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

Nerd Alert version of the newswire. Or is it geek alert? I can never remember the difference. In any case, this week’s newswire discusses some pretty nerdy topics such as electronic circuits, the Federal Reserve Board, the derivatives market, and foreign Treasury bond purchases. Don’t fret, these articles are more interesting than they sound.

……………………………..

Liquid Silver Used to Print Electronic Circuits
Discovery News, January 16, 2012

As a product designer of consumer electronics and a silver bug, this article was a double geek-out for me. The industrial applications for silver are growing by leaps and bounds each year, and here is a super cool advancement which will likely mean more silver supply being used up by industry. The tiny amounts of silver used to print these circuit boards means that the price of silver will not affect its usage at even much higher prices. It also means that once the silver is used for this application it will be hard to recover for recycling. Each “ink” cartridge might not contain much silver but as anyone who owns an ink jet printer knows, it can add up quickly.

……………………………..

Inside the Fed in 2006: A Coming Crisis, and Banter
The New York Times, January 12, 2012

The Federal Reserve Board is required to release its full minutes 5 years after the fact. Ostensibly, this 5 year delay is to preserve their “independence” and allow “candid discussion”. More likely, the delay is intended to shield them from scrutiny and embarrassment at how clueless they actually are.

This NYT article discussing the Fed minutes from meetings just months before the real estate bust, would be comical if the consequences of their epic fail weren’t so sad. It is time to make the Fed much more transparent, subject them to a complete and periodic audit, and drastically overhaul or more likely end the failed institution.

……………………………..

The $U.S. Dollar Centric Derivatives Complex: Progenitor of Parasitic, Ponzi Price-Fixing
Goldseek.com, January 13, 2012

An outstanding summary of the workings of the derivatives market, then and now. This article is only for the real economics wonks, but if you are interested in esoteric topics like derivatives and paper market manipulation it is a must read.

……………………………..

Foreigners Sell Record $85 Billion In Treasurys In 6 Consecutive Weeks – Time To Get Concerned?
Zerohedge.com, January 12, 2012

At some point, foreigners will tire of throwing good money after bad by buying U.S. Treasuries. The U.S. needs foreigners to keep buying Treasuries if our phony, interest-rate driven, exponential expansion dependent, debt-based economy is to continue. Are we seeing the first cracks in this Ponzi scheme dam? The chart in this article is very informative although it begs the questions “who?” and “why?.