G20 crisis conference call Sunday

reuters

Fears of a global recession have increased in the wake of this week's sell-off in financial markets and Standard & Poor's decision to cut the U.S. long-term credit rating for the first time.

US sovereign credit rating lowered to AA+

from S&P statement:

We have lowered our long-term sovereign credit rating on the United States of America to 'AA+' from 'AAA' and affirmed the 'A-1+' short-term rating.

Outlook

The outlook on the long-term rating is negative. As our downside alternate fiscal scenario illustrates, a higher public debt trajectory than we currently
assume could lead us to lower the long-term rating again.

Swiss Franc update:

1 CHF = 1.3074 USD +0.00798 (0.614%)
Aug 5, 3:00PM GMT+00:00

Flight to safety continues.

Lira Tumbles as Market ‘Baffled’ by Turkey’s Shock Rate Cut

Turkey’s lira tumbled toward the weakest close against the dollar in more than two years after the central bank unexpectedly cut its benchmark interest rate by a half point to a record. Stocks fell the most in five months.
The lira lost as much as 2.7 percent and was down 2.4 percent at 1.7357 as of 5:37 p.m. in Istanbul. A close at that level would be the lowest since March 2009. The ISE National 100 Index (XU100) of shares retreated for a fifth day, losing 3.2 percent lower to 59,325.99.

Policy makers reduced the one-week repo rate to 5.75 percent to help shield the economy from the effect of Europe’s debt crisis and slowing growth in the U.S.

Gold down on raising cash, meeting margin calls

Forbes blog

My opinion is that this is a time to take advantage of this lower gold and silver prices before monetization drives price up. This may be a rare opportunity.

GOLD

Aug. 4, 2011, 10:22 a.m. EDT
Gold futures tack on as much as $16 an ounce

Swiss franc update: SNB Intervenes To Lower "Massively Overvalued" Franc

Zerohedge: Leaves Gold As Only "Safe Haven" Currency

The Swiss central bank "unexpectedly" intervened to curb the record appreciation of the Swiss Franc which is having Swiss exporters seeing black and blue, by saying it would cut rates and by increasing the supply of francs to money markets.

Which leaves those seeing a non-fiat based refuge from all the insanity in Europe and the rest of the world, with just one option. Gold.