Twice yesterday I made reference to the AIG bonus thing as a distraction. It's easy for me, I see threats to life, liberty, and happiness everywhere. But what exactly could I be being distracted from? I'm sure there are many answers. A better question is what made the conspiracy theorist's divining rod (Gold) spike $70 dollars. Gold, when it is this overpriced, moves on fear (my opinion , folks). And that's a big jump. What caused it? I had no idea. Here's the 5 day chart:

This jump coincides with China not wanting to buy any more of our debt, and the resultant decisions. Why don't they want to buy? They are worried about the Fed, and our financial system. If our largest buyer of debt doesn't want to buy any more, and we want to spend 2 trillion we don't have, we could just print it. Well, we've started. And, whether we were going to do it before the Chinese were concerned is a moot point, the fact is we're now doing it, to the tune of 700 billion, I guess. In the past this hasn't worked out well, either for the US, or for other countries that have tried it. It is theoretically possible to print your way out of a recession without bringing on massive inflation, or worse, depression, but it is a risky, risky maneuver. As much as I don't like the agenda being pushed right now, I fervently hope that I've misjudged our leadership and we have sane, highly competent, people in charge. If they are, they might just thread the needle and get us out of this mess. If not, it will get worse before it gets better.