The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering taking civil action against Standard & Poor's for its rating of a 2007 mortgage debt offering. Such action could be just the first shot in a legal assault against the major credit rating agencies.

The three major agencies – S&P, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings – gave high ratings to mortgage investments that turned out to be worthless and contributed to the 2008 financial crisis.

If the SEC charges S&P with violating securities laws, it would mark the first time it's brought an enforcement action against a top rating agency.

I've always considered the U.S. rating agencies as instruments of the American Empire to be used as financial weapons against other nations...and this has turned out to be the case beyond my wildest nightmares. I thank Florida reader Donna Badach for sharing this Huffington Post story with us...and the link is here.

In an interview on BBC News Monday morning that left the hosts gob-smacked, Alessio Rastani outlined in a mere three-and-a-half-minutes what we all know and most ignore. While the whole interview is worth watching, the money shot for us was "This economic crisis is like a cancer, if you just wait and wait hoping it is going to go away, just like a cancer it is going to grow and it will be too late!".

While we do not know who this trader is, one thing we can be 100% certain of is that he will never appear on CNBC.

I thank Edmonton reader B.E.O. [amongst others] for sending me this piece...and the link to the zerohedge.com story is here.

There was disappointment, but no real surprise, that the annual meeting in Washington of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank failed to produce a comprehensive solution to the euro crisis.

Although the regional commanders of the global economy were gathered, from finance ministers to central bankers and they all knew the stakes and the deep peril that now threatens, there was an air of fatalism to the meetings. It will get worse before it gets better, they seemed to conclude, because the politicians cannot bring themselves to deliver the financial measures that will be required.

This UPI story is well worth the read...and I thank Roy Stephens for sending it along. The link is here.

British taxpayers risk being caught up in a £1.75 trillion deal aimed at saving the euro by allowing Greece to default on its massive debts.

The three-pronged deal would set up a massive fund to create a "firewall" around the most indebted eurozone countries, allow for an "orderly" Greek default on at least some of its liabilities, and bail out European banks most at risk from debt.

German and French officials came up with the strategy which aims to end the eurozone's sovereign debt crisis before it spirals completely out of control, plunging the world back into recession.

The likely deal came ahead of a major new setback for the British economy - with BAE Systems, Britain's biggest manufacturer, poised to cut 3,000 jobs.

This story was in The Telegraph on Saturday...and is Roy Stephens second offering of the day. As he said in the e-mail to me..."It's interesting how the numbers no longer have any meaning...it's all make believe." That it is...and the link is here.

France has denied reports that it had drafted a plan to inject up to €15 billion into its major banks amid fears over their heavy exposure to Greek debt.

The Journal du Dimanche reported on Sunday that the state offered a €10-15 billion bank recapitalisation at a meeting earlier this month with senior officials from five institutions: BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole, Banque Populaire-Caisse d’Épargne and Crédit Mutuel.

A sharp drop in the share prices of French banks since the beginning of the summer has led to speculation that the state may have to intervene and set up a recapitalisation fund, as it did during the 2008 global banking crisis.

This story was posted in The Irish Times on Monday...and it's Roy's third offering of the day. The link is here.

The South Korean central bank surprised the markets on Friday with a $4 billion lightning intervention in support of the won, carried out in the last two minutes of trading,

The day before, Brazil spent $2.75 billion selling dollars in the currency swaps market to stop the rapid decline of the real.

Does this mean central banks in emerging markets are finally trying to reverse the sharp plunge in their currencies over the past month?

Probably not, currency strategists believe. Officials are primarily aiming to curb what they see as excessively wild swings in their currencies. They want stability, not appreciation.

But, as Chris Powell put it...they're probably managing gold and silver prices as well...but the folks over at the Financial Times who posted this story, would never ask about that.

This FT story was printed in the clear in this GATA release yesterday...and the link is here.

Here's a 6:56 minute CNBC Europe interview with Dr. Faber and two other guests. I haven't watched the whole thing, but I would guess it's worth your time. The video is posted over at the futuremoneytrends.com website...and I thank reader Brad Robertson for sharing it with us. The link is here.

Here are two King World News blogs that were posted yesterday...and I stole the preambles to both from a GATA release.

The smashing of gold and silver by central banks is only proportionate to the problems faced by central banks as the world financial system totters, Sprott Asset Management Chief Investment Strategist John Embry told King World News yesterday. An excerpt from the interview has been posted at the KWN website...and the link is here.

Meanwhile, Agnico-Eagle Mines CEO Sean Boyd remarks calmly that the problems of the world financial system have not been diminished and governments will address them with more money creation, and so he suspects that the bottom for the monetary metals has been reached. A summary of the interview with Boyd has been posted at the KWN website...and the link to that blog is here.

At a shop in Tokyo's upscale Ginza district, a steady stream of pensioners are selling their gold.

Osamu Ikeda, managing director of Tanaka Holdings Co., which owns the Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo KK bullion house, said customers are cashing in on high prices.

Toshima said there is one group that does not appear to share the country's enthusiasm for cashing in on gold. A growing number of retired bureaucrats from financial ministries and agencies have asked his advice on buying gold, he said.

"I am afraid they are keenly aware that Japan is in peril," he said. "They may be investing in gold because they think a nosedive of government bond prices and sharp fall in the yen is inevitable."

This story is definitely worth your time...and I thank Swiss reader B.G. for sending me this story that's posted over at the Japanese website asahi.com. The link is here.

Here's a very interesting GATA release that came out on Sunday. Chris Powell has already wordsmithed this...so I won't reinvent the wheel with my introduction. This is a must read...and the link is here.

This is another GATA release that's well worth the read. Here's a sentence from Chris Powell's extensive introduction.

"Mexican journalist Guillermo Barba reports that the Bank of Mexico refuses to disclose where it is keeping the 93 tonnes of gold it claimed to have purchased this year, apparently doesn't even know the form of the gold it claims to have purchased."

It gets more interesting from there...and the link to the GATA release is here.

China, already the world’s -second-largest bullion consumer, has installed the country’s first gold vending machine in a busy shopping district in Beijing, state media said yesterday.

Shoppers on the popular Wangfujing Street can insert cash or use a bank card to withdraw gold bars or coins of various weights based on market prices, the People’s Daily said on its Web site.

Each withdrawal is capped at 2.5kg, or 1 million yuan (US$156,500), worth of gold, the report said.

This AFP story was filed from Beijing on Monday...and is posted over at the taipeitimes.com website. I thank reader 'David in California' for sending it along...and the link is here.

Gold’s premium to platinum, already the biggest in almost two decades, may surge to the highest on record in the next year because of investors’ mounting concern about the global economy.

Gold cost 3.1 percent more than platinum in London on Thursday, compared with an average discount of 39 percent over the past decade, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The metal may reach a premium of 26 percent in the third quarter of 2012, according to David Wilson of Société Générale S.A. in London, the most accurate platinum, palladium and silver forecaster tracked by Bloomberg over two years. That would be the highest in data compiled by Bloomberg going back to 1987.

This Bloomberg story, filed from London on Friday, is Roy Stephens final offering of the day...and the link is here.

The largest ever consignment of precious metal found in the sea - 200 tons of silver [7 million troy ounces] worth £148m - has been discovered along with the wreck of a British cargo ship sunk during the Second World War by a German U-boat.

Odyssey Marine, an American underwater archaeology and salvage firm, announced the discovery yesterday along with plans to recover the bullion as part of a contract with the British Government which will see the company retain 80 per cent of the value of the cargo.

It's 4,700 metres [3 miles] below the surface of the stormy North Atlantic...and it will be of great interest to see how much they can recover and how long it takes. But I doubt that this silver will be sold on the open market any time soon, if ever.

I thank U.K. reader Tariq Khan [and many others] for sharing this must read story with us...and the link is here.

“What we are seeing in the markets right now is exactly the type of psychotic break, the type of non-fundamentally related volatility, that has over the last twenty or thirty years given us the entry points that have, in fact, built our track record."

This King World News blog is a must read...as Rick is buying while "blood is running in the streets". The link is here.

GoldMoney founder, GATA consultant, and Free Gold Money Report editor James Turk told King World News this weekend that the Western financial system is wobbling like a top about to fall over, that counterparty risk has to be avoided, and that this can be done only with gold. The interview is 11 minutes long and is posted over at the KWN website...and the link is here. I thank Chris Powell for wordsmithing the introduction.

A New York Sun editorial yesterday reports that industrialist and philanthropist Lewis E. Lehrman, a member of the U.S. Gold Commission 30 years ago, will present, on October 5th, a detailed plan for the restoration of a gold standard in the United States. Lehrman's plan will be announced at a conference sponsored by the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

The Sun's editorial is headlined "Plan to Return America to the Gold Standard Set to Be Offered at Washington". It, too, is a must read...and the link is here.