Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Shockproof and Nearly Shameless - Speaking Truth to the Valley of Dry Bones

Doré, Ezekiel's Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones 

"Many people think of our times as being the last before the end of the world. The evidence of horror all around us makes this seem possible. But isn't that an idea of only minor importance?  Doesn't every human being, no matter which era he lives in, always have to reckon with being accountable to God at any moment?  Can I know whether I'll be alive tomorrow morning?

Isn't it a riddle and awe-inspiring that things can be so beautiful, despite the horror? I've seen something wondrous peering through my joy in the beautiful, a sense of its creator.  Only people can be truly ugly, because they have free will to separate themselves from this song of praise.  It often seems they will drown out this hymn with cannon thunder, curses, and blasphemy.

But I have realized they will not succeed. And so I want to throw myself on the side of the victor.”

Sophie Scholl


"Behind the concrete, the visible events, behind all objective, logical considerations, we find the irrational element:  The struggle against the demon, against the servants of the Antichrist.

Everywhere and always demonic powers lurk in the dark, waiting for the moment when man is weak; when of his own volition he leaves his place in Creation, as founded for him by God in freedom; when he yields to the force of evil, he separates himself from the powers of a higher order; and after voluntarily taking the first step, he is driven on to the next and the next at a furiously accelerating rate.

It is the time of the harvest, and the reaper cuts into the ripe grain with wide strokes. Mourning takes up her abode in the country cottages, and there is no one to dry the tears of the mothers. Yet Hitler feeds those people whose most precious belongings he has stolen and whom he has driven to a meaningless death with lies.

Everywhere, and at times of greatest trials, men have appeared, prophets and saints who cherished their freedom, who preached the One God and who with His help brought the people to a reversal of their downward course.  Man is free, to be sure, but without the true God he is defenseless against the principle of evil.  He is a like rudderless ship, at the mercy of the storm, an infant without his mother, a cloud dissolving into thin air."

We will not be silent.

The White Rose, Fourth Leaflet, Munich 1942


"The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me forth by the Spirit, and set me in the middle of a valley; and it was full of bones.  He led me, back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.  And the Lord asked me, 'Son of man, can these dry bones have life again?'”

Ezekiel 37:1-3

The US equity market was being described on the financial tv shows today as 'shockproof.'

At least they did not say that it has reached a permanently high plateau.

Now is a good time, as previously noted, to start watching potential 'trigger events' that will knock this 'risk is dead' thinking into a cocked-hat.

But why be glum? The rains that have made everything sodden and mossy around here appear to be taking a break for the weekend, which promises to be pleasantly warm and sunny. We are fast approaching my favorite time of the year.

Gold and silver were lower today as the dollar 'soared'— back up to the top of the trading range that it has been bouncing within for some time now.

Hysteria is running deep, and with it comes intolerance, and contempt for the other. Not a good time for those who seek to remain standing.

Need little, want less, love more. For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Devaluing the Presidency Even Faster Than the Currency

"I think I could beat Trump, because I’m as tough as he is, and I’m smarter than he is.  And by the way, this wealthy New Yorker actually earned his money.  It wasn’t a gift from daddy.”

Jamie Dimon

I could swear that there had been a story somewhere from the time of the financial crisis when Barack Obama asked a room full of Wall Street Bankers, 'Who's your daddy?'   And Ben Bernanke jumped up and said, 'Pick me, pick me!  I'll be your daddy!'

As you may have noted the inflation figures missed estimates to the low side with core CPI and PPI across the board coming up light.   Inflation from this tight labor market and booming economy is so frightened of the technocrats at the Fed that it has apparently left town, just disappeared, moved to South America.

The Street chose to declare that, like the end of history, we have also achieved the death of risk, and started piling back into equities, while selling gold, silver, the US Dollar, and the VIX.

Apparently there was a bit of a dust up when JPM CEO Slippin' Jimmy Dimon said that he could best Trump in the next Presidential election.

This afternoon the talking heads on financial TV were taken with thoughts of drafting Jamie Dimon for President.

One analyst wondered out loud that after running JPM, no job would be worthy of him and his talents, except the presidency.   (We're not worthy)   And my jaw drops to the keyboard.

"You are a den of vipers and thieves.  I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out."

Where is Andrew Jackson when you need him?

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Rotating Resolutions - Where the Elite Meet To Cheat

"And I myself — soft, weak, obscene, digesting, juggling with dismal thoughts — I, too, was superfluous, de trop.  Fortunately, I didn't feel it, rather it was a matter of understanding it; but I was uncomfortable because I was afraid of feeling it (even now I'm afraid — afraid that it might catch me behind my head and lift me up like a wave from the depths).

I dreamed vaguely of killing myself to wipe out at least one of these superfluous existences.  But even my death would have been superfluous.  Superfluous, my corpse, my blood on these stones, between these plants, at the bottom of this smiling garden.  And the gnawed flesh would have been superfluous in the earth which would receive my bones, at last, cleaned, peeled, as clean as teeth, it would have been superfluous:  I was superfluous for eternity."

Jean Paul Sartre, La Nausée


"We live in a historical period characterized by a sharp discrepancy between the intellectual development of man... and his mental-emotional development, which has left him still in a state of marked narcissism with all its pathological symptoms."

Erich Fromm


"The narcissist divides society into two groups: the rich, great, and famous on the one hand and the common herd on the other. Narcissistic patients, according to Kernburg, 'are afraid of not belonging to the company of the great, rich, and powerful, and of belonging instead to the 'mediocre', by which they mean the worthless and despicable rather than average in the ordinary sense of the term.'

In American society, almost everyone identifies intellectual excellence with elitism. This attitude not only guarantees the monopolization of educational advantages by the few; it lowers the quality of elite education itself, and threatens to bring about a reign of universal ignorance."

Christopher Lasch


“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 familial interconnection with all mankind."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer


"People who know nothing of God and whose lives are centered on themselves, imagine that they can only find themselves by asserting their own desires and ambitions and appetites in a struggle with the rest of the world. They try to become real by imposing themselves on other people, by appropriating for themselves some share of the limited supply of created goods and thus emphasizing the difference between themselves and the other men who have less than they, or nothing at all.."

Thomas Merton

The US financial markets, where the elite meet to cheat.

The chorus of very important people continues to grow  for the Fed to buy (prop up) the stock market in the next financial crisis, so our betters will not be inconvenienced.   It might be cheaper and easier if we just provided the top ten percent a guaranteed income to go along with their many other privileges and entitlements.  They certainly deserve it—  just ask them.

What a brave new world, that has such creatures in it.

Stocks were weakly hanging on to their current levels, awaiting some event which may provide a resolution to their inability to move higher or drop lower.

Gold and silver continue putting in what may prove to be a durable bottom.   The levels of physical metal which can be had readily at these prices seems a bit thin, especially with respect to gold.

Silver is rather undervalued with respect to gold,, judging by the gold/silver ratio which typically has been around 65 these days.   Now it is in the 80's.

It depends on what the precipitating event for a change in the intermediate trend may be.  But if it is a 'flight to safety' then gold will surely lead higher, with silver playing catch up later on with a lag, and a vengeance.

They may be pulling metals bears out of the trading pits on stretchers at some point in the not too distant future.  I certainly would not wish to be short physical gold.

Hurricane Flo seems to be tracking a bit lower, towards South Carolina.  Wherever it may land, the major damage may be seen if it stalls inland, and dumps rain measured in feet, while its winds continue to scour the shorelines and stress the trees.

Have a pleasant evening.

Hyper-articulate elite of incompetency

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Feels Like These Years Go So Fast - Storm Warnings

“Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours.”

Marcus Aurelius


"History is a vast early warning system."

Norman Cousins


"Pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes."

John Ruskin

Hurricane Florence is heading towards North Carolina. After it makes landfall it is expected to move inland, and then linger there.

The rainfall that it is expected to bring is being measured in 'feet' rather than in 'inches.' Flooding inland is expected to be a major problem, and can prove to be quite dangerously destructive, and potentially deadly.

Twenty American military veterans commit suicide on average every day, according to a recent report from the US Department of Veteran Affairs.

Stocks were attempting to get a little liftoff. Let's see if they can follow through.

Gold and silver continue to linger around these levels, with gold pushing up against the 1200 'round number' resistance.  The setup is ready for a major rally, but it appears that it may take some catalyst to turn the trend around higher and cripple the current short selling of paper on the Comex.

The truth is going to emerge, to borrow a phrase.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - You're Their Kill of the Night - Financial Predators Are on the Prowl

"Financial predators are usually narcissistic and audacious criminals. They regularly have an extreme sense of entitlement coupled with high self-efficacy.  Many of them have a charismatic quality and are preternaturally persuasive.  Financial predators are commonly shameless and quite adept serial liars.  They perceive themselves having near unlimited guile and resourcefulness to extricate themselves out of any compromising situations."

Russ Alan Prince, Forbes


"You've taken obvious joy in talking about how the agency will help banks a lot more than it will help consumers, and how upset it must make me.  This isn't about me.  This is about active duty military. It's about first responders and students and seniors and familiess—  and millions of other people who need someone on their side when consumers get cheated.  You are hurting real people to score cheap political points."

Elizabath Warren to Mike Mulvaney on the gutting of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau


"You should thank God for bank bailouts—  absolutely required to save your civilization. So I think when you have troubles like that you shouldn't be bitching about a little bailout.  You should have been thinking it should have been bigger. You should thank God the government saved the big banks and their investors.

Now, if you talk about bailouts for everybody else, there comes a place where if you just start bailing out all the individuals instead of telling them to adapt, the culture dies. Suck it in and cope."

Charlie Munger


"Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by twenty well-documented traits and characteristics. The most visible are glib/superficial charm, a grandiose sense of self worth, a strong need for stimulation (that is, psychopaths are easily bored) and impulsivity.

However, there are others, which they successfully hide from view, in particular pathological lying, conning, manipulation, a lack of empathy, remorse and guilt. Over time, one might begin to see examples of irresponsibility, lack of realistic, long-term goals, and their failure to take responsibility for their own actions."

Paul Babiak, co-author with Robert Hare of Snakes In Suits

I know, let's pursue a system that lacks regulation, justice, and transparency, and relies on the 'good nature' of some of the greediest and most ruthless elements in its society to make most of the important decisions.  And whoever can collect the most dirty money through whatever means gets to be in charge.

The sad truth is that old Charlie is just saying what the rest of his moneyed class and their enablers and courtiers have been thinking and saying to each other for quite a while.  They are just not old and dodgy enough to blurt it out publicly.

We are living in a time of a general plague in human morals, and a sickness upon the American soul.

Stocks were choppy today, attempting to recover and find a footing among recent declines. They were not quite able to make it.

Indicators are flashing danger signals for an equity market that is likely mispricing the risks in the credit and consumer markeets.

Former IMF economist Olivier Blanchard addressed a meeting at the Boston Fed, and suggested that if there is another financial crisis and severe recession that the Fed should engage in 'unusual monetary policy' and intervene in the equity markets to buy stocks in order to artificially prop up their prices and further distort credit risk.

Well, he didn't say that last part.   But that is what he is really saying, along with the understand that the Fed should provide a more direct subsidy to the wealthiest ten percent and their stock holdings.

And the Boston Fed Chair Mr. Rosengren said that things are just so good that the Fed should start considering 'restrictive' interest rates before something awful like wage inflation can take root.

Gold and silver declined just a bit, along with a weaker Dollar and a lower VIX Clearly, all is well.

A state of emergency has been declared in the Carolinas and Virginia on the approach of Hurricane Florence, which appears to be heading for a direct landfall while strengthening to a robust Category 4. And their are two other hurricanes following this one in their westwardly path across the Atlantic.

Rudy Giuliani is calling for the FBI to investigate the anonymous Op-Ed writer, saying that if they could leak something like this to the Times, then they might leak it to someone else like a foreign power. Sounds like the movie Minority Report, right?

If these jokers are so good at crime fighting that they can spot crimes before they occur, why don't they do something about the robo-call epidemic. It's a good thing that my home phone is on the government 'Do Not Call' list, because otherwise I might get more than the ten or so fake and fraudulent calls that come in each day. Luckily there is a service that my cable provider offers that pre-empts these fraud calls, and it works. But that's beside the real point, isn't it? Fraud protection and law enforcement is not a privilege, but a right that everyone pays for, but not everyone gets.

A visitor from China noted that our public infrastructure, in particularly the commuter rail systems, are remarkably underdeveloped and in poor condition. Perhaps we should create a Patreon page, and try to fund infrastructure development in the US in this way?

Yeah, but does China have a wall better than ours (as it is some day conceived to be)? Uh, oh yeah they have been there and done that. I've even climbed some restored portions of it. Quite impressive. Trump should make a note of it and its durability.

How about a major national infrastructure and public works program to stimulate well-paying jobs and general pubic productivity as FDR did with the highly success CCA and WPA programs?   Oh yeah, I guess we have that, but its virtual or something still rattling around in the corporatist black box of the Beltway.

Need little, want less, love more. For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.

Have a pleasant evening.