Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Our Modern Know-Nothings - History Repeating

 

“Explosive urban and industrial growth had thrust the [Massachusetts] Commonwealth into the forefront of the industrial states in the antebellum period, creating, in the process, wrenching social and economic dislocations.  The failure of the established parties to mount a significant response to the myriad issues and problems spawned in the matrix of modernization weakened partisan attachments and set the rank and file of the established parties on a quest for a political vehicle that would make a difference in their lives. 

In 1854, such a vehicle materialized in the form of an antiparty, antipolitician populist movement that promised to cleanse the statehouse of corrupt old parties and self-serving political careerists and turn the government over to the people so that they might right the wrongs that had for so long afflicted them.

Among the afflictions, it is true, were the many social problems associated with mass immigration; but there were other troubling and pervasive concerns endemic to an unharnessed, rapidly expanding urban, industrial order, including the tyrannical factory system, the decline in the status of labor, the widening gulf between rich and poor, and the deteriorating quality of urban life.” 

John R. Mulkern, The Know-Nothing Party In Massachusetts 

 

"I am not a Know-Nothing.  That is certain.  How could I be?  How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people?  Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid.  As a nation, we begin by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.'  

When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics.'  When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty-to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy." 

Abraham Lincoln, August 24, 1855 

 

“Against foolishness we are defenseless.  Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed – in such moments the foolish person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental.   In all this the foolish person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack.” 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Prisoner for God: Letters and Papers from Prison

 

Some stocks were a little wobbly after their recent parabolic gains. 

We may see more signs of instability as the bubble proceeds to its natural conclusion.

Gold was up a bit, silver not so much.

The active months in the gold contract are now October and December.  For silver the most activity is now in December.

The Dollar was once again unchanged at 92.67.   Three days in a row.  How about that.

There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday.

I am really getting antsy about the equity markets.  

I have pretty much stopped watching most network television, and am much more selective about the sites that I read on the internet.   I spend much more time reading and praying and working outside, and trying to help others.

It makes my thinking clearer, and my overall outlook generally more content.

As Fulton Sheen noted, "The most important problem in the world today is your soul, for that is what the struggle is about."

People can become addicted to all sorts of things.   And there are plenty of examples in history of how people became addicted to demagogues who wove a delusional cartoon fantasy for their followers.

Time to disconnect from the machine, and start thinking and feeling for something more worthwhile and genuine and lasting.  

As a test, change that channel, stop running to read those websites.  See how badly you miss your favorite source of emotional opiates when they are gone.   Be patient with yourself in your withdrawal.

But above all save yourselves, for in the end to lose yourself, to throw yourself away for what is essentially nothing, is the only real tragedy. 

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

Have a pleasant evening.

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.