American consumers are running out of tricks.

As the weak economy has trudged on, they have leaned on credit cards to pay for holiday gifts, many bought at discounts. They are dipping into savings to cover spikes in gas, food and rent. They are substituting domestic vacations for international trips, squeezing more life out of their washing machines and refrigerators and switching to alternatives as meat prices have risen.

That leaves little room for a big increase in spending in 2012, economists say, a shaky foundation for the most important pillar of the American economy.

“The consumer is far from healthy,” said Steve Blitz, senior economist for ITG Investment Research.

This story was posted in The New York Times on Monday...and I thank reader Phil Barlett for sending it along. It's a 2-page article that's worth skimming...and the link is here.

MF Global unloaded hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of securities to Goldman Sachs in the days leading up to its collapse, according to two former MF Global employees with direct knowledge of the transactions. But it did not immediately receive payment from its clearing firm and lender, JPMorgan Chase & Co , one of the sources said.

The sale of securities to Goldman occurred on October 27, just days before MF Global Holdings Ltd filed for bankruptcy on October 31, the ex-employees said. One of the employees said the transaction was cleared with JPMorgan Chase.

At the same time MF Global, which was run by former Goldman Sachs head Jon Corzine, was selling securities to Goldman to raise badly needed cash, the futures firm was also drawing down a $1.2 billion revolving line of credit it had with JPMorgan, according to one of the former MF Global employees.

This Reuters story was picked up by yahoo.com yesterday evening...and I thank reader David Ball for sending it along. The link is here.

As households are supposedly deleveraging and European nations face austerity, one might suspect that global debt levels were stabilizing or even dropping. Think again.

It will likely come as no surprise when we point out that the G-7 nations alone face a massive $7.3 Trillion (with a T) of sovereign-only maturities (and a further $566 Billion in interest payments) in 2012 alone. This incomprehensible number is worsened only in historical comparison as it's current level is 125% higher than was 'expected' at the end of 2010 (and 238% higher than was expected for 2012 at the end of 2009).

This story was posted over at zerohedge.com yesterday...and I thank Washington state reader S.A. for bringing it to my attention. The link to this very worthwhile read, is here.

As you are aware, reader Scott Pluschau is a regular contributor to this column. Scott is also a technical analyst...and here he is raising a flag on U.S. Treasuries using the IEF ETF as a proxy. If this sort of thing is your bailiwick, then the link to this thestreet.com posting is here.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she expects turbulence

"The path to overcoming this won't be without setbacks but at the end of this path Europe will emerge stronger from the crisis than before," Merkel said in a New Year's television speech yesterday. She also said 2012 "will no doubt be more difficult than 2011".

Merkel defended the euro, saying it had made "everyday life easier and our economy stronger".

This story was posted on The Telegraph's website on New Year's day. It's Roy Stephens first offering the day...and the link is here.

Markit's eurozone manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose slightly in December to 46.9 from November's 46.4, but marked its fifth month below the 50 mark that divides growth from contraction.

The level of manufacturing activity contracted in Germany, France, Italy and Spain as well as Greece, separate polls for Markit showed today.

"Despite the rate of decline easing slightly in December, production appears to have been collapsing across the single currency area at a quarterly rate of approximately 1.5pc in the final quarter of 2011," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.

"The survey also points to a strong likelihood of further declines in the first quarter of the new year, with producers cutting back headcounts, inventories and purchasing."

This story was also posted in The Telegraph...this one on January 2nd...and is another Roy Stephens offering. The link is here.

The head of one of Britain's "Big Five" banks warned that any break-up of the single currency would have dire consequences for the global economy because it would be difficult to judge how the contagion would unravel.

"Obviously we close 2011 with a huge amount of focus on the trials and tribulations of the eurozone," Mr. Sands said. "We enter 2012 with a very difficult outlook for the eurozone [and] with an increasing possibility of countries actually leaving the eurozone."

"Nobody should underestimate what a big deal that would be, because it would be very difficult to manage the contagion risk, even if it was only Greece. The disruption from that would really be quite significant...it will have ramifications all over the world."

This story was posted in The Telegraph on December 31st...and I thank Roy Stephens for sending it along. The link is here.

So we enter Year IV of the Long Slump, the cruellest yet though not the most acute.

There will be no Chinese credit explosion this time, no real help from post-bubble India or over-stretched Brazil.

It will be a global downturn on all fronts, aborting what remains of recovery even before industrial output in the OECD bloc has regained its pre-Lehman peak.

The second wave will hit with youth unemployment already at 45pc in Greece and 49pc in Spain; and with the US labour participation rate already at depression levels of 64pc.

We will hear more about Italy's Red Brigades, Greece's Sect of Revolutionaries, and America's militia groups, and how democracies respond. Proto-fascism in Hungary is our warning.

China's surgical soft-landing will slip control, like Fed tightening in 1929 and 2007, or Japan's squeeze in 1990. Once construction has run amok, bears will have their way.

Mr. Evans-Pritchard is full of New Year's cheer in this commentary from January 2nd. It was, of course, posted in The Telegraph. It's Roy's fourth offering of the day...and the link is here.

Greece will have to leave the eurozone if it fails to clinch a deal on a second, 130 billion euro bailout with its international lenders, a government spokesman said on Tuesday.

It was an unusually public stark warning from the embattled country, aimed at shoring up domestic support for tough measures and possibly also at the lenders themselves.

"The bailout agreement needs to be signed otherwise we will be out of the markets, out of the euro," spokesman Pantelis Kapsis told Skai TV. "The situation will be much worse."

This is another offering from Roy...this one from yesterday's edition of The Telegraph...and the link is here.

Tens of thousands of Hungarians protested in Budapest on Monday against the government and its new Basic Law in a show of anxiety over what they see as the ruling Fidesz party’s moves to weaken democratic institutions and cement its powers.

Centre-right Fidesz, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, won a two-thirds majority in elections in 2010 and has rewritten a large body of law since, drawing accusations at home and abroad that it has undermined democratic checks and balances.

The Basic Law, which replaced the previous constitution as of Jan. 1, recasts rules governing many walks of life in what Fidesz calls a completion of a democratisation process that started in 1989 when communism collapsed.

Some of these changes have to do with the curbing the power Hungary's central bank. I have two stories on this. The first is a Reuters piece posted over at the france24.com website...and the second is posted at the German website spiegel.de. The link to the first story is here...and the second, here. Both are courtesy of Roy Stephens.

With international pressure mounting against Iran to end its nuclear ambitions, the country has begun ominously rattling its sabers in the Persian Gulf. German commentators on Monday urge caution on both sides.

Tensions between Iran and the West escalated again on Monday as Tehran announced it had test-fired two long-range missiles in international waters near the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

The so-called war games could bring Iranian ships near US naval forces operating in the Persian Gulf. Both the US and Israel have not ruled out a military response in the conflict over Iran's nuclear ambitions, and US forces based in Bahrain have said they will not allow a closure of the important Strait of Hormuz -- through which 40 percent of the world's crude oil is transported.

This story was posted over at spiegel.de on Monday...and is Roy Stephens last offering of the day. The link is here.

Top bank stakeholders of the London Metal Exchange are likely to amass enough support to block a sale they fear would bring a more heavily regulated owner and hurt their lucrative warehousing businesses, senior industry sources say.

The LME said in September that at least 10 parties had expressed interest in buying it, and analysts estimate it could be worth as much as $1 billion. As a member-owned organisation, the exchange requires approval from members holding 75 percent of outstanding ordinary or "A" shares for any sale.

Potential buyers are likely to include CME Group Inc , IntercontinentalExchange and SGX Singapore Exchange. The first two in particular have stricter U.S. regulators, which could threaten members' businesses.

Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan will be at the head of the pack blocking any sale. This Reuters story was posted from London in their afternoon...and I thank reader 'David in California' for sending it along. The link is here.

Scott Cosco, manager of government affairs for Frontier Communications Corp. in West Virginia, believes state legislators will strengthen anti-theft laws in the upcoming session.

Copper thieves have plagued Frontier since the company bought Verizon's West Virginia landline business in July 2010.

"I am convinced, in discussions with senators and delegates, that they will pass something in this upcoming session that will strengthen the law, that will make it more difficult for thieves to steal metal and make it harder on recyclers to buy it illegally."

This story was posted in the Charleston Daily Mail yesterday...and it's only fitting West Virginia reader Elliot Simon be the one that dug it up on our behalf. The link is here.

Santa brought the gold bugs quite a present last week. It was very big and extremely nasty. But maybe they can send it back.

From the previous Friday's close to the low on Thursday, the CME February gold contract plunged $82.10 or 5.1%. The gold shares, as tracked by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index (HUI), were down 6.6% at their worst.

Recoveries into the week's end enabled gold to finish down only 2.44% and the HUI down 2.54%. But by then, no doubt, most gold bulls were disgustedly drowning their sorrows.

Columnist Peter Brimelow wrote this piece which was posted over at the marketwatch.com website on Monday...and things have changed a bit since he wrote that. I borrowed it from a GATA release...and the link to this must read commentary is here.

Here's a Richard Russell blog that Eric King sent me on Monday night.

"This year's close for gold marks the 11th year for higher year end gold closing. To my knowledge this is the longest bull market of any kind in history in which each year's close was above the previous year. This fabulous bull market will not end with a whisper and a fizzle. I continue to believe that the upside gold crescendo of this bull market lies ahead."

It's posted over a the King World News website. It's a must read of course...and the link is here.

Monday's edition of Casey's Daily Dispatch had a lot of information about gold and silver...and if you're not signed up for this free daily product from Casey Research, here's your chance.

You can read everything the Louis James, Alena Bialevich and Jeff Clark have to say about the precious metals at the link here...and sign up for the free daily service at the same time.

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Your humble scribe got mentioned in one of these parodies last year...along with other notable 'conspiracy theorists'. This time Eric is in the spotlight. It's a hoot...but some of it is disturbingly close to the truth...and I thank Edmonton reader B.E.O. for bringing it to my attention. The link is here.

The German journalist Lars Schall tonight recounts his recent futile efforts to get the central banking and treasury agencies of the U.S. government to answer questions about their likely involvement with the gold reserves of Germany and about their involvement in the gold market generally.

If only mainstream financial journalists had the same interest in the issue and the stamina to challenge the unaccountability. In any case Schall's efforts add to the evidence that the U.S. government and the German government have many gold secrets.

Schall's commentary is headlined "An Exercise in Futility: Thank You for Contacting the New York Fed" and it's posted at his Internet site...larsschall.com. I lifted this story from a GATA release yesterday...and I thank Chris Powell for wordsmithing the introduction. The link is here.

Gold bulls are feeling more comfortable as the precious metal rose more than 2½ percent on positive economic data, but is it time to get in the trade?

“I got unlucky in not turning bullish properly,” noted investor Dennis Gartman said Tuesday. “It’s still a long-term bull market, and I’ll get bullish again. It looks like I missed the lows. Those things happen.”

This story was posted over at cnbc.com yesterday afternoon...and I thank Elliot Simon for sending me this story. It's a short read...and the link is here.

In this environment, to make the big money, you need to enter stocks that aren’t institutional, momentum favorites. Those stocks aren’t going to work. The kind of stocks that are going to work and the kinds of stocks that are going to be sold to the Rio Tinto’s and the BHP’s and the Newmont’s and the Barrick’s of the world. The buyer this year is going to be the industry.

I think the buyers for the exploration stocks, the impetus for the market in exploration stocks this year will be takeovers. The companies that have done a good job, although they may not find traction among institutional or retail investors, will be taken over by larger mining companies.

Eric sent me this Rick Rule blog yesterday afternoon...and it's definitely worth the read. It's posted at the King World News website...and the link is here.

Eric King sent me both of the above mentioned blogs yesterday. But Chris Powell did such a wonderful job of writing them up in this GATA release, that I can't improve on it. John's blog is headlined "Gold Will Not Trade Below $1,500 Ever Again"...and Jim's blog is titled "Negativity in Gold Reaches Epic Levels". The link to both these must read blogs is contained this GATA release...and the link is here.