Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Alarrmmm! - Das Fed

 

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.  Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron."

General Dwight Eisenhower

“In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact.”

George Orwell, 1984

"It has become a mathematical certainty that Hitler is leading the German people into the abyss.  Hitler cannot win the war; he can only prolong it.  The guilt of Hitler and his minions goes beyond all measure.  Retribution comes closer and closer.  But what are the German people doing?  They will not see and will not listen.  Blindly they follow their seducers into ruin.  Victory at any price! is inscribed on their banner.  'I will fight to the last man,' says Hitler— but in the meantime the war has already been lost."

The White Rose, Fifth Leaflet, Munich 1943

"They made us all train for this day.  'To be fearless and proud and alone. To need no one, just sacrifice. All for the Fatherland.'  Oh God, all just empty words.  It's not the way they said it was, is it?  I just want someone to be with.  The only thing I feel is afraid. "

Leutnant Werner, Das Boot

"Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph."

Haile Selassie

Stocks popped and flopped today, but managing to claw back some of their intraday losses.

The metals and miners were mugged again, all in the scheme of things, customary for a stock option expiration week.

The Dollar gained marginally.

The FOMC minutes cheered the risk markets for a short time today, with the lack of hawkish unanimity amongs the participants.

RIP Wolfgang Petersen, director of the classic war movie Das Boot. 

Perhaps we can look forward to a real life financial version of this, Das Fed.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Light on the Road to Damascus

 

“To know and to serve God, of course, is why we’re here, a clear truth, that, like the nose on your face, is near at hand and easily discernible but can make you dizzy if you try to focus on it hard. But a little faith will see you through. What else will do except faith in such a cynical, corrupt time? When the country goes temporarily to the dogs, cats must learn to be circumspect, walk on fences, sleep in trees, and have faith that all this woofing is not the last word.

What is the last word, then? Gentleness is everywhere in daily life, a sign that faith rules through ordinary things: through cooking and small talk, through storytelling, making love, fishing, tending animals and sweet corn and flowers, through sports, music and books, raising kids — all the places where the gravy soaks in, and grace shines through. Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people. What keeps my faith cheerful is the extreme persistence of gentleness and humour. Lacking any other purpose in life, it would be good enough to live for their sake."

Garrison Keillor

"True freedom is to know what is good, what is the right thing to do, and to have the will to do it, even when it goes against our selfish inclinations. It is to free ourselves from fear and all those things that hold us down, which prevent us from finding and fulfilling our part in the great renewal of creation and the triumph of life over death, of being over nothingness.

The most powerful in the eyes are the world are often the most enslaved, victims of basest passions, servants to the most undeserving and meanest of ambitions, lashing out in their insatiable misery.  With obeisance they serve and nurture the willfulness that delivers them first up to slavery to themselves, and then to darker powers, and finally into the jaws of self destruction.

The paradox of life is that we hate what we fear, but we eventually become what we hate, because it occupies so much of our energy and mind. It makes a place for itself in our hearts. When the adversary of all goodness intertwines his fingers with ours, whispering sweet words of power and fame, of hatreds and passions, he slowly tightens his grip and holds fast, and then we are his."

Jesse, A Light on the Road to Damascus, 26 December 2010

Stocks wobbled back and forth again today.

Gold and silver were under a bit of pressure and slipped back some.

VIX declined slightly in a diffident gesture at risk taking.

Slowly we approach the stormy season of markets.

But for now, complacency reigns, as we approach the option expiration on Friday.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Don't Get Out of the Boat - Option Expiration on Friday

 

"Hot money seeks out the conscious mispricing of risk. Capital, in the form of both money and personal talent, increasingly flows into malinvestment and the gaming of markets. The productive economy languishes, left wanting for the lack of creative resources and attention. The bubble rises to unsustainable valuations— and fails, and a nation's capital is consumed.

The next five years are not about winning, but surviving."

Jesse, The Men Who Sold the World, 5 August 2019


"He who sells what isn't his'n,
Must buy it back or go to prison."

Daniel Drew


"When we look back on this period in time with the perspective of history, we will see markets dominated by control frauds and mispricing of risk that will seem painfully obvious.  Why do we not see this now?   Why did so few see it coming 2007, and in 2000?  Perhaps because the money is too good, and our societal judgement is too corrupted, often willfully so.  Bubbles have a surprising resiliency, as does evil in a hardened heart.   And for the same reasons."

Jesse, April 2021


"This place is like somebody's memory of a town, and the memory is fading. It's like there was never anything here but jungle."

Rust Cohle, True Detective

Stocks managed to rally today despite, or perhaps because of, the stunningly bad Empire State Manufacturing Index.

We don't need no stinking real economy.  We just need more easy Fed money.

Gold and silver were hit hard, and the Dollar rallied.

And it turned out to be a risk on day.

Run bully, run.

Option Expiration for August on Friday. 

For the rest of the year remember, never get out of the boat.

Have a pleasant evening.