David Cay Johnston: The Impact of American Inequality

"It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes...

No free government can stand without virtue in the people and a lofty spirit of patriotism, and if the sordid feelings of mere selfishness shall usurp the place which ought to be filled by public spirit, the legislation of Congress will soon be converted into a scramble for personal and sectional advantages...

It is one of the serious evils of our present system of banking that it enables one class of society--and that by no means a numerous one--by its control over the currency, to act injuriously upon the interests of all the others and to exercise more than its just proportion of influence in political affairs."

Andrew Jackson

Moyers: Andrew Bacevich on the Duplicity of Ideologues and Chaos In Iraq

"Looking at the world as a whole, the drift for many decades has been not towards anarchy but towards the reimposition of slavery. We may be heading not for general breakdown but for an epoch as horribly stable as the slave empires of antiquity. James Burnham's theory has been much discussed, but few people have yet considered its ideological implications — that is, the kind of world-view, the kind of beliefs, and the social structure that would probably prevail in a state which was at once unconquerable and in a permanent state of 'cold war' with its neighbors...

It is the same in all wars; the soldiers do the fighting, the journalists do the shouting, and no 'true patriot' ever gets near a front-line trench, except on the briefest of propaganda-tours."

George Orwell

I found it interesting that Kagan's piece was published in The New Republic.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - July Metals Futures Option Expiration Next Week

There is an option expiration for the precious metals on the Comex next week. It is for the month of July which is not a particularly lively month.

Gold and silver both paused today, after their big move higher yesterday. I still have not quite figured out the reason for the move, except for the obvious technical boost it had from the short squeeze.

 

I will let you know if I see anything to either confirm or add to the usual suspects, Argentina and rehypothecation unwind.

Have a pleasant weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Complacency - Quiet Quad Witch

Today was a quad witch in stock option expiration and the day was very quiet with low volatility.

Next week there is not much in the way of new economic news, with the third iteration of 1Q GDP coming out.

I suspect that macro world events will tend to dominate an otherwise dull market with a bias upwards to sideways in the absence of some exogenous bad news.

Have a pleasant weekend.