Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Shall We Stop This Bleeding? - Willful Pride, Plagues, and Foolishness

 

“An enthusiastic philosopher, of whose name we are not informed, had constructed a very satisfactory theory on some subject or other, and was not a little proud of it.  'But the facts, my dear fellow,' said his friend, 'the facts do not agree with your theory.'  'Don't they?'  replied the philosopher, shrugging his shoulders, 'then, tant pis pour les faits;' —so much the worse for the facts.” 

Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

 

“Against such foolishness we are defenseless.  Reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed – in such moments the foolish person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental.   

In all this the foolish person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack.  Never again will we try to persuade the foolish person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.” 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

 

"It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought." 

John Kenneth Galbraith 

 

"Foolishness has a knack of getting its way; as we should see if we were not always so much wrapped up in ourselves.  In this respect our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; they did not believe in plagues." 

Albert Camus

 

The story stocks moved higher. The rest of the market not so much. 

Gold and silver moved sideways as the Dollar continued lower. 

No one likes to be a centrist, a non-participant, much less a voice of reason.

You see the folly of both sides, and may incur the anger of both, if you stand for the facts, and the truth as it has been given to you.

Even if you only refuse to join in with the crowd in its madness, especially in times of general hysteria and even often shocking apostasy.

This is what Galbraith, Bonhoeffer, Camus, and Mackay are all speaking about in the quotes above, each in a different context and situation involving speculative bubbles, political extremism cynical ignorance, and minds hardened by unrealistic ideology.

Yes life is filled with gray areas.   But sometimes the voices from the extremes of both sides are filled with madness, sometimes compelling and seemingly overwhelming, popular, irresistible.

You don't have to do this because I say so, and I will not be shocked if you reject such thinking.   I am not doing what I do for you either,  per se.

Standing for what is true, even when it is not easy or convenient, profitable, is the recurrent theme of those who would take up their cross and follow Him,  who stood fast but silent in answer to the cynical observation, 'What is truth?' 

And we know who the father of lies is, and what it ultimately costs to follow the easy path of selfishness and madness.  As Dostoevsky notes, when we lie to ourselves, we lose respect for the turth, and the ability to love.

"And because of the increase in wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.   But those who stand, firmly to the end, will be saved." 

Matthew 24:12 

Do what is right and good for your own sake, if not for fear of the consequences at the least, but for the sake of His love.

Have a pleasant evening. 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - O Brave New World - Excess Liquidity Melt Up

 

"Booms start with some tie-in to reality, some reason which justifies the increase in asset values, and then -- and this is the critical feature of speculative mood -- the market loses touch with reality. Once a boom is well started, it cannot be arrested. It can only be collapsed."

John Kenneth Galbraith

 

“As a rule, panics do not destroy capital; they merely reveal the extent to which it has been previously destroyed by its betrayal into hopelessly unproductive works.” 

John Stuart Mill

 

Markets were in a 'melt up' mood today, with just about everything going higher, led by the big cap tech story stocks.

Gold and silver soared as they shook off the price suppression of last week's option expiration. 

The beaten down miners caught a serious bid.  Again, all part of the wash and rinse.

There will be a Comex option expiration for the metals, but not until next week.

I am not a fan of Biden and Harris, who in my estimation are corporate Democrats, beholden to the moneyed interests and Wall Street.

But they are at least competent and not wantonly destructive vulgarians. 

Still, I find it hard to be optimistic for meaningful reform. 

The Fed is the creature of the Banks, and the moneyed interests have the oligarchy well in hand.

Let's see what the first 100 days of this brings.

It will be interesting to see how the post-election saga of Trumpolini unfolds.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Great Emptiness - And the Love of Most Will Grow Cold

 

"The Unspeakable.   It is the void that we encounter.  It is the emptiness of the end.  Not necessarily the end of the world, but a theological point of no return, a climax of absolute finality in refusal, in equivocation, in disorder, in absurdity, which can be broken open again to truth only by miracle, by the coming of God. 

We stumble and fall constantly even when we are most enlightened.  But when we are in true spiritual darkness, we do not even know that we have fallen. 

Only the man who has had to face despair is really convinced that he needs mercy.  Those who do not want mercy never seek it.  It is better to find God on the threshold of despair than to risk our lives in a complacency that has never felt the need of forgiveness."

Thomas Merton 

"I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil.  I think I've come close to defining it: a lack of empathy.  It's the one characteristic that connects all the defendants.  A genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow man.   Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy." 

G. M. Gilbert

"In the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God.  Thereafter, any attack, even on the least of men, is an attack on Christ, who took on the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all.  

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, and recover our solidarity with all mankind." 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 

"Do all without constant arguing and complaining, so that you may be blameless and righteous as children of God, unlike those of this contentious and perverse generation, among whom you may shine like lights to the world, as you hold firmly to the word of life." 

Phil 2:14-16

 

The market observance of Martin Luther King Day was a great opportunity for the wiseguys to slam the futures around, particularly gold and silver. 

In the most quiet trading, at night, gold was smacked down to 1800, and silver to 24.  The purpose of this was to 'run the stops.'

And yet both metals managed to end the day higher.

Stocks were on a tear, with the NDX 100 leading the way higher.

There will be the inauguration of a new president tomorrow.

Most important is the state of your own hearts and soul.  

It is not too late yet to let go of your selfishness and your proud and hardened hearts.

For God is not mocked.  

 Have a pleasant evening.

 

Martin Luther King Day

"And some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak.  We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak."

Martin Luther King, A Time to Break the Silence,  Riverside Church, 4 April 1967



"Take a stand for that which is right, and the world may misunderstand you and criticize you, but you never go alone, for somewhere I read that 'One with God is a majority,' and God has a way of transforming a minority into a majority. Walk with him this morning and believe in him and do what is right and he'll be with you even until the consummation of the ages.

Yes, I've seen the lightning flash, I've heard the thunder roll, I've felt sin's breakers dashing trying to conquer my soul but I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on, he promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone; no, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone.

Wherever you are going this morning, my friends, show the world that you're going with truth. You are going with justice, you are going with goodness, and you will have an eternal companionship.

And the world will look at you and they won't understand you, for your fiery furnace will be around you, but you'll go on anyhow.

But if not, I will not bow, and God grant that we will never bow, before the gods of evil."

Martin Luther King, Ebenezer Baptist Church, 5 November 1967


"And every now and then I think about my own death and I think about my own funeral. And I don't think of it in a morbid sense. And every now and then I ask myself, 'What is it that I would want said?' And I leave the word to you this morning...

If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind."

Martin Luther King, 4 February 1968


“Now the problem is not only unemployment.  Do you know that most of the poor people in our country are working every day?  And they are making wages so low that they cannot begin to function in the mainstream of the economic life of our nation.  These are facts which must be seen, and it is criminal to have people working on a full-time basis and a full-time job getting part-time income...

If America does not use her vast resources of wealth to end poverty and make it possible for all of God’s children to have the basic necessities of life, she too will go to hell.”

Martin Luther King, 18 March 1968


"We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life — longevity has its place.

But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.

So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything, I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

Martin Luther King, 3 April 1968

The next day Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee, 4 April 1968.

 

Exactly one year to the day after his sermon, A Time To Break the Silence.

 

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who murder your prophets and stone those sent to save you. How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Behold, your house is now yours, but is made desolate." 

 

Matthew 23:37-39