As anticipated the Swiss gold referendum failed, but the margin of 77% Nein to 23% Ja should serve as an embarrassment to a country and a currency once considered hard money. I would suggest this attitude might prompt some no confidence outflows out of Switzerland’s allegedly secure banking system.

In fact this is a perfect juncture for Russia and China to make a different kind of statement about hard currency, the global monetary racket by partially backing the Ruble and Yuan with gold. I see this extreme vote outcome as marking the end of western monetary dominance.

Important bullish news came with the surprise ending of the Indian 80/20 gold import restriction. For what it is worth no one (except me) called this one. The fact is India is a large part of the gold demand story, and this will add to that demand. Initially the reaction was to sell some excess inventory and eliminate the premium.  Some rare actual physical selling temporarily hit the global gold price and then the algos piled on. That premium is gone and Indian gold sells at 1-1.5% discount to spot, an overshoot.

This aggressive suppression and monetary debasement has gotten so severe that I now think we will see an XL (Extra Large) precious metal super bull. It will last about 3 years. These XL cycle occur about every 35-40 years. The move in gold could be 300-400% to over $3000. The move in miners and real juniors would be a multiple of that, say 3000-5000%. That will probably turn out to be low.

Friday we find out what the large drop in Crimex open interest was about.  Alasdar Macleod think it was swap dealers closing out spreads because of the high interest expense of leasing. This makes sense.

“It is most likely to be spread positions being closed, which could have become loss-making due to the unexpected surge in backwardation in the physical market. On 18th November, total spread contracts in gold were 104,445 contracts and in silver 40,580 contracts, which would fit this explanation. Furthermore, the effect on the market has been broadly neutral, which would not have been the case had naked bull or bear positions been liquidated.”