“In the event of hyperinflation, depression, or other economic calamity related to the breakdown of the Federal Reserve System … the State’s governmental finances and private economy will be thrown into chaos,” stated North Carolina Representative Glen Bradley in a bill he drafted in 2011.   Sign-up for my 100% FREE Alerts

Sensing that the Europe’s crisis has bought the Fed and U.S. Treasury some time, for now, State legislators have already begun to prepare for the eventual rejection of the U.S. dollar as a viable means for exchanging goods and services.

According to the U.S. Constitution, Article 10, Clause 1 (Contract Clause), States can issue their own money as long as they are in the form of gold and silver coins.

Article 10, Clause 1 (Contract Clause)

No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

How much time the U.S. dollar has left as a trusted currency is unknown, but the countdown has begun.

Like the sudden collapse of sub-prime mortgage market—which spread throughout all mortgages—and Greek sovereign debt in 2010—which spread to the rest of Europe—one day Americans will wake up to a crisis in the dollar.

The man who warned of a credit bubble in the U.S. mortgage market in 2006, Doug Nolan of Prudent Bear, told Financial Sense Newshour he likens Greece to the sub-prime mortgage market and the currency dominoes the besieged nation will eventually topple across the globe.

“I refer to this [U.S. Treasuries] as the global government finance bubble and I draw parallels between Greece and sub-prime U.S. mortgage back in the Spring of 2007,” said Nolan.  “In the Spring of 2007, confidence started to falter for sub-prime.  The risk is part of mortgage debt and of course you had the aggressive policy response.  You actually had a very speculative market and you didn’t have a serious crisis until sometime later in 2008.  Now we see Europe; they had the initial Greek crisis; they responded aggressively with the bailout.  That bought them some time, but then things started to spiral out of control last year.”

Though U.S. Representative Ron Paul, TX has sponsored the “Free Competition Currency Act” in the U.S. House of Representatives, State legislators are waiting for Washington.  They have proposed varying methods of introducing gold and silver as a go-to currency in their States so that their citizens can continue to buy groceries, services and durable goods, such as cars and major appliances after the fall of the dollar.

However, logistical issues abound for the States.  Carrying around bullion coins aren’t practical and deviate grossly from ingrained habits of Americans in the use of money in a modern banking system of paper and plastic cards.  But Utah has a solution: Utah Gold & Silver Depository, where clients can continue to use plastic cards.  But instead of transferring fiat currency to a merchant with plastic cards, gold and silver grams would transfer instead to pay for goods and services.

“A Utah citizen, for example, could contract with another to sell his car for 10 one-ounce gold coins (approximately $17,000), or an independent contractor could arrange to be compensated in gold coins,” said Rich Danker, of public policy think tank American Principles Project in Washington, D.C.

Of the 13 States gearing up for its own currency, Danker told CNN he expects four States could pass legislation this year.  Those States include South Carolina, Georgia, Idaho and Indiana.

“I think we could get a couple passed in this legislative session, and that would show this is mainstream, popular and it would be a justification for more of the risk-averse states for doing this,” he said, suggesting a domino effect with other States could result across the U.S.

According to Prudent Bear’s Nolan, the time bomb ticks away on the dollar, and when it blows, the demise of the dollar could move rather quickly as we saw in both the sub-prime mortgage market in the U.S. and in Greek sovereign debt in 2010.

“All of a sudden you could see a situation where the sovereign debt problem in Europe leads to question on the solvency of European banking system, on global derivatives, counter-parties, and maybe at the point there will be concerns with other structural debt issues be it Japan or the U.S.,” said Nolan.  “Once the global community loses confidence in the capacity of policymakers to sustain credit excesses then it’s a totally different ballgame than what we see in Europe.”   Sign-up for my 100% FREE Alerts

Threshold today announced that a global agreement was signed with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, to co-develop and commercialize TH-302, Threshold’s small molecule hypoxia-targeted drug. TH-302 is currently being investigated in a global Phase 3 clinical trial in patients with soft tissue sarcoma, a randomized Phase 2 trial in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer from which top-line results are expected in February, as well as additional clinical studies in other solid tumors and hematological malignancies.

Under the terms of the agreement, Merck will receive co-development rights, exclusive global commercialization rights and will provide Threshold an option to co-commercialize the therapeutic in the United States. In exchange, Threshold will receive an upfront payment of $25 million and could receive up to $35 million in additional development milestones during 2012. Threshold is also eligible to receive a $20 million milestone payment based on positive results from its randomized Phase 2 trial in pancreatic cancer. Total potential milestone payments are $525 million, comprised of $280 million in regulatory and development milestones and $245 million in sales-based milestones.

In the United States, Threshold will have primary responsibility for development of TH-302 in the soft tissue sarcoma indication. Threshold and Merck KGaA will jointly develop TH-302 in all other cancer indications being pursued. Merck KGaA will pay 70% of worldwide development costs for TH-302.

Subject to FDA approval in the United States, Merck KGaA will initially be responsible for commercialization of TH-302 with Threshold receiving a tiered, double-digit royalty on sales. Under the royalty-bearing portion of the agreement, Threshold retains the option to co-promote TH-302 in the United States. Additionally, Threshold retains the option to co-commercialize TH-302 allowing the company to participate in up to 50% of the profits in the United States based on certain revenue tiers. Outside of the United States, Merck KGaA will be solely responsible for the commercialization of TH-302 with Threshold receiving a tiered, double-digit royalty on sales in these territories.

“The addition of TH-302 to our pipeline provides an important opportunity in several different tumor types to expand our oncology development program,” said Susan Jane Herbert, Head of Global Business Development and Strategy, Merck Serono. “Given the fact that pancreatic cancer is a very difficult to treat indication, successful Phase II results could represent an important upside for our company.”

“We are excited by the new resources that our partnership is going to bring to the development of TH-302 and the expertise in clinical development and commercialization that Merck will contribute to this program,” said Barry Selick, President and CEO of Threshold. “This collaboration provides Threshold a strong and committed partner with a shared vision for TH-302.”

Zoltek’s net revenues for the quarter ended December 31, 2011, totaled $47.0 million, compared to $32.9 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2011, an increase of 43.2%.  On a sequential quarter basis, net sales for the latest quarter increased $3.9 million, or 9.1%, from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011.

Zoltek reported net income of $9.7 million ($0.28 per share) in this year’s first quarter, compared to a net loss of $1.6 million ($0.05 per share) in the first quarter of fiscal 2011.  The Company’s operating income was $8.2 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2012, compared to an operating loss of $1.2 million in the previous year’s first quarter.  Zoltek reported operating income of $1.0 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011.

“We are pleased to report strong gains on both the top and bottom lines in the first quarter and continuation of the momentum we experienced in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011,” said Zsolt Rumy, Zoltek’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.  “Our performance resulted from several internal and external factors. Our net revenues were up almost a third, despite the drag on our reported sales from the decline in the value of the Euro during the quarter, reflecting our expanded customer base in the wind energy business and increased sales of composite intermediate products. Our margins were positively impacted by a more profitable product mix, higher utilization of our production capacity, better operational performance, lower raw material costs and the decline in the values of the Hungarian Forint and Mexican Peso. We believe our first quarter results evidence that our carbon fiber business is on a path to increase significantly this year.”

Before you hit the weekend, let’s look at the fire that’s gotten under OSL Holdings, Inc. (OSLH) and its once-room-temperature chart.

The “OSL” in OSLH stands for “Office Supply Line,” but the similarities to “Office Space” or even “Office Max” end there!

OSLH is a lot more than a souped-up version of Staples.

And as traders wise up to just what exactly OSLH is, turnover has gone through the roofand the price action has been pushing off… for the first time in living memory.

Chart Analysis:

Check out the sudden volume surge: 95% of ALL OSLH turnover for the last year, moving in the last six weeks!

OSLH has been swinging nicely off an $0.11 base but from here it would take a 14% leap before it tangles with the 50-day trend.

MACD shimmied above signal a few days ago, telling everyone in the market that OSLH is in play.

STO has come along nicely and is now testing the center line. Do we feel honest-to-god momentum brewing here?

Accumulation just printed a nice sharp “V” as traders flip from bored OSLH sellers to active buyers!

RTG Ventures Inc. (PINK: RTGV) rose 80.00% to $0.0018, on above-average volume of 77.85 million shares, a day after it released a brief update of its current technology development. Based in Washington, D.C., RTG Ventures offers music and entertainment technology solutions and digital marketing services.

Platinum Studios Inc. (OTC: PDOS) rose 30.00% to $0.0013, on above-average volume of 36.59 million shares. The entertainment company on Tuesday announced it is now developing sold out comic book series “The Weapon,” to bring to the big screen

Sunvalley Solar Inc. (PINK: SSOL) slid 2.78% to $0.0035, on volume of 13.97 million shares. Sunvalley Solar is a full-service solar power solution provider, offering system designs that are tailored to each of its client’s specific needs

Viper Networks Inc. (PINK: VPER) lost 49.23% to $0.0033, with volume of 155.54 million shares traded. Viper Networks is a provider of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) products and services worldwide.

Viral Genetics Inc. (PINK: VRAL) slipped 6.67% to $0.0140, with volume of 12.54 million shares traded. San Marino, California-based Viral Genetics earlier today updated shareholders on its progress over the past year and provided its outlook for 2012.

Garb-Oil & Power Corp. (PINK: GARB) dropped 16.67% to $0.0005, on above-average volume of 76.35 million shares. Garb Oil & Power, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of equipment and products to the waste processing, energy, and recycling industries in the United States. The company last month commenced construction planning on its first project in Indiana.

But it may get much better, of course.  Silver investors are already aware of the explosive moves in the metal.  The chart (gold:silver ratio), below, serves as a visual reminder of how wild the runs can get when compared with the more tame precious metal cousin, gold.

Previous violent compressions of the gold:silver ratio manifested, starting on Oct. 3, 2003, when the ratio briefly touched 80 on a Friday (keep that in mind).  Silver closed at $4.80 on the day.  Six months later, on Apr. 6, 2004, the ratio bottomed at 51, for a drop of 36 percent in the ratio.  The silver price closed at $7.21, a gain of 50.2 percent for that period.

The more recent and ever more dramatic decline in the gold:silver ratio began on Jun. 4, 2010, when the ratio briefly touched 70, on a Friday.  The silver price closed at $17.41 per ounce.  Nearly 11 month later, on Apr. 29, 2011, the ratio pierced 31, for a drop of 56 percent.  Silver ended the day at $48.48, for a 178 percent gain for the 11-month hyperbolic move.

Then, of course, the raid on silver began within 30 minutes of the open of trading on Globex.  The silver price plunged nearly $6 in literally minutes, according to Kitco’s database for May 1 (May Day).

It appears that another compression rally is underway.  This time, on Dec. 30, the gold:silver ratio touched 57, again on a Friday.  Since then, the silver price has soared, taking the ratio back down to 51.  Silver closed at $27.86.  A ratio of 50, if broken, could start the avalanche to a much tighter ratio.  Everyone is watching closely.

So a compression in the gold:silver ratio to, say, the extent of the Oct. 3, 2003 – Apr. 6, 2004 rally of 36 percent, the new ratio calculates to 36.5 for this present move.  If the compression reaches the Jun. 4, 2010 – Apr. 29, 2012, rally, the ratio calculates to 25.

During the Oct. 3, 2003 – Apr. 6, 2004, silver rally, gold closed at $372.50 on Oct. 3 and $418.50, respectively, for a gain of 12.3 percent for that time period.  Silver rallied 50.2 percent during that period, or a 4.08 times more powerful move in favor of silver.

The monstrous rally in silver from Jun. 4, 2010 to Apr. 29, 2011, was a 178 percent move, against gold’s move of 28.3 percent—from $1,220 to $1565.70.  Silver’s move again trounced gold’s to the tune of 6.3 times!

Assuming gold and silver are indeed in a power move up and that Jon Nadler and Nouriel Roubini are dead wrong, the combinations of potential gold prices and ratios are too numerous to present here.

But let’s assume the 2010-11 rally in the precious metals repeats.  A 28.3 percent return on gold from the Dec. 29, 2011, close of $1,565.70 calculates to $2,009.  Taking a gold:silver ratio of 25 and dividing that number into $2,009, that calculates to a silver price of $80.36.

If to match the duration of 11 months from the 2010-11 silver rally to the present one, by year end, silver would reach $80.

But of course, after silver passes the $50 threshold, $100 is assumed to be the next target.  That’s the Stephen Leeb scenario, and it makes a lot of sense.  Traders love round number targets.  But then there’s the cartel who’s watching, too.  $100 might be their target, as well.

Richard Russell once stated that as far as the price of gold is concerned, traders will look at $2,000, $2,500, then $5,000, and then $10,000.  So, at $2,500 gold on this move and a ratio of 25 gives us that $100.  Sure makes David Morgan’s target of $60 tame, but traders would still make out like bandits.   Sign-up for my 100% FREE Alerts

“Having a large and increasing level of government debt relative to national income runs the risk of serious economic consequences,” Bernanke told the House Budget Committee. “Over the longer term, the current trajectory of federal debt threatens to crowd out private capital formation and thus reduce productivity growth.”

Bernanke recently announced that the Fed intends to retain interest rates near zero until the end of 2014! Gold and silver moved even higher in early trading as gold surged above $1760 and silver traded near the $34.4 threshold. All despite the fact that the RSI is showing overbought or near overbought on all gold and silver ETF’s such as: SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE:GLD), ProShares Ultra Silver (NYSE:AGQ), PowerShares DB Gold Double Long (NYSE:DGP), PowerShares DB Silver Fund (NYSE:DBS), and iShares Silver Trust (NYSE:SLV).

“While conditions have certainly improved over this period, the pace of the recovery has been frustratingly slow, particularly from the perspective of the millions of workers who remain unemployed or underemployed,” Ben said. “Moreover, the sluggish expansion has left the economy vulnerable to shocks.”

GMXR today announces an operational update on our Bakken development program, provides production guidance for the first quarter and year-end 2012 and provides an update on the Company’s capital expenditures for 2012.

Over the last 14 months many important accomplishments have been made regarding the Company’s strategic direction to transform from a concentrated natural gas producer into a more diversified energy Company focused on an accelerated program to increase oil as a significant component of our near term exploration and production activities while improving liquidity in challenging market conditions.

• Agreements to purchase 35,524 acres in the Bakken (150/1,280 acre Units) and 40,191 acres in the Niobrara providing the Company the opportunity to switch from primarily a natural gas producer to predominately an oil producer
• Issued equity for approximately $105 million of cash and $200 million in High Yield Bonds to make acquisitions and fund drilling
• Suspended natural gas drilling in July 2011 to re-direct capital to significantly higher rate of return acreage
• Reduced H&P Flex Rig contract obligations by $47 million
• Successfully completed a natural gas VPP for $49.7 million
• Captured $18.5 million of natural gas hedge value
• Terminated credit agreement and related financial maintenance covenants; no longer dependent on commercial lending
• Successfully generated $100 million in new liquidity in connection with Bond Exchange
• Implemented plan to reduce cash G&A by an estimated 21% for 2012
• Established operational footprint in one of the largest and most competitive oil plays in USA
• Prefunded planned 2012 drilling program with recent liquidity events

Given the continued decline in natural gas pricing resulting from an oversupply created by the success of horizontal drilling in the United States, our decision to transition to an oil producer and to suspend drilling of our core East Texas natural gas assets continues to be a prudent business decision. The liquidity-enhancing steps undertaken by the Company during the fourth quarter of 2011 consisting of the issuance of secured senior notes due 2017, the execution of the VPP and the monetization of natural gas hedges were both creative and challenging to accomplish but resulted in approximately $168 million of additional capital available for drilling.  We plan to proactively maintain liquidity and are working on new oil hedging strategies. Read more

Next 1 Interactive Inc. (OTC: NXOI) gained 16.67% to $0.0021, on volume of 17.34 million shares. Next One Interactive is a multi faceted media company specializing in travel and real estate. The company plans the delivery of targeted content via multiple digital platforms including cable and video on demand TV broadcast, broadband and mobile. The company last month announced a deal to purchase The Giddy Gander Company and The Wumblers preschool television series and brand.

Louisiana Food Co. (OTC: LUSI) spiked 76.47% to $0.0090, with volume of over 674 K shares traded. In addition to pursuing its license for operating a legal online poker website,Louisiana Food focuses on locating, developing and commercializing food-related business opportunities in Louisiana.

Minerco Resources Inc. (PINK: MINE) drooped 50.00% to $0.0001, on high volume of 38.79 million shares. Minerco Resources is a development stage company engaged in the development, production, and provision of clean, renewable energy solutions in central America.

Sono Resources Inc. (OTC: SRCI) plummeted 58.16% to $0.205 on volume of over 211 K shares. It has a 52-week range of $0.15 – $1.29. Sono Resources is a mineral exploration company seeking to acquire, explore and develop highly prospective metal projects in Africa. The company in December released its first phase high resolution airborne magnetics interpretation in preparation for its Botswana drilling program this year.

Cannabis Science Inc. (OTC: CBIS) lost 4.05% to $0.0450, with volume of 29.04 million shares traded. Cannabis Science is a pioneering U.S. biotech company developing pharmaceutical cannabis (marijuana) products. The Denver, Colorado-based company today said news of recent FDA cancer drug approval puts the company in a very good position moving forward with its current cancer solutions.

Platinum Studios Inc. (OTC: PDOS) dropped 28.57% to $0.0010, on volume of 25.03 million shares. Platinum Studios is an entertainment company that controls an international library of thousands of comic book characters which it adapts, produces and licenses for all forms of media. The company yesterday confirmed it is now developing sold out comic book series “The Weapon,” to bring to the big screen.

QTWW, a leader in the development and production of advanced electric propulsion systems, energy storage technologies, and alternative fuel vehicle systems and applications including natural gas vehicles, hybrid electric, plug-in hybrid and hydrogen vehicles announced that it will present at the Merriman Capital Investor Summit 2012 at the Intercontinental Times Square in New York City.  Mr. Alan P. Niedzwiecki, President and Chief Executive Officer, is scheduled to present to leading institutional investors today, Wednesday, February 1, 2012.

“We look forward to showcasing our company to some of the country’s top clean tech and growth investors at this year’s Merriman Capital Investor Summit 2012,” said Niedzwiecki. “This is an ideal venue in which we can provide an important update of our growth strategy and achievements.”

QTWW yesterday announced it has received new purchase orders totaling $750,000 for its ultra-light weight composite high pressure compressed natural gas (CNG) storage tanks for applications in heavy duty and light duty fleet vehicles.

Niedzwiecki stated, “We are excited about this expanding CNG order flow and the prospects for our CNG business. We believe that revenues from the sale of CNG tanks will more than double in 2012 and, combined with the expected Fisker Karma production ramp, we are forecasting 2012 to be a year defined by significant revenue growth.” Mr. Niedzwiecki continued, “The demand for Quantum’s ultra-lightweight high capacity CNG storage systems continues to increase as fleets recognize the significant cost saving benefits in operating their vehicles on compressed natural gas.”