Word on the street today from the traders is "it appears that the large investors are moving to hard assets like gold and not to fiat currencies," says Chuck Butler of Kitco Casey Research.

The Financial Times reports "Investors in Europe and North America went on an extraordinary shopping spree for gold coins and bars in the final quarter of last year, snapping up 148.5 tonnes, a jump of 811 per cent compared with the same period in 2007, as the collapse of Lehman Brothers led a massive increase in safe haven buying.

The World Gold Council's data confirmed earlier reports from traders about widespread shortages of coins and exceptional buying interest. Retail investors in France, for example, become net buyers of gold for the first time in a quarter of a century at the end of last year.

The strength of investor interest has analysts wondering just how far the gold price could rise.

'There is a very strong case to be made that the current rally in gold is potential pre-positioning ahead of a much larger move at some point in the future,' said Michael Jansen, analyst at JPMorgan."

In another Financial Times article they report "Gold is a prime candidate to become a "mania asset" once its demand becomes chiefly financially driven as opposed to jewellery and/or industrial demand driven where its upside could be capped by "sticker shock".

In fact, gold is currently one of the few remaining major asset classes where a case could be made for it to rise in a parabolic fashion. Once the psychologically significant $1,000 an ounce is breached convincingly, the speed of the move beyond that level could accelerate sharply."

Chris Laird of the Prudent Squirrel Newsletter stated that the world economy is not in a recession but in a "crash." "In case you doubt the ‘crash’ characterization for the world economy, consider that Japanese exports fell an astounding 35% in 2008, a figure I keep having to remind myself is not a typo, since a 3.5% fall in any GDP statistic used to be considered a catastrophe in recent decades."

Laird continues "And of course, this US/Western consumer collapse is hammering Asia generally. I had a subscriber send me some amazing photos he took of empty idled ships in a huge harbor in Singapore:"



And finally, the Mogambo Guru gives us his sarcastic slant on all that is going on in the world...

"Now you know part of the reason that Congress has officially gone into Panic Mode, which was unofficially announced by Bloomberg.com reporting that “The stimulus package the U.S. Congress is completing would raise the government’s commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9.7 trillion.”

Now, I think you will agree that that is a lot of money, and Bloomberg notes that “the $9.7 trillion in pledges would be enough to send a $1,430 check to every man, woman and child alive in the world,” and is “enough to pay off more than 90 percent of the nation’s home mortgages.”

The reality is that only about $200 billion is actually slated to be spent before September, and the other $9.5 trillion of future “stimulus spending” is in the form of commitments that are “lending programs and guarantees, almost all under the authority of the Fed and the FDIC”, which I take to mean, “When our scumbag friends need to be saved from taking a loss on their stupid bets, we will print up the money they need, up to an estimated $9.5 trillion”! Hahahaha!

Bloomberg.com adds, as if we had to be reminded what a bunch of lying, thieving scumbags these people are, “The recipients’ names have not been disclosed.”

And speaking of lying, thieving scumbags… For some reason, the NYSE Member’s Report – showing what the stock market insiders and specialists are selling and buying and shorting – is no longer available in Barron’s because, as online.barrons.com phrases it, “The NYSE is no longer compiling this data for us on a weekly basis.”

It’s all too, too weird, leading me to summarize, with trembling voice, that if this is not the perfect time to be buying gold, silver and oil to protect yourself, then when is? Hahaha! Whee! This investing stuff is easy!"