“Work eight hours and sleep eight hours and make sure that they are not the same hours.”

– T. Boone Pickens

Gold and silver prices climbed to their highest in seven weeks on Monday, as the dollar’s slide to its lowest since mid-December boosted interest in hard assets.

Gold firmed today, Thursday, as weakness in the dollar prompted interest in the precious metal as a currency hedge, with some physical demand after the previous session’s fall also supported prices.

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Federal Reserve policymakers yesterday (Wednesday) reduced the benchmark Federal Funds rate to 1.0%, an aggressive half-percentage-point cut that central bank Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s latest attempt to keep the widening financial crisis from tipping the world into a global recession.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is likely to cut rates tomorrow (Wednesday), possibly in conjunction with central bank counterparts in Europe, as fears of a global recession have intensified. However, the Fed has little room to maneuver as its benchmark Federal Funds rate is already at 2% and analysts remain skeptical that reducing it any further keep the United States from sliding into a prolonged recession.

In 2004, then Treasury Secretary John Snow was traipsing about the globe trying to “talk the dollar down.” Why? In a word: debt. At the time, our debt stood at $7 trillion, with interest payments in fiscal 2003 totaling $318 billion. But now the U.S. national debt stands above $9 trillion, with interest payments in fiscal 2007 adding $1.4 billion a day.

With a wheezing economy that’s struggling with housing and credit problems – as well as a weak dollar – it’s clear the United States won’t be in the investment spotlight this year.

Big Ben signaled to the markets that he was ‘uncomfortable’ with the weakness of the dollar, and the ramifications that a weak dollar has on inflation. He actually blamed the weak dollar on inflation! Whoa there partner! You’re barking up the wrong tree!

The US dollar looks set to make a second straight monthly advance against the yen and euro as gains in stocks showed traders are cautiously optimistic the economy may not slide into recession after all.

“The idea that the Fed will continue to cut rates has been completely put to bed and the market is now flirting with the idea of a rate hike. That has given the dollar a boost,” said Alan Ruskin, head of international currency strategy at RBS Greenwich Capital Markets in Connecticut, in Bloomberg. More from that story: