"The problem with movies and books is they make evil look glamorous, exciting, when it's no such thing. It's boring and it's depressing and it's stupid. Criminals are all after cheap thrills and easy money, and when they get them, all they want is more of the same, over and over. They're shallow, empty, boring people who couldn't give you five minutes of interesting conversation. Maybe some can be monkey-clever, some of the time, but they aren't hardly ever smart."
Dean Koontz
Does it look like we get a recession later this year or early next year?
Only if you look at the Treasury inversion and economic results data and assume the Fed can perform a miracle that they have never done before, or that they will stimulate a fourth bubble through a massive inflationary policy error.
So its a miracle of policy precision, or most likely the Fed will be providing an economic recession in response to their bubblenomic excesses, as usual.
But given the track record of these jokers a fourth bubble is not out of the question. And I fear it would come with grave consequences.
"Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege."
Thomas Clement Douglas
"When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! 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."
Andrew Jackson
“Human nature being what it is, small loopholes are likely to be exploited until they become big ones, and big ones until they turn into financial disasters.”
Seth Klarman
“The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.”
Garry Kasparov
"And we headed out of the hotel, went to the airport, got on the plane and, about halfway through the flight, I found myself alone in the President’s cabin with him. I said, 'Mr. President, there’s something going on.' He said, 'You bet. There is something else going on.' And he said, 'When you find out, grab your balls and run.'
Pierre Salinger, On the Cuban Missile Crisis
There is a serious imbalance in the American financial and political system, which is going to be affecting the rest of the global economic structure.
When that cancer exhibits, it will be past time to hit the exits as best as one may manage.
There was an August gold contract option expiration on the Comex today. Silver was not directly affected.
Gold moved lower with the Dollar rallying higher.
Silver gained back some of its recent losses, which was a little surprising considering the strength of the Dollar and the weakness of equities.
And yet, there it is.
Perhaps this highlights the artificial, 'technical' nature of the some of the recent declines driven by the over-sized, predatory positioned bullion operators on Wall Street.
FOMC rate decision tomorrow. The market is expecting a 75 bps increase in the benchmark.
Stocks seem to be approaching a short term oversold condition.
At this point events will weigh heavily on the markets, which themselves are possessed by a greater than usual volatility, both up and down.
"It is the time of the harvest, and the reaper cuts into the ripe grain with wide strokes. Mourning takes up her abode in the country cottages, and there is no one to dry the tears of the mothers. Yet Hitler feeds those people whose most precious belongings he has stolen and whom he has driven to a meaningless death with lies.
Every word that comes from Hitler's mouth is a lie. When he says peace, he means war, and when he blasphemously uses the name of the Almighty, he means the power of evil, the fallen angel, Satan. His mouth is the foul maw of Hell, and his power is at bottom accursed. True, we must conduct a struggle against the Nazi terrorist state with rational means; but whoever today still doubts the reality, the existence of demonic powers, has failed by a wide margin to understand the metaphysical background of this war.
Behind the concrete, the visible events, behind all objective, logical considerations, we find the irrational element: The struggle against the demon, against the servants of the Antichrist.
Everywhere and always demonic powers lurk in the dark, waiting for the moment when man is weak; when of his own volition he leaves his place in Creation, as founded for him by God in freedom; when he yields to the force of evil, he separates himself from the powers of a higher order; and after voluntarily taking the first step, he is driven on to the next and the next at a furiously accelerating rate.
Everywhere, and at times of greatest trials, men have appeared, prophets and saints who cherished their freedom, who preached the One God and who with His help brought the people to a reversal of their downward course. Man is free, to be sure, but without the true God he is defenseless against the principle of evil. He is a like rudderless ship, at the mercy of the storm, an infant without his mother, a cloud dissolving into thin air."
Please distribute this as widely as possible.
The White Rose, Fourth Leaflet, Munich, 1942
“"It is very easy to get drunk with hate. Hate is like the glass of whisky which is given to the soldiers before a bayonet charge. Whisky stimulates but does not nourish. Hate is not creative, only love is creative.
No one in the world can change truth. What we can do and and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it. The real conflict is the inner conflict. Beyond armies of occupation and the catacombs of extermination camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love. And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we are ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves?”
Maximilian Kolbe, executed at Auschwitz, 14 August 1941
"The most important problem in the world today is your soul, for that is what the struggle is all about."
Fulton J. Sheen
Stocks tried to shake off the bad earnings report from Snap, which cast doubt on the health of the online advertising milieu.
And some of the big tech regulars are announcing hiring freezes.
Next week the big tech heavyweights will be rolling out their earnings reports. That may likely set the tone for the week.
And the Fed will be meeting again.
Gold and silver rose with the continuing Dollar drift lower.
Gold managed to hold on to some of its gains, but silver fell with equities and finished up flat on the week.
Most investors will find it more practical to play the long game with gold and silver, and hold it without leverage for the longer term.
Wall Street is a corrupting and poorly policed casino.
Need little, want less, love more. For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.
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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