Skip to about the 7:45 mark to hear Rick Santelli say, “Central banks have to be petrified about gold going to $2,000! Didn’t Larry Summers write a paper saying that central banks have to keep a lid on the price of gold for obvious reasons?” It keeps getting more and more interesting with nary a hint of the gold price faltering.

Gretchen Morgenson of Clusterstock [Neil Barofsky's report on the AIG bailout is] must reading for any taxpayer hoping to understand why the $182 billion “rescue” of what was once the world’s largest insurer still ranks as the most troubling episode of the financial disaster. And it couldn’t have come at a more pivotal moment… [T]he actions...

Zero Hedge When it comes to the relative value of the dollar, the last decade has been an eerie recreation of the period from 1980 to the mid 90′s. One notable observation is that while the secular bull market starting in 1980, which many are desperately trying to equate the current bear market/liquidity gusher/Keynesian circlejerk rally with,...

The dollar just got the advance Thanksgiving woodshed treatment. In other news, just $12 to go to $1,200/oz.

Congressman Peter Defazio’s proposed bill, “Let Wall Street Pay for the Restoration of Main Street Act of 2009,” is getting attention for the .25% tax it would impose on trades, but it might be difficult to find legislative support for the bill beyond its five co-sponsors. The worry among legislators is that unless a “Wall...

Mad Hedge Fund Trader Featured Trades: (PCY), (LQD), (TOYOTA), (TM), (BEN BERNANKE) 1)I spent an evening chewing the fat with James Lentz, the president of Toyota Motor Sales, USA, (TM) who let loose some incredibly insightful views on the long term future of the global economy. I have been following Toyota for 35 years, hobnobbing with senior management,...

Courtesy of Phil’s Stock World Over $1.50 for the Euro this morning! The Pound ran up to $1.675 and, as soon as the Nikkei closed (up 40 points), the dollar dove to just 87.5 Yen.  That sent gold flying up to $1,180, copper to $3.18 and silver to $18.80 but oil couldn’t get back over $76.50, which is strange because the last time the dollar...

John Carney of Business Insider Shares of Bank of America were down slightly today but activity in the options market indicates that long-term bulls are unshaken. Could this be a play on the possible nomination of a new CEO tomorrow? Phil of Phil’s Stock World (incidentally, one of the best options blogs around) reports: Long-term Bank of America...

CalculatedRisk From the BEA: Personal Income and Outlays, October 2009 Personal income increased $30.1 billion, or 0.2 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI) increased $45.7 billion, or 0.4 percent, in October, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $68.3 billion, or 0.7 percent. … Real...

MISH Case Shiller housing data for September came out today and Home Prices Rose For 4th Consecutive Month. Home prices in 20 U.S. cities rose for a fourth straight month in September, pointing to improvement in real estate that’s helping the economy emerge from recession. The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index increased 0.27 percent from the...

Evan Lazarus of T3Live.com Recently we have highlighted the continued surge of strength in big cap tech, but we also think it’s important to take note of the significantly bearish-looking patterns (not to mention the eerily similar looks) that have developed in the two “healthy investment banks”–GS and MS. Both charts have formed...

Vincent Fernando of Money Game Seasonally-adjusted initital jobless claims fell 35,000 from last week to 466,000. Yet they rose 68,080 on an unadjusted basis. This basically means they rose less than normal for this time of year. Department of Labor: The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Nov. 7 were in Puerto Rico (6.2 percent),...

AC Investor ( click to enlarge ) CTIC had a nice surge a few days ago and has been consolidating that move since then.The stock is displaying upside momentum and is poised to move higher from these levels. Nearest resistance for the stock is at $1.14. If this level is crossed and the stock is able to sustain above this level, then it might go to $1.205....

Elliot Turner of T3Live.com With the market chopping around just below move highs and an abundance of divergences popping up across the board, I thought it would be an interesting time to take a look at volatility. Intraday traders prosper in volatile markets and tend to struggle in an inconsistent, low vol environment. Whereas over the past two years...

Joe Weisenthal of Money Game Home prices fell 9.4% in September, according to the widely-respected S&P/Case-Shiller housing index. Analysts had been looking for a 9.1% decline, so this is a bit worse than expected. On a sequential basis, home prices rose .3%, again, a bit worse than the .8% analysts had been looking for. The market is now back to...