Greenspan Warns Again Today: Bond Market Is on the Cusp of Collapse

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan issued a bold warning Friday that the bond market is on the cusp of a collapse that also will threaten stock prices.

In a CNBC interview, the longtime central bank chief said the prolonged period of low interest rates is about to end and, with it, a bull market in fixed income that has lasted more than three decades.

"The current level of interest rates is abnormally low and there's only one direction in which they can go, and when they start they will be rather rapid," Greenspan said on "Squawk Box."

That low interest rate environment has been the product of current monetary policy at the institution he helmed from 1987-2006. The Fed took its benchmark rate to near zero during the financial crisis and kept it there for seven years after.

Since December 2015, the Fed has approved four rate hikes, but government bond yields remained mired near record lows.

Greenspan did not criticize the policies of the current Fed. But he warned that the low rate environment can't last forever and will have severe consequences once it ends.

"I have no time frame on the forecast," he said. "I have a chart which goes back to the 1800s and I can tell you that this particular period sticks out. But you have no way of knowing in advance when it will actually trigger."

One point he did make about timing is it likely will be quick and take the market by surprise.

"It looks stronger just before it isn't stronger," he said. Anyone who thinks they can forecast when the bubble will break is "in for a disastrous" experience."

In addition to his general work at the Fed, which also featured an extended period of low rates though nowhere near their current position, Greenspan is widely known for the "irrational exuberance" speech he gave at the American Enterprise Institute in 1996. The speech warned about asset prices and said it is difficult to tell when a bubble is about to burst.

Those remarks foreshadowed the popping of the dot-com bubble, and the phrase has found a permanent place in the Wall Street lexicon.

"You can never be quite sure when irrational exuberance arises," he told CNBC. "I was doing it as part of a much broader speech and talking about the analysis of the markets and the like, and I wasn't trying to focus short term. But the press loved that term."

- Source, CNBC

Keiser Report: Wall Street’s Dean of Valuation

In this episode of the Keiser Report from Freedom Fest in Las Vegas Max and Stacy talk about Wall Street’s ‘dean of valuation’ declaring that bitcoin is replacing gold as the ‘go to’ trade in a time when investors don’t trust governments. 

In the second half Max interviews legendary investor, Jim Rogers, about China and Germany stepping up to lead the world as the U.S. retreats. They also discuss China’s One Belt, One Road policy and bitcoin as disruptors to U.S. hegemonic power.

- Source, Max Keiser

Money Is Money, Wherever It Comes From - John Rubino

One of the crucial things to understand about today’s world is that money is fungible. Whether it’s created in Japan, Europe, China or the US, once it’s tossed by a central bank into one or another part of the global economy, it eventually finds its way to a common pool of liquidity.

So the modest US tightening of the past year (100 basis point increase in the Fed Funds rate, slight decrease in Fed balance sheet) has to be seen in a global context. And that context is still insanely easy. Here, for instance, is China’s “social financing” – their term for total new debt:

This chart is in Chinese yuan, so it’s not immediately clear just how much borrowing is taking place. But converting to dollars yields a monthly average of about $250 billion, or $3 trillion per year. That’s a ton of new debt, much of which generates demand for raw materials from other countries, thus exporting Chinese inflation to the rest of the world.

The European Central Bank is, if anything, even easier. Here’s a brief excerpt from Doug Noland’s latest Credit Bubble Bulletin – which as usual should be read in its entirety by anyone who wants to understand today’s monetary insanity.

ECB chair Mario Draghi: “Inflation is not where we want it to be, and where it should be. We are still confident that it will gradually get there, but it isn’t there yet, and that’s why the Governing Council reiterated that the present very substantial monetary accommodation is still necessary…Now, the last thing that the Governing Council may want is actually an unwanted tightening of the financing conditions that either slows down this process or may even jeopardise it; and that’s why we retain the second bias, or let’s call it, reaction function. ‘If the outlook becomes less favourable or if financial conditions become inconsistent with further progress towards a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation, we stand ready to increase our asset purchase programme in terms of size and/or duration.’ And I think the Governing Council has given enough evidence that when flexibility is needed to achieve its objectives, it has been very able to find all that was needed. So that’s why we keep this bias.”

If central banks have become so keen to protect markets from risk aversion, why shouldn’t the cost of market “insurance” remain extraordinarily low. Why wouldn’t speculators gravitate to products fashioned to profit from providing myriad forms of market risk mitigation (hawking flood insurance during a drought)? And, importantly, as Bubble risks escalate, why would sovereign yields around the globe not discount the high probability that central banks will at some point be called upon to make good on their New Mandate – i.e. respond to faltering Bubbles with aggressive new QE programs with enormous quantities of bonds/securities to purchase?

Meanwhile, in Japan, a couple of central bank governors who are reportedly skeptical of hyper-easy money resigned and were replaced by people who were the opposite of skeptical:

Bank of Japan newcomers back 2% price goal(Globe and Mail) – The two new members of the Bank of Japan’s policy board said on Tuesday that the central bank should continue efforts to achieve its 2 per cent inflation goal and it was premature to debate an exit from its massive monetary stimulus. Goushi Kataoka, a 44-year-old former economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting and an advocate of massive money printing, said he wants to see the price goal achieved quickly although he cannot say when that can be.

The other new board member, Hitoshi Suzuki, a 63-year-old former deputy president of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, who is well-versed with financial markets, said it was “dangerous” to markets to debate an exit from the stimulus now.

“There’s a considerable distance from the 2 per cent target. From my own experience of dealing with markets for 20 years, starting a debate on exit now would be dangerous to markets,” Suzuki told a joint news conference.

He added that the price target was a high goal but he wants to achieve it by any means.

Here’s the recent increase in the BoJ’s balance sheet – which is another way of saying the amount of money the bank has created and released. Note that it has more than doubled in three years:

So what does all this mean? Here’s Noland’s conclusion:
There is no doubt that central bank liquidity backstops have promoted speculation, securities leveraging and derivatives market excess/distortions. I also believe they have been instrumental in bolstering passive/index investing at the expense of active managers. Who needs a manager when being attentive to risk only hurts relative performance? And the greater the risk associated with these Bubbles – in leveraged speculation, derivatives and passive trend-following – the more central bankers are compelled to stick with ultra-loose policies and liquidity backstops.

After all, who will be on the other side of the trade when all this unwinds? Who will buy when The Crowd moves to hedge/short bursting Bubbles? This is a huge problem. Central bankers have become trapped in policies that promote risk-taking, leveraging and hedging at this precarious late-stage of an historic Global Bubble. These days, central bankers cannot tolerate a “tightening of financial conditions,” and they will have a difficult time convincing speculative markets otherwise.

- Source, John Rubino

Stock Bubbles, Propaganda And The Deep State

The markets continue to tick higher, despite the fact that the world is now more unstable than it has ever been in recent history. The deep state battles and attempts to dethrone President Trump, while the MSM issues propaganda piece after propaganda piece. What comes next?

- Video Source

Killing the Goose That Laid the Golden Egg

I’m frequently asked by Americans how long I think the “recovery” will take. From my point of view, the answer is obvious, but then, I don’t spend my evenings watching American news programmes that have, since 2010, been endlessly claiming that a genuine recovery is right around the corner.

It would seem logical to me that when the news anchor who cried wolf (claimed the imminence of recovery over and over with no result) proved to be either exaggerating, or just plain misinformed, my faith in him, his programme and his network would diminish considerably.

But, what if all the news anchors on all the programmes on all the networks claim that a recovery is unfolding? Surely, there must be truth in the claim.

Unfortunately, no.

To be sure, there are some indicators that imply increasing confidence, such as a rising stock market and reports of new jobs being created. However, rather than take these reports on face value, we find that, since 2008, governments have been buying up stocks and even the companies themselves have been buying back their own stocks. In both cases, this has been done to give the appearance of a recovery, to hopefully trigger an actual recovery. It hasn’t worked.

And, if we hear a report that the number of barmen and barmaids has increased significantly, this is not a sign of renewed prosperity, but rather a sign of diminished hope. (In the Great Depression, the numbers of purveyors of alcohol increased, as well. When people are confident, they drink. When they’re worried, they drink more.)

So, are these “indicators” evidence of a decline? Well, no, but neither are they evidence of a recovery. In attempting to predict the future of America’s economy, we should not look to peripheral symptoms, but tofundamentals.

So, then, let’s have a look.

For decades, American wages have risen above those of most other countries, making American goods more expensive without necessarily being better. Also, more and more people have been promoted on seniority than ability, causing inventiveness to lag. At the same time, state and federal regulations have expanded dramatically, creating a web of red tape and stumbling blocks that slowed production, increased the cost of production and, in some cases eliminated production. To ice the cake, the corporate tax rate was raised to 38.9%. (The worldwide average is 22.5%. Only Puerto Rico has a higher rate than the US.)

There’s an old saying that business goes where it’s most welcome and, of course, that means that both production of goods and money itself can be expected to do the same. As such, for quite some time, American manufacturers have built factories in other countries, where costs and regulations are more favourable than the US. In addition, they’ve outsourced both production and services to companies overseas. Understandably, these forward-thinking manufacturers have gained the greatest market share in the US, as they’ve had the lowest prices and the greatest profits. The condition has existed long enough that very few of America’s most essential goods are actually produced in the US.

More to the point, these industries are unquestionably not coming back. On the American news, much is being said about “making America great again” and a significant component of that concept is intended to be the return of American business.

This is all well and good for political rhetoric, but for businesspeople, “once bitten, twice shy.” A token return may be implemented by some American companies seeking favour from their government, but a true return will not take place unless the fundamentals change. Literally thousands of recent regulations must be rescinded and governments are loath to rescind what they see as their power base. In addition, a major number of these regulations are based upon perceived environmental and humanitarian needs. The pressure to maintain these perceptions will not be going away and neither will the voters who support them.

More importantly, the American public are unquestionably not going to accept the idea that their wages need to be lowered dramatically in order for them to regain competitiveness. As it is, whatever advances they’ve enjoyed in recent decades have been swallowed up by an increased cost of living that has not kept pace with wages.

Of course, when we observe American news programmes, these fundamentals are not even discussed, yet they’re at the heart of any recovery, if one is possible.

To make matters worse, the US is now the foremost debtor nation the world has ever seen. The petrodollar and the dollar as the reserve currency are both on the ropes.

When one country prospers beyond the level of its competitors, it’s due to productivity. Whoever builds the better, cheaper mousetrap gets the cheese. When the reverse is true - when a country goes into a decline due to uncompetitive wages and excessive regulations and taxes, political leaders never suggest a true solution – sweeping elimination of regulations, major lowering of taxes and dramatic cuts in wages. On occasion, token attempts at the former two are undertaken, but the latter is never even mooted. If it were, the villagers would storm the castle with torches and pitchforks. For this reason, no country ever reverses such a decline. It instead continues to decline until it crashes.

And yet, although jobs are increasingly being lost in the US, major companies closing down their retail outlets and many industries are operating on the smallest of margins, the golden goose that was America’s exceptional long run of prosperity is still excitedly running around the farmyard. This gives the impression of a vibrant economy, but it is instead the final run of a dead goose.

At present, the US retains much of the appearance of its former glory. It still displays its military might. And the public are not yet aware that the world has begun to dump US treasuries back into the system, precipitating the necessity for a debt default by the US. But, as the dollar loses its power, as it’s presently in the throes of doing, it will no longer be possible to repay debt or to fund the military.

Just as it’s true that a bird may often run around excitedly when its head has been chopped off, an economy tends to do the same. The reason for this can be found in one word: confidence. Confidence tends to remain until the general public grasp the reality of the collapse. It’s only when they realise that the economic jig is up that they freeze their spending. The golden goose then falls to the ground.

This is not a new situation. It’s occurred countless times in world history. However, for many westerners, it’s the first time they’ll witness it first hand, on their own soil and, in their experience it will be the first time. Those who see it coming and prepare themselves will be those who fare best when it comes to pass.

- Source, Jeff Thomas

Overnight Paper Attack On Gold: Why This One Was Different

Once again there was an overnight “flash crash” in Comex gold futures trading. This time it occurred at 3:56 a.m. EST at one of the quietest trading periods of the roughly 23 hour electronic trading day. India has gone sleep. The Shanghai Gold Exchange has been closed for about 90 minutes and the London markets are just beginning to function. I guess someone decided it was a good time to unload close $500 million worth of paper gold into the Comex’s Globex electronic trading system (click to enlarge):

The graph above is the Comex August paper gold derivative, sometimes referenced as a “contract.” The $500mm million number is from Zerohedge and likely includes all the contract months. At exactly 3:56 EST a clearly motivated seller decided it was the best time to unload 2,741 August pieces of paper gold, driving the market down $4.50 instantaneously. If the gold were actually physically delivered into the buyer, that chunk would be 274,100 ozs, or roughly $360mm worth of gold. It’s doubtful that amount of gold is actually sitting in the Comex “registered” vaults (yes, I know what is allegedly reported to be in the vaults).

INTERESTINGLY, the very next minute, some entity BOUGHT 2,373 August paper gold contracts, nearly offsetting the amount of contracts sold. That’s why the price snapped right back up. Also interesting is the fact that the apologists on behalf of those manipulating the paper gold market were dead silent as to the source of this large sell – i.e. there were not any reported “fat finger” excuses.

The question I have is whether or not the flash crash sale was perpetrated to induce the hedge fund black algos to mechanically sell, assuming stop-losses were triggered, to enable the buyer to buy 2,373 contracts at a lower price. We know for sure, based on the recent COT reports, that the bullion banks are feverishly covering their short position, with the bank swap dealers now net long gold. Concomitantly, we know the hedge funds are dumping longs and going short.

Unfortunately, whoever decided to implement this operation strategically executed it one day AFTER the reporting cut-off date for Friday’s COT report. It’s a neat little maneuver the bullion banks have doing for years as a method of covering up their “tracks in the snow.” It will be impossible to analyze what occurred overnight when the COT report a week from Friday is released. The “winds” will have blown snow over the tracks.

That said, it certainly feels like there’s real buyers of gold and silver accumulating positions at these levels. I know from looking at the data on a daily basis that the Indians are actively importing gold currently. For now, it looks like the General Sales Tax “boogieman” was a non-event. China is actively buying, albeit it’s somewhat seasonally slow on the SGE.

What is of interest, at least to me, is the fact that the market has a bullish tone in what is normally one of the slowest seasonal periods of the year. In another month the Indians will be gearing up for their peak buying period. Also of note is that fact that U.S. retail coin buyers have ramped up their appetite considerably for silver eagles and, more of note, for some reason India is importing silver right now in unusually large quantities. I have not been able to track down a link yet, but yesterday Reuters referenced an article in the Economic Times hard copy edition titled, “Silver Imports May See Three-Fold Rise as Low Price Drives Demand.”

- Source, Dave Kranzler

More Bad News About Pensions: Be Your Own Central Bank

We just published our latest review of the ongoing pension funds collapsing and must have inspired ZeroHedge as they are reporting this morning a much gloomier forecast than we had previously imagined.

These thieves in corporate America, managers of state and local government pension funds and social security can no longer hide their incompetence and blatant theft.

Here’s the opening to the article we published on July 19:

We write about pension funds a lot. The theft of our pensions and retirement savings is, not only, an ongoing situation, the “big one” is on the horizon and seems to be approaching the apex for millions upon millions of people.

As reported by ZeroHedge July 21:

We spend a lot of time talking about the public pension crisis because, well, it’s a massive $5 – $8 trillion dollar overhang on the economy and one which will undoubtedly result in some heartache for investors at some point in the future. Unfortunately, there are some problems that are too large for even U.S. taxpayers to fix and, with an underfunding of $52,000 (mid-point) per household, somehow we suspect this is one of them.

Of course, our nation’s various governmental institutions aren’t the only ones to have unwittingly created massive ponzi schemes from which there is no escape. In fact, as Bloomberg points out today, as of the end of 2016 over 90% of the top 200 corporate pensions in the S&P were unfunded to the tune of $382 billion.

Here’s a look at the funded status of the top 20:

Meanwhile, just the top 20 corporate pension funds are underfunded by over $100 billion. 

As you can see, the pension problem is far larger than is being discussed. This situation should be front and center on a daily basis as the impact upon millions and millions of Americans is going to be devastating. The deadstream media is just about silent on the subject as it would paint a picture of reality and, well, that’s not their job. They can only push lies, deceit and propaganda to keep the public ignorant and continuing to “punch the clock” to feed the beast.

If you don’t believe these companies are stealing our wealth then please explain why Catherine Austin-Fitts would make this comment:

Since 1947 we have progressively had a more out of control hidden system of financing, black budget, that has grown increasingly dependent on fraud and financial fraud and narcotics trafficking, organized crime. We’ve literally created an out-of-control model that is so far outside the Constitution. Nobody cared about that as long as they were getting their check.

****

This means that your house and my house and our property and retirement savings are on the table and the $40 TRILLION has been stolen since the early 1990’s is off the table. Then guess what, there’s a giant sucking sound coming out of our pension funds, our retirement funds and our personal assets in order to balance the budget . Source

I can’t think of a better time for a person to consider becoming their own central bank. In 2009 when I removed all of my funds from a company sponsored 401k it cost me approximately 25% of my savings in taxes and fees. This was 100% recovered within three years. As most people understand, taxes will be higher tomorrow than they are today and the tax savings alone would probably mean a person would be way ahead of a collapsing pension program.

With several options to move one's pension, 401k/IRA or retirement savings into an LLC or other sanctioned account it may be time to explore these options.

- Source, Rory Hall

Mish on Gold and the Fed

Mish Shedlock with Gordon T. Long delve into Gold and the details of the Fed and other Central Bankers shenanigans and say's the assets bubbles will pop. Gold is doing very well in light of it all and will continue to do so.

- Source

The Global Impact of Central Bankers

Peter Atwater left behind a distinguished investment banking career to build his financial consulting operation and he has spent the best part of the past decade examining the role of confidence in markets. The biggest challenge is to understand when the market has reached its top as well as knowing when things have hit the floor and in this interview, Peter explains why some investors are psychologically better equipped to handle it than others.

- Source, Real Vision Television

The Smart Money Are Buying Gold and Silver

The Gold and Silver Freight Train looks to be leaving the station. All the bankers games will come to an end and when the tsunami of buy orders come it will blow them out of the water. But they knew that day will come thats why they hold it.

"The physical precious metals bid will go infinite — that is, big players holding useless cash will buy up all the gold and silver that’s available, at pretty much any price that’s demanded."

- Source, Zero Hedge

Trump Jr. Treason – NOT, Russian Lawyer Worked for Democrats

There is still no there there with the Russian collusion story in its latest version featuring Donald Trump Jr. This looks more like an episode of “Punk’d,” but there is no crime and no treason according to renowned lawyer Alan Dershowitz. What this really is all about is a fight between good and evil. It’s that simple. The Deep State and the MSM are doing everything they can to destroy Trump and his team. This is why President Trump held a prayer meeting at the White House where ministers laid hands on him in a prayer circle.

Breitbart.com is out with a new story about how the Russian lawyer at the center of the Donald Trump Jr. Russian collusion hype has a long history of working with Democrats. Attorney General Loretta Lynch gave Natalia Veselnitskaya a “special” visa extension in 2015. The question is why? The other question is how many traps are going to be set and debunked before the Deep State and the MSM accept that Donald Trump is the rightful elected President of the United States.

Fed Head Janet Yellen says the Federal Reserve may not raise rates much more, but that might not be enough to keep them from spiking when the Fed unloads its balance sheet of all the “toxic” mortgages it bought in the 2008 financial meltdown. Gregory Mannarino of TradersChoice.net says the Fed will not allow rates to rise because it would melt down the financial markets—again.

- Source, USA Watchdog

Hitting Rock Bottom: When There’s Nothing Left to Lose

"In the suite, on the news – Everybody dog food – Bang, bang shot dead – Everybody’s gone mad. All I wanna say is they don’t really care about us. […] Jew me, sue me, Everybody do me. Kick me, don’t you black or white me. [ Source]"

When I first heard these words it seemed like a sea-change had taken place in the individual who had first spoken them. When someone usually speaks of dancing, having fun and how wonderful the rainbow and unicorn parade is going it gets my attention when they begin to see the world anew. Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK), former head of the International Monetary Fund, was scheduled to make a presentation the day after his arrest in New York for the alleged rape of a chambermaid. Sexual crimes are one of the most effective tools the oligarchs use to destroy careers and fire the emotions of the general public. The general public, who barely have time to get to their second or third part-time job, only hear and see what the mainstream media tells them to believe and when it is a sexual crime this hits an emotional level that sparks anger, fear and hatred all at the same time. Mission accomplished; career destroyed. Once you take a look at what was actually happening, in the context of the allegations being thrown around, there is usually a lot more to the picture than meets the eye. 

According the Guardian:

But the alleged attempted rape of a chambermaid by Dominique Strauss-Kahn in a plush Manhattan hotel suite last month may also have compounded Europe’s year-long currency crisis, with the fate of the euro and the continent’s big banks hinging on how – and if – Greece can be saved from sovereign default for the second time in a year. As intense bargaining continued behind the scenes over Europe’s response to the escalating Greek turmoil, the Guardian has learned that the change in leadership at the top of the International Monetary Fund last month also brought an abrupt shift in IMF style and policy on Europe’s bailout of Greece. [emphasis mine]

The reason DSK was made to appear as a monster is he was the center of attention regarding the monetary future of the Greeks, the Euro currency and Europe’s role in bailing out Greece. Apparently, DSK had ideas that conflicted with the ruling oligarchy of Europe and had to be destroyed on the world stage. It turns out, some time later – long after the public has convicted DSK of sex crimes – he was acquitted of all charges. The person, who wrote the opening words in this article, was also accused of sexual crimes. Not just rape, but pedophilia. His career wasn’t just ruined it was utterly destroyed and he was made out to be an even bigger monster than DSK. Instead of being acquitted, which I feel confident that we would have been, he died under unusual circumstances and the person responsible for his death was never charged with any crime. How very convenient. Our world is in the midst of change unlike anything before. The Federal Reserves’ hijacking of the global economy, by way of the U.S. Dollar, the endless un-Constitutional wars, waged by the Pentagon and the warmongers, is beginning to take it’s toll on the people of this planet. This is to say nothing of the ever unfolding enslavement of humanity by a handful of oligarchs. The battered souls that are rising up to say “no more” are seeing their owners in the appropriate light – the dark light of corrupt, career politician/criminals. Just look at how the Republican party is attacking Republican Presidential candidate, Donald Trump and the Democratic party is attacking Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. The oligarchs are fighting back, as we knew they would. Using the weapons of propaganda, as described above, technology of every type imaginable, combined with the useful idiots that make up the police state, are the current set of tools being used against us. This phenomenon is not confined to one country nor even a particular region; it is global.
Beat me, hate me, you can never break me. Will me, thrill me, you can never kill me. [Source]

It seems that more and more people are buying into these words. The mask is coming off the established career criminals within the U.S. government. Everyday we hear of more and more people attending Trump’s Presidential campaign rallies, Sanders' Presidential campaign rallies and questioning Hillary's record. The stench is rising and the people don’t like what they have been fed for the past 50+ years by these career criminals. They didn’t start out as career criminals; they began their life of crime as public servants, a politician, I believe most wanting to do something good for their community, their state and their country. The power corrupted their thinking and, more importantly , their actions. These embedded ticks/leeches that are attempting to suck the last few drops of life from their victims are being outed. The victims are awakening and seeing these criminals for what they are – criminals. When does a person finally begin to see the light of truth? For a great many people, if not 100% of the people, it is when they have hit rock bottom. When an alcoholic hits bottom he knows it, he can feel in his soul that he has been defeated by something that has taken complete control of his life. This is what has happened to the people who are turning out in droves at Trump and Sanders Presidential campaign rallies. These people are broke, enslaved and pissed. More importantly they are seeing how they arrived at this station in life. Not because they are lazy or ignorant, because they have been sold down the river by the people they trusted to represent them. It turns out, these people are not worthy of trust and the only interests they represent are their own.
Tell me what has become of my rights? Am I invisible because you ignore me? Your proclamation promised me free liberty! I’m tired of being the victim of shame; throwing me in a class with a bad name! I can’t believe this is the land from which I came!! You know I really do hate to say it The government don’t wanna see[Source]

As more and more people hit rock bottom and come to realize the man behind the curtain is nothing more than a scared little boy/girl, they will begin to use their great voice, great strength and return the rule of law to the once proud nation. We are all victims of the ruling and banking class’ crimes. It is time we stand together and let these criminals know, we see you, we laugh in your face and we are the ones that have the power.

"Beat me, bash me, You can never trash me. Hit me, kick me, You can never get me. [Source]"

Have you hit rock bottom or is the little boy/girl behind the curtain still pulling the strings? Just like an alcoholic, only the individual can decide where the bottom lies and whether it has been hit.

- Source, Rory Hall via Sprott Money