Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Their Hearts Are Haunts of Violence

 

"Tyranny becomes a habit, and scenes of suffering, often repeated, render the heart callous.  We first crush people to the earth, and then claim the right of trampling on them forever, because they are prostrate.”

Lydia Maria Child, 1861

"Remember, Lord, how the godless mock the law,
      and the malevolent abuse your name.
Do not abandon the souls of doves to predators;
      or forget the lives of your poor, forever.
Remember your promise,
      for their darkened hearts are haunts of violence.
Do not let the oppressed be put to shame;
      let the poor and humble praise you."

Psalm 74:18-21

"'The Pharisees, who were money loving and covetous, heard all these things and scornfully mocked him.  And Jesus said, 'You justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts.'"

Luke 16:14

"Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
      the splendor and majesty of Chaldea,
 will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
      when God destroyed them.
Babylon will not live again.
      It will be desolate, for generations.
Nomads will not pitch tents there,
      or shepherds bed their flocks.
Desert animals will roam the city,
     its homes filled with howling creatures.
Owls will live among the ruins,
      and wild goats will dance.
Hyenas will watch from its towers,
      and jackals rule hopeless palaces.
Babylon’s days are numbered;
      its time of destruction is coming."

Isaiah 13:19-22

“When you see the desolation of abomination standing where it should not, let those who seek knowledge understand, then flee from Judea to the mountains."

Mark 13:14

“The greatest evil is not done now in sordid dens of crime.  It is not even done in concentration camps and labor camps.  In those we see its final result.  But it is conceived and ordered in clear, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices by quiet men, with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks, who do not need to raise their voice.”

C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, 1942


The PPI inflation data came in a little light this morning. 

The markets put a very bullish cast on the numbers, and stocks slipped into rally mode.

Gold and silver were off a bit.

The Dollar fell.

VIX fell.

In short, it was a risk on fiesta.

CPI data tomorrow.  Expectations are for a softer than expected number.

Provocations in the Mideast and Eastern Europe continue.

At some point soon the reactions will come.

I am sure there is some semblance of a longer term strategy involved in all this.

If we were to actually hear it articulated it would probably be shallow and disappointing.

As for integrity and respect for any higher moral principles, forget about it.

They have let all those 'high ground' fall by the wayside, quite a while ago.

They worship power and money, and nothing else.

And nations that are weak, and their corruptible leaders, are attracted to its corruption.

And they lose themselves to the madness, together, sliding quietly into the abyss.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Devils of Lawlessness and The King in Yellow

 

"I think there is ultimately a desire for a great War, not by the Kamala Harris's and Walz's of this world but by those deep structures of foreign policy which need, if you like, some form of reset for financial reasons, economic reasons essentially.  You know the West has created this inverted pyramid of financial instruments, all of these financial structures that sit in derivatives in trillions, and they sit on a tiny base of real collateral of real value, a few bars of gold perhaps here and there, a little bit of real value.

This is why you had Lindsey Graham saying, very clearly, 'Ukraine for America is a gold mine.  It it sits on 12 trillion worth of materials of raw materials. We need those to finance ourselves. And we don't want Putin and China to get it.' That's what he was speaking about, saying we need some more actual commodity value at the bottom of our pyramid so we can go on expanding our pyramid— our inverted pyramid that rests on this tiny base of real commodities: oil, gold, rare minerals, lithium, all of the things."

Alastair Crooke, former British diplomat, Judging Freedom, August 12, 2024

"The ambition of Caesar and of Napoleon pales before that which could not rest until it had seized the minds of men and controlled even their unborn thoughts. The very banality and innocence of the first act only allowed the blow to fall afterwards with more awful effect— this beautiful, stupendous creation, terrible in its simplicity, irresistible in its truth― a world which now trembles before the King in Yellow.”

Robert W. Chambers, The King In Yellow

"The transition from unitary executive to dictator – conservative, benevolent or otherwise – will not happen in the waning months of the current administration, but succeeding chief executives may choose overtly to expand further the envelope-pushing and Constitution-trampling of the 43rd President cabal as the American oligarchy, and the nation, slouches slowly toward despotism.

As such, we will one day awake from our debt-financed, pleasure-induced stupors to find one person or group firmly in charge, answering to no one, especially not Congress, and in complete grasp of the military, the intelligence agencies, the treasury, the Federal Reserve and the financial and judicial systems.  It will happen – it is happening – an inch at a time, until the day comes when not only will we, the fun loving, celebrity worshiping, civic duty abhorring citizens of America, so embrace the notion of despotism, we will think it entirely our own idea."

Keith Hazleton, Anecdotal Economics, June 2006

"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.  Plunder, rape, and slaughter they falsely call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace."

Tacitus, Agricola


Stocks wobbled around once again, going out nearly unchanged.

Gold and silver bolted higher.

They are now, once again, up against resistance.

VIX was steady.

The Dollar chopped into unchanged.

PPI tomorrow, and CPI on Wednesday.

That, and Iran's response to Israel's attack on their territory, is what the markets are waiting to see.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Mad Delusions of Babylon

 

"In you, Lord, I take refuge;
      let me never be put to shame.
In your justice rescue and deliver me;
      listen to me and save me.
Be my rock of refuge,
      my stronghold to give me safety;
      for you are my rock and fortress.
My God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked,
      from the clutches of the evil and violent.
You are my hope, Lord;
      my trust, God, from my youth.
On you I have depended since birth;
      from my mother’s womb you are my strength;
      my hope in you never wavers.
I have become a warning to many,
      but you are my strong refuge.
My mouth will speak your praise,
      shall sing your glory every day.
Do not cast me aside in my old age;
      as my strength fails, do not forsake me."

Psalm 71:1-9

"We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.  Do remember that dishonesty and cowardice always have to be paid for.  Don't imagine that for years on end you can make yourself the boot-licking propagandist of any régime, and then suddenly return to mental decency."

George Orwell, Facing Unpleasant Facts

“Lawlessness has come out of Babylon, that is, from the elders who were to govern the people as judges.  They perverted their thinking; they would not allow their eyes to look to heaven, and did not keep in mind just judgments.  How you have grown evil with age.  Now have your past sins come to term, passing unjust sentences, condemning the innocent, and freeing the guilty."

Daniel 13:5,9,52-53

“We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way.”

Francis of Assisi, Fioretti di San Francesco

Stocks finished an edgy session of light trade and choppiness ahead of the weekend.  The broader market was off a bit, and the SP 500 rose slightly to overhead resistance.

CPI and PPI next week.

Gold and silver were mostly unchanged.

The Dollar did its usual choppy thing.

The geopolitical situation is on a steady boil, helped along by the madcaps in the Biden administration.

But they have power, and like most people who are lacking in strategic intent, they tend to squander it foolishly, here and there, with old borrowed plans on which they hang the decisions of a day.

Well, change is coming.  Let's hope it brings something beneficial.

I am not hopeful that the political duopoly can deliver anything of the sort.   They are captives of long-standing fever dreams and delusions and dark money.

But they have power.    And power attracts the morally weak and corruptible.

None of this is new.  In fact it is remarkably old.   

"We live in a world where love itself is condemned. People call it weakness, something to grow out of. Some are saying: 'Love is of no importance, we should rather develop our strength; let each one become as strong as he can, and let the weak perish.'"

Titus Brandsma, Dutch priest, executed at Dachau, 26 July 1942

As old as Babylon, and evil as sin.

Have a pleasant weekend.

stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Controlled Demolitions - With a Purpose

 

"Around the world, authoritarian leaders are on the rise – from Russia and Hungary to the U.S. They're working from a common playbook: They use violent rhetoric. They attack the media. They see their political rivals as existential enemies to the nation.

Demagogues are willing to do or say anything to gain office or to consolidate their power. Unconstrained by ideology, they have no concern for the consequences of their actions. Anything that serves to make them more powerful is good enough for them — even if the political system that facilitated their rise should be destroyed in the process."

Daniel Ziblatt, Saving Democracy from Demagogues, 2022

"From time to time our national history has been marred by forgetfulness of the Jeffersonian principle that restraint is at the heart of liberty. In 1789 the Federalists adopted Alien and Sedition Acts in a shabby political effort to isolate the Republic from the world and to punish political criticism as seditious libel.  The architects of fear have converted a wholesome law against conspiracy into an instrument for making association a crime.

We have also seen a sharpening and refinement of abusive power.  Pretending to fear government they have asked government to outlaw private protest. They glorify 'togetherness' when it is theirs, and call it conspiracy when it is that of others. Those who love the twilight speak as if public education must be training in conformity, and government support of science be public aid of caution.”

John F. Kennedy, October 1960

"I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside. I do not mean that they may not wish to come out of hell, but they certainly do not will even the first preliminary stages of that self-abandonment through which alone the soul can reach any good. They enjoy forever the horrible freedom they have demanded, and are therefore self-enslaved: just as the blessed, forever submitting to obedience, become through all eternity more and more free."

C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, 1940

“What they were doing was unconstitutional.  Sometimes I worry that people take the oath of office or the oath to the Constitution, and it’s just a set of words that mean nothing.  They really don’t feel in their heart the weight of those words.  They came out in this phalanx, running, and then they plowed into a bunch of protesters in the intersection of the street and knocked them over.  They are thugs and goons. I couldn’t recognize anything tactically that they were attempting to do that was even remotely related to crowd control. It looked to me like a gang of guys with sticks.  I’m not a redwood tree.  I’m an overweight 53-year-old man.”

Christopher David, Navy Veteran Beaten for No Reason by Trump's Federal Agents, Portland, Oregon, July 2020

"The inability to identify with others was unquestionably the most important psychological condition for the fact that something like Auschwitz could have occurred in the midst of more or less civilized and innocent people."

Theodor Adorno, Education After Auschwitz,

"Behind the concrete, the visible events, behind all objective, logical considerations, we find the irrational element: The struggle against the demon, against the servants of the Antichrist. Everywhere and always demonic powers lurk in the dark, waiting for the moment when man is weak; when of his own volition he leaves his place in Creation, as founded for him by God in freedom; when he yields to the force of evil, he separates himself from the powers of a higher order; and after voluntarily taking the first step, he is driven on to the next and the next at a furiously accelerating rate."

The White Rose, Fourth Leaflet, Munich 1942


Stocks rose today, purportedly in response to a less bad than expected unemployment report.

And more impressively, they managed to go out near their highs.  No pop and flop today.

We won't be getting any significant economic data until the PPI and CPI next week.

Gold and silver rallied sharply, coming back to their rising trends.

The Dollar chopped sideways with a notable spike higher midday.

VIX continued to fall.

The world is waiting to see what comes next in the regional conflicts in eastern Europe and the Mideast.

Dancing on a volcano, in the service of money and power.

Have a pleasant evening.