"The problem of the last three decades is not the 'vicissitudes of the marketplace,' but rather deliberate actions by the government to redistribute income from the rest of us to the one percent."
Dean Baker, The Market Would Be a Big Improvement, 29 September 2014
"As the boom developed, the big men became more and more omnipotent in the popular or at least the speculative view. The big men decided to put the market up, and even some serious scholars have been inclined to think that a concerted move catalyzed this upsurge."
John K. Galbraith, The Great Crash of 1929, 1955
"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, quoted in How the Liberals Abandoned the Just Society, 1995
"We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. It is not merely that at present the rule of naked force obtains almost everywhere. Bully-worship has become a universal religion."
George Orwell, Review of Bertrand Russell's Power, 1939
"Through its monopoly over the media, the ruling oligarchy can repeatedly blame all its failures on others, and divert attention to external threats – either real or imaginary. When you live under such an oligarchy, there is always some crisis or other that takes priority over boring stuff such as healthcare and pollution.
If the nation is facing external invasion or diabolical subversion, who has time to worry about overcrowded hospitals and polluted rivers? By manufacturing a never-ending stream of crises, a corrupt oligarchy can prolong its rule indefinitely.”
Yuval Noah Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, 2018
This may be the calm before the storm.
Gold punched higher, setting a new closing high. It is now within striking distance of 4000, which has been my long term target for a number of years.
Although this is unfolding in almost exactly the way I had anticipated, some years ago, it is still surprising and gratifying to see it.
The same thing can be said for silver, which is similarly in striking distance of 50.
On the other hand, stocks are making blow off bubble tops sustained by the egoism of he-who-must-not-be-named.
But when the trigger event comes along, and there are a number of increasingly likely candidates, this bubbled up bloatfest of mispriced risk is going to deflate like styrofoam in a roaring furnace of reality.
As Orwell noted for his time in the 1930, bully-worship is a near universal religion, as force is admired as an end.
But now and it did then, the bullies can only overreach so far, and stumble. And then they fall into a spinning maelstrom of blowback that leaves them nearly unrecognizable.
The most important thing is to guard yourself, your soul, in all this madness. Because that is what the struggle is all about.
Have a pleasant weekend.
