Other markets follow gold price plunge; Greece slashes civil services jobs; Merchants and arms; Psy video has 10m YouTube hits

1 Other markets follow gold price plunge (Nathaniel Popper in The New York Times) Gold prices tumbled 9% on Monday, the sharpest drop in 30 years, heightening fears that investors’ faith in the safe haven has been shattered. The steep fall in gold, after a slump on Friday, led a broader sell-off in commodities and stock markets. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index declined 2.3% — its sharpest one-day decline since early November. Crude oil prices fell to under $90 a barrel, and copper dropped to a 17-month low.

The catalyst was disappointment over Chinese growth, which has been a bright spot in a global economy marred by uneven recoveries and Europe’s persistent debt problems. A report showed that Chinese economic growth unexpectedly slowed to an annual pace of 7.7% in the first months of the year, from 7.9% at the end of 2012, suggesting that China’s demand for industrial materials would soften.

Weak regional manufacturing data in the US also weighed on the US stock market, as did the explosions in Boston later in the day. Still it was gold that took the market spotlight on Monday. The recent drop in gold prices has been partly attributed to signals from powerful members of the Fed that the central bank may begin to wind down its bond-buying programs. But the list of reasons to sell gold grows longer by the day. European politicians have indicated that Cyprus may need to sell off some of its gold holdings to pay for its bank bailout, which could lead other countries to do the same.

The market decline, like the decade-long run-up, has also been attributed to the new financial instruments that have made buying gold easier for a wide array of investors. The most prominent products are gold exchange-traded funds, which can be traded on stock exchanges, and which together hold as much gold as all but a few of the world’s largest central banks.

2 Greece slashes civil services jobs (Helena Smith in The Guardian) Greece has secured an aid package worth €8.8bn from the European Union , the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund after the government agreed to cuts including 4,000 public sector job losses this year. Officials representing the troika of international creditors agreed to release the funds following a government pledge to fire thousands of civil servants in return. The deal includes the disbursement of an initial €2.8bn tranche in the coming weeks, followed by a further €6bn in May.

"Greece is stabilising and its position is becoming more secure at a time when other countries are beginning to feel uncertainty," said prime minister, Antonis Samaras. The IMF's visiting mission chief, Pol Thomsen, applauded the country's fiscal progress. "Greece has indeed come a long way. The fiscal adjustment has been exceptional by any standard," he said. Thomsen, once a caustic critic of the nation's economic performance, predicted that Greece would meet budget targets without further pay and pension cuts and would "gradually" return to growth in 2014.

The aid will be used to help recapitalise Greek banks. The comments also appeared to be carefully calibrated to offset the onerous terms Greece must also meet to get the aid. Under the deal, the government endorsed mass lay-offs in the civil service. Samaras said some 15,000 employees would be fired by 2015 with 4,000 redundancies by the end of the year.

3 Merchants and arms (Jonathan Power in Khaleej Times) American presidential candidate Jimmy Carter described arms sales as a “cancer”. But once in office Carter achieved little in controlling them. Last week an overwhelming majority of the world, including the US and its Western allies (Russia and China excluded), signed an historic treaty to control the trade in conventional arms.

The new treaty prohibits states from exporting conventional weapons in violation of arms embargoes (e.g. to Syria and North Korea) or weapons that could be used for acts of genocide (none at the moment), crimes against humanity and war crimes (e.g. the Congo, Myanmar, Israel and Somalia) and terrorism (e.g. Iran and Pakistan).

Russia made a good point at the negotiations, but one mostly ignored by the media. The treaty has a major loophole, it argued. It doesn’t outlaw rebels being supplied with arms. Countries as diverse as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UK and France are supplying or want to supply Syrian opposition groups. Their argument is that a level playing field is necessary if the rebels are to overthrow the Assad regime. But is this not creating a level killing field? The dangers of this can be seen in Libya where the rebel militias, long after the fall of dictator Muammar Gaddafi, control important parts of the country and make it difficult for the government to create its own standing army.

Undoubtedly the new treaty is a big achievement but more clear thinking leading to more steps forward is an imperative.

4 Psy video has 10 million YouTube hits (Straits Times) "Gangnam Style" star Psy's new music video had been watched more than 10 million times on YouTube less than 24 hours after he unveiled his much-anticipated new dance in Seoul, the website showed on Sunday.

The South Korean pop star on Saturday performed for the first time the new hip-swinging dance aimed at replicating the global success of "Gangnam Style" and its famed horse-riding moves in his latest single called "Gentleman".

The video, released a day after the song hit online stores worldwide, registered 10.7 million hits in the 15 hours after its debut at a packed concert in the South Korean capital as curious fans flocked to the video-sharing site. It shows Psy, wearing his signature sunglasses, dancing at various locations in and around Seoul including a high-end clothing store, restaurant and swimming pool.