Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution, 1837
“It could be argued that we are now in the midst of a coup d’état in slow motion. Democracy is weakening; few people would disagree. Corporatism is strengthening; you only have to look around you. Yet none of us has chosen this route for our society, in spite of which our elites quite happily continue down it. Certainly corporatism is creating a conformist society. It is a modern form of feudalism.”
John Ralston Saul, The Unconscious Civilization, 1995
"War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it."
George Orwell
"Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege."
Thomas Clement Douglas, as quoted in How the Liberals Abandoned the Just Society, 1995
“The main problem in any democracy is that crowd-pleasers are generally brainless swine who can go out on a stage and whip their supporters into an orgiastic frenzy— then go back to the office and sell every one of the poor bastards down the tube for a nickel apiece.”
Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, 1973
"But there is a sort of 'Ok guys, you're mad, but how are you going to stop me' mentality at the top."
Robert Johnson, On Oligarchy, 2012
Stocks were in rally mode today, and went out near the highs of the day.
The Dollar fell.
Gold and silver bounced back, although the miners were under some selective pressure.
VIX fell.
Perhaps the wiseguys feel the same relief as many that the carpet bombing with banal political television ads is soon to be over.
It looks like it might be an interesting night to watch the election results.
Fire up the popcorn, heat up some ramen as the dreadful drama unfolds.
Hopefully we'll have the results tomorrow, with the Fed making their latest rates decision on Thursday.
Have a pleasant evening.
