“Each central bank...sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world.”
Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope, p. 278
"Of course, convergence of finance and monopoly capitalism with monopoly communism was always the long-range goal of the Money Power, as William Gladstone called them...
The conflict between the East and West was designed to scare the people of the world into accepting a convergence of these two monopoly systems of authoritarian power. The end result was to be a new Imperial Order and a New World Empire run by an elite self-perpetuating oligarchies from the leading nations of the earth."
Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope, p. 860
Crazy, huh? Quigley was a professor of history at Georgetown University, and was a mentor to Bill Clinton, having recommended him for his Rhodes scholarship.
It seems a bit less crazy today than it did when I first read this in the 1990's.
Speaking of quotes, this particular quote came to mind today as I thought about the metals markets.
“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.”
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Why the big show of control over the markets? It is fairly obvious if you watch the daily action on the tape.
I *think* that the financial system is quietly unraveling behind the scenes again, and that at some point this great complacency is going to break, and hard. But the gaming will continue until something provokes a change in the short term equilibrium, which I believe is false.
I will not be surprised to see a final big move to run the stops to the downside, and take additional shares and units of paper claims before the markets break free.
