Sam Vaknin
"Federal policy is increasingly dictated by the wealthy, by the financial sector, and by powerful (though sometimes badly mismanaged) industries. These policies are implemented and praised by these groups’ willing servants, namely the increasingly bought-and-paid-for leadership of America’s political parties, academia, and lobbying industry.
If allowed to continue, this process will turn the United States into a declining, unfair society with an impoverished, angry, uneducated population under the control of a small, ultrawealthy elite. Such a society would be not only immoral but also eventually unstable, dangerously ripe for religious and political extremism."
Charles Ferguson, Predator Nation, 2012
“The mob believes everything it is told, provided only that it be repeated over and over. Provided too that its passions, hatreds, fears are catered to. The grosser, the bigger, the cruder the lie, the more readily is it believed and followed. The mob has no memory; needless to pretend to any truth: the mob is radically incapable of perceiving it: the mob can never comprehend that its own interests are what is at stake.”
Alexandre Koyré, Réflexions sur le Mensonge
“Corrupt citizens breed corrupt rulers, and it is the mob who finally decides when virtue shall die.”
Taylor Caldwell, Dear and Glorious Physician
Maybe not so much corrupt in the common sense, but selfish, lacking empathy, and willfully delusional.
The Fed gave the equity markets the sugar-coated message they wanted to hear, and it was artfully done.
And so stocks went on a tear to the upside,with new highs on most of the major indices.
Of note was the strength in the Russell 2000, and the resurgence in the big cap tech sled dogs.
Gold and silver were smacked down early and hard.
If you are trading on momentum and leverage, you probably got blown out of your positions.
But by the end of the day silver was back in the green, and gold had recovered much of its decline, to finish back up near the trading channel it has been climbing.
The dollar slipped off the 94 handle.
I think we are firmly in the delusional stage of the asset bubble now, especially if one considers the NFT and crypto, meme stock and IPO phenomena.
The irrational mask and vaccine antipathy are sign of hysteria, and the mass persuasion of the not so hidden persuaders of the oligarchs, who are operating on longer term agendas of their own.
Non-Farm Payrolls on Friday.
Hubris is strong, nemesis awaits.
The madness serves none but itself.
Have a pleasant evening.
