Ireland is nearly broke. Its debt was downgraded a couple weeks ago. Unemployment is near 14%. Deflation is at 5.4% — the highest since the Great Depression of the ‘30s.

And it’s not over. It’s “too early” to talk about recovery, says Finance Minister Brian Lenihan.

It’s too early in England too. Financial Advisor Peter Hargreaves says that talk of ‘green shoots’ gives rise to illusions. People think they see the light of dawn when the sun is still going down. And forget about a V–shaped recovery. There won’t be any simple bounce-back. Nor even a W-shaped double decline. “There could be a quadruple dip in my opinion,” he said.

And what about California? This week’s Economist magazine gives us a new measure for California’ budget deficit — $26 billion, up from the $24 billion last reported in this space. A widely published photo shows Arnold Schwarzenegger smoking a cigar…apparently confident that the

The election of Barack Obama does not change America’s fundamental economic flaws, says Bill Bonner. The slump caused by too much debt will continue. And a US dollar crash caused by reckless money printing is still just around the corner.

This from The Daily Reckoning:

America’s voters spoke yesterday [Tuesday]. And they said “Give us Obama.” And it came to pass that the man called Obama was given unto them.

“America is a place where all things are possible,” said the man himself in his victory speech.

And yes, it is possible for a half-black man to be elected. But no, all things are not possible. It is not still not possible to get rich by spending money. Nor is it possible to save a man from too much debt by giving him more credit. And you still can’t trust a politician… or his money.

The election “changed everything,” shouts the

Gold sank in the overseas markets, rallied back into positive territory by mid-morning Friday, but made its high for the day there, as it declined for the rest of the Comex before steadying through the Globex and finishing at $723.70, down $12.00. For the week, gold was off 1.5%.

Platinum bottomed near $770 in late Hong Kong trading, but moved gradually higher through most of the rest of the day, ending at $819/oz., down $7. For the week, platinum gained 3%.

Silver also hit its low late in Hong Kong, and it too pushed steadily higher, making it back into positive territory to close at $9.86/oz., up 13 cents. For the week, silver tacked on 5.2%. (Click here for charts)

While silver had a decent day, gold turned in yet another lackluster performance, ending October with a loss of 18%, the largest monthly decline for the metal in 28 years.

Gold

Source: Adrian Day’s Global Analyst  10/17/2008
Adrian Day’s reputation for discovering big winners adds credibility to the global investing pioneer’s insights, which he is sharing with The Gold Report subscribers via excerpts from recent articles in Adrian Day’s Global Analyst. Acknowledging what trying times these are for investors, in this first segment of a five-part series, Day discusses what led to the current economic crisis and how he sees Washington’s $700 billion (and counting) bailout playing out.

The Current Crisis—Causes and Consequences

The house of cards built on easy credit has finally come tumbling down, triggered by the failure of one of the most flimsy of the cards, subprime mortgages. We’ll look at the causes—it’s important to understand causes if one has any reasonable chance of analyzing the present and assessing the outlook—and weigh the likely outcome of the government’s actions.

Not to keep you in suspense any longer, we …

Source: The Gold Report  09/02/2008
A pioneer in global investing, with a reputation for discovering big winners, Adrian Day gives us his insight on whether he thinks gold has hit the bottom, and what it’s going to take to get the juniors going again. He also tells us which juniors he thinks are positioned to weather the slowdown. Day is President of Adrian Day Asset Management, which manages portfolios in resource and global equities, and the editor of “Adrian Day’s Global Analyst.”

The Gold Report: So what’s your take on where we are with the markets. . .you think we’ll see a change soon?

Adrian Day: People are still very, very concerned about the dollar and inflation, and rightly so. The core CPI numbers were up .7% in one month. That’s a high number and the precise number may be a monthly anomaly, but it’s very clear that the trend in …