Good day… And a Terrific Tuesday to you! On the road again, I just can’t wait to get on the road again… Yes, all my bags are packed and I’m ready to go! Won’t be back until late Saturday night, and back in the saddle next Monday. And I’m leaving just in time, as yet another cold front has moved into St. Louis! UGH!

Well… Let’s see… What to talk about today? I could talk about the Aussie rate cut and stimulus package… I could talk about the “new and improved” stimulus package and all the “non-stimulus spending attached to it… I could talk about how it sure seems as though the euro (EUR ), and then the other currencies, are taking their cues to rally from equities. Now, this is certainly a short-term phenomenon because we all know that currencies have different pricing mechanisms than stocks, and a very low correlation to stocks, which is why they make excellent diversification assets, along with gold and silver.

Well… What’s it going to be, boy? Oh, Shoot Rudy, I’ll just talk about all of them, and probably more, you never know what’s going to come to me, as I start typing!

OK… Front and center this morning… The euro is a bit higher than yesterday, having climbed to 1.28 and change. But, actually, this figure is a bit lower than the high yesterday. At one point the euro was within spittin’ distance of 1.29… The trading range has been tight, like Tupperware! That reminds me of… No… Not today, Chuck!

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) did cut rates 100 BPS last night, to the lowest internal rate of all time… (3.25%). The RBA issued a statement that said something about future rate cuts not being as aggressive as those across the last 4 months. Now, that’s a good sign, but it’s also a bad sign, as it suggests that the RBA isn’t finished cutting rates. Right before the rate announcement, the government announced a stimulus package. Now, I don’t like this, as it puts the RBA, which I’ve always held in high regard, in the same boat as all the other countries doing stimulus packages…birds do it, bees do it, Even educated fleas do it… And I’m not talking about falling in love… I’m talking about stimulus packages. The RBA believes that with a combination of fiscal and monetary stimulus, they can kick start their economy.

Memo to the RBA… While domestic demand is a good thing to have… You need China to grow again. Anyway… The news of the combination of fiscal and monetary stimulus, has lifted the Aussie dollar (AUD ) up off the mat… But I doubt it will have much follow through. Not without a euro rally to 1.30 and higher.

OK, speaking of stimulus… I’m very upset with the “new and improved” stimulus package. I’m sure you’ve figured this out already from previous rants. However, now… I’m even more ticked off! Oh, and the TV/Cable media are swallowing the propaganda from the White House, hook, line and sinker! Here’s what I’m talking about folks…

The package has a “buy American” portion in the package. This is protectionism, folks… And here’s what gets my goat the most about protectionism at this stage of the recession… Fed Chairman, Big Ben Bernanke, is supposedly a “U.S. depression guru”… Well, Big Ben, wasn’t the protectionism of the 1930s one of the reasons for the Great Depression? And it just so happens that now we’ve had “the cheater’s” confirmation, calling China “currency manipulators”, and that was followed up with the “buy American” portion of the package.

Look… There’s nothing wrong with the slogan, Buy American… In fact, I think it would be a great thing to go around saying and doing, based on our manufacturing prowess… But, that’s not what I’m talking about here… I’m talking about protectionism, at a time when the global economies are hurting and need to export to us. I’m really surprised that the currency traders haven’t seen this and taken the dollar to the woodshed… But then, maybe they’re getting the wool pulled over their eyes.

The other thing that ticks me off on the “new and improved” stimulus package is the fact that a very small piece of the $816 billion (before the Senate adds their pork!), is for the infrastructure projects that have been billed as a “major piece” of this plan! HOGWASH! Now, I’m not going to sit here and pass judgment on all the “items” that are being allocated – billions of dollars, like $1 billion to deal with the census problems, and $88 billion to help move the Public Health Service into a new building next year, and $650 million for TV converter boxes. The list of items like this goes on and on… And all worthy items, I’m sure… But none of these types of spending allocations – and I repeat this so you get the full force of this statement – none of these types of spending allocations are doing anything to create jobs. Oh… And just for those of you keeping score at home… $50 billion is allocated to bricks and mortar… Infrastructure… Which has had “top billing” on this package… Well, the truth is out… I sure hope someone takes their lawmakers to the woodshed for this!

And… One more thing that’s really ticking me off about how we’re going about “attempting to stop the correction” which in my mind should NEVER have been done in the first place, and that is this creation of a “bad bank”… Again… And I really want to stress this point… Why not focus on creating a “good bank”? Because creating a “bad bank” has all kinds of problems attached to it, and IT DOES NOTHING TO CREATE JOBS!

OK… Enough! You are quite full of you know what and vinegar this morning, Chuck… Yes, I know, maybe I’m excited about traveling to Orlando! And maybe not… Who knows?

The trading theme is back in place, big time, these days. And with the trading theme right now, and short-term I’m sure, is this connection between equities and currencies… And currencies had better break that connection in a New York Minute, because I don’t see any good times ahead for stocks. I really thought they would experience an Obama bounce, but not so… The DOW sold off to the tune of -9.5% in January! OUCH! But you never know with these markets… If they are left alone, they will work through good times and bad times, based on fundamentals… If they have the government sticking their hands in there, acting like they know what they’re doing, messing with the fundamentals gods… Then… We get bubbles…

But… Like I said above, currencies are a different bird than equities, and have different pricing mechanisms, so this association can’t last too long.

I saw this story, and had to talk about it… Well, everyone knows how I have beaten the U.K. pound sterling (GBP ) around the head and shoulders for months now… And the currency has responded losing 27% in the past 6 months. Well… There’s someone beating the drum for the pound sterling these days… Let’s listen in… Jim O’Neill, chief economist at Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. had this to say… “The U.K. is no Reykjavik-on-Thames” (referring of course to the meltdown/collapse of the Iceland economy, government, and currency) Mr. O’Neill, also had this to say… “The pound is very cheap for the first time in our professional history. You need to make sure that the U.K. is Reykjavik-on-Thames before you bet against the pound.”

Hmmm… I guess he means now… Don’t bet against it now… Because betting against it since August has been quite profitable!

The Swiss franc (CHF ) continues to get dragged through the mud by the bank scandal that I talked about last month, between UBS and Italian municipalities. There’s been some new rot found on UBS’s vine, and since UBS is such a large piece of Switzerland… The franc gets hammered. What the franc needs right now is a rally by the euro, so it can grab hold of the euro’s coattails!

Oh… And before I head to the Big Finish… I want to tell you that next week, we get “the plan”. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will give a speech next week in which he will outline the Obama administration’s financial-rescue plans. Whew! I feel so much better now! NOT!

Oh, and one more thing… The count is now two tax cheaters found in the new administration… First we had “the cheater” Treasury Secretary Geithner, and now we have Tom Daschle… Oh brother! Now… Where’s the change? Wouldn’t it be a huge stance that this kind of scandal and bad press on his administration will not be tolerated, if Obama asked these two to fall on sword?

I know, I keep saying one more thing, but this time I really mean it! After talking up gold yesterday, it sold off $20! UGH! Profit taking, I have to believe, as there’s nothing to show me that gold should have been sold!

Currencies today 2/3/09: A$ .6390, kiwi .5055, C$ .8040, euro 1.2875, sterling 1.4260, Swiss .8640, rand 10.13, krone 7.0425, SEK 8.35, forint 232.65, zloty 3.5425, koruna 22.07, yen 89.50, sing 1.5150, HKD 7.7535, INR 48.82, China 6.8402, pesos 14.48, BRL 2.3175, dollar index 85.89, Oil $40.20, Silver $12.37, and Gold… $906

That’s it for today… I noticed the other day, as I passed by a gas station, that the price of gas had jumped 20-cents in one day, while the price of oil has remained constant, if not cheaper… Oh the games people play now, every night and every day, now… This will be my first trip with Chris, since last May. He’s a busy guy, and doesn’t have time for me to be dragging him around the country! Hey! This is exciting too! We’re currently working on a new way of bringing me to you! Each working day, (that I’m here, which won’t be very often in March!) Kristin will sit down with me, and do a quick overview of the Pfennig, and ask me to further explain a couple of things I talked about. This will all be in the form of a video (in our cool studio) and placed on our website. Now, how cool is that?! We’re practicing now, and hope to be “live from St. Louis”! No, wait… That would “taped from St. Louis” on the website soon. I will, of course, let you know more when we’re ready! Well, people are arriving; I must be late! I hope your Tuesday is terrific!

This article originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning. The Daily Reckoning, a FREE daily e-letter, offers a “uniquely refreshing” perspective on the global economy, investing, and today’s markets.

Talking Stimulus

Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) — The Japanese yen rose against the euro and the dollar as traders sought refuge in the currency amid concern the U.S. fiscal stimulus plan will meet Senate resistance and widening credit losses will erode earnings.

Read more….

Risk appetite improved throughout yesterday, pushing EURUSD higher. Overnight EURUSD traded in the range 1.2955-1.3048 booking a 0.6% gain and USDJPY was range-bound between 89.33 and 89.68 – down by 0.1%. The dollar was weaker on a whole, declining against 7 of the 10 most traded currencies. The general improvement in sentiment had been building during the day as fresh fiscal stimulus packages…

Read more….

Good day… And a Thunderin’ Thursday to you! Well… The Fed kept rates at near zero, as if they had any ability to raise them, the House sent the stimulus bill on to the Senate, the dollar rebounded on all these two items, and I have some very strong quotes for you at the end of today’s lesson… So, get your coffee, or OJ, or V-8, sit down, and let’s go!

OK, I had better start with the dollar reaction to the two items yesterday, as what looked like an end to this dollar strength mess was about to take place as the euro (EUR) pushed to 1.33, taking the other currencies along for the ride… But that was just a head fake… The dollar had more strength to show us, after the Fed kept rates unchanged, and the House passed the stimulus bill.

You see, it’s very simple… Or maybe I mean to say it’s simple-minded people… Nah, I won’t go that far! These dollar bulls are thinking, it’s simple… With the Fed greasing the tracks with ZIRP (zero interest rate policy) – and now with the ability to buy Treasuries – that everyone else wants to sell, because of the paltry yields they receive on them, and… With another “NEW AND IMPROVED” stimulus bill, the economy is going to flourish, and it will be all seashells and balloons from here on out… So… Why not buy the dollar, eh?

I’LL TELL YOU WHY NOT! First of all the Fed is out of control, doing whatever they want to do with no one to stop them… And they are NOT making the best decisions. They are following the same footprint that Japan made a decade ago! But don’t let that get in the way of the euphoria the dollar bulls have going for them right now!

And second… Now this is really going to get my blood boiling, but with the newest stimulus bill… Another almost $900 billion is on the red side of our ledger… And for what? The same graft and cronyism that went on in the ’30s with the WPA, and spending on people that if you give them money, what incentive will they have to work on that bridge or highway that needs to be repaired? I’m really sick in my stomach about all this, folks… I really just don’t know how the media is taking this hook, line and sinker!

I know that the House approved $819 billion, but I believe that by the time the Senate gets finished with it, the bill will have grown to $890 billion, or close to $900 billion as I sate above! When it’s all said and done, I bet there’s some pork there… And some money allocated to things you wish you knew about and could vote on before it was passed… But wait, we can’t vote on these things, we can only vote for the dolts that passed the Bill… Hey… It’s your representative, folks… We The People put them there!

OK, I had better stop there… Let’s talk about the Fed… Well, the Fed’s FOMC decided to keep rates unchanged, which was the consensus view, and made a statement that the “economy has weakened further”. NO DOOKIE SHERLOCK! What a bunch of dolts! We ALL KNOW THE ECONOMY HAS WEAKENED FURTHER… WHAT WE WANT TO KNOW IS… WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? Well, for that, we go to our correspondent on the scene… Hello? Are you there? Yes, I’m here, and I’m with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke… Mr. Chairman, the folks at home want to know what the Fed is going to do to stimulate the economy, as apparently, cutting interest rates to near zero hasn’t done the trick… Ahem… Let me clear my voice, because I want the folks back home to hear this clearly… We, at the Fed, are prepared to buy long-term Treasuries, to get private interest rates down, which we believe will reduce the spreads in Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities. If we can get mortgage rates even lower than the multi-decade lows we are now seeing, then we believe we’ll have stimulated the economy… Thank you Mr. Chairman for you time…

Well… I’m of the opinion that should the Fed begin buying long-term Treasuries, which in reality, I believe they have been doing all along, through their offshore accounts (this is all conspiracy thoughts folks, this does not exist according to our leaders)… But… If they do come out in the open and do it, then I believe we should move to abolish the Fed!

And… I told you yesterday that it would be nice if the Fed spilled their guts, and told us everything… What they were doing, how they were going to do it, how much of it they will use, and how they will monitor it… But that didn’t happen, of course! Keep us in the dark, right? Because we’re not as intelligent as them, right Fed Heads? Well, I don’t know what schools they attended to learn their economics and communications… But, my small little local school taught these things better than theirs!

OK, I had better go on to other things before I get in trouble with the legal beagles. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) did cut rates yesterday, as I suspected they would… But the went even further with their rate cut than I had forecast. Recall, that I said earlier this week that the RBNZ would probably cut 100 BPS? Well, they cut 150 BPS! WOW! Talk about cutting into a fat hog! That puts the total rate cuts since July 2008, at 475 BPS! RBNZ Governor Bollard had a lot to say afterward, and I don’t have the time or space to give you everything he said, so… Here’s a snippet…

“Globally, there has been considerable policy stimulus put in place and we expect this to help bring about a recovery in growth over time. However, there remains huge uncertainty about the timing and strength of a recovery.”

The news knocked the stuffing out of kiwi (NZD), which had rallied yesterday to 53+ cents… Kiwi, is now at 52-cents…

All of the currencies are off their levels from yesterday, as the dollar strength has hit every currency…

OK… I just read an interview that Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase gave at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. This is interesting stuff folks, and I wasn’t planning on coming across this, so the Pfennig is going to be a bit longer today than usual, by the time I highlight Mr. Dimon, and then the other “quotes” I promised at the start… So… With no further ado… Here’s Jamie Dimon…

“Banks gave consumers weapons of mass destruction by loading them up with debt.” WOW! OK, there’s more… “We gave them the weapons of mass destruction to borrow too much. I don’t blame them, I blame the CEO’s of their own businesses.” Then there’s this… And this is the good stuff…

“To policy makers, I say where were they? They approved Basel II that didn’t work,” (these were the rules governing how much capital banks hold to back their loans) “they approved all these banks. Now they’re beating up on everyone, saying look at these mistakes, and we’re going to come and fix it.” And he ended with this ditty… “God knows, some really stupid things were done by American banks, and by American Investment Banks.”

WOW! Mr. Dimon probably won’t be getting a Christmas card next year from his fellow Bank CEO’s! But I love that he’s doing his best Aaron Neville, and telling it like it is… Don’t be ashamed to let your conscience be your guide.

Of course, I have to say right here, right now, that the bank I work for, EverBank, did not and does not fall into that category of American Banks that Dimon was talking about! We didn’t “play the subprime, creative loans game” and we didn’t get in bed with these guys either! And… I’m sure there are quite a few American Banks that are in our category… But the spotlight always gets shined on the “bad apples”.

OK… Now that I’ve completely gone off my pre-typing path… Let me get back on that path, and go to my two quotes for today… I believe that I ran this Thomas Jefferson quote before… But the Marx quote is a real zinger!

“If the American people ever allow the banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation, and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property, until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered… I sincerely believe that the banking institutions having the issuing power of money are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies.”
–Thomas Jefferson

And then this…

“Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalized, and the State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism”
–Karl Marx, Das Kapital, 1867

Boy oh boy! This is getting very strange, eh?

And then there was this… I can’t understand why the public isn’t gathering their pitchforks and rakes on this one… Or maybe, the media didn’t tell them about this… Hmmm. That’s probably more like it… Any way… Here’s what I’m talking about…

Bloomberg reported this… American International Group Inc., the insurer that nearly collapsed because of losses on credit default swaps, offered about $450 million in retention pay to employees of the unit that sold the derivatives, according to two people familiar with the situation.

About 400 workers at the financial products unit may get the money in two installments, said the people, who declined to be named because the payments were confidential. The business was responsible for about $34 billion in write-downs since 2007 as the market value of swaps AIG sold to banks plunged amid the subprime mortgage market collapse.

The payments bring to more than $1 billion the amount AIG has committed to keep its employees from leaving. The New York-based insurer took a federal bailout in September to avoid bankruptcy and is selling units to repay the government. AIG disclosed the existence of the unit’s retention program in regulatory filings, including a quarterly report in August.

Geez Louise! I’m going to go yell at the walls right now! Serenity Now!

OK, I’m back now… Hey! I don’t want to be like this! I’m really a fun loving person! But since you don’t get this stuff on your cable news or national news or even local news, I’m here to deliver that! I can’t help but get all caught up in the doltness of these people!

We’ll get more data today here in the United States… Weekly Initial Jobless Claims, and Durable Goods, and New Home Sales… None of this will be good for the economy…

Currencies today 1/29/09: A$ .66, kiwi .5210, C$ .8235, euro 1.3120, sterling 1.4320, Swiss .87, rand 9.9220, krone 6.7150, SEK 8.02, forint 218.40, zloty 3.3325, koruna 20.9050, yen 89.60, sing 1.5025, HKD 7.7566, INR 48.98, China 6.8380, pesos 14.02, BRL 2.2580, dollar index 84.59, Oil $41.09, Silver $11.78, and Gold… $878.70

That’s it for today… The customer call-in conference yesterday went well… We didn’t have that many callers… I guess people didn’t want to hear what I had to say! My poor little buddy, Alex, had to spend most of yesterday and into late last night, in the emergency room at the hospital, as he did a number on his nose in a sledding accident. He’ll be fine… Nothing new for boys! That will put the kyboshes on basketball and wrestling for this year though… He won’t be happy about that! Don’t know what I was thinking the other day when I said, “6 more weeks till pitchers and catchers report for spring training”… We’re about 2 weeks away! YAHOO! Now that sounds better than 6 weeks! Then… Before we know it, March will be here, and my annual sojourn to Florida… YAHOO! OK… I’m doing well on time this morning, so I must have been typing faster than normal! HA! Anyway… Time to go, I hope your Thursday is Thunderin’!

Post from: Daily Reckoning

Good day… And a Happy Friday to one and all! A Fantastico Friday, because, today, is our little Christine’s Birthday! Yeah for her! More on this in the Big Finish… But, it’s a Happy Day nonetheless for our little Christine!

OK, front and center this morning, yesterday I printed a quote from Karl Marx. This had been sent to me from a source that I didn’t feel as though I needed to research first. Unfortunately, as MANY of you let me know… The quote had some major errors in it. So… I apologize… I hope I didn’t burn any confidence in me with that error… I’ll do much more due diligence in the future!

The euro saw a huge sell off yesterday, and it wasn’t a case of “lets buy the dollar and sell the euro” it was a case of “lets sell the euro”… I think the latter is the worse… Here are the reasons I saw that caused this selling of the euro, and further down the line with the other currencies as well.

1. Soros says euro may not survive crisis without global plan…

2. There’s a potential for a ‘buy American’ rider in the stimulus package sparking debate on the impact on global trade

3. There was a rumor going around that the four largest pension funds in Netherlands saw their assets drop by euro 72 Billion due to the credit crisis, all are allegedly under funded.

4. The Risk Takers are hiding under rocks again…

This is the Obama bounce I’ve been talking about folks… Stocks may still be taking it on the chin, but the dollar part of the bounce is front and center!

How many people follow Glenn Beck? As you know, last summer, I wrote an article for his website on the dollar, and the loss of purchasing power. He had heard about me, when reading Craig Karmin’s Biography of the dollar, which has a chapter on me! Well… I believe that Glenn has taken my stuff and run with it… Last night, he did a great job of showing everyone the money supply that has gone off the charts since last September. He got the data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve, so it’s not like he made the stuff up! I love what he’s calling our money supply and debt situation… “An Inconvenient Deficit” Obviously, it’s a spin-off of Al Gore’s movie…

The deficit and money supply is really getting out of hand folks… I know, I’ll have a few readers send me notes telling me that the money supply stuff is wrong… But, I’ll stick with the data from the St. Louis Fed…

This un-dynamic duo of deficit and money supply, only has one ending folks… And it ends up in tears for the dollar…

But in the meantime, the dollar bulls have the dollar moving higher once again, with the euro trading all the way down to trade with a 1.28 handle.

Well… In the data yesterday, the Weekly Initial Jobless Claims, which were forecast to be below 500K, repeated the previous week’s high of 585K, with an increase to 588K! UGH! I’ve never figured out why these figures don’t feed into the monthly Jobs Jamboree numbers… You would think that you take the weekly figures by 4, and voila! But, that’s not how it works, boys and girls… The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) gets to put their hands in the cookie jar and act like they know what they’re doing!

In other data, New Home Sales fell 14.7% in December to 331,000. Now, that might not sound too bad on the outside…(apparently it wasn’t to the media, for they “forgot” to include this part when reporting the data yesterday) But, when you figure in the fact that the latest 15% plunge to 331K now takes New Home Sales to the lowest since the series began in 1963, breaking below the previous low of 338K in 1981. Add to that the fact that… Sales are down 75% from its peak in mid-2005. And to finish this data set off… Something that leads me to believe we have more suffering in housing to go… The month’s supply of homes reached a new record high of 12.9 months (the 20-year average is 5.7). Can you say… inventories remain too high?

And finally, durable-goods orders decreased by 2.6% in December… UGH! The economy just continues to show more rot on the vine… Even more than most economists had forecast, for sure… There was one economist that was the front runner to all this mess, forecasting it, and being cast as a doom and gloom guy. But now receiving vindication… That’s Nouriel Roubini, who’s in Davos Switzerland this week at the World Economic Forum… That’s where the great quotes from Jamie Dimon came from yesterday… Let’s see if Nouriel Roubini threw us a bone or two…

Roubini said yesterday, that “the worse lies ahead. Banks face bigger credit losses than they realize, more financial companies will require state takeovers and the world economy will keep shrinking throughout 2009, he says. The consensus is catching up with me, but it’s still behind,” Roubini said in an interview in Davos. I don’t know what some people are smoking.”

We’ll get some inkling of the depths the economy has fallen to this morning, when 4th QTR GDP prints… The forecast is for a negative -5.5% to print… And when we see the “makeup” of the growth, and see that without the Gov’t spending it would have been much worse… Somebody had better think twice about suggesting this recession will be “V” shaped…

Oh… And my friends over at Critical Factors research, (they track recessions, and confirmed my call last year at this time that we had moved into a recession) sent me a note about the Leading Indicators data that printed the other day. You may recall that I was surprised to see the Leading Indicators rise? Well, looks like there’s an explanation for that… And for that explanation I turn to my friends at Critical Factors…

“Yes, The Conference Board reported that the Leading Economic Indicators increased 0.3 percent, but note this quote from their press release: ‘The LEI rose modestly in December, mainly due to the continued and very large positive contribution from real money supply.’

Yes, there’s that “money supply” thing again!

In Germany this morning, inflation bumped higher last month to 1.1%, but still below the European Central Bank’s (ECB) ceiling target of 2%… With Oil prices being pulled up from the ashes, I’m sure the ECB ministers are watching it closely. One thing to remember when thinking of the ECB, and the euro… The ECB has a MANDATE from the Maastricht Treaty, the document that formed the European Union, to provide price stability… That means they are inflation fighters in earnest… Not just guys that decide to become one when it becomes fashionable… Read Fed Reserve…

OK… I want to go back to the Soros statement above that ripped the euro yesterday… Don’t you just love the media? They report this, when Soros probably was dissing the dollar for an hour and casually mentioned that without a global plan the euro is in trouble… Of course he could have said any currency for that matter! I think you have to take what a George Soros says with trepidation… He’s a sly fox, and only says things to move markets that he’s trading in… He’s made millions with this practice… So… For all we know, he could have been short euros, and needed the price to get lower to cover the short! Nah… He wouldn’t do something like that would he? Hmmmm… Check out 1992, and the British pound…

Hey! Jimmy Mack! When are you coming back? Did you see the move in Gold yesterday? It soared $21 on the day… And in the overnight markets it has gained another $13, to $922! I was listening to our metals traders, Jen and Kristin, the other day, and they were quoting prices for minted coins that were so far above spot, I had to stop and ask what was going on…

They proceeded to tell me in so many words, that it wasn’t any of my business and to go back to the currencies! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! No, not those two sweet ladies! They told me that the demand for coins is still at last fall’s highs, and that the dealers, and minters are charging outrageous fabrication fees… That thought was confirmed by HSBC, (Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corp), one of the biggest metals dealers in the world… A trader friend of mine there sent me this note…

“One of HSBC’s bullion customers is a large coin manufacturer – we learned today that the demand for investment coins continues at an astonishing pace – the order book for Q109 has already surpassed C2008. The main order flow is European.”

So… There you have it! Gold is hot!

I had a reader send me a note yesterday telling me to be more professional, and compared me to Jim Cramer! ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH! The horror! The humanity of it! Not Jim Cramer! The reader didn’t say how long they’ve been reading, and maybe yesterday’s rant was their first go at the Pfennig… I’ve got to hope so! I did get a little carried away yesterday, didn’t I? Well… That’s just me. I can’t sit idly by and watch this all unfolding before my eyes and not say something… Oh well… That’s the beauty of this newsletter, A Pfennig For Your Thoughts, It’s FREE! You can always just delete your subscription! But… You’ll be sorry…. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Currencies today 1/30/09 (Christine’s birthday): A$ .64, kiwi .51, C$ .8125, euro 1.2860, sterling 1.43, Swiss .8655, rand 10.14, krone 6.9280, SEK 8.2525, forint 232, zloty 3.4750, koruna 21.72, yen 89.60, sing 1.5075, HKD 7.7555, INR 48.87, China 6.8615, pesos 14.43, BRL 2.30, dollar index 85.82, Oil $41.88, Silver $12.55, and Gold… $921.85

That’s it for today… Well… My little buddy, Alex, is fine. He had a broken nose that had to be reset by a plastic surgeon. He looked pretty pitiful when I got home from work yesterday… But his mom tells me we was a real trooper through the ordeal at the hospital, where they didn’t get home until 3 in the morning… After arriving there 9 hours earlier! OK… It’s a Party Day! Our little Christine’s birthday! Christine has worked at my side for 8 years now; I’ve seen her go through a wedding, two pregnancies, training for a marathon, and all the while maintaining her upbeat, high on life, attitude… Happy Birthday Christine!

Well… This Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday… I’m not a gambler, but if I were, I would have to go with the Steelers, and that great defense. I’m not a fan of the Cardinals, as they left our town without football back in 1989. But I am a fan of Kurt Warner, so if he would happen to pull a rabbit out of his hat, and win on Sunday, I wouldn’t mind seeing him hold the Lombardi trophy again… But, my instinct tells me Pittsburgh… So… I hope you have a fun-filled Super Bowl Sunday, (remember Monday is a school day!) But before that, I hope you send Christine Happy Birthday wishes to her email, and Have a Fantastico Friday!

Post from: Daily Reckoning

Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) — The 16 nations sharing the euro are unlikely to face deflation thanks to government and central banks stimulus and because wages and prices excluding food and energy continue to grow, the Bank of France said.

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