"You can hate the misleading by the Main Stream Media as I sometimes do, but you should also be far more wary of anything our federal govt presents as 'accurate' measures of the economy's performance. Dig deeper and you will be disappointed when illusion is dispelled by reality.
The stock market is doing better, but I don't believe the US economy is doing better since the elections. You rely on MSM economic data, flawed, massaged government data, but disposable incomes for majority of Americans not up, and the cost of fuel, rent, healthcare are rising faster than incomes."
Harald Malmgren
"When a man takes an oath, Meg, he's holding his own self in his own hands. Like water. And if he opens his fingers then— he needn't hope to find himself again."
Robert Bolt, A Man For All Seasons
Stocks powered higher today, based on the same non-reasons for which they were higher on Friday.
Amazon, Apple and Microsoft all reached new all time highs.
While the cash Nasdaq may have reached a new all time high, the NDX futures did not quite make it, although the setup for a Blow Off Top III seems likely. It is just a matter of time now. And that goes for a number of things as well.
One thing that is not going to fly is the notion of Trump being the first President to pardon himself from crimes, and further, that the President is immune from the law because he heads the Justice Department. Why he or his lawyers would even assert such a notion in a public tweet is mind-boggling.
A President needs to have more gravitas in what he says than a spokesperson who is playing the cats paw for the media. When one has that kind of power at their disposal, even their seemingly casual comments take on a great deal of amplification and weight. Most seasoned managers of large enterprises will learn this at some point or another, and learn to speak more carefully within their own organizations, and especially to the media and customers and other external stakeholders.
But perhaps more importantly, this is part of the growing crisis created by the notion of 'the imperial presidency' that has been developing for many years before now. It is the 'unitary' framing of the Presidency. Because he is the titular head of the Justice Department, he has the power to determine what is just. And because he is the commander-in-chief of the military, he has the latitude to go to war without the consent of Congress.
Well there seems to be a lot of bully boy talk and verbal bravado going around today. Read the comments section of almost any internet site if you can bear it. Our measure is now largely weighted by 'power' rather than any moral compunction, much less manners. Manners are for weaklings. And people are making beasts of themselves to avoid the need to confront reality by thinking.
And some are wallowing in it. Some otherwise intelligent but seemingly sociopathic people even make a living for themselves out of it, the professional shock schlock, fear and outrage purveyors of the right and the left.
"And because of the increase in lawlessness, the love of most will grow cold."This is the 'hysteria' that I had in my forecast about ten years ago. Although there is always a fringe element, this broader effect that I call hysteria is attributable to a loss of 'groundings' and anchors in the things that truly matter, and a sense of uncontrolled change producing a general exhaustion.
People are tossed adrift, vulnerable to manipulation by demagogues of their own emotions. It takes a certain kind of moral grounding in first things and commitment to higher priorities, courage perhaps, and a comfort in one's own skin, not to join in. Certainly there is no purely expedient or rationale reason for virtue in this climate, our modern worldly elites and pampered princelings being who they are, and whom they serve.
Margaret Roper: Haven't you done as much as God can reasonably want?Gold and silver were pretty much flat along with the US Dollar. I am fairly confident that, barring unforeseen circumstances, that they will be much higher in price within the next few years. I am just not willing to predict any remarkable rallies, because too often these short term 'calls' turn into a cheap way of trying to make a name for oneself. I will wait for the charts to tell us when and if a breakout occurs.
Thomas More: Well, finally— it isn't a matter of reason. Finally, it's a matter of love.
Need little, want less, love more. For whosoever abides in love abides in God, and God in them.
Have a pleasant evening.
