“You’ve got to try the crab cakes,” I told Steve McDonald. “I live in Baltimore. Why the hell would I come to Florida for crab cakes?”  We had just concluded a full day of meetings for the Investor’s Daily Edge quarterly editors’ conference and were taking our seats around the table at Dada, one of the finer establishments in Delray Beach.

I have studied inflation’s effect on economies and consider myself an expert on the subject. I have written extensively on the subject and have given speeches on how people can protect themselves from the coming boom in inflation. Recently, on eBay I purchased a bunch of authentic 100 trillion dollar bank notes from Zimbabwe for a few dollars each.

It’s time to roll up our sleeves, put on our waders and plunge into the inflation-deflation question once again. It’s going to get messy. But it’s probably the most important question to answer for investors right now. That’s because the price direction of almost every asset on the planet depends on these monetary forces.

BOE to cut rates today…  ECB will wait to cut for now…  Black clouds forming for India?  German factory Orders Plunge! And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Despite the chaos on Wall Street, the Fed yesterday left its benchmark interest rate on hold at 2%.

Martin Hutchinson says the Fed has finally starting doing its job: putting price stability over Wall Street’s demands. Real interest rates are negative. This is feeding inflation. It also means Treasury bond yields – also currently below the rate of inflation – are too low and should begin to rise again.

Martin says investors can profit from this situation with the Rydex Juno Inverse Government Long Bond Strategy (MUTF:RYJUX).

Gold and silver prices ambled aimlessly all through Far East and European trading on Thursday. The real action began moments after the Comex opened in New York, where explosive rallies in both metals were capped by the not-for-profit sellers barely after they got started…and that was it for the day.

American consumers are feeling the pain both at the pump and in the grocery store. Meanwhile with real full-time unemployment rates climbing towards 10%, penny-pinching consumers are wondering just who is to blame.

Editor’s Note: “Don’t look now… but the BRICs are falling,” says The Sovereign Soceity’s global investment expert Mike Burnick.

Fisher talks tough… GDP revision today… A$ remains resilient… Norges Bank keeps rates unchanged… Sounding Like A Hawk…