"At the root of America's economic crisis lies a moral crisis: the decline of civic virtue among America's political and economic elite. A society of markets, laws, and elections is not enough if the rich and powerful fail to behave with respect, honesty, and compassion toward the rest of society and toward the world."
Jeffrey Sachs
"Of this Logos the Word being eternal, men have proven to be uncomprehending, both before they hear and once they have heard it. For although all things happen according to this Word, they are like the uneducated who first experience words and deeds such as when I distinguish each thing according to its essence and show how it is.
And as for the rest, they are as unaware of what they do when they are awake, as they are when they are asleep."
Heraclitus
“I believe order is better than chaos, creation better than destruction. I prefer gentleness to violence, forgiveness to vendetta. On the whole I think that knowledge is preferable to ignorance, and I am sure that human sympathy is more valuable than ideology. I believe that in spite of the recent triumphs of science, men haven't changed much in the last two thousand years; and in consequence we must try to learn from history. History is ourselves.
I believe in courtesy, the ritual by which we avoid hurting other people's feelings, by satisfying our own egos. And I think we should remember that we are all part of a great whole, which for convenience we call nature. All living things are our brothers and sisters."
Kenneth Clark, Civilisation
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.
W. B. Yeats, Leda and the Swan
“Each day we are becoming a creature of splendid glory, or one of unthinkable horror.”
C. S. Lewis
Lies seem to be coming more and more easily to and prevalent among the ruling elite, and their enablers and acolytes in the professional class. And it is therefore no surprise that hatred and irrationality are also in the air.
It will get worse before it gets better. If history is any guide, may God forgive us, this will end in blood.
Pray for each other, that you do not lose your way in this madness.
Stocks were soaring to new highs today, and gold rose sharply, off of the rather dovish testimony of Fed chair Powell.
His rationale for cutting rates in such a 'strong economy' is trade risks. Although he did note correctly that despite the apparent improvements, wages still remain sub-par.
Gold rallied smartly, up $20 to the upper bound of the consolidation pattern in which it is currently coiling.
If it breaks out to the upside it could be rather impressive.
I am stunned, and I hear little talk about it, at the lack of withdrawals from the Comex Hong Kong warehouses, much less the NY ones.
Hong Kong has been an active supplier of physical gold to Asia for some time.
Something momentous is happening behind the scenes. I am almost certain of this. It will of course be brought to light, eventually. But it will not be acknowledged readily by those who draw power from this rotten system. This is the credibility trap.
"The truth has to be melted out of our stubborn lives by suffering. Nothing speaks the truth, nothing tells us how things really are, nothing forces us to know what we do not want to know except pain."Do not allow yourself to be swayed back and forth by those snakes and vipers who prey upon the innocent for a living, and lead them into destruction, for gain, and too often just for sport.
Aeschylus, The Oresteia
And remember me in your prayers, as I remember you.
Have a pleasant evening.
