Remember

“We cannot understand Fascism, but we can and must understand from where it springs, and we must be on our guard...because what happened can happen again...For this reason, it is everyone's duty to reflect on what happened...

Those who deny Auschwitz would be ready to remake it."

Primo Levi, If This Is a Man

"The history of man is the history of crimes, and history can repeat. So information is a defense. Through this we can build, we must build, a defense against repetition...

There is no denying that Hitler and Stalin are alive today... they are waiting for us to forget, because this is what makes possible the resurrection of these two monsters.

Hatred can be nurtured anywhere, idealism can be perverted into sadism anywhere. If hatred and sadism combine with modern technology, the inferno could erupt anew anywhere."

Simon Wiesenthal

"We stumbled on in the darkness, over big stones and through large puddles, along the one road running through the camp. The accompanying guards kept shouting at us and driving us with the butts of their rifles. Anyone with very sore feet supported himself on his neighbor's arm. Hardly a word was spoken; the icy wind did not encourage talk. Hiding his hand behind his upturned collar, the man marching next to me whispered suddenly: "If our wives could see us now! I do hope they are better off in their camps and don't know what is happening to us."

That brought thoughts of my own wife to mind. And as we stumbled on for miles, slipping on icy spots, supporting each other time and again, dragging one another on and upward, nothing was said, but we both knew: each of us was thinking of his wife. Occasionally I looked at the sky, where the stars were fading and the pink light of the morning was beginning to spread behind a dark bank of clouds. But my mind clung to my wife's image, imagining it with an uncanny acuteness. I heard her answering me, saw her smile, her frank and encouraging look. Real or not, her look then was more luminous than the sun which was beginning to rise.

 

A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth--that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.

I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world may still know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when a man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way--an honorable way--in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. For the first time in my life, I was able to understand the words, "The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory."

In front of me a man stumbled and those following him fell on top of him. The guard rushed over and used his whip on them all. Thus my thoughts were interrupted for a few minutes. But soon my soul found its way back from the prisoners existence to another world, and I resumed talk with my loved one: I asked her questions, and she answered; she questioned me in return, and I answered...

My mind still clung to the image of my wife. A thought crossed my mind: I didn't even know if she were still alive, and I had no means of finding out (during all my prison life there was no outgoing or incoming mail); but at that moment it ceased to matter. There was no need to know; nothing could touch the strength of my love, and the thoughts of my beloved. Had I known then that my wife was dead, I think that I still would have given myself, undisturbed by that knowledge, to the contemplation of that image, and that my mental conversation with her would have been just as vivid and just as satisfying. "Set me like a seal upon thy heart, love is as strong as death."

Viktor Frankl, Man's Search For Meaning

 

"Upon her recent passing at the age of 76, I took the opportunity to reread Bubby's memoirs. In four different instances, my grandmother had stood—amid the smoke of the crematoriums, the barking dogs, the trampling boots and swinging clubs—on the infamous 'selection line' at the head of which Mengele and his minions stood, pointing left and right, sentencing some to back-breaking labor, and sending others to the gas chambers. In each of those instances, somebody would come along and say or do something that would change Bubby's fate from certain death to tenuous life. In one such incident, she already had been sent to the line of those marked for death when a man appeared as if from nowhere, physically removed her from that line and shoved her into the other, without saying a word.

Indeed, the miracles and the mysteries of the events of those days abound along with the horrors and the tragedies. In contrast to the vile actions of the "Angel of Death" were the noble and heroic actions of many "Angels of Life" who stood ready to risk their own lives for the sake of saving that of a stranger.

It is thanks in no small part to "Angels" like these, who stepped out from behind their own misery and grief to come to the aid of others, that generations now live on to tell the story. How clearly we see the infinite ripple effects of single acts of kindness and compassion, even if accomplished in a split second..."

Yossi Refson, Angels of Light

"The perpetrators were scholars, doctors, nurses, justice officials, the police and the health and workers’ administration.

The victims were poor, desperate, rebellious or in need of help. They came from psychiatric clinics and childrens hospitals, from old age homes and welfare institutions, from military hospitals and internment camps.

The number of victims is huge, the number of offenders who were sentenced, small."

Commemorative Tablet at Tiergartenstraße 4, Berlin 

"This lack of reaction arose partly because many in Germany and elsewhere chose to believe Hitler's claim that he had suppressed an imminent rebellion that would have caused far more bloodshed. Evidence soon emerged, however, that showed that in fact Hitler's account was false...

The controlled press, not surprisingly, praised Hitler for his decisive behaviour...In a letter to Hull, Dodd forecast an even more terroristic regime. 'The people hardly notice this complete coup d'etat. It takes place in silence...I would swear that millions upon millions have no idea what a monstrous thing has occurred.'"

Erik Larson, The Garden of Beasts

"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' [collaboration] 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

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Something for Everyone, a Comedy Tonight

And a cry went up from the people, 'Save us AAPL!'  And so they did, and the people were amazed.

Most absurd sell side comment:  'Maybe the other retailers were doing so badly because everyone was buying the iPhone 6.'

 

Marissa Mayer threw out some new era junk after the bell, spinning off their Ali Baba holdings, and trumping any mundane things like earnings and growth, which YHOO doesn't have.  Time to declare victory, and on to a new enterprise, MM.

The post-Greek elections bravado from yesterday melted away overnight, as Europeans started actually listening to the new Greek government, and their words permeated their psyches.

It did not help that CAT's results and guidance floundered, along with a few others. You can write that off to 'the strong dollar.' Everyone must make sacrifices for the Miles Gloriosus of currencies.

 

The money masters are wondering when they will be able to ravish Greece, and pick her bones, like the sacking of the Parthenon for souvenirs back home.

And then the durable goods orders results came out and the Street went into a swoon.

Gold bounced back nicely after a hit yesterday that could be attributed to both the usual OPEX antics, as well as the general trend to whistle past the Greek elections.

Tomorrow we have another FOMC meeting. My own opinion, for whatever it might be worth, is that the Fed will do nothing about raising rates this year, except to talk about them. They *might* do a symbolic 25 of 50 bp 'one and done,' but this has nothing to do with real tightening, and more with given themselves some room to lower rates when the real economy starts swooning later this year or next.

But even that seems a little less likely in their current playbook with the QE plays on the table. There is so much bad paper, and the opportunity to print even more to make it go away is very tempting, especially with 'the strong dollar' strangling the real economy of real companies and real people.

Gold is flashing a potentially bullish formation. I think the breakouts and key support are pretty obvious, given that it is a 'slanted W' or double bottom formation. But it need to break out decisively to start being active rather than potential.

Once it breaks out, if it does, we will know a lot more about where it might be going, so let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

 

 

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - FOMC Tomorrow - Give Us Some Sugar, Baby

Stocks were really giving it up this morning, based on postcards from the real world.

Microsoft's results last night, although initially applauded by the pundit class, were about as mediocre as their non-gaming products. And that stock finally sold off.

Catepillar posted lousy results this morning. Love that strong dollar, right guys? About half the SP 500 relies on multinational income streams that are sucking wind.

And finally the durable goods results, in the chart below, were much worse than expected. Although I normally do not account them all that much because of their volatility, the trend has been negative for almost half a year now, and the core numbers blew chunks.

Wow, The Recovery is faltering. Do you think Bubbe is going to start raising rates to please those who want what, an even stronger dollar, and even more economic stagnation, even less inflation?

No way, Ray.

I predict that, barring an unforeseen macro trend change in currencies or the economy, the most we will get out of the Fed this year is a 'one and done' that gives them symbolic room to cut if the shit hits the fan.

And I am beginning to doubt even that old play, in the days of QE and unconventional behaviour. 

 

By the way, I think Janet Yellen is just cute as a button.  I have a terrible time trying to make fun of her, or even say anything bad about her.   She looks just like my old grandmother, God rest her gentle soul.  I would sit in her lap on a bent Boston rocker that I still have, and she would tell me the best stories, always with a strong moral message of good and evil.  Oh well, the days we knew and loved are gone forever. 

 

More likely the Fed will start jawboning about some QE4, where they buy even more and worse assets from someone, hopefully not just the Banks but its likely that they will hit those tarts again, and at non-market prices to subsidize their reckless gambling.

 

 God forbid that anyone might offer any kind of stimulus or relief to the public.  They might do something crazy like spend it on essential and raise demand for goods more broadly.  Better to give the money to the robber barons, fraud kings, and monopoly makers.

Have a pleasant evening.

NAV Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds

Time to raise some cash and add some silver to your Physical Silver Trust, Mr. Sprott.

 

Wall Street As a Negative Economic Force: Looting Will Continue Until Exhaustion or Collapse

“My hunch is that no one talks about the birth and death rates of American business because Wall Street and the White House, no matter which party occupies the latter, are two gigantic institutions of persuasion. The White House needs to keep you in the game because their political party needs your vote. Wall Street needs the stock market to boom, even if that boom is fueled by illusion.”

Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup, American Entrepreneurship, Dead or Alive?

As Pam and Russ Martens note in their recent article below, "Wall Street’s overarching function today is that of an institutionalized wealth transfer mechanism, propped up by compromised regulators and a dysfunctional Congress."

This is a terrific article, right on point, getting the bigger picture that almost all economic writers are missing, or failing to state in a clear and direct manner without mincing words.    The moneyed interests are not beneficent wealth creators doing God's work and creating jobs and value.  These are more like white collar criminals who are able to bend the law to their will, acting like parasites on the real economy.

THEY are 'too big to fail,' and you are 'too little to matter,' except as a convenient source of their income.

The financial sector is a utility function in a healthy, sustainable, and productive economy.   But in our misdirected mania to establish and maintain the global dollar supremacy in our pride and power, we have turned a utility function into a top priority and the central focus of the economy, to our own ultimate misfortune. 

Our society is out of balance and distorted as a result.  Corporations take precedence over people, and money directs the course of public policy and foreign entanglements, to its own ends.  And the people are left to suffer.

And you need to read it here.  A short excerpt is below.

The decline and stagnation of America coincides with the rise of an outsized and increasingly corrupt financial sector, that is misdirecting resources and gaming the savings and efforts of the great mass of the people, reallocating money to it own wasteful purposes.

As such, the Fed is not only being wasteful with their QE programs, they are actually being counterproductive by propping up a corrupt and harmful financial system that is a major impediment to economic recovery and progress.   This is the lesson of the lost decades of Japan, and we are not only repeating them here, but are strongly influencing and urging their adoption in Europe.

 

And shame on the liberal economists, who will promote stimulus of any sort in their ideological fervor, and cheerlead the results along with the White House, without being mindful that stimulus in itself is not a good thing, if it stimulates the wrong things.   QE is not an effective means of stimulus for the real economy, but it is a windfall and a sinecure for the financial sector and the one percent.

 

People and the real economy need jobs and higher real wages, but not increasingly powerful Banks for which they are prey.  Aggregate demand will stimulate jobs and wages, but not government handouts to the wealthy, who will chase hot money scams and monopolies before sharing their wealth with employees and productive investments.

The privileged and fortunate have an age old model of feudalism in mind:  lords and serfs.  And if the financial elite have their way, the looting, surveillance, and repression will continue, until exhaustion or collapse. 

 

Their greed knows no bounds, and is never satisfied.   Power and pride have their own imperatives: better to be a lord in a kind of hell, than just another servant, even in heaven.

 

History has shown, again and again, how pernicious the corruption can become once the abuse of power takes root in a system.  And how hard it finally falls.

People cannot work harder and save faster than the financiers and their politicians can steal their capital, misdirecting it into scams, frivolous 'innovations,'  unjust taxes and subsidies, and ultimately into their own financial machine where it enables even more scams, corruption, and malinvestments.

And reform cannot happen in a system where the moneyed interests vet the presidential candidates in advance, for whom they will allow you the privilege of voting, whipped up into an enthusiasm by the emotional directed messages of their corporate media.  Vote for Red!  No, you fool, vote for Blue!

The Banks must be restrained, and the financial system reformed, with balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustainable recovery.

Evidence Grows Showing Wall Street as a Negative Economic Force

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

January 27, 2015

Wall Street’s overarching function today is that of an institutionalized wealth transfer mechanism, propped up by compromised regulators and a dysfunctional Congress. As the PBS program Frontline reported in 2013, if your work career spans 50 years and you receive the historic return of 7 percent on stocks in your 401(k) plan, the 2 percent typical fee charged by Wall Street mutual funds will gobble up almost two-thirds of your account.

The Frontline program was called The Retirement Gamble. Wall Street On Parade checked the math and found this was not a gamble but a certainty: 'under a 2 percent 401(k) fee structure, almost two-thirds of your working life will go toward paying obscene compensation to Wall Street; a little over one-third will benefit your family – and that’s before paying taxes on withdrawals to Uncle Sam.'"

This is a very short excerpt from a larger and more data packed article you may read for free here.

Related: Wall Street's Threat to the Middle Class - Reich

A Potential Bullish Chart Formation For Gold

There is a potential bullish chart that could be proven in and activated over the next week or so.

I will be keeping a close eye on it.  If it does activate, we might finally have a chart formation worth pursuing instead of this inexorable decline that has plagued the metals for over a year.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Comex Option Expiration Tomorrow - London Calling

“Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged against provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.”

James Madison, letter to Thomas Jefferson, 1798

 

The big tickle in the Big Apple today is the gathering storm.

 

No, not the significance of the Greek elections, in which the people who founded democracy have emphatically said 'enough' to an oppressive austerity by the central planners of the EU and the Troika. 

 

The storm they are concerned with is the odd convergence of two storms of nature, that have sent a chill across the northeast, an impressively sudden drop in the barometer, and an approaching mass of low pressure and humidity making its way up from the southwest, scheduled to arrive late this evening.

 

I hear the NYSE is pledging to remain open tomorrow.  Since there is no storm surge to speak of, to short out the financial robots, and not many people are required to take the non-operating subways, trains, and roadways into work, it may very well be 'ok' tomorrow.

 

Do algos dream of electronic sheep?

 

The anticipated hit on the metals ahead of the option expiration on the Comex tomorrow came in on schedule, unlike the thousands of flights that are cancelling their inbound arrivals into New York and Boston.

 

Let's see if the wiseguys can continue to press their will on the global bullion markets.   The formations on the charts are not set for a trend change just yet.  There may be time to kick the can of rehypothetical reckoning down the road for yet another month.

 

Have a pleasant evening.