"Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all."
Edmund Burke
“The powers of financial capitalism had a far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences."
Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope
"The transnational corporations and the money markets have declared the era of human-designed regulations over. Now the market must reign. Because few people in the business community are paid to think about phrases such as 'western civilization,' they don't seem to realize that they are proposing the arbitrary denial of 2,500 years of human experience.
Ever since the democratic systems permitted their various courts to give corporations the status of persons, the individual as citizen has been on the defensive. How could it be otherwise? If you are a person before the law and Exxon or Ford is also a person, it is clear that the concept of democratic legitimacy lying with the individual has been mortally wounded.
If allowed to run free of the social system, capitalism will attempt to corrupt and undermine democracy, which is, after all, not a natural state.
It could be argued that we are now in the midst of a
coup d’état in slow motion. Democracy is weakening; few people would disagree. Corporatism is strengthening; you only have to look around you. Yet none of us has chosen this route for our society, in spite of which our elites quite happily continue down it. Certainly corporatism is creating a conformist society. It is a modern form of feudalism.
Capitalism was reasonably content under Hitler, happy under Mussolini, very happy under Franco and delirious under General Pinochet."
John Ralston Saul
Stocks were off to the races today, after yesterday's sharp decline.
Wash - rinse - repeat.
Gold and silver rallied, which is a bit of a divergence of its recent inverse correlation with risk assets.
The Dollar chopped sideways, but finished slightly higher.
The VIX continued to decline as trading with risk becomes more complacent.
So why the divergence with the precious metals?
Let's keep in mind that Monday the 28th is a fairly important option expiration for the April futures contract on the Comex.
So let's see what happens, especially in light of the fluid geopolitical risks.
Have a pleasant evening.
