Loading ...and buying platinum and palladium. Plat up $57, over 3%
Oil all the way down to a $55 handle.
Volatile day for the pm sector.
We are definitely tied to the SM algo’s
Didn’t realize they put the jobs numbers out this am. Better than expected +69K vs. +30K expectations.
Retail sales also beat.
No Christmas rally yet so far this year. Will be interesting to see how things go next week as volume falls off a cliff.
At least there’s some sense there. Martin Armstrong thinks the French have already been dipping into the Russian funds.
Lord Bebo
@MyLordBebo
·
Dec 15
🇪🇺🇷🇺 7 out of 27 EU countries are already opposed to the expropriation of Russian assets. Any attempt to push through this decision will cause a serious rift within the EU — Euractiv
🇧🇪🇭🇺🇸🇰🇮🇹🇧🇬🇲🇹🇨🇿: Belgium, Hungary, Slovakia have been joined by Italy, Bulgaria, Malta & Czech
Send them all back!
Basil the Great
@BasilTheGreat
·
5h
In many European countries you will find nice little farm shops like this one in the Netherlands 🇳🇱
While people are t work on the farm they have a trust system where people leave money in return for goods
Nice hit for Onyx
Onyx Gold Returns 194 m of 1.8 g/t Au at Argus North, Including 28 m of 3.0 g/t Au and 24.1 m of 3.7 g/t Au
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/onyx-gold-returns-194-m-120000383.html
D’oh!
Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Investigation Appears To Be On The Brink Of Implicating Zelensky
The New York Times’ recent report about his government’s responsibility for the worst corruption scandal in Ukraine’s history suggests that the walls are closing in and his foreign media allies are jumping ship out of desperation to retain some of their credibility after years of deifying him.
Surprisingly good open
Considering that silver was beaten down to $62.12 in the overnight markets and now all the way back up to $63.70. Gold was down $30, now up $23.
Shares continue to be solid, not off to the races, but not down yet.
Who knows, maybe we’ll hang in there. No doubt the strength is on the Crimex today. Still a battle though, they aren’t going to let us run. We’re getting hit while I type. Silver back below $63.50
Maddog @ 7:02
Interesting viewpoint!
FWIW
Shares don’t look that bad in the premarket. Course, they sucked yesterday when they shouldn’t have.
Never know with this stuff.
AI and the legal profession
No link as behind a paywall.
It feels, pleasingly, like a scene from a cerebral James Bond film, or perhaps an episode of Slow Horses. I am in a shadowy corner of a plush, buzzy Soho members’ bar. A mild December twilight is falling over London. Across the table from me sits an old acquaintance, a senior English barrister, greying, quietly handsome, in his mid fifties. And he wants to speak anonymously, because what he is about to say will earn the loathing of his entire profession.
Let’s call him James. I’ve known him for a few years, and over these years we’ve discussed all kinds of things, from politics to architecture to the misfortunes of Chelsea FC. We’ve also discussed technology and AI. James’s views of AI were always like his politics: centrist, clever, moderate, sceptical. But now that has changed. In the past few weeks James has come to believe AI will ‘completely destroy’ the law as we know it: wrecking careers, ending systems, making thousands jobless. And the Armageddon, he says, is coming faster than almost anyone realises.
As he sips an espresso martini, he prefaces his case with some context. ‘You saw the headlines about the Sandie Peggie case? Where the judge allegedly used AI? Well, believe me, this is just the beginning. AI is coming for us all.’
‘How?’
‘Last week we did an experiment, a kind of simulation. We took a real, recent and important case – a complex civil court appeal which I wrote, and it took me a day and a half. We redacted all identifying details, for anonymity and confidentiality, and we fed the same case to Grok Heavy AI. And then we asked it to do what I did. After some prompting, the end result was…’ He shakes his head. ‘Spectacular. Actually staggering. It did it in 30 seconds, and it was much better than mine. And remember, I am very good at this.’
He sits back, wry yet resigned. ‘It was at the level of a truly great KC. The best possible legal document. And all done in seconds for pennies. How can any of us compete? We can’t.’
He finishes his martini. We order two more. ‘With the right prompting, legal AI is now way ahead of people. Barristers or advocates who depend on giving legal opinions and have no client contact are already completely fucked. But more is coming.’
James believes AI will work its way up the legal hierarchy. First the gruntwork, then the drafting, the citation, the argumentation. Eventually the majority of legal jobs will be replaced. ‘Process lawyers are obviously doomed. AI will handle the most complex probate and conveyancing cases in seconds. The most complicated human skill will be,’ he chuckles, sadly, ‘to scan and digitise paper documents. Barristers will make arguments in courtrooms that are drafted by AI, and then people will wonder why they are paying human barristers £200,000, and they too will disappear.’
He concludes, pithily: ‘With rare exceptions, law is finished for almost everyone, maybe even the judges – as we’ve seen the past few days.’
I mention the problem of ‘hallucinations’ – when an AI model presents false or fabricated information as factual – and the need for a human face in court. The Sandie Peggie judgment allegedly contained AI-made errors. He waves this all away. ‘Temporary bugs and sentimental preferences. The economic argument is overwhelming.’
‘It was the best possible legal document. And all done in seconds for pennies. How can any of us compete? We can’t’
There is another obvious question raised here. If James can see what is coming down the line, why can’t everyone else? James knocks back his drink, and explains that the next generation of lawyers are being trained to believe they can use AI, without being replaced by it. They are comforted by the idea that AI is just another tool, like LexisNexis with better teeth. James is certain they are deluded. He says maybe 1 per cent of his peers have any idea what is about to happen.
He has another argument, even more pressing. ‘Lawyers are arrogant. Lawyers run the country. Keir Starmer is a quintessential lawyer. So these are people used to being respected, and they commonly have, let’s say, very high self-esteem. For them to admit they aren’t so special, at all, and that they can be replaced by a free robot, is going to be torture.’
I ask what he thinks this will do to his colleagues – psychologically, economically, emotionally. ‘At first, they will fight, like radicals. A losing battle. There will be attempts to outlaw the use of AI in various legal areas. But it won’t work, the economics will see to that. So lots of people who make a lot of money will, suddenly, not make that money. God knows what that might do to property prices, to politics, to all of us. Because it won’t just be the law.’
We are nearly at the end of our second martinis. I am now sufficiently unnerved to want a third. I look around at the sleek, clever people in this posh London drinking hole, with its elegant modern British art, its very excellent wine list. What happens when the ecosystem that supports all this – rich metropolitan people using their capable brains – is shaken to the core? Or collapses?
James seems surprisingly cheery, given his theme. ‘To be honest, a lot of lawyers deserve what’s coming. Too many of them are greedy, selfish – yet not self-aware. They create complexity purely so they can make more work for themselves. And activist judges are a curse, which will soon be lifted. Maybe in the end this will all be a good thing, even if 100,000 unemployed barristers will be…’ He laughs. ‘A bit destabilising. Think of an army of penniless, pompous, progressive lawyers – with nothing to do.’
The club is now loudly buzzing, and James is heading off for dinner with colleagues. ‘Obviously, I’m not going to say any of this to them. They would hate me. But someone has to be honest.’
I have one last question. Right now, young people are studying law, or considering doing so. Does James have any advice? He sits up, full of passion.
‘My niece is a lovely girl, really smart, great at school, and the other day she told me she wants to be a lawyer. And I thought, “Oh my God, my little niece wants to be a lawyer”, and I flat out told her. I said please do not destroy your life. Do not get into a lifetime of debt for a job that won’t exist in ten years. Or less.’
Armstrong.
Europe was talking about crashing the US stock market if Trump makes peace deal with Putin.
Martin Armstrong drops bombshell revelations in this exclusive 2025 interview: he personally drafted Trump’s secret Russia-Ukraine peace plan, warns that the EU has already secretly spent most of the $300 billion frozen Russian assets (mostly private wealth), predicts a major NATO false-flag in Q1 2026 to block US exit from the alliance, declares Europe the real enemy of peace, exposes the hidden $75 trillion natural-resource motive behind the war, confirms Washington is seriously discussing leaving NATO, reveals silver heading to $80 and gold exploding into 2027, and issues an urgent warning to move money out of Europe before capital controls, gold/Bitcoin bans, and the coming Eurozone collapse by 2030. A must-watch update from the legendary forecaster who’s been advising governments for decades.
