skip to main |
skip to sidebar
"Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
O well done! I commend your pains;
And every one shall share in the gains;
And now about the cauldron sing,
Live elves and fairies in a ring,
Enchanting all that you put in.
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes."
Wm. Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 4, Sc. 1
"...The entire global system is at a critical juncture with sovereign bonds, currencies, stock markets and the fate of politicians all in play. The hidden purpose of QE and QE2 was always to cheapen the dollar by causing inflation in China and forcing its hand. Critics have said that QE did nothing to help with unemployment and consumption. But that was never the main purpose – the purpose was to weaken the dollar to help exports and get jobs that way, but it takes time.
I removed QE3 from my set of expectations late in 2010 when it became clear that Fed rollovers were enough to keep the yield curve tame and, more importantly, China was finally starting to move on the currency.
For now, QE3 is still off the table. But if the eurozone weakens and China weakens, that is the signal for more QE. It’s hard to know how this will play out, but at least we know what to look for. If you want to see QE3 ahead of the market, watch the euro.
Finally, it is not quite true there are no winners in a currency war. There is always one winner – gold."
Secrets of QE, Gold, and Currency Wars - Jim Rickards
“We are slow to master the great truth that even now Christ is, as it were, walking among us, and by His hand, or eye, or voice, bidding us to follow Him. We do not understand that His call is a thing that takes place now. We think it took place in the Apostles' days, but we do not believe in it; we do not look for it in our own case.
God's presence is not discerned at the time when it is upon us, but afterwards, when we look back upon what is gone and over. The world seems to go on as usual. There is nothing of heaven in the face of society, in the news of the day.
And yet the ever-blessed Spirit of God is there, ten times more glorious, more powerful than when He trod the earth in our flesh.
God beholds you. He calls you by your name. He sees you and understands you as He made you. He knows what is in you, all your peculiar feelings and thoughts, your dispositions and likings, your strengths and your weaknesses. He views you in your day of rejoicing and in your day of sorrow. He sympathizes in your hopes and your temptations. He interests Himself in all your anxieties and remembrances, all the risings and fallings of your spirit.
He encompasses you round and bears you in His arms. He notes your very countenance, whether smiling or in tears. He looks tenderly upon you. He hears your voice, the beating of your heart, and your very breathing. You do not love yourself better than He loves you. You cannot shrink from pain more than He dislikes your bearing it; and if He puts it on you, it is as you would put it on yourself, if you would be wise, for a greater good afterwards.
There is an inward world, which none see but those who belong to it. There is an inward world into which they enter who come to Christ, though to men in general they seem as before. If they drank of Christ's cup it is not with them as in time past. They came for a blessing, and they have found a work.
To their surprise, as time goes on, they find that their lot is changed. They find that in one shape or another adversity happens to them. If they refuse to afflict themselves, God afflicts them.
Why did you taste of His heavenly feast, but that it might work in you—why did you kneel beneath His hand, but that He might leave on you the print of His wounds?
God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission -- I may never know it in this life but I shall be told it in the next.
I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught.
I shall do good, I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments.
Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.
He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about.
He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me -- still He knows what He is about.
Let us feel what we really are--sinners attempting great things. Let us simply obey God's will, whatever may come. He can turn all things to our eternal good. Easter day is preceded by the forty days of Lent, to show us that they only who sow in tears shall reap in joy.
Contemplate then yourself, not as yourself, but as you are in the Eternal God. Fall down in astonishment at the glories which are around you and in you, poured to and fro in such a wonderful way that you are dissolved into the Kingdom of God.
The more we do, the more shall we trust in Christ; and that surely is no morose doctrine, that leads us to soothe our selfish restlessness, and forget our fears, in the vision of the Incarnate Son of God.
May the Lord support us all the day long, till the shades lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done.
Then in His mercy may He give us safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at last.”
John Henry Newman
This is a collection of quotations from J. H. Newman woven into a whole cloth by Le Proprietaire as a young man for a small circle of friends.
Gold = 1 / T,
where T stands for the Trust that people have in the fiat Monetary System and the financial complex running it. Jim Grant points the finger at the central bankers, but they are merely creatures, albeit powerful actors, in a system of privilege and legalized looting.
In other words, the price of gold will run higher in response to the opacity, crony capitalism, insider dealing, abuses of power, and arbitrary valuations in the financial system and the overall system of governance.
Gold, and to a growing extent silver, are the safe havens for the world. This flight to safety is the fundamental driver of the precious metals bull market.
And I think that the ownership of gold and silver is still highly selective, based often on culture, financial sophistication, or a general predisposition against trust in monolithic organizations.
As a recognition of what is happening penetrates more deeply into the public consciousness, the spike in the price of precious metals may be much more impressive.
Is this weakening of confidence justified? One must ask themselves, how deeply has the corruption in the system been reformed?
Has transparency been restored, and the confidence of the members of the system been regained by things other than public relation campaigns, forced choices, subtle coercion, market manipulation, and even blatant propaganda?
These crony capitalists are so inward looking and corrupt that their policy response is to continue the looting and intensify the deception until confidence in the system is restored.
There is plenty of free choice to be had in this brave new world, from 401k's to the election ballot, as long as one chooses from what they give you.
That is the answer, the fundamental driver of the valuation.
"A bubble is a bull market in which the user of the word "bubble" has not fully participated. You can think of gold as a stock that went from 2⅝ to 18 in a dozen years. I'm not sure that's a bubble. It is the nature of gold that its valuation must forever be a mystery. It earns nothing. It pays no dividend. No conference call, no management to call up and complain to.
What I do think is gold is simply the reciprocal of the world's faith in the institution of managed currencies. It is one divided by T, where T stands for trust. And trust is a shrinking number and will continue to shrink. Therefore, I am still bullish on gold.
If a bubble connotes absurdity, what is absurd are the monetary conditions that supported this gold bull market. Gold is an expression of the world's justifiable distrust of the way our central bankers conduct their affairs. The poetry of it is that it can't be quantified. The central banks are unworthy opponents. The Fed has pledged 0% money-market rates for the next two years, so that's not much competition. And the governments of the world are taking under advisement this notion called financial repression—short-circuiting market mechanisms, capital controls, punitive taxes or intrusive taxes and the like."
Jim Grant: Gold Still Looks Good, Japan Still Doesn't - Barron's
"The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks." Lord Acton
But before the people finally come to reform the Banks, the monied interests will throw quite a few patsies, traditional scapegoats, and red herrings on the fire in their stead. And if they have their way, they will burn down society rather than give up their seats at the top of the hill.
Comex option expiration next week, and the European and US central banks are widely expected to engage in more printing to save the most reckless banks at the expense of the public.
