"Wall Street in boom days is an aggregation of madmen. The Stock Exchange becomes Bedlam well dressed. In the end, of course, all violations of the fundamental laws of economic and financial common sense are paid for; but every bull thinks he will unload before the break. They really do not know when to stop winning, and so in the end they lose profit and principal.”
Edwin Lefevre
"The world needs a new generation of policymakers who don’t hobnob with billionaire speculators and who understand workers’ concerns. Unfortunately, the change will not come smoothly."
Andy Xie
"Wealth, in even the most improbable cases, manages to convey the aspect of intelligence. Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding. In a community where the primary concern is making money, one of the necessary rules is to live and let live. To speak out against madness may be to ruin those who have succumbed to it. So the wise in Wall Street are nearly always silent. The foolish thus have the field to themselves. None rebukes them.
John Kenneth Galbraith
"At the root of America's economic crisis lies a moral crisis: the decline of civic virtue among America's political and economic elite. A society of markets, laws, and elections is not enough if the rich and powerful fail to behave with respect, honesty, and compassion toward the rest of society and toward the world."
Jeffrey Sachs
"People criticize owning bullion because there’s no yield. But there’s a reason everything else needs a yield, to compensate you for things like obsolescence risk, business-cycle risk and management risk, all of the things that gold does not have. There’s a reason humanity has tended to use gold as an alternative to man-made currency – it’s the only virtually infinite-duration asset in the world."
Matthew McLennan, First Eagle Funds, 2015
I am posting the charts a bit early today, as I have an appointment to keep at 4 PM.
If stocks radically depart from their current levels I will update them later tonight.
But it seems like stocks are marking time now.
Having driven valuations to another extreme, the punters are waiting for an additional excuse to pump them even further.
Another vaporous big trade deal, another market friendly ruling, some imaginary reason to cast doubts aside and believe.
In times of madness belief is a badge of belonging, of submerging frailty into the slogans and power of the herd, thereby escaping the burden of individuality.
We serve the Lords of Excess, or must navigate the unsteady winds of reality alone.
Have a pleasant evening.
