If you want to know what kind of monetary morons we have in charge of the Federal Reserve, then you have come to the right place, because a record of sorts was set last week, in that the loathsome, disastrous Federal Reserve bought up – in the last 12 short months – $1.011 trillion in US government securities! Yikes!

The price of gold has had a solid triple since about 2001, when an ounce would set you back a mere $300 or so. (Remember that? Oh, the good old days!) For the past year or so, however, gold has been stuck, trading in the $900-980 range. It goes up a bit, down a bit.

Even as investors get more and more bullish about the outlook for the U.S. economy, the economy’s underlying foundation continues to erode.

Comes word this morning that the China State Construction Engineering company has gone public. It’s the biggest public offering – at $7.3 billion – in more than a year. It’s also China’s biggest homebuilder. And as soon as the shares hit the market yesterday they soared… closing 56% higher than the IPO price. At that price, it trades at about 40 times forecast 2009 earnings.

China turns it up another notch… now “concerned about the security” of U.S. investments… Chris Mayer tells the “story of today’s economy”… Mainstream celebrates latest home price index… our perceptive on the housing “recovery”… Three market sectors currently detached from reality… The truth emerges… why Ben Bernanke really bailed out Wall Street…

Here it comes, slowly but surely: “We sincerely hope the U.S. fiscal deficit will be reduced, year after year,” China’s Assistant Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said overnight after talks with Treasury Secretary Geithner. Could he lay it out any more clearly than this?

The luck of one generation is the curse of the next.

Back in December, with the U.S. recession in its 12th month – and showing no signs of abating – Money Morning Contributing Editor Martin Hutchinson warned that an “L”-shaped recession was very possible.

The housing market disaster is looking like a house of pain these days.

Martin Denholm of the Smart Profits Report shows us where to find the profits in the wreckage.

Feel like getting angry? Treasury publishes latest debt/deficit details… But Fed now encouraged to intervene more… latest data show historic inflation drop… How to invest accordingly? Burritt on near-term trading, Grantham on the long haul… Byron King explains why $40 oil is “worst of both worlds”… Bill Jenkins explains the dollar’s recent downturn… Plus, the Dububble expands… refrigerated beaches on UAE shores…