After peaking at over $1,000 an ounce in March, gold fell as low as $750 in September. Yesterday, an ounce touched $911 an ounce in New York.

Jeff Clark says this could be the buying opportunity of a lifetime. The Fed and US Treasury are flooding financial markets with trillions of dollars. This will eventually send inflation soaring and the greenback into a nosedive. And that’s when gold prices will skyrocket.

If gold returns to its 1980 inflation-adjusted level, it could mean a spot price upwards of $5,000 by 2012.

The feds are pulling out all the stops to end the rout in financial markets. On top of the Hank Paulson’s pork-laden bailout bill, the Fed is pumping hundreds of billions into the global financial system. It has even started buying up short-term commercial paper.

Today, the Fed joined other major central banks in a surprise and unprecedented coordinated rate cut. Still, US stocks open sharply lower.

William Patalon III says the Americans “have less money to spend … and are spending more for less.” He gives three reasons why the US is plunging into recession.

Dan Denning says the bailout bill that just passed Congress is a recipe for “massive inflation.” In 1931, during the Great Depression, it was a different story. Back then, treasury secretary Andrew Mellon told Herbert Hoover: “Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate. Purge the rottenness out of the system.”

Consumer spending was flat in the US in August. Adam Lass says this zero means more than the much-hyped $700 billion figure currently grabbing the headlines.

The bottom line is consumers are running scared, and that is bad news for retailers and manufacturers.

Adam says Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR) and Sherwin-Williams (NYSE:SHW) are in for a particularly rough ride. Even ’safe’ stocks such as Sears (NASDAQ:SHLD) or Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS) could seriously hurt your portfolio in the coming months.

US economic data releases make grim reading these days. Jobless claims hit their highest level for seven years in September. US factory orders tumbled 4% in August.

MarketWatch says recent data “make it all but certain that the academic economists will eventually declare that the economy is in a recession.”

Charles Delvalle says we are in a deflationary cycle that will only get worse as more credit is sucked out of the financial system. He recommends high-yielding corporate bonds for investors looking to avoid the stock market gloom.

The biggest financial bailout in history hangs in the balance today as House Republicans and Democrats lock horns over the small print.

Keith Fitz-Gerald says the political posturing and wrangling over the plan distracts from the key financial issues. Can America afford a $700 billion rescue package?

Keith says investors need to understand three keys points. A bailout will cause national debt to climb, the US inflation rate to soar and the US dollar to tank. Bottom line: Investors need to go overseas for growth and profits in the foreseeable future.

Gold prices have fluctuated wildly in the last week as jittery investors reacted to the meltdown in the financial markets and the government’s bailout proposals. Ed Bugos says gold’s fundamentals remain strong, however. He says the recent correction was a mistake by the market and that the outlook for rising inflation and a tumbling dollar makes a strong case for gold. Ed says investors should take advantage of short-term price dips to buy the shiny metal on the cheap.

Hank Paulson’s bailout strategy will almost certainly cost $1 trillion or more. Bloomberg reports it will increase national debt by 6.6% to $11.3 trillion. Bill Bonner says US policy makers will eventually have no choice but to inflate away this debt. And this is when physical gold becomes worth much more than paper money… and even gold ETFs

Make no mistake: we are in uncharted territory. Hank Paulson wants $700 billion of taxpayer’s money to buy up bad debt and ‘rescue’ the markets. Some lawmakers strongly opposed to the plan.

“The free market for all intents and purposes is dead in America,” said Senator Jim Bunning, Republican of Kentucky, on Friday.

Justice Litle says the plan is a minefield for investors. He says there are five things you need to know about the government bailout and what it means for your portfolio.

At the end of last month, Charles Delvalle at Investor’s Daily Edge said what we’re getting ready to see is not inflation at all… but deflation. That’s because in July the money supply grew under the rate of inflation. In real terms, that means the money supply shrank. Charles says data now suggests shrinking money supply is putting the brakes on inflation.