The consequences of the Fed’s bailout strategy for banks are beginning to be felt, says Bill Bonner in The Daily Reckoning. You see, Wall Street is not the only place feeling the pinch. The big three automakers in Detroit have watched in horror this year as soaring gas prices crippled sales of big trucks. Now they need cash, and figure they should be entitled to some pocket money from Bernanke & Co too. More from Bill…

You don’t have to look to obscure charts to know that gold price manipulation is happening, says Jon Herring in Investor’s Daily Edge.

Alan Greenspan gave the game away before Congress when he said, “central banks stand ready to lease gold in increasing quantities should the price rise.” He was telling Congress that the leasing of central bank gold was to suppress the price of gold, not to earn money on a dead asset, as officially stated.

This manipulation, plus reported shortages in physical gold, means the yellow metal represents extreme value right now.

The FDIC’s list of bank failures welcomed a new recruit as Kansas’ Columbian Bank & Trust Co. collapsed last weekend. And now the number of “problem” banks in the U.S. has jumped to 117, up from 90 in March. As always, we’ll show you how to profit from this circumstance in addition to our ongoing coverage of the conflict in Eastern Europe and the current state of the energy market.

Money Morning’s William Patalon III says comments by Ben Bernanke at the end of the week show he continues to prioritise economic growth over inflation. This means no rate hikes in the near future. But despite falling commodity prices, William says the threat of stagflation is growing…

What a day it was! Shortly after Sydney opened, and for no reason that most people would understand, the bids just disappeared in gold and silver.