Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Powerful Delusions of the Fallen

 

“Every single empire in its official discourse has said that it is not like all the others, that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and that it uses force only as a last resort. And, sadder still, there always is a chorus of willing intellectuals to say calming words about benign or altruistic empires, as if one shouldn't trust the evidence of one's eyes watching the destruction and the misery and death brought by the latest mission civilisatrice.”

Edward W. Said, Orientalism: Preface, 2003

"Despite knowing of God, they refused to honor him as God, or to give Him thanks.  And so they became proud in their thinking, and their foolish hearts became hardened."

Romans 1:21

"For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.  There is one who restrains it, until he is taken away.  And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the words of his mouth, and render him powerless with the wonders of his coming.  

The coming of the lawless one is from the power of Satan, with false signs and wonders, and in every wicked deception for those who are perishing, for those who did not accept the love of truth to be saved.  God will send them a powerful delusion so that they may believe the lie, so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have taken pleasure in lawlessness."

2 Thessalonians 2:7-12

“Man has places in his heart which do not yet exist, and into them enters suffering, in order that they may have life.”

Léon Bloy, The Pilgrim of the Absolute

"If heaven is seeing and in turn being seen, transformed and made new by the beatific face of pure love in resplendent glory, then hell must be seeing, at last and forever after, their own dark and miserable soul, as it really is, alone."

Jesse, Death By Overdose, 24 February 2015

The Non-Farm Payrolls report came in a little better than expected.  

It was an essentially meaningless number.

But it did provide an excuse for Donald and His Merry Banksters to run the bubble in equity markets back up again.

Donnie sees this as validation of his economic policies.

Wall Street sees it as just another leg of the highly profitable transfer of wealth by inflating financial assets.

Gold and silver were slammed, but the miners even moreso.

I suspect this phase of the precious metals price manipulation is nearing its end, as we often see with the Non-Farm Payrolls event.

VIX is now down to a high likelihood of a risk correction.

The reports from Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, and other places where the US and its enablers and clients are operating are rather grim.  

The media is highly complicit in turning a blind eye to this.

Money and power are all that matter to the elites in the West, drunk with the opiate of exceptionalism.

They live out their days in prosperity, and slide peacefully down into hell."
Job 21:13

They think they are neutral, taking no sides, just going along to get along.

The wealthy man was damned not because he abused the beggar Lazarus, but because he did not even condescend to notice him, and the suffering on his doorstep. 

 Moses and prophets could make him see the truth, not even a man who had risen from the dead. Their wisdom did not fit with his biases and ideology of selfishness and pride.

The careless rich man was a self-absorbed intimate of Mammon— and an adversary of the living God. 

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Limits of Imperial Power and Its Oligarchy

 

"The limit of the Fed's and Treasury's ability to create money is the value and acceptance of the dollar and the bond in open market transactions.

The Weimar government never 'ran out of money.'  Zimbabwe never 'ran out of money.'  And if interest is paid 'in your currency money' you can never fail to service your debt either.  What they did run out of were people willing to take their paper at its intended value, from those who are their sphere of control, their compulsion of legal tender.

It is not clear to me that the dollar has passed the point of no return. But it is obviously unstable, as a bulwark of a corrupted system.  And therefore it is making its holders understandably nervous."

Jesse, Money and The Limits of Empire, 13 February 2011

"A market collapse is nothing but risk-aversion meeting a market that's not priced to tolerate risk.  Buckle up."

John Hussman, April 30, 2025

"If we are indeed in a Minsky Moment, which we think we are, then monetary inflation by the Fed and government intervention without reform will most likely increase the probability of a protracted stagflationary repression in the United States, and possibly lead to civil unrest and an exogenous reform of the system.  An abandonment of the system as it is with a turn to fascism has been the historic choice of Wall Street.  The political lobbying against systemic reform by the Bankers and their sycophants will be intense and as persuasive to the many as most appeals to fear.  However, their reckless advice leads to a trip to the brink of the abyss."

Jesse, Which Way Out of the Minsky Moment, 23 March 2008

"The main objectives of managed democracy are to increase the profits of large corporations, dismantle the institutions of social democracy (Social Security, unions, welfare, public health services, public housing and so forth), and roll back the social and political ideals of the New Deal.   Its primary tool is privatization [and deregulation].

It is extremely unlikely that our party apparatus will work to bring the military-industrial complex and the 16 secret intelligence agencies under democratic control.  Nonetheless, once the United States has followed the classical totalitarianisms into the dustbin of history, Wolin’s analysis [Inverted Totalitarianism] will stand as one of the best discourses on where we went wrong."

Chalmers Johnson, A New Way of Understanding How the U.S. Is Controlled, May 16, 2008

"We are imperial, and we are in decline. People are losing confidence in the Empire."

Lawrence Wilkerson, The Travails of Empire, October 8, 2014


The Empire seems to have gone barking mad.  

Is this just a clever game, a negotiating tactic?   

The famous Nixonian 'madman theory' gambit?

Perhaps.  But when coupled with a multipolar world of gathering resistance to the usual economic coercion, in which one of your fundamental supports, the fiat Dollar, is based on trust and confidence, it can prove to be strategically fatal.

We seem to be in a pivotal moment.

Stocks were rallying all day, extending the imperial decree that despite the tariff shocks incoming all is well.

You didn't catch it if you just watch the cash price, but US equity markets futures utterly collapsed into the close and went red.

A disappointment from the Amazon cloud after hours is possible.  There are many possibilities.

Apple is up to bat next, later this evening.

Gold and silver were hammered today, as is customary on the day before a Non-Farm Payrolls report.

To say I think that this was 'technical' trading would be an understatement.

China metals markets will be quiet for the May 1 holiday week.

The Dollar bumped up a little higher.

The VIX is now low enough to suggest that this rally is getting really long in the tooth.

And did I mention that I think this was a dictated rally to put someone's tariff decisions in a less disastrous light?

One can only wonder.

The truth will come out, eventually.  

Be careful where you look and listen, or you may miss it.

See you tomorrow.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Conmen, Bullies, and Puppetmasters

 

"'A lot of white-collar criminals are psychopaths,' said Robert Hare.  'But they flourish because the characteristics that define the disorder are actually valued.  When they get caught, what happens?  A slap on the wrist, a six-month ban from trading, and don't give us the $100 million back.  I've always looked at white-collar crime as being as bad or worse than some of the physically violent crimes that are committed.'

Hare has said that if he couldn't study psychopaths in prisons, the Vancouver Stock Exchange would have been his second choice.  Psychopaths can be found in legislatures, hospitals, and used-car lots.  Because they have no conscience, they're natural predators. If you didn't have a conscience, you'd be one too.

Psychopaths love chaos and hate rules, so they're comfortable in the fast-moving modern corporation.  Dr. Paul Babiak, an industrial-organizational psychologist based near New York City, is in the process of writing a book with Bob Hare called When Psychopaths Go to Work: Cons, Bullies and the Puppetmaster. The subtitle refers to the three broad classes of psychopaths Babiak has encountered in the workplace."

Robert Hercz, Psychopaths Among Us, 2001

"When the person at the top is malignant and self-serving, unethical behavior cascades through the organization and becomes legitimized.

Narcissists change the companies or countries they lead, much like bad money drives out good, and those changes can outlast their own tenure, O’Reilly says. Divergent voices are silenced, flattery and servility are rewarded, and cynicism and apathy corrode any sense of shared purpose in a culture where everyone’s out for themselves. In the extreme, they can destroy the institution itself.

But the gravest danger posed by such leaders is that their malignant influence guides the behavior and expectations of others — and ultimately shapes the culture of the organization or polity in their own image. Studies of businesses show that self-serving, unethical behavior at the top cascades through the organization and becomes legitimized, or at least normalized.

“Once they’re in power, narcissists consolidate their position by firing everyone who challenges them,” O’Reilly says. In their place rise a plague of toadies, opportunists, and enablers equally guided by self-interest and short on scruples. 'So you end up with these individualistic cultures with no teamwork and low integrity. We’ve documented this in a bunch of Silicon Valley tech firms.'”

Lee Simmons, How Narcissistic Leaders Destroy From Within, Stanford Business, April 30, 2020

"Malignant narcissism goes beyond mere self-centeredness.  It goes beyond feeling special.   And it goes beyond feeling superior.  Malignant narcissists lack the capacity for empathy and shame.  They also know this makes them different from others.  But they deeply prize these critical differences. And they hold those not like them in utter disdain. 

Narcissism becomes particularly 'malignant' (i.e. malevolent, dangerous, harmful, incurable) when it goes beyond mere vanity and excessive self-focus. Malignant narcissists not only see themselves as superior to others but believe in their superiority to the degree that they view others as relatively worthless, expendable, and justifiably exploitable.

This type of narcissism is a defining characteristic of psychopathy/sociopathy and is rooted in an individual’s deficient capacity for empathy.  It’s almost impossible for a person with such shallow feelings and such haughtiness to really care about others or to form a conscience with any of the qualities we typically associate with a humane attitude, which is why most researchers and thinkers on the topic of psychopathy think of psychopaths as individuals without a conscience altogether."

George Simon, Malignant Narcissism, December 27, 2013


Stocks sold off on the worse than expected economic data this morning.

But, wonder of wonders, they managed to take back all their losses and rally green into the close.

There were reports of a break in the Ukraine Russia talks, though I doubt anyone in Russia  knows or cares what they are talking about. 

Kind of like the talks that had supposedly occurred on tariffs with President Xi, which he said were imaginary.

Surely this is a sign of the prosperity and magnificence of Empire, which creates its own reality.

The Dollar bounced up to the top of the 99 handle.

VIX fell back to its 50 day moving average.

Gold and silver fell off a bit.

Ending badly.    

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Grace of Contentment amid the Phantoms of Power

 

"Our world promotes dissatisfaction with our lives.  We are constantly bombarded with newer and better things that will make our lives more complete if only we would obtain them.  If we listen to the world, we will always be comparing the lifestyles and possessions of others with our own, and we will always be dissatisfied.

If our contentment comes from possessions, activities, or other people, these can be altered or removed.  If our contentment comes from our relationship with Christ, there is absolutely nothing that can take that away.

Paul had enjoyed power and status among his people.  He had also been imprisoned and bound in stocks in the depths of a jail cell.  He had stood before a king and been stoned almost to death by an angry mob.  Paul had enjoyed the benefits and pleasures of life, yet he could give them all up and still be filled with the joy of the Lord.  His contentment did not depend on his environment but on his relationship with Christ.

'I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.'
Philippians 4:11

Contentment frees you to enjoy every good thing God has given you.  Contentment demonstrates your belief that God loves you and has your best interest in mind.  Discontent stems from the sin of ingratitude and a lack of faith that God loves you enough to provide for all that you need.  Strive to be grateful for all that God has given you.  A grateful heart has no room for envy."

Henry Blackaby, Contentment

“Thus did a handful of rapacious citizens come to control all that was worth controlling in America. Thus was the savage and stupid and entirely inappropriate and unnecessary and humorless American class system created. Honest, industrious, peaceful citizens were classed as bloodsuckers, if they asked to be paid a living wage."

Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, 1965

"Greed is not good.  Greed is a disease, an aberration of simple honest ambition and necessary provision taken to excess. It is a sin, a transgression against love.  This simple distinction may be lost on a people no longer able to distinguish between virtue and sin, honor and expediency, appetite and gluttony, the means and the ends.

And yet this generation would make a god of it, although they may not understand, or care, what it is that they are doing, and whom it is they serve. Greed, often in company with hubris and fear, is a handmaiden of the corrupting influence of power and triumph of the will.  Greed is contagious, a disease of the heart, that attacks the very contentment of society, hardening it towards oligarchy and oppression."

Jesse, Greed Is Not Good, 19 December 2010

Stocks were the usual wobbly again, but managed to pull together a rally into the close.

 VIX has continued to decline, and is now once again in the area where this stock bubble rally may be forced to pause.

Gold and silver attempted to rise and then fell back a bit again. 

Did I mention that there is going to be a Non-Farm Payrolls report this Friday?

Have we forgotten the promise of an open, beautiful audit of the holdings of the official US gold reserves?

Appearance versus reality.  

This is the key to all those pampered princes of power who have been rising from the darkness around the world.

Their appearance is all symbol and bluster, fueled by the mystique of passions and hate, reflecting a shallow lack of diligence and substance and competence.

Weighed, and found wanting.

But we have been here before.   

We have seen seemingly irresistible groups which worship the land and the blood, full of fury against the innocent, ready to destroy liberty and all life in a fit of delusional pride.

And they eventually all fall away, unproductive and unworthy, unable to create, only destroy.   

The children of desolation.

Our hope and our salvation lies in a different place, in the calm and loving heart of our Lord.

The sound and fury of the moment is passing, into the dust and the dirt of their vanities, the dry bones and corruption of a fallen world which fill their minds and their hearts. 

The faithful gathered in their thousands, as millions more looked on from afar, to mark the passing of a kind and gentle shepherd, on the very hill where the most powerful man in the world had crucified his predecessor, upside down.

Ubi sunt?  Sic transit gloria mundi.

Have a pleasant evening.