The Volcker Rule, named after Paul A. Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, is meant to bar financial institutions that are protected and subsidized by the federal government from trading for their own accounts. That is, it’s pretty simple: Traders shouldn’t speculate for their own personal gain using the money you and I pay in taxes.

Yet bank lobbyists with complicit regulators and legislators took a simple concept and bloated it into a 530-page monstrosity of hopeless complexity and vagueness.

They couldn’t kill the rule. Instead, they are getting Congress and regulators to render it morbidly obese and bedridden.

Reader Phil Barlett sent me this story from yesterday's edition of The New York Times, in the wee hours of this morning. The link is here.

And here is yet another reason why we will permanently ignore the pathologically lying real estate syndicate known as the NAR: December data was just revised from +5% to -0.5% (from 4.61 million to 4.38 million). Anyone who trades anything based on this borderline criminal self-reporting enterprise needs to have their head checked.

This story was posted over at the zerohedge.com website yesterday...and I thank reader Phil Barlett for sending it along. The link is here.

Here's a couple of paragraphs from an op-ed piece that was posted on the chinadaily.com.cn website earlier today.

To be frank, some of us don't understand why the rich are holding out their hands to the poor and asking for money. For common Chinese people, the wealth of your nations is unimaginable. The average monthly income of your citizens - at around $4,000 in countries such as Germany and Belgium - is 12 times that of the average Chinese citizen. The Chinese workers in the factories in coastal cities have to work 12 hours or longer each day with basically no days off, while workers in France enjoy two months of paid vacation, national holidays and regional festivals each year. If we can save 50 percent of our earnings, surely it should be possible for you to save just 1 percent of yours.

The cause of the crisis is simple: You have spent more than you earned. If we are injecting our hard-earned money into Greek, Irish, Portuguese or Italian government bonds, you should show the political resolve to clean up your own backyard. You have to stop bickering and dragging your feet over the urgently needed austerity measures. It is time to roll up your sleeves and get the job done.

Australian reader Wesley Legrand sent me this scathing indictment late last night...and even though the writer was talking to Europe, he was also talking to America as well. It's a must read...and the link is here.

The Bank of Japan's disclosure Tuesday that it secretly sold yen for several days in November has been followed by relative stability in the yen's exchange rate. That has prompted analysts to suggest an invisible-hand approach might be a better alternative to massive interventions that ultimately fall short.

On Oct. 31st, the BoJ -- acting at the behest of the Ministry of Finance, which sets currency policy -- entered markets to sell yen after it surged to a record high against the dollar. But analysts were caught off guard by MoF's admission that between Nov. 1 and Nov. 4, it conducted an additional $13.3 billion worth of "stealth intervention" by using a limited number of commercial banks sworn to secrecy.

Gee whiz...that sounds exactly like what the Commercial banks are doing in the gold and silver markets as well. This story showed up in The Wall Street Journal on February 7th...and bears the headline "Japan's Secret Yen Interventions Could be Template for Future". It's printed in the clear in this GATA release...and the link is here.

The diplomatic options for a solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis narrowed on Wednesday after a team of UN nuclear inspectors returned from Tehran without agreement on visiting a suspect site.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is due to issue its latest report on the Iranian nuclear programme on Friday, but took the unusual step of criticising Tehran's approach in a statement issued while the inspectors were still flying back to its headquarters in Vienna.

The main stumbling block was Iran's refusal to allow the IAEA team to visit a military site at Parchin, where the last agency report, issued in November, said there was a steel chamber which could have been used for testing explosives of a type performed in the development of a nuclear warhead.

This story showed up at the guardian.co.uk website yesterday...and I thank Washington state reader S.A. for sharing it with us. The link is here.

Israeli hawks are threatening a military strike in order to stop Iran's nuclear program and many Republican presidential candidates in the US also support action. A loose survey of students and academics in Tehran shows that even among opponents of President Ahmadinejad, anti-Western sentiment is strong.

Of course, it's difficult to ascertain the views of Iranians. State censorship is tight, and foreign journalists are rarely allowed into the country. Nevertheless, it is possible to make contact with some Iranians. And when you speak with them, you learn something quite surprising: Even if they oppose Ahmadinejad, their radical president, most of these Iranians still view their country as the victim in the current circumstances. They also view the West as an enemy and fail to consider or acknowledge that there are massive differences between hawks in Israel and doves within the Obama administration.

"After 9/11, George W. Bush systematically portrayed Iran as the bogeyman. That's happening again now. I have seen no indication that we are building a nuclear bomb," says one professor in Tehran who, like the others interviewed for this story, preferred to remain anonymous. There is no freedom of opinion in Iran, and saying the wrong thing can stir up trouble -- especially when it has to do with the country's nuclear policies.

This short story appeared on the German website spiegel.de yesterday...and the link is here.

While Iceland is now known as the country that is the closest earthly approximation to banker hell, it is safe to say that Greece is the terrestrial equivalent of banker heaven. Because as explained earlier today, the country's population is about to get a worse deal than your average run of the mill slave - they may get whipped, but at least never have to pay for the privilege, unlike the Greeks.

The piece de resistance, and the reason why Greece is the in situ version of bankster heaven is the news from The New York Times that Greece is also about to have negative gold...

"Ms. Katseli, an economist who was labor minister in the government of George Papandreou until she left in a cabinet reshuffle last June, was also upset that Greece’s lenders will have the right to seize the gold reserves in the Bank of Greece under the terms of the new deal."

This is another posting from zerohedge.com...and I thank Wesley Legrand for bringing it to my attention. It's a must read...and the link is here.

Trade unionists, communists and pensioners angry at punishing spending cuts in Greece marched through central Athens on Wednesday as lawmakers set to work on legislation needed to secure payment of a second bailout for the debt-laden country.

Ringed by riot police, parliament debated a string of measures demanded by euro zone states in exchange for a 130 billion euro rescue, endorsed by finance ministers on Tuesday after hours of torturous negotiation in Brussels.

The bailout averts a chaotic default next month, but does little to allay doubts over Greece's long-term financial and social stability as the country faces spiraling unemployment and a recession in its fifth year.

This short Reuters piece from yesterday is definitely worth reading as well...and I thank Roy Stephens for sending it along. The link is here.

One of the many loose ends to the Greek bail-out agreed in the early hours of Tuesday (21 February) is the lack of a firm commitment from the International Monetary Fund, pending a decision by eurozone leaders next week to merge the firepower of two bail-out funds.

According to eurozone finance ministers, the IMF is expected to make a "significant" contribution to the €130bn bail-out. German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble on Tuesday spoke of €13bn plus another €10bn from the first Greek programme committed in 2010 that have not been paid out yet.

But IMF chief Christine Lagarde on Tuesday said "significant means lots of things" and that the contribution will be decided by the board of the institution mid-March. That means the final decision will be taken after an EU summit next week when eurozone leaders are to discuss raising the joint €500bn ceiling for the two bail-out funds - the temporary European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and the permanent European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

This story, filed from Brussels yesterday, was posted at the euobserver.com website...and, once again, I thank Roy Stephens for sending it along. The link is here.

ECB boss Mario Draghi has sparked a blistering rally in global asset markets by lending banks as much as they want for three years at 1pc, but bond experts say the side-effects are toxic and the benefits are wearing off.

"It's a sugar rush," said Alberto Gallo, European credit chief at RBS. "It lowers the risk of defaults, but also lowers recovery rates if things go wrong."

Lenders must provide the ECB with collateral, at a haircut of up to 65pc, using up ever more of their balance sheets. The ECB has first claim on these assets, pushing other creditors down the pecking order. The longer it goes on, the worse it gets.

"There is no such thing as a free lunch. Liquidity today comes at the price of subordination tomorrow," said Mr. Gallo, warning that BBVA, BNP, Commerzbank, Intesa, Santander and Unicredit are all vulnerable.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is not a happy camper in this story that was posted over at The Telegraph Wednesday evening. It's another Roy Stephens offering...and the link is here.

Prime minister Mariano Rajoy has reportedly asked European officials to raise Spain's debt reduction target to 5pc, claiming that reducing it to 4.4pc will be impossible.

The ongoing damage of the debt crisis – and the German-led austerity drive – could be laid bare on Thursday if the European Commission (EC) unveils a wholesale revision of the eurozone's growth forecasts, as expected. Experts said the EC is preparing to cut its growth forecasts following the radical spending cuts, tax increases and job losses across Europe.

The figures could force politicians to revise the deficit targets and strict budgetary rules in the fiscal pact just agreed by the European Union.

This is another Roy Stephens story from last night's edition of The Telegraph...and the link is here.

Yesterday, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced the filing and simultaneous settlement of charges against commodity pool operator D.E. Shaw & Co. L.P. of New York for exceeding speculative position limits in soybean and corn futures contracts in trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The order requires D.E. Shaw to pay a $140,000 civil monetary penalty and cease and desist from further violations of section 4a(b) of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulation 150.2.

The CFTC order finds that on April 1, 2010, D.E. Shaw held a short position of 9,894 May 2010 soybean futures contracts -- a position that exceeded by 3,394 contracts the single month speculative limit of 6,500 for soybean futures. On June 18, 2010, D.E. Shaw held a short position of 13,657 December 2010 corn futures contracts -- a position that exceeded by 157 contracts the 13,500 contract single month speculative position limit for corn futures, according to the order.

CFTC Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for this case are Linda Y. Peng, David W. MacGregor, Lenel Hickson, Jr., Stephen J. Obie, and Vincent A. McGonagle.

The only commodities that the CFTC will let a company short without limit are the four precious metals...and if this company had stuck to that rule, they wouldn't have been touched. But, having said that, one wonders how JPMorgan's current 21,000 contract short position in silver [25% of the net open interest in Comex silver] stacks up against this case? Just asking. I'm sure Ted Butler is asking the same question as well...as should we all.

I dug this absolute must read story out of a GATA release yesterday. It's only three paragraphs long...and you just read 'em all...but the link to the press release posted on the cftc.org website, is here.

I was on a panel at the recent California Investment Conference in Palm Springs and the question was asked, "What percentage of your portfolio should be in gold bullion?"

The first panelist answered 20%. The second panelist said, up to 30%. Then it came to me.

"I have no problem with someone having 100% of their portfolio in gold," I stated bluntly. Many in the crowd laughed. Their laughter confused me. What's so funny about that, I thought?

I went on, "I think it's weird that people find my answer weird."

I've heard of Jeff...but have never met him...but I like him a lot already. As you know, I've been "all in" for years. It's obvious that "great minds thing alike"...or is it "fools seldom differ?" You be the judge, dear reader. The story was posted over at Peter Spina's website, goldseek.com yesterday...and I thank Phil Barlett for sending it to me. The link to this must read article is here.

The first one is headlined "Stephen Leeb - Expect $6 per Gallon Gas and Huge Surge in Gold and Silver"...and the second blog with Caesar Bryan, manager of the Gabelli Gold Fund, is entitled "Asia's Gold Buying Continues, Japanese Next."

Bloomberg's Sara Eisen reports that Australian mining company Rio Tinto has unearthed a 12.76 carat pink diamond that is expected to sell for at least $10 million. She speaks on Bloomberg Television's "Money Moves."

The video runs for a whole 28 seconds...and it's worth looking at. I thank Washington state reader S.A. for sharing this item with us...and the link is here.

Last night Jim Sinclair provided a detailed summary of his view of the world financial situation and writes that big events in gold are imminent, with a lot of volatility.

Sinclair's commentary is headlined "Companies with Mineable Ounces Soundest Investment for Coming Volatility". I borrowed the introduction from a GATA release, but the first one through the door with this story was reader U.D. It was posted at over at the JSMineset.com Internet site last evening...and the link is here.

GoldMoney founder James Turk believes that while one can't predict what the catalyst is going to be that will force gold and silver higher, the bull market [in both] remains intact.

The audio and text version of this interview was posted over at the mineweb.com yesterday...and I thank Roy Stephens for his second-to-last offering in today's column. The link is here.

India's silver imports may top 5,000 metric tons in 2012 due to strong investment demand, Prithviraj Kothari, the president of the Bombay Bullion Association, said Tuesday.

The country imported around 4,800 tons of silver last year, he said.

"Silver demand is expected to rise on firm industrial and investment demand," he told reporters on the sidelines of a conference.

Though demand for silver may not pick up in the next few weeks as returns from debt instruments are better than that from silver, investment interest in the white metal is expected to grow as and when the country's central bank starts lowering lending rates, Mr. Kothari said.

This story, which was filed from Mumbai, appeared in Tuesday's edition of The Wall Street Journal. It's posted in the clear in this GATA release...and I thank Roy Stephens for his final offering in today's column. It's worth running through...and the link is here.