Over the past 20 years, the S&P 500 has produced a 9.2% annualized total return. Over the same period, gold has returned an annualized 6.6%. And bonds? The Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index has returned 5.7%. Based on these figures, what type of return do you think the average investor has achieved over this time period? The answer will shock you. Read on!

Has U.S. currency as we know it today always been pretty much the same? The answer is no. If you love money as much as I do, you’ll love the infographic below and all the money facts it contains. Take a look. It's very interesting!

Below are the 30 reasons, 23 new and 7 set in cement, of why the Bear phase in the bull market for gold ends this summer without any new lows.

When there is lots of economic activity, there is lots of money changing hands. When there is not very much economic activity, the pace at which money circulates through our system slows down. That is why what is happening in the U.S. right now is so troubling. Let me explain.

...For US stocks — and by implication most other equity markets — the danger signals are piling up to the point where a case can be made that the end is, at last, near. Take a look at these examples of indicators that should scare the hell out of anyone with a big stock portfolio.

Never before in the history of the United States have we been faced with the threat of such a great financial catastrophe but, sadly, most Americans are totally oblivious to all of this. They continue to have faith that their leaders know what they are doing, and they have been lulled into complacency by the bubble of false stability that we have been enjoying for the last couple of years. Unfortunately for them, however, this bubble of false stability is not going to last much longer and when the financial crisis comes it is going to make 2008 look like a Sunday picnic. Let me explain why I believe the aforementioned to be the case.

I’d argue that the record low volume shows investors aren’t looking ahead as much as looking behind and reminiscing at how good things have been over the past five years or so. They’re expecting more of the same even though it’s mathematically impossible people.

Before gold can rally, it has to first turn the trend from down to up. We see no evidence of a change in trend. The bearish spacing is repeated, again, as a reminder that it represents a weak market within its down trend. How anyone can posit a bullish scenario from what the charts show flies in the face of known facts, as depicted in the charts.

China's model (and economy) will fail drastically, proving once and for all that government-planned economies do not work as well as free market capitalism balanced by democracy. This article identifies seven signs showing that the end is near.

China has decided to try and walk back from the edge of a Minsky moment and engineer a soft landing. They have made a decision to pop the bubble deliberately, allow defaults to instill market discipline and remove the moral hazard currently in place. They are moving into the modern world as fast as possible based on the enormous tasks they have embraced so we probably can expect no more booms but probably not a bust either. Let me explain.