“Depart from me, you accursed. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not comfort me.' They answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not care for you?' He answered, 'Truly I tell you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it for me.’” Matthew 25:40-46
Today was the last trading day for the second quarter of 2016.
The Bank of England's Mark Carney pledged today to do whatever the Bank must do to support Britain's economy.
And on that accommodative note, global paper assets turned around and took some legs higher.
I am starting to think bearish thoughts here, but wish to see what stocks do when they hit the overhead support levels.
As you can see, they bounced very nicely on the underlying support. The NDX is particularly well-behaved, with the SP futures being the pivot on stock market upside interventions.
"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.
And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Barack H. Obama, San Francisco Fundraiser, April 11, 2008
"The problem of the last three decades is not the 'vicissitudes of the marketplace,' but rather deliberate actions by the government to redistribute income from the rest of us to the one percent. This pattern of government action shows up in all areas of government policy."
Dean Baker
"If the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time."
Simon Johnson, The Quiet Coup
Today was a double-header of discouragement in how quickly the pampered plutocrats are dismissing any possible lessons they might have taken from the Brexit.
The Three Stooges Amigos at the North American Leaders Summit, Barry, Pena, and Justin, were talking up free trade, globalization, and the benefits of corporatism for the ignorant masses.
And on the other hand, the profound thinkers of modern finance returned to Aspen today to celebrate the Aspen Art museum, a monument to the nouveau riche with a 'broad base of community support of one million dollar donations from 28 individuals.'
The interviews with the very serious people there were surreal, almost otherworldly and profoundly discouraging in their lack of understanding of what is happening all around them, and any sense of context and self-examination. Well, that is why people go to Aspen and all the other enclaves of unreality these days.
I fear that this is going to get much uglier before it gets better.
"People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage. Intellectual myopia, often called stupidity, is no doubt a reason. But the privileged also feel that their privileges, however egregious they may seem to others, are a solemn, basic, God-given right."
John Kenneth Galbraith
"Egypt is poor precisely because it has been ruled by a narrow elite that have organized society for their own benefit at the expense of the vast mass of people. Political power has been narrowly concentrated, and has been used to create great wealth for those who possess it, such as the $70 billion fortune apparently accumulated by ex-president Mubarak. The losers have been the Egyptian people, as they only too well understand.
We’ll show that this interpretation of Egyptian poverty, the people’s interpretation, turns out to provide a general explanation for why poor countries are poor. Whether it is North Korea, Sierra Leone, or Zimbabwe, we’ll show that poor countries are poor for the same reason that Egypt is poor.
Countries such as Great Britain and the United States became rich because their citizens overthrew the elites who controlled power and created a society where political rights were much more broadly distributed, where the government was accountable and responsive to citizens, and where the great mass of people could take advantage of economic opportunities."
Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, Why Nations Fail
Don't you just love watching the public reaction to Brexit, and the barely concealed contempt in which the professional class, including the liberal establishment, holds the general public?
It will keep getting more and more obvious as the people continue to diverge from an increasingly unsustainable and superannuated status quo. And she-who-must-not-be-named is its poster child.
Could their designs be any more obvious? They will certainly continue moreso as the mask of civility drops away and the thuggish side of the will to power rises.
This is an old story, and as always is going to end very badly unless some cooler and wiser heads begin to rein in the pigmen. And that will not be happening anytime soon judging by the other worldly denial of insiders, the very serious people.
Today was a 'risk on' day with gold and the dollar giving back some of their recent gains.
Let's see how we go into the long weekend. I had forgotten that the 4th of July was coming up, but was reminded of it by the samples at Costco this afternoon, which were particularly generous and quite good, forgoing any other thoughts of a separate lunch. Samples lunch at Costco with your best girl? Life is good. lol
It was damn the gloom over Brexit and full speed ahead, led by the SP futures which remain the tool of choice for those who wish to drive the markets here and there, particularly in periods of low volume/genuine commitment to just about anything.
The markets are broken, given over to manipulation and corruption. And those who continually point the finger at manipulation by the government are really missing the whole point of the need for reform, and too often willfully so.
The financialization of the economy has turned 'the markets' into wealth transfer mechanisms from the public to a crooked and corrupted few.
Let's see if this was a real turnaround or merely a dead cat bounce.
Nike was down sharply after hours on real world things like earnings and revenues.
The professional elite are, for the most part, talking around the matter, and whistling past the graveyard of their own long coming and well deserved demise. What has been called 'the placebo syndrome' of mindless pursuit of power and goods.
I think if you look at the charts, particularly the gold chart, you can see the preferred levels of support that must be held to make the bullish case.
I have forecasted for some time that the pressures in the physical bullion markets, particularly in London, would be feeling the pinch this month. And I think we are seeing that, although for the most part, the response of the official powers that be is denial.
Let us pray for those whose hearts are hardened against His grace and loving kindness by greed, fear, and pride, and the seductive illusion and crushing isolation of evil.
We pray that we all may experience the three great gifts of our Lord's suffering and triumph: repentance, forgiveness, and thankfulness. And in so doing, may we obtain abundant life, and with it the peace that surpasses all understanding.
It is available for your use at no cost, but with attribution and a link to the original posting.
I make every attempt to respect the rights of others. If you feel that something here has infringed your work please let me know and I will correct it immediately. It is not always easy to determine the status of material posted to the Internet with regard to fair use and public domain.
