“Trickle-down theory represents the less than elegant metaphor that if one feeds the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows.”
John Kenneth Galbraith
"You should thank God the government saved the big banks and their investors. Now, if you talk about bailouts for everybody else, there comes a place where if you just start bailing out all the individuals instead of telling them to adapt, the culture dies. Suck it in and cope."
Charlie Munger, Christian Science Monitor, September 30, 2010
"Inequality is a euphemism for all the things that have gone to make the lives of the rich so much more delicious for the last three decades. And for the things that have made the lives of working people so wretched and so precarious. You catch a glimpse of inequality every time you hear about someone that had to declare bankruptcy because a child got sick. Inequality is about the way in which speculators, and even criminals, get a helping hand from Uncle Sam, while the Vietnam Vet down the street loses his house."
Thomas Frank, Listen Liberal
“Sin is not a distance, it is a turning of our gaze in the wrong direction. Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, or even a duty."
Simone Weil
Today we had the expected 'gut punch' follow up to the recent precious metals option expiration on the Comex.
I would normally expect this to be about it, but since we are approaching the end of the third quarter we will have to wait and see if the big metal and miner shorts have used this opportunity to square up their books for quarter end.
The Dollar rallied and took the 106 handle and then some.
Stocks were punched down hard, but managed to rally into the close and finish unchanged to green.
What a surprise.
The government shutdown looms as the House continues in disarray.
But this reaction in the equity markets so far is mostly the usual end of quarter shenanigans.
And as a surprise in the news, national retailer Costco is now selling one ounce gold bars. And they are selling out as fast as they can stock them. Physical gold to go and a free lunch of tasty samples. What will they think of next.
There may be a flight to safety of sorts in the air. Let's see what happens.
As Cicero is said to have famously observed in his first oration against Cataline, 'O tempora, O mores.'
When he spoke in 63 BC his republic was failing as well.
Have a pleasant evening.
