* Friday gold prices rose near $900/oz. on a weaker dollar and record high oil prices. Gold last traded in NY up $18.10 to $899.10/oz., silver rose $.29 to $16.94/oz.

* The price of oil rocketed to a record high point of 127.43 dollars a barrel on Friday, as President George Bush prepared to urge Saudi Arabia to pump more crude, analysts said.

* "U.S. stocks fell on Friday fell as crude oil prices broke to another record high and consumer confidence slumped, darkening earlier cheer triggered by an unanticipated rise in April home starts," reports MW.

"You're seeing some new buying come back into gold. The dollar has stopped its immediate-term rally. Gold is still $200 too cheap, given where oil is," said Frank McGhee, head metals trader at Integrated Brokerage in Chicago to Bloomberg

"Rampant inflation is starting to damage business confidence. "The latest data point to a potential downturn in Brazil, China, and India," said the OECD, the club of rich nations," reports London Telegraph.

"The Federal Reserve does not have the tools to deal with the U.S. housing crisis and rapidly rising consumer prices, leaving it to lawmakers to avert a severe recession, said Pimco's Mohamed El-Erian," reports Reuters.

"Oil climbed above $126 a barrel Thursday, then pulled back, after the U.S. government issued a mixed report on the country's petroleum reserves. Crude oil prices have risen almost 30% this year on steadily rising demand in emerging economies, sluggish growth in new supply and unrest in some major producing nations," reports CNN.

"The average U.S. gasoline price rose about 2 cents to $3.78 a gallon in the last day, according to the Daily Fuel Gauge Report from the Automobile Association of America. The cost of gasoline has risen 22% from its year-ago price of $3.10 a gallon," reports MW.

Gas prices are actually cheaper today than they were forty years ago in relation to silver prices. A gallon of gas cost three 90% silver dimes back in 1964, today it costs just two 90% silver dimes, which equates to about $3.40 a gallon with silver prices near $17/oz.

"Goldman Sachs predicts that oil prices could rise to $150 to $200 within two years," reports AP.

"If government wants to bring the price of fuel down they should fast track legislation to open up our domestic sources of oil such as ANWR, the Great Basin, the Outer Continental Shelf, and the deep waters of the gulf," Swiss America CEO Craig R. Smith told WND.

"By owning gold instead of US dollars, you can today purchase basically the same amount of crude oil as at any other time since 1945," reports James Turk.

"Today it takes about 10 U.S. dollars to pay for a gallon of gas in Europe. Gas is not only in a different currency that is doing much better than our dollar, it is also sold by the liter," reports Londoner.

"Food inflation could double this year, lifted by the rising costs of fuel, corn and soybeans, some analysts predict. Food inflation hit 4 percent last year, up from 2.4 percent in 2006," reports AP.

"Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker warned Wednesday the U.S. could face a 1970s-style period of skyrocketing inflation if investors lose confidence in the buying power of the U.S. dollar," reports CNBC.

"Inflation pressures eased a bit in April despite the biggest jump in food prices in 18 years. The Labor Department reported Wednesday that consumer prices edged up 0.2 percent last month, compared to a 0.3 percent rise in March," reports AP.

"We who eat and drive suspect government stats are rotten at the core. Worse yet, the real world rate of inflation is likely TWICE as high as reported," said Swiss America CEO Craig R. Smith.

"Inflationary pressure is building globally, and consumers' expectations of future price rises are growing in a way reminiscent of the 1970s, pushed by rising commodity and energy prices and at least partly underwritten by U.S. interest rates adjusted to rescue a country experiencing a popping debt bubble," reports Reuters .

"Gold is a 'green' metal for the 21st century. The chemical properties of gold are important for the future...these include catalysts for pollution control and energy generation, along with use of gold compounds and nanotechnology for medical diagnostics and treatment," reports Mineweb.

"Turmoil in financial markets has eased somewhat, but the situation is still "far from normal," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday," reports AP.

"Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke lunched on March 11 with a Who's Who of Wall Street leaders, including JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s Jamie Dimon, three days before the central bank rescued Bear Stearns Cos. from bankruptcy," reports Bloomberg.

"U.S. consumers are juggling plastic to put off their day of reckoning. The Fed survey said credit card debt had jumped 6.7% in the first quarter to $957bn. "My guess is that many Americans continue to run up massive credit card debt because they have little intention of paying it off," said Peter Schiff at Euro Pacific Capital to London Telegraph.

"The dollar weakened further against the euro Monday as markets waited for statements from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and economic data expected Tuesday," reports AP.

"Only a month ago the dollar slumped to an all-time low against the euro. Could ‘the rope slip’ and the world's pivotal currency still go into freefall? A plummeting US currency would cause chaos globally, as central banks sought to protect the value of their reserves,” reports London Telegraph.

"The dollar is in a major bear market, and is losing purchasing power day after day because of debasement and inflation. Continue to avoid it. Hold gold and/or silver instead, which remain in clear uptrends," reports James Turk at Goldmoney.

"The great strength of gold throughout history has not been that you make money by holding it, but rather you do not lose. That ought to remain its best credential," says Timothy Green, International gold expert.

"We've seen some positive signs from the ETFs, this is helping gold. Our view as a bank is that economic conditions are likely to deteriorate. Some money will come out of equities and go back into gold," said Dan Smith, a metals analyst at Standard Chartered to Bloomberg.

"Gold is in a 'win-win' situation. If the Fed is successful at turning the U.S. economy and credit crisis around, it will only be because it flooded the system with hundreds of billions of paper dollars. If not, the plunging dollar would cause investors to flock to gold sending prices above $2,270 an ounce," reports Money&Markets.

"The House passed legislation recently to allow for the minting of pennies made primarily of steel but coated with a copper-colored dye so they appear similar. It also would require the production of 5-cent coins made primarily of steel, with a coating of nickel," reports CQpolitics.

"Israel now believes Iran will master centrifuge technology and be able to begin enriching uranium on a military scale this year. The nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea threaten to set in motion a domino effect that will be difficult to contain," reports The Jerusalem Post.

"Iran's standoff with the West over its nuclear program added geopolitical concerns and fundamental tightness that sent crude oil prices to new highs," reports Reut ers.

"The price of aluminum, gold, copper and platinum will keep climbing as the lights go out in the world's biggest mines following Chile's worst drought in five decades and power rationing from South Africa to China," reports Bloomberg.

"Gold’s downturn and the corresponding easing of worries about the financial system are temporary. Events always trump psychology at some point. First we will see investors return to gold – and then we’ll see newcomers fleeing toward it," reports DailyReckoning .

"JPMorgan Chase & Co does not expect the U.S. financial crisis to end soon and will remain very cautious... we are not done with the crisis for a long time," reports Reuters.

"The twilight of irredeemable debt is upon us. The sign is that banks are reluctant to take the promissory notes of one another. The way out is to open the U.S. Mint to gold and silver," reports ATimes .

"For the fourth month in a row, the economy lost jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday. But in April the losses totaled 20,000, an improvement from the 81,000 reductions in payrolls logged in March," reports AP.

"Overall I think that the U.S. continues to follow policies that will make the dollar weaken against other major currencies... I feel no need to hedge purchases of multinational companies that earn profits in other currencies, " said billionaire Warren Buffett to CNN.

"Gulf states are considering dropping their pegs to the dollar after the U.S. currency's decline stoked inflation across the region, Kuwaiti Finance Minister Mustafa al-Shimali said to Bloomberg.

Gold prices gave back 4.5% in April, slipping from $915/oz. to $876/oz. while silver retreated 6%, falling from $17.88/oz. to $16.84/oz.

John Reade at UBS noted substantial selling from ETFs has driven the gold downturn. The analyst has cut his one-month forecast to $850/oz from $900/oz," reports Platts.

"This pullback in gold will produce the same result as the previous five major corrections since 2001; a great buying opportunity. If you haven't participated in the greatest gold bull ever, it is not too late," said Swiss America CEO Craig R. Smith.

"Gold will keep its luster amid uncertainty," says South African precious metals specialist Markus Bachmann."The fundamental laws of supply and demand as well as gold's natural role as an inflation hedge are major factors," reports Citywire.

"The Federal Reserve cut Fed Fund rates by .25% to 2% as the downside market risks outweighed their inflation concerns. The Fed appears to be concerned about housing and further sub-prime problems so I think they will keep rates low until those markets improve," said Mr. Smith.

"The Fed opened up the old playbook and cut rates aggressively when subprime loans blew up. This cemented higher inflation into place, crushed the dollar, pushed commodity prices up sharply. The answer is for the Fed to lift rates somewhere north of 5%. Tax-rate reductions and interest-rate hikes cured the world of its ills in the early 1980s. They can do so again," reports WSJ.

Last Wednesday's .25% rate cut takes real interest rates down to minus 1.8%, the worst rate of return for dollar savers since June 2004.

"The bruised economy limped through the first quarter of this year at only 0.6 percent as housing and credit problems forced people and businesses alike to hunker down," reports AP.

* "The surprise since 9/11 is that more money has not flowed into terror-free investing considering that 'socially responsible' and 'green' funds have prospered in recent years... it is a nonviolent way for Americans to confront terrorism and maybe even profit from the fight," reports TIME.

“Swiss America is a proud sponsor of terrorfreecalculator.com which is committed to propelling this vital message out to millions of concerned investors,” said Swiss America CEO Craig R. Smith.

US households will start receiving more than $110 billion in emergency tax rebates, approved by Congress in an attempt to revive consumer spending.

Swiss America CEO Craig Smith told FOX's Neil Cavuto, "This is election year feel-good legislation. A recent survey stated only 17% of the public is planning to spend their rebate, while 29% plan to save it and 54% plan to pay down debt." W atch it

High prices for food and fuel, weak income growth and falling home values pulled down consumer sentiment in April, according to a government report released Friday.

"Demand for precious metals in self-directed U.S. Individual Retirement Accounts is growing for many of the reasons other investors have been drawn to the metal - a hedge against inflation, dollar weakness and credit-market worries," reports DowJones.

"Sales of new homes plunged in March to the lowest level in 16 1/2 years as housing slumped at the start of the spring sales season. The median price of a new home in March, fell by 8.5%, the largest amount in nearly four decades," reports AP.

$200 oil, $2,000 gold ahead

"Surging crude prices, which could surpass $200 a barrel in four years on tight supplies, could push gasoline prices to as high as $7 a gallon, CIBC World Markets analysts said Thursday," reports MW.

"Crude-oil prices rose to a new high of $119.86 a barrel this week as lingering worries over oil-supply disruptions and the dollar's new low against the euro provided support for prices," reports MW.

Recently many analysts have jumped onto the $1,000/oz. plus gold bandwagon -- most of whom were not considered "gold bugs" in the past, like Citibank and JP Morgan & Co. We've collected over fifty prominent analysts, authors and gold expert statements about why their combined gold price expectation is $2,200/oz.

"The price of gold is up 35% in the past 12 months. The question is whether they will keep rising. Odds are, if inflation moves higher, they will too. Is it too late to get in? "I think we're in a long-term bull market for commodities," says Matthew Tuttle, a financial planner in Stamford, Conn to WSJ.

"Don’t sell your investments in commodities yet. Billionaire George Soros says the boom in commodities is still in a 'growth phase.' In fact, prices for commodities like oil, wheat and gold continue to rise to new records, defying the paradigm that commodity prices should fall as the U.S. economy slows," reports MoneyNews.

* "Scholars speculate that the Wizard of Oz was at once a children’s fantasy and a timely political allegory, and that the silver slippers, yellow brick road, and Emerald City were intended as symbols for the gold and silver standards and paper money," reports Columbia. [Ed. Note: Watch: Hugo Salinas Price explain "Dorothy's Silver Slippers" from recent GATA conference].