Today's first story is courtesy of reader Scott Pluschau...and is posted over at the washingtontimes.com website. The federal government posted its largest monthly deficit in history in February, a $223 billion shortfall that put a sharp point on the current fight on Capitol Hill about how deeply to cut this year’s spending.

That one-month figure, which came in a preliminary report from the Congressional Budget Office, dwarfs even the most robust cuts being talked about on the Hill, and underscores just how much work lawmakers have to do to get the government’s finances in balance again. The link is here.

Today's next story is a Roy Stephens offering taken from yesterday's news items over at the German website spiegel.de. Angela Merkel can't win when it comes to the euro bailout. Leaders of her own government coalition in parliament openly oppose new measures that could create additional liability for German taxpayers. The chancellor is expected to offer concessions in Brussels, but they could haunt her in state elections. It's a longish piece...and the link is here.

Here's another story courtesy of reader Scott Pluschau. This one's posted over at Bloomberg. The cost of insuring Greek debt against default rose to a record after Moody’s Investors Service cut the country’s credit rating by three notches. The Finance Ministry in Athens called the move “completely unjustified.” Moody’s said lagging tax collection and “implementation risks” would make it more difficult to reach budget-cutting targets in a 110 billion-euro ($154 billion) bailout.

I still think that Greece [along with the rest of the PIIGS] is done for...and will have to withdraw from the EU...and the Euro. The link to the story is here.

Roy Stephens sent me this Ambrose Evans-Pritchard offering out of yesterday edition of The Telegraph. Ambrose, none to happy with ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet about his utterances on higher interest rates, gets up on his soap box and really gets going.

The European Central Bank has once again risen to the bait. Faced with an oil supply shock that deflates incomes, it plans to tighten the vice yet further with a knee-jerk rate rise in April.

Spain is now being whacked again. One-year Euribor rates jumped 14 basis points to 1.92pc within hours after ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet uttered the code words “strong vigilance”. As the ECB knows, this is the rate used to price most Spanish mortgages...and the Spanish press is up in arms.

This is a longish commentary for Ambrose...but if you have the time, it's worth the read...and the link is here.

While Ambrose Evans-Pritchard was waxing philosophical about Spain in one section of The Telegraph yesterday, columnist Fiona Govan filed this story from Madrid in another section. This story is courtesy of reader 'David in California'.

The townsfolk of Mugardos in northwestern Spain are being encouraged to search out forgotten stashes of the defunct currency and to spend it in local shops. More than 60 shops in the fishing village on the rugged Galician coast have agreed to accept pesetas alongside the euro in an attempt to encourage spending during a time of economic crisis.

This is kind of cute...and I hope it catches on in the rest of the country, because one of these days they're going to using that currency again for real. This is a very short, but very interesting piece...and the link is here.

The ever-vigilant Roy Stephens has the first of two stories about Libya. This first one is written by Pepe Escobar over at the Asia Times...and is posted on the alternet.org website.

You're Muammar Gaddafi, and you're sitting in your Bab al-Azizia bunker sipping green tea and surveying the odds of staying in power. Let's see. You control some neighborhoods in Tripoli; some cities in the far west, near the Tunisian border; your birthplace, Sirte. And that's it.

This is a wonderful piece...and the joy of it is, that it isn't very long...and definitely worth the read. The link is here.

Roy's second piece on Libya is written by UPI Editor Emeritus Martin Walker...and it isn't quite as wonderful as the previous piece out of the Asia Times. After that piece, it's more like a cold shower. It's also more of read...but it's worth it as well.

Above all, Gadhafi has stalled the momentum of the revolution and dented the heady claim that the Arab Spring was unstoppable. He has held out the prospect, however slim and however unsavory, that tyranny can survive and that the bad guys can still win. The link is here.

My remaining stories, of which there are still quite a few, are all precious metals related in one form or another.

Smith Barney's technical research chief, Louise Yamada, told King World News that her target prices for gold are $1,500 and then $2,000, for silver $40 and eventually $80, and for oil $115 and eventually $140. You can find excerpts from the interview at the KWN Internet site...and the link is here.

Italian reader Osvaldo Ballabio provides our next reading material. I ran a similar story to this last week. It was a yahoo.com offering...but this one comes right from the source itself...The Salt Lake Tribune...and fleshes out the yahoo.com story a bit...and has been updated from its original release date. The link is here.

Reader Scott Carpenter sent along this next item of interest that's posted over at the goldandsilverblog.com website. Last month, the Perth Mint of Australia began selling one-tenth ounce Silver Koala coins. Previously, this series had been offered in sizes ranging from one-half ounce to 1 kilo. Other numismatic and bullion coin offerings from the Perth Mint have also been available in sizes starting at one-half ounce, but this seems to be the first instance that a one-tenth ounce size has been available.

Somewhere, someplace, I have a small handful of 1 gram J&M wafers...complete with individual serial numbers! The more things change, the more they stay the same. The link is here.

Here's another interview posted over at King World News...and I thank Chris Powell for [once again] saving me the trouble of writing the preamble..."Sprott Asset Management's John Embry tells Eric King that demands for delivery could explode the derivatives-fueled suppression of silver, that other governments are likely to devalue their own currencies to support the U.S. dollar if it starts breaking down too much, that such devaluation can only send the precious metals upward, and that the true measure of an investment portfolio isn't any dollar figure but its total ounces of precious metal. The interview is 12 minutes long and you can listen to it at the KWN website...and the link to this must listen interview is here."

Here's a blog that Eric King sent me late last night. It is, as the title states, by the 'R' Man himself...and it's worth the read as well. The link is here.

It's more than slightly embarrassing when a reader sends you something from your own website that you aren't aware of. Such was the case with Washington state reader S.A...who sent me the following Casey Research video of ex-Silver Standard Resources Chairman Bob Quartermain.

At the Casey Research Gold and Resource Summit, Bob Quartermain spoke about the constraints facing the silver supply today, “Mine supply doesn’t meet demand...and in many of the new applications, silver isn’t being recycled, so it’s not going to come back into the scrap supply chain...We’ll have to go out and find new mines or new sources for silver; and that can only speak to higher prices.”

The video clip runs 9:18...and is well worth your time...and the link is here.

Lastly today, comes the headline story from today's column. If you remember from my Saturday column, the Bank Participation Report was so far beyond anything I'd been expecting...and because I hadn't spoken to Ted about it, and because the report came out many hours after Friday's Commitment of Traders Report...I just completely passed on it...and said I was doing so.

I read other columnist's commentaries on this issue over the weekend...and none of them had a clue, either. I knew that I would have to wait until silver analyst Ted Butler's weekly commentary came out on Saturday, before I would have a chance to write about it intelligently in this column today.

I'm ever so grateful that I don't have to say a word about...as Ted has published all of it in the clear. If you don't have a complete grasp of this issue after you've read this essay at least twice...don't be surprised, as you're probably in good company.

It was Ted who stumbled upon the Bank Participation Report back in 2008...and when it comes to this, or any other facet of the silver market...he's da man! Every word that's ever been written about the silver manipulation story, came from him first. So I talk to him every day...and pass on what I think is of critical importance...as Ted hardly ever writes in the public domain anymore.

This is a must read...and you should read it many times. I already have...and will be reading it again many more times. And please don't e-mail me asking for any clarification, as it's very convoluted...and everything you need to know to understand what happened, is contained in Ted's essay...and the link is here.

If you wish to complain to the appropriate authorities about this...Ted has provided the necessary e-mail addresses at the bottom of his essay for you to do exactly that. You can rest assured that I will be sending my comments in. This is now beyond ridiculous.