As gold once again breaks the psychologically important barrier of $1,000 an ounce, all the pundits are wondering if it will last.

The Economist magazine, in a column wryly titled “Pangloss Revisited”, notes that “The average deficit over the next decade in now expect to be 5.1% of GDP, compared with an average of 4% in the original budget”, and that even in the last year of the forecast, 2019, the budget deficit is supposed to be 5% of GDP! Wow!

“If gold is ‘past its day’, what of toxic derivatives and today’s deluge of US Treasury bonds…?” Just like poor Pip Dickens’ Great Expectations, central banks keep inheriting unwelcome bequests.

Currencies adrift all day yesterday…Data prints begin today with Productivity…Stop to think! Chinese data is impressive…And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

At least something good has come out of the economic crisis; it blew off the purple robes that clothed economists and exposed their naked flanks. Still, they don’t deserve the beating they’re getting in the press – with snide remarks and sarcastic comments; they deserve better. A beating with sticks!

Total Fed Credit went down by $9.6 billion last week, which is, in comparison to their wild excesses of late, not that much, and certainly nothing to get excited about. Sort of like how my boss is unimpressed that she only got one letter last week, instead of the usual five, from disgruntled customers complaining about how I called them “morons” because they were not buying gold and silver in response to the government acting like monetary and fiscal idiots.

‘Committee to Save the World’ Fails Twice! It was 10 years ago this month that Time magazine gave us the Committee to Save the World:

This week’s prestigious Mogambo Award For The Best Sardonic Laugh (MAFTBSL) was provided by Nicoles Michas of the Sparks Report, who suggested that “deflation hawks” love inflation and the sound of hungry children crying, people baking in the heat or shivering in the cold, and these horrible people want lower interest rates and higher inflation since they “don’t see any upward significant price pressures beyond food and energy.” Hahaha!

Rejoice! The credit crisis is over. Sort of… maybe.

Could America be headed for a replay of the 1970s? More specifically, could America’s much-feted president wind up as the next Jimmy Carter?