Did you see what just happened? The devaluation of the yuan by China triggered the largest one day drop for that currency in the modern era. This caused other global currencies to crash relative to the U.S. dollar, the price of oil hit a six year low, and stock markets all over the world were rattled. The Dow fell 212 points on Tuesday, and Apple stock plummeted another 5 percent. As we hurtle toward the absolutely critical months of September and October, the unraveling of the global fi... (more)
Dan Price, the CEO of Gravity Payments, took a $930,000 pay cut to raise the minimum salary of his employees to $70,000. The plan was announced in April 2015, and set to be completed over the course of three years. Both his employees (especially the ones with a larger pay increase) and proponents of income equality celebrated the move. It garnered considerable publicity and rippled through social media, with mostly positive but some negative reactions.
Over the past few years observing changes in Federal Reserve interest rate policy has been a little like watching paint dry or grass grow...only not as exciting. That's because the Fed has not changed its benchmark Fed Funds rate since 2008 (Federal Reserve, FOMC). So with nothing else to talk about, Fed observers have focused on the minute changes in language that are included in Fed Policy statements. The minuscule revision in the July statement was the inclusion of the word "additional" to th... (more)
Frontrunner Donald Trump's plan to radically reduce income taxes will bolster his popularity with the American people.
In his book, "Time to Get Tough: Making America #1 Again," published in 2011, and updated for the 2016 campaign, Trump put forward a plan to transform the government's expropriation of income and wealth.
... (more)
That’s right: the Federal Reserve is now in the business of enforcing the U.S. government’s drug laws, even if that means making a mockery of both state governments' right to set their own drug policies and the Fed’s own governing statutes.
The Fed’s involvement in drug prohibition became official last month, when the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City informed Denver’s Fourth Corner Credit Union -- a non-profit cooperative formed by Colorado’s state-licensed cannabis manufactu... (more)
Is the United States economy recovering - or are we being lied to by the mainstream establishment? Why has Gold recently hit a five year low despite long term predictions of it's rise in value? Are the government statistics on inflation accurate? What does the future hold for the US Dollar? Why has the Dollar strengthened and how will this play out in the long... (more)
Three months ago, the CEO of Gravity Payments, a Seattle credit card processing firm, announced that all of the firm’s employees would be paid a minimum of $70,000 a year, according to this story. Now, the firm has fallen on hard times, and some of the firm’s “higher valued” employees have quit. One employee who quit said, "He gave raises to people who ha... (more)
While the world can count dozens of important currencies, when it comes to top line financial and investment discussions, the currency marketplace really comes down to a one-on-one cage match between the two top contenders: the U.S. Dollar and the Euro.
In recent years the contest has become a blowout, with the Dollar pummeling the Euro into apparent submission. Based on the turmoil created by the European Debt Crisis and the continuing problems in Greece and other overly indebted... (more)
A Florida man searching for treasure from a Spanish fleet of ships which shipwrecked off the coast of Florida in 1715 found 1$ million worth of gold coins and chains on the ocean seabed.
Earlier this week, we wrote about fairly damning new evidence that almost certainly shows that the song "Happy Birthday" is in the public domain, and not, as Warner Music's Warner/Chappell claims, still covered by a copyright that it holds (and ruthlessly enforces). The evidence was in the form of a 1922 songbook that ... (more)
Liberals signed a petition to address “income inequality” by imposing a 10% “male privilege tax” on all men in the latest Mark Dice ‘man on the street’ video which illustrates how much leftists are divorced from reality.
Asked to support an additional 10% tax on men’s income, one woman responded, “I’ll definitely sign for that,” before adding, ... (more)
Don’t tell Jim Grant, the publisher of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, that gold is a hedge.
The author and publisher said the metal is much more dynamic; providing a trifecta of price, value and sentiment, and investors should have exposure to it.
“[G]old is an investment in monetary and financial disorder – not a hedge. You look around the world and you see exchange rates are properly disorderly, when you look around the world of lending and borrowing -
In his July 17th Blog, Let's Get Real About Gold, author and Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig likened investor interest in gold with the "Pet Rock" craze of the 1970's, when consumers became convinced that a rock in a box would provide continuous companionship, elevate their social standing, and give them something hip to talk about at parties. Zweig asserts that investor faith in gold, which he... (more)
While Greece is now dominating the debt default stage, the real tragedy is playing out much closer to home, with the downward spiral of Puerto Rico. As in Greece, the Puerto Rican economy has been destroyed by its participation in an unrealistic monetary system that it does not control and the failure of domestic politicians to confront their own insolvency. But the damage done to the Puerto Rican economy by the United States has been far more debilitating than whatever damage the European Union... (more)
