Why Are the 'Yellow Vests' Protesting

"Four weekends of mass protests in Paris and in towns and villages across France have hampered economic activity while hurting the country’s image with investors, the government said Monday...

He [Macron] did not mention changing course on the most business-friendly overhaul of the French labor market in decades. The omission was a signal to investors that, despite the recent chaos, Mr. Macron plans to stick with his strategy for re-energizing Europe’s third-largest economy by pursuing changes that had stalled for more than a decade...

His mostly unyielding attitude underscores the stakes for France as he eases business regulations to seed dynamism. His plans include altering the country’s strict labor code to encourage hiring, and making budget adjustments during his first year in office that hit low-income earners and retirees especially hard, even as he cut taxes for wealthy people."

NY Times, Unrest in France Hinders Macron’s Push to Revive Economy


"The headline of an article [NY Times] on the protests in France told readers 'Unrest in France hinders Macron’s push to revive economy.'

The policies in question include ending a wealth tax on the rich, cutting retirees' Social Security benefits, and a series of measures designed to reduce the power of unions. While it is possible that Macron has taken these steps because he really does believe that this is the best to boost economic growth, it is also possible that he has taken these steps because he wants to give more money to rich people.   In this respect it is worth noting that Macron is a former investment banker. Therefore he is likely to be very rich, and to have rich friends."

"The problem of the last three decades is not the 'vicissitudes of the marketplace,' but rather deliberate actions by the [captured] government to redistribute income from the rest of us to the one percent."

Dean Baker

If a neoliberal agenda remains economically ascendant, and if a ruling elite continues to blind itself to the damage that it is causing to the broader public, over a long period of time through the enforcement of self-serving policies, even in the name of 'growth,' which is most often a rationale for a policy of 'more for us,' then we may very well expect what history suggests will happen.

It makes no difference what I or you want.  Don't hide behind the caution of 'be careful what you wish for', especially as a cover to avoid the consequences for years of deception and corruption.   You may find yourself trying to silence the very voices that you will need to speak out for justice with reason and mercy, when history comes knocking on your door.

We need to be talking about what is happening and why, and where it will lead unless we engage in meaningful reform of a system that has become a wealth extraction machine for a privileged few.

But that is not likely to happen, since the powerful now control most of the means of discussion and its platforms.  And, sad to say, both political parties.  Don't expect the utterly craven GOP, or even the self-satisfied, arrogant, corporate Democrats to stand for real reform.  They are creatures of the same rotten system, with their own fig leaves with which they hide themselves from their conscience.

Remember, it is 18 Democrats who are blocking the reaffirmation of 'net neutrality.'   And not surprisingly they are wearing the feed bags of the corporate lobbyists.  They talk a very good game, but in the end, they serve the powerful interests who pay them.

And so we will continue rolling forward into what increasingly appears to be inevitable.

"People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage. Intellectual myopia, often called stupidity, is no doubt a reason. But the privileged also feel that their privileges, however egregious they may seem to others, are a solemn, basic, God-given right. The sensitivity of the poor to injustice is a trivial thing compared with that of the rich."

John Kenneth Galbraith

Tsar Nicholas II:  I know what will make them happy. They're children, and they need a Tsar! They need tradition. Not this! They're the victims of agitators.  A Duma would make them bewildered and discontented. And don't tell me about London and Berlin. God save us from the mess they're in!

Count Witte:  I see. So they talk, pray, march, plead, petition and what do they get?  Cossacks, prison, flogging, police, spies, and now, after today, they will be shot.  Is this God's will?  Are these His methods?  Make war on your own people?  How long do you think they're going to stand there and let you shoot them?   YOU ask ME who's responsible?  YOU ask?

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Pop and Flop - ECB Tomorrow

Stocks made an attempt to rally today, an effort that largely faded to nothing in the afternoon.

The dip buyers lack conviction and are quick to take profits.

No doubt that this is a side effect of the increased uncertainty, and therefore risk, in geopolitics and the economy.

Gold and silver went sideways despite a stronger Dollar.

Trumpolini had a fairly interesting squabble with Pelosi and Schumer in the Oval Office on live television today.   It reminded me of one of those kinds of family gatherings where the unconventional uncle puts the whole room into a tizzy.   I was just glad he never left the edge of the seat that he was perched so precariously on.  Now that would have been something to remember.

The ECB will be meeting tomorrow and is expected to make some sort of announcement about interest rates.

Please remember to feed the birds and His lesser creatures in this cold and barren winter weather.

I am going to be making a batch of winter melon soup à la chinoise this week. I was out gathering the essential ingredients from my friendly neighborhood Asian grocery store this afternoon. And of course I picked up a number of other essentials including a wonderful 'special lunch' and some dim sum.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Is Paris Burning? - The Fire in the Minds of Men

"The central bank gold lending market, centered in London, is probably the most secretive financial market in the world, with very little known about its transactions and market structure.  The gold lending market’s opacity is further supported by regulators who protect the secrecy of the central banks, and mainstream financial news agencies whose editorial policies seem to forbid any market investigations, in-depth or otherwise.

It is in the gold lending market that the central banks of the world lend out their gold holdings to commercial bullion banks, where the physical gold is sold and shipped out, and where the central banks then claim to hold interest-earning ‘gold deposits’ with the bullion banks.  These gold-deposits (which are merely a claim on a bullion bank) then mostly roll over short-term, passed around indefinitely between the clubby LBMA cartel of bullion banks, in a totally opaque behind the scenes network.

The physical gold bars lent out are long gone to Switzerland and the Far East, and the central banks then deceptively claim that they still hold the gold on their balance sheets when in fact all they have is a liability to the bullion banks.  In the middle of this market sits the Bank of England, offering gold custody and storage to other central banks (in the vaults under the Bank of England headquarters in London) and offering gold accounts to the bullion banks concerned..."

Ronan Manly, French central bank and JP Morgan team up to boost Gold Lending


"We looked into the abyss if the gold price rose further. A further rise would have taken down one or several trading houses, which might have taken down all the rest in their wake.

Therefore at any price, at any cost, the central banks had to quell the gold price, manage it. It was very difficult to get the gold price under control but we have now succeeded. The US Fed was very active in getting the gold price down. So was the U.K."

Eddie George, Governor Bank of England, in a conversation with the CEO of Lonmin, September 1999


"What is most offensive is not their lying— one can always forgive lying— lying can be a delightful thing, for it leads to truth. What is offensive is that they lie, and worship their own lying."

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

Stocks caught a little bounce today.

It cheered up the spokesmodels, and gave the commentariat a chance to run banal pieces like 'Is Volatility the New Normal?'

Let's see if it will stick.

Gold and silver gave back a little of their recent gains.

The shell game that has been extending the current gold pool is running thin.

When this latest attempt to shape economic reality with hot money and words blows up, as it surely will, the resultant concussions will catch many by surprise.

But realistically,  how can anyone in a position of authority see it coming, when their eyes are averted and their ears are closed?

“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts.”

Patrick Rothfuss

Have a pleasant evening.

Killard House School is a co-educational Controlled School providing for children and young people with additional special educational needs. These include Moderate Learning Difficulties, Autistic Spectrum Disorder and associated Emotional barriers.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - No Capitulation Yet

“The worst continued to worsen. What looked one day like the end proved on the next day to have been only the beginning. Nothing could have been more ingeniously designed to maximize the suffering, and also to insure that as few people as possible escape the common misfortune. The fortunate speculator who had funds to answer the first margin call presently got another and equally urgent one, and if he met that there would still be another.

In the end all the money he had was extracted from him and lost. The man with the smart money, who was safely out of the market when the first crash came, naturally went back in to pick up bargains. The bargains then suffered a ruinous fall. Even the man who waited for volume of trading to return to normal and saw Wall Street become as placid as a produce market, and who then bought common stocks would see their value drop to a third or a fourth of the purchase price in the next 24 months. The Coolidge bull market was a remarkable phenomenon. The ruthlessness of its liquidation was, in its own way, equally remarkable.”

John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash of 1929

Stocks went back down to test the lows.

Market manipulation just doesn't stick like it used to.

Gold and silver moved higher as the Dollar weakened.

Goldman continued to take contracts for gold on the Comex.

Next week is going to let us know if Santa is coming to town.

Have a pleasant weekend.