Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - A Question of Balance - Reeds, Shaking in the Wind

"Who stands firm?  Only the one for whom the final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice (Latin: an act of worship) all these, when in faith and sole allegiance to God he is called to obedient and responsible action: the responsible person, whose life will be nothing but an answer to God's question and call."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison


“The world says: 'You have needs — satisfy them.  You have as much right as the rich and the mighty.  Don't hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more.'  This is the worldly doctrine of today.  And they believe that this is freedom.”

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov


"One of the elders persevered in a fast of seventy weeks, eating only once a week.  This elder asked God to reveal to him the meaning of a certain Scripture text, but God would not reveal it to him.  So he said to himself: 'Look at all the work I have done without getting anywhere!  I will go to one of the brothers and ask him.'  When he had gone out and was starting on his way an angel of the Lord was sent to him, saying: 'The seventy weeks you fasted did not bring you any closer to God, but now that you have humbled yourself and set out to ask your brother, I am sent to reveal the meaning of that text.'  And he opened to him the meaning which he sought.”

Thomas Merton, Sayings of the Desert Fathers of the Fourth Century

Once again the powers of Davos Man have conquered risk.

This is the exorbitant privilege of the one percent.

Stocks closed at record highs, on less than average volume.

The Dollar and gold rose again, as they was a continuing undercurrent of movement to safe havens.

I have been watching a show on PBS titled Vienna Blood. It is a British-Austrian detective-psychologial series set in Austria in the early 1900s. It is well written and acted.

Fed Chair Powell will be testifying to the Congress again, starting tomorrow.

Get right, sit tight.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Wir Kinder der Hölle - In a Garden of Beasts

Blake, The Whore of Babylon

“Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it. Whoever commits a fraud is guilty not only of the particular injury to him who he deceives, but of the diminution of that confidence which constitutes not only the ease but the existence of society."

Dr. Samuel Johnson


"Price discovery is not a sexy function of markets, but it is critical to the efficient allocation of scarce capital and resources, and to the preservation of the long term wealth of investors and the economy as a whole.  If price discovery is compromised by manipulation, then we will all be gradually impoverished and the economy will be imbalanced and unstable."

London Banker, Lies, Damn Lies and LIBOR


"The truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, malice may distort it, but, there it is."

Winston Churchill


"Then the kings of the earth, their nobles and their commanders, the rich, the powerful, and every one of their willing slaves and free men, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they cried to the mountains and the rocks, 'Fall on us, and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne, and from the righteous anger of the Lamb.'"

Rev 6:15-16

Stocks attempted once again to shake off the fears and risks, and close out the week on their new highs.

Alas, this was not to be, and stocks retracted a bit on the recollections that the coronavirus does exist, and that it is spreading and making people sick.

Gold and the Dollar closed up a bit, as did the VIX.  Silver gave up a bit.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Empire Without Limit - Non-Farm Payrolls Tommorw

"Is this a sign that the Germans are brutalized in their simplest human feelings, that no chord within them cries out at the sight of such deeds, that they have sunk into a fatal consciencelessness from which they may never, never awake?"

Sophie Scholl, The White Rose, Second Leaflet, Munich 1942


"Many will become addicted to hateful and malicious thoughts and hateful words. Slaves to their desires, they will be ferocious, angry despisers of what is good and right. With brutal treachery, they will act without restraint, bigoted and blinded by clouds of conceit.

They will demand and find their delight in the pleasures of this world, and ignore their need to serve God. They may act religious, but they want to serve themselves."

2 Timothy 3:1-5


"If you have not chosen the kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead.”

William Law


"When humanity, subjugated by the terror of crime, has been driven mad by fear and horror, and when chaos has become the supreme law, then the time for the empire of lawlessness will have come."

Friedrich Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse


"And yet Virgil could also present the Roman Empire as a gift from the gods themselves.  At the very beginning, Jupiter, the king of the gods, prophesies Rome's future power. 'I have given,'  he says, 'I have given the Romans imperium sine fine. I have given them empire without limit.'  It hadn't really started that way."

Mary Beard, History of Rome

Stocks were once again reaching for new highs today, shaking off concerns about pandemics, wildfires, plagues of locusts, and all those other acts of God to which our new era of endless prosperity is now apparently impervious.

The dollar finished a bit higher, as did gold and silver.

We watched the movie Joker last night.   It is a very dark psychological study of a disordered mind spiraling out of control, and a very cleverly woven origin story for the Batman series.   It is bleak, and there is virtually no comic relief.

It is also a dark social commentary on the course of public events in our age of arrogant inequality.  In that sense it can be thought of as a 'message movie.'

Joaquin Phoenix is a powerfully effective actor.  I am informed that the movie has received a number of Academy award nominations, and is wildly profitable.

There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report tomorrow.  Optimism is running high because of the low unemployment report and strong ADP Payrolls Report.

This Fed-fueled bubble is going to end badly.

Our audacious oligarchy is in for a steep, gut-wrenching fall.  If only there were not so many innocents involved as collateral damage for their greed and madness.

No matter how things may become, no matter how lawless and hysterical it may seem to be, try to remember who you are, and whom you serve.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Weighed, and Found Wanting - Non-Farm Payrolls Report on Friday

"Nemesis, the goddess of retribution and vengeance, the punisher of pride and hubris, waits impatiently for her meeting with us."

Chalmers Johnson


"The Capitol stuffs its ears when it hears you; the world reviles you.  I can blush for you no longer, and I have no wish to do so.  The howls of Cerberus, the dog of the underworld, though resembling your speeches, will be less offensive to me, for I have never been associated with Cerberus, and I need not be ashamed of his howling."

Titus Petronius, Last Letter to Nero


"When a man takes an oath, he is holding his own self in his own hands, like water.  And if he opens his fingers then, he need not hope to find himself again."

Thomas More


“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, that we are not going to be judged.”

Czeslaw Milosz, The Discreet Charm of Nihilism

Stocks were in rally mode this morning on the false rumour that China is close to finding a cure for the coronavirus.

The safe havens were hit early, but managed to come back a bit.

After the bell the Senate held its vote on the two charges in the impeachment of Trump: abuse of power and obstruction of justice.

Trump was acquitted in a vote that was strictly along party lines, except for the vote to convict of abuse of power by Senator Mitt Romney.

There will be the Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday.

Have a pleasant evening.