What is a proper disposition towards life? It is to accept God as a loving father, who is full of tenderness and forgiveness for us, despite our willful blunders and hardened hearts. He yearns for us, as a father and mother yearn for the return of their most beloved child. It is to accept that we are not lost, we are not abandoned. We are wandering like a wayward child, full of our own headstrong delusions. And our father waits expectantly, calling out for us through the darkness. Jesse, 2018
"Listening to the leading figures of the Democratic party establishment, however, you’d never know it. Cool contentment is the governing emotion in these circles. What they have in mind for 2016 is what we might call a campaign of militant complacency. They are dissociated from the mood of the nation, and they do not care...
That they seem to want to do all these things anyway tells us everything we need to know about who they really are: a party of the high-achieving professional class that is always looking for a way to dismiss the economic concerns of ordinary people."
Thomas Frank
A lot of those golden tickets that Nova Scotia had been accumulating during May were put up for June delivery, and the biggest taker was the house account at JPM.
The amount of gold in the Hong Kong Comex warehouses has been decimated, back down now below a million ounces.
I think we may be in for an interesting June in the precious metals markets. Do not count silver out of this, even though gold may be getting the headlines.
Many of the elite and their financial instruments that inhabit the New York-London financial sector are wearing the 'Emperor's new clothes.' And the Fed is their tailor and valet.
Robert Reich made an impassioned plea for the Democratic Party to make nice, and go along with Hillary as their standard bearer when she is inevitably chosen as their candidate.
How can anyone be so tone deaf for what is really going on? This is not just a disagreement about personalities, about politics as usual, about the power factions amongst the political insiders.
This is a sea-change, and on a massive scale. And the 'establishment' from both parties just does not get it. And it is going to roll right over them.
Thomas Frank, as a relative outsider, has a better feel for the situation than almost anyone that I have read.
This market is looking very toppy and pricey. Not a very good combination for solid investment.
The futures were negative most of the day, but were amenable with their light volumes to a late afternoon rally back on what looked like algorithmic buying.
On any serious event, the underpinnings of the US equity market is as resilient as sponge cake. Or what Taleb has called of a fragile composition.
"Seven years have passed now since the last recession officially ended, and yet the country’s fury has scarcely cooled. To this day we remain angry at Wall Street; we rage against career politicians; and we are incandescent that the economic system seems to have been permanently rigged against working people. Median household income has still not recovered the levels of 2007. Wages are going nowhere. Elite bankers are probably never going to be held accountable for what they did. America is burning.
Listening to the leading figures of the Democratic party establishment, however, you’d never know it. Cool contentment is the governing emotion in these circles. What they have in mind for 2016 is what we might call a campaign of militant complacency. They are dissociated from the mood of the nation, and they do not care...
That they seem to want to do all these things anyway tells us everything we need to know about who they really are: a party of the high-achieving professional class that is always looking for a way to dismiss the economic concerns of ordinary people."
Thomas Frank
“The new America, instead, is fast becoming a vast ghetto in which all of us, conservatives and progressives, are being bled dry by a relatively tiny oligarchy of extremely clever financial criminals and their castrato henchmen in government, whose job is to be good actors on TV and put on a good show...
Wall Street has turned the economy into a giant asset-stripping scheme, one whose purpose is to suck the last bits of meat from the carcass of the middle class."
"Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood."
John Adams, 1765
"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
“There is a rot at the heart of our democracy, rooted in a nagging mystery that has yet to be unraveled. It gnaws at people, occupies their thoughts, leaves them searching for answers in the chill of the night. Americans want to know why no high-ranking Wall Street executive has gone to jail for the conduct that precipitated the financial crisis.
The oddest thing about the predominance of the question is that everyone already assumes they know the answer. They believe that too many politicians, regulators, and law enforcement officials, bought off with campaign contributions or the promise of a future job, simply allowed banker miscreants to annihilate the law in pursuit of profit.”
David Dayen
There will be a long holiday weekend in the US for Memorial Day, a day in which we remember all those who have served, and especially those who have given that 'last full measure of devotion.'
Stocks are reaching for a high note, once again.
Gold has been smacked down for the June contract option expiration and the management of perception, and little else.
Silver had declined as well but seems to be holding the 16 handle.
The Fed is engaged in some fairly self-serving actions as always, in this case to raise rates so they can lower them again when their latest bubble collapses. There has been no sustainable recovery.
How fitting that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump epitomize the age.
I am very busy with doctors and all the things associated with a return home of a patient under care. We had our first look at the MRIs yesterday, from before and after. The size of the tumour was astonishing, somewhat between a golf ball and a tennis ball in the bottom center of the brain. It is no wonder they would not even let her leave the hospital when they found it. They said that most neurosurgical teams would not have even attempted its removal because of the risks. We were lucky in this, moreso than we had known. Well, it is gone now.
The news is very good and the recovery proceeds at an amazing pace. I just called the company to come and retrieve the wheelchair rental as we clearly will not be needing it any longer. We are reducing the medications she takes daily from ten to seven, and some of those remain are on a course to be reduced and removed. There is targeted radiation ahead, and as always, the tests and surveillance which will be widened now. This could have been much, much worse.
The darkest night serves to make us more aware of the bright lights of God's tender mercies which are many, but easily overlooked in our fears and the pursuit of fruitless passions and illusions.
And at the darkest hour, when things appeared to be most dire, in the extremity of my fears, this is the prayer I finally had said, and which I had promised to acknowledge publicly if her recovery was granted.
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary,
that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection,
implored your help, or sought your intercession,
was left unaided.
Inspired by this confidence,
I fly unto you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother.
To you do I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate,
despise not my petitions,
but in your mercy, hear and answer me. Amen.
Make of this what you will, but this is what I had done, and what I had promised to do.
In a time like this one is struck by the number of good and dedicated people simply trying to live their lives and raise their children in the best way possible, within a system that has once again become corrupt. They are a tonic, an antidote to the cynicism with which this disordered society may poison us. It is too bad that a selfish few can create such perilous situations, and unnecessarily so except for their greed, their lust for power, and a pathological need to feel more than human and above the law.
Today is seeing doctors and removing stitches and other housekeeping things day.
See you tomorrow.
As a reminder this will be a three day holiday weekend in the States.
P.S. Staples and stitches are all out, the prognosis is excellent, and her recovery has been rapid. I had my first look at the MRIs before and after. The tumor was much larger than I had thought, somewhat less than a tennis ball in size but more than a golf ball. Yikes!
Just as Hillary Clinton represents what has gone wrong with our political system and its inability to reform itself, as least to me, so the Comex represents what has been bent and twisted out of shape in the trading markets.
If you trade precious metals on the Comex, you may as well mail your wallet to them with a note inviting them to take out whatever they wish, and mail you back the empty, if they would be so kind.
Silver has been a big 'tell' this week. Silver is bit tight, mostly because there are no central bank stores available for ready manipulation, except of course the silver hoard at JPM perhaps as a proxy.
But the gold bullion supply in London and parts East is 'troubled.' And that is a big difference.
A little more on the technical trade, and maybe something for the end of month. But this current move in equities is just about exhausted, and should see a decent correction sometime in June.
"Love does not make you weak, because it is the source of all strength, but it makes you see the nothingness of the illusory strength on which you depended before you knew it."
Léon Bloy
Let's see, oh yes, tomorrow is the option expiration for the active June gold contract on the Comex. And the last two days gold has been pounded lower in Comex trading. How unusual.
The pundits will point to the 'stronger dollar', and so I have included that chart here so one can see its very modest increase.
I could also look at the distribution of puts and calls for June, but why bother? And I have been very busy today, doing ordinary things of much more consequence.
Most of what is being done by the neo-con leadership of the US these days in their attempts to rule the world, both financially and militarily, is less than an illusion but only a little more than dust. In other words, a vanity. Old as Babylon and evil as hell.
We deserve the leadership that we have, apparently. And there is plenty more of that coming.
"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. This pattern of government action shows up in all areas of government policy."
Dean Baker
"Most of them became wealthy by being well connected and crooked. And they are creating a society in which they can commit hugely damaging economic crimes with impunity, and in which only children of the wealthy have the opportunity to become successful. That’s what I have a problem with. And I think most people agree with me."
Charles Ferguson, Predator Nation
"If the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time."
I think it is telling, if not a bit amusing, that the two presumptive presidential candidates are not only disfavored but actually despised by a greater percentage of the people than ever before.
Well, it tracks with the arrogant propensity to continually misprice the risks, thinking that we can be as gods, and the market is our instrument of service.
Besides 'it is different this time' the most damaging assumption about what comes next is 'well, it has not happened yet.'
The madness of greed and hubris that drives all this will serve none but itself.
Let's see if gold will provide us with any meaningful movement on the chart formations.
Silver needs to hold 16.
Have a pleasant evening.
History Lesson
Tsar Nicholas II: I know what will make them happy. They're children, and they need a Tsar. They need tradition. Not this! They're the victims of agitators. A Duma would make them bewildered and discontented. And don't tell me about London and Berlin. God save us from the mess they're in!
Count Witte: I see. So they talk, pray, march, plead, petition and what do they get? Cossacks, prison, flogging, police, spies, and now, after today, they will be shot. Is this God's will? Are these His methods? Make war on your own people? How long do you think they're going to stand there and let you shoot them? YOU ask ME who's responsible? YOU ask?
Let us pray for those whose hearts are hardened against His grace and loving kindness by greed, fear, and pride, and the seductive illusion and crushing isolation of evil.
We pray that we all may experience the three great gifts of our Lord's suffering and triumph: repentance, forgiveness, and thankfulness. And in so doing, may we obtain abundant life, and with it the peace that surpasses all understanding.
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