Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Resist the Command To Do Evil

 

"History teaches us that the capacity of things to get worse is limitless."

Chalmers Johnson, Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic, 2007

"Gold is absolute objectivity. It is blind, like justice.   It has no politics and ideology, no likes or dislikes, no friends or enemies.  All it recognizes is its possessor, whom it serves faithfully as long as he has it.  Indeed there can be no criterion, no other standard than gold.  Yes, gold which never changes, which can be shaped into ingots, bars, coins, which has no nationality and which is eternally and universally accepted as the unalterable fiduciary value par excellence."

Charles de Gaulle

"Sacrifice and offering you did not want,
     but my ears you have opened.
Burnt sacrifice and sin offerings you did not require,
     so I said, 'Here I am, I have come,
I desire to do your will, my God;
    for your law is written on my heart.'”

Psalm 40:7-8

"Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities. If you do not use the intelligence with which God endowed your mind to resist believing impossibilities, you will not be able to use the sense of injustice which God has planted in your heart to resist a command to do evil "

François-Marie Arouet Voltaire, Question sur les miracles, 1765


Although we do not look for it, and few expect it, the time for choosing is always upon us.

And judgement follows.  

But distractions are abundant, and the rewards of lawlessness seem sweet. 

Who will dare judge us?   Have we not become the princes of all that we can see?

Today was a typical option expiration for the metals on the Comex.  The test of the longs occurred yesterday, and after this morning it was taking profits and short-covering.

However, there will be an FOMC decision and press conference tomorrow, and the markets will be listening to what Joltin' Jay has to say, especially in regard to the new President's dictum for lower rates.

VIX fell.

The Dollar chopped.

More physical gold was drained out of the Hong Kong vaults, although they seem to be keeping up with it.

I used to pay more attention to the activity in the New York vaults, but they changed their reporting mechanisms somewhat radically a few years ago, in response to the observations that there was fairly little physical gold on hand.

Now it is almost impossible to determine what it is that they are holding that is genuine or merely paper.

Mission accomplished. 

So let's see what happens tomorrow.

In the meantime, gold prices hit a record high in China.

At some point the call will come, and NY and London will be weighed, and found wanting.

Just as it happened in 1971.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Phantoms of Lawlessness

 

"We have been silent witnesses of evil deeds; we have been drenched by many storms; we have learnt the arts of equivocation and pretence; experience has made us suspicious of others and kept us from being truthful and open; intolerable conflicts have worn us down and even made us cynical.

If we look more closely, we see that any violent display of power, whether political or religious, produces an outburst of folly in a large part of mankind; indeed, this seems actually to be a psychological and sociological law: the power of some needs the folly of others. It is not that certain human capacities, intellectual capacities for instance, become stunted of destroyed, but rather that the upsurge of power makes such an overwhelming impression that men are deprived of their independent judgment, and give up trying to assess the new state of affairs for themselves."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 1943-1945

“I get tired of the darkness all around me. The darkness itself seems to borrow, from the sinners who live in it, the gift of their speech. I hear its mocking accents: 'It's all a dream, this talk of a heavenly country of a God who made it all, who is to be yours  in eternity. All right, go on longing for death!  But death will make nonsense of your hopes; it will only mean a night darker than ever, the night of mere non-existence!'

This world is a ship, not your home.  What mysteries will be revealed to us later. How often have I thought that I perhaps owe all the graces showered upon me to the earnest prayers of a little soul whom I shall know only in Heaven.

It is God's will that in this world by means of prayer heavenly treasures should be imparted by souls one to another, so that when they reach their home with the Father they may love one another with a love born of gratitude, with an affection far, far exceeding the most ideal family affection upon earth.

There we shall meet with no indifferent looks, because all the saints will be indebted to each other.  No envious glances will be seen; the happiness of every one of the saved will be the happiness of all. With the Martyrs we shall be like to the Martyrs; with the Doctors we shall be as the Doctors; with the Virgins, as the Virgins; and just as the members of a family are proud of one another, so shall we be of our family, without the least jealousy.

Who knows even if the joy we shall experience in beholding the glory of the great Saints, and knowing that by a secret disposition of Providence we have contributed to it, who knows if this joy will not be as intense and sweeter perhaps, than the happiness they will themselves possess.

And do you not think that on their side the great Saints, seeing what they owe to quite little souls, will love them with an incomparable love? Delightful and surprising will be the friendships found there - I am sure of it. The favored companion of an Apostle or a great Doctor of the Church, will perhaps be a young shepherd lad; and a simple little child may be the intimate friend of a Patriarch. Oh! how I long to dwell in that Kingdom of Love.

Time is but a shadow, a dream; already God sees us in glory and takes joy in our eternal blessings. How this thought helps my soul! I understand then why He lets us suffer... Life is passing, Eternity draws closer: soon shall we live the very life of God. After having drunk deeply at the fountain of bitterness, our thirst will be quenched forever at the very source of all sweetness."

Thérèse de Lisieux


The AI bubble in tech stocks was burst over the weekend, as some of hidden mystique of the US Big Tech AI juggernaut was apparently revealed to be at least in part a new era financialization scheme.

Nvidia led the way lower, dragging the associated stock indices down with it.

This massive selling prompted some of the talking heads to come to the defense of the sector, often with some fairly hilarious results.   

But it also prompted some liquidation selling, which played into the usual slam on gold and silver preceding the Comex futures options expiration tomorrow.

If one has eyes to see and ears to hear, the truth can be found without a great deal of effort.  But it poses a risk, that one cannot comfortably drift along with the prevailing narrative of the Western oligarchs.

FOMC coming up on Wednesday.

If the metals weather the usual shenanigans of the kleptocracy it looks to be in good shape on the charts.

Remember what is important.  And it is not the bluster of the usual suspects in politics and the media.

The world does not love you.  Its servants do not care about you or yours.

The power of some needs the folly of others.

They are passing like shadows, constructs of illusions and lies, lacking all substance, soon to be gone and forgotten.

Do not foolishly give your hearts and souls to them.

Have a pleasant evening.

Their Hearts Are Haunts of Violence, and Will Fall in Judgement Before the Lord

 

"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

"This is what I commanded them: listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. But they did not obey or pay heed to my words. Instead they walked in the hardness of evil hearts, and turned their backs to me,and not their faces. From the day your ancestors left Egypt until today, I faithfully sent my servants the prophets to them.

Yet they have not listened to me or paid attention; instead they stiffened their necks and proved to be worse than their fathers. And then you are to say to them, 'This is the nation that did not obey the Lord, their God, or accept correction. Truth has perished. It no longer on their lips."

Jeremiah 7:23-28

“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


 Those who want to know, know.   Those who do not want to know, will never know.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Reaping of Sorrows

 

“'The world says: "You have needs — satisfy them.  You have as much right as the rich and the mighty.  Don't hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more.'  This is the worldly doctrine of today.  And they believe that this is freedom.  The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder.”

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, 1880

"You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to ‘preserve, protect, and defend it’.”

Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861

"Even the tyrant never rules by force alone; but mostly by fairy tales.  And so it is with the modern tyrant, the great employer.  The sight of a millionaire is seldom, in the ordinary sense, an enchanting sight: nevertheless, he is in his way an enchanter.  As they say in the gushing articles about him in the magazines, he is a fascinating personality.  So is a snake.  At least he is fascinating to rabbits; and so is the millionaire to the rabbit-witted sort of people that ladies and gentlemen have allowed themselves to become."

G. K. Chesterton, Utopia of Usurers, 1917

"Their own strength has betrayed them.  They have pulled down Deep Heaven on their heads.  Therefore, they will die."

C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength, 1945

"This unnatural power corrupts both the heart and the understanding.  And to prevent the least hope of amendment, a king is ever surrounded by a crowd of infamous flatterers, who find their account in keeping him from the least light of reason, till all ideas of rectitude and justice are utterly erased from his mind."

Edmund Burke, A Vindication of Natural Society, 1756

"Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must also be your servant.  Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Matthew 20:27-28

The Dollar fell.

Gold and silver rallied in the morning, but were pushed back down to 'non-threatening' levels in the afternoon after the rest of the world had gone home.

The gold chart formation has morphed from a symmetrical triangle to a 'slanted W' which is mostly a technicality since both have approximately the same minimum measuring objective.

Silver price is being 'actively managed' in NY and London.

Stocks traded weakly after their recent gains.

VIX is supine.

The young man is off to Asia to be with his new bride.  Their progress with a green card creeps along at a snail's pace.

Daisy and I abide.

Have a pleasant weekend.