Gold had itself a real seesaw day yesterday, poking about $15 higher by the time New York opened, really taking off and rising as high as $768 in the first hour, but then encountering a steep falloff that dropped it nearly to $740 by noon, after which it edged higher again and leveled off to finish at $744.70, up $10.80 from Friday. Overnight, gold has slipped lower.

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!

While communist China is busy smashing protests in occupied Tibet, the country’s currency, the renminbi, is making record gains agains the US dollar.