Daily Gold Investments Market Update
Daily market update written by Mark O'Byrne

Crude Oil Is Little Changed Near $122 Amid Nigerian Disruption
Bloomberg
Crude oil was little changed near $122 a barrel in New York after rising to a record yesterday on supply disruptions in Nigeria, Africa's largest producer.

Countrywide Takes Away Home-Equity Credit Lines in Las Vegas
Bloomberg
Countrywide Financial Corp. has suspended the home equity credit lines of almost all its Las Vegas customers, including the $60,000 Christopher Whipple says he needed to expand his cell-phone accessories business.

Gold steady as firmer dollar offsets inflation-driven buying
Forbes
Gold was steady in early trade as rising inflation fears amid near-record oil prices were offset by strengthening in the U.S. dollar, which dented the precious metal's appeal as an alternative investment.

Dollar extends gains, Fed speculation brews
Reuters via The Guardian
The dollar rose on Wednesday, heading towards a two-month high against a basket of currencies after a Federal Reserve official's comments added to a view that the cycle of aggressive U.S. interest rate cuts may be ending.

House Prices, Burgers And Buffett
D'Arcy, Yahoo Finance
First things first: I sold my family home in the spring of 2005 and have been renting for three years. So, can you guess what I want to happen to future house prices? Yes, you're absolutely right: I want them to fall, preferably by a huge percentage!

Immoral Hazard
Grantham, GMO Quarterly Letter
It’s not that the former Fed boss Greenspan was incompetent that is remarkable. Incompetence is common enough after all, even in important jobs. What’s remarkable is that so many people don’t seem, even now, to get it. Do people just believe high-quality self-justifying blarney? Or is it that they apparently want to believe that critical jobs in a great country attract great talent by divine right. Sometimes, of course, they do, but sometimes the most important jobs – even that of a presidency or a Fed boss – end up with mediocrities. Let us pause here to regret the absence of Mr. Volcker and wonder what a parallel Volcker universe would have been like. Just as we can wonder how much a few votes in Florida or a vote in the Supreme Court would have changed our world from what it is toda

Ben's Bind
The Economist
The spirit of St Augustine hovered over the Federal Reserve this week. “Oh Lord, let us stop cutting interest rates, but not yet,” is pretty much what America's central bankers decided on April 30th. The Fed's governors cut their policy rate by another quarter-point, to 2%. But the accompanying statement gave a small hint that they may now pause.

Dollar Reserve Status Is Tale of Fading Glory: Michael R. Sesit
Sesit, Bloomberg
Reserve currency status is like your health: Abuse it, and you risk losing it.
With the dollar's 45 percent decline against the euro during the past six years and its 37 percent drop on a trade-weighted basis, there is a growing concern that the greenback's six-decade reign as the world's most important currency may be ending.