According to Jesse, "Proprietor" and longtime market observer at Café Americain, the "tension on the tape" indicates that there will be a big break in stocks and metals within the next week to ten days... and he said that three days ago.

Without defining "tension on the tape" any more than Jesse does, I take his statement to mean that he expects significant downward movement in stocks and significant upward movement in precious metals.

It's a rare day when I can't detach myself from the Internet, but after chasing point to point and fact to fact all day, I've concluded that something has happened that has spread apprehension throughout the global banking fraternity.

Remember how, just a few weeks ago, there were all the secretive (but not secret) meetings of all the global "money" people in Washington, D.C.?

Remember how not one word of explanation came from any of those meetings...from participants who are usually eager to make statements? And, remember how the media displayed little of the curiosity that reporters are supposed to have, and how everyone seemed content to let the news drop out of sight?

Some of us haven't forgotten, and haven't stopped trying to determine what occasioned that flurry of meetings...and what decisions and directions resulted. Here's where my speculation, and 2 plus 2 logic has taken me. Speculation is often derided, but, when speculation is based on accurate observation, it becomes theory formation, which is the bedrock of scientific method. And, given an environment in which silence reinforces non-transparency, and in which "official statements" may obfuscate or misinform, the simple act of patterning observations can be a valuable tool for revealing the unrevealed.

I believe something had happened or was about to happen to complicate Deutsche Bank's plight...something so severe that it demanded global conferencing. Remember Deutsche Bank's confession of collusion in the manipulation of precious metal prices, and how it promissed to tattle on the other major banks involved?

There are several factors that turn Deutsche Bank's plight into a "Pacific Rim" of volcanic banking activity. First of all, the bank had broken the code of banking silence and secrecy.It has admitted to an unadmitted practice.It has implicated other banks in this collusive practice. The practice invites lawyers into probing to determine how many years those--and possibly other banks AND GOVERNMENTS--have been involved in price and market manipulation. I have read protests claiming that Deutsche Bank's confession amounts to little or nothing (which I would have someone say if I wanted to downplay the event), but, in all likelihood Deutsche Bank's confession opened a multifaceted can of worms that threatens banker secrecy, power, control, and credibility.Deutsche Bank's confession may be the spear speeding toward global banking's Achilles Heel.

But, there's more to the story.It might not be so bad if the Bank of Podunk had made the confession, but Deutsche Bank is believed to be impaired by nearly $43 TRILLION in derivatives, which makes it a ticking time bomb. The trouble with derivatives, when stacked as they're said to be at Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan, is that there is an almost infinite number of fuses which lead outside and beyond the control of those banks, making a mockery of "too big to fail." 

Those emergency meetings in D.C. almost surely were centered around a desperate need to determine how to treat (punish) Deutschebank for breaking the banker/banking code, how to prepare global banking response to Deutche Bank's collapse, how to prevent, conceal, or contain any domino effect of derivative losses, and how to keep the global public distracted, uninformed, misinformed, and blissfully unsuspecting and unprepared.

We don't know how much damage has been done, and of course containment has been the key word...contain the damage as much and as long as possible...don't let the shakiness of the global banking system become public knowledge ... keep kicking the can...don't let the public's confidence in the banking system be shaken... let the Fed's spokespersons keep up the distraction of rate increases... keep the subsidies pumping into Wall Street... keep conducting the flash crashes on gold and silver, and make it appear than nothing has changed. But, things HAVE changed!

At about the same time those secret meetings were being held in DC, China was opening a gold market that deals in actual gold--not the "paper" gold futures which have let the banks such as Deutsche Bank manipulate gold and silver prices using naked shorting's imaginary metal.Increasingly, global traders who want to buy or sell physical gold will do so through the Chinese market.Gradually the Comex "paper' market will lose relevancy--and customers--in a scam that has seen the same ounce of gold be sold to more than 500 buyers.

Another change is also related to the COMEX "paper gold" market. The Bullion Bank raids that have been used to drive down the price of paper gold for the last three years have become less and less effective. Traders know the daily "flash crash" schedule and time their buying on the dips. The sell-off of western gold and silver over the past three years has depleted supplies and emptied vaults, which makes it riskier for manipulators shorting the market, and lets "longs" hold on to their gold instead of selling at any price after flash crashes. As a result, we have been seeing a gradual rise in gold and silver prices. So, the paper market is changing, and there's not much the Cartel can do about it... except to keep doing what its been doing to contain prices.

From this point it will be much more difficult for the Cartel to keep its price caps on gold and silver... and much harder to engineer another "bottom" for gold and silver.It could well be that if you haven't gotten your precious metal, you'll be left wishing you had.

The stock market has been acting indecisively for months. It cannot, even with the financial boosts provided by the Treasury's Equalization and Stabilization Fund and the President's Plunge Protection Team, get any consistent traction.It dawdles... up a little, down a little.Repeat. 

It inspires no confidence. What it gains, it gives back. Outside the government's subsidies through the aforementioned agencies, the one thing that's made the market look good is corporate buy-backs... but that has run its course. And in the meantime, the government's subsidies have hardly kept pace with the volume of withdrawals by stock owners who are cashing out of the market. Also, you might do a Search for the number of Wall Street execs who have--in one way or another--advised getting out of the market. 

Certainly George Soros has gotten the message... and while Buffet is buying fading Apple, Soros has dumped more than a third of his stocks while plowing $124 million into SPDR Gold Trust plus buying a $264 million stake in Barrick Gold (mining).He is also believed to own physical gold.

In Texas, construction has started on a gold depository, which could be open for business before the end of the year.It may only benefit Texans, but it shows how paper may satisfy during good times, but when times get tough, people want something that may melt but not burn.

Back to Deutsche Bank... and another HUGE change! My jaw dropped when I read the headline.I couldn't believe it. Deutsche Bank--the biggest bank in Europe -- where NEGATIVE INTEREST RATES are the rule... as per the European Central Bank... has published ads saying it will pay new depositors five percent interest on money they commit for only THREE months!

And, since I started writing, Moody had given its "Thumb's Down" to Deutschebank, and sees its plight as hopeless. And, that can hardly be encouraging to those who were considering making a large deposit in Deutsche Bank.

Obviously, something's wrong. Obviously, Deutsche Bank is in deep trouble and needs cash badly... and soon. Is Deutsche Bank being blackballed, shunned, and treated like an outcast for ratting on fellow conspirators? Has it been cut off from Central Bank money? Was that one of the punishments decided in DC? Is the global banking community preparing for the death of Deutsche Bank? It sure looks that way when you add up all the 2s. At this point it's far more likely for things to go wrong than right. And far more likely that some of the worms will crawl out of the can in spite of heavy pressure on the lid. 

Keep your eyes and ears open for your own observations. And, keep your sneakers on, because banking moves that come now may require some sudden moves on your part.  You might not want to have a lot of your purchasing power tied up in banks... any bank. Or in paper... any paper.