Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts

"Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest."

Benjamin Franklin

Reprise: 7 June 2010 - Gold Attempting to Break Out To New Highs

SP 500 and NDX March Futures Daily Charts

“All the capital employed in paper speculation is barren and useless, producing, like that on a gaming table, no accession to itself, and is withdrawn from commerce and agriculture where it would have produced addition to the common mass:  that it nourishes in our citizens habits of vice and idleness instead of industry and morality: that  it has furnished effectual means of corrupting such a portion of the legislature as turns the balance between the honest voters whichever way it is directed: that this corrupt squadron, deciding the voice of the legislature, have manifested their dispositions to get rid of the limitations imposed by the Constitution by the general legislature, limitations, on the faith of which, the States acceded to that instrument: that the ultimate object of all this is to prepare the way for a change from the present republican form of government to that of a monarchy: that they are still eager after their object, and are predisposing everything for its ultimate attainment.”

Thomas Jefferson, as quoted by Henry Stephen Randall, The Life Of Jefferson, Vol 2, p 62., 1871

The Banks must be restrained, and the financial system reformed, with balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustained recovery. All else is looting and folly, with apathy and complacent self-interest as their accomplices.

Mubarak Resigns, Hands Power to Military Government

Certainly well received by the crowds in the Cairo square, and of course the US equity market.


Mubarak Resigns as Egyptian President, Hands Power to Military


But the real work of reform is yet to come. This victory is perhaps more symbolic than substantial. Vice President Omar Suleiman is waiting in the wings, and the alternative is rule by the military.  As the Americans and English recently learned, one can throw out the scoundrels, but another version creeps in, if the overall climate of corruption remains intact.

The first step is to realize that one is not free.  This is not always so simple given some of the subtleties of modern tyranny. The next step is to be willing to do something about it, to peacefully stand for change, and demand freedom and reform.

Many other people can take this lesson from this. And they will. This is the forecast set out here for several years, and it all seems to be coming to pass, but slowly.

The spirit of Indignez-vous may provide an unsettling summer in Europe.  Change is in the wind, but it is not always predictable and constructive.  It moves like a force of nature-- sometimes a life giving rain, but at other times a tsunami.

Are you old enough to remember the euphoria surrounding the liberation of Paris?  Most likely not, but perhaps the more recent collapse of the Wall in Berlin?  Tonight reminds me of those times when hearts sang. 

But one must also consider, in this latest turn of the drama between the will to power and the spirit, what is the empire that crumbles?  And behind the scenes, who plays Gorbachev, and what overweening power does he serve?

I wish the Egyptian people well in their coming efforts and difficulties. Now the real work begins.  For freedom is not an achievement, or even a destination, but a way of life.

Although for tonight, a celebration.

Playing for Change

Le Café Américain set to music.

Stand By Me | Playing For Change | Song Around The World

Quand la nuit tombe et la terre est sombre
Et la lune est la lumière qui brille devant moi;
Je n'aurai pas peur, oh non, je n'aurai pas
Tant que tu restes, restes près de moi
Et chérie, chérie reste près de moi, oh reste près de moi
Oh reste, près de moi, près de moi...

Reste, Près de Moi