"The suspicions that the system is rigged in favor of the largest banks and their elites, so they play by their own set of rules to the disfavor of the taxpayers who funded their bailout, are true. It really happened. These suspicions are valid.”
Neil Barofsky, TARP Inspector General
"We didn't truly know the dangers of the market, because it was a dark market," says Brooksley Born, the head of an obscure federal regulatory agency — the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] — who not only warned of the potential for economic meltdown in the late 1990s, but also tried to convince the country's key economic powerbrokers to take actions that could have helped avert the crisis. 'They were totally opposed to it,' Born says. 'That puzzled me. What was it that was in this market that had to be hidden?'"
PBS Frontine, The Warning
What was hidden was the massive mispricing of risk in a pervasive fraud.
And it was wrapped in a massive web of lies and deception by those who profited from it, and from their enablers in the status quo. As Jamie Galbraith said of economics, it was shown to be a 'disgraced profession'. But it was surely not alone among the professionals.
It will be a hard judgement for those who abuse their oaths of office and positions of authority in order to gain some advantages, by deception, for themselves.
Stocks attempted to rally up today, but ended going out on the lows of the day.
The bond market continued to rally in what appears to be a clear 'flight to safety.'
The Dollar also rallied today.
The muppets and spokesmodels were overtaken with confusion, given the high customer confidence reading this morning, and the wonderful economic conditions that they seem to be enjoying.
Consumer confidence does not lead— it lags. And in times of general deceit and delusion, it can lag rather badly.
Gold did not rally today, and silver was driven lower.
Part of this is because the paper market in NY continues to set the price for the world, or at least heavily influence it during its time of the day.
A discerning eye notes that the number of ounces of gold declared to be deliverable on the Comex at these prices has dropped below 200,000 ounces.
Today was the end of trading and the settlement for gold and silver options for May.
June is an active contract month for gold. So after the Non-Farm Payrolls report we may wish to hold on to our hats.
People seem to be embraced their deceptions every more tightly, even as they slip closer into an abyss of consequence.
Please do not allow yourself to be blinded by some ideology, or misplaced loyalty to some corrupted popular figure or belief. I realize this will fall largely on deaf ears, but we have to make the effort, if only to save ourselves from joining in.
Have a pleasant evening.
