Bitcoin is the first peer-to-peer (P2P) digital currency and payment system to gain significant interest. This month its marketcap surpassed $1 billion. [Below is a description of what Bitcoin is, and isn't, and why it has caught on to the extent it has.]

To believe that governments...[won't confiscate your] gold to help support their national finances... would be naïve, especially in light of past and recent events. That's why it is now incumbent on all investors to look at the meaning of ownership in investing and investors' vulnerability to government confiscation as well as vulnerability to exchange and capital controls. We do this below.

It is possible that Bitcoins are starting to steal some of gold's historic role as a safe haven asset, and if that comes to pass it will be a headwind for the metal and the miners of it going forward....

Freedom is a relative concept. Compared to other states in the U.S., how does your state rank in terms of these 40 aspects of freedom?

Use a portion of your portfolio in the form of credit spreads to protect and drive income over the next nine months. It's an extremely simple strategy to learn and arguably the most powerful strategy in the professional options traders' tool belt

Both Gold Futures and Gold Stocks (HUI) remain on their respective steep rising 10-year support lines. The question now is whether or not support and oversold sentiment conditions keep Gold and the HUI from falling any further. [Let's hope not!]

What currency is feared by the European Central Bank as a threat to fiat monetary institutions? What currency is cash-like, but digitally transmittable allowing for ultimate anonymity and global mobility? What digital currency is up over 2,200% over the last year? The answer? Bitcoin.

The funds you have placed on deposit and the property you thought was secured in your safe deposit box may not be safe under certain circumstances. They may, in fact, all end up belonging to the bank and not to you.

I don’t think that KWN is doing the Gold community any good by throwing this guy at us and, unfortunately, I don’t think that JS is helping by not ripping this guy apart.

The mainstream media has generally been very quiet about the massive cyber attacks against our major banks, but behind the scenes authorities are truly alarmed. They don't know how to stop them, and they just keep getting more intense and more sophisticated. In fact, major U.S. bank websites have been offline for a total of 249 hours over the past six weeks. [Imagine if you] (like thousands upon thousands of Chase customers last month) logged into your bank account only to discover that your balance had all been reset to zero... [Here's what to do to protect yourself.] Words: 960