Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Malignant Narcissism of the Plutocracy

 

"This elite-generated social control maintains the status quo because the status quo benefits and validates those who created and sit atop it.  People rise to prominence when they parrot the orthodoxy rather than critically analyze it.  Real change in politics or society cannot occur under the orthodoxy because it would threaten the legitimacy of the professional class and the systems that helped them achieve their status."

Kristine Mattis, The Cult of the Professional Class, April 2016

"Our plutocracy now lives like the British did in colonial India:  ruling the place but not of it."

Mike Lofgren, The Deep State, 5 January 2016

"The American economy increasingly serves only a narrow part of society.  Too many of America's elites-among the super-rich, the CEOs, and many of my colleagues in academia chase wealth and power, and the rest of society be damned."

Jeffrey Sachs, The Price of Civilization, 2011

"If there are damned souls in Hell, it is because men blind themselves."

E. A. Bucchianeri, Faust: My Soul Be Damned for the World, 2010

"Most of them became wealthy by being well connected and crooked.  And they are creating a society in which they can commit hugely damaging economic crimes with impunity, and in which only children of the wealthy have the opportunity to become successful.  That’s what I have a problem with.  And I think most people agree with me."

Charles Ferguson, Predator Nation, 2012


Happy Hunger Games!  And may the odds be ever in your favor.

Stocks tried to rally it up into the green today but alas, they were hammered right down into the close.

The VIX rose.

Yields on Treasuries rose.

This provided some lift for the Dollar.

Gold and silver were sold, right down into the close.

Stock option expiration on Friday.

As Rutger Bregman observed, the Machiavellis have the ultimate secret weapon: they’re shameless.

Wash rinse repeat.

Works just as well for politics as in finance, as long as most people are sleep-walking amnesiacs.

How come no one is talking about blockchain anymore?   Now its AI, all the time.  What will they think of next. 

It will be interesting to see if a US President can run the country from a jail cell.  It worked for Lucky Luciano. 

On a positive note, the sunglasses they give to eye surgery patients are pretty snappy these days.  A heck of a lot better than the boxy pair of plastic punchouts that my father-in-law was sporting.

Great success.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Gilded Lilies of the Abyss

 

"On television, religion, like everything else, is presented, quite simply and without apology, as an entertainment.  Everything that makes religion an historic, profound, sacred human activity is stripped away; there is no ritual, no dogma, no tradition, no theology, and above all, no sense of spiritual transcendence.   I believe I am not mistaken in saying that Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether."

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, 1985

“The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. With modern technology it is the easiest of tasks for a media, guided by a narrow group of political manipulators, to speak constantly of democracy and freedom while urging regime changes everywhere on earth but at home."

Gore Vidal, Cue the Green God, Ted, The Nation, 1989

“There is nothing so threatening to systemic evil as those willing to stand against it regardless of the consequences.”

James W. Douglass, JFK and the Unspeakable

"Day by day the money-masters of America become more aware of their danger; they draw together, they grow more class-conscious, more aggressive.  The war has taught them the possibilities of propaganda; it has accustomed them to the idea of enormous campaigns which sway the minds of millions and make them pliable to any purpose."

Upton Sinclair, The Brass Check

“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be with the coming of the Son of Man.  People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given away in marriage, up until the very day that Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came, and swept them all away.”

Luke 17:26-27


It is easier to repeat slogans that are heard day after day from the well-funded voices of the powers-that-be than it is to take an independent stand for righteousness.  

And it is much easier to bully and abuse the weak, and puff up your pride, than to be a faithful child of God, and maybe even a hero. 

There is a precedent as we may recall.

Be careful where you take a stand, because you may not like with whom you are standing when the music finally stops, and the fat lady screams.

The retail sales numbers came in much stronger than expected this morning.

Overnight the People's Bank of China cut their interest rate 15 bp to 2.5%.

Stocks sold off broadly, for the first 90% down day of SP stocks since April of this year.

Volumes were still a bit light for such a sell-off, but not for our pearl-clutching drama queens. 

Weren't the spokemodels talking up the need for getting in on this big rally last week?

Uh-huh.  Yeah buddy.

The Dollar just chopped sideways.

Gold and silver were off a bit after an initial vigorous sell off.

The VIX rose.

My read on this turns an eye [I still have one that works] towards the stock index option expiration on Friday.

And that same read caused me to put an even bigger hedge on my long positions yesterday afternoon.

I did not take any of those hedges off, and stocks went out on the lows.

Smells like teen spirit.  Wash, rinse, repeat.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Brotherhood of Light In the Darkness

 

"Do not be amazed then, if the world despises you.  We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another.  Whoever does not love remains in the realms of death.  Everyone who hates his neighbor is a destroyer, and you know that no destroyer has eternal life remaining in them.  The way we came to know love was that He laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our fellows.  If someone who has the material substance sees another in need and refuses them compassion, how can the love of God remain in them?  Children, let us love not just in word or speech, but in our actions and our love of truth."

1 John 3:13-18

"The miracles and the mysteries of the events of those days abound along with the horrors and the tragedies.  In contrast to the vile actions of the 'Angel of Death' were the noble and heroic actions of many 'Angels of Life', who stood ready to risk their own lives for the sake of saving that of a stranger."

Yossi Refson, Angels of Light

"This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.  No one has greater love than this, to lay down their life for their friends.  You are my friends if you do what I ask.  This is what I ask of you, to love one another."

John 15:12,17

"The blessed John the Evangelist lived in Ephesus until extreme old age.   His disciples could barely carry him to church and he could not muster the voice to speak many words.  During individual gatherings he usually said nothing but, 'Little children, love one another.'   The disciples and brothers in attendance, annoyed because they always heard the same words, finally said, 'Teacher, why do you always say this?'   He replied with a line worthy of John: 'Because it is the Lord's commandment, and if it alone is kept, it is sufficient.'"

Jerome, Commentary on Galatians, 4th century, based on commentaries of Origen

"It is very easy to get drunk with hate. 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."

Maximilian Kolbe


It was risk on today as stocks fell into rally mode, but on very light volume.

The VIX fell.

The Dollar rallied, in its exceptional way.

Gold and silver were under some pressure.

There will be a stock index option expiration on Friday.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

When considering macro and geopolitical events, one must always recall as a baseline that the US is firmly in the grip of an oligarchy that permeates most facets of political and economic policy issues.  It's like a new gilded age, hiding the corruption of a rotten system.

Unfortunately this seems to be the trend in many nations.  

People drift off like herds into madness, until some chastisement humbles them, and brings them back to the light.

Speaking of light, today was the first day that I could actually see something at the doctor's office.  Specialist next week, and then we'll see how things go from there. 

Poor Daisy is pretty much deaf and blind on her left side as the result of the neglect and abuse she had sustained as a puppy.  It's been a long road, but with the unfailing care of the young man, she is now happy and healthy.

The new little ones and their parents came over yesterday to visit and share the bounty of our garden.  The little girl took over Daisy's bed where she waits for me to come home from the store.  The nerve!

We are all broken and struggle.  Everyone you meet is carrying a heavy burden in some way or another. But we all abide, one day at a time, in God's loving kindness and tender mercies.

Have a pleasant evening.