Image Source: UnsplashYet another interesting day in the risk markets, as stocks dropped sharply earlier in the day, but then gradually rallied in the quiet of the afternoon, to close unchanged or even positive.Hardly anyone talks about it anymore, but as far as I can tell the Exchange Stabilization Fund, colloquially known as The Plunge Protection Team,  is still functioning in secret with little to no oversight as to its criteria for action.The Fed and the Machine are throwing around huge amounts of money in a very sloppily regulated financial system, so the sources of certain things are hidden, or at best obscure.Gold and silver rallied a bit, but were held back once again. They rally in Asia, and are dampened in London and New York.VIX rose sharply and then fell, consistent with the adjustments in the risk markets as the day wore on.The Dollar dropped quite a bit, as it vacillates around.The disastrous foreign policy of the US is alienating a significant portion of the global economy, with a few powerful entities reacting badly to what they perceive as ‘bullying.’Well, it’s fair to say that there are a number of key factors that seem to show a divergence in the future paths of the different principalities and powers. It will be interesting to see how this resolves, in what surely will be looked back upon as an historic period of transition from a unipolar to multipolar world.But as it goes, the biggest risk is not the geopolitical, or the social, but the personal, with regard to our ability to remain standing as a moral human being, in an increasingly hysterical and hostile environment characterized by ruthless lawlessness exercised by sociopaths and marginally contained psychopaths. But this is a familiar pattern in history.  We read about it, but do not expect it in our own case.In the end, our standing as a moral human being is the only thing to which we will be held account, and therefore the only thing that truly matters— and what it is all about.Our faith is purified in the crucible of trials and temptations.Have a pleasant evening.More By This Author:Stocks And Precious Metals Charts – FOMC And NFP Next WeekStocks And Precious Metals Charts – PCE Inflation Data Tomorrow Stocks and Precious Metals Charts – ‘Flight To Safety’