Debt & Deficits

If you want to make money long-term, you have to bet against the prevailing consensus of most financial experts. I have never seen such an overwhelming bullish consensus as there is today that the economy is going to do great, that gold is a sell, and that the stock market is going to go higher, and if you want to build speculative wealth, you have to bet against that.

Government fiscal policy - profligate spending, leading to debt crisis, leading to currency crisis, leading to…the fall of the U.S. dollar – is the major cataclysmic endgame that is going to befall the U.S.

The U.S. is in a financial debt spiral. What's the Administration to do? This article analyzes 6 alternative courses of action available, presents the consensus view of each, comes to a conclusion as to what will unfold and suggests what the implications are for one's investment portfolio. Let's take a look.

Longer term, I think gold goes to $5,000 over a number of years. If they continue to print money at the current rate, I think it could be multiples of that. I see a slow steady rise punctuated with some sharp upward moves.

When it comes to reckless money creation, China is the king. Over the past five years Chinese bank assets have been fueled by the greatest private debt binge that the world has ever seen. Unfortunately for China (and for the rest of us), there are lots of signs that the gigantic debt bubble in China is about to burst, and when that does happen the entire world is going to feel the pain. Let me explain.

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!

News events from the Crimean Peninsula have increased paranoia in the mainstream financial press and certain corners of the internet [that Russia, in response to any economic sanctions implemented by the West, might engage in some form of retaliatory financial warfare.

For the first time in U.S. history, the national debt has risen past $17 trillion. That number is a bit hard to comprehend and means little to Americans when not applied to their everyday lives. So just how does the national debt affect consumers, and why should the average American care about how much this country owes? Here's why and how.

News out of Venezuela continues to be quite grim, pointing to further economic deterioration... Here is the the latest:

Compared with Ireland, where the individual tax rate is a whopping 48%, the U.S. national average of 36.9% is not so bad. How does your country compare?