Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Quartet For the End of Time

 

"And the angel lifted up his hand to heaven.  And he swore by Him that lives for ever and ever, who created heaven and the earth and the things that are in it, that there should be time no longer."

Revelation 19:5-6

"The historical evidence is overwhelming. Many societies have done well for a while – until powerful people get out of hand.  We had strong institutions for a long time in this country — including effective checks on the power of bankers. In recent decades we abandoned the governance mechanisms that previously served us well.  Global megabanks have obtained excessive and inappropriate power – the power to take a great deal of risk, with cash for their executives on the upside, and huge damage for the rest of us on the downside."

Simon Johnson, Jamie Dimon and the Fall of Nations, May 31,2012

"A credit crisis [and the unwinding of any overleveraged paper asset such as NY-London precious metals - Jesse] arises when many more promises are made than can possibly be kept, and disputes emerge about how and to whom promises will be broken."

Steve Waldman, Credit Crisis for Kindergartners, Interfluidity, March 20, 2008

"Until this moment I did not fully appreciate the moral vacuum at the core of these elitists.  They created a wreckage of devices that led us to the edge of an economic precipice.  Now they attempt to justify the results by defining the poor as those who, by their nature, prefer cheap and shoddy goods and a lower standard of life. They are by choice separate but equal to the wealthy, who genetically require the finer things in life. 

The famous rebuke of 'at long last, have you no decency', to those who thrive from conflict and injustice, and who will say or do almost anything in their pursuit of the will to power, must surely again apply."

Jesse, Economists Discover 'Separate But Equal', May 20, 2008

"He knew folly like the back of his hand,
And was interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, senators burst with laughter,
And little children died in the streets."

W. H. Auden, Epitaph On a Tyrant (edited), 1939


VIX rose at the end of the day.

Stocks did their usual wash and rinse boogie woogie.

Bessent is trying to keep them pumped to please the boss, but the market will play it for a quick buck, but isn't happy with the risk reward at this level.

Their bullish braying is intended to lure the small specs into the market for the handoff.

The Dollar bounced around, but could not take back the 97 handle.

He-who-must-not-be-named is wrecking the US economy, and its position within the world community.

A second carrier group has been dispatched from the Caribbean to the vicinity of Iran.  It will take a week or so to position along with the group already in place.

Trump wants a deal, but the acceptable ask that Benjy wants is something to which no sane government would agree.  He wants them to give up their missiles.   He now knows he cannot defend against them.  But he wants Iran out of the way to give himself a free hand in the region.

The only compelling reason for US to strike is that Washington runs on blackmail and bribes, and the chicken-hawk spirit of the neo-cons these days.  Not oaths, not conscience, but money and power, and the escaping of consequences for their crimes are all that matter to them.

Eventually someone is going to lose something that will be missed.  So they are trying to set up a scapegoat and fall guy, respectively.  These half men have the moral depth of street urchins. And the young shall die as children come of age.

It's an old story, as old as Babylon, and evil as sin.

It is what madman, gripped by the demons of lawlessness, do. 

As a reminder, US markets will be closed on Monday for the Presidents' Day holiday. 

Have a pleasant weekend. 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Weep for Yourselves and Your Children

 

“Four sorrows are certain to be visited on the United States.

First, there will be a state of perpetual war.

Second is a loss of democracy and Constitutional rights as the presidency eclipses Congress and is itself transformed from a co-equal ‘executive branch’ of government into a military junta.

Third is the replacement of truth by propaganda, disinformation, and the glorification of war, power, and the military legions.

Lastly, there is bankruptcy, as the United States pours its economic resources into ever more grandiose military projects and shortchanges the education, health, and safety of its citizens.”

Chalmers Johnson, The Sorrows of Empire, 2005

"Amen, amen, I say to you, all these things will fall upon this generation.  

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets, and stone those who are sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you were unwilling.  

Behold, your house is now yours, but is made desolate.  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 23:36-39

“Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me. Weep for yourselves and your children."

Luke 23:28

VIX rose, stocks slump.

The Dollar chopped sideways.

Gold and silver were mugged.  

This is not the result of Chinese speculation as some have asserted.  These are the imaginative misdirection of days gone by.  This is a NY-London operation of the precious metals pools, the long term manipulation of physical supply and the pricing. They are up against the wall on supply. 

Believe what you want.  A lot of people have done that, and missed the breakout of precious metals.  Nothing could be more obvious.

Things are going to get very real over the next two years.

"There have always been plagues and wars, yet they always take us by surprise. When war breaks out people say it's stupid and won't last long.  Stupidity has a knack of getting its way, which we would see if not so wrapped up in ourselves. In this our townsfolk were like everybody else— they did not believe in plagues."   Albert Camus, The Plague

Trump has figured out that a war with Iran et al. is a no-win situation.   But powerful forces continue to push him in that direction.  And he is facing that age old conundrum of all political figures, the threats or the bribes, while being surrounded by ineffective sycophants. 

Lack of strategic vision, honor, and a sense of consequence are sorely lacking in most of our governing elites.   They rarely face any consequences for their incompetence and corruption, and have consequently developed a remarkably unnatural sense of life in their bubble of entitlement.

This must be fashionable with governments these days, because there is so much of that going around.  

 We learn nothing.

Have a pleasant evening. 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Staged Illusions Masking Arrogant Lawlessness

 

"People who know nothing of God and whose lives are centered on themselves, imagine that they can only find themselves by asserting their own desires and ambitions and appetites in a struggle with the rest of the world.  They try to become real by imposing themselves on other people, by appropriating for themselves some share of the limited supply of created goods and thus emphasizing the difference between themselves and the other men who have less than they, or nothing at all.

'I have what you have not. I am what you are not. I have taken what you have failed to take and I have seized what you could never get. Therefore you suffer and I am happy, you are despised and I am praised, you die and I live; you are nothing and I am something, and I am all the more something because you are nothing. And thus I spend my life admiring the distance between you and me.'"

Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, 1949

"In a simpler time, advertising merely called attention to the product and extolled its advantages. Now it manufactures a product of its own: the consumer, perpetually unsatisfied, restless, anxious, and bored. Its 'educates' the masses into an unappeasable appetite not only for goods but for new experiences and personal fulfillment. Consumption promises to fill the aching void.

The narcissist divides society into two groups: the rich, great, and famous on the one hand and the common herd on the other. Narcissistic patients are afraid of not belonging to the company of the great, rich, and powerful, and of belonging instead to the 'mediocre', by which they mean the worthless and despicable rather than average in the ordinary sense of the term.  They worship heroes only to turn against them when their heroes disappoint them.

At the same time that public life and even private life take on the qualities of spectacle, a counter-movement seeks to model spectacle, theater, all forms of art, on reality — to obliterate the very distinction between art and life, and the resulting indifference to the distinction between illusion and reality.

The illusion of reality dissolves, not in a heightened sense of reality as we might expect, but in a remarkable indifference to reality. Our sense of reality appears to rest, curiously enough, on our willingness to be taken in by the staged illusion of reality."

Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism, 1979

"Then the righteous will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?  When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or imprisoned, and visit you?’  And the Lord will say, ‘Amen, amen I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me.’"

Matthew 25:33-40

Today is the World Day for the Sick, fittingly observed on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

I spent most of the day in prayer and meditation.  The sick and the poor, of body and spirit, are my abiding preoccupations.

But I did notice the usual dodgy equity market from time to time.

One of AG Bondi's talking points today was to suggest that the rising stock market is more important than the Epstein files.

There is no doubt in my mind that Bessent and his cronies are propping up US stocks and bonds.  And casting shade on alternative investments like gold and silver.

I do not say this lightly.  We've seen this before over the years, and despite the aggressive doubting by spokesmodels and blockheads, we have seen that it is all true.

So, how will this end.

You all have seen the remarkable rise of gold and silver after they broke out of years of artificial manipulation.  Silver in particular was astonished sharp and powerful in its rally.

Now picture this in reverse.  Picture stocks dropping with a similar sharpness and power.

That is what happens when a risk manipulation pool for financial assets fails.

Bitcoin fell but gained a little back off its lows.  It is an accident waiting to happen.  But far be it from me from pointing out the risks there for those who do not wish to hear it.

There is no saving anyone who is determined to be rich without working for it.

If stocks fall in a liquidation panic, then most likely everything will get sold for a time.

If it is a currency panic, then some assets might do exceptionally well.

Trump was meeting with his bosses' representative Benjy today in Washington.  There is little doubt that a discussion of Iran was high on the agenda.  

Netanyahu would like to take the lead in a move to paralyze Iran while the Likud party intensifies its acquisition efforts in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria.  

Iran would provide a useful distraction from eroding power and scandal.  But it may cost Trump a large amount of support in the Congress.  Not a good midterm strategy.

It is widely thought that this time Iran will most likely not be so measured in their response.  Someone is likely to lose something important that they will miss.  And voters may not take that well.

One possible consequence if that the price of oil and gas to spike. I just filled my heating oil tanks.  It's a Strait of Hormuz thing.  Bought a Costco sized cube of toilet paper.  I don't want to be an alarmist.  I admit to getting cautious in my old age.  lol

The leadership of Europe is acting in a fairly careless manner towards their public and economies. 

There is only one carrier group in the region.  There is a second George W. Bush carrier that has not yet been dispatched.  If it is sent to the Mideast the likelihood of a military action increase.

Difficult times ahead.  Remember that your soul and the souls of those you love are the highest priority.

And as Our Lady said at Lourdes to Bernadette, 'penance, penance, pendance.'  And remember to pray for sinners. 

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Opera Buffa

 

"I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid."

T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock



Just charts tonight.

I was out all day, this market is boring and dumb, and I'm tired. 

Non-Farm Payrolls tomorrow.  So they say.

Have a pleasant evening.