Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Here Comes Santa Claus

 

"All the truth of my position came flashing on me; and its disappointments, dangers, disgraces, consequences of all kinds, rushed in in such a multitude that I was borne down by them and had to struggle for every breath I drew." 

Charles Dickens 

 

"Jim, lad, there be consequences an' then there be consequences.  Devil take 'em all, says I, and pass aft the rum." 

Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island

 

"A credibility trap is when the managerial functions of a society have been sufficiently compromised by corruption so that the leadership cannot reform, or even honestly address, the problems of that system without implicating a broad swath of the powerful, including themselves.  The moneyed interests and their servants tolerate the corruption because they have profited from it, and would like to continue to do so.  Discipline is maintained by various forms of soft financial rewards and social and organizational privileges." 

Jesse 

 

"Nemesis, the goddess of retribution and vengeance, the punisher of pride and hubris, waits impatiently for her meeting with us." 

Chalmers Johnson 

 

Stocks were wobbly today, and despite taking back some of their losses in the quieter afternoon trading, they still managed to go out near the lows.

Gold and silver were initially strong, but lost ground as the Dollar rallied in the afternoon.

The markets are signalling many contrary things about risks and rates.

Indeed, the predictive value of the US financial markets is about as reliable as Hunter Thompson on a three day road trip.

Short and possibly quiet holiday week dead ahead.

Have a pleasant weekend.

 

 

Recipe for the Holiday Week: Sweet and Sour Meatball Soup

 

As the latest wash and rinse cycle in stocks kicks in as expected for the quad stock option expiration, I wanted to share this old recipe with you again. 

I had to look up the recipe, which is an old paper written in my godfather's hand, God rest his soul.

It is something that was handed down from his family, in Prussia, where his father was a blacksmith.

I have modified the recipe a bit over the years, but here is the basic idea.  

Once you get the hang of it feel free to experiment with things that suit your taste. 

If you do not use pork, other bones can be substituted. 

I find that blanching the bones first and then discarding that liquid makes for a 'cleaner' soup.  

I learned this from making tonkotsu ramen broth.

There is a less sweet seafood version of this that I make with cod, hold the chicken wings.


Süße und Saure Suppe

Into a large pot add four quarts of light chicken stock. Add four stalks of celery. If it is green clean the outside to remove any bitterness by scraping it with a knife.

Add one pound of cleaned pork neckbones. This will add 'richness.'
One or two cloves of garlic.
Bring to a boil and simmer for 45 minutes.

Remove the bones and celery.

Take 1 pound of ground beef and 1 pound ground pork and 8 to 16 oz. of plain bread crumbs in a large bowl.  

Add one tablespoon celery salt and pepper to taste.
One well diced onion.

Mix in two eggs. If the mixture seems heavy add up to 1/2 cup milk to soften the bread crumbs.
Salt and pepper to taste. Add some garlic powder if you are of that persuasion.

Bring the stock back up to a boil. Make the meatballs and add them to
the stock. Cook them until they float to the top on a slow boil.
Remove them and put them on the side in a bowl.

Add one cup of diced celery, one diced leek or sweet onion, one large potato, and five or six sliced carrots.
Slice one lemon into disks, remove the seeds.
Add one package of cleaned and separated chicken wings or wingettes.
Bring to a slow boil and simmer for about 45 minutes.

Turn the heat down very low.

Add 2 pints of sour cream. Add one cup of sugar or sugar substitute.

Mix lightly without breaking up the carrots and other things in the soup.
Add some stock to the sour cream container and let it cool off.
 

Add 1/4 cup flour to the stock in the container and mix it well.
Add this back to the soup to thicken it. A rue can also be used. Or cornstarch.

Now taste the soup broth and add sugar  or a substitute to suit your taste. Do not overdo
but it should taste slightly sweet. 

If it is not sour enough add some cider vinegar to bring the sourness into balance with the sweetness.

Add back the meatballs and let it simmer for about fifteen minutes. Don't burn.

Add some chopped scallions for color, and ground pepper. Add salt if needed.

Serve in a bowl with a crusty bread.

The meatballs tend to absorb the liquid overnight. Add some chicken stock if needed.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - See-Saw

 

"The period of financial distress is a gradual decline after the peak of a speculative bubble that precedes the final and massive panic and crash, driven by the insiders having exited but the sucker outsiders hanging on hoping for a revival, but finally giving up in the final collapse."

Charles Kindelberger, Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises 

 

"The loveliest of the Devil's tricks is to make you believe that he does not exist." 

Charles Pierre Baudelaire

 

"And they said to him, 'Where will this happen, Lord?' And He said to them, 'Where death is, there a gathering of vultures will be.'” 

 Luke 17:37

 

Gold and silver rebounded sharply, with several of the mining stocks showing outsized one day gains. 

Newmont Mining was a good example. 

Stocks themselves struggled with big cap tech leading the way lower.

VIX was higher.

The Dollar fell, hanging on to the 96 handle by its fingernails.

There will be a stock option expiration tomorrow.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Endless Wealth Extraction - Le Monde Mythique du Papier

 

"In a hierarchically organised society, the Machiavellis are one step ahead.  They have the ultimate secret weapon to defeat their competition.  They’re shameless.”

Rutger Bregman, Humankind: A Hopeful History

 

"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

"We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God.  The world is crowded with Him.  He walks everywhere, incognito.  And the incognito is not always hard to penetrate. The real labour is to remember, to attend.  In fact, to come awake.  Still more, to remain awake. 

C. S. Lewis

 

"The market ideology is now the new form of imperial power and many of us, without any critical reflection, have signed onto that." 

Walter Brueggemann

 

“These days, banks have become so big that much of what they do is merely shuffle wealth around, or even destroy it.  Instead of growing the pie, the explosive expansion of the banking sector has increased the share it serves itself.  Bizarrely, it’s precisely the jobs that shift money around – creating next to nothing of tangible value – that net the best salaries.  How is it possible that all those agents of prosperity – the teachers, the police officers, the nurses – are paid so poorly, while the unimportant, superfluous, and even destructive shifters do so well?” 

Rutger Bregman, Utopia for Realists

 

These jokers are shameless.

I am sorry I did not buy even more heavily on that big dip.  

Yes this has always been a facet of the markets.   

But in 25 years it has rarely been more brazen. 

I hope you did not get whipsawed out of your positions.

Let's see what fresh shenanigans tomorrow may bring. 

In such a fragile system, agility and flexibility is the name of the game.

Physical gold inventory levels continue to fluctuate in Hong Kong.

Stock option expiration on Friday.

Have a pleasant evening.