Precious metals expert Michael Ballanger compares the current state of the precious metals market to one year ago.
“‘Tis one week ’til Christmas and all through the Street
Brokers are begging for the Donald’s next tweet.
With benchmarks all causing the advisors such fear
They all need a jumpstart to rescue the year.”
I was sitting in my rustic abode on the shores of lovely Lake Scugog last evening, a houseful of family all revelling beautifully as outside the wind howled and the snow whirled while neither man nor beast dared venture into the frigid abyss of a vintage Canadian pre-winter, jet-stream-delivered, pre-Christmas storm. You see, I live in a small rural town located northeast of the City of Toronto at latitude 44°6′, which is approximately the same as Minneapolis, Minnesota, but nowhere as isolated (nor as wintery) as Edmonton, or Minsk, or Moscow, all of which reside at around latitude 55°3′. In the vernacular of brass monkeys, the weather outside here in Port Perry is emasculating at -16 C (3°F) but the weather in Moosonee, Ontario, which lies over 1,000 kilometres north of me in the SAME province, was clocked at -27 Celsius, which comes in at -16.6 F. That, my friends, is COLD weather.
Now, add the wind chill factor, which tonight here in the “Port” is severe as not only is it cold, we sit on the windward side of the lake, which means that the big northwest wind comes over the tree and roof tops across the lake and then barrels down in us with a vengeance. Fido can’t even get through the snow drifts caused by the wind to do his “business,” so he just walks back and forth until he can function and then, when finished, BOLTS back up the back stairs of the deck and …read more