SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts

Stocks popped on the open to the upside, but then it was pretty much a Brownian motion for the rest of the day, with stocks same or lower to the open on low volumes.

Pleasant evening.

The Pursuit of Global Corporatism

The need for a third party in the US becomes more compelling every day.  Or a bipartisan effort to stem the corrosive, anti-democratic influence of Big Money.

 

But I do not see the forces for reform cohering yet.  The attraction and example of power politics and money is too embedded in the mindsets of those whose thinking flows from the status quo. 

Even the reformers can fall quickly into a model of force and compulsion, and heavy handed techniques in pursuing a 'freedom' which they seek to define and control, too often ignoring history and reason.

 

The sign of this is the attitude that there is an elite who, operating in secret and with autonomy, can best decide the meaning of value, and the course of economic events.  It is ironic to see 'reformers' eager to replace one form of oligarchic rule with another that they believe will be more friendly to their own policy decisions, but somehow more benign and resistant to corruption without firm checks and balances on power. 

Sustainable good does not flow from more effective rules but from a better choice of and commitment to a priori values.  Honesty, openness, toleration, justice and kindness are values.   Right over might is an enduring act of balance in human affairs. 

Watch what they do, and not what they say.   If a 'reform movement' is quick to engage in censorship and deception, intolerance and harshness, creating more and cleverer rules and complex theories to achieve their ends, it is most likely another face of the same underlying problem of injustice, no matter what self-delusions they may choose to promote. 

 

As historian Christopher Dawson noted, 'As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that they set out to destroy.'

In point of fact, complexity and 'cleverness' are often the very models of a false premise as much as the repetitive simplicity of the Big Lie.  What is presented as new and modern is too often the same old thing wrapped differently.  The truth is often hidden in between, but actions speak loudly.

It will be interesting to see how this situation develops.

TPP Is Not a Free-Trade Agreement

Dean Baker

27 December 2014

People in places like rural Kansas and downtown Washington, DC often have a misplaced trust in authority and elected officials. They are inclined to take their comments at face value, not realizing that these people often have ulterior motives.

The Washington Post gave us an example of this confusion in a front page article on President Obama's effort to push the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which it repeatedly refers to as a "free-trade" pact. The piece follows the administration's line in telling readers that:

"the president threw his full support behind the pact as part of a broader effort to rebalance U.S. foreign policy to the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region."

This assertion makes little sense since the administration is simultaneously pursuing a similar trade pact, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Pact, with Europe. What both deals have in common is that they are primarily about imposing a business-friendly structure of regulation on both our trading partners and the United States. The more plausible explanation is that President Obama is trying to get more business support for the Democratic Party...

Read the entire article here.

China Takes 60.657 Tonnes of Gold in Week Ending December 19th

China took 60.657 tonnes of gold through the Shanghai Gold Exchange in the week ending December 19th.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - At the Last

"Praise to the Holiest in the height,

and in the depth be praised;

in all His words most wonderful,

most sure in all His ways!"

John Henry Newman

 

Gold and silver moved back to about where they had started things out this week.   The wash and rinse reached the end of at least one cycle, and a particularly blatant one.

 

I particularly enjoyed the trade today, because I barely looked at it, as was its due.

 

I spent most of the day listening to lectures on some subjects of particular interest to me, the lives of a few historical figures, including More and Newman, and an interesting fellow from the 4th century called Athanasius of Alexandria.   I had read extensively in the 'ante-Nicene fathers and doctors' at a younger, more ambitious, age.  Now I have to take things in a more measured pace. 

 

One of the advantages of living for a while is that you can often revisit territory over which you may have tramped, and even extensively so, in your younger days, and while many of the landmarks are familiar, it is like you are doing it with a freshness and a better attention to nuance and details than you were capable at the first. 

 

You know the general lay of the ground, the feel of the paths, and while walking back over them you can see so many new things, because you are bringing 'more to the party' so to speak.  You mind is a slower, but better, instrument.

 

Facts that you have heard before suddenly mean something, and convey an understanding that even a first rate mind, but lacking a depth of experience, might not have obtained.  It is certainly true in my own situation.  There is knowing, which is an achievement, and then there is understanding, which is a joy.

 

It was certainly more enjoyable for me, and quite likely more instructive, than all the nonsense from all the day on the financial news networks, or from every tick of every trade on the markets this day.

 

I have included a list of some of the major economic news events for next week below.

 

Have a very pleasant weekend.

 

 

 

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Santa Claus Rally

The trade was very quiet today with an upward bias from the first, and then a drift on diminishing volume.

Next week is likely to be much of the same, except *if something happens.*

Have a very pleasant weekend.

NAV Premiums of Certain Precious Metals Trusts and Funds

Christmas Day

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined" (Is 9:1).   "An angel of the Lord appeared to (the shepherds) and the glory of the Lord shone around them" (Lk 2:9).

This is how the liturgy of this holy Christmas night presents to us the birth of the Saviour: as the light which pierces and dispels the deepest darkness. The presence of the Lord in the midst of his people cancels the sorrow of defeat and the misery of slavery, and ushers in joy and happiness.

We, too, in this blessed night, have come to the house of God. We have passed through the darkness which envelops the earth, guided by the flame of faith which illuminates our steps, and enlivened by the hope of finding the "great light". By opening our hearts, we also can contemplate the miracle of that child-sun who, arising from on high, illuminates the horizon.

The origin of the darkness which envelops the world is lost in the night of the ages. Let us think back to that dark moment when the first crime of humanity was committed, when the hand of Cain, blinded by envy, killed his brother Abel (cf. Gen 4:8). As a result, the unfolding of the centuries has been marked by violence, wars, hatred and oppression.

But God, who placed a sense of expectation within man made in his image and likeness, was waiting. He waited for so long that perhaps at a certain point it seemed he should have given up. But he could not give up because he could not deny himself (cf. 2 Tim 2:13). Therefore he continued to wait patiently in the face of the corruption of man and peoples.

Through the course of history, the light that shatters the darkness reveals to us that God is Father and that his patient fidelity is stronger than darkness and corruption. This is the message of Christmas night. God does not know outbursts of anger or impatience; he is always there, like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, waiting to catch from afar a glimpse of the lost son as he returns.

Isaiah's prophecy announces the rising of a great light which breaks through the night. This light is born in Bethlehem and is welcomed by the loving arms of Mary, by the love of Joseph, by the wonder of the shepherds. When the angels announced the birth of the Redeemer to the shepherds, they did so with these words: "This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger" (Lk 2:12).

The 'sign' is the humility of God taken to the extreme; it is the love with which, that night, he assumed our frailty, our suffering, our anxieties, our desires and our limitations. The message that everyone was expecting, that everyone was searching for in the depths of their souls, was none other than the tenderness of God: God who looks upon us with eyes full of love, who accepts our poverty, God who is in love with our smallness.

On this holy night, while we contemplate the Infant Jesus just born and placed in the manger, we are invited to reflect. How do we welcome the tenderness of God? Do I allow myself to be taken up by God, to be embraced by him, or do I prevent him from drawing close? "But I am searching for the Lord" - we could respond. Nevertheless, what is most important is not seeking him, but rather allowing him to find me and caress me with tenderness. The question put to us simply by the Infant's presence is: do I allow God to love me?

More so, do we have the courage to welcome with tenderness the difficulties and problems of those who are near to us, or do we prefer impersonal solutions, perhaps effective but devoid of the warmth of the Gospel? How much the world needs tenderness today!

The Christian response cannot be different from God's response to our smallness. Life must be met with goodness, with meekness. When we realize that God is in love with our smallness, that he made himself small in order to better encounter us, we cannot help but open our hearts to him, and beseech him: 'Lord, help me to be like you, give me the grace of tenderness in the most difficult circumstances of life, give me the grace of closeness in the face of every need, of meekness in every conflict'.

Dear brothers and sisters, on this holy night we contemplate the Nativity scene: there "the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light" (Is 9:1). People who were unassuming, open to receiving the gift of God, were the ones who saw this light. This light was not seen, however, by the arrogant, the proud, by those who made laws according to their own personal measures, who were closed off to others. Let us look to the crib and pray, asking the Blessed Mother: 'O Mary, show us Jesus!'"

Francis I, 25 December 2014