I’m Back — Did I Miss Anything?

It’s not just jobs – retail sales collapsed inNovember, and other indicators are negative across the board. In case youhaven’t guessed, I am a reluctant supporter of the bail-out. I think letting a US car company go bankrupt in thecurrent economic environment is like pouring gasoline on a fire. I didn’t think Congress would be this stupid. Afterall, they don’t raise a peep when Citibank got $300 billion. But some in Congress are apparently more interested inpursuing long-held ideological dreams — like breaking unions — than they care about this nation’s well-being andhealth.So is there hope? Well, if GM and Chrysler can hang on until the next Congress, sure. Thefinal vote was 52 to 35 (12 didn’t vote). Four Democrats did not vote, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid voted withRepublicans (as a procedural matter). With 10 Republicans defecting, sevenof whom will be around in 2009, new legislation will easily pass in January upon the arrival of at least seven newDemocratic votes, unless Reid allows a filibuster. Reid is a total wimp, so car makers shouldn’t hang their hopes onhim suddenly growing a spine.Meanwhile, everyone should read thisJoseph Stiglitz piece. He’s a Nobel-prize winning economist, and heidentifies five key mistakes—under Reagan, Clinton, and Bush II — that laid the groundwork for financialapocalypse.So what does this mean for gold? Gold is keying on theUS dollar which has run into major problems over the past week.The dollar has some final support at 83.75. If that fails, we could see the US dollar fallto 81. And that would be bullish for gold. Let’s seehow things develop today.Now, how about my trip? I’ll be telling my Red-Hot Global Small-Caps subscribers about itpretty soon, and I expect I’ll make it my MoneyandMarkets piece for next week.

1. Friday Morning Thoughts Yesterday, market sentiment shifted to really worrying about a severe global recession and the deflation that would come with...
2. Wild Days for the Dollar, Oil and Gold Last night, the US Senate passed the emergency bailout package, so the larded-up piece of legislation goes back to...
3. Friday News Fiesta First, here’s a chart showing the growth in the silver ETF. I included this chart in a special report...