A vicious upward debt spiral is gaining momentum. The budgets of most advanced economies, excluding interest payments, need 20 consecutive years of surpluses exceeding 2% of gross domestic product – starting now – just to bring the debt-to-GDP ratio back to its pre-crisis level.

A recession is the scariest creature in the average investor's closet of anxieties...because they can mean lower home prices, lower stock prices and, of course, higher unemployment [but] if you're prepared for the next one, there will be plenty of opportunities when that downturn ends. [That being said,] the more you know about recessions, the better, so here are 8 must-know facts about them.

What I outline below is not a forecast but a potential scenario which I sincerely hope won’t come to pass but the risk of going down the road to political and financial system collapse, social unrest and even civil war, and eventual hyperinflation, is certainly there.

The U.S. has the highest inflation in 40 years, and yet it also has the strongest dollar in 20 years. How can that be? How can the dollar be so weak and yet be so strong at the exact same time? [This article] tries to make sense of this tale of two dollars.

The core idea of the crack-up boom, in summary, describes the collapse of a monetary system, due to out-of-control inflation expectations by the market participants, that were in turn caused by extreme increases in the money supply.

There is no easy solution. There is no possible painless normalization path. Powell will have to choose between the risk of a global financial meltdown or prolonged inflation.

Gold represents the spirit of affluence but can gold still deliver wealth and prosperity to the modern investor? The answer is yes, absolutely! Gold can play a vital role in a robust, high-performing portfolio...[but] these results are not guaranteed. To bolster your wealth with gold, you need to understand how it functions as an asset.

After two years of declines, many investors sold their gold holdings and vowed never to invest in gold again. However, in the fall of 1976, gold began an ascent that saw it rise 750%, peaking at $850 a troy ounce three years and four months later. After a 3-year correction, the same opportunity to buy low exists today, just as it did in 1976.

The economy and stock market have been built on massive stimulus and liquidity from a rapidly expanding money supply. With M2 growth decelerating last month, the stock market looked in trouble. Now that it has become a contraction, the effect could be very profound.

I notice that any article I post on my site regarding economic, financial and investing topics related to China get a lot of page views from Chinese readers suggesting that Chinese nationals are anxious to read what Western commentators have to say about their country. Here are some of those articles you might have missed.