Economics and Investing:

Monday’s headline at the The Drudge Report proclaimed: BARACKALYPSE NOW. On Monday, following a losing week, stocks on the Dow dropped another 631 points. The spot price of gold jumped 3% to touch an all-time intra-day high of $1,720 per ounce, and then $1,723 in after-hours trading. And since silver is considered more of an industrial metal than gold, it drifted downward to just $38.65 per ounce. These atypical disparate moves in silver and gold brought the silver-to-gold ratio to a whopping 44-to-1. In my opinion, this is now a great time to ratio trade out of gold and into silver. And, FWIW, I’ve been taking my own advice on that, since Friday. (I was a busy boy at the gun show last Friday, buying guns and ammo as well as swapping several gold American Eagles for pre-1965 dimes, quarters, and halves.) If you’ve been dawdling, now is the time to get your family preparations squared away.

Over at Lew Rockwell’s site: Greenspan Comes Clean and Endorses the ‘Zimbabwe-Weimar Solution’

K.A.F. flagged this: Bank of America: S&P May Downgrade US Again in November

Sue C. sent this: Dollar to drop on S&P, flows seen to safe assets

The Mother of All Bailouts (MOAB) continues to grow: Fannie Mae to Taxpayers: We Need Another $5.1 Billion. (Thanks to K.A.F. for the link.)

I smell even more MOAB coming: USPS posts $3.1 billion loss in Q3, warns of default

Sam H. sent this: U.S. Debt downgrade doesn’t mean what you think.

Pierre M. sent this: Beneath Jobs Report Surface Lie Some Ugly Truths

Courtesy of Sue C.: Gas prices expected to fall in coming weeks

Items from The Economatrix:

Food Stamps Use Surges By Most In Years as Alabama Food Stamps Recipients Double in May

Gerald Celente:  “Economic Martial Law Will Be Declared”

D.R. sent this: Bank of America is Just the Start of Paulson’s Problems: Behold…. Citigroup. D.R. ‘s comment: “This article notes that several of these large financial institutions are now getting clobbered and are also big holders of gold. They may be forced to sell rapidly, thus the warning of short term 20-30% losses in gold (and possibly silver). If this happens it could be the last big ‘buy the dip’ opportunity before everything hits the fan.”

Sue C. recommended some commentary from Steve McCann: The Bitter Fruit of Insolvency

Fed Takes Spotlight as Recession Fears Loom

Investors Resigned to More Portfolio Pain

Treasury Prices Jump as Stocks Plummet

US Debt Downgrade Could Mean Rate Hikes For All

Dow Plunges More Than 600 Points After Downgrade