Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - A Murderous Sickness of the Heart

 

"Self-regulation is a vulnerable strategy in any human concern involving trust, but is absolute folly in an industry where the emphasis and incentives are based on the ruthless pursuit of performance at any cost, and where such behaviour is rewarded.

There is little doubt that strong personality types can hijack an organization, a political party, a sub-culture, or even for a time a nation, given the right environment of moral exceptionalism driven by fear and greed, and indoctrination.  They bring the ambivalent and the weak-willed along with them."

Jesse, Psychopaths on Wall Street,  17 March 2012

"Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."

Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse Dune, March 1985

"Psychopaths rival pedophiles in the panoply of those we despise and fear.  Given this fascination with psychopathy, and the public's current negative view of Wall Street, it is no surprise that Twitter, the blogosphere, and traditional media have been buzzing about "The Financial Psychopath Next Door," an article in CFA Magazine by Sherree DeCovny.

The headline-grabbing factoid in the article was an estimate that 10% of people in the financial services industry are psychopaths. And that's a conservative estimate, according to Christopher Bayer, a Wall Street psychotherapist cited by DeCovny.

DeCovny describes 'financial psychopaths' as individuals who seek thrills, lack empathy, don't care about what others think, are charming and intelligent, and are skilled at lying and manipulation. Citing Richard Peterson, managing partner of MarketPsych, DeCovny notes that these are some of the traits that also predict success on Wall Street.

To understand the implications of this it helps to define psychopathy.  It is a psychological condition based on well-established diagnostic criteria.  These include glibness and superficial charm, conning and manipulative behavior, lack of remorse and empathy, refusal to take responsibility for one's behavior, and others.

There are some true psychopaths on Wall Street, as there are in all walks of life. The odds increase further when we consider the competitive advantage that some of the characteristics of psychopathy, including willingness to take risks, can provide in the field.

The only way to deal with a true psychopath is to get him or her out of the organization as fast as possible. While full-blown psychopaths are not deterred by fear and do not learn from punishment, 'almost psychopaths' (and borderline sociopaths) can get the message that adverse consequences will follow misconduct. As a result, strictly enforced firm policies can be effective in deterring those who may be tempted to engage in illicit conduct.  As long as the firm wants to deter them." 

Ronald Schouten, Psychopaths on Wall Street, Harvard Business Review, 14 March 2012

“I think that the depth of Satan's pride is difficult for humans to understand, and therefore it is easy to fall into this error and partake of it, thinking, all the while, that we are instead doing something great and beautiful.”

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, 1880

The powerful create a mythology of exceptionalism to justify their success.  This can become a self-reinforcing cultural bias, that embeds itself in a system of thought.  And it can be used to justify terrible crimes and abuses, which too often end in murder en masse.   Over and over again.

Stocks managed to shake off the dodgy start of the talks in Switzerland between the US and Iran. 

Gold and silver faded a bit again ahead of a Comex futures option expiration later this week on Thursday the 25^th.

The Dollar is bumping up against resistance now.   We will have to see if it can extend.

SpaceX is now underwater from its IPO last week.   That was a quick trip. 

The situations in Iran and the Ukraine continue to evolve.  The risks are immense.  The consequences are severe.  The rewards are for a powerful, soulless few.

"When one knows it is possible to kill without risking either punishment or blame, one kills; or at least one surrounds those who kill with encouraging smiles. If one feels a little disgust, one keeps quiet about it, and before long one extinguishes it, for fear of seeming to lack manliness. One is swept up; it is an intoxication impossible to resist without a strength of soul I am obliged to consider exceptional."   Simone Weil, Paris, 1938

Let's see what the rest of the week brings.

Have a pleasant evening. 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Storm Warnings - US Markets Closed Tomorrow for Juneteenth

 

"Federal regulators are proposing changes to bank capital requirements, potentially reducing them for many U.S. institutions by altering risk-weighted asset calculations and G-SIB surcharges. While proponents argue this simplifies regulations and frees up capital for lending, rating agency Moody's warns of potential risks.

Moody's emphasizes that lower capital requirements could lead banks to increase shareholder payouts, take on more risk, or operate with thinner capital cushions, rather than genuinely strengthening their balance sheets. The agency highlights that revised calculations might make capital ratios *appear* stronger without actually improving a bank's loss-absorbing capacity."

Mayra Valladares, Moody’s Is Warning Investors, 15 June 2026

"Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wants to rewrite the post-financial crisis rulebook for the nation’s banks. And he’s using government regulators themselves to loosen many of the rules they put in place. Bessent is increasingly steering independent agencies to relax oversight of lenders, usher digital assets into the banking system, and reduce costs for megabanks that trade in U.S. government debt. In doing so, he is redefining the relationship between the administration and federal agencies, which have long enjoyed significant autonomy in supervising banks."

Allen Reiter and Victoria Guida, Scott Bessent has a plan to free the nation’s banks, 24 January 2026

"You know what banking system Scott Bessent wants? The one we had right up until 1933...The alternative is to say we need better regulation over the private credit market."

Elizabeth Warren, CNBC Interview, 18 June 2026

"This worsening macroeconomic environment supports Fitch's shift of the North American Sovereigns outlook from neutral to deteriorating.  The U.S. general government deficit is now forecast to expand to 7.9% of GDP in 2026, compared to 7.1% in 2025, driven by the fiscal consequences of tax cuts in the U.S. tax and spending legislation and lower tariff revenues...  General government debt is predicted to surpass 120% of GDP by 2027."

IndexBox Market Intelligence, U.S. Credit Outlooks Deteriorate, 18 June 2026

"Iran warns of cancelling all upcoming negotiations, re-imposing the full Hormuz blockade and responding with missiles over the direct violation of the US-Iran MOU's first clause, with Israel continuing military aggressions in southern Lebanon, including last night, despite explicit commitment from the first clause to end the war and guarantee Lebanese sovereignty, per Tasnim.

Iran explicitly rejects any 'theater from Trump' about Netanyahu being rogue, and now Friday's Geneva meeting to launch the first round of 30-day technical talks between Vance and Ghalibaf is on hold over the violation, as no trip has been confirmed or scheduled just 24 hours after the MOU was electronically signed."

Breaking news after the bell:  Iran has suspended its entire 60-day negotiation period with the US over the direct violation of the MOU's first clause, with Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon constituting a breach less than 24 hours after the MOU was electronically signed, per Fars and Al-Mayadeen.  Iran's negotiating delegation had already been preparing to depart for Switzerland to launch the first round of talks before Iran made the decision to suspend the entire trip.

Iran will also not unilaterally fulfill its commitments, and until Iran is fully assured Israeli attacks on Lebanon have stopped and the US has practically adhered to the first-clause obligations, talks remain cancelled."

The Hormuz Letter, X, 18 June 2026

 

Let's hope that cooler heads seeking an end to this war will prevail.   This cancellation of talks was predictable based on all the previous 'ceasefires.'  And so what will Trump do now.

The US risk markets are engaged in a stunning mispricing of risks. 

I do not believe this is some accident, or act of God, or excess of animal spirits, which are the usual explanations for the busts and bubbles that have brazenly characterized the US financial market since at least 2000.

This is willful looting.  And it has shown its face in almost every aspect of the activities of the moneyed interests and their courtiers and enablers.

And there will be a banquet of consequences, covered with more lies, scapegoating, and misdirection aimed at punishing the innocent.

Gold and silver were smacked lower as the Dollar gained a little more and is touching the top of its trading range.   

This is 'technical trading' post-FOMC for the triple witch option expiration in equities today.   Target gold and silver miners.

As most people besides me must have noticed, the markets are closed tomorrow for 'Juneteenth.'  

VIX has fallen back into complacency.

I have been watching the SpaceX IPO, its introduction, ascent, and falling back.

The official and financial corruption in the US has become a pandemic of malfeasance and mismanagement that I do not think many here would have seen in their lifetimes. 

It will take the people a long time for correct this, because the 'establishment' is caught in a credibility trap in which they can admit no wrongs in order to correct them, because of their deep and ongoing complicity.

It will be hard, but with God all things are possible.  And even the mighty and the powerful have fallen, while the word and the spirit endure.

My recovery proceeds.  The greatest obstacle is my own sense of recovery overreaching my required convalescence.  (e.g. feeling better and trying to do for myself too much too soon).

The young man has as steadfast and responsible and kind a man as any.   His personal sense of integrity and duty is remarkable. The Queen raised and formed him well. 

This is God's loving kindness and tender mercies.  

And shame on me.   I did not realize US markets are closed tomorrow for Juneteenth.  I did not know it was a market holiday!   

I can only attribute this oversight on my part with my unworthy preoccupation with my geezerly recovery.

P.S. for those who have expressed their kind concern, the 'painkillers' I am taking are Tylenol and ibuprofen.  Something stronger is not needed.  The surgeon did very tidy work.  The ice packs and a good book are the best comforts.

Have a pleasant weekend. 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - All's Well That Ends Well

 

"Our wagon is prepared, and time revives us.
All’s well that ends well. Still the fine’s the crown.
Whatever the course, the end is the renown."

Wm. Shakespeare, All's Well that Ends Well Act 4

No comments, just charts.

It was an FOMC day. 

The usual shenanigans in the precious metals.

Other than that, I did not pay much attention. 

A triple witch stock option expiration on Friday. 

See you tomorrow, painkillers and ice packs in hand.

Have a pleasant evening. 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - It's Such a Splendid, Sunny Day

 

"Edge, Jeffrey Epstein's favourite intellectual salon — was sold to me as a gathering of the world's finest minds. The files reveal it was something far darker: a decades-long project that cloaked eugenics, race science and sexual misconduct in Ivy League respectability.

Whatever Edge was supposed to be, it became something sinister. The salon played yenta to billionaire money and alpha-male minds, and together, over decades, they all converged on a master philosophy: they were apex predators ordained by nature to exploit and subjugate others. This creed allowed the Edge set to steer intellectual history into its current fascist dead-end.  Billionaires really like thinkers who see their exploitation of the weak as a good and natural thing.

With the Epstein files, we’re confronted with exactly what all the Edge men did with the intellectual territory they seized.  With their Ivy League posts, their billions, and their blue-ribbon DNA, the would-be intellectuals in Epstein’s circle converged on nothing less than the ideology of Mein Kampf."

Virginia Heffernan, The Billionaire's Eugenics Project, 13 February 2026

"The children of elites will not succeed because they are born with a silver spoon in their mouth, and an automatic ticket to the Ivy League.  They will succeed because they have inherited the talent, energy, drive, and resilience to overcome the many obstacles they will face in life.  Life is still a struggle for all who hope to have economic and social success.  It is just that we can predict who will be likely to possess the necessary characteristics from their ancestry."

Greg Clark, The Economist, 13 Feb. 2013

"To admit that the Reich was a lie and a mistake, that they were fanatical fools and Hitler an incompetent creature, would be to admit that they had become an accomplice to an unimaginable evil.  To accept that guilt, to admit one's complicity in such a horrendous assault on justice, to humble oneself and ask for forgiveness, would have taken a heroic act of self-awareness, humility and repentance. And worse, for these fanatics, it would diminish their pride.  Pride is the mother of all sin.  This is the slow descent into hell.  This is the unwillingness to let go of the lie, for the sake of pride and its power, and cling to evil as it draws them into the abyss."

Jesse, Seth the Arbiter of Chaos, 15 May 2018

"Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us—if at all—not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men."

T. S. Eliot, The Hollow Men, 1925

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace.  But with disgrace comes humility, and with humility comes wisdom.  The humility of the righteous will guide them, but the deceitfulness of the proud will destroy them."

Proverbs 11:2-3 

 

So we toddle on to the first FOMC decision under the new Chair Kevin Warsh tomorrow, and a triple witch option expiration on Friday. 

And of course, the signing of the big, beautiful Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Iran, which has yet to be publicly disclosed, later this week.

I hope it holds and that the interested parties will honor it.  But I have to confess that my outlook is cloudy with a chance of false flags and spoilers.

Stocks popped and flopped, with the NDX futures hitting what may prove to be a significant high, barring hyperinflation.

Gold and silver continued to bounce off the recent lows from last week.  Let's see how they make it through the FOMC and the triple witch.

I am in gold and silver for the longer term.  Nothing has changed since I first made this calculation around 2001.  

The dominant parties in the financial wars are evolving, and so the currency wars are ongoing.  It seems a lot easier to forecast now in retrospect, than back then, when the wall of worry in precious metals looked more like climbing the Eiger than a walk through Muir Woods.

It's funny how you remember things.    I recall a bright sunny spring day with the Queen in Grindelwald I think, many years ago in the late 1980s.  We were on our way by car with some friends to visit a restaurant called Piz Gloria on top of the Schilthorn.  You may recall having seen it in one of the James Bond films, On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

We were standing and watching the towering Jungfrau and the Eiger, when a terrific avalanche came crashing down the mountain.  We could hear its roar after a long delay.  

The Alps were majestic, and she was so beautiful. 

It is so easy, so convenient to forget who you are, and what it means to be human.  And to allow your love to grow cold.

"It is such a splendid, sunny day, and I have to go."  Sophie Scholl, Munich, February 22, 1943.

See you on Thursday.  There is a great deal of work to be done.

Have a pleasant evening.