Weak auctions for government bonds strengthen the case to buy high-grade corporate paper, says Eric Roseman. Many of the world’s top companies have stronger balance sheets than governments. And the coming tidal wave of T-bonds means corporate bond yields may never be this high again.

More from the Sovereign Society:

Are investment-grade corporate bonds the new “safe-haven” for investors?

You certainly wouldn’t think so following their worst monthly drubbing since 1980 in October. September and October sliced and diced investment-grade debt to levels unseen in more than two decades, with effective yields now at 8% compared to 3.7% for ten-year U.S. T-bonds.

Short-term Treasury bonds have been a magnet since the onset of the credit crisis. They’ve been drawing safe-haven flows from nervous investors worldwide ahead of redemptions, fund closures and panic selling since mid-September when Lehman Brothers failed. At the same time, investment-grade debt has been smashed.

The spread, or difference, between

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American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) shares are down 50% in the last 3 months and trading under $20 a share.  Why care?  First off, Berkshire Hathaway is its largest stockholder with 151 million, or 13%, of AXP shares. Barron's says "Berkshire's stake suggests the company's stock may be near a bottom". At Barron's: American Express: Nowhere Near Its Credit Limit By ANDREW BARY

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AmEx CEO Ken Chenault is considered among the best

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On Tuesday, both gold and silver started to decline at one of their usual times…about 3:00 a.m. New York time on Tuesday morning…with the bottom coming at the close of London trading. The price managed to recover somewhat after that…but once again (at 3:00 a.m. New York time on Wednesday morning) gold and silver prices began to decline. There was a temporary bottom at the London close again yesterday, but the recovery was short-lived, and both metals were taken down right into the close of after-hours trading on the Globex.

Monday’s activity showed another decline in gold open interest…down 2,312 contracts. Tuesday’s sell-off brought another o.i. decline in gold of 906 contracts. Without doubt, yesterday’s activity will show a further decline when the data becomes available later this morning.

In silver, Monday showed a decline of 1,600 contracts and Tuesday’s o.i. was up (surprisingly) by 730 contracts. I would suspect that Wednesday’s

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There’s always a profit story hiding somewhere in forex trading, says Chuck Butler. The “stealth-like” Swiss franc is in line to profit from this market crisis. The economy still has solid fundamentals. And when the credit squeeze eases, Chuck says the franc will make some big strides.

This from The Sovereign Society:

Hidden conspiracies, liquidity-starved central banks, another bailout for Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM), and now even American Express (NYSE:AXP) wants a piece of that US$700 billion bailout (hence their new “banking” status)…

Shoot, I know I’m ready for a little good news. How about you?

Well, that’s the nice thing about trading currencies. There’s always a profit story hiding somewhere, even in a disastrous market like this. Yesterday, I gave you the low-down on one my favorite currencies to own ahead of the market recovery: The Norwegian kroner.

Today, I want to tell you about another currency that’s in a solid position

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The markets are deep in negative territory again today and investors are not too happy with Henry Paulson. Is he changing the rules in the middle of the game, or is he merely reacting because the game has changed?

Earlier today, the Secretary of the Treasury stood in front of an audience of Wall Street reporters and gave the country an update on the Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP) and his team’s efforts to shore up the nation’s economy. What he had to say is taking some investors by surprise.

Most importantly, Paulson noted he would not use the TARP to buy the troubled assets of the nation’s financial institutions (like the name of the program implies). Instead, the Treasury Department will use the hundreds of billions of dollars allocated to it to directly buy stakes, in the form of preferred stock, in troubled companies.

Investors have raised eyebrows, for several reasons. Most

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The Fed’s first credit crisis lawsuit… who’s suing and why, AmEx, Fannie Mae unload more financial follies… government “fixes” problem with more taxpayer dollars, Chris Mayer with a credit crisis byproduct (and opportunity) that could affect the entire world, China announces big stimulus plan… so why did commodities fall? A hefty chink in Dubai’s armor, Plus, Dan Amoss with a once-favored investment theme due to be back in the spotlight soon

Here’s a curious development that may be worth watching: Bloomberg is suing the Federal Reserve.

Last week, we took a look at the Fed’s bulging $2 trillion balance sheet. And if you’re a long-suffering 5 Min. reader, you know our futile recounting of the weekly Fed lending programs… all the abbreviations and acronyms: TAF, TSLF, PDCF, CPFF, TARP, etc.

Well, the folks at

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The US government is bankrupting our economy by burning through hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars in the form of bailouts to Paulson and Cheney cronies. American Express is getting bailout money? Seriously? American Express could vanish off the face of the Earth and we'd hardly notice. I think it telling though, that American Express' customers can't pay their bills.The government needs to focus on saving businesses that could still be saved and are worth saving. And Robert Reich has some choice words about the bailout ...When a big company that gets into trouble is more valuable living than dead, there used to be a well-established legal process for reorganizing it - called chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code. Under it, creditors took some losses, shareholders even bigger ones, some managers' heads rolled. Companies cleaned up their books and got a fresh start. And taxpayers didn't pay a penny.So why, exactly, is the ...

HIDDEN VALUE

Dear Value Seeker,

Today the world honors its military veterans.

Veterans Day falls on Armistice Day, the day World War I officially ended.

The 40 million casualties of the “war to end all wars” is perhaps still the rawest example of humankind’s ability to screw up.

Ninety years on, we are still screwing up.

Fortunately, today’s losses are focused on corporate balance sheets and stock indexes rather than on the battlefield.

At least we have the Fed and the U.S Treasury looking out for our best interests.

Americans can sleep tight knowing Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson are unloading their heavy artillery at the credit crisis.

Of course, the effect so far has been minimal. And their ammunition is depleting rapidly.

Already, the government has spent all but $60 billion of the first $350 billion tranche of Hank Paulson’s $700 TARP (Trash Asset

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American Express Co. (AXP) today (Tuesday) won approval from the U.S. Federal Reserve to become a commercial bank, giving the credit card titan a crucial lifeline as the risk of defaults runs higher in the slowing global market. American Express won the Fed’s approval unanimously and without the application’s standard 30-day waiting period because of “the unusual and exigent circumstances affecting the financial markets,” according to a Fed statement. High unemployment and a severe drought of credit are plaguing the consumer market, causing them to spend less. Worse, it’s caused many to be unable to pay existing debts such as credit cards. October was the first month in 15 years that credit card companies weren’t able to sell bonds backed by customer payments, Bloomberg reported. And this upgrade to commercial bank status allows American Express – the fourth-largest ...

The China good feeling dissipates…  Currencies lose their edge…  Fannie Mae needs more!  Silver manipulation? And Now… Today’s Pfennig!OK… Well… All that build up yesterday about how the markets liked the sound of the Chinese announcement to inject $586 Billion worth of renminbi into their economy, dissipated early on in the NY market yesterday. As I left you the euro had climbed above 1.29 again, but ended the day around 1.2740… This is tied directly to the Trading Theme, and that’s all I have to say about that… Have a great day, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow…

HA! Had you there for a minute! The dollar rallied once again, when the deep, dark, dangerous clouds returned, and

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