“Oh where is the noble face of modesty, or the strength of virtue, now that blasphemy is in power and men have put justice behind them, and there is no law but lawlessness, and none join in fear of the gods?”
Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis
“In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. ... Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow.
The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.”
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
Apparently the Fed is investigating the manner in which Goldman was able to utterly evade their wonderful compliance oversight in executing a multi-billion dollar scam in Malaysia. The Fed is now concerned because the Malaysians are demanding their money back!
And on another front, Deutsche Bank has been caught with their hand in the cookie jar (again) for major money laundering activity, over a long period of time.
As a bad regulator the Fed makes up by being a bad forecaster as well.
One cannot blame those who think that the Banks, already established as serial felons, are little different from global crime cartels who seems to constantly evade justice, except for fines which they view as just a cost of doing very profitable and illicit business.
They are the real 'Teflon Cons.'
Traders cast aside their fears of higher interest rates and of an escalating trade dispute between the US and China today.
And so the major stock indices in the US went out at the highs.
Gold and silver were a bit weaker as the Dollar strengthened against most major currencies.
There will be a meeting between Xi of China and Trump of the US at the G20 meeting tomorrow. The markets are expecting some sort of 'breakthrough', or even words that can hint at or be interpreted as indicating a breakthrough, in the trade tensions between the US and China.
On the gold front we had the uncommon report of deliveries of paper claims on gold at the NY Comex, which is remarkable given that not much has been happening there for quite some time now.
HSBC was a major supplier of contracts, with the biggest taker being the house account at Goldman. I have included the clearing report below.
On the related inventory report you can see that HSBC moved a chunk of gold from the 'eligible' to 'deliverable' category to cover this transaction.
There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report for November next week. I have included the economic calendars below.
Dolly was very spiffy in her freshly cleaned snowflake sweater today. She watched me put up the Christmas lights outside. Hard to believe that Christmas is just around the corned.
Need little, want less, love more. For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.
Have a pleasant weekend.
