"He fancies that he is sufficient for himself; or he supposes that knowledge is sufficient for his happiness; or that exertion, or that the good opinion of others, or fame, or that the comforts and luxuries of wealth, are sufficient for him. What a truly wretched state is that coldness and dryness of soul, in which so many live and die, high and low, learned and unlearned. Many a great man, many a busy man, lives and dies with closed heart, with affections undeveloped, unexercised."
John Henry Newman
"We run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put up a façade to prevent ourselves from seeing it.”
Blaise Pascal
"At a late stage, speculation tends to detach itself from really valuable objects and turn to delusive ones. A larger and larger group of people seeks to become rich without a real understanding of the processes involved. Not surprisingly, swindlers and catchpenny schemes flourish."
Aliber and Kindleberger, Manias, Panics and Crashes
"American political corruption was the buying up of legislatures and assemblies to keep them from doing the people's will and protecting the people's interests; it was the exploiter entrenching himself in power, it was financial autocracy undermining and destroying political democracy. By the blindness and greed of ruling classes the people have been plunged into infinite misery."
Upton Sinclair, The Brass Check
"It is no exaggeration to say that since the 1980s, much of the global financial sector has become criminalised, creating an industry culture that tolerates or even encourages systematic fraud.
Charles Ferguson
"True narcissists are self-serving and lack integrity. They believe they’re superior and thus not subject to the same rules and norms. Studies show they’re more likely to act dishonestly to achieve their ends. They know they’re lying, and it doesn’t bother them. They don’t feel shame.”
Charles A. O'Reilly, Stanford University
Stocks slumped further today, testing the limits of a normal correction.
What comes next will likely be driven by key corporate earnings reports.
The big techs are heavy weights in the SP 500 and the NDX.
Gold and silver were under pressure.
As was the Dollar.
A whopping 289,000 ounces of gold bullion left the Shanghai warehouses yesterday.
There may be some merit in the 'oil for gold' transactions between the Saudis and China.
VIX was basically flat.
META 'crushed' expectations and the stock was up over 10% after hours.
Amazon on deck.
The spice must flow.
Have a pleasant evening
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