Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - All the Poets Can Do Is Warn

 

“This book is not about heroes.
English poetry is not yet fit to speak of them.
Nor is it about deeds, or lands, nor anything about glory,
honour, might, majesty, dominion, or power,
except War.
Above all I am not concerned with Poetry.
My subject is War, and the pity of War.
The Poetry is in the pity.

You shall not hear their mirth:
You shall not come to think them well content
By any jest of mine. These men are worth
Your tears. You are not worth their merriment.
Yet these elegies are not to this generation,
          This is in no sense consolatory.

They may be to the next.
All the poet can do to-day is to warn.
That is why the true Poets must be truthful.
If I thought the letter of this book would last,
I might have used proper names;
but if the spirit of it survives Prussia,—
my ambition and those names will be content;
for they will have achieved themselves
fresher fields than Flanders.”

Wilfrid Owen, Poems, 1920

For from the least to the greatest,
     they are greedy for unjust gain;
     and from prophet to priest,
     they all deal falsely.
They treat the wounds of my people carelessly,
     saying, Peace, peace,
     when there is no peace.
They act shamefully, they commit abominations;
     yet they have no shame,
     they do not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
     at the time of my judgement, they shall be overthrown."

Jeremiah 6:13-15

Stocks managed to pull together a rally, shaking off some geopolitical and corporate concerns.

What, me worry?

VIX fell again.

The Dollar dropped further.

Gold and silver rallied in a flight to safety (or from insanity).

Assuming the stock market shakes off its bubble excess,  which can unfold in several ways and several time frames, gold looks poised to run to 4000.   

It *could* happen in a significant flight to safety sooner than we expect.

I am not quite as keen about this, given the economic damage from which gold (and silver) will rise.

But certainly the metals are no cause of this, but simply an effect, an indicator, of disastrous mismanagement. 

We are so foolish to allow such scoundrels and grifters to set the course of our societies.

Nothing is inevitable.   There is always a choice, another way.

Unfortunately most are choosing to look on and say nothing, until trouble comes to their doorsteps. 

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Abyss From Which There Is No Return

 

"Through his first year in Germany [1933], Dodd had been struck again and again by the strange indifference to atrocity that had settled over the nation, the willingness of the populace and the moderate elements in the government to accept each new oppressive decree, each new act of violence, without protest.  Dodd continued to hope that the murders would so outrage the German public that the [Hitler] regime would fall, but as the days passed he saw no evidence of any such outpouring of anger.  The controlled press, not surprisingly, praised Hitler for his decisive behaviour."

Erik Larson, In The Garden of Beasts, 2011

"Around the world, authoritarian leaders are on the rise.  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

"It can only be hoped that American democracy will thoroughly realize, before it is too late, that fascism is not confined to any one nation or any one party; and it is to be hoped that it will succeed in overcoming the tendency toward dictatorial forms in the people themselves. Only time will tell whether the Americans will be able to resist the compulsion of irrationality or whether they will succumb to it.”

Wilhelm Reich, The Mass Psychology of Fascism, 1933

"A society which respects civil liberty realizes that the freedom of its people is built, in large part, upon their privacy.  Those who love the twilight speak as if public education must be training in conformity.  We have also seen a sharpening and refinement of abusive power.  The legislative investigation has too frequently been used by the Nation and the States as a means for effecting the disgrace and degradation of private persons.  Unscrupulous demagogues have used the power to investigate as tyrants of an earlier day used the bill of attainder.”

John F. Kennedy, Opinion Piece, Boston Herald, October 1960

"If this government ever became a tyrant, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny.   That is the abyss from which there is no return." 

Senator Frank Church, Meet The Press, 17 August 1975 

The silence among the Western elites in support of the worst wars of aggression and  mass murder that have been seen since the last World War is truly astonishing. 

We are expected to watch the actions of men who have become beasts in their lust for wealth and power, and say nothing.

Shame.  They have none, so we must be ashamed for them, that they can walk unashamed among free people. 

Stocks muddled around today, with a fair lack of conviction.

Gold and silver had a bit of a pop as the Dollar did a bit of a drop.

VIX is still quiescent.

How bad this is going to be is still hard to tell.  But it will end, badly. 

But be not deceived— God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, so shall he reap."

The night approaches.

Have a pleasant evening. 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Power Elite: Handmaidens of Death

 

“In reading the History of Nations, we find that, like individuals, they have their whims and their peculiarities, their seasons of excitement and recklessness, when they care not what they do.  We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it.”

Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, 1841

"Greed compels the materially obsessed to obtain the greatest piles of chips, but in the long term renders their chips to be almost worthless because they are unable to stop their fraud and plundering, even when it is in their best interests.  They are not governed by rationality or conscience or even common sense.  For periods of time oligarchies are able to survive in an uneasy equilibrium enforced by power, but ultimately these wickedly wealthy wither and die on their great piles of gains."

Jesse, Crony Capitalism, 17 December 2010

"They come readily to define themselves as inherently worthy of what they possess; they come to believe themselves 'naturally' elite; and, in fact, to imagine their possessions and their privileges as natural extensions of their own elite selves.”

C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite, 1956

“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.”

Robert W. Chambers, The King In Yellow, 1895

"Through our relationship with the Incarnation, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time are delivered from that perverse individualism which is the consequence of sin.  The incarnate Lord makes his followers the brothers of all mankind."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 1937


Stocks were slumping early in the day, but managed to find a footing and end the day in the green.

It's a familiar story of late.   Plop and prop.

Gold and silver both gained after early losses.  

Today was an option expiration for the metal futures on Comex.  

This monthly contract is more significant for silver than for gold. 

The Dollar chopped around and finished a little higher. 

VIX followed stocks pop and flop.

I think this market is dancing on the rim of a volcano, for a number of reasons previously stated.

But that's just my judgement, and it could be wrong.  

But it influences my positions and play in the markets.

I also think that some of my largest concerns about the course of events in the world are slowly coming to fruition.   

Pride fosters a lust for power and money, lawlessness and greed, that ultimately kills.  

And both are on full display in the Western countries.   Murder and lies.  It's their generational signature.

"You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies."    John 8:44

The only force that can stand against this is love, empowered by faithfulness to the implications of the Incarnation.

Evil cannot comprehend, much less overcome, the powerful love of the cross, the symbol of humility and service.

Have a pleasant evening. 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Fury of the Possessed

 

"Early in 1928, the nature of the boom changed.  The mass escape into make-believe, so much a part of the true speculative orgy, started in earnest.  It was still necessary to reassure those who required some tie, however tenuous, to reality.  And, as will be seen presently, this process of reassurance eventually achieved the status of a profession.  However, the time had come, as in all periods of speculation, when men sought not to be persuaded of the reality of things but to find excuses for escaping into the new world of fantasy.

Even the most circumspect friend of the market would concede that the volume of brokers' loans—of loans collateraled by the securities purchased on margin—is a good index of the volume of speculation. Measured by this index, the amount of speculation was rising very fast in 1928. People were swarming to buy stocks on margin—in other words, to have the increase in price without the costs of ownership."

John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash of 1929, 1955

"If you wish to take the measure of a society, look to how its weakest members are protected from its strongest, and its predators skulking at the fringes.  If you wish a hell on earth, do nothing for the benefit of others, for the greater good, or to inhibit those who act solely out of greed, fear, and hate.  Soon enough you will have a society that is intensely self-interested, self-concerned, superficial, destructive and self-consuming.  A free and just society is not a prize to be won or a gift that can be bestowed; it is a recurring commitment, and an enduring obligation."

Jesse, Lessons from the Panic of 1907, 5 July 2008

"But what is more than curious — indeed, piquant to a degree — is that an ancient god of storm and frenzy, the long quiescent Wotan should awake, like an extinct volcano, to new activity, in a civilized country that had long been supposed to have outgrown the Middle Ages.

For the sake of better understanding and to avoid prejudice, we could of course dispense with the name 'Wotan' and speak instead of the furor teutonicus.  But we should only be saying the same thing and not as well, for the furor in this case is a mere psychologizing of Wotan and tells us no more than that the Germans are in a state of fury.

Perhaps we may sum up this general phenomenon as Ergriffenheit — a state of being seized or possessed. The term postulates not only an Ergriffener (one who is seized) but, also, an Ergreifer (one who seizes). Wotan is an Ergreifer of men, and, unless one wishes to deify Hitler– which has indeed actually happened — he is really the only explanation.

It is above all the Germans who have an opportunity, perhaps unique in history, to look into their own hearts and to learn what those perils of the soul were from which Christianity tried to rescue mankind.  Germany is a land of spiritual catastrophes, where nature never makes more than a pretence of peace with the world-ruling reason.

The impressive thing about the German phenomenon is that one man, who is obviously 'possessed,' has infected a whole nation to such an extent that everything is set in motion and has started rolling on its course towards hell."

Carl Jung, Wotan, Neue Schweizer Rundschau (Zurich), March, 1936 


I have seen a lot of ugly, immoral, and despicable things over the last 70 years or so.  But I have not seen more conscious, sadistic acts of cruelty and systemic war crimes as we are seeing today. 

Truly, we have gone mad.

Stocks gave up a bit of their rate cut frenzy from last Friday.

VIX however opened higher, but then dropped off as the day wore on.

The Dollar took back its rate cut sympathetic decline.

Gold and silver gave something back as well.

Tomorrow is an option expiration on the Comex for the September futures contracts. 

It is not a big contract month for gold, but moreso for silver.

Still, its a good time for the wiseguys to run stops and engage in their usual shenanigans. 

Bitcoin got smacked back down to 110,000 again.  It looks like some large holders are 'diversifying' out of it.   Its a market that is easily moved, as it is founded in momentum.

If it breaks 100,000 and holds it, look out below.

Doesn't it seem like there is a touch of madness in the air.   That people have lost their grounding in principles and ideals, and are doing whatever power permits.

"The best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with passionate intensity." 

Have a pleasant evening.