The Suffering Servant of Isaiah

"See, my servant shall prosper,
he shall be raised high and greatly exalted.
Even as many were amazed at him—
so marred was his look beyond human semblance
and his appearance beyond that of the sons of man—
so shall he startle many nations,
because of him kings shall stand speechless;
for those who have not been told shall see,
those who have not heard shall ponder it.

Who would believe what we have heard?
To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
He grew up like a sapling before him,
like a shoot from the parched earth;
there was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him,
nor appearance that would attract us to him.
He was spurned and avoided by people,
a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity,
one of those from whom people hide their faces,
spurned, and we held him in no esteem.

Yet it was our infirmities that he bore,
our sufferings that he endured,
while we thought of him as stricken,
as one smitten by God and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our offenses,
crushed for our sins;
upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole,
by his stripes we were healed.
We had all gone astray like sheep,
each following his own way;
but the Lord laid upon him
the guilt of us all.

Though he was harshly treated, he submitted
and opened not his mouth;
like a lamb led to the slaughter
or a sheep before the shearers,
he was silent and opened not his mouth.
Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away,
and who would have thought any more of his destiny?
When he was cut off from the land of the living,
and smitten for the sin of his people,
a grave was assigned him among the wicked
and a burial place with evildoers,
though he had done no wrong
nor spoken any falsehood.
But the Lord was pleased
to crush him in infirmity.

If he gives his life as an offering for sin,
he shall see his descendants in a long life,
and the will of the Lord shall be accomplished through him.

Because of his affliction
he shall see the light in fullness of days;
through his suffering, my servant shall justify many,
and their guilt he shall bear.
Therefore I will give him his portion among the great,
and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty,
because he surrendered himself to death
and was counted among the wicked;
and he shall take away the sins of many,
and win pardon for their offenses."

Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12


"Jesus said, 'I thirst.'
There was a vessel filled with common wine.
So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a branch of hyssop
and put it up to his mouth.
After he had taken the drink he said,
'It is accomplished.'
And bowing his head, he gave up his spirit."

John 19:28-30


"And the centurion, standing watch of him, having seen all this, how he died, crying out as he yielded up his spirit, said, 'Truly this man was the Son of God.'"

Mark 15:39

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - All Things New

"And the angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid. I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here;  He is risen from the dead.  Go and tell the others.  This is my message to you.'"

Mt 28:5-8


"For God so loved the world..."

John 3:16

Gold and silver were pushed lower today after an early rally attempt.

The US dollar managed to add a little to its multi-day rally.

The Bucket Shop was relatively quiet again for the metals. The reports are included below.

Nothing has changed. Not one thing.

Have a pleasant holiday weekend. See you Sunday evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - The Gross Mispricing of Risk Enabled By the Fed

"Complexity is often a device for claiming sophistication, or for evading simple truths."

John Kenneth Galbraith

Stocks were lower in light trading volume, and like so many pre-holiday weekend days the light volume allowed trading algos to push the major indices back to unchanged.

VIX stuck its nose up a bit, but was beaten back down in the afternoon.

The Fed is a key enabler, if not one of the primary engineers, of a series of financial bubbles and collapses that act as wealth transferal events from the many to the financial sector and their wealthy few.

US markets will be closed tomorrow. Therefore there will be no market updates posted here.

Have a pleasant weekend.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - On the Slippery Slopes of Pigmanistan

"Over the last thirty years, the United States has been taken over by an amoral financial oligarchy, and the American dream of opportunity, education, and upward mobility is now largely confined to the top few percent of the population. Federal policy is increasingly dictated by the wealthy, by the financial sector, and by powerful (though sometimes badly mismanaged) industries such as telecommunications, health care, automobiles, and energy.

These policies are implemented and praised by these groups’ willing servants, namely the increasingly bought-and-paid-for leadership of America’s political parties, academia, and lobbying industry.

If allowed to continue, this process will turn the United States into a declining, unfair society with an impoverished, angry, uneducated population under the control of a small, ultrawealthy elite. Such a society would be not only immoral but also eventually unstable, dangerously ripe for religious and political extremism."

Charles Ferguson, Predator Nation, 2012


"Predator Nation demolishes the view that the global financial crisis was merely some sort of freak accident. Charles Ferguson makes a convincing case that the world’s banking system was brought to the brink of complete collapse in 2008–09 by a virulent combination of unchecked greed and criminal behavior.

This is an epic crime story with an apparently clean getaway, courtesy of the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations. Both presidents proved unwilling to hold anyone to account—or even to launch meaningful investigations.

Leading bankers walked away with billions of dollars in unjustified compensation. The costs imposed on the rest of us can be measured in the trillions of dollars."

Simon Johnson, economist and author,  book review of Predator Nation


“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy– they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

We have become so frivolous, so easily distracted, and so wantonly shallow that we are all becoming Tom and Daisy now.   We get by, like addicts, on partisan fear and hatred.  It is unfortunate but most have nothing to fall back on after the bread and circuses have run their course— no money, no love of anything but themselves, and no firm moral beliefs and principles.  Nothing but the abyss.

So far this dip we saw today in the wondrously mispriced risks of the US markets is just a pause, merely another day in the dismal lands of Pigmanistan.   Let's see if they can keep pumping this pig up to one of the more difficult levels of overhead support.

And a pig of a market this is.   The 'smart money' has been selling the rallies for the last couple of weeks. I wonder if they will be able to hang on until the end of the first quarter.

The vested financial interests, aka the dark hearts of fraud, wanted to get the major indices back to at least even if not green in the worst way.  And so far they have managed to do it with atavistically  named 'Dow Industrials' which is the favorite index of tourists.

What else would you call it, when this august index from history includes such 'industrial giants' as JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, American Express, Travelers, and Visa?

Well, after all, in Pigmanistan the major product is debt, wrapped up as dodgy financial paper.

Have a pleasant evening.