Juggling Dynamite

Today is my 50th birthday and I find myself grateful to have made it 5 decades, and reflective on how we chose to spend our time on earth. Perhaps we are wise to live with one eye on the present moment and one eye on what others will be able to honestly say about  our value after we are gone.  I am inspired by this insight from Albert Schweitzer, who died in the year I was born:  “Example is not the main thing influencing others. It is the only thing.”

This Tedtalk is on point. Here is a direct video link.

Within each of us are two selves, suggests David Brooks in this meditative short talk: the self who craves success, who builds a résumé, and the self who seeks connection, community, love — the values that make for a great eulogy. (Joseph Soloveitchik has called these selves “Adam I” and “Adam II.”) Brooks asks: Can we balance these two selves?

And so it goes:  following the latest manic episode that began in 2001 and peaked in 2011, gold is now neither desired as a currency nor a commodity. See: Gold prices sink to a 5-year low.

“Investors are selling the metal from gold-backed funds at the fastest pace in four months. Holdings in exchange-traded products declined 17.6 metric tons this week to the lowest since 2009, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Of course it’s not just gold that has disappointed precious metals fans:

Silver for immediate delivery lost 1.41 percent to $14.4684 an ounce after touching the lowest since 2009. It’s also set for a fifth weekly loss.

Palladium fell 0.8 percent to $613.55 an ounce, while platinum was down 0.7 percent at $971.53 an ounce”.

With the price of bullion now below the 1115 to 1135 trading range that had held since 2013 (blue box on right below), there is little holding gold from joining silver at 2009 lows.  And if this is the typical end to the secular boom that was, a break below the 2009 cycle lows is also within reason, as mean reversion round trips previous secular boom gains.

You know you have a completely broken system when politicians supposedly elected to serve the people send letters urging the Department of Labor to stop insisting that financial advisers put the best interests of retirees ahead of their own profits.  See: House panel calls on DOL to withdraw proposed fiduciary rule. At the same time, the Senate Appropriations Committee has included more Wall Street deregulation provisions as part of the FY 2016 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill.

Meanwhile a new report estimates that the 2008 financial crash cost American families alone more than $20 trillion (and counting) in lost jobs, homes, savings, and retirement options, never mind peace and health.

This is what a finance-purchased congress looks like. It should sicken the guts and reinvigorate fair-minded people to demand critical reforms and break ups of the financial cartel now dominating democratic governments everywhere. Those who think this is overstating the issue, are missing the staggering cost we are paying for allowing the finance parasite to continue sapping the strength of households and our economy.

As Better Markets CEO, Dennis Kelleher explained in his testimony before the House Education and the Workforce Committee on June 17, 2015:

“The industry’s complaints boil down to a false choice: either brokers’ get to put their interests above their clients’ best interests, or they won’t serve those clients at all. But the real choice is this: Let the DOL act to protect 100 million workers and retirees across this country, or side with the brokers and other advisers who want to continue putting their interests ahead of their clients’. That’s the real choice. “