"Their heart is false.
Now they will pay for their guilt.
God will bring down their altars
and break their sacred monuments.
For they say,
'We have no king,
Since we do not fear the Lord,
the king — what could he do for us?'
Thorns and thistles will grow on their altars.
Then they will say to the mountains, 'Cover us!'
and to the hills, 'Fall on us!'”
Hosea 10:1-3, 7-8
"We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of the Lord may also be manifested in us. For while we live we are always being given up to death for his sake, so that the life of the Lord may be manifested in our mortal flesh. And so we do not lose heart."
2 Corinthians 4:8-16
“Anyone who wishes to follow me must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. What does it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life? Or what can he give in regain his life?
The Son of Man will come with his angels, in the glory of his Father. And he will repay everyone according to what they have done."
Matthew 16:24-27
"No doubt it is more comfortable to deliberately wear blinkers that prevent one from seeing the evil done in the discharge of their responsibility— to be unwilling to see that one is defending murder and robbery."
Helmuth James Graf von Moltke, Executed, Berlin, 23 January 1945
Powell's reassuring words to the Congress helped to propel the mispricing of risk in the equity markets to new highs.
Tell us what we want to hear. Prophesy illusions.
Gold and silver initially rallied but then were sat on and held to minor gains.
VIX wallows.
CPI data tomorrow, PPI on Friday.
Our election choices this fall have been dictated by the oligarchs as between dementia and demented.
Endless fraud, and endless war.
After the bell:
"Archegos Capital Management founder Sung Kook "Bill" Hwang was convicted of fraud and other charges by a jury in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday at a criminal trial in which prosecutors accused him of market manipulation ahead of the 2021 collapse of his $36 billion private investment firm. The jury found Hwang guilty on 10 of 11 criminal counts and Patrick Halligan, his Archegos deputy and co-defendant, guilty on all three counts he faced."
and,
"U.S. bank regulators fined Citigroup $136 million for failing to make adequate progress fixing data management issues the agencies identified in 2020, the Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday. The joint enforcement action from the Fed and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) relates to 'insufficient progress' Citi has made fixing data management problems and implementing controls to manage that ongoing risk."
Pride and plunder, fraud and the mispricing of risk, are the prevailing themes of the masters of the universe.
"The wealth of another region excites their greed; and if it is weak, their lust for power as well. Nothing from the rising to the setting of the sun is enough for them. Among all others only they are compelled to attack the poor as well as the rich. Plunder, rape, and murder they falsely call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace."
And our leaders praise the servants servants of Moloch, applauding wildly, with innocent blood on ringed hands.
Until the mountains fall on them.
Have a pleasant evening.
