MarketWatch | Jim Grant’s rise to power may be delayed. The legendary Wall Street writer, publisher of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, has been mentioned by two of the rivals for the Republican presidential nomination. Newt Gingrich said if elected president, he’d name Grant to help run a commission looking at a possible return to the gold standard. And Ron Paul said, if elected president, he’d go all-in and name Grant — one of Wall Street’s best-known gold bugs — as the new chairman of the Federal Reserve.

CNN | A growing number of states are seeking shiny new currencies made of silver and gold. Worried that the Federal Reserve and the U.S. dollar are on the brink of collapse, lawmakers from 13 states, including Minnesota, Tennessee, Iowa, South Carolina and Georgia, are seeking approval from their state governments to either issue their own alternative currency or explore it as an option. Just three years ago, only three states had similar proposals in place.

Reuters | The Federal Reserve has moved closer to embarking on a new round of its controversial money-pumping after the central bank and its chairman Ben Bernanke highlighted a grim outlook for the U.S. economy. Bernanke on Wednesday opened the door a bit wider for the Fed to return to buying securities in the months ahead to buttress a weak recovery and keep inflation from slipping too far below its newly adopted 2-percent target.

Net Right | Sometimes, government officials tell the truth, and when they do, watch out. It might be a good idea to hold on to your wallet. A recent example is International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde commenting on the European debt crisis in Berlin on Jan. 23.  Even though the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) has already committed €440 billion, the European Central Bank (ECB) €220 billion, and the IMF €78.5 billion to propping up troubled sovereigns Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain (PIIGS) — some €738.5 billion, or almost $1 trillion in total — Lagarde said, “these moves form pieces, but pieces only, of a comprehensive solution.”

Daily Mail | When Patty Tegeler looks out the window of her home overlooking the Appalachian Mountains in southwestern Virginia, she sees trouble on the horizon. 'In an instant, anything can happen,' she told Reuters. 'And I firmly believe that you have to be prepared.' Ms Tegeler is among a growing subculture of Americans who refer to themselves informally as 'preppers.'

The Blaze | George Soros is no stranger to Blaze readers. The billionaire currency speculator and philanthropist has long been in the news, especially since the fateful day in 1992 when he helped crash England’s economy. In fact, since that day, he has been commonly referred to as “the man who broke the bank of England.”

Rediff.com | India has decided to pay Iran in gold for the oil it purchases, according to a report carried by an Israeli news website DEBKAfile. The move is an attempt to work around the sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe over Iran's alleged nuclear programme. India had earlier indicated that it was in talks with Iran to pay for the oil in either rupees or in yen, but now it seems that India has decided to switch to gold.

Reuters |  When Patty Tegeler looks out the window of her home overlooking the Appalachian Mountains in southwestern Virginia, she sees trouble on the horizon. "In an instant, anything can happen," she told Reuters. "And I firmly believe that you have to be prepared." Tegeler is among a growing subculture of Americans who refer to themselves informally as "preppers." Some are driven by a fear of imminent societal collapse, others are worried about terrorism, and many have a vague concern that an escalating series of natural disasters is leading to some type of environmental cataclysm.

Guardian | Gold prices are on the march again. Forecast to power past $2,000 (£1,300) an ounce later this year or in early 2013, the prices will be underpinned by fearful small investors in Germany and Switzerland buying ever more bars and coins, as well as rising demand for gold jewellery from India's and China's burgeoning middle classes.

TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com | The warning signs are all around us.  All we have to do is open up our eyes and look at them.  Almost every single day there are more prominent voices in the financial world telling us that a massive economic crisis is coming and that we need to prepare for the worst.  On Wednesday, it was the World Bank itself that issued a very chilling warning.  In an absolutely startling report, the World Bank revised GDP growth estimates for 2012 downward very sharply, warned that Europe could be on the verge of a devastating financial crisis, and declared that the rest of the world better "prepare for the worst."

Business Insider | So much for ditching ramen. Nearly 3 million college-educated New Yorkers report having difficulty affording food, according to a new report by the Food Bank For New York City. One in three expressed concerns that they might need assistance, a stat that's increased 6 points for those with bachelor's degrees and from 2 points for those with graduate degrees.

CoinUpdate.com | The gold and silver markets took us on wild rides in 2011.  Guess what?  They will be even more volatile in 2012. According to GFMS, one of the most respected analysts of precious metals markets, the Chinese market, government and private, will absorb more than 22 million ounces of gold in 2011, sharply higher than 2010 levels.  That means that the Chinese are taking about 30-35% of all newly mined gold off the market.  The total probably would have been even higher except for the difficulty in acquiring physical metal.

CBS |  It seems like the U.S. government just went through a debt limit crisis, but if you check the numbers, you'll find that Uncle Sam is running out of money again and will need to borrow more. Lots more. The Treasury Department put out word today that by the close of business on Friday, President Obama will have certified to Congress that the National Debt is within $100 billion of the debt limit and must be raised again: up $1.2 trillion to $16.394 trillion - the highest in U.S. history.

FinancialSense.com | Divergence between paper gold and physical gold price is happening, the process begun. Actual physical shortages have kept the price up. The naked shorting of futures has kept the paper price down. The fraud cases and lawsuits, with no hint of prosecution, provide the levered force to create much wider divergence, as traders and entire firms depart the tainted crime scene that is the COMEX.

ZeroHedge.com | As first reported here, two weeks ago European banks saw the amount of USD-loans from the Fed, via the ECB's revised swap line, surge to over $50 billion - a total first hit in the aftermath of the Bear Stearns failure prompting us to ask "When is Lehman coming?" However, according to little noted prepared remarks by Anthony Sanders in his Friday testimony to the Congress Oversight Committee, "What the Euro Crisis Means for Taxpayers and the U.S. Economy, Pt. 1", we may have been optimistic, because the end result will be not when is Lehman coming, but when are the next two Lehmans coming, as according to Sanders, the relaunch of the Fed's swaps program may "get to the $1 trillion level, or perhaps even higher."