"Take a stand for that which is right, and the world may misunderstand you, and criticize you, but you never go alone. Walk with him this morning, and believe in Him, and do what is right, and he'll be with you even until the consummation of the ages.
Wherever you are going this morning, my friends, show the world that you're going with truth. You are going with justice, you are going with goodness, and you will have an eternal companionship.
And the world will look at you, and they won't understand you, but you'll go on anyhow.
I will not bow, and God grant that we will never bow, before the gods of evil."
Martin Luther King, But If Not, 5 November 1967
"Isn't it a riddle and awe-inspiring that things can be so beautiful, despite the horror? I've seen something wondrous peering through my joy in the beautiful, a sense of its creator.
Only people can be truly ugly, because they have free will to separate themselves from this song of praise.
It often seems they will drown out this hymn with cannon thunder, curses, and blasphemy. But I have realized they will not succeed. And so I want to throw myself on the side of the victor.”
Sophie Scholl
"Hatred can be nurtured anywhere, idealism can be perverted into sadism anywhere. The inferno could erupt anew anywhere. The history of man is the history of crimes, and history can repeat. So information is a defense. Through this we can build, we must build, a defense against repetition.
There is no denying that Hitler and Stalin are waiting for us to forget, because this is what makes possible the resurrection of these two monsters."
Simon Wiesenthal
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
Ephesians 6:12
We remember when the darkness fell and the madness was unleashed, on this 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, November 9-10.
And we remember that the madness serves none but itself.
We remember, so that we will not forget to be human, and to choose life.
The FOMC meeting was a snoozer as expected.
They will likely raise 25 bp in December. And the meetings in 2019 will be rife with speculation about how far the Fed will go in raising rates to get off the zero bound, and give themselves some policy room to cut rates when their latest financial asset bubble implodes.
Oh yeah, this is just that kind of cynical exercise. Why should it be any different from the last two or three asset bubbles.
A lot of this depends on how 'real' and 'sustainable' this wonderfully strong economy will be. The financial talking heads are gushing. Me, not so much.
Gold and silver were a lower on a strong Dollar. Don't look for simple reasons in short term forex moves. They are worse than equities.
Stocks were off a bit after the big gains of the last few days.
Have a pleasant evening.
