What is a proper disposition towards life? It is to accept God as a loving father, who is full of tenderness and forgiveness for us, despite our willful blunders and hardened hearts. He yearns for us, as a father and mother yearn for the return of their most beloved child. It is to accept that we are not lost, we are not abandoned. We are wandering like a wayward child, full of our own headstrong delusions. And our father waits expectantly, calling out for us through the darkness. Jesse, 2018
"Owe nothing to anyone, except for your obligation to love one another. For if you love the other, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law."
Romans 13:8
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
John 3:16
Stocks backed up and then took off after the CPI data came in 'higher than expected' this morning.
At first glance that seems counter-intuitive. A higher CPI will give the Fed more street cred in raising rates, which is what triggered this whole stock market correction in the first place right?
A closer look at the CPI data, the core CPI (ex food and energy), and especially the last month's revision, shows that at 0.3% core CPI did come in higher than the consensus forecast of economists at 0.2%.
However, in the month prior, that reading which had been 0.3% was revised significantly lower to 0.1%.
So as you can see, the CPI was much ado about not so very much. And stocks, looking at the data behind the headlines, took off like a scalded cat higher.
Why didn't any of the financial TV spokesmodels catch on to this rather glaring discrepancy with the headlines that they were reading. One can only wonder.
We can also see on the chart that the SP 500 and NDX futures have now retraced roughly 50% of the correction which they recently endured. Now we will see what this rebound is made of.
Gold and silver were strong today, largely off further Dollar weakness, as Uncle Buck continued taking the gas pipe down. I will post the updated Dollar chart later on.
So here we are, anticipating even more data later this week.
But the foundations of the equity markets are still rather flimsily made, and themselves standing loosely in sand.
"When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and loudly pray in their churches and on street corners
so that others may see them.
Amen, I say to you,
they have already received their reward.
But when you pray, go to a quiet room,
close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees all things will repay you."
Matt 6:5-8
And so today is already Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday.
And that means tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the 40 days of the Lenten vigil.
The queen and I attended a Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans one year in the 1990's. I forget exactly when. It was for a corporate event at the Fairmont Hotel, right next to the route of the parade. I think I still have some plastic coins stashed in my desk somewhere as a memento.
And it is also St. Valentine's Day. So don't forget that one guys. I sent roses to some of the ladies who were of special help and comfort while the queen was having in-home hospice last year, a dark and concerning period of life. They were like angels, and their unselfish kindness made a deep impression. Some of them bordered on what I like to call heroic virtue.
It only takes a moment to say thank you to someone who deserves it. We are so often quick to criticize and find fault, but so ungrateful for the many, many little things that others do for us. And when we thank them we start to note the little good things, instead of swelling on a bunch of silly inconveniences.
No matter how difficult life may seem, God's angels are always about to help, as well as His tender mercies and consolations, if we are open to seeing them. God is always there, always listening. And when one door closes, another door opens.
The Dollar continued to go lower today, down to 89.60.
This had a positive effect on gold and silver.
Stocks had an upwards bias, but cautiously.
Tomorrow we will be getting the latest Consumer Price Index data. This is important because markets are concerned about the pace of interest rate increases by the easy money Fed, which is at the root of this latest financial asset bubble.
There will also be the Producer Price Index and the Em-Im prices data later this week.
And so we wait, with bated breath.
Just like we are still waiting for any genuine, significant evidence of 'Russian meddling' in the US elections, despite the continuous hysteria from the media.
"The 2008 financial crisis unleashed a chain reaction that turbo-boosted the influence of central bankers and triggered a massive shift in the world order. Central banks and institutions like the IMF are overstepping the bounds of their mandates and directing the flow of money without any checks and balances. Meanwhile, the open door between private and central banking ensures endless manipulation against a backdrop of government support."
Nomi Prins, Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World
Gentlemen! I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country.
When you won, you divided the profits among you, and when you lost, you charged it to the Bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin!
Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out."
From the original minutes of the Philadelphia bankers meeting with President Jackson February 1834, from Andrew Jackson and the Bank of the United States (1928) by Stan V. Henkels
According to the spokesmodels "the correction is over and everyone is back into buying."
Maybe so. But the market remains poorly founded, and vulnerable to even a relatively mild external shock.
When any market is this poorly regulated and overfed on hot money, one might well expect higher volatility and swings.
Let's see how the CPI number comes in later this week.
And not ignore the low rumbling boil coming out of the Middle East.
The Dollar gave back some of its recent gains, falling from overhead resistance back down to the 90 area from 90.33.
Gold and silver drifted up a bit. The stocks of physical gold available for immediate delivery remain rather low.
The huge 'infrastructure' proposal was the usual thinly disguised farce we have come to expect from a congress and white house with their noses firmly buried in the swamp of their big donors.
“Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating. Everything beautiful has a mark of eternity.”
Simone Weil
"Come, Lord, let your face shine upon us so that we may peacefully enjoy all good things. May your powerful hand be a roof over our heads, and may your strength preserve us from all evil. Free us, Lord, from those who would hate us without cause. Give peace and harmony to us, and to all the inhabitants of the Earth, as you gave them to our fathers, who called upon you with faith and trust."
Clement of Rome, Letter to Corinth, 95 AD
"Double, double toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon’s blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes."
William Shakespeare, Macbeth
“Hell is empty
And all the devils are here.”
William Shakespeare, The Tempest
Stocks had another wild day, ranging down to test the lows, and then rally back to positive gains after the rest of the world had gone to bed for the week. I am not so sure that we are done with this. The lack of conviction in the buying is palpable.
I am not sure where this short term correction will go. I did say it was coming as a reaction to a blow off top. No matter what happens in the short term, I think unless we get a cleansing of the system and some meaningful financial reform that we will see something that will be remembered as 'a crash' once again, as we had seen in 1997, 2001, and 2008.
And this next one is likely to be of an even greater magnitude, as each of the prior financial collapses have been. And I am concerned that the next one is going to leave a tear in the social fabric, and the balances in the global relations and economics. People will only take so much. And the reaction of the status quo will set the tone and theme for where it goes from there, and how deeply.
Gold and silver continued to slide sideways, with each rally attempt being firmly pushed down to what looks like a long trading range. The physical inventories of gold offered for delivery in the Comex warehouses is once again getting a bit lean.
The Dollar managed to rally just a little bit higher. It has worked off its deeply oversold condition now.
Next week we will be getting quite a bit of economic data, including the PPI and CPI, and Import and Export Prices. This may tend to affect the markets, and their recent epiphany about higher interest rates— or not.
Devils' Hands in Hell, Rong Khun Temple, Thailand
The Congress critters never cease to amaze. After having recently slashed taxes for the wealthiest few, and increased military spending while once again forbidding the government from negotiating cheaper prices with Big Pharma, the campaign has already started to cut Medicaid and Medicare in order to make up for the deficits.
They are certainly not shy about being hypocrites, and not too lazy to steal from the weak and the disadvantaged. All these things are for the benefit of the powerful and the wealthy, whom it is that they serve. It would have been better if they had never been born, than to betray their oaths and sacred trusts. And you would spend an eternity with these?
The weather is hard on all of God's creatures, but especially the least of these. Please remember to care for them. It may help to open your minds and hearts, making you into a more attractive and happier person. Or at least less miserable. And in the end to save your life.
For until we look with pity and love on the unfortunate we cannot see God, who comes to us quietly, in order to save us, through the overlooked and the despised. And so the worldly and the proud do not see Him, and are consumed by themselves.
Let us pray for those whose hearts are hardened against His grace and loving kindness by greed, fear, and pride, and the seductive illusion and crushing isolation of evil.
We pray that we all may experience the three great gifts of our Lord's suffering and triumph: repentance, forgiveness, and thankfulness. And in so doing, may we obtain abundant life, and with it the peace that surpasses all understanding.
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