Just Another Manic Monday- Full Nuclear Meltdown Confirmed In Reactor 1; Reactors 2 & 3 May Have Also Melted; Moody's Downgrades TEPCO On News, Says "Worse Than Indicated" and Much More On Fukushima; Greek/Irish Redux? Treasury To Tap Federal Pensions To Help Fund Gov't; Gold Never Gets Old: Physical Demand Strong Despite Paper Sell Off; Ahmadinejad Steps In as Oil Ministry Chief; EU In Meltdown, US In Meltdown; Much More

For almost a month, there has been nearly a full media blackout of information about Fukushima, at least from the MSM. It was eerily quite for too long. Then, very slowly, information started to leak like the radiation leaking from the reactors. Now more than two months later, we've got a wave of confirmed "rumors" and information; yet somehow the confirmation of what we already knew is not all that encouraging. On the contrary, we now know the situation has deteriorated extraordinarily during the media blackout. Remember how long it took for Japan to raise the emergency level to 7 when the whole world already had the emergency at a 7?

For example we now know that all the while TEPCO was denying "rumors that cause harm to public morale" like the one about the nuclear fuel melting and going into re-criticality which releases huge amounts of radiation, we find the rumors to be true. Today, TEPCO finally admits to the fact that there was a full core nuclear meltdown (as we determined from the data way back in mid-March). Worse still, highly radioactive substances have been detected in Tokyo at levels that are higher than what was detected around the plant. That re-criticality, or nuclear fission, would explain why ever increasing levels of iodine 131 were being detected all over Japan and even thousands of miles away in California. Dr. Michio Kaku explains the double talk and the circus clowns and scandals."They're trying to protect their investments..." Well said.

The truth of the matter is much more than just "the evacuation zone" will be uninhabitable; some estimates have stated up to 30% of Japan's landmass may be rendered uninhabitable. That's unimaginable. For example, an independent study by an unnamed food manufacturing company discovered high levels of Plutonium over 30 miles (50 km) from Fukushima. That is well beyond the 12 mile evacuation zone. The real kicker is that the results of this study won't be released to the public because of fear of reaction from the public/media. Try spinning that into something bullish. Money over life, boys and girls. What happens when another big earthquake hits Japan? Here's a handy dandy live geiger counter for you east coasters.

In other news, the US is officially Greece Ireland Insolvent Bankrupt out of time (and cash) as Dr. Deficit said last week it would be, as the debt ceiling has been reached. Not breached, just reached. So what now? Take away the gov't pensions to fund the ongoing concern. Yes, you read that correctly - the US is following in the same steps as the other PIIGS by tapping the federal pensions to keep the lights on. So far no word if national monuments will be auctioned off tomorrow to private investors, or Apple. We need a new acronym for the PIIGS - how about PIIGS-R-US? The 'R' can stand for "Recession" or "Ridiculous" for now. Did we mention the EU is in the same sinking boat as the US? Yes we did, many times. Here is your daily update on the situation in Greece and for Portugal. and for Egypt. and for the whole Middle East. Don't miss this little piece about Iran's president taking over as the Oil Ministry Chief. All that conflict and destruction should be worth a few hundred points for the markets today. What do you say, Dr. Deficit?

Of course, what all of this means is that fiat is burning, and gold and silver are shining despite what the paper markets are doing. In fact, as we reported weeks ago when gold and silver started to drop from their highs, physical demand remains very high. Somebody with deep pockets knows. Speaking of deep pockets, the US is "borrowing" $58,000 per second just to keep the lights on. Calling Guiness Book of World Records, we have a new record for you.

Speaking of records, there must be a new one in this list. It'll blow your mind. I like this one in particular - "#20 Last year, China produced 11 times as much steel as the United States did." Meditate on that for a while. Then drink a beer. Or a bottle of Ouzo. That seems to help the PM of Greece.