Those of you who have been around a while remember all the 'decoupling' talk of 2007-early 2008.  That is (was), weakness in one part of the globe would not affect another, and please feel free to buy equities.  While decoupling proved to be a complete failure over time, leave it to Wall Street to have a short memory as old ideas are recycled and sold as fashionable once more.  That decoupling talk has begun to resurface as economic data in the U.S. - while "meh" in a general sense - has outperformed that of Europe.

Gas is still only $0.20 per gallon…

A gas station in Ashland, Oregon, May 2011

…If you pay with un-debased U.S. currency.

One gas station in Ashland, Oregon, is accepting payment for gas in the old, un-debased version of the currency.

The more prices change, the more they remain the same. At least when the currency is sound.

The artificially engineered U.S. recovery is already starting to falter as a fusillade of weakening data continues to shoot the economy full of holes. Recent numbers on GDP, durable goods, housing, regional manufacturing, initial unemployment claims and leading economic indicators all indicate a sharp slowdown in GDP growth. All this comes at a time when the government is concurrently contemplating ways to dramatically cut spending. But is America really ready to accept the short term consequences involved in ending government support for the markets and the economy?

If it wasn't all so predictable, and hurtful to the real economy - the shenanigans of our Wall Street overlords would almost be funny.  Rather than being an asset to companies actually doing something other than moving virtual paper around, our NY banksters have become a tax to them the past few decades.  There is a great story in the WSJ, showcasing how these investment banks have become locusts on the real economy - specifically in this case, slowing down the exit of metals form warehouses they now control so as to drive up the prices...

The Critical Metals Report: Let’s start with the basics. In general terms, what exactly are “specialty” metals?
Richard Karn: We use the term “specialty metals” to refer to metals and elements that are neither base metals (iron, copper, nickel, lead and zinc)—which oxidize, tarnish or corrode easily, nor energy metals (uranium and thorium). We find the nomenclature the market uses to refer to these metals not only confusing but also conflicting and misleading: Precious, industrial, clean, rare, military, green, critical, minor, technology and strategic.