“It has been more profitable for us to bind together in the wrong direction than to be alone in the right one. Those who have followed the assertive idiot rather than the introspective wise person have passed us some of their genes. This is apparent from a social pathology: psychopaths rally followers.”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan
“The narcissist devours people, consumes their output, and casts the empty, writhing shells aside.”
Sam Vaknin
"Satan’s monomaniac concern with himself and his supposed rights and wrongs is a necessity of the Satanic predicament. Certainly, he has no choice. He has chosen to have no choice. He has wished to ‘be himself,’ and to be in himself and for himself, and his wish has been granted. To admire Satan, then, is to give one’s vote not only for a world of misery, but also for a world of lies and propaganda, of wishful thinking, of incessant autobiography. Yet the choice is possible."
C. S. Lewis
Stocks followed through on the weakness from last week and took a hard trip lower today.
This was a clear flight to safety, as money flowed out of its recent bubble vehicles and sought safer harbors.
Fortunately, at least for now, the SP 500 futures managed to find some footing at key support and rebounded a little from their intraday bottom into the close.
I am watching carefully to see if the two major stock indices that I watch will set a lower low or not.
Gold manged to rally back from the losses of last week.
Silver fell a little in sympathy with its industrial uses component.
The dollar was essentially unchanged.
I did not sense any real panic in the selling today, although the huge increasse in the VIX shows that the pros are buying downside protection with some vigor.
Bubble-vision was pointing fingers at Covid and China the dual scapegoats du jour.
I don't think gold was mentioned much. Mostly there were a series of strategists and pundits assuring us that there is no alternative to holding stocks, come what may.
Let's see how the rest of the week goes, and what the Fed does or does not do in reaction to this market weakness.
Do they ignore the stock market? Are you serious?
Have a pleasant evening.
