Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Just Another Manic Monday - Oligarchs Abounding

 

“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 

 

"Back in 1941, Franklin Roosevelt set down his understanding of American political history, in which there were two schools of political belief.  'The liberal party believed in the wisdom and efficacy of the will of the great majority of the people, as distinguished from the judgement of a small minority of either education or wealth.'  

What Roosevelt could not foresee was a party system in which the divide fell not between the few and the many, but between the small minority of education and the small minority of wealth.  Enlightened technocrats on one side, and resentful billionaires on the other.  Get that great majority back together, and they would be unstoppable." 

Thomas Frank 

 

"Manipulation can only go so far, especially when gold is reverting to its primary function which is as a currency in its own right or as means to substantiate existing currencies." 

Richard Henley Davis 

 

"Propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government." 

Edward Bernays

The story stocks in the SP 500 and the NDX were ripping higher today, with the big cap teach stocks going parabolic.

Gold and silver were under pressure much of the day, but managed to bounce back a bit into the close.

Silver in particular finished almost unchanged.

The Dollar was unchanged, short of the 93 handle.

There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday that could move the markets.   

Dinner tonight was my son's favorite Asian comfort food, mapo tofu.  It came out really well he says.

I put in some slightly charred shoshito peppers and eggplant from the garden, in addition to the traditional and usual suspects.

Have a pleasant evening. 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Jackson Hole's Big Finish! - Non-Farm Payrolls Next Week

 

"The sense of responsibility in the financial community for the community as a whole is not small.  It is nearly nil.  Perhaps this is inherent.  In a community where the primary concern is making money, one of the necessary rules is to live and let live.  To speak out against madness may be to ruin those who have succumbed to it.  So the wise in Wall Street are nearly always silent.  The foolish thus have the field to themselves.  None rebukes them."

John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash of 1929 

 

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” 

Søren Kierkegaard 

 

“When we trade the effort of doubt and debate for the ease of blind faith, we become gullible and exposed, passive and irresponsible observers of our own lives.   Worse still, we leave ourselves wide open to those who profit by influencing our behavior, our thinking, and our choices.  At that moment, our agency in our own lives is in jeopardy.” 

Margaret Heffernan 

 

“The second factor contributing to speculative euphoria and programmed collapse is the specious association of money and intelligence. There can be few fields of human endeavor in which history counts for so little as in the world of finance.” 

John Kenneth Galbraith, A Short History of Financial Euphoria 

Fed Chairman Jay Powell gave some fiarly dovish comments today in his keynote speech at Jackson Hole.

It was absolutely no surprise to anyone who have been following things closely.

But it apparently surprised the markets (yeah right), which took off higher, going out near the highs.

The Russell 2000 was a top performer for a change of pace.

Gold and silver were shining, especially in the aftermath of the utterly obvious and heavy-handed take down last week by one or more of the short interest holding Banks.

Next week there will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday, ahead of the three day holiday weekend.

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

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Live From the Jackson Snake-Hole Lounge

 

“In the history of every great catastrophe, you will find that some masterly bit of stupidity sets fire to the oil-soaked rags.” 

Edwin Lefèvre

 

"The cruelest lies are often told in silence." 

Robert Louis Stevenson

 

"The world is ours, we are its lords, and ours it shall remain.  As for the host of labor, it has been in the dirt since history began, and I read history aright.  And in the dirt it shall remain so long as I and mine and those that come after us have the power.” 

Jack London, The Iron Heel 

 

“I recognize that there is a stock market bubble problem at this point, and I agree with Governor Lindsey that this is a problem that we should keep an eye on.  We do have the possibility of raising major concerns by increasing margin requirements.  I guarantee that if you want to get rid of the bubble, whatever it is, that will do it.” 

Alan Greenspan, FOMC Minutes, September 24, 1996

 

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” 

Upton Sinclair

"We run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put up a façade to prevent ourselves from seeing it.” 

Blaise Pascal

 

Stocks slumped today on the news of a brutal terror bombing among the evacuees at Kabul Airport. 

Gold and silver were both hit, as is customary for an option expiration on the Comex.

Gold managed to take back its losses and finish in the green.  Silver not so much. 

The Dollar was up a bit, just taking back the 93 handle.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell will be giving the keynote address at Jackson Hole tomorrow.

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 - Rhinestone Cowboys - J Hole Falling into a Policy K Hole

 

"Day by day the money-masters of America become more aware of their danger, they draw together, they grow more class-conscious, more aggressive.  American political corruption was the buying up of legislatures and assemblies to keep them from doing the people's will and protecting the people's interests; it was the exploiter entrenching himself in power, it was financial autocracy undermining and destroying political democracy.  

By the blindness and greed of ruling classes the people have been plunged into infinite misery." 

Upton Sinclair, The Brass Check 

 

"If you have not chosen the kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead.”

William Law

Stocks were mostly unchanged ahead of Jerome Powell's keynote speech on Friday at Jackson Hole.

I doubt that he will say anything that is market moving, but it won't take much to perturb a bubble of this magnitude.

Gold was hit by selling ahead of the option expiration that is mostly irrelevant to it.

Silver held steady.  It has more stake in the expiration.

The US Dollar moved a bit lower into the close.

Have a pleasant evening.