SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Blue Skies As Far As One Can See

So how do you like the big turnaround.

Not too long ago stocks were dropping, and the bears were slavering for a market break and talking crash.

And today the punters are talking about new highs, and 20% returns on the year for the SP 500 with permanent prosperity for the rentier class.

Its a wash and rinse. Or as Al Capone put it, "It's a racket."

I wonder if we have time for another cycle before the Alibab IPO in September.

Have a pleasant evening.

US Minimum Wage Compared to Other Countries

"The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield."

George Orwell

I think we can stipulate that these charts do not compare US minimum wages to some of the worst sweatshops of Asia and the Southern hemisphere with whom US workers are expected to compete thanks to undiscriminating 'free trade' treaties. 

And so human rights and the public good are invariably and consciously driven towards the lowest common denominator of cruel and abusive government corruption.

These charts are from Tim Taylor at the Conversable Economist.

I am sure people will draw from them whatever they wish to support their own policy biases and pre-conclusions.

But the one thing we need to internalize is that the US has become all about setting policies and enforcing laws to create and maintain a working underclass as a vulnerable food source for the predator class, a condition that is inimical to a thriving democracy.

And people are becoming more aware of this now that a good portion of the former middle class is falling into that underclass category that lives from hand to mouth, paycheck to paycheck. 

It is becoming undeniable that the political class is no longer listening to 'the people,' but to the richest and most powerful individuals and the organizations that support them and give them that power.

This is not 'capitalism.'  This is crony capitalism, and the deadly corruption of oligarchy.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Lies, Damn Lies, and the Irresponsibility of the Status Quo

"We run carelessly to the precipice after we have put up a façade to prevent ourselves from seeing it.”

Blaise Pascal

Gold was under some pressure, with silver capped.

The market decided that since shooting had not broken out in the Ukraine that all is well and it was time to bulk up on the risk trade, albeit with low volumes.

This is a very cynical, Fed-fueled market.

The lies are flying thick and fast if you are following any of these geo-political events.

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Fearless

As long as nothing has gone wrong in the last 24 hours the bulls are almost fearless in these low volume, highly technically traded markets.

I feel as though my skeptical cynicism of this stock market has been vindicated. As if anything good can come of this. lol

Have a pleasant evening.