We aren’t scared of the peaks – what we are nervous about are the valleys…all the Fed’s hard work can be undone by a single day of trading… The global oil crunch…consumer confidence is out of gas as well – thank goodness for those rebate checks… The anniversary of the “Esperanto Money”…in central banking, the consequence of inertia and inactivity is almost always salutary…and more!

Consumer spending – the driving force behind the U.S. economy – slowed in April. Soaring prices wiped out any benefit from the scant 0.2% increase in consumer spending in April, the Commerce Department announced.

We’ve got a lot to remember and a lot to reckon with on this Memorial Day…the richest man in the world travels to Europe to seek out better investments…The Oracle of Omaha could write for The Daily Reckoning…putting the squeeze on the American family… Checking in on Cuba…and more!

As crude oil prices smash the $135-a-barrel barrier for the first time, Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia say they will take action to protect their state-owned oil companies.

“If oil prices keep going up, it is simply not in any country’s best interest to keep subsidizing these prices indefinitely,” says Peter Gastreich, a UBS oil and gas analyst, in the Financial Times.

Liquid coal — synthetic fuel produced from coal — could make a big dent in the Defense Department’s energy bill, as it struggles to find alternatives to sky-high crude oil prices.

This from The Wall Street Journal:

With oil’s multi-year ascent showing no signs of stopping — crude futures set another record Tuesday, closing at $129.07 a barrel in New York trading — energy security has emerged as a major concern for the Pentagon.

Something very unusual is happening in the oil markets… and it’ll keep the oil price way above $100 for the rest of year.

Falling confidence, weak dollar, wasting employment, backtracking GDP… many things point to a recession, but it’s certainly an odd one.

Forgive junior miners for despairing. Even encouraging news on future production seems to have no real impact on share prices.

Spring sunshine may have arrived but the mood is still winter. The Anglo-Saxon consumer is at a low point. In the US consumer confidence is at a 26-year low says Morgan Stanley’s David Darst. And in the UK it hit an all time low point in April says the Nationwide building society.

Hillary Clinton still believes a gas tax holiday is good way of easing American’s pain at the pump despite criticism leveled at the idea. Many believe the initiative comes down to political pandering and that the only beneficiaries of the proposed federal gas tax break would be politicians and oil companies.

According to the The Guardian newspaper: “The gasoline tax holiday has emerged as a policy distinction between the two candidates, and Clinton in recent days has promoted it in an effort to win over working-class voters hard hit by rising fuel prices. Obama dismisses the idea as an unworkable political pandering.”