02.19.13- The Paradigm Shift Dilemma
Nelson Hultberg

Paradigms are mega-systems of thought that explain certain realms of reality so as to shift mankind toward new visions. For example, mercantilism, Lockean limited government, species evolution, Pasteurian medicine, quantum physics, Keynesian economics and welfare-state politics are paradigms that developed in their respective fields over the past several centuries. History is a continual process of shifting toward new paradigms in which the established thought of society is dramatically altered.

Paradigm shifts can be either positive or negative. When positive, these shifts are the manifestations of truth's discovery and a better way of life. But in bringing about a better way of life, they also create a powerful dilemma for those who find themselves on the wrong side of the shift. Read More

02.18.13- 20 percent of Americans now receiving food stamps
My Budget 360

Lost in the tireless cheerleading for the stock market which in reality, is largely a sophisticated sham for most Americans, we had a report from the Department of Agriculture that should put things into perspective.  In the latest release of data for November 2012 (released in February 2013), the report noted that 141,067 Americans were added to the food stamp program known as SNAP.  This is a massive increase at a time when the stock market is soaring to near record highs.  For the record, the S&P 500 went up 0.28% for the month of November while we added a stunning 141,067 Americans in the same month to the food stamp program.  This brings our current total to 47.69 million Americans that now rely on food stamps.  To highlight our growing structural issues we now have a mind jarring 20 percent of our civilian non-institutional population on food stamps.  What does this truly say about our economy? Read More

02.16.13- Guns And Ammo Production Maxed Out: "This is a Society Preparing For War"
Mac Slavo

President Barack Obama is, arguably, the best gun salesman ever. Over 65 million guns have been purchased since the President took office in 2009. FBI background check statistics indicate that, over the last twelve months, Americans purchased a new gun every 1.5 seconds, a figure which suggests there is much more to the recent panic buying than people just stocking up to go hunting or sports shooting.

The following guns and ammo industry report indicates that every major gun and ammunition manufacturer in the country is running at 100% capacity, with many so far behind that they’ve stopped taking new orders altogether. Read More

02.15.13- Reading the Tea Leaves
Dennis Miller

Eight percent is not good news. Last week I shared some reader feedback from our inflation survey, and in case you missed it, the Money Forever Reader Poll Inflation Rate is 8%. But what does that number really mean for us – seniors and savers trying to protect our buying power? It's time to read the tea leaves and find out.

Up to Your Ass in Alligators

You may remember the old poster that read, "When you are up to your ass in alligators, it's tough to remember the goal was to drain the swamp." You may have felt overwhelmed during the last few years, as the investment options for your retirement portfolio changed. You might read about the benefits of gold and silver one day, then CDs, dividend-paying stocks, and annuities the next. It's pretty easy to feel overwhelmed, particularly when you cannot afford to put too much of your life savings at risk. Read More

02.14.13- There Will Be No Economic Recovery. Prepare Yourself Accordingly.
Stefan Molyneux

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02.13.13- Currency Wars Are Evil
Axel Merk

Real people may die when countries engage in “currency wars.” Countries debasing their currencies risk, amongst others: loss of competitiveness, social unrest, war.

We discuss not only why we believe currency wars are evil, but also what investors may be able to do about them.

Loss of competitiveness

The illusory benefit of a weaker currency is to boost corporate earnings as companies increase their exports. That may well be true for the next quarterly earnings report, but ignores that their competitive position may be weakening. The clearest evidence of this is the increased vulnerability to takeovers from abroad. As the value of the U.S. dollar has been eroding, for example, Chinese companies are increasingly buying U.S. assets. The U.S. is selling its family silver in an effort to support consumption. Read More

02.12.13- Why The Banking Elite Want Riots In America
Paul Joseph Watson

Every indication clearly suggests that authorities in the United States are preparing for widespread civil unrest. This trend has not emerged by accident – it is part of a tried and tested method used by the banking elite to seize control of nations, strip them of their assets, and absorb them into the new world order.

There is a crucial economic imperative as to why the elite is seeking to engineer and exploit social unrest.

As respected investigative reporter Greg Palast exposed in 2001, the global banking elite, namely the World Bank and the IMF, have honed a technique that has allowed them to asset-strip numerous other countries in the past – that technique has come to be known at the "IMF riot." Read More

02.11.13- The Economics and
Politics of Taxation
JR Nyquist

Recently, in his annual State of the State Address, California Governor Jerry Brown congratulated the California legislature on balancing the state's budget. How was this done? It was accomplished by budget cuts and tax increases. Standing before the state legislature Brown said, "Against those who take pleasure in seeing our demise, California did the impossible. You, the legislature, did it. You cast difficult votes to cut billions…. Then the citizens of California … embraced the new taxes of Proposition 30 by a healthy margin of 55 to 40 percent." Read More

03.09.13- Venezuela Launches First Nuke In Currency Wars, Devalues Currency By 46%
Tyler Durden

(Editor's Note: For those of you (or your friends that just don't get it) that believe that this couldn't happen here, get ready, 'cause here it comes. - JSB)

While the rest of the developed world is scrambling here and there, politely prodding its central bankers to destroy their relative currencies, all the while naming said devaluation assorted names, "quantitative easing" being the most popular, here comes Venezuela and shows the banana republics of the developed world what lobbing a nuclear bomb into a currency war knife fight looks like:

  • VENEZUELA DEVALUES FROM 4.30 TO 6.30 BOLIVARS
  • VENEZUELA NEW CURRENCY BODY TO MANAGE DOLLAR INFLOWS
  • CARACAS CONSUMER PRICES ROSE 3.3% IN JAN. Read More

02.08.13- The U.S. Economy Is Now Dangerously Detached From Reality
Brandon Smith

Recently I was asked to give a presentation on the current state of the global economy to a local group of concerned citizens here in Northwest Montana.  I was happy to oblige but when composing my bullet points I realized that, in truth, there were no legitimate economic numbers to examine anymore.  You see, financial analysts have traditionally used multiple indicators of employment, profit, savings, credit, supply, and demand in their efforts to divine the often obscured facts of our financial system.  The problem is, nearly every index we used in the past, every measure of capital flow and industry, is absolutely useless today. Read More

02.07.13- The Threat of Silence
Ryan Gallagher

Meet the groundbreaking new encryption app set to revolutionize privacy and freak out the feds

For the past few months, some of the world’s leading cryptographers have been keeping a closely guarded secret about a pioneering new invention. Today, they’ve decided it’s time to tell all.

Back in October, the startup tech firm Silent Circle ruffled governments’ feathers with a “surveillance-proof” smartphone app to allow people to make secure phone calls and send texts easily. Now, the company is pushing things even further—with a groundbreaking encrypted data transfer app that will enable people to send files securely from a smartphone or tablet at the touch of a button. (For now, it’s just being released for iPhones and iPads, though Android versions should come soon.) That means photographs, videos, spreadsheets, you name it—sent scrambled from one person to another in a matter of seconds. Read More

02.06.13- The World is Heading into World War III
Gerald Celente

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02.05.13- 3D Printing of Guns at Home Making Gun Grabbers Nervous
Bob Adelmann

When the New York Times wrote of the improved technology of 3D printing this writer responded with a frivolous blog about it, scoring the concerns of anti-gun people about how the technology will allow everyone who wants one to have a gun without government oversight or knowledge. One of those in the anti-gun camp is Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, who said that 3D printing is "going to be a big concern. We don't know how that's going to come about and don't know what technology." Read More

02.05.13- Bankrupt, Decaying And Nearly Dead
Michael Snyder

If you want to know what the future of America is going to be like, just look at the city of Detroit.  Once upon a time it was a symbol of everything that America was doing right, but today it has been transformed into a rotting, decaying, post-apocalyptic hellhole.

Detroit was once the fourth-largest city in the United States, and in 1960 Detroit had the highest per-capita income in the entire nation.  It was the greatest manufacturing city the world had ever seen, and the rest of the globe looked at Detroit with a sense of awe and wonder. Read More

02.04.13- What We Now Know
David Galland

Dear Readers,

It is said that death and taxation are the only certainties in life.

Expanding on that list, however, we also know there are "physical laws" derived from extensive observations, in some cases dating back to antiquity. For example, sticking fingers in fires will result in unpleasantness.

Then there is the realm of what one might call "common knowledge." For example, the historical record makes it appear certain that, universally, power corrupts the human mind, and the greater the power, the greater the corruption.

For a relevant example, look no further than Kim Jong-Il, who at an early age evidenced what psychologists term the "big six" personality disorders commonly shared by dictators: sadistic, paranoid, anti-social, narcissistic, with schizoid and schizotypal thrown in for good measure. Read More

02.02.13- Weekend Rant: Newsflash to Psychiatry: a Human Being is Not a Thing
Jon Rappoport

The ability to separate components of a machine, to increase the efficiency and power of each component, to link up all the elements in smoother ways; this is one of the hallmarks of the technological society.

And when the current machine is superseded by a new one, the process of improving efficiency starts all over again.

But a human being is not a machine, because consciousness is not a machine. Read More

02.01.13- The Iron Law of Investing (ILOI)
Richard Daughty, The Mogambu Guru

The whole distressing thing is a big stink about nothing. It started because of The Economist magazine, which unfortunately tends towards that whole ridiculous Keynesian crapola, but which nevertheless, and, I might add, quite paradoxically, had a very interesting article buried on page 75 titled "New Model army."

First off, I immediately involuntarily laughed the famous Mogambo Laughter of Scorn And Contempt (MLOSAC) at this stupidity of "improving macroeconomic models," my voice dripping with undisguised scorn and contempt, as is implied in the title, which was, in case you forgot, Mogambo Laughter of Scorn And Contempt (MLOSAC). Read More

01.31.13- "Marxism in America"
Lt. Gen. (Ret.) W.G. Boykin

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01.30.13- Can you imagine — a place with ZERO property tax?
Darren Kaiser

sov·er·eign·ty
n. pl. ·ties

1. The quality of having independent authority over a certain geographic area.
2. A territory existing as an independent state.

Human beings have always striven to achieve sovereignty. It’s in our nature.

Like animals in the wild, we humans began our long climb to modernity by securing sources of food. Clean water. Land. Energy. Building materials. Eventually, even self-governance.

Yet as our advancement perpetuated, the rights of the individual slowly degraded. Perhaps nowhere is this clearer than with individual property rights… and specifically, with property taxes. Read More

01.29.13- Media and Politicians Firing Blanks
Brian Wilson

In advance of the introduction of her New and Improved "Assault Weapons Ban 2013", Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Duh-Absurdistan) was tweeting "Weapons of war do not belong on our streets". That might come as a shock to the Tampa PD and other state and local police folks who take great pride parading their new toys of citizen intimidation (acquired with a helping fistful of your taxpayer dollars courtesy of the DHS) that have become paramount in their local WOOP (War On Overtime Parking). Hey! You never can tell when violent, terrorist-sponsored jaywalking may break out. Unexpectedly.

With visions of Waco dancing in their heads, a bullet-proof Public Service vehicle like this could come in mighty handy. Jehovah's Witnesses armed with the latest issues of the Watchtower and Awake! have been known to be courteously relentless in their magazine distribution ministries. Read More

01.28.13- How To Avoid The Obamacare Death Trap
Bob Livingston

We are less than one year out from healthcare tyranny under the oligarchy-endorsed Obamacare.

It's very deceptive to call Obamacare socialized medicine. The law has nothing to do with healthcare. It's just the opposite. It's sickness care. The Nazis had their gas chambers and America has "medical care," which is the most sophisticated killing machine that demented minds can create.

Americans are mentally dependent on the "medical" brainwash. When our dumbed-down people hear the trigger word "medical care," they go blind and hyperventilate. Read More

01.26.13- What Can the Gun-Control Debate Teach Us About Low Probability Events?
Vedran Vuk

After the tragic events at Sandy Hook Elementary, I said to a friend of mine, "People have to stay armed in case the government ever becomes overly tyrannical." My friend gave an annoyed response that I've heard a million times: "Well, that's not going to happen. The government isn't going to become tyrannical."

To a certain extent, he's right. I seriously doubt that you'll ever need to use your firearm to fight your own government. Let's hope that you don't. It's a very low-probability event. But then again, ironically, so was the shooting at Sandy Hook. Read More

01.25.13- The Morality of Money
Doug Casey

Louis: Doug, let's talk about money. Is it all you care about?

Doug: No…just because I see the high moral value of money doesn't mean it's all-important to me. In fact, I find money less and less important as time goes by, the older I get. Perhaps that's a function of Maslow's hierarchy: If you're hungry, food is all you really care about; if you're freezing, then it's warmth; and so forth. If you have enough money, these basics aren't likely to be problems.

My most enjoyable times have had absolutely nothing to do with money. Like a couple times in the past when I hopped freight trains with a friend, once to Portland and once to Sacramento. Read More

01.24.13- The "Majority Opinion" Is An Illusion
Brandon Smith

If there is one concept on Earth that has been the absolute bane of human existence (besides global elitism), it would have to be the concept of the "majority opinion".  The moment men began refusing to develop their own world views without first asking "What does everyone else think?", they set themselves up for an endless future of failures. We are, of course, very social beings, and our natures drive us to seek those of like mind and spirit in what some might call a "tribal imperative".  However, this imperative to organize is often manipulated by those who understand the psychological mechanisms behind it.  Oligarchs and tyrants abuse and exploit the inherent social natures of the people in order to fool them into abandoning their individuality for the sake of the group, or some abstract and dishonest ideal.  When successful, the organization of a culture becomes bitter and twisted, changing from a tribe or a community of sovereign individuals, into a nightmare collective of soulless sheep. Read More

01.23.13- The Hidden Inflation
Robert M. Williams

 

Back in 1980 the US experienced high inflation, close to 20% and with interest rates in excess of 18%, before the Fed finally got things under control. Companies had to raise prices and sales suffered as a result. In today’s world we are experiencing inflation, but it’s a lot harder to see. The government has changed the weighting of its inflationary indexes so the true effects aren’t reported. We also have more subtle ways of hiding inflation. Companies have learned not to raise prices since everyone can see that. Instead they’ve learned to quietly cut back on content while maintaining prices at previous levels. Read More

01.22.13- Good Money and Bad Money
Don Stott

Good money or bad money?  Obviously, the only really good money, is gold and silver, but this is about the world's unbacked paper currencies, none of which are worth more than the paper they are printed on, if the truth be known.  However, let's speak about dollars, both good and bad. 

Good dollars, are used for making a profit, providing jobs, and prosperity.  Good dollars, buy factories, farms, inventions, homes, businesses, cars. trucks, airplanes, locomotives, telephones, television sets, and the like.  These good dollars, hire people, pay wages, and the sale, making, or buying of these things, is the way an economy thrives, grows, and provides happiness.  Risks are taken continually, and some lose their shirts, while others grow rich, but the majority live peacefully, and are content.  That is known as "Capitalism." Read More

01.21.13- Slow Motion Train Wreck…
Simon Black

There’s a funny take on the Fiscal Cliff floating around the Internet that several of our keen subscribers have passed along.

Like most things floating around the Internet, though, the details are inaccurate. So I’ve gone back and modified the parody with accurate numbers, and a bit more plot. What follows is 100% accurate based on 2012/2013 data:

  • 2012 US Tax Revenue: $2,469,000,000,0002012
  • Federal budget: $3,796,000,000,000
  • 2012 Budget deficit: $1,327,000,000,000
  • US Federal Debt as of January 18, 2013: $16,432,620,067,491
  • Total interest paid on the debt in 2012: $359,796,008,919
  • Budget increase/decrease between 2012 and 2013: $38,500,000,000 INCREASE Read More

01.19.13- The Fuse is Lit: An American Reckoning
The Victory Report

 

 

Politicians have gone mad. The US is defined by its leaderless political class, marching the masses toward chaos and destruction . . . but don’t you worry . . . the elite will be there to save the day, or at least pick up the shattered pieces of a once great nation! Read More

 

01.18.13- Do You Want To Scare A Baby Boomer?
Michael Snyder

If you want to frighten Baby Boomers, just show them the list of statistics in this article. The United States is headed for a retirement crisis of unprecedented magnitude, and we are woefully unprepared for it. At this point, more than 10,000 Baby Boomers are reaching the age of 65 every single day, and this will continue to happen for almost the next 20 years.

The number of senior citizens in America is projected to more than double during the first half of this century, and some absolutely enormous financial promises have been made to them. So will we be able to keep those promises to the hordes of American workers that are rapidly approaching retirement? Of course not. Read More

01.17.13- Did the Whole Thing Seem a Little Fishy? The Sandy Hook Shooting - Fully Exposed
ThinkOutsideTheTV

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'Bury Your Guns at Wounded Knee.'
Gary North

December 29, 2012 marked the 122nd Anniversary of the murder of 297 Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. These 297 people, in their winter camp, were murdered by federal agents and members of the 7th Cavalry who had come to confiscate their firearms “for their own safety and protection.” The slaughter began after the majority of the Sioux had peacefully turned in their firearms. The Calvary began shooting, and managed to wipe out the entire camp. 200 of the 297 victims were women and children. About 40 members of the 7th Cavalry were killed, but over half of them were victims of fratricide from the Hotchkiss guns of their overzealous comrades-in-arms. Twenty members of the 7th Cavalry’s death squad, were deemed “National Heroes” and were awarded the Medal of Honor for their acts of [cowardice] heroism. Read More

01.15.13- Can You Guess Who I Am?
Komorusan

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01.14.13- Wyoming Bill Would Nullify Obama Gun Control, Jail Feds
Alex Newman

As the Obama administration plots various assaults on gun rights by "executive order" and legislation, proposals described as "very extreme" even by some Democrats, state lawmakers in Wyoming have another idea. Republican legislators are rallying behind nullification legislation that would void unconstitutional infringements on the right to keep and bear arms, even providing prison time for any federal agents who may try to enforce Washington, D.C., gun control in the state. Lawmakers expect it to pass.

The new bill, H.B. 0104 or the "Firearms Protection Act," would nullify any new federal infringements on the constitutionally protected gun rights of state residents — who enjoy some of the lowest crime rates while being among the most heavily armed people in America. Unconstitutional federal gun registration schemes, as well as restrictions on semi-automatic guns or standard-capacity magazines, would also be nullified under the legislation. Read More

01.12.13- Mexican drug cartels celebrate US gun control / gun grab
Jon Rappoport

The best way to depict what’s going on in America is through a letter from the head of the Sinaloa Drug Cartel, to President Obama.

In case people are ready to assume this letter is real, it isn’t, but the spirit of it is very true and very real:

Dear President Obama,

Let me begin by saying that you can count on us to support your efforts in disarming American citizens in any way we can.

The Fast and Furious operation backfired a bit in this regard, but I’m glad to see it hasn’t stopped you. Read More

A Silver Nightmare
Charles Savoie

"The Seizure Of The wealth necessary"

"The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor" is an account by admiral Robert Theobald as to how Franklin Roosevelt allowed the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor to be excuse for America to enter World War II on the side of England. In "The Pilgrims of Great Britain," 2002, pages 30-31, the group states they organized building the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial Statue in Grosvenor Square, London. The Chicago Tribune, December 6, 1945, reported that The Earl of Jowitt, who became Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain in 1945, said of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, "thank God for that," naturally the Tribune left out that Jowitt was a member of The Pilgrims of Great Britain. Thomas Kean, who chaired the 911 Commission, is a member of The Pilgrims of the United States) Read More

01.10.13- Orwell's Nightmare – the Darker Side of Modern Technology
Doug Casey

Louis: Doug, that article you emailed about – the one on California cops being able to apply advanced facial recognition technology to everyone in public – is pretty scary. They're planning the same in Iowa. Shades of Orwell's 1984. But you've said you're a techno-optimist – are you still?

Doug: Well, I'm an optimist on the future of technology. But the way a lot of it is going to be applied by people in government is a different question. The current developments are quite disturbing, especially the emerging capability of police to use cameras and computers to scan millions and millions of people and identify individuals in seconds. They say it's to track sex offenders or catch terrorists, but what's clearly at stake here is the universal monitoring of everyone all the time – just like in 1984. The bad news is that it's here now, and spreading around the world. Read More

01.09.13- If They Come for Your Guns, Do You Have a Responsibility to Fight?
Dean Garrison

I feel a tremendous responsibility to write this article though I am a little apprehensive. Thinking about the possibility of rising up against our own government is a frightening thing for many of us. I am not Johnny Rambo and I will be the first to admit that I do not want to die. The reason I feel compelled to write this, however, is simply because I don’t think the average American is equipped with the facts. I feel that a lot of American citizens feel like they have no choice but to surrender their guns if the government comes for them. Read More

01.08.13- Control
Ol' Remus

There is only one way to shorten and ease the convulsions of the old society and the bloody birth pangs of the new  — revolutionary terror.
- Karl Marx

To overcome our enemies we must have our own socialist militarism. We must carry along with us 90 million out of the 100 million of Soviet Russia's population. As for the rest, we have nothing to say to them. They must be annihilated.
- Grigory Zinoviev, head of the Communist International, 1918, purged and executed in 1936 Read More

01.07.13- Ready? Let's all pretend Collectivism doesn't exist
Jon Rappoport

Let’s all get together and pretend Collectivism doesn’t exist, it’s an outmoded idea, and only the USSR ever took it seriously.

Actually, denying the reality of Collectivism is already a powerful collectivist movement in America. It has been for some time.

There is a good reason for this. The word collectivism has hideous connotations. It suggests that political power, at the top of the food chain, intends to hold down people who can make a living on their own.

It suggests that these entrepreneurs, especially if they can garner significant profits from their efforts, are evil and selfish. They are intentionally screwing over "the less fortunate." Read More

Tis The Season for Open Treason
TheAlexJonesChannel

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01.04.13- 911 New 10-minute Showcase Video
Richard Gage

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01.03.13- Graphene: From Nobel Prize to investment opportunity
247Bull.com

Graphene is a revolutionary new material that has the potential to change almost every aspect of our lives. This article examines what graphene is, how it's likely to impact our lives, and how to profit from it.

What is graphene?

Graphene was discovered in 2004 by Dr Kostya Novoselov and Andre Geim who used sticky tape to peel away individual layers of graphite. What the two British scientists discovered was graphene, the world's first two-dimensional material and also the thinnest structure ever obtained. This discovery at the University of Manchester won them the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics. Read More

01.02.13- Perception, Act Like a Slave, Be Treated Like a Slave
Szandor Blestman

We, as a species, like to label things. We seem to like to be able to slap a label on something so that when we talk about things we have an idea about what's being talked about. This works well for physical things like plants, animals or minerals, but it can be a bit lacking when talking about not so physical things like political philosophies. People like to label someone like me, someone who doesn't fit into any of their prefabricated political party holes, so to speak, as a libertarian, an minarchist, a constitutionalist, or some other label. I like to think of myself as an individualist as opposed to a collectivist. I also like to think of myself as an abolitionist, though the vast majority of Americans would believe that such a label is unnecessary as slavery was ended by Abraham Lincoln back in 1865 at the end of the War of Northern Aggression. I would say that no one is as enslaved as the person who believes he is free when he is not. Slavery has just become more subtle and the masters have changed. Read More

01.01.13- You Know How This Ends Right? This Ends Through War.
Mac Slavo

In 2006, when Americans were flying high on ever-expanding credit and double digit real estate growth, hedge fund manager Kyle Bass came to the conclusion that something was very wrong. He and his investors determined that a massive real estate bubble was forming in sub-prime mortgages. But rather than just making a prediction, they put their money where their mouth was, and took a $4 billion gamble that the real estate market was about to detonate.

At the time, many in the industry and within financial circles thought him crazy. Read More

12.31.12- David Collum: We're Headed for a Showdown
Adam Taggart

(Editor's Note: The Federal Government has descended into a lawless cabal of megalomaniacs attended by minions of self absorbed lackeys. There is no hope of this condition improving itself without making each and every participant accountable. This accountability will not be rendered by polite requests. - JSB)

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,
The jails are made of tin.
And you can walk right out again,
As soon as you are in.

Harry McClintock, Big Rock Candy Mountain (1928) Read More

12.29.12- IRA Misconceptions Increase Risk
Rob Gray

(Editor's Note: Please understand that this article is not written to provide tax or legal advice and we are not attempting to provide any such advice. In fact, it disgusts me to think that you need to “figure out the system” to secure what is already yours. This article simply describes Mr. Gray's quest for information and knowledge about IRAs and how this information could help he and his father. - JSB)

A few weeks ago, my father mentioned to me his disgust with the performance of his IRA. My response: “You still have an IRA?? And it’s not in Silver? Are you crazy?!” Read More

 

12.28.12- Try Tuning Out the Craziness
Cam Fitzgerald

There's no doubt that deflationary pressures are still the overriding concern of most Western nations. That deflation itself is at our gate is hardly even debated anymore, as it is now widely acknowledged that the coming wave of baby boomer retirements will lower consumption , hold home values flat in real terms and push up Medicare costs for at least the next decade. Ongoing deleveraging and the prospect of rising savings rates and falling consumption could prove to be very damaging to economic performance while lowering growth and pushing us into recession. Jobs growth is still tepid, and it is difficult to imagine this improving substantially as public debt is finally dealt with at the policy level while taxes rise and program spending is cut. Read More

12.27.12- The Greatest Gift For All
Paul Craig Roberts

Christmas is a time of traditions. If you have found time in the rush before Christmas to decorate a tree, you are sharing in a relatively new tradition. Although the Christmas tree has ancient roots, at the beginning of the 20th century only 1 in 5 American families put up a tree. It was 1920 before the Christmas tree became the hallmark of the season. Calvin Coolidge was the first President to light a national Christmas tree on the White House lawn.

Gifts are another shared custom. This tradition comes from the wise men or three kings who brought gifts to baby Jesus. When I was a kid, gifts were more modest than they are now, but even then people were complaining about the commercialization of Christmas. We have grown accustomed to the commercialization. Christmas sales are the backbone of many businesses. Gift giving causes us to remember others and to take time from our harried lives to give them thought. Read More

12.26.12- Christmas Stuff!
Larry LaBorde

Years ago, late comedian George Carlin did a colorful routine in which he poked fun at our stuff. In the routine, he said that a marriage is a union of two people’s shuff. It was funnier the way he said it, but it rang true.

All of us here in the United States love our stuff. From recent sales figures it seems that most of us like to buy our stuff at Walmart. Unfortunately, Walmart seems to get lots of its stuff from China. (Disclaimer: this is not an article to bash China. On the contrary, I wish the country well in its move towards a free market economy. The recent history - comprised merely of China’s past 300 years - is a fascinating one. Anyone interested in learning a little about how China arrived in its current state would do well to read Clavell’s books Tai-Pan and Noble House. While they are good fiction, they are based on factual events. They examine the political upheavals that helped to shape modern China.) Read More

12.24.12- Tom Cloud: How to Sell Gold Without Reporting It
John Rubino

In this week's talk with National Numismatic Associates' Tom Cloud, he answers two big questions that confront precious metals buyers: Why are sales of some coins and bars reportable to the IRS and others not? And is it possible to buy and sell precious metals confidentially?

Dollar Collapse: Hi Tom. So, what are you hearing from clients this week?

Tom Cloud: A lot of people are asking for British sovereigns, Swiss francs, and Austrian coronas, coins that don't require filing 1099s when you sell them. Read More

12.22.12- Is The US Government going to Seize Retirement Accounts?
RumorMail

The National Deficit, along with the lack of demand for Treasury Bonds, leaves the government with no other option! And what you don't know can hurt you!

Goldworth Financial first uncovered the early blueprint of the US Government's plot to seize retirement accounts in early 2009.

Since that time, they have come up with 9 Basic Questions that expose the people behind this plan.

1. Who's behind the plot to confiscate retirement accounts? Read More
 
     
 

12.21.12- I Fear the Government and the Obedient Sheeple,
More Than I Fear Guns
Scott Lazarowitz

I do not intend to write something here to convince the emotionally hysterical gun-control crowd to abandon their fantasy of removing guns from the world. They live in a fairyland and there appears to be no way to change their minds.

Nor am I trying to even convince the so-called conservatives, the Republicans, the alleged "gun-rights" advocates to stop it with their kowtowing. This is really just a rant (albeit an informed rant). Read More

12.20.12- Agenda Driven News
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

I have known for a long time that US news is agenda-driven. Tonight (December 18) I was made aware of the extent to which agenda-driven US news drives the news of the rest of the world.

For reasons unbeknownst to me, Russia Today Moscow requested a live TV interview via Skype about the Newtown, Connecticut, school shootings that killed 20 young children and several adults. I was interested to know what was Moscow’s interest in the shootings, and I agreed to the interview. Read More

12.19.12- Blood
Ol' REmus

You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.
Rahm Emanuel

Man did not enter society to be worse off, or to have fewer rights, but rather to have those rights better secured.
Thomas Paine

Within hours of the Newtown Connecticut school massacre, the anti-gun partisans were "dancing in the blood of children", as Mr. Vanderboegh puts it. Here are some articles collected the day of the crime, some within a couple of hours of the crime. Their sameness is not accidental. Ezra Klein at the Washington Post is first up because the article reveals and promotes what appears to be an arranged and prepositioned press strategy: forget decency, be quick off the mark and exploit without restraint. Read More

12.18.12- Government, the New Debtors' Prison
Douglas French

An old banking buddy of mine has been out of work for a full year. I met up with him yesterday, and he told me the good news that he has finally found work. It's not enjoyable. But it pays better than sitting at home. His time of unemployment had been doubly tough because his son was also out of work at the same time. The proud father seemed happier that his son had also found a job.

"And since he works for a nonprofit, they will pay his student loan," he said.

"What?" I said, not sure that I was hearing right.

"If you go to work for the government or a nonprofit, they will pay your student loan." Read More

12.17.12- Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke
Matt Taibbi

If you've ever been arrested on a drug charge, if you've ever spent even a day in jail for having a stem of marijuana in your pocket or "drug paraphernalia" in your gym bag, Assistant Attorney General and longtime Bill Clinton pal Lanny Breuer has a message for you: Bite me.

Breuer this week signed off on a settlement deal with the British banking giant HSBC that is the ultimate insult to every ordinary person who's ever had his life altered by a narcotics charge. Despite the fact that HSBC admitted to laundering billions of dollars for Colombian and Mexican drug cartels (among others) and violating a host of important banking laws (from the Bank Secrecy Act to the Trading With the Enemy Act), Breuer and his Justice Department elected not to pursue criminal prosecutions of the bank, opting instead for a "record" financial settlement of $1.9 billion, which as one analyst noted is about five weeks of income for the bank. Read More
 
     
 

12.15.12- Gun Control, People Control and Thought Control
Daniel Greenfield

The gun control debate, like all debates with the left, is reducible to the question of whether we are individuals who make our own decisions or a great squishy social mass that helplessly responds to stimuli. Do people kill with guns or does the availability of guns kill people? Do bad eating habits kill people or does the availability of junk food kill people?

To the left these are distinctions without a difference. If a thing is available then it is the cause of the problem. The individual cannot be held accountable for shooting someone if there are guns for sale. Individuals have no role to play because they are not moral actors, only members of a mob responding to stimuli. Read More