Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - A Conspiracy of Silence

 

"In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot."

Czesław Miłosz, Nobel Prize lecture, 8 December 1980

"To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny. In this world of ours in other lands, there are some people, who, in times past, have lived and fought for freedom, and seem to have grown too weary to carry on the fight. They have sold their heritage of freedom for the illusion of a living. They have yielded their democracy.

I believe in my heart that only our success can stir their ancient hope. They begin to know that here in America we are waging a war against want and destitution and economic demoralization. It is more than that; it is a war for the survival of democracy. We are fighting to save a great and precious form of government for ourselves and for the world."

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Democratic National Convention, 1936 

"The threat to our democracy is real and growing. But it didn’t start with the MAGA crowd. It started with the dark money crowd — which won’t be satisfied until it owns every member of Congress, every lifetime-appointed federal judge, and every key politician in every swing state. Until there is a groundswell in America demanding serious campaign finance reform, this is the best democracy that money can buy."

Pam and Russ Martens, American Democracy Is Under Grave Threat, 7 September 2022

"The greatest need is for intellectual reappraisal, and a good place to begin is with a statement from a paper co-authored by Minsky that “apt intervention and institutional structures are necessary for market economies to be successful.” Rather than waging old debates about tax cuts versus spending increases, policymakers ought to be discussing how to reform the financial system so that it serves the rest of the economy, instead of feeding off it and destabilizing it. 

Among the problems at hand: how to restructure Wall Street remuneration packages that encourage excessive risk-taking; restrict irresponsible lending without shutting out creditworthy borrowers; help victims of predatory practices without bailing out irresponsible lenders; and hold ratings agencies accountable for their assessments. These are complex issues, with few easy solutions, but that’s what makes them interesting. As Minsky believed, “Economies evolve, and so, too, must economic policy.”

John Cassidy, The Minsky Moment, The New Yorker, February 4, 2008

They are more openly normalizing fraud, cruelty, and injustice.  

Most leaders and their elite servants stand by in complicit silence.

Have a pleasant weekend. 

Just Gold and Silver

 

"Gold is the money of kings; silver is the money of gentlemen; barter is the money of peasants; but debt is the money of slaves."

Norm Franz, Money and Wealth in the New Millenium

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Restating the Obvious

 

"We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.   It is not merely that at present the rule of naked force obtains almost everywhere.  Bully-worship has become a universal religion."

George Orwell, Review of Bertrand Russell's Power, 1939

"Perpetual war is always so planned as to eat up any surplus that might exist after meeting the bare needs of the population. It is a deliberate policy to keep even the favoured groups somewhere near the brink of hardship, because a general state of scarcity increases the importance of small privileges and thus magnifies the distinction between one group and another.

The essence of oligarchical rule is not father-to-son inheritance, but the persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of life.  A ruling group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate its successors.  Who wields power is not important, provided that the hierarchical structure remains always the same.”

George Orwell, 1984, June 8, 1949

"All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome."

George Orwell, Politics and the English Language, 1946


I'm still on vacation but I am closely watching a number of markets to see if we are reaching some sort of turning, or a crescendo of this mad mispricing of risk.

As you may recall some time ago I had suggested a higher than usual probability of a severe market correction by the end of October, and then shortly afterwards changed it to the end of November.

The reason for this is the fairly obvious and very determined actions of Bessent and his cronies to prop the markets up, for their own profits and at the behest of Trump, who views it as an emblem of his success.

A number of 'very important people' have jumped on the bandwagon since that time.  And with good reason.  The elements of a debacle in the financial markets are apparent to all the major players.  

But, let's see how long Donnie and his crime family can string this one out.

At this point it is only one event away, and there are a number of candidates to choose from.

Lawlessness is very much in fashion, nourished by the lack of even reasonable consequences.

"Robbery, rape, and murder they call empire — and where they make a desert, they call it peace."
 Tacitus, Agricola, circa 98 AD

Have a pleasant evening. 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Consecration of Lawlessness

 

"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.  Among all others only they are compelled to attack the poor as well as the rich.  Robbery, rape, and slaughter they falsely call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace."

Tacitus, Agricola, circa 98 AD

"The Press of the United States? Its function is to serve the established by moulding public opinion, and right well it serves it. I know nothing that I may say can influence you. You have no souls to be influenced. You are spineless, flaccid things. You pompously call yourselves Republicans and Democrats. There is no Republican Party. There is no Democratic Party. You are lick-spittles and panderers, the creatures of the Plutocracy.”

Jack London, The Iron Heel, 1907

"Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason."

John Harrington, Epigrams: Of Treason, 1618

"These were some of James Jesus Angleton’s dying words.  He had not been serving God, after all, when he followed Allen Dulles.  He had been on a satanic quest:

'I did things that, in looking back on my life, I regret.  But I was part of it and loved being in it.'  He invoked the names of the high eminences who had run the CIA in his day—Dulles, Helms, Wisner.  These men were 'the grand masters,' he said.  'If you were in a room with them, you were in a room full of people that you had to believe would deservedly end up in hell.'  Angleton took another slow sip from his steaming cup. 'I guess I will see them there soon.'

David Talbot, The Devil's Chessboard, 2015

"The coming of the lawless will be the work of Satan made manifest in all power and false signs and wonders, and in every wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refused to accept the love of the truth to be saved.  For this reason, God allows them to have a powerful delusion to believe their own lies, that all those who deny the truth and instead take pleasure in lawlessness will be condemned."

2 Thessalonians 2:7-12

“Religion used to be the opium of the people.  To those suffering humiliation, pain, illness, and serfdom, religion promised the reward of an after life.  But now, we are witnessing a transformation: a true opium of the people is the belief in nothingness after death, the huge solace, the huge comfort of thinking that for our betrayals, our greed, our cowardice, our murders, we are not going to be judged.”

Czeslaw Milosz, Discreet Charm of Nihilism, NYRB November 19, 1998

It was a decline to cover those gaps in the equity charts, with risk coming off the table.

Gold and silver were sold lower.

The Dollar took back the 100 handle.

VIX came in higher, but declined into the close.

This seems more like a correction and profit-taking, moreso than some other significant event.

But as I remind, we are one trigger event away from a meltdown.

Dick Cheney, practitioner of deceit and war crimes, has passed onto judgement. 

As shall they all. 

Have a pleasant evening.