Here's her 2-paragraph commentary on this issue. How concerned she really is, is another matter, as she is one of the Commissioners who has been against position limits in silver since day one.

Her comments were posted over at the cftc.gov website yesterday...and I thank Florida reader Donna Badach for sending it along. The link is here.

Daniel Mudd, who ran Fannie Mae between 2005 and 2008, and Richard Syron, who headed Freddie Mac between 2003 and 2008, were among six senior former executives of the lenders sued in a New York court by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were created to help promote home ownership in the US, were bailed out by the US taxpayer in 2008 after the value of their holdings of mortgage debt collapsed. Together they've received almost $170bn (£109bn) of taxpayers' funds and are now under government control.

"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives told the world that their sub-prime exposure was substantially smaller than it really was," said Robert Khuzami, head of the SEC's enforcement division. "These material misstatements occurred during a time of acute investor interest in financial institutions' exposure to sub-prime loans," he said.

This story appeared in The Telegraph yesterday afternoon...and it's Roy Stephens first offering of the day. The link is here.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s practice of settling cases while allowing corporations or other defendants to neither admit nor deny the charges will be the subject of a hearing early next year by the House Financial Services Committee.

The committee chairman, Representative Spencer Bachus, Republican of Alabama, said Friday that “the S.E.C.’s practice of using ‘no-contest settlements’ has raised concerns about accountability and transparency.” He said the hearings were supported by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

Settlements of enforcement actions using the “neither admit nor deny” construct have been the focus of increased scrutiny, including in the recent Citigroup case, where United States District Court Judge Jed S. Rakoff rejected a $285 million settlement between the financial company and the commission.

This story was posted in The New York Times last evening...and reader Phil Barlett sent it to me in the wee hours of this morning. The link is here.

Fitch placed six eurozone countries on downgrade watch on Friday, in a damning judgment of the crisis which saw the ratings agency declare that a comprehensive solution to the eurozone crisis is "technically and politically beyond reach". Here is its statement in full.

This story is also from The Telegraph...and was posted on their website early in the evening local time. I thank Australian reader Wesley Legrand for sending it along...and the link is here.

Spain and Italy were both told to brace for a debt downgrade after a leading rating agency concluded that a "comprehensive solution to the eurozone crisis is technically and politically beyond reach".

It cited the “sustained deterioration” in funding conditions for eurozone countries with relatively high levels of public debt, like Belgium, and new risks stemming from the country's troubled banking sector.

The downgrade and warnings, delivered after the markets closed last night, came as Spain said its debts had soared; talks with Greece’s private bondholders stalled; and Hungary broke off talks with the International Monetary Fund.

This story from The Telegraph was posted minutes before midnight in London last night...and is far more comprehensive that the above story on this subject, which just reprinted the Fitch statement. They're both worth reading, but if you want to narrow it down to just one...this would be it. It's another Roy Stephens offering...and the link is here.

An unprecedented exodus of capital from Greece – peaking in a record number of withdrawals from banks in recent months – has exacerbated the liquidity crisis now wracking the recession-hit country.

The latest figures released by the Bank of Greece reveal that in September and October alone investors pulled €12.3bn (£10.3bn) from domestic banks, spurred by fears of political uncertainty and economic collapse.

Theodore Pelagidis, an economics professor at the University of Piraeus, said: "This is part of the death spiral of the recession as a result of austerity measures. People realise that contagion has come to banks and they are very afraid of losing their deposits. On average around €4bn-€5bn in capital flees the banking system every month."

This is another Roy Stephens offering...this one from The Guardian yesterday. It's worth your time...and the link is here.

A week after the British prime minister, David Cameron, refused to sign a Europe-wide pact that leaders had hoped would stabilize the euro zone, a cross-Channel spat has escalated into a full-blown war of words. Fears in Paris have reached a fever pitch over the prospect that France is about to lose its triple-A credit rating, the highest available.

A downgrade by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, which has put France on review with a negative outlook, became more likely last week after a summit meeting of European Union leaders was widely declared a flop.

But in the last two days, French officials have unleashed a diatribe suggesting that Britain, not France, is far more deserving of a downgrade.

The pot calling the kettle black, methinks. This story from The New York Times yesterday is another offering from reader Phil Barlett...and it's worth skimming. The link is here.

In the 2008 economic meltdown, Iceland nearly collapsed. Its three banks failed, it's currency lost 50 per cent of its value and in an unprecedented display of anger, usually peaceful Icelanders took to the streets to protest.

But Iceland defied the orthodox economic wisdom of the time---bailouts and slashing government services---and now is on the road to a recovery that the rest of Europe envies.

The hero of the hour and the man almost solely responsible for this remarkable turnaround is the country's president Olafur Grimmson.

By refusing to go along with conventional thinking and by asking the people themselves what they wanted, he set a course for Iceland's remarkable economic recovery.

This 48:30 minute interview was posted over at the cbc.ca website last Sunday. Well-know Canadian correspondent, Michael Enright does the honours. Roy Stephens sent me this interview earlier this week...and the link is here. You have to scroll down a bit to find the interview.

My thesis is that, with the sustainability of euro integration now a pressing issue, capital flight has begun in earnest. There is evidence that huge flows have left the “periphery” banks in search of the safety of German and other “core” institutions. A fascinating Bloomberg article yesterday (“Germany’s Hidden Risk” by Peter Coy) introduced the term “Target2.” “It’s the name for the European Central Bank’s suddenly important interbank payment system, which before the crisis was just a lowly bit of financial plumbing. The bottom line: Germany’s Bundesbank -- BuBa for short -- has quietly, automatically lent 495 billion euros ($644bn) to the European Central Bank via Target2. That lending has balanced correspondingly huge borrowings from Target2 by the central banks of weaker nations including Greece, Ireland, and Portugal -- and lately Spain, Italy, and even France. They are technically ‘claims,’ not loans.

It is my view that heightened euro disintegration risk has unleashed destabilizing capital flight – within the euro region and without. I’ll presume the flow out of Italian, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese and other “periphery” banks to Germany will equate to only more astonishing growth in “Target2” balances.

The ballooning of both the ECB balance sheet and claims to the Bundesbank will likely be a source of market worry, weighing further on the euro and creating greater momentum for capital flight out of the European financial system.

These are snippets from Doug's latest Credit Bubble Bulletin over at the prudentbear.com website. It's a bit of read...and a bit thick in places...but it's worth it if you have the time. I thank Roy Stephens for his final offering in today's column...and the link is here.

Either yesterday or the day before, I posted two different KWN blogs. One was with Egon von Greyerz...and the other was Jim Rickards. Eric King sent me the full audio interviews of both very early this morning. The link to the von Greyerz interview is here...and the Jim Rickards interview is linked here.

Someone has dropped a rare coin worth about $1,700 into a Salvation Army kettle in central Pennsylvania. Again.

The valuable currency has appeared in Gettysburg-area kettles for several years. But no one knows who should be thanked for the generosity.

Local Salvation Army unit organizer C.K. Roulette says he's content with the mystery remaining unsolved. He says it sparks people's imaginations and adds excitement during long, cold hours of bell-ringing.

Krugerrands also have turned up in recent years in Salvation Army kettles in Florida, Indiana, Colorado and Washington.

This 4-paragraph story turned up in the Huffington Post on Thursday...and you just read the entire piece. I thank Florida reader Donna Badach for sending it along...and the link to the hard copy is here.

As gold bugs get discouraged in the wake of year-end sell offs, über precious metals mining entrepreneur Rob McEwen still is firmly bullish on gold in the long run and stands pat on his $5,000 per ounce gold price prediction.

I found this story posted over at the mineweb.com website just now...and the link is here.

The Richard Russell blog posted on King World News earlier this week certainly stirred up a lot of controversy from those readers who held stocks in the precious metals...as the 'R' Man said to sell them too.

Well, in his latest commentary from yesterday, Richard has modified that comment with the following...

"My advice -- sell any stocks you still own -- sell into all rallies, or stay out of stocks completely. I continue to like gold in all its forms, but I'm afraid that gold mining stocks will tend to go with the general market. Personally, I'm staying with my gold mining stocks until the bitter end. I continue to believe that we'll see a final hysterical blow-off in gold (the metal) that will carry the mining stocks with it."

Eric King slid this blog into my in-box around 4:30 a.m. Eastern time. It's a must read...and the link is here.

By the way, I'm still 'all in'.