Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - A Wake of Vultures, A Flood of Greed

"Greed, I say, is a great flood; it is a whirlpool that sucks a person down, a constant yearning, always seeking a hold, continually in movement."

Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha


"What is the appropriate behavior for a man or a woman in the midst of this world, where each person is clinging to his piece of debris?  What is the proper salutation between people as they pass each other in this flood?"

Leonard Cohen


“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man.  People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given away in marriage, up to the very day Noah entered the ark.  Then the flood came, and swept them all away.

And they said to him, 'Where will this happen, Lord?' And He said to them, 'Where death is, there will be a gathering of vultures.'”

Luke 17:26-27, 37

Stocks attempted to rally again today, adding on to their gains from yesterday.

But alas, they failed, and the futures closed firmly in the red.

Gold and silver advanced a bit again.

Nature continues to thwart the will of the powerful.

Dolly and I enjoyed the afternoon with a thoroughly satisfying nap.

It's the little things that make life worth living.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Credibility Trap

"A credibility trap is a condition wherein the financial, political and informational functions of a society have been compromised by corruption and fraud, so that the leadership cannot effectively reform, or even honestly address, the problems of that system without impairing and implicating, at least incidentally, a broad swath of the power structure, including themselves.

The status quo tolerates the corruption and the fraud because they have profited at least indirectly from it, and would like to continue to do so.  Even the impulse to reform within the power structure is susceptible to various forms of soft blackmail and coercion by the system that maintains and rewards.

And so a failed policy and its support system become self-sustaining, long after it is seen by objective observers to have failed.  In its failure it is counterproductive, and an impediment to recovery in the real economy.

Admitting failure is not an option for the thought leaders who receive their power from that system.  The continuity of the structural hierarchy must therefore be maintained at all costs, even to the point of becoming a painfully obvious, organized hypocrisy.

Jesse, 18 September 2013

Stocks bounced today.

The dollar edged higher.

Gold and silver rallied.

The VIX declined.

There will be a precious metals options expiration on the Comex next week.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Love of Most Will Grow Cold

"Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents with crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is the best guarantee of their loyalty.”

Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism


"Where is dignified modesty and a firmness of virtue of any use, now that blasphemy is in power, and justice is ignored, and there is no law but lawlessness, and few make an effort to hold back the wrath of the gods?”

Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis


“When political leaders set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become more important. It is hard to subvert a rule-of-law state without lawyers, or to hold show trials without judges. Authoritarians need obedient civil servants, and concentration camp directors seek businessmen interested in cheap labor.”

Timothy D. Snyder, On Tyranny

I have included a graphic above from a piece I had originally posted a couple of crises ago on a site that has long ceased to exist.

History does repeat, or at least rhyme, if you will.  Each crisis has its own attributes and tone, but they tend to have much in common.

It is good to recall that we are in a period now that is very new to us, not having seen a pandemic like this in the US since the beginning of the 20th century.

We do not think about it now, but some day in the future you will be among of the few who actually remember what this was like, what is was to join the select group of 'insiders' who quarantined themselves in the hopes of holding back the lethal effects of an epidemic.

And you may find yourself trying to explain to your grandchildren what the political and cultural circumstances were like.  And why certain things were done the way in which they unfolded.

It is good to remember that we are just stumbling down the long halls of history like our parents and grandparents, who fumbled their own way through the darkness, trying to follow the light.

Stocks were sold off a bit hard today.  It seemed to be coming giving the unreasonable optimism of last week that our current situation was mostly done, and it was time to get back to things as they were.

Oil was hammered again.  Of course the slack demand is a huge factor, as it is with any practical commodity.  And the price war that is ongoing among OPEC+ is a major input as well.

But I cannot help but feel that some of the powerful Wall Street insiders are taking advantage of the situation, and the situational aspects of this rollover in the futures contracts, to get some quick money and while dishing out some pain, ripping off some faces, and so forth, as they are often wont to do.

Well, we'll see how this unfolds, among other things.

What has been hidden will be revealed, and what has been concealed will be made known.

A crisis shows the characters of people, and of systems that they have organized.

And brother, do we have some odd characters on the big stage in Washington.  It is almost unbelievable.  

I think it might get worse still, before it gets better.  And it is only a few more months to July.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Heartless - Harden Not Your Hearts

"Our future could be one in which continued tumult feeds the looting of the financial system, and we talk more and more about exactly how our oligarchs became bandits and how the economy just can’t seem to get into gear.   Recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform.  And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time."

Simon Johnson, The Quiet Coup, May 2009


"Why do the nations rage
and their peoples utter folly?
The kings of the earth rise up,
and the princes conspire together
against the Lord and against his anointed."

Psalm 2


"It may be true that the law cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless."

Martin Luther King

The big tickle today was the price of oil, specifically West Texas Intermediate Crude.

People were getting exercised by the deeply negative print on the May futures contract in the negative $30's range. lol

Deflation, OMG!! We're doomed!

The contract front month is rolling over from May to June, and those trying to unload and/or roll the May contracts are getting skinned alive, because no one wants to take delivery of oil. There is a glut and storage is at a premium.

The June contract is around $21, which while still low by recent history, is still reflective of the intra-OPEC+ price war and the glut of oil because of the slack demand for oil products because of the virus lockdowns.

Stocks went out on the lows of the day, despite an intraday jam into the green and a lower opening.

Gold and silver were up a bit, as VIX also climbed back a bit.

Have a pleasant evening.