Richard Eggers doesn't look like a mastermind of financial crime.

The former farm boy speaks deliberately, can't remember the last time he got a speeding ticket, and favors suspenders, horn-rimmed glasses, and plaid shirts. But the 68-year-old Vietnam veteran is still too risky for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, which fired him on July 12 from his $29,795-a-year job as a customer service representative.

Egger's crime? Putting a cardboard cutout of a dime in a washing machine in Carlisle on Feb. 2, 1963.

"It was a stupid stunt and I'm not real proud of it, but to fire somebody for something like this after seven good years of employment is a dirty trick when you come right down to it," said Eggers, a Des Moines resident. "And [the big banks are] doing this kind of thing all across the country."

This comes out of the top drawer of the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" filing cabinet...and as Chris Powell said in his GATA release, "There IS still some financial law enforcement in America, except it's just for the little people for the most trivial violations. Jon Corzine and Jamie Dimon remain at large." It was posted in the Des Moines Register yesterday...and the link is here.

General Motors Co. will idle the Michigan assembly plant that makes the Chevrolet Volt for four weeks from the middle of September to the middle of October, plant suppliers and union sources said on Monday.

It will be the second time this year that the plant, which straddles the border of Detroit and the city of Hamtramck, has stopped making Volts.

GM confirmed the plant idling, saying it will continue to "match supply with demand" for both the Volt and the Chevrolet Malibu sedan that is also made at the plant. The automaker declined to specify how long the plant will be closed.

This story was posted in the Chicago Tribune on Monday...and I dug it out of yesterday's edition of the King Report. The link is here.

Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Sandra Pianalto said Monday that monetary policy cannot solve all of the economy's problems, including the European debt crisis and uncertainty caused by the stalemate over U.S. fiscal policy.

Pianalto is a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee this year and her views on whether the Fed should ease again are being closely watched. Pianalto did not announce whether she supported more Fed asset purchases. While prior Fed asset purchases have provided benefits, the tools come with benefits and risks, Pianalto said. The potential cost of more quantitative easing is it could interfere with financial stability or distort market functioning.

Distort market functioning??? That's all the Fed does...and that's all it has been doing since it was founded in 1913. This marketwatch.com story from Monday is another that I found in yesterday's edition of the King Report...and the link is here.

In the City, they call it a “false market”. This occurs when erroneous information, often deliberately circulated, becomes the basis for investors’ decisions. The result is illogical choices, as buyers and sellers, who believe they are behaving rationally, trade on deception dressed up as news.

Looking beyond the Square Mile to the wider British economy, there is mounting evidence that a false market is operating in our appreciation of consumer debt, state borrowing and the viability of pensions and healthcare. A baleful gap has opened up between what voters think is happening and what’s really going on. This is not surprising when so many in high office appear equally baffled. Drop into the mix a dollop of deceit from unscrupulous politicians, trade unions and financial services providers, and the upshot is widespread misunderstanding and a legacy of misery for future generations.

As Britain slips deeper into a quagmire of debt, the price of ignorance goes up. In my research for a new Sky News documentary, Born Bankrupt, I encountered a disturbing disconnection between public perception and financial reality – exacerbated by contradictory data from so-called experts.

This very interesting read showed up on the telegraph.co.uk website on Monday...and I thank London reader Iain Doherty for sharing it with us. The link is here.

Pierre Moscovici said the burden of the "extremely substantial" cut would be shared equally between the French state and oil companies with each contributing three cents per litre.

"Pump prices will drop up to six cents, three for fuel companies and three for the state," he said following a meeting with fuel companies. "This means it will cost €1.50 less to put 25 litres in the fuel tank. It's a substantial amount, especially for people with low revenues or who have to drive a lot."

The temporary three-month measure will cost the French state around €300m (£237m) in lost tax revenue, and would then be followed by a more permanent mechanism, the minister added.

Keeping a lid on pump prices, which have soared to record levels on rising costs in the European wholesale market, was a prominent pledge of Francois Hollande's presidential campaign that swept the Socialists to power earlier this year.

Isn't socialism grand? This story was posted on The Telegraph's website during the lunch hour in London yesterday...and is Roy Stephens first offering of the day. The link is here.

Spain's north-eastern region of Catalonia, which represents around a fifth of the country's economic output, will tap a state liquidity facility for just over €5bn, a spokeswoman for the region's economy head has said.

"We will not accept political conditions for the aid," she added. Of Spain's 17 regions, Valencia and Murcia have also said they would need recourse to the fund.

The government announced in July it was setting up a new liquidity mechanism to help the regions repay their debts, using funds from the state lottery and bank loans. But the facility is still not up and running.

Some six regions are expected to need the aid from the central government to be able to meet strict deficit targets and pay providers.

This story was also from the telegraph.co.uk Internet site early yesterday afternoon BST...and it's Roy Stephens second offering in a row. The link is here.

Up until now, the title of "Spain's scariest chart" belonged to one depicting its youth (and general) unemployment, both of which are so off the charts it is not even funny (especially to those millions of Spaniards who are currently unemployed).

As of today we have a contender for joint ownership of said title - Spain's monthly deposit outflows, which in July hit the highest amount ever, and where the YTD deposit outflow is now the highest on record. One look at the chart below confirms that nobody in Spain got the June 29 Euro summit memo that "Europe is fixed".

You just read this entire must read Zero Hedge posting...but the four charts embedded in the column are worth looking at...especially the first two. I thank West Virginia reader Elliot Simon for sending it our way...and the link is here.

Spain's most iconic retailing store El Conte Ingles shows dramatic slip in sales amid the country's economic crisis and makes efforts to adjust to a new reality.

But things aren't looking good...and on it's current path, this giant department store chain days are clearly numbered. This is another Roy Stephens offering...and this 2:38 video clip showed up on theglobeandmail.com Internet site yesterday. The link is here.

Data from the European Central Bank shows that outflows from Spanish commercial banks reached €74bn (£59bn) in July, twice the previous monthly record. This brings the total deposit loss over the past year to 10.9pc...or 7pc of GDP in a single month...replicating the pattern seen in Greece as the crisis spread.

It is unclear how much of the deposit loss is capital flight, either to German banks or other safe-haven assets such as London property. The Bank of Spain said the fall is distorted by the July effect of tax payments and by the expiry of securitised funds.

Julian Callow from Barclays Capital said the deposit loss is €65bn even when adjusted for the season: “This is highly significant. Deposit outflows are clearly picking up and the balance sheet of the Spanish banking system is contracting.”

Economy secretary Fernando Jimenez Latorre said Spain is in the eye of the storm right now with the “worst falls” in economic output yet to come in the second half of the year.

It didn't take Ambrose Evans-Pritchard long to pounce on this story...and here it is all teed up in this offering from The Telegraph late yesterday evening BST. I thank Manitoba reader Ulrike Marx for finding it...and the link to this must read news item is here.

The economy is in trouble and unemployment is rising -- in the Netherlands as in much of the rest of Europe. Ahead of upcoming elections, the Socialists are riding a wave of euro-skepticism and may emerge as the strongest political force in the country.

Emile Roemer, 50, is standing in front of the large banner of his Socialist Party. Its logo consists of a bright red tomato with a white star at the top. For the Socialists, the tomato symbolizes a protest against the current situation in the Netherlands. The small star is a nod to the Maoist roots of this staunchly leftist party.

Roemer, an imposing man, is doing what he usually does these days, as he stands in front of the image of the tomato: He is beaming and looking sure of victory. According to the polls, the former elementary school teacher could become the next prime minister of the Netherlands.

This story was posted on the German website spiegel.de yesterday...and is also courtesy of Roy Stephens. The link is here.

Welfare groups say shrinking pensions are forcing older Germans to keep working even after they have reached retirement age.

Figures released by the government show that 762,000 retirees hold so-called "mini-jobs" in the country of 82m. That represents a 60pc increase since 2000.

The term "mini-jobs" is typically used to describe low-skilled work such stacking store shelves and cleaning.

The president of welfare group VdK, Ulrike Mascher, says the figures are evidence of increasing poverty among older Germans.

The opposition Left Party, which requested the figures, says the income of many retired women is frequently lower than the official minimum deemed necessary to live.

This is another story courtesy of Roy Stephens. This one showed up on the telegraph.co.uk Internet site mid-afternoon BST...and the link is here.

The negotiations have been going for years. And if all goes well, Greece and Switzerland will finally finalize a tax treaty this September which could bring billions of euros back to Athens. Modelled on Switzerland's agreements with Germany, Great Britain and Austria, the deal is aimed at the billions of euros Athens estimates that wealthy Greeks have parked in the Alpine country to avoid taxes back home.

After months of delays, the three party coalition led by Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras now wants to implement the deal as quickly as possible in hopes that they'll be able to find billions for Athens' coffers. But there's also another reason for the rush: Samaras needs to show he is serious about reform. Greece desperately needs a win in its fight against rampant tax evasion.

For one, Samaras needs to demonstrate resolve on the issue to his country's international creditors. Indeed, the issue was a topic when the Greek prime minister paid a visit to Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin last Friday. For another, the Greek government is eager to show honest taxpayers that their dishonest compatriots can't get off so easy.

This is another news item from the spiegel.de website...and it's also courtesy of Roy Stephens. The link is here.

The deliveries of truck loads of money and queues outside branches of Vietnam’s biggest lender, Asia Commercial Bank, ready to withdraw their cash almost as quickly as stocks were replenished were an eloquent expression of the fears stalking the county’s banking system.

ACB suffered a huge run on its funds by customers this week following the arrest of its co-founder, Nguyen Duc Kien, a flamboyant tycoon from one of the country’s richest families, and then the chief executive, Ly Xuan Hai, who had stepped down.

But ACB’s difficulties – which officials said were under control – are merely a reflection of wider worries about Vietnam’s fragile banking system: that the level of bad debts, the highest in south-east Asia, could imperil Vietnam’s economy.

Vietnam’s central bank said in July that the level of non-performing loans across the banking system stood at 8.6pc, double that previously acknowledged. But earlier, in June, the central bank director Nguyen Van Binh had said it was 10pc, while analysts believe the true figure could be even greater. Among smaller banks some say it might be as high as 50pc.

This story was posted on The Telegraph's website on Monday evening...and I didn't get it from reader Donald Sinclair until after I hit the 'send' button on Tuesday's column, so here it is now. No wonder the Vietnamese people are buying gold with both hands. It's a must read for sure...and the link is here.

Holders of Soviet bonds first sold in Communist leader Leonid Brezhnev’s final year are getting in France what they can’t get from President Vladimir Putin: money.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ordered Russia last month to pay Yuriy Lobanov, a septuagenarian from the Ivanovo region near Moscow, 37,150 euros ($46,497) in compensation for the 1982 notes he held, or about 140 times the average monthly pension. Mariya Andreyeva, a 95-year-old survivor of the Nazi blockade of Leningrad, won a preliminary 4,300 euros on the bonds, which doubled as lottery tickets.

The securities are part of the 25 trillion rubles ($785 billion), equal to almost half of Russian economic output, the government says it still owes the public from lost Soviet savings. Putin is stalling, most recently signing an order in April to halt payments on the notes until at least 2015. Now, armed with court rulings, veteran speculators are joining pensioners in seeking to cash in.

“This all should have been settled back in the 1990s,” said Boris Kheyfets, a Soviet debt specialist at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Economics in Moscow. “How do you assume a debt that huge? It would collapse everything immediately.”

My jaw hit the floor when I read this longish Bloomberg piece from yesterday...as I'd never heard of this until I read about it as I was working on this column last night. This story appeared on their website in the wee hours of yesterday morning, Moscow Time...and I thank Australian reader Wesley Legrand for bringing it to our attention. It's definitely worth reading...and the link is here...and please note the reference to toilet paper at the end.

The first is with John Embry...and it's headlined "Gold, Silver, a Collapsing Economy & Panic". The second blog is with Rick Rule. It's entitled "The Frightening Global Ponzi Scheme Continues". And lastly is the blog with Caesar Bryan that's headlined "Continued Bank Runs in Europe, Battle Lines Drawn & Gold".

During an usual conference call Tuesday with financial advisers from Bank of America's wealth management unit and their clients, über hedge fund founder John Paulson reportedly defended the track record of his gold fund, which he allegedly acknowledged was the worst performing in the Paulson & Co. portfolio this year.

Various news media organizations quoted unidentified sources who participated in the call. The conference call was prompted in part by a decision by Citigroup's private bank to withdraw $410 million from Paulson's two largest funds, Advantage and Advantage Plus.

Long bullish on gold, Paulson reiterated during the call that his bets on gold will pay off although current returns are disappointing. Almost a quarter of the Advantage funds were invested in gold this year, as well as in the Paulson Gold Funds, Businessweek reported in June.

There wasn't much in the way of precious metal news stories yesterday...and this is one of the two that I found. It was filed from Reno, Nevada...and posted on the mineweb.co.za Internet site just a few minutes after midnight Mountain Daylight Time...and it's well worth reading. The link is here.

Last week, gold bugs were rewarded with the long-awaited positive momentum in the yellow metal, and on Friday, bullion rose to about $1,670. After falling below the 200-day moving average, gold had been stuck in quicksand for several months. With the jumps in the price last week, bullion swiftly rose above this critically important long-term moving average.

Bloomberg reported on Thursday that gold investors were the “most bullish in nine months” as its survey of 29 of 35 analysts indicated that they expected prices to rise—only three were bearish toward the metal.

This Frank Holmes commentary on gold was posted on the kitco.com Internet site yesterday...and is certainly worth running through. The link is here.

Last week, gold bugs were rewarded with the long-awaited positive momentum in the yellow metal, and on Friday, bullion rose to about $1,670. After falling below the 200-day moving average, gold had been stuck in quicksand for several months. With the jumps in the price last week, bullion swiftly rose above this critically important long-term moving average.

Bloomberg reported on Thursday that gold investors were the “most bullish in nine months” as its survey of 29 of 35 analysts indicated that they expected prices to rise—only three were bearish toward the metal.

This Frank Holmes commentary on gold was posted on the kitco.com Internet site yesterday...and is certainly worth running through. The link is here.