You already know the basic reasons for owning gold -- currency protection, inflation hedge, store of value, calamity insurance -- many of which are becoming clichés even in mainstream articles. Throw in the supply and demand imbalance, and you've got the basic arguments for why one should hold gold for the foreseeable future. [T]here is another driver of the price, however, that escapes many gold watchers and certainly the mainstream media [a]nd I'm convinced that once this sleeping giant wakes, it could ignite the gold market like nothing we've ever seen. [Let me explain.] Words: 788

The stock market does not turn on a dime... at least historically that's been the case. There was always a distinctive topping process going on before the bear finally struck. In every case you can look back and detect the same pattern: a marked deterioration of market internals and of interest rate based indicators before any crash so, if history is our guide, we should not expect this time to be different. So, what should we look for?

Predictions are in the air - on these pages and everywhere else - so I may as well add my own two-cents to the massive opinion-drenched internet.

Over the longer term, some of history's top strategists actually say that inflation is a big reason to buy stocks – not to avoid them. Foremost among them is Warren Buffett. His inflation research goes way back. In 1977 – just before the U.S. was about to enter into one of the worst inflationary climates in history – in a column for Fortune magazine he said, “stocks are probably still the best of all the poor alternatives in an era of inflation – at least they are if you buy in at appropriate prices.” Words: 664

I recently revisited the fascinating tactic Professor Sheena Iyengar of the Columbia Business School proposed at BlackRock’s recent Retirement Roundtable in New York to help investors save more for retirement [and what she proposes is easy to implement, and extremely effective].

Neither the White House nor the CBO have adequately considered the real impact of the very deficits they themselves are projecting. While they admit the deficits will be off the charts they fail to connect the dots from that admission to its obvious natural consequences — no fewer than FIVE ominous, vicious cycles.

When I look strictly at what’s actually going on in the world, I have to think that gold will go to at least $2,000 in this cycle and there are very credible scenarios in which it could go to a multiple of that number. Why am I so bullish for the yellow metal? Let me tell you why. Words: 469

A financial tsunami is scheduled to hit the U.S. economy and taxpayers over the next several years and being fully aware of what will be happening should be one of the foundations of any retirement or financial planning process. Hopefully, this analysis proves helpful for you in that regard.

In the next 5 years most people will lose 75-90% of their wealth and some 100% but investors needn’t lose most of their money if they took a few measures to protect their fortune...

There's a good chance U.S. growth will pick up from 2016 [because, as I see it,] two key shifts are helping to propel growth higher, albeit within the context of broad structural trends keeping growth rates lower than in prior economic cycles.