A Lenten Meditation - Walk Humbly With Your God

 

If we should desire to make some worthy offering and useful sacrifice for Lent, let us give up our pride and our anger and fears driven by greed and selfishness.

"He has shown you all what is good.
And what else does the Lord require of you
But to do justice,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?"

Micah 6:8 

"Cheerfulness strengthens the heart and makes us persevere in a good life.  Excessive sadness seldom springs from any other source than pride.

For my part, when I find someone securely confident in themselves and without fear, I give them up for lost. "

Philip Neri

 

"It was pride that changed angels into devils; and it is humility that makes men angels.  There never has been, and never can be, and there never shall be any sin without pride.” 

Augustine of Hippo

 

"The most powerful weapon to stand against the devil is humility.  For, as he does not know at all how to employ it, so he does not know how to defeat it."

Vincent de Paul 

 

"The humble live in continuous peace, while in the hearts of the proud are envy and frequent anger."

Thomas à Kempis

 

"Take up my yoke and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

Matthew 11:29

 

Jesus, Lord, gentle and humble of heart,
From the desire of being esteemed, deliver me.
From the desire of being loved, deliver me.
From the desire of being extolled, deliver me.
From the desire of being honored, deliver me.
From the desire of being praised, deliver me.
From the desire of being preferred to others, deliver me.
From the desire of being consulted, deliver me.
From the desire of being approved, deliver me.
From the fear of being humiliated, deliver me.
From the fear of being despised, deliver me.
From the fear of suffering rebukes, deliver me.
From the fear of being calumniated, deliver me.
From the fear of being forgotten, deliver me.
From the fear of being ridiculed, deliver me.
From the fear of being wronged, deliver me.
From the fear of being suspected, deliver me.

That others may be loved more than I, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I, grant me the grace to desire it.
That, in the opinion of the world, grant me the grace to desire it.
others may increase and I may decrease, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and I set aside, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and I unnoticed, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be preferred to me in everything, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should, Lord, grant me the grace to desire it.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Everybody Knows, But Who Could Have Seen It Coming?

"I have one other issue I'd like to throw on the table. I hesitate to do it, but let me tell you some of the issues that are involved here.  If we are dealing with psychology, then the thermometers one uses to measure it have an effect.  I was raising the question on the side with Governor Mullins of what would happen if the Treasury sold a little gold in this market.

There's an interesting question here because if the gold price broke [lower] in that context, the thermometer would not be just a measuring tool.  It would basically affect the underlying psychology. Now, we don't have the legal right to sell gold but I'm just frankly curious about what people's views are on situations of this nature because something unusual is involved in policy here.  We're not just going through the standard policy where the money supply is expanding, the economy is expanding, and the Fed tightens. This is a wholly different thing." 

Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve Minutes from May 18, 1993 

 

"We looked into the abyss if the gold price rose further.  A further rise would have taken down one or several trading houses, which might have taken down all the rest in their wake.  Therefore at any price, at any cost, the central banks had to quell the gold price, manage it.  It was very difficult to get the gold price under control but we have now succeeded.  The US Fed was very active in getting the gold price down.  So was the U.K." 

Sir Eddie George, Governor Bank of England in conversation with Nicholas J. Morrell, of Lonmin Plc, 1999

 

"The information in this report is taken from sources believed to be reliable; however, the Commodity Exchange, Inc. disclaims all liability whatsoever with regard to its accuracy or completeness.  This report is produced for information purposes only." 

Statement at the bottom of the CME Gold and Silver warehouse inventory reports

 

"On January 30, 2012 the Wall Street Journal did a hilariously bad job of reporting when its front page article stated that a 'person close to the investigation' said that as a result of chaotic trading in the week before MF Global's October 31 bankruptcy, customers' money 'vaporized.'  Money doesn't vaporize...

The habitual filching of customers' funds -- even if the funds are later replaced -- goes way beyond sloppy bookkeeping.  It goes way beyond bad judgment.  Just because MF Global got away with it for a long time before it blew up in its face doesn't mean one can call it sloppy bookkeeping and have any reasonable person believe it."

Janet Tavakoli,  MF Global:  Crime, Comedy, and Cover-Up, February 28, 2012

 

"But there is a sort of  'Ok guys, you're mad, but how are you going to stop me' mentality at the top." 

Robert Johnson, Audacious Oligarchy

 

“If you shut up truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way.” 

Émile Zola

 

I just thought these statements were an interesting reminder, and a modern truth to be relearned, bluntly and plainly stated. 

Promises and commitments these days are writ on the water of the fine print, and in the laws which the corporations have paid to have written. 

Who can say where and when the next Madoff moment will appear.

Gold and silver rallied strongly overnight.

Alas, they were hit in the London and NY trading, finishing slightly lower.

The Dollar drifted sideways, managing to hold a toe over the 91 handle.

Stocks soared today, taking back much of their recent losses, but still falling short of their recent highs.

Who could see it coming?

Risk on.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Gold and Silver Hammered

 

Gold and silver were hammered lower.

Let's see if they can hold support next week.

The dollar rallied. 

Stocks managed to churn out a neutral showing. 

Have a pleasant weekend. 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Risk Off, Down Bubble

 

"No one today likes truth: utility and self interest have long ago been substituted for truth.  We live in a nightmare of falsehoods, and there are few who are sufficiently awake and aware to see things as they are.  Our first duty is to clear away illusions and recover a sense of reality." 

Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev 

 

"Our basic trouble was not an insufficiency of capital.  It was an insufficient distribution of buying power coupled with an over-sufficient speculation in production.  

Do what we may have to do to inject life into our ailing economic order, we cannot make it endure for long unless we can bring about a wiser, more equitable distribution of the national income.” 

Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932 

 

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” 

 F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby 

 

The bubble momentum trade in financial assets was getting crowded and overdone. 

The mavens of the markets tried to shake off the hangers-on yesterday, but Jay Powell nixed their plans with his happy talk. 

So today the captains of Wall Street called for a down bubble, emergency deep.  

Time to take out the garbage.  Scrape the hull.  

The challenge the financiers presented to the Fed showed up in the yields of the longer dated 5+ Treasuries and curve. 

Despite the selling, the Dollar tread water very nicely just above 90.

VIX went north.

A grand wash day. 

What will Chairman Jay and his banker buddies do next in response? 

Or is this just another episode of kabuki theater among financial friends.

Let's see what comes out in the rinse. 

Have a pleasant evening.