Two years into our “Great Recession” (or “Greater Depression,” depending on who you talk to) gold is selling for $944 an ounce. But back in 1980 – against the backdrop of double-digit inflation in America and a prolonged economic stagnation – gold reached a peak of $850. That’s the equivalent to about $1,900 in today’s money.

Commodities prices are surging. World white sugar prices reached record levels on Aug. 10, largely because of booming demand in India where the government has lifted a ban on imports.

On Wednesday we warned readers of a coming blow-up of the Chinese economy, calling it a “tinderbox waiting to catch a fire.” The problem, of course, is that the US is not the only country hell bent on ‘stimulating’ its economy back to life. Communist China is at it too!

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?

You can’t go back. So don’t assume that as the U.S. and the West recovers, they’ll attract foreign capital just like they did before the recession. It’s a far different landscape now. The easy-credit bubbles are gone. And they’ve left us with a hellacious debt burden.

With the global economy on the mend, could gold be gearing up for another record-setting run? It sure looks that way. 

This is an eye-opener. Whenever I talk about the Great Depression and compare it with what is going on today, I get a lot of skepticism. I hear a lot of people say, definitively, “This isn’t as bad as the Great Depression.”

World Bank President to G8: Economy Still Dangerous; Service Sector Improves for Third Straight Month; Rio Sells Packaging Business to Bemis for $1.2 Billion; Crude Prices Drop Again; Report: Bank of America Writeoffs to Rise; Brazil’s Credit Rating Could Increase; DOJ Investigating Telecoms; Father of Web Browser Starts New Tech Venture Capital Firm

I was surprised that Barron’s reported that the banks show their Total Reserves fell from $896 billion to $848 billion,which is a simple math problem that seems custom-made for my abilities in that regard.