Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - 'The Envy of the World'- Bloomberg Cites 'the Endless Rally'

"Anyone who bought stocks in mid-1929 and held onto them saw most of his or her adult life pass by before getting back to even.”

Richard M. Salsman


"Ordinarily, the financial risk in a market, and hence the risk to the economy at large, is limited because the assets traded are finite. There are only so many houses, mortgages, shares of stock, [bars of gold], bushels of corn or barrels of oil in which to invest.

But a synthetic instrument has no real assets. It is simply a bet on the performance of the assets it references. That means the number of synthetic instruments is limitless, and so is the risk they present to the economy. Synthetic structures referencing high-risk mortgages garnered hefty fees for Goldman Sachs and other investment banks.  They assumed an ever-larger share of the financial markets, and contributed greatly to the severity of the crisis by magnifying the amount of risk in the system.

Increasingly, synthetics became bets made by people who had no interest in the referenced assets.  Synthetics became the chips in a giant casino, one that created no economic growth even when it thrived, and then helped throttle the economy when the casino collapsed."

Carl Levin, US Senator


"From the least to the greatest, all of them are greedy for unjust gains;
and from prophet to priest they all deal falsely.
They have treated the suffering of my people carelessly,
saying, ‘all is well’ when there is no safety.
They act shamefully, they commit terrible offenses;
and yet they are not ashamed,
and do not even know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall."

Jeremiah 6:13-15

"We can all agree that AMERICA is now #1.    We are the ENVY of the WORLD — and the best is yet to come!"

Donald J. Trump


"Easy is the descent into hell;
The door to death and darkness stands open, day and night.
But to retrace one's steps, to return once more
to the pure clean air, and cheerfulness and life:
That is our task, that is our true labour."

Vergil

Maybe it won't be so bad this time.   The Fed does own a printing press, and the rationales for using it freely are becoming increasingly persuasive to those who would deceive and be deceived.

Gold and silver may have found a bottom here, now that the antics of the bank which has been driving prices lower to make good on their short bets are almost done.

The available physical supply at these prices has continued to tighten, especially for gold.

Stocks are soaring to highs.   Or as Bloomberg noted today, stock buybacks from corporations flush with tax cut money are fueling an 'endless rally.'

"If individuals aren’t enthusiastic, who’s buying stock and pushing prices up? It’s impossible to know precisely, but one set of usual suspects is clearly doing a lot of the heavy lifting: corporations themselves. They’ve had plenty of profits in recent years, which have been boosted by federal tax cuts, and have used a chunk of them to buy back their own stock. Share repurchases rose 22 percent in the first quarter, to an estimated $270 billion, according to Bank of America Corp., easily eclipsing the amount of money withdrawn from mutual funds. That companies don’t see more opportunities to invest in their actual businesses—say, in factories and research and development—instead of shares may be a bad omen for growth, but for now it’s keeping the party going."

Michael Regan, The U.S. Stock Market Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop Its Endless Rally

This could be quite impressive, both in the extent of the high, and in the ferocity of its descent.

As I seem to recall, those who bought and held stocks in 1929 did not break even again until most of their life was past, in the 1950's.

Have we truly given ourselves and our childrens' futures over to such reckless and arrogant characters?   It appears to be so.

Sooner or later a crash is coming.  And it may be terrific.

What has been hidden wll be revealed.  What is secret will be made known.

From our oasis to yours, have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Sweet Dreams - Ship of Fools

"You have to hear all the truth,
Even if they do not like it."

Sebastian Brant, Ship of Fools


"Now in vessels which are in a state of mutiny and by sailors who are mutineers, how will the true pilot be regarded?  Will he not be called by them a star-gazer, someone who speaks foolishness, and a good-for-nothing?"

Plato, Republic


"Well I don't know why I came here tonight,
I got the feeling that something ain't right...
Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right,
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you."

Stealers Wheel, Stuck in the Middle with You


"You'll never find the solution if you don't see the problem."

Gilbert K. Chesterton

And if you don't see any of the problems, well, then all must be well.

The problems are ignored by the many, who lose themselves in distractions and animated outrage and madness.  And reform is ridiculed, cheated, and spurned by the comfortable few, who do not care if the ship is sinking as long as they have first class seats.

The registered, or deliverable gold at these current prices in the Comex warehouses has fallen back to historic lows.  I have included a chart below that is current as of Thursday of last week.  We had a further decline reported today.  I have included that clearing report below as well.

US stocks plunged today as Jay Powell spoke glowingly about the strong economy.  

This sort of skittishness is typically seen in markets that are topping, because of thinly justified, and rather high, valuations that make it difficult for people to be 'investors' rather than speculators for the moment.

This is what the Fed and our regulatory system have created and nutured:  not an efficient capital allocation system, but a casino, and a dodgy one at that.

Non-Farm Payrolls tomorrow.

From our oasis to yours, have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Brother Can You Spare a Dime?

"People say, what is the sense of our small effort?  They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time.  A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions.  Each one of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that. No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless.  There is too much work to do.

What we would like to do is change the world: make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended for them to do.  We can, to a certain extent, change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world.

We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world.  There is nothing that we can do but love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as well as our friend.

I am sure that God did not intend that there be so many poor.  The class structure is of our making and our consent, not His.  It is the way we have arranged it, and it is up to us to change it.

Turn off your radio. Put away your daily paper. Read one review of events a week and spend some time reading good books. They tell too of days of striving and of strife. They are of other centuries and also of our own. They make us realize that all times are perilous, that men live in a dangerous world, in peril constantly of losing or maiming soul and body. We get some sense of perspective reading such books. Renewed courage and faith and even joy to live.

Do what comes to hand.  Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. After all, God is with us.  It shows too much conceit to trust to ourselves, to be discouraged at what we ourselves can accomplish.  It is lacking in faith in God to be discouraged.  After all, we are going to proceed with His help.  We offer Him what we are going to do.  If He wishes it to prosper, it will.  We must depend solely on Him.  Work as though everything depended on ourselves, and pray as though everything depended on God."

Dorothy Day

The Fed did exactly what was expected today, at least for normal and rational people who were not rooting for a 'rate cut' while celebrating a booming economy and 'full employment.'

The Dollar gained, and gold and silver were hit.

Non-farm Payrolls on Friday.

From our little oasis to yours, have a pleasant evening.

A Warning For the Faithful, In Perilous Times

We are now in a great falling away, a time when the gospel of prosperity and a false, ostentatious, and hypocritical observance of the self causes many to lose themselves— and their hearts harden, and the love of most grows cold.

"Not everyone who calls out to me, 'Lord! Lord!' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven."

Matt 7:21


"They do not see the image of Almighty God before them, and ask themselves what He wishes: if once they did this they would begin to see how much He requires, and they would earnestly come to Him, both to be pardoned for what they do wrong, and for the power to do better.

And, for the same reason that they do not please Him, they succeed in pleasing themselves. For that contracted, defective range of duties, which falls so short of God’s law, is just what they can fulfill; or rather they choose it, and keep to it, because they can fulfill it.

Hence, they become both self-satisfied and self-sufficient; – they think they know just what they ought to do, and that they do it all; and in consequence they are very well content with themselves, and rate their merit very high, and have no fear at all of any future scrutiny into their conduct, which may befall them.

And such, I say, is the religion of the natural man in every age and place; – often very beautiful on the surface, but worthless in God’s sight; good, as far as it goes, but worthless and hopeless, because it does not go further, because it is based on self-sufficiency, and results in self-satisfaction...

Yes, it is the ignorance of our understanding, it is our spiritual blindness, it is our banishment from the presence of Him, who is the source and the standard of all Truth, which is the cause of this meagre, heartless religion of which men are commonly so proud.

In the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, traitors, heady, high-minded having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived."

John Henry Newman\


"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal."

1 Cor. xiii


"Beware the leaven of the Pharisees, which is a pious, hollow hypocrisy."

Luke 12:1


“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees— hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which appear beautiful, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. You outwardly appear righteous, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."

Matthew 23:27-28


"And they took offense at him."

Matthew 13:57


"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne.  All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left.

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’

Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing?  When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me.’

Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal consumption prepared for the devil and his demons.  For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’

Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’

And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’

And they will go away into eternal darkness without hope, but the righteous will go into eternal life.”

Matthew 25: 31-46