Reading the obituaries is such a delight. First, it is a relief when you find your name not mentioned. Then, it is a joy when you find those that are. Not that we wish to see any man’s name on the roll of the dead; still, the final audits are always the most revealing. Here on the back page, we admire honest scalawags…and learn from them. Thus was our attention drawn to Mr. Omar Bongo’s exit from the mortal stage on June 8th.

Foreign central banks, proving that they are just as stupid and corrupt as I thought they were, continue to buy American Treasury and agency debt with both hands, and their holdings stashed at the Fed jumped a big $26 billion last week as a result!

Last weekend, we journeyed to Boston to attend a college graduation. Thousands of callow scholars were on display. Each was handed his papers…and then marched out of the hockey stadium. To the tune of ‘Pomp & Circumstance,’ wearing a long, red robe, he entered the outside world solemnly…like a patsy joining a poker game.

Maybe the fact that central banks, banks and governments around the world are acting like monetary idiots explains why gold is shooting up in price; or maybe that it is going up in price explains why there is such a new interest in gold; or maybe it just explains why people are as disrespectful of the dollar, as am I.

Carry trades unwind…Euro zone GDP falls…Will TIC flows be enough?? Aussie dollar predicted to outperform…And Now…Today’s Pfennig!

John Stepek at Money Morning notes that Neils C. Jensen, in The Absolute Return Letter, reports that “using IMF statistics drawn from previous banking crises…the 12 most industrialised countries (including the US, UK and Japan) could need to issue a total of $33 trillion in debt to cover the costs of the crisis. And that’s not even a worst-case scenario – that’s based on the average rise in public debt in the three years following a banking crisis.”

Simple question: how do you invest during an inflationary boom? Today, some concrete ideas. And the simplest idea of them all-when you consider soaring government deficits-is to sell government bonds and buy beaten down, world-class equity.

Debt prices plummet, dollar gains… U.S. stocks fall on profit-taking but rise in Europe…  Dollar at 3-week high vs euro on hopes for stimulus plan… Oil gains as Gaza fighting raises Mideast supply worries.