In my opinion the "final financial shot' which leads to live financial fire (collapse) will be in either the gold or silver pits of the COMEX or, ultimately, both. Why? Because, at $20 per silver ounce, it would take only $1.2 billion to crack that market open like a watermelon; because, for a pittance of money in today's world, "trust" in the entire financial system of the West can be shattered. Some will say "big deal" or "who cares?" but it is a big deal and YOU should care!

For any retail investor looking at technology opportunities, identifying just where various technologies are in their respective development (how much work is still to be done to bring the ideas to fruition) and, as such, when each of them will become realities, is imperative. Our Hype Cycle graph does just that. Take a look.

The U.S. $1 dollar bill has been redesigned many time since first being issued back in 1862. What we almost exclusively use today is the version designed in 1963. The following extremely informative infographic explains what all the different symbols on the dollar mean, who is on the front & back of all the U.S. currencies currently in use and the $500, $1,000, $10,000 and $100,000 (yes, $100,000!) bills that are no longer in production.

Buckle up! Gold is coming out of hibernation within the next 6 to 12 months and will then begin a major breakout to the upside to at least $3,600 over the next 2 to 4 years.

The financial markets are drastically over-capitalizing earnings and over-valuing all asset classes so, as the Fed and its central bank confederates around the world increasingly run out of excuses for extending the radical monetary experiments of the present era, even the gamblers will come to recognize who is really the Wile E Coyote in the piece. Then they will panic.

Although it may seem strange, the recent scramble for Bitcoin fortunes bears an odd but striking resemblance to the California Gold Rush in the mid-19th century. This time round, however, the miners are using computers and cryptography instead of shovels and buckets.

This is the final installment of our 5-part 2014 Gold Series. With input from some of the most important names in gold, such as Brent Cook, Doug Casey, Frank Holmes, Bob Moriarty and James Fraser, it covers gold trends that investors should be watching for through the rest of the year and beyond.

Bitcoin has the very real potential to disrupt the existing financial system. Take a look at today's infographic to find out how.

The S&P 500 continues to hit new all time highs, but is your portfolio built on a house of cards? The politics to kick the proverbial can down the road may unleash dynamics that could be hazardous to your wealth. Here's why and how to protect your portfolio.

There is too much debt. Debt works the same way for a country as it works for an individual or a family, which is to say if you borrow too much, then your life basically craters. Everything gets harder to do, and you end up doing things in order to deal with your past mistakes that you would never do normally. You start trying absolutely crazy things, and that’s where the world’s governments are right now. We are doing all these things that are essentially con games and getting away with it so far, because a printing press is a great tool for fooling people. I don’t see how we can get away with it too much longer.