Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Name of the Rose

"O Rose, thou art sick.
The invisible worm
That flies in the night
In the howling storm

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy,
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy."

William Blake


"Where does the truth lie?   Should one go off and build a little house with flowers outside the windows and a garden outside the door and extol and thank God and turn one’s back on the world and its filth?   Isn’t seclusion a form of treachery, of desertion?   I am weak and small, but I want to do what is right."

Hans Scholl


"The wealth of another region excites their greed; and if it is weak, their lust for power as well. Nothing from the rising to the setting of the sun is enough for them. Among all others only they are compelled to attack the poor as well as the rich. Robbery, rape, and slaughter they falsely call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace."

Tacitus, Agricola

The Non-Farm Payrolls number came in quite a bit light this morning.

Stocks finished up the week with a surge higher on very light volumes.

The ruling class rejoices, and points to this of a clear sign of God's favor on our undertaking.  Or whatever gods they happen to be following these days.

Abandonment of principle is a small price to pay, for an elite group of people determined to be every more powerful, and rich.

And for an exceptional people, exceptions must be made.  The ordinary rules do not apply, to those who have risen above the law.  For them, it is a heavy burden, but someone must rule the common people.  Is this not always what is said, especially afterwards, when the proud and mighty have been crushed, and fallen? 

Be wary of being caught in illiquid markets.   What is coming may not be so much a correction as a train wreck.

Gold and silver held their ground.  If they can continue to do so this may be a sign of a stronger bid to the precious metals in the new year.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metal Charts - Non-Farm Payrolls Tomorrow

"Children, do not allow anyone to deceive you about this:  when people do what is good, it shows that they are righteous, even as our Lord is righteous.  But when people repeatedly do what is sinful, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been evil since the beginning of time... Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love their neighbor does not serve Him, does not belong to God."

1John 3: 7-8,10

This is a useful prescription to apply to all those in power, not just the clumsier and more obvious ones, but especially the very clever, who are highly skilled at saying one thing, and doing another.

Stocks were on the move higher again today, with the Dow Jones 'Industrials' breaking through 25,000 for the first time.

The dollar was lower, giving back that little bounce rally it caught yesterday, and thereon gold and silver continued to rally higher.

The winds were howling today, blowing the newly fallen snow into drifts.  The air is very crisp and cold, and will be getting much colder over the weekend.

Tomorrow we will have the December Non-Farm Payrolls Report.

Someone described the Trump Administration today as 'a Star Wars cantina full of odd creatures.'  lol  By all accounts, they are a fairly colorful bunch. 

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Government By Organized Money

Gold and silver gave up a small amount of their recent rally today, being short term overbought.

And conversely, the dollar bounced up off its own losing streak from a short term oversold condition.

The putative reason was that the Fed minutes released at 2 PM revealed that 'some' would like to see interest rates increase more quickly.

The move may have been timed off the FOMC release, but it was a trading gimmick. How can such overbought and oversold trends not correct, given the slightest encouragement? I am sure the specs were starting to lean into them.

The moves were quite subdued, however, so unless we see something develop with the Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday it looks like we are just fooling around here in the light and largely inconsequential early year algo trading.

It will be interesting to see if stocks can hold these lofty levels, especially if the shorts have been cleared out a bit. The VIX was pounded down to an 8 handle today, settling just over 9, which is about as low as she goes.

I wish there was a way, short of opening a futures account again, to go long VIX without having to buy a dodgy ETF that is designed to lose. I spent too much time dodging failing futures firms in the past, dodging a bullet or two, to dip back into those waters again.

The Democrats should/could run the board in the midterm elections this year.  Except they seem to have a fatal attraction for identity politics without a broader economic progressive policy, backed up by real programs and not just platitudes.  They will not do it, not because they do not know what to do, but because they are beholden to and willfully serving organized money.  And that is the Republican's turf, and they do it much better having had so many more years of practice.

A nor'easter is going to be roaring up the East coast tonight.  It looks like it will miss us to the west, but move north and clobber New England with snow and high winds.  The deep freeze comes back this weekend.

I was watching the critter factions fighting over the ground below the hanging squirrel buster bird feeder today.  I had thrown some seed on the ground there last night, to give them a little more to brace them for the storm and cold.   It was the squirrels vs. the blue jays, vs. the sparrows, in some of the most pointless squabbling I have ever seen.   These birdbrains must be from Washington.

A short video is included below as a history lesson on how to be a leader after a long period of economic abusiveness.  The only thing the current crop of Democratic leaders and FDR have in common is that they are both 'traitors to their class.' Maybe change will come some day.

Have a pleasant evening.

Thomas Frank: Predatory Elites and the Political-Professional Establishment

"That ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Get your money for nothin' get your chicks for free
We got to install microwave ovens custom kitchen deliveries
We got to move these refrigerators we gotta move these color TV's

Now that ain't workin' that's the way to do it
Play the guitar on the MTV
That ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Money for nothin' and chicks for free."

Dire Straits, Money For Nothing

Here is a link to Reality Asserts Itself Part 9, the interviews between Paul Jay and historian Thomas Frank.

America has institutionalized, has created economic and legal barriers to entry, in its current 'two party system.'

And now that both parties have given themselves over to Big money, albeit in various ways and slightly different forms, any dissent to the mandated narrative are finding difficult footing and expression.  We saw that clearly in the 2016 election, but the US is hardly alone in this.

Thomas Frank says, 'They can't see it, Paul.'   Indeed.  There seems to be a lot of that going around, on both sides of the aisle and in the audience and professional galleries, Thomas.

That is the nature of the credibility trap.  It is a well spring of self-interested hypocrisy and the misuse of words.

Frank's comments about the bible-believing pious Hillary are naively presented to the point of being almost sad, or else they would just be knee slapping hilarious.   How about giving us the chapter and verse for the bible passage concerning 'whited sepulchers.'  Granted, Bill and Hill could be thought of at the Jim and Tammy Faye of American televangelist politics.  Paul Jay does well to maintain his composure.

That is how it is, these days however.   As Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead put it so well, 'the lesser of two evils is still evil.'   Hypocrisy and lies notwithstanding.

Don't get me wrong in this.  The GOP is the worst, almost beyond all redemption.  I think what is so cloying about the Democrats is that they are scripted to be the good guys in this melodrama, and willingly act the part.   And yet their venality is showing.

Americans may loathe a conman or a villain, but they really despise a hypocrite.  And that is 'what happened.'

I think we are seeing a global phenomenon, a kind of a mass revulsion against that well polished hypocrisy.  And like most revolutions, in its anger it tends to make some very bad choices.

When one has picked a side, committed themselves as it were, and is rooting for either 'Red vs. Blue' in the games, it is all too easy to get caught up in the hypocrisy and selective morality of partisanship.

Even when it is clear that the guys running those games could care less about their loyal fans, in their quest for power and big money.  Like modern day professional football.