Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Corruption's Self-Inflicted Wounds

 

"Everywhere Rome was failing in her duties as mistress of the civilised world.  Her own internal degeneracy was faithfully reflected in the abnegation of her imperial duties.  When in any country the small-farmer class is being squeezed off the land; when its labourers are slaves or serfs; when huge tracts are kept waste to minister to pleasure; when the shibboleth of art is on every man's lips, but ideas of true beauty in very few men's souls; when the business-sharper is the greatest man in the city, and lords it even in the law courts; when class-magistrates, bidding for high office, deal out justice according to the rank of the criminal; when exchanges are turned into great gambling-houses, and senators and men of title are the chief gamblers; when, in short, 'corruption is universal, when there is increasing audacity, increasing greed, increasing fraud, increasing impurity, and these are fed by increasing indulgence and ostentation; when a considerable number of trials in the courts of law bring out the fact that the country in general is now regarded as a prey, upon which any number of vultures, scenting it from afar, may safely light and securely gorge themselves; when the foul tribe is amply replenished by its congeners at home, and foreign invaders find any number of men, bearing good names, ready to assist them in robberies far more cruel and sweeping than those of the footpad or burglar'—when such is the tone of society, and such the idols before which it bends, a nation must be fast going down hill.

A more repulsive picture can hardly be imagined. A mob, a moneyed class, and an aristocracy almost equally worthless, hating each other, and hated by the rest of the world; Italians bitterly jealous of Romans, and only in better plight than the provinces beyond the sea; more miserable than either, swarms of slaves beginning to brood over revenge as a solace to their sufferings; the land going out of cultivation; native industry swamped by slave-grown imports; the population decreasing; the army degenerating; wars waged as a speculation, but only against the weak; provinces subjected to organized pillage; in the metropolis childish superstition, whole sale luxury, and monstrous vice. The hour for reform was surely come.  Who was to be the man?"

A.H. Beesley, The Gracchi Marius and Sulla, 1921


As you may recall the Gracchi brothers were Roman reformers in the second century BC, about seven hundred or more years before the fall of Rome itself.

Speaking about the 'fall of Rome', it has been my experience that the many theories and interpretations about the Fall of Rome say more about the cultural context and disposition of the historian advancing them than about the actual cause of the decline and fall of the empire itself. 

And the same goes for economics.

Stocks had another ranging day, but managed to finish in the green, in party by a 'good report' from index darling Netflix.

The Dollar was flat.

Gold and silver finished unchanged.

They seem to be held down here on support.  

VIX continued its gradual fall from the recent peak.

We are expecting to receive a hard frost here tonight, so the young man is gathering both the ripe and unripe from the garden.  

The leaves have not yet changed color on the trees here yet to any appreciable degree.   Perhaps this hard frost will help things along.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - In the Garden of Moloch

 

"I warn you about these things, my brothers and sisters, even though I understand that you already have heard them.   But I am watchful for you ahead of time, being wary of those wild beasts in human form.  Not only should you not court such people, if possible you should not even associate with them.  Instead pray for them that they might somehow repent, though even this seems difficult.  But the Lord has authority over them."

Ignatius of Antioch, Letters To the Smyrnaeans


"Capitalism is at risk of failing today not because we are running out of innovations, or because markets are failing to inspire private actions, but because we’ve lost sight of the operational failings of unfettered gluttony."

Jeffrey Sachs


"Ayn Rand's 'philosophy' is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society.   Moral values are in flux.   The muddy depths are being stirred by new monsters and witches from the deep.   Trolls walk the American night.  Caesars are stirring in the Forum."

Gore Vidal, Comment, Esquire, July 1961


"At first the love of money, and then of power, began to prevail, and became, as it were, the source of every evil.  For greed subverted honesty, integrity, and other honorable principles, and, instead encouraged pride, inhumanity, contempt for religion, and general corruption.  Ambition prompted many to become deceitful; to keep one thing concealed in the heart, and another on the tongue; to consider friendships and disagreements, not by their true worth, but according to their monetary value; and to bear a false face than an honest heart.

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

Sallust, The Conspiracy of Catiline



It was rally time today, as London set the tone by adopting a more 'responsible' fiscal plan, scrapping the PM's tax cuts. 

If you are wondering what that had to do with US equities, you have not been following the commentary.

Wash - rinse - repeat. 

The Dollar fell over a buck today.  

Gold rallied and then fell through the day, for no particular reason either.

Let's see what happens when earnings start coming out, and the myth of the Fed's pivot is once again dispelled.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Cruel Tutelage of History

 

"First, almost all panics and crashes are preceded by sustained periods of artificial growth, not based on improvements in productivity, but by a false expansion in the money system, aided and abetted by speculators and financiers.  Although they do not act in overt cooperation, yet there is an unmistakable collusion of purpose.

Second, almost all panics and crashes involves relatively small groups of people who seem to be at the heart of the matter, and are closely interlinked into small cartels of corrupted self-dealing involving the accumulation of enormous personal fortunes.  One is struck by the interconnections of the primary players in the Panic of 1907 in each others companies, banks, investments, and boards of directors. 

Lastly, there is always the over-extension of credit and excessive leverage.  Always.  This is how any Ponzi scheme grows.  In every case this is what precedes and precipitates the growth of a crisis and panic - the unreasonable overvaluation and expansion of assets precipitated by a relatively small number of men, interlinked loosely through business associations and personal financial gain.

If a general atmosphere of looting is fostered by the provocations of a few like-minded individuals, their subsequent actions need no coordination, other than the insufficient response of society to stop them before they gain sufficient momentum from their desires.  It is the apathy and weakness of the many that provides the stimulus and the encouragement for their plans."

Jesse, Lessons from the Panic of 1907, 14 March 2014

"His oratory moved people, and appealed to their hopes and dreams.  But his speeches malevolently twisted hope into some gnarled ghastly entities, and appealed to the latent, darkest prejudices of Germans.”

Richard M. Perloff, The Dynamics of Persuasion

"But it is obvious that the theme since the 1980's at least has been the will to power, the knocking down of laws and regulations, to allow the most powerful to do what they will, to take an even greater share of the riches of the world, to the disadvantage of the many. And my hypothesis is that the global reserve currency is a key plank in this agenda."

Jesse, Gold Holdings and the Evolution of Global Trade and Wealth, 29 January 2010

“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man.   People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given away in marriage, up to the very day Noah entered the ark.   Then the flood came, and swept them all away.  And they said to him, 'Where will this happen, Lord?'  And He said to them, 'Where death is, there will be a gathering of vultures.'”

Luke 17:26-27, 37

Stocks tried to rally today, but slumped quickly, falling to fresh closing lows.

Wash and rinse.

The Dollar rallied in a flight risk from other currencies primarily, particularly Sterling, the Euro, and the Yen.

I have included a longer term Dollar chart showing how the DX index peaked at levels like this in the crash of 2001 and 1987.

VIX was flat, but remains elevated.

 Now that the latest wealth transfer bubble has burst, one would expect that the very wise and important will be calling for austerity, and for the common person to pay the price for this folly.

The wiseguys are already setting their agenda for Medicare, Veteran's Benefits, and Social Security.  

Same old, same old.

Stay on the high ground.  It's not so different this time, and you are special only in God's eyes.  

To the world you are things, fodder for their use.

To God, you are a beloved child.  And woe to them that harm you. 

It would have been better if they had never been born, when accounts are finally settled.

To win some, they lose all.

Have a pleasant weekend.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - You're a Daisy If You Do

 

"The whole town and all its inhabitants are quite drowned in carnival din, masks and confetti.   And on top of that the news of the Reichstag fire.   Dancing on a volcano."

Alban Berg, Letter from Berlin, September 1, 1933


“Berlin.   I used to love this old city.  But that was before it had caught sight of its own reflection and taken to wearing corsets laced so tight that it could hardly breathe.   I loved the easy, carefree philosophies, the cheap jazz, the vulgar cabarets and all of the other cultural excesses that characterized the Weimar years, and made Berlin seem like one of the most exciting cities in the world.”

Philip Kerr, Berlin Noir: March Violets


"Once more, let me remind you what fascism is.  I need not wear a brown shirt or a green shirt.  Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege."

Thomas Clement Douglas



The CPI numbers came in a little disjointed this morning, enabling a vigorous wash and rinse on Wall Street. 

If you just look at the end result it appears to be a proper risk on day.

The major indices set new lows early on.

And then rocketed back in what looks more like a relief rally than a capitulation bottom. 

Time will tell on that.

Gold and silver similarly fell down hard, but managed to find a footing and finish up fairly well on the day.

I took a ride up from the bottom, but exited those add-ons into the close.

This market still seems dangerously unbalanced.

The Dollar dropped as did the VIX.

Did all of this mean anything?

Only to reinforce the utterly cynical and shall underpinnings of the US financial markets.

We are all traders now.

I still like gold here, and to some extent silver which is less of a safe haven.

But this market is still one exogenous event away from a proper meltdown. 

CPI is really not exogenous since it was probably leaked and spun all over the place.

It is just a means, as most things become in a cynically corrupt institution.

Have a pleasant evening.