Guns, Safes and Treasuries: America’s Top Sellers Robert Morley, Columnist From theTrumpet.com December 2, 2008

Making money today is a lot tougher, but economic crisis breeds opportunities. The next big sellout items: bunkers, mattresses and Bibles.

I shouldn’t have been so shocked. Considering the economy, and the state of the banking sector, I probably should have expected it, but it was still a bit of a surprise. One of my acquaintances revealed to me that she now has a few thousand dollars buried in—not the market, not the bank—her backyard.

And she isn’t even close to being the only one.

Take Mr. Latham, for example. Not long ago, this 45-year-old Alabama cattle farmer and electrician drove his Chevy into Montgomery, stopped at the bank and withdrew $8,000 from his CD account—all in $20s. That was the day the Dow Jones fell 777 points.

Back on the ranch, Mr. Latham placed the bills in Ziploc bags,

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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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This characteristically bombastic Washington Times editorial argues that Europe's response, and especially that of Germany, to Russia's invasion of Georgia has been seen as rewarding of bad behavior - confirming Russia's claim to its sphere of influence. I wonder if Germany has thought that this "sphere" may include East Berlin... Mr. Putin and Mr. Medvedev have demonstrated that the West is powerless to protect Russia's neighbors. Mrs. Merkel stated that the plan to include Georgia and Ukraine in NATO provoked Russian aggression in August. Instead, the German leader should ponder whether the provocation emanated from her decision in April to kowtow to Russian demands - behavior which emboldened Moscow to act against Georgia. If Mrs. Merkel's logic is sound, then, in light of her rejection of the NATO bid, Russian troops should withdraw completely from South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Yet it is more likely that recent Western weakness will ...

While U.S. financial turmoil has seeped into virtually every global market, Russia has been devastated, as the country’s largest stock exchanges, the MICEX and RTS, have suffered their biggest losses since the 1998 financial crisis. However, Moscow only has itself to blame after heavy-handed economic, political, and military tactics scared away the foreign investments it didn’t oust directly. Regulators suspended trading on both the MICEX and RTS for the second day in a row yesterday (Wednesday), after the nation’s two biggest exchanges suffered their worst losses in nearly a decade. The benchmark MICEX index tumbled 10% yesterday morning, extending a three-day decline that’s eradicated 25% of its value. The index plunged 17.5% Tuesday, its worst one-day decline since 1998. The dollar-denominated RTS index was down more than 8% when trading halted yesterday, after dropping 11.5% the day prior. The RTS has ...

While U.S. financial turmoil has seeped into virtually every global market, Russia has been devastated, as the country’s largest stock exchanges, the MICEX and RTS, have suffered their biggest losses since the 1998 financial crisis. However, Moscow only has itself to blame after heavy-handed economic, political, and military tactics scared away the foreign investments it didn’t oust directly. Regulators suspended trading on both the MICEX and RTS for the second day in a row yesterday (Wednesday), after the nation’s two biggest exchanges suffered their worst losses in nearly a decade. The benchmark MICEX index tumbled 10% yesterday morning, extending a three-day decline that’s eradicated 25% of its value. The index plunged 17.5% Tuesday, its worst one-day decline since 1998. The dollar-denominated RTS index was down more than 8% when trading halted yesterday, after dropping 11.5% the day prior. The RTS has ...