The moment of truth is approaching for the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT). As interest rates nudge upwards, the price of these long-term government bonds have been falling.

The Federal Reserve is puzzled. So are we. The Fed is puzzled that Treasury bond yields are soaring. We are puzzled that the Fed is puzzled. Of course bond yields are soaring! Why wouldn’t they be?

Another Treasury auction today… Spending habits come back to haunt reps…Some healing in the currencies…10 Banks to repay TARP today…And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Chinese business and social culture are generally very subdued and conservative… and above all, respectful. But students at Peking University in Beijing just couldn’t help themselves this week.

While the market surges and the herd stumbles around trying to decide if this 30% run in the market is real, there is another scenario unfolding that could very well be the single biggest driving force in our economy and the rest of the world.

The US stock market is enjoying one of those delightful episodes when all news is good news. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 221 points yesterday to 8,721 – lifting the Blue Chip index to within a whisker of a positive year-to-date performance.

GM’s Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and the US Governments International relations

We keep having bad dreams about all the phony money central banks are creating to ‘fix’ the economy. This is not a figure of speech. We are actually having nightmares about this. We wake up in cold sweats.

The ratio of the US budget deficit to GDP is at the highest it’s been at any point since World War II. Except there are no Nazis to fight. The only war going on is Team Obama’s war against capitalism.

Underground investor David Fessler, writing at Investment U, says the four best hedges against inflation are gold, inflation-adjusted Treasuries, energy stocks and commodities such as wheat, metals, cattle and fertilizer.