Even though American stocks have doubled in price in the last three years, investors and traders large and small keep giving the market the cold shoulder.

Trading in the United States stock market has not only failed to recover since the 2008 financial crisis, it has continued to fall. In April, the average daily trades in American stocks on all exchanges stood at nearly half of its peak in 2008: 6.5 billion compared with 12.1 billion, according to Credit Suisse Trading Strategy.

The decline stands in marked contrast to past economic recoveries, when Americans regained their taste for stock trading within two years of economic shocks in 1987 and 2001.

This time around, the stock market has many more players, including high-speed trading firms, which have recently come to account for over half of all stock market activity. But even they, like all other major groups, have recently been doing less overall trading.

This story was in the Saturday edition of The New York Times...and I thank Phil Barlett for sending it. The link is here.

The rules governing Wall Street generally force stockbrokers to seek out the best prices for clients who pay them to buy and sell shares.

In recent years, though, brokers have had another enticement that can pull them in a different direction: payments from stock exchanges in return for sending them business.

The practice has attracted criticism from several industry participants and former regulators who say the so-called rebates that the exchanges pay Wall Street firms could give those firms an incentive to profit at the expense of investors. Now a new study using industry data says that the rebates could be costing mutual funds, pension funds and ordinary investors as much as $5 billion a year.

This is another story from Sunday's New York Times...and it's also courtesy of Phil Barlett. The link is here.

One of the more confounding aspects of the U.S. housing crisis has been the reluctance of lenders to do more to assist troubled borrowers. After all, when homes go into foreclosure, banks lose money.

Now it turns out some lenders haven’t merely been unhelpful; their actions have pushed some borrowers over the foreclosure cliff. Lenders have been imposing exorbitant insurance policies on homeowners whose regular coverage lapses or is deemed insufficient. The policies, standard homeowner’s insurance or extra coverage for wind damage, say, for Florida residents, typically cost five to 10 times what owners were previously paying, tipping many into foreclosure.

The situation has caught the attention of state regulators and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is considering rules to help homeowners avoid unwarranted “force- placed insurance.” The U.S. ought to go further and limit commissions, fine any company that knowingly overcharges a homeowner and require banks to seek competitive bids for force- placed insurance policies. Because insurance is not regulated at the federal level, states also need to play a stronger role in bringing down rates.

This Bloomberg story was posted on their website on Sunday...and I thank West Virginia reader Elliot Simon for bringing it to our attention. The link is here.

Weekend election results in Greece sent tremors throughout Europe as voters punished the parties responsible for highly unpopular austerity measures instituted to prevent the country from defaulting on its massive debts and exiting the euro currency bloc.

No political party won enough votes to form a government, raising the possibility of new elections within months and protracted uncertainty for global markets.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index plunged 2.8 per cent to close at 9,119.14 – its lowest finish in three months – while Dow Jones industrial futures fell 0.8 per cent to 12,857 and S&P 500 futures lost 0.9 per cent to 1,350.90.

Among European markets, Germany's DAX dropped 1.5 per cent to 6,463.67 and France's CAC-40 shed 1.6 per cent to 3,112.49.

This story out of yesterday's edition of The Telegraph was sent to me by Roy Stephens...and the link is here.

The post-war political model is breaking down. And about time. For the political elites have failed the people they are supposed to represent.

People are worried sick about the economy. At the moment, anxiety centres on the problems of the euro. That is understandable. It is the great issue of our day. But it is not sui generis. It is the latest in a long line of European failures.

Put the word euro or European in front of the name of almost any policy issue or area – Agriculture, Fisheries, Immigration, Defence – and you will immediately conjure up a catalogue of failure. The common European money – the euro – is just the most important addition to this list.

It wasn't willed by the people but was rather thrust upon them by their leaders, without sufficient thought or preparation. They have created a monster which threatens to destroy the European economy – and with it, to threaten the world.

This is another Roy Stephens contribution...and this one was posted on telegraph.co.uk website late on Sunday night. The link is here.

Merkel said Hollande would visit the German capital shortly after his inauguration as president, expected to take place on May 15, without giving a date for the much-awaited meeting.

The German chancellor irked Hollande by openly campaigning for his rival Nicolas Sarkozy, who comes from the same conservative political family as Merkel.

During the campaign, Hollande won few friends in Berlin by criticising Merkel's insistence on austerity as the way out of the eurozone debt crisis, seeking to shift the focus to growth.

But Merkel told reporters that both budgetary consolidation as well as growth was necessary in Europe and reiterated that the EU's fiscal pact -- aimed at reducing ballooning deficits -- was not up for discussion.

This AFP story was posted on the france24.com website yesterday...and is Roy Stephens' third offering in a row. The link is here.

This story that's just breaking now via AP and Bloomberg is ominous for Europe...

The leader of the conservative party in Greece, which just took the plurality of votes in the Greek election, says he has given up on forming a coalition government.

He said that all attempted combinations have failed, and that the need to renegotiate the bailout is now agreed to by everyone. Samaras technically had three days to form a government, and he's given up after less than one day.

Now that Samaras has failed, it's up to the far-left wing party to give it a shot. They're not just in favor of renegotiating the bailout. They're against austerity in total. We'll see if they get it. If they fail, then it's up to PASOK to give it a shot.

This story was posted over at the businessinsider.com website yesterday afternoon...and is another Roy Stephens offering. The link is here.

The first is headlined "Japan to insure ships carrying Iranian Oil". The second story is entitled "World Bank chief opposes sanctions on Iran's central bank: CBI governor". And lastly is this story headlined "Old tensions between Russia and U.S. set to revive". These are Roy Stephens' final offerings of the day, for which I thank him.

Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Monday removed the excise tax on sales of all gold jewelry, a move that will calm retailers who went on strike when the scope of the levy was widened in March.

In the federal budget on March 16, Mr. Mukherjee imposed a 0.3% excise tax on non-branded gold jewelry. Branded-jewelry sales by companies such as Tata group's Tanishq already attracted a 1% tax.

He also raised the threshold limit for taxation on cash purchases of gold jewelry to 500,000 rupees ($9,350) from the budgetary proposal of 200,000 rupees.

This Wall Street Journal story from yesterday was posted in the clear in this GATA release...and the link is here.

Economist Alasdair Macleod celebrates the grudging attention being given to Austrian economics as the world economy keeps sinking despite -- or because of? -- ever-more Keynesian medicine.

This short essay was posted over at the goldmoney.com website on Saturday. I thank Chris Powell for writing the above paragraph of introduction..and the link is here.

The first is from Richard Russell. It's headlined "Warren Buffett, Gold & My Secret Barometer". The second blog is with Michael Pento. It's entitled "Time to Buy Mining Shares, Economic storm Intensifies". Next comes James Turk...and it's headlined "Gold & Silver Bottoming as Euro Troubles Re-emerge". In fourth spot comes Caesar Bryan with the headline "The Federal Reserve is Under the Gun & Gold". And last but not least is Bill Fleckenstein with commentary entitled "Stock Market to Tank, Buffett's Ego & Gold".

A New York Sun editorial on Monday talks back probably better than anyone to the shallow disparagement of gold spoken the other day by Berkshire Hathaway's Charles Munger.

I thank Chris Powell for writing the above introduction, but I personally thought that the editor really pulled his punches...and was much nicer to Munger than was necessary. You can be the judge on this one. It's posted over at The New York Sun website...and the link is here.

It must be "Bash Gold" week on the CNBS network. Warren Buffett has been leading the charge by talking down the precious metal in a recent newsletter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders and followed up today on CNBS's "Squawk Box" where he warned that despite the declining value of the dollar, running to gold is a "mistake."

Not to be outdone, Buffett’s partner in crime Charlie Munger recently declared "gold is a great thing to sew onto your garments if you're a Jewish family in Vienna in 1939 but civilized people don't buy gold - they invest in productive businesses."

And now, Bill Gates went on CNBS yesterday to try and explain the great error in investing in the barbarous relic. It's like they're trotting out the billionaire boys club to scare people back into Berkshire and Microsoft stock.

Jeff Berwick over at the dollarvigilante.com website tells it the way it really is...and my hat is off to him. I thank Nick Laird for sending me this must read commentary...and the link is here.

Not to be outdone, GATA's secretary treasurer, Chris Powell, has his own comments on Buffett and Munger in this short commentary posted on the gata.org website...and the link is here.

The casino that boasts a Gold Rush theme is offering modern-day prospectors a chance to pick up some real gold and silver.

But they will need some cash to make purchases from Atlantic City's newest novelty, a "Gold to Go" machine. The machine made its glitzy debut at Golden Nugget Atlantic City on April 26, when the casino staged a grand opening ceremony to celebrate the completion of its $150 million renovation project.

Loosely resembling a gigantic gold bar, the machine acts like an ATM -- but it dispenses gold and silver coins and trinkets instead of cash. Inscribed on the side of the machine are the words "The gold ATM." It is located in Golden Nugget's atrium, just off the casino floor.

This story was posted in the Chicago Tribune yesterday...and I thank Elliot Simon for his second offering in today's column. The link is here.

The claims appeared in court documents filed in the Supreme Court which describe a hunt for at least $150,000 worth of "missing" silver ingots amid a fight for control of the company running the high security vault, The Reserve Vault.

The company is defending the action and has denied all of the allegations.

The man previously in charge of the vault, Peter Rex Sands, was declared bankrupt in December, making it illegal for him to be a director of a corporation.

He was also prevented from having anything to do with the running of the vault last month by a Supreme Court order made in the same proceedings.

This story was posted on the couriermail.com.au website yesterday...and I thank Washington state reader S.A. for digging it up on our behalf. It's just another example that just because you have allocated storage, doesn't mean it's magically safe. It all comes down to who is storing it for you...and do you trust them. Do your due diligence. The link is here.

Silver and China are coming full circle. In the mid-1930s the academic journal Foreign Affairs noted how "the world was startled by the news that China had abandoned the silver standard" after foreign miners began dumping surplus metal into China.

Seventy-eight years later, this coming Thursday, the Shanghai Futures Exchange begins trading silver contracts. China Daily noted there had been an absence of silver trading ability in China and -- significantly -- it would make the market more liquid.

The silver buffs jumped on that one, predicting the end of big Western speculators manipulating the price, which so many of them believe has been occurring.

This subscriber protected story appeared over at theaustralian.com.au website on their Monday morning. It still remains to be seen how this will affect silver prices, as the world price is still set in the Comex futures market...which is 100% under the thumb of JPMorgan et al. But, having said that, it's a must read anyway...and I thank reader Federico Schiavio for bringing it to our attention. It's posted in the clear in this GATA release...and the link is here.

Your metals team has just returned from the Casey Research Recovery Reality Check conference in Weston, Florida. I think the quality of the speakers was perhaps the best ever. There were clever tales and insights aplenty, but I'll cut to the chase for investors in the metals and mining sector: The correction we've been experiencing was discussed at length, and while no one is sure when it will bottom, legendary investors in our sector are buying now.

Some say my calls to buy the best of the best mining stocks in the midst of a continuing share-price decline evoke a fear akin to what one feels trying to catch a falling safe. It may help to know that investors today are buying alongside Rick Rule of Sprott Global, John Hathaway of the Tocqueville Fund, and Doug Casey, of course - among other legendary resource investors.

This commentary appeared in yesterday's edition of Casey's Daily Dispatch...and is another must read. The link is here.