Brother, can you spare half a million? Your family’s (new and improved) share of U.S. debt… GM officially kaput… the dirty details and a brief rant, below… Markets hit a critical “pivot point,” says Rob Parenteau… The one number from China that’s boosting stocks, commodities and currencies today… Plus, two good reasons to buy a precious metal… especially silver

Bonds down. Gold up $17. Someone seems to think there is a whiff of inflation in the air. Sniff…sniff….

It’s unfortunate that the U.S. Supreme Court, in its ruling last week that U.S. currency is unfair to the blind, did not make the next logical step and declare it unfair to everyone who buys gasoline.

This week we heard two ex-Fed Chairmen weigh in on the credit crisis – one of them a giant; the other a pygmy. Paul Volcker, the first of the two, is a giant in both the literal and figurative sense. By way of the yard stick, Mr. Volcker stands 6 feet 8. He stands even taller in terms of reputation. If ever there existed a Fed head willing to “take away the punch bowl,” it was he.