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Even your data and conversations on its encrypted services that you thought were secure aren’t; at least not from 46 governments around the world.

Rather than sitting nervously and passively and awaiting the coming financial dislocations and expropriations, investors and savers need to be prepared for the uncertain financial scenarios that seem increasingly likely.

Hoping for the best, but preparing for less benign scenarios remains prudent.

It may be that a larger correction is in order given that some important global powers are struggling. Money printing by itself isn’t cure-all for what ails us.

Friday not much is happening beyond Cyprus tensions—how fun! 

Let’s see what happens.

For a few days, the people of Cyprus were calm, quietly and orderly accepting the unreality of the levy being imposed upon them - incredulous that it was even possible. As we reach the 4th day of bank closures, amid rolling rumors and ECB threats, it appears the people have reached a tipping point as this series of images from Cyprus ATM lines indicates - the bank-jog has arrived. When will it become a full blown sprint?

In the below video, I discuss why we’ve all already been “Cyprus’d” to a far greater degree than Cyprus citizens can be Cyprus’d, and how we can stop being Cyprus’d in the future.

Most investors are nervous now and need to hold things together to include the Fed meeting announcement Wednesday. If bulls are lucky they’ll get their Turnaround Tuesday.  

The incredible reality that so many Cypriots woke up to this weekend (after the late Friday NY time announcement of their deposits taking a haircut to save their precious banking system) has spurred the citizenry to take to Twitter to vent their anger and frustration. As we asked just as few days ago - has the European Spring begun, perhaps it is time for someone to launch social media guillotines as the 'elites' seem happy to say "let them eat Lokmades (Cyprus Cake)"...

A short trip across the sea from the debacle occurring in Cyprus and it appears the tension is rising up in Greece once again. It is well known that Golden Dawn 'nazi' party won a surprising and disconcerting number of parliamentary seats at the last election, and the massively unstable size of Greece's youth unemployment continues to spell trouble; but, now Greece's most popular sport - soccer (football) - is infected by the increasingly nationalist fervor. As Fox reports, national soccer player Giorgos Katidis has been banned for life from playing for Greece after giving a Nazi salute while celebrating a goal this weekend. Cited as "a deep insult to all victims of Nazi brutality," the striker took to twitter (@GiwrgosKatidis) to proclaim his innocence of the meaning of the gesture (you decide in the image and clip below) - right arm extended and hand straightened - adding that he detests fascism. The question now is - when does the Cyprus soccer team play next? as it seems the peripheral European nations are starting to wake up to the Union's reality and the haircut is the next catalyst.

Retail investors are piling into the stock market again in the false belief that the worst of the economic crisis is over. Alas, those who are not properly diversified may again be in for a rude awakening.

• More black smoke over Vatican: No decision on pope in second day (NBC)
• PBOC Chief Says China Should Be on ‘High Alert’ on Inflation (BBG) - just as predicted last fall
• California Seizes Guns as Owners Lose Right to Keep Arms (BBG)
• U.S. Tax Cheats Picked Off After Adviser Mails It In (BBG)
• In 2012, Samsung spent $401 million advertising its phones in the U.S. to Apple's $333 million (WSJ)
• Coca-Cola probed over mapping in China (FT) - accused of ‘illegally collecting classified information’
• Italy's Bond Sale Meets Tepid Demand (WSJ)
• U.S. Steps Up Alarm Over Cyberattacks (WSJ)
• Mugabe takes on Zimbabwe's Generation X (Reuters)
• Mars Rover Finds Conditions Once May Have Supported Life (BBG)
• Oil demand hit by China refinery outages (FT)
• Big Sugar Is Set for a Sweet Bailout (WSJ) DOA to buy 400,000 tons of sugar to stave off a wave of defaults by sugar processors
• Spectre of stagflation haunts UK (FT)
• As Republicans seek identity, conclave highlights divisions (Reuters)

U.S. equity markets rallied once again after opening weaker Monday repeating previous performances. There wasn’t much news domestically. The Fed continued modest POMO actions which will grow in scope throughout the week. Stocks were quiet most of the day but got a lift on rumors that Apple (AAPL) will declare a dividend of some kind. If they do this, then the SEC should be monitoring who and what groups were front-running this piece of news.

In news that is hardly welcome to Chancellor Merkel and her September reelection hopes, German Focus magazine revealed that a substantial 26% of all Germans would back a party that wants to quit the euro. Even more disturbing is that a whopping 40% of all Germans in the prime 40-49 age group are tired of supporting a failed monetary regime and will just say "nein" to the European globalist experiment at preserving the status quo if just given the opportunity. The Italian virus is spreading: the question is which "clown" will show up on the cover of the Economist in six short months, when at least one person will appear on the political scene to take advantage of the populist protest at endless German-backed bail outs, and what as Dylan Grice so eloquently explained earlier, is merely a reaction to central banker central planning manifesting itself in ongoing social breakdown.

Bankers have turned the paradigm of monetary truth upside down. People believe in fiat paper & digital money that is counterfeit and have always ended up in massive collapse to their intrinsic value of zero, and have zero belief in real money, like physical gold and silver, that has served civilizations as money and kept price indexes constant and stable for over 5,000 years.

Gold is trading flat today near a one and a half week high hit yesterday as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke defended the U.S.  ultra loose monetary policy.

The selloff in gold ETFs in February underscores the weakness in gold sentiment among retail investors that has been prominent recently.