Furthermore, it is ultimately fatal to create too many victims. The victor can do nothing with these victims, for they do not belong to him, but – to the victims. They belong to the people he is fighting. The people know this, and as inexorably as the roll call – the honor roll – of victims expands, so does their will become inexorable: they resolve that these dead, their brethren, shall not have died in vain.
When this point is reached, however long the battle may go on, the victor can never be the victor: on the contrary, all his energies, his entire life, are bound up in a terror he cannot articulate, a mystery he cannot read, a battle he cannot win – he has simply become the prisoner of the people he thought to cow, chain, or murder into submission."
James Baldwin, No Name in the Street, 1972
"Faustus had advanced beyond the level of a scarlet sinner — he was a conscious follower of the Prince of Darkness. The fact he could publicly project an Antichrist image with pride, having no fear of reprisal, and his seeming diabolical art of escaping all punishment when others who were considered heretics had burned at the stake for less, would certainly signal that an unnatural individual walked in their midst.
Hell for all eternity, for so little in exchange. It is true in many respects he assumed the role of the charlatan, yet how apropos, considering his willingness to follow the Father of Lies and deception.”
E.A. Bucchianeri, Faust: My Soul Be Damned for the World, 2008
"There was war in heaven. Michael and the angels fought against the dragon. The dragon fought back, but he did not have the power, and so lost his place in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down – that ancient snake called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He fell to the earth, and his angels with him.
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now has come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the adversary of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.
They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them.
But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you. And he is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.’"
Revelation 12:7-12
Gold and silver continued to rebound from their recent price manipulation tied to the Non-Farm Payrolls report and the holiday week in China that saw their own precious metals markets closed.
There will be an FOMC decision this Wednesday.
I doubt that they will do anything about rates. There *might* be some verbiage adjustment.
The metals are getting short term overbought and so they may also be vulnerable to some kind of profit taking retrenchment.
But the steady buying of physical metal in the overseas markets is going to be difficult to overcome in the short term.
Stocks were wobbly today again, but not exceptionally so.
The small movement in VIX suggests a decided lack of fear in the selling.
That could change on a dime, given the geopolitical event risks.
Let's see where the metals go.
Have a pleasant evening.
