Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - High Priests of the Channeled Economic Scablands

 

"Since the earliest stages of human history, of course, there have been bazaars, rialtos, and trading posts—all markets.  But The Market was never God, because there were other centers of value and meaning, other 'gods.'  The Market operated within a plethora of other institutions that restrained it. As Karl Polanyi has demonstrated in his classic work The Great Transformation, only in the past two centuries has The Market risen above these demigods and chthonic spirits to become today's First Cause."

Harvey Cox, The Market As God: Living In the New Dispensation

"Call me dark, but what I see here is a toxic relationship between deregulation, underpriced risk, and exorbitant, inefficient pay scales that contribute to the growth of inequality, not to mention the shampoo economy (bubble, bust, repeat)."

Jared Bernstein, A Striking Picture of Pay and Deregulation in Finance

"Thus did a handful of rapacious citizens come to control all that was worth controlling in America. Thus was the savage and stupid and entirely inappropriate and unnecessary and humorless American class system created.  Honest, industrious, peaceful citizens were classed as bloodsuckers, if they asked to be paid a living wage. And they saw that praise was reserved henceforth for those who devised means of getting paid enormously for committing crimes."

Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater

"Do you not know that to whom you offer yourselves as obedient servants, his servants you will be, whether of sin which leads to death, or of a faithfulness that leads to life?"

Romans 6:16

"Wonderful providence indeed which is so silent, yet so efficacious, so constant, so unerring. This is what baffles the power of Satan.   He cannot discern the Hand of God in what goes on; and though he would fain meet it and encounter it, in his mad and blasphemous rebellion against heaven, he cannot find it.  Crafty and penetrating as he is, yet his thousand eyes and his many instruments avail him nothing against the majestic serene silence, the holy imperturbable calm which reigns through the providences of God.  He makes a guess here, or does a bold act there, but all in the dark.  If even devils, sagacious as they are, spirits by nature and experienced in evil, cannot detect His hand while He works, how can we hope to see it except by that way which the devils cannot take, by loving faith."

John Henry Newman

The Channeled Economic Scablands are a relatively barren and non-productive region of the real economy scarred by interconnected and dry flooded liquidity channels and cataracts  eroded into an economic base that had been laid down over decades by the toil of the working public and the sacrifice of many.  The Channeled economic Scablands were scoured by cataclysmic malinvestment and floods of hot money driven by rapacious financialization during the last thirty years by an outsized financial sector created by capricious deregulation, the steady corruption of law makers, academics, and serial policy errors by the regulators.  These floods were periodically unleashed whenever  large amounts of dark money eroded sound regulations and decades long reforms which had been put in place and served the nation well since the 1930s. 

It will be interesting to see how long the slow but steady hand of God must proceed, as it was in the days of Pharaoh, until the servants of the darkness relent.

Do they know what it is that they serve?   Do they care?  Eventually they will, in horror and revulsion.

History suggests that their correction will be reluctant, grudging, and even spiteful— but interesting to observe.

Stocks managed to drift higher on light volumes and relatively little thought.

The Dollar chopped sideways.

The precious metals tried to rally but in the end wallowed.

They appear to be coiling against strong paper market forces.

The VIX fell again, as the equity markets continue sleepwalking to the pied pipers of the financial sector.

There will be a fairly significant quad witch stock option expiration next Friday.

The post-op visit with the surgeon today was very good.  There are none of the severe complications.  There was quite a bit of annoying discomfort last night, but that is passing with the removal of the bandages and the application of a flotilla of medicated eye-drops.  My poor cornea is beaten up and cloudy from the surgeries, but a powerful steroid may help that along.

I do have a noticeable air bubble as a darkening curve over the lower 2/3 of the newly implanted lens, as the eye naturally refills itself with liquid, aqueous humour.   I am assured that this is normal and will resolve itself, perhaps by next week.

I imagine I could obtain temporary employment as a carpenter's level. 

Need little, want less, love more.  For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.

Thanking God for his many good and kind servants, his loving kindness, and his tender mercies.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Realms of Darkness and Light

 

"Do not be conformed to the ways of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your judgement, so that you may know what is the will of God, those things that are good and acceptable and perfect."

Romans 12:2

"The most important problem in the world today is your soul, for that is what the struggle is about."

Fulton J. Sheen

"Remember there will be trying times in the last days. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, dishonoring their parents, and ungrateful. To them nothing is sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and despise what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless and proud, and love pleasures of the world more than God.  They may maintain the appearances of piety and devotion, but will reject that which could make them righteous."

2 Timothy 3:1-5

"The great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts. For evil to appear disguised as light, as charity, as historical necessity, or social justice is quite bewildering to anyone raised on traditional ethical concepts. But for the Christian who builds his life on the word of God, it merely confirms the fundamental perversity of evil."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"In the end, the only real tragedy is not to be with the saints."

Léon Bloy, La femme pauvre

I went in for surgery at hospital this morning around dawn.   It is a fairly involved surgery as these things go, but it all went well according to the principals.   I came home around noon. 

I am also told that there is plenty of precedent for minor complications in the immediate weeks following, so I will be looking forward to my checkups, starting tomorrow, with keen interest.  The regime of checkups and eye drops begins a new cycle.

But the worst is over, as they say, and minor corrections are easier and not insurmountable.  So I will proceed carefully and diligently.

It was a tiring and somewhat stressful day.   I am glad it is over for now.

The charts for today are below.  Once again the bipolar markets are swinging between soft landings and endlessly high rates.

Next Friday is the quarterly stock option quadruple witching expiration. 

There is still a noticeable gap in the SP futures below our current levels that may be a shenanigans magnet.

Let our lights serve as a steady beacon for one another, and those for whom we care.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - A Banquet of Consequences

 

"That’s what high conflict does. It becomes conflict for conflict’s sake, and it takes over.  It’s a very physically, spiritually, and emotionally draining way to live.   While it may be a draining way to live, it also allows 'conflict entrepreneurs' to thrive.  These are individuals or organizations that boost their egos and/or pocketbooks by keeping others steeped in anger and hate.

Whether you’re a politician, a journalist, a pundit, or somebody who uses Facebook, there is a strong incentive and push to be a conflict entrepreneur.  We are living in an age of great uncertainty and anxiety, some of which is real, based on the pace of change.  And some of that anxiety is embellished by conflict entrepreneurs.  One way to prevent high conflict is to learn to recognize the conflict entrepreneurs in your orbit.  Notice who delights in each new plot twist of a feud.  Who is quick to validate every lament and to articulate wrongs no one else has even thought of?  Many people do not want a solution if it offends their other ideas of what is safe and pure--or if it means they will have to let go of an apocalyptic narrative that has become part of their identity.

One trait that conflict entrepreneurs employ constantly is humiliation, of tearing someone down in a public way. This perpetuates an endless cycle of high conflict because the person who feels humiliated will often pursue revenge.

Tony Rossi, Amanda Ripley on High Conflict,  October 18, 2022

"Why do conflict entrepreneurs, and deceivers, and con men seem to flourish in times like these? They offer simplicity, the fantasy of a cartoon like picture of the world, relieving their listeners of the burden of thinking and caring and loving. They nurture feelings of powerlessness and confusion by portraying those on the edge of darkness as victims of 'the other.' They fill the dull emptiness of hardened hearts with strong emotions like fear, hate and rage.

Those who cultivate hate and pride for their own purposes, and those who spread their hate and lies to others, will see a reckoning of sorrows, no matter how carelessly they approach their actions and their consequences now."

Jesse, Conflict Entrepreneurs and Con Men, 12 August 2021

"The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.

They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."

Henry Wallace, 9 April 1944


The ISM Services numbers came in stronger than expected this morning, and that revved up the hawkish interest rates spin cycle.

The Dollar rose sharply.

Gold and silver declined.

Stocks slumped.

And the band played on.

"The Banks must be restrained, and the financial system reformed, with balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustainable recovery." Jesse, May 2009

Distracting the public with outrage wildfires has proven an effective way to avoid meaningful reform and provide a solid money and power payday for the conflict entrepreneurs.

People seem to be getting tired of it, but 'they will have to let go of an apocalyptic narrative that has become part of their identity.' 

We will learn, slowly but surely.  Until the next time demagogues find a new boogeyman for a payday.

Have a pleasant evening.