Consumer Borrowing Collapses…What’s up with sterling? Option ARMs get ready to reset…Gold falls back to below $1,000…And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Here’s an interesting credit crisis byproduct: The 50 million current Social Security recipients probably won’t see any extra SS income until 2012. In fact, millions on the government dime might see their monthly checks shrink.

Brother, can you spare half a million? Your family’s (new and improved) share of U.S. debt… GM officially kaput… the dirty details and a brief rant, below… Markets hit a critical “pivot point,” says Rob Parenteau… The one number from China that’s boosting stocks, commodities and currencies today… Plus, two good reasons to buy a precious metal… especially silver

One of the effects of the current crisis will be severe cuts in entitlement programs for “the wealthy.” MoneyNews.com reports that anyone making more than $60,000 a year will be refused entitlement payments under new proposals from members of Congress.

Feel like getting angry? Treasury publishes latest debt/deficit details… But Fed now encouraged to intervene more… latest data show historic inflation drop… How to invest accordingly? Burritt on near-term trading, Grantham on the long haul… Byron King explains why $40 oil is “worst of both worlds”… Bill Jenkins explains the dollar’s recent downturn… Plus, the Dububble expands… refrigerated beaches on UAE shores…

I ripped into the Wall Street Journal last week in my blog. In a front-page article, it decried the “downside” of hospitals popping up all over the country at a time when our factories are slowly but surely disappearing.

Gen X wonders if it can ever retire. As Wall Street waits for Citi and Merrill shoes to drop, Goldman issues gloomy forecast. As if write-downs weren’t enough, here comes another $250 billion problem. A 17% first-quarter loss…When hedge funds don’t hedge. Coal prices shoot skyward… The sector ideally positioned to benefit.