"What will you do on the day of reckoning, and in the time of desolation which follows? To whom will you flee for relief? Where will you safeguard your riches?"
the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unfaithful
Isaiah 10:3
"Since the earliest stages of human history, of course, there have been bazaars, rialtos, and trading posts—all markets. But The Market was never God, because there were other centers of value and meaning, other 'gods.'
The Market operated within a plethora of other institutions that restrained it. As Karl Polanyi has demonstrated in his classic work The Great Transformation, only in the past two centuries has The Market risen above these demigods and chthonic spirits to become today's First Cause...
Does anyone doubt that if the True Cross were ever really discovered, it would eventually find its way to Sotheby's? The Market is not omnipotent—yet. But the process is under way and it is gaining momentum."
Harvey Cox, The Market As God: Living In the New Dispensation
"Do you not know that to whom you yield yourselves as servants to obey, his servants you become, whether of a corruption unto death, or of a righteousness unto life?"
Rom 6:16
Today was another whippy day in the markets. The usual suspects juiced the SP 500 markets higher in an attempt to reassert the exceptionalism of the American economy.
Alas, it was not to be. After European markets closed and before Asia opened, the powers of big money withdrew their support, and the gains of the day were mislaid.
I do not want to make too much of it, but just watching the action on the futures seems to show a series of fingerprints all over the tape.
And why not, when the stock market has become the equivalent of the economy, and of empire? Stocks are the mother's milk of inequality.
The US Dollar, la douleur du monde, rallied higher today, in what seemed to be a further technical gain from a deeply oversold condition.
Gold put in what may prove to be a tradeable bottom at 1311 today. Silver has been lagging, but at some point will act like the beta rabbit which it is and catch up in a furious pace.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. This is far from over, and the story continues to unfold. It is engaging to watch the confusion over the deflation of yet another bubble in financial assets is causing. It seems so obvious you have to wonder why even people sitting in the best seats in the house don't seem to understand it.
I am afraid that true believers in false idols will be drinking the koolaid of their own desires to the very end.
"Once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.”Who could have seen it coming?
Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Have a pleasant evening.
