Publisher's note:  With many signs pointing to our economic collapse, this well laid out article clearly reveals how close we could be.  Add this to what might happen should the Saudis decide one fine morning that they no longer will accept US Dollars as payment for their oil, (one of the only things keeping our currency afloat, I might add), and it is clear we are in deep 'kimshee.'

Freedom Outpost:  In order for our current level of debt-fueled prosperity to continue, the rest of the world must continue to use our dollars to trade with one another and must continue to buy our debt at ridiculously low interest rates. Of course the number one foreign nation that we depend on to participate in our system is China. China accounts for more global trade than anyone else on the planet (including the United States), and most of that trade is conducted in U.S. dollars. This keeps demand for our dollars very high, and it ensures that we can import massive quantities of goods from overseas at very low cost. As a major exporting nation, China ends up with gigantic piles of our dollars. They lend many of those dollars back to us at ridiculously low interest rates. At this point, China owns more of our national debt than any other country does. But if China was to decide to quit playing our game and started moving away from U.S. dollars and U.S. debt, our economic prosperity could disappear very rapidly. Demand for the U.S. dollar would fall and prices would go up. And interest rates on our debt and everything else in our financial system would go up to crippling levels. So it is absolutely critical to our financial future that China continues to play our game.

Unfortunately, there are signs that China has now decided to start looking for a smooth exit from the game. In November, I wrote about how the central bank of China has announced that it is "no longer in China’s favor to accumulate foreign-exchange reserves". That means that the pile of U.S. dollars that China is sitting on is not going to get any higher.

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Publisher's note:  It looks like major financial trouble brewing just a bit south of the border in Argentina, and it also looks like this could a lot of financial fecal matter to hit the fan.  Buckle up America!

Fox News:  Emerging markets have descended into chaos in recent days as investors worry about the fallout of Fed tapering and grapple with ineffective governments.

Nowhere are those concerns more clear than in Argentina, which in recent days has become the epicenter of emerging-market turmoil as its currency has plummeted 20% this month alone.

The trouble in Argentina and other emerging markets appears to be having a spillover effect on developed markets like the U.S., where the Dow Industrials are on track for their worst week in eight months.

“Companies and investors that deal in emerging markets also deal in developed markets’ stocks. When crazy stuff happens, correlations approach unity. We forget this over and over again, and at our own peril,” Michael Block, chief strategist at Rhino Trading Partners, wrote in a note to clients on Friday. 

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Publisher's note:  With the Fed scaling back, it looks as if Gold may be on the way down a bit, or a lot.  In the early 80's, Gold skyrocketed and then hit bottom for 20 plus years. time will tell with this very valuable commodity.  This Publisher is watching Gold very closely.

Fox Business:  Gold edged lower on Monday, on course for its largest annual loss in 32 years, as thin pre-holiday trade and signs of an improving U.S. economy kept investors fretting over the impact of the Federal Reserve's stimulus tapering.

The metal posted its biggest weekly loss in a month after the Fed's decision last week to start scaling back its bond-buying stimulus, which was followed by upbeat GDP data.

"Investors remain negative towards gold for now as there is no more uncertainty around the Fed taper," MKS SA vice president Bernard Sin said.

"The Fed QE tightening...will lead to a gradual rise in interest rates, which will eventually make the cost of carrying gold a lot higher... and that suggests further liquidation."

Spot gold fell 0.3 percent to $1,198.50 an ounce by 1456 GMT, while U.S. gold futures for February delivery was down $5.90 at $1,197.70.  

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Publisher's note:  While I don't think raising the minimum wage to such heights is sustainable in most industries, I do fear that government regulators will knuckle to pressure and try to force the issue.

Fox News:  Andre Houston knows his job at McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) isn’t meant to be a career, but he says his paycheck of $8.25 an hour is holding him back in life.

The 24-year-old college student is a crew manager and has worked at a St. Louis location of the fast-food chain for four year. “I’ve gotten a 25-cent raise,” Houston says. “I do so much on my job, and I deserve to get a raise for the things I am doing. I know that fast food isn’t meant to be something you make a career of, but some people do want to become [general managers] or franchise owners. I am just trying to live over here, and get to the next level.”

Working up to 40 hours a week while going to school at Everest College to become a pharmacy technician, Houston says it’s a struggle to budget to make ends meet. “I shouldn’t have to do that—if I were making the living wage, it would be easier to do the necessary things. I wouldn’t have to wait until the next paycheck.”

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