Total Fed Credit went down by $9.6 billion last week, which is, in comparison to their wild excesses of late, not that much, and certainly nothing to get excited about. Sort of like how my boss is unimpressed that she only got one letter last week, instead of the usual five, from disgruntled customers complaining about how I called them “morons” because they were not buying gold and silver in response to the government acting like monetary and fiscal idiots.

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.

Information Clearing House started off a recent issue with quote from Kenneth Gerbino, who is referred to as “former chairman of the American Economic Council”, who notes, “Historically, the United States has been a hard money country. Only [since 1913] has the United States operated on a fiat money system. During this period, paper money has depreciated over 87%.”

The $800 billion bailout, and billions more being pumped less obviously into the global economy, will cure nothing. Americans are clamoring for a savior. No one is willing to believe that the party is over. In the past, someone always came to our rescue.

When the gold standard was abandoned and fiat money became the only game in town, the economy may have been set up to take a huge fall. Can human beings really be so bold as to think they can control the value and worth of a country’s money?

For weeks at ContrarianProfits.com we’ve been warning that the Fed-inspired optimism on Wall Street would have to eventually have to face the reality of Corporate America’s earnings.

And today reality has bitten hard. US stocks fell with a loud thud following missed earnings from industrial behemoth General Electric, whose dismal earnings report casting a gloomy light on upcoming profit reports.

According to Dow Jones MarketWatch, the Dow Jones industrials shed 148.59 points to 12,433.39, with 25 of its 30 components trading in the red.