Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - De Trop - The Great Gold Hoax

Today was a very sleepy day, and the markets were 'dull.'

As noted below, there is a stock option expiry on Friday.

I put the finishing touches on an interview with Lars Schall for Matterhorn Asset Management today, answering some final questions. It was more heavily into presidential politics and some other world events than I normally address.  But of course the conversation turned to gold and silver.

And I have to admit that thinking about these things and putting them into words over the weekend left me in a bit of a funk.  In general, most politicians make me nauseous, and this particular election between these two creatures and their minions can be a bit disheartening.  As Jean-Paul Sartre observed:

Que fais-je ici?  Pourquoi ces gens sont-ils là?  J'ai envie de partir, de m'en aller quelque part où je serais vraiment à ma place , où je m'emboîterais...  Mais ma place n'est nulle part ; je suis de trop.

The trick to regain a healthy equilibrium is by praying for others, especially for those whom you do not like, or who have acted badly.  At times it is the only thing that works, when one falls too far inwardly, to pull yourself back out of it.  People are so foolish sometimes, but then you look and see the same tendencies in yourself.  So it is a good habit in general, that when you feel negative feelings about someone, to pray for them as you would for yourself.

Lars was very kind in allowing me to do this in writing rather than in person, which gave me the latitude to do it when I had the time available without interruption.  Luckily my time this week is not being employed with the healthcare system and its strange ways and billing mysteries, and for that I am grateful.

I will put up a link to it when it goes online.

Gold is coiling.  As is silver.

Stocks are at a precarious crossroads.

Here is a new video from Jim Rickards called 'The Great Gold Hoax.'

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Stock Options Expiration This Week

As a reminder, there will be a stock option expiration this Friday.

We can probably expect some shenanigans leading up to it, although August is a sleepy month.

Stocks are largely drifting now, trying to digest a remarkable run to new highs.

The valuations look very full.  But the Fed et al. are printing money overtime.

Have a pleasant evening.

Links For Tuesday 16 August

The mechanism by which I add links to the sidebar under Matières à Réflexion seems to be broken today. This happens on occasion when the blogger platform software people fiddle with it.   I have been waiting for them to repair this, but it does not seem to be forthcoming.

So I will be adding links here in this post throughout the day.  As I recall this happened once before.

Debt Collector Thwarts Wrongful Practices Lawsuit By Buying the Lawsuit on the Cheap, Judge Agrees

TTIP:  The Suicide of Nations

Windows 10 Tracks Almost Everything You Do - Here's How to Opt Out - 'Settings' is reached by clicking on the Windows icon on the lower left

Core Consumer Price Inflation Up Over 2% For the 9th Straight Month    (It takes a policy error. Or a series of errors. Stagflation is not easy to achieve. Well done, Fed)

Industrial Production Down Year over Year, Negative Growth for the 11th Straight Month

SEC and Stock Frauds - Can This (NeuroMama) Dog Hunt?

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Crossroads

Gold and silver were drifting today, along with the markets in general.

Risk is low now as measured by the VIX. But it is really not 'risk' that is being measured, but rather 'uncertainty' in the markets.

And since the markets are massively mispricing the real economy and global situation, their certainty about their own ascendancy and the enduring power of paper assets is a little less than reassuring.

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Bubble On

"Pride goes before its own destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."

Proverbs 16:18

The Empire State Manufacturing number sucked out loud this morning.

The markets overlooked it, and their certainty as measured by the VIX continued its steady increase.

With both candidates in their pockets, the moneyed interests think that they are rolling,  never prouder of their mastery of the world.

Need I say more?

Have a pleasant evening.

The Bosses of the Senate

"This cartoon by Joseph Keppler, who was the, both the editor and main cartoonist for Puck, which became one of, a very popular satirical weeklies in the post-Civil War period, expresses a general public discontent and concern about the growing impact and power of large businesses in the United States in the Gilded Age, particularly as this indicates, by businesses that have become monopolies in one way or another, and their control over the political process.

This is the period of time when the Senate is beginning to be conceived of as a millionaire’s club, it’s not quite called that yet, but it’s getting there, and certainly the sort of power and influence of business has become palatable.

And this is a wonderful snapshot, if you will, of the relationship between the two, with the bloated figures, having squeezed their way through the door saying, 'Entrance for Monopolists,' and surrounding the Senate with the Lilliputian figures of the different senators, all of whom would be recognized by, by viewers because their faces are, you know, are quite realistic, and the influence is quite clear between the monopolists and their impact on the legislators who are either going to be manipulated by or intimidated by these figures.

The quote from the Gettysburg Address referred to the democracy, 'the government by the people and for the people' as opposed to, in this case, the corruption of it, which is, 'by the monopolists and for the monopolists.'"

Josh Brown, American Social History Project, City University of New York

No limits on political campaign contributions and the direct appointment of Senators by State Legislatures, which was ended by the 17th amendment, created a climate of political corruption during the 'Gilded Age.'  

Large corporate combines called 'Trusts' created monopolies using predatory pricing, anti-competitive mergers, and exclusive dealings and business arrangements.  They used the power of their enormous profits to buy key State legislatures and thereby control the Senators appointed by them.

The progessives were able to promote both the 17th Amendment in 1913 and the Clayton Anti-Trust Act in 1914, which made great strides to break up the power of the 'Trusts' and put more political power back in the hands of ordinary voters.