Stocks and Precious Metals Chart - In the Garden of Beasts - Stocks Slouch Towards the End of Quarter

“People with advantages are loathe to believe that they just happen to be people with advantages. They come readily to define themselves as inherently worthy of what they possess; they come to believe themselves 'naturally' elite; and, in fact, to imagine their possessions and their privileges as natural extensions of their own elite selves.”

C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite


"The acceptance of near-indigency of the mass of the citizens as the price to be paid for the highest stage of prosperity was accompanied by very different human attitudes. Townsend righted his emotional balance by indulging in prejudice and sentimentalism. The improvidence of the poor was a law of nature, for servile, sordid, and ignoble work would otherwise not be done.   Also, what would become of the fatherland unless we could rely on the poor?  "For what is it but distress and poverty which can prevail upon the lower classes of the people to encounter all the horrors which await them on the tempestuous ocean or on the field of battle?"

Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation, 1944


"And the brute was given a mouth for uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months."

Revelation 13:5


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

C. S. Lewis


"And because of the increase in lawlessness, the love of most will grow cold."

Matthew 24:12

These are certainly confusing and volatile times.

I have a recurring feeling that some revelation will unfold for us before or around Sunday, August 2.

Usually these sorts of things in the market reach their critical points in September and October. But given this is an election year, perhaps it will be a bit earlier.

Stocks failed at any rally attempts and gave it up in a big way in recognition that the coronavirus is not going to obey our wishes or listen to our commands.

Gold and silver gained back ground, with gold putting in one of those yo-yo days that so often follow a Comex expiration.

Personally I am inclined to just sit tight and hang on here, hedging around the core positions perhaps.

Be careful of the lies you ingest; they may give you indigestion.

It is hard enough for us to stand fast and maintain ourselves in this time of the beast.

Let us be even more careful of the lies and hateful things that we may be tempted to repeat to others, especially those for whom we have some responsibilities, who listen to us out of love and respect, for those actions will not be easily forgiven.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Bread and Circuses to Distract Us - And the Band Played On

"The Bloomberg article dropped this bombshell nugget on what Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo had spent on share buybacks and dividends since 2017:

“From the start of 2017 through March, the four banks cumulatively returned about $1.26 to shareholders for every $1 they reported in net income, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.  Citigroup returned almost twice as much money to its stockholders as it earned, according to the data, which includes dividends on preferred shares.  The banks declined to comment.”

It appears that the Fed has been doing the exact same thing it did during the financial crisis of 2007 to 2010 – hiding the truth from the American people while it makes trillions of dollars in secret loans to the largest Wall Street financial institutions.

And just who is the New York Fed?  It’s one of the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks but it’s privately owned by multinational corporations, including JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, whose executives rotate on and off its Board of Directors.  Adding to the insanity of this structure, the New York Fed is the supervisor of these same bank holding companies and it can also create trillions of dollars at the push of an electronic button to make emergency loans to bail out these banks when its supervision proves to have been a dud.

The icing on the cake of this Faustian bargain is that the New York Fed contracts out the operations of its bailout programs to the very banks taking money from the bailouts.  You can’t make this stuff up."

WSOP,  Bloomberg Drops a Bombshell on the Fed’s Big Bank Stress Tests Set for Release Today


“The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it.”

Josef Mengele

Stocks were falling over night, again.

They managed to pull up to pretty much unchanged, tradingly weakly on very light volumes most of the day.

And mirabile dictu, they rallied quite briskly on hot money and hot air into the close.

Unless something untoward and inconvenient happens, the wiseguys will likely try to paint the tape green into the end of the second quarter.

Gold and silver made it through the expiration fairly well, and silver even managed to gain back the cheap shot it took yesterday.

The dollar gained a little once again.

The distractions and diversions intended to provide cover for the looting, which historically have been called 'bread and circuses' are running hot and heavy. The masters of distraction are engaging people's worst sides and turning them into useful idiots for the moneyed interests.

Well, there will be hell to pay. It will most likely be 'the mother of all collapses.' But that is for the future.

They know what they are doing. Trump and the Congress know what they are doing. They do not care. They are getting paid.

And so no one can see it coming.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Comex Options Expiration for the Metals Tomorrow

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”

Voltaire


“Rather than justice for all, we are evolving into a system of justice for those who can afford it. We have banks that are not only too big to fail, but too big to be held accountable.”

Joseph E. Stiglitz


“There is a power that can be created out of pent-up indignation, courage, and the inspiration of a common cause, and that if enough people put their minds and bodies into that cause, they can win. It is a phenomenon recorded again and against in the history of popular movements against injustice all over the world.”

Howard Zinn

Stocks took a dive today, and only managed to scrape back a little of their losses in the closing hour.

Gold and silver were also hit a bit today, with the dollar stronger.

This looks like a pull back after a recent rally high, and of course, a prelude to the Comex option expiration tomorrow.

All in all, nothing to get too worked up about.

I came in fairly short stocks this morning, but took them all off in the afternoon.

Now I am waiting to see how gold and silver hold up.

Let's see how tomorrow goes.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Into the Dog Days - Gold Breaking Out, Stocks Pop and Flop

"Gold will be around, gold will be money when the dollar and the euro and the yuan and the ringgit are mere memories."

Richard Russell


"Those entrapped by the herd instinct are drowned in the deluges of history. But there are always the few who observe, reason, and take precautions, and thus escape the flood. For these few gold has been the asset of last resort."

Antony C. Sutton


“Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.”

Leo Tolstoy

Gold made a move to break out of its consolidation pattern today with a clean close above overhead resistance.

Silver held a close over 18.

Stocks were running like gangbusters after a late night selloff.

Alas, only the new era stocks in big cap tech held a gain, with the SP 500 futures finishing unchanged.

There will be a Comex metals option expiration on the 25^th.

July is not a very active contract for gold, with August being the big month before December.

Silver may show a little more impact for July.

But these are crazy, volatile markets driven by hot money and automated trading.

I went to the dentist today for the first time this year, thanks to the lockdowns. It is nice to be able to get your teeth cleaned and a haircut.

This coronavirus will be remembered for years and years to come, in the same category as the 'Spanish Flu.'

It is not over yet.

Have a pleasant evening.