorded a total number of 1,137 locally confirmed cases between Dec. 9 and Dec. 29.

Desperate residents have taken to social media to complain about online food orders – a last resort for many – that have gone undelivered. Local authorities since Tuesday night started mobilizing districts to deliver free food to residents in sealed areas, but a large number of people still face difficulties in procuring daily necessities.

Meanwhile, residents are also affected by disruptions in health services. Chen Wei’s wife, who is four months pregnant, felt abdominal pain on Saturday, but their community didn’t have designated vehicles for medical purposes, so they had to improvise and find their own treatment: “But now it’s not possible to get approval to go out at all,” Chen told Caixin.

Authorities say the outbreak in Xi’an is still in the “rapid development” stage.

At a press conference Wednesday, He Qinghua, a senior official with the National Health Commission, said the local outbreak is still in a rapid development stage, with linked cases reported in other cities in Shaanxi and elsewhere outside the province. That means Xi’an is still unlikely to lift the lockdown anytime soon.

Caixin’s report painted a picture of a city in chaos.

Li, the resident of the urban village, reported the shortage of supplies to the city’s hotlines, but no feedback was received. On Friday, rice and eggs in the village supermarket were quickly sold out. And with a further tightening of the disease control measures, all shops in the village were closed on Sunday.
Another Xi’an resident said the city does not have a shortage of supplies, but it lacks enough delivery workers.
Meanwhile, there’s also information asymmetry in the city. “I heard that some supermarkets in the community cannot get their vegetables sold, while residents don’t know how to buy them,” he said.

Residents with chronic health issues are facing a serious problem: many have lost practically all access to care as resources are diverted to dealing with the COVID outbreak. Many hospitals in the city have stopped accepting new or transferred patients, creating serious bottlenecks to care.

Stringent epidemic control measures have disrupted health services across the city, affecting many local patients, including kidney disease patients who urgently need treatment.
Chen, who lives in Xi’an’s Weiyang district, on Saturday called his resident community’s management office, hoping to take his wife to the hospital for an examination. But the office said they are not authorized to give permission, and Chen’s attempts to contact his community and disease control authorities to get approval were in vain.
Another patient with cancer told Caixin that she has had her treatment delayed for several days, after the hospital she attends suspended its outpatient services on Dec. 16.
“It hurts and I cannot sleep at night, so I can only bite my quilt. I feel it cannot be delayed any longer,” she told Caixin. Prior to the lockdown, local authorities had assured tumor patients would be able to get treatment; however, even patients who are not in sealed areas have been cut off from treatment, she said.

For what it’s worth, the Global Times reported that the real problem isn’t shortages of food supplies, but a difficulty in the “last mile” delivery that’s supposed to bring food products to customers placing orders. In response, officials from Xixian New District said at a press conference on Thursday that they are actively coordinating the supply chain, and that they have also set up 1,603 WeChat groups, covering 195 communities, to supply more than 30 kinds of food and medicine for local residents.

Although there have been reports that some hospitals are resuming service for patients who make an appointment.

The outbreak has also impacted some college students who are in the middle of exams. Some have borne the expense of living in hotels while the process is disrupted.

END

CHINA/TAIWAN/USA

USA and Taiwan blasts China crackdown on Hong Kong journalism

(zerohedge)

“Journalism Is Not Sedition”: US & Taiwan Blast China’s Crackdown On Hong Kong Free Media

THURSDAY, DEC 30, 2021 – 09:20 PM

Following the widely reported Hong Kong police raid on the independent news outlet Stand News Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued swift condemnation on what’s clearly an ongoing pro-China crackdown against any HK opposition media.

Blinken called on China’s ruling Communist Party and local HK police to “cease targeting” the city’s “free and independent media and to immediately release those journalists and media executives who have been unjustly detained and charged.”Arrest of Stand News acting chief editor Patrick Lam, via Reuters

He further said that Hong Kong should return to its former status of promoting freedoms that allowed the city to “flourish as a global center for finance, trade, education, and culture,” adding that “journalism is not sedition,” according to Axios. “By silencing independent media, [China’s government] and local authorities undermine Hong Kong’s credibility and viability. A confident government that is unafraid of the truth embraces a free press.”

At least 200 police had raided Stand News on Wednesday, arresting at least six editors and journalists, forcing the opposition-sympathetic outlet to cease all publication. Two editors have been charged with “sedition” while others are still being held for questioning.

On Thursday the Associated Press confirmed that “Two former editors from a Hong Kong online pro-democracy news outlet were charged with sedition and denied bail Thursday, a day after one of the last openly critical voices in the city said it would cease operations following a police raid on its office and seven arrests.”

The entire company is facing legal action: “According to a charge sheet, national security police filed one count each of conspiracy to publish a seditious publication against Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, former editors at Stand News,” AP details. “Police also said they would prosecute the company for sedition.”

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam justified the police raid and the arrests, claiming that “inciting other people… could not be condoned under the guise of news reporting” – to describe the independent news outlet’s supposed actions.

US-backed Taiwan was also quick to issue a message backing the detained news staff, with President Tsai Ing-wen saying that “Taiwan stands with Hong Kong” and against China’s “crackdown on free speech.”

Her public statement said, “The arrests of Stand News staff and singer Denise Ho are yet another example of the Beijing authorities’ crackdown on free speech in Hong Kong. We in Taiwan regret to see their detention and call on the international community to stand up for freedom & democracy in HK.”

end

4/EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

END

FRANCE

French tennis star Benoit Palre rages after continually testing positive for COVID and yet is basically asymptomatic (running nose)

(Roberts/EpochTimes)

French Tennis Star Benoit Paire Rages After Testing Positive For COVID For “250th Time”

FRIDAY, DEC 31, 2021 – 06:00 AM

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

French tennis player Benoit Paire has tested positive for COVID-19 just weeks before the Australian Open gets underway on Jan. 17, 2022.

The sportsman, 32, revealed on Wednesday that he had contracted the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19, and admitted regular quarantining had taken a toll on his mental health.

“Hey my name is Benoit Paire, and for the 250th time I tested positive for Covid!!” he said on Twitter. “Honestly I can’t deal with this Covid s*** anymore.”

“How am I doing? Because of Covid, I got a runny nose but because of all these quarantines spent in a hotel room halfway across the world, I don’t feel good mentally,” he continued.

“Last year was tough, and this year starts exactly the same way!!”

Paire, who is vaccinated, added that he is “100 percent for the vaccine,” but urged people to “just live as before Covid, otherwise, I don’t see the point.”

Paire is the second player to test positive for COVID-19 among the arrivals in Australia this week after Denis Shapovalov announced that he had tested positive in Sydney.

“I am following all protocols, including isolation and letting the people who I’ve been in contact with know,” Shapovalov announced in an Instagram post last week. “Right now I am experiencing minor symptoms and look forward to getting back on the court when it is safe to do so. Thank you in advance for your support and wish you all a safe and happy holiday.”

Other players who have tested positive in recent weeks include Rafael Nadal, Andrey Rublev, Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic and Ons Jabeur. Meanwhile, Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka will miss the Australian Open due to injuries.

Paire was ruled out of the 2020 U.S. Open after testing positive for COVID-19 just days before his first match. He was placed in isolation for two weeks, meaning he was unable to play. After leaving isolation, he tested negative for the virus but then tested positive again two weeks later at the ATP tournament at Hamburg, Rothenbaum.

However, he was allowed to play because the positive result was due to a prior infection of the virus.

In a statement at the time, Hamburg officials explained why the tennis star was permitted to remain in the event.

“According to tournament doctor Dr. Volker Carrero, it is not uncommon that three weeks after a positive result, fragments of the virus can still be found inside the body,” officials said. “Paire has not shown any symptoms of disease and has not been contagious at any time. Local health authorities in Hamburg made the decision on Saturday that Paire is allowed to play.”

In January this year, Paire, the world No. 46, had to complete 14 days of quarantine before the Australian Open after one person on his flight to Melbourne tested positive for COVID-19.

This week, five Australian jurisdictions agreed upon a new definition for a COVID-19 “close contact,” which will ease the burden on PCR testing clinics and help keep the economy running.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that from midnight of Dec. 31, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory will change their definition of a close contact and follow-up procedures.

“Except in exceptional circumstances, a close contact is a household contact … of a confirmed case only,” Morrison said. “A household contact is someone who lives with a case or has spent more than four hours with them in a house, accommodation, or care facility setting.”

“You are only a close contact if you are effectively living with someone or have been in an accommodation setting with someone for more than four hours … who has actually got COVID-19. Not someone who is in contact with someone who has had COVID—it’s with someone specifically who has COVID,” Morrison said.

END

FRANCE/WEATHER

France braces for power blackouts as they face a cold snap which worries grid operators.

(zerohedge0

France Faces Power Blackouts In Next Cold Snap, Grid Operator Warns

FRIDAY, DEC 31, 2021 – 03:45 AM

France’s electricity grid is coming under strain, and the next cold snap could be devastating for the country as energy-intensive manufacturers would experience reduced power, according to a new report published by French power grid operator Reseau de Transport d’Electricite (RTE).

RTE said due to the lack of wind and nuclear power generation. The next cold snap would force it to cut electricity to energy-intensive companies to stabilize the grid. There’s even the possibility widespread rolling blackouts could be implemented for two hours to mitigate grid collapse during peak energy demand.

The good news is that weather forecasting models provided by Bloomberg don’t show an imminent cold blast for the first half of January.

“Based on the latest forecast for January, such meteorological events — including a severe cold snap — seem very unlikely for the start of the month, and less likely for the rest of the month,” RTE said. “Hence, the risk of power cuts is essentially ruled out at least for the start of January.”

Mild temperatures and a flotilla of liquefied natural gas tankers have been a temporary relief for Europe, sending Dutch TTF natural gas and power prices lower in the last week.

France’s grid remains under pressure but not as bad as last week when day-ahead power prices rose to the highest level since 2009 and have since halved. Prices remain at extremely high levels.

Energy inflation is a politically sensitive issue for President Emmanuel Macron ahead of April’s presidential elections. If renewable power generation lags, nuclear reactors remain halted for maintenance, and natural gas prices remain elevated, then higher power bills into January and February could create more unpopularity for Macron.

5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

ISRAEL/

Huge story: Israel is now going to stop the vaccines and go for herd immunity. They believe and correctly so that the Omicrom is a “gift from heaven” which will give all peoples immunity even to the Delta once afflicted

(zerohedge)

Israel Mulls ‘Herd Immunity’ Covid Strategy As Global ‘Pox Party’ Pivot Continues

THURSDAY, DEC 30, 2021 – 08:00 PM

Last week South Africa became the first country to dial back COVID-19 restrictions after it became clear that the Omicron variant was far more mild than other strains, and that it had peaked much sooner than expected.

On Christmas Eve, the government announced that contacts of Covid-positive cases will no longer need to test or self-isolate if they aren’t showing symptoms, while those who develop mild symptoms will be required to isolate for eight days, and anyone with severe symptoms will need to isolate for 10 days

Let us remind you that South Africa is roughly 75% unvaccinated.

Three days later, the US CDC made major changes to their Covid isolation mandates – including cutting quarantine from 10 days to 5 days (plus 5 days of masking), and eliminating PCR tests from it’s end-of-isolation guidelines. And they swear it isn’t because of test-kit shortages and/or their decision not to distribute rapid tests to Americans before the holidays.

Tell us you want everyone to get Covid without telling us you want everyone to get Covid.

As a related aside, informed Zero Hedge reader Doug R. notes regarding the CDC’s ‘substantial’ revision in Omicron cases – where they now say it jumped from 3% infectivity to 58.6% of all cases over the course of two weeks (revised down from an even more implausible 73% they first reported): “Sorry, still not buying it. This still implies a level of infectivity that is hard to believe. My guess is the real starting point was it was already in the range of 10%-20% market share, and the CDC completely missed it. In part because it is so mild, but in larger part because they failed at their job of detecting and tracking. Because they are bad at what they do.”

And now, Israel is mulling a new ‘herd immunity’ policy amid a second day of spiking cases.

According to the Times of Israel:

Israel recorded almost 3,000 new coronavirus cases for the second day in a row, according to data released Wednesday, as the infection rate continued to climb and senior Health Ministry officials were reportedly weighing a switch to a policy of reaching herd immunity through mass infection.
…
For the first time, most Omicron infections were recorded in the community, not in people who recently returned from abroad or those they came in contact with, indicating the true figures are likely much higher than the official ones.
…
In light of the lack of immediate rise in serious illness, Channel 12 news reported Tuesday evening that senior officials in the Health Ministry have recently raised the option of switching to a “mass infection model.”

The plan would mirror Sweden’s policy in the early stage of the pandemic – which essentially meant doing nothing to restrict the spread for people who aren’t in at-risk groups. Israeli officials estimate that within two weeks, Omicron will account for 90% of Covid-19 cases across the country.

Back to Doug R., he poses the following thought exercise: “If Omicron was the original virus, and behaving this way, how would society have reacted? My guess, very differently to how it is reacting now. No global freakout, lockdowns, and NO treatment with vaccinations. It wouldn’t be necessary. But we are now where we are, which provokes an incredibly strong and odd reaction to something that appears so mild, and may be a free vaccine.”

Maybe policymakers are finally catching on? Their corporate media wing seems to have gotten the memo.

END

6.Global Issues

CORONAVIRUS/UPDATE/VACCINE MANDATE

(Kit Nightly)

The COVID Narrative Is Insane & Illogical… And Maybe That’s No Accident

THURSDAY, DEC 30, 2021 – 10:20 PM

Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org,

Maybe forcing people to believe your lies, even after you admit you’re lying, is the purest form of power…

“Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense.”
– George Orwell, 1984

The “Covid pandemic” narrative is insane. That is long-established at this point, we don’t really need to go into how or why here. Read our back catalogue.

The rules are meaningless and arbitrary, the messaging contradictory, the very premise nonsensical.

Every day some new insanity is launched out into the world, and while many of us roll our eyes, raise our voices, or just laugh…many more accept it, believe it, allow it to continue.

Take the situation in Canada right now, where the government has enforced a vaccine mandate on healthcare workers, meaning in British Columbia alone over 3000 hospital staff were on unpaid leave by November 1st.

How have local governments responded to staff shortages?

They are asking vaccinated employees who have tested positive for Covid to work.

Whether or not you believe the test means anything, they notionally do. In the reality they try to sell us every day, testing positive means you are carrying a dangerous disease.

So they are requesting people allegedly carrying a “deadly virus” work, rather than letting perfectly healthy unvaccinated people simply have their jobs back.

This is insanity.

But could anything more perfectly illustrate the priorities of those running the game?

We already know it’s not about a virus, it’s not about protecting the health service and it’s not about saving lives. Every day the people running the “pandemic” admit as much by their actions, and even their words.

Rather, it seems to be about enforcing rules that make little to no sense, requiring conformity at the price of reason, drawing arbitrary lines in the sand and demanding people respect them, making people believe “facts” that are provably untrue.

But why? Why is the story of Covid irrational and contradictory? Why are we told on the one hand to be afraid, and on the other that there is nothing to be afraid of?

Why is the “pandemic” so completely insane?

You could argue that it’s simple happenstance. The by-product of a multi-focused evolving narrative, a story being told by a thousand authors all at once, each concerned with covering their own little patch of agenda. A car with multiple drivers fighting over a single steering wheel.

There’s probably some truth to that.

But it’s also true that control, true control, can only be achieved with a lie.

In clinical psychology one of the diagnostic signs of the psychopath is that they tell elaborate lies, compulsively. Many times they will tell a lie even if the truth would be more beneficial.

Nobody knows why they do this, but I have a theory, and it applies to the swarming groups of little rat minds running the sewers of power as much as it does any individual monstrosity.

If you want to control people, you need to lie to them, that’s the only way to guarantee you have power.

If you are standing in the road, and I yell “look out, there’s a car a coming”, and you move just as a car whips past, I will never know if you moved because I said so, or because there actually was a car.

If my interest is in making sure you don’t get hurt, this would not matter to me either way.

But, what if my only true aim is the gratification of watching you do what I say, simply because I said it?

…well, then I need to scream out a warning of a car that does not exist, and watch you dodge an imaginary threat. Or, indeed, tell you there is no car, and watch you get run over.

Only by doing this can I see my words mean more to you than perceivable reality, and only then do I know I’m truly in control.

You can never control people with the truth, because the truth has an existence outside yourself that cannot be altered or directed. It may be the truth itself that controls people, not you.

You can never force people to obey rules that make sense, because they may be obeying reason, not your force.

True power lies in making people afraid of something that does not exist, and making them abandon reason in the name of protecting themselves from the invented threat.

To guarantee you have control, you must make people see things that are not there, make people live in a reality you build around them, and force people to follow arbitrary, contradictory rules that change day by day.

To truly test their loyalty, their hypnosis, you could even tell them there’s nothing to be afraid of anymore, but they need to follow the rules anyway.

Maybe that’s the point. Maybe the story isn’t supposed to be believable. Maybe the rules aren’t meant to make sense, they are meant to be obeyed.

Maybe the more contradictory & illogical the regulations become, the more your compliance is valued.

Maybe if you can force a person to abandon their judgment in favour of your own, you have total control over their reality.

We started with an Orwell quote, so let’s end with one too:

Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”

Isn’t that what we’re seeing now? What we’ve been seeing since the beginning?

People being mind broken into being afraid of something they told isn’t frightening, following rules they are told are not necessary, taking “medicine” they are told does not work.

Maybe forcing people to believe your lies, even as you admit you are lying, is the purest expression of power.

-END

World reports a record 1.3 million new cases of COVID and most likely the Omicron although there is some Delta.

(zerohedge)

World Reports Record 1.3 Million New COVID Cases As US Outbreak Flares

FRIDAY, DEC 31, 2021 – 11:35 AM

On the last day of the year, the COVID pandemic is ending 2021 with a bang: health authorities around the world have confirmed more than 1.2M new cases in the 24 hours to Thursday – a new record.

The US also booked a new record of its own, with 355.9K new cases, dragging the 7-day average to a new record high as well.

Data on hospitalizations and deaths shows hospitals in the US still have plenty of ICU beds available, although there are some areas where the outbreak is more intense. An uptick in vaccinations has put the US rate north of 63% in terms of those deemed “fully vaccinated” (a definition that may soon change). Deaths in the US have actually slowed in recent weeks.

While the number of canceled flights has declined, 1,125 flights were scrubbed Friday as rising coronavirus cases hobbled airline staffing. Winter storms threatened to further disrupt travel over New Year’s weekend. JetBlue scratched 175 flights, accounting for 17% of its schedule, by 1620ET on Thursday, according to FlightAware.com. Allegiant canceled 96 flights, or 19% of its service. United Airlines scrubbed 199 flights, representing 9% of its schedule.

Just weeks after the FDA approved the Pfizer pill Paxlovid, which can supposedly treat COVID in high-risk patients if taken within a few days of the onset of symptoms, Britain’s regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, has followed suit.

The decision comes just weeks after British regulators approved a similar medication produced by Merck.

As COVID cases surge and hospitalizations start to overwhelm the NHS, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government races to build an armory of weapons against the resurgent pandemic.

BoJo used his New Year message to urge any British holdouts to go and get their booster shots, as growing pressure on the UK National Health Service threatens to undermine his strategy to get through the omicron wave.

As cases flare in Southeast Asia, Singapore is extending its testing regime for travelers arriving via its quarantine-free vaccinated travel lanes for another four weeks, according to the Ministry of Health. Hong Kong, meanwhile, will require visitors to some restaurants and recreational venues like cinemas and gyms to have at least one vaccine dose before the Lunar New Year.

South Korea said its newly strengthened social distancing rules will remain in place for at least two more weeks. The restrictions, which ban private gatherings of five or more people and close restaurants and coffee shops at 2100 local time were reinstated in mid-December as daily cases hit a record.

Back in North America, Quebec is bringing back its controversial overnight curfew beginning Friday at 2200 local time and continuing through 0500 the next day. Dining rooms at restaurants will also be closed but take-out and delivery will, as usual, be allowed to continue.

Finally, for all its efforts, the Australian government has failed to prevent a surge in COVID cases. New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, reported on Friday a record 21.2K new cases in the past 24 hours, a 73% increase compared with a day earlier, though hospitalization numbers rose more modestly.

end

Finally Fauci admits that children are not being hospitalized from COVID

(zerohedge)

Fauci Goes There: Finally Admits Kids Not Being Hospitalized From COVID

FRIDAY, DEC 31, 2021 – 10:10 AM

For the past 18 months we’ve reported how a large percentage of those ‘hospitalized with Covid’ were actually admitted for other ailments, only to test positive after admission during routine screening – meaning ‘Covid hospitalizations’ for the purposes of policymaking (and fear mongering) were vastly overstated in many (if not most) cases.

Public health officials have largely avoided this important distinction, while pushing the false narrative over hospitalizations – until now.

In a Thursday appearance on MSNBC, America’s top Covid official, Dr. Anthony Fauci, admitted to a distinction between the number of children hospitalized with Covid as opposed to “because of Covid.“

“And what we mean by that: If a child goes into the hospital, they automatically get tested for COVID and they get counted as a COVID-hospitalized individual, when, in fact, they may go in for a broken leg or appendicitis or something like that. So it’s over counting the number of children who are, quote, hospitalized with COVID as opposed to because of COVID,” said Fauci.

Fauci – whose comments come after a record surge of children in the US having been “hospitalized with Covid” – was slammed by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who tweeted: “Now Fauci says this?” adding “Is this because pandemic politics have changed for the Biden admin?” (h/t Fox News)

And of course, despite Fauci’s admission, he still recommends that parents vaccinate children, telling NewsNations‘s “Morning in America” that while it’s true that “the numbers are very low,” parents have to consider that “when it’s your child, it’s a very high number.”

So – an appeal to emotion by ‘the science’ in order to get kids jabbed.

end

Michael Snyder:

Thanks to the Omicron expect 2022 to have huge price increases.

(Michael Snyder)

Thanks To Omicron, 2022’s Price Increases Will Be More Painful Than Anything We’ve Experienced Before

FRIDAY, DEC 31, 2021 – 10:30 AM

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

Most people simply do not understand that we really are moving into a long-term economic emergency. So much of the economic optimism that fueled rallies in the financial markets throughout 2022 was based on a belief that the COVID pandemic would soon be brought to an end. Well, that obviously has not happened. After everything that has been done, the COVID pandemic in the United States is now worse than ever. In fact, on Wednesday there were 465,470 newly confirmed cases in the United States alone. That shattered the old daily record by more than 100,000. The Omicron variant is spreading like wildfire, and this is going to cause mass panic during the early stages of 2022.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what this is going to mean for the economy. Fear of Omicron is going to weigh heavily on production all over the globe, and so there will be less stuff available for us to buy. Meanwhile, fear of Omicron is also likely to make our supply chain crisis even worse. It will be even more of a challenge to move goods around the globe in a timely manner, and that is going to mean even more empty shelves.

But thanks to the reckless policies of the Biden administration and the Federal Reserve, Americans have lots and lots of money in their pockets. All of those dollars are going to be chasing declining levels of goods and services, and that is going to result in hair-curling inflation.

Of course what we have already experienced has been painful enough. Earlier today, the top moderator of one of the most popular discussion forums on the Internet posted this…

Just bought 2 prime ribeyes for $64…
I was shocked!
That’s got to be double what I used to pay.

Meat prices are getting really crazy, but they are only going to go even higher.

The same thing can be said for all other food prices too. Even before Omicron came along, major companies all over the country were preparing major price hikes for 2022.

For example, the maker of Oreos and Ritz crackers has announced that all of their prices will be going up 6 to 7 percent next year…

Mondelez International, which makes snacks including Oreo cookies and Ritz crackers, will increase prices by 6% to 7% in January, the company said last month.

Other food producers will be implementing much larger price increases. When the Wall Street Journal reported that Kraft Heinz would be lifting prices by as much as 20 percent in 2022, that definitely alarmed a lot of people…

According to the Wall Street Journal, Kraft Heinz’s price increases were among the most dramatic heading into 2022, with some items going up as much as 20%; the price of the company’s Grey Poupon mustard, for example, will increase between 6% to 13%.

And it is being reported that General Mills will also be raising prices by around 20 percent…

A “major regional wholesale supplier” leaked to CNN a letter that General Mills sent retailers to inform them that the price of some products could increase by as much as 20% starting in mid-January. This would be on the extreme end, but that high rate is certainly concerning.

So get ready to pay a whole lot more for cereal.

Even prices at Dollar Tree will be going from $1.00 to $1.25 in a few months.

Sadly, this is just the beginning, and even Goldman Sachs is now admitting that “the inflation overshoot will likely get worse”…

In a recent analyst note to clients, Goldman Sachs economists warned that pandemic-induced disruptions in the global supply chain – which have caused congestion in ports and warehouses nationwide – could last longer than expected as surging demand struggles to keep up, meaning that inflation metrics will remain “quite high for much of next year.”
“It is now clear that this process will take longer than initially expected, and the inflation overshoot will likely get worse before it gets better,” they wrote.

The optimists at Goldman Sachs believe that things will eventually improve, but that is because they still have faith that the gurus at the Federal Reserve can magically make everything better somehow.

But the Fed only has two “solutions” to any crisis.

They can cut interest rates, but they have already been pushed all the way to the floor.

They can also pump more money into the system, and they have been doing this for years. But now all of that money pumping has created a raging inflation nightmare, and they don’t know how to put the fire out.

They could try to get inflation under control by raising rates, but that would severely hurt the economy at a time when we are plunging into a fresh crisis because of Omicron.

So now the Fed finds itself in a very tough spot, and Nouriel Roubini is warning that this could lead to big trouble in 2022…

As long as central banks were in unconventional policy mode, the party could keep going. But the asset and credit bubbles may deflate in 2022 when policy normalization starts. Moreover, inflation, slower growth, and geopolitical and systemic risks could create the conditions for a market correction in 2022. Come what may, investors are likely to remain on the edge of their seats for most of the year.

There will be no easy way out for the Federal Reserve this time.

When push comes to shove, Fed officials will always resort to printing more money, and that is going to set the stage for the sort of economic scenarios that I have described in my books.

It looked like 2022 was going to be really bad even before Omicron came along, and now the outlook for next year is downright horrifying.

Fear is poison for any economic system, and the level of fear in this country just continues to rise with each passing day.

end

CDC Sued For Withholding Post-Licensure V-Safe Data On COVID Vaccines

FRIDAY, DEC 31, 2021 – 01:20 PM

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been sued by the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), which claims the agency is improperly withholding COVID-19 v-safe data from the American public.

In a statement on Dec. 29, the non-profit group said it had filed a lawsuit (pdf) against the public health agency and the United States Department of Health and Human Services to force it to produce de-identified post-licensure safety data for the COVID-19 vaccines in the CDC’s v-safe system, to the public.

As per the CDC, v-safe is an “active surveillance program to monitor the safety of COVID-19 vaccines during the period when the vaccines are authorized for use under Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) and possibly early after vaccine licensure.”

Through the app, vaccine recipients can inform the agency about any side effects they have suffered after getting the COVID-19 shots.

Currently, the CDC has made data from its v-safe system available to the private computer technology company, Oracle, in de-identified form, meaning that personal identifying information has been retracted.

This data “will be collected, managed, and housed on a secure server by Oracle,” the CDC says (pdf). “Through Health and Human Services (HHS), Oracle has donated IT services to any agency conducting COVID-19 related activities … All data will be stored, processed, and transmitted in accordance with the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) and based on NIST standards.”

However, ICAN wants the CDC to produce that same de-identified data to the general public to assure transparency regarding the CDC’s and the Biden administration’s claims that COVID-19 vaccines are “safe and effective.”

“The FDA and CDC have now made crystal clear that their promise of transparency with regard to COVID-19 vaccines was hogwash,” ICAN said in Wednesday’s statement.

Protesters rally against vaccine mandates in New York City on Nov. 20, 2021. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

The Food and Drug Administration has asked a judge to give it 75 years to produce data concerning the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, having previously asked to give it until the year 2076 to fully release the documents.

“As everyone now knows, the FDA has asked a federal judge to give it at least 75 years to produce the pre-authorization/licensure safety data. And we now know with certainty, federal health authorities similarly want to hide the post-authorization/licensure safety data,” ICAN said.
“Based on the CDC’s own documentation, the data submitted to v-safe is already available in de-identified form (with no personal health information) and could be immediately released to the public,” ICAN said.

The non-profit group, through its attorneys, asked in three Freedom of Information requests that the CDC produce the de-identified data, to which the health agency acknowledged (pdf) that “v-safe data contains approximately 119 million medical entries” but declined to produce it because the “information in the app is not de-identified.”

Syringes and vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are prepared to be administered at a drive-up vaccination site from Renown Health in Reno, Nev., on Dec. 17, 2020. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

However, the third request was administratively closed (pdf) by the CDC, which claimed it was a duplicate of the original request, which was denied.

“The first request was denied by the CDC because the CDC claimed it requested data that was de-identified when entered into the app, but then the CDC closed the second request (which was identical to the first request except for making clear it was seeking data de-identified at any point—before or after it was entered into the app) by claiming the second request was duplicative of the first request! The CDC is plainly playing games. It clearly does not want the v-safe data released,” ICAN said.

The Epoch Times has contacted the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services for comment.

ICAN said it believes that members of the public should “have immediate access to all v-safe data in de-identified form,” particularly in light of the fact that the Biden administration is mandating vaccines to millions of Americans.

“Despite the fact that this de-identified data already exists, that it is already in the hands of a private company, and that the CDC has never objected to its production, the CDC has so far failed to produce it to ICAN or to the American public—the same people being mandated to take this liability-free product,” ICAN said.
“But don’t worry, ICAN will not rest until this data is made public and so today has commenced a lawsuit against the CDC and HHS demanding that a court compel them to release this data,” ICAN added.

ICAN was founded by Del Bigtree in 2016. Earlier this year, the organization filed a lawsuit against the CDC to request the federal agency take down its statement that claims vaccines do not cause autism from its webpage on autism and vaccines.

VACCINE IMPACT

Vaccine Impact

end

GLOBAL STORIES//COVID

COVID-19 Explained In 10 Sentences

FRIDAY, DEC 31, 2021 – 03:26 PM

Authored by C.J.Baker via AmericanThinker.com,

As we approach the end of annus horribilis 2 (also known as 2021 A.D.), it seems worthwhile to to look back and summarize the events that have brought us where we are in the COVID-19 saga.

Here, in ten sentences, is how we got here.

Since at least 2014, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), through Anthony Fauci’s NIAID division, have sent millions of U.S. tax dollars to communist China to fund research involving the genetic alteration of coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Around October 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic began when a new coronavirus leaked out of the same Wuhan Institute of Virology and into the human population.
The Communist Chinese Party imposed a tight lockdown of its own population, while simultaneously allowing international travel to and from China, facilitating the virus’s worldwide spread.
As the pandemic unfolded, public health officials and the media used grossly overestimated death rates and false promises of self-limited measures (“two weeks to flatten the curve”) to promote unprecedented policies of prolonged, widespread quarantine of heathy populations, which continue to this day — two years later.
Simultaneously, in places such as New York State under former governor Andrew Cuomo, authorities knowingly put sick COVID-19 patients into close contact with highly vulnerable persons such as nursing home residents, resulting in tens of thousands of unnecessary and avoidable deaths.
Despite definitive evidence from the early stages of the pandemic that COVID-19 poses minimal risk of severe illness and statistically zero chance of death in children, and that children are not significant drivers of its spread, the Democrat party and the public teachers’ unions — with the help of health officials and the mainstream media — have forced schools to close for in-school learning for multiple school years, and continue to push for renewed school closures in many areas of the country.
As cheap, existing, and safe medications and treatments were identified that showed effectiveness in treating COVID-19, a systematic, worldwide movement to suppress and discredit such treatments was instigated by Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, the mainstream media, Big Pharma, and social media corporations, to protect their financial interests in vaccines and other proprietary medicines they had in development, resulting in tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths.
As COVID-19 vaccines became available in the U.S. through Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the FDA, these extremely new treatments were heavily promoted by Fauci, Gates, the media, Big Pharma, and social media under knowingly false pretenses, including repeated false claims that the vaccines 1) would provide herd immunity, 2) were equal or even superior to natural immunity, 3) stopped contraction and transmission of the virus, and 4) were safe and effective for all ages.
Even as the COVID-19 vaccines have now been shown to 1) lose effectiveness in a matter of weeks; 2) be ineffective at stopping transmission and spread of the virus; and 3) be inferior to natural immunity, and even as more than 20,000 vaccine-related deaths have been reported in the CDC’s own Vaccine Emergency Reporting System (VAERS) — with a similar level of reports in EudraVigilance (the E.U.’s reporting system), the likes of Fauci, President Joe Biden, current New York governor Kathy Hochul, and New York City mayor Bill de Blasio continue to press ever harder for repeated doses of these same vaccines, including among young children.
Although the current dominant strain of COVID-19 — the omicron variant — has been demonstrated to be more transmissible and much less deadly than prior strains, as well as dramatically mutated from the original strain after which the vaccines were modeled, Fauci, the Biden administration, the Democrat Party, and the mainstream media are now employing a policy of endless boosters with the increasingly obsolete yet lucrative vaccines, alongside the systematic scapegoating of unvaccinated persons, rather than employing the focused protection of the vulnerable and promotion of normal life and natural immunity among the healthy that has already been successfully implemented in numerous “free” states.

What conclusions can we draw from this series of events? Here are a few:

First, the “health care industry” is largely a syndicate run by government bureaucrats like Tony Fauci and Francis Collins, Big Pharma, and ultra-rich investor-influencers like Bill Gates.
Second, the mainstream media and major social media platforms like Google, Facebook, and Twitter are diametrically opposed to freedom of speech and the free exchange of ideas. In fact, their goal is the opposite: an Orwellian thought control of the population and the suppression of all dissenting voices.
Third, the Democrat party is utterly corrupt and power-hungry, while the Republican Party is hopelessly gutless and ineffective.
Lastly, the formula has been revealed for the permanent extinguishing of the civil liberties outlined in the Bill of Rights: declare an emergency, terrify the populace, control the message, stifle all dissent, and revoke the citizens’ freedoms indefinitely, all while grabbing and consolidating political power. Coming soon: the climate “emergency.”

Happy 2022!

end

Michael Every with today’s most important topics

Michael Every.//Jane Foley

end

7. OIL ISSUES

Texas how hunkering down expecting a deep freeze warning(zerohedge)

Texas Inspects Power Plants Ahead Of Freeze Warning

THURSDAY, DEC 30, 2021 – 10:00 PM

A cold snap is headed for Texas after New Year’s Eve. The state’s grid operator conducted inspections of mandatory winterization efforts at power plants to avoid repeating last winter’s devastating blackouts.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) completed inspections at 300 electric generation units, representing 85% of the megawatt-hours lost during last winter’s storm and 22 transmission station facilities.

ERCOT is “confident that its electric generation fleet and the grid are winterized and ready to provide power,” said Woody Rickerson, Vice President of Grid Planning and Weatherization.

“New regulations require all electric generation and transmission owners to make significant winterization improvements and our inspections confirm they are prepared,” Rickerson said.

The announcement comes as new weather models via Bloomberg show average temperatures across Texas are expected to slide beginning this weekend.

In some cases, the minimum temperature will dive below freezing and could strain ERCOT’s power grid as energy demand would increase.

In terms of heating degree days, energy demand will skyrocket through the first half of January.

ERCOT has already sent out a “freeze warning” email to customers, warning them about the upcoming cold blast.

As you are aware, there is a freeze predicted in this area. We ask that you take the following precautions to help reduce the potential for damage to property as well as personal injury. -ERCOT

For the Lower US 48, meteorologists at private weather forecasting firm BAMWX continue to predict colder weather is set to trend for January.

If colder weather is ahead, natural gas prices could get a lift. Futures linked to Henry Hub show an ascending diagonal support line where support could form.

Since Dec. 9, we’ve had the thesis that a cold blast was due to hit the US Lower 48 in January amid a very mild December.

BAMWX@bamwxcomThere are definitely changes ongoing in the atmosphere that better support a pattern transition and more availability of cold air in January. The orientation of the Polar Vortex should allow cold air to bleed further east rather than be bottled up in W. NA. #Energy #NatGas 9:38 AM · Dec 29, 2021·Twitter Web AppEND

8 EMERGING MARKET& AUSTRALIA ISSUES

Australia//// NEW ZEALAND/ SOUTH AFRICA/BRAZIL//COVID/VACCINES/LOCKDOWNS

SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa lifts most COVID mandate restrictions after they have passed peak Omicron cases. Remember they are only 25% vaxxed

(Ly/EpochTimes)

South Africa Lifts Most COVID Restrictions, Says It May Have Passed Peak Of Omicron-Driven Wave

FRIDAY, DEC 31, 2021 – 08:37 AM

Authored by Mimi Nguyen Ly via The Epoch Times,

The South African government has lifted most restrictions in the country as officials declare the country “may have passed the peak of the fourth wave.”

Restrictions are being removed “[b]ased on the trajectory of the pandemic, the levels of vaccination in the country and the available capacity within the health sector,” according to a government statement from Mondli Gungubele, South Africa’s minister in the presidency.

“All indicators suggest the country may have passed the peak of the fourth wave at a national level,” the statement reads, citing a decrease in new cases and hospitalizations in most provinces.

The country’s Department of Health reported a 29.7 decrease in the number of new cases detected in the week ending Dec. 25, compared to the number of cases found in the previous week, at 127,753.

The government will remove a curfew that applied from midnight to 4 a.m. and ease limits on gatherings.

“Gatherings are restricted to no more than 1,000 people indoors and no more than 2,000 people outdoors,” a statement from the special cabinet meeting held earlier on Thursday said.
“Where the venue is too small to accommodate these numbers with appropriate social distancing, then no more than 50 percent of the capacity of the venue may be used. All other restrictions remain in place.”

The government also ruled that alcohol shops with licenses to operate beyond 11 p.m. are now allowed to return to full license conditions.

Masks remain mandatory in public spaces, and people can be charged with a criminal offense if they fail to wear a mask when required.

South Africa is now at its lowest COVID-19 alert level, out of five levels.

South Africa announced it had detected a new variant in late November, after which the World Health Organization named it “Omicron.”

Dutch scientists confirmed the Omicron variant had been circulating in the Netherlands prior to its detection in South Africa on Nov. 24. Specifically, two patient test samples from Nov. 19 and 23 taken in the Netherlands were found to contain the variant, according to the Netherlands’ RIVM health institute.

Although the new variant has spread quickly and widely across the world, it has produced mild symptoms for the most part, and few deaths linked to the Omicron variant have been reported.

“While the Omicron variant is highly transmissible, there has been lower rates of hospitalization than in previous waves,” according to South Africa’s government.

end

Your early currency/gold and silver pricing/Asian and European bourse movements/ and interest rate settings FRIDAY morning 7:30 AM

Euro/USA 1.1319 DOWN .0002 /EUROPE BOURSES //MOSTLY mixed

USA/ YEN 115.14 UP 0.070 /NOW TARGETS INTEREST RATE AT .11% AS IT WILL BUY UNLIMITED BONDS TO GETS TO THAT LEVEL…

GBP/USA 1.3475 DOWN 0.0022

Last night Shanghai COMPOSITE CLOSED UP 20.59 PTS OR 0.57%

//Hang Sang CLOSED UP 285.66 PTS OR 1.24%

/AUSTRALIA CLOSED DOWN .82% // EUROPEAN BOURSES OPENED ALL MIXED

Trading from Europe and ASIA

I)EUROPEAN BOURSES ALL MIZED

2/ CHINESE BOURSES / :Hang SANG CLOSED UP 285.66 PTS OR 1.24%

/SHANGHAI CLOSED UP 20.59 PTS OR 0.57%

Australia BOURSE CLOSED DOWN 0.82%

3(Nikkei (Japan) CLOSED

INDIA’S SENSEX IN THE GREEN

Gold very early morning trading: 1821.90

silver:$23.11-

USA dollar index early FRIDAY morning: 95.95 DOWN 1 CENT(S) from WEDNESDAY’s close.

This ends early morning numbers FRIDAY MORNING

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

And now your closing FRIDAY NUMBERS 1: 00 PM

Portuguese 10 year bond yield: 0.46% DOWN 1 in basis point(s) yield from YESTERDAY/

JAPANESE BOND YIELD: +0.72% UP 0 AND 0/10 BASIS POINTS from YESTERDAY/JAPAN losing control of its yield curve/

SPANISH 10 YR BOND YIELD: 0.57%// UP 0 in basis points yield from yesterday.

ITALIAN 10 YR BOND YIELD 1.18 UP 0 points in basis points yield from yesterday./

the Italian 10 yr bond yield is trading 61 points higher than Spain.

GERMAN 10 YR BOND YIELD: RISES TO -0.177% IN BASIS POINTS ON THE DAY//

THE IMPORTANT SPREAD BETWEEN ITALIAN 10 YR BOND AND GERMAN 10 YEAR BOND IS 1.35% AND NOW ABOVE THE 3.00% LEVEL WHICH WILL IMPLODE THE ENTIRE ITALIAN BANKING SYSTEM. AT 4% SPREAD THERE WILL BE A HUGE BANK RUN…

END

IMPORTANT CURRENCY CLOSES FOR FRIDAY

Closing currency crosses for FRIDAY night/USA DOLLAR INDEX/USA 10 YR BOND YIELD/1:00 PM

Euro/USA 1.1381 UP .0059 or 59 basis points

USA/Japan: 115.08 UP 0.017 OR YEN DOWN 2 basis points/

Great Britain/USA 1.3535 UP 37 BASIS POINTS)

Canadian dollar UP 98 pts to 1.2647

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The USA/Yuan, CNY: closed ON SHORE (CLOSED UP)..6.3559

THE USA/YUAN OFFSHORE: (YUAN CLOSED (UP)..6.3575

TURKISH LIRA: 13.23 EXTREMELY DANGEROUS LEVEL/DEATH WISH/HYPERINFLATION TO BEGIN.

the 10 yr Japanese bond yield at +0.072

Your closing 10 yr US bond yield DOWN 1 IN basis points from WEDNESDAY at 1.508% //trading well ABOVE the resistance level of 2.27-2.32%) very problematic

USA 30 yr bond yield: 1.900 DOWN 2 in basis points

Your closing USA dollar index, 95.60 DOWN 37 CENT(S) ON THE DAY/1.00 PM/

Your closing bourses for Europe and the Dow along with the USA dollar index closing and interest rates for FRIDAY: 12:00 PM

London: CLOSED DOWN 18.47 PTS OR .25%

German Dax : CLOSED

Paris CAC CLOSED DOWN 20.20PTS OR 0.28%

Spain IBEX CLOSED

Italian MIB: CLOSED

WTI Oil price 75.48 12: EST

Brent Oil: 78.21 12:00 EST

USA /RUSSIAN / RUBLE FALLS: 75.08 THE CROSS HIGHER BY .57 RUBLES/DOLLAR (RUBLE LOWER BY 57 BASIS PTS)

GERMAN 10 YR BOND YIELD; -.177

CLOSING NUMBERS: 4 PM

Euro vs USA: 1.1383 UP .0061

British Pound: 1.3532 UP .0036

USA dollar vs Japanese Yen: 115.09 up .032

USA dollar vs Canadian dollar: 1.2636 UP .01093 (cdn dollar UP 109 basis pts)

West Texas intermediate oil: 75.47

Brent: 77.39

USA 10 yr bond yield: 1.514 DOWN 0 points

USA 30 yr bond yield: 1.9066 DOWN 1 pts.

USA dollar vs Turkish lira: 13,28

usa dollar vs Russian rouble: 75.04 DOWN 53 basis pts.

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE: DOWN 59.78 PTS OR 0.16%

NASDAQ 100 DOWN 109.02 OR 0.66%

VOLATILITY INDEX: 17.06 DOWN 0.27 PTS

GLD/NYSE CLOSING PRICE $170.96 UP $1.16 OR .68

SLV/NYSE CLOSING PRICE: $21.51// UP $.17 OR .80%

USA trading day in Graph Form

end

i) Early morning//afternoon trading

II)USA DATA

-END-

IIb) USA COVID/VACCINE MANDATE STORIES

end

iii) important USA economic stories for you tonight

This industry has been devastated with the introduction of UBER//and the pandemic

(zerohedge)

NYC Taxi Medallions Have Plunged in Value By 90% In Less Than A Decade

THURSDAY, DEC 30, 2021 – 08:40 PM

While taxi drivers in New York City may have finally “ridden” out the absolute worst effects of enduring the ridesharing boom and the pandemic at the same time, the road to clearer skies still looks dim.

That’s because, as was pointed out by @JBaksht on Twitter this week, taxi medallions have still plunged 90% over the last decade.

The plunge in medallion value came at the same time that Lyft and Uber began to register hundreds of thousands of daily trips in New York City. Prior to the pandemic, Uber had peaked at over 500,000 trips per day, while Lyft was approaching 200,000 trips per day.

Medallions suffered their “death blow” from the pandemic in early 2020, which saw their value plunge to just pennies on the dollar from what they had cost a decade prior.

Medallions cost about $300,000 in the early 2000s. By 2010, they had increased in price to almost $1,000,000. But when ridesharing firms entered the market, they crashed to under $100,000, leaving many drivers in financial ruin.

We noted back in November that drivers had finally “won one” after they secured help in slashing the balances they owed on their medallions. But this small respite belies a decade ridden with plunging business, years of hard work saving for medallions wiped away, driver suicides and an all-out upending of a business that once had a strong moat.

Drivers did get relief last month when a deal between New York City’s municipal government, a private equity firm that had become the single largest taxi medallion creditor, and an advocacy group that spoke for thousands of taxi drivers resulted in slashing loan balances for drivers. Some loans were as high as $500,000 and are now just $170,000, which allows drivers to make reasonable and far more manageable payments every month.

Recall, in January of this year, we wrote that medallion lenders had started to demand payments after suspending collections for several months during the worst of the pandemic. Recalling that the collapse in medallion prices began before the outbreak – in January, NYC launched a city task force which proposed a $500 million bailout for drivers’ loans. This was followed by a February threat by NY State Attorney General Letitia A. James, to sue the city for $810 million to compensate drivers.

After the pandemic hit, efforts to help NYC cab drivers – over 90% of whom are immigrants, evaporated.

In 2013, yellow cabs made nearly half a million trips a day. In 2020, that number dropped to 50 – 60 thousand. But the yellow cab industry was already hemorrhaging trips pre-pandemic.
As unregulated vehicles for hire flooded the streets, investment-backed platforms such as Uber and Lyft undercut fares, able to absorb the loss. As riders flocked to these cheaper and more accessible taxis, yellow cabdrivers were left in the dust. –CNN

While our euphoric and completely nonsensical public markets continue to subsidize cash burning ridesharing companies, we have to admit that it’s nice to see NYC’s taxi drivers finally win one...it’s been a long road.

END

For your interest..

what do they want with all of those expensive handbags.

(zerohedge)

Smash And Grab Robbers Steal $1.5 Million From Luxury Palm Beach Hand Bag Shop

THURSDAY, DEC 30, 2021 – 10:40 PM

A tidal wave of “smash-and-grab” robberies are plaguing upscale stores in major US cities, with thieves making off with millions of dollars. The latest incident occurred at a Palm Beach boutique shop that was hit twice in two weeks.

According to local news CBS 12, Only Authentics, a high-end designer bag shop, was targeted by thieves, the first on Dec. 14 and the second on Christmas Eve. Approximately $1.5 million of Hermes, Chanel, Kelly and, and Birkin handbags were stolen.

Several bags are worth more than six figures each, store owner Virgil Rogers said.

“It’s almost like we’re on the wild, wild west here,” he told CBS12 News reporter Andrew Lofholm.

After the first break-in, Rogers said he had a special film placed on all storefront windows, making it harder to break through.

“We as citizens living on Palm Beach Island especially, we almost live in a bubble, we do, it’s very sad and now it’s come to the homefront and your own home, what’s going on elsewhere,” Rogers said.

These incidents, called smash and grabs, are well organized and allegedly conducted by criminal gangs who take the loot and resell it online. Luxury retailers from multiple California cities, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, to Palm Beach, have been ideal targets for robberies because of high merchandise items.

Major retailers are fed up with the rash of incidents. They have penned a letter to Congress urging lawmakers to pass legislation that would make it harder for thieves to resell stolen goods on online marketplaces that do very little to verify the identity of sellers.

“As millions of Americans have undoubtedly seen on the news in recent weeks and months, retail establishments of all kinds have seen a significant uptick in organized crime in communities across the nation,” the letter said.

Over a ten-day period in November, smash and grab robberies totaled a whopping $350 million in losses for retailers in Los Angeles.

Smash and grabs have also moved from cities to suburbs, and some are worried that criminal gangs could soon target upscale homes.

iii)b USA inflation commentaries//LOG JAMS//

.END

Wind driven wildfires devastating Colorado

(zerohedge)

30,000 Evacuated, Hundreds Of Homes Burned In Wind-Driven Colorado Wildfires

FRIDAY, DEC 31, 2021 – 07:27 AM

On Thursday, a wind-driven wildfire forced tens of thousands of residents to evacuate near Denver as hurricane-force winds devoured homes and businesses.

The wildfire began at 1030 local time Thursday and swept through suburban areas in Boulder County. At least 30,000 people were evacuated as fast-moving wildfires burned nearly 600 homes, a shopping mall, and a hotel. By night, the fire had burned 1,600 acres.

This wildfire was the most destructive in state history in terms of destruction. The last fire to burn 500 homes was in 2013 and called the “Black Forest Fire.”

The good news overnight is that the National Weather Service Boulder Office said winds calmed, and the fire is expected to simmer down.

A second fire was reported around 1100 local time, “ballooned and spread rapidly east,” Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said. The blaze engulfed roughly 2.5 square miles of land, but no building structures were lost.

Both wildfires occurred late into the winter season and were fueled by hurricane-force winds, upwards of 110 mph in some recordings.

“This is the kind of fire we can’t fight head-on,” Pelle said. “We actually had deputy sheriffs and firefighters in areas that had to pull out because they just got overrun.”

The fires prompted Gov. Jared Polis to declare a state of emergency, allowing the state to tap into disaster funds. Much of the evacuations were across Superior and Louisville and for some residents of Broomfield and Westminster. All the areas are near Denver.

Broomfield Police tweeted absolutely shocking videos of the fire consuming homes.

More videos of the fire have surfaced on social media.

The historic drought has made wildfires harder for firefighters to combat. Much of Boulder County hasn’t seen rain since mid-summer.

END

A good one!! What to expect in 2022:

Pat Buchanan

Buchanan: Biden’s Staring Into The Abyss… And So Are We

FRIDAY, DEC 31, 2021 – 12:42 PM

Authored by Pat Buchanan,

“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers / That perches in the soul,” wrote Emily Dickinson.
“And sore must be the storm / That could abash the little Bird / That kept so many warm.”

Staring ahead on New Year’s Eve, at what appear to be the coming storms of 2022, this once-hopeful country is going to have to fall back on its reserves.

What storms?

Suddenly, the omicron variant of the coronavirus is sweeping the nation, shutting schools, shops, restaurants and bars that were only lately reopened. In this last week of 2021, new infections twice set records.

Is a fifth wave of the pandemic arriving, just two years after the first wave hit in March 2020?

What is hopeful here?

While the numbers of infected are exploding and deaths are rising anew, the omicron variant appears to be less severe and less lethal than the delta variant — and possibly less enduring.

From the medical community one hears the hope that the omicron variant could displace the delta and, as has happened in South Africa, burn itself out.

Still, if the present rate of infections and deaths continues, we could have a virus-related million American deaths by spring.

A second storm is economic, with inflation now running at 6.8%, the highest rate since the last days of Jimmy Carter and first days of Ronald Reagan.

Should this trend continue, inflation could be crushing to President Joe Biden’s party and presidency next November. And, according to Thursday’s Washington Post, that may be what is coming:

“Strong consumer demand, continuing supply chain troubles and the emergence of the omicron variant of the coronavirus threaten to prolong sharply rising prices well into 2022, potentially making inflation the premier economic challenge of the new year.”

As for U.S. economic growth, forecasts for the first quarter of 2022 are being cut back from 5.2% to 2.2%.

Nor does the world look any more tranquil from this vantage point.

In the second week of January, U.S. talks with Russia begin, probably in Geneva, on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand for assurances that Ukraine not be admitted into NATO and no U.S. offensive weapons be stationed in a border nation from which they can be used to attack Russia with only minutes notice.

The hopeful news: Putin reportedly ordered 10,000 of the 100,000 Russian troops on Ukraine’s border back to their bases deeper in Russia.

Still, it is hard to believe Putin is bluffing when he says that if Ukraine is invited to become a full member of NATO, Russia will see to it that the consummation never comes to pass.

As for China, there is no sign it is backing off from any of its territorial demands — on its Himalayan border with India, with half a dozen rival nations in the South and East China seas, or with Taiwan.

Probably the best we can hope for in the simmering Taiwan crisis is that China will put off its insistence on annexation of the island of 24 million while it digests the lately free city of Hong Kong.

Negotiation with Iran on a mutual return to the 2015 nuclear deal appears to be nearing the fish-or-cut-bait moment. Should the talks collapse without Iran’s return to the restrictions of the deal, we will, early in the new year, hear more animated talk of “other options” and “Plan B” — synonyms for U.S. attacks on Tehran’s nuclear facilities.

Hovering over all of the above is the gnawing and growing concern among the American people about the physical and mental capacities of their president.

A month ago, a Politico poll found that while 46% of Americans believe Biden is mentally fit for his office, 48% disagree. In the same poll, only about one-half of all Americans felt Biden was “in good health.”

All that talk of a few months back of Biden being a statesman of superior competence, perhaps a second Franklin D. Roosevelt or Lyndon B. Johnson, has died out.

Yet the maladies and crises the country confronts from inflation, China, Russia, Iran, the explosion of shootings and murders in major cities, and our bleeding border are not Biden’s alone; they are America’s. They are ours. If Joe Biden fails, the country does not succeed.

Yet, since mid-August, an average of national polls has shown Biden to be slipping underwater and sinking deeper. His disapproval rating is now 10 points higher than his approval rating, which sits in the low 40s.

What does the future hold?

The latest news brought to 23 the number of House Democrats who are retiring or looking for another position rather than running for reelection in 2022. Yet, to regain the House majority, the GOP needs a net gain of just five seats in the 435-member chamber.

Most pundits believe the Democrats will lose the House and, if they do, the U.S. government will grind to gridlock for the next two years. Not exactly a formula for the restoration of a lost national unity or purpose.

SWAMP STORIES //

* * *

END

KING REPORT/SWAMP STORIES

@StockMKTNewz: Nancy Pelosi recently bought calls in Google, Micron, Roblox, Salesforce, and Disney  https://twitter.com/StockMKTNewz/status/1476558232336355332

Nancy Pelosi scoops up call options for Google, Disney, Roblox stocks
The purchases occurred from Dec. 17 to Dec. 21 — just days after Pelosi insisted in a press conference that members of Congress should be allowed to trade individual stocks despite often being privy to insider information that can move markets…The Pelosi family’s trades this month include Google and Salesforce call options worth between $500,000 and $1 million each, as well as Roblox call options valued at between $100,000 and $250,000. The duo also bought up between $250,000 and $500,000 in calls for chipmaker Micron Technology and between $100,000 and $250,000 of Disney call options in disclosures that were earlier reported by Congresstrading.com…  https://t.co/8or29cSoQS

WSJ editorial mocks auto manufacturers getting ‘double-crossed’ by Biden admin: ‘Hard not to get a chuckle’ – “Political theater can be more entertaining than what’s on TV. It’s hard not to get a chuckle watching auto makers get double-crossed by the Biden Administration after they worked so hard to promote its electric-vehicle agenda,” the board wrote.
    “In the latest comic turn, the Administration last week issued new fuel-economy standards that effectively mandate that electric cars make up 17% of auto sales in 2026, up from about 3% this year. That was the day after Sen. Joe Manchin rejected President Biden’s Build Back Better plan, which includes a cornucopia of EV subsidies,” it added…
https://www.foxnews.com/media/wall-street-journal-mocks-auto-manufacturers-double-crossed-biden

@disclosetv: Robert Koch Institute report released today states that 95.58% of the Omicron cases in Germany are fully vaccinated (28% of those had a “booster”), 4.42% are unvaccinated. 71.1% of the total population is fully vaccinated in Germany.  https://twitter.com/Tim_Roehn/status/1476575806969335812

@kylenabecker: CDC reports that around twice as many children die from pneumonia than from Covid the last two years. Not seeing a lot of pneumonia hysteria out there. https://t.co/cIm70tapQ2

Covid and Corrupt Federal Statistics – Federal agencies don’t count what politicians don’t want to know…The same policymakers who claim to be guided by data have little or no idea how many Americans have been hit by Covid…But federal data on fully vaxxed Covid fatalities is far flimsier and less reliable than the numbers compiled by some states. Honestly recognizing the limits of vaccines could be fatal to Biden’s push for compulsory vaccinations…
https://jimbovard.com/blog/2021/12/28/covid-and-corrupt-federal-statistics/

Top Mitch McConnell Staffer Leads Pfizer’s Lobbying Charge to Protect Vaccine Patent and Block Bill Holding Big Pharma Accountable for Fraud. https://t.co/b6N1dVrsj4

GOP Rep. Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ): I just sent a letter to HHS & FDA demanding answers on their claim to need 75 yrs to answer FOIA requests on the Pfizer vaccine data. We deserve transparency on a vaccine that Biden & Far Left are trying to mandate on Americans. Read about it below: Rep. Biggs Demands Answers from Biden Amin On Why It Might Take Up to 75 Years for Info on COVID-19 Vaccine     https://dailycaller.com/2021/12/30/rep-andy-biggs-letter-pfizer-hhs-fda-covid-vaccine/

There is only one reason to hide data, or a report card, or academic records, for 75 years.

Twitter suspends Just the News founder for report on legal distinctions between COVID vaccines https://t.co/Q0FNkk5ekd

Twitter bans mRNA vaccine pioneer-turned-critic. His response? ‘Constant clown show’:
Social media censorship ramps up against perceived threats to COVID-19 narratives. Fact-checker set up straw man to deem mask article false, author claims.
https://justthenews.com/accountability/cancel-culture/constant-clown-show-mrna-vaccine-pioneer-turned-critic-not-surprised

@DarlaShine: NY Dept of Health official admits they exaggerated the number of children hospitalized for COVID to motivate parents to get their kids vaccinated. It was all lies.
https://twitter.com/DarlaShine/status/1476373666640375809?s=02

Pfizer Partnered with China’s Vaccine Passport Platform, Admits Being ‘Proud to Stand with China Leaders.’ – The pharmaceutical giant – whose U.S. lobbying efforts hit an all-time high in the past year – expressed its pride for the brutal, communist regime in the following tweet from June 6th, 2018: “We are proud to stand with China leaders & @Alipay to introduce new, digital solutions to improve disease education and vaccine access-creating a brighter future for Chinese children,” the tweet reads.
    “We are honored to be a partner in China’s ‘Internet + Vaccination’ initiative,” reads an accompanying graphic, quoting Pfizer’s China General Manager Wu Kun…
https://thenationalpulse.com/2021/12/29/pfizer-partnered-with-alipay-praised-ccp/

MN Board of Medical Practice Requesting Files of Patients Prescribed Ivermectin: Doctor
https://www.thethinkingconservative.com/mn-board-of-medical-practice-requesting-files-of-patients-prescribed-ivermectin-doctor/

IRS says income from stolen goods and illegal activities must be reported on taxes (Not a parody!)
https://t.co/PnYjoVtxz3

FT: Dealmaking surges past $5.8tn to highest levels on record – Private equity and Spacs fuel mergers and acquisitions activity as investment banking fees hit $157bn

The Fed Balance Sheet: -$33.035B (+$1.394B y/y); MBS -$34.169B
https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/20211230/

Today – The S&P 500 Index must get appreciably above 4800 and stay there for a significant amount of time, or another reversal will occur. Nasdaq has been down on the final session of the year for 15 of the past 21 years. Today’s session will be a contest between those that need or want to liquidate for yearend and those that want to manipulate stuff higher to embellish 2021 performance.

Absenteeism should be high; so, a determined few can create significant movements. ESHs hit -21.75 at 19:27 ET on no news. They are -6.25 at 20:30 ET. They game for the final session has already begun!

Expected Economic Data: Initial Jobless Claims 207k, Continuing Claims 1.875m; Dec Chicago PMI 62

S&P 500 Index 50-day MA: 4653; 100-day MA: 4546; 150-day MA: 4468; 200-day MA: 4278
DJIA 50-day MA: 35,720; 100-day MA: 35,305; 150-day MA: 35,068; 200-day MA: 34,745

S&P 500 Index – Trender trading model and MACD for key time frames
Monthly: Trender and MACD are positive – a close below 4151.11 triggers a sell signal
Weekly: Trender and MACD are positive – a close below 4487.47 triggers a sell signal
Daily: Trender and MACD are positive – a close below 4666.63 triggers a sell signal
Hourly: Trender and MACD are negative – a close above 4814.29 triggers a buy signal

@PollsandOdds: In 2020 election, most Republicans contend that Trump won the presidency. It has led to a renewed push for people to get involved in politics at a local level, including as poll workers. Chippewa falls WI: In 2020 Elections GOP had only 2 poll workers, In 2022 Elections: 43

Dems and RINO’s 2020 Election rig might have been a Pyrrhic Victory.

U.S. ends case against Jeffrey Epstein’s jail guards (The ‘Fix” is in!)
Both admitted to having “willfully and knowingly” falsified records to make it seem they were monitoring Epstein properly…https://t.co/3XgumBOiAI

Ghislaine Maxwell’s little black book to remain secret in court deal
The prosecution and defence in the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell have agreed that her “little black book” of contacts will never be made public even though the jury was allowed to see part of it. Judge Alison Nathan ruled at Manhattan federal court that a only limited amount of material from the British socialite’s contacts book would be released under seal…
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ghislaine-maxwells-little-black-book-to-remain-secret-in-court-deal-dvjzzw85m

@DineshDSouza: Suffice to say if Biden’s DOJ had incriminating info on Trump, they would surely have forced Ghislaine Maxwell to release her Black Book and name names. The obvious reason they’re hiding her information is to protect the Clintons and other powerful Democrats and globalists.

GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG): Jeffrey Epstein’s entire network should be made public, and his fortune should go to his victims. If the fake J6 committee can subpoena innocent people’s cell phone data and bank records then Jeffrey Epstein’s whole network should be publicized.

@EricMMatheny: The Ghislaine Maxwell trial came and went without much fanfare. While she’s guilty and deserves to spend eternity behind bars, many powerful people in DC, Hollywood, and Wall Street are resting easier now that the case has ended quietly and that she took the fall.

@robbystarbuck: The elite are laughing at us. The coverup couldn’t be more obvious. They wanted it obvious just to make it clear that they’re above the law…

@matthewdmarsden: If they can cover up the Epstein scandal, you really think that those involved with the virus getting out, the corruption regarding lockdowns, the pushing of the vaccines and vaccine injuries will ever be brought to justice?

@ggreenwald: So much of my reporting over the last decade has been about prosecutorial abuse: the 2011 book I wrote (With Liberty and Justice for Some) and our 2020 year-long Brazil exposés (which revealed corruption by judges and prosecutors). No humans can be trusted with unchecked power.
    The Epidemic of Prosecutorial Abuse — Interview with Raj Rajaratnam
Rajaratnam’s important new book, “Uneven Justice,” spends some time on his own case, but mostly as a window to understand the virtually limitless power of federal prosecutors:
https://rumble.com/vrnfpm-the-epidemic-of-prosecutorial-abuse-interview-with-raj-rajaratnam.html

Whitmer Kidnap Suspects’ Lawyers: FBI ‘Controlled’ All Aspects of Plot
The evidence in the new filings includes communications between the FBI agents and their confidential, embedded sources. Federal prosecutors, however, deny the five suspects were entrapped…
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/gretchen-whitmer-kidnapping-michigan-fbi/2021/12/30/id/1050505/?s=02

@mrwtffacts: In the 1990s, a California man, Steve Comisar, began putting ads in national magazines selling ‘Solar-powered dryers’ for $49.95. Customers would then receive a simple clothesline in the mail.   https://twitter.com/mrwtffacts/status/1476231875328892928

“Posterity! You will never know, how much it cost the present Generation, to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the pains to preserve it.” – John Adams to Abigail Adams, 26 April 1777

We wish all our readers and friends a healthy and gratifying New Year!

I will leave you tonight with this offering courtesy of Greg Hunter

CV19 Vax & Economy Narratives Collapse in 2022 | Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog

CV19 Vax & Economy Narratives Collapse in 2022

By Greg Hunter On December 31, 2021 In Weekly News Wrap-Ups 17 Commentshttps://usawatchdog.com/cv19-vax-economy-narratives-collapse-in-2022/

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com (WNW 510 12.31.21)

The CV19 vax narrative continues to crumble, and it will be breaking apart at a much higher rate in 2022. The big unreported story of the week came from the mouth of Green Bay Packers Quarterback Aaron Rodgers who took Ivermectin, among other treatments, a few weeks ago to beat a covid infection. Rodgers spilled the beans on the “fully vaxed” NFL by saying “behind the scenes, there are many teams who are recommending the same treatments that I got for their players.” Yes, the same as in the Nobel Prize winning drug Ivermectin that has been scientifically shown to be very effective in curing CV19. I guess even the NFL is waking up to the facts that the CV19 injections just don’t work, and this is yet another example of the CV19 narrative crumbling going into 2022.

It is clear that the economy has been propped up since the 2008-2009 financial meltdown. The Fed wants to stop the easy money policies and “taper” the $120 billion it is pumping into the repo market each and every month. Is the patient well? Can it survive the Fed pulling the plug? The answer is a resounding NO on both counts, and all we need is a little recession to prove it. Inflation is now out of control, and the Fed cannot afford to tame it, especially if a recession comes. People like Elon Musk and many others are saying a downturn is coming in 2022. With the amount of astronomical debt and derivatives out there now, even a small correction could cause a full-on meltdown. Buckle up people, the Fed is flying blind.

The one other story that gets honorable mention for 2022 is the election fraud story and fixing the voting system. The mainstream media and Democrat globalists wanted this narrative to vanish in early 2021, but forget it. There are plenty of people still fighting to stop voter fraud, and the issue will boil over in 2022 just in time for the midterms. I am not saying the Democrats won’t cheat. With Biden’s record low poll numbers, they are going to be forced to cheat. I am saying it is going to be much harder because there will be no lockdowns and massive ballots printed and sent to everyone like what happened in 2020. This is one of the positive outcomes of the vax narrative imploding in 2022.

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he talks about these stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up 12.31.21.

CV19 Vax & Economy Narratives Collapse in 2022

(To Donate to USAWatchdog.com Click Here)

After the Wrap-Up:

Greg Hunter will be taking a few more days off but will be back with a full schedule of programming by the end of next week. Happy New Year!!

I wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year

I will see you on Monday or Tuesday night/

end

DONATE

NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED TODAY FOR JAN. CONTRACT: 1045 NOTICE(S) FOR 104,500 OZ (3.250 TONNES)

total notices so far: 1045 contracts for 104,500 oz (3.250 tonnes)

1554 NOTICE(S) FILED TODAY FOR 7,770,000 OZ/

1/COMEX GOLD AND SILVER REPORT

3. ASIAN AFFAIRS

b) REPORT ON JAPAN

3 C CHINA

4/EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

6.Global Issues

7. OIL ISSUES

8 EMERGING MARKET ISSUES

Ted Butler: Bank of America’s silver short position is even larger than he thought

More Serious Than I Thought

Ted Butler

Your early currency/gold and silver pricing/Asian and European bourse movements/ and interest rate settings FRIDAY morning 7:30 AM

Futures Dip On Last Trading Day Of Blockbuster Year For Markets

3 a./NORTH KOREA/ SOUTH KOREA

3c CHINA

Xi’an Paralyzes By Panic As Millions Struggle To Buy Groceries

“Journalism Is Not Sedition”: US & Taiwan Blast China’s Crackdown On Hong Kong Free Media

4/EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

French Tennis Star Benoit Paire Rages After Testing Positive For COVID For “250th Time”

France Faces Power Blackouts In Next Cold Snap, Grid Operator Warns

5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

Israel Mulls ‘Herd Immunity’ Covid Strategy As Global ‘Pox Party’ Pivot Continues

6.Global Issues

The COVID Narrative Is Insane & Illogical… And Maybe That’s No Accident

World Reports Record 1.3 Million New COVID Cases As US Outbreak Flares

Fauci Goes There: Finally Admits Kids Not Being Hospitalized From COVID

Thanks To Omicron, 2022’s Price Increases Will Be More Painful Than Anything We’ve Experienced Before

CDC Sued For Withholding Post-Licensure V-Safe Data On COVID Vaccines

Vaccine Impact

COVID-19 Explained In 10 Sentences

7. OIL ISSUES

Texas Inspects Power Plants Ahead Of Freeze Warning

8 EMERGING MARKET& AUSTRALIA ISSUES

South Africa Lifts Most COVID Restrictions, Says It May Have Passed Peak Of Omicron-Driven Wave

Your early currency/gold and silver pricing/Asian and European bourse movements/ and interest rate settings FRIDAY morning 7:30 AM

Your closing bourses for Europe and the Dow along with the USA dollar index closing and interest rates for FRIDAY: 12:00 PM

USA trading day in Graph Form

NYC Taxi Medallions Have Plunged in Value By 90% In Less Than A Decade

Smash And Grab Robbers Steal $1.5 Million From Luxury Palm Beach Hand Bag Shop

30,000 Evacuated, Hundreds Of Homes Burned In Wind-Driven Colorado Wildfires

Buchanan: Biden’s Staring Into The Abyss… And So Are We

CV19 Vax & Economy Narratives Collapse in 2022

Share this:

Related

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Donate

Archive

Spot Gold

Spot Silver