Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Stumbling in the Darkness - Wash and Rinse Day

 

"You are the light of the world.  A city built on a mountain cannot be hidden.   No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket; instead it is set on a stand, where it gives light to all in the house.  Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven."

Matthew 5:14-16

"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

John 1:5

“We are slow to master the great truth that even now Christ is, as it were, walking among us, and by His hand, or eye, or voice, bidding us to follow Him.  We do not understand that His call is a thing that takes place now.  We think it took place in the Apostles' days, but we do not believe in it; we do not look for it in our own case."

John Henry Newman

"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name; you are mine."

Isaiah 43:1

"‘Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord', will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven.   On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and accomplish great things in your name?' Then I will declare to them, 'I do not know you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.'”

Matthew 7:21-23

"They will be moved, to the sound of beautiful music, at Jesus’s sufferings, but His Cross, the reality of His Cross, will horrify them.   They want it all out of gold, bathed in light, costly and of little weight; pleasant to see, hanging from a woman’s beautiful throat."

Léon Bloy



The transfer of wealth continues, skimming off of the vitality of the nation for the greed of a relative few. 

Bully was feeling his oats today, and working that wash and rinse.

The VIX fell.

The Dollar fell.

Gold and silver fell.

Tomorrow must be a precious metal option expiration on the Comex.

They were buying up those regional banks today.

I have come to the conclusion that people on the further ends of the ideological spectrum become willfully foolish, because they have to twist reality to suit their preconceived notions and biases. 

This goes equally well for left and right. 

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - A Gathering Storm - The Madness Serves None But Itself

 

"Under such conditions one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism.  The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”

Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

"As in all periods of speculation, men sought not to be persuaded by the reality of things but to find excuses for escaping into the new world of fantasy."

"John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash of 1929

“The mob believes everything it is told, provided only that it be repeated over and over.  Provided too that its passions, hatreds, fears are catered to.  The grosser, the bigger, the cruder the lie, the more readily is it believed and followed.  The mob has no memory; needless to pretend to any truth: the mob is radically incapable of perceiving it: the mob can never comprehend that its own interests are what is at stake.”

Alexandre Koyré, Réflexions sur le Mensonge

"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.”

Charles Mackay

"And they said to him, 'Where will this happen, Lord?'  And He said to them, 'Where death is, there a gathering of vultures will be.'”

Luke 17:37


"They [the Fed] were not testing for interest rate risk." 

This is the reason that was given as to why the Fed's stress testing would not have been helpful in detecting the troubles at Silicon Valley Bank.

Why do we keep excusing such willful incompetence?

Stocks took a hard dip this morning on fresh banking troubles from Deutsche Bank, aka Buba.

But as one might have come to expect, stocks shook off their concerns and finished up in the green.

The precious metals initially rallied, most notably in silver, but they were lower by the end of the day as the rose coloured glasses came back on.

As I noted, the Comex metals option expiration is next week (calendars below) and there is still plenty of time for shenanigans.

The VIX initially spiked higher, but finished lower amid an outbreak of complacency.

The political situation is the US is still reliably nuts.

Some neocons seem determined to encourage a wider war in other peoples' backyards.

Blood keeps their bottom lines green  

And if it is someone else's, so much the better.

France's leader is showing how not to make friends and influence people, except among the plutocracy.

Let's see what fresh madness the new week brings.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Which Side We Have Chosen

 

"Self-regulation is at best a vulnerable strategy in any human concern involving trust, but is absolute folly in an industry where the emphasis and incentives are based on the ruthless pursuit of performance at any cost, and where such behaviour is lauded.

There is little doubt that strong personality types such as even marginal psychopaths can hijack an organization, a [political] party, or even a sub-culture given the right environment of moral relativism and complacency.  And if successful, they bring more of the morally ambivalent and weak-willed along with them.

The efficient market hypothesis is more a clever cover story than a legitimate scientific observation worthy of consideration in public policy discussions.  Transparency and oversight are absolutely essential in all financial matters.   The financial system, and their amoral enablers in politics and the media, have done enough damage to the world.  It is time to stop."

Jesse, Psychopaths on Wall Street, 17 March 2012

"The suspicions that the system is rigged in favor of the largest banks and their elites, so they play by their own set of rules to the disfavor of the taxpayers who funded their bailout, are true. It really happened. These suspicions are valid.”

Neil Barofsky, TARP Inspector General

"A lot of white-collar criminals are psychopaths.  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 Hare

"Three dark personalities, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy have been studied in businesses. Although the first two share similar traits with psychopathy, such as superficial charm, lying and manipulation, the inability to accept responsibility for their actions, and the complete lack of empathy, guilt and humility, a large body of research has demonstrated that psychopathic individuals are more dishonest, treacherous and destructive than the others. While all three dark personalities can be bad-news for a company, corporate psychopathy is the most dangerous.

If success is defined by the accomplishment of one’s goal, then I would say psychopathic individuals, by definition, are often successful. That is, they are successful at manipulating others into getting what they want, whatever the cost might be to others. Their ability to charm, manipulate and lie to others, coupled with the fact that their lack of empathy and guilt and failure to accept responsibility for their actions, gives psychopathic individuals the upper hand to attain their goals, by any means possible.

There is a difference between being confident and not being capable of humility or modesty. Good leaders will back their realization and success stories with verifiable facts and will do it with a certain dose of humility, occasionally giving credit to others. Moreover, good leaders will take some credit but will also give credit to their team members while psychopathic individuals are likely to take all the credit for previous achievements."

Cynthia Mathieu, The Devil Lurks In the Suit

"I wonder whether people who ask God to intervene openly and directly in our world quite realise what it will be like when He does. Then it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not."

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1944

Stocks did their yo-yo routine again today, but nevertheless rallied back from their flighty drop of yesterday.

Gold and silver moved higher.   Both are within range of breaking out.

They may be tested by the Comex metals option expiration of next week.

VIX chopped sideways in familiar volatility.

The Dollar climbed back a little.

Have a pleasant evening.