"You are the very cause of your ignorance, yourselves. You put away the light, yourselves; you first pluck out both your own eyes, yourselves; and after that other men’s too, so that the blind may lead the blind, until you both fall into the pit.”
Thomas More, The Sadness of Christ (Gethsemane), Tower of London, 1535
'And the people who belong to the World worshiped the Beast.'
"It was a day of surprises, a day that solved past riddles and suggested new ones, a day of startling revelations, and still more hopeless perplexity... It all ended in a way no one could have expected. Indeed it was a day of most extraordinary coincidences."
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Demons
“Thus did a handful of rapacious citizens come to control all that was worth controlling in America. Thus was the savage and stupid and entirely inappropriate and unnecessary and humorless American class system created. Honest, industrious, peaceful citizens were classed as bloodsuckers, if they asked to be paid a living wage.
And they saw that praise was reserved henceforth for those who devised means of getting paid enormously for committing crimes against which no laws had been passed. Thus the American dream turned belly up, turned green, bobbed to the scummy surface of cupidity unlimited, filled with gas, went bang in the noonday sun.”
Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
"...we had come to the stage where for our people what was needed was a real democracy; and of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of a plutocracy."
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography
Margaret Roper: Haven't you done as much as God can reasonably want?
Thomas More: Well, finally— it isn't a matter of reason. Finally, it's a matter of love.
Robert Bolt, A Man For All Seasons
“Stand up for what you believe, even if you are standing alone.”
Sophie Scholl
Stocks tried to break out above the overhead resistance today, but failed and fell back to end the day largely unchanged. Tech managed to hold a little gain.
Gold and silver and the Dollar were higher today, as the appetite for financial asset risk waned a bit.
There is no sustainable recovery. Just the continuous drip, drip, drip of Fed assistance to Wall Street and its Banks.
"Day by day the money-masters of America become more aware of their danger, they draw together, they grow more class-conscious, more aggressive. The [first world] war has taught them the possibilities of propaganda; it has accustomed them to the idea of enormous campaigns which sway the minds of millions and make them pliable to any purpose.
American political corruption was the buying up of legislatures and assemblies to keep them from doing the people's will and protecting the people's interests; it was the exploiter entrenching himself in power, it was financial autocracy undermining and destroying political democracy. By the blindness and greed of ruling classes the people have been plunged into infinite misery."
Upton Sinclair, The Brass Check
"Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction."
Erich Fromm
“We must alter our lives in order to alter our hearts, for it is impossible to live one way and pray another.
If you have not chosen the kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead.”
William Law
Stocks had a wide-ranging day, driven to and fro by macroeconomic and geopolitical rumors, on a sea of Fed-provided liquidity.
The Dollar finished lower as gold and silver were slightly higher.
There is room for thought on the charts this week regarding how the wiseguys might be trying to play the price of gold and silver, in anticipation of the December futures contracts options expiration next Monday, November 25th.
Stocks seem rather fully valued here. But value is relative, and the Dollar is the yardstick, heavily seasoned with duplicity and coercion.
"Narcissus so himself, himself forsook,
And died to kiss his shadow in the brook."
William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis
"Price discovery is not a sexy function of markets, but it is critical to the efficient allocation of scarce capital and resources, and to the preservation of the long term wealth of investors and the economy as a whole. If price discovery is compromised by manipulation, then we will all be gradually impoverished and the economy will be imbalanced and unstable."
London Banker, Lies, Damn Lies, and Libor
"The GDPNow model estimate for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the fourth quarter of 2019 is 0.3 percent on November 15, down from 1.0 percent on November 8. After this morning's retail trade releases from the U.S. Census Bureau, and this morning's industrial production report from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the nowcasts of fourth-quarter real personal consumption expenditures growth and fourth-quarter real gross private domestic investment growth decreased from 2.1 percent and -2.3 percent, respectively, to 1.7 percent and -4.4 percent, respectively."
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, GDPNow
We are drawing closer to a break in the markets, and perhaps a lapse in the prevailing economic and political narratives that have supported the predatory growth of the corporate oligarchy. Hi ho.
Stocks reached new highs today on renewed optimism of trade talks and unicorns.
The havens including the Dollar and Gold were weaker.
We are approaching another blow off top for Wall Street compliments of the Fed and their Banks, and their mouthpieces in the financial media.
And no one will have been able to see it coming, right?
“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be with the coming of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given away in marriage, up until the very day that Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came, and swept them all away...
And they said to him, 'Where will this happen, Lord?' And He said to them, 'Where death is, there will be a gathering of vultures.'”
Luke 17:26-27, 37
Stocks were trading sloppy today, although once again they managed to finish up in the quiet afternoon trade to finish off their lows and unchanged.
Gold and silver were a higher as the Dollar was off a bit.
Tomorrow is a stock option expiration.
Things are going to continue to become very interesting.
"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."
"For those who have at times struggled to understand the difference between COMEX inventory categories ‘registered gold’ and ‘eligible gold’, now your head can spin even more, since the CME’s COMEX has just introduced a new category – ‘pledged gold’.
This pledged category was first noticed on the infamous COMEX warehouse late last week by Nick Laird of fame, with the pledged gold column intriguing populated with an entry next to the New York vault of bullion bank, HSBC. What did this pledged column entry mean, we wondered, and where did it come from?
After some digging on the CME website, the answer was revealed. Pledged is a new gold inventory category representing COMEX gold warrants which have been deposited with CME Clearing as performance bond collateral, in other words margin collateral. CME as follows:
'Performance Bonds, also known as margins, are deposits held at CME Clearing to ensure that clearing members can meet their obligations to their customers and to CME Clearing.'
COMEX registered gold stocks (those which are available for delivery) are currently only about 34 tonnes, a tiny foundation underpinning for a giant inverted paper pyramid. At the same time, COMEX gold futures contracts trade the equivalent of 27 million ounces per day (equivalent to 260,000 tonnes of gold per year) – more gold than has been mined in history, and over 86 times annual gold mining supply.
While the amount of pledged gold listed on the is still relatively tiny, covering 100 oz of gold held at HSBC’s vault under the HSBC Tower at 1 West 39th Street, SC 2 Level, in Manhattan, that could well change. It will therefore be well worth watching these COMEX reports in future to see if this Pledged gold category snowballs.
And if it does snowball, [it's starting, see today's report - Jesse] it will be even more important to remember that any COMEX gold warrants which are deposited as performance bond collateral with CME Clearing will move out of the Registered gold category, since the holder 'may not use these warrants to satisfy their delivery obligations.'"
"At the end of the day, perhaps, the equity side of the U.S. external balance sheet should be understood not by thinking of the U.S. as a giant and very successful private equity fund that borrows to buy equity—but rather as one giant corporate tax dodge for U.S. based multinationals…
If you think I am exaggerating, I would encourage you to take a look at the IRS data on the location of U.S. corporate profits—and the location of the taxes that American firms pay abroad. U.S. firms are earning big profits in jurisdictions where they don’t pay tax, and small profits in jurisdictions where they do…and in the process, reducing their U.S. tax bill as well. That’s real exorbitant privilege."
I saw the pledged gold category in the clearing report last week under HSBC. Since it was only one bar I did not bother mentioning it and wanted to see what it was all about. I had out of town guests, my brother and sister in laws, that left on Sunday. They are among my favorite people, and the antics of the Comex took second place to them. We had a great time.
There are 237,554 ounces 'pledged' under HSBC on the Comex clearing report included below. The pledged gold does not show up in either the eligible or registered category totals which would be concerning. I am going to be reading up on this and any worthwhile commentary.
Right now I am trying to determine what trading strategy to follow when these markets break, because they certainly look like they are approaching some kind of crossroads. Stocks are in flag patterns along with gold.
And of course there a lot of geo-political things going on. And plenty of theatrics, misdirection, and a lot of shameless lying and self-serving corruption. I can imagine now why supposedly so few of the rich and powerful may be saved. Well, let's look to ourselves first, and try not to join in.
There will be a stock market option expiration on Friday.
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.
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