History shows that when investors experience a rapid decline in the amount of available cash in their brokerage account to spend/invest quickly such "negative net worth" leads to major corrections in the stock market. Currently such is the case so can we expect another such decline or will it be different this time?

The Dow has surpassed its all-time record high - set in October 2007 - and the S&P 500 is not far behind? Is this the early stage of another great bull market? Let's look back at the two previous times when the S&P 500 set new all-time highs and see if we can learn something. Wait...first put your "this time it's different" glasses on. OK, let's go. Words: 430; Charts: 1

[In a recent] conversation about international banking and the state of the global financial system [with] a senior executive of a large international bank - the ultimate insider - I was floored by what he told me. [Here's what he had to say and, in his opinion,] what basic steps, taken now, will enable you to be one of the few people left standing should the house of cards collapse. Words: 465

The stock markets make no sense. They have literally lost touch with reality. Divergences between fundamentals, confidence and the valuation of markets are large [and, as such,] cannot last for long....The only question is how...and how quickly....this correction occurs. Words: 261

Busy? No problem. Don't bother taking the time to surf the internet in search of videos on the dire state of the U.S. economy. This post contains descriptions and links to 57 of the best.

We believe that we are in the “competitive devaluation” stage presently [see graph below] as country after country is printing money in order to lower rates and doing whatever possible to devalue their currency - to have the fastest currency in the...race to the bottom - in order to export their goods and services. [The next stage will be protectionism and tariffs. This article gives an update on the race to debase.]

Bain & Co., the private equity firm that you might have heard of during the presidential campaign last year, has come out with a fascinating set of projections for the global capital markets...The generality of...the report [is that] the world is awash in money looking for someplace to invest that will earn a return and [that,] over the rest of this decade, the amount of money looking to be invested will grow by about 50%. What does that imply [and how should you therefore invest? This article addresses both issues well.] Words: 1349

16 point 7 trillion dollars. That is our current national debt. 12 point 8 trillion dollars. That is the amount households carry in mortgage and consumer debt. We are now addicted to debt to lubricate the wheels of our financial system. There is nothing wrong with debt per se, but it is safe to say that too much debt relative to how much revenue is being produced is a sign of economic problems. At the core of our current financial mess is how we use debt as a parachute for any problem. [Unfortunately,] addictions are never easily cured and we have yet to come to terms with our insatiable appetite for debt. Words: 850

Anybody who thinks the U.S. is in a so-called recovery isn’t listening to economist John Williams. He expects a negative reaction to the U.S. dollar in the next 3 or 4 months leading up to the mid-May deadline for Congress to get the budget and debt ceiling under control. If they do not get their financial house in order by then he believes "it will be the end of the road....as they are not going to have another opportunity".

Thanks to the endless barrage of feel-good propaganda that daily assaults the American mind the citizens have no idea how disastrous the country’s fiscal, monetary and economic problems truly are nor do they perceive the rapidly increasing risk of a totalitarian nightmare descending upon the American Republic. Below, we outline America’s troubling and compounding predicament, and urge you to think about how to protect yourself from its consequences, both financially and personally.