Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Pressures of Excessive Speculation and Mispriced Risk

“A business man who was also a biologist and a sociologist would know, approximately, the right thing to do for humanity.  But, outside the realm of business, these men are stupid.  They know only business.  They do not know mankind nor society, and yet they set themselves up as arbiters of the fates of the hungry millions and all the other millions thrown in.  History, some day, will have an excruciating laugh at their expense."

Jack London, The Iron Heel


"I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said— 'Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'

Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away."

Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias


“It seemed that out of every tear of a martyr new confessors were born, and that every groan on the arena found an echo in thousands of breasts.  Caesar was swimming in blood, Rome and the whole pagan world was mad.  But those who had had enough of transgression and madness, those who were trampled upon, those whose lives were misery and oppression, all the weighed down, all the sad, all the unfortunate, came to hear the wonderful tidings of God, who out of love for men had given Himself to be crucified and redeem their sins."

Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis

As the first chart below indicates, the excesses of the bubble economy continue to build.

The resolution of this gross imbalance and malfeasance will be, by all historical accounts, 'unexpected' but tangibly impressive.

History is about to punch the proud and the self-anointed elite in the face.

Try to stay out of their way when they fall down. They will try to use you and yours to break their fall.

Stocks went out on the new highs in relatively light volume.

The VIX shows complacency. There is a proud complacency, buttressed by the Fed and the plutocrats' servants in public office.

Gold and silver were whacked lower again. In particular it was a little surprising to see silver give up the 17 handle.

The bullion banks are determined to cover those shorts, and avoid the loss that they have been carrying.

In light of the new price movements I have amended the chart formations for gold and silver.

The Bond markets and Banks will be closed on Monday for Veteran's Day. The rest of the markets will be open.

Given our excesses, begin to expect the unexpected.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Tottering into the End of the Year, Again - With a Lot of Help From the Fed

“I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency [the NSA] and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss.  That is the abyss from which there is no return."

Senator Frank Church, 1975


"The enormous gap between what US leaders do in the world and what Americans think their leaders are doing is one of the great propaganda accomplishments."

Michael Parenti

Another wave of contract dumping in the quiet futures market took the prices of gold and silver down this morning.

It looks like the Banks are determined to weasel out of their massive short positions without the paper losses they had been carrying.

This is what happens when you deregulate markets, and cripple the agencies that oversee them.  But that is logic, and the free marketeers can't hear about that because they are Utopian cultists.

Stocks also reached for new highs today, but gave up a big portion of their intraday gains into the afternoon hours.

The Fed has flooded the Wall Street Banks with liquidity, and the idea that they are going to turn around and make loans with it is a laughable farce, often bundled under the supply-side economics school of thought.

Sometime between now and next July we are going to see some significant changes in the political and economic trends in the US.  I think we might get a solid taste of that by year end.

From just the standpoint of financial reform and reining in the excesses of the Banks, which candidates do you think might be expected to actually do something about this?   Or in other words, which candidates are most feared by the moneyed interests and their enablers in the media?

I had the time to stream the latest Season 2 of Jack Ryan on Amazon.  From an entertainment standpoint it was fairly good.  Certainly not in the class of Peaky Blinders, Bosch,  and several other made for streaming series.  From an overall perspective it was thinly disguised propaganda, at times very obvious and heavy-handed as the run up to the Iraq war.  We'll have to consider the source on this one.

Cold weather is coming this weekend.  

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My! - Quick Look at Last Year's Stock Crunch

"The blessed John the Evangelist lived in Ephesus until extreme old age [age 94 c 100 AD).   His disciples could barely carry him to church and he could not muster the voice to speak many words.  During individual gatherings he usually said nothing but, 'Little children, love one another.'   The disciples and brothers in attendance, annoyed because they always heard the same words, finally said, 'Teacher, why do you always say this?'   He replied with a line worthy of John: 'Because it is the Lord's commandment, and if it alone is kept, it is sufficient.'"

Jerome, Commentary on Galatians, based on the commentaries of Origen of Alexandria

Yo Jerome, was St. John a conservative or a liberal, a Democrat or a Republican, an Austrian or a Keynesian?  Tell us the things that really matter about what we choose to believe.  We don't care about the truth anymore.

Stocks hit pause again today, as 'investors' continued to consolidate their recent gains from baseless optimism about trade talks and other macroeconomic fables.

The Atlanta Fed has retargeted its GDP 4Q forecast to 1%. Well, at least it is still positive, right?

The denial over the Ukraine 'quid quo pro' is crumbling quickly.  The cover-up is shifting to diversionary personal attacks on no longer particularly relevant players.   By 2020 we'll be seeing The Hansen Brothers debut on Capitol Hill.   And that's entertainment.

Gold and silver are marking time after the recent hit by the Bullion Banks. They have a massive short poisition burning a hole on their balance sheets. I wonder if the hedge funds have the guts to take them on again like they did in the summer.  No matter, gold is going to go where it needs to go, despite the short term antics of the pampered princes of the Banking system.

You know what to do by now.

The first three charts show us the stock market compared to the stock performance from last year, and an historical look at valuations expressed in PE ratios.

And a pleasant time is guaranteed for all.

Have a pleasant evening.