CNN’s top story on April 30th, 2013.

American consumers borrowed more in December than they did in November. Any reasonable person would view this as a negative development given that U.S. consumers and the U.S. as a whole are extremely over-indebted. But CNBC plays it all off as a good thing.

U.S. consumer borrowing rose in December, a hopeful sign for the strength of the economy although debt taken on through revolving facilities like credit cards fell during the month.

So it’s a “hopeful sign” that in December Americans borrowed more money from the Asians in order to buy Asian-made goods. And the decrease of additional credit card debt is a regretful occurance in an otherwise fantastic development for our economy.

I have actually never heard a rational explanation for why more consumer debt is good for the American economy at this point in time.

“The catalyst for a spike into the $2,500 to $3,000 price range will be an announcement by China, probably in late 2013 or 2014, that they have acquired 4,000 tonnes or more in their official reserve position. This will put China on an equal footing with the US in terms of a gold-to-GDP ratio and validate gold as the real foundation of the international monetary system. Once that position is validated, gold will move to the $7,000 range in 2015 and beyond. Any lower price level is deflationary and must be avoided at all costs by central banks. The key is that the US and IMF do not want gold to achieve its full potential price until China has acquired its appropriate "share" of official gold reserves. Any other outcome is unacceptable to China.” – Jim Rickards

“Naturally, the common people don’t want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brough to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.”

– Hermann Goering, Nuremberg Trials