"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Die Wahlverwandtschaften, 1809
"And where is the magnificent Emperor Nero now, ubi sunt, immortal god and lord of the world, but a memory, returned to the earth and dust, to live no more. Perhaps he is now to be found only as a bit of dirt beneath the fingernails of some little child, to be plucked out and thrown away with a 'tut tut' by a doting mother.
The glory that was Greece, the grandeur that was Rome. And so the mighty rise and are fallen, but the Word and the Spirit endure."
Jesse, The Word and the Spirit Endure, 18 March 2016
"Legitimate power always includes attentiveness to justice. When power is not attentive to justice it cannot endure. This is a summons to us to keep the agenda of justice for the vulnerable alive and front and center to maintain a kind of subversive stance toward power.
Early on in the gospel traditions, the power elite in Jesus’ society who were colluding with the Roman Empire, recognized him as a threat and began to conspire to kill him. I think he was presented in the gospel narratives as being a huge threat to the established order of the Roman Empire... Jesus became a reference point for much of the hostility and resistance to the power of the empire because he refused to accommodate it, and told another story of reality that the empire could not co-opt.
The market ideology is now the new form of imperial power and many of us, without any critical reflection, have signed onto that and organized our lives in that way so we do not have any time, energy or capacity for the things that are rightly important to us."
Walter Brueggemann, Speak Truth to Power, June 26, 2014
“'The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, adorned with riches, holding in her hand a golden cup full of idolatry and the impurities of her lawlessness; and on her forehead was written a name of mystery: 'Babylon the great, mother of harlots and of earth’s abominations.'"
Revelation 17:4-6
"For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. But the one who now restrains it will continue to do so until he is taken away. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will slay by the breath of his mouth, and bring it to an end with the splendor of his coming.
The coming lawlessness will be the work of Satan made manifest in all power and false signs and wonders, and in every wicked deception for those perishing because they refused to love the truth to be saved. For this reason, God permits them a powerful delusion to believe their lies, that all may be condemned who deny the truth and instead take pleasure in lawlessness."
2 Thessalonians 2:7-12
Stocks dumped today, as the wash and rinse continues, to the tune of mispriced risks and war drums.
Gold and silver soared, with the silver futures contract tagging 35 intraday.
Gold has clearly broken out, and set a new all time high.
There is no gold kilo report from Hong Kong, because the CME has decided that they had to close shop and leave town. Too physical for their papery tastes it seems.
VIX kicked back up a bit.
The Dollar continued to decline.
Tomorrow there will be an FOMC meeting with the usual press conference with Chairman Jay to follow.
The outlook is cloudy, with a chance of shenanigans.
I came in fairly short this morning, and then closed them out as the morning decline seemed to wane. I went into the close flat, no positions short term, and will wait to see what happens tomorrow.
Have a pleasant evening.
