Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Risk On, Kind Of

“A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.”

Socrates

Socrates would have made a good critic of the theories of modern currency.

It was a risk on day in the markets, although one might not expect it given the general results in the major US Stock indices.

The Dow Industrials cracked through the 27,000 barrier quite handily. The SP 500 closed a fraction below 3,000, the Nasdaq was off a bit, and the broader market as measured by the Russell 2000 declined.

There appeared to be some distinction between appearance and reality.

All in all, a fairly typical day in 21st century America.

The discussion is revolving around the Fed, and what they will do next.

Smells like teen spirit.

"May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace."

1 Timothy 1:2

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Mask of Agamemnon - Deliberate Lies and Mispricing of Risks

"At the root of America's economic crisis lies a moral crisis: the decline of civic virtue among America's political and economic elite.  A society of markets, laws, and elections is not enough if the rich and powerful fail to behave with respect, honesty, and compassion toward the rest of society and toward the world."

Jeffrey Sachs


"Of this Logos the Word being eternal, men have proven to be uncomprehending, both before they hear and once they have heard it. For although all things happen according to this Word, they are like the uneducated who first experience words and deeds such as when I distinguish each thing according to its essence and show how it is.

And as for the rest, they are as unaware of what they do when they are awake, as they are when they are asleep."

Heraclitus


“I believe order is better than chaos, creation better than destruction. I prefer gentleness to violence, forgiveness to vendetta.  On the whole I think that knowledge is preferable to ignorance, and I am sure that human sympathy is more valuable than ideology.  I believe that in spite of the recent triumphs of science, men haven't changed much in the last two thousand years; and in consequence we must try to learn from history.  History is ourselves.

I believe in courtesy, the ritual by which we avoid hurting other people's feelings, by satisfying our own egos.  And I think we should remember that we are all part of a great whole, which for convenience we call nature.   All living things are our brothers and sisters."

Kenneth Clark, Civilisation


The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.

W. B. Yeats, Leda and the Swan


“Each day we are becoming a creature of splendid glory, or one of unthinkable horror.”

C. S. Lewis

Lies seem to be coming more and more easily to and prevalent among the ruling elite, and their enablers and acolytes in the professional class.  And it is therefore no surprise that hatred and irrationality are also in the air.

It will get worse before it gets better. If history is any guide, may God forgive us, this will end in blood.

Pray for each other, that you do not lose your way in this madness.

Stocks were soaring to new highs today, and gold rose sharply, off of the rather dovish testimony of Fed chair Powell.

His rationale for cutting rates in such a 'strong economy' is trade risks. Although he did note correctly that despite the apparent improvements, wages still remain sub-par.

Gold rallied smartly, up $20 to the upper bound of the consolidation pattern in which it is currently coiling.

If it breaks out to the upside it could be rather impressive.

I am stunned, and I hear little talk about it, at the lack of withdrawals from the Comex Hong Kong warehouses, much less the NY ones.

Hong Kong has been an active supplier of physical gold to Asia for some time.

Something momentous is happening behind the scenes. I am almost certain of this.  It will of course be brought to light, eventually.   But it will not be acknowledged readily by those who draw power from this rotten system.  This is the credibility trap.

"The truth has to be melted out of our stubborn lives by suffering.  Nothing speaks the truth, nothing tells us how things really are, nothing forces us to know what we do not want to know except pain."

Aeschylus, The Oresteia

Do not allow yourself to be swayed back and forth by those snakes and vipers who prey upon the innocent for a living, and lead them into destruction, for gain, and too often just for sport.

And remember me in your prayers, as I remember you.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Dog Days Afternoon

"The press of the United States?  It is a parasitic growth that battens on the capitalist class.  Its function is to serve the established by moulding public opinion, and right well it serves it.

I know nothing that I may say can influence you.  You have no souls to be influenced. You are spineless, flaccid things.  You pompously call yourselves Republicans and Democrats.  There is no Republican Party.  There is no Democratic Party. 

There are no Republicans nor Democrats in this House.  You are lick-spittlers and panderers, the creatures of the Plutocracy.

You talk verbosely in antiquated terminology of your love of liberty, and all the while you wear the scarlet livery of the Iron Heel.”

Jack London, The Iron Heel

Now are the dog days of our discontent.

The markets were largely unchanged today, stepping back and forth from one foot to the other.

They wait with bated breath to hear the pronouncements of the Fed Chair on Wednesday and Thursday to the Congress.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metal Charts - Night of the Living Fed

Fed Chair Powell Gives Humphrey-Hawkins Testimony to the House

"In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society — the farmers, mechanics, and laborers — who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their government.

There are no necessary evils in government.  Its evils exist only in its abuses.  If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing."

Andrew Jackson, Veto of the Second Bank of the United States


"Gentlemen! I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country.

When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin!

Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out."

From the original minutes of the Philadelphia bankers sent to meet with President Jackson February 1834, from Andrew Jackson and the Bank of the United States (1928) by Stan V. Henkels
Stocks were off a bit again today, although it was very quiet, orderly selling.

The dollar was higher, which put gold off a bit. Silver was indifferent to it all.

The big tickle tihs week, unless something exogenous occurs, geopolitically or tweet-wise, will be the Fed Chairman Powell and his Humphrey-Hawkins testimony, first to the Senate and then to the House.

I have included the economic calendar for this week below.

Why is the Fed's opinion on things so paramount? Because due to the lack of real economic growth and recovery, the primary factor in determining market valuations at these levels is the amount of hot money that the Fed is willing to provide into the gambling purses of the Banks.

Have a pleasant evening.