Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome, Book XI, Chapter 26, AD 166
“But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the emperor, and the propitiations of the gods, did not banish the sinister belief that the fire was on imperial order. Consequently, to get rid of the rumor, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the people.
Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, checked for the moment, broke out again not only in Judæa, the first source of the evil, but in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.”
Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome, Book XV, Chapter 44, AD 116
"The wealth of another region excites their greed; and if it is weak, their lust for power as well. Nothing from the rising to the setting of the sun is enough for them. Among all others only they are compelled to attack the poor as well as the rich. Plunder, rape, and murder they falsely call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace."
Tacitus, Agricola, AD 98
"Julius Martialis was the officer of the day in the camp. Terrified by the enormity of the sudden crime, ignorant of the extent to which the camp was disloyal, and fearing death if he opposed, he made the majority suspect him of complicity. All the rest of the tribunes also and the centurions preferred present safety to a doubtful but honourable course. And such was the attitude of their minds that the foulest of crimes was dared by a few, desired by more, and acquiesced in by all."
Tacitus, Histories: The Rise of Otho, Book I, Chapter 28
"You have people in power that just don't understand reality. They're delusional, whether it's their own arrogance, whether it's their vain glory, their simple-minded understanding of the world, their greed, whatever it is. They are continuing to pursue a ruinous policy that day by day gets much worse."
Matt Hoh, Judging Freedom, October 28, 2025
"Nemesis, the goddess of retribution and vengeance, the punisher of pride and hubris, waits impatiently for her meeting with us."
Chalmers Johnson, Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic, 2006
Stock futures did a moonshot after hours last night, off the better than expected profit news from Nvidia.
Earlier in the day I cautioned on X that Nvidia's 'good news' was going to get seriously reconsidered after the announcement because of some accounting gimmicks.
I stepped in after the market close last night and shorted the Nvidia rocket hard across the board. Added more this morning and then took a nap. And here we are.
Healthy markets do not move in bipolar swings like this. This is late stage bubble action. We are on the edge.
Stocks went out on lows into the close.
Silver gave up some ground in sympathy with stocks, and gold held steady.
VIX shot up higher.
The Dollar chopped around and closed exactly where it had been last night.
Bitcoin continues to get sold, and is on the kind of support I call the threshold of the House of Pain.
The cascade effect, whether it be margin calls or rules based selling, is the poisoned chalice of bubble tops.Tomorrow's market action on the stock market option expiration is important. And we need to see how the markets go into the weekend, and the character of their action on Monday.
The classic sequence to watch for is Bad Friday, Blue Monday, and then a Black Tuesday.
But all crashes are always long odds, and multi-week events.
Greed kills, and FOMO kills absolutely.
Have a pleasant evening.
