Farewell to all the Emperors

Let’s see. Markets (stocks and commodities) rally from horrible lows of March 2009. Most economists switch the party line from “end of the world” to “recovery.” By year-end smugness has returned. There was even a consensus that interest rates will have to move higher. Almost nobody accepts our view that the rally represented a flight out of money. Rather it is/was seen as a harbinger of economic recovery. And now, moving into February 2010, the music has changed.

Sooner or Later, You'll Invest Abroad

Many conventional U.S. brokers are relatively clueless when it comes to gold stocks. If you asked them to name one, chances are it would be a domestic producer, one with assets located primarily in North America. But that's not where the big money will be made over the next decade.

Putin calms Greece, says U.S. debt big too

Russian PM plays down Greece's economic woes, telling his visiting Greek counterpart the U.S. is no better than Greece in handling its debt and fiscal deficit

Bodies found in IRS building hit by plane

A software engineer furious with the Internal Revenue Service launched a suicide attack on the agency Thursday by crashing his small plane into an office building containing nearly 200 IRS employees, setting off a raging fire that sent workers running for their lives.

South Carolina Lawmaker Seeks to Ban Federal Currency

South Carolina Rep. Mike Pitts has introduced legislation that would mandate that gold and silver coins replace federal currency as legal tender in his state.

Big traders face "landmine" in CFTC energy rule

Buried deep in the proposal to set position limits on oil and gas futures is a possible "land mine" that could force the industry's biggest traders to make a stark choice: Keep your hedging exemptions, or keep your speculative book. But you can't keep both.

Why the IMF's supposed gold sales don't mean much

International Monetary Fund announcing that it "shortly" will sell 191 tonnes of gold on general markets, unlike the 212 tonnes it claimed to sell last year directly to India, Sri Lanka, and Mauritius. While the gold price quickly fell $7 or so on the news, there are a few things to remember.