Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Austria's Beer Party Pours It On, Pulls a Head

 

"A political party in Austria that started as a joke is surging in the polls after coming up with an unusual strategy to curry favor with Vienna's populace — proposing a policy that would give a monthly barrel of beer to each household in Austria's capital. The aptly named 'Beer Party,' is currently polling at 12%, faring better than the center-right ÖVP party, which earned 10% in the latest poll, according to The Local, an English-language news outlet based in Austria.

If the state's elections were held today, the Beer Party would be on track to pick up city council seats. The Beer Party started out as satire. Dominik Wlazny, a 36-year-old musician, doctor, and performer created the group in 2015 to draw attention to what he saw as corruption within Austria's political ranks.

The organization's priorities include getting rid of taxes for beers served at bars while simultaneously upping the tax on 'Radlers' — a 50:50 concoction of beer and lemon soda — as well as similar mixed-drink 'atrocities.'  Meanwhile, the party's Radler buy-back program would allow people to turn in the lemon-flavored drinks in exchange for 'real beer.'

Wlazny ran for president in Austria's 2022 elections, becoming the country's youngest-ever candidate at 35 years and 10 months. Among his list of policy goals were a media literacy campaign in schools and a competency test for elected officials. He earned roughly 8.1% of the vote that year, per EuroNews. Besides its beer-themed policy goals, the party also holds a progressive stance on trans rights and green initiatives and wants to expand investments in public transport and sports facilities."

Nick Gallagher, Austria's Beer Party Surges in the Polls Ahead of State Election, The Messenger

 

Stocks slipped gear back into rally mode today, rising into their highs in the late afternoon on dodgy volumes.

Wash - rinse - repeat.

VIX fell.

The Dollar chopped sideways.

Gold and silver rebounded also going out near the highs.

Stock option expiration tomorrow.

There will be a February gold futures contract option expiration next week.

I like the idea of Austria's Beer Party.

We also have less serious satirical political parties in the US that propose outlandish policies and offer even less qualified candidates than the British.

They are called the Democrats and the Republicans.

And because they act so goofy doesn't mean that they are crazy.  They just think you are.

And you shouldn't have to be a banker or billionaire to be able to party hearty on the government tab.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Idols of the Market: Wicked and Unfaithful Hearts

 

"Hubris is the addiction to wealth and power, an arrogant over-reaching that involves injury to others.  By impoverishing economies it destroys the source of profits, interest, capital gains, and even recovery of the original savings and debt principal.  This abusive character of wealth and power is not what mainstream economic models describe.  That is why economic theory is broken.  The concept of diminishing marginal utility implies that the rich will become more satiated as they become wealthier, and hence less addicted to power.  This idea of progressive satiation returns gets the direction of change wrong, denying the basic thrust of the past ten thousand years of human technology and civilization."

Michael Hudson, Reality Economics, December 19, 2012

“Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.”

Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom

"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.  The Market is not omnipotent—yet. But the process is under way and it is gaining momentum."

Harvey Cox, The Market As God, The Atlantic, March 1999

"Then the Devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him the kingdoms of the world in all their greatness. And he said to him 'All these I will give you, if you fall down and worship me.'”

Matthew 4:8-9

"The devil is no fool. He can get people feeling about heaven the way they ought to feel about hell.  And he does so, not by light but by obscurity, not by realities but by shadows; not by clarity and substance, but by dreams and the creatures of psychosis. And men are so poor in intellect that a few cold chills down their spine will be enough to keep them from ever finding out the truth about anything."

Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island

“Each day we are becoming a creature of splendid glory, or one of unthinkable horror.”

C. S. Lewis

“In an earlier era, conflicts between aristocrats and ordinary people would be decided in favor of the aristocrats no matter what; judges who were themselves aristocrats took it for granted that people of their own class must prevail. Some of the developments that we have sketched suggest that we may be returning to such a system.”

Pam Martens, Everything That's Dangerous About US Banks Today, January 17, 2024

Stocks were wobbly again today, finishing lower.

The Dollar chopped sideways.

VIX edged higher.

Gold and silver were hit with selling again.

Another big chunk of physical gold left the Comex registered warehouses in Hong Kong.

There will be a stock option expiration on Friday.

Stop fomenting war and the murder of innocents in the pursuit of ever more money and more power.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - That Hideous Strength - Stock Option Expiration Friday

 

“Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.  It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest.  A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1952

"All the ruling elite have to offer to us is hate and fear— both of which obscure reason, that instrument of scrutiny which their self-serving actions and policies cannot bear."

Jesse, The Greatest Showman on Earth, 2 January 2019

“The last moments before damnation are not often so dramatic.  Often the man knows with perfect clarity that some still possible action of his own will could yet save him.  But he cannot make this knowledge real to himself.  Some tiny habitual sensuality, some resentment, the indulgence of some fatal lethargy, seems to him at that moment more important than the choice between total joy and total destruction.  With eyes wide open, seeing that the endless terror is just about to begin and yet, for the moment, unable to feel terrified, he watches passively, not moving a finger for his own rescue, while the last links with joy and reason are severed, and drowsily sees the trap close upon his soul.”

C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength, 1945

 

Stocks came in wobbly this morning, as the bipolar market stance towards Fed rate cuts went beaerish again.

This despite the shockingly bad Empire State Manufacturing Index.

And so the Dollar rallied quite handily.

Gold and silver fell.

VIX rose, but fell back in the afternoon as stocks managed to pare most of their losses.

The geopolitical situation is getting increasingly ugly.

Mispriced risks abounding.

It is difficult to take most of the short term moves in the markets too seriously.

Kind of like the results of the lightly participated Iowa caucus which garners attention only because of its early scheduling.

New Hampshire will be significantly more interesting as always.

There will be the monthly stock option expiration on Friday.

Have a pleasant evening.