Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Rising Lawlessness of Money and Power

 

“When Fascism came into power, most people were unprepared, both theoretically and practically. They were unable to believe that man could exhibit such propensities for evil, such lust for power, such disregard for the rights of the weak, or such yearning for submission. Only a few had been aware of the rumbling of the volcano preceding the outbreak.”

Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom, 1941

William Roper:  So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!

Sir Thomas More:  Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

William Roper:  Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!

Sir Thomas More:  Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat?   This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's!  And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?   Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!

Robert Bolt, A Man For All Seasons

"Many of us like to ask ourselves, 'What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?' The answer is, you're doing it. Right now."

Aaron Bushnell


The phoniness of that rally yesterday was a kind of a tipoff that the insiders were planning a smash and grab off the depth and breadth of the tariff announcements.

Stocks melted down.

The tariffs themselves and the method by which they were determined was surreal.  But you can go look into that for yourself. 

Gold and especially silver got slammed, even as the Dollar cratered.

The Wall Street insiders made a day of it. 

We don't need no rule of law, for theft, fraud, gross violations of basic rights including due process and freedom of speech, and in some cases murder.  

The problem with lawlessness is that you never know when it turns around and takes you with it.

The madness serves none but itself.

Money and might make right.

Non-Farm Payrolls tomorrow.

Have a pleasant evening. 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Wolves in Sheep's Clothing - Payrolls Report on Friday

 

“Fascist politics invokes a pure mythic past tragically destroyed. Depending on how the nation is defined, the mythic past may be religiously pure, racially pure, culturally pure, or all of the above. The dangers of fascist politics come from the particular way in which it dehumanizes segments of the population. By excluding these groups, it limits the capacity for empathy among other citizens, leading to the justification of inhumane treatment, from repression of freedom, mass imprisonment, and expulsion to, in extreme cases, mass extermination

For the fascist, schools and universities are there to indoctrinate national or racial pride, conveying for example (where nationalism is racialized) the glorious achievements of the dominant race.”

Jason Stanley, How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them

“Many of the propagandists of Autocracy, Inc., have learned from the mistakes of the twentieth century. They don't offer their fellow citizens a vision of utopia, and they don't inspire them to build a better world.  Instead, they teach people to be cynical and passive, because there is no better world to build.  

Their goal is to persuade people to mind their own business, stay out of politics, and never hope for a democratic alternative: Our state may be corrupt, but everyone else is corrupt too.  You may not like our leader, but the others are worse.  You may not like our society, but at least we are strong and the democratic world is weak, degenerate, divided, dying.  Sometimes the point isn’t to make people believe a lie; it’s to make people fear the liar.”

Anne Applebaum, Autocracy, Inc.

"At its very inception this movement depended on the deception and betrayal of one's fellow man; even at that time it was inwardly corrupt and could support itself only by constant lies. After all, Hitler states in an early edition of "his" book (a book written in the worst German I have ever read, in spite of the fact that it has been elevated to the position of the Bible in this nation of poets and thinkers): "It is unbelievable, to what extent one must betray a people in order to rule it."

If at the start this cancerous growth in the nation was not particularly noticeable, it was only because there were still enough forces at work that operated for the good, so that it was kept under control. As it grew larger, however, and finally in an ultimate spurt of growth attained ruling power, the tumor broke open, as it were, and infected the whole body."

The White Rose, Second Leaflet, Munich, 1942

"Many of us like to ask ourselves, 'What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?' The answer is, you're doing it. Right now."

Aaron Bushnell


Stocks were in risk on mode today, rallying for much of the day, squeezing the shorts who had taken defensive positions ahead of Donald's pronouncements on tariffs.

I was shorting it with some increasing energy as the day wore on.  It was a joke.

The Dollar slid off the 104 handle.

VIX fell back a little.

Gold and silver rallied.

As a reminder there will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday.

I have made some major changes to the chart formations on the gold futures daily charts.  You can look at them for yourself as they are simple and straightforward.

"They live out their days in prosperity, and slide peacefully down into hell."

Job 21:13

It is not too late to ask the Lord to show your sins to you, so that you might repent of them and come back into the light.  

Especially for those who have inadvertently fallen away.

But the skies darken, and the hour grows short.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - They Bend a Knee to the Beast

 

"All the world marveled at this, and gave their allegiance to the Beast. And they worshiped the serpent, for giving such power to him, as they also worshiped the Beast. 'Who is as great as the Beast?' they exclaimed. 'And who is able to resist him?' And the Beast was allowed to commit great blasphemies against God."

Revelation 13:3-5

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who serve lawlessness."

Matthew 7:21-23

"Let no one deceive you in any way. For unless the falling away comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every form of god and object of worship, so to take a seat for himself in the temple of God, holding himself up like a god. Do you not recall that while I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is holding him back, that he may be revealed in his time.

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. But the one who restrains it is to do so only for the present, until it is removed from the scene. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth, and render powerless with the wonders of his coming. The coming of the lawless one springs from the power of Satan in every mighty deed and signs and wonders, and in every wicked deception made for those who are perishing because they did not accept the love of truth so that they may be saved.

God will send them a deceiving power so that they may believe the lie, that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have taken pleasure in their sinfulness."

2 Thessalonians 2:3-12

"If heaven is seeing and in turn being seen, transformed and made new, by the beatific face of Pure Love in resplendent glory, then hell must be seeing, at the last and forever, one's own dark and miserable soul, as it really is, alone."

Jesse, Death By Overdose, 24 February 2015
 

More aid workers and first responders were murdered intentionally, in an act of pure lawlessness.

The West answers with lies, and silence, and complicity. 

Sometimes I just don't have the words.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - A Desperate Sense of Entitlement

 

"There seems little question that in 1929, modifying a famous cliche, the economy was fundamentally unsound. This is a circumstance of first-rate importance. In 1929 the rich were indubitably rich. The figures are not entirely satisfactory, but it seems certain that the five per cent of the population with the highest incomes in that year received approximately one-third of all income.

The proportion of personal income received in the form of interest, dividends, and rent – the income, broadly speaking, of the well-to-do – was about twice as great as in the years following the Second World War. This highly unequal income distribution meant that the economy was dependent on a high level of investment or a high level of luxury consumer spending or both. The rich cannot buy great quantities of bread. This high bracket spending and investment was especially susceptible, one may assume, to the crushing news from the stock market in October 1929."

John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash of 1929

"The convention that gives the dollar an over-riding value as an international currency no longer has its initial basis, namely the possession by America of the great majority of the gold in the world...

For all these reasons, France is in favor of the system being changed. We therefore believe it to be necessary for international exchanges to be established, as was the case before the world’s great misfortunes, on an unquestionable monetary basis, that does not carry the mark of any particular country.

What basis?  Indeed, we cannot see that, in this respect, there can be any other criterion, any other standard, than gold.

Oh, yes.  Gold, which never changes its nature, which can be shaped into bars, ingots or coins, which has no nationality and which is eternally and universally-accepted as the unalterable fiduciary value par excellence.  Moreover, despite everything that could be imagined, said, written, done, as huge events happened, it is a fact that there is still today no currency that can compare, either by a direct or an indirect relationship, real or imagined, with gold."

Charles De Gaulle, press conference, Palais de l’Élysée, February 4, 1965

"Indeed, one can be deceived in many ways; one can be deceived in believing what is untrue, but on the other hand, one is also deceived in not believing what is true."

Søren Kierkegaard, Kjerlighedens Gjerninger, SKS vol.9, 1847

"It begins with a highly complex financial system, whose very complexity makes it difficult for anyone to know what might be going wrong; by definition, the multiple parts of the financial system are linked, which means that trouble in one institution, city, or region can travel easily and quickly to others.  Buoyant growth in the economy makes the financials system more fragile, in part due to the demand for capital and in part due to the tendency of some institutions to take on more risk than is prudent.  

Leaders in government and the financials sector implement policies that advertently or inadvertently increase the exposure to risk of crisis.  An economic shock hits the financials system. The mood of the market swings from optimism to pessimism, create a self-reinforcing downward spiral."

Robert Bruner and Sean Carr, The Panic of 1907

"For these are a rebellious people, deceitful children, unwilling to listen to the commandments of the Lord.  They say to their seers,‘Do not see!’ and to the prophets,‘Say nothing of what is right!  Tell us only things that please us — prophesy illusions."

Isaiah 30:8-10


Stocks were continuing their swoon from last week as the day began.  

VIX opened at an elevated level.

But as the day wore on, and the rest of the world went to bed, the markets gathered themselves together an moved higher.

VIX fell, giving back almost all of its increase.

Gold rallied.  

Silver initially slumped with stocks but managed to bounce back to pretty much unchanged.

Bitcoin continues waffling around, showing no particular conviction except for a measured profit-taking.

 As a reminder I am still in the 'quiet period' for this latest episode, Trump 2.0.  I try to remain on the sidelines for the first 100 days of a new administration, which should be over at the end of April.

But fair warning, I don't like politicians.  I did not care for Biden — or Obama, Bush, and Clintons all.  We in the West seem to be plagued by an increasingly poor set of options in leadership.

The economy's destruction may be one of Trump's greatest hits, outside of the realm of constitutional governance, which for some time has been in dire circumstance indeed.

The steady erosion of the Bill of Rights, under the guise of the selfish aims of a foreign government, is a most discouraging trend.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Called to the Supper of the Lamb

 

"The great event on Calvary is a telescope through which we look out into the long vista of eternity and see the love of God breaking forth into time.  It is an eternal reminder to a power drunk generation that love is most durable power in the world."

Martin Luther King, St. Paul’s Letter to the American Churches, November 4, 1956

"For your love for me disappears as quickly as a morning mist; it is like the dew, that melts away early in the day.   That is why I send my prophets with messages of judgment and destruction, to strike them with the My words.   My judgment reveals them like lightning.  For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and a faithful knowledge of my ways, more than burnt offerings."

Hosea 6:4-6

"This is how we know who are the children of God and who are the children of the Satan: anyone who does not do what is good is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their neighbor."

1 John 3:10

"What is surprising is not that we are called to do so much, but rather, so little.  And so often we grudgingly fail to do even that, or do something else in the way that we please and call it a sacrifice.  Love and be grateful to God, treat people as you would like to be treated with respect, kindness, mercy and forgiveness."

Jesse, The Gradual Seduction of Evil, 30 June 2017

"Then the angel said to me, 'Write.  Blessed are those who are called to the wedding supper of the Lamb. These are the true words of God.'"

Revelation 19:9


Stocks apparently did not like the look of things this morning, and headed south.

And they continued to decline in a big way, going out near the lows.

We are now at the point where we begin to decide whether this is a stiff correction, or something more involved.

Gold rallied further, being pressed down from the 3100 level.

Silver took a hit, in sympathy with stocks.   That's often how it goes.

Bitcoin got bit-punched down a bit.  It's still wildly overvalued, but all things with time.

VIX of course rose sharply.

I'll relate this even though I wasn't going to say anything, because I think it's funny.

Yesterday I resolved to give up trading for today, as a bit of a Friday sacrifice for Lent.  Yes I abstain from meat, but I don't view that as much of an effort.

So I closed out all my positions before the close, and vowed not to trade today, not to even put on positions at or after the close for the weekend.

Well, you can see what happened.   My favorite positions would have had a fairly large return.  Not enough to buy a new car, but enough to feel pretty good, and maybe even tempted to be a little bit proud.  Whenever I lean in that direction, God tends to stomp me to the curb.

Sometimes you just have to laugh.   I made an offering, and God piled it high, and tamped it down for me.

But in all of this we remember that God does not 'need' anything of ours: not our possessions, not our obeisance, not shows of our regard.

What he wants is to love us.  And he leaves it up to us to accept his love.

And so we are commanded to do things, not in the way that a human ruler commands, but in the way that a loving mother tells her children to do and not to do things, for their own good.  

It's hard to grasp, because we have such a gulf in intellect between ourselves and the eternal.  But if we keep his commandments, making him and his love our first priority, we might come out all right in the end. 

God clearly wanted me to conquer myself, to put things important to me here in the world in their proper place.

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Jesus replied, "The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these."    Mark 12:28-31.

And for this I am grateful.

But, ouch.

Donny is providing some real fireworks and I just have to wonder how long he can keep this up before he and his Merry Pranksters break something important.

The West in general seems to be having bad luck with leadership, for quite a few years now.

Perhaps this is a reflection of us.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - 'The Judgments of the Lord'

 

"The way we may be sure that we know him is to keep his commandments.  Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.  But whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in him.   This is the way we may know that we are in union with him: whoever claims to abide in him ought to live as he lived.

Beloved, I am writing no new commandment to you but an old commandment that you had from the beginning.   The old commandment is the word that you have heard.  And yet I do write a new commandment to you, which holds true in him and among you, for the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.

Whoever says he is in the light, yet hates his brother, is still in the darkness.  Whoever loves his brother remains in the light, and there is nothing in him to cause a fall.  Whoever hates his brother is in darkness; he walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes."

1 John 2:3-11

"There are six things the Lord hates, no, seven that are detestable to him: proud eyes, a lying tongue, hands that harm the innocent, a heart that plots wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness whose mouth pours out lies, and most of all, a person who stirs up conflicts in a community."

Proverbs 6:16-19

‘Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord', will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven.  On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and accomplish great things in your name?'   Then I will declare to them, ''I do not know you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.'”

Matthew 7:21-23

"'Woe unto the world because of offenses for it must needs be that offenses come but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.' ... Fondly do we hope ~ fervently do we pray ~ that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.  Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'

With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865


The ordinary mind is capable of and accustomed for executing the daily tasks of life.  And at times as we have seen, it surmounts even the most daunting and extraordinary challenges.  The practical mind of man has been able to produce almost astonishing mechanical wonders.

But when momentous events are upon us, we cannot recognize them for what they are.  Only the distant view of time can discern the patterns of history. 

We are now in such a time, where forces of political and spiritual struggle long in the making are coming to a confrontation, a climax perhaps, in which a resolution, a turning point, may be struck.   And it is likely that there will be forged a turn in the path of progress, and the fortunes of a people, with lasting consequences.

Hearts are inflamed with anger, and greed, and madness and malice towards the other, through which they blindly and unknowingly seek to escape the heavy weight of events which they do not comprehend.

But if enough of us can rise above ourselves, and see things with the wisdom in which we have been instructed and commanded through the ages, can we not hope that selfish and unspeakable lawlessness can be turned aside, and a covenant with the truth and a bond of faithfulness be forged among us once again?

Can we let go of these insults and abuses towards everything we have been given that is good?  Can we avoid the reckoning, the suffering, distress, and regret, the awful hand of God, that we are bringing down upon our children and the world?

Shall we stop this bleeding? 

The Dollar dropped back down towards the 104 handle.

Stocks rallied but then slumped after Trump announced new 25% tariffs on non-US manufactured automobiles.

Gold and silver soared from the open, and went out near the highs.

If they can hold up into the weekend I might see some significance in this break from the usual trading pattern.

I actually came in this morning with a modest bet in that direction, based on nothing but the 'feel of the tape' n the futures trading.

February 19, 2025 AP Newswire:

THE PRESIDENT: We’ll see what happens. But one of the things — we do want to look. I mean, we hope everything’s fine with Fort Knox, but we’re going to go to Fort Knox — the fabled Fort Knox — to make sure the gold is there.
REPORTER: Where would the gold have gone?
THE PRESIDENT: If the gold isn’t there, we’re going to be very upset.

I tend to take the things that the Donald takes with a grain of salt, even while he is the President.

He likes to speak expansively and 'off the cuff.'  

Most politicians in the US and Europe lie these days, and love their own ability to lie.  But Donald is a bit more 'flamboyant'.

But let's see what happens with all this.  I was watching this current Comex option expiration carefully, the huge influx of 2000 tonnes of gold into the US, enough to knock some percentage points off US GDP, and of course the CME retreat from the physical delivery market of Hong Kong.

I suspect that change, even greater than we might have expected, is on the horizon.

Have a pleasant evening.