What happens when the stimulus is over and the Fed begins to tighten again? Where will demand come from to get Main Street back, create jobs, raise middle class wages? Not from big businesses. Certainly not from Wall Street. Not from exports. Not from government. So, where? That question is the big unknown hanging over the U.S. economy. Until there’s an answer, an economic “recovery” for anyone other than big corporations, Wall Street, and the wealthy is a mirage. Words: 1279

Have you ever traveled abroad and taken a look at the local currency and wondered how the citizens of that country could take seriously what looks like “Monopoly money?” I’ve got news for you: You’re using the same stuff. Monopoly money is the money over which some government has a monopoly. It is the currency of the realm only because the state makes it illegal to use any other type. Words: 633

The central banks are so much larger than the gold market that they avoid actions which might cause price spikes.

My first reaction when I read an article* on this site by Arnold Bock - articulating why gold would go to $10,000 – by 2012 no less - was amazement. Who in their right mind would suggest that gold would eventually reach $2,500, let alone $5,000 or even $10,000? Words: 2097

There is an ongoing debate among global policymakers about when and how fast to exit from the strong monetary and fiscal stimulus that prevented the Great Recession of 2008-2009 from turning into a new Great Depression. Germany and the European Central Bank are pushing aggressively for early fiscal austerity; the United States is worried about the risks of excessively early fiscal consolidation. Words: 957

Don't be waylaid by the clueless conformists. Talk of a gold bubble is coming from those who made the same assertions when gold broke $400 an ounce. Except for its justifiable 4X price rise over the previous decade, there is no evidence of the typical bubble characteristics attached to gold yet. Words: 846

The fundamentals for gold are impeccable, the long term technical picture is exceptional and gold remains very inexpensive when compared to almost every other alternative. [I have 17 reasons why] I expect gold to trade at several multiples of the current price before this bull market breathes its last breath. Words: 2101

I am worried about the possibility of a second dip - of a new recession beginning sometime in the next year or so - before the current recovery has had a chance to produce much improvement. Verbally-intuitively, the case for a second dip still seems pretty overwhelming to me. I take comfort in the knowledge that I tend to have a pessimistic bias, and in the fact that sophisticated quantitative models are generally putting the odds of a second dip quite low. On the other hand, successfully forecasting recessions has not been a strong point of quantitative models. Words: 1433

The dividend approach isn't likely to make you a mint overnight - and holding dividend stocks can be about as exciting as watching grass grow - but if you've ever gone on vacation, you've likely been amazed by just how much your grass can grow in a week. In the end, I can assure you, the effort will be well worth it. Words: 1395

Imagine living in a country where the government suddenly decides to make it illegal to hold a certain type of asset, and goes on a systematic process to relieve its citizens of such an asset? Such actions happen in wartime and by politically-corrupt regimes but how about private-asset seizure in the good old U.S.A.? Well, it has happened before. [The 64 trillion (in keeping with the times) dollar question is: "Will it happen again?"] Words: 585