As Water Boils Away, Dollar Gets Cooked; UK Inflation Explodes; Glowing Gold; Still Bullish on Japan Crisis?; Three 6.5 Magnitude Quakes in Less Than 2 Hours in Japan

Yesterday I posted a new radiation map of Japan showing elevated radiation levels even 20+ miles from the epicenter. Now today, the Japanese news agency affiliate of CNN, NHK, is reporting on this, as testing of the soil has shown radioactive iodine-131 and radioactive cesium-137 present one half of an inch in the soil, 25 miles from the Fukushima plant. Of course, this is being reported as posing "no health risk."

See for yourself.

No doubt, many questions arise as to the how's and why's of this radiation supply source now a full week after the big explosions at the plant. Perhaps a steady release of radiation is emitted through the grayish white steam smoke from the stable melting fuel rods. Indeed today, it is now being reported that the water in the reactor's spent fuel pools are boiling away. Coincidence?

In addition to the obvious radiation "discoveries," CNN is reporting three strong earthquakes of 6.6, 6.4 and 6.4 magnitude all within less than two hours off the coast of Honshu Japan. Is the earth telling us something? Some experts seem to think so and this time, additional injections of money won't be able to make up for the economic losses. Without a major disaster, the dollar is already dead. What will more injections do? The answer is simple - cause further inflationary pressures as can be seen in the UK which has now hit another high of 4.4%. I think we could see the brakes come on very soon in the UK and the EU as inflation becomes uncontrollable. See the post dated the week of the 7th of March for more info on the catch 22 of this situation.

Of course, with the dollar's safe haven status being eroded by madmen at the printing machines, headed by Dr. Deficit, what are investors to do but invest in real inflation protection assets such as gold and silver. Thus, gold only a few dollars away from the high today. This chart looks good for gold bulls. This chart looks better for gold bulls.

As noted here all last week, the crisis in Japan is not a reason to be bullish on the global economy. Despite so many well respected investors saying to buy the sushi dip, it only took a few days to already see the problem begin to emerge from this one single crisis. Remember what I said about the multiplier effect and the supply chain disruptions? This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Therefore, it doesn't take a celebrity financial analysts to know disasters are not good for such an interdependent and interconnected global economy. That may have worked 50 years ago, but not so today. As posted here, inflation is the primary driver to stock prices since organic growth is dormant. Nevertheless, with the endless "printing" of money around the globe, stocks are pressured to rise - disasters pressure them down. Net impact in price is minimal.

It also doesn't take a geologist to tell you that more earthquakes are on the way and that if one big one hits California, or somewhere in Europe for example, the consequences will be far reaching and perhaps unrecoverable.

Finally, I present you with this radiation forecast from our Norwegian friends, which shows radioactive Xenon plumes circling the globe in a few days time. But have no fear - the limits to what are considered "healthy" have just been raised. Additionally, since Xenon can be used as a general anesthetic, you should begin to feel pain free very shortly.