Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Pullback - Mostly Mozart - Terrible Vision

"Mozart's music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe."

Albert Einstein

I forgot to mention that yesterday was Mozart's birthday. His 260th I believe. His music is certainly the silver lining in life, some recompense for the ugliness that passes for success with our modern day Trimalchios of finance.

When most of the Very Serious People of our time are dust and long forgotten, Mozart will be remembered because he brought beauty into the world by ordering sounds to please the minds and refresh the hearts.

And when people think of the powerful of our day in the same manner in which they may vaguely recall the Pharaohs, some of whose names may be familiar but little else of them comes to mind, gold will still be a repository of value.

"The common are but a breath, the highborn but a lie. If weighed on a balance, they are nothing; together they are only a breath, less substantial than their vanity."

Psalm 62:9

Nothing provides for our continuance, and nothing abides after death, except for love.  This is easily said, but rarely taken to heart.

Long ago I had a terrible dream.  After thinking about it I later believed was a vision of hell, at least as my subconscious mind had conceived it.  But at the time I did not think that it was that sort of thing, just a very puzzling but remarkably vivid dream.  I generally have mundane ones, and the occasional one where I forget an assignment and have to go back to graduate school.  lol.

In this dream the streets and buildings were hard and barren, but like marble, and beautifully kept like some ancient marketplace when it was newly made.  But it was void of all humanity, and totally devoid of any life, even plants.

As I stood at the gate in front of a widely open arch, a voice warned me sharply not to proceed within despite its magnificent beauty.  The streets and pillared buildings were crafted of fine white stone, quietly shimmering with a hidden but very intense heat.  Surprisingly there was no sunlight, no shadows, and it was under skies that were almost a fog, but higher off the ground.

The only other feature was dried leaves, like those of late Autumn, unremarkable and indistinguishable, brown remnants that were making faint scratching sounds as they were blown slowly across the cobble-stoned pavements in the slowly swirling heat.  I remember that it was that noise the drew my attention to them.  It was not a pleasant sound, almost like faint sounds of a scratching in the walls.

It was a vision that struck me to the heart. and I told no one about it.  But I never forgot it.

Much later I came to the believe that these 'leaves' were the souls of the lost, and the scratching sound was their voices, but indistinct, without a personal identity.  Having been stripped of their vanities and possessions, there was nothing left of them but the husks of living beings.  And so this is what remained.  They were not being punished or burned in the traditional sense, they were just not 'human,' anymore, and were more like dead leaves.

And deep down I knew that I wanted no part of this, that is was not a good place to be, that despite its hard but orderly beauty it was 'empty' in a very profound way.

Well, this is what I have made of it some years later in thinking about it.  It is hard to express it in words how strange this was, but even now the impression of it is intense in a way that makes it hard to even remember without a kind of dread.  I never have those sorts of dreams, so this one stands out.  And it was a 'pivotal learning moment' for me whatever it was.

Gold and silver were taking back some of the recent gains as they moved lower. Interestingly enough so was the dollar, moving lower. Is risk back on? Not to judge by the stock market results.

There were the usual piddling to no deliveries at The Bucket Shop, and some silver was pushed around the plate, with gold a snoozer as usual.

I would like to see gold hold its level and move higher from here. But there are a lot of things that I would like that are apparently not meant to be, so let's see what happens.

GDP number out tomorrow.

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Uncertainty and Risk

Stocks tried to rally early but were pushed back in what turned out to be a wide ranging day.

The durable goods number this morning sucked out loud.  Not much sign of recovery there.

After the bell, AMZN missed its EPS projection by a mile, taking the stock quite a bit lower in the after hours trade.

GDP estimate for 4Q tomorrow.

Have a pleasant evening.

Deep State: Inside Washington's Shadowy Power Elite

“Our plutocracy, whether the hedge fund managers in Greenwich, Connecticut, or the Internet moguls in Palo Alto, now lives like the British did in colonial India: ruling the place but not of it. If one can afford private security, public safety is of no concern; to the person fortunate enough to own a Gulfstream jet, crumbling bridges cause less apprehension, and viable public transportation doesn’t even compute. With private doctors on call and a chartered plane to get to the Mayo Clinic, why worry about Medicare?”

― Mike Lofgren, The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government


"Our analyses suggest that majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts. Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association, and a widespread (if still contested) franchise.

But we believe that if policymaking is dominated by powerful business organizations and a small number of affluent Americans, then America’s claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened."

Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens, Princeton 2014

"As a congressional staff member for 28 years specializing in national security and possessing a top secret security clearance, I was at least on the fringes of the world I am describing, if neither totally in it by virtue of full membership nor of it by psychological disposition.

But, like virtually every employed person, I became, to some extent, assimilated into the culture of the institution I worked for, and only by slow degrees, starting before the invasion of Iraq, did I begin fundamentally to question the reasons of state that motivate the people who are, to quote George W. Bush,  'the deciders.'

Cultural assimilation is partly a matter of what psychologist Irving L. Janis called groupthink,  the chameleon-like ability of people to adopt the views of their superiors and peers. This syndrome is endemic to Washington: The town is characterized by sudden fads, be it negotiating biennial budgeting, making grand bargains or invading countries. Then, after a while, all the town's cool kids drop those ideas as if they were radioactive.

As in the military, everybody has to get on board with the mission, and questioning it is not a career-enhancing move. The universe of people who will critically examine the goings-on at the institutions they work for is always going to be a small one. As Upton Sinclair said,  'It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.'"

Mike Lofgren

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Continuing Flight to Safety

"If we lived in a state where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us saintly. But since we see that abhorrence, anger, pride, and stupidity commonly profit far beyond charity, modesty, justice, and thought, perhaps we must stand fast a little - even at the risk of being heroes."

Robert Bolt, A Man For All Seasons


"I wonder, Madam, that you have not penetration to see the strong inducement to this excess; for he who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."

Samuel Johnson, from Anecdotes of the Revd. Percival Stockdale

Gold continued to push higher today after some early weakness.  Interestingly enough the dollar has shown some weakness, but the overall flavor of the markets has the tang of a repricing in of risks that have been sore neglected, and for far too long.

The FOMC deferred on doing anything at their meeting today in grudging recognition of the deteriorating 'recovery.'

There was intraday commentary on the little noted 'informal one-on-one' meeting between Bernie Sanders and the President.   You may read about it here.

Hillary Clinton announced today that she would considering appointing Barack Obama to the US Supreme Court.

"Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... but for Wales?"

Let's see if the 'cup and handle' in gold can continue its formation and become activated.  If it does I will go over the formation and its implications.  But for now I will save myself the effort, since no charts may work in markets divergent from market fundamentals.

Have a pleasant evening.