Optimism is creeping back into the gold market, but prices are expected to remain below $1,950 this week

Sentiment in the gold market is slowly shifting back to the bullish side as the precious metal’s resilience in the face of rising bond yields shines through. However, some analysts are warning that there is still insufficient momentum to push gold prices through critical resistance levels. Continue reading →

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The FREAK SHOW: Treasury Increases National Debt By Over $850 Billion in Just One Month

A month ago, the fake debt ceiling fight ended and Congress suspended the federal government’s borrowing limit for two years. Since the debt ceiling deal, the US Treasury has added a staggering $851 billion to the national debt.

Within a week of the debt ceiling suspension, the national debt cracked $32 trillion and as of June 30, it stood at $32.33 trillion. Continue reading →

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What Charles Ponzi’s Scheme and US Entitlement Programs Have in Common

The structure of Charles Ponzi’s scheme must have impressed the policy makers coming of age in the 1930s, because they would use the same structure for the nation’s new Social Security system.

When Charles Ponzi’s investment opportunity to sell international postage stamps was exposed to be a scam in 1920, its basic premise would forever be associated with the man’s name. A Ponzi Scheme promises investors massive returns on an investment that does not really exist. Instead, unknown to everyone but the person or people running it, old investors are paid with money that comes in from new investors. This set up usually goes undetected until the one day when the well of new investors dries up and the money stops flowing in. Continue reading →

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King Andrew and the Bank

Andrew Jackson stares down the national bank and wins.

“Jackson Slaying the Many-Headed Monster,” 1828. Private collection, Peter Newark American Pictures / Bridgeman Art Library

On July l0, 1832, President Andrew Jackson sent a message to the United States Senate. He returned unsigned, with his objections, a bill that extended the charter of the Second Bank of the United States, due to expire in 1836, for another fifteen years. As Jackson drily noted, the bill was presented to him on the Fourth of July, a day freighted with portent.

Today Jackson’s Bank Veto and the political conflagration known as the “Bank War” that it touched off seem arcane and nearly incomprehensible. While misdeeds among the rich and powerful still garner headlines and incite congressional inquiries, the core instruments of our economic system-the network of banks capped by the Federal Reserve; the corporate form of business enterprise; the very dollars in our wallets, issued and guaranteed by the federal government – are utterly taken for granted. That these could have been the subject of controversy, that anyone could seriously contemplate organizing American capitalism differently, seems nearly unthinkable. Andrew Jackson is recalled today, when recalled at all, for other things, primarily as the architect of forced Indian removal. His face on the $20 bill is a mystery to many, an outrage to some, and, to the knowing, a curious irony. (Continue Reading…)

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Hayworth: Congress Must Block Biden-IRS Tax Prep Plan

Ronald Reagan managed to make the ominous sound humorous.

He famously noted, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’”

Reagan may have played it for laughs, but Joe Biden and his bunch hope to use it to take more of your hard-earned money — and procure even more political power.

The Internal Revenue Service — the same bureaucratic entity in the process of adding 87,000 new agents — also plans to expand its duties into the realm of tax preparation.

You read that right. Continue reading →

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Recession? Calm Before The Financial Storm?

Is a recession coming? Is this the calm before the storm? JPMorgan Asset Management Global Head of Fixed Income Bob Michele said that today’s economic climate calls to mind the lull seen in the 2008 financial crisis.

Michele, who manages more than $700 billion worth of assets for JPMorgan, thinks the current financial situation is pretty deceptive. In an interview, he said: “This does remind me an awful lot of that March-to-June period in 2008.”

A recession has been brewing for much of the year. The recent resurgence in the stock market following climbing interest rates and high-profile bank failures is being interpreted by some financial experts as a sign that a recession could be just around the corner. The coming months’ data could end up showing that we are now in that “calm before the storm” phase. Continue reading →

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More Federal Debt Means More Taxes, Less Growth, and Weaker Real Wages

Since 1960, Congress has raised the debt ceiling 78 times, according to Bloomberg. The process of increasing the debt limit has become so regular that markets barely worry about it. Furthermore, as the 2011 debt ceiling crisis showed, the impact on asset prices happened mostly in emerging economies. In 2011, Turkish and Indian debt were the most negatively impacted, while Treasuries rose. Continue reading →

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Sound Money Is Required for Real Budget Discipline

News here in the USA has been full of the latest farce known as raising or not raising the debt ceiling. After the usual dog-and-pony show, a budget deal was reached. But was it progress? It was a foregone conclusion that the debt ceiling would be raised, yet again, for the simple mathematical reason that unless the budget is cut, via spending cuts or increases in taxes, it can do nothing else. Continue reading →

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The Economics of Scrunched Up Cash

Some say the free market can’t be trusted to handle money, but the truth is exactly the opposite. It’s the government that creates problems with money.

As I was going through my wallet the other day I came across a bill that was rather folded and scrunched up. If you are older than 20, you can probably relate. It had obviously changed hands countless times in its life. Somewhere along the way someone must have hastily shoved it into their wallet, giving it creases that remain to this day. Ever since it has been a bother for whoever holds it, decrepit, annoying, and inconvenient.

My first reaction upon discovering this bill was the same as every other person who has ever faced this problem: I need to find an excuse to spend this. If only I could spend it, I thought to myself, then I could get rid of it without taking a loss. Continue reading →

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Social Security ~ It’s YOUR Money – NOT Theirs!

A woman, or man dies at age 65 before collecting one benefit check. She/He and her employer paid into the system for almost 50 years and she collected NOTHING!

Keep in mind all the working people that die every year who were paying into the system and got nothing.

And these governmental morons mismanaged the money and stole from the system, so that it’s now going broke… Continue reading →

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