"All the most noted destroyers and deceivers of our species, all the founders of arbitrary governments and false religions have been extraordinary people; and nine tenths of the calamities that have befallen the human race had no other origin than the union of high intelligence with low desires."
Thomas Babington Macaulay
"This empire, unlike any other in the history of the world, has been built primarily through economic manipulation, through cheating, through fraud, through seducing people into our way of life, through the economic hit men."
John Perkins
"Democracy has become a weapon of moneyed interests. It uses the media to create the illusion that there is consent from the governed. The notion of democracy is often no different than living under a plutocracy or a government by wealthy elites.”
Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West
Andrew Jackson, Farewell Address
"We’re told that we’re a polarized society, right? That’s the way the ruling classes have manipulated people for more than two thousand years: divide and rule. The only difference between the Republican and Democratic parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock on their door."
Ralph Nader
"We cannot look to the conscience of the world when our own conscience is asleep."
Carl von Ossietzky
Stocks took a dive today in a 'risk off' session that smelled like the rinse to yesterday's wash.
I hope you saw the article I linked on the sidebar that disclosed that the Fed provided north of a trillion dollars in liquidity to the global Banks during the stock market slump in March.
Gold and silver fell off today, a little surprising with regard to gold, but adding to the suspicion that this was not a conventional risk off day.
The Dollar took the 99 handle and then some.
VIX bounced back higher.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
The Banks and their systems seem to be the new dreadnoughts in the latest form of US international 'relations.'
Have a pleasant evening.
