Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Storm Warnings

"It begins with a highly complex financial system, whose very complexity makes it difficult for anyone to know what might be going wrong; by definition, the multiple parts of the financial system are linked, which means that trouble in one institution, city, or region can travel easily and quickly to others.

Buoyant growth in the economy makes the financials system more fragile, in part due to the demand for capital and in part due to the tendency of some institutions to take on more risk than is prudent.   Leaders in government and the financials sector implement policies that advertently or inadvertently increase the exposure to risk of crisis. 

An economic shock hits the financials system.  The mood of the market swings from optimism to pessimism, create a self-reinforcing downward spiral.  Collective action by leaders can arrest the spiral, though the speed and effectiveness which they act ultimately determines the length and severity of the crisis." 

Robert Bruner and Sean Carr, The Panic of 1907

 

Stocks did a mild pop 'n flop, or a wash and rinse as you may prefer, in honor of the stock market index options expiration.

Gold, silver, and The Dollar were lower.

The VIX was slightly elevated.

Outside of algo-driven trading shenanigans, I am not confident that The Street has a better idea of what's going on, or coming over the horizon, than most others who are at least mildly informed.

Nonetheless, something of note is coming, and it looms closer by the day.

Have a pleasant weekend.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - And the Love of Most Will Grow Cold

 

"These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."  

Isaiah 29:13 

 

"The U.S. went off the gold standard in August 1971.  With no benchmark, central banks could print money and debase currencies.  That opened the door for huge bailouts after big banks screwed up in a big way. Taxpayers—not incompetent bankers—paid the price.  

By [the late 1980’s], the Federal Reserve Bank and large U.S. banks had established a pattern to control the public relations damage each time banks had a major screw-up: accountants and regulators let banks lie about the size of the problem to stall for time; the Federal Reserve blew smoke at the media; finally, the Fed would bail out the banks in a way that most taxpayers would not understand.  

Banks didn’t have to get smarter or more competent.  The Fed trained the banks that uninformed taxpayers would eat the losses, and fake accounting would let bank officers keep their positions and their money." 

Janet Tavakoli, Decisions: Life and Death on Wall Street 

 

"Beware the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hollow hypocrisy. There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hidden, that shall not be made known. Whatever has been said in the darkness shall be heard in the light: and what has been whispered behind closed doors shall be shouted from the roof tops." 

Luke 12:1-3 

Stocks were off to a rocky start today, but managed to gain back much of their losses into the close.

The cheerleaders and spokesmodels for Wall Street were pleased.

Gold and silver and the Dollar all rallied today.

If you are not going to be careful about what you read, what you take into your minds and hearts, at least be wary of spreading lies and snares to your friends and children.  

For I have rarely seen such zealous behavior than from those who wish to share their self-deception and sins with others.   

And if you ask them nicely to stop sending this sort of thing to you they say, don't you want to be informed?   And they are angered, because they are not motivated by love, but by anger and self-love and pride.   And they cannot bear to see themselves in the light.

They wish to persuade others in order to ease the voice of their own conscience, that whispers to them, 'this is wrong.' And so they seek distractions, and wallow in them, while they give their hearts away.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Beginning of Sorrows

 

“Only the unlimited accumulation of power could bring about the unlimited accumulation of capital.” 

Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism 

 

"I warn you, as I have warned you before, that those who join in this lawlessness will not inherit the kingdom of God.   The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."

 Galatians 5:21-22

 

"Maintaining silence about a dirty truth is another way of lying, a common practice in high places."

 Michael Parenti

 

"The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been exposed, because it was so well done and hidden." 

 Honoré de Balzac,Le Père Goriot

 

Stocks were struggle to digest the irrational exuberance, when Treasury Secretary Mnuchin announced that there is unlikely to be any stimulus package anytime soon.

Why should there be?   All the people that matter to the elite have already been amply rewarded for their financial crimes and craven service to injustice.  Only those who are lost in darkness will still listen to them.

The Dollar slumped, and gold and silver rallied.

Wax on, wax off.

This is the cycle of the con game.

Not the sophisticated schemes you may imagine, or see in novels and movies. 

Rather they are like street cons: simple, brazen, thuggish. 

They are just embellished with fine words and payoffs.

There will be a stock market option expiration on Friday.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Hollow Men - Life in the Golden Age of Fraud

 

"This is the Golden Age of fraud, an era of general willingness to ignore and justify the wrongdoings of the rich and powerful, which makes every lie bigger and widens its destructive path.”

 Reed Albergotti 

 

"His money came from human misery and death and despair, as always it does.  Yet, there is none to reproach him, neither God nor man, and all fawn upon him and he will be a senator and crowds will laud him and he will have the ear of the President and all will honor his riches and consider him worthier than others." 

Taylor Caldwell 

 

"People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage. Intellectual myopia, often called stupidity, is no doubt a reason.  But the privileged also feel that their privileges, however egregious they may seem to others, are a solemn, basic, God-given right." 

John Kenneth Galbraith 

 

“A true opium of the people is the belief in nothingness after death, the huge solace, the huge comfort of thinking that for our betrayals, our greed, our cowardice, our murders, that we are not going to be judged.” 

 Czeslaw Milosz 

 

"With tears in my eyes I tell you now that some may be lost, forever.   For their own desires are the god that they worship.  They boast with pride about things of which they should be ashamed.  They think only about the privileges and glories of this world. " 

Phillipians 3:19-20 

 

There will be a stock index market option expiration on Friday. 

Gold and silver were hit in the currency crosses on the New York open, and the Dollar rallied. 

 I think you have heard my premise before, that there is a growing shortage of physical gold available for delivery. 

From this flows many of the things which we are seeing. 

A collapse of a long standing scheme such as the current gold pool declines slowly, and then suddenly. 

 Be careful of what you put into your minds.   There are those who seek to incite your anger and fear, and thereby change you and influence you to their ends.

This is the golden age all right— of fraud. 

And all the fashionable people are doing it, with a passionate intensity.

Have a pleasant evening.