Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Curiouser and Curiouser - As Old as Babylon

 

“War is a racket.  It always has been.  It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious.  It is the only one international in scope.  It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. 

I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps.  I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General.  And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. 

In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.   A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people.  Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about.  It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. 

 Out of war a few people make huge fortunes. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights." 

Major General Smedley Butler, War Is a Racket
 

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.  This world in arms is not spending money alone.  It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.  This is not a way of life at all in any true sense.  Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.” 

Dwight D. Eisenhower

 

"The wealth of another region excites their greed; and if it is weak, their lust for power as well. Nothing from the rising to the setting of the sun is enough for them.  Among all others only they are compelled to attack the poor as well as the rich.  Plunder, rape, and slaughter they falsely call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace." 

Tacitus 

Gold and silver were both higher today, and both are now tucked up under some key overhead resistance.

Interestingly enough, the Dollar was also higher today, taking a firm grip on the 95 handle.

Both the SP500 and the tech heavy NDX rallied, but then gave up most or all of their gains into the close.

The VIX was lower.

Smells like teen spirit.

Have a pleasant evening.

Farewell Homage to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell - Jay, We Hardly Knew Ye

 

It looks likely that Jerome 'Well you can call me Jay' Powell is going to be moving on from his post as Fed Chairman.

No tears need be shed, as he will likely find warm welcomes, open arms, and lucrative speaking opportunities at the Wall Street Banks and hedge funds from whence he came.

But what else could we expect, for creatures of the moneyed interests and their Banks.

“Your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.” 

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

 These fellows are comedic gold, and for that he will be missed at Le Café.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Cloudy With a Chance of Vertigo

 

"Power is always dangerous.  Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best."

Edward Abbey

 

"This elite-generated social control maintains the status quo because the status quo benefits and validates those who created and sit atop it.  People rise to prominence when they parrot the orthodoxy rather than critically analyze it.  Intellectual regurgitation is prized over independent thought. Voices of the dispossessed, different, and un(formally)educated are neglected regardless of their morality, import, and validity.  

Real change in politics or society cannot occur under the orthodoxy because if it did, it would threaten the legitimacy of the professional class and all of the systems that helped them achieve their status." 

Kristine Mattis, The Cult of the Professional Class

 

"Most of them became wealthy by being well connected and crooked.   And they are creating a society in which they can commit hugely damaging economic crimes with impunity, and in which only children of the wealthy have the opportunity to become successful."

Charles Ferguson

 

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

Upton Sinclair

Stocks were a bit wobbly today, getting a slight nosebleed from their recent lofty valuations. 

Gold and silver took off on the stronger than expected measure of inflation.

The Dollar also rallied, in what is likely a combination of a flight to safety and anticipation of higher interest rates.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Remarkable Fragility - The Madness Serves None But Itself

 

"Asset prices remain vulnerable to significant declines should investor risk sentiment deteriorate, progress on containing the virus disappoint, or the economic recovery stall.

Leverage of life insurance companies remained at post-2008 highs.  Corporate bonds, CLOs [Collateralized Loan Obligations], and CRE [Commercial Real Estate] debt continued to account for a large proportion of life insurers’ assets.  If these assets lose value, life insurers’ capital positions—and, hence, their ability to honor debt obligations—could be impaired.

Excessive leverage within the financial sector increases the risk that financial institutions will not have the ability to absorb even modest losses when hit by adverse shocks.  In those situations, institutions will be forced to cut back lending, sell their assets, or, in extreme cases, shut down.  Such responses can substantially impair credit access for households and businesses.” 

Federal Reserve, Financial Stability Report, November 2021

 

"Foolishness has a knack of getting its way; as we should see if we were not always so much wrapped up in ourselves.   In this respect our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; they did not believe in plagues." 

Albert Camus

 

Stocks were a bit wobbly today.

Considering how far and how fast they have come in this melt up phase of the financial asset bubble, it is pretty much just a breather, so far.

I am trying to take most things people say with a grain of salt now in this period of extreme hyperbole and detachment from reality, in so many areas.

It's tough for people living in a bubble to maintain their bearings.

Madness is contagious, and a relief for many from reality.

Gold was higher again.   It is approaching a key resistance area.

Silver was a bit higher, but is lagging a bit.

The Dollar continued to chop sideways around  the 94 handle.

Keep a good eye on yourself, moreso than the other guy.

And especially who or what it is that you serve.

Have a pleasant evening.