Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - US Banking System Ripe For Another Crisis

 

"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 [first world] 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.

American political corruption was the buying up of legislatures and assemblies to keep them from doing the people's will and protecting the people's interests; it was the exploiter entrenching himself in power, it was financial autocracy undermining and destroying political democracy. By the blindness and greed of ruling classes the people have been plunged into infinite misery."

Upton Sinclair, The Brass Check

"Following the second, third and fourth largest bank failures in U.S. history in the spring of last year, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell gave his semiannual monetary policy report to the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee in June. During both appearances, Powell stated the same thing: 'The U.S. banking system is sound and resilient.'

But according to a report last week from the federal agency whose mandate is to keep federal regulators apprised of the true condition of the U.S. banking system, it is actually ripe for another crisis and its condition is 'fragile and uncertain.'”

WSOP, Federal Agency Finds US Banking System 'Ripe for Another Crisis, January 2, 2024

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

Upton Sinclair, I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked


The talking heads were assuring us today that stocks were retreating because they had become extremely over bought last week/year/

Funny how they only tell us these things after the fact.

The Dollar strengthened.

Gold and silver were lower.

The VIX remains fairly complacent.

And so the new year begins.

Have a pleasant evening.

Happy New Year

 

“For last year's words belong to last year's language
   And next year's words await another voice.
   And to make an end is to make a beginning.”

T. S. Eliot

"These violent delights have violent ends,
     And in their triumph, die..."

William Shakespeare


Bonne Année à tous mes amis

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Keep the Faith

 

"If you do not stand firm in the faith, you will not stand at all.”

Isaiah 7:9

"One person of integrity can make a difference, a difference of life and death. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs."

Elie Wiesel

"Woe to those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter."

Isaiah 5:20

"We often think of peace as the absence of war; that if the powerful countries would reduce their arsenals, we could have peace. But if we look deeply into the weapons, we see our own minds - our prejudices, fears, and ignorance. Even if we transported all the bombs to the moon, the roots of war and the reasons for bombs would still be here, in our hearts and minds, and we would make new bombs."

Thích Nhất Hạnh

"But Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded, even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Luke 16:31

"Lately, as you may have noticed, the emphasis of what I have been writing here has shifted to reassuring the faithful, and cautioning them against falling away as things get a little crazier, which they are bound to do.  I think the outcome, in general, of all this is 'baked in' now.   The problem is that I just cannot believe it.  It has been like watching a train wreck in slow motion.   

But the truly hysterical part of this cycle is still approaching, and it may get quite a bit worse when it does.   Paranoia is almost a given when the exceptional fail spectacularly.  There may be blood, if history is any indication, and a great deal of propaganda and distorted information spread by the money masters, without doubt.

Those who have gone before us have stood on similar ground, over and over again. And now it is our turn."

Jesse, Keep the Faith, 7 July 2017


And so it is the last trading day of the year, 2023. 

The trading was very quiet with some fairly benign profit and loss taking.

Complacency is the word here.

Mispricing of risk by a powerful few for short term gains is a theme, recurrent and profound.

"This 'broadening out’ in the market has been nothing more than a massive short squeeze in financials, health care and consumer discretionary. The most heavily shorted stocks have popped 40% in just the past two months."

David Rosenberg

A correction is coming.  It will retrace and fill that 'gap' at 4610 in the SP 500 futures chart at the least 

But we'll leave that for next year.

Non-Farm payrolls next Friday.

Thank you for your patronage at Le Cafe this year.

If you serve God you will hear and obey His voice, and not twist his words to serve your worldly desires.

But they do not believe in it.  They think that 'do what you will' is the whole of the law. 

And so they serve and worship coercive and acquisitive power, without fear of accountability.

God is not mocked.   What a man sows, so shall he reap.

The more silent God becomes, the more profound his chastisement will be.

Have a safe and pleasant New Year's Eve.