"My fear is that we have seen the rule of law function in our country for so long that many of us have come to take it for granted. The rule of law is not self-executing. It depends on our collective commitment to apply it."
Jack Smith, Testimony to Congress, 22 January 2026
"Man has places in his heart which do not yet exist, and into them enters suffering, in order that they may have life."
Léon Bloy
There was a stock option expiration for June on this Friday past as noted on the option calendar below.
There will be a Comex option expiration for the precious metals on June 27th which is the Tuesday after next.
The economic news still indicates an economy that is faltering on the edge of a sustainable recovery. The biggest problem is still the lack of real income (wage) growth among the breadth of the participants in the real economy.
I am afraid that the deck is still stacked pretty much against the 99% because of financial, regulatory, and political distortions in favor of the wealthiest few at the expense of the many.
Next week is a bit light on economic news. That calendar is also included below as well as the results of economic announcements for this week past.
There are three ledgers that are kept for us in God's economy: kindness, compassion, and love.
Janet made hawkish noises to go along with the 25 bp interest rate increase today.
I don't think they will be raising rates much more this year, if the economy is doing as badly as the data and the fundamentals seem to indicate to me.
The US dollar plunged on the rotten economic news this morning. And then rallied hard this afternoon on the Fed's hawkish noises. A chart of that intraday is below.
The queen was in the emergency room this weekend, and will be going in for some more tests on Friday. She had a major seizure and fell and hit her head on the refrigerator last Thursday, and that has introduced some additional concerns and problems and challenges to care.
I am catching sleep as I can during the day mostly, and watching the queen pretty much all the time otherwise. Even if I fall asleep in the chair I am positioned to hear her if anything is going on. She has a tendency to get up and try to do things on her own, which is not wise. On Sunday night I stopped her choking on her own regurgitation.
Right now one of our angel friends is sitting with her, while I run out to pick up some prescriptions.
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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