Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Risk Off! Rate Cuts! - As Makes the Angels Weep

The God of the Market

"Over the last thirty years, the United States has been taken over by an amoral financial oligarchy, and the American dream of opportunity, education, and upward mobility is now largely confined to the top few percent of the population. Federal policy is increasingly dictated by the wealthy, by the financial sector, and by powerful (though sometimes badly mismanaged) industries such as telecommunications, health care, automobiles, and energy.

These policies are implemented and praised by these groups’ willing servants, namely the increasingly bought-and-paid-for leadership of America’s political parties, academia, and lobbying industry.

If allowed to continue, this process will turn the United States into a declining, unfair society with an impoverished, angry, uneducated population under the control of a small, ultrawealthy elite. Such a society would be not only immoral but also eventually unstable, dangerously ripe for religious and political extremism."

Charles Ferguson, Predator Nation


"Hot money seeks out the conscious mispricing of risk.  Capital, in the form of both money and personal talent, increasingly flows into malinvestment and the gaming of markets. 

The productive economy languishes, left wanting for the lack of creative resources and attention. The bubble rises to unsustainable valuations— and fails, and a nation's capital is consumed.

Are you not entertained?  As Egon von Greyerz noted, the next five years are not about winning, but surviving.   So, then let us then proceed."

Jesse, 5 August 2019


“During the Summer of 1929 the stock market was marked by wild swings, violent up and down price movements, that left market participants feeling dizzy and almost exhausted. Whatever may or may not come, now might be an excellent time to take inventory of your finances, and provisions for the future. And you may wish to order your affairs to be more resilient in the face of risks, both hidden and mispriced.”

Jesse, 10 August 2019


“But man, proud man,
Dress'd in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd—
His glassy essence—like an angry ape
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As makes the angels weep..”

William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure


"O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.

But if not, even if he does not preserve us, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the images of gold you have set up and commanded us to worship."

Daniel 3:16-18

As a reminder, there will be a stock market option expiration on Friday.

I pray daily that God will give us the light, and the strength, to know His will, and to resist the temptation to join in the hatred, the madness, and the worship of the darkness of this world, that seems to possess so many of our countrymen, day by day.

'But if not, I will not bow, and God grant that we will never bow, before the gods of evil.'

Have a pleasant evening.

Angels of Light

Even in times of inhuman ugliness and epic greed, so pervasive as to seem to overwhelm us, it is good to remember that love is moving, always moving among us.   And that even today we are called, by a word or nod of a stranger, or a sudden impulse from our own hearts,  to forsake the dark powers of this world, and accept His will as our own, and thereby reaffirm life.

I have often highlighted such as these here on these pages, because they are a light for us in troubled times.

The world and its servants will hate them, and slander them, these angels of light.  Because they mark out for us a holy and more certain path, with a powerful light that shines down through even the darkest corridors of history.

"Upon her recent passing at the age of 76, I took the opportunity to reread Bubby's memoirs.  In four different instances, my grandmother had stood—amid the smoke of the crematoriums, the barking dogs, the trampling boots and swinging clubs—on the infamous selection line at the head of which Mengele and his minions stood, pointing left and right, sentencing some to back-breaking labor, and sending others to the gas chambers. 

In each of those instances, somebody would come along and say or do something that would change Bubby's fate from certain death to tenuous life. In one such incident, she already had been sent to the line of those marked for death when a man appeared as if from nowhere, physically removed her from that line and shoved her into the other, without saying a word.

Indeed, the miracles and the mysteries of the events of those days abound along with the horrors and the tragedies. In contrast to the vile actions of the 'Angel of Death' were the noble and heroic actions of many 'Angels of Life' who stood ready to risk their own lives for the sake of saving that of a stranger.

It is thanks in no small part to 'angels' like these, who stepped out from behind their own misery and grief to come to the aid of others, that generations now live on to tell the story. How clearly we see the infinite ripple effects of single acts of kindness and compassion, even if accomplished in a split second."

Yossi Refson, Angels of Light


"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread.  They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”

Viktor E. Frankl


“If you can feel that staying human is worth while, even when it can't have any practical result whatsoever, you've beaten them.”

George Orwell


"Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.  We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love one another.  Anyone who does not love is in thrall to death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer.  And you know that no murderer has life eternal residing in him.

This is how we know what love is: the Lord laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.  If anyone has material plenty and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?  Little children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth."

1 John 3:13-18

"Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish Franciscan friar, provided shelter to refugees from Greater Poland, including 2,000 Jews whom he hid from Nazi persecution in his friary in Niepokalanów. He was also active as a radio amateur, with Polish call letters SP3RN, vilifying Nazi activities through his reports.

On February 17, 1941 Kolbe was arrested by the German Gestapo and imprisoned in the Pawiak prison, and on May 25 was transferred to Auschwitz I as prisoner #16670.

In July 1941 a man from Kolbe’s barracks vanished, prompting SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch, the deputy camp commander, to pick 10 men from the same barracks to be starved to death in Block 13 (notorious for torture), in order to deter further escape attempts. One of the selected men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, lamenting his family ["My poor wife! My poor children! What will they do?"], and Kolbe volunteered to take his place.

During the time in the cell he led the men in songs and prayer. After three weeks of dehydration and starvation, only Kolbe and three others were still alive. Finally he was murdered with an injection of carbolic acid [14 August 1941] ...

Kolbe is one of ten 20th-century martyrs from across the world who are depicted in statues above the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey, London."

Jewish Virtual Library, Maximilian Kolbe


“No one in the world can change Truth. What we can do and and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it. The real conflict is the inner conflict. Beyond armies of occupation and the catacombs of extermination camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love. And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we are ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves?”

Maximilian Kolbe

Even in your own small and simple ways, seemingly unnoticed, walk with the angels, for His sake, and for your own.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Boss, Da Tweet, Da Tweet - Stock Option Expiration this Friday

“The narcissist devours people, consumes their output, and casts the empty, writhing shells aside.”

Sam Vaknin

Stocks reversed their early declines and went on a rocket launch higher, and gold tanked after a strong overnight rally,

All thanks to a tweet suggesting that the Trump Administration would have a phone call with China after all. Call me!

The man-child gets his kicks by being able to pull levers with a few strokes of the keyboard.  His acolytes and well-heeled entourage enjoy the foreknowledge of major market reversals. Trading on privilege and connections— that's what they do.

The CPI came in a little hot on the core this morning, giving some juice to the doleur du monde DX index, on the hopes that the economy is really strong after all, and the Fed will not have to cut rates much after all.

I was waiting to see how they might pull the trigger on this option expiration week, and we were certainly not disappointed.

It was an opportunity if one was set up for it. It is hard to be too cynical about our governing elites.

And if not, better to just ignore these jokers and their antics.

Let's see how the rest of the week goes, and how many turns on the tilt-o-wheel the financial system can take.

Have a pleasant evening.

Performance of Various Assets of Interest In Several 'Market Crashes'

Let's lead off with a 'where we are to date' chart.

1929 is perhaps not a good example becuase there was a major repricing of gold involved.

But the dot-com bubble crash and the market debacle of 1987 may suffice.

I epseically like the dot-com bubble example as an analog for today.