“If you shut up truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way.”
Émile Zola, as quoted in Dreyfus: His Life and Letters, 1937
"These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume."
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 1597
“He will choose you, disarm you with his words, and control you with his presence. He will delight you with his wit and his plans. He will smile and deceive you, and he will scare you with his eyes. And when he is through with you, and he will be through with you, he will desert you, and take with him your innocence and your pride."
Robert D. Hare, Without Conscience, 1993
"That the rate of interest will be lower when commerce languishes and when there is little demand for money, than when the energies of commerce are in full play and there is an active demand for money, is indisputable; but it is equally beyond doubt, that every speculative mania which has run its course of folly and disaster in this country has derived its original impulse from cheap money."
The Economist, 1858
"For those who are determined to be rich fall into temptations and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful passions which drown them in ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all evil, after which some have coveted, and have lost their faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."
1 Timothy 6:9-10
The volatility in these markets is just a taste of things to come.
Stocks managed another bounce back rally.
If they did not have some 'encouragement' from the Exchange Stabilization Fund I would be surprised.
A Fed head made it clear today that they are on board with further subsidies for the one percent.
Gold rallied to an all time high, with silver extending its recovery from its earlier shellacking.
The lawlessness of this Administration and defiance of the Constitution and rule of law is not surprising, but the way in which few in government do or say anything is.
This will end in tears.
The Dollar slipped off the 100 handle.
The interview with Netanyahu and Trump earlier this week was almost unbearable in its darkness.
"You cannot play with the animal in you without becoming wholly animal, play with falsehood without forfeiting your right to truth, play with cruelty without losing your sensitivity of mind.
God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity. But we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder the source of which is beyond all reason."
Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings, 1963
Hammarskjöld was a good man, a man of peace.
All this is causing the rest of the world to lose patience, along with confidence.
Next week is Holy Week.
There will be a stock option expiration on Thursday.
The markets will be closed on Good Friday.
My posting may be sparse. We'll see what happens.
Have a pleasant evening.
