Well, their warnings might be more credible if the central banks of the world were not hoarding gold like crazy. During 2012, central bank gold buying was at the highest level that we have seen in almost 50 years. Meanwhile, insider buying of gold stocks has now reached multi-year highs and the US Mint cannot even keep up with the insatiable demand for silver eagle coins. So what in the world is actually going on here?

Right now, the central banks of the world are indulging in a money printing binge that reminds many of what happened during the early days of the Weimar Republic. When you flood the financial system with paper money, that is eventually going to cause the prices for hard assets to go up dramatically.

Could it be possible that the banksters are trying to drive down the price of both gold and silver so that they can gobble it up cheaply? Do they want to be the ones sitting on all of the “real money” once the paper money bubble that we are living in finally bursts? Over the past few weeks, nearly every major newspaper in the world has run at least one story telling people that it is time to sell their gold.

Even “secured” creditors, including state and local governments, may be at risk. Derivatives have “super-priority” status in bankruptcy, and Dodd Frank precludes further taxpayer bailouts. In a big derivatives bust, there may be no collateral left for the creditors who are next in line. Shock waves went around the world when the IMF, the EU, and the ECB not only approved but mandated the confiscation of depositor funds to “bail in” two bankrupt banks in Cyprus. A “bail in” is a quantum leap beyond a “bail out.”

When governments are no longer willing to use taxpayer money to bail out banks that have gambled away their capital, the banks are now being instructed to “recapitalize” themselves by confiscating the funds of their creditors, turning debt into equity, or stock; and the “creditors” include the depositors who put their money in the bank thinking it was a secure place to store their savings.

The Cyprus bail-in was not a one-off emergency measure but was consistent with similar policies already in the works for the US, UK, EU, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. “Too big to fail” now trumps all. Rather than banks being put into bankruptcy to salvage the deposits of their customers, the customers will be put into bankruptcy to save the banks.

Speaking in New York ahead of next week’s IMF Spring meeting, Ms Lagarde launched a broadside against the financial services industry for resisting urgent reform. “In too many cases – from the United States in 2008 to Cyprus today – we have seen what happens when a banking sector chooses the quick buck over the lasting benefit, backing a business model that ultimately destabilizes the economy. We simply cannot have pre-crisis banking in a post-crisis world.

“We need reform, even in the face of intense pushback from an industry sometimes reluctant to abandon lucrative lines of business.” Almost five years since Lehman Brothers collapsed, she claimed: “The 'oversize banking’ model of too-big-to-fail is more dangerous than ever. We must get to the root of the problem with comprehensive and clear regulation.”

Regulators have forced banks to increase significantly their loss-absorbing capital buffers since the crisis, but are still working on "resolution" mechanisms that will allow giant lenders to fail without hitting the taxpayer and threatening financial stability.

Some 81 percent of MPs surveyed for the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) said that banks and building societies should have to make it clear to savers when their deposits exceed the £85,000 compensation limit that anything above this amount is not protected.

There was also widespread backing among the population generally for the idea of financial institutions being forced to do this, with 76 percent of consumers surveyed also agreeing that this should happen. The FSCS is the UK's savings safety net, which is funded by an industry levy and covers up to £85,000 for single accounts and £170,000 for joint accounts if a financial institution goes bust.

The body, which has previously acknowledged that its own publicity efforts have not increased awareness to the levels it had hoped, wants to see financial institutions doing more to increase awareness about compensation limits in their routine dealings with customers, such as in their advertising.

As the economy crumbles, poverty in the United States is absolutely exploding and so is homelessness. In addition to the thousands of “tunnel people” living under the streets of America, there are also thousands that are living in tent cities, there are tens of thousands that are living in their vehicles and there are more than a million public school children that do not have a home to go back to at night.

The federal government tells us that the recession “is over” and that “things are getting better”, and yet poverty and homelessness in this country continue to rise with no end in sight. So what in the world are things going to look like when the next economic crisis hits? When I heard that there were homeless people living in a network of underground tunnels beneath the streets of Kansas City, I was absolutely stunned. I have relatives that live in that area. I never thought of Kansas City as one of the more troubled cities in the United States. But according to the Daily Mail, police recently discovered a network of tunnels under the city that people had been living in…

“Below the streets of Kansas City, there are deep underground tunnels where a group of vagrant homeless people lived in camps. These so-called homeless camps have now been uncovered by the Kansas City Police, who then evicted the residents because of the unsafe environment. Authorities said these people were living in squalor, with piles of garbage and dirty diapers left around wooded areas. The saddest part is the fact that authorities found dirty diapers in the areas near these tunnels. That must mean that babies were being raised in that kind of an environment.”

The European Commission on Wednesday published a report on "macroeconomic imbalances" on 13 EU countries, including Britain, singling out Spain and Slovenia for warnings over "excessive" failings. Both countries faces EU sanctions including massive fines - unless they step up structural economic reforms and take additional measures to cut debt by the end of May.

"In two member states, Spain and Slovenia, imbalances can be considered excessive," said Olli Rehn, the EU's commissioner for economic and monetary affairs. "In Spain, the very high domestic and external debt levels continue to pose serious risks for growth and financial stability. In Slovenia, the risks for financial sector stability are substantial, including through inter-linkages with public finances."

The commission used unprecedentedly strong language to criticise France in a stinging assessment that covered Francois Hollande's first year as French President.

A report from the Church’s doctrine watchdog urged priests to devise “pastoral accommodations” for gay couples and to be “flexible”. It said the aim was to enable them to enjoy a “closer approximation” to marriage.

The senior bishop who drafted the missive to priests insisted that it did not amount to a policy u-turn and that an official ban on formal "blessings" for civil partnerships remained in place. But he said it was clear there was a need for committed same-sex couples to be given recognition and “compassionate attention” from the Church, including special prayers. Liberal priests, who already conduct unofficial dedication and thanksgiving for gay couples who are not allowed to marry, said it amounted to the first official endorsement for what they do.

In an interview conducted for a journalist's PhD thesis, Germany's longest-serving postwar chancellor said that he would have lost any popular vote on the euro by an overwhelming majority. "I knew that I could never win a referendum in Germany," he said. "We would have lost a referendum on the introduction of the euro. That's quite clear. I would have lost and by seven to three."

The interview was conducted by Jens Peter Paul, a German journalist in 2002, the year when the Deutsche Mark was replaced by euro notes and coins, but has only been published now. In it, Mr Kohl describes adopting the euro as an emblem of the European project, which he said had prevented war on the continent. Born in 1930, Mr Kohl's politics were shaped by his country's history in the 1930s and 1940s; his final years in power were focused on promoting European unity.

In the interview, he said: "If a Chancellor is trying to push something through, he must be a man of power. And if he's smart, he knows when the time is ripe. In one case – the euro – I was like a dictator... The euro is a synonym for Europe. Europe, for the first time, has no more war." In the interview, Mr Kohl said that much of the resistance in Germany was to the idea of a currency union without an economic and fiscal union. The lack of fiscal union underpinning the single currency is the heart of Europe's current debt crisis.

Other units would stand down on a rotating basis, said General Mike Hostage, commander of Air Combat Command at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia. "The current situation means we're accepting the risk that combat airpower may not be ready to respond immediately to new contingencies as they occur," Hostage said in a statement.

The Air Force didn't immediately release a list of the specific units and bases that would be affected, but it said it would cover some fighters like F-16 Fighting Falcons and F-22 Raptors, and some airborne warning and control aircraft in the US, Europe and the Pacific. The Air Force says, on average, aircrews 'lose currency' to fly combat commissions within 90 to 120 days of not flying. It generally takes 60 to 90 days to train the crews to mission-ready status.

The comments, made during the Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference, are “highly unusual” for a current or former member of the safety commission, according to The New York Times. Asked why he had suddenly decided to make the remarks, Jaczko implied that he had only recently arrived at these conclusions following the serious aftermath of Japan’s tsunami-stricken Fukushima Daichii nuclear facility.

“I was just thinking about the issues more, and watching as the industry and the regulators and the whole nuclear safety community continues to try to figure out how to address these very, very difficult problems,” which were made more evident by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, he said. “Continuing to put Band-Aid on Band-Aid is not going to fix the problem.”

According to the former chairman, US reactors that received permission from the nuclear commission to operate for an additional 20 years past their initial 40-year licenses would not likely last long. He further rejected the commission’s proposal for a second 20-year extension, which would leave some American nuclear reactors operating for some 80 years.

The earthquake, which killed at least 37 people and injured hundreds of others in Iran's southern city, sent powerful shockwaves across the Gulf region which could be felt in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

"We have been repeatedly saying that such a reactor is totally undesirable in the region. The Bushehr reactor is closer to some Gulf states than it is to Iran's capital," Hussein al-Qahtani, spokesperson of the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME), told the Saudi Gazette. Iran's Seismological Centre, which is affiliated to Tehran University, said more than 87 aftershocks have been felt in the region.

Or about 10 tons of gold. But... the bailout was prefunded and there was no need to provide any additional cash? What happened: was the deposit outflow discovered to have been even greater than the worst case scenario and thus Cyprus needed even more cash? As for the buyers? We will venture a guess: central banks buying at the lows. Finally: congratulations Cypriots. You are now handing over your gold for the one time, unbeatable opportunity to remain a vassal state to the Eurozone.