Tim Iacono Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is clearly winning his war against savers as the freakishly low interest rates mandated by the central bank combined with a weak economy here in the U.S. are making it either impracticable or impossible for many Americans to maintain even a tiny amount of cash set aside for a rainy day. According to a survey by...

  Cross Currency Table – (Bloomberg) GoldSeek posted Tuesday, 21 February 2012 Gold’s London AM fix this morning was USD 1,737.00, EUR 1,313.12, and GBP 1,097.98 per ounce. Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,729.50, EUR 1,307.36, and GBP 1,090.82 per ounce. Gold rose to its highest in a week today after euro zone policymakers sealed an agreement...

Do you know what the #1 most-missed trading opportunity is today? If you don’t, then you’re missing out on some of the most exciting returns available to individual traders today. What is it? I’ll give you three hints: Hint #1: It’s delivering some of the biggest, fastest gains anywhere. I’m talking about 280% in 14 days… 642% in...

Short of saving Greece from a financial abyss, investment advisor Patrick Young is one of those who thinks the country’s supposed salvation at the hands of the EU will leave it more or less powerless.

Tim Iacono We hear a lot about the shale oil boom in this part of the country where, to the surprise of many coming in from out-of-town, gasoline prices are relatively inexpensive at around $3 a gallon (see this item from last week and GasBuddy’s heat map for more on this). This Globe & Mail story about the shale oil boom (that also extends...

The U.S. new sanctions initiative, strongly supported by Israel, to impose new sanctions against Iran, is designed to punish it for its purported covert nuclear weapons program by imposing new restrictions on Tehran. As a result, many of Iran’s oil customers are scrambling to avoid collateral damage to their economies. The sanctions’ potential...

Interviewed by Louis James, Casey Research US-Iranian saber-rattling or impending shoot-out? In his usual, candid manner, contrarian investor Doug Casey talks about why he believes it’s serious this time… why the US is the greatest threat to peace today… why Iran might move towards a gold standard… and what smart investors should do. L:...

Tim Iacono The Commerce Department reported(.pdf) that retail sales in the U.S. rose 0.4 percent in January after downwardly revised gains in each of the two prior months, the November sales gain being reduced from 0.4 percent to 0.3 percent while December sales, initially reported as a gain of 0.1 percent were revised to a gain of just 0.02 percent. Flagging...

Marc Faber is an international investor known for his uncanny predictions of the stock market and futures markets around the world.

Courtesy of Jesse’s Cafe Americain Francine McKenna is an ex-auditor from Price, Waterhouse Coopers. McKenna has a blog called re: The Auditors, and also writes for Forbes. MF Global is a slowly boiling scandal. It is always the cover up that brings the most damage, rather than the initial criminal acts that are committed by a few. She provides...

By Bud Conrad, Casey Research The Federal Reserve recently announced important policy changes after its Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. Here are the three most important takeaways, in its own words: The Committee decided today to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and currently anticipates that economic...

by Deepcaster “The U.S. economic and systemic-solvency crises of the last five years continue to deteriorate. Yet they remain just the precursors to the coming Great Collapse: a hyperinflationary great depression. The unfolding circumstance will encompass a complete loss in the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar; a collapse in the normal stream of...

“You can’t feel the heat until you hold your hand over the flame. You have to cross the line just to remember where it lays.” ~ Rise Against. “Satellite” Lyrics ~ Friday morning traders and market participants awaited the key January employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The reaction to the supposedly wonderful report...

This week’s economic calendar for the USA. Job numbers help boost market 243,000 new jobs have been reported in January and that is above the 150,000 to 200,000 needed to hold unemployment steady so the rate dropped some. If the jog growth could maintain 250k each month we could get back to 2007 levels in about 5 years.

Submitted by Tyler Durden We have examined the nuance of the euphoric jobs data this morning from every angle and by now there should be plenty of ‘information’ for investors to make their own minds up on its credibility. However, the avuncular CEO of TrimTabs, who despite channeling Lewis Black lately, likely knows this data a little better...