Morning Audibles 5.17.10 - "There's No Money Left"

‘There’s No Money Left,’ U.K. Minister Learns From Predecessor

(so you have that going for you)

May 17 (Bloomberg) -- Arriving for work at the U.K. Treasury last week, the incoming chief secretary, David Laws, found a note from his predecessor, Liam Byrne, offering advice on the job.

According to Laws, it read: “Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid to tell you there’s no money left.”

“Which was honest,” Laws, whose position is the No. 2 in the Treasury after the chancellor of the exchequer, told a press conference in London today. “But slightly less than I was expecting.”

The note underscores the task facing Britain’s coalition government as it seeks to reconcile demand for improved health and education services with promises to reduce the largest budget deficit since World War II.

It was also in the tradition of Reginald Maudling, Conservative chancellor of the exchequer from 1962 to 1964. Leaving his residence after election defeat, he was reported by James Callaghan, his successor, to have remarked, “Sorry, old cock, to leave it in this shape.”

Byrne didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Here - I found a nickel. If I can find another one, you'll have two (so you can rub them together). If they're "wooden", you can start yourself a fire and roast some weenies...

With your trusty dog by your side!

BIG ASS WEDGE

---
(reprint of Andy T - 5/16/10)


Good Evening Capitalists,

There's not much change to the S&P and DXY counts, so I decided to take some time on the Gold model. It seems to be very "hot" right now and worthy of some focus. My last large report (Dec. 20th) on the topic noted that $1,026 was an important level to hold--Bears had no case for a major peak until that level was taken out. Alas, it was never violated, with Gold printing a low of $1045 on February 5th.

One of the main reasons I haven't published anything on Gold in awhile was due to the complexity of the model. As the price action unfolded the last several months, I began to have more doubts on previous counts/theories. The work here represents my latest thoughts and a MAJOR recounting of the larger Gold model.

Bottom Line: This market is quite "frothy" right now with plenty momentum. Bullish sentiment is quite high and Speculators are positioned very long, thought not quite as long as they were into the December peak. This would be a perfect moment to "shake out" some of the new length. The medium term wave count also supports this idea as we seem to be in the final stages of triangle pattern--we're seeing the E-Wave of the triangle right now.

Gold Report 16 May 2010