"You are the very cause of your ignorance, yourselves. You put away the light, yourselves; you first pluck out both your own eyes, yourselves; and after that other men’s too, so that the blind may lead the blind, until you both fall into the pit.”
Thomas More, The Sadness of Christ (Gethsemane), Tower of London, 1535
It has been a while since we have had a look at this.
It is odd to see the relative 'bearishness' on silver.
The gold/silver ratio is very high, and the discount on PSLV is more than normal.
All things being equal, silver would seem to be a screaming buy here.
However, this may highlight that gold is being favored as a 'flight to safety' asset, and that there are deep underlying concerns about the US economy and financial system.
As a reminder there will be a precious metals options expiration on the Comex this Thursday the 22nd of February.
"He explored everywhere the seats of power,
and learnt of everything the sum of wisdom.
He saw what was secret, discovered what was hidden,
he brought back a tale of before the Deluge.
He came a far road, was weary, found peace,
and set all his labours on a tablet of stone.
See the tablet-box of cedar, release its clasps of bronze!
Lift the lid of its secret,
pick up the tablet of lapis lazuli
and read out the travails of Gilgamesh, all that he went through."
Epic of Gilgamesh I1–28
"Now he had learnt to see the great, the eternal, the infinite in everything; and therefore – to see it and revel in its contemplation – he naturally threw away the telescope through which he had hitherto been gazing over men’s heads, and joyfully feasted his eyes on the ever-changing, eternally great, unfathomable and infinite life around him. And the closer he looked, the more tranquil and happier he was. The awful question that had shattered all his mental edifices in the past – the question why? no longer existed for him."
Leo Tolstoi, War and Peace
The quotes above are from a lecture by Andrew R. George that I was watching today to escape the boredom and folly of the markets.
Stocks had a wide ranging day, with the SP futures doing the heavy lifting.
But alas, the markets did not seem to want to go into the US' three day weekend holding the longer side, and so stocks went out lower to unchanged.
Gold and silver lost some ground, largely because of a relief rally in the US Dollar, which took back the losses from yesterday.
There will be an option expiration for the precious metals on the Comex next Thursday, 22nd February.
Monday is the Presidents' Day holiday in the US, so the markets will be closed.
It was a drizzly, sleepy day here with temperatures still hovering in the mid 50's. It is supposed to get much colder for the weekend, with 2 to 6" of snow forecast for Saturday evening.
Please remember to feed 'the least of these,' especially during the harsh winter weather.
"Therefore, they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way,
choking on their own schemes.
For fools turn away from the Lord to death.
Fools are destroyed by their own complacency."
Proverbs 1:31-32
Stocks were higher, going out near the highs. As I said, the anxiety of the big recent decline in stocks would be quickly forgotten.
Frothy is as frothy does. And this speculative excess will likely continue until stocks hit a hard wall, and collapse.
Gold and silver pushed higher on continuing dollar weakness. Uncle Buck was flirting with 88.50 at the close.
The economic data is decidedly mixed, and not all that bullish.
Let us pray for those whose hearts are hardened against His grace and loving kindness by greed, fear, and pride, and the seductive illusion and crushing isolation of evil.
We pray that we all may experience the three great gifts of our Lord's suffering and triumph: repentance, forgiveness, and thankfulness. And in so doing, may we obtain abundant life, and with it the peace that surpasses all understanding.
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