@hisah @lochaz 0.75-1% Fed rate USD tanks, stocks rise, gold & silver soar.

What's the median age really of the demography and percentage to total population? Hey! The fund manager rotated from bonds to stocks, conventionally, until now it is no longer that the opposite is true?

Gold & Silver; Now that white money is circa 70-80% its return to circulation is a bonanza!! ;-)

This is the part where holding onto conventional wisdom gets you routed. Maybe that's why even fund managers are on the sidelines in this stock market rally.

I don't know the median or average age in relation to total population and as much as I acknowledge it is a first world issue, that is hardly whole problem here:

1. If the number of retirees is growing faster than the engaged workforce, the pension is going to have a problem. The labor participation rate bears me witness. The US economy is not absorbing workers as fast as it is retiring them resulting in either hiked contributions for the active workforce and /or pension cuts for the pensioners.

2. The larger the difference between an old geezer's paycheck when exiting the workforce and the starter pack (fresh recruit pay) means it will take more and more new employees to support a single pensioner - contribution wise - depending on the scheme's structure. Talk of a legalized ponzi scheme. With the global economy going to the dogs it is hardly the time to raise entry level pay, my guess is that it's reducing.

3. Pensions schemes are normally overweight bonds and shy of stocks, with interest rates dropping consistently over the last decade - in large part due to ZIRP/NIRP - pension schemes have had poor returns vis a vis their mounting liabilities. That is a recipe for going burst.

Note that KE despite a fantastic demographic structure has similar problems in its pension scheme aka NSSF courtesy of the first two issues...hence the constant upwards review of the retirement age.

Mozambique is blazing the trail when it comes to outright defaults on its debt obligations. Second default registered on March 22nd, hot on the heels of the January no show.
https://www.bloomberg.co...t-on-credit-suisse-loan

So much going on today...

Firstly the announcement of a snap UK election slated for June 8th which had the GBP spike to a 4 month high while the FTSE-100 down 2.5% (biggest drop since the Brexit erasing all of the 2017 gains)

https://www.nytimes.com/...y-general-election.html

Next was the offloading of 22,000 contracts on Gold

http://www.zerohedge.com...3-billion-notional-sale

How an order (notional amount of $3B) was filled is a whole other matter all together...the almost instantaneous recovery is also something else.

Lastly is the debt ceiling for the US (we have 10 days until a shutdown) and the French election at the end of the month!!!

Snap election U-turn. She had to seek the pple's mandate.

Some eye popping developments no doubt. 2017 appears to be the antithesis of 2016 from a politicos outlook. Will it last?

The establishment/mainstreamers were taken to the cleaners in ruthless fashion in 2016 globally. It would appear they are intent on making a comeback after smelling blood in the first major election of 2017 in the Netherlands.

After winning on anti-elite platform and promising an isolationist US leadership, Trump has now taken on a pro-war/global stance. He failed in his quest to repeal Obama care and those tax cuts or rather his whole agenda on which his mandate was premised on are looking like a tall order without compromises Whether he is toying with swamp or the swamp has swallowed him whole remains to be seen.

Following the brexit vote, the establishment has not for a second abandoned its soft brexit agenda, this snap election offers an opportunity to achieve it.

The litmus test is definitely the French elections. If the second round turns out to be a contest between the far left and the far right, the elite/establishment will be caught in a proverbial no man's land aka a lose-lose scenario where they will be reduced to backing the lesser of the two evils. That will in all likelihood set the tone for the remaining elections including Britain and Germany.

There is a chance that the Italians will also hold elections meaning that the big four EU economies will all go to the ballot this year. Last stand for the mainstreamers I suspect, brace for impact.

Here comes 'the economist' to hammer home the establishment point of view in no uncertain terms re:French elections;
http://www.economist.com...rfranceandanuncertainone

Wonders never cease. Greek 10yr bond yields are at 5.49%. Zero/negative pricing for the risk of default or even the fact that they would still need more bailouts so as to dodge future no shows.
https://www.ft.com/conte...-3744-8f84-8b015a7676ad
Unflinching calm in global markets continues to persist oblivious of all recent developments. Quite some feat it is.