Stocks and Precious Charts - Exceptionalism: Daughter of Pride and Delusion

"Many of us like to ask ourselves, 'What would I do if I was alive during slavery?  Or the Jim Crow South?  Or apartheid?  What would I do if my country was committing genocide?'  The answer is, you're doing it.  Right now."

Aaron Bushnell

"They live out their days in prosperity, and slide peacefully down into hell."

Job 21:13

"If at the start this cancerous growth in the nation was not particularly noticeable, it was only because there were still enough forces at work that operated for the good, so that it was kept under control.  As it grew larger, however, and finally in an ultimate spurt of growth attained ruling power, the tumor broke open, as it were, and infected the whole body.

Now the end is at hand.  Now it is our task to find one another again, to spread information from person to person, to keep a steady purpose, and to allow ourselves no rest until the last man is persuaded of the urgent need of his struggle against this system.  When thus a wave of unrest goes through the land, when 'it is in the air,' when many join the cause, then in a great final effort this system can be shaken off.  After all, an end in terror is preferable to terror without end."

The White Rose, Second Leaflet, Munich, March 1942

"I wonder whether people who ask God to intervene openly and directly in our world quite realise what it will be like.  That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it or not."

C. S. Lewis 1944

“The real damage is done by those millions who want to 'get by.'  The ordinary men who just want to be left in peace.  Those who don’t want their lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves.  Those with no sides and no causes.  Those who won’t take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness.  Those who don’t like to make waves—or enemies.  Those for whom freedom, honour, truth, and principles are only literature.  Those who live small, love small, die small. 

But it’s all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe.  Safe?!  From what?  Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does. 

I choose my own way to burn.”

Sophie Scholl


US airman Aaron Bushnell, who recently and quite literally chose his own way to burn, asked this question, 'What would I do if I was alive during slavery?  Or the Jim Crow South?  Or apartheid?  What would I do if my country was committing genocide?' 

To this one might add, 'What would I do if I was alive during the time of the Antichrist?'

C. S. Lewis made a poignant observation about this in his 1944 observations which were published as a book, Mere Christianity.

"I wonder whether people who ask God to intervene openly and directly in our world quite realise what it will be like.  That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it or not."

And many will play their sure thing and cry out on that day, Lord, Lord!  And we have been told what his response will be, depending on who we have followed, and what we have done. 

Exceptionalism.  The daughter of Pride and delusion.  

A sure fire way to reorder our priorities, to achieve the maximum amount of damage and regret.

Oh please, Jesse.  Don't start talking now about the end of time.  That's just a fairy tale.

And one might retort, 'Point taken.  But what about the end of your time?'  Timing aside, that seems like a sure thing.

Stocks managed to hold a bounce today ahead of the incoming economic data for the rest of the week.

Gold and silver took a little hit, very traditional for the day after a Comex option expiration, even a very quiet one.

VIX has now fallen down to its 50 day moving average.

The Dollar was flat.

Let's see what happens, and where we may be going.

Quo vadis, Domine?

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - They Did Not Know What Was Happening

 

"A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars."

Revelation 12:1

“God's truth judges created things out of love, and Satan's truth judges them out of envy and hatred.  Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating.  By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be with the coming of the Son of man.  In the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, even to that very day in which Noah entered into the ark.  They did not know what was happening, even as the flood came and swept them all away."

Matthew 24:37-39

"Be merciful, just as your Father in heaven is merciful.   Judge not, and you will not be judged.  Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.  Forgive, and you will be forgiven.  Give, and it will be given to you.  A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured for you.  For as you measure, it will be measured to you."

Luke 6:36-38

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after everything you have endured, to remain standing."

Ephesians 6:12-13


Stocks did another pop and flop here at the current lofty level.

Gold and silver were hit, but gold managed to take its loss back.  

Silver not so much.

I suspect that at some point we will see gold up $50-100/ounce overnight. 

As for silver, depending on the circumstances, its move might be harrowing to the metal bears.

But let's see what happens.

The VIX of course fell.

There will be some key economic data coming out this week.

PCE, the favored measured of inflation at the Fed, will be reported on Thursday.

The markets are whistling past a geopolitical graveyard.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - They Harden Their Hearts

 

"O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.  If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.  But if not, even if he does not preserve us, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the false images you have set up and commanded us to worship."

Daniel 3:16-18

"Take a stand for that which is right, and the world may misunderstand you and criticize you, but you never go alone.  Wherever you are going this morning, my friends, tell the world that you're going with truth.  You're going with justice, you're going with goodness, and you will have an eternal companionship.  And the world will look at you and they won't understand you, for your fiery furnace will be around you, but you'll go on anyhow.

But if not, I will not bow, and God grant that we will never bow before the gods of evil."

Martin Luther King, But If Not, Atlanta, Georgia, November, 1967

"We may boast that we are the chosen people; we may even thank God that we are not like other men.  But after all it will be but flattery, and the delusion, the self deceit of the Pharisee."

John Adams, Letter to John Taylor, 29 July 1814

"Time and again we hope for better leaders, but all too often those hopes are dashed. The reason is that power causes people to lose the kindness and modesty that got them elected, or they never possessed those sterling qualities in the first place. They have the ultimate secret weapon to defeat their competition. They’re shameless.”

Rutger Bregman, Humankind: A Hopeful History

"Greed is not good.  Greed is a disease, an aberration of simple honest ambition and necessary provision taken to excess.  And yet this generation would make a god of it.  Greed is contagious, and attacks the very contentment of society at its heart, turning it towards oligarchy and oppression.

Jesse, Greed Is Not Good, 19 December 2010

“Hear now, O Israel: Is my way not just?  Is it not your ways that are not just?  When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die.  Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life.  Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die."

Ezekiel 18:25-28


No, they seem to never learn.  Because the dark forces they have taken into their hearts do not want to leave: fear and greed, lust for possessions and power.  They want in their bitterness to remain, and to destroy and devour creation.

And if you tell them, they will hate you, and silence and abuse you.

But you will tell them anyhow.   Because that is what is demanded by love.

Stocks popped and flopped today.

VIX continued to fall towards an oddly displaced disregard for the world.

The Dollar was flat.

Gold and silver rallied and the miners recovered after their recent flogging.

The gold inventories in Hong Kong are scraping the bottom of the barrel.  Time for a recharge.

Wash - rinse - repeat.

God's justice will not remain silent for much longer.

Have a pleasant weekend.