America in the Age of Narcissism

Although this is not scholarly, it is very interesting and well-informed.

Unlike psychopaths, narcissists are made, not born.

Families and even societies can be predisposed towards forming a greater percentage of narcissists because of the priorities they reinforce and the behaviours that they uphold and reward.

Among these are superficiality, personal entitlement, competitive pride that defines the person, a perverse sense of individualism, and above all a lack of empathy.

They can be professionally very successful, socially attractive and charismatic, bigger than life. But personally they are often inept and unfortunate, unable to sustain intimate relationships, morally ambivalent. They tend to react with coldness and rage when their desires and plans are thwarted.

They rarely accept responsibility or admit to errors. They project their failure onto others. They are empty inside, and seek to build externalities to make up for it. They try to fill their emptiness with things and money and credentials and other people. Their behaviour is a reflex in response to their emptiness.

Everyone has a need for recognition and validation. The difference is that in a narcissist the personal needs are so dominant that one becomes addicted to validation and a grandiose amount of recognition.

The malignant narcissist can easily become a white collar style of criminal, stealing from victims with little or no remorse, almost approaching the empathetic vacuity of a psychopath.

Losing all hope and empathy is their freedom. And in this way they fashion their own emptiness, and can become the lord and master of their own personal hell.

Precious Metals Comex Weekly Scoreboard

December is by far the most significant contract month for gold in the year.

Considering how little gold actually changes hands on the Comex, the action so far in December has been remarkable.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Lawlessness and Hearts Grown Cold - Non-Farm Payrolls Next Week

“Oh where is the noble face of modesty, or the strength of virtue, now that blasphemy is in power and men have put justice behind them, and there is no law but lawlessness, and none abide in fearful respect for the gods?”

Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis


“In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. ... Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow.

The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.”

Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

Apparently the Fed is investigating the manner in which Goldman was able to utterly evade their wonderful compliance oversight in executing a multi-billion dollar scam in Malaysia.  The Fed is now concerned because the Malaysians are demanding their money back!

And on another front, Deutsche Bank has been caught with their hand in the cookie jar (again) for major money laundering activity, over a long period of time, purposefully and systematically it would appear.

As a bad forecaster the Fed tries to make up for it by being a bad regulator as well.

One cannot blame those who think that the Banks, already established as serial felons, are like global crime cartels who seem to constantly evade justice, except for fines which they view as just a cost of doing very profitable and illicit business.

They are the real 'Teflon Cons.'

Traders cast aside their fears of higher interest rates and of an escalating trade dispute between the US and China today.

And so the major stock indices in the US went out at the highs.

Gold and silver were a bit weaker as the Dollar strengthened against most major currencies.

There will be a meeting between Xi of China and Trump of the US at the G20 meeting tomorrow. The markets are expecting some sort of 'breakthrough', or even words that can hint at or be interpreted as indicating a breakthrough, in the trade tensions between the US and China.

On the gold front we had the uncommon report of deliveries of paper claims on gold at the NY Comex, which is remarkable given that not much has been happening there for quite some time now.

HSBC was a major supplier of contracts, with the biggest taker being the house account at Goldman. I have included the clearing report below.

On the related inventory report you can see that HSBC moved a chunk of gold from the 'eligible' to 'deliverable' category to cover this transaction.

There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report for November next week. I have included the economic calendars below.

Dolly was very spiffy in her freshly cleaned snowflake sweater today. She watched me put up the Christmas lights outside. Hard to believe that Christmas is only a few weeks away.

Need little, want less, love more. For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Winter Is Coming

The markets paused today to consolidate their gains.

The economic news is not all that good if you look at it closely. But since most mainstream media talking heads just parrot talking points everything is just great.

I adjusted and synched up the two equity charts with respect to levels and terminology.

Both have hit their 2nd level of retracements after the recent sell off. What the means is that the 'bounce' that often comes after a big drop is over, and the shorts are squeezed, and the hot money has poured back in for the short term trade.

Now we will see what the markets are made of, as we see how traders position themselves into the close into a weekend.

Geopolitical risks are still rather imposing, even if most of the domestic concerns are being swept under a rug of optimism and happy talk from the gated community types.

Deutsche Bank is in trouble again with regulators. Since the big banks often tend to resemble serial felons, this is no surprise. One way to get rid of crime is to deregulate so much and prosecute and investigate so little that nothing is a crime anymore. Innovation!

The 'economic donkeys', as Simon Johnson calls them, are setting us up for another whopper of a financial crisis. It is important to remember that they do not care, as long as they are able to avoid any blame for it.

The latest long range weather forecasts seem to be arriving at a colder and snowier outlook for the northeastern US.  Something about a 'weak el nino' and a jet stream that barrels down from the arctic. Great.

I took Dolly to the groomers yesterday for a hair cut and a wash, and she spent the rest of the day pouting. But she did like it when I put her little snowflake sweater on this afternoon and took her for a walk. I washed all of her blankets, sweaters, pillowcases and so forth, and so they all smell very good and are nice and clean.

Today was, I hope, the last day for clearing leaves with the JD lawn tractor. I gave it a thorough cleaning and parked it for the winter. I'll probably give it an end of year tune up this weekend. I already changed the cutting blades and had the old ones sharpened. I keep two pairs and just keep rotating them.

I was a little surprised at how few birds and squirrels and chipmunks were around the bird feeder after the very early morning. When I took Dolly for her walk I saw that one of the big red-tailed hawks is back in the neighborhood.

The Raptor Trust is nearby.  They released three big hawks which they had rehabilitated a couple years ago. When one of those silent predators start cruising the skies overhead, most of the wildlife takes cover.  The blue jays always start sounding an alarm as they do for snakes and other predators.

We live near the Great Swamp Wildlife Refuge.   There is a large assortment of wildlife that forages out from there, especially during the winter.  They tend to come up the waterways and wooded areas. There are black bears to bobcats and everything in between.

The bird population variety is impressive up in these foothills.   We even have the orange plumed tweeter, which is often seen on weekends at the nearby Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster.

Have a pleasant evening.