Civilisation - Kenneth Clark

“I believe order is better than chaos, creation better than destruction. I prefer gentleness to violence, forgiveness to vendetta. On the whole I think that knowledge is preferable to ignorance, and I am sure that human sympathy is more valuable than ideology. I believe that in spite of the recent triumphs of science, men haven't changed much in the last two thousand years; and in consequence we must try to learn from history. History is ourselves.

I believe in courtesy, the ritual by which we avoid hurting other people's feelings, by satisfying our own egos. And I think we should remember that we are all part of a great whole, which for convenience we call nature. All living things are our brothers and sisters."

Kenneth Clark, Civilisation


"At the root of America's economic crisis lies a moral crisis: the decline of civic virtue among America's political and economic elite. A society of markets, laws, and elections is not enough if the rich and powerful fail to behave with respect, honesty, and compassion toward the rest of society and toward the world."

Jeffrey Sachs

Civilisation: A Personal View by Kenneth Clark was a television documentary series outlining the history of Western art, architecture and philosophy since the Dark Ages. The series was produced by the BBC and initially aired in 1969 on BBC2.







The summation of the series.

Stocks and Precious Metals - Just Charts

“What we would like to do is change the world— make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended them to do. And, by fighting for better conditions, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, the poor, of the destitute— the rights of the worthy and the unworthy poor, in other words— we can, to a certain extent, change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world.

We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world. We repeat, there is nothing we can do but love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as our friend.”

Dorothy Day

FDR's Letter to the Democratic Convention Delegates in 1940

Franklin D. Roosevelt Letter to the Democratic Convention
July 18, 1940

Members of the Convention:

In the century in which we live, the Democratic Party has received the support of the electorate only when the party, with absolute clarity, has been the champion of progressive and liberal policies and principles of government.

The party has failed consistently when through political trading and chicanery it has fallen into the control of those interests, personal and financial, which think in terms of dollars instead of in terms of human values.

The Republican Party has made its nominations this year at the dictation of those who, we all know, always place money ahead of human progress.

The Democratic Convention, as appears clear from the events of today, is divided on this fundamental issue. Until the Democratic Party through this convention makes overwhelmingly clear its stand in favor of social progress and liberalism, and shakes off all the shackles of control fastened upon it by the forces of conservatism, reaction, and appeasement, it will not continue its march of victory.

It is without question that certain political influences pledged to reaction in domestic affairs and to appeasement in foreign affairs have been busily engaged behind the scenes in the promotion of discord since this Convention convened.

Under these circumstances, I cannot, in all honor, and will not, merely for political expediency, go along with the cheap bargaining and political maneuvering which have brought about party dissension in this convention.

It is best not to straddle ideals.

In these days of danger when democracy must be more than vigilant, there can be no connivance with the kind of politics which has internally weakened nations abroad before the enemy has struck from without.

It is best for America to have the fight out here and now.

I wish to give the Democratic Party the opportunity to make its historic decision clearly and without equivocation. The party must go wholly one way or wholly the other. It cannot face in both directions at the same time.

By declining the honor of the nomination for the presidency, I can restore that opportunity to the convention. I so do.

Stocks and Precious Metal Charts - Mercy, Mercy Me

"You are the very cause of your ignorance, yourselves. You put away the light, yourselves; you first pluck out both your own eyes, yourselves; and after that other men’s too, so that the blind may lead the blind, until you both fall into the pit.”

Thomas More

Stocks were slightly higher, with select big cap techs leading the way.

VIX continued to move lower.

The pigmen are feeling invincible.

Gold and silver managed to eke out some gains, with silver making the strong showing.

The Comex warehouses and delivery reports were largely a snooze.  I did note that the warehouse in Hong Kong has once again dropped below the one million ounce level.

These markets are probably coiling for a move, all of them.  The status quo has a powerful momentum with which to resist change.   But in the end, change in coming.

I am going to take a day off tomorrow, and therefore there will be no update, unless something unusual happens.  We will be exploring the corridors of the healthcare system for most of the day.

So I will see you again on Friday.  

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Bubbling Higher

Today turned into a 'risk on' day.

There were various interpretations of why that happened, in the manner of price action making the news action.

There were thoughts that the rally in risk was triggered by comments by the Fed's Stanley Fischer which seemed 'dovish' in that he sees only two more rate hikes this year.

A second piece of news that was latched onto to help explain this counter-rally was the news from the Conference Board that retail confidence in higher stock prices is so overly confident. How high is it? The confidence of the 'little guy' is at the levels we last saw at the peak of the dot com bubble.

And thirdly, the ratio of SP 500 valuations relative to emerging markets at historic highs.

Speaking of historic highs, APPL closed today at its all time high going back to 1982 at least. And Darden Restaurants is right there on its heels as well.

And these are consumer stocks. We expect the US consumer to be rebounding strongly? These are risk on bullish? LOL I think the piglets doth protest their book too much.

Theresa May is expected to act on Article 50 which formal begins the Brexit process. That process will be playing out over some time, most likely a couple of years.

Let's see how it goes. The silver action was 'constructive today' in that it held its levels, largely ignoring the currency cross calculated smackdown that was dealt to gold.

The conscious mispricing of the risks and rewards in any proposition, the basic facts of it, are the very foundation of fraud. It is not due to animal spirits or any other such nonsense, although those do help in selling the suckers on your con. There is always a small core of actors promoting this mispricing for their own short term gains.

And where that sort of behaviour is permitted and not punished, there is lingering decline and misery.

Have a pleasant evening.