[The Liberty Insight Newswire is an aggregation of what we consider to be important financial and political news and commentary from across the web.]

Today’s stories include Iceland’s middle finger to the banks, China ramping up gold purchases, and revelations of the Fed bank (and everyone else) bailout.

Joe Lieberman emulates Chinese dictators
Salon.com, Dec. 2, 2010

Most Americans wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Chinese and Arab governments have suppressed the recent Wikileaks documents from their public. What might be surprising is that Joe Lieberman’s office called up Amazon.com to “ask” them to remove the documents from its hosting servers. Amazon claims that it removed the documents on its own volition. Regardless, Lieberman’s move to pressure a company to censor is concerning.

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Gold Imports by China Soar Almost Fivefold as Inflation Spurs Investment
Bloomberg News, Dec. 2, 2010

China sees the writing on the wall, and they’ve begun implementing their exit strategy from the US$. In 2008 the legalized gold ownership for their citizens and began encouraging them to buy gold. Recently the Chinese government approved more banks to trade gold on foreign exchanges. The Chinese have been quietly buying up hard assets and resource companies around the world to ease out of the dollar.

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Iceland’s Bankruptcy-to-Recovery a Model Ireland Won’t Follow
Bloomberg News, Dec. 2, 2010

When Iceland’s banking sector collapsed in 2008, the people of Iceland rose up, kicked out the government, and gave a big F. U. to the bankers asking for a bailout. They suffered a major contraction but they now seem to be on the path to a sustainable recovery.

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Fed aid in financial crisis went beyond US banks to industry, foreign firms.
Washington Post, Dec. 2, 2010

The extent of the Federal Reserves bailout of the banking industry stems far beyond some emergency loans to US banks to include foreign banks such as UBS, and American corporations including McDonalds, GE and Harley Davidson.

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China Importing US Food Inflation
National Inflation Association, Dec. 2, 2010

By maintaining their currency peg to the dollar at artificially low rates, the Chinese government has caused food prices to rise for Chinese consumers. Food prices are up 10% in the past month alone. This is a very big deal for Chinese consumers who spend roughly 50% of their income on food. The Chinese government is tinkering with price controls and anti-hording laws, but eventually, they will be forced to let their currency rise to stem inflation. This will translate to higher prices for Americans down the road.