You can’t really make people wealthy by resorting to “Zimbabwe economics.” A society grows rich by producing things, and saving money. There is no other way. Cheaper credit won’t do it. More consumption won’t help. Printing money – and dumping it from helicopters – is a losing proposition.

The consumer confidence index is forecasted to fall to a two-year low amid economic conditions that have sparked widespread pessimism throughout the financial markets.

Many pundits suggest the Fed's surprise 75 basis point rate cut was a response to the worldwide collapse in stock prices.  John Mauldin offers an alternative explanation.

Professional system trader Art Collins shares his daily biases in the index, bonds and currency futures markets for January 28.

The current action began in 1971, when Richard Milhous Nixon snuck in and stole the gods’ golden fire. Gold’s record for maintaining steady prices was second to none. But modern political economists wanted a different kind of price stability, a stability they could mess with. They would control the value of money themselves.

For those traders who are hoping for the tides to calm in the coming week, they will have to continue hoping because the economic calendar is filled with market moving data.

A worse-than-expected new home sales report could exacerbate market speculation about the Fed's next move as signs continue to suggest that the US economy is in or nearing a recession.

Tim Bourquin interviews Barry Burns, who talks about why "trying to figure the market out" is the opposite of what traders should be doing.

The boom was a phony. It was a like a polished flim-flam artist who flattered the middle classes with cash and credit – only to pick their pockets. Now they’re facing a serious recession in the worst financial shape of any generation in history.