Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - A Prison of the Heart - Driving Miss Daisy

 

"The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy."

Alex Carey, Taking the Risk out of Democracy, 1995

"The wealthy, not only by private fraud but also by common laws, do every day pluck and snatch away from the people some part of their daily living. Therefore, when I consider and weigh in my mind these commonwealths which nowadays do flourish, I perceive nothing but a certain conspiracy of rich men in procuring their own commodities under the name and authority of the commonwealth.  They invent and devise all means and crafts, first how to keep safely without fear of losing that which they have unjustly gathered together, and next how to hire and abuse the work and labor of the people for as little money and effort as possible."

Thomas More, Utopia

"Progress is a nice word.  But change is its motivator.  And change has its enemies.”

Robert F. Kennedy

"You have to understand that only the very worst end up here: the ones whose anger made them kill, and who felt no sorrow or guilt after the act; those so obsessed with themselves that they turned their backs on the sufferings of others, and left them in pain; those whose greed meant that others starved and died.  Such souls belong here.  Wickedness never rests easily so, in a way, one might almost feel pity for the wicked, for they are destined to live their lives in fear, in a prison of the heart.”

John Connolly, The Infernals


This is being posted early today.

I will be driving our recent rescue stray, Miss Daisy, to the vet, and all things considered won't be back until some time after the close. 

The young man is coming as her emotional support person.

She is a sweet angel, remarkably well-behaved and affectionate. 

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Empire of Lawlessness

 

"And he said, ‘This is what I will do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.  There I shall store all my abundance and other treasures and say to myself, 'Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, relax, eat, drink, be merry!'

But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the many things you have acquired, whose then will they be?’ Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasures for himself, but does not have those things that matter most to God.”

Luke 12:18-21

"But we are like children, thinking our toys will make us happy and the whole world is our nursery.  Something must drive us out of that nursery and into the lives of others, and that something is suffering.

When I lay these questions before God I get no answer.  But a rather special sort of 'No answer.'  It is not the locked door.  It is more like a silent, certainly not uncompassionate, gaze.  As though He shook His head not in refusal but waiving the question.  Like, 'Peace, child; you don't understand."

C. S. Lewis

"The root of all sin is pride, superbia.  I want to be my own law, I have a right to my self, my hatred and my desires, my life and my death.  The mind and flesh of man are set on fire by pride; for it is precisely in his wickedness that man wants to be as God.  In confession comes the breakthrough to the cross."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"'Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become as an innocent, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.

Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.  Woe to the world because of things that cause sin. Such things must come, but woe to the one through whom they come."

Matthew 18:1-12

Stocks slumped hard again today, falling back down to touch support at a lower level, with a little bounce into the close.

Gold and silver pretty much chopped sideways.

The VIX continued to climb off its recent low.

Is the 'rinse' over yet?

Hard to say.  The next major stock index option expiration is not until next Friday.

But I took off my index shorts before the close today.   No need to be greedy.

Let's see what fresh antics tomorrow brings.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Masters of the Universe - The Endless Wash and Rinse

 

"Let us just say a definition of the virtuous life is one that embraces knowledge, kindness, and tolerance, a humanity fueled not merely by sentiment or a disposition of character, but by reason coupled with a moral sentiment and an abiding regard for others.

It is at heart a question of 'what does it mean to be human?' Not so much what can I do, but what ought I to do?   And how do I define or describe ought?   And how ought I treat others?  Or is it better to define myself by the limits of my own will?  Is that what it means to be truly human?

In a society that worships the self, power is the coin of the realm, where power is to be found in asserting one's own will over others.  And beyond all doubt, kindness and tolerance are to be despised as undermining, weakening the will to power.  In power is to be found the definition of all truth, for it dictates all, and does not bend a knee to any other reality but its own interpretation.  'Might makes right' is written large on the tableau of empire.

It is like the white collar criminal who thinks themselves morally justified and blameless because they use the pen and the bribe and perversion of justice to steal, rather than the knife or the club.  We are all capable of enormous hypocrisies and evil, especially if we think ourselves to be perfect and without fault because we are more than the ordinary human with respect to our superior nature, rising in our own esteem by knocking others flat.

When it is not just a pathological sickness, this is the most deadly of errors, the first fault of pride, and from it flows a cornucopia of all other injustice and abuses.   In rationalizing ourselves by dehumanizing others, we can therein comfortably become monsters.   And some do."

Jesse, 9 January 2015


"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


Those who would make gods of themselves are the very stuff of devils.

Stocks took a dive today as the endless wash and rinse continues.

Gold and silver fell and the Dollar rallied.

The VIX bounced off its recent low that I pointed out last week.

Just another episode in the three card monte game of the Fed's manipulation of interest rates and market sentiment in partnership with the Wall Street wiseguys.

"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 - As Night Follows Day, Rinse Follows Wash

 

"The ultimate purpose of crime is to establish an endless empire. It seeks a state of complete insecurity and anarchy, founded upon the tainted ideals of a world thought doomed to annihilation.  When humanity, subjugated by the terror of crime, has been driven mad by fear and horror, and when chaos has become the supreme law, then the time for the empire of lawlessness will have come."

Friedrich Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse, 1933


"At that time many will turn away from the faith, and will betray and hate each other. And false prophets will appear, and deceive many. And because of the increase in wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. But those who stand firm to the end will be saved. And the gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come."

Matthew 24:10-14


"We run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put up a façade to prevent ourselves from seeing it.”

Blaise Pascal


"With tears in my eyes I tell you now that some may be lost, forever.  For their desires are the god that they worship.  They boast with pride about things of which they should be ashamed.  They think only about the privileges and glories of this world."

Philippians 3:19-20


"The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the refuge of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"

Psalm 27:1


John Henry Newman was the vicar at St. Mary the Virgin Church at Oxford from 1828-1843.  The pulpit he used there is pictured above.

I visited a few times many years ago when I was traveling frequently for work, much of it overseas. 

I was surprised that the motto of Oxford, Dominus Illuminatio Mea (the Lord is my Light) was apparently embroidered on each of the kneelers without any sort of a covering.

What an extravagance!   I made up a pattern like it on paper and had my talented sister-in-law stitch one up to be framed my study at home, which I still have to this day.

Well, stocks were shocked, shocked by the slightly stronger than expected Payrolls Report this morning.

And so they jumped off a bridge in their dismay.

The Dollar soared and gold fell. 

Silver just keeps kicking ass and taking names.  It eats beta for breakfast.

But as the day wore on, and the rest of the world went home, those clever boys from Wall Street brought in the laundry from the rinse cycle, and had a pleasant time taking their winnings home for the day.

So stocks finished close to unchanged as did gold and the Dollar.

Silver is just off in a rally of its own.

Let's see what fresh antics the next week will bring for our entertainment.

Have a pleasant weekend.

PS.  I was so moved by this memory of Oxford that I am making English muffin pizzas for dinner.  Thomas' of course.