The Metals: Gold rose 1.6% to $815 in Asia before it fell back off in London and dropped to as low as $772 by late morning in New York, but it then rallied back higher in the last couple of hours of trade and ended almost $14 off its low with a loss of 2.02%. Silver rose 3.7% to $9.92 in Asia before it fell to as low as $9.075 in New York, but it ended nearly 3% off that low with a loss of just 2.3%. Euro gold fell to about €583, platinum lost $17 to $859.50, and copper gained roughly 8 cents to about $2.18. Gold and silver equities fell over 7% at the open before they rallied back higher and saw modest gains by mid-afternoon, but they then fell back off into the close and ended with about 3% losses. The Economy: Next week’s economic highlights include Leading Economic Indicators on Monday, Initial Jobless Claims on Thursday, and Existing Home Sales on Friday. The Markets: Oil rose on hopes for signs of recovering worldwide demand next week while OPEC may also announce a production cut at its emergency meeting next Friday. The U.S. dollar index ended higher in mixed trade as the euro fell on the view that Europe may have more problems going forward than the US. Treasuries fell on more worries over the need to issue additional debt and whether or not there will continue to be buyers for it. The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell markedly at the open before reversing to see impressive gains midday, but all three indices then fell back off into the close and ended modestly lower on uncertainty over the health of the economy and financial system overall. Among the big names making news in the market Friday were ING, Honeywell, IBM, Pfizer, Schlumberger, and Warren Buffet. The Commentary: “Dear Friends, 1. As we approach elections everything possible is being done to keep equities from total implosion. 2. As we approach elections everything possible is being done to keep the hollow US dollar firm 3. As we approach elections everything possible is being done to keep gold under control to assist in keeping the dollar firm. 4. Gold is NOT a commodity. It is a currency. 5. There is an appearance of involuntary liquidation in gold as hedge and gold funds are pressed by redemptions and needs for capital to pay off investors. 6. Gold never changes. Things change in price comparison to gold, so therefore you can jump up and down on the barometer but that will not change the circumstances it is reading. 7. The means of keeping all things in check is to demoralize those whose positions oppose the goal while showing some sunshine to those who wish to keep their positions. 8. Nobody on earth can prevent the CONSEQUENCES of Chairman Bernanke and Secretary of the Treasury Paulson's attempt to offset the unavoidable CONSEQUENCES of the same actions taken by the central bank and treasury of the 1930s. 9. The different monetary action now in the degree applied will have their own and different CONSEQUENCES in the degree of economic impact. 10. The dichotomy between the bullion supply/demand picture and the easy to manipulate paper gold market continues. Pedro says: "A "friend" of mine was in Zurich yesterday. Aside from the fact that there were no gold coins available in one of the major centers of the world gold trade, it was also noted that there are no longer any large safe deposit boxes available at Credit Suisse Banhofstrasse." 11. Here is where we are headed to some degree, regardless of the manipulation of markets to paint charts at an unprecedented level. A Tale from Weimar Germany by Roland Watson Most readers will be familiar with the great hyperinflation of Weimar Germany. Indeed, it is often held up as the icon of what can go drastically wrong when government throws off all restraint in regards to the production of fiat money. I do not need to labour the point much as to how billions and then trillions of marks were literally not worth the paper they were printed on and how workers had to be paid by the hour lest their wages rapidly lost purchasing power in the brief time between being paid and spending that same money. As ever, gold and silver proved to be safe havens from the ravages of inflation. Indeed, anything other than the mark seemed to a good place to park one's wealth. In those days, that could be anything from bedpans to US dollars to precious metals. However, depending on one's accumulated wealth, gold and silver were amongst the top assets in terms of holding and transporting wealth. Despite this, one set of figures and one notable week in the life of Weimar Germany demonstrated that one particular form of wealth proved to be in particularly heavy demand Comments are invited by emailing the author at newerainvestor@yahoo.co.uk. 12. Don’t let the unprecedented bullying of all markets to meet political expediency draw your attention off the ball. There are defined CONSEQUENCES to the new approach taken by the top expert of the 1929 to 1940 depression. The error is that these actions will have CONSEQUENCES different from 1930 and they will be more devastating than one can ever imagine. Monetary inflation, "the unlimited creation of fiat money," will cause massive price inflation regards of the level of business activity PROTECT YOURSELF!”- Jim Sinclair, JSMineset.com “December Gold closed down 16.8 at 787.7. This was 12.7 up from the low and 4.3 off the high. December Silver finished down 0.3 at 9.335, 0.145 off the high and 0.175 up from the low. The gold market started out on a weak footing and then came under more intense pressure in the wake of softer than expected US housing starts and permits data. However, the gold market seemed to bounce slightly in the face of the mid day equity market recovery and that would further the argument that gold is seeing the threat of too much slowing as a more important element than the potential for aggressive flight to quality buying. While some might suggest that the Dollar action was responsible for the weakness in gold, it should be noted that gold was down early in the trading session when the Dollar was lower. The fact that gold didn't seem to get any lift from stronger energy prices suggests that even the physical commodity market angle wasn't capable of boosting gold prices. The silver market was weaker throughout the trading session Friday. In fact, silver was down in conjunction with the gold market and even though equity prices bounced and at times before the silver close were moderately higher that didn't seem to benefit the silver bulls. With the Dollar eventually regaining some positive traction after a slump in the wake of the scheduled US numbers one could suggest that current market action contributed to the weakness in silver prices. The fact that copper and energy prices were higher during the session didn't seem to spark much bargain hunting buying interest in silver despite the fact that silver on the week was down roughly $1.30 an ounce from the prior week's close.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

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