A trio of complex system theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, claim that a select group of global bankers own a large chunk of the global economy.

The study found that of the 43,060 transnational corporations (TNCS) in existence, a group of 1,318 companies formed the heart of the world's financial system.

This group could further be distilled to a core group of 147 companies which controlled 40 per cent of the wealth. The core group was dubbed the 'super entity' by the researchers and was largely made up from corporate banks like Barclays and Goldman Sachs.

No surprises here. This story was posted over at the Australian division of finance.yahoo.com yesterday...and I thank Nick Laird for sharing it with us. It's also a must read...and the link is here.

The Federal Reserve should consider buying more mortgage bonds to support a fragile economic recovery and a downtrodden housing sector, Fed Board Governor Daniel Tarullo said on Thursday.

"I believe we should move back up toward the top of the list of options the large-scale purchase of additional mortgage-backed securities," Tarullo said in text prepared for deliver at a conference at Columbia University. "There is need, and ample room, for additional measures to increase aggregate demand in the near to medium term, particularly in light of the limited upside risks to inflation over the medium term."

QE3 anyone? This Reuters piece was posted over at cnbc.com early yesterday evening...and I thank West Virginia reader Elliot Simon for sending it along. It's worth skimming...and the link is here.

German victory. Defeat for France, Spain, Italy, and the Greco-Latin sphere.

My instant impression from the leaked EU summit draft is that the accord is minimalist, and largely a German Diktat. It has the makings of a diplomatic Sedan 1870.

If this is what landed on Nicolas Sarkozy’s desk at the Elysee on Wednesday, one starts to grasp, sort of, why he left Carla Bruni to labour alone as he dashed to Frankfurt to meet the two other women in his life, Chancellor Angela Merkel and IMF chief Christine Lagarde, as well as the European Central Bank’s old and new chiefs.

The text may well be very different by Sunday. It had better be.

This Ambrose Evans Pritchard from yesterday morning's edition of The Telegraph...and it's well worth the read. This is Roy Stephens first offering of today...and the link is here.

A statement released by the Elysee Palace said that Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel would meet to discuss their "ambitious and comprehensive response" to the crisis ahead of the European Council summit on Sunday.

But in a tacit admission of the gulf between them, the statement added that resolutions would be "finally adopted" at a "second meeting no later than Wednesday".

Insiders said the weekend's summit of European leaders came close to being cancelled altogether, with the French president Mr Sarkozy having to beg German Chancellor Mrs Merkel not to pull the plug during frantic telephone calls.

This Roy Stephens offering was posted in The Telegraph just before midnight in London last night. It's a must read...and the link is here.

Following the news that Berlin and Paris remain divided on how to make the euro-zone bailout fund more effective, European efforts to stem the debt crisis have taken another blow thanks to a split between the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.

The IMF has rated EU projections for Greece's debt as too optimistic, and wants to delay approval of the next tranche of aid until after the Brussels summit this weekend to see if a clearer picture emerges, EU officials said.

Without a loan payment of €8 billion euros from the EU and IMF, Greece faces a default next month, a development that could also threaten to drag Spain and Italy into the mire through a contagion effect. Euro-zone leaders are racing to agree on new steps to reduce Greece's debt, strengthen the capital of banks and leverage the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) euro backstop fund to stem contagion to bigger economies -- but progress appears slow.

This piece was posted over at the German website spiegel.de yesterday...and is Roy Stephens third offering in a row. It's well worth the read...and the link is here.

Standard & Poor's (S&P) is to warn that a double-dip recession in Europe would imperil France's AAA rating and set off a string of downgrades across Southern Europe, undermining the EU's debt crisis strategy.

The report, due Friday, said a double-dip recession would lead to a downgrade of "one or two notches" for France, Spain, Italy, Ireland and Portugal, both because of tumbling tax revenues and the extra costs of propping up banks.

The scenario looks increasingly likely after Germany slashed its growth forecast from 1.8pc to 1pc for 2012. Greece and Portugal are contracting at alarming speeds. Italy and Spain are already in industrial recession.

This Ambrose Evans-Pritchard story that was posted in The Telegraph yesterday evening is also well worth running through...and, once again, I thank Roy for sharing it with us. The link is here.

Violent clashes outside Greece's parliament in Athens marred the second day of a 48-hour general strike. Masked rioters threw stones and petrol bombs not only at police but at peaceful protesters, while police retaliated with tear gas. Late Thursday afternoon, Greek media reported that one man died during the clashes. Our Observers say the demonstrations on Wednesday and Thursday have been the biggest – and angriest – they’ve seen since the start of Greece’s debt crisis.

Thousands of people gathered in Syntagma Square outside parliament on Thursday, where lawmakers backed a new round of cuts required to secure bailouts from the IMF and the EU. These include further cuts to pensions and public sector wages as well as tax hikes. In addition, 30,000 public sector workers could be temporarily laid off.

The general strike, which began Wednesday, has paralyzed the country. All public services remain closed, and transportation has been severely disrupted.

This story, posted at the france24.com website yesterday, is another Roy Stephens offering...and the link is here.

India's food inflation on Thursday returned to double-digits, as prices of vegetables and other staples surged, creating fresh problems for the country's embattled government.

Food inflation climbed to 10.60% for the week ending October 8 from the same period a year earlier, according to commerce ministry figures.

The rise was driven higher vegetable costs which soared 17.6% year-on-year while fruit prices were up more than 12 percent.

This story, posted over at the India Times website yesterday, is Roy Stephens final offering of the day. It's well worth skimming...and the link is here.

China's biggest producer of rare earths is suspending production for one month in hopes of boosting slumping prices of the exotic minerals used in mobile phones and other hi-tech products.

This week's move by Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-Earth (Group) Hi-Tech might fuel tensions with the United States and Europe. They have questioned Beijing's decision announced earlier to limit exports while it tries to develop its own manufacturers of magnets and other products made of rare earths.

In a statement through the Shanghai Stock Exchange, Baotou Steel said it wants to "balance supply and demand" after prices for rare earths fell amid uncertainty about the US and European economic outlooks.

Now if they'd just do the same thing in silver, that would make me a very happy man. This story, out of yesterday's edition of The Guardian, was sent to me by Swiss read G.B...and the link is here.

Kitco Metals Inc. requested and has received a second Superior Court extension of creditor protection, this time until April 18, 2012. The Montreal-based company entered creditor protection in July in the wake of a Revenue Quebec clampdown against 100 companies suspected of participating in a false-billing scheme in the gold-trading sector. Revenue Quebec is seeking $300 million from Kitco, which has denied any wrongdoing and is contesting the assessment. In its latest court filing, Kitco said operations are once again relatively stable, but indicated it may transfer its scrap-gold business to a new operator if Revenue Quebec continues refusing to reimburse sales taxes. The company said such action makes it impossible to operate the business profitably.

This one-paragraph story was posted in the Montreal Gazette on Wednesday...and I thank reader Howard Brown for sending it along. The link to the hard copy is here.

Is gold headed higher or lower? Higher, most likely, as long as the world continues to fall apart in slow motion. But really, who knows?

What has become clear to me...a former gold skeptic...is that railing against gold as a purely sentiment-driven, fundamentals-less asset is a technically correct but ultimately meaningless accusation.

And in the sweeping conundrum that has become our financial and investing landscape, that may be one of the best reasons yet to own the bararous relic.

Mike Pienciak, from over at The Motley Fool website, has finally converted from the dark side of The Force. The story is posted over at the dailyfinance.com website...and I thank reader Elliot Simon for sending it along. The link is here.

Hinde Capital CEO Ben Davies told King World News yesterday that even as it has slipped back toward $1,600 gold is still performing better than most other assets...and should resume its rise shortly. An excerpt from the interview has been posted at the KWN website...and the link to the blog is here.

Last night King World News quoted a London metals trader as saying that Chinese buyers greatly enjoyed buying gold as the big commercial shorts pushed the market down during the Thursday trading day...as they try to extricate themselves from their short positions. The link to the KWN blog, headlined "London Trader - China Bought Massive Amount of Gold Today" is here.

Interviewed by King World News yesterday, Tocqueville Gold Fund manager John Hathaway muses that central bank intervention against gold may have been undertaken to defend negotiations for more sovereign bailouts.

That would be my bet as well...and the link to this must read blog is here.

We are approaching a "back up the truck" moment for the gold sector.

After Wednesday's thrashing, the Market Vectors Gold Miners Index [GDX] is down 13% for the year. Meanwhile, gold itself is up about 15%. In fact, most gold stocks are trading at the same levels they were two years ago, when gold was $1,200 per ounce. So while gold has gained more than 33%, gold stock investors don't have anything to show for it.

That may be about to change.

This very short piece, with an excellent graph, is posted over at The Growth Stock Wire website...and features Casey Research's BIG GOLD editor Jeff Clark. He sounds pretty bullish on the precious metal stocks to me...and rightly so. It's a must read as well...and the link is here.