Thoughts From a Patron On a Saturday Afternoon

"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, The Prairie Home Companion

I linked to this latest video from Chris Hedges last night, but did not feature it because I had several personal things to do. The first part of Hedges description of the reaction of the status quo to Occupy Wall Street in particular describes the credibility trap quite well.

The one percent cannot answer or even genuinely acknowledge what OWS is protesting, because it endangers the shaky underpinnings of a fearful but still very powerful elite who have slithered their way into an unsustainable position of power without the people fully realizing what has happened.

And today I receive an email from a regular patron of Le Cafe, a member of the invisible community of those who care for the things of the mind and of the Spirit, which provides an insightful commentary on Hedges and what he has to say, and why he is so frightening to our naked Emperors of money and power. He prefers to remain anonymous, like the many who live quiet, gentle lives, tending the campfires against the gloom and the darkness.

And now I know how my wife feels such welcome joy when the girls surprise her by cleaning the kitchen while she is out. The work for today is done, and I can enjoy my coffee and a good book in peace.

Have a pleasant weekend.



From a reader:

"The Hedges video is superb. He is referring to this article, as I’m sure you’re aware: Why the Occupy Movement Frightens the Corporate Elite

The article indicates that he has far better answers than anyone else at this point in my opinion. The Elite have significant weaknesses. They are psychologically stunted, adolescent and in effect if not actuality sociopathic, as you have made clear with your posts and links. And corporations are artificial, fictional people, created by the state, which can be as “easily” undone as done, a stroke of the pen.

So long as people see themselves as things, “labor”, metabolic lumps without meaning, we are lost because the Darwinian model, which is the bastard progeny of Materialism, prevails.

Nihilism is an appropriate description of the world, the point being that those who have bought into this worldview have no underlying motive to act unselfishly, and not for immediate gain or sensation. They sometimes, perhaps often, lose themselves in alcohol, drugs, TV, pornography, greed, the lust for power, or suicide to escape. Terminal violence is easily justified if we are simply disposing of things.

I think I know that you understand this through your lens of Christianity. I also have a very strong belief, knowledge in God, but “He” is far less well defined and far more powerful and all-encompassing, truly incomprehensible, in my world than Christian dogma would describe. Nor are we apart from "Him". In my humble view, we will not find our way successfully through this travail without a thorough reexamination, and new understanding of, both politics and faith, and the true nature of the human condition.

Plutocracy Rising: Moyers, Freeland, and Taibbi

I was struck by the comparison that Taibbi makes between post-Soviet Russia and the emerging US plutocracy. I have drawn the same conclusion some years ago, that post-empire America may face the same outcome. The merging of private and state power is well underway. And everyone lost the Cold War, except a predatory few.

Is that too big of a statement? A presidential candidate, Jill Stein of the Green Party, is denied access to the 'debate.' She goes to the debate to protest this peacefully, is arrested, and is then gratuitously handcuffed to a chair for eight hours, just to show her how things are. A Wall Street fund manager refuses to pay a cabdriver his legitimate fare, stabs him, and flees the scene. All charges are dropped by the prosecutor despite the protests of the cabbie. A powerful friend of the President breaks every taboo against stealing millions in customer money, and no one knows anything, and no one is charged.

As they used to say in show biz, you ain't seen nothing yet.



Bill Moyers concluding remarks:

"Here’s a significant revelation of which you may not be aware. The plutocrats know it and love it, and the rest of us should be forewarned. When the Supreme Court made its infamous Citizens United decision, liberating plutocrats to buy our elections fair and square, the justices may have effectively overturned rules that kept bosses from ordering employees to do political work on company time. Election law expert Trevor Potter told us that now “corporations argue that it is a constitutionally protected use of corporate ‘resources’ to order employees to do political work or attend campaign events—even if the employee opposes the candidate, or is threatened with being fired for failure to do what the corporation asks.”

Reporter Mike Elk at In These Times magazine came across a recording of Governor Mitt Romney on a conference call in June with some business executives. The Governor told them there is quote, “nothing illegal about you talking to your employees about what you believe is best for the business, because I think that will figure into their election decision, their voting decision and of course doing that with your family and your kids as well.”

And here’s Governor Romney two months later, campaigning at an Ohio coal mine:

"This is a time for truth. I listened to an ad on the way here. I’ll tell you, you got a great boss. He runs a great operation here. And he—Bob? Where are you Bob? There he is."

Look at all those miners around him, steadfastly standing in support, right? They work for a company called Murray Energy and attendance at the rally, without pay, was mandatory. Murray Energy is notorious for violating safety regulations, sometimes resulting in injuries and deaths. And the company has paid millions in fines. The CEO, Bob Murray, a well-known climate change denier and cutthroat businessman, insists that his employees contribute to his favorite anti-regulatory candidates, or else. In one letter uncovered by “The New Republic” magazine, Murray wrote quote, “We have been insulted by every salaried employee who does not support our efforts.” So much for voting rights and the secret ballot at Murray Energy.

Mike Elk discovered that the Koch Brothers, David and Charles – who have pledged to spend $60 million defeating President Obama – have sent a “voter information packet” to the employees of Georgia Pacific, one of their subsidiaries. It includes a list of recommended candidates, pro-Romney and anti-Obama editorials written by the Koch’s and a cover letter from the company president. If we elect the wrong people, Dave Robertson writes, “Many of our more than 50,000 US employees and contractors may suffer the consequences, including higher gasoline prices, runaway inflation, and other ills.” Other ills? Like losing your job?

This is snowballing. Timeshare king David Siegel of Westgate Resorts reportedly has threatened to fire employees if Barack Obama is re-elected and Arthur Allen, who runs ASG Software Solutions, e-mailed his employees, “If we fail as a nation to make the right choice on November 6th, and we lose our independence as a company, I don’t want to hear any complaints regarding the fallout that will most likely come.”

Back in the first Gilded Age, in the 19th century, bosses and company towns lined up their workers and marched them to vote as a block. As we said at the beginning of this broadcast, the Gilded Age is back with a vengeance. Welcome to the plutocracy. The remains of the ol’ USA.

That’s it for this week. On our website, BillMoyers.com, at your request, we’re starting a book club. Our first is Chrystia Freeland’s “Plutocrats.” Read the book, ask questions, share your thoughts. Then let’s have a lively conversation.

That’s at BillMoyers.com. I’ll see you there and I’ll see you here, next time."

Maybe the Banks will threaten to crash the stock market if their indentured servants, the American people, do not vote the right way. It worked when the noble Congressional bureaucrats were cowed into submission when the Banks demanded their 'no strings' bailouts and the people were adamantly against it.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts

Today was an option expiration for US equity markets.

Here are the key Comex Option and Futures Dates until the end of the year.

Oct. 27 Comex November E-mini silver futures last trading day
Oct. 27 Comex October silver futures last trading day
Oct. 27 Comex November E-mini gold futures last trading day
Oct. 29 Comex October gold futures last trading day
Nov. 27 Comex December gold options expiry
Nov. 27 Comex December silver options expiry
Nov. 28 Comex December miNY gold futures last trading day
Nov. 28 Comex December miNY silver futures last trading day
Nov. 30 Comex December gold futures first notice day
Nov. 30 Comex December silver futures first notice day
Dec. 27 Comex December gold futures last trading day
Dec. 27 Comex December silver futures last trading day
Dec. 27 Comex December E-micro gold futures last trading day
Dec. 31 Comex January 2013 silver futures first notice day

Intraday commentary on the gold markets here.

Have a pleasant weekend.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Thoughts on the Anniversary of the Crash of 1987

Today is the anniversary of the Crash of '87.  As I recall it occurred on a 'Black Monday' after a 'Blue Friday' in which the DJIA lost 100 points for the first time I believe.  The markets were wobbly.

It is hard to remember exactly what happened in the market that day except in the retrospect in which I have studied it in detail.  But I remember vividly how I heard about what was happening that day. 

About three PM on Monday a colleague poked his head in the door and said, "The stock market is down 500 points."  And looking up from my work I said, "I don't really care, I do not own any stocks now."   And I did not.  I think most of my savings at the time were still in bonds even then as I had ridden them down from the Volcker highs in interest rates and was too disinterested to change them.  I do not recall now when I went to cash. 

I had been reading a paper from a colleague about a possible breakthrough solution to a problem which we called 'the last mile,' which was the ability to practically connect end users in homes and small business to the big data pipes on the backbone network.  And that solution is still evolving today.  And so as far as I was concerned the stock market could go hang.

As you may recall, Greenspan 'fixed' the Crash of 1987 by printing money, and the regulators took some steps to clean up the portfolio insurance mania, and whatever other harebrained ideas the monied interests were pursuing.  And life went on.

So you see, what concerns us so much today will also pass. One door closes, and another door opens.

Of course many more ordinary people will be affected by what happens in these markets of course, because of the TBTF Banks with their concentrated power and wealth, and the unfortunate financialisation of the real economy. 

The trick is to order your life and your priorities, and to take the appropriate precautions.  For the country the task and the labor is to put the genie back in the bottle, and bring the economy back into balance, changing the priority of the economic and public policy system from the redistribution of wealth by the financial sector to themselves and their friends,  back to encouraging productive and inventive efforts to create real things that solve real problems serving the interests of the people, and not a bunch of rotten hearted plutocrats.

The issue is not that the government is redistributing wealth.  The one percent have hijacked the financial system and public policy and they are redistributing the wealth of the nation to themselves with a reckless disregard for the long term consequences.  This type always seem to accuse the other of what they themselves are doing.   And they cannot stop themselves, because more is never enough.