Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Repairer of Reputations

Mr. Wilde, The Repairer of Reputations

"A growing economy with related worries about increases in future inflation would typically produce rising yields on longer-term notes and bonds, not declining yields. A dramatic flattening in the yield curve is seen as a red flag for an economic slowdown, sagging inflation and as a potential precursor to the onset of recession. None of that would be consistent with the Federal Reserve continuing to tighten interest rates – which it is expected to do again in December."

Pam and Russ Martens, Does Jay Powell Hear the Alarm Bells From a Flattening of the Yield Curve<


“The ambition of Caesar and of Napoleon pales before that which could not rest until it had seized the minds of men and controlled even their unborn thoughts.”

Robert W. Chambers, The King In Yellow: Repairer of Reputations

We *almost* had a correction in the US equity markets today.  Imagine that!

However, crisis was averted as determined buying of the SP 500 futures stepped in this afternoon after the European traders went home to their schatzies.

There was a definite whiff of concern in the air this morning, as indicated by the VIX which sparked up quite sharply, and then fell down again as the calming liquidity flowed over the financial asset markets.

The flattening yield curve in Treasuries is setting off alarm bells, and well it might.

But what do the exceptional have to worry about, as long as they are winning.   Even if their winning is the most insidious of delusions, and their ascension to the throne of endless power a hallucination.

Gold had a bit of a rally today, following on gains, as silver slumped a bit.  It was the beginning of a 'flight to safety' that got squelched.

We'll know when a real flight to safety catches hold, because the continued efforts of the Street to pump up stock prices is going to leave a lot of empty support levels underneath.

Hence, as I have said, in attempting to prevent a 3% correction they are going to set up something stiffer, in the neighborhood of 10%.

And it is not because they are stupid, or foolish.  They just don't give a damn.

Take your pick of geopolitical or domestic events that could trigger such a sharp decline .  The stage is set.

Have a pleasant evening.

Mainstream Journalists and the Talking Points for the DNC and Hillary

When the truth is toxic to the powerful we see the credibility trap in action.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Court of the Dragon

Blake, Great Dragon and Woman Clothed in the Sun

"The whore and gambler, by the state
Licensed, build that nation’s fate.
The harlot’s cry from street to street
Shall weave old England’s winding-sheet.
The winner’s shout, the loser’s curse,
Dance before dead England’s hearse.

Every night and every morn
Some to misery are born,
Every morn and every night
Some are born to sweet delight.
Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.

We are led to believe a lie
When we see not through the eye,
Which was born in a night to perish in a night,
When the soul slept in beams of light.

God appears, and God is light,
To those poor souls who dwell in night;
But does a human form display
To those who dwell in realms of day."

William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

US equity prices are being driven now by classic bubble action. Stocks are being bought, not with regard to any fundamentals for the most part, but for the sheer momentum of ever rising prices by speculators.

It should be noted that any stock that breaks the mirage with a negative earnings report is soundly thrashed, most of the time.   And for those who beat earnings, too often it is due to stock buybacks and accounting magic.

Having created this asset bubble, for the third time, in conjunction with the financiers and Wall Street, the Fed is deathly afraid of anything that will break the mirage and put the banking system at risk.  Their focus is not on the public.  If it was, they would be engaging in serious reform and a broader distribution of gains.  But when it suits them they forget about their broad regulatory powers, including those it fought to have after the last bubble and bust.

And so we are seeing, like a dog returns to its vomit, the Banks starting to take up the kinds of highly leveraged risks that brought the global economy to the brink in the unwinding of the housing bubble in 2008.

Surely they must care. Surely they must have a caution for the damage that they will cause to untold thousands of innocents.  And if not the money men, then those who are sworn to restrain their greed must surely take a stand for the innocent common people.

As John Kenneth Galbraith observed in his masterwork, The Great Crash of 1929, 'The sense of responsibility in the financial community for the community as a whole is not small. It is nearly nil.'

And you can include the political and corporate media elite in that observation as well.  It's a club, and you aren't in it.  And it is becoming increasingly unashamed and rapacious.

Have a pleasant evening.