“The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.”
George Orwell
"They have treated the suffering of my people carelessly, saying, ‘all is well’ when there is no safety. They act shamefully, they commit terrible offenses; and yet they are not ashamed, and do not even know how to blush. They shall be found among those who are fallen."
Jeremiah 6:14-15
"The selfishness of an age that has devoted itself to the mere cult of pleasure has tainted the whole human race with an error that makes all our acts more or less lies against God. It is better to find God on the threshold of despair than to risk our lives in a complacency that has never felt the need of forgiveness."
Thomas Merton
"The rich man replied, ‘If someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will repent of their sins and turn to God.’ But Abraham said, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded, even if someone rises from the dead.’”
Luke 16:30-31
"A true opium of the people is the belief in nothingness after death, the huge solace, the huge comfort of thinking that for our betrayals, our greed, our cowardice, our murders, that we are not going to be judged.”
Czeslaw Milosz, The Discreet Charm of Nihilism
"Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the punishment prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no hospitality, naked and you gave me nothing to wear, ill and in prison, and you did not care about me.’”
Matthew 25:31-46
"The only real tragedy, in the end, is not to have be among the saints."
Léon Bloy, La Femme pauvre
It was a risk-on day today ahead of the three day weekend with the markets closed on Monday for the federal holiday of Washington's Birthday, also popularly known as Presidents' Day.
Stocks went out near all time highs.
The VIX dropped to a recent low.
Gold and the miners were hit, although they managed to gain much of that back by the close.
Today was the Lunar New Year, a widely celebrated holiday in Asia.
And like the slightly more significant Golden Week holiday in China in October, it is an opportunity for Western Bankers and Wall Street to take potshots at the metals while the big buyers of physical are on holiday.
The Impeachment Part Deux slumbers on
With the valuations of stocks at current level, the odds of a 'market break' from about now until April have become elevated.
A stimulus package may diminish, but not eliminate, that possiblity.
Have a pleasant weekend.
