"War is a racket. It always has been. It is easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."
US Major General Smedley D. Butler, War Is a Racket, 1935
“The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact. The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous.”
George Orwell, 1984
"The problem of the last three decades is not the 'vicissitudes of the marketplace,' but rather deliberate actions by the government to redistribute income from the rest of us to the one percent."
Dean Baker, The Vicissitudes of the Market Would Be a Big Improvement, 29 September 2014
"One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them."
Thomas Sowell
"As the boom developed, the big men became more and more omnipotent in the popular or at least the speculative view. The Exchange is a market place where prices reflect the basic law of supply and demand, yet even the most devout Wall Streeter allows himself on occasion to believe that more personal influences have a hand in his destiny. Somewhere around there are big men who put stocks up and put them down. The big men decided to put the market up, and even some serious scholars have been inclined to think that a concerted move catalyzed this upsurge."
J. K. Galbraith, The Great Crash of 1929, 1955
"As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; They kill us for their sport."
William Shakespeare, King Lear
"History will view the last 20 years as a period of collective madness in the United States. It is a madness brought on by the gods to the proud and those who would be as gods, but stumble and fall through a tragic flaw, an error in judgement. Often that flaw is related to the strength that had made them great. The US can fall from greatness through pride and imbalanced judgement, and therein lies the recipe for tragedy."
Jesse, 15 April 2008
Stocks did a grand rally up to new highs, and then flopped over into the close.
The VIX fell.
The Dollar surged.
Gold and silver rallied hard from the overnight, and then were sold in New York.
As a reminder there will be a Comex precious metal April futures option expiration on Monday, the 25th.
Our magnificent elite, our exceptionals, our masters of the universe, would be as gods, serving none, with power over all.
And this is their twilight approaching.
Have a pleasant evening.
