Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - I Hear the Rolling Thunder - Where Are We Going From Here

"When the person at the top is malignant and self-serving, unethical behavior cascades through the organization and becomes legitimized.

Narcissists change the companies or countries they lead, much like bad money drives out good, and those changes can outlast their own tenure, O’Reilly says.  Divergent voices are silenced, flattery and servility are rewarded, and cynicism and apathy corrode any sense of shared purpose in a culture where everyone’s out for themselves.  In the extreme, they can destroy the institution itself.

But the gravest danger posed by such leaders is that their malignant influence guides the behavior and expectations of others — and ultimately shapes the culture of the organization or polity in their own image. Studies of businesses show that self-serving, unethical behavior at the top cascades through the organization and becomes legitimized, or at least normalized.

“Once they’re in power, narcissists consolidate their position by firing everyone who challenges them,” O’Reilly says.  In their place rise a plague of toadies, opportunists, and enablers equally guided by self-interest and short on scruples. 'So you end up with these individualistic cultures with no teamwork and low integrity. We’ve documented this in a bunch of Silicon Valley tech firms.'”

Lee Simmons, Stanford Business, How Narcissistic Leaders Destroy From Within

Stocks managed to turn things around and provoke a risk on day, led by big cap techs of course.

The dollar moved lower. The US is making noises about breaking the Hong Kong peg to the US dollar 'to punish China.'

LOL

Gold moved higher and hit $1830 before giving way to some profit taking.

Silver was the big news as it finally cracked $19 and held it.

Let's see if it can hold that 19 handle.

Thunderstorms have been rolling across the northeastern US for a week now.

It is a natural outcome of the hot and steamy July weather.

And in another sign of summer, the local NJ sweet corn has made its debut at our local farm stand.

It seems likely that Trumpolini will not be elected to another term.  Our national masochism and gullibility does seem to have its bounds.

But it is hard to be optimistic, since the orange one is but a manifestation of the general tone in leadership, and the general lack of character of our elites.

Better spoken certainly, seemingly more empathetic, and certainly not so obvious.

Still, the corruption runs deep.  And the old guard from both sides has been thriving in this corrupt system long enough to be thoroughly rotten to the core.

But what is that to us, in the greater scheme of things.  The only real tragedy is to fall in with them, to be led astray, and when judgement comes, not to be a saint.

Need little, want less, love more.

For those who abide in love, abide in God, and God in them.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Brace for Impact - Gradually and Then Suddenly

"All will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word that they have spoken.  For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."

Matthew 12:37


"The problem with movies and books is they make evil look glamorous, exciting, when it's no such thing. It's boring and it's depressing and it's stupid. Criminals are all after cheap thrills and easy money, and when they get them, all they want is more of the same, over and over."

Dean Koontz


“Crime, once exposed, has no refuge but in audacity.”

Tacitus


“Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating. Everything beautiful has a mark of eternity.”

Simone Weil


"To be fearless and proud and alone.  To need no one.  All for the Fatherland.  Now only the reality reigns, cruel and large. I was drunk with this dream. (sobs) Now this emptiness is the reality."

Werner, Das Boot

Justice is coming.  And hell is coming with it.

As you may recall gold broke out of its chart formation at 1770, and then successfully retested that breakout level several times to the downside.

Now it has taken out the psychologically important 'round number' at 1800 which some of the players were watching.

As long as it holds the breakout, the nearer term target is 1860.

I won't speculate on longer term targets, but they are well in excess of the previous all time highs.

Silver is following along, but needs to take out 19 on its own chart.

Stocks were giving back some of the recent melt up rally.

The SP500 is giving a screaming non-confirmation of the new bubble high in the NDX. The new era valuations in big cap tech are approaching insane levels.

Picking an exact time for a big slide in a financial asset bubble.

But when it does come, this one is going to leave a mark.

Have a pleasant evening.

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