Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - In the Stillness of the Trees

 

“Christians, regardless of their organizations, are going to have to interest themselves in economy — which is to say, in nature and in work. They are going to have to give workable answers to those who say we cannot live without this economy that is destroying us and our world, who see the murder of Creation as the only way of life.

Rats and roaches live by competition under the law of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy.  It is impossible not to notice how little the proponents of the ideal of competition have to say about honesty, which is the fundamental economic virtue, and how very little they have to say about community, compassion, and mutual help.”

Wendell Berry, What Are People For?, 1990.

“There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places.”

Wendell Berry, How To Be a Poet, 2005

“In a society in which nearly everybody is dominated by somebody else's mind or by a disembodied mind, it becomes increasingly difficult to learn the truth about the activities of governments and corporations, about the quality or value of products, or about the health of one's own place and economy.

In such a society, also, our private economies will depend less and less upon the private ownership of real, usable property, and more and more upon property that is institutional and abstract, beyond individual control, such as money, insurance policies, certificates of deposit, stocks, and shares.  And as our private economies become more abstract, the mutual, free helps and pleasures of family and community life will be supplanted by a kind of displaced or placeless citizenship and by commerce with impersonal and self-interested suppliers.

Thus, although we are not slaves in name, and cannot be carried to market and sold as somebody else's legal chattels, we are free only within narrow limits.  For all our talk about liberation and personal autonomy, there are few choices that we are free to make.  

The great enemy of freedom is the alignment of political power with wealth.  This alignment destroys the commonwealth — that is, the natural wealth of localities and the local economies of household, neighborhood, and community — and so destroys democracy, of which the commonwealth is the foundation and practical means.”

Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays, 2002

"No doubt there always will be some people willing to do anything at all that is economically or technologically possible, who look upon the world and its creatures without affection and therefore as exploitable without limit.  Against that limitlessness, in which we foresee assuredly our ruin, we have only our ancient effort to define ourselves as human and humane.

Now the two great aims of industrialism—replacement of people by technology and concentration of wealth into the hands of a small plutocracy—seem close to fulfillment.  At the same time the failures of industrialism have become too great and too dangerous to deny.  Corporate industrialism itself has exposed the falsehood that it ever was inevitable or that it ever has given precedence to the common good. It has failed to sustain the health and stability of human society. Among its characteristic signs are destroyed communities, neighborhoods, families, small businesses, and small farms.

Land and people have suffered together, as invariably they must.  Under the rule of industrial economics, the land, our country, has been pillaged for the enrichment, supposedly, of those humans who have claimed the right to own or exploit it without limit. Of the land and community much has been consumed, much has been wasted, almost nothing has flourished.

But this has not been inevitable. We do not have to live as if we are alone."

Wendell Berry, It All Turns on Affection, 2012

The great Kentucky naturalist and writer Wendell Berry has passed away at the age of 92.

Stocks were rebounding a bit today, as our obsessive-compulsive markets cannot bear to look at reality for any length of time, don't you know.

Gold and silver rebounded a bit after their recent smackdown.

VIX fell back down again.  

The Dollar is just happy to chop sideways.

The war in the Mideast is cooking as the US and Iran climb the ladder of escalation.

The consequences of oil scarcity are just beginning to be priced in.  They will stall that reckoning until after the midterm elections if they can. 

It will be interesting to see how far they are willing to go.

I don't know if this is completely accurate, but this fellow who reports it is legit. 

"Former US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll reportedly met with Trump to inform him that the Iran war was making it impossible to achieve foreign-policy goals, Trump talked exclusively about his ballroom in response, causing Driscoll to resign believing the admin was 'doomed.'”   Dominic MichaelTripi, Post on X, September 2, 2026

Need little, want less, and love more.

For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them. 

Think of it.  A friend of God!

Have a pleasant evening. 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Ashes, Ashes They All Fall Down

 

"If the moderates fail to act now, history will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. Our generation will have to repent not only for the acts and words of the children of darkness but also for the fears and apathy of the children of light."

Martin Luther King, Stride Toward Freedom, 1958

"As with many personality disorders, those who are severely flawed of character, but especially the narcissist, when they face public disgrace, when they are outed as criminals or for their misbehavior, or when they fail in a very public way—that is when they become metastable, placing us as family, friends, co-workers, corporations, the public, or a nation in greatest danger.  When things begin to sour for the narcissist, here is what we can expect:

1.  They will falsely claim that everything is fine and that there is nothing wrong.  They will try to first misdirect us or claim there is nothing to the allegations or circumstances.

2.   If evidence is presented, they will seek to have it invalidated or claim that it is false, fake, or a product of vague conspiracies, but most certainly not true.

3.   Any evidence presented, and those that present it will be attacked aggressively and vindictively.  The better the evidence, the more aggressive the attack.  Individuals who are doing the right thing by reporting criminal acts, unethical behavior, or failings are to be discredited, humiliated, hounded, and bullied—not even their families are to be spared if need be.  The narcissist will engage supporters or enablers to simultaneously attack those who offer proof or evidence, even if it embarrassingly exposes their poodle-like behavior as that of spineless sycophants.

4.   Foolproof evidence will be portrayed as false and the result of pettiness, jealousies, bad actors, malicious individuals, negativity, haters, enemies, losers, conspirators, opposition, gain seekers, the faithless, or as we are seeing now in American politics, 'fake news' or 'deep state' actors.  There is always a large constellation of people to blame, the narcissist casts wide to see which vacuous claim resonates, especially with their supporters.

5.   As they lash out with vindictiveness, the malignant narcissist will continue to talk about themselves in glowing terms; irrespective of their actual situation, as they are incapable of introspection, much less contriteness.  They will trumpet their greatness, their real or imagined achievements, their faux infallibility, and even portray themselves as worthy of being revered rather than reviled.

6.   They will seek to find someone to blame for their troubles or downfall, preferably someone that cannot defend themselves.  A scapegoat is always useful and when there is not a real one, one will be invented.  If they are not promoted or fired, it is because a cabal at work was against them. If they cheat their business partners, it was because they deserved it. If the wife gets the kids in a divorce settlement, it is because of her dastardly attorney, not his abominable behavior. If they lose an election it is because of campaign managers, unappreciative voters, trickery, fraud, or some other kind of malfeasance on the part of a conspiracy.  Conspiracies are useful to the narcissist because they conveniently require no evidence.  As they are not married to the truth, they will prattle countless baseless reasons that all point away, never at themselves.

7.   As circumstances become dire, the narcissist will not take any responsibility—ever.  Anything that has gone wrong is the responsibility of others.  They will blame spouses as undeserving of their greatness, ignorant colleagues who just don’t measure up, the disloyal, those who abide by rules and laws because ironically, they abide by rules and laws, or those that just clearly did not understand the very specialness of the narcissist.  Everyone, and I mean everyone from people long gone, to the peripherally connected, to the earthly departed will be blamed for the failure or downfall of the narcissist.  Once more it is never their fault.

8.   In the process of casting blame, even the most loyal and stalwart will be discarded and denigrated if needed with reptilian indifference.  For the malignant narcissist, there is only the 'good' — those that provide blind, unwavering loyalty and who are useful, and everyone else who is an enemy, useless, and thus 'bad.'  Whether you are in or out, good or bad, is not determined by history, by friendship, sacrifices, or how well you have performed in the past—it is determined by the capricious and selfish needs of the narcissist, and that can change in a moment.

9.   Expect lies to increase and to be repeated exponentially.  They will, even in light of factual evidence to the contrary, lie more profusely and adamantly.  Lies are and always will be the number one tool of the malignant narcissist.  The only difference now is that in facing failure or public ridicule, the lies must increase in frequency and audacity to the point of incredulity.  The narcissist will expect supporters, the unethical, and enablers to lie for them or even create plausible alibis.  That they imperil others by compelling them to lie is the collateral damage the malignant narcissist does as they thrash in despair when they are failing or caught.

10.   And while lies will increase, so too will be the need to devalue others in order to further value themselves.  They will attack everyone and anyone in the most vicious and vindictive ways.  This is when we see their rage come through.  Not just anger, but unbridled rage.  They will say things that shock the conscience and they expect everyone to swallow what they say, much as their enablers do.  The most decent of persons will be attacked, mocked, ridiculed, and turned into a human chew-toy as the narcissist unleashes untethered rage and hatred.  They will dip down into a bottomless cauldron of antipathy and like an arterial spurt, will spew this toxic brew far and wide with metronomic regularity.

11.   The malignant narcissist, lacking guilt or a conscience, is only concerned with respect and not being publicly shamed.  Any kind of public embarrassment will cause them further anger, further rage, further attacks, further unethical comportment, and unprecedented incivility.

12.   If the narcissist is going to be brought down, they will also seek to bring everyone else around them down to vindictively make them suffer.  How the narcissist vilifies, lashes out, or destroys others (spouse, friends, business partners, workmates, the general public) is up to the morbid creativity and depravity of the malignant narcissist, the viable tools they have available, and of course how dire or desperate the situation.  The internet and social media are certainly useful as lives can be ruined with a single tweet.  But so are guns and rifles, poison, and even assassins for hire.  And if they command a country, they can put the security organs or the military to work on their behalf.

13.   In certain situations, as the end nears, the suffering of others is paramount to the malignant narcissist.  It is their way of elevating themselves—sick as that sounds—by malevolently paying back society with even more suffering.  As they lash out, they will show no concern or empathy because they have none.  If others are suffering because of their actions, the narcissist simply does not care.  Lacking a conscience or any kind of remorse, much like Robert Hare’s psychopath, they sleep very well at night while everyone else is anxious, worried, stressed, physically or psychologically traumatizes all the while nervously and justifiably pondering what further malevolence will take place.

14.   As they face failure, arrest, indictment, or dismissal, they will endlessly air their grievances.  Narcissists are natural wound collectors and as such, they have been collecting and nurturing social slights and perceived wrongs just for this occasion.  They will wallow in victimhood claiming they have been relentlessly and needlessly persecuted.  They, of course, expect their attorneys, followers, or enablers to subserviently echo their flatulent claims.

So, what happens in the end?  Difficult to predict.  Each circumstance is different.  Some will kick and flail and disappear for a while, intentionally or thanks to incarceration—biding their time until they can do it all over again.  Others regroup, plan, scheme, and prepare another triumphant entry into the lives of the unsuspecting to victimize them when the opportunity arises.  

Others, unfortunately, will seek to do harm as they face a breakup, a divorce, are fired from a job, are outed for their crimes, or are removed from office.  Others will hound, stalk, or just make life intolerable for those they deem responsible. Their past can often give us insight as to what they might do, but one can never be sure—humans are terribly complex and as with many afflicted with a personality disorder, sensitive to the smallest of unrecognized but catalytic triggers.

In the case of narcissistic cult leaders, the cult members often pay with their lives as they did in Jonestown Guyana when Jim Jones came under investigation.  In interpersonal relationships, violence is always something to be concerned. "

Joe Navarro, FBI Behavioural Analysis Veteran, When the Narcissist Fails, Psychology Today, 2 January 2024


The conflict in the Middle East was heating up quite a bit on the overnight, with even more missiles and drones on the fly. 

And not even rumors of imminent peace deals could stem the realization of risks, long ignored.

Stocks fell.

VIX rose.

The Dollar chopped around.

Bitcoin fell but is hanging on near the top of the intermediate trading range.

Gold and silver were hit hard.  No telling what was driving that one but one might speculate.

Oil rose sharply, as traders lost patience with the ever looming shortages and lack of coherent energy strategy.  There is a 'cup and handle' formation on the US oil futures chart calling out to 116 if activated.

What is concerning me is that none of the primary player/aggressors on the board look to be relenting from their narrowly selfish positions in what history will easily note as a pivotal event in the first half of this century.

Not a statesman or great figure of conscience to be found among these clerks and errand boys for the plutocracy.  

And then there is the Ukraine, whose economy and ability to sustain armed conflict is slowly sliding into the Black Sea. 

"The humility of the righteous will guide them, but the deceitfulness of the proud will destroy them."   Proverbs 11:2-3

The wages of sin are Trump.

Have a pleasant evening. 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Downfall

 

“All tyrannies are virtuoso displays over many years of cunning, risk-taking, terror, delusion, narcissism, showmanship and charm, distilled into a spectacle of total personal control. Tyrants are the greatest of all actor-managers — omnipotent impresarios.

For a dictatorship to last long, it has to ensure a degree of economic prosperity and justice.  When these are no longer assured, their fall is inevitable.  A dictator meticulously collects around himself, people who feed him with 'facts' and 'assessments' he likes to hear rather than truth.  He shuts himself from the harsh reality outside and indulges in actions that only increase the wrath of the masses."

Simon Sebag Montefiore, Dictators Get the Deaths They Deserve, October 26, 2011

"This elite-generated social control maintains the status quo because the status quo benefits and validates those who created and sit atop it. People rise to prominence when they parrot the orthodoxy rather than critically analyze it. Real change in politics or society cannot occur under the orthodoxy because if it did, it would threaten the legitimacy of the professional class and all of the systems that helped them achieve their status."

Kristine Mattis, The Cult of the Professional Class, April 4, 2016

"Most people do not realize that it was Adam Smith who wrote in The Wealth of Nations the famous characterization of England as a 'nation of shopkeepers.' He was writing about narrowly mercantile nature of the British Empire and its colonial markets strategy. The exploitation of the Empire's resources and peoples by a few legendary companies is well known.

If one substitutes 'crony capitalists' or 'financiers' for 'shopkeepers' it might well be a decent fit for these latter years of the American Century, which is based on a regime of guns and dollars.  Why is the American moment running out of steam? 

It is probably the failure to move to a non-military based economy after the cold war, and invest the peace dividend into domestic infrastructure and basic technology development for peaceful purposes and the improvement of life, instead of financial legerdemain, economic hoaxes and frauds.  Having fed so well for many years on war, the crony capitalists have had to expand their operations at home again, and create new wars, to maintain their exorbitant privilege."

Jesse, A Nation of Financiers, 12 August 2011

“It could be argued that we are now in the midst of a coup d’état in slow motion.  Democracy is weakening; few people would disagree.  Corporatism is strengthening; you only have to look around you.  Yet none of us has chosen this route for our society, in spite of which our elites quite happily continue down it.  Certainly corporatism is creating a conformist society. It is a modern form of feudalism.”

John Ralston Saul, The Unconscious Civilization, 1995

"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

"Over the past 30 years the plutocrats have used their vastly increased wealth to capture the flag and assure the government does their bidding.  This marriage of money and politics has produced an America of gross inequality at the top and low social mobility at the bottom, with little but anxiety and dread in between, as middle class Americans feel the ground falling out from under their feet.  Millions of Americans have awakened to a sobering reality: they live in a plutocracy, where they are disposable."

Bill Moyers, Bill Moyers Journal, 30 April 2010

Stocks flopped this morning on the news that the US and Iran are once again engaged in active warfare, with missiles flying in both directions.

Oil rallied on this news.

VIX took some notice but then went back to sleep.

Stocks rallied in to the close to take back much of their losses.

The Dollar chopped sideways.

Gold and silver took some light selling that dwindled a bit in the afternoon.

To me things now seem somewhat inevitable.  

Not that one can ever become complacent in trading markets.

But at the end of the day, what a man sows so shall he reap.

I don't think most people have really internalized what it means that our president, JFK, was assassinated in public by a coalition of the deep state, the CIA, and law enforcement because he opposed the expansion of war in southeast Asia, an escalating confrontation with the Soviet Union, and the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Israel.

We were witness to a coup d'état that was covered up brazenly with a heavy hand. And we have been living with the results of this, being overwhelmed by the subversion of our liberties in the face of a growing and parasitical oligarchy. 

We in the West are being inundated with 'information' and distractions, cleverly mixed in with force and fraud, so that most average people just their minds spinning with trying to determine what is true and just.

We seem to be reaching a pivot point, where the lies that have been laid on heavily are being exposed with almost embarrassing regularity, to be met by stubborn reinforcement by pathological liars and their bully boys.

This is going to end, and the reaction could be energetic.

But at the end of the day, we are going to be asked what WE have done, how WE have responded to his command to love one another as he has loved us. 

It's almost funny how most simply do not 'get this.'   It could not have been made more clear.

It is easier to judge and to look down upon others, than to think and to serve with our actions.

This is all that matters.  And we lose sight of it with reckless abandon. 

Have a pleasant evening. 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Being on the Right Road

 

"While some were speaking about the temple, how it was beautifully adorned with precious stones and rich memorial offerings, Jesus said, 'All these things that you see here — the day is coming when there will not be left one stone upon another that is not thrown down.'"

Luke 21:5-6

"And each of you this morning in some way is building some kind of temple. The struggle is always there. It gets discouraging sometimes. It gets very disenchanting sometimes. Some of us are trying to build a temple of peace. We speak out against war, we protest, but it seems that your head is going against a concrete wall. It seems to mean nothing. And so often as you set out to build the temple of peace you are left lonesome; you are left discouraged; you are left bewildered.

Well, that is the story of life. And the thing that makes me happy is that I can hear a voice crying through the vista of time, saying: "It may not come today or it may not come tomorrow, but it is well that it is within thine heart. It’s well that you are trying." You may not see it. The dream may not be fulfilled, but it’s just good that you have a desire to bring it into reality. It’s well that it’s in your heart. Thank God this morning that we do have hearts to put something meaningful in.

And this brings me to the basic point of the text.  In the final analysis, God does not judge us by the separate incidents or the separate mistakes that we make, but by the total bent of our lives.  In the final analysis, God knows that his children are weak and they are frail. In the final analysis, what God requires is that your heart is right.  Salvation isn’t reaching the destination of absolute morality, but it’s being in the process and on the right road."

Martin Luther King, Unfulfilled Dreams, 3 March 1968

"Hubris calls for nemesis, and in one form or another it's going to get it, not as a punishment from outside but as the completion of a pattern already started."

Mary Midgley, The Myths We Live By, 2003

"As Jesus left the temple area and was going away, his disciples approached him to point out the wonders of the temple buildings.  And he said to them in reply, 'You see all these things, do you not?  Amen, I say to you, there will not be left here a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.'

As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached him privately and said, 'Tell us, when will this happen, and what sign will there be of your coming, and the consummation of the age?'  And Jesus said, 'Take care that no one leads you astray.  For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and they will deceive many.

You will hear of wars and reports of wars; see that you are not alarmed, for these things must happen, but it will not yet be the end.  Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be famines and earthquakes from place to place.  All these are the beginning of the labor pains.  Then they will hand you over to persecution, and they will kill you.  You will be hated by all nations because of my name.

And then many will be led into sin; they will betray and hate one another.  Many false prophets will arise and deceive many; and because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of most will grow cold.  But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come.'" 

Matthew 24:1-14

It was an interesting day in the markets as things bounced around in a fairly energetic manner.

Gold and silver were smacked lower.  A predictable follow up to the recent Comex option Expiration.

The Dollar spiked and fell.

Bitcoin slipped off the top of its trading channel.

Crude oil continued to make moves on paper that have only a tenuous connection to physical reality.

Stocks spiked higher, and then promptly flopped into a loss on the day.

I wonder if Trump and His Merry Pranksters were looking to unload some positions before the weekend.

This is not sustainable.  

 Have a pleasant weekend.