Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - And the Band Played On - Our Audacious Oligarchy

 

"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 

 

"They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution.  They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest." 

Henry Wallace, April 1944

 

"Our plutocracy, whether the hedge fund managers in Greenwich, Connecticut, or the Internet moguls in Palo Alto, now lives like the British did in colonial India: ruling the place but not of it."

Mike Lofgren, The Deep State 

 

"Our future could be one in which continued tumult feeds the looting of the financial system, and we talk more and more about exactly how our oligarchs became bandits and how the economy just can’t seem to get into gear." 

Simon Johnson, The Quiet Coup, May 2009

 

“The main problem in any democracy is that crowd-pleasers are generally brainless swine who can go out on a stage and whip their supporters into an orgiastic frenzy— then go back to the office and sell every one of the poor bastards down the tube for a nickel apiece.” 

Hunter S. Thompson

 

"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

Stocks moved lower again today, and went out near their lows.

Gold and silver were hit hard in the early trading, but managed to take back a good chun of their losses by the close.

The physical kilo bar inventory in Hong Kong is getting rather low again.  

Time to scour more physical out of the ETFs?

The Dollar rose on higher Treasury yields.

Congress engaged in the usual toothless showmanship in discussing the economy in testimony today.

I am sitting all in cash in my short term account now , although I did flip a few miners off the morning bloodbath.

Agnico-Eagle will be acquiring Kirkland Lake in a 'merger of equals (kind of).

The saga of the gambling Fed Presidents continues, and so we have another fine piece from the Martens today here.

Apparently a Fed President was actively placing short term million dollar directional bets, including the SP futures, during the crisis and the bailouts, with pockets full of insider information.

Must have been like shooting fish in a barrel.

And it was all legal so they say, and ethical.   But details are being stonewalled.

All in all not extraordinary, in this attractive but deceitful world of routine abuse of honor, office, power, and the truth.

Have a pleasant evening. 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Two Fed Presidents 'Retire Early' - Comex October Gold Option Expiration

 

"Dallas Fed President, Robert Kaplan, wasn’t just trading like an aggressive hedge fund kingpin in 2020, he’s been doing the same thing for five years at the Dallas Fed while simultaneously having access to non-public, market moving information from the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate setting FOMC meetings and other confidential communications."

Martens, Trading Like a Hedge Fund Kingpin for Five Years while President of the Dallas Fed; a Dozen Legal Safeguards Failed to Stop Him

 

"At first, the love of money, and then that of power began to prevail, and these became, as it were, the sources of every evil.  For avarice subverted honesty, integrity and other honorable principles and, in their stead, inculcated pride, inhumanity, contempt of religion and general venality.  

Ambition prompted many to become deceitful; to keep one thing concealed in the breast and another ready on the tongue; to estimate friendships and enmities, not by their worth, but according to interest; and to carry rather a specious countenance than an honest heart. 

These vices first advanced but slowly, and were sometimes restrained by correction; but afterward, when their infection had spread like a pestilence, the state was entirely changed, and the government, from being the most equitable and praiseworthy, became the most rapacious and insupportable." 

Sallust, Conspiracy of Cataline

 

"And because of the increase in wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.   But those who stand, firmly to the end, will be saved." 

Matthew 24:12

Stocks were wobbly once again, and were not able to hold their rally attempts.

The big cap techs were leading to the downside on reports of supply chain disruptions because of power shortages and related issues in China.

The Dollar was choppy and finished slightly higher.

Gold was a bit lower, most likely due to its option expiration for the active October contract on the Comex.

Silver, not being in option play, finished higher.

The two Federal Reserve Presidents who were shown to be trading while in possession of insider information have both decided to resign, while asserting that they followed all of the Fed's ethical standards. 

The Fed's secret ethical standards must be very flexible indeed.    

In light of this scandal, Chairman Powell has promised to give them a double secret review.  While admitting no wrongdoing.

Hoo-hah.

"The Banks must be restrained, and the financial system reformed, with balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustainable recovery." 

Jesse, May 2009

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Shameless and Defiant to the End

 

“He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside, He came to those men who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same words: "Follow thou me!" and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time.  He commands.  And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is.” 

Albert Schweitzer

 

"Here we may reign secure, and in my choice to reign is worth ambition though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven."

John Milton, Paradise Lost

“There are only two kinds of people in the end— those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'  All that are in Hell, choose it.” 

C.S. Lewis

The financial spokesmodels were waggling their drooping pom-poms with all the vigor they had today.

And stocks managed to overcome their early losses, and were able to move into the green in the afternoon, after the rest of the world had gone home for the weekend.

The Dollar was higher along with Treasury yields.

Gold and silver were quite a bit lower intraday, but managed to come back to slight losses.

I suspect we are positioning ahead of the futures contracts expiration for precious metals om Monday the 27th next week.

The inventories of physical gold in the Comex warehouses in Hong Kong had fallen to lower levels.  So perhaps it was time to hit the metals and scrape more inventory out of the ETFs.

Have a pleasant weekend

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Keep Calm and Bubble On

 

"Price discovery is not a sexy function of markets, but it is critical to the efficient allocation of scarce capital and resources, and to the preservation of the long term wealth of investors and the economy as a whole.  If price discovery is compromised by manipulation, then we will all be gradually impoverished and the economy will be imbalanced and unstable."

London Banker, Lies, Damn Lies, and Libor 

 

"What is most offensive is not their lying— one can always forgive lying— lying can be a delightful thing, for it leads to truth. What is offensive is that they lie, and worship their own lying." 

 Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment 

 

“A true opium of [worldly] people is a belief in nothingness after death— the huge solace of thinking that for our betrayals, greed, cowardice, and murders that we are not going to be judged.” 

Czesław Miłosz

 

“You cannot play with the animal in you without becoming wholly animal, play with falsehood without forfeiting your right to truth, play with cruelty without losing your sensitivity of mind.  He who wants to keep his garden tidy does not reserve a plot for weeds.  Your cravings as a human animal do not become a prayer just because it is God whom you ask to attend to them.  God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity.  But we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder the source of which is beyond all reason." 

Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings

Stocks were off and running today starting with a boom in the futures overnight.

The Dollar was lower.

Gold and silver were lower.

Risk on!

Have a pleasant evening.