Seven banks that helped MF Global Holdings Ltd sell bonds were sued by pension funds who said the bonds' offering prospectuses concealed problems that led to the futures brokerage's collapse.

The lawsuit was filed Friday afternoon in Manhattan federal court against units of Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Jefferies Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc.

Other defendants include several officials associated with MF Global, including former Chief Executive Jon Corzine.

This short Reuters story was filed late last night in New York...and is Roy Stephens first offering of the day. The link is here.

Pizza can be classed as a vegetable – at least according to a decision made by the US Congress. Who knew?

American lawmakers have ruled that the amount of tomato paste in pizza sauce means that pizzas can be counted as a vegetable.

The bizarre move, which was decided in a vote on the annual spending bill for the Department of Agriculture, happened for purely political reasons.

You can't make this stuff up...and I'm sure that the U.S. cartoonists will have a field day with this one. This story was posted over at the Irish website thejournal.ie yesterday...and I thank reader Matthew Nel for tracking it down on our behalf. The link is here.

The Pentagon on Thursday held a successful test flight of a flying bomb that travels faster than the speed of sound and will give military planners the ability to strike targets anywhere in the world in less than a hour.

Launched by rocket from Hawaii at 1130 GMT, the "Advanced Hypersonic Weapon," or AHW, glided through the upper atmosphere over the Pacific "at hypersonic speed" before hitting its target on the Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands, a Pentagon statement said.

Kwajalein is about 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) southwest of Hawaii. The Pentagon did not say what top speeds were reached by the vehicle, which unlike a ballistic missile is maneuverable.

Scientists classify hypersonic speeds as those that exceed Mach 5 -- or five times the speed of sound -- 3,728 miles [6,000 kilometers] an hour.

There's no hiding from The Empire now. This AFP story was picked up by google.com...and I thank reader Scott Pluschau for digging it up for us. The link is here.

Jim has been everywhere these days...and of course the subject of his new book Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis always comes up. But what I've noticed from these two interviews posted below, is that they are not only different in style, they also differ somewhat in substance, as Jim goes off on the odd tangent here and there...and discusses one thing in one interview...and something totally different in another, although the main thrust of his comments are basically the same.

As you know, I've been an unabashed Rickards fan from the first time I heard him in an interview several years back. I posted his audio interview with Eric King earlier this week...but here is again in two separate interviews. The first one is an mp3 file from an interview he did with Bloomberg on Thursday. It runs for a good twenty minutes...and I thank reader John Lawless for sending it my way...and the link to that is here.

The second one is one he did on the program Capital Account over at Russia Today...and it looks like it was done on Thursday as well. It's a longish full video interview that starts about the 2:20 mark...and runs for just about twenty minutes. This youtube.com video was sent to me by Matthew Nel...and the link is here.

At midnight last night, Eric sent me this audio interview with John Mauldin. Eric called it "tremendous"...just like he does every interview...but I would think he's pretty close to the mark on this one. I haven't had the time to listen to it yet but, like you, I'll be listening to it this weekend when I get the time. The link to this must listen interview is here.

After posting two interviews of Jim's in this column already, I was somewhat taken aback when Eric King sent me this interview in the wee hours of this morning. But there's a lot of fresh material in here...and I consider it well worth the listen. The link to the King World News interview is here.

About 50,000 mainly Islamist protesters flocked to Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday to press Egypt's military rulers to transfer power to elected civilians after the cabinet launched a move to exempt the army from parliamentary oversight.

The protesters chanted Islamic songs before Friday prayers while others handed out flyers demanding the withdrawal of the constitutional proposal and that presidential elections be held no later than April 2012, instead of at year end or in 2013.

"Does the government want to humiliate the people? The people revolted against Mubarak and they will revolt against the constitution they want to impose on us!" a member of an orthodox Islamic Salafi group cried out over loudspeakers.

This Reuters piece was posted over at the france24.com website yesterday...and is another Roy Stephens offering. The link is here.

The problem of bank loans gone bad, especially those with government-guarantees such as U.S. student loans and Fannie Mae mortgages, has thrown into question just what should be a “fair value” for these debt obligations. Should “fair value” reflect what debtors can pay – that is, pay without going bankrupt? Or is it fair for banks and even vulture funds to get whatever they can squeeze out of debtors?

The answer will depend largely on the degree to which governments back the claims of creditors. The legal definition of how much can be squeezed out is becoming a political issue pulling national governments, the IMF, ECB and other financial agencies into a conflict pitting banks, vulture funds and debt-strapped populations against each other.

This polarizing issue has now broken out especially in Iceland. The country is now suffering a second round of economic and financial distress stemming from the collapse of its banking system in October 2008. That crisis caused a huge loss of savings not only for domestic citizens but also for international creditors such as Deutsche Bank, Barclay’s and their institutional clients.

Just when I thought that the good citizens of Iceland had dodged a bullet, this turn of events raises its ugly head. And, as the headline states, this could be a dress rehearsal for other banks in Europe and North America.

I consider this globalresearch.ca story a must read...and I thank Czech Republic reader Zdenek Zuna for sharing it with us. The link is here.

Here's an in-depth documentary by Australia Broadcasting Corporation news correspondent Emma Alberici that was posted on their website on Tuesday.

Australian reader Wesley Legrand sent me this piece...along with the comment "26 minute video, gets more interesting in 2nd half". This is definitely worth the watch, as perspective on the European and American banking crisis from a non-North American point of view is refreshing. You can read it...or watch it...but it's much more interesting to watch than it is to read. It's posted over at the abc.net.au website...and the link is here.

The euro-zone debt crisis is spreading to more and more countries. And politicians are reacting more helplessly than ever. Europe's leaders are underestimating the impact that a Greek exit from the common currency will have -- and are failing to learn from their own and others' mistakes.

Remember Henry Kissinger's domino theory? The former US secretary of state feared that the neighbors of a state that was under the control of the Soviet Union would also fall into Moscow's sphere of influence. Today, the theory that used to be applied to communism can be seen on the bond markets of Europe. The sovereign bonds of more and more euro-zone countries are coming under attack. Soon, one country after another might topple.

The reason for this desperate situation is the catastrophic crisis management in Europe. The German statesman Otto von Bismarck once said that only fools learned from their own mistakes -- he preferred to learn from the mistakes of others. At the moment, no politician or adviser in Europe has bothered to learn the lessons of the Argentine or Asian debt crises. Indeed, in Europe, they aren't even learning from their own mistakes.

This most excellent article was posted over at the German website spiegel.de yesterday...and I thank Roy Stephens for sending it along. The link is here.

The Spanish have less debt than the Germans, and they've set strong austerity measures in gear. Nevertheless, they might become the next victims of the euro crisis. Madrid's troubles show that individual nations can hardly defend themselves against speculative attacks.

Horror has a name: the zona de rescate, or rescue zone. That's what the Spanish media calls the region above 7 percent on international bond markets. When Greece, Portugal and Ireland had to start paying 7 percent, they were forced to seek help from the European Union in carrying their national debts.

On Thursday, Spain lurched a hair's breadth away from the zona de rescate. In an auction of 10-year government bonds, the nation had to offer investors interest rates of 6.975 percent. It's the highest rate Spain has paid since 1997, before the launch of the euro, and the shock came only three days before a parliamentary election that will probably topple the government of Socialist President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

This is another spiegel.de story from yesterday that's also courtesy of Roy Stephens...and the link to this one is here.

Germany has drawn up secret plans to prevent a British referendum on the overhaul of the European Union amid concerns it could derail the euro-zone rescue package, according to leaked documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph of the U.K.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, is expected to tell Prime Minister David Cameron that Britain doesn't need a referendum on EU treaty changes, despite demands from senior U.K. Conservatives for more powers to be repatriated to Britain, The Telegraph said.

The leaked memo, written by the German foreign office, discloses radical plans for an intrusive new European body that will be able to take over the economies of beleaguered euro-zone countries, The Telegraph said.

This marketwatch.com story is from Thursday...and I thank Australian reader Wesley Legrand for sending it along. The link is here.

In his first speech as president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi complained on Friday that Europe’s political leaders had been too slow to carry out their own plans to address the debt crisis.

And despite ever louder calls for central bank intervention, Mr. Draghi offered no hope he would come to any country’s rescue by pumping money into the financial markets.

Mr. Draghi, who took office at the beginning of the month, implicitly rejected calls for the central bank to use its enormous resources to stop the upward creep of borrowing costs for Spain and Italy, which threatens their solvency and by extension the European and global economies.

This story filed at The New York Times late last night was filed from Frankfurt yesterday...and I thank Washington state reader S.A. for sharing it with us. The link is here.

A solution to the eurozone crisis is staring European leaders in the face. Remarkably, they have failed to consider gold as the asset of last resort. Eurozone member nations and the European financial stability facility (EFSF), the bailout fund, could use gold to back new bond issues.

The security of gold-backed bonds would encourage investors. Indeed, central banks purchased 4.8m ounces of gold worth $8bn (£5bn) in the third quarter. The application of gold backing would allow stricken nations such as Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland to depart from the restrictive eurozone and the accompanying depressive austerity policies, if they wished. The bonds would give them time to devalue, adjust and grow again, and also isolate the crisis from other European nations.

As at the end of October, eurozone nation central banks owned 347m ounces of gold worth $604bn. This compares with 400.5m ounces, then worth only $110.5bn, in the first quarter of 2000. The gold reserves fell because European central banks subsequently sold gold at knockdown prices of $250 to $350 an ounce after the 11 September terror attacks. Since then the lemming instinct of European finance ministers and central banks has once again prevailed and their gold sales have dried up, despite recent record prices of $1,800-1,900 an ounce.

It's a small step from a gold-back bond to a gold-backed currency...and sooner or later, dear reader, we are going to end up there. But we're now long past the point where it will save the current situation. The world financial and monetary system is on the brink of imploding at any moment...and it is no longer a matter of if, but when.

This op-ed piece was posted in The Guardian early yesterday afternoon...and my thanks once again to Roy Stephens for digging it up on our behalf. It's a must read...and the link is here.

It is the latest high street chain aimed at cash-strapped consumers to publish strong trading figures, following large increases in profit from Poundland and Brighthouse, the hire purchase retailer.

Albemarle & Bond, which started life as a traditional pawnbroker, has now branched out into gold-buying to compete with the aggressive online retailers, which advertise heavily on television. It said these 38 "pop up" or temporary shops, mostly small units in shopping centres, had managed to attract more gold and at a higher profit margin. Though the gold price has fallen from its peak of just over $1,900 an ounce in September it has still climbed strongly this year, from below $1,400 at the start.

In the full year to July 2011 the company said that the value of gold it had bought off customers had increased by 83pc, with only about 20pc of that down to the gold-price inflation. Barry Stevenson, the chief executive said that growth had continued. "More and more customers realise that sitting at home they have jewellery boxes full of stuff they don't wear that could be valuable." The average transaction value that customers sell is £165.

It seems like cash-for-gold companies are popping up everywhere in the West during these hard financial times. This story was posted in The Telegraph yesterday morning...and is Roy Stephens final offering of the day. The link is here.

The headline pretty much tells you what this story is all about. Chris Powell has already wordsmithed the introduction/preamble...and I'll leave it in his capable hands. The link to this must read GATA release is here.

Interviewed by King World News yesterday, Sprott Asset Management's John Embry marvels at the comprehensiveness of gold and silver price suppression on the eve of another futures market option expiry date. An excerpt of Embry's comments is headlined "Tremendous Manipulation of Both Gold and Silver".

I thank Chris Powell for writing the above introduction for us...and the link to this must read KWN blog is here.