Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Incalculable Risk of Being Honorable

 

"'A lot of white-collar criminals are psychopaths,' says Bob Hare.  'But they flourish because the characteristics that define the disorder are actually valued.  When they get caught, what happens?  A slap on the wrist, a six-month ban from trading, and don't give us the $100 million back.  I've always looked at white-collar crime as being as bad or worse than some of the physically violent crimes that are committed.'

Some can be particularly good at bending the rules to fulfill their need to feed on whatever their diet demands.  They are naturally drawn to positions of power, frequently faking their credentials and results, and are often verbally acute, willing to say and do almost anything to get their way.  They may be able to buy their way into positions of power and manage their environments very effectively, except their family relationships and children would rarely be described as normal.  Psychopathy breeds a multitude of other disorders.  And they seem to be gaining traction, getting better, and finding kindred spirits in the growing partnership between corporations and the government."

Jesse, Psychopaths Among Us and the Necessity of Law, 9 September 2011

"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...

If leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupified by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realise that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance."

George Orwell, 1984

"If there are damned souls in Hell, it is because men blind themselves."

E.A. Bucchianeri, Faust: My Soul Be Damned for the World

"It is hard to say whether he was overwhelmed by the mere idea of such an immense and wicked enterprise, or whether he feared that the rot went deeper and that resistance on his part might spell death.  In any case, he gave many people the impression that he was in the plot.  The other tribunes and the centurions also preferred the advantages of the moment to the incalculable risk of being honourable.  Their mood may be summed up thus: a shocking crime was committed on the unscrupulous initiative of few individuals, with the blessing of more, and amid the passive acquiescence of all."

Tacitus, The Murder of Galba 

 

The markets were understandably edgy today, putting their portfolios in order for a weekend fraught with exogenous risk.

The major stock index futures declined, and actually went out at the bottom, declining further after the bell.

Gold and silver initially rallied strongly, but were whittled back as the day wore on.

The metals shorts may be giving way, but they are drawing a line in the sand at gold $2000.

If that resistance is broken, gold may run.

VIX maintained its elevated level.

The Dollar chopped sideways finishing essentially unchanged, but at an elevated level relative to recent history.

Obviously the disorder in the Congress amongst the bickering and stiff-necked Republican tribesmen is adding to the unease domestically, but make no mistake that the growing war clouds in the Mideast are raising the fear levels, even among the congenitally greedy.

And then there is the ongoing war in the Ukraine, which our ADHD news media has temporarily misplaced.  

"Everywhere and always demonic powers lurk in the dark, waiting for the moment when man is weak; when of his own volition he leaves his place in Creation, as founded for him by God in freedom; when he yields to the force of evil, he separates himself from the powers of a higher order; and after voluntarily taking the first step, he is driven on to the next and the next at a furiously accelerating rate."

White Rose, Munich 1942

Have a pleasant weekend.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - As It Was, So It Is - The Cruel Tutelage of History

 

"The German people slumber on in their dull, stupid sleep and encourage these fascist criminals; they give them the opportunity to carry on their destruction; and of course they do so. [déjà vu]  Is this a sign that the Germans are brutalized in their simplest human feelings, that no chord within them cries out at the sight of such deeds, that they have sunk into a fatal consciencelessness from which they will never, ever awake?"

Sophie Scholl, The White Rose, Second Leaflet, Munich 1942

"Wonderful providence indeed which is so silent, yet so efficacious, so constant, so unerring.  This is what baffles the power of Satan.  He cannot discern the Hand of God in what goes on; and though he would fain meet it and encounter it, in his mad and blasphemous rebellion against heaven, he cannot find it.  Wonderfully silent, yet resistless the course of God's providence. And if even devils, sagacious as they are, spirits by nature and experienced in evil, cannot detect His hand while He works, how can we hope to see it except by that way which the devils cannot take, by loving faith?"

John Henry Newman, Parochial Sermons 17

"Men rejected what is good, having cherished the nothings of demons and men, instead of the truth."

Athanasius, On the Incarnation

The Hitler Party likes to emphasize its uniqueness, and it really should not be measured against conventional yardsticks. Even if it were to explode into smithereens today, the fact would remain that it recently won fifteen million voters.  Its brutality, loud-mouthedness and brainlessness have acted not as a deterrent but rather as an attraction, and have generated unconditional and subservient followers.  But the evil and ugly instincts he has called up will not blow away so easily, and will plague the whole of public life in Germany for long years to come.  New political and social systems will replace the old ones, but the after-effects of Hitler will also rise again, and later generations will have to step up for the wrestling match that the German Republic was too cowardly to fight."

Carl von Ossietzky, Winter Fairy Tale, 3 January 1933

"Only one who spent the years following the First World War in Germany can fully understand how hard a battle it was that a man like [Carl von] Ossietzky had to fight.   He knew that the tradition of his countrymen, bent on violence and war, had not lost its power.  He knew how difficult, thankless and dangerous a task it was. to preach sanity and justice to his countrymen. [plus ça change]  In their blindness they repaid him in hatred, persecution and slow destruction; to heed him and to act accordingly would have meant their salvation and a true relief for the whole world.  The abstention from the solution of human problems by brute force is the task today as it was then."

Albert Einstein, Out of My Later Years, 1956


We find it easy to judge others, but we almost always fail to see the same flaw in ourselves. 

We shut our eyes and turn away from the truth. And if we are shown it, we react in anger and often violent denial. 

This is how our pride draws us to the abyss. 

But things are so complicated.  What are we to do?  

"The Lord requires you to act justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."

Micah 6:8

That's what He said, at many times in many ways.

Stocks plunged today, on a combination of factors including more pseudo-hawkish comments from the Fed's Powell, gathering storm clouds over the Mideast, and lousy corporate earnings reports.  Especially from companies with some material connection to reality.

It seems we had a risk off day all in all.

Gold and silver rallied.

The VIX rallied higher again.

The Dollar surprisingly lost ground despite the interest rate hawkishness.

Tomorrow is an option expiration for stocks, although certainly not a major one like the infamous triple witch.   

We might see a two step, as the traders do their technical trading in the morning, and then square up for the potential uncertainties of the exogenous kind over the weekend.

 

As Groucho said,  'I'm not crazy about reality, but it's still the only place to get a decent meal.'

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Madness Serves None But Itself

 

"This is a time of shame and sorrow.  It is not a day for politics.  I have saved this one opportunity to speak briefly to you about this mindless menace of violence in America which again stains our land and every one of our lives.   It is not the concern of any one race. The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown.  They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed.  No one - no matter where he lives or what he does - can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed.  And yet it goes on and on...

Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.  Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear; violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleaning of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul."

Robert F. Kennedy, City Club of Cleveland, 5 April 1968

"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.  Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.  Through violence you may murder the liar, but cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.  Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate.  In fact, violence merely increases hate.  So it goes.  Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.  Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that."

Martin Luther King, Where Do We Go From Here, 1967

"The shreds of individuality cannot be sewed together with a bayonet; nor can democracy be restored according to the Biblical injunction of an 'eye for an eye' which, in the end, would make everybody blind. Any attempt to introduce democracy or to check totalitarianism must constantly emphasize the rehabilitation of personality.  Freedom and responsibility help.  Rigid authority hinders."

Louis Fischer, Gandhi and Stalin, 1947

"The stoking of fear and hate ends in the blood of innocents, always.   Over time it spares no one.   Have we learned nothing?  Have we sunk so low that we no longer fear the reproach of civilized people, or the judgement even of God?  We seem to have no shame, no sense of history, no compunction about lying and wallowing in lies, and relatively little enough decency left in our public life.  It is all about power and money.   People are just tools, objects, and collateral damage.

When you unleash the madness, the unspeakable, you do not control it— it controls you."

Jesse, Political Power and the Virus of Fear, 10 October 2018

 

Stop killing the innocent.  

And for the great worldly powers, stop using the innocent of other nations to advance your desire for global domination.  No matter how you wish to rationalize and disguise it, even to yourself.

Truly, the madness serves none but itself.

Stocks slumped hard today in the market's bipolar provisions for risk.

Friday is an option expiration.

Gold and silver rallied, sharply in the morning, but giving some back after Europe went to bed.

The Dollar rallied in a related flight to safety.

VIX rose.

Google blogger remains scrambled.

The wash and rinse will likely continue until the war or some other exogenous issues weigh in on traders again.

It struck me today how similar some of the biggest Wall Street players are to the Mafia in their management, rewards, and recruiting styles.   Payoffs of course, but done elegantly.

Have a pleasant evening.