The July 2011 Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers (CPI-U) released yesterday puts the June year-over-year inflation rate at 1.66%, which is less than half the 3.82% average since the end of the Second World War. That being said the ShadowStats Alternate annualized rate of inflation is 9.26%. [Which is more accurate?] Words: 384

Worldwide economic uncertainty has created a growing interest in precious metals as a way to...protect one's wealth from impending economic Armageddon...Unfortunately, many today don’t know how to purchase or store bullion, and consequently may find themselves as vulnerable to financial collapse as those who didn’t purchase any bullion at all. [This article outlines what rigorous due diligence is absolutely required when entering into an agreement to buy gold bullion and how it should be stored and why. Don't buy any gold product without reading this article first.]

Worldwide economic uncertainty has created a growing interest in precious metals as a way to...protect one's wealth from impending economic Armageddon...Unfortunately, many today don’t know how to purchase or store bullion, and consequently may find themselves as vulnerable to financial collapse as those who didn’t purchase any bullion at all. [This article outlines what rigorous due diligence is absolutely required when entering into an agreement to buy gold bullion and how it should be stored and why. Don't buy any gold product without reading this article first.]

...[A]t some point they [the central banks] will all start printing money. At some point they will recognize we are not going to have a deflationary collapse, that we are not going to have a deflationary debt liquidation.... If we get some serious stock market weakness, on top of the economic deterioration, then I think the central banks of the world, and in particular the Fed, are going to panic and do something big....They are going to print money and try to inflate the debts away....[As a result, there] is going to be this big, unridable phase of the bull market in gold that’s going to take place. That’s in front of us. It’s probably closer than most people think.

The whole world of fundamental and technical analysis seems to be in a state of chronic confusion - confounded by this seemingly trendless stock market....[Usually] the stock market possesses the ability to forecast coming events but the periodic spates of Fed stimulation have thrown some sand into the stock market's delicate machine....Thus, we see the stock market ‘up on Fed-created stilts’ and at the same time we see depressing economic news in the newspaper headlines. Meanwhile, Treasury yields are sitting on near-record lows. We're seeing a strange paradox here.

Economic risk in the Eurozone and elsewhere appears to be escalating, and what is said here describes what may prove to be the 'biggest crack yet in Humpty Dumpty's shell'.

Interest rates have been manipulated to keep them extremely low in an attempt to stimulate the economy but...unless deficits are dramatically reduced.... interest rates will eventually rise and government interest expense will double or triple from the amounts being paid today. That potentially triggers a debt death spiral, where government has to borrow more than otherwise expected. It also raises the credit risk and could ratchet interest rates up again. It has happened to Greece, Portugal, Spain and other European countries already this year and could well happen in the U.S. too. Words: 595

Interest rates have been manipulated to keep them extremely low in an attempt to stimulate the economy but...unless deficits are dramatically reduced.... interest rates will eventually rise and government interest expense will double or triple from the amounts being paid today. That potentially triggers a debt death spiral, where government has to borrow more than otherwise expected. It also raises the credit risk and could ratchet interest rates up again. It has happened to Greece, Portugal, Spain and other European countries already this year and could well happen in the U.S. too. Words: 595

The Federal Reserve is in quite a pickle. Mr. Market expects them to print money to support the economy...but if the economy continues down this path, we may have a deflationary depression on our hands...Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has said he will not allow this to happen under any circumstances. The Fed wants to keep interest rates low and create inflation so that it can pay off existing debt with cheaper dollars, avoiding insolvency. [The fact of the matter, however, is that] the Federal Reserve cannot stop printing money or the U.S. will experience the economic phenonmenon referred to as the Minsky Moment. [Let me explain just what the aforementioned all means.] Words: 1195

The Federal Reserve is in quite a pickle. Mr. Market expects them to print money to support the economy...but if the economy continues down this path, we may have a deflationary depression on our hands...Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has said he will not allow this to happen under any circumstances. The Fed wants to keep interest rates low and create inflation so that it can pay off existing debt with cheaper dollars, avoiding insolvency. [The fact of the matter, however, is that] the Federal Reserve cannot stop printing money or the U.S. will experience the economic phenonmenon referred to as the Minsky Moment. [Let me explain just what the aforementioned all means.] Words: 1195