The headline number was the worst since November 2009, the miss was the biggest since September 2009, Production of 57.1 was the lowest since September 2009, New Orders slide to 57.4 from 63.3, Supplier deliveries lowest since September 2011, and so on. The only good print was employment which mysteriously rose from 56.3 to 58.7, just in time for the NFP print [on Friday] to come really, really ugly.

This zerohedge.com piece is courtesy of reader Scott Pluschau...and the link is here.

This month Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki announced the addition of some 1,900 mental health nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers to its existing workforce of 20,590 mental health staff in attempt to get a handle on the epidemic of suicides among combat veterans. Unfortunately, when presidents misuse our military on an unprecedented scale - and Congress lets them get away with it - the resulting stress causes military suicides to increase dramatically, both among active duty and retired service members. In fact, military deaths from suicide far outnumber combat deaths. According to an article in the Air Force Times this month, suicides among airmen are up 40 percent over last year.

This short commentary from Congressman Ron Paul yesterday is a must read in my opinion. It's posted over at the safehaven.com website...and I thank Roy Stephens for sending it our way. The link is here.

Spain's newly announced recession won't be ending any time soon and it could force the U.S. stock market to fall anywhere between 10 percent and 20 percent, economist Harry Dent told CNBC Monday.

"Spain is going to default. The markets are in total denial on this," Dent, author of "The Great Crash Ahead," told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." "It’s a question of whether it’s going to happen sooner or later."

Dent spoke after Standard & Poor's downgraded 16 Spanish banks and the nation announced first-quarter gross domestic product figures that showed the country to be in recession.

Spain's problems are far worse than what happened in Greece, he added.

This cnbc.com story from yesterday was sent to me by West Virginia reader Elliot Simon...and the link is here.

Irish economist David McWilliams, whose work also showed up in Saturday's column, presents an artful 6-minute lecture on Europe's banking woes. It's very well done...and if you wish to partake of the first two "Lessons"...they are in the right side bar.

I thank reader Steven Kelly for bringing it to my attention...and the link is here.

For two years Germany has had its way in Europe, treating historic nations much as Bismarck treated Bavaria – sovereign only in name. Mrs. Merkel will have to relearn the forgotten art of compromise.

The French-led counter-attack and rumblings of revolt through every branch of the EU institutions last week have brought this aberrant phase of the eurozone crisis to an abrupt end.

"It’s not for Germany to decide for the rest of Europe," said François Hollande, soon to be French leader, unless he trips horribly next week. Strong words even for the hustings.

"If I am elected president, there will be a change in Europe's construction. We’re not just any country: we can change the situation," he said.

European allies are flocking to his cause from left and right, he claims. Not even Austria supports Germany’s austerity drive any longer.

This Ambrose Evans-Pritchard offering was filed at The Telegraph on Sunday evening...and is, of course, courtesy of Roy Stephens. The link is here.

Governments in many countries, particularly in Europe, have implemented radical reforms and austerity measures in an effort to combat the economic crisis. But this approach has "devastating consequences" on the job market, the International Labor Organization (ILO) warned on Monday.

Furthermore, these measures have not achieved the desired result of reduced deficits, the United Nations agency said. The "World of Work Report 2012" called the global employment situation "alarming," and urged governments to recognize that job-centered policies have a positive effect on the economy.

"The austerity and regulation strategy was expected to lead to more growth, which is not happening," director of the ILO's Institute for International Labor Studies, Raymond Torres, told the press in Geneva. "The strategy of austerity actually has been counterproductive from the point of view of its very objective of supporting confidence and supporting the reduction of budget deficits."

This is another Roy Stephens offering. This one was posted on the spiegel.de website yesterday...and the link is here.

Egypt's national tragedy took a turn towards farce April 27, when Saudi Arabia closed its embassy and several consulates after demonstrations that "threaten the security and safety of Saudi and Egyptian employees, raising hostile slogans and violating the inviolability and sovereignty", according to a Saudi statement. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States were supposed to anchor an international aid package that will forestall a disorderly financial crisis.

With a critical fuel shortage cutting into food supplies and essential services, Egyptians already have a foretaste of chaos. The two-for-a-penny pita, the subsidized flat bread that provides much of the caloric intake for the half of Egypt's population living on less than $2 a day, is at risk.

A battle over the Muslim Brotherhood's international ambitions may push Egypt over the edge into a Somali level of horror. I warned in this space on April 11 [1] that the Muslim Brotherhood thinks that it can thrive on chaos. The anti-Saudi demonstrations support this interpretation of the Brotherhood's actions.

This story was posted over at the Asia Times website early on their Tuesday morning. It's a bit of a read, but worth it if you have the time. I thank Roy Stephens for this news item...and the link is here.

The first is headlined "Iran's electricity exports could hit 10 Billion KWH". The second is entitled "South African crude imports from Iran almost double in March". And lastly is this short item headlined "China mulls guarantees for ships carrying Iran oil". All three stories are courtesy of Roy Stephens, for which I thank him.

In this small Icelandic village, sailors are making double their pre-crisis pay, haddock sales to places like Boston and Brussels are booming and unemployment is almost zero - signs of this island's surprisingly rapid rise from the ashes of banking ruin.

While much of Europe wallows in recession, the economy of this volcanic island in the mid Atlantic is growing at a clip that has surprised many people, thanks to a currency fall - in which the crown lost almost half its value to the euro - an export and tourism boom as well as growing consumer confidence.

If you can handle it...here's a 'good news' story that was posted over on the Reuters website yesterday. I thank Roy Stephens once again...and the link is here.

In its struggle against the gold price suppression scheme and surreptitious market rigging by governments generally, GATA long has failed to win support from major gold and silver mining companies, despite our frequent solicitation, perhaps because mining companies are so vulnerable to the scheme's instigators -- governments, which control mining licenses, royalty requirements, and environmental regulations -- and to the scheme's agents and profiteers -- big investment houses, which control mine finance, mining being the most capital-intensive industry.

But this lack of support doesn't mean that GATA isn't being watched closely by some major miners, as was suggested Friday when Bloomberg Television's Trish Regan interviewed McEwen Mining CEO and Goldcorp founder Rob McEwen on her program "Street Smart." Also interviewed was Philadelphia Trust Co. CEO Michael Crofton.

The program's issue was whether the United States should return to a gold standard, and while the discussion was a bit disjointed, it made plain that the gold issue is a conflict between, on one hand, the international political power amassed by the United States and imposed through its issuance of the only world reserve currency, and, on the other hand, the desire for more limited government and free markets.

I thank Chris Powell for providing the above 3-paragraph preamble...and the pertinent link to the Bloomberg TV interview is contained in this GATA release.

The first item is an audio interview with Eric Sprott. It's from Eric's blog that was in this column on Saturday. The first blog is with Michael Pento...and it's entitled "Love Affair With Inflationary Policies to End in Disaster". Next is a blog featuring Keith Barron...and it's headlined "The World Will See More QE, Inflation and Revolution". The fourth blog is with Citibank analyst Tom Fitzpatrick...and it's entitled "Citibank Analyst Extraordinarily Bullish on Gold, Oil and U.S. Dollar". And lastly is this blog from the godfather of newsletter writers, Richard Russell. It's entitled "A Chapter of the World Has Come to an End".

California is proposing to lift a ban on a once-common method of dredging gold from riverbeds, raising objections from some state regulators and prompting lawsuits against the state by anti-mining and pro-mining groups.

At issue is "suction-dredge mining," which uses equipment to vacuum up gravel and sift out gold. State lawmakers imposed a temporary ban on the method in 2009 to protect fish and water quality. In March, the California Department of Fish and Game proposed lifting the ban while imposing new regulations.

This story was posted in The Wall Street Journal on Sunday...and I thank Washington state reader S.A. for sending it along. The link is here.

GATA Chairman Bill Murphy was interviewed for about 20 minutes by Lauren Lyster on the cable television network Russia Today's "Capital Account" program on Monday.

There's a reason why the subject -- gold market manipulation -- can be discussed only in non-Western news media, and the continuing interest shown in it by Russia Today, a creation of the Russia government, suggests that governments not part of the market rigging have long figured it out.

While Lyster's skirt is, certainly by design, shorter than JPMorgan's position in silver, she is once again well-versed in the subject and unafraid to press it to its uncomfortable conclusion, unlike the "money honeys" of U.S. cable TV networks.

I thank Chris Powell for his rather humourous introduction...and the link to this must watch youtube.com video is here. The comments on gold...and the Murphy interview...begin about the 2:05 minute mark.

With his new study, "Dr. Zijlstra's Final Settlement: Gold as the Monetary Cosmos' Sun," appended here, our good friend the Netherlands economist Jaco Schipper of MarketUpdate.nl today adds substantially to the growing documentation of the Western central bank gold price suppression scheme.

Zijlstra is the late Dutch treasurer, prime minister, and central banker Jelle Zijlstra, in whose memoirs Schipper has found confirmations of that scheme, including a confirmation involving former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, whose involvement in gold price suppression often has been noted by GATA.

Zijlstra knew what he was writing about, as he served not only as president of its central bank but also, simultaneously until his retirement in 1981, as president of the Bank for International Settlements, where gold price suppression long has been a primary function.

This extraordinarily long GATA release is a must read from beginning to end...and there are enough imbedded links to keep you in front of your computer screen for the rest of the day. The link is here.

BIG GOLD's Jeff Clark recently caught up with Charles Oliver, the senior portfolio manager of the Sprott Gold and Precious Minerals Fund. He made a splash with a gold-price prediction four years ago that didn't quite come true, with consequences that have created a new legend for the man, as you can see below.

That amusing episode now behind us, we have to say that we like and respect Charles, so Jeff interviewed him to learn what he sees coming next. Charles also discussed the lag in gold stocks and what may turn them around, the possibility of companies hedging their production, why he's bullish on silver, and more.

This interview was the entire contents of Monday's edition of Casey's Daily Dispatch. It's a must read as well...and the link is here.

Bernanke's public attack on gold comes down to two propositions, both demonstrably false:

Gold cannot be used as a monetary standard because there's not enough gold. This is one of the most frequent charges used by gold standard opponents. In fact, the quantity of gold is never an issue; the issue is one of price.

Central bankers do not want to face up to the fact that they have printed so much paper money that a return to sound money would involve a one-time hyperinflationary spike in all hard asset values and a concomitant destruction of paper wealth. This adjustment will take place eventually—it always does. The issue is whether we will face up to the reality sooner than later in a studied and orderly way or wait for a disorderly and catastrophic day of financial reckoning.

I agree with every word that Jim Rickards writes in this short piece that was posted over at the usnews.com website yesterday. I thank Randall Reinwasser for bringing this incredible must read story to our attention...and the link is here.

For the first time in what may be ages, a phenomenon that has become near and dear to anyone who trades gold, and which at best elicits a casual smirk from those who observe it several times daily, we find that the WSJ has finally picked up on the topic of the endless daily gold slam down, where the seller in complete disregard for market disruption (because in a normal world one wants to sell any given lot without notifying the market that one is selling so as to get a good price on the next lot... but not in the gold market where the seller slams the bid with reckless abandon) ignores market depth and in a demonstration of nothing but brute price manipulation force, slams every bid down just to demoralize further buying.

This was the story-de-jour yesterday...and rightfully so. It was just a mini-version of the drive-by shootings that began exactly one year ago on this date, when silver got hit for six bucks in a 13-minute time period during the thinnest trading imaginable...the Far East open on a Monday morning, which was Sunday night in New York.

This zerohedge.com story was sent to me by reader Phil Barlett yesterday...and the link is here.