An Open Letter To the Political and Professional Establishment: Everyone Can Still Serve Others, Even You

“But now, we are witnessing a transformation—   a true opium of the people is the belief in nothingness after death, the huge solace, the huge comfort of thinking that for our betrayals, our greed, our cowardice, our murders, we are not going to be judged.”

Czesław Miłosz


"These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume."

William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet


"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills its prophets, and persecutes God's messengers."

The 'drum major instinct' according to Martin Luther King is the impulse to lead, to be praised, to be the center of attention, to set yourself apart from and above your fellows, and to have more money and power than everyone else.

It can become the destructive impulse to arrogant pride and blind selfishness, and thereby becomes corrosive to society, our relationships, and our personal well being.

And it most certainly can lead politicians and the professional class to dance blithely along the path to their own self-annihilation.

History has proven that.

'But I have been in public service for twenty years!  Look what I have done!'

Yes, look around you, and see what you and yours have done.

See the poverty and misery of so many.   See your spin, your cynical hypocrisy, and your lawless betrayal of all that you had once believed in, for the pursuit of your own advancement and wealth.

You may have even managed to convince yourself and others that you were doing it for the greater good, while you were becoming a greedy, pathological liar, and everything that you had once despised.

But what does it profit a man...

See what you have done, and the burden that you carry because of it, before it is too late to change it and make amends.

Thomas Frank on the Election and the Neo-Pagan God of the Market

"Since the earliest stages of human history, of course, there have been bazaars, rialtos, and trading posts—all markets.   But The Market was never God, because there were other centers of value and meaning, other 'gods.' The Market operated within a plethora of other institutions that restrained it. As Karl Polanyi has demonstrated in his classic work The Great Transformation, only in the past two centuries has The Market risen above these demigods and chthonic spirits to become today's First Cause."

Harvey Cox, The Market As God: Living In the New Dispensation


"Do you not know that to whom you yield yourselves as servants to obey, his servants you become, whether of a corruption unto death, or of a righteousness unto life?"

Rom 6:16

Thomas Frank is far, far too kind to Obama and the Wall Street Democrats.

It was not about a misguided attempt to work together with irrational people.

No, it was all about throwing the people under the bus in the pursuit of the Almighty Dollar.  Nothing could be more clear.

This was the Clinton Legacy, and Obama and the rest of the Democratic Establishment went along for the ride—  into an electoral brick wall.

For the professional class of politicians and the wealthy this was not about civil rights, this was not about decency and justice, and it certainly was not about compassion and kindness even if they were very careful to keep mouthing the words and giving lip service to the pretenses of social but not economic equality.

It was all about money and power.  Theirs.  Narrowly focused greed that was willfully blind to all that was happening around it.  Washington and New York and London and Berlin are thick with it.

And now that their mighty god has betrayed them and bestowed its power on its other, more faithfully vicious children, they are running around without a mission or a purpose other than themselves, not knowing what to do next.

Just Charts on an Autumn Afternoon - As Time Goes By

I was out with the queen for most of the day, cruising out to the Pennsylvania Dutch markets west of where we live, so it is just charts tonight.   I believe that I have previously mentioned her own Amish heritage in Lancaster on her father's side.

As I mentioned yesterday, I think the post-election stock move is running out of steam.

The metals were hit today, about as consciously and deliberately as we have seen this year.  You can attribute much of this week's move in the metals to the dollar crosses, and I have been including the DX charts as usual.  But today was very conscious market action, slamming the metals and the miners down to support ahead of next week.

Next week will be a stock option expiration, and the week after the Comex metals option expiry.

December is a big month for the metals.

I am working very hard not to judge Trump's presidency yet by the putative Cabinet appointments that are being thrown about.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Just Charts - Deny and Defy - Les Feuilles Mortes

It was an absolutely beautiful late Autumn day here,  crisp and sunny.

And I could not resist the temptation to be outside working on productive things in the yard.  It gets dark so early now it is good to use all the daylight that we have.

The deny and defy rally looks to be just about over.   Huge divergences today.

It is almost as if the financiers are playing out the script they had agreed upon before the election.

Financials and healthcare are leading the way up on hopes of a friendlier regulatory climate.  The sectors that might be affected by a major fiscal stimulus in US infrastructure are feeling the love.

But the market seems very schizophrenic about the future.

Let's see how things go from here.

Have a pleasant evening.