Sierra Madre Precious Metals

Great Depression photo by Library of Congress

People love to say, “Times are different now.” Sure, technology has advanced, and we’re not waiting in bread lines, but human nature hasn’t changed.

Money mistakes today look a lot like money mistakes back then. People overspend, rack up debt, ignore risks, and assume good times will last forever.

The Great Depression taught a generation the hard way that financial security isn’t guaranteed. Continue reading →

Much attention has been focused on US gold reserves in recent days, especially the stockpile in Fort Knox. While Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dismissed the possibility of revaluing the stash of gold to market levels, an analyst said that would be bullish for prices, which have already been on a tear. Continue reading →

Apparently our government cannot explain how 4.7 trillion dollars was spent. Are you kidding me? A stack of 4.7 trillion one dollar bills would reach all the way to the Moon and part of the way back. This is yet another example of why we desperately need the Department of Government Efficiency. Continue reading →

Auditing Fort Knox gold reserves is “several decades overdue,” says a sound money advocacy group executive.

Aurick Goldfinger

Tech billionaire Elon Musk indicated that Fort Knox, the Kentucky-based facility famous for storing U.S. gold reserves, could be investigated.

“Looking for the gold at Fort Knox,” Musk wrote on social media platform X on Feb. 18. “Who is confirming that gold wasn’t stolen from Fort Knox? Maybe it’s there, maybe it’s not. This gold is the property of the American people. I sure hope it’s still there!” Continue reading →

At its September 2024 meeting, the Fed’s FOMC cut the target federal funds rate by a historically large 50 basis points and then justified this cut on the grounds that “The Committee has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 percent, and judges that the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals are roughly in balance.”

The FOMC again cut the target rate in November and then again in December. Each time, the FOMC’s official statement said something to the effect of “[price] inflation is headed to two percent. Specifically, the November statement said “[Price inflation] has made progress toward the Committee’s 2 percent objective.” The December statement said exactly the same thing. Continue reading →

President Trump has ordered the U.S. Mint to stop producing pennies. The reason is that it’s too costly to produce them. It costs the Mint nearly four cents to produce one penny.

The penny phenomenon is good example of what the federal government — and, specifically, the Federal Reserve — has done to our money.

Ever since the Fed and a paper-money system were established in 1913 and the 1930s, the Fed has destroyed the value and stability of American money. Continue reading →

What’s Responsible for Third World Economic Problems: The Monetary System or Dishonesty?

In a video of Jayant Bhandari at a Hans Hoppe conference – Property and Freedom Society (2024) – titled “Understanding India.” To summarize, he mentioned a number of cultural ideologies and mindsets he experienced in India which were totally different to what he experienced when he first came to the Western world. The contrast was so great that he had a culture shock when he came to the West and he did not know how to react.

When listening to the video, however, I kept thinking, “Surely, he is talking about Africa! He must mean Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, right?” I double-checked the title of the video to verify that he was, in fact, talking about India. What struck me, particularly as an African, was how many similarities there seemed to be between the cultural ideologies and thinking of the two regions. Here is a summary of some of the traits… Continue reading →

“They call me Mister Jones” – HUH?

The U.S. government has been wasting money in some of the most bizarre ways imaginable. Some of the examples that I am about to share with you are likely to make you feel sick.

Wasting colossal piles of our tax dollars would be bad enough if we were running a balanced budget, but that is certainly not the case. We have been adding trillions of dollars to the national debt each year, and our federal government is now more than 36 trillion dollars in debt. So the truth is that we have had to borrow the money that we have been recklessly Continue reading →