Judging from the initial trading, my guess is that gold does not end the Monday NY trading session higher than $1,700; silver just under $40. But what interests me much more is what SLW, ABX and ECU do.

Again, greatly disappointing (though predicatable) that so much blame-gaming was going on this weekend among US politicians. Setting the stage for more gridlock in terms of the 12 person "select" committee?

We here in the U.S. aren't asking much - just want our financial issues to be fixed and we want no pain in the process. We need some leaders that will just out and out tell the populace that more pain will be involved and it will take a while to right this ship.

Just addressing social security, medicare and a few tax loopholes would be an outstanding start. Gosh, I hope we can get it together.