Bill Gross, co-founder and co-CIO of PIMCO, is to my mind one of the shrewdest money men around. His monthly newsletter, this month entitled “Anything but .01%”, therefore always makes for thought-provoking reading.

The following are a few excerpts from the report:

“Almost all money market accounts - totaling over $4 trillion dollars, yield close to nothing, so close to nothing that I mistakenly did a double take when reviewing my monthly portfolio statement. “Yield on cash”, read the buried line on page 15 of the report, “.01%”.

“Well now, I say to myself, this is very interesting from a number of different angles. If I was hoping to double my money, it would take approximately 6,932 years to get there at that rate! Secondly, being a savvy professional investor and all, I knew that money market funds actually earned 20 basis points or so

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Baltimore – (TFN): Hallelujah, the markets work! You have no idea how happy I was this morning when I opened the Wall Street Journal and found an article detailing Goldman Sachs shareholder anger at the recent bonus payouts.

Now, I don’t care who makes what. That’s between bosses and their worker bees. But I do get a little peeved when Uncle Sam tries to tell some worker he can’t get paid per his contract.

Before you go shouting about how Washington saved Wall Street and therefore we, as taxpayers, get a say over pay, let me ask you this. Does your mortgage company tell you what color to paint little Johnnie’s room? Does your car loan provider tell you how fast to drive? Does your health insurance provider tell control your diet?

Didn’t think so.

If some congressman came barging in this office right now, demanding I slash my pay, his goons

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Lord William Rees-Mogg, driving force behind the biweekly Fleet Street Invest newlsetter, analyzes the current state of the dollar, the euro and the future of gold – and why it will always be an attractive, tangible asset.

Lord William Rees-Mogg (Fleet Street Invest UK): In the last six months there has been a rebound of 50% in the great majority of world stock markets.

There has also been a comparable rebound in the price of oil, with West Texas oil rising very close to $80 a barrel. In the oil market there has been heavy two-way trading in options. There could be a sharp spike in the oil price if speculators have to cover their positions.

At the same time the US dollar has remained weak, and now stands at $1.4886 to the euro and $1.66628 to the pound. This is close to a 14-month low on a trade-weighted basis. The

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Chuck Butler, regular analyst at The Daily Reckoning, offers an analysis of why the ‘Audit the Fed’ amendment to a $200 billion deficit plan spooked the currencies markets this week.

Chuck Butler (The Daily Reckoning): As I checked the currencies throughout the day yesterday, I noticed that as the day went on, the non-dollar currencies were stronger, led by the Big Dog, euro (EUR)… But then late last night, and I mean late last night, I checked them, and those gains had been wiped out.

So, when I arrived here this morning, I had one thing on the top of my list of things to do, and that was to find out what happened… Come on, I said to myself, it had to be more than the “risk on, risk off” stuff that’s been hanging over the markets like the Sword of Damocles! But, when you

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Despite ballooning Fed reserves to bail out banks, money supply as measured by the growth in money supply with a zero maturity (notes and coins, check accounts, savings deposits and money-market accounts collectively) continues to slow.

The slowing growth is contra to what normally happens when the Fed lowers the Federal funds rate.

In real terms the growth rate is also slowing.

The slowing in MZM growth is a consequence of US banks’ tight lending standards. The trend is likely to continue until the banks relax these standards.

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The post below comes courtesy of my friend Blain Reinkensmeyer who runs the very popular Stock Trading To Go blog.

To be a great trader you must be disciplined. Following a set of rules can make the difference between successful story telling versus ruminating on last week’s losses.

Jesse Livermore, one of the best traders of all time, and John Paulson, one of the best traders of the last few years, both have a set of rules they follow religiously. Their success serves as your opportunity to enhance your investment savviness.

Below are the rules of both Livermore and Paulson alongside a bit more background information on who they are (hat tip Minyanville and WSJ).

Jesse Livermore, one of the greatest

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In this three-part video interview, Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, discusses with Chrystia Freeland, FT’s US managing editor, a range of topical issues concerning the global economy, new economic hotspots, China’s currency peg and lessons from the crisis.

Part 1: China and the dollar Zoellick talks about President Barack Obama’s recent trip to China and the effects of Chinese currency being pegged to the dollar. He also discusses increased criticism from China of US economic policy.

Click here or on the image below to view Part 1 of the interview.

Part 2: World economy Zoellick talks about the state of the world economy, including the financial recovery, concerns about protectionism and the role the US consumer will play in the recovery. Additionally, he discusses America’s fiscal position, the weakening US

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This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (Telegraph): Is $6,300 fair value for gold? November 19, 2009. The last parabolic spike in gold took off when central banks joined the fray in the 1970s, hoarding bullion with the same enthusiasm as gold bugs. Dylan Grice from Société Générale says it smells much the same today. He sees an eerie similarity between the decision of India’s central bank to buy half the IMF’s entire sale of gold, and the move by France’s central bank to start converting dollars into gold in 1965.

• Gregory Zuckerman (The Wall Street Journal): John Paulson making big new bet on gold, November 19, 2009. John Paulson, who scored about $20 billion of profits between 2007 and early

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Using animation, Warren Buffett eloquently explains in just more than two minutes why trade imbalances lead to serfdom. Put differently, and in the context of President Obama’s visit to China, “Thriftville” owns “Squanderville” in the endgame, as he explained in “I.O.U.S.A.: One Nation. Under Stress. In Debt“.

Source: YouTube.com, November 16, 2009 (hat tip: Wall St Cheat Sheet).

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