SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - The Pomp of Courts, the Pride of Kings...

 

One of my readers noted, more elegantly than I can remember, that le café has a remarkably eclectic menu, with wrestler Ric Flair and monetary discussion juxtaposed with John Henry Newman and Mad Magazine style satirical cartoons.

 

After thinking about it I said, I had not thought about it like that, but you are right.

 

Old familiar things seem to pop into my head from past things read, and thanks to the internet, it is relatively easy for my poor overburdened memory to refresh itself about them.   So it was with the subtitle of this little discourse's subtitle today, 'The pomp of courts, the pride of Kings.' 

 

I remembered it, but had to look up its context and detail, and I include that bit of historical diversion below the charts today.  It is an interesting little poetical puzzle and reminds us of a time when freedom of thought and press was much more constrained that it is now.

 

I find the world to be full of endlessly fascinating people and things, and books, travel, lectures, essays, and personal conversations are the pathways to them.  And the internet is a marvel of convenience for this.

 

This fascination with the world and the people in it is very much in the nature of Christian Humanism, which sees the things of the world in all their variety, but views little of His creation as inherently profane or evil, including human beings who can be a wonder and a source of grace.  It is we who make it so.

 

Evil is not a created thing, but the absence of good, a choice of free will.  The world is not inherently evil.  It inherently is, having no free will of its own  Plants and animals are not inherently evil, although the little girl has often put forward an exception to this for spinach and spiders. 

 

Creation is like a richly provisioned canvas on which we draw our lives, and it naturally shimmers in His light.   It is the darkness of our hardened hearts that casts images and shadows in the light. 

 

So the Christian humanist would agree with Socrates in saying, 'I am a citizen of the world,' but adding and most importantly, 'and nothing is alien to me except sin.'   Because it is in sin that we cut the connection between the Incarnate world and its Creator, for it is was in the almost shocking implications of the Incarnation that the world was refreshed and made new, as all things will be made new some day again.

 

Moving on to less complex but probably darker topics, Stocks were on a tear today,  shaking off the rather depressing economic reports of the morning.   One could speculate that this was a 'technical trade' ahead of a long weekend, with the wiseguys wishing to hand off more positions as we creep again back to new all time highs, buoyed with the central banks' hot money.  The futures are just about there.

 

But we could also attribute this to the announcement that Russia and the Ukraine have agreed to a cease fire (again).   That is one of the many geopolitical issues that have been weighing on the markets.  The other being Greece and the likely further deterioration of the Eurozone. 

 

As we saw, another central bank instituted QE and negative interest rates.  The world is slipping into a global depression.   The pig of the US economy has been lipsticked up and the Dollar is being presented as a safe haven.

 

Let's see how we go into the three day weekend, as on Monday the US will remember some of their Presidents.  I suppose a more popular day might be held in honor of all the ones which we might wish to forget, and they are many especially of late.

 

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

 

 

"The pomp of courts, and pride of kings,

I prize above all earthly things;

I love my country, but my king,

Above all men his praise I'll sing.

The royal banners are displayed,

And may success the standard aid:

I fain would banish far from hence

The Rights of Man and Common Sense.

Destruction to that odious name,

The plague of princes, Thomas Paine,

Defeat and ruin seize the cause

Of France, her liberty, and laws."

Arthur O'Connor, The Society of United Irishmen, 1798

This poem above contains a hidden message, which was a hanging offense, for its day. Take the first line and follow with the first line of the second stanza, second line followed by the second line of second stanza and so forth.

Thus it becomes:

"The pomp of courts, and pride of kings,

I fain would banish far from hence

I prize above all earthly things;

The Rights of Man and Common Sense.

I love my country, but my king,

Destruction to that odious name,

Above all men his praise I'll sing.

The plague of princes, Thomas Paine,

The royal banners are displayed,

Defeat and ruin seize the cause

And may success the standard aid:

Of France, her liberty, and laws."

World Press Freedom Index: US is 49th. Yay Us!

You may click on the chart below, or you may click on this link to the article and a very large, interactive chart with access to data, methodology, etc.

The US was 49th, as compared to 46th in 2014.

The UK was 34th, France was 38th, Spain was 33rd, Australia was 25th, Germany was 12th, and Canada was 8th.  

Japan was 61st, just behind South Korea at 60th.   Hong Kong was 70th.

Russia was 152nd and China was 176th, and N. Korea was 179th.

NAV Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds

The operating cash level in Sprott silver is getting thinner.

 

Do Not Be Afraid

"Fear not, little flock, for your Father delights to give you welcome into His Kingdom."

Luke 12:32

“We are slow to master the great truth that even now Christ is, as it were, walking among us, and by His hand, or eye, or voice, bidding us to follow Him. We do not understand that His call is a thing that takes place now. We think it took place in the Apostles' days, but we do not believe in it; we do not look for it in our own case.

God beholds you. He calls you by your name. He sees you and understands you as He made you. He knows what is in you, all your peculiar feelings and thoughts, your dispositions and likings, your strengths and your weaknesses. He views you in your day of rejoicing and in your day of sorrow. He sympathizes in your hopes and your temptations. He interests Himself in all your anxieties and remembrances, all the risings and fallings of your spirit.

He encompasses you round and bears you in His arms. He notes your very countenance, whether smiling or in tears. He looks tenderly upon you. He hears your voice, the beating of your heart, and your very breathing. You do not love yourself better than He loves you. You cannot shrink from pain more than He dislikes your bearing it; and if He puts it on you, it is as you would put it on yourself, if you would be wise, for a greater good afterwards.

There is an inward world, which none see but those who belong to it. There is an inward world into which they enter who come to Christ, though to men in general they seem as before. If they drank of Christ's cup it is not with them as in time past. They came for a blessing, and they have found a work.

To their surprise, as time goes on, they find that their lot is changed. They find that in one shape or another adversity happens to them. If they refuse to afflict themselves, God afflicts them.

God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission -- I may never know it in this life but I shall be told it in the next.

I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught.

I shall do good, I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments.

Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.

He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about.

He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me -- still He knows what He is about.

Let us feel what we really are--sinners attempting great things. Let us simply obey God's will, whatever may come. He can turn all things to our eternal good. Easter day is preceded by the forty days of Lent, to show us that they only who sow in tears shall reap in joy.

The more we do, the more shall we trust in Christ; and that surely is no morose doctrine, that leads us to soothe our selfish restlessness, and forget our fears, in the vision of the Incarnate Son of God.

May the Lord support us all the day long, till the shades lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done.

Then in His mercy may He give us safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at last.”

John Henry Newman

Unidentified Source: Greece Will Stay in Eurozone on 'Bailout Extension' - Updated

 

Unidentified Source

An 'unidentified source' says that Greece has agreed to stay in an EU bailout program, according to CNBC.

 

I think the initial surge in the futures market on these headlines crossing the wires have backed off, no doubt on the complete lack of substantive detail provided by CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera who broke the story,  which was picked up by Bloomberg TV.

Sound like an extension in time to allow for discussions to continue until next Monday, and an agreement not to leave the Eurozone-- yet.

 

UPDATE: GREEK GOVT OFFICIAL SAYS NO AGREEMENT IN EUROGROUP, GREECE WILL NOT ACCEPT AN EXTENSION OF CURRENT BAILOUT

 

Well, that wash and rinse didn't take long.

 

EU, Greece come to agreement in principle, meetings to continue: Source

Michelle Caruso-Cabrera

Greece has reached an agreement, in principle, with the European Union to stay in an EU bailout program, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC Wednesday.

The discussions will continue through Monday, according to the source.

Futures added to gains, while Treasury bond yields climbed following the report. The euro rose against the dollar.

Meanwhile, a Eurogroup source told Reuters that there is no agreement yet with Greece, but there may be a deal to explore the possibility of extending the current bailout program.

 

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Misplaced Trust, Over-Confidence on Steroids

"We run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put up a façade to prevent ourselves from seeing it.”

Blaise Pascal

Gold and silver were hit by selling in NY this morning.

Hey, why not? Things are just what we say they are, especially when they have an increasingly tenuous connection to reality.

There was intraday commentary about 'Debt Is Just Money That We Owe Ourselves Here.'

This is beginning to feel a whole lot like 2006, where a few were just about crawling out of their skins with the nonsensicalness of what they were hearing, and the looming disaster which they saw coming.

 

No one really listened.  I remember vividly making noise on economic chatboards, with participants saying things like 'what does he want' and 'what is he saying?'  After all, Greenspan had assured us that housing was invincible and incapable of being in a bubble, and Bernanke had things well in hand, with theory triumphing over all.

 

And then as it is now, the herd was just blithely rolling along, following Wall Street into the next unforeseeable financial crisis. 

 

We are there again.  And like then, they know it.  But they think they can manage it to their benefit, so why would they care?

 

And given the chance, they will do it again.  It is the pleasant cycle of financialisation and accumulation.  We are diverted by bread and circuses, the media's sturm und drang that anesthetizes thought.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Roses

Greece? What Greece?

Everything is coming up roses.  We are the American beauty.

Have a pleasant evening.