80% of my investable income is in cash, precious metals and a small number of stocks. That might seem crazy, but the Pareto Principle, Zipf's Law and the bell curve have convinced me that it's a waste of time and money to get any more diversified. [Let me explain why that is the case.] Words: 396

No matter how boring it sounds, all investors must make it a point to track economic indicators to understand the direction in which the nation is headed...[and, in the process,] sharpen [their] investment decisions. Here are the key indicators that you should be tracking:

Recent trading patterns suggest that if King Dollar doesn’t reverse higher soon, it may be an indication that investors are losing faith in it.

Americans, and governments across the world, have more debt than they can ever hope to repay and that's why a number of public figures are suggesting a radical and ancient solution; a debt jubilee...

Central banks and some very smart people hold at least a small portion of their wealth in gold as a hedge. Should you?

It’s time to leave the cult of fiat currency behind, and add some real money to your life. Your future standard of living will thank you.

With less countries and organizations using the dollar to settle international transactions, it slowly chips away at its hegemony of the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency. China is at the epicenter of this transition and is making continued progress in cutting deals outside of the U.S. dollar framework. Deals shown in the infographic are currency flows between countries that have abandoned the dollar in bilateral trade, as well as countries that are considering such measures.

Technically the U.S. left the gold standard in 1971 but, in reality, we abandoned it in 1913 with the creation of the Fed...setting the stage for the collapse of the dollar. [Given that this is] the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Federal Reserve, it seems only fitting that we should present a brief history of the U.S. dollar debasement since then. Words: 1144

There are two kinds of bad investment advisors: well-meaning advisors without the wherewithal to keep up with the science of the fast-evolving profession, and those whose main focus is not on managing their clients’ assets well, but on gathering assets under management in order to grow their own practices. How do you tell if you’re sitting across from either one of these types of bad advisors in an industry that lacks transparency? [Well, I have done just that with a list of 10 signs that you are working with a bad investment advisor.] Words: 1467

The value of a currency is determined by a number of variables. In this article, I will focus on the dynamics of demand, supply, current account deficits, and aggregate government debt.