Suppose it is about time someone defaultd. President Rafael Correa made his country the first Soveriegn in the current credit crisis to announced that the government will not make payments on some of its bonds. Specifically, the $30 million coupon on the 2012 bonds. The 2012, 2015 and 2030 bonds, with a nominal of $3.86 billion, will alos default. br /br /The Equadorian government will present a debt restructuring proposal which we expect will result in a substantial haircut for investors!!! The government is likely to have a fight on its hands as the country is not short of funds to pay the interest...

Per the Financial Times today: Ecuador’s bonds fell sharply after the decision to default on $3.86bn of foreign debt on Friday, with its main benchmark bond yield jumping more than 100 basis points since Friday to trade at about 60 per cent. The decision of Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s radical leftist president, could return to haunt the country and others in the region as investors subsequently demand higher yields to buy their bonds. Although Ecuador attracts only investors willing to take big risks in exchange for high yields, even the most risk-hungry funds may think twice now. The country’s credit default swap prices, a form of insurance against debt defaults, are trading at more than 4,000 basis points, one of the highest sovereign prices in the world. The failure to pay a $30.6 million interest payment on its 2012 global bonds, despite the fact ...

After seven years of economic stability, Ecuador is trying to consolidate all political power in the hands of the President. President Rafael Correa is bent to consolidate all political power within his hands. There are deep division between the country's sierra region and the coast. In addition, there is indigenous unrest. This does not look like good news for the economy.

Deflationary forces are pushing the price of gold lower. However, beyond the short-term price for paper gold, some of the news is surprisingly bullish. I'm putting out an update to my recent gold report today, with some very interesting news on supply and demand. The director of the World Gold Council was on CNBC yesterday talking about it. You can see that video here: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=933064521 Some of the bullish news for gold ... * Global demand rose 18% to 1,133.4 metric tonnes from 963.3 tonnes a year earlier.* In dollar terms, the jump in demand was even bigger. Dollar demand for gold reached an all time quarterly record of $32 billion in the third quarter, a whopping 45% higher than the previous record … set in the second quarter.* Identifiable investment, which includes purchases through exchange-traded funds and of bars ...

It was a mixed start to the trading week with the big board issues taking on gains, while the junior explorers faced some profit taking during Monday’s session on the Canadian markets. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange added a modest 0.96%, while the TSX Gold Index surged 6.1% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, lost 0.85% with the declining issuers out pacing the advancers by a 462 to 277 margin on volume of 138 million shares traded.

After much debate, Rockgate Capital and Delta Exploration have come to terms that would see Rockgate take over Delta. Under the proposal, Delta shareholders will receive 0.50 of a Rockgate share for each Delta share held. Rockgate ended the day unchanged at C$0.37, while Delta closed down C$0.005 at C$0.115.

It was a good day for Silver Bear Resources after the company reported drill results from

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