Post FOMC Metals Rig: Right On Schedule

This is what the pampered princes of privilege do when they fail.

 

They try to hide it.  They lash out.   They cheat.

 

They are petty.  But vicious when frightened.

Most of the successes they have obtained throughout their lives have been gained by cheating, using inside information, rigging the game, exercising influence, position, and privilege.

They twist the fabric of society to weave their robes.

 

They make and break the rules to suit themselves and their friends.

 

They make our markets into bucket shops.  Our laws are just pieces of paper.

 

They try to make other people pay for their mistakes.

 

As they have been doing all throughout their lives.

Success.   They deserve it, one banal and disreputable way or another.

For the good of the system.   

 

 

 

Stock Valuations Outrunning Profits Growth - And the Band Played On

"We are still amazed by the chart [below], but it summarises the problem for those seeking to short stocks with fundamental weaknesses. In the last three years, the MSCI World Index has risen by 38% (11% per annum) whilst reported profits have risen by just 3% (that’s just 1% per annum!). As the events of last month attest, central bank actions–not profits–are driving equities forward."

Andrew Lapthorne, Societe General

This quote is in reference to the first chart below that shows stock prices are outrunning profit growth.   The second chart is the Shiller PE 10 Ratio for US stocks.

Beside the corrupting influence of Big Money on politics and academics, the other pervasive problem in our society is really quite banal, that is, mindlessly managing to the numbers.

Although incentives have always been an issue, in the last thirty years it has become quite fashionable in modern management theory to set a few relatively narrow metrics and judge the performance and rewards of a manager by them and them alone.

While this is not wrong in and of it self, such a philosophy provides a source of great mischief if the metrics are excessively narrow, and therefore obscure the bigger picture and the health of an organization, a company, or even a nation.

I think we are all familiar with how incentives badly designed can drive counter-productive, short term behavior that can actually be destructive of the values of an organization.  I cannot think of a better recent example, other than the widespread fraud and corruption on Wall Street, than the manner in which the Central Banks and their governments are managing The Recovery™.

If employment is a metric, let us foster an economy in which a large number of jobs are created, that are low paying and part time, in order to address the metric of unemployment.  Never mind that this ignores the real reason for concern, ie, the lack of jobs at living wages which will spur aggregate demand.   If unemployment is the only concern, why not just bring back indentured servitude and give everyone a job at below subsistence wages.  Not far off the Japan model at that.

If inflation is a metric, let us follow policies of money printing in order to raise the prices of goods.  Unfortunately this will have price inflation running ahead of the ability of the broad public to pay for the things that they need through wage and income growth.  

See, there is no deflation.  It doesn't matter to the model that the growth in prices is not only artificial, but is in fact increasing the misery of the people by diluting their already reduced incomes with which to purchase necessities.

Now, this would seem to insult common sense.  But in fact if you are a bureaucrat under pressure to please a powerful constituency, and are driven to pursue policies that really do not make sense by any reasonable estimation of 'the public good,' it is tempting to stand fast on your models, and insist that one cannot prove that you are not doing a good job of it. 

 

And it is all so easy to claim well intentioned ignorance, or a lack of relevancy to your responsibilities.  There were executives at Enron who were so incapable, who knew and did so little, that it was a marvel that they were not in nursing homes.

When pressed you can always use discredited theories and perception management to quell those who are calling out the contrariness, at times to the point of madness, of your policy actions.  Prove to me it is a bubble!  Prove to me that people are not just lazy, or incapable of doing useful work!  Prove to me that giving trillions to the Banks is not sound monetary policy.

 

What does it matter, if your bosses are happy, and the perks and prestige, and all important access to the halls of power, are ensured.  At times your conscience may be troubled by the thought that in some of your actions you may have gone too far, and committed acts that could be considered outside of the law.  But you have done it for the good of the system, after all. 

And in that you are above the law, a law maker, not a follower.  A bonus or promotion, or some other visible reward or recognition, may quiet your conscience and concerns.  You are only doing what must be done, as demanded by those who deserve to be followed and obeyed. 

 

You see the excesses, by the really bad ones, but you are not like them.  Some day when you have the power you will set things right, but you must stay within the system to obtain that power.  So you must steel yourself, and be practical, and do what must be done. 

 

And that is easier to do, when there is no metric for human misery and suffering.  The unfortunate are easy to ignore.  No one wishes to see them, or hear them.  And they have little power.

You work hard, and are only human after all.  And for this you are a very important person, well regarded in the Capitol.  You are making money for yourself and your friends, the people who really count.  You are a success!  And all is right with your world.

"When virtue is lost, benevolence appears, when benevolence is lost right conduct appears, when right conduct is lost, expediency appears. Expediency is the mere shadow of right and truth; it is the beginning of disorder."

Lao Tzu

 

No one sits down one day and decides, 'I shall become a monster, and do monstrous things.'

 

And the band played on.

h/t Zerohedge

Shiller PE Ratio

'Confidence' Is a Corollary In a Fiat Culture: The Triumph of the Shills

"When the political process becomes controlled by multi-national corporate interests, the US government becomes a tool of those interests. When multi-national corporations own the mass media as they presently do, honest democratic debate becomes unlikely.

As we witness corporate power becoming a dominate force in international relationships, it will surely continue to diminish independent national sovereignty under the banner of 'free trade.'"

Joseph A.

Economists are fretting about the current notion that the US is caught in a secular stagnation.  They are concerned because they believe that this is what is driving stock prices lower.  And lower stock market prices are upsetting to their masters.

 

 They are concerned that people are believing in stagnation as a sort of urban myth, and that makes it real.  Seriously.  Belief is not an effect, but a primary cause in their minds. 

The biggest myth that I know of is that confidence alone, no matter whether it is founded in fundamental reality, is enough to ensure a permanent plateau of financial asset growth.  If we believe something, it is.  No matter whether reality reflects it or not.

It is the corollary to the fiat culture that holds that if they say it, and we believe it, then that is enough.   They maintain their power to decide, and this is their real end.  Not accomplishments, not solutions for others, but the maintaining of their status quo. 

And so the Fed and the ruling elite will say whatever is needed to be said, whether it makes any sense or not, and paint pictures with their words and statistics, to make the people believe. If they believe, they will buy, using increasing levels of debt if needed.

Animal spiritism is the cargo cult approach to a financial recovery. If only we believe, then everything will be all right, and we can live in the Potemkin villages that we build with a debt that can never be repaid.

Or as Fernando said, 'It doesn't matter if you feel good, you only need to look good, and baby, we look marvelous.'

Confidence is not a crutch, not a substitute for fundamental growth. It is a spark, and it cannot burn the wet wood of a stagnant or declining real median wage. Just because some fools can believe something does not make it true, even in the Humpty Dumpty world of our pampered princes.

Related:

  Washington Post Insists Economic Inequality Is a Oversimplified Fiction

  Shiller: When aStock Market Theory Is Contagious

Propaganda and Perception Management, and the Process of Dehumanisation

"Exploitation and manipulation produce boredom and triviality; they cripple man, and all factors that make man into a psychic cripple turn him also into a sadist or a destroyer."

Erich Fromm

Perception management and propaganda are the way in which the powerful speak to the rest of the people, and bend them to their will.

It becomes a process that dehumanises everything and everyone it touches, trapping them in deep wells of selfishness and subjectivity.

They think that they have no blood on their hands because they murder the weak and the helpless with money and fraud, rather than with knives and gas, and mislead and destroy many more souls with their lies and deceptions.

It would have better for them if they had never been born, so hard the judgement will be that is given to them.


Infancy



Vile Adolescence

"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths. Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"

The Garden of Beasts: Die Nacht der Langen Messer - The Night of the Long Knives

I have finished reading The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson, and I now understand why it is such a popular book of non-fiction.

It is remarkably well-researched, with an impressive set of footnotes based on original sources from diverse places. They are worth reading in themselves as they contain little delights and vignettes. The book provides deep insight into some of the minds of eyewitnesses grappling with the events of the day.

In part because of the source materials, the book spends what one might feel is an inordinate amount of time showing things from the perspective of Ambassador Dodd's daughter, the femme fatale Martha, and her many flirtations and affairs with the prominent of that city, including the head of the Gestapo and an NKVD agent from the Soviet embassy. She is not a particularly sympathetic character, being such an obviously shallow, albeit well-connected, narcissist.   Even these episodes are well written enough to be interesting if one enjoys that sort of background perspective and romantic intrigue.  And it is entertaining to read about the involvement of great literary names like Carl Sandburg and Thorton Wilder,  amongst others.  There is nothing in fame and recognition that deters personal folly.

Ambassador William E. Dodd himself is a frustrating figure, the southern born history professor from the University of Chicago who stumbles into the hornet's nest while looking for a sinecure. He comes across as petty and ineffective, carelessly anti-semitic in the manner of those times, and certainly no hero. And yet in the end he 'does the right thing' and looks good, and quite prescient, in comparison with his fellows. We might make some allowances to the need for a diplomat to be discreet while in office, and to manage perception for the support of official policy.

But it does bring home that point so many miss, that even while great events grind slowly along, ordinary and even extraordinary lives with all their petty preoccupations and diversions go on, the sun still shines, and people marry and are given in marriage, until the moment that, however slowly and in stages it may happen, the door finally closes.   .

I gained a new understanding of how some of the earlier events in the post-Weimar government progressed, and how the rise of the Nazi party unfolded, slowly, with more, but unfortunately ineffective, opposition than we might have believed, at least from 1932 to 1935. And so it was very worthwhile. No one should have been caught by surprise if they had their eyes open.

In particular I finally understand the 'Night of the Long Knives' as more than a passing intramural event as it is depicted so often in documentaries which compress the great sweep of history into an hour or two, and too often crush out the real significance, the many human undercurrents amidst ordinary preoccupations and foibles that comprise great events.

The 'Night of the Long Knives' was the first overtly extra-legal action in the Nazi rise to power. And this might be a lesson for us today as we interpret contemporary events and the perversion of mere legality without regard to morality, tradition, or honor. It was a clear sign of things to come, for those who had a mind to see it.

The book ends with the recall of Ambassador Dodd to Washington, replaced with one of the crony members of 'The Pretty Good Club.' Dachau is full of political prisoners, Jews are being individually terrorized and denied basic human rights, the infirm and defective are being sterilized and murdered, and all political and public information has been brought into conformity with the Nazis through their program of Gleischaltung. 

The real dark night of the soul and Kristallnacht lay in the future, having been born and emboldened by the continuing appeasement in the face of each worsening outrage against all convention and social norms. The Americans could overlook the progression of abuses against others as long as the Hitler regime 'would do business with them.'  It is the fatal weakness of realpolitik, its cumulative moral hazards, writ large. 

It is interesting to contrast the complacency of the career diplomats,  at that time most often Americans of privilege, and their preoccupation with obtaining full payment of the German bonds for their wealthy domestic constituents and the banks, with the agony of the German people as they slowly sunk into the abyss.  The lone voices that were raised in protest were suppressed, ridiculed, marginalized, and ignored even in America.  

This is a fine example of serial policy error in the service of privilege and the status quo. To many amoral minds, including especially the capitalists of the free world, Hitler's rise to power was just another business opportunity, and the plight of his victims a crisis not to be wasted, a source of great profit. And not all those who benefited were censured and punished. Some families rose to greater prominence and power, even in America, on a pile of European corpses.

In Germany the hopes of liberals and moderate conservatives alike fell before the uncompromising obsession for power and unrelenting fanaticism of a minority of some of the most banal and oddest people ever to take power in a major developed nation.   Not one of them could have risen by individual merit, but they did have a talent in exploiting other people's fears and weaknesses, and the sharp and unwavering focus of the sociopaths and psychopaths, that seems to bewilder and beguile the more diffused nature of the average person.

I was struck in fact that the great failure that was made by so many was the assumption that as the leader of a great and educated nation, Hitler was rational, and would eventually make the most rational decisions. So they believed his many assertions of his peaceful intents, and good wishes, even as he turned Europe into an abattoir. Like the efficient market hypothesis, people were blinded to reality by a theory about the natural goodness and rationality of politicians.

The dichotomy is never so apparent as in contrasting the leaders of the movement with their own Aryan ideals: the club footed Goebbels, Himmler the chicken farmer, the sybaritic Göring, the weak minded and superstitious Hess, and the boorish fanatic Hitler.  And the ordinary people made jokes about it, until even humour was crushed under the jackboot, choked out as fear and greed became pervasive.  Through an astute combination of terror, propaganda, and the perversion of the law, an entire people were persuaded to sleepwalk into the abyss.

The author includes, almost as throwaways, some interesting insights into the German character and its mutation under the Nazis.  In particular I was struck by his description of them doting on their dogs and their horses, and the national laws forbidding cruelty to animals, so that the horses, as Dodd the Virginia gentleman farmer observed, were among the fattest and best kept he had ever seen.  And in the end of it all, during the Russian assault that leveled the area around the Tiergarten and the Reichstag, a stray shell struck the stables, and the horses stampeded down the ruined avenues, in flames.

As long as the personal interests of the status quo of the wealthy and powerful were served, those in positions of responsibility said and did nothing, until it was too late even for them.

"What most occupied the attention of the State Department [in 1934] was the outstanding German debt to American creditors. It was a strange juxtaposition. In Germany there was blood, viscera, and gunfire; at the State Department in Washington, there were white shirts [of the wealthy career diplomats and career politicians], Hull's red pencils, and mounting frustration with [Ambassador] Dodd to press America's case [for full payment of the sovereign German debt]...

In Berlin, Dodd was unmoved. He thought it pointless to pursue full payment, because Germany simply did not have the money, and there were far more important issues at stake...

Through his first year in Germany [1933], Dodd had been struck again and again by the strange indifference to atrocity that had settled over the nation, the willingness of the populace and the moderate elements in the government to accept each new oppressive decree, each new act of violence, without protest...

Dodd continued to hope that the murders would so outrage the German public that the [Hitler] regime would fall, but as the days passed he saw no evidence of any such outpouring of anger...

For Dodd, a diplomat by accident, not demeanor, the whole thing was appalling. He was a scholar and a Jeffersonian democrat, a farmer who loved history and the old Germany in which he had studied as a young man. Now there was official murder on a terrifying scale. Dodd's friends and acquaintances, people who had been to his house for dinner or tea, had been shot dead.

Hitler's purge [June 30, 1934] would become known as 'The Night of the Long Knives,' and in time would be considered one of the most important episodes in his ascent, the first act in the great tragedy of appeasement...

This lack of reaction arose partly because many in Germany and elsewhere chose to believe Hitler's claim that he had suppressed an imminent rebellion that would have caused far more bloodshed. Evidence soon emerged, however, that showed that in fact Hitler's account was false...

The controlled press, not surprisingly, praised Hitler for his decisive behaviour...In a letter to Hull, Dodd forecast an even more terroristic regime... 'The people hardly notice this complete coup d'etat. It takes place in silence...I would swear that millions upon millions have no idea what a monstrous thing has occurred.'"

Erik Larson, The Garden of Beasts

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Liquidation Panic - Martian Gold - Comex Hikes Margins

"Yesterday, the textbook was thrown out the window. All asset classes saw sudden and sharp moves far in excess of normal volatility patterns. To an old timer, that points to one conclusion. Liquidation. Wide-spread liquidation across asset classes. Currencies, bonds, commodities and stocks all moved swiftly and sharply in a direction that screamed - Seek safety! Raise cash! Get liquid...

All of that had a quick and discernible negative impact on markets. But, the selling was far more pervasive and dramatic than simply a conscious adjustment of positions based upon new data. Thursday’s action screamed liquidation - and not all of it voluntary."

Art Cashin, 22 September 2011


"That day the U.S. announced that the dollar would be devalued by 10 percent. By switching the yen to a floating exchange rate, the Japanese currency appreciated, and a sufficient realignment in exchange rates was realized. Joint intervention in gold sales to prevent a steep rise in the price of gold, however, was not undertaken. That was a mistake."

Paul Volcker, Nikkei Weekly 2004

There was a major sell off in gold and silver today that was due in part to the liquidation of assets coming out of Europe. That is the basis of the quotation from Art Cashin, and he is right in what he says.

But while stocks and the dollar all paused today, gold and silver were hammered, and the selling looked to be more calculated than incidental as it has been throughout the week.

There is little doubt that some of this is the association with usual gaming of the Comex option expiration next week, and the potential delivery situation on that exchange with their unusually thin supplies and concentrated short positions held by a few of the banks. Comex Hikes Gold, Silver, Copper Margins After the Bell.

But today in particular seems to be even a little more than that.

Every time the central banks and their affiliates get desperate, some economic essayist trots out an outlandish argument about why gold is a 'barbarous relic.'   Here is one that tops even the almost petulant argument of Willem Buiter in 2009. 

The Price of Gold in 2160 - Statsguy and James Kwak

I had to read this essay twice to make sure it just was not satire. I can summarize my reaction by saying that finding gold in outer space with assumed technologies speaks to supply, but the author does not present any assumptions about population, economics structures, and of course future demand.

The method by which gold is formed in relatively rare supernova events is fairly well known, and its distribution relative to other elements and compounds is not completely eccentric, at least not as random and eccentric as pseudo-scientific economic theories might become these days.

The author's premise of the discovery of new bullion supplies in outer space is analogous to the discovery of the New World by Europeans, and the remarkable finds of gold and silver on those two vast continents.

And yet here we are today.

Some might say that the author was merely saying in a cute way that commodity based currencies always fail, with an example being salt or Yap stones as Mr. Buiter had argued to greater effect.

And I would say that all currencies do go in and out of favor in their time, since there is an element of relativism in value that can be enforced by ruling authorities, who themselves tend to come and go, even if in their time these authorities might seem invincible, their empires intended to last for a thousand years.

But some stores of value, not based on passing utilitarian criteria or force, do tend to be resilient, and come back again and again, and retain an element of value from generation to generation. Or as some might with a more profound understanding of money might say, they maintain the confidence of their steadfastness that is a pre-requisite of sound money that is difficult to maintain by mere force of will.

As some historians of money have pointed out, the Federal Reserve was initially set up to emulate this type of external immutability of value in what later became a purely fiat currency. As men like Andrew Jackson would have predicted, they failed in exactly the same ways and for the same reasons that every other attempt at this has failed throughout history.

All systems are prone to corruption and decay, but none so much as those that rely exclusively on the goodness and wisdom of small groups of powerful men, especially when acting in secret.

It does seems quite cheeky for a modern economist to criticize a natural store of value with a 5000 year history, while standing on the platform of a purely fiat currency, given the short half life of every fiat currency throughout history. They may be recreated and devalued, but they never retain much of their value and character, with the only remnant their name.

I hear the sounds of printing presses over the horizon. Get ready for Quantitative Easing European style, and massive European bailouts, and increasingly absurd arguments from the econo-sphere as they avoid the subject of justice for the sake of expediency.

I have some limited sympathy for the dilemma facing the increasingly desperate western central banks, and understand their rationalizations.  But they are doing something that is the very epitome of moral hazard, and abuse of power, in their attempts to stabilize the unsustainable, without allowing for meaningful change and reform.

The heart of the issue is that the existing monetary and financial system is becoming increasingly arbitrary and corrupt. A relatively small group of interconnected crony capitalists wishes to create a digital money out of nothing, and distribute it increasingly as they will, to whom they will.

And this is the basis of my resentment with this policy abuse, and the irritation with the assault on reason by those in the financial demimonde engaging in what might be politely called perception management.

This self-serving arbitrariness, even if done for 'good motives,' is the very reason why all fiat currencies fail. No matter how you want to rationalize it they are going to create money out of nothing, and give it to whom they will, while corrupting the political system in the process.

And the cumulative results of this abuse of power are corrosive to society. Lawless example by a ruthless few brings out the worst in all the people, always. And that is a shame.

"Our government teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.”

Louis D. Brandeis

I am reading The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson, and it is diverting as well as instructive, full of personal vignettes of Berlin in the 1930s told from the standpoint of the US Ambassador and his family.  It is perhaps not surprising that most cruelty is based in casual disregard for others, and a pre-occupation with the self.  And of course, that evil flourishes when the good do and say nothing.

As a preparation for this I read The Long Night by Steve Wick. Perhaps this is responsible for my gloomy frame of mind this week. But these things do not happen overnight, but by measures, until one is firmly in the crude grip of the banality of evil.  And then of course it is too late to escape from the maw of the abyss. 

So don't go there.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Currency Wars, Margin Hikes, Failed Raids, Silver $1,200

The con...

Cleared OTC London Gold hike from $6751 to $9450 (40%.)

The Exchange (CME) acts as the clearer for these OTC products, eliminating counterparty risk (cash deals done in OTC space, is posted / converted into futures via the Clearport platform). The Exchange however does not post Open interest in these OTC cleared forwards.  

DATE : Thursday, September 8, 2011

NOTICE # : 11-317

SUBJECT : Performance Bond Requirements: Agriculture, Coal, Crude Oil, Ethanol, Freight, Metals, Natural Gas, NGLs, and Refined Product Outrights - Effective Monday, September 12, 2011

FOR THE FULL TEXT OF THIS ADVISORY :
Cleared Products Margin Advisory

The pro...

“International supervision over the issue of U.S. dollars should be introduced and a new, stable, and secured global reserve currency may also be an option to avert a catastrophe caused by any single country.”

Xinhua, China’s official news agency

The Whoa!

“I think silver will outperform gold in the next decade. If silver should trade at a 16 to 1 ratio (to gold), it will probably trade at 10 to 1 because things tend to overshoot. Let’s use Jim Sinclair’s $12,000 target, that would suggest $1,200 silver, which is a thirty bagger from here...The biggest reason it (silver) should go there is people should fear bank deposits, that’s what I think they should fear.”

Eric Sprott at KWN

And Look Who's Talking Now...

"After rallying nearly 100 USD last week from 1795 to 1895 with demand coming from the official sector and some leveraged players rebuilding length following the severe prior correction we traded to new all time highs of 1922 on Tuesday shortly before the Swiss Franc intervention.

The immediate aftermath was in complete contradiction to prior recent episodes of intervention and what anyone would have expected. Instead of spurring a further gold price rally on the basis that it was one of the few remaining safe haven "currencies" we saw a 50 USD collapse in minutes.

The source of this flow seems hard to pin down with some speculating over whether "authorities" were concerned about the signals of an accelerating gold price and its impact on other fragile markets. Soon after, much of the losses were recovered but the psychological damage had been done and there followed a series of liquidations from within the leverage space with gold closing down 50 USD on the day. This was then exacerbated by a near 60 USD flash crash within 2 minutes during the Asian session."

Goldman Sachs, September 8, 2011

Perception management, start to finish. Gold was not to be viewed as a safe haven during a renewed sovereign default concerns. Without interventions I suspect the yellow metal would have broken out to new highs.

The Ten Year Treasury yield dropped to an intraday record low of 1.89 percent, before settling at 1.92, in an obvious flight to safety caused by renewed talk of a default by Greece.

Still, despite repeated bear raids, especially in the lighter periods of the trading day, gold and silver remained resilient.

"In careless ignorance they think it civilization, when in reality it is a portion of their slavery...To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false pretenses, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace."

Tacitus, Agricola

Gold Drops Precipitously Just Prior to Obama's Press Conference on the Debt Ceiling

Gold soared this morning on a flight to safety from the European debt crisis.

Then suddenly it started dropping sharply around 10:30 NY time.

What could have happened?

Oh, the Bloomberg is reporting that Obama will be addressing the nation in a Press Conference around 11:00 AM.

It doesn't get much more obvious than this.

As the news commentators just noted, gold is flat and the Treasuries are rallying, so why worry?

My stock index shorts from Friday are doing well as this overextended rally continues to pull back. I took a portion of them off the table as the SP futures reach down to support around 1312. I also took the miners off in the first hour, and trimmed back the bullion plays a little after that.

I suspect the major players will reach some agreement on the debt ceiling by July 22, and throw a portion of the American public under the bus, to everyone's relief that a horrible crisis has been averted, while largely maintaining the real status quo and the primacy of the Wall Street monied interests.

It's MMT all the way. Not only Modern Monetary Theory, but Modern Management Theory, and the management of perceptions is everything in the Potemkin economy.

Later: I am watching Obama speak now, and it's pure theater. He said he wants a 'fair and balanced' solution. He is posturing quite a bit, but obviously concerned with giving his Republican colleagues cover with the more vocal wing of their constituency.

I have great sympathy for him, as he has inherited a terrible mess created in large part by his predecessors. The pigmen and their comrades are in a feeding frenzy, and the social fabric is stretched thin. Enough is never enough for them as they are addicted to greed and the will to power.

A bright fellow no doubt, but unseasoned by things like family, tradition, and the personal experience of hardship: a great story teller, a rationalizer, a perpetual outsider, and a thoroughly modern relativist. You have to keep your eye on what he does, rather than what he says. But that is a given with all modern managers.

No wonder gold and silver were hit so hard. They are the untarnished standards that stubbornly resist all rhetoric and relativism.