Executives from Detroit’s “Big Three” auto companies – General Motors Corp. (GM), Ford Motor Co. (F), and Chrysler LLC – yesterday (Tuesday) joined Congressional Democrats on Capitol Hill to make the case for an industry-wide bailout that could spare their troubled companies from totally collapsing. Detroit’s bigwigs have been met with considerable resistance so far, but will continue to make their case today and into the New Year.

Job losses begin to accelerate…  Currencies inch higher…  News of the weird…  China announces a stimulus plan!

Retail sales actually went up last month - how is that even possible?…The Beige Book says the U.S. economy is ‘generally weak’… The sky’s the limit for electronic money - but not so for real wealth…America’s money is snapping back… Calling into question the U.S.’s car culture…the next big thing in the search for an energy alternative…and more!

Has Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke suddenly turned into an inflation fighter? To my knowledge, Bernanke has never before stressed the dollar’s decline, the inflationary dangers it poses and his intention to guard against these as much as he did yesterday.

I would love to be a shareholder in this company. It has a superb record… it is highly profitable… it pays a handsome dividend… it has cash in the bank…. and it is a global leader with every chance of growing its business both this year and for several years to come.

In the current monetary system, the supply of money is not constant and the central banks of this world are free to create as much inflation (money-supply growth) as they want. There is a catch - the central banks can only do so as long as they can keep inflationary fears in check by constantly reminding the public of the threat of deflation.

Like the cast of a bad sitcom, the stars of the credit crunch are reuniting.

On Wednesday, neither gold nor silver showed any sort of direction…but they generally drifted lower before the Comex open. Of course the dollar rally didn’t help…but then again, oil was up to almost $124/barrel, so that should have made a difference but it didn’t.

The rally continues, spurred by an RBI credit policy which did not change interest rates but hiked CRR by 25 basis points to suck out some more liquidity and by some encouraging corporate results, such as those of DLF which made a fourth quarter profit of a whopping Rs 2176 crores!

At their two-day meeting that starts today, Tuesday, U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers will have to grapple with a moral choice that is well beyond the pay grade of central bankers - choosing between the financial stability of U.S. homeowners and world hunger.