Moody's downgrades Portugal's debt rating

LISBON, Portugal — Moody's credit rating agency downgraded Portugal's debt on Tuesday, casting fresh doubt on the country's ability to weather its debt crisis as the economy weakens.

Moody's Investors Service cut Portugal's government bond ratings to A1 from Aa2. The move deepens the country's financial woes because foreign lenders will likely demand higher interest returns for the risk of loaning it money.....read on

Bear Market Bounce

By Warren Bevan: Equity markets throughout most of the world rebounded very nicely this past week retracing roughly half the past two weeks of declines. This is how bear markets work, they take two steps down, and one step back up. It's exactly the inverse of a bull market.

The weakness we are once again becoming accustomed to should resume early in the week. While it's no fun, it must be accepted that the primary trend is lower now for equity markets.....read on

From Mark J. Lundeen: Here are my problems with "Green Energy." No doubt about it, the Western States could generate the "Green Power" necessary to power every electric car on the East Coast, and then some. But as always, the Devil is in the Details. Solar Power Farms would be huge consumers of silver for their Solar Collectors. But are the necessary quantities of silver available, at prices that would make this project economically feasible? I've never seen this critical point discussed by Solar Power Proponents......read more

Creating Order in the Euro Zone - Merkel's Rules for Bankruptcy

From Spiegel Online: Fearing a lasting burden on taxpayers, the German government is preparing a set of insolvency rules for countries in the euro zone. It would require private investors to bear some of the financial burden and force the affected countries to give up some sovereignty. The plan is guaranteed to meet with resistance.....read on

Fundamentals just nothing to get excited about

From Arabianmoney.net: Thin trading in mid-summer has produced an odd mini-rally in stocks over the past few days. But there is nothing in the fundamentals about the global economy to support any optimism, and indeed it is mainly lacking.

China imported less copper and iron for the third month in a row, an obvious indication of a slowdown in this supposed economic powerhouse. We know from the Baltic Dry Index’s plummet that all is not well with global trade....read on

Interview with James Turk

James Turk discusses inflation and the worryingly similarities between the Weimar Republic and the USA.......listen here

Gold keeps rising as panicky investors look for security

From the Guardian: Goldfinger, the villain of the eponymous James Bond film, hatched a plot to increase the value of his bullion by detonating a nuclear device inside Fort Knox, making America's gold supply radioactive for 60 years. No less exciting, though rather more unsettling, is the real-life drama taking place on the world's financial markets, where investors have piled into gold on fears that capitalism is about to crumble.....read on

Mining the deep: China seeks sulphide minerals in international seas

Last month, the International Seabed Authority adopted regulations for mining international sea bottoms for polymetallic sulphides. China stepped up to the plate, applying to explore a section of the Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR)—where the African and Antarctic tectonic plates converge—for minerals, many of which are valuable to the electronic industry.

The seabed of interest features dormant hydrothermal vents. Like deep-sea chimneys, the former ‘black smokers” (shown right in the Atlantic Ocean) once spewed dark clouds of sulphides. As the sea dust eventually settled, it left rich deposits of copper, cobalt, lead, zinc, and nickel, more than 5,000 feet below the Indian Ocean surface. Gold and silver may be there, too.....read on

Financial derivatives, their rise and rise

From ABC Radio National: Many of the large collapses during the global financial crisis were finance companies dealing in exotic financial instruments such as Collateralised Debt Obligations - CDOs. CDOs are a form of derivative, a trading tool with a long and chequered history. We trace the origin and purpose of derivatives and how they became so large and dangerous....listen here

Truth about Markets - London

Latest "Truth about Markets" London: a weekly 1hr radio show broadcast on Resonance 104.4FM hosted by Stacey Herbart (political journalist) & Max Keiser (economic activist and documentary maker)........listen here