The “Deep State” has been a high-profile topic for several years. Opinions are divided and strong. Those who benefit from the Deep State power and influence support the Deep State and fight against its opposition. Others think it’s the cause of much that is wrong in the world. Rather than wade into the debate, consider the wit and wisdom of Bill Bonner regarding the Deep State..

The bottom line is the major silver miners had an incredible Q3, despite silver’s anemic rally straddling that quarter compared to gold’s. The higher prevailing silver prices combined with lower costs still worked wonders for silver miners’ profitability, both implied as an industry and actual per GAAP earnings. That drove radical fundamental improvements in the silver miners, even as they continued diversifying into gold. But silver’s recent upleg was truncated way before silver-stock prices really started to reflect the miners’ wildly-better fundamentals. That portends big outsized silver-stock gains during silver’s next upleg. As long as prevailing silver prices continue advancing on balance with gold’s secular bull, the silver miners are going to keep looking better and better fundamentally. Their upside potential is massive, well worth riding.

Endeavour Silver’s most profitable mine will be shut down indefinitely by the end of November due to the exhaustion of mineral reserves. All employees will be laid off, and the mine will be put on care and maintenance. The El Cubo Mine will continue milling operations for a week in December to process the remaining stockpiles of ore. This is quite a shame because El Cubo Mine was Endeavour Silver’s most profitable primary silver mine, or so they say. According to the company’s recent November Investor Presentation, El Cubo Mine has been operated continuously for the past 165 years

Yet another former precious metals trader from JPMorgan has been indicted for spoofing and price manipulation by the US Department of Justice. Between all the criminal guilty pleas and indictments to date, it begs the question – were there any precious metals traders at JPMorgan which weren’t engaged in illegal trading activities? From my close professional observation for more than a decade, I would be dumbfounded if any JPMorgan precious metals traders were on the up and up. Perhaps it might be more expedient for the Justice Department to list the traders at JPMorgan which it considered as non-criminal.