“Stick was at a temporary low point,” wrote Elmore Leonard of his great fictional antihero Ernest Stickley, a man prepared to ride out the sticky periods while he gathers his ideas. I love the way the author makes it clear there is no question in Stick’s mind that the bad times will pass. 

It is a sentiment worth believing in, but it’s hard to feel the morass we’re in is anything like temporary. With the state of the nation confirmed by the president to be mired in molasses, at best, we have to look at the markets for signs of hope.

The ticker showing the most obvious flutter of life is the gold price. Technical analysts point out that it has broken out of a seven-year consolidation pattern, an extremely bullish signal. ..