Greetings!, Although precious metals trading was quiet today because of looming United States employment figures due out Friday morning, fireworks flying from Europe are growing more disturbing. Amid ever more urgent talk of a bailout for Spain, Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, said his institution was helpless to stop the debt tornado. "It's not our duty, it's not in our mandate to fill the vacuum left by the lack of action by national governments on the fiscal front," he said in a swipe at Germany. The IMF turned down a direct appeal from the Spanish minister of finance for a bridge loan to help push Spain's borrowing costs down from the dangerous 6.5% level. The E.U.'s top economic official, Olli Rehn, meanwhile also chimed in. He warned against "the disintegration of the eurozone." Italy's prime minister used the word "contagion" in his near panic address today at home. And while Ireland appears ready to restructure and bite its own bullet, Greece seems more recalcitrant than ever. Greece, indeed, is getting the worst of both worlds: the fairly far left candidate who would be prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, is anti-bailout and anti-austerity. No one seems to know what he is actually for other than a form of free-floating populism. Finally, in what I see as a serious sign of worry, China allowed the renminbi to depreciate the most it has in one day since 2005, a move that will cause tremors in Washington and within the international banking and trading world. Essentially, the push down on the Chinese currency, which has been going on for about a month, has stamped on it "Our economy is slow and we need to goose it by ramping up exports." The renminbi fell almost 1% against the dollar in May. The question is, "When will all this news drive gold higher?" Posed another way, "How long can the dollar and little sisters, the yen and Swiss franc, continue as the only safe havens on Earth?" As always, wishing you good trading Executive Producer | 
