"We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."
Elie Wiesel
"She was steadfast when stability was unknown, and honorable in an age which had forgotten what honor was; she was a rock of convictions in a time when men believed in nothing and scoffed at all things. She was of a dauntless courage when hope and courage had perished in the hearts of her nation.”
Mark Twain, Joan of Arc
"What theology, history and common sense have taught me is that the civilizations which allow the gap to widen between the ideal to which they claim and the realizations which they propose of it, these civilizations are dying of their hypocrisy.“
Henri-Irénée Marrou, France ma patrie, Le Monde, 5 avril 1956
"Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change the world which yields most painfully to change. I believe that in this generation those with the courage to enter the conflict will find themselves with companions in every corner of the world."
Robert F. Kennedy, Day of Affirmation, Cape Town, South Africa, 6 June 1966
“It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation. Not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people."
Martin Luther King, Convocation, Illinois Wesleyan University, 1966
"God does not demand that every man attain to what is theoretically highest and best. It is better to be a good street sweeper than a bad writer, better to be a good bartender than a bad doctor, and the repentant thief who died with Jesus on Calvary was far more perfect than the holy ones who had Him nailed to the cross.
The dying thief had, perhaps, disobeyed the will of God in many things: but in the most important event of his life he listened and obeyed. The Pharisees had kept the law to the letter and had spent their lives in the pursuit of a most scrupulous perfection. But they were so intent upon perfection as an abstraction that when God manifested His will and His perfection in a concrete and definite way, they had no choice but to reject it.”
Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island, 1955
"The days are coming when men will go mad, and when they meet a man who has kept his senses, will rise up against him, saying,
'You are mad, because you are not like us.' And I saw the snares that the enemy spreads out over the world and I said, groaning,
'What can get us through such snares?' And then I heard a voice saying to me, 'Humility.'”
Anthony the Great, Abbot of Colzim Egypt, and saint, 251-356
The markets are pricing in the expectation of a Fed policy pivot, signaled by a rate cut at their next meeting in September.
The question is whether the cut will be 25 or 50 basis points.
Stocks ranged, finishing just a little lower.
Gold and silver were just slammed in the early trading, with a determined move to run the stops of the speculative traders.
The prices quickly recovered in the aftermath of this blatant trading gambit.
All eyes are turning to the Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday, in the hopes that this may illuminate the Fed's future rate decisions.
This is an artificial market— a construct.
It lack's stability.
Have a pleasant evening.
