Can you imagine if a public corporation did this? "Too many people are buying our stock, so we're going to ruin its value by diluting the shares." There would be outrage. Central banks do it and the media hails it as "fighting back" against "speculators." - Chris, InfoLib
The bear market is on its way back, economist and contrarian investor Marc Faber, the editor and publisher of The Gloom Boom & Doom Report told CNBC Tuesday.
"The bear market is starting. When you compare equities to bonds and cash I don't think equities are very positive," Faber said in an interview. [...]
The government is spending taxpayer's money to help banks get rid of their unwanted homes, only to then have the homes demolished in order to keep housing prices unaffordably high.
By supposedly compromising to raise the debt ceiling, Congress and the President have now paved the way for ever higher levels of federal spending. Although, the nation was spared the trauma of borrowing restrictions, the actual risk of default existed solely in the minds of Washington politicians. But the real crisis is not, nor has it ever been, the debt ceiling. The crisis is the debt itself. Economic Armageddon would not have resulted from failure to raise the ceiling, but it will come becau... (more)
Perhaps the debt ceiling should be renamed the "national debt target," for it seems Washington is always trying to reach it. One could say it's their only reliable, time-tested achievement. And without fail, upon reaching their national debt target, they promptly extend it further in order to discover how quickly it can once again be attained!
While I have little doubt that the ceiling will be raised, my readers have been curious as to the implications for gold in ea... (more)
"I think what would be dangerous for you and me would be to put all our money in US dollar cash and in US government bonds for ten years and then come back and maybe find out that we can buy with a hundred thousand dollars just a cup of coffee -- or not even that."
Marc Faber gives a superb hour long interview on Financial Sense Newshour (July 15th, 2011... (more)
Marc Faber expects a debt agreement, but nothing that helps in the long run. He tells King World News:
“Yes, I’m sure there will be an agreement, but it doesn’t solve the fundamental problem of excessive debt and of further, very substantial deficits. They’ll iron out something with lots of compromises and with spending cuts that are backloaded, in other words they won’t happen ... (more)
There are 5 days until the default date of August 2nd. How will this affect everyday Americans? While Obama and Boehner play chicken Jim Rogers, co-founder of Quantum fund, sounds off on the economic issue. Is this a political charade?
A one-time limited GAO audit of the Federal Reserve that was mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act has uncovered some eye-popping corruption at the Fed and the mainstream media is barely even covering it. It turns out that the Federal Reserve made $16.1 trillion in secret loans to their bankster friends during the financial crisis. You can read a copy of the GAO investigation for yourself right here. These loans only went to the "too big to fail" ba... (more)
Short animation arguing for re-introduction of gold as money because of its independence. Written and narrated by Dominic Frisby. Animated by Pola Gruszka. Sponsored by Gold Resource Corporation.
We’re often told that the budget can’t be cut without all of us sacrificing. This is used as a rationale to raise taxes. But it need not be that way.
After all, aren’t we also told that everyone benefits from the government? Surely the poor do, or so we hear. And the middle class? Of course we all are blessed to have the federal government be as active and large as it is. That’s what it’s mainly there for, all the politicians tell us.
Yesterday I read about a new company called Alta Bicycle Share in Forbes magazine. The service is pretty simple: At docking stations users can rent bikes with the swipe of a credit card.
Immediate problems with the service come to mind. Personally, I don't commute with a bike and neither do most people. The Zipcar service is one thing, but a rentable ... (more)
Ludwig von Mises noted that by calling their program "welfare" the economic interventionists slanted the debate in their favor, for who could oppose such a thing? Everyone wants welfare in the broad sense. Indeed, the "general welfare" is a principle, however confused, affixed in the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution.
Today, welfare has lost its rhetorical advantage. Ever since the bipartisan welfare reform of the 1990s, the word "welfare" has not had the positive c... (more)
Before the US House of Representatives, Statement on the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act, July 19, 2011
Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak against HR 2560, the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act. This bill only serves to sanction the status quo by putting forth a $1 trillion budget deficit and authorizing a $2.4 trillion increase in the debt limit.
When I say this bill sanctions the status quo, I mean it quite literally.
Doug Casey on protecting yourself from US tyranny.
Foreign exchange controls will almost certainly attempt to keep you and your wealth under US government control, to be plundered. You must go international to diversify away from this mounting political risk. And do not fear: Most other parts of the world are both safer and mellower for you and you... (more)
As part of its most recent issue the New Yorker has released a must read interview with Ray Dalio – head of the world’s biggest hedge fund, Bridgewater.
Dalio’s fund, which according to some may now be as large as $80 billion, continues to outperform even in this problematic environment, indicating that unlike various other managers who shall rem... (more)
Is America really broke? Michael Moore (and others) tells us that there are oceans of cash being hoarded by the wealthy. But Iowahawk (iowahawk.typepad.com) did a little addition, and armed with these statistics Bill and the 'Hawk blow a hole in the "hoarding" lie big enough to fit a documentary filmmaker through.
This video explains how the government could steal basically everything and it wouldn't even fund the state for a year. - Chris
"The guy keeps making speeches about redistribution and maybe we ought to do something to businesses that don't invest, their holding too much money. We haven't heard that kind of talk except from pure socialists. Everybody's afraid of the government and there's no need soft peddling it, it's the truth. It is the truth. And that's true of Democratic businessman and Republican businessman, and I am a Democratic businessman and I support Harry Reid. I support Democrats and Republicans. And I'm tel... (more)
FLOWER MOUND, Texas - A little-known Texas law and a foreclosure could have a man in Flower Mound living on easy street.
Flower Mound's Waterford Drive is lined with well-manicured $300,000 homes. So, when a new neighbor moved in without the usual sale, mortgage-paying homeowners had a few questions.
"What paperwork is it and how is it legally binding if he doesn't legally own the house?" said Leigh Lowrie, a neighboring resident. "He just squats there."
This is the most amazing soda store ever and the owner is a free market hero! But don't get him started on the evils of government "regulations!"
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John Nese is the proprietor of Galcos Soda Pop Stop in LA. His father ran it as a grocery store, and when the time came for John to take charge, he decided to convert it into the ultimate soda-lovers destinat... (more)
Online commerce will soon be 10 percent of all retail, and it is growing at an exponential rate. We click and pay, and, if it's not a digital good, the good arrives at our home a few days later. Remember "allow six to eight weeks for delivery?" That's gone. Everything comes fast. And if it isn't in stock, we are notified. When it is shipped, we are notified. We can track our packages online, following them stop by stop.
The goods go straight from the manufacturer to the warehouse ... (more)
I have been forecasting with near certainty that QE2 would not be the end of the Fed's money-printing program. My suspicions were confirmed in both the Fed minutes on Tuesday and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's semi-annual testimony to Congress yesterday. The former laid out the conditions upon which a new round of inflation would be launched, and the latter re-emphasized – in case anyone still doubted – that Mr. Bernanke has no regard for the principles of a sound currency.
