It seems that the video clip that I used yesterday got pulled for copyright infringement, so I will try it again.

As I said yesterday...if I hadn't seen this with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it. Of course I always knew that the 'fix was in' when it came to the main stream media in the U.S.A...but this is totally off the charts. I hate to use the word 'conspiracy of silence'...but, if the shoes fits....

Jon Stewart over at The Daily Show had a field day with it...and rightly so. I thank reader James Davis for sharing this very hilarious [and very sad] must watch video clip with us. Readers in the U.S.A. can view it by clicking here...and, if you live in Canada, you can watch it by clicking here. From what I've been told, if you live elsewhere in the world, you can't view it at all. Too bad.

Here's a story that showed up in yesterday's edition of businessinsider.com.

The SEC, which recently launched a whistle blower program that offers financial rewards for people who report securities violations, now has one of its own attorneys alleging that the agency destroyed thousands of documents involving banks and hedge funds, Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi reported.

The allegations come from SEC attorney Darcy Flynn, who is a 13-year veteran with the agency. According to the report, Flynn claims the SEC has been destroying records relating to the investigations of financial criminals since 1993.

I thank reader 'David in California' for sending me this story yesterday...and the link is here.

The Justice Department is investigating whether the nation’s largest credit ratings agency, Standard & Poor’s, improperly rated dozens of mortgage securities in the years leading up to the financial crisis, according to two people interviewed by the government and another briefed on such interviews.

The investigation began before Standard & Poor’s cut the United States’ AAA credit rating this month, but it is likely to add fuel to the political firestorm that has surrounded that action. Lawmakers and some administration officials have since questioned the agency’s secretive process, its credibility and the competence of its analysts, claiming to have found an error in its debt calculations.

Roy Stephens sent me this story from The New York Times yesterday...and the link is here.

I stole this story...and Chris Powell's preamble...from a GATA release yesterday.

Economist and former banker Alasdair Macleod, who spoke at GATA's Gold Rush 2011 conference in London, predicted yesterday that the Federal Reserve is concocting a scheme to finance U.S. government debt with unused commercial bank reserves, a scheme of bank credit expansion, which, he writes, has always been inflationary and would be bullish for precious metals. Macleod's commentary can be found at his Internet site, financeandeconomics.org...and the link is here.

Traders reacted with exasperation as Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy repeated their "absolute will to defend the euro" and "shore up investor confidence" yet refused to back the shattered currency with eurobonds or a bigger bail-out fund. The failure to address the two measures left many traders ruing what they see as a lack of political leadership.

Edward Meir from MF Global in New York said: "It doesn't look like the two biggest items were seriously discussed -- the potential for a eurobond and the size of the stabilization/bailout fund. At €450bn [the European Financial Stability Facility] could easily be wiped out if one of the larger countries gets into trouble."

This story was posted in The Telegraph late on Tuesday night...and I thank Roy Stephens for sending it along. The link is here.

The German economy slowed drastically over the early summer and may be on the cusp of a double-dip recession, dashing hopes that Europe's industrial engine would eventually lift EMU's southern bloc out of slump.

The grim data came as Chancellor Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy emerged empty-handed from their Paris summit, offering nothing concrete to restore crumbling confidence in the eurozone project.

This is another story from late Tuesday night's edition of The Telegraph. It's an Ambrose Evans-Pritchard offering...and is, once again, courtesy of Roy Stephens. The link is here.

My very good friend, fund manager David Tice, was interviewed by GoldMoney founder James Turk during GATA's Gold Rush 2011 conference in London, he discussed the failure of Keynesian economics, the difference between real metal and "paper gold," the likelihood of another credit disaster, the prospects for gold shares, and a lot more. The interview is 25 minutes long...and you can watch it at the GoldMoney Internet site. The link is here.

The Sprott Foundation, of which Eric Sprott is a director, announced today that as part of its long-term investment strategy, it is diversifying its holdings by selling 2,000,000 units of the Sprott Physical Gold Trust (the "Trust") and re-investing the proceeds from such sale into the silver sector.

I thank reader George Findlay for alerting me to this story...and I also thank Sprott's Sarah Zsiros for sending me the story. The link is here.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday he plans to nationalize the gold sector, including extraction and processing, and use the production to boost the country's international reserves.

The socialist leader said he would carry out the nationalization through a decree to be issued in the coming days and called on the military to help control the sector.

"I have here the laws allowing the state to exploit gold and all related activities. That is to say, we're going to nationalize the gold and we're going to convert it, among other things, into international reserves because gold continues to increase in value," he said in a call to state television.

Once again I thank reader George Findlay for sending me this Reuters story, which showed up in a GATA release a few hours later. The link to this must read story, is here.

In addition to the nationalization of his gold industry, Chavez earlier also announced that he would recover virtually all gold that Venezuela hold abroad, starting with 99 tons of gold at the Bank of England. As the WSJ reported earlier, "The Bank of England recently received a request from the Venezuelan government about transferring the 99 tons of gold Venezuela holds in the bank back to Venezuela, said a person familiar with the matter.

I thank Washington state reader S.A. for this zerohedge.com piece. Needless to say, it's a must read...and the link is here.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered his government to repatriate $11 billion in gold held in banks abroad to safeguard the country from the economic crisis and said he will nationalize the local gold industry.

Venezuela has about 211 tons of its 365 tons of gold reserves held abroad at institutions including the Bank of England, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Barclays Plc, Standard Chartered Plc, and the Bank of Nova Scotia, according to a government document.

The link to this must read Bloomberg story, which showed up in a GATA release yesterday, is here.

Mineweb.com's Lawrence Williams reports today that miner Gold Resource Corp. has begun minting its own gold and silver coins, is holding some of its cash balance in metal, and aims to pay dividends in metal as well. (There's another name to scratch off the Fed's Christmas party list.) Williams' story is headlined "Gold Miner Minting Its Own Gold and Silver Coins, Looking to Pay Dividends in Kind".

I thank reader 'John' for the story...and Chris Powell for the preamble...and the link is here.

Here is a really excellent essay on the U.S. default on the dollar's convertibility into gold. It's written by Nick Barisheff over at Bullion Management Group in Toronto.

Today, Monday, August 15, 2011, marks the 40th anniversary of the US default on the dollar’s convertibility into gold. It was the world’s de facto reserve currency and thus began an experiment with a reserve fiat currency that was doomed to failure before it began, because there has never been a successful fiat currency in all of history.. August 15, 1971 was just like any other day for most people, and President Nixon’s unprecedented decision to cut the US dollar’s gold international convertibility was largely ignored by the public. The majority of citizens didn’t understand the implications for their financial future. Contrast that to today, where a historic downgrade of US debt and a very public $2-trillion increase of the debt ceiling dominated headlines and the television news.

I know I've posted others, but this one is a real standout...and I urge you to read it when you can find the time. The story is posted over at their website bmgbullion.com...and the link is here.

Eric King sent me this short James Dines blog yesterday afternoon. It's posted over at his KWN website...and the link is here.

Jean-Marie Eveillard of the First Eagle Funds today told King World News yesterday that gold has become more than a hedge against inflation -- a "substitute currency." (Looks like he's not going to get invited to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's Christmas party.) An excerpt from the interview has been posted at the KWN website...and the link is here. I thank Chris Powell once again for his excellent introduction.

Writing for the August edition of Investor's Digest of Canada, Sprott Asset Management's chief investment strategist, John Embry, has this to say...

"Granted, no market ever moves in a straight line. But the violence and depth of the corrections in the face of strong positive fundamentals, are nothing but paper manipulations, pure and simple."

"The good news is that the correction has sent both the nervous Nellies and Johnny-come-latelies packing, while creating remarkably negative sentiment."

"Both results are preconditions for the next move up...something I believe will not only be imminent, but powerful to boot."

I know you may find this hard to believe, dear reader, but I actually dug this story up on my own over at the sprott.com website yesterday. It's a fairly long must read...and the link is here.