Some US regulators are "paralyzed" by the threat of lawsuits from Wall Street firms seeking to slow or stop the rollout of rules that would crimp their bottom line, a top U.S. official said on Thursday.

Bart Chilton, a Democratic commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said if regulators live in fear of a lawsuit alleging they failed to consider sufficiently the costs and benefits of a rule, rulemaking slows or halts and opponents have succeeded.

Regulators, already months behind in implementing rules from the Dodd-Frank financial reform law passed in 2010, are bracing for additional legal challenges as more regulations are completed.

Insufficient or flawed analysis of the costs of a rule versus the benefits to the public or industry likely will be a reason cited in lawsuits seeking to overturn the measures.

This Reuters story was posted over at The Huffington Post website on Thursday...and I thank Florida reader Donna Badach for sharing it with us. The link is here.

It might be one of the biggest issues in the upcoming presidential election. Last night, CBS News exit polls found 77 percent of those voting in seven Super Tuesday states say rising gas prices were an important factor in their vote.

The poll reflects growing consumer anxiety as gas prices have risen nearly 50 cents a gallon in just over two months.

Consumers have been telling us they are cutting corners because for most driving is a necessity.

This story was filed from Minneapolis yesterday...and was posted over at the minnesota.cbslocal.com website...and I borrowed it from yesterday's King Report. The link is here.

The US trade deficit widened sharply in January, driven higher by record imports of autos, capital goods and food, government data showed Friday.

The trade gap expanded 4.3% in January to $52.6 billion from $50.4 billion in December, the Commerce Department said.

This is the largest monthly differential between imports and exports since October 2008 and came in much bigger than had been expected.

This story was posted over at the marketwatch.com website yesterday...and I thank Florida reader Donna Badach for sending along her second contribution to today's column. The link is here.

"By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose." Do the Keynesians ever deeply, seriously contemplate perhaps Keynes' greatest and certainly most pertinent monetary insight?

Doug Noland's Credit Bubble Bulletin is a must read for me every Friday...and this week's commentary was certainly no exception. It's posted over at the prudentbear.com website...and the link is here. I thank reader U.D. for sending to me this week.

This most excellent PBS documentary was sent to me by reader "David in California" earlier this week...and it's certainly classified as weekend viewing material, as the video runs just under an hour. It's posted over at the pbs.org website out of WGBH in Boston. It's well worth your time...and the link is here.

Well, if you didn't read Friday's edition of Casey Daily Dispatch, there's still time to make amends...and I suggest you do exactly that.

David is on a roll in his Friday commentary...and it's certainly a must read. Included in it is a youtube.com video...a campaign against a small-time African warlord named Joseph Kony. Australian reader Wesley Legrand sent me this video on Thursday...and I thought it rather esoteric for my blog. However, since David Galland has blessed it, then it's okay by me.

All of this is posted at the caseyresearch.com website...and the link is here.

Consider the prospect of Iceland abandoning the króna and adopting the dollar as its currency. No, no, not the US greenback, but the Canadian "loonie," so named for the waterfowl imprinted on the flip side of its one-dollar coin.

There are several reasons for the Canadian dollar – usually viewed as the greenback's poor cousin – to be preferred over the euro. The loonie has a AAA sovereign debt rating and Canada has very little debt compared to every other Western nation. The Globe and Mail provides other reasons:

"It [the loonie] offers the tantalizing prospect of a stable, liquid currency that roughly tracks global commodity prices, nicely matching Iceland's own economy, which is dependent on fish and aluminum exports, and in the future, energy.

There's also a more sentimental reason. They're both cold, Arctic countries. 'The average person looks at it this way: Canada is a younger version of the US. Canada has more natural resources than the US, it's less developed, has more land, lots of water, ' explained Heidar Gudjonsson, an economist and chairman of the Research Centre for Social and Economic Studies, Iceland's largest think tank. 'And Canada thinks about the Arctic. '"

[Once we have Iceland firmly in our grasp, then we'll revisit the war of 1812 with the US. We should have never stopped just at winning our own border. We should have pushed those damn Yankees all the way back into the deep South, as we could use some Canadian territory where it's warm pretty much all year round. Then we'd give back just about everything that the US stole from Mexico in the Mexican-American War of 1846-48. Whose idea was it to live in the desert in the first place? Good idea...eh? – Ed]

This delightful, but rather tongue-in-cheek story, was posted over at the dailyreckoning.com website the other day...and is well worth the read. I thank Roy Stephens for his first offering of the day...and the link is here.

Japan's Trade and Current Account imbalances appear to be hitting some kind of terminal velocity, and while neither JGBs nor CDS seem to reflect the ensuing chaotic recognition that perhaps the can that has been so faithfully kicked down the "Nishi-no-michi" or the "West Road" may have plunged over the lip of Mount Fuji (conjuring images of Mordor), FX markets' recent and abrupt weakness brought on by yet more printing may well be coming face to face with reality.

There are some really ugly-looking graphs in this zerohedge.com posting from yesterday...and I thank Casey Research's own Bud Conrad for sending this to me. The link is here.

About a month ago, when Iranian officials started venting the idea of closing the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic, Western media was prompt in reviewing the events of 1981. At that time, Iranian forces mined the Strait and engaged commercial vessels with rubber speedboats in what was largely seen as a pathetic attempt to control the area. The media seems to think that Iranian officials are talking about using similar tactics today. In reality, the military technology deployed by Iran in the region is completely different today, creating a strategic scenario totally different from that of 30 years ago.

According to the EIA, 17 million barrels of petroleum crossed the Strait of Hormuz each day during 2011. This makes up almost 40% of the international petroleum market, clearly the most important chokepoint of the world for this commodity; on average 28 oil tankers cross the Strait every day, half of them empty and inbound, the other half outbound. Adding to petroleum is liquefied natural gas (LNG), exported by Qatar and the UAE ; over 6 million tonnes of LNG cross the Strait every month, about 25% of the international market. All of this traffic takes place very close to Iranian waters and shores.

Iran is a very large country, with an area of almost 1,700,000 km2, more than Spain, France, Italy, and Germany combined. To its south, Iran has a coast almost 1,700 km long, which makes up all the north shores of the Persian Gulf (hence the name) and the Gulf of Oman.

This big essay on Iran was posted over at the oildrum.com earlier this week...and was sent to me by reader U.D. If you know nothing about Iran, this essay certainly helps a little. Iran, once called Persia, is one of the oldest civilizations on planet Earth...and, like Turkey, I'd love to visit the place. The link is here.

Imagine you bought a house and to insure it, you had to purchase coverage from the homebuilder.

Then imagine a fire nearly destroyed the house, but your ability to collect the insurance depended on a committee of anonymous homebuilders meeting in secret to vote on whether to write you a check. If denied, the panel wouldn't have to provide an explanation, you wouldn't be allowed to review the minutes of closed-door discussions, and you'd have no right to appeal.

Not a great system...but not dissimilar to the one that governs the world of credit-default swaps, the contracts that insure sovereign- and corporate-debt investors against default. Panels made up of representatives from large banks, hedge funds, investment firms, and other interested parties, formed by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, decide whether payouts will be made to investors.

I plucked this must-read Bloomberg story out of a GATA release yesterday...and the link is here.

Moody's Investors Service considers Greece to have defaulted per its default definitions. The announcement comes despite Athens reaching a deal with private creditors for a bond exchange that will shave €107 billion from its €350-billion debt.

The agency pointed out that even though 85.8 per cent of the holders of Greek-law bonds had signed to the deal, the exercise of collective action clauses that Athens is applying to its bonds will force the remaining bondholders to participate.

Eventually, the overall cost to bondholders, based on the present net value of the debt, will be at least 70 per cent of the investment, Moody's explained.

"According to Moody's definitions, this exchange represents a 'distressed exchange,' and therefore a debt default," the US rating firm said. "This is because (i) the exchange amounts to a diminished financial obligation relative to the original obligation, and (ii) the exchange has the effect of allowing Greece to avoid payment default in the future."

This short story was posted over at the Russia Today website yesterday...and I thank Roy Stephens for sending it along. The link is here.

Greece's use of collective action clauses forcing investors to take losses under its debt restructuring triggers payouts on $3 billion of default insurance, the International Swaps & Derivatives Association said.

A total 4,323 credit-default swap contracts may now be settled after ISDA's determinations committee ruled the use of CACs is a restructuring credit event, according to a statement distributed today by Business Wire. Before the ruling, Greek swaps rose to a record $7.68 million in advance and $100,000 annually to insure $10 million of debt for five years.

A swaps trigger "raises the question of which country is next and which banks are most exposed," Hank Calenti, a bank analysts at Société Générale SA in London, wrote in a note. "Less than six months ago we had the head of the ECB exhorting that there must be no credit event on Greece," he wrote.

This is another Bloomberg story I pulled from a GATA release yesterday...and the link is here.

Mining entrepreneur Jim Sinclair told King World News last night that the Greek "credit event" will cost much more than the official figure of $3.5 billion in credit default swaps, probably in the trillions. He suspects that it could require the rescue of eight international banks, with enormous inflationary consequences.

I borrowed the headline and the introductory paragraph from another GATA release...and the link to the KWN blog is here.

The "sanctity" of bondholders' contracts has been diminished by Greece's pushing through the biggest sovereign restructuring in history, according to Bill Gross of Pacific Investment Management Co.

"The rules have been changed here," Gross, co-chief investment officer at Pimco, said in a radio interview on Bloomberg Surveillance with Tom Keene and Ken Prewitt. "The sanctity of their contracts is certainly lessened. Bondholders have that to look forward to going into the future."

Yields on Greece's new bonds may climb to as high as 20 percent amid "material risks" stemming from implementation of terms for the biggest sovereign restructuring in history, Morgan Stanley said yesterday in a report.

This Bloomberg story was sent to me by Washington state reader S.A...for which I thank him...and the link is here.

Nearly 86 percent of private investors have agreed to join in the debt-swap deal that will help Greece avoid an uncontrolled default. But is that good news? Many experts have their doubts. In a Spiegel Online interview, economics professor Harald Hau argues that not only will the plan put the burden on taxpayers, but it will mean an even bigger crisis to come.

Spiegel Online: Is the debt haircut enough to free Greece from its worst burdens?

Hau: No. The agreed-upon debt haircut is insufficient. No matter what, there will be a second, proper bankruptcy. It will probably take another nine months to three years, but then there will be a really big crisis, both economically and politically. The problem has only been deferred. The next time it will only affect the taxpayers, though.

This story was posted over at the German website spiegel.de yesterday...and I thank Roy Stephens for sharing it with us. It's a must read in my opinion...and the link is here.

The brain trust over at Zero Hedge got together and came out with this statement on Greece's default yesterday.

After reading this, everyone should have a fairly good grasp of what happened not only today, but ever since the great (and quite endless) European financial crisis took center stage, and what to look forward to next...

This zerohedge.com piece is not an overly long read...but it's worth running through. I thank reader U.D. for sending it my way...and the link is here.

Last week was heartbreaking for the gold bugs, not for the first time. But they're digging out again.

A week ago, on February 28, gold, gold shares, and silver all saw 2012 highs and appeared to be headed for dramatic chart breakouts.

But sudden, ferocious selling on Wednesday completely reversed this pleasant picture. CME April gold settling down $77.10, or 4.3%, and NYSE Arca Gold BUGS down 3.41%.

Such an abrupt and decisive shock did more than raise eyebrows. The Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee's Daily Dispatches email service (which has developed into an invaluable supplier of key stories on gold) was in its element.

GATA has been much derided for its view that the gold market is manipulated. Now it was able to report a whole procession of significant observers making unprecedented sympathetic noises.

Here's another story that I lifted from a GATA release yesterday. It was posted over at the marketwatch.com website on Thursday. It's a must read for sure...and the link is here.

First Eagle's gold guy, Jean-Marie Eveillard, told King World News yesterday that gold is very much undervalued amid the worldwide money printing and financial turmoil. His comments would be even more interesting if he mused about how this undervaluation has come about and how it is sustained. Oh, well... The link to the KWN post, headlined All Hell May Break Loose & Gold is Way Undervalued is here.

The second KWN blog post is with Gabelli Gold Fund manager Caesar Bryan. He told King World News that the gold market seems to have turned upward again, thanks to the buying of real metal in London, which is starting to overcome the price suppression of the paper futures market. The link to that post is here.

Gold traders are the most bullish in four months after investors accumulated more metal than ever and hedge funds raised bets on gains to a five-month high.

Sixteen of 23 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect prices to gain next week and one was neutral, the highest proportion since November 11. Investors increased their holdings in exchange-traded products backed by bullion for seven consecutive weeks and now hold 2,407 metric tons valued at $131 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

"Record-high ETP holdings show both institutional demand and hedge-fund demand is robust," said Mark O'Byrne, the executive director of Dublin-based GoldCore Ltd., a brokerage that sells and stores everything from quarter-ounce British Sovereigns to 400-ounce bars. "People are concerned about inflationary implications of quantitative easing, zero-percent interest rates policy and global currency debasement."

This Bloomberg story from yesterday was sent to me by Roy Stephens...and it's his final offering in today's column. It's worth the read...and the link is here.

When an athlete-turned-humanitarian and an energy executive tried to buy gold in Kenya, they found themselves mired in Congo's dangerous world of conflict minerals – and totally outmatched.

In 18 seasons in the National Basketball Association, Congo-born Dikembe Mutombo was a relentless defender, an 8-time all-star who accumulated the second-most blocked shots in the league's history and averaged a double-double in rebounds and points in each of his first 11 seasons. Mutombo became a star – even during the NBA's Michael Jordan-Patrick Ewing-Karl Malone golden age – because of his ability to intimidate. The 7-foot center owned the most feared and arguably most dangerous elbows in the league, and after every blocked shot, Mutombo would wave a taunting index figure at whatever hapless small forward or shooting guard had attempted to drive the lane against him. ....

Mutombo may be a renowned basketball player and humanitarian. But as a UN Group of Experts report published last December makes clear, he's not much of a businessman. Mutombo had linked up with Houston-based oil executive Kase Lawal, a respected businessman whom President Barack Obama had appointed to the Federal Trade Commission's Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiation. According to the UN document (and as first reported by the Houston Chronicle), the two attempted to purchase what they thought was $30 million worth of gold from dealers in Kenya – only to find out that the gold (most of which was probably counterfeit) was in the possession of a notorious Congolese warlord, who ended up profiting handsomely off of Mutombo and Lawal's blind enthusiasm and almost total lack of due diligence.

This long, but very interesting essay, was posted in the March edition of The Atlantic. Washington state reader S.A. sent it to me earlier this week...and the link is here.

If 10% of your total investable assets (i.e., excluding equity in your primary residence) aren't held in various forms of gold and silver, we at Casey Research think your portfolio is at risk.

After speaking at the Cambridge House conference last month and talking with many attendees, I came away convinced that most investors fall into one of two categories: those that hold an abundance of gold and silver (which tends to be physical forms only), and those with little or none. While both groups need to diversify, I'm a little more concerned about the second group. Here's why.

Regardless of what you think will happen over the remainder of this decade, one thing seems virtually certain: the value of paper money will be affected, perhaps dramatically. Even if the economy slips into deflation, the deflation wouldn't last long. A panicked Fed would print to the max and set off a wild rise in prices. This is why we're convinced currency dilution will not only continue but accelerate.

This must-read commentary was posted on the Casey Research website yesterday...and if West Virginia reader Elliot Simon hadn't sent to me, I would have never known it was there. The link is here.