Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Madness, Not Divine - Reap the Whirlwind

“Pity the nation that raises not its voice, except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero and aims to rule the world with force and by torture."

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, New Poems, City Lights


"We've become, now, an oligarchy instead of a democracy. I think that's been the worst damage to the basic moral and ethical standards to the American political system that I've ever seen in my life."

Jimmy Carter


"Financial predators are usually narcissistic and audacious. They regularly have an extreme sense of entitlement coupled with high self-efficacy. Many of them have a charismatic quality and are preternaturally persuasive. Financial predators are commonly shameless and quite adept serial liars. They perceive themselves having near unlimited guile and resourcefulness to extricate themselves out of any compromising situations."

Russ Alan Prince, Forbes


"This slow and awful self-hypnotism of error is a process that can occur not only with individuals, but also with whole societies. It is hard to pick out and prove; that is why it is hard to cure. But this mental degeneration may be brought to one test, which I truly believe to be a real test.

A nation is not going mad when it does extravagant things, so long as it does them in an extravagant spirit. But whenever we see things done wildly, but taken tamely, then the State is growing insane."

G.K. Chesterton, National Madness

Have a pleasant evening.

Weekend Reading - To Be Poor - Maximillian and Matthew

"It is very easy to get drunk with hate.  Hate is like the glass of whisky which is given to the soldiers before a bayonet charge.  Whisky stimulates but does not nourish.

Hate is not creative, only love is creative.   These sufferings will not cause us to crumble but will help us, more and more, to become stronger.  They are necessary—together with the sacrifices of others—so that the ones who come after us may be happy.”

Maximilian Kolbe, Auschwitz


“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’

Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’  And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’

Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Matthew 25:31-46

Caravaggio, The Calling of Matthew, the Tax Collector

"Kolbe looked directly and intently into the eyes of those entering the cell. Those eyes of his were always strangely penetrating. The SS men couldn’t stand his glance, and used to yell at him, Schau auf die erde, nicht auf uns!   Kolbe was a psychic trauma, a shock for the SS men who had to bear his look, a look that hungered not for bread, but to liberate them from evil."

Bruno Borgowiec, fellow prisoner at Auschwitz


“If any would come after me, let them deny themselves, and take up their cross, and follow me. For whoever would save their life will lose it,  but whoever loses their life, for my sake, will find it. For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?"

Matthew 16:24-26


"Those among the rich who are not, in the rigorous sense, damned, can understand poverty, because they are poor themselves, after a fashion; but they cannot understand destitution.   Capable of giving alms, perhaps, but incapable of stripping themselves bare, they will be moved, to the sound of beautiful music, at Jesus’s sufferings, but His Cross, the reality of His Cross, will horrify them. They want it all out of gold, bathed in light, costly and of little weight; pleasant to see, hanging from a woman’s beautiful throat."

In the end, the only real tragedy is not to have been a saint."

Léon Bloy, La Femme pauvre


"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Matthew 5:3

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Crazy Train Has Left the Station

"Has he lost his mind?
Can he see or is he blind?
Now the time is here
for Iron Man to spread fear."

Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Man


"As everything in what used to be called creation becomes a commodity, human beings begin to look at one another, and at themselves, in a funny way, and they see price tags. There was a time when people spoke, at least occasionally, of 'inherent worth'— if not of things, then at least of persons."

Harvey Cox, The Market as God


“Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, or even a duty."

Simone Weil


"Thou shalt not sacrifice any of your children to the fires of Moloch, and thereby profane the name of your Lord, who is God."

Leviticus 18:21

Stocks were on a tear higher today after the 'better than expected' US Non-Farm Payrolls report.

Gold and silver withstood the early gut check on the longs, and turned around and headed higher.

I think time is going to tell an interesting story about the quality of the economic data coming from this Administration.

And so the fabulous tech giants reached a new all time high, before retreating a bit in to the close.

The broader market continue to show a striking lack of confirmation.

The SP 500 once again closed below the 'failed rally' resistance level on the futures at 3130.

US Markets will be closed tomorrow in observance of the 4^th of the July.

The rest of the world will have to carry on without them.  Might I suggest buying physical gold and silver, in advance of the financial asset carnage that is almost certainly baked into the economic cake?

We are into the peak of the hysteria which we have been describing.  The next few months ought to be quite interesting.

People like to read sites that jolt them, that give them something gloomy and false to wallow in with their sick despair.

This is the result of our indulgent, perverse selfishness.

Need little, want less, love more.  For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.

Or not.   It's your choice.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - A New Era Tech Bubble - Non-Farm Payrolls Report Tomorrow

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

Chalmers Johnson


"This is the contempt in which they hold the majority of American people and the political process: the common people are easily led fools, and everyone else who is smart enough to know better has their price. And they would beggar every middle class voter in the US before they will voluntarily give up one dime of their ill gotten gains."

Simon Johnson, The Quiet Coup, May 2009


“Nearly all vices are rooted in the future. Gratitude looks to the past and love to the present; fear, avarice, lust and ambition look ahead.”

C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters


"When he came to the other side, to the territory of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him. They were so savage that no one could travel by that road.  They cried out, 'What have you to do with us, Son of God?  Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?'  Some distance away a herd of many swine was feeding.  The demons pleaded with him, 'If you drive us out, send us into the herd of swine.'  And he said to them, 'Go then!'  They came out and entered the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and was drowned."

Matthew 8:28-32

It was a 'risk on' day to kick off the third quarter.

Stocks rose higher, clearly led by the big cap tech stocks, as intraday the NDX set another all time high.

Lagging were the SP 500 and the broader Russell 2000.

This is another new era tech stock bubble.

Gold and silver took a serious hit, not all that uncommon the day before a Non-Farm Payrolls report.

The Dollar edged lower.

The FOMC minutes suggest that the Fed will be buying bonds at non-market prices for many years.

This could be a test of the Malignant Monetary Theory.

As a reminder this will be a holiday-shortened week, with Friday observed for the 4^th of July this weekend.

Justice is coming.

Have a pleasant evening.