Economy

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the U.S. economy is heading for complete and total disaster - a financial apocalypse. State and local governments across the nation are uncontrollably bleeding red ink. The federal government has accumulated the largest debt in world history.... Incomes are down, unemployment remains at depressingly high levels and very few of our politicians seem to have any idea how to fix things. Yes, things are really, really bad. So what are some things that we can all be doing to prepare for the coming financial apocalypse? Words: 1598

Despite all of the mania surrounding the dollar in recent months history suggests that the Fed’s last adventure in quantitative easing will not have a draconian outcome on the dollar as many analysts and pundits predict! Words: 952

The return of the Euro debt contagion and drop in the bond markets across the world is pushing interest rates higher and it has investors concerned and rightly so - and nowhere has the concern been more prominent than in gold. [Let me explain.] Words: 759

From a historical standpoint, the dividend yield of 2% on the S&P 500 is too low. It smacks of a stock market top and underscores the point that the market is too optimistic in the sense that investors are willing to forgo yield because they assume that they will get the return via the capital gain. The last time S&P yields were around this level was in the summer of 2000, and we know what happened shortly after that! Words: 888

These days it is almost impossible to find anyone who is long-term bearish on [the U.S. dollar], the stock market or the economy but I think they are all going to be wrong - horribly wrong. I believe that in 2011 inflation will spike horribly, the dollar will collapse, the stock market will begin its third leg down in the secular bear market and the global economy will tip over into the next recession that will be much worse than the last one. Words: 555

While growth of the global economy is sluggish and the outlook for meaningful improvements looks bleak, in a world with few options, muddling along doesn’t look so bad - and the U.S. is doing just that, due in large part from the aggressive stimulus policies. The question is, however, whether or not it will continue. Words: 761

Bernanke has massively increased the monetary response in an attempt to halt the secular bear, and we know how the last attempt to control the market turned out - we got the second worst recession since the Great Depression and the second worst bear market in history. I fully expect the next leg down in the secular bear to be even worse that the last one - not only in the stock market, but also in the economy. Words: 525

In Europe, they were able to come up with a clever moniker, PIGS, to succinctly represent [and name the countries in dire financial straights - Portugal, Iceland, Ireland, Greece and Spain] the most boorish animals on the farm, and [I have taken it upon myself to call the U.S. state budget crises] the story of CAIN (California, Arizona, Alaska, Illinois, New York and New Jersey), the seven most rotten pillars of our union, and (Un)Abel, the country as a whole, which is (Un)Abel, i.e. unable, to do anything about the impending crises. Given the current political climate and implicit anti-bailout mandate of the new Congress, the Federal government might be powerless to do anything but accept painful state defaults. Before we know it, we could all be ancestors of evil... 2011 could be the year that CAIN starts to face some serious trouble, and may need some serious help to avoid killing his brother (Un)Abel! Words: 1529

At present, the governors of the Fed are creating massive distortions in the financial markets with little hope of improving real economic growth or employment... Quantitative easing promises to have little effect except to provoke commodity [gold and silver] hoarding, a decline in bond yields to levels that reflect nothing but risk premiums for maturity risk, and an expansion in stock valuations to levels that have rarely been sustained for long (the current Shiller P/E of 22 for the S&P 500 has typically been followed by 5- to 10-year total returns below 5% annually). [Let me explain.] Words: 3066

Fox News' Glenn Beck has repeatedly stoked fears that the U.S. would see "massive inflation," stating, as far back as 2008, that inflation would go "through the roof" in the "next year." In fact, inflation remained low in 2009 and 2010 and looks to remain the same in 2011. Let's review Beck's prognostications one by one and come to our own conclusion. Words: 1764