The Message from the 22 Year Old Suicide at the Nation's Capitol

Suicide is a prohibited form of violence in my own belief, as are all other forms of murder.  Therefore I would not hold this type of protest up as an example to anyone.

However, an even worse offense would be to completely ignore the message which this young man delivered, as most of the mainstream media has done in the US.

I did not even know what really happened until I read this article below from Wall Street On Parade today.  The police and media referred to it as a 'social protest.'   

 

Before he killed himself, the young man held up a sign that said "Tax the One Percent."

Perhaps an even more pointed message might be 'shut down the loopholes for the Top .01%.'  Those who make their money from wages and ordinary income pay fairly significant taxes. 

However, the uber-rich have so many loopholes and tax avoidance schemes that they often pay much lower percentage than even those in the lowest income levels.    The top .01% use the upper middle class as shields for their antics.
 

You may read the entire article about this here.

Rather than one young light be extinguished and quickly overlooked by the powerful, perhaps it would be better if a million people were to march on the Capitol, and effective shut it down in protest this Summer.  That might get their attention.   Alas, the apathy in the people is pervasive, at least for now. 

Wall Street On Parade

22-Year Old Commits Suicide at Capitol to Send Congress a Message

By Pam Martens: April 14, 2015

At approximately 1:07 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, April 11, during the annual Cherry Blossom Festival celebrating springtime in the Nation’s Capitol, a 22-year old man took his own life with a gun on the Capitol grounds with a protest sign taped to his hand. According to the Washington Post, the sign read: “Tax the one percent.”

Yesterday, the Metropolitan Police Department released the young man’s name. He was Leo P. Thornton of Lincolnwood, Illinois. Based on what is currently known, the young man had traveled to Washington, D.C. for the express purpose of making a political statement with his sign and then ending his young life.

The Chicago Tribune reported that “Thornton’s parents filed a missing persons report on the morning of April 11 after he never came home from work on April 10, Lincolnwood Deputy Police Chief John Walsh said.”

Those are the tragic facts of the incident itself. But there is a broader tragedy: the vacuous handling of this story by corporate media. The Washington Post headlined the story with this: “Rhythms of Washington Return after Illinois Man’s Suicide Outside Capitol.” The message he delivered to his Congress – tax the one percent – has yet to be explored by any major news outlet in America in connection with this tragedy.

Was the message of Leo P. Thornton of Lincolnwood, Illinois a critical piece of information for this Congress to hear at this moment in American history. You’re damn right it was. Outside of Wall Street’s wealth transfer system, provisions in the U.S. tax code are the second biggest wealth transfer system to the one percent. Together, these two systems have created the greatest income and wealth inequality since the economic collapse in the Great Depression. They threaten a repeat of the 2008 financial collapse because the majority of Americans do not have the wages or savings to support the broader economy...

 

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Meaningless Drama at the Bucket Shop

It was all quiet at the Bucket Shop on the Hudson as gold oscillated between 1198 and 1204, keeping nicely to the key round number of 1200.

Volumes were light and the data from leverage land was inconsequential.  So inconsequential that they didn't bother reporting any on the latest delivery report.

 

There was little action in the gold warehouses, and the usual Brownian motion with silver bullion, that is, lots of activity but little net change.

I imagine things might pick up later this week. Today was not even worth watching. Even the rumours were so off the wall as to be inconsequential.

 

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Zzzzzzzz....

Stocks were in an upward push on light volumes that faded fairly hard into the late afternoon after it became clear that the puppies weren't eating the puppy food, and all the wiseguys were doing is moving the same stocks around the plate.

 

Earnings and economic news should pick up later this week.   There seems to be a bit of a divergence between perception and reality. 

 SP 500 Earnings Estimates Plunge Most Since the Financial Crisis

 

Not that this should dampen any enthusiasm about The Recovery™..

Have a pleasant evening.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Policy Will Continue until Pitchforks and Torches Appear

Gold led the way as it popped back over 1200 on news that India showed record gold imports in March of 125 tonnes.

Gold is flowing from West to East.  The data shows this without much room for error, unless you are an economist or analyst whose paycheck has willfully obscured their vision.  How this ends I do not know and no one can really say.  But it will end.  I would like to think that at some point the central planners will go so far off into the weeds of their own obfuscation that the people will generally rise up and tell them to take them models and use them to pound sand.

 

If you watch the financial news, as I do, the divergence between valuations and reality is getting to the absurd point where the tech bubble had gotten.  I remember chatting in the business class section of transcontinental and international flights back in the day with some of the Wall St analysticals and presstitutes. 

They would give the cynical wink wink, nod nod to the valuation bubble that was about to rock the world.  Knowingly they would admit,  'of course it's a bubble, but don't get in front of it.'  And they apparently are not afraid to do it all over again.  Got to keep dancing when the music is playing, and the devil take the innocent into the abyss. 

I see where Willem Buiter would like to eliminate cash and tax all currency in general.   The purpose would be to remove that ability to store wealth as cash, safely from the negative interest rate confiscation of central banks.  If we do that, maybe we can assign everyone a number and implant a chip in their arms and force them to transact all their business with it.  Just joking.   When it comes to money, he's a statist, par excellence. 

 

Next week we will see earnings news dominating the stock market I would like to think, although the latest antics from Draghi in Europe may make their own mark.  There will be a bit more economic news as noted in the calendar shown below.

 

Given the wobbly state of the real economic recovery, and the weakness of the domestic jobs market,  and the almost moribund state of almost every sector except financial,  any policy actions that encourage a stronger dollar in the face of the rest of the world's devaluation race to the bottom is beyond economic malpractice, and almost insane if the general good of the country is considered. 

 

Never mind that the strong dollar favors the international creditors, and the acquisitive desires of the monied class, hungrily eyeing the income producing assets of their victims prospective sellers.

 

You could make the case that the Fed's stimulus has been more than useless, and actually destructive to the real economy, so ending it might not be a bad thing.  That seems to be a weak argument, but certainly more honest than claiming that it has actually worked.

 

Well, what can one expect from a den of vipers.

 

Have a pleasant weekend.

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Bubble On - Weekend at Bennie's

Stock and bond valuations are high, and 'The Recovery' is flopping around, and the Fed is expending enormous resources to keep Wall Street and the TBTF Banks standing upright like a Weekend at Bernie's.  

 

The subsidies to the financial sector will continue until pitchforks and torches appear.

But the money masters would like higher rates, and an ever stronger dollar. The better this will serve to let them roam about overseas and across the land, picking up income producing assets on the cheap.

 

Stronger dollars they get interest free, and economically weaker prey--  a win win!

I would feel better if they just said they will raise rates a couple of times just for the hell of it, or because the Banks want it.  And that it won't matter anyway because none of the stimulus is making it down to the general public.  Their concern for the economy is all just for show. 

Next week should cast some light on earnings and on the wobbly state of the economy.  Not that it will make any difference in Bankland.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Credibility Trap: Moving Beyond Corporatism and Corruption

The heart of the problem is that because of the credibility trap, we have never had a proper public discussion on what went wrong with the policies of the US.  The apathy of the people enables this.

Oh yes, there are plenty of staged discussions in the media, where two paid talking heads and a moderator who carefully stages the parameters and definition of the 'discussion' shout slogans past one another that play to the emotions of their deeply polarized and propagandized constituencies.

Since we have not yet been able to speak frankly and openly about the massive fraud and abundant soft and overt corruption of the political and professional class, there can be no meaningful reform. Until one admits they have a problem and are able to face it, they cannot begin to address it.  

 Like any other type of hopeless addict, the US and many of its client states will most likely have to finally hit rock bottom before they can begin to face their addiction to deceit and corruption, money and power.   This will be difficult because so many of those who control the platforms for the conversation about corruption are also those whose hands are dirty with it, either by participation or acquiescence. This is the same phenomenon that compels a country to remain in protracted, unwinnable wars long beyond any rational expectation of an unachievable 'victory.'

 And this is the credibility trap.

It is the widespread corruption and cowing of the professional class in a society that sets the stage for the madness of the mob.

It is foolish to hope that the plunderers of society will some day have enough, and come to their senses. They are not rational, but pathological, and their only impulse is to want 'more.'   They will not stop until someone finally moves to stop them. But like battered spouses and ashamed parents we cannot even bear to raise the subject.

Perhaps the children will ask the right questions, since the adults are too diverted, preoccupied, and fearful.