Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - After Many a Summer Dies the Swan

The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
The vapours weep their burthen to the ground,
Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,
And after many a summer dies the swan.

Alfred Lord Tennyson, Tithonus

There will be a precious metals option expiration tomorrow on the Comex. It may be more significant for gold rather than silver.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metal Charts - A Late Summer's Afternoon

Bertramka Villa, Prague

"Listen, and I will tell you a mystery:  we will not all fall sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the call of the last trumpet. For that trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we, we will be changed.  

For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.   And when the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then shall come to pass the words which have been written:  ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’"

1 Corinthians 15:51-54

There will be an options expiration on the Comex for precious metals next week on Tuesday the 26th. Given that it is for the October contracts it could be more important for gold than silver.

Late this afternoon Senator McCain indicated he cannot vote for the latest form of GOP healthcare repeal.

Pictured to the right is the Bertramka Villa in Prague. I visited it with Mary when I was attending business school classes in Prague in 1991.  It is associated with Mozart and I believe he wrote his 'Prague Symphony' there as well.  They had a small Mozart exhibition and I still have a small bust of the composer as a young boy in my study that I purchased there.

The day is absolutely beautiful outside, and so I will be leaving a bit early today.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Ubi Sunt? Not With a Bang, But a Whimper

“Love does not make you weak, because it is the source of all strength, but it makes you see the nothingness of the illusory strength on which you depended before you knew it.”

Léon Bloy

Stocks were a little wobbly today, although the VIX continued to be at quite low levels for this year at least.

The economic news is mixed, as usual.

The dollar gave a little of yesterday's sharp rally higher back today. The rally itself was more technical than anything else, given the long decline that it has already seen. Certainly any notions of a hawkish Fed raising rates with enough fortitude to make a difference in the dollar is sheer fantasy.

The Fed may have one more rate increase in them for this year, but they are already on thin ice given the weak recovery and lingering lack of organic growth. The reasons are so obvious one really hates to keep repeating them. The economists certainly know them, but they are reluctant to discuss the Emperor's nakedness.  Alas, they are too often a craven careerist lot as a whole.  But such are the times.

As my Greek attorney put it just today, "Hillary just wants to tweak the status quo because it works well for her and her donors Bernie wanted to change the status quo, so he was a threat to everyone but the public."

Indeed. The credibility trap is alive and well, and crippling the impulse and efforts to reform.

Have a pleasant evening.

And where is the magnificence now, the glory that was Greece, the grandeur that was Rome.  And where is the Emperor Nero now, immortal god and lord of the world, but a memory, returned to the earth as the dirt and dust.    Perhaps he is to be found as a piece of dirt beneath the fingernails of some little child, to be plucked out and discarded, with a 'tut tut'  from a doting mother.

The mighty rise and are fallen, but the word and the spirit endure.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - In the Garden of Beasts

"I wonder, Madam, that you have not penetration to see the strong inducement to this excess; for he who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."

Dr. Samuel Johnson

Today the FOMC made an announcement.

They do not understand what is happening, or at least cannot openly admit it.

But they hope that they can, with straight faces, raise interest rates a bit more, so that they can lower them again when their latest financial assets bubble bursts.

They are exceptional hypocrites.

Only the politicians, and them being lawyers for the most part, are more accomplished.

Have a pleasant evening.