Happy New Year to all in the Goldtent community. Here is something to think about, although it is out there and a longshot, not totally impossible given what we know about the world and how it has changed dramatically in just the last few years. Let’s connect some dots. We know that the Japanese have had a very long period of YCC and keeping the Yen purposely weak and Japanese rates low. This has allowed the Yen to be the facilitator of the Yen carry trade where hedge funds and others(probably some central banks) have been able to short yen to buy dollars and euros etc. to purchase US treasuries and other assets. For months now, the Japanese have been slow walking a change in this policy taking baby steps in raising the ceiling of the range the Yen was allowed to trade in. Just last week it looked like Japan was about to announce a major change (ending the policy) in the first few days of the New Year. It would be disastorous to the yen carry trade that has built up for years. So, given that we have heard numerous reports over the last few years of governments being able to trigger weather related events, we get a major Japanese earthquake and tsunmai to welcome the New Year. The Japanese are unlikely to change their financial policy which would have included raising interest rates, in the face of this potentially devastating humanitarian and financial event for Japan. If the damage is minimal it may just delay a change, if it is more extreme, the change in financial policy could be buried for at least a year or more.(at least through the US election in 2024) I may be crazy, but with everything that has taken place since 911 and more recently Covid and the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, not to mention the almost incontrovertible evidence of the use of directed energy weapons in Maui and likely to start many of the global forest fires, such a scenario is not without some degree of possibility. An unwinding of the carry trade would have accelerated the selling of US Treasuries and US dollars and increased the buying of gold. If the Japanese don’t change policy as planned, because of the damage to Japan and it’s economy from the earthquake, those trends while still in place, won’t be as dramatic and quick as they otherwise were likely to be.