"It is crudely general to suggest collective responsibility for the German populace. It is, however, fair to suggest that those who continued to defend the idea of Germanhood publicly as the war went on—when this had become synonymous with barbarity—were in fact renouncing their humanity for the sake of individual survival and peace of mind."
Panayiotis Demopoulos, Götterdämmerung: Suicide Music
Markets went off like a rocket from support, thanks to a short term very oversold condition, along with a change in market sentiment that appears to anticipate President Clinton II and a Republican House.
The only surprise that I think is remotely probable is a Trump win or close showing in the popular vote, but a big loss in the electoral college.
And although others have said it, tomorrow settles nothing. The restlessness of the people should be obvious, and the onus for change will be on the President to be and the ruling elite. I am not optimistic.
As you may recall, The Sprott Trusts continue to add units outstanding in order to acquire more physical bullion under their 'At the Market' Program with Cantor Fitzgerald which was announced on May 6 of this year.
It is certainly was a smart move and a nice change from their prior arrangement with Morgan Stanley which was restrictive and prone to manipulation and arbitrage.
As we have noted many times this year, Sprott is taking affirming action in the markets to add to their bullion position opportunistically.
"The Trust has entered into a sales agreement with Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. (“Cantor”) whereby the Trust may, at its sole discretion and subject to its operating and investment restrictions, offer and sell trust units through an “at-the-market” offering program (the “ATM Program”).
The Trust intends to use the proceeds from any sales to acquire physical bullion in accordance with the Trust’s objectives and subject to the Trust’s investment and operating restrictions. Under the trust agreement governing the Trust, the net proceeds from the sale of any trust units pursuant to the ATM Program must be not less than 100% of the most recently calculated net asset value per trust unit prior to, or upon, determination of pricing of any sales (the “Accretion Condition”).
Given this Accretion Condition, the Trust expects that any sales pursuant to the ATM Program will be accretive to the Trust’s unitholders on a net asset value per trust unit basis and will increase the physical bullion attributable to each trust unit. Sprott also believes that the Trust may realize other secondary benefits from any sales made pursuant to the ATM Program including enhancing the trading liquidity of the Trust and decreasing the Trust’s operating expenses on a per unit basis."
As we all can see, today is certainly a 'risk asset' day with stocks soaring and the metals giving back some of their recent gains. The financiers and their markets seem to be betting that they get what they want from the upcoming Presidential election.
"The wealth of another region excites their greed; and if it is weak, their lust for power as well. Nothing from the rising to the setting of the sun is enough for them.
Among all others only they are compelled to attack the poor as well as the rich. Robbery, rape, and slaughter they falsely call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace."
Tacitus
"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."
Samuel Johnson
In our artificial economy real things do not matter so much, but politics and managing the perceptions of the public are of paramount importance.
And so the 'Goldilocks' Jobs Report, which is how the business TV channels described that lukewarm piece of dreck, did little to rally the markets except fleetingly intraday.
In the first chart below I take a look inside that 'average hourly earnings growth' number.
The headline includes ALL employees, but if you take out the top 15-20% of managers, the average hourly earning growth showed a pronounced downward divergence to a lower growth rate.
The BLS switched to this number including all employees a few years ago from the non-supervisory number.
As a rule of thumb, when someone shows you the 'average' number, find out the median number for the same sample. Especially in these days of historically high inequality.
Be that as it may, the markets overall were in a flight to safety as the financiers bowed to their fears of the upcoming presidential election, that something might happen that will upset their status quo.
Not the status quo— theirs.
Gold therefore rallied along with the Swiss franc, while the VIX climbed and stocks continued to extend their streak of weakness along with la douleur du monde.
The result that the market wants to see next week is a decisive win by Hillary, but with a Republican dominated Congress.
I think the reason that the financiers and their ruling elite would like to see this outcome is fairly obvious.
And the rest of the world, with a shudder, turns to find safe havens from this madness.
Chris Christie's minions were thrown to the wolves over Bridgegate, being found guilty today.
But despite their testimony implicating him, the governor is continuing to claim that he knew nothing of what his closest aides were doing in a signature act of petty political revenge that resulted in massive traffic snarls in a very key bridge carrying all the traffic of Interstate 80 between NJ and NY.
Well, at least NJ voters can move on and select a replacement in the next election in 2017. But alas, Christie has a top position with the Trump transition team.
Stocks rallied a bit in the early day from the 'Goldilocks' jobs report, which is how it was characterized on the extended Wall Street infomercials known as the business channels.
That did not last, since the big overhang is still the election next week, and despite the cheerleading the jobs report was not all that good, being lukewarm at best.
Well, their hypocrisy knows no bounds. So stop whining.
Let us pray for those whose hearts are hardened against His grace and loving kindness by greed, fear, and pride, and the seductive illusion and crushing isolation of evil.
We pray that we all may experience the three great gifts of our Lord's suffering and triumph: repentance, forgiveness, and thankfulness. And in so doing, may we obtain abundant life, and with it the peace that surpasses all understanding.
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