"In the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Thereafter, any attack, even on the least of men, is an attack on Christ, who took on the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all. Through our relationship with the Incarnation, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time are delivered from that perverse individualism which is the consequence of sin, and recover our solidarity with all mankind." Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Gold and silver moved sharply higher today as the US dollar gave up more of its recent gains.
There was overnight commentary on the large number of Comex deliveries for the February gold contract. The gold does not go anywhere for the most part, but it does get shoved around the plate for leverage.
In other words, at the moment the precious metals are running as a paper cross trade with currencies, with actual bullion playing a minor role at best. While this is not uncommon, it is not exactly in synch with the actual physical supply and demand flows in the Asian markets. When speculation disconnects from the physical markets for long enough, we eventually get a jarring reversion.
Stocks gave it up a little, with Washington and Wall Street getting edgy over Trump and his initial executive actions, as needlessly distorted as some of them might be by the friends of Wall Street in the corporate media. The status quo has ruled the roost in this country pretty well for the past 20+ years. Now that they are not handing down pre-ordained policy outcomes, they are not sure what to do. It is like a guy who has been trading on insider information for years suddenly having to figure out exactly what the markets are saying.
The next four years are sure to be interesting.
The FOMC will be announcing their latest rate decision tomorrow. Let's see if the metals can hold close to their most recent upper trendline impact as you can see on the charts.
Most likely is an announcement that the Fed will be slowly winding down some of their reinvestment program as rates continue rising. I am not so sure they will actually do anything except for jawboning.
There seems to be a lot of that going on in Washington these days.
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is carrying a heavy burden.”
Ian MacLaren
“There is not a moment in which God does not present Himself under the cover of some pain to be endured, of some consolation to be enjoyed, or of some duty to be performed. All that takes place within us, around us, or through us, contains and conceals His divine action. All simple souls must admire and respect one another, saying: 'Let us each proceed along our path to the same goal, united in purpose and by means of God's order which, in its great variety, is in us all.'”
Jean-Pierre de Caussade
The Trump trade blinked a bit today, as stocks gave up some of their phenomenal gains on doubts about the presidential ban on visitations from seven countries which had been identified by the prior administrations as high risk locations for terrorists.
While this act was sweeping and lacked finesse, operationally clumsy to say the least, the reaction to it was just about as dramatic, including tears. Well, that's politics in the 21st century. And I am sure we will see much more of this sort of thing over the next few years.
We are going to learn more about ourselves than we may have expected. There is nothing new in this; it is the particular experience of about every other generation and their own 'rendezvous with destiny.' How can we be content when the choices are between the 'lesser of two evils.' They are both evil, and many including me are not happy about it— but it is what it is.
Gold and silver were struggling to make some gains, and ended the sessions largely unchanged. Stocks managed to claws back some of their earlier losses. What a surprise. The warehouses are pretty much in a lockdown on the Comex. I find it to be rather uninformative compared to the real markets in Asia which unfortunately are a bit more opaque.
Remember that Wall Street has some seriously large stock IPOs lined up on the runways, and will attempt to hold it together until it can get them off the field and airborne.
Then we will see how the winds may blow.
We are all imperfect and at times broken people, to some extent and in our own ways, even though there are some who cannot admit it, even to themselves. And we can find commonality not only in our suffering and setbacks, but more importantly in our response to them. This is our lot.
Whether it may be divorce, drugs, betrayals, heartbreaks, serious illness, deaths in the family, bad deals, or whatever, what matters is what we do with them. These are the 'talents' that we are given, along with all the skills, friends, hard work and good fortune, and it is our job to make something with them.
If you have never lost you are probably not really playing the game, yet. Come what may, what matters most is what you do with it, all of what life brings that shapes who you are. You can try to deny it, to retreat into drugs, alcohol, narcissism, abusive relationships and the like, overloading your sense to dull the pain— but you can never really escape it.
I have a small painting hanging in my study, that was given to me by a good friend, teacher, and mentor, long passed away many years ago. He used to say to us, in all of life's confusions, keep your minds and your hearts focused on the one thing in life that never changes, the immanent presence of God in the Incarnation, the 'little white spot.'
So we may as well use it, all of it, all our experiences, to make the best of life for ourselves and especially for other people and His creatures, even if it is only in our simplicity as we are, in our loving acceptance of a higher power that loves us despite our own weakness and imperfections.
If you would have a worthy purpose in life, feed His little ones, the least of these, through whatever small ways and acts of kindness that you can.
This is a slide used by Bernie Sanders when he proposed making drug imports from Canada to the US legal.
The proposal was voted down in the Senate 52-46, with a few key Democrats helping overturn Bernie's proposed legislation.
Among those voting against it was the recipient of big pharma campaign contributions Democratic rising star Cory Booker.
Booker used the Big Pharma talking point that 'the bill did not include provisions requiring the protections of the FDA.'
Oh really? We think that the Canadian government's regulation of medicine is weaker than in the US? Please, Cory, tell us exactly where they fall down on the job.
And oh by the way, most it not all of those drugs are the same drugs being sold in the US by the same manufacturers, so the point could be moot. Just allow the imports of drugs the FDA has already approved.
But a real solution, which appears to be far too much for our pampered plutocrats, would be to repeal the US law that prohibits Medicare from negotiating drug prices as is done by the government health services in Canada. But I would not expect the US political establishment to seriously consider overturning that sweet monopoly deal with the drug companies.
Not as long as Big Pharma can keep holding that SG&A level around 45 percent, compared to 25 percent or less of most other industries. There is a lot of money being spent there to motivate doctors and lawmakers in the drug industry.
And then there is the 'balance billing' racket where hospitals toss in enormous zingers to your medical bills by using doctors and test labs that are not in your network, for which you get little to no insurance coverage, or insanely high deductibles. And you have no knowledge of their choice in advance.
New York state has passed a ban on this. But most other states have not.
The current US healthcare system is like a protection racket. It is dominated by monopolist behemoths, in the providers and the insurers, and sustained by huge amounts of public relations and their paid functionaries in the media and the Congress.
It is the most expensive healthcare system in the developed nations. And that is largely due to corruption and a twisting of the laws due to the influence of Big Money in lawmaking and regulation.
Let us pray for those whose hearts are hardened against His grace and loving kindness by greed, fear, and pride, and the seductive illusion and crushing isolation of evil.
We pray that we all may experience the three great gifts of our Lord's suffering and triumph: repentance, forgiveness, and thankfulness. And in so doing, may we obtain abundant life, and with it the peace that surpasses all understanding.
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