Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Weimar Berlin - Lawlessness, Inequality, Extremism, Divisiveness and Crime

"He drew near and saw the city, and he wept for it saying, 'If you had only recognized the things that make for peace. But now you are blinded to them.   Truly, the days will come when your enemies will set up barriers to surround you, and hem you in on every side. Then they will crush you into the earth, you and your children. And they will not leave one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the way to your salvation.'”

Luke 19:41-44


"You hypocrites! You build monuments for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of His messengers.’"

Matthew 23:29-30

Stocks were on a tear today on the hopes for a better turn of events with the government budgetary squabbles, optimism on a China trade deal, and the results of the Senate GOP finding no evidence of 'collusion' with Russia by the Trump Administration to influence the results of the presidential election..

This last item is not surprising, because this entire Russian collusion meme seems as though it is an hysterical reaction to the spin put out by the Clinton political faction and their neoliberal enablers after their shocking loss in the 2016 Presidential election.

Too bad though, because the financial corruption and private pilfering using public power, money laundering and the kind of soft corruption that is rampant amongst our new elite is all there. And by there we mean on both sides of the fence— which is why it had to take a back seat to a manufactured boogeyman.

Gold and silver were still marking time and the Dollar backed off a bit.

There is a long road ahead before we see anything like a resolution to this troubling period in American political history.

We look back at other troubled periods and places, and either see them as discrete and fictional, a very different world apart, or through some rosy lenses of good old times which were largely benign and peaceful.  We fail to see the continuity, the similarity, and the commonality of a dangerous path with ourselves.  As they did with their own times gone by.   Madness blinds its acolytes, because they wish it so.   They embrace it to hide their shame.

We are reassured and misled by the same kinds of voices that have always served the status quo and the monied interests, the think tanks, the so-called 'institutes,'  and the web sites and former con men who offer a constant stream of thinly disguised propaganda and misstatements of principle and history.  We are comforted by their lies.

People want to hear these reassuring words of comfort and embrace it like a 'religion,' because they do not wish to draw the conclusions that the genuine principles of faith suggest (dare we say command in this day and age) in their daily lives.  They blind themselves by adopting a kind of a schizoid approach to life, where 'religion' occupies a disrete, rarefied space, and 'political or economic philosophy' dictates another set of everyday 'practical' observances and behaviours which are more pliable, and pleasing to our hardened and prideful hearts.

We wish to strike a deal with the Lord, and a deal with the Devil—  to serve both God and Mammon as it suits us.   It really is that cliché.  And it is so finely woven into the fabric of our day that we cannot see it; we cannot see that it is happening to us and around us.

And so we trot on into the abyss, one exception and excuse and rationalization for ourselves at a time.   And we blind ourselves with false prophets and their profane theories and philosophies.

As for truth, the truth that brings life, we would intertrupt the sermon on the mount itself, saying that this sentiment was all very well and good, but what stocks should we buy for our portfolio, and what horse is going to win the fifth at Belmont?  Tell us something useful, practical!   Oh, and can you please fix this twinge in my left shoulder?  It is ruining my golf game.

"Those among the rich who are not, in the rigorous sense, damned, can understand poverty, because they are poor themselves, after a fashion; they cannot understand destitution. Capable of giving alms, perhaps, but incapable of stripping themselves bare, they will be moved, to the sound of beautiful music, at Jesus’s sufferings, but His Cross, the reality of His Cross, will horrify them. They want it all out of gold, bathed in light, costly and of little weight; pleasant to see, hanging from a woman’s beautiful throat."

Léon Bloy

No surprise in this.  It has always been so, especially in times of such vanity and greed as are these. Then is now.  There is nothing new under the sun.  And certainly nothing exceptional about the likes of us in our indulgent self-destruction.

Are you not entertained?

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Land of Lies and Predatory Monopolies - A House Divided

“Above all, don't lie to yourself.  The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lies comes to a point when he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others.  And having no respect he ceases to love.”

Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov


"In the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, traitors, heady, high-minded having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.  Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived."

John Henry Newman


"You are of your father the devil, and your will is to fulfill your father's desires.  He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand with the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he lies, he speaks from his own character—  for he is a liar and the father of lies."

John 8:44

Stocks were once again wobbly today.

The mispricing of risk in High Yield has lowered the spread to quality to new lows again.

Yay us.

Gold and silver backed off a bit as the Dollar managed to take out the 97 level and hold it.

The constant drumbeat of the greatest economy rings a bit pale to the majority of Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck.

NEW YORK – The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Center for Microeconomic Data released the January 2019 Survey of Consumer Expectations, which shows that while short-and medium-term inflation expectations were unchanged, households were generally less optimistic about the economy and about future changes in their financial situation.   Expectations that the unemployment rate will be higher a year from now increased for the fourth consecutive month, and expectations about government debt growth increased sharply.   Regarding their own financial situation, respondents were less optimistic about future credit availability, and fewer expect to be financially better off a year from now.

NY Fed, Survey of Consumer Expectations, Feb 2019

The eventual reckoning to which the US is heading for its pride and inordinate devotion to power and the principle of 'might makes right' is going to be memorable.

I have been watching True Detective once more and this season three is proving to be a return to what made it so successful in season one.  The acting of several of the key actors is remarkably good, and the writing, direction and dialogue are all turning out to be excellent.

It gives one something to do until the next, and alas the last, season of Game of Thrones returns.

You may wish to open your hearts to the great gifts of  repentance, forgiveness, and thankfulness, which open the doorway to the enduring foundations of love.    Otherwise, I do not see how one will be able to stand against the rising tide of deceit, fear, and the hatred which they are intended to spread in the hearts of the people to divide and subdue them.

Have a pleasant evening.

Gold and Silver Holdings In Trusts and Funds

"The commerce and industry of the country, however it must be acknowledged, though they may be somewhat augmented cannot be altogether so secure when they are thus as it were suspended upon the Daedalian wings of paper money, as when they travel about upon the solid ground of gold and silver."

Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - China Returns From Holiday Next Week - Stock Option Expiration on Friday

"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.  To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.”

Theodore Roosevelt, April 19, 1906


"They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution.  They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest.  Their final objective, toward which all their deceit is directed, is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."

Henry A. Wallace, April 9, 1944


"We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. It is not merely that at present the rule of naked force obtains almost everywhere. Probably that has always been the case. Where this age differs from those immediately preceding it is that a liberal intelligentsia is lacking. Bully-worship, under various disguises, has become a universal religion."

George Orwell


"Unhappy events abroad have retaught us two simple truths about the liberty of a democratic people. The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism—ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.

The second truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if its business system does not provide employment and produce and distribute goods in such a way as to sustain an acceptable standard of living.  Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing.  This concentration is seriously impairing the economic effectiveness of private enterprise as a way of providing employment for labor and capital and as a way of assuring a more equitable distribution of income and earnings among the people of the nation as a whole."

Franklin D. Roosevelt


"The inability to identify with others was unquestionably the most important psychological condition for the fact that something like Auschwitz could have occurred in the midst of more or less civilized and innocent people.  What is called 'fellow traveling' was primarily business interest: one pursues one’s own advantage before all else and, simply not to endanger oneself, does not talk too much.  That is a general law of the status quo."

Theodor Adorno

Stocks were weak again overnight and in the morning, but managed to drift higher and turn green in the afternoon after the rest of the world had gone home for the weekend.

There will be a stock option expiration next week. The calendar for this year is included below.

Gold and silver managed to move higher along with the Dollar, which is again rather interesting.

This seemingly contrarian strength in gold and silver was especially remarkable because this was a holiday week in China, a period which is historically weak for the precious metals.

China will be back for business next week. Let's see if their renewed presence in the markets can break this stalemate in the metals, which have been hovering just under key overhead resistance. Or not.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Two For Flinching? - Equities Fall Back From the 200 DMA

"Stocks were wobbly and finished slightly lower.  We shall have to keep a watchful eye on them, as they are pausing at a key technical resistance level that may mark the extent of the recovery rally after the debacle in December."

Jesse, Feb 6, 2019


"Who is like unto the beast?   Who is able to stand against him?"

Revelation 13:4

Stocks backed off hard after their recent failure to take out their 200 DMA, and the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement of their December decline.

The jury is still out on this, of course. But there are increasing signs of a floundering recovery, despite the happy talk from the Trump Administration and the New York-Washington status quo.

Credit market measures are suggesting that the Fed's next move may be a rate cut, and not an increase.

Gold and silver finished slightly higher, along with the Dollar.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Metals Weaker For China's Spring Festival

"People are not truly free when they can’t afford to go to the doctor when they are sick.  They are not truly free when they cannot afford to buy the prescription drugs they so desperately need.   People are not truly free when they are exhausted because they are working longer and longer hours for lower wages.   People are not truly free when they cannot afford a decent place in which to live.  People certainly are not free when they cannot afford to feed their families.

The reason that Congress isn’t doing what the overwhelming majority of Americans wants has everything to do with the power of the monied interests.   Let us bring our people together to take on and defeat a ruling class whose greed is destroying our nation.  Our government belongs to each and every one of us, not just the few.”

Bernie Sanders, Response to the SOTU


"Gentleness is everywhere in daily life, a sign that faith rules through ordinary things... Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people.  Lacking any other purpose in life, it would be good enough to live for their sake."

Garrison Keillor

Not for any profit, or admiration, or even gratitude which is often enough lacking in this fallen world, but because it is His will, and we are His— in repentance, forgiveness, and thankfulness.

The Dollar strengthened today and so gold and silver were off a bit.

Stocks were wobbly and finished slightly lower.   We shall have to keep a watchful eye on them, as they are pausing at a key technical resistance level that may mark the extent of the recovery rally after the debacle in December.

The gold analyst Koos Jansen is apparently still too ill to be able to write. His analysis is missed.  He has provided some of the best knowledge about the Asian gold market.  Please remember him in your prayers.   Those of us who seek to find a refuge from modern monetary madness in precious metals do not need to allow ourselves to become heartless and uncaring, without feeling or fellowship with others.

I was able to accomplish quite a bit of work around the house today.    A life of work and prayer is a worthy way to live, in peace with yourself and your friends and family.

It is better than to be among the materially fortunate, with closed minds and hardened hearts, seeing only themselves and their restless dissatisfaction.   Even when surrounded they are alone, because they see others as only pale shadows and reflections of their appetites.   They think that they are alive, and that this is just the way that they are— they do not know that they are already dead.
 
The Banks must be restrained, and balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustainable recovery.

Have a pleasant evening.