America may be banged up, but Europe is teetering on the edge of flat-out fiscal disaster… which helps explain the bizarre action in gold and the dollar as of late.

What will Paulson say?   Dollar remains well bid…   How long for Safe Haven buyers?   G-20 Schmee 20! And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

t’s official, for what it’s worth. Both Europe and Japan are in recession. The Eurozone contracted by 0.2% for the second straight quarter. Germany (the largest economy in Europe) and Italy (fourth largest) both shrank in the third quarter. Japan’s economy-the world’s second largest-shrank by almost half a percentage point in the third quarter.