Would you buy a used apartment from this man?

Would you buy a used apartment from this guy? Would you be pretty damned sure to have it checked out thoroughly before you did? Would you have a lawyer go over any contract he offered you - thoroughly - before signing? Even then would you wonder if there weren't something in the fine print, something in the mechanicals, something in the very structure meant to screw you over?

And when this guy runs for president - and a bunch of other guys just like him - do you ever believe a word any of them say on the campaign trail?

And do you think the guys over at Goldman Sachs etc. are any less intent at screwing over their customers, counterparties, clients, competitors, with every fiber of their being on every single transaction? And when they swear that's not true - even in front of congress and under oath - do you believe them?

And when Bernanke swears that this or that crisis is well contained do you believe a word he says? And when Geithner swears the same, and swears we have a strong dollar policy, or swears that mechanisms are in place to unwind the Fed's balance sheet - do you believe him?

And when your own broker puts you into a "very safe, almost foolproof" structured product that's guaranteed to protect you against the downside while giving you participation in the uspside - do you believe him?

Our entire financial system is built on trust. If any part of that system tries to take advantage of that trust for personal gain the entire system is compromised. But when it becomes a matter of business custom to take advantage of that trust - to laugh at and mock the morons who come to the system in a trusting matter - to consider them fools who deserve to lose their money - well, then the system has a problem.

It is this problem that has allowed the banks and the investment houses that literally (yes I mean literally) own the Fed and run the government to run up QUADRILLIONS in unregulated dollar denominated (mostly debt) derivatives pitted against a 60 trillion dollar world economy.

Do you trust that this derivative time bomb will be fairly and orderly unwound? Do you have any idea what it actually is? Yes, it's a massive rigged casino. But what is being gambled in this casino and in what manner? Do you know?

If not, buy the only globally accepted currency asset that resides outside this financial complex.

Buy gold.