Here’s a neat party trick, explain how gold prices can go up during deflation.  Of all the trends of the past five years, this has been the hardest to explain to folks who listen and watch our radio and TV shows.

• JPMorgan Explains Why Gold Is A Great Bet During Deflation

I am often asked why I don’t own any real estate. In a world ravaged by climate change it is going to be increasingly difficult to keep one step ahead of environmental catastrophe and the increasing problem of ‘climate change immigrants’ numbering in the hundreds of thousands. The impact on real estate and other parts of the economy will necessitate nimble planning when it comes to housing.

• Deadly flash floods hit southern France

My takeaway from Obama’s BP speech was that he freely admits that the reason oil companies need to go drilling for oil in hard to get to places is because the world is running out of the toxic stuff.  This is the first Presidential acknowledgement of what we covered in our film; “Peaked”

• People & Power – Peaked – 06 Jan 08 – Part 1

• People & Power – Peaked – 06 Jan 08 – Part 2

On balance, deflation is wreaking havoc in the global economy. The ‘Inflationists’ have been wrong since 2007. The ‘hyper-inflationists’ might some day be relevant. But for today, debt spiraling into a vortex of sovereign and societal default and unrest defines the global economy.

• Lumber fell 4% yesterday. Chart looks like dog excrement.

In the ongoing war of Savers v. Speculators, BP has cut their dividend. No executive firings. No investigation into fraudulent bank lending practices that financed an environmental holocaust in the Gulf. No interruption of credit lines that feed eco-terrorism at BP.

• BP scrapped dividends and pledged asset sales

Gross loves to get on TV and manipulate prices for his fund. He front runs his own media appearances in the name of ‘adding liquidity’ and ‘market making.’ If Bernie Madoff told the world about his crooked transactions on CNBC before he made them he’d be Bill Gross. Interestingly, media-front running has not popped up on regulators screens in D.C. yet. Presumably they are all trading on Bill’s “insights” themselves so they don’t want to kill the oil drenched goose, er, pelican.