"Remember, my brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. God chooses those that the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think that they are wise. And He chooses those that are powerless to shame those who are powerful."
1 Corinthians 1:26-27
"Seneca had made the bargain that many good men have made when agreeing to aid bad regimes. On the one hand, their presence strengthens the regime and helps it endure. But their moral influence may also improve the regime's behavior or save the lives of its enemies. For many, this has been a bargain worth making, even if it has cost them—as it may have cost Seneca—their immortal soul...
The Rome he has been trained to serve, the Rome of Augustus and Germanicus, was gone. In its place stood Neropolis, ruled by a megalomaniac brat.”
James Romm, Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero
"'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias
In a nutshell, the White House issued a statement this morning that the trade talks with China were going well.
Stocks were rallying with a vengeance, regaining much of what was lost yesterday.
And then this afternoon, Trumpolini blindsided the markets with an angry tweet about China, adding a new ten percent tariff to consumer related goods.
And the equity markets and the Dollar took a nosedive, while gold just rocketed higher. They were taking the gold bears out of the pits on stretchers.
But not Citi, rumored to be the big Bank gold short. They were grabbing fistfuls of gold contracts the past two days, as you can see on the clearing report below. Think that they were tipped by some well placed advisor? Naw, couldn't be. They would never do that.
This would be much more amusing from a greater distance. But today was right up there.
Get right, sit tight.
And have a pleasant evening.
