Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - War Pigs - The Rulers of the Darkness of This World

 

"What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?  We know who you are—the Holy One of God.”

Mark 1:24

"Seneca had made the bargain that many good men have made when agreeing to aid bad regimes.  On the one hand, their presence strengthens the regime and helps it endure.  But their moral influence may also improve the regime's behavior or save the lives of its enemies.  For many, this has been a bargain worth making, even if it has cost them—as it may have cost Seneca—their immortal soul.”

James Romm, Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero


"All tyrannies are virtuoso displays, over many years, of cunning, risk-taking, terror, delusion, narcissism, showmanship, and charm, distilled into a spectacle of total personal control."

Simon Sebag Montefiore


"There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage.  And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life.  What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?

Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee.  So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.  But it came to pass for a while in divers places that the truth did set man free, although the men of darkness were offended and they tried to put out the light. 

Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the lands and there would be a burning of books and men would think only of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed only to new Caesars and to false prophets.  Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter's star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness."

Vermont C. Royster, In Hoc Anno Domini, WSJ, December 24, 1949

Fresh regional bank troubles and a poor outlook for iPhones had the markets reeling this morning.

Stocks trading lower most of the day, and only managed to bounce off the bottom into the close.

VIX rose.

Gold and silver put in notable rallies, alhough only silver was able to hold on to most of the breakout attempt.

It had all the appearance of a 'flight to safety.' 

Unusual for silver to lead that effort.

Non-Farm Payrolls tomorrow.  We may then see what is what.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Pause, Kind Of - Non-Farm Payrolls on Friday

 

"Once completely freed, the bankers very quickly ran their institutions off the cliff, taking much of the global economy with them. Not only did they create and sell a huge amount of junk, but they turned the financial system into a gigantic casino, one in which they played mainly with other people’s money. Both parties make a public show of how bitter their conflicts are, and how dangerous it would be for the other party to achieve power, while both prostitute themselves to the financial sector, powerful industries, and the wealthy.”

Charles H. Ferguson

"The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the needy.  Mr. Hoover was an engineer.  He knew that water trickled down.  Put it uphill and let it go and it will reach the driest little spot. But he didn't know that money trickled up.  Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night anyhow.  But it will at least have passed through some poor fellow’s hands.

They saved the big banks, but the little ones went up the flue."

Will Rogers, 5 December 1932

"I have come to realize that the vast majority of decent, wonderful people, have no idea how they are being hoodwinked day in and day out by the scum of this world. We are lied to, misled, bamboozled, suckered, cheated, misrepresented, conned, manipulated and royally screwed.  They take us to the cleaners day in and day out in every way possible. We, the people, pay the price of their cheating, their folly, their lying and their sheer stupidity."

Pierre Rinfret

"The American economy increasingly serves only a narrow part of society, and America's national politics has failed to put the country back on track through honest, open, and transparent problem solving.  Too many of America's elites-among the super-rich, the CEOs, and many of my colleagues in academia-have abandoned a commitment to social responsibility.  They chase wealth and power, the rest of society be damned."

Jeffrey Sachs, The Price of Civilization, January 2012


You probably won't hear this from the pampered porkers and their attendant media servants at the Milk'em Global Conference in Beverly Hills, but the Wealthy few were very disappointed that Chairman Powell would not commit to rate cuts today, despite pausing, kind of. 

But they are happy about their rule-bending savings deposit bailouts and the retention of record tax cuts for the wealthy.  And even sweeter, the powers-that-be are trying to recover from the Fed-induced bubble in financial assets by putting the screws to the public through stagnant wages and cutbacks in food and medical care for the poor and children.  

Yay us.

Stocks rolled over a bit at the end of the day, after responding positively to the indication without explicitly saying so that the Fed is probably done raising rates for this cycle.  Kind of, a little bit.

The wiseguys were appalled that Jay would not say 'rate cuts' or even 'I love you.'  But he does.

Gold and silver waffled around and then took off higher.

Gold in particular is facing a key level dead ahead at  2060 on the continuous futures charts.

Non-Farm Payrolls on Friday.  A strong print may cast a pall on today's happy thoughts.

Rinse always follows wash.

After hours another regional bank, PacWest, saw its stock plummet on news it is seeking a resolution through sale or breakup.

But not to worry, all is well.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Shepherds of Darkness - FOMC Tomorrow

 

"It is midnight in our world today.  Man is experiencing today a darkness so deep that he can hardly see which way to turn.  The best minds of our day, the most prophetic voices, are saying that today our civilization stands at midnight of its revolving cycle.  It is a dark age and a dark world in which we live.

It is midnight within the social order.  On the international horizon nations are engaged in a colossal and bitter contest for supremacy.  Two world wars have been fought within a generation, and the clouds of another war are dangerously low.

It is also midnight within the moral order.  At midnight colours lose their distinctiveness and become a sullen shade of grey.  Moral principles have lost their distinctiveness.  For modern man, absolute right and wrong are a matter of what the majority is doing.  Right and wrong are relative to likes and dislikes and the customs of a particular community. 

Midnight is the hour when men desperately seek to obey the eleventh commandment, 'Thou shalt not get caught.'  According to the ethic of midnight, the cardinal sin is to be caught and the cardinal virtue is to get by.  It is all right to lie, but one must lie with real finesse.  It is all right to steal, if one is so dignified that, if caught, the charge becomes embezzlement, not robbery. 

It is permissible even to hate, if one so dresses his hating in the garments of love that hating appears to be loving.  The Darwinian concept of the survival of the fittest has been substituted by a philosophy of the survival of the slickest.  This mentality has brought a tragic breakdown of moral standards, and the midnight of moral degeneration deepens.

Faith in the dawn arises from the faith that God is good and just.  When one believes this, he knows that the contradictions of life are neither final nor ultimate.  He can walk through the dark night with the radiant conviction that all things work together for good for those that love God.  Even the most starless midnight may herald the dawn of some great fulfillment.

The dawn will come.   Disappointment, sorrow, and despair are born at midnight, but morning follows.”

Martin Luther King, A Knock at Midnight, February 11, 1962

"Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.  Everyone who does evil hate the light, and will not come into it so that their sins will be revealed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that they are doing God's will."

John 3:19-21

“The real conflict is the inner conflict. Beyond armies of occupation and the catacombs of extermination camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love. And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we are ourselves are defeated in our innermost selves?”

Maximilian Kolbe


Although the economic data this morning was a bit weak, that did not give the expected boost to risk assets on expectations of a Fed end to interest rate increases as one might have expected.

Instead what we saw was a flight to safety.

The Dollar chopped sideways, declining slightly.

VIX rose.

And gold and silver were on a genuine roll, while stocks were just rolling over.

We will have the FOMC rate decision tomorrow afternoon.

Expectations are for a 25 bp increase, but *maybe* some indication that we are nearing then end of this tightening cycle for now.   Or not.

Non-Farm Payrolls on Friday.

My suspicious side is wary of a precious metals 'wash and rinse' dead ahead, but maybe that is overthinking it.  Or not.

The political landscape appears to be dreary as usual, and and in most places it seems.

The choices shaping up are the usual Hobson's choice among lesser undesirables, between the Devious and the Oblivious.  Ugh.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Rotten to the Core - Second Largest Bank Failure

 

"But perhaps the most stunning piece of news we're getting in the wake of the MF Global collapse is in the clients of the firm who managed to get away scot-free, with no freezing of accounts or capital -- particularly the accounts of the mega-cap independent oil company Koch Industries, run by the politically active Koch brothers.

A recent report in Reuters has described the billions of dollars of client accounts that were withdrawn from MF Global in the last few weeks before their collapse, including 8 accounts from Koch industries engaged in oil trade that were transferred to Mizuho Securities after years of a steady and profitable relationship with MF.

Both the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange were charged with overseeing MF Global, their clearing member.  If we are to believe them, they had no idea of any difficulties within the firm before customer accounts went missing just a few days before the collapse. 

But someone clearly knew of the cratering positions and imminent collapse of MF Global, as billions of dollars of accounts were "coincidentally" withdrawn.  And what do the Koch brothers say was the reason for these withdrawals?  There's been no comment."

Daniel Dicker, MF Global and the Koch Brothers: Friends to the End, Huffington Post, Nov. 11, 2011


"There are numerous vested interests on Wall Street, in Washington, and in the corporate conglomerates who see nothing wrong in distorting information, 'spinning the news,' and sometimes even outright lying, when it comes to reporting on the economic situation. They are promoting a story, and often an agenda. They hide behind the safe harbor provisions of the law, and the subjective aspects of economics. They use euphemisms such as 'talking your book' to describe calculated deception.

The financial media accepts it, condones it, and does it themselves.  As one financial news anchor, said shortly after the tech stock bubble collapsed in 2002, 'Of course market strategists and analysts lie. Everyone knows that. But no one made people buy those stocks.'

Straight news reporting is less seen in the mainstream media these days, since solid investigative journalism is considered too costly to the corporate management.  Much cheaper to allow paid shills to take scripted shots at one another, in the manner of professional wrestling.  This is how the voters are informed, and how public policy is shaped. And when it comes to economics, the establishment is firmly in control of the message.  The selection of guests is carefully scripted to support a point of view."

Jesse, 9 July 2010

JPM announced the 'rescue' of First Republic Bank this morning, in a takeover subsidized by the FDIC.

This is the second largest bank failure.   Three of the four largest bank failures in U.S. history have taken place over the last two months.

The better than expected ISM Manufacturing numbers this morning helped throw the markets into a sharp reversal.

Gold and silver managed a fairly impressive intraday wash and rinse.

The Dollar shifted into rally mode.

Stocks had another ranging day but managed to finished mostly unchanged. 

This may be a data driven week, with the Fed's latest rate decision on Wednesday afternoon, and the Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday.

The corruption at the Supreme Court is almost on a par with the financial corruption and insider trading at the Fed. 

And its performance falls about as historically short of intentions.

The oligarchy is audacious.

Have a pleasant evening.