This column didn't start out with too many stories, but as the night/morning wore on...the pile just got bigger with each passing hour. The problems that Greece have are now reaching the melt-down point...and most of the non-precious metal stories I have are about that.

Casey Research's own Louis James sent me this story from yesterday's edition of The Washington Post.

European officials on Thursday sought to calm fears over a possible financial collapse in Greece, saying that short-term aid to Athens was imminent, even as the euro slumped and concern heightened that debt troubles could engulf larger economies such as Spain.

Olli Rehn, the European Union’s economic commissioner, said a crucial $17 billion aid disbursement to Greece from the E.U. and the International Monetary Fund would land in Athens by early July, in time to prevent the nation from running out of cash to pay its creditors. Release of the funding, part of Greece’s $160 billion bailout approved last year, was being held up by deadlocked talks over the size and shape of a second massive bailout that the country now needs as its financial straits worsen.

The link is here.

Supposedly the two key peacemakers in Europe's struggle, the pair now fighting each other over how to prevent the eurozone's first ever default.

In just over a week, Greece is due for its next vital cash injection - a €12bn tranche from the €110bn international bail-out package agreed in May last year.

With everyone but the Greeks convinced that this unlikely to happen, international authorities are scrambling to get a new package in place. Their self-imposed deadline is June 20. But insiders fear that the whole rescue mission will be derailed unless the French and Germans can agree over who pays for it.

I 'borrowed' this story from yesterday's King Report...and the link is here.

Here's a Reuters piece that also came from Bill King's report yesterday. The American credit rating agencies have really been piling it on lately...and their timing is impeccable with this one.

Moody's Investors Service on Wednesday placed France's top three banks, BNP Paribas, Société Générale and Crédit Agricole (CASA), on review for a possible downgrade, citing the banks exposure to Greece's debt crisis.

It's a short read...and the link is here.

Here's a Roy Stephens offering from the German website spiegel.de.

A crumbling government, protests on the streets of Athens and ongoing European disagreement on another bailout package: Greece's debt crisis is on the verge of spiraling out of control. German commentators say that the country's politicians have failed their people.

When it comes to the troubles facing the European common currency, optimism has been the name of the game. Politicians from capitals across the Continent have repeatedly insisted that the euro will be just fine and that Greece, facing the severest of European debt crises, will pull through. But on Wednesday, there were signs that their high hopes were beginning to crumble.

The link to the story is here.

Here's a cnbc.com piece from yesterday that was sent to me by reader U.D.

Some of the safest, plain-vanilla investment accounts in the U.S. could be challenged if Greece defaults on its sovereign debt.

Forty-four percent of mutual fund assets in the U.S. are invested in the short-term debt of European banks, according to a report from Fitch.

A separate report from Moody's noted that 55 percent of those holdings are in the commercial paper of French banks, such as Société Générale, BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole. French banks are some of biggest creditors to Greece, with over $53 billion in outstanding loans to the Greek government and private sector.

The link is here.

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said Wednesday it's time to begin unwinding support for Britain's financial sector and selling government stakes in banks amid early signs of economic recovery.

"It's time we started to plan our exit," Mr. Osborne said in the text of a speech to the annual gathering of bankers at London's Mansion House Wednesday night. "Taxpayers today own a large part of the banking system and underwrite guarantees to parts of the rest."

That's all well and good, dear reader, but this is another example of whistling past the graveyard, as Britain is in dire economic and financial condition...and likely to remain that way for a generation at least.

I thank reader George Findlay for sending me this story out of yesterday's edition of the National Post in Toronto. The link is here.

Here's another Roy Stephens offering. This one is from The Telegraph late last night.

A poll for The Wall Street Journal/NBC found that 30pc of those questioned expect the economy to deteriorate over the next year, with 29pc predicting an improvement. Although it's a small difference, economists say it reflects the cumulative effect of high gasoline prices, a still depressed housing market and the uneven recovery in the jobs market.

A slew of data released yesterday did little to dispel the impression that the weakening in gross domestic product seen in the first quarter of the year has extended into the second.

The link is here.

When natural gas prices dropped by 8 percent in a matter of seconds in the early hours of Asian trade last week, one New York-based hedge fund manager said he didn't have to think twice.

"The moment I heard, I ran, literally ran, to my computer and started buying," he said. "It was clear it was an HFT algo gone bad and I could profit on the rebound off the lows."

These are the same sort of traders that Ted Butler says are currently stomping about in the silver market. This story was filed shortly after midnight last night...and I thank Washington state reader S.A. for sharing this Reuters story with us. The link is here.

Here's a marketwatch.com story that was sent to me by Florida reader Donna Badach.

After six down weeks and a savage slump on Tuesday, the specter of a 2008 Crash haunts Wall Street. But two certified doomsters are [slightly] more cautious.

It's a short read...and the link is here.

Here's a story that appeared over at the resourceinvestor.com website last week...and it's reader U.D.'s second contribution to today's column.

Today, we are in the midst of an accelerating stock market decline, with the most important indices dropping below their technical support lines. The S&P 500 has sunk below its crucial 1,300-level, while the Dow Jones has been falling towards 12,000 points.

On the other side of the Dow/Gold equation, gold is going strong, and is still trading around $1,550 per ounce.

This mix – collapsing stocks and strength in gold – translates into a falling Dow/Gold ratio. The ratio currently stands at 7.9x in Dow/Gold chart shown below.

I still expect the ratio to drop even further this time, towards 6x or perhaps even lower. The forcefulness of gold is quite astonishing, trading near its all-time high during these shaky market circumstances. To us, this is a sign of further strength for the yellow metal in the near future, which indicates even higher gold prices than we had anticipated.

This story...which includes an excellent graph...is a must read. The link is here.

Yesterday [Or was it the day before?] I ran a KWN blog featuring Rick Rule. Here's the link to the entire audio interview.

I was snooping around the Sprott Money website yesterday and stumbled across the story below.

Vietnam is hoarding between 460 and 1,000 tons of gold worth around US$21 to $45 billion, second only to India, according to figures released last week. The figures take into account gold held by the people and stored at banks.

The World Gold Council ranks Vietnam as among 5 countries with the largest gold hoarding in the world, second after India. Vietnam’s gold takes up 23-29.5% of the world’s total gold during the past 5 years.

The story was posted yesterday over at english.vietnamnet.vn...and the link is here. It's very much worth the read.

Yesterday I posted a Jim Sinclair blog that Eric King had sent my way...and late last night my time [after midnight his time] he sent me the full audio interview. I haven't had the chance to listen to it yet, but Eric describes it as "extremely intense"...and that doesn't surprise me in the slightest. The link is here.