The Big Screw

Here is an article from today's Washington G20 meeting.

When you have all these elitists scrambling about saying something needs to be done and directly or indirectly referring to the current presidential race, you know Trump traction is a hell of a lot more than the hatchet job these people have been trying to sell about Trump and his supporters.

As we have said before: leverage is hard to come by. Give it away at your own peril and freedom.
The populist word is getting worked extraordinarily hard these days for a reason--it's resonating. The in-crowd realize the threat they're facing, not globalization. That's just the meme they use to try to protect the status quo, their territory. They want to toss a crumb or two your direction and then return to business as usual without substantially changing what is a rotten banking system to list just one thing. There are a host of others like massive bureaucracies and centralization.

The global economy never included you. The benefits for you were smoke and more smoke. These people are master marketers. To claim ignorance is too coy. They knew who was going to benefit from globalization. And it wasn't you. As globalization and so-called free trade ripped through the world real wages remained stuck in a quagmire. Forget trickle down. This was about trickling up.
And it still is, thus the meter on the fear gauge is all alight.

Screwing the populous is one thing, but when you arrogantly try to screw them without giving them the courtesy of letting them drop their drawers, they're going to pissed off.

Here's a couple points from the article you should note.

1. At the same time, all the officials acknowledged that, as politicians like Trump have been arguing, globalization has hurt certain populations and in some cases exacerbated inequality.

Here's an open admission after all this time of the so-called big benefits of globalization, inequality is not only still around but worse in many cases than ever. So without all the uproar when and what were their plans to do anything?

2.  Meanwhile in New York, negotiators on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership responded to the political attacks on their talks by saying they were determined to push toward a deal, which would establish the world's largest free trade zone.

It doesn't matter what you think or want. They're going to shove it down your meaningless throat. We know best.
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Washington (AFP) - The G20 warned Friday that populist politicians playing up anti-globalization and anti-free trade sentiments were putting the global economy at risk.

The grouping of 20 economic powers suggested that the forces that have put Republican Donald Trump within reach of the US presidency and led to Britain's vote to leave the European Union could stall already frail global growth.

While not mentioning Trump or other politicians by name, China's Finance Minister Lou Jiwei, speaking on behalf of the G20, identified such voter-luring populism as one of the largest threats to the economy.

"This trend of deep anti-globalization populism has driven politicians to come up with their campaign slogans and try to win the votes and support. That has brought us uncertainty," Lou said after a G20 finance ministers meeting.

"We need to recognize some political risks such as the presidential election in some countries and in major economies," he added during the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Washington.

- Trump, Brexit in focus -

Lou's comments came as the US presidential race entered its final weeks with upstart Trump wielding potent anti-immigration, anti-free trade rhetoric in his battle with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

But also in the background are the populist currents in Europe behind the Brexit vote and those affecting the coming French and German elections.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/g20-warns-rising-risks-global-economy

CNN Bias

Here's a classic example of CNN propaganda. It's really of the elementary school playground variety, but they in their arrogance expect you to believe it.

Most economists believe U3 is a more accurate reflection of unemployment. It's been the accepted measure since the 1930s. 

A U.S. Labor Department official said it has never referred to U6 as the "overall unemployment rate."  

This is from a CNN post, money.cnn.com/2016/10/07/news/economy/donald-trump-unemployment-rate/index.  

 And we know why an unidentified Labor Department official said it has never used the U6 as the "overall unemployment rate."


The official government number is 5.0% unemployment up from August's 4.9%.  We can't have any drops without an explanation in an election years when CNN's master is running for office. Now we want to inject a bit of an uncommon thing today, common sense, into this. What has been one of this administration's main themes--in fact, it's what they ran on leading up to their first term--change. Changes as in the archaic rules and parameters of the past. As in outdated Constitution for one. Or arbitrarily extending executive power for another.

Now this dude wants us to believe U3 is the more accurate of the two because it's been accepted since 1930s. The Constitution has been accepted a lot longer than that. And they want to drastically alter it. 

Trump is saying the real unemployment rate is closer to 10%, not 5%, as in 9.7%.

Here's another of this  playground kid's misinformation.

Since 2014 this administration has created 547,000 waiters and bartenders, and has lost 32,000 manufacturing workers.



 And here's more.
zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-07/where-september-jobs-were-secretaries-waiters-retail-and-social-workers.

 

Want to look up the pay scale on those types of jobs?

The 5% rate -- known as U3 -- includes only unemployed people who were actively looking for a job in the past four weeks.So all those people who gave up looking for a job two years ago don't count. Somehow they're no longer unemployed even if they still haven't found work.

Then there's this beauty:Trump also said in August that there are 93 million Americans "out of work." But this number would include high school students, college students, disabled people and retired citizens. Those are people who aren't working for good or understandable reasons.   
Yea, they're not working for good and understandable reasons alright. They can't find a stinking job.

 This is another of MSM's straw man arguments. We pay a slight tribute but our overall message is correct. Frankly, when it comes to CNN bias, we prefer the more subtle kind like when the Wolfman in the background tilting his champagne glass in glee as Hillary comes out to unleash her acceptance speech at the DNC.

Magic People

Mark Twain noted that there are lies ,damn lies and then there is statistics. Today, that's been modified a bit: There are lies, damn lies and then there is Jean-Claude Juncker.

A couple of more notables belong to that list, but we have already singled them out. Still another version is making the rounds today: lies, damn lies and then there are magic people.This is a story about magic people. Not just any magic people. No, indeed. These are special magic people with special names--central bankers.

Here's a quote.

Observant readers may recall the name Vitas Vasiliauskas from our May story in which we quoted the ECB governing council member as defining not only himself, but his central banking peers, as "magic people." As the portly Lithuanian banker said in a Bloomberg interview then, “markets say the ECB is done, their box is empty, but we are magic people. Each time we take something and give to the markets -- a rabbit out of the hat." What was more disturbing is that he was dead serious when he said it, which is important, because it is finally obvious that central bankers are neither gods, nor magicians, nor even doing "god's work on earth", but plain and simple psychopaths.

They could also be pathological liars, as the WSJ revealed today when it published an interview with Vasiliauskas, in which among other things, covered the topic of Deutsche Bank. To wit:

Struggling German lender Deutsche Bank won’t drive the eurozone economy into the ground, a member of the European Central Bank’s governing council said Thursday, adding a fresh dose of calm into a case that has raised concerns about the continent’s ability to confront the struggles of Germany’s largest lender.

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“I don’t think that problems related with one of the banks somehow can influence overall financial stability,” said Vitas Vasiliauskas, the head of Lithuania’s central bank, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. The small Baltic state has used the euro since last year and therefore has a voice on the 25-member governing council that sets monetary policy in the currency bloc. The ECB also serves as supervisor of the eurozone’s largest banks. “I don’t think that we face something systemic,” he said on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund.

And just in case the punchline is somehow missed, here it is time stamped for posterity.

zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-07/someone-lying

Below is link to entire transcript. You can read it for yourself. Is Deutsche Bank a global threat? That's a pretty pure question. Our guess it is, And that's why there's so much talkng it down, especially before November 8.

wsj.com/articles/transcript-wsj-interview-with-ecbs-vitas-vasiliauskas

Nothing New

Nothing new under the sun.

That's still quite solid advice after all these years. The only thing different is the packaging or, as some might say, the cover-up techniques. By appearing more transparent, they become more opaque. No this is not about our ex-girlfriend. We're talking central banks and, in particular, the Lords of Eccles.
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If there’s a golden rule for central bankers in the 21st century, this is it: Seek clarity and avoid uncertainty. A central bank’s target should be clear. The data it uses should be known. The analysis it conducts on that data should be comprehensible. And, certainly, politics should have nothing to do with its decisions. Yet across the world, central bankers are struggling to live up to these requirements. Instead they’re undercutting their own positions by introducing quite unnecessary confusion into policymaking. – Bloomberg

We are told in this Bloomberg editorial that central bankers must be clear about their goals and objectives so markets will not be “confused.”
It sounds like this is a reasonable objective. But actually, for decades central bankers were not supposed to communicate at all. This was the approach pioneered by Norman Montagu of the Bank of England: “Never explain, never excuse.”

Here from Eustace Mullins’ “Secrets of the Federal Reserve”:
The New York Times … Oct. 17, 1928, describes the conference between the directors of the three great central banks in Europe in July, 1927, “Mr. Norman, Bank of England, Strong of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, and Dr. Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbank, their meeting referred to at the time as a meeting of ‘the world’s most exclusive club’. No public reports were ever made of the foreign conferences, which were wholly informal, but which covered many important questions of gold movements, the stability of world trade, and world economy.”

The meetings at which the future of the world’s economy are decided are always reported as being “wholly informal”, off the record, no reports made to the public, and on the rare occasions when outraged Congressmen summon these mystery figures to testify about their activities they merely trace the outline of steps taken, and develop no information about what was really said or decided.

At the Senate Hearings on the Federal Reserve System in 1931, H. Parker Willis, one of the authors and First Secretary of the Federal Reserve Board from 1914 until 1920, pointedly asked Governor George Harrison, Strong’s successor as Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York:
“What is the relationship between the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the money committee of the Stock Exchange?”
“There is no relationship,” Governor Harrison replied.

Of course Harrison was lying. In fact, the secrecy was meant to keep central banking out of the news as it was controversial then as now. Additionally, the central bankers of the day were concerned that some of their pronouncements would turn out to be wrong of ill-conceived, and this would diminish their credibility.

As can be seen from this Bloomberg editorial, the ideas regarding Fed communication have come full circle. Now the idea is to communicate clearly and rigorously – regarding ways central banks can create and maintain a “normal” monetary environment with “normal” (higher) interest rates.
There are two issues with this emphasis on communication. First, the initial instinct of Montagu and others may have been correct than not … from their perspective. With more communication in the modern era comes more controversy. Justifying central bank decisions is impossible because it is a form of price-fixing and because every pronouncement only reminds people that their monetary universe is run by a handful of unelected academic bureaucrats.

Second, providing a full spectrum of available information only reinforces central banks’ role as the primary mover of the larger monetary system. The more amplified central bank pronouncements become, the less investors and others will pay attention to additional non-central bank factors.
For instance, the Bank of Japan owns a tremendous amount of domestic equity. Given its dominant position, communication from the Bank of Japan becomes a significant, even urgent pronouncement. No additional information may be deemed necessary in this era of “political money” by the average investor.

More: thedailybell.com/news-analysis/central-bank-communication/

Gold Update

Gold is the guest none of the central bankers and the controlling elites want to invite to dinner. A big run-up in the yellow metal prices at this stage will leave a huge pockmark on the phony fiat money based global economy.

If you do some checking you'll see that there is already one court case about manipulation the lustrous metal, a case that apparently in the presence of more than a few trembling hands going forward.



Destroying the myth that these markets are not manipulated for political causes is the swan song for the elitists' own private golden goose.

zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-07/gold-pounded-someone-dumps-over-2-billion-under-minute

Brussels-style Negotiating

A headline in today's Financial Times tells you all you want to know about those arrogant, suffocating, intolerant bureaucrats in the European Union, "Merkel rules of 'comfortable' UK deals."

A quick search of the recent news will produce many more such angry, sour grapes articles from around the "union" that is anything but a union. Recall our now lame duck president going there before the vote was in and threatening them. Brussels-style management is already here. It you want more of Brussels keep on putting your faith in the status quo and the elites.
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mishtalk.com/2016/10/07/eu-doesnt-want-brexit-negotiations-the-eu-wants-blood-revenge

It is becoming increasingly apparent there is actually no reason for the UK to show up at the Brexit “negotiations”.
Judging from EU reactions from the “gang of 27”, and more recently from France and Germany there is no reason at all for the UK to show up.
The EU doesn’t want Brexit “negotiations”, the EU wants “blood revenge”

Please consider Hollande Demands Tough Brexit Negotiations

Britain must suffer the consequences of leaving the EU in order to save the institution from an existential crisis, François Hollande said on Thursday.
“The UK has decided to do a Brexit, I believe even a hard Brexit. Well, then we must go all the way through the UK’s willingness to leave the EU. We have to have this firmness,” President Hollande told 150 guests at the 20th anniversary of Notre Europe, the pro-EU think-tank founded by Jacques Delors, the former EU commission chief.
“If not, we would jeopardise the fundamental principles of the EU. Other countries would want to leave the EU to get the supposed advantages without the obligations.”
The Socialist leader insisted: “There must be a threat, there must be a risk, there must be a price. Otherwise we will be in a negotiation that cannot end well.”

South Side Thugs
Hollande warns “Britain must suffer the consequences of leaving the EU in order to save the institution from an existential crisis. There must be a threat, there must be a risk, there must be a price.”

From my point of view, Hollande sounds just like a gang leader from South side Chicago ghettos, or for that matter, gangs anywhere.
Gangs maintain their control by coercion and force. Once you are in, you are in for life. If you threaten to leave, they will threaten your sister or your mom. If you Join another gang, they will likely kill you.
Brexit Negotiations? Why Bother at All?
There is no point to negotiate anything because there is nothing to negotiate.
The EU wants Brexit “negotiations” much like female mosquitoes want blood.

UK vs. Gang of 27
As noted previously, the Gang of 27 Hits UK with Impossible Demands: EU Seeks “Inferior” Deal for UK, Spain Wants Gibraltar.
My advice to UK prime Minister Theresa May is to politely inform Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande of intent to not show up at the alleged negotiations unless they get their heads out of their asses.
May may choose to be a bit more diplomatic (or not), but in the end, May must let the EU know that the UK cannot and will not show up before a group of blood-sucking parasites whose only mission is extracting revenge.
One possible approach, starting the moment Article 50 is sent, would be a pledge to cut UK corporate income taxes by 1% a month, from 15% to zero, for as long as the EU maintains its bloodsucking attitude.
EU parasites need to understand that fly swatters do indeed exist.
The sad thing about all of this is no one wins in trade disputes. Using trade as a means of coercion is guaranteed to backfire. The EU found that out with foolish sanctions on Russia.
It appears they need a reinforcement lesson.
Free Trade is Always Correct
Free trade is always correct. For further discussion, please see Brexit: How Hard is Hard? Searching for a Soft, Hard-Boiled Egg.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock

Related

Brexit Negotiations: Hit France and Germany Again, This Time HarderIn "Economics"

Brexit: Worst Case Scenario for EU; Armageddon Promise Now Visible as Pack of LiesIn "Economics"

Clear Response to Brexit Emerges: Take Your Time, But Move Fast!In "Economics"

Faces Of Two Liars

 
If anyone is surprised they shouldn't be.

The lying never stops. It's global. Academics, bureaucrats, MSM, politicians, lobbyists, corporations, so-called experts, bankers, Wall Street, elites. Rigged is the word MSM pilloried Trump for using. In truth, that was too kind. Rotten to the bone is far more accurate.

Spying on its citizens and denying it. Setting up staged, phony arrests of alleged terrorists. Bribing countries with cash to cover up inept diplomacy. Toppling so-called dictators and starting unnecessary wars. Unconstitutionally expanding powers of the executive branch. Constant stonewalling with MSM succor to keep the public from knowing the truth. The list is long and laborious. Those who brought us zero tolerance should now get a dose of their recipe.
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Last October, about 6 months after the New York Times first revealed the existence of the Hillary Clinton private email server, President Obama appeared on "60 Minutes" and denied any and all knowledge of her potentially illegal technology arrangements.  When asked point blank whether he knew about Hillary's private email server, Obama responded, quite simply, "No."

Of course, we now know from the FBI's investigation notes that, in fact, that was a complete lie.  As we noted back in September, Huma Abedin's interview with the FBI on April 5, 2016 revealed an email sent on June 28, 2012 from Obama, using an unknown pseudonym, to Hillary on her private email server.  So, either Obama is so incompetent that he didn't recognize that Hillary wasn't using a ".gov" email account or he simply lied in the following interview.  We'll let you be the judge.

The first relevant exchange occurred between White House communications director Jennifer Palmieri and State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki.  Shortly after, the March 2nd New York Times article on Hillary's private email server, Palmieri, who was known to be leaving the White House to join the Clinton campaign, emailed Psaki to request that John Kerry not discuss Hillary's email scandal on an upcoming interview with "Face The Nation" on March 15th.  Apparently, Psaki was able to coordinate with CBS to make sure Kerry wouldn't be asked any "uncomfortable" questions and then wrote back to Palmieri that they were "good to go on killing CBS idea."

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Ten days after the story broke, White House communications director Jennifer Palmieri emailed State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki to ask, “between us on the shows…think we can get this done so he is not asked about email.” That apparently referred to Mr. Kerry, who appeared in an interview on CBS ’s “Face the Nation” three days later.

“Agree completely and working to crush on my end,” wrote back Ms. Psaki.

A day later, Ms. Psaki added, “Good to go on killing CBS idea.” She continued, “And we are going to hold on any other TV options just given the swirl of crap out there.” Mr. Kerry wasn’t asked on CBS about the email server, though it isn’t clear how Ms. Psaki could have guaranteed that.

Teased by Ms. Palmieri about her use of the phrase “swirl of crap,” Ms. Psaki wrote back: “Ha I mean—the challenging stories out there.”

And, of course, you can see from the transcript of Kerry's interview that he, in fact, was never asked a single question about Hillary even though other guests were questioned about the scandal later during the show.
Worse yet, Psaki, of the State Department, was seemingly rewarded for helping to "crush CBS idea" as she was given Palmieri's position at the White House once Palmieri departed to join the Clinton campaign.

Ms. Palmieri had previously announced she would be leaving the
administration to join Mrs. Clinton’s campaign in mid-2015, but was still at the White House when she sent the email. Other emails show Ms. Palmieri helped arrange for Ms. Psaki to move from the State Department to the White House communications job Ms. Palmieri was vacating.

Unfortunately the stories don't end there as other emails reveal coordination between the State Department and Hillary's attorney's all while the FBI was conducting an official investigation.

In another email coming from the State Department, Patrick Kennedy, the undersecretary for management, told Heather Samuelson, one of Mrs. Clinton’s attorneys, about new documents the State Department had posted concerning the former secretary of state.
Ms. Samuelson was one of the attorneys who reviewed Mrs. Clinton’s emails to determine which were government-related and which were personal before providing the official ones to the State Department. She was interviewed by the FBI as part of its probe and granted limited immunity in exchange for turning over her laptop as part of the investigation.

In another exchange, Mr. Kennedy told Ms. Samuelson that Politico was “running [a] story that State official said Secretary Clinton did wrong thing. Wildly inaccurate reporting.”

But, as outrageous as this story is, we're sure the mainstream media will simply bury it as yet another ring-wing attempt to "criminalize behavior that is normal" and promptly go back to demanding Trump's tax returns.

zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-07/white-house-intervened-suppress-hillary-email-scandal-leaked-emails-revealax

Which Way To The Polls

"How many times did you vote?"

"Three. And you?"

"Five!"

"I heard you say six times."

"That's was the dog."

"Since when did dogs get to vote in Cook County?'

"Fifteen elections ago."

zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-06/more-illegal-immigrant-voters-discovered-philly-just-tip-iceber

Overnight

Listen not to the falling rain but the falling UK pound that at one point was down over 6% against the dollar before recouping most of it in what was a rough day for the Brexit crowd as those resentful, crusty EU member continue their hostile rhetoric today it was French President Francois Hollande.

The WSJ reported: “The Brexit situation is one of the risk focuses the markets have,” said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets. “The question is how is it going to play out.”

The pound fell as much as 6.3% against the dollar to $1.1819 in early Asian trading before recovering, according to Thomson Reuters data. The declines have since narrowed to around 1.9%.

The selloff began with comments by French President François Hollande, who said the EU should negotiate toughly with the U.K. to avoid a fallout on member states. Britain wanted to leave the bloc “but doesn’t want to pay,” which was “not possible,” Mr. Hollande said in comments cited by Sky News.

“I initially doubted what I saw on my screen,” said Kenji Yoshii, a foreign exchange strategist at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo, as the pound tumbled in early Asia trading. The wave of selling Friday follows a rough patch for the pound. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Theresa May set a date to begin leaving the EU. So far in October, the pound was down 4.1% against the dollar. The Nekki was off 0.20%, Hang Seng faltered 0.38%, the Shanghai o.21%, the BSE Sensex fell0.41% and the ASX 200 down 0.3%.

Elsewhere, banks in Japan fell after Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kurodacautioned Thursday that European nations should react to the problems affecting their banking system in a timely manner, juxtaposing the current situation with Japan’s banking crisis in the 1990s.

The central banker said the banking crisis in Japan grew more serious and extended as the government took a long time to respond, with the injection of public funds. “It is true that had adverse effect on the macro economy,” Mr. Kuroda told reporters in Washington, D.C.

Computerized trading later caught some of the blame for the down pound. The dollar pound I'd the fourth most active trade pair of currencies. According to Thompson Reuters the range was $1.1819 from $1.2614 before recovering. More recently, it was down 1.4% at $1.2437. That was off last weeks's $130 levels. In February of 1985, the pound fell as low as $1.0520 amid an acrimonious mining-industry strike. The yen drifted lower at 103.78. Mainline Chinese banks were closed for holiday.

Reuters reported, citing OPEC sources, that energy ministers from Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq will be among key OPEC representatives to meet non-OPEC member Russia at the sidelines of an energy conference in Istanbul in the coming week. During Asian hours on Friday, oil traded flat. U.S. crude futures were unchanged at $50.44, after finishing up 1.2 percent in the U.S. session. Global benchmark Brent was down 0.02 percent at $52.50 a barrel, after adding 1.3 percent overnight.

And here's what  gold looked lke after anhter rough day. Last traded at 1255.20.

Gold Here

 
So what do we think of gold right here?

We like it.The meme is a strong dollar hurts gold and it it does. The Fed has sent its obligatory messengers into the wilderness of the marketplace to spread the word interest rates are going up. And most likely they will, though there's a possibility they won't.

But there is more to it here, as is usually the case. We have listed excerpts from two gold articles. You need to read them both in their fullness to get a better picture. We will be buyers but until we get a clearer signal for the entry point we want or should we say hope to get. But we have no intention of being washed out of it.
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To say that gold and gold stock investors have seen their portfolios pull back over the past two months would be a big understatement. However, because the rally that preceded it this year was huge it still appears that the market is just wringing out its excesses. And that means a buying opportunity is near.

Gold bottomed in December 2015 at a price of $1045.40 per troy ounce and then rallied to $1377.50 by July. That was a 32% gain, in round numbers, and was a serious move in anyone’s book. Since then, gold is down just under 9% in price, which is a significant decline.

 

The VanEck Vectors Gold Miners exchange-traded fund (ticker: GDX) had a much wilder ride, as it gained more than 150% from its January low to its August high. And its drop from the peak was a portfolio-busting 27%. Volatility cuts both ways so investors owning gold stocks saw tremendous profits on the way up and commensurate losses on the way down.

The question is, “Why are these markets both down so much and are they back in their long-term bear markets?”

barrons.com/articles/gold-fans-keep-the-faith-this-bloodbath-will-end
  
What Else is Moving

1. There is massive FX volatility  as money piles into the USD
2. Oil is rallying relentlessly
3. Gold is down against every major currency this week
4. There is no observable news to justify moves of this magnitude
5. Precious Metals are having the largest drawdowns of any other market
6. JGBs after getting hammered post the BOJ August policy change  have recouped 1/2 of their losses

Right now we are trying to get a bearing on the possible causes seen and unseen on the deluge of selling.In times like this, we are long on observable facts, and short on opinions until a thesis that ties things together materializes. And when one does not, we just look at what is moving the most and try to reverse engineer the behavior.

Biggest Movers This Week Using the chart below we can easily spot what the biggest movers in  widely held commodities and the FX markets were this week.
Weekly Futures Performance

 
 ODEY's Levered Gold Bet

Even Paulson would be scared

Odey’s  biggest bet is in Gold. Gold represents 100 per cent of his fund’s unleveraged value, meaning a large rally or fall in its value may dictate the fate of his entire portfolio. His reasons are well known, and may be why he has become a target if it is Odey being liquidated. Mr. Odey: “central banks have printed $80tn of money, backed by only $1.27tn of gold”. Which we agree is going to be the death of all paper money. But to be leveraged to the extent that Odey is may be irresponsible.

As the FT states: "Odey’s long gold position interacts with his overarching premise — that a crisis starting in China explodes through global markets. Large amounts of global gold demand come from Asia."

And there is the problem. The crisis has to be inflationary, not deflationary. And Central Bankers are in charge of a market that will take out leveraged portfolios despite easy money.

ODEY's Levered JGB Bet

Mr Odey’s second big trade is that Japanese government bond yields will explode higher as financial markets realize that the “all in” Bank of Japan has run out of ammunition. Some macro hedge funds have over the years attempted to short JGBs based on the idea that the country’s indebtedness and poor growth was incompatible with its low yields. JGB yields have continued to drop, leading to the trade being nicknamed the “widow maker”
Again from the FT:

"the premise that JGB yields will rise during market turmoil is no certainty. The Japanese are the world’s largest single owners of financial assets, which in the event of a crash would presumably be sold and funds repatriated into yen. Over the last two decades a strong yen has tended to coincide with a fall in Japanese government bond yields. Betting against JGBs in anticipation of a crisis may have painfully opposite consequences when a crisis arrives."

 
marketslant.com/articles/common-sense-gold-and-silver-etfs