The Dow Jones Industrial Average topped 13,000 last week. The Federal Reserve claims that the U.S. economy grew in the first quarter 2008. The latest jobs report was reported to be better than expected. Is everything fine and the economy looking up from here?

To me, this "news" is manipulated statistical hogwash, but my thoughts don't carry economic clout. Alternatively, JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an institution generally accepted as a major participant executing market manipulations on orders of the US Treasury and Federal Reserve. It bought Bear Stearns in March to stave off a derivatives crisis. Pronouncements by its leadership move markets.

In the May 3 issue of Welt am Sonntag, a German weekly, JPMorgan Chase chairman James Dimon said, "We can only speculate on how deep and how long the recession in the United States will really be and how than in turn will impact banks. . . . But we are not done with the crisis for a long time."

Dimon is one of the last people who would admit that the US economy is in dire straits. So, when he says there is a lot of economic pain coming, it is time to redouble your holdings of safe-haven precious metals and reduce your exposure to US dollar-valued investments.

Numismaster