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Today everything must be dumbed down to the lowest common denominator of readers or viewers... Any news must be superficial and short. Most content must have an entertainment or gossip value. All serious matters are either left out or covered very briefly. We are now in the age of instant gratification. Viewers’ interest can only be kept by short superficial language, lots of big images and constant change of focus. No one is really interested in the truth but, nevertheless, here it is!

In mining exploration, an “anomaly” is a geological formation that might attract a prospector’s interest. However, one rule of thumb is that you have to look at 1,000 anomalies to find one prospect and fewer than one prospect in a thousand turns into a mine. In other words, finding a mine is a million-to-one shot and that is one reason why junior mining stocks are highly speculative. Another reason is that it’s much easier to launch and promote one of these stocks than it is to build a profitable business. So junior mines attract more than their share of unscrupulous operators and stock promoters. Words: 504

The media is full of stories claiming that lower tax rates will cause a huge and damaging increase in the federal deficit and will fail to stimulate the economy. Here are 10 charts which show that those claims are not backed by historical experience.

In the business of financial journalism, nothing sells better than fear - all-out financial, economic devastation and collapse, and the worst of all possible scenarios crouching on your doorstep ready to jump out and get you at any moment. Welcome to the doom-and-gloom “financial-tainment” industry. Get comfortable and start reading these highly addictive, sensationally-driven, doom-and-gloom financial commentaries and ask yourself if they are just fear mongering or could well be prophetic in their forecasts.

If some of the world’s largest investment funds decided to make even a small increase in their allocation to physical gold and gold stocks it would be like trying to drain Niagara Falls with a fire hose. Just a small percentage increase in allocation towards gold and gold stocks among global fund managers would make gold stocks double… and then double again… and double again.

Is the market overly complacent? Overly optimistic? Absurdly cheap or expensive? A great buy on dips? "No" is the best answer to all these questions, in my view. Now is not a time to take on oversized risks, but neither is it a time to cash in all your chips. Let me explain with the help of the 12 charts below.

Take note: what's going on today in the economy and in the markets is not unprecedented or extraordinary. Below are 6 charts to support said contention:

How prepared are you for retirement? Take a look at the following potential unpreparedness indicators. After reviewing them, if you don't see any concerns, you may, indeed, be headed down the right path toward retirement. However, if you do, it'll be far better to address them now while you're still gainfully employed.

While everyone continues to focus on stocks, a much larger, far more important situation is brewing in the single most important asset class in the world. That situation involves the USD and the US Dollar Index.

This post provides a visualization of data* from our new True Cost of Living Tool to illustrate how the living conditions of the working class stack up across the country. It’s kind of a big deal because it lets you drill down to a specific city and search through layers of relevant information to understand exactly how much money it takes to live in any given area.