This absolute must watch CNBC interview between Mr. Grant and Ms. Bartiromo is imbedded in this zerohedge.com story from yesterday. I thank reader Phil Barlett for sending it along...and the link to this 8:52 interview is here.

Market analyst and mining entrepreneur Jim Sinclair talked back to a news story apparently planted by the Federal Reserve to suggest that it can do and undo "quantitative easing" at the same time to cancel any inflationary implications of bond monetization.

The Fed's story, Sinclair writes, "is total gobbledygook to deflect the fact that QE is going to infinity." Sinclair's commentary prefaces a MarketWatch.com account of the Fed-planted story, is headlined "Monetary Doubletalk Beyond MOPE" -- that's "Management Of Perspective Economics" -- and it's posted at JSMineSet.com website...and the link is here. I thank Chris Powell for providing the introduction.

This week's edition of Conversations With Casey is well worth your time...and it starts out with the following question from Louis James: "Doug, we've had a lot of questions from readers about the apparent push governments are making to go to paperless currency - all electronic, no cash. Do you think that's likely, and what would be the implications?"

Doug: I think it's probably inevitable. It's not just cash, but the whole world is becoming increasingly digital. Credit cards already work very well all around the world, and everyone in the world, it seems, will soon have a Smartphone - or at least everyone who might have any cash.

But it's not just a question of evolving technology. Governments hate cash for lots of reasons, starting with the fact it costs a couple of cents to print a piece of paper currency, and they have to be replaced quite often. As the US has destroyed the value of the dollar, they've had to take the copper out of pennies, and soon they'll take the nickel out of nickels. Furthermore, with modern technology, counterfeiters - including unfriendly foreign governments - can turn out US currency that's almost indistinguishable from the real thing. And the stuff takes up a lot of space if it's enough to be of value. So sure, governments would like to get rid of tangible currency. They'd like to see all money kept in banks, which are today no more than arms of the state. But it's not so simple: increasing numbers of people trust neither banks - most of which are insolvent - or currencies - most of which are on their way to their intrinsic values.

It's a long interview, but a must read in my opinion...and the link is here.

China will spend 111.4 billion dollars on public security, which includes police and state security forces, in the coming year — an amount that exceeds even the defense budget. This is according to a report presented by the Ministry of Finance on Monday, at the start of the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislative body. Military spending for 2012 was announced a day earlier at 106.4 billion, marking the second consecutive year in which the internal security budget has surpassed the outlay on national defense.

The boost to internal security comes amid recent unrest in Tibet and Xinjiang. On Monday, a Tibetan teenager and a widowed mother of four were reported by overseas groups to have set themselves on fire to protest religious policies in Gansu and Sichuan provinces.

At least 25 self-immolations by monks and nuns have been reported in the past year while Tibetans have clashed with police forces in Sichuan, resulting in the deployment of additional security across many Tibetan areas in western China. Xinjiang has also seen intermittent ethnic unrest, with at least 20 people killed in violence near Kashgar last month.

Nothing terrifies the ruling elite in the Chinese communist party more than civil unrest, as everything starts to come unglued when the economy finally does implode. I thank Casey Research's own Louis James for sharing this article with us. It was posted over on the mercopress.com website on Tuesday...and the link is here.

In a further step confirming that China is rapidly encroaching on the "reserve" status of the sacrosanct USD, the FT writes that China intends to extend renminbi loans to other BRIC nations in "another step toward the internationalisation of its currency."

To those following the stealthy Chinese incursion into currency markets as a dollar alternative, this is not news: already we know that China and Japan have bypassed the dollar entirely and now engage in direct bilateral trade using JPY and CNY (even as most other nations in Asia have developed bilateral agreements to transact in a non dollar basis). This is merely the latest incremental step which will see China become the dominant player in the currency arena, and further puts to doubt the fate of the US Dollar as the default currency.

This zerohedge.com posting is another offering from Phil Barlett...and the link is here.

The EU and UN have announced new talks with Iran over the country's controversial nuclear program. But is Tehran just stalling for time, or is there a real chance of progress? German commentators aren't optimistic.

This rather short article showed up on the German website spiegel.de yesterday...and I thank Roy Stephens for bringing it to my attention. It's worth skimming...and the link is here.

Some hedge funds are refusing to join Greece's bond swap, threatening legal action if the government does not come up with a better offer and complicating efforts to restructure the country's debt.

Greece's private creditors have until Thursday night to decide whether to take part in a bond swap, aimed at avoiding a disorderly default that would drag other countries further into the euro zone crisis.

Hedge funds alone are unlikely to derail the swap but if their strategy works and they agree a better deal it would infuriate other creditors and use up Greek resources. If not, it could drag the Greek government into a lengthy and expensive legal battle just as it needs to focus on bringing back economic growth.

I thank West Virginia reader Elliot Simon for sending me this cnbc.com story from yesterday...and the link is here.

Less than half of Greece’s international creditors had agreed to a vital €206bn (£172bn) bond swap on Wednesday night, leaving Athens dangerously exposed to default.

The Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HSBC joined 30 European banks and institutions in declaring their acceptance of the deal - but the tally was still far short of the 95pc needed to avoid being officially declared in default.

The International Institute of Finance (IIF), the body that has negotiated with the Greek government on behalf of bondholders, put out several announcements on Wednesday, counting the proportion of the vote as it inched up. The latest statement said bondholders “amounting in aggregate to €84bn, or 40.8pc of the €206bn total eligible debt” would support the deal.

This story was posted over at The Telegraph late last night...and I thank Roy Stephens for sharing it with us. It's certainly worth a look...and the link is here.

Political risk in the Middle East has increased significantly with war between Iran and Israel almost inevitable, and precious metals and equities investments offer some safety, Swiss money manager and long-term bear Marc Faber said on Tuesday.

"Political risk was high six months ago and is higher now. I think sooner or later, the U.S. or Israel will strike Iran—it's almost inevitable," Faber, who publishes the widely read Gloom Boom and Doom Report, told Reuters on the sidelines of an investment conference.

"You have to be in precious metals and equities... most wars and most social unrest haven't destroyed corporations—they usually survive," he said.

This is the third day in a row that I've had something that featured Dr. Marc Faber. I thank Florida reader Donna Badach for sharing it with us...and the link to this cnbc.com story is here.

Looks like suspicions about central bank gold policies are spreading, as Zero Hedge reported last night about agitation in Switzerland and Germany to repatriate their national gold reserves from the United States.

I thank Chris Powell for wordsmithing the headline and the preamble...but the first reader through the door with this zerohedge.com story was Bob Fitzwilson, for which I thank him. It's a must read for sure...and the link is here.

Fund manager Paul Brodsky tonight told King World News last night that gold remains "fundamentally cheap" as a measure of the world money supply. Of course to GATA the questions are whether central banks ever again will let gold be perceived as such a measure and whether gold investors will ever figure out that gold is "fundamentally cheap" because most of what they think is their gold is just paper.

As you can tell, I borrowed the title and introduction from another GATA release. An excerpt from the interview with Brodsky is posted at the KWN Internet site...and the link is here.

The London gold trader source of King World News reported massive buying of real metal as the commercial traders cover their short positions and even central banks buy the dip. "During this entire takedown in the gold market," the London trader says, "there has been absolutely no selling of physical gold, only accumulation. You see people saying gold is headed to $1,620, $1,600, $1,500. I guarantee you these individuals do not know what's going on in the physical market."

This is another GATA release that I pillaged. An excerpt from the interview is posted at the KWN website...and the link is here.

Eric King had a second interview with his secret London source.

This "deep throat" of the gold world reported last night that, as with gold, silver -- the metal, not the paper -- has been massively accumulated on the latest smash down in the paper market. He says: "The Chinese are doing the exact same thing in the silver market that they are doing in the gold market -- massive accumulation on dips. ... The local traders in silver are short and nervous. Everyone is short silver and so that market can move violently higher when it turns."

We'll see if there's any truth behind all these words from this unknown source as time progresses. The link to this King World News blog is here.

Patrick A. Heller, proprietor of Liberty Coin Service in Lansing, Michigan, has written a brilliant letter, full of specific details of U.S. monetary history, to U.S. District Judge Richard L. Voorhees of the Western District of North Carolina in support of leniency in sentencing of Liberty Dollar founder Bernard von Not Haus, whose conviction a year ago on a charge resembling counterfeiting seems to many of us to be a gross injustice.

Heller notes that private currency using the word "dollar" long has circulated and continues to circulate without penalty in the United States, and that von Not Haus never represented his currency as issue of the U.S. government.

This GATA release contains an extensive preamble by Chris Powell, which includes the two paragraphs above. The rest of the GATA release is an absolute must read as well...as is Heller's letter...and the link to all that is here.