From Ed Steer:

Tuesday was another day of little activity in either the gold or silver market. Both metals were under some pressure starting shortly after midnight on Tuesday morning New York time...and the bottom was in shortly before 9:00 a.m. during early Comex trading. Gold trading volume was ultra light...less than 64,000 contracts net of switches...so the boyz had an easy time of it. I get the feeling that we're in some sort of holding pattern here...but holding for what?

Open interest on Monday showed that gold o.i. rose 466 contracts to 262,618...while silver was up 147 contracts to 83,816.

The usual N.Y. commentator had the following to say about European Central Bank gold sales last week..."The ECB’s weekly statement of condition indicates that ‘gold and gold receivables’ fell €42Mm last week, which “reflected” sales by two captive CBs. This is 2.08 tonnes at the current book value. Last week two CBs were said to have sold 5.7 tonnes. The ECB echelon of CBs apparently does not care to even approach the 9.6 tonne weekly average notionally possible under WAG2 [The second Washington Agreement on Gold – Ed]. Perhaps we will see a sale from the ECB itself, which for some reason are announced separately. With a new WAG2 year, this would be possible."

About a half hour after I filed my Monday rant in the wee hours of yesterday morning, this mineweb.net item appeared. It's a Reuters story filed out of Johannesburg..."South African gold output fell 14.4 percent in volume terms in October compared with the same month in the previous year, official data showed on Tuesday. South African gold output has fallen since state owned power utility Eskom suffered a near collapse in the electricity grid in January. Eskom has since limited supply to around 90 to 95 percent power to mines in the country, the world's biggest source of platinum and the second ranked gold producer." And in a Bloomberg story filed about an hour ago..."Rio Tinto to cut 14,000 jobs and slash $5 billion in spending."

Meanwhile, back in The Matrix, I see in a yahoo.com story that "the Treasury Department said Tuesday it had sold $30 billion in four-week bills at an interest rate of zero percent, the first time that's happened since the government began issuing the notes in 2001." If this isn't a red flag to sell US government paper of every kind, I don't know what it is, as interest rates can't get any lower than zero. Note the chart linked here... and I urge you to stop reading and look at it now! And I see in a Bloomberg story that "Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (and his chief of staff, John Harris) were charged with corruption, including trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat..."The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering," said U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald...both men were arrested yesterday." And lastly, in a story filed at The Guardian in the U.K. the headline reads "Fears of a million layoffs a month in corporate America"..."Graham Turner, of consultancy GFC Economics, says the rising cost of corporate debt is now flashing a red warning signal that far worse is to come over the next few months and job losses are heading for levels last seen in the 1930s Great Depression." (Doug Casey calls what's coming..."The Greater Depression"...and how right he is. - Ed)

The first story today is about the Chinese economy. It's from The Times of London...and the dateline is November 30th...but it's still very much worth the read as it gives a peek into what's really going on in China these days. The headline reads "China can no longer save the world" and the link is here.

The second story was written by Frank Beck over at Forbes.com. The headline reads "Dollar Devaluation To Fix The Great Recession". He sounds like Larry Edelson, but from a different angle. (I feel that a massive revaluation upwards of all real goods (gold and silver being the most important) will be the ONLY way out of this Greater Depression. - Ed) Considering that this article comes from another hugely mainstream media source, I think it's well worth the read. The link is here.

And lastly, what would my rant be worth if it didn't include a piece from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard over at The Telegraph in London. His latest article is entitled "BIS warns of collapse in global lending". It ties in nicely with The Guardian story about "a million US corporate job loses per month" that I mentioned early. The link to The Telegraph story is here.

Moral courage is the most valuable...and usually the most absent characteristic in men. - General George S. Patton, Jr.

Despite the huge decline in the Dow, and little excitement in the precious metals market yesterday, the HUI managed to post another small gain. On days like that, I wonder who the buyers were...and I also wonder who the buyers of all the precious metals stock were...beginning from the moment that the natural resource sector got torpedoed around the 4th of July...until now, five months later. It wasn't the usual 'gold bug' or 'natural resource' crowd...as they were already 'all in'...and most were panicking to get out over that period of time. Whoever they were, they had really deep pockets...and I don't think they'll be sellers on the next price rise either...just like I don't think that JPMorgan et al will be going short either gold or silver on the next price rise on the Comex...whenever that's allowed to happen.

Just thinking out loud on a cold and snowy night in Edmonton.

See you on Thursday.,

Casey Research correspondent-at-large Ed Steer is a keen observer of the financial scene and a board member of GATA.org.