This 6:32 minute video interview was posted over at Bloomberg yesterday...and the brain dead Betty Liu is way over her head here. Ron Paul is, as usual, right on the money. I thank Federico Schiavio for providing our first story of the day...and the link is here.

The US has more in common with heavily indebted southern European countries than it might like to admit. And if the country doesn't reach agreement on deficit reduction measures soon, the similarities could become impossible to ignore. The fiscal cliff looms in the near future, and its not just the US that is under threat.

With the elections behind them, Americans are now facing a different, much more real horror scenario: In just a few weeks time, thousands of children could be denied vaccinations, federally funded school programs could screech to a halt, adults may be forced to forego HIV tests and subsidized housing vouchers would dry up. Even the work of air-traffic controllers, the FBI, border officials and the military could be drastically curtailed.

That and more is looming just over the horizon according to the White House if the country is allowed to plunge off the "fiscal cliff" at the beginning of next year. Coined by Federal Reserve head Ben Bernanke, it refers to the vast array of cuts and tax increases which will automatically go into effect if Republicans and Democrats can't agree on measures to slash the US budget deficit.

This article was posted on the German website spiegel.de yesterday...and I thank Donald Sinclair for sending it along. It's definitely worth reading...and the link is here.

An Argentine judge ordered the seizure of all Chevron Corp.’s assets in the country, according to Enrique Bruchou, a lawyer representing Ecuadorean plaintiffs in a lawsuit over pollution in the Amazon rain forest.

Bruchou, an Argentine attorney at Bruchou, Fernandez, Madero & Lombardi, made the comments today in a conference call. Civil Judge Adrian Elcuj Miranda ordered 40 percent of Chevron’s Argentine bank accounts to be held in escrow, Bruchou said. Miranda declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg saying judges speak through their rulings.

The Ecuadorean plaintiffs said Oct. 31 they were asking an Argentine court to enforce a $19 billion award against Chevron, filing an attachment order in a Court of Justice in Buenos Aires in line with an international treaty signed by Ecuador, Argentina and Colombia that speeds up attachments. The Ecuadoreans blame Texaco Inc., which Chevron acquired in 2001, for destroying the environment in the Lago Agrio region, damaging living conditions of 30,000 inhabitants. Lago Agrio was named after Sour Lake in Texas.

This Bloomberg story was filed from Buenos Aires mid-afternoon Mountain Time on Wednesday...and I thank Donald Sinclair for his second story in a row. The link is here.

Rarely has such a non-event had so big a build-up. The Bank of England has held interest rates at 0.5pc but, more significantly, it has left the stock of quantitative easing (QE) unchanged at £375 billion. Roll back just one month, and another £50 billion of QE was pinned on. A number of economists had even been expecting a rate cut to 0.25pc. Hints dropped by the Bank as well as the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) voting patterns all seemed to point to more QE. Then something changed.

On the face of it, it was the economy. The big news was the 1pc rise in growth in the three months to September. But there were other equally important statistics. Unemployment dropped to 7.9pc, well below forecasts as the private sector continued to create jobs – both full-time and part-time. And inflation fell to 2.2pc, just a whisker above target and carrying the promise of improved economic growth. The public finances were also in better shape than thought. But, for all the good news, that wasn’t it.

This short blog by The Daily Telegraph's economics editor Philip Aldrick is a must read in my opinion...and I thank Federico Schiavio for his second offering in today's column. The link is here.

The front lines in the battle over the European Union budget remain unchanged. A dinner on Wednesday evening in London between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron brought no breakthroughs. Cameron reaffirmed that he would call for a decrease in the budget proposed to fund the EU from 2014 to 2020 at the bloc's summit on Nov. 22.

The atmosphere between the two during the dinner at Number 10 Downing Street was good, according to German government officials. But in terms of substance, as expected, neither side budged. The morning before the meeting even took place, the Financial Times said sardonically that the pair of conservatives "enjoy one of the warmest but least productive relationships in European politics."

Merkel came to London in the hopes of pressuring Cameron into a joint position on the budget dispute. "Great Britain and Germany are both net contributors, meaning we have a good deal of common interests," she said. At the same time, she wanted to make it clear to Cameron that the patience of his EU partners should not be tested. In principle, she agrees with the UK that in light of austerity programs on the national level, the EU budget should not be increased. But with the euro crisis still taking up much of her attention, she is willing to allow a modest spending increase in the interest of reaching a swift decision and avoiding a drawn-out battle among EU member states.

This story was posted on the spiegel.de Internet site yesterday...and I thank Roy Stephens for sending it. The link is here.

After many centuries of semi-detachment from continental affairs, Britain joined the then EEC four decades ago. For well over half of the period since, Europe has been among the most divisive issues in British politics. It has become ever more divisive as the balance of forces move against membership.

Working in London as an analyst of European affairs for over decade from 1998, I was constantly struck by the steady and rapid decline in the number of people and organisations holding the view that Britain’s national interests were best served by EU membership.

This was most notable at the political level. On the Conservative side, no young pro-Europeans emerged to replace the aging pro-EU politicians. Tories under 50 today are all – to varying degrees and in many different ways – hostile to Europe and see their country’s future in a looser arrangement with the EU, if not entirely decoupled from it.

This story showed up on the irishtimes.com Internet site yesterday...and I thank Roy Stephens once again for bringing this item to our attention. The link is here.

Greek unemployment rose to 25.4pc in August. Youth unemployment rose to 58pc.

Under the official forecast, the economy will contract by a further 4.5pc next year, so it fair to assume that lots more people are going to lose their jobs. It is certainly not going to improve in any meaningful way for years to come.

This is what happens when you lock into the wrong currency and block the escape routes – or join a "burning building with no exits" in the words of William Hague.

It is hard to see how the salary and pension cuts, etc, pushed through the Greek parliament last night with enormous difficulty can do any more than buy a few months’ delay. The protests on Wednesday bordered on urban guerrilla warfare. It will not take much to cross that line.

Even before I clicked on The Telegraph's headline in my in-box, I knew that this was an Ambrose Evans-Pritchard offering. It's an absolute must read as well...and it's the third of four in a row from Roy Stephens. The link is here.

Barack Obama's four-year second term in office as the president of the United States will be setting the tone of the final countdown on China's emergence as a superpower. The power dynamic in Asia-Pacific becomes a crucial template in this historic process.

While the US can count on Japan and Australia as time-tested allies, its cogitations with China and Russia are evolving and how they shape up will decisively impact the power dynamic in Asia-Pacific.

The customary messages of greetings and the early reactions from Beijing and Moscow give some clues as to the level of expectations in the two capitals regarding Obama's second term. Neither capital showed any inkling in the run up to November 6 as to what result to expect and wore an air of studied aloofness, but both scrambled to react as soon as Obama's victory sailed into view.

This is a must read for all students of the "New Great Game". Normally I would save this for a Saturday column, but it's not overly long...so here it is now. It's Roy's fourth offering in a row...and the link is here.

China’s Communist Party leader, Hu Jintao, defended his decade in power on Thursday and warned that the country faced stark challenges at home and abroad. He spoke at the start of a congress that will culminate in his retirement and the appointment of a new generation of leaders after a transition marked by scandal and anxiety about the party’s future.

Mr. Hu told the ranks of party-picked delegates assembled in the Great Hall of the People that China faced a period of major change and “complicated domestic and international circumstances.” Seated near him was his presumed successor, Xi Jinping, who is all but certain to take over as party chief after the congress ends next week and to take the reins as president in March.

Mr. Xi has privately signaled that he is aware of increasingly urgent calls from economists, intellectuals and some party insiders for a new round of market liberalization and even measured political relaxation to cure what they see as a deepening economic and social malaise. Mr. Hu acknowledged the problems facing the party, including corruption, but avoided specific mention of the scandals that have blighted his final year in power.

This story, filed from Beijing, was posted in The New York Times yesterday. I thank Donald Sinclair for his last offering in today's column...and the link is here.

The first blog is with Marc Chandler of Brown Brothers Harriman. It's headlined "Huge Moves Coming in Gold, Silver, U.S. Dollar & the Euro". The second blog is with Citi analyst Tom Fitzpatrick...and it's entitled "'87 Market Crash & Stocks Today, Apple, Gold, Silver & the VIX". The audio interview is with John Hathaway.

Sprott Physical Silver Trust, a trust created to invest and hold substantially all of its assets in physical silver bullion and managed by Sprott Asset Management LP, announced today that it has launched a follow-on offering of transferable, redeemable units of the Trust.

The Trust will use the net proceeds of the Offering to acquire physical silver bullion in accordance with the Trust's objective and subject to the Trust's investment and operating restrictions described in the prospectus related to the Offering. Under the trust agreement governing the Trust, the net proceeds of the Offering per Unit must be not less than 100% of the most recently calculated net asset value per Unit of the Trust prior to, or upon determination of, pricing of the Offering.

The Units are listed on NYSE Arca and the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols "PSLV" and "PHS.U", respectively. The Offering will be made simultaneously in the United States and Canada by underwriters led by Morgan Stanley and RBC Capital Markets in the United States and RBC Capital Markets and Morgan Stanley in Canada.

I found this globeandmail.com story about one minute after it was posted yesterday afternoon after the market closed. It will be interesting to see how well Eric and the guys at Sprott make out...considering the fact that the Royal Canadian Mint just purchased 3 million ounces on Tuesday. It's my opinion that these two events will not conflict with each other by a lot...if at all.

But, whatever the outcome, the announcement will be posted on the Internet shortly after 8:00 a.m. Eastern time this morning. The link to the hard copy of the press release is here.

China's gold demand is expected to grow 1 percent this year to a record of around 860 tonnes, the global head of metals at consultancy Thomson Reuters GFMS said on Thursday, with both jewellery and investment sales rising.

That increase means China will overtake India as the world's biggest consumer of gold for the first time on a yearly basis, Philip Klapwijk told the online Reuters Global Gold Forum.

"China will overtake India ... both in overall demand terms and as the world's largest jewellery market," he said.

The headline sort of indicates that there's nothing really new here...but that is certainly not the case. It's a must read...and I thank Roy Stephens for his final offering in today's column. This Reuters story was filed from London at 2:58 p.m. India Standard Time yesterday...and the link is here.

Italian police have seized assets worth at least $200m (£125m) from a network of suspected gold smugglers.

Officers raided more than 250 addresses across the country, including a villa allegedly used to stash gold and money.

The gang is suspected of smuggling the ingots into Switzerland after buying them on Italy's black market with laundered money.

The booming cash-for-gold sector has become an issue due to poor regulation and suspected mafia involvement.

This AFP story showed up on the bbc.co.uk Internet site yesterday afternoon Easter Time...and I thank German reader Rob Kitson for bringing this interesting read to our attention. The link is here.

I haven't had the time to listen to this 28-minute interview. It was posted on the youtube.com Internet site on Wednesday afternoon. I thank Bill Busser for sending me the link...and I would guess that it's more than worth your time. The link is here.