"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem. You who murder the prophets, and abuse those whom God has sent as messengers to you. How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings— but you would not let me. As you have willed it, so your house is now yours to command— but is made desolate. For I tell you truly, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'” Matthew 23:37-39
The new Fed Chairman deluxe was answering questions before the Congress today.
And the old chairs, Zimbabwe Ben and Janet, were discussing economic war stories, tall tales, and their mighty bubble adventures at the Brookings Institution today.
Mr. Jerome Powell, may I call you Jay? Well, apparently Jay said something to our august lawmakers that the markets interpreted as 'hawkish'.
And since the markets lack any internal compass or conviction, but hang on every syllable from the mouths of those who dole out its daily dose of hot money sugar, stocks took a dive. The Dollar was rallying on higher yield expectations and, of course, precious metals were moving lower.
The markets were not the only ones having a bad day. Dolly, our rescue Shih Tzu, paid a visit to the groomer early this afternoon.
And as a consequence of her stressful day, Dolly has spent the remainder of the day curled up and pouting mightily in her blanket. She does not like baths, vets, or thunderstorms in that order.
But at least Dolly looks and smells better than before. The markets still stink of corruption.
And so both the markets and Dolly have had a thorough wash and rinse this week.
“To write the truth as I see it; to defend the weak against the strong; to fight for justice; and to seek, as best I can to bring healing perspectives to bear on the terrible hates and fears of mankind, in the hope of someday bringing about a world in which men and women will enjoy the differences of the human garden instead of killing each other over them.”
I.F. Stone
“In reading The History of Nations, we find that, like individuals, they have their whims and their peculiarities, their seasons of excitement and recklessness, when they care not what they do. We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first.”
Charles Mackay
“At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas of which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is “not done” to say it… Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the high-brow periodicals.”
George Orwell
"Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies."
John 8:43-44
I cannot believe some of the things that I am hearing on the mainstream media and reading on the internet these days. Well, shame on me if I am shocked, because I forecast that this was coming. A period of hysteria and a general disregard for reality follow on a long period of lies and corruption, like night follows day. First comes the loss of a regard for virtue of almost any sort, and then the embrace of the darkness.
If the economic hardships had been more rigorous I have little doubt that the killing would have come closer to home by now.
What does shock me I suppose is how blithely seemingly well-educated people of relative privilege, who certainly know better, are willing to embrace the Big Lie, and run with it without a second glance back. Bizarre untruths and gross hyperbole are not just for the fringes anymore.
I was greatly disappointed by the 'debate' between James Risen and Glenn Greenwald, moderated by Jeremy Scahill. I include a video from Jimmy Dore below in which he discusses it, and I have posted the original debate here before.
But this is hardly the worst example, not at all. That was all over the airwaves and in the print media this weekend. The propaganda being spun out with regularity about dire threats and declarations of war make me wonder where this is all going.
Some feel perfectly happy picking and choosing among the lies that suit them, that promote their own biases and purposes. After all, 'everyone is doing it now.'
Try to resist the temptation to join in on this dalliance into this mesmerizing dance of deceit, and the sickness unto death that follows with it.
Stocks were rallying today, so all is good. We may soon recover the levels of our blow off top. It is not surprise since the mania is still alive and well. I considered the plunge we had the other week as likely a 'market break.'
I do think this presages a decline, most likely in the neighborhood of 20%. But timing that sort of thing is extremely difficult. Unless you are a legend of the punditry, remarkable as long as you can keep your own scorecard with other people's money.
Gold and silver were moving up quite nicely on the overnight, and were then pushed back down when the Dollar recovered its declines, finishing weakly higher.
We've been here before. It rarely ends well.
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Have a pleasant evening.
“Berlin. I used to love this old city. But that was before it had caught sight of its own reflection and taken to wearing corsets laced so tight that it could hardly breathe. I loved the easy, carefree philosophies, the cheap jazz, the vulgar cabarets and all of the other cultural excesses that characterized the Weimar years and made Berlin seem like one of the most exciting cities in the world.”
Philip Kerr, Berlin Noir: March Violets
“What in heaven’s name brought you to Casablanca?”
“My health, I came to Casablanca for the waters.”
“The waters? What waters? We’re in the desert.”
“I was misinformed.”
Casablanca, 1943
Stocks were rallied sharply and steadily into the weekend close, after the rest of the world had gone home.
Great success.
Gold and silver went sideways, as did the US Dollar.
Dropbox has filed for an IPO.
After the close President Trump said he wants a 24% import tariff on global steel imports and a lesser import tax on aluminum.
"Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater. How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these."
George Washington Carver
“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 to a certain extent, by fighting for better conditions, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, of the poor, of the destitute.
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 that 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 well as our friend.”
Dorothy Day
"A wicked and adulterous generation asks for yet another sign. But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah."
Matt 12:39
Today was an option expiration for precious metals on the Comex. Both gold and silver were able to hold their ground. Let's see how they go into the weekend.
The US Dollar (DX) lost all the ground it gained yesterday.
Stocks had another wide ranging day, with broad highs and lows, and then finishing almost unchanged.
This swinging represents uncertainty about valuations and the future. This is not a constructive foundation for a bull market, especially one that has been based on bubbles and bullshit for so long.
I just finished 'binge watching' the German TV series, dubbed in English thankfully for Netflix, called Babylon Berlin. It is very engaging and well done.
As you know I have a keen interest in the Weimar era. It is fascinating to watch their daily struggles, and excesses, and schemes in the late 20's and early 30's, knowing full well what wickedness and utter ruin was coming their way.
As to the present, American professionals are preoccupied in addressing the great emptiness of their lives through the fevered acquisition and retention of power and money for its own sake. Our hypocrisy knows no bounds. And our estimation of ourselves and expectations for the future are excessive to say the least. Well, this is how it is at the tail end of almost any anomalous era, when a select group of men would be as the gods of their adulterous generations. And because of the increase in wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.
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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