Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Increase in Lawlessness - The Imperial Presidency

“There are two ways to be fooled.  One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”

Søren Kierkegaard


"The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”

Hannah Arendt


"Narcissists are unstable and go through repeated cycles of self-destruction, with other people usually paying the heft of the price.  Narcissists tend to be divisive, vindictive, confrontational, aggressive, hate-filled, raging, incoherent, judgment-impaired, and irrational.

Narcissists are liars, confabulators, and miserable failures, although some of them are geniuses at disguising the fact that they are, in fact, losers."

Sam Vaknin


"And because of the increase in lawlessness, the love of most will grow cold."

Matthew 24:12

Stocks took a bit of a dive today, as the weight of mispriced risk and the illusion of economic recovery continues to weigh on the speculative excesses of the markets grown corrupt and inefficient through lack of proper oversight.

Being based on the human profit motive and the principle of selfishness markets in themselves have  no basis for being a moral principle.  Profit can be obtained through fair means and innovation, but as we have seen can more easily and richly be gained through exploitation and lawlessness.

The campaign to overturn the laws that protect the markets, which served us well for so long, has been determined and well-funded.  And it has worked a great deal of damage on the public and the quality of the financial system.

As usual the stocks regained much of their losses in the quiet afternoon.

Gold and silver moved sideways and the Dollar was marginally higher.

I think the charts are fairly clear. The problem is that most other things are not.

The other day I said: "I am certainly no fan of Joe Biden, who has a long record as a corporatist tool. And certainly not of Trump, who I suspect may wish to be impeached, and be remembered by some as a martyr, and spare himself the humiliation of losing badly in the next election."

And I will certainly stand by that as a possibility.  But like so many others I may be giving Trump far too much credit as a thinker, and cunning strategist.   His strength is his weakness, and he has some distinct flaws that work to his political disadvantage.

Trump is the consummate narcissist, a king among the class of egotists, bullies, and weasels.   He does not make occasional mistakes in judgement like most people.  He is driven into error by recklessness and pathological excess.

Don't expect things to get any better—  they will become progressively worse, until something finally either works, or breaks.  And if it breaks, there will be plenty of collateral damage, and much of it among the innocents as well as true believers.

And I hope that the liberal establishment, who expended a great deal of political capital and energy on their own madness that was RussiaGate, will regret their foolishness when they try to surmount their losses and perform an adequate investigation of this genuine abuse of power.  

In her day Hillary and her machine seemed to be indestructible and unstoppable— and it fell apart like a house of cards.  And when he falters, Trump's 'supporters' are going to descend on him like a pack of jackals.

Trump is not 'good for the markets.'   He is not the state, and as President is not above the law, although he thinks that he is.  Trump is a symptom of a system that has crept well into disorder and imbalance out of a long buildig sense of hubris and greed.

“Hubris calls for nemesis, and in one form or another it's going to get it, not as a punishment from outside but as the completion of a pattern already started.”

Mary Midgley

He is corrosive and corrupting, and quite possibly the rope of excess with which the predatory capitalists and their cronies are going to hang themselves.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metal Charts - The Darkness Rising - Twilight of Those Who Would Be Gods

"At dæmon, homini quum struit aliquid malum,
Pervertit illi primitus mentem suam."

But when the devil intends any evil against man, he first viciously corrupts their mind.

Euripides


"Nimirum insanus paucis videatur, eo quod
Maxima pars hominum morbo jactatur eodem."

He appears mad indeed but only to a few, because many are infected with the same disease.

Horace


"Though this be madness, yet there is a method in it."

Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2.

The retail sales number came in rather badly this morning.

There is no real recovery. Just a papering over of the rot endemic to oligarchy.

Gold and silver are struggling at overhead resistance.

Gold is much more interesting to watch here because of its nature as a safe haven.

And of course its central role in the changes in the monetary regime which have been called currency wars.

Stocks have reached the 38.2% fibonacci retracement level. They may keep on reaching for 50%.

It is reported that JP Morgan is holding $2.3 trillion in stock derivatives, or roughly 2/3rds of the entire market.

Let's see how this charade plays out.  My general forecast is for pain.

When intelligent, verbally acute narcissists start succumbing to continuing pressure they typically become paranoid, and then violent.   The mechanism for this is reasonably straightforward.

Their pathology is expressed in grandiose self-images and imagined and great exaggerated accomplishments.   When they fail to achieve their lofty goals, they start blaming others. Their narcissism turns malignant.

After all, in their minds they are fabulously talented and have never failed or even made a serious mistake.   So if there is failure, it cannot possibly be due to anything that they have done, but rather the failure of those who work for them.  And so there is a great deal of staff turnover.

And if the failures continue, there must certainly be some group that is sabotaging their efforts, in an effort to make them look bad.  Eventually their rage and words translate into acting out, and violence, most often against critics, potential critics and scapegoats.

There might be an epidemic of this sort of thing in the Beltway.

And then the darkness comes.

Have a pleasant evening.

America in the Age of Narcissism

Although this is not scholarly, it is very interesting and well-informed.

Unlike psychopaths, narcissists are made, not born.

Families and even societies can be predisposed towards forming a greater percentage of narcissists because of the priorities they reinforce and the behaviours that they uphold and reward.

Among these are superficiality, personal entitlement, competitive pride that defines the person, a perverse sense of individualism, and above all a lack of empathy.

They can be professionally very successful, socially attractive and charismatic, bigger than life. But personally they are often inept and unfortunate, unable to sustain intimate relationships, morally ambivalent. They tend to react with coldness and rage when their desires and plans are thwarted.

They rarely accept responsibility or admit to errors. They project their failure onto others. They are empty inside, and seek to build externalities to make up for it. They try to fill their emptiness with things and money and credentials and other people. Their behaviour is a reflex in response to their emptiness.

Everyone has a need for recognition and validation. The difference is that in a narcissist the personal needs are so dominant that one becomes addicted to validation and a grandiose amount of recognition.

The malignant narcissist can easily become a white collar style of criminal, stealing from victims with little or no remorse, almost approaching the empathetic vacuity of a psychopath.

Losing all hope and empathy is their freedom. And in this way they fashion their own emptiness, and can become the lord and master of their own personal hell.

Meet the Malignant Narcissist

"A personality disorder characterized by grandiosity; an expectation that others will recognize one’s superiority; a lack of empathy, lack of truthfulness, and the tendency to degrade others."

"Narcissism becomes particularly malignant (i.e. malevolent, dangerous, harmful, incurable) when it goes beyond mere vanity and excessive self-focus. Malignant narcissists not only see themselves as superior to others but believe in their superiority to the degree that they view others as relatively worthless, expendable, and justifiably exploitable.

This type of narcissism is a defining characteristic of psychopathy/sociopathy and is rooted in an individual’s deficient capacity for empathy. It’s almost impossible for a person with such shallow feelings and such haughtiness to really care about others or to form a conscience with any of the qualities we typically associate with a humane attitude, which is why most researchers and thinkers on the topic of psychopathy think of psychopaths as individuals without a conscience altogether."

"There is nothing about the man that is service-oriented. He’s only serving himself.”

The Will To Power in the Exceptional

"Christianity is called the religion of pity. Pity stands opposed to the powerful emotions which heighten our vitality; it has a depressing effect. We are deprived of strength when we feel pity...

What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power in a man, the will to power, power itself. What is bad? All that is born of weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome."

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist

 

 'What is truth?' asked the cynical bureaucrat Pilate, and then turned and washed his hands of it.

 

 

 

"Cultures that do not recognize that human life and the natural world have a sacred dimension, an intrinsic value beyond monetary value, cannibalize themselves until they die. They ruthlessly exploit the natural world and the members of their society in the name of progress until exhaustion or collapse, blind to the fury of their own self-destruction...

The corporations, and those who run them, consume, pollute, oppress and kill. The little Eichmanns who manage them reside in a parallel universe of staggering wealth, luxury and splendid isolation that rivals that of the closed court of Versailles. The elite, sheltered and enriched, continue to prosper even as the rest of us and the natural world start to die. They are numb. They will drain the last drop of profit from us until there is nothing left. And our business schools and elite universities churn out tens of thousands of these deaf, dumb and blind systems managers who are endowed with sophisticated skills of management and the incapacity for common sense, compassion or remorse. These technocrats mistake the art of manipulation with knowledge."

Chris Hedges

 

“All life has inestimable value even the weakest and most vulnerable, the sick, the old, the unborn and the poor, are masterpieces of God’s creation, made in his own image, destined to live forever, and deserving of the utmost reverence and respect...

All too often, as we know from experience, people do not choose life, they do not accept the Gospel of Life but let themselves be led by ideologies and ways of thinking that block life, that do not respect life, because they are dictated by selfishness, self-interest, profit, power and pleasure, and not by love, by concern for the good of others...

As a result, the living God is replaced by fleeting human idols which offer the intoxication of a flash of freedom, but in the end bring new forms of slavery and death...

Francis I

 

I have long felt that the basis of our economic and political discussions are a distraction, and by design.   They force us to operate from some fundamental policy assumptions that prevent a discussion of our current state of affairs in a necessarily frank and fundamental manner.

El Greco, Fábula of Boy Lighting Candle With a Fool and an Ape

With regard to economics and political systems, a 'practical person' may decide on whichever form of government serves their own private interests best.  

 

The amoral person chooses what is expedient, and in this they are little different from the worst, because they will go along with whatever serves their own power and self-interest above all.  They will rationalize themselves into a hell on earth, or hereafter.

 

A 'moral being' must choose what is just, as defined by some higher principle of justice for all.  And that choice must be made because it is inherent in being human.

 

Just as love is the touchstone in religion, justice is the touchstone in public policy. 

 

Exceptionalism is no virtue, no mark of the chosen, but merely the sin of pride, wearing the silks of rationalization and self-delusion.  And this is at the root of every fallen angel, every lost soul, and every failing nation.

 

I am not here making an appeal to the careless few based on either faith or reason.  Alas, I fear they are now beyond both morality and common sense, until a reckoning comes.

 

Rather, in this solemn season I am reminding the faithful and the many of a message they have probably heard, and forgotten, so often.  A man cannot serve two masters.  He will love the one, and hate the other.

 

The ultimate question is, 'whom do you serve?'  Choose as you will, but you will live with your choice, forever.  We do not choose all at once, but every day, and in all our actions, whether we are consciously aware of our choice or not.

Your carelessness and self-approval, your reputation and connections, your associations and positions, will be of no comfort and value to you then.  When exposed by the light your life of self-absorption and exceptional selfishness will be an ever stinging rebuke of burning regret and torment.  Not that you have betrayed and traded away so much that is good, but that you have done it for so little.

“A true opium of the people is a belief in nothingness after death - the huge solace of thinking that for our betrayals, greed, cowardice, and murders that we are not going to be judged.”

Czesław Miłosz

 

The Age of Narcissism

"Suddenly, abused and battered wives or children, the unemployed, the depressed and mentally ill, the illiterate, the lonely, those grieving for lost loved ones, those crushed by poverty, the terminally ill, those fighting with addictions, those suffering from trauma, those trapped in menial and poorly paid jobs, those whose homes are in foreclosure or who are filing for bankruptcy because they cannot pay their medical bills, are to blame for their negativity.

The ideology justifies the cruelty of unfettered capitalism, shifting the blame from the power elite to those whom they oppress."

Chris Hedges

We will always come across such personalities.  But there are some times, in some cultures, where such character traits may become not only more accepted, but socially incented, rewarded, and even fashionable.  

I think this is an important subject, because the current fiat culture in the United States has a strong element of collective and individual narcissism, expressed in the role models it upholds, the people who rise to great power, and in general, a feeling of historical and global exceptionalism that dare not be questioned.

We may do as we wish, because of who we are. This is our century. And if others object, they either have no right to do so, or are merely acting out of fear and jealousy of our greatness.

 

Hallmarks of Narcissism

 A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

 

•Lacks empathy - is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others

•Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)

•Has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations

•Is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends

•Is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her

•Requires excessive admiration

•Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

•Believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)

•Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

Frank Ochberg is one of my favorite modern psychologists. His primary area is PTSD. But his insights on a variety of topics is often insightful.

 

Empire of the Exceptional: The Age of Narcissism

As a reminder, it is not possible to reliably diagnose someone from a distance. Why?  Because our view of them is by its nature self-selective: we see and emphasize things that support our hypothetical view of them and dismiss or minimize other things that do not. This is a recurrent weakness in social sciences to be avoided. I cannot stress this enough.  Extremes are sometimes easier to see, but most individuals are a rather complex mix. 

As the psychologist in the video below points out, most people do not fit into neat categories of anything, but are rather an amalgam of various tendencies that overlap and vary greatly in intensity and influence. Most people tend to be diffused in their interests.   We can find traces of almost everything in our selves, as it is the nature of being human.  The degree of that trait is what matters, and the other traits in our mix, and how we react to them, and use them in our daily lives.

And we might also keep in mind that we go through phases, and try out different aspects of our personality in different settings and situations, especially when we are growing  What our parents or society might approve of or not helps to shape the final person which we may become as an adult. And some people may arrive at self-actualization rather late, or in some sad cases never reach that point, locked in a perpetual adolescence because of some trauma or lack of appropriate growth opportunities at key developmental junctures.

Even though it is difficult to discern in the individual, certain trends can appear on the macro level, whether it be in an historical era or even a broader culture.   They can possess distinctive personalities.  As an example, the Japanese tend to be self-effacing and socially oriented with a heavy set of personal obligations to their family and to groups.

And yet I have met some Japanese businessmen who could pass easily for Donald Trump in terms of egoism and personal preoccupation. But on the whole the trend applies, or had applied when I last looked at it carefully and at first hand.  These things on the macro level do change as well, but slowly, generationally.  And the cultural self-image may significantly lag the actual change.   Look in the mirror and see what you have become, for it may not be as you imagine.

In the past thirty years it seems that Anglo-American culture has grown increasingly narcissistic. I do not know if there are more narcissistic individuals in society now, and perhaps there are not.

But I do think that narcissism is much more widely tolerated, rewarded, and even admired now than it would have been in the period of 1930 to 1950 for example. And that is what makes all the difference. More people feel free to indulge their selfish and egotistical tendencies, and to cultivate them, in order to be fashionable and competitive.

As an aside, I think this also tends to explain the decline of literature and poetry in American culture, and the rise of reality shows and the preoccupation with extravagance. Literature calls us out of ourselves, ex stasis, in order to fill us with knowledge and the creative impulse, while spectacle merely panders, and flows in to fill the empty and undeveloped voids in our being."

This video below uses a fictional Mark Zuckerberg from a recent movie as an example of the narcissist personality. I do not know the real Mark Zuckerberg at all so I cannot say if it is valid. But I do think that the fictional Zuckerberg in the movie is an artistic representation of the modern CEO or Wall Street fund manager, based on those that I have known or read about closely.

This narcissistic tendency in modern business occurred to me last night as I read Super Rich Irony in The New Yorker. Obama is, by historical standards, a moderate Republican who has accepted the pro-Wall Street and corporate money bias created in the Democratic Party by the Clintons.   And yet he is reviled by the modern super rich as if he were a Franklin Delano Roosevelt or Andrew Jackson.

Don't get me wrong, most politicians are by the nature of their calling a bit of a narcissist, some more than others. It takes a big ego to fill a big room, and to stand up and say, I can lead. But some are more than others, given the variability of human psychology and character traits.

Some of these super rich describe Obama as arrogant and narcissistic. I think what many of them really mean is 'uppity.'  Most everyone else is their inferior, especially a mixed race man of a lower class background.   To me he seems more a careerist  and professional (aka cynical) deal maker as politicians go, rather than an active reformer.  He is the typical modern manager ruled by expediency.  

But one of the common traits of the narcissist is projecting their faults on to others.  Since this person does not serve and love me, and I am without fault, perfect, they must have something wrong with them, or be out to get me.

Everyone has an ego.  It certainly takes an ego to write a blog for that matter, although again, some are more obviously so than others. How can one stand up and say, 'this is what I think?' Well, at least blogs are self-selecting; people have to come an read them, as opposed to people who endlessly spam other people with emails of dubious origin.  Do you get that too?  Where do these things come from?  Thank God for Snopes and Google search. 

But I point this out to emphasize that this narcissistic tendency is not something particular to the wealthy, but is a cultural trait, expressed in many ways including an increase in self-absorption and incivility.  Power expresses itself in the assertion of the will over others, and the cultivation of unrestrained personal power, the triumph of their will,  is the lifeblood of the narcissist.  And this is also why they tend to be rather antithetical to democracy.

But it does seem that what marks today's super rich more than anything is their preoccupation with their own natural superiority or chosenness as more than justifying if not dictating their good fortune, and almost demanding displays of their grandiose wealth and power, even if that wealth has been gained by cheating, stealing, and depriving others of their own deserved rights and property.  Certainly Hitler saw himself chosen by history, and he  often sought confirmation of it.  

For those with money, the growth process might be subject to the same warping so often experienced by an exceptionally beautiful woman or an enormously talented athlete.  How can one learn to form genuine friendships and loving relationships when they are constantly viewed through the prism of wealth or good looks or success on the field,  when there are so many willing to indulge your worst impulses?   There is some obvious merit to suffering and adversity, as it is the salt that can preserve the best in us if properly applied, destroying the worst.

It is the excess of the age, probably due to the circumstances of fortunate birth and an early childhood in which the young learned that greed is good, screwing everyone is acceptable business practice, that there is no law but their desires, and that most people are inferiors intended to be used by them.  Often parental approval, acceptance, the most basic love, is made contingent on the buy-in. 

I know people like this. I am sure we all do. A very successful acquaintance from school shared with me the lessons taught to him by his father, which he innocently repeated. He learned them both verbally and contextually.  And most of them were exactly as I described them in the above paragraph.  And so that is what he believed.  Can this explain why some sons of wealth turn out badly?   Life lacks real adversity and the normalizing experiences that make us whole?

I have a sense that the super wealthy as a class are reaching their self-destructive apogee, which as you may recall I suggested would happen in my longer term economic forecast of 2005.  It has quite a bit of historical precedent.  When their hatred of FDR was unsatisfied, they attempted to foment a coup d'etat, which was subsequently covered up.  That was a mistake made in the name of preserving the system, as so many similar errors incurring moral hazard have been made more recently.

Each success emboldens them to do more, ask for more, expect more as their due.  And eventually they go too far, and fall.  That in itself might not be so bad on the individual level, as in the case of Bernie Madoff who certainly deserves his time in jail, but they invariably inflict collateral damage on many good and innocent people in the process.

And that is when their own failing, and if you will, sin, can become ours if we do nothing to stop it and to repair it. Especially in an age in which narcissists and sociopaths,including their enablers, are actively assaulting the public interest and public trust in order to serve their own short term, selfish ends, no matter what the longer term consequences to society as a whole might be.

Enjoy the read and the video as something to think about.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder
By Mayo Clinic staff

Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance and a deep need for admiration. Those with narcissistic personality disorder believe that they're superior to others and have little regard for other people's feelings. But behind this mask of ultra-confidence lies a fragile self-esteem, vulnerable to the slightest criticism.

Narcissistic personality disorder is one of several types of personality disorders. Personality disorders are conditions in which people have traits that cause them to feel and behave in socially distressing ways, limiting their ability to function in relationships and in other areas of their life, such as work or school.

Narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by dramatic, emotional behavior, which is in the same category as antisocial and borderline personality disorders.

Narcissistic personality disorder symptoms may include:

Believing that you're better than others
Fantasizing about power, success and attractiveness
Exaggerating your achievements or talents
Expecting constant praise and admiration
Believing that you're special and acting accordingly
Failing to recognize other people's emotions and feelings
Expecting others to go along with your ideas and plans
Taking advantage of others
Expressing disdain for those you feel are inferior
Being jealous of others
Believing that others are jealous of you
Trouble keeping healthy relationships
Setting unrealistic goals
Being easily hurt and rejected
Having a fragile self-esteem
Appearing as tough-minded or unemotional

Although some features of narcissistic personality disorder may seem like having confidence or strong self-esteem, it's not the same. Narcissistic personality disorder crosses the border of healthy confidence and self-esteem into thinking so highly of yourself that you put yourself on a pedestal. In contrast, people who have healthy confidence and self-esteem don't value themselves more than they value others.

When you have narcissistic personality disorder, you may come across as conceited, boastful or pretentious. You often monopolize conversations. You may belittle or look down on people you perceive as inferior. You may have a sense of entitlement. And when you don't receive the special treatment to which you feel entitled, you may become very impatient or angry. You may insist on having "the best" of everything — the best car, athletic club, medical care or social circles, for instance.

But underneath all this behavior often lies a fragile self-esteem. You have trouble handling anything that may be perceived as criticism. You may have a sense of secret shame and humiliation. And in order to make yourself feel better, you may react with rage or contempt and efforts to belittle the other person to make yourself appear better.

The Mayo Clinic