Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Banquet of Consequences - Bubbles, Kleptocracy, and this Satanic Mill

“We have always known that heedless self interest was bad morals, we now know that it is bad economics.

The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself.  That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.

We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.

They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt


"To allow the market mechanism to be sole director of the fate of human beings and their natural environment, indeed, even of the amount and use of purchasing power, would result in the demolition of society.

For the alleged commodity "labor power" cannot be shoved about, used indiscriminately, or even left unused, without affecting also the human individual who happens to be the bearer of this peculiar commodity. In disposing of a man's labor power the system would, incidentally, dispose of the physical, psychological, and moral entity "man" attached to that tag.

Robbed of the protective covering of cultural institutions, human beings would perish from the effects of social exposure; they would die as the victims of acute social dislocation through vice, perversion, crime, and starvation."

Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation, 1944


"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger?  By what means shall we fortify against it?  Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow?  Never!  All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected?  I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us.  It cannot come from abroad.  If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.  As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."

Abraham Lincoln, Lyceum Address, 27 January 1838

In the we-don't-need-no-stinkin'-oversight, so inspector generals department: Treasury Official's Family Business Sees a Bailout Bonanza.

And I suspect that this is the tip of the iceberg.

These jokers aren't draining the swamp. They are private-labeling it.

Perhaps I am too sensitive, and I would certainly not want to commit the grave offense of equivalency, but Obama's sudden fondness for protesters seems a bit hollow, given his history with whistle-blowers acting out of conscience, and the harsh repression of the Occupy Wall Street protests.

Remember that? 

Freedom of speech, and personal freedom in general, have been under a steady assault by the growing Imperial Presidency for quite some time. Trump is just its clumsy and particularly malignant manifestation.

Speaking of extremes, stocks backed up a bit today, and the Dollar continued its slump.

Stocks PE is at the highest levels since the dot-com bubble.

Why do we keep having all these financial bubbles? Hint: who benefits?

Gold and silver tried to rally after the big smackdown yesterday.

There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls Report tomorrow.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - History Lessons - The Worst Is Yet to Come

"Those who think our unhinged president’s recent mania about a murder two decades ago that never happened represents his moral nadir have missed the lesson of his life: There is no such thing as rock bottom. So, assume that the worst is yet to come."

George F. Will, June 1 2020


"The government is the potent omnipresent teacher. For good or ill it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."

Louis D. Brandeis


“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


"I see. So they talk, pray, march, plead, petition and what do they get?  Cossacks, prison, flogging, police, spies, and now, after today, they will be shot.  Is this God's will?  Are these His methods?  Make war on your own people?  How long do you think they're going to stand there and let you shoot them? YOU ask ME who's responsible? YOU ask?"

Count Witte to Tsar Nicholas II


“Hate obscures all distinctions.”

C. S. Lewis

Stocks were on a tear today. The Nasdaq is reaching for its previous highs, and a new blow off top.

Gold and silver were hit very hard, in the general pattern of in the markets ahead of a Non-Farm Payrolls report.

Gold held at the support level of its trading channel. Let's see what happens for the rest of the week.

The house accounts of the major players are taking gold contracts.

The real Comex physical market in Hong Kong is very low on inventory.

The New York inventory is a joke.

Where is the rule of law here? Where are those vocal defenders of the Constitution?

And it is not yet even July. But things are proceeding as one might expect.

Don't join in. Remember whom it is that you serve, and how.

The madness serves none but itself.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Gold Clearing Report Continues to be of Interest

Stocks continued to drift higher today.

Momentum is a powerful drug.

Gold and silver were hit today. Those Banksters are a up to their shenanigans for NonFarm Payrolls a bit early.

The Dollar drifted lower.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Massive Action In Comex Gold Report - Rage From the Trumpy Bunker

"President Donald Trump berated governors during a call on Monday, calling them 'weak' and demanding they 'dominate' protesters with force after another night of uprisings in American cities.  The president told the leaders they 'have to get much tougher' because 'most of you are weak.'  The president repeatedly questioned the leadership of the governors, and asked them 'dominate' and target protesters, and to make use of the National Guard."

MEDIAite, Trump Berates Governors as ‘Fools’ and ‘Jerks’


"People who know nothing of God and whose lives are centered on themselves, imagine that they can only find themselves by asserting their own desires and ambitions and appetites in a struggle with the rest of the world. They try to become real by imposing themselves on other people, by appropriating for themselves some share of the limited supply of created goods and thus emphasizing the difference between themselves and the other men who have less than they, or nothing at all."

Thomas Merton


"Everyone knows that plagues have a way of recurring throughout history, yet somehow we find it hard to believe in the ones that crash down on us out of the sky. There have always been plagues and wars, yet they always take us by surprise. When war breaks out people say it's stupid and won't last long. Stupidity has a knack of getting in the way, which we would see if not wrapped up in ourselves. In this our townsfolk were like everybody else— they did not believe in plagues."

Albert Camus, The Plague

Stocks drifted higher still today, on exceptionally light volume.

They shook off the wave of protests sweeping US cities, as well as Trump's latest bouts of toothless rage against China and the realities of government.

There was a remarkable amount of activity in the Comex Gold contract for June. I include the clearing report as the first chart below.

Most of the 'house' accounts were buyers, with the notable selling exception in Citigroup.

These are momentum markets here, being shoved around by a few players with huge amounts of hot, easy money.

Momentum markets tend to collapse in a big way when they hit the right kind of exogenous event.

For those of us who are old enough to remember the 60's and early 70's, this is déjà vu.

But, history is a harsh instructor, especially for those who choose to ignore its lessons for long periods of complacent abusiveness.

We have only just begun.

The weather has been beautiful.  The yard and garden are beautiful.  Even the orchestra (of birds) is beautiful.  lol

Have a pleasant evening.