Russia could initiate a much scarier financial attack on the U.S. than dumping its holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds were America to impose sanctions because of Russia's actions in the Crimea.

...The U.S. is destroying itself through senseless (and expensive) warfare and is no longer dancing around the socialist tar pit—it is now diving in [Obamacare]... It is an empire on the brink of losing its position to the next empire. That much is as clear as day. What we find surprising is that so many Americans cling so desperately to the possibility that a collapse can somehow be avoided and that the U.S. will somehow remain "liveable," or at least that the present standards will continue. [The truth of the matter is, unfortunately, that the U.S. is facing a series of hurdles, followed by a cliff. Let me explain.]

History is testament that there exists monumental probability (76% to 100%) that 2014-2016 will witness impressive gains for Gold, Silver and Precious Metal Equities…across the board. Below are charts of 8 different forms of precious metals assets that show that Golden Crosses are a fait accompli or are about to experience imminent completion thus heralding an immediate new Bull Market and that the forth-coming secular bull markets in all forms of precious metals may well far surpass the forecasts herein stated. The focus of the following analysis is to prove the predictable accuracy and timing of the The Golden Cross.

Once the temporary effects of past & current manipulation of the price of gold subsides we will have a continuation of the bear market in the Dow Jones and a continuation of the bull market in gold. If the secular cycle repeats, we can conclude that the Dow Jones will be priced at an ounce of gold or even less.

Since the U.S. stock market still appears to be trying to make up its mind which way things will go from here, this appears to be as good a time as any to expand on the idea of using the VIX to "buy the freaking dips."

What is taking place around the world these days is analogous to the children's game of Musical Chairs, where everyone is happily going round and round at the beginning of the game but they all know that at some point soon the music will stop and those without a chair to sit in will be out of the game! I see PMs as being the chairs and, when the current financial music stops, those without PMs will be left holding nothing but paper money and history is full of examples of paper money suddenly becoming worthless!

It’s frustrating to see key stock indices keep pushing higher when historically proven market indicators are all warning of a crash ahead. Irrationality is exuberant to say the very least, and that’s why I believe this rally is counting its last days.

Following the 2007-09 financial crisis, many investors decided they needed insurance on their portfolio to protect against the possibility of another “black swan” event and poured money into a host of new funds that were supposed to help if there was another downturn — long/short funds, tail risk strategies, absolute return funds, option hedging strategies, tactical asset allocation funds and the like - but they missed the idea completely. They were trying to plan ahead for uncertain events that could surprise everyone. Of course this is impossible, because you can’t hedge out the risks of unknown events - they’re unknown after all. So how should an investor protect oneself from another such occurrence? The answer is below.

There are so many articles - good and bad - available to read on the internet it is impossible to read them all. Many go under the radar because either the title of the article (an extremely important component) is insufficiently catchy to garner one's attention or, on the particular day they are posted, other articles come to the fore. Below are 8 - still very timely - articles you probably missed.

No two countries are alike as the ranking of 12 of various attributes of the major countries in the world show below.