"It is crudely general to suggest collective responsibility for the German populace. It is, however, fair to suggest that those who continued to defend the idea of Germanhood publicly as the war went on—when this had become synonymous with barbarity—were in fact renouncing their humanity for the sake of individual survival and peace of mind."
Panayiotis Demopoulos, Götterdämmerung: Suicide Music
"I think I could beat Trump, because I’m as tough as he is, and I’m smarter than he is. And by the way, this wealthy New Yorker actually earned his money. It wasn’t a gift from daddy.”
Jamie Dimon
I could swear that there had been a story somewhere from the time of the financial crisis when Barack Obama asked a room full of Wall Street Bankers, 'Who's your daddy?' And Ben Bernanke jumped up and said, 'Pick me, pick me! I'll be your daddy!'
As you may have noted the inflation figures missed estimates to the low side with core CPI and PPI across the board coming up light. Inflation from this tight labor market and booming economy is so frightened of the technocrats at the Fed that it has apparently left town, just disappeared, moved to South America.
The Street chose to declare that, like the end of history, we have also achieved the death of risk, and started piling back into equities, while selling gold, silver, the US Dollar, and the VIX.
Apparently there was a bit of a dust up when JPM CEO Slippin' Jimmy Dimon said that he could best Trump in the next Presidential election.
This afternoon the talking heads on financial TV were taken with thoughts of drafting Jamie Dimon for President.
One analyst wondered out loud that after running JPM, no job would be worthy of him and his talents, except the presidency. (We're not worthy) And my jaw drops to the keyboard.
"You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out."
"And I myself — soft, weak, obscene, digesting, juggling with dismal thoughts — I, too, was superfluous, de trop. Fortunately, I didn't feel it, rather it was a matter of understanding it; but I was uncomfortable because I was afraid of feeling it (even now I'm afraid — afraid that it might catch me behind my head and lift me up like a wave from the depths).
I dreamed vaguely of killing myself to wipe out at least one of these superfluous existences. But even my death would have been superfluous. Superfluous, my corpse, my blood on these stones, between these plants, at the bottom of this smiling garden. And the gnawed flesh would have been superfluous in the earth which would receive my bones, at last, cleaned, peeled, as clean as teeth, it would have been superfluous: I was superfluous for eternity."
Jean Paul Sartre, La Nausée
"We live in a historical period characterized by a sharp discrepancy between the intellectual development of man... and his mental-emotional development, which has left him still in a state of marked narcissism with all its pathological symptoms."
Erich Fromm
"The narcissist divides society into two groups: the rich, great, and famous on the one hand and the common herd on the other. Narcissistic patients, according to Kernburg, 'are afraid of not belonging to the company of the great, rich, and powerful, and of belonging instead to the 'mediocre', by which they mean the worthless and despicable rather than average in the ordinary sense of the term.'
In American society, almost everyone identifies intellectual excellence with elitism. This attitude not only guarantees the monopolization of educational advantages by the few; it lowers the quality of elite education itself, and threatens to bring about a reign of universal ignorance."
Christopher Lasch
“In the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Thereafter, any attack, even on the least of men, is an attack on Christ, who took on the form of man, and in His own Person restored the image of God in all. Through our relationship with the Incarnation we recover our true humanity, and at the same time are delivered from that perverse individualism which is the consequence of sin, and recover our familial interconnection with all mankind."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"People who know nothing of God and whose lives are centered on themselves, imagine that they can only find themselves by asserting their own desires and ambitions and appetites in a struggle with the rest of the world. They try to become real by imposing themselves on other people, by appropriating for themselves some share of the limited supply of created goods and thus emphasizing the difference between themselves and the other men who have less than they, or nothing at all.."
Thomas Merton
The US financial markets, where the elite meet to cheat.
The chorus of very important people continues to grow for the Fed to buy (prop up) the stock market in the next financial crisis, so our betters will not be inconvenienced. It might be cheaper and easier if we just provided the top ten percent a guaranteed income to go along with their many other privileges and entitlements. They certainly deserve it— just ask them.
What a brave new world, that has such creatures in it.
Stocks were weakly hanging on to their current levels, awaiting some event which may provide a resolution to their inability to move higher or drop lower.
Gold and silver continue putting in what may prove to be a durable bottom. The levels of physical metal which can be had readily at these prices seems a bit thin, especially with respect to gold.
Silver is rather undervalued with respect to gold,, judging by the gold/silver ratio which typically has been around 65 these days. Now it is in the 80's.
It depends on what the precipitating event for a change in the intermediate trend may be. But if it is a 'flight to safety' then gold will surely lead higher, with silver playing catch up later on with a lag, and a vengeance.
They may be pulling metals bears out of the trading pits on stretchers at some point in the not too distant future. I certainly would not wish to be short physical gold.
Hurricane Flo seems to be tracking a bit lower, towards South Carolina. Wherever it may land, the major damage may be seen if it stalls inland, and dumps rain measured in feet, while its winds continue to scour the shorelines and stress the trees.
“Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours.”
Marcus Aurelius
"History is a vast early warning system."
Norman Cousins
"Pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes."
John Ruskin
Hurricane Florence is heading towards North Carolina. After it makes landfall it is expected to move inland, and then linger there.
The rainfall that it is expected to bring is being measured in 'feet' rather than in 'inches.' Flooding inland is expected to be a major problem, and can prove to be quite dangerously destructive, and potentially deadly.
Stocks were attempting to get a little liftoff. Let's see if they can follow through.
Gold and silver continue to linger around these levels, with gold pushing up against the 1200 'round number' resistance. The setup is ready for a major rally, but it appears that it may take some catalyst to turn the trend around higher and cripple the current short selling of paper on the Comex.
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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