Puerto Rico is just the tip of the iceberg of the coming debt crisis in the western hemisphere as Greece is just the tip of the iceberg of the coming debt crisis in Europe.

One way to gauge the level of concern about the situation in Greece is to see how many S&P 500 companies mentioned Greece relative to other countries during recent earnings conference calls so FactSet combed through the 21 earnings conference calls held since June 1 by S&P 500 companies and found these 9 countries to have been mentioned the most [where's Greece?].

The fuse on the global debt bomb has been lit. We are now officially in the crisis to which the 2008 meltdown was just the warm up. Here's why.

Chilling references to a potential (likely) financial crisis in Canada keep cropping up in official statistical data releases. First it was concerns about the housing bubble there and the high level of personal debt to income, now it's about how hard manufacturing is getting hit there in spite of the loonie (Canadian dollar) dropping 17% against the US dollar in the past 15 months. It really begs the question "Oh Canada, Are You Prepared For What's Coming?"

History shows rather clearly that the stock market is prone to extreme events, aka crashes. The challenge is deciding when the risk for a repeat performance is unusually high... The leading factor, of course, is the business cycle but internal market issues can't be ignored either. With that in mind, I've developed what I think of as a crash-risk index for the U.S. stock market (S&P 500), which draws on signals from ten metrics that are reflecting different factors...

This isn't the time to listen to those leading politicians, economists and pundits who say we're not in a bubble and we're finally seeing a sustainable recovery. We're not. Central banks can't keep this bubble going forever... [Instead,] you need to prepare for another across-the-board bubble burst and the deepest downturn since the Great Depression, with deflation, not inflation, and this time, in spite of what others such as Jeff Clark might tell you, Gold will not be your defense, it will be your downfall. Here's why.

Money illusion is a longstanding concept in economics that has enormous significance for you if you’re a saver, investor or entrepreneur. Money illusion is a ruse performed by central banks that can distort the economy and destroy your wealth. Let me explain.

Is it time to sell all of your stocks because we’ve seen huge gains over the past five years? Not necessarily. It all depends on your time horizon and what kind of investor you are. Let me explain.

The speculative fervor in China's equity markets is spreading. The Shanghai Composite has cleared the 5000 mark after hovering just above 2000 around six months ago. This rally has been nothing short of spectacular. HERE are some key trends that point to just how heated the market has become.

It's up to the concerned and critical-thinking among us to look at the math, the hard data underlying the headlines, and construct what we can best calculate to be true about our current personal financial level of (un)readiness for the future and the truth is that there are 3 adult generations in the U.S. are experiencing a squeeze that is making it harder to create value, save capital, and pursue happiness than at any point since WWII. Let's walk through the numbers.