26 December 2023

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - At the Time of the Lord

 

"They have acted shamefully, committing abominations,
    yet they are not ashamed,
    and do not even know how to blush.
Therefore they will fall among the fallen;
    at the time I visit them they shall be brought down,
    says the Lord."

Jeremiah 6:15

"The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war."

Sydney J. Harris, Personal Prejudices, 1953

"Nemesis, the goddess of retribution and vengeance, the punisher of pride and hubris, waits impatiently for her meeting with us."

Chalmers Johnson, Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic, 2007

"Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, or even a duty.  Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening.  As soon as men know that they can kill without fear of punishment or blame, they kill; or at least they encourage killers, with approving smiles."

Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace, 1947

“Religion used to be the opium of the people. To those suffering humiliation, pain, illness, and serfdom, religion promised the reward of an after life.

But now, we are witnessing a transformation: a true opium of the people is the belief in nothingness after death, the huge solace, the huge comfort of thinking that for our betrayals, our greed, our cowardice, our murders, we are not going to be judged.”

Czeslaw Milosz, Discreet Charm of Nihilism, NYRB Nov 1998

Trading is going to be very light this week, likely with an upward bias as we saw in the holiday trade last week, although we may very well see a back and forth action, as the wiseguys continue to reap the investment community and the real economy.

Gold is on the verge of breaking out.  It needs to take out 2080 and go for a run.

The Dollar continues to slump.

VIX remains complacent.  There is little provision being made for an exogenous black swan event, although the probability of one is elevated.   Risk assets are priced for perfection.

Consequences are rarely expected, and those that most deserve them experience the most intense outrage at having received them.   

This is hubris, and its willful blindness.  It brings down the proud and the willful.

Be not deceived, for God is not mocked.  As men sow, so shall they reap.

Have a pleasant evening.


25 December 2023

Glory to God in the Highest

 

Into the ancient holy land
Behold, the son of God is come to man.

Hoc est enim corpus meam.


In Innocence fall all heroes and their creeds;
An age is done, an age from here proceeds.

Hic est enim calix sanguinis mei,
Novi et aeterni testamenti.

What consuming pagan fires could not do—
A covenant of love, and Word made flesh, in You.

Qui pro nobis et pro multis effundetor;
In remissionem peccatorum.


Sleep swells His breast, though heavy pressed,
By Golgotha, and Adam's sin,
And the hopes of he who signs his name herein.

Jesse


"What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

John 1:3-5

"And the Word became flesh
   and dwelt among us,
   and we saw his glory,
   the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
   full of grace and truth."

John 1:14

"He became what we are, so that we might become what He is."

Athanasius

What a wonderful condescension and extravagance we have from God.   For although we were made and formed in His image, He has thereafter sanctified that image, and confirmed us as His creation, in the Incarnation.

"In the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Thereafter, any attack, even on the least of men, is an attack on Christ, who took on the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all. Through our relationship with the Incarnation, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time are delivered from that perverse individualism which is the consequence of sin, and recover our solidarity with all mankind."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer


23 December 2023

Joyeux Noël

 

"The unsustainable will not be sustained.  It ends in flamboyant deceits, and a spectacle of vulgarities."

Jesse, Blessed Are Those Called to the Supper of the Lamb, 23 December 2021

"We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children."

Jimmy Carter, Nobel Lecture, December 10, 2002

"In the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God.  Thereafter, any attack, even on the least of men, is an attack on Christ, who took on the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all.  Through our relationship with the Incarnation, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time are delivered from that perverse individualism which is the consequence of sin, and recover our solidarity with all mankind."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it."

George Orwell