Tweeting the Decline and Fall of Western Civilisation, One Institution At a Time

“[Edmund] Burke said that there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate, more important far than they all.”

Thomas Carlyle

"In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people."

Hugo L. Black

"The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason."

Hunter S. Thompson

“We become slaves the moment we hand the keys to the definition of reality entirely over to someone else, whether it is a business, an economic theory, a political party, the White House, Newsworld or CNN.”

B.W. Powe

Quod erat demonstratum. (that which was to be demonstrated)

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - O Brave New World

Oh, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in ’t!

William Shakespeare, The Tempest

The capping of gold and silver at these levels continues.

This being an inactive month for the metals, the CME offers even less insight as to what is going on in the real world than it normally does.

Three futures traders have filed a lawsuit alleging a conspiracy of price rigging and deception at the CME. 

The LBMA has decided to give up the silver fix, for a lack of interest in a thoroughly corrupted system of price discovery. Principled resignation is more of a British tradition; the Yanks will hang on, stubbornly to their lies, until the bitter end.   So I don't expect to see any reforms on the CME until it is forced into a de facto default and a conversion to pure paper.

I do not expect to see a real hyperinflation, or a 'proper bankruptcy' in the US.   On this the MMT crowd is most likely correct, at least technically, although all things are possible since the issue is one of human choice, and these jokers are certainly all too human in the worst sense.  If your debt is in dollars, and you can pay it in dollars, and you cant print dollars at will, the internal logic is sound.  But certainly circular and self-referential, and quite likely divergent from practicality.

There will likely be some sort of default on the debt, or a significant change in the system.  But technically it will not be a bankruptcy.   Again, more likely a serious bout of stagflation supported by increasing levels of fraud and force.

When the use of force starts to breaks down, if in fact it does, we will either see a managed devaluation, a consolidation, or a change in management.  We are in a long running Ponzi scheme of a fiat currency that must continue to keep expanding, or begin to collapse.

There is a method in the madness of Washington, and their insatiable desire for more.  But is has little or nothing to do with the public welfare or the health of the republic.  This is the 'me generation' and their watchword is greed. 

We may see Britain falter first.  Or a greater portion of Europe.  Self-love is throwing your own people and then your friends under the bus first, when your schemes begin to fall apart, because they are closest to hand.

We come in peace.

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - And the Small Caps Shall Lead Them...

This is a particularly situation here in the equity markets.

Deception is rampant in the accounting for company numbers. The trading is very 'technical' and the underpinnings of the stock market are as sound as a three card monte game.

Forget the fundamentals for now. Unless there is an exogenous shock, I think the market can continue to rise in a very Ponzi-like manner, perhaps to what will in retrospect be viewed as a 'blow off top.'  If a shock comes, or if enough time passes to lower the bar for a 'trigger event' sufficiently, a meltdown is certainly possible.

Watch the Russell, as the SP is the lead sled dog for leveraged manipulation, and the DJIA is strictly for tourists. The broader market for small caps will give you the temperature for things as they are, moreso than the headline indices.

I am not short equities. Not yet. But I am watchful, and am holding a conservative portfolio, holding no US stocks. 

This might be more entertaining to watch, if I were not in such close proximity to it.   Call me Ishmael.

Have a pleasant evening.

Cost of Basic Health Insurance Around the World

You have to pay more for the best, right?

Well, in a crony capitalist society, maybe not so much.

The US ranked 37th in the WHO quality ratings in 2000.

Another example of the efficient market hypothesis, shot to hell.  Where big money is involved, profiteering, monopoly, influence peddling, and conflicts of priorities surely follow.

The problem is not government.  The problem is when government is weakened and twisted by powerful and well-heeled special interests, utopian ideologies, and a neo-Darwinian culture of death.

When it comes to healthcare reform as a threat to the status quo, the moneyed interests and their sycophantic followers are quick to declare force manure.  And some day, if the arc of the moral universe does bend towards justice, they may be obliged to eat those words. 

(Chart figures by Deutsche Bank, h/t Zerohedge)

Prayer and the Kingdom of Love

"The great danger in today’s world, pervaded as it is by consumerism, is the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted conscience. Whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor. God’s voice is no longer heard, the quiet joy of his love is no longer felt, and the desire to do good fades.

A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules...

The world tells us to seek success, power and money: our God tells us to seek humility, service, and love. Prayer, humility, and charity toward all are essential in the Christian life; they are the way to holiness.”

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Francis I

But I am just a simple person. I am no great thinker. I am weak, and afraid of failure, to look foolish.  I can do no great things. 

“The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of its scent,  nor the daisy of its simple charm. If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, Spring would lose its loveliness. And so it is in the world of souls, our Lord's living garden.

A word or a smile is often enough to put fresh life in a despondent soul...

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...

Oh! 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

"We are all flowers planted on this earth, which God plucks in His own good time: some a little sooner, some a little later.

As father and child may we meet in Paradise.

I, poor little moth, go first. Adieu."

St. Jean-Théophane Vénard, Letter To His Father

 

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - B-O-R-I-N-G

Coiling, coiling, capping, capping, lying, lying...

May is certainly an 'inactive month' for the metals.

Except for the occasional trading antic, the metals action on the Comex seems to be drying up. 

And who can blame people for not bothering to trade paper so artificially?

The real action is in the physical markets of Asia and the Mideast.

Have a pleasant evening.