"Lying, deceiving, and manipulation are natural talents for psychopaths. When caught in a lie or challenged with the truth, they are seldom perplexed or embarrassed— they simply change their stories or attempt to rework the facts so that they appear to be consistent with the lie. The results are a series of contradictory statements and a thoroughly confused listener.
Psychopaths have a grandiose self-structure which demands a scornful and detached devaluation of others, in order to ward off their envy toward the good perceived in other people.
Robert D. Hare, Without Conscience
Stocks closed within 'spitting distance' of a new high today.
At least that is what the spokesmodels said.
Let's see if they can make it, and stick a close for a new high.
And how long after that it takes to set up and initiate a fourth 'blow off top.'
Gold and silver were mostly unchanged today along with the Dollar.
The metals made it through another Non-Farm Payrolls report reasonably well.
I will not be surprised at all to see the gold bulls take a sharp gut check at least once next week.
But gold has been holding with remarkable tenactiy to a trend line, on the closes at least.
Need little, want less, love more. For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.
"Europe will be forged in crises, and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises.”
Jean Monnet, Memoirs
"I’m very pro-European, but I’m against the euro, so if I still lived in the UK I would have an interesting choice. Now if you look at Larry Elliott in The Guardian, he thinks he should vote for exit because this might be the existential crisis that blows up the euro. Now why would you want to blow up the Euro, because 'that would be terrible etc. et cetera'. Because the long-term effect of the euro is going to be to drive Western European wages down to Eastern European levels in global competition for export share with the Chinese.
That’s one interpretation as to where this all goes. And that’s going to be fine for the Eastern Europeans coming up. It’s going to be great for very efficient exporters in the North. It’s going to be a disaster for France and parts of Italy, if not all, and certainly for Greece.
Now if you have a system in which one side runs a surplus and the other side cannot run a deficit because of the rules, the only thing the other side can do is permanently contract their economies to allow someone else to make money selling BMWs. I don’t see this ending well so perhaps it’s better to nip it in the bud when you’ve got the chance."
Mark Blyth
While in some ways this analysis by Mark Blyth (and similarly by Thomas Frank) can be construed as an over-simplification. But on the other hand it represents an insight into a fundamental reality that is driving much of what we are witnessing today, a reality that seems inexplicable to the political class of both left and right.
The liberals blame the irresistible imperatives of globalization and technology, and the conservatives blame immigration and everyone who isn't them or completely like them in outlook and customs.
Each has their own extreme prescriptions for the problems, many of which they have a part in causing, from free money gifted within the status quo structure, to debt serfdom for most except the few.
And both are tragically misplaced in their judgements, because they are caught in a credibility trap of their respective ideologies that have displaced fundamental morality, fairness, and goodness.
It is hard to tell which side is more reluctant to see the systemic forces which are at play, and where they are leading. Both are willfully blind at their core, taking refuge in contempt for others (cf. Hillary and Romney) and elaborately conceived condescension towards any form of dissent, even the mildest.
At the best of times the powerful will not listen, and at times like these most have joined them on either side to escape the pain of thinking. The decline and fall of a privileged class that is out of touch with the people, and the extremes committed by their enablers, are so common as to be a cliché of history.
So why bother even bringing it up at all? For the same reasons perhaps that groups like the White Rose and the early church wrote their pamphlets, in their respective times of general madness— to keep a light burning in the dark, for those who follow.
Hopefully our own situation will resolve well before we reach such an extreme disassociation of reason and power and justice.
"Caesar was swimming in blood. Rome and the whole pagan world was mad. But those who had had enough of transgression and madness, those who were trampled upon, those whose lives were misery and oppression, all the weighed down, all the sad, all the unfortunate, came to hear the wonderful tidings of God, who out of love for men had given Himself to be crucified and redeem their sins.
When they found a God whom they could love, they had found that which the society of the time could not give any one— happiness and love."
Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis: In the Time of Nero
“The tyrant is a child of pride, who drinks from his sickening cup recklessness and vanity, until from his high flown crest he plummets headlong into the dust of hope."
Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
“So much for Caligula the Emperor; the rest of this history must deal with the Monster."
Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars
Stocks were digesting their recent gains today, while glorying in the weak economic data.
It was announced today that Trumpolini intends to nominate Herman Cain as a Fed governor. This easily tops his most recent nomination of Stephen Moore, who was at least nominally qualified despite being a certified Art Laffer collaborating supply-sider.
Thank God Trump does not own a favorite horse.
Having this many knuckleheads managing the world's most powerful currency and providing significant regulatory oversight to the US economy may be unintentionally very good for gold.
This reminds us of the need for checks and balances, and oversight as a restraint on the abuses of authority. While it is tempting to unleash the power of nearly unrestrained fiat money in order to solve short term problems, one must consider who might one day be wielding such dangerous, highly discretionary power.
Speaking of restraints on reckless behaviour, gold and silver were hit hard and early, but managed to recoup their losses and actually finish higher on the day. They closed higher as did the Dollar. One might have thought it was a furtive, early move by some towards safe havens.
Sooner or later a crash is coming, and it may be terrific.
“The truth is that we were so spiritually and morally bankrupt that we could not even see some of those lines: we stepped over them blindly. Other times we saw the lines alright, but we wanted to cross them...
It wasn’t God who was dead. We were."
Ray A., Practice These Principles
“Religion used to be the opium of the people. To those suffering humiliation, pain, illness, and serfdom, religion promised the reward of an after life. 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..”
Czeslaw Milosz, Discreet Charm of Nihilism
"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
Another blow off top in US stocks is underway.
We will have to wait to see the extent of it, both the zenith and the fall afterward.
I suspect that stocks will struggle higher until earnings season comes, and rude reality comes to bear on this fantasy of economic recovery.
Gold and silver are marking time for now. It has been so for quite a long time.
We are in a time of a general madness, when lies are commonplace, and greed reigns in the hearts of even those who would be faithful.
If you have not prayed in a long time, try to do so again, even if it is a little bit every other day. And in your prayer, ask the Lord to show your sins to you, so that you might repent of them now, and seek his forgiveness, and try to sin no more.
And the peace of the Lord, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds.
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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