The gold bugs are on the loose. Today gold shot up to another new high of $1,212 per ounce. So far this year gold has risen 34%.

Investors are looking for a safe haven and are running headlong into gold. Governments around the world are buying more gold, with India buying 200 metric tons from the International Monetary Fund. The US Mint has run out of gold coins. The situation in Dubai is up in the air.

On Thursday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the global economy will grow next year, but cautioned the recovery will be sluggish. The IMF added that the recovery could even "stall out" if policymakers assume the slump is over. The IMF's recent outlook, however, is better than July's outlook, as the IMF predicts better growth in 2010 thanks to "strong public policies ... that have supported demand and all but eliminated fears of a global depression."

As for the recovery, the IMF believes that it will be subdued and "well below" the growth seen before the economic crisis. The group added that there is a "significant risk" of a reversal, noting that central banks in advanced economies need to wait until the recovery is on firm footing.

I guess that when the United States sneezes, the world catches a cold. Consumer sentiment was announced to be circling the drain in the United States and the world economy dropped for the first time in four months.

The Bloomberg Professional Global Confidence Index fell to 39.13 this month – from 43.57 last month. Your benchmark: anything below 50 means that there are more pessimists than optimists. In the United States, index fell from 36.7 to 29.5, suggesting that we're more pessimistic than the rest of the world.

Looking for a new emerging market? Try Pakistan! Despite a continued sense of tension with India and open hostility along the Afghan border, the country's bond market is the best in the world, according to data from JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM). Debt sold by Pakistan has surged 88% this year -- topping the 45 emerging markets that JPMorgan watches and the 19 that Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: BAC) follows.

And, the stock market may be next.

Money managers, according to a report by Bloomberg, believe that the Pakistani equity market could become the next global superstar. The Karachi Stock Exchange 100 Index is only trading at 9.6X earnings, making it the lowest in Asia (excluding Japan) . . . and this follows a 21% increase year-to-date.

You know that the rally in Gold has reached bubble proportions when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announces that they are selling a huge chunk of their gold reserves. The sale of a 12.5% share of their gold position is a big supply that is going to be coming onto the market, and could potentially pressure gold prices.

According to the Marketwatch report: " In a statement on Monday, Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the IMF had made "difficult but necessary choices" to close an income shortfall and make the agency more efficient through a "new and sustainable income and expenditure framework."

The sale could generate over $13b. I knew that the IMF was a bloated bureaucracy that had all kinds of debt, but they need to sell $13b? Ouch.

Global GDP growth has slowed and will continue to slow to 4.1% in 2008, dragged lower by the slow-growth U.S. economy, the International Monetary Fund announced Tuesday in its revised World Economic Outlook. The IMF's previous global GDP growth estimate for 2008 was 4.9%.

[Note: In its report, the IMF said it has revised the model it uses to measure growth, a qualitative change that reduced GDP growth forecasts in 2005-2008 by 0.5%, or by one-half percentage point. ]

In lowering its 2008 growth estimate, the IMF said there was a risk that the ongoing turmoil in financial markets would further reduce domestic demand in advanced economies with more significant spillovers into emerging market and developing countries.

"Growth in emerging market countries that are heavily dependent on capital inflows could be particularly affected, while the strong momentum of domestic demand in some emerging market countries provides upside potential," the IMF said.

Economic growth in the United States "appears to have slowed notably in the fourth quarter of 2007, with recent indicators showing weakening of manufacturing and housing sector activity, employment, and consumption."

I have been wondering lately if the sagging value of the dollar is actually going down through economic gyrations or being pushed down by design.

There are many repercussions. No one less than Rodrigo Rato, head of the International Monetary Fund, warned Monday of a potential "abrupt fall" in the US dollar that could roil the global economy. "There are risks that an abrupt fall in the dollar could either be triggered by, or itself trigger, a loss of confidence in dollar assets," Rato said at the close of annual meetings here of the IMF and the World Bank, according to news reports.

Here is what is really on his mind: Europe may take steps to temper the strong appreciation of the Euro, which is weighing on exports from the 13-nation bloc. "There is a risk that exchange rate appreciation in countries with flexible exchange rates -- including the Euro area -- could hurt their growth prospects, and that in these circumstances protectionist pressures could worsen," he said.

From my perspective I have wondered if the Bush administration is at least applauding the weak dollar as it improves U.S. trade imbalances, helps prop up the stock market and worried investment bankers, and strengthens American companies in many regards.