Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Whims and Desires of the Elite

 

"Let them wait, if their past experience shall induce them to think that any high honour or any exquisite pleasure is to be obtained by a policy like this.  Let them wait, if this strange and fearful infatuation be indeed upon them, that they should not see with their eyes, or hear with their ears, or understand with their heart.  But let us know our interest and our duty better.  Turn where we may, within, around, the voice of great events is proclaiming to us,  'Reform, that you may preserve.'"

Thomas B. Macaulay, Speech Before Parliament, March 2, 1831

"The real problem for others is when narcissistic features, especially a sense of entitlement and a lack of empathy, shade into antisocial and destructive behaviors.  When this happens, the pattern might be described as aggressive or malignant narcissism, which is difficult to distinguish from psychopathy.

Another characteristic of psychopaths is an ability to avoid taking responsibility for things that go wrong; instead, they blame others, circumstances, fate, and so forth.  Psychopaths will lie even to people who already know the truth about what they are saying. Even in the face of contrary evidence, the psychopath can lie so well that listeners doubt themselves first, rather than question the psychopath."

Babiak and Hare, Snakes in Suits, May 2006

"There is a class of individuals who have been around forever and who are found in every race, culture, society and walk of life.  Everybody has met these people, been deceived and manipulated by them, and forced to live with or repair the damage they have wrought.  These often charming-but always deadly-individuals have a clinical name: psychopaths.  Their hallmark is a stunning lack of conscience; their game is self-gratification at the other person’s expense.  All take far more than they give.

The most obvious expressions of psychopathy-but not the only ones-involve the flagrant violation of society’s rules.  Not surprisingly, many psychopaths are criminals, but many others manage to remain out of prison, using their charm and chameleon-like coloration to cut a wide swathe through society, leaving a wake of ruined lives behind them.

Psychopaths appear amazingly unfazed by the possibility, or even by the certainty, of being found out. When caught in a lie or challenged with the truth, they seldom appear perplexed or embarrassed-they simply change their stories or attempt to rework the facts so they appear to be consistent with the lie. The result is a series of contradictory statements and a thoroughly confused listener. And psychopaths seem proud of their ability to lie."

Robert Hare, The Charming Psychopath: How to Spot Social Predators, Psychology Today, 2007

"The more power a government has the more it can act arbitrarily according to the whims and desires of the elite, and the more it will make war on others and murder its foreign and domestic subjects.  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: A History of Mass Murder and Genocide, 1994


Stocks gave back some of their rocket rally from yesterday.

Just a normal pull back so far.

Gold and silver rallied, but gave it back in the afternoon.

There will be a option expiration on the Comex this coming Thursday the 25th.

VIX ticked up a bit.

Bitcoin continued to decline.

There is a new documentary about the tragic US war in Afghanistan called 'Bodyguard of Lies.'  It is coming out on Paramount+.   It looks to be a good one.  

The US spent 300 million dollars per day for 20 years on the failed military exercise against the Taliban, not including the tragic loss and disruption of life.   A few gained wealth and power from it.

"Faustus had advanced beyond the level of a scarlet sinner — he was a conscious follower of the Prince of Darkness."

E.A. Bucchianeri, Faust: My Soul Be Damned for the World, 2008

Have a pleasant evening. 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Selfies of the Malignant Lie - Gold All Time High

 

"Narcissists gravitate towards professions where they can control people and elicit adulation. They are more likely to work in politics, finance or medicine than in shoemaking.  They are aware of what they are doing to others - but they do not care.”

Sam Vaknin, Malignant Self Love

“It is not their sins per se that characterize malignant narcissists, rather it is the subtlety and persistence and consistency of their sins.  This is because the central defect of malignant narcissists is not the sin but the refusal to acknowledge it.  Rather than blissfully lacking a sense of morality, like the psychopath, malignant narcissists are continually engaged in sweeping the evidence of their evil under the rug of their own consciousness.  It is out of their failure to put themselves on trial that their evil arises.

"The narcissist looks down on everyone and exploits people all of his life. For many narcissists life is all about money and power."

Linda Martinez-Lewi, Narcissist’s Outrageous Self Entitlement

Evil is not committed by people who feel uncertain about their righteousness, who question their own motives, who worry about betraying themselves.  The evil in this world is committed by the Pharisees of our own day, the self-righteous who think they are without sin because they are unwilling to suffer the discomfort of self-examination.  The evil hate the light—the light of goodness that shows them up, the light of scrutiny that exposes them, the light of truth that penetrates their deception.”

M. Scott Peck, People of the Lie

“There's a reason narcissists don't learn from mistakes and that's because they never get past the first step which is admitting that they made one. It's always an assistant's fault, an adviser's fault, a lawyer's fault. Ask them to account for a mistake any other way and they'll say, 'what mistake?”

Jeffrey Kluger, The Narcissist Next Door

"Lack of accountability is a common problem with narcissists.  It’s hard to understand. What is so difficult about owning up to mistakes when we’re wrong?  We all make mistakes and hopefully grow and learn from each one.  

But, being accountable is difficult for a fragile self-esteem.  For the narcissist, who has not developed a solid sense of self, and is emotionally stuck at a six-year old level, confrontation does not work well.  In fact, when confronted, it is typical to see a six-year old temper tantrum that we call narcissistic rage."

Karyl McBride, Narcissists Are Not Accountable, August 2013


Tomorrow will be a stock option expiration.

US market will be closed on Good Friday.

Stocks slumped today, as the defiance of economic reality for the sake of policy unity falters.

It is hard to sustain markets in the direction opposite to the dominant trend.   But that never seems to stop them from trying.

Gold set a new all time high today, and went out near that high.

Silver also enjoyed a remarkable rebound from the calculated tariff drubbing.

The Dollar slipped back down to the lower rung of the 99 handle.

VIX ticked up a bit, but there was hardly a sense of panic in the air.

I am mindful of how I might want to position my portfolio into the long weekend.

So much of this is dependent on the seemingly random vagaries of the Donald.

I don't think logic is much of an aid in this, not with this current crew of supplicant enablers with which he has surrounded himself. 

And hope is a thin sauce to cover this coming banquet of consequences.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Snakes in Suits - The Leaven of the Pharisees

 

"Psychopaths can be found in legislatures, hospitals, and used-car lots. Because they have no conscience, they're natural predators.   Psychopaths love chaos and hate rules, so they're comfortable in the fast-moving modern corporation.  Dr. Paul Babiak, an industrial-organizational psychologist based near New York City, is in the process of writing a book with Bob Hare called When Psychopaths Go to Work: Cons, Bullies and the Puppetmaster.  The subtitle refers to the three broad classes of psychopaths Babiak has encountered in the workplace.

"The con man works one-on-one," says Babiak. "They'll go after a woman, marry her, take her money, then move on and marry someone else.  The puppet master would manipulate somebody to get at someone else.  This type is more powerful because they're hidden."  Babiak says psychopaths have three motivations: thrill-seeking, the pathological desire to win, and the inclination to hurt people.

"A lot of white-collar criminals are psychopaths," says Bob Hare. "But they flourish because the characteristics that define the disorder are actually valued.  When they get caught, what happens?  A slap on the wrist, a six-month ban from trading, and don't give us the $100 million back.  I've always looked at white-collar crime as being as bad or worse than some of the physically violent crimes that are committed."

The best way to protect the workplace is not to hire psychopaths in the first place.  That means training interviewers so they're less likely to be manipulated and conned.  It means checking resumés for lies and distortions, and it means following up references.

Paul Babiak says he's "not comfortable" with one researcher's estimate that one in ten executives is a psychopath, but he has noticed that they are attracted to positions of power.  When he describes employees such as John to other executives, they know exactly whom he's talking about. "I was talking to a group of human-resources executives yesterday," says Babiak, "and every one of them said, you know, I think I've got somebody like that."

Robert Hercz, Psychopaths Among Us, 2001

“They often make use of the fact that for many people the content of the message is less important than the way it is delivered. A confident, aggressive delivery style - often larded with jargon, clichés, and flowery phrases - makes up for the lack of substance and sincerity in their interactions with others ... they are masters of impression management; their insight into the psyche of others combined with a superficial - but convincing - verbal fluency allows them to change their personas skillfully as it suits the situation and their game plan.

They are known for their ability to don many masks, change 'who they are' depending upon the person with whom they are interacting, and make themselves appear likable to their intended victim. Psychopathic workers very often were identified as the source of departmental conflicts, in many cases, purposely setting people up in conflict with each other. The most debilitating characteristic of even the most well-behaved psychopath is the inability to form a workable team."

Paul Babiak and Robert Hare, Snakes in Suits

"What is good? All that enhances the feeling of power, the Will to Power, and the power itself in man. What is bad? All that proceeds from weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power is increasing— that resistance has been overcome. Not contentment, but more power; not peace at any price, but war; not virtue, but competence. The first principle of our humanism is that the weak and the failures shall perish. And they ought to be helped to perish. What is more harmful than any vice? Active pity for all failure and weakness — Christianity."

Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 1886


It seems likely that the relativistic 1970s spawned the 'greed is good' meme of the 1990's, and provided a Petri dish for the development of abnormalities by rewarding even latent tendencies to antisocial behaviour.   What was once frowned upon is now encouraged and rewarded. 

I think you may have already heard that in the modern era certain Wall Street firms screen for sociopathic tendencies in prospective new hires.  Not to screen them out, however.  On the contrary, like organized crime families, such shameless and conscienceless drive towards personal greed is highly desirable and rewarded by the modern financial corporation.  The white collar criminal and the street criminal are both criminals, using different tools but similar means and mores.

I think this may also be applicable for other organizations that are focused primarily on money and power as their primary objectives without a strong commitment to moral responsibility and the public good, such as some of our corporate behemoths, and perhaps even other self-aggrandizing monopolies like the major political parties.  

'Greed is good' is not just for the traditional white collar criminals anymore.  

Do you think that the situation we have today is somehow different, exceptional? Are traditional sources of moral guidance like the good news of scripture silent on the subject, unfamiliar with it?

Or is the depth of this fault primarily in us, and in our deluded and hardened hearts?

Whom do we reward and admire the most?  The humble saint, or the clever and successful sinner?

And so we are where we are.  

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

We don't want to hear it.  We who murder the prophets and abuses the messengers that God sends to us.

But sooner or later we will sit down to a banquet of consequences.

Stocks were wobbly today after the reading of the Fed minutes, but ahead of the oh so important reveal of Nvidia's financial results, in what Bloomberg termed 'the final hurdle for Mega Tech's earnings victory.'

Gold and silver were off.  As a reminder there will be a futures options expiration next Tuesday on the Comex.

The Dollar strengthened.

VIX continues to wallow.

History will not absolve us.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Children of God, Children of Darkness - Like Tears in the Rain

 

"The great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts.   For evil to appear disguised as light, charity, historical necessity, or social justice is quite bewildering to anyone brought up on our traditional ethical concepts, while for the Christian who bases his life on the Bible, it merely confirms the fundamental wickedness of evil."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ten Years After, 1943

“Once they’re in power, narcissists consolidate their position by firing everyone who challenges them.  In their place rise a plague of toadies, opportunists, and enablers equally guided by self-interest and short on scruples.   So you end up with these individualistic cultures with no teamwork and low integrity."

Lee Simmons, Stanford Business School

"A confident, aggressive delivery style - often larded with jargon, clichés, and flowery phrases - makes up for the lack of substance and sincerity in their interactions with others.  They are masters of impression management; their insight into the psyche of others combined with a superficial - but convincing - verbal fluency allows them to change their personas skillfully as it suits the situation and their game plan.

They are known for their ability to don many masks, change 'who they are' depending upon the person with whom they are interacting, and make themselves appear likable to their intended victim. The most debilitating characteristic of even the most well-behaved psychopath is the inability to form a workable team."

Paul Babiak and Robert Hare, Snakes in Suits

"I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil.   I think I've come close to defining it: a lack of empathy. It's the one characteristic that connects all the defendants.  A genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow man.   Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy."

G. M. Gilbert, Nuremberg Diary

“The greatest evil is not done now in sordid dens of crime. It is not even done in concentration camps and labor camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered in clear, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices by quiet men, with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks, who do not need to raise their voice.”

C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

"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.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers From Prison

"This is how we know who are the children of God and who are the children of Satan: anyone who does not do what is good is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their neighbor."

1 John 3:10

The PPI came in less than forecast.

And that was enough to trigger a powerful counter-rally in stocks.

Otherwise known as a wash and rinse.

Gold and silver rallied strongly.  

Gold bar sales are surging at Costco.  

Spokesmodels and economists are baffled.

The Dollar chopped sideways.

Geopolitical risks continue on in a rolling boil.

They will continue to be ignored - until they can't.

It's a simple concept.  

Stop provoking wars, stop murdering and oppressing the innocent.

Sooner or later, everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.

"The devil will come, and Faustus must be damned...
Mountains and hills, come, come, and fall on me,
And hide me from the heavy wrath of God!”

Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus

What are we doing?  Who are we becoming? 

How will our children remember us?

And for what?

A bunch of power hungry human husks with empty souls and hardened hearts?

'All these moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain.'

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Modern Prometheus - Another Comex Options Expiration

 

"By the late 1970s, after fifteen years in the business, Bob Hare knew what he was looking for when it came to psychopaths.  They exhibit a cluster of distinctive personality traits, the most significant of which is an utter lack of conscience.  They also have huge egos, short tempers, and an appetite for excitement -- a dangerous mix.  

'A lot of white-collar criminals are psychopaths,' says Bob Hare. 'But they flourish because the characteristics that define the disorder are actually valued.  When they get caught, what happens?  A slap on the wrist, a six-month ban from trading, and don't give us the $100 million back.  I've always looked at white-collar crime as being as bad or worse than some of the physically violent crimes that are committed.'"

Robert Hercz, Psychopaths Among Us


"A shocking crime was committed on the unscrupulous initiative of few individuals, with the blessing of more, and amid the passive acquiescence of all."

Tacitus


"Many of the characteristics displayed by psychopaths are closely associated with a profound lack of empathy and inability to construct a mental and emotional 'facsimile' of another person.  They seem completely unable to 'get into the skin' of others, except in a purely intellectual sense.  They are completely indifferent to the rights and suffering of family and strangers alike.  If they do maintain ties, it is only because they see family members as possessions."

Robert D. Hare, The Charming Psychopath


Stocks managed to oscillate today, not quite sure what to do with their recent outsized gains from last Friday.

Gold and silver were hit lower, in honor of the metals futures options expiration on the Comex.

What a surprise.

The Dollar moved lower slipping off the 104 handle.

I suspect that a cadre of the initiated would like to keep the equity markets moving higher.

The better to eat you with, my dear.

Europe has banned the imports of Russian gold.   A symbolic gesture at best.

Have a pleasant evening.