Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - After Ten Years: Our Descent Into Regret

 

"When humanity, subjugated by the terror of crime, has been driven mad by fear and horror, and when chaos has become the supreme law, then the time for the empire of lawlessness will have come."

Fritz Lang, Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse, 1933

"We have been silent witnesses of evil deeds: we have been drenched by many storms; we have learnt the arts of equivocation and pretence; experience has made us suspicious of others and kept us from being truthful and open; intolerable conflicts have worn us down and even made us cynical.  Are we still of any use?  What we shall need is not geniuses, or cynics, or misanthropes, or clever tacticians, but plain, honest, straightforward men."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, After Ten Years, New Year 1943

"I cautioned you all that we have entered a period of hysteria.  I saw this phase coming years ago.  And here we are.   There is a lot of fear and uncertainty out there.  And it is going to get worse.  It is those who can proceed calmly and with serenity who will pass through this period relatively well, and even if they do suffer some unavoidable misfortune, they can do so without regret."

Jesse, A Plea for Civility, 14 April 2013

"The foolish ask nothing better than not to have to understand anything, and they even used to get together and try not to understand, because it is not as easy to be malicious and foolish all by themselves. Without understanding, they form spontaneously into herds, in obedience to the petty ideology. They would far rather kill than have to think."

George Bernanos, Under the Sun of Satan, Paris 1926

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered.  Forgive them anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.  Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough.  Give your best anyway.
In the end, it is between you and God.  It was never between you and them, anyway.”

Mother Teresa

Stocks did another pop and flop again today.

They come in strong from the wee hours of futures trading, bull it up in the morning, and then take their winnings and go home at the end of the day in New York.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

I would not criticize anyone who suspects that there is some 'tinkering' being done in the equity markets by the folks with the Exchange Stabilization Fund.   The desire is to keep the markets buoyant into the November elections.

Gold and silver conversely were smacked lower, but then recovered in the days trading and finished up pretty much flat. 

There was a Comex option expiration of the precious metals futures today.  Let's see how they fare the rest of the week.  By far the December futures are the most heavily traded for the precious metals in New York.

VIX ticked up a bit.

The Dollar did a dip and recover of its own.

Israel launched its retaliatory strike against Iran.  It was not particularly successful, as viewed through the fog of war and willful war propaganda which dominates the media.  

I suspect the actual attack was toned down out of respect for the upcoming elections.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Lies, Damned Lies, and Fraud

 

"I am writing to alert you to a possible circumstance of fraud and manipulation in your popular ETF, SLV, due to the excessive short-selling of its shares.  Current reports indicate the most recent level of total short sales now exceed 36 million shares.  This is an increase of more than 14 million shares from the previous reported amount.

Publicly-traded ETFs that have specific metal backing are highly unique securities.  Perhaps a small short position may be overlooked on a temporary basis until the metal is deposited in the Trust due to logistical considerations.  But a short position that represents more than 10% of the outstanding shares issued means that many buyers of the shares have no metal backing.  This is clearly not in keeping with the spirit of the prospectus that each share issued be backed by one ounce of silver on deposit with the custodian."

Ted Butler, Open Letter to Larry Fink, CEO BlackRock, April 28, 2011

“In a sense, blowback is simply another way of saying that a nation reaps what it sows.  Although people usually know what they have sown, our national experience of blowback is seldom imagined in such terms because so much of what the managers of the American empire have sown has been kept secret.”

Chalmers Johnson, Blowback, 2004

"This empire, unlike any other in the history of the world, has been built primarily through economic manipulation, through cheating, through fraud, through seducing people into our way of life, through the economic hit men. And I was one of them."

John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hitman, 2004

"Price discovery is not a sexy function of markets, but it is critical to the efficient allocation of scarce capital and resources, and to the preservation of the long term wealth of investors and the economy as a whole.  If price discovery is compromised by manipulation, then we will all be gradually impoverished and the economy will be imbalanced and unstable."

London Banker, Lies, Damned Lies, and LIBOR, 10 July 2012

"Power will achieve its murderous potential. It simply waits for an excuse, an event of some sort, an assassination, a massacre in a neighboring country, an attempted coup, a famine, or a natural disaster, to justify the beginning of murder en masse."

R. J. Rummel, Death By Government, 1994


We are advised not to look at things which the empire's elites wish to do, but find inconvenient to be made known.  

And so there is a steady progression in the decline of their morals, from swindles, to frauds, and  lawlessness.

This will not end well, but it will end.  

 They take offense at everything except their greed, but have no shame in their own unrighteousness.

And so when the fall comes, and they are caught up short, they will reach into our pockets for  another bailout. 

Stocks managed to sustain a little bounce, after several days of declines.

Gold and silver rebounded as the Dollar declined.

VIX remains subdued and most likely mispriced.

We are not pricing in the enormous risks being engaged by the madness of the elite.

A reckoning is coming.   I will take no joy in it, because of the number of innocents who will be harmed.

As the empire staggers, one or more of its vassal states will fall first, as a sign and a warning. 

Denial is more likely than reform.

The madness serves none but itself.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Reap the Whirlwind

 

“Pity the nation that raises not its voice, except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero and aims to rule the world with force and by torture."

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, New Poems, City Lights

"Financial Predators, on the other hand, are usually narcissistic and audacious criminals. They regularly have an extreme sense of entitlement coupled with high self-efficacy. Many of them have a charismatic quality and are preternaturally persuasive. Financial Predators are commonly shameless and quite adept serial liars. They perceive themselves having near unlimited guile and resourcefulness to extricate themselves out of any compromising situations."

Russ Alan Prince, Unmasking Financial Predators, Forbes 2017

"At the root of America's economic crisis lies a moral crisis: the decline of civic virtue among America's political and economic elite. A society of markets, laws, and elections is not enough if the rich and powerful fail to behave with respect, honesty, and compassion toward the rest of society and toward the world."

Jeffrey Sachs, The Price of Civilization, 2011

"For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind."

Hosea 8:7

 

Stocks were slumping today, but managed to gather themselves and push higher into the close.

In this grand game of force and fraud, perception management is everything.

Gold and silver are holding their own, even as the Dollar moved higher.

Non-Farm Payroll report coming at the end of this week.

The dogs of war are unleashed and playing havoc in the Mideast and eastern Europe.

History will not absolve us.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Rustling Leaves, Whispers On the Lips of the Dead

 

"We wonder, and some hunter may express
Wonder like ours, when through the wilderness
Where London stood, holding the wolf in chase,
He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race,
Once dwelt in that annihilated place."

Horace Smith, Ozymandias, 1818

“The essence of the this-time-is-different syndrome is simple.  It is rooted in the firmly held belief that financial crises are things that happen to other people in other countries at other times; crises do not happen to us, here and now.

The lesson of history, then, is that even as institutions and policy makers improve, there will always be a temptation to stretch the limits.  Just as an individual can go bankrupt no matter how rich she starts out, a financial system can collapse under the pressure of greed, politics, and profits no matter how well regulated it seems to be.

In sum, historical experience already shows that rich countries are not as 'special' as some cheerleaders had been arguing, both when it comes to managing capital inflows and especially when it comes to banking crises.”

Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, 2009

"Babylon will not live again.
It will be desolate, for generations.
Nomads will not pitch tents there,
or shepherds bed their flocks.
Desert animals will roam the city,
its homes filled with howling creatures.
Owls will live among the ruins,
and wild goats will dance.
Hyenas will watch from its towers,
and jackals rule hopeless palaces.
Babylon’s days are numbered;
its time of destruction is coming."

Isaiah 13:20-22

“When you see the desolation of abomination standing where it should not, let those who seek knowledge understand, then flee from Judea to the mountains."

Mark 13:14

Stocks turned in a very mixed performance today, with the broader market showing the greatest weakness, and the heart of the bubble, the tech stocks, showing more resilience.

The Dollar took back the 50 cents it gave up yesterday.  

Gold was unchanged.   Silver gave up some ground back to the 32 handle.

VIX wallows.

War fever continues to build.

The incumbent party and its candidates have a strong vested interest in the strength of equities and the illusion of victory in foreign adventures, at least until the November elections.

The mighty rise and are fallen.  The word and the spirit endure.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - In the Service of Power, Lies, and Murder

 

"If there are damned souls in Hell, it is because men blind themselves.”

E.A. Bucchianeri, Faust: My Soul Be Damned for the World, 2010

"Greed is not good.  Greed is a disease, an aberration of simple honest ambition and necessary provision taken to excess. This simple distinction may be lost on a people no longer able to distinguish between virtue and sin, honor and expediency, appetite and gluttony, the means and the ends. 

Every great religion, every school of philosophy has cautioned throughout history on the perils of unbridled and unregulated greed.  Greed, often in company with hubris and fear, is a handmaiden of the corrupting influence of power and triumph of the will. Greed is contagious, and attacks the very contentment of society at its heart, turning it towards oligarchy and oppression."

Jesse, Greed Is Not Good, 19 December 2010

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace. But with disgrace comes humility, and with humility comes wisdom. The humility of the righteous will guide them, but the deceitfulness of the proud will destroy them."

Proverbs 11:2-3

"For where envy and selfish ambition exist, there is lawlessness, and every wicked action.   Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your worldly desires that make war among yourselves? You desire but do not possess. You kill and envy but you cannot obtain; you fight and wage war. You do not receive because you do not ask. You ask but do not receive, because you ask for things in the wrong way, to spend it on your passions."

James 3:16-4:3

"You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies."

John 8:43-44


Stocks just wobbled around today.

Gold and the Dollar gained a little.

Silver was smacked down lower for now to the 31 level.  Because they can.

They are bulking up the Comex gold inventories in Hong Kong. 

This sometimes presages a raid on prices.

There will be an option expiration on the Comex for gold and silver this week on the 25^th.

VIX wallowed.

The intention of Israel to invade and occupy parts of Lebanon seems to be progressing.

The markets are not pricing in a wider conflict in the Mideast yet, or the coming climax of the war in Eastern Europe.

The BRICs will be meeting next month, and may have some interesting announcements with regard to currencies.

It is a commonplace to say that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

It is perhaps more to the point that power attracts the corruptible, and those with major personality flaws such as psychopathy and narcissism.  

The same is true not only of politics, but of most large organizations, especially those who lack the balance of oversight by the righteous, and rules against the abuses of power.  

The world extracts a price from those who serve power for its rewards.

"Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, or even a duty.  As soon as men know that they can kill without fear of punishment or blame, they kill; or at least they encourage killers, with approving smiles."

Simone Weil

Such is the way of Leviathan, embodiment of chaos, and the most ardent of its servants.

Have a pleasant evening.