I'm going to lay out everything you need to know about the fiscal cliff negotiations. After reading this, you can ignore all of the media's coverage of this topic as well as various politicians' announcements pertaining to this subject. (Words: 575; Charts: 3)

At the end of the day the gold price is not a mystery – it's a proxy for dollar weakness. After spending the previous fall and winter testing new nominal highs above $1,800, future investors may come to view...2012 as the opportunity of the decade. Gold has shown its strength and retreated. While most investors will take that as a signal that the market has topped, some will take advantage of the general trepidation to add to their positions at hundreds of dollars off the highs. Words: 700

A summary, in macro view, of the last month of the markets - changes in economic indicators, commodity and financial trends, market signals and technical analysis.

The U.S. has reached a Debt to GDP ratio of over 100%. Indeed, at no point in history has the U.S. had this much debt during peacetime - and the fact that we're overspending by this amount at the exact time that other countries are showing signs of shunning US Treasuries is a formula for disaster. With that in mind, it is highly likely that the U.S. will enter at the very minimum a debt crisis and quite possibly a currency crisis during the Obama administration's second term. [Such being the case,] now, more than ever, investors need to get access to high quality guidance and insights [and this article does just that] to help you navigate the markets and protect your wealth. Words: 964

No matter how you look at it, the U.S. dollar is very weak - very close to its all-time lows. If the value of the dollar says anything about the world's confidence in the U.S. economy, the message is quite pessimistic. The only good thing to be said is that there is a lot of bad news that is priced into the dollar. It might be tough for things to get much worse. (Words: 1054; Charts: 7))

There has been a persistent fear among...owners of gold that...their gold will be confiscated by their governments, as was the case in 1933. For very different reasons, we believe that that danger persists and is growing by the day. We feel that because gold is rapidly returning to an active role in the global monetary system...investors should be aware of the conditions in which this would happen. We also indicate what we feel to be a solid solution for protecting yourself against a gold confiscation. (Words: 1581: Charts: 2)

Mexico, with the world's 13th largest GDP, is no longer a "Third World Country", but rather a fast growing, economically secure state. [Mexico is a great place to visit for a week or the winter, take early retirement to, and/or to invest in. This article outlines the new economic reality of the country.] Words: 785

We live very busy lives these days and, as such, often don't have the time to stay informed about developments on the financial, economic and investment scenes as they develop each day. Here are just 10 of the "best of the best" articles that were selected from the 100s posted on the internet this past week. Each article has been edited for the sake of clarity and brevity to ensure you a fast and easy read. Enjoy!

I believe it is important to mitigate the risk of loss with your physical bullion by diversifying the locations where you hold it. To this end, I think it is wise to have some bullion on your property, some in secure storage off site, a portion stored with an ETF like CEF and ideally at some stored at a location overseas. In order to obtain the overseas diversification, I [recommend BullionVault because, while their 43,000 customers have already done business with them at some of the lowest costs available, they have just reduced their initial commission fee by 37.5% - from 0.8% to just 0.5%! Let me explain further some of the advantages of doing business with Bullionvault.] Words: 796

The mortgage interest deduction — considered by many to be the sacred cow of tax breaks — has joined the list of possible items on the chopping block in the growing debate between President Obama and Congress about the so-called “fiscal cliff”. [Below is research on the merits of such a tax break elimination, the extent of the income tax increases on different income groups, the possible effects on the home ownership rate, type of houses purchased and house prices in general and their conclusion as to whether or not the elimination of such a tax break would be a sound decision.] Words: 1023