Zero Hedge has a post up that is important from a behavioral perspective. The corporate elites have gone into overdrive on record stock buybacks and are using record underwritings of corporate bonds to fund heavy stock purchases at inflated prices. As professor Nejat Seyhun of the University of Michigan points out in his analysis, adjusted insider selling reflects a record 25-year pessimism.
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Thus, rather than traditional business investment, the actual impact of zero interest rates and QE is to allow the “stakeholder†elites to put more “money†into the ratlines, where future returns can be made via manipulations and criminal activities. Or those who still have a moral compass can just go to some safety, whatever that is at this point. That’s a question I still have. Where do these extractions go? And beyond the Fed, who is buying the inflated bonds? “Yield starved†Aunt Millie? Other elites?
As far as who is buying the stocks now, in the leveraged e-mini arena we see a clue: Right now it isn’t the managed money investments of the wealthy elites or large speculators. That group is actually short the e-minis. It is the small speculators that are going off the map on buying.  Small specs aren’t always wrong, but that’s whose aggressively in the water right now.  The evidence of who the ultimate bag holders are points to small specs and bondholders.
There is only initial evidence that gold is being utilized for that safety outlet by these western elites. It can be measured by the GLD ETF flows, which after huge redemptions throughout 2013 have turned mildly to the buy side. Since there is almost no interest in traditional business investment, my personal theory on where some of the elites strike next is a massive short sell and manufactured crash. I have had that one on my radar screen for awhile now [see “Orchestrating a Market Crash to Bring About Shock Doctrine“]. The trigger might be a 9/11 type event or worse. That is not a necessary condition though, as a simple recognition of economic reality would also suffice.
