Today's first story is from yesterday's edition of The New York Times...and is courtesy of reader Phil Barlett.

In the latest sign that the economic recovery may have lost whatever modest oomph it had, more small businesses say that they are planning to shrink their payrolls than say they want to expand them.

The National Federation of Independent Business report for May showed the worst hiring prospects in eight months. The finding provides a glimpse into the pessimism of the nation’s small firms as they put together their budgets for the coming season, and depicts a more gloomy outlook than other recent (if equally lackluster) economic indicators because this one is forward-looking.

The link to the story is here.

Dikes designed for a few weeks of water — 3-4 months expected, with 5+ foot rise. The 3-minute video clip is well worth your time.

I thank Casey Research's own Bud Conrad for sharing this with us...and the link to the story, posted at the enenews.com website, is here.

It's official: The housing crisis that began in 2006 and has recently entered a double dip is now worse than the Great Depression.

Prices have fallen some 33 percent since the market began its collapse, greater than the 31 percent fall that began in the late 1920s and culminated in the early 1930s, according to Case-Shiller data.

As I've been saying ad nauseam since February 2007...call me in 2013 and we'll talk about the bottom of the U.S. real estate market.

I thank West Virginia reader Elliot Simon for sending me this cnbc.com story...and the link is here.

My column was full to the brim on Tuesday, so this James Turk offering had to wait until today.

The solvency of the European Central Bank is being called into question by some brilliant in-depth research from OpenEurope.org.uk. This independent think tank believes “the EU must now embrace radical reform based on economic liberalisation, a looser and more flexible structure, and greater transparency and accountability” in order for the “EU’s over-loaded institutions, held in low regard by Europe’s citizens” to meet “the pressing challenges of weak economic growth, rising global competition, insecurity and a looming demographic crisis”.

This is a must read piece...and it's posted over at the Free Gold Money Report website. The link is here.

The financial crisis in Greece, it would seem, has only been getting worse in recent weeks, no matter how hard the country's European Union partners try to find a solution. Now, however, Athens may also be on the verge of a political crisis.

According to Greek state television and Reuters, Prime Minister George Papandreou on Wednesday offered to resign in order to simplify the creation of a unity government. His offer came on the heels of talks with opposition leader Antonis Samaras, the goal of which was the creation of a coalition pairing Papandreou's socialists with Samaras' conservatives, according to the state-owned television station NET. "It is a historically critical moment," Papandreou said, in reference to his country's financial situation.

This is another Roy Stephens offering...and this one is posted at the German website spiegel.de...and the link is here.

As the number of Syrians fleeing across the border into Turkey mounts, newly re-elected Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been playing a delicate diplomatic balancing act with his southern neighbour.

Caught off-guard by the extent of the Syrian crackdown on protesters, Erdogan has responded by urging Assad to refrain from violence and introduce reforms. It is a dialogue he has maintained over the past few weeks, according to Turkish media reports.

But as the Syrian crackdown escalates, Ankara has been losing patience with its southern neighbour, according to Ozel.

“Turkey’s criticism of the Assad regime has been intensifying,” he told FRANCE 24. “At first, Turkey tried to reason with the regime, trying to encourage them to open up the system and accommodate the opposition. But once the violence got out of hand, the prime minister took a firm position and said the pictures that were coming out of Syria were abominations."

This is a Roy Stephens offering that's posted over at the france24.com website...and the link is here.

Pakistan's army chief, the most powerful man in the country, is fighting to save his position in the face of seething anger from top generals and junior officers since the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden, according to Pakistani officials and people who have met the chief in recent weeks.

Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who has led the army since 2007, faces such intense discontent over what is seen as his cozy relationship with the United States that a colonels’ coup, while unlikely, was not out of the question, said a well-informed Pakistani who has seen the general in recent weeks, as well as an American military official involved with Pakistan for many years.

This very interesting story was in yesterday's edition of The New York Times...and I thank Roy once again. The link is here.

A wave of violent unrest in urban areas of China over the past three weeks is testing the Communist Party's efforts to maintain control over an increasingly complex and fractious society, forcing it to repeatedly deploy its massive security forces to contain public anger over economic and political grievances.

The simultaneous challenge to social order in several cities from the industrial north to the export-oriented south represents a new threat for China's leaders in the politically sensitive run-up to a once-a-decade leadership change next year, even though for now the violence doesn't appear to be coordinated.

This 'subscriber protected' story was in Tuesday's edition of The Wall Street Journal...and I have posted everything in the clear that was available. This is another Roy Stephens offering...and the link to the story is here. But unless you're a subscriber, there's nothing left to see.

China reported a 5.5 percent inflation rate on Tuesday, the highest level in three years, further straining the economy and adding to popular frustration that has sparked protests in recent months.

The spate of street demonstrations and bombings, from Inner Mongolia in the north all the way to Guangdong in the south, has highlighted the precarious balance the communist leadership is striving to maintain while keeping the world’s second largest economy growing at a stable pace.

Surging prices for food and other basic necessities have added to the frustrations over inequality, abuse of power and suppression of legitimate grievances that drove recent turbulence.

Hmmm...maybe that's what was in the above WSJ article that was subscriber protected. This story is well worth your time...and, once again, I thank Roy Stephens for sending it along. The link to the france24.com story is here.

My first precious metal story is courtesy of reader 'Rocky R'...and it's a posting by Patrick Heller over at numismaster.com. I work in the retail gold and silver bullion arena in my day job...and I found this commentary to be spot on...and I consider it a must read. The link is here.

Here's an interesting Reuters article filed from Moscow that I found posted over at Kitco yesterday. What the headline doesn't hint at is what the Central Bank of the Russian Federation says about gold.

When it comes to hedging against risks, however, gold is one of the safest bets, Ulukayev said, reflecting a view increasingly shared by other central banks seeking an alternative to currencies and protection from the debt crisis in Europe. "Increasing monetary gold in our reserves is an important element," Ulyukayev said.

"We continue doing that and we are the leaders among central banks when it comes to [gold] growth indicators," he said.

Not only does the Reuters story neglect to mention anything about gold in the headline...it sticks the bank's comments about gold at the end of the article.

This is certainly worth skimming...and the link is here.

In a KWN blog yesterday, James said that the bottom was in for both gold and silver...and that we were going to have an price explosion in both metals before the summer was out. Here's the audio interview that Eric King sent me late yesterday afternoon. I would suggest it's worth listening to...and the link is here.

Here's a silver-related story that was sent to me by West Virginia reader Elliot Simon. It started out as a posting over at silverinvestingnews.com...but was picked up by finance.yahoo.com around lunchtime yesterday. It ended up as a GATA release as well, so I'm just going to post the link to that, as Chris Powell has already done the heavy lifting for me.

This a must read story as well...and the link is here.

Here's a Dennis Gartman interview that was posted over at the Hard Assets Investor website on Monday.

We don't often get to hear what Dennis has to say, so that fact alone makes this 3-page interview worth running through.

I would point out that Dennis is right when he says that buying gold is the same as shorting the dollar. It matters not that you short a euro ETF, as your still short the dollar and, by extension, every fiat currency on the planet...which is all of them.

And if gold replaces the euro...it will also replace the dollar at the same instant.

I thank Florida reader Donna Badach for this piece...and the link is here.

"We're going to see it [gold] run, and run very strong," McEwen proclaimed. "It will probably surpass all our expectations as to how high it can go." And, he added, "silver may even outperform gold."

Note to Rob: If you do the math, silver will obviously have to outperform gold in the price scenario you have presented.

I found this very short piece headlined "Despite growing silver holdings, Rob McEwen still loves gold" posted over at the mineweb.com yesterday...and the link is here.

The ESF is the U.S. Treasury Department's Exchange Stabilization Fund...and this GATA release has lots of information on that. Imbedded are two youtube.com video clips about the ESF that you may find of interest.

Chris Powell's preamble plus 'all of the above' is linked here...and is well worth the read/view/listen.

I've ripped this story, along with Chris Powell's preamble, from another GATA release. This one came out late last night Eastern time.

Gold trader and mining entrepreneur Jim Sinclair gets practically apocalyptic tonight in an interview with Eric King of King World News.

"The potential right now, right here, right at this point for an error in judgment that would set off a loss of confidence is present, clear, and in all probability something that we are going to be facing well into the summer," Sinclair says. "This is as serious as it gets. ... This has gone so far that there is no solution that can be applied and the only practical method is to continue to expand the Fed's monetary aggregates to continue to hold down interest rates. And hopefully kicking the can down the road until somebody else is in charge -- and that's exactly what they are doing."

Sinclair adds that if you let go of your gold now, "You are out of your mind."

Sinclair will speak at GATA's Gold Rush 2011 conference in London in August (