Greetings!, "Let's twist again like we did last summer, Let's twist again like we did last year." - Chubby Checker Perhaps it is fitting that the Twist is the solution that issued from the latest FOMC meeting. It is rooted in action taken during the Kennedy administration of the early 1960s, an administration that also sought to tamp down high long term rates. Net result? Today gold slipped by $10 and silver by 30 cents, or 1%. The Twist is designed not so much to insulate the government from its own profligacy, but to convince the poor, timid banks - who lent a huge helping hand in creating the mess we're in - to lend money to private-sector borrowers such as businesses and prospective buyers of homes. Well, you can bet the financiers are laughing all the way, well, um, to the bank on the Fed move. Citigroup economists dissent from the consensus: "There are greater doubts now about the net benefits from the usual." (Usual courses of action.) We are in an era of paralysis. The left wants more direct stimulus and the right more budget cutting and tax cutting. But, when either side somehow seizes momentum, they come up with half-baked measures. (Hint to the left: you can only underwrite so many social programs. Hint to the right: you can't cut the budget without cutting defense and raising the retirement age for Gen X and Gen Y.) The effect on gold is to buffet it (no pun intended) from safe haven to risk play, to hedge against the euro, to hedge against U.S. Treasury paper. So even when we have a rally, you can almost feel the ropes thrown around the bull. Insecurity is bad for business. Fear is not the proper environment for growth. We are out to sea. Let's hope gold provides us at least a compass or even better, the anchor the economy is looking for. As always, wishing you good trading Executive Producer | 
