Resist the Temptation to Despair

"Because of the increase in wickedness, the love of many will grow cold."

Matthew 24:12


"Every century is like every other, and to those who live in it seems worse than all."

John Henry Newman

I have noticed that many seem to be discouraged by the current state of things, and the catalyst are elections that seems to offer only the choice between two distasteful alternatives.  I have the opportunity to speak to people from every part of the world each day, and there seems to be a common thread in the discussions.

We have been battered for years now by the repeated crushing of hope, and the impulse to reform, by the powerful moneyed interests of a relative few who seem to honor or uphold nothing but their own greed.  Every region seems to be plagued by some form of this brute selfishness and prideful corruption.

If I am being objective, and not focused only on the present day, I am profoundly grateful that I do not have to face (yet I say with hope) the obstacles that our parents, and grandparents, and great-grandparents faced over and over for years.

They personally faced absolutely brutal world wars which slaughtered millions, and many of them were dirt poor in terrible Depressions where all hope was almost lost.  They faced industrial accidents and exploitation, child labor, enslavement, and powerful repressions by inhumanly sick men and women.

And even now there are those facing things such as that in the world as it is today, and if anything we should be appalled that we do so little or nothing to relieve their distress.  And, may God forgive us, we sometimes stand by while our own people may be inflicting these hardships upon others.

But we are distracted from all this, by feeling sorry for our own disappointments and troubles.

This is not to say that we do not have problems. This year has been so bad for us personally, and for others that I know from Le Cafe,  that at times I wanted to cry out like Job.

But putting our own temptation to wallow in despair aside, one finds they can rise above these things, sometimes with the help of others and sometimes with a slow but steady determination, and make things good where they can, for themselves and most importantly for others.

And that is enough, for it is our lot in this life.  Not to make an account of all the things that we do not like, that frighten us, that may potentially harm us, that concern us, that could go wrong, that afflict us in our daily lives like 'a thorn in the flesh.'

I know that this seems to be the opium of the distressed, and to the placidly self-content and self-absorbed as 'a folly' of the weak-minded, an opportunity to feel superior to the rest, to the '99 percent.'  This is as it has always been.

But sometimes God must first break a heart to enter it.  And it is what remains afterwards, when the crisis is passed, that offers us the way to becoming fully human.

And we are then called to stand up and witness to the fully human life, in grace that is given, not cheaply by ourselves, but by our resolve and determination to follow Him in our calling.

Where there is sickness bring healing, where there is despair bring hope, and where there is darkness, light.

Not in some abstract sending out of good thoughts, which if fine for a start, but more importantly in some tangible acts of kindness and goodness for our families, and friends, and acquaintances, and finally even for those who are undeserving.  There is so much that needs to be done, that we are finally tempted to do nothing.  But all we are asked to do is to begin, and do something even if it is only something little.

And there are many paths to goodness.  You may have found one, and therefore serve it faithfully. But this does not detract from or say that someone else may have found another, and they ought to serve it faithfully if it leads to the same loving heart.   This is not for us to judge.

Little acts of goodness spread like ripples in a pond.  A candle in the darkness allows others to find and ignite their own—  and then there is light.

"God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission—  I may never know it in this life but I shall be told it in the next.

I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught.

I shall do good, I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments.

Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.

He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about.

He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me— still He knows what He is about.

We are slow to master the great truth that even now Christ is, as it were, walking among us, and by His hand, or eye, or voice, bidding us to follow Him. We do not understand that His call is a thing that takes place now. We think it took place in the Apostles' days, but we do not believe in it; we do not look for it in our own case.

Let us feel what we really are— sinners, but attempting great things.  Let us simply obey God's will, whatever may come.  He can turn all things to our eternal good. Easter day is preceded by the forty days of Lent, to show us that they only who sow in tears shall reap in joy.

The more we do, the more shall we trust in Christ; and that surely is no morose doctrine, that leads us to soothe our selfish restlessness, and forget our fears, in the vision of the Incarnate Son of God.

May the Lord support us all the day long, till the shades lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done.

Then in His mercy may He give us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last.”

John Henry Newman

Caesar was swimming in blood, Rome and the whole pagan world was mad.

"But those who had had enough of transgression and madness, those who were trampled upon, those whose lives were misery and oppression, all the weighed down, all the sad, all the unfortunate, came to hear the wonderful tidings of God, who out of love for men had given Himself to be crucified and redeem their sins.

When they found a God whom they could love, they had found that which the society of the time could not give any one, -- happiness and love."

Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis, 1905

Reprise: Resist the Temptation to Fear and Despair

 

This is a reprise from 26 October 2016.  

"Because of the increase in wickedness, the love of many will grow cold."

Matthew 24:12


"Every century is like every other, and to those who live in it seems worse than all."

John Henry Newman

I have noticed that many seem to be discouraged by the current state of things, and the catalyst are elections that seems to offer only the choice between two distasteful alternatives.  I have the opportunity to speak to people from every part of the world each day, and there seems to be a common thread in the discussions.

We have been battered for years now by the repeated crushing of hope, and the impulse to reform, by the powerful moneyed interests of a relative few who seem to honor or uphold nothing but their own greed.  Every region seems to be plagued by some form of this brute selfishness and prideful corruption.

If I am being objective, and not focused only on the present day, I am profoundly grateful that I do not have to face (yet I say with hope) the obstacles that our parents, and grandparents, and great-grandparents faced over and over for years.

They personally faced absolutely brutal world wars which slaughtered millions, and many of them were very poor in terrible Depressions where all hope was almost lost.  They faced industrial accidents and exploitation, child labor, enslavement, and powerful repressions by inhumanly sick men and women.

And even now there are those facing things such as that in the world as it is today, and if anything we should be appalled that we do so little or nothing to relieve their distress.  And, may God forgive us, we sometimes stand by while our own people may be inflicting these hardships upon others.

But we are distracted from all this, by feeling sorry for our own disappointments and troubles.

This is not to say that we do not have problems. This year has been so bad for us personally, and for others that I know from Le Cafe,  that at times I wanted to cry out like Job.

But putting our own temptation to wallow in despair aside, one finds they can rise above these things, sometimes with the help of others and sometimes with a slow but steady determination, and make things good where they can, for themselves and most importantly for others.

And that is enough, for it is our lot in this life.  Not to keep an account of all the things that we do not like, that frighten us, that may potentially harm us, that concern us, that could go wrong, that afflict us in our daily lives like 'a thorn in the flesh.'

I know that this seems to be the opium of the distressed, and to be placidly self-content and self-absorbed as 'a folly' of the weak-minded, and an opportunity to feel superior to those who suffer on, to the '99 percent.'  This is as it has always been.

But sometimes God must first break a heart to enter it.  And it is what remains afterwards, when the crisis is passed, that offers us the way to becoming fully human.

And we are then called to stand up and witness to the fully human life, in grace that is given, not cheaply by ourselves, but by our resolve and determination to follow Him in our calling.

Where there is sickness bring healing, where there is despair bring hope, and where there is darkness, light.

Not in some abstract sending out of good thoughts, which is fine for a beginning, but more importantly in tangible acts of kindness and goodness for our families, and friends, and acquaintances, and finally even for those who are undeserving.  There is so much that needs to be done, that we may be tempted to do nothing.  But all we are asked to do is to begin, and do something, even if it is only something little.

Little acts of goodness spread like ripples in a pond.  A candle in the darkness allows others to find and ignite their own—  and then there is light.

"God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission—  I may never know it in this life but I shall be told it in the next.

I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught.

I shall do good, I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments.

Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.

He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about.

He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me— still He knows what He is about.

We are slow to master the great truth that even now Christ is, as it were, walking among us, and by His hand, or eye, or voice, bidding us to follow Him. We do not understand that His call is a thing that takes place now. We think it took place in the Apostles' days, but we do not believe in it; we do not look for it in our own case.

Let us feel what we really are— sinners, but attempting great things.  Let us simply obey God's will, whatever may come.  He can turn all things to our eternal good. Easter day is preceded by the forty days of Lent, to show us that they only who sow in tears shall reap in joy.

The more we do, the more shall we trust in Christ; and that surely is no morose doctrine, that leads us to soothe our selfish restlessness, and forget our fears, in the vision of the Incarnate Son of God.

May the Lord support us all the day long, till the shades lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done.

Then in His mercy may He give us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last.”

John Henry Newman

Caesar was swimming in blood, Rome and the whole pagan world was mad.

"But those who had had enough of transgression and madness, those who were trampled upon, those whose lives were misery and oppression, all the weighed down, all the sad, all the unfortunate, came to hear the wonderful tidings of God, who out of love for men had given Himself to be crucified and redeem their sins.

When they found a God whom they could love, they had found that which the society of the time could not give any one, -- happiness and love."

Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis, 1905

 

The story behind Quo Vadis.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Perspectives May Vary

 

"The technocrats at the helm of the Titanic have more than a hunch that the vessel is accelerating towards the iceberg.  Having run out of policy bullets, they have opted to promote a continuous programme of fear and propaganda in a bid to manage the unmanageable. Crucially, they know what to most of us appears counterintuitive: that the breakdown of our obsolete mode of production can only be delayed through 1) A steady stream of global emergencies, 2) The controlled inflationary demolition of the increasingly unproductive real economy, and 3) The authoritarian makeover of liberal democracy.

Joining the dots means understanding that the purpose of the Ukrainian emergency is to keep the money printer switched on while blaming Putin for worldwide economic downturn. 

Let us not forget that the stock market is a sort of derivative of the debt market, which therefore needs to be handled with extreme care. While the 'assisted suicide' of the real economy via negative supply shocks exacerbates consumer price inflation, the latter provides temporary relief to the mega debt bubble, thus postponing the crash.

The bottom line is that if Central Bank monetary injections were to end, a rapid increase in key interest rates would threaten a market crash, with defaults across the globe. So, either everyone plays according to the script, or the whole show is cancelled, and the system with it."

Fabio Vighi, Money Without Value In a Rapidly Disintegrating World

"The social principles of Christianity preach cowardice, self-contempt, abasement, submission, humility, in a word all the qualities of the rabble, and the proletariat, which will not permit itself to be treated as rabble, needs its courage, its self-confidence, its pride and its sense of independence even more than its bread.  The social principles of Christianity are cowardly and hypocritical, and the proletariat is revolutionary.”

Karl Marx, Deutsche-Brüsseler-Zeitung, September 12, 1847

"It seems that under the overwhelming impact of rising power, humans are deprived of their inner independence and, more or less consciously, give up establishing an autonomous position toward the emerging circumstances.  The fact that the foolish person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent.  In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with him as a person, but with slogans, catchwords, and the like that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being. Having thus become a mindless tool, the foolish person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil. This is where the danger of diabolical misuse lurks, for it is this that can once and for all destroy human beings.

Only the humble believe in Him and rejoice that God is so free and so marvelous that He does wonders where people despair, that He takes what is little and lowly and makes it marvelous. And that is the wonder of all wonders, that God loves the lowly. God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in. He chooses people as his instruments and performs his wonders where one would least expect them. God is near to lowliness; He loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and broken."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions.  It is the opium of the people."

Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, 1843

"But in truth the whole course of Christianity from the first, when we come to examine it, is but one series of troubles and disorders.  Every century is like every other, and to those who live in it seems worse than all times before it.  The Church is ever ailing, and lingers on in weakness.

Religion seems ever expiring, schisms dominant, the light of Truth dim, its adherents scattered.  The cause of Christ is ever in its last agony, as though it were but a question of time whether it fails finally this day or another.  The Saints are ever all but failing from the earth, and Christ all but coming; and thus the Day of Judgment is literally ever at hand.

God alone knows the day and the hour when that will at length be, which He is ever threatening; meanwhile, thus much of comfort do we gain from what has been hitherto,—not to despond, not to be dismayed, not to be anxious, at the troubles which encompass us.  They have ever been; they ever shall be; they are our portion. 

'The floods are risen, the floods have lift up their voice, the floods lift up their waves. The waves of the sea are mighty, and rage horribly; but yet the Lord, who dwelleth on high, is mightier.'"

John Henry Newman, Via Media, Feb. 24, 1837

“Religion used to be the opium of the people.  To those suffering humiliation, pain, illness, and serfdom, religion promised the reward of an after life.  But now, we are witnessing a transformation: a true opium of the people is the belief in nothingness after death, the huge solace, the huge comfort of thinking that for our betrayals, our greed, our cowardice, our murders, we are not going to be judged.”

Czeslaw Milosz, Discreet Charm of Nihilism

"Sometimes God must first break a heart to enter it.  And it is what remains afterwards, when the crisis is passed, that offers us the way to becoming fully human.   And we are then called to stand up and witness to the fully human life, in grace that is given, not cheaply by ourselves, but by our resolve and determination to follow Him in our calling.  Where there is sickness bring healing, where there is despair bring hope.  Little acts of goodness spread like ripples in a pond.   A candle in the darkness allows others to find and ignite their own— and then there is light."

Jesse, Resist the Temptation to Despair,  26 October 2016

"Humanism was not wrong in thinking that truth, beauty, liberty, and equality are of infinite value, but was wrong in thinking that we can get them for ourselves, without grace."

Simone Weil

 Stocks rallied hard this morning on the better-than-expected PPI numbers.

But alas, the bubblonians could not maintain their momentum, and stocks drifted down into the red or slight better than unchanged.

Gold and silver lost ground.

VIX rose slightly.

The Dollar chopped sideways after losing all its overnight gains on the PPI number.

Have a pleasant evening.

Currency Wars: The Anglo-American Century and Why the Financial Engineers Hate Gold and Silver

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

Antoine de Saint Exupéry

'Nominal GDP targeting' is a way of raising the Fed's inflation target without admitting to it explicitly.

Nominal GDP means that one can meet their growth target simply by inflating the money supply to make up the difference between 'real growth' and 'headline growth.'  Some parties are raising NGDP as the next policy initiative from the Federal Reserve.

NGDP targeting is so obvious and clumsy that I doubt that the Fed will try and hide their enormous efforts at monetization of the debt under such a small fig leaf, as Jim Rickards suggests, except to direct attention away from their more serious efforts.   The growth in money supply would be apparent to many and the Internet would be used to spread the word.   No, a more clever and covert attempt at persuasion is required, and more in keeping with the Bernanke Fed's penchant for secrecy.

I think the major monetization is already occurring in the Eurodollar markets, and an ongoing stealth bailout of European debt, in order to save the big money center banks at home and broaden the reach of the Dollar.

And this is why the Fed stopped reporting on Eurodollars some years ago, as a component of M3. It was to pave the way for the monetary equivalent of a financial neo-con, to addict European governance to the US dollar and pave the way for a stronger position for the dollar as a one world currency.

Money is power, and the ability to control the distribution and value of money and wealth is power in its most refined and effective form. One only needs relatively small armies to retain the power to control the money in order to subordinate vast resources and peoples if you can control their definition of wealth and the distribution of money, and all that follows from it.  

If you are able to create money at will, and give it to your friends and allies with even relative discretion, you are able to confiscate, without visible effort, the labor and wealth of every person who holds that currency, wherever they are and however they seek to protect it. It is the end of sovereignty and the right to private ownership of all goods and property that are valued by that currency. And it is a power too great to be held inviolate by any small group of men with the ability to act in secret.

I believe that the original purpose of this effort to shape the world economy was well-intentioned, or at least was represented as such to many participants as the logical solution to the devastating wars that repeatedly bloodied the last century.  

Most of what is transpiring now has not been planned, but events make the moment, and moment gives rise to the man.  And history shows us that too much power in too few hands never fails to end in exploitation.  With the rise of a single world super-power, no matter how good it might have been at its heart, the tide of corruption rose with it.  This is why central planning invariably fails.

The dominant global currency regime 'could' come in the form of the SDR for global trade if the composition of the SDR continues to contain a significant dollar-pound component.  Yes, the IMF has the ability to 'print' SDRs, but the SDR is a currency for use between nations, and its value is linked to a basket of individual domestic currencies.   Hence, it cannot be printed limitlessly, but must be linked to the value something else, some external standard.

Here is a prior blog entry here that explains the struggle for the SDR that is now occurring.   Even the 'reformed' basis for the SDR is ludicrous, with its over-representation of the dollar and the pound.  And now proceeds the dismantling and pacification of the eurozone.  And the hysterical antagonism by the Western bankers against the inclusion of gold and silver in the SDR basket as proposed by the BRICs.

Here is a broader overview of what I call the Currency Wars.

A slightly different plan has been underway for Asia, whose economies have become addicted to export production for US dollar paper, which makes up a huge portion of their reserves and financial system.

At some point those Eurodollars may come home, in the event that Europe finds a way out of its dilemma that was caused in part by the US banks and hedge funds, and of course Europe's own political weakness and greed. And the Fed is confident they have a way to stem that tide of dollars 'back in the system.'

But they do not expect this to happen, because the ratings agencies and the funds have the power to submit any government to a relentless credit assault on their sovereign debt.

Have you ever bothered to wonder why there have been no real investigations and prosecutions of the bankers and the credit ratings agencies?  And why they have been permitted to continue to operate, largely unimpeded?  The credibility trap is one explanation, but it fails to include so many other seemingly random events. Some of the banks may have become instruments of state policy, too big and important to prosecute. They and the state are becoming one.

As I have suggested in the past, the model has been to bring the system to a crisis, and then to have the bankers' representatives make an 11th hour 'offer which they cannot refuse' to the people of the nation, as they did in the adoption of TARP in the US.  'Adopt our plan, or suffer the consequences.'  

And I believe that the Anglo-American banking cartel will make this same play again, but this time with Europe and the world.  Financial crises are an effective tool in the mass redistribution of wealth and power, and often done in secret, making their appearance only at the offering of terms.

In a remarkably effective ploy of misdirection and mass persuasion, the kleptocrats and oligarchs have focused the attention and the anger of the middle class on the 'welfare state,' the poor and the elderly and the weak, under the moralistic banner of austerity. Meanwhile they are scooping up the income and wealth of nations for the top one percent, who are ironically portrayed as champions of freedom.

The sticking points in the US financiers plan are the key commodities, precious metals like gold and silver, and of course food and oil. It is a pivotal point of control that will become much more prominent in the future.  China and Russia will play that card with some of their BRIC allies.  But in the short term the Anglo-Americans are solidifying their power in the oil rich Middle East, since like gold and silver, oil is a powerful piece in this global chess game. But I do not think they can just 'take it' for themselves. And so the Mideast will remain a very important piece on the board. Perhaps it will be carved up, and perhaps it will be fought over, in the valley of Megiddo.

To paraphrase von Clausewitz, 'Currency war is the continuation of politics by other means,' especially when global military war has been rendered economically unviable in the post-atomic age.

Those who believe that China and Russia will oppose this to the bitter end believe in the purity of those regimes, and their ability to resist the temptation to participate in a deal that gives them rule over their portion of the globe. Since for the most part they are already oligarchies, this does not seem likely. The apparent disagreement and contention now may be more of a discussion of terms and territories than principles.

It may devolve into a number of popular revolutions, or even the rise of a worldly power unlike anything seen before, a new Rome. Or something else might occur. What that is, obviously no one can say with certainty for now.

A daunting set of prospects one might say, as Woody Allen once noted in his Speech to Graduates:  "More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly."  

We can take great comfort that we are not the first generation to face difficulties, and what appear to be fearsome odds.  So often when they appeared to be at the very height of their power, great empires have tumbled, and the spirit has endured and risen once again.  As Dostoevsky noted, "If they drive God from the earth, we shall shelter Him underground."

But for now, if you at least understand the objective of the game and the roles of the players, what is happening on the field can begin to make more sense. 

Even if we cannot yet see it, the greatest probability remains that the monied interests will fail in their overreach and pride, but many ordinary people will be harmed in the process.  And our goal is to do what we can to limit the damage inflicted upon ourselves and our families, and our neighbors, and associate with like-minded individuals, to try to restore some semblance of civility and justice for our grandchildren.

This currency war is happening now, and it is something new in the history of warfare, because I do not believe that a fiat currency regime has ever existed before to this extent on a global scale, with a mutually destructive threat like nuclear power dampening the impulse to wide scale military conflict.

But as in all war, some things never change.

"When the rich wage war, it is the poor who die."

Jean-Paul Sartre

At some point the dawn will come, but first the darkest hour. Our business is not to surrender to discouragement, and cooperate with evil,  but to carry on in our missions, whatever they may be, as God gives us light.

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall — think of it, always."

Mohandas K. Gandhi

The ascendancy of evil in the world is a shameful episode in history; the triumph of dark powers in claiming our souls for all time, without end, is a tragedy.

In the meantime, here is an exposition of 'Nominal GDP targeting' so you can become familiar with it, in case it does make an appearance.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Then You Must Fear No More

 

"Every century is like every other, and to those who live in it seems worse than all times before it.  The Church is ever ailing, and lingers on in weakness.   Religion seems ever expiring, schisms dominant, the light of Truth dim, its adherents scattered.  The cause of Christ is ever in its last agony, as though it were but a question of time whether it fails finally this day or another."

John Henry Newman

"Despair is the absolute extreme of self-love. It is reached when a person deliberately turns his back on all help from anyone else in order to taste the rotten luxury of knowing himself to be lost.  It is therefore of supreme importance that we consent to live not for ourselves but for others.  When we so this we will be able first of all to face and accept our own limitations.

As long as we secretly adore ourselves, our own deficiencies will remain to torture us with an apparent defilement. But if we live for others, we will gradually discover that no expects us to be 'as gods'. We will see that we are human, like everyone else, that we all have weaknesses and deficiencies, and that these limitations of ours play a most important part in all our lives.

It is because of them that we need others and others need us. We are not all weak in the same spots, and so we supplement and complete one another, each one making up in himself for the lack in another."

Thomas Merton

“I think that the depth of Satan's pride is difficult for humans to understand, and therefore it is easy to fall into this error and partake of it, thinking, all the while, that we are instead doing something great and beautiful.”

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

"Sometimes God must first break a heart to enter it.  And it is what remains afterwards, when the crisis is passed, that offers us the way to becoming fully human.  And we are then called to stand up and witness to the fully human life, in grace that is given, not cheaply by ourselves, but by our resolve and determination to follow Him in our calling.   Where there is sickness bring healing, where there is despair bring hope. Little acts of goodness spread like ripples in a pond.   A candle in the darkness allows others to find and ignite their own— and then there is light."

Jesse, Resist the Temptation to Despair, 26 October 2016

"The most powerful weapon to stand against the devil is humility. For, as he does not know at all how to employ it, so he does not know how to defeat it."

Vincent de Paul

"The humble live in continuous peace, while in the hearts of the proud are envy and frequent anger."

Thomas à Kempis

As one of the pigmen in corporate management group once said, 'old people are easy to manage.  You just scare them.'

It's one of the devil's best tricks, and it works for people of all ages.

It helps turn men into monsters.

Stocks were up sharply today, after having fallen sharply the previous two days.

Must be a stock option expiration day.

Wash - rinse - repeat.

Gold and silver were higher.

The Dollar chopped sideways.

VIX wallowed.

We have a Comex metals option expiration coming up next week, and an FOMC rate decision the week after that.

Need little, want less, love more.  For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Rough Waters Ahead

"All this wiggle-waggle of the gold price below or around $1600 is simply the result of official efforts to delay the appearance of $2,000+ gold.

That is the big event ahead, whose appearance will have deep psychological impact on markets, because the establishment of $2000+ gold will reinforce the idea that gold has still much higher to go."

Hugo Salinas-Price

Central Banks Stand Ready to Combat Greek Market Storm

And to provide advance notice of what is coming to their banking friends?


Tomorrow is stock option expiration, an important quad witch expiry as well.

The FOMC meets next week, and the Greek people have an important election on Sunday that may have some impact on their stance towards an austerity deal.

Today Egan-Jones downgraded France to BBB+ with outlook negative.

There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that the Anglo-American banking cartel is deeply interested in acquiring key European assets on the cheap. This will not stop until the means of executing their trading gambits are removed.

This is a new and more brutal phase of the currency war.

Find something you can believe in and feel comfortable with within reason, and then stick with it until you succeed or are proven wrong. And if wrong, then do not be afraid or ashamed to change.

The only certainty we have is that 'this too shall pass.' But there are some things that remain when all other things pass away, and it is good to be mindful of them in our every day lives, conducted quietly while the greater events of the world unfold and then pass by. Sometimes it seems confusing in all the hysteria and 'fog of war,' but we have a guide to which our eyes can always turn, the pillar and the cloud that leads our way through the wilderness.

"Whatever is right, whatever is wrong, in this perplexing world, we must be right in doing justly, in loving mercy, in walking humbly with our God, in denying our wills, in ruling our tongues, in softening and sweetening our tempers, in mortifying our lusts; in learning patience, meekness, purity, forgiveness of injuries, and continuance in well-doing."

J. H. Newman

"The more I think about the human suffering in our world and my desire to offer a healing response, the more I realize how crucial it is not to allow myself to become paralyzed by feelings of helplessness and guilt. More important than ever is to be very faithful to my vocation to do well the few things I am called to do and hold on to the joy and peace they bring me. I must resist the temptation to let the forces of darkness pull me into despair and make me one more of their many victims."

Henri J. M. Nouwen

"Please, Lord, teach us to laugh again; but, God, don't ever let us forget that we have cried."

Bill Wilson

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Whether We Realize It or Not

 

“The opposite of love is not hate, he said. It’s power. Relationships fueled by a drive for power, where one person seeks dominance over the other, are incapable of producing love.”

David Talbot, The Devil's Chessboard

"Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish.  Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears.  Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless.  Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.

We often confuse unconditional love with unconditional approval.  God loves us without conditions but does not approve of every human behavior.  God doesn’t approve of betrayal, violence, hatred, suspicion, and all other expressions of evil, because they all contradict the love God wants to instill in the human heart.  Evil is the absence of God’s love.

The more I think about the human suffering in our world and my desire to offer a healing response, the more I realize how crucial it is not to allow myself to become paralyzed by feelings of helplessness and guilt. More important than ever is to be very faithful to my vocation to do well the few things I am called to do and hold on to the joy and peace they bring me. I must resist the temptation to let the forces of darkness pull me into despair and make me one more of their many victims."

Henri J.M. Nouwen

"The Lord requires you to act justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."

Micah 6:8

"Then it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not."

C. S. Lewis, 1944

 

Today was the quad witching option expiration.

Gold and silver were hit with a sharp reversal, giving back all their gains from yesterday.

Wash and rinse.   What a surprise.

Stocks were trading weakly.

VIX continues wiggling around complacently.

The Dollar gained a little of yesterday's decline back.

This upcoming presidential election is surreal.  

Have a pleasant weekend.