Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - 'Greed Is Good' Creates an Unstable Nation of Con-men

 

"Our basic trouble was not an insufficiency of capital.  It was an insufficient distribution of buying power coupled with an over-sufficient speculation in production.  While wages rose in many of our industries, they did not as a whole rise proportionately to the reward to capital, and at the same time the purchasing power of other great groups of our population was permitted to shrink.

We accumulated such a superabundance of capital that our great bankers were vying with each other, some of them employing questionable methods, in their efforts to lend this capital at home and abroad.  I believe that we are at the threshold of a fundamental change in our popular economic thought, that in the future we are going to think less about the producer and more about the consumer.

Do what we may have to do to inject life into our ailing economic order, we cannot make it endure for long unless we can bring about a wiser, more equitable distribution of the national income.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Campaign Speech, Oglethorpe University, 1932

"The problem [First Bank of the United States] was not paper money per se, but the concentration of power and wealth which the abusive use of the paper monetary power had granted to a few powerful individuals and institutions.   No system is foolproof when a foolish people will allow the unscrupulous few to operate it in secrecy and without transparency, accountability and the rule of law.  And if anything is clear, the crony regulation by the Fed and other regulators of the Banking System, or lack thereof, is a failure and the source of much of our own mischief.  And the primary reason we cannot acknowledge the facts of our own situation is that our political and financial class are caught in a credibility trap.  They cannot speak the truth without compromising their own personal greed and will to power."

Jesse, Peak Junk, Currency Wars, 11 August 2015

"Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it."

Samuel Johnson

"Change is the law of life.  And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.   A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all.  Those who do nothing are inviting shame as well as violence.

The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities.  We need men who can dream of things that never were and ask, why not?  History is a relentless master.  It has no present, only the past rushing into the future.  To try to hold fast is to be swept aside."

John F. Kennedy, Dublin, Ireland, June 28, 1963

Is it any surprise that a generation that was taught and embraced, primarily through its professional class, the belief that 'greed is good' would foster an economy and a nation dominated by self-centered, barely incompetent con-men?

I would suggest that the fruits of this dishonor are yet to be harvested.  What has been hidden will be revealed.

The JOLTS report, a government survey of job openings, came in higher than expected this morning, so of course rate fears flamed on and the markets melted.

Things tended to calm down into the close, stocks finished well in the red.

That gap in the SP 500 futures has certainly been closed.   Unless they are a runaway gap they often do.

The Dollar chopped sideways, with some range at times.

I have included a longer term Dollar chart this evening for perspective.

VIX jumped higher again, well off its notable lows of not too long ago.

Wash-rinse-repeat.

 Gold and silver fell with the JOLTS, but then recovered and made a decent showing into the close.

Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday.

Gold continues flowing from West to East.

Long ignored, at some point this trend will become more generally known, and its consequences felt.

Our position in all this has been given to us clearly, from many years ago.

"Do not join your efforts with the false and treacherous, for what does justice have to do with lawlessness?  Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?   What is there in common between Christ and Belial?   What do the faithful have in common with the faithless?" 

2 Corinthians 6:14-16

Some history was made today, as for the first time a Speaker of the House has been rebuked, primarily by his own party. 

Interestingly enough this was due to infighting between two MAGA political figures, albeit with slightly different personal styles. 

Such as the ways of the proud, and the self-destructive tendencies of narcissists.   They sow conflict and misery widely, while gaining little or nothing for anyone, including themselves.   

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Damned, Not for the World, But For So Little

 

"Faustus, who embraced evil and shunned righteousness, became the foremost symbol of the misuse of free will, that sublime gift from God with its inherent opportunity to choose virtue and reject iniquity. Faustus had advanced beyond the level of a scarlet sinner — he was a conscious follower of the Prince of Darkness.  For what does it profit a man— but for a notorious name, the ethereal shadow of a career, and a brief life of fleeting pleasure with no true peace?

Hell for all eternity for so little in exchange.  The fact he could publicly project an Antichrist image with pride, having no fear of reprisal, and his seeming diabolical art of escaping all punishment, would certainly signal that an unnatural individual walked in their midst.

It is true in many respects he assumed the role of the charlatan, yet how apropos, considering his willingness to follow the Father of Lies and deception. A life of good or evil, the hope of Heaven or the despair of Hell, Faustus stands as a reminder that the choice between these two absolutes also falls to us.

The lofty mind of man can be imprisoned by the artifices of its own making. If there are damned souls in Hell, it is because men blind themselves.”

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

"For this time 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.  It will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not.   Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance.   It will not last for ever.  We must take it or leave it."

C. S. Lewis, 1944

"Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my father in heaven."

Matthew 7:21-23

The economic data this morning was apparently good for the US Dollar and not so good for Europe.

So the Dollar soared, and interest rates on US Treasuries climbed.

The broad stock market, such as the Russell 2000 and the SP 500 sold off hard.  

The Tech heavy Nasdaq 100 managed to climb into the green.

Gold and silver were hit hard.

What do we make of this?

The market moves were so out of proportion to the data that it seems more like a hangover from last week's market moving expiration and end of quarter.

Since the brinksmanship of the House brat pack has passed without effect once again, we may be receiving a Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday.

Let's see where they are going with all these.

I can only express disappointment that once again the corporate Democrats have felt our pain, but done little to nothing to promote financial or market reforms.  

Disappointments all around really.  But such are the times.

When you think back on things that were very important to you at the beginning of your career, or in college or high school, do you now see in retrospect how inconsequential and relatively trivial and unimportant these things were?

And when you stand at the end of your life, without embellishment or ornament or baggage, before the unfailing eye of eternity and judgement, what then do you think will matter to you most?  

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Painting the Tape - End of Third Quarter

 

"There was war in heaven.  Michael and his angels battled against the dragon.  The dragon and its angels fought back, but they did not prevail, and there was no longer a place for them in heaven.  The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:  'Now have salvation and power come, and the kingdom of God and the authority of his Anointed.   For the accuser of our brothers is cast out.  They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.  Love for life did not deter them from death.  Therefore rejoice you heavens, and you who dwell in them.  But woe to you, earth and sea, for the Devil has come down to you in great fury, for he knows his time is short."

Revelation 12:7-12

"People forget that God is the Maker of all things, visible as well as invisible; that He is the Lord of our bodies as well as our souls. There are not two Gods, one of matter, one of spirit.  There is one God, and He is Lord of all we are, and all we have; and therefore all we do must be stamped with His seal and signature. We must not give up this visible world, as if it came of the evil one. We must manifest the kingdom of heaven upon earth. The light of Divine truth must proceed from our hearts, and shine out upon everything we are, and everything we do. It must bring the whole man, soul and body."

John Henry Newman

"To enter heaven is to become more human than you ever succeeded in being on earth; to enter hell is to be banished from humanity.  What is cast (or casts itself) into hell is not a man: it is 'remains.'  To be a complete man means to have the passions obedient to the will and the will offered to God: to have been a man – to be an ex-man or 'damned ghost' – would presumably mean to consist of a will utterly centered in its self and passions utterly uncontrolled by the will."

C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, 1940

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

Ephesians 6:12

And so the third quarter ends, with a slight loss off of a down month in September.

We had a one day wash and rinse in the equity markets, but especially in silver, which soared in the morning and then cracked down, to a new low for the week, into the close.

One can only wonder.

We may be getting a Non-Farm Payrolls report for September next Friday, if the US government remains open for business, or closes in observance of the visceral goofiness of the House GOP.

Ugly people doing dumb things.  Yay us.

VIX fell and then bounced back.

The Dollar chopped sideways.

The small specs may have decided that today was a good day to pull the trigger on gold and silver, and they got smoked in the afternoon.

It's tough to win when the house gets to see your cards as you play them, and can bet against you with almost unlimited access to funds, while artfully hiding their own hands.

It's always something.   But some things matter much more than others.

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.  Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.  May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and may you, Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits, who prowl the world seeking the ruin of souls.

And that's the name of that tune.

Have a pleasant weekend.