"This elite-generated social control maintains the status quo because the status quo benefits and validates those who created and sit atop it. People rise to prominence when they parrot the orthodoxy rather than critically analyze it. Real change in politics or society cannot occur under the orthodoxy because it would threaten the legitimacy of the professional class and the systems that helped them achieve their status."
Kristine Mattis, The Cult of the Professional Class, April 2016
"Our plutocracy now lives like the British did in colonial India: ruling the place but not of it."
Mike Lofgren, The Deep State, 5 January 2016
"The American economy increasingly serves only a narrow part of society. Too many of America's elites-among the super-rich, the CEOs, and many of my colleagues in academia chase wealth and power, and the rest of society be damned."
Jeffrey Sachs, The Price of Civilization, 2011
"If there are damned souls in Hell, it is because men blind themselves."
E. A. Bucchianeri, Faust: My Soul Be Damned for the World, 2010
"Most of them became wealthy by being well connected and crooked. And they are creating a society in which they can commit hugely damaging economic crimes with impunity, and in which only children of the wealthy have the opportunity to become successful. That’s what I have a problem with. And I think most people agree with me."
Charles Ferguson, Predator Nation, 2012
Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor.
Stocks tried to rally it up into the green today but alas, they were hammered right down into the close.
The VIX rose.
Yields on Treasuries rose.
This provided some lift for the Dollar.
Gold and silver were sold, right down into the close.
Stock option expiration on Friday.
As Rutger Bregman observed, the Machiavellis have the ultimate secret weapon: they’re shameless.
Wash rinse repeat.
Works just as well for politics as in finance, as long as most people are sleep-walking amnesiacs.
How come no one is talking about blockchain anymore? Now its AI, all the time. What will they think of next.
It will be interesting to see if a US President can run the country from a jail cell. It worked for Lucky Luciano.
On a positive note, the sunglasses they give to eye surgery patients are pretty snappy these days. A heck of a lot better than the boxy pair of plastic punchouts that my father-in-law was sporting.
Great success.
Have a pleasant evening.
