Don't Be Played For a Fool.

Today the beating wings of a gaggle of black swans were heard directly overhead. Their copious, air cooled, liquid excrement was felt very shortly thereafter. Do not be taken in by reports that someone's errant fat finger was what caused the stock market to crater as badly as it did. That is absolute horse *&%! It's far more likely that Goldman Sachs pushed Ms. Market right over the edge so that The Vampire Squid could make a killing, thereby allowing them to more easily pay the SEC a fine for the sort of nefarious scam they committed today. Alternatively, today's roller coaster/ house of horrors ride was, ala the "No banker left behind" bailout, just another sickening example of financial extortion. "Leave us alone to rape and pillage or else!"

I am only half joking. After all, who do you think these bastards are?

Now, I am about to divulge something of a personal nature to you, which is that the little guy, that would be me, was screwed out of some substantial profits today. Suffice it to say that the bid and ask in the option pits were very out of whack in ways they should not have been. But, as The Vampire Squid and their ilk probably stood to lose enormous sums of money if my (and other's) correct bets were honored, they simply chose not to. Word has it that the SEC is looking into today's most "unusual trading." I'm sure their search will last half as long as the proverbial New York minute, and be as fruitful as trying to introduce rice paddies in the Mojave desert. Such is life in the charnel house U.S. capital markets, an arena more depraved than a Bangkok whorehouse, and more in need of being condemned than a cockroach ridden, termite compromised, crack house.

In the meantime, please do your level best to not be taken in by the likes of one Barron Segar, who gushed that today's selloff was the "ultimate buying opportunity" He and his ilk have no clue. Today was the beginning of the end, and therefore, constituted something far closer to the ultimate selling opportunity. Expect more wild gyrations with a decidedly downward tilt as our entire financial system goes supernovae.

One big, fat indication that today was indeed a watershed event was the action in precious metals. Almost without exception, precious metals, and here I mean spot gold and silver, get taken down hard when shares encounter major selling episodes. Silver is especially prone to experiencing nasty body slams as it is viewed, unlike gold, as an industrial metal rather than a monetary store of value. Well, today's behavior in physical was anything but true to form.

A word to the wise: The race to the bottom amongst the world's fiat currencies will see every fiat lose value, and lots of it, against precious metals. Those of you with a Keyneisan "Gold is a barbarous relic" bent, may not like it, but that, in my humble opinion, is what's in store. As Voltaire, or was it Thomas Jefferson, observed, all abstract paper claims to wealth, aka fiat, ultimately revert to their intrinsic value. The speed with which that ineluctable process proceeds is accelerating.

As the Boy Scouts are wont to say, Be Prepared.