We now live in a world where governments print worthless pieces of paper to buy other worthless pieces of paper that combined with worthless derivatives, finance assets whose values are totally dependent on all these worthless debt instruments. Thus most of these assets are also worth-less and the world financial system is a house of cards where each instrument’s false value is artificially supported by another instrument’s false value. The fuse of the world financial market time bomb has been lit. There is no longer a question of IF it will happen but only WHEN and HOW. Words: 1650

While growth of the global economy is sluggish and the outlook for meaningful improvements looks bleak, in a world with few options, muddling along doesn’t look so bad - and the U.S. is doing just that, due in large part from the aggressive stimulus policies. The question is, however, whether or not it will continue. Words: 761

There are plenty of reasons to be concerned about the U.S. economy in 2011 [but not for U.S. stocks if the history of] the Presidential Cycle is any indication. The third year of a president’s [four year] term is typically the strongest producing an average annual gain of 14.12% for the S&P 500 and, under Democratic leadership, that number moves even higher to an average gain of 17.7%! Words: 436

At present, the governors of the Fed are creating massive distortions in the financial markets with little hope of improving real economic growth or employment... Quantitative easing promises to have little effect except to provoke commodity [gold and silver] hoarding, a decline in bond yields to levels that reflect nothing but risk premiums for maturity risk, and an expansion in stock valuations to levels that have rarely been sustained for long (the current Shiller P/E of 22 for the S&P 500 has typically been followed by 5- to 10-year total returns below 5% annually). [Let me explain.] Words: 3066

Fox News' Glenn Beck has repeatedly stoked fears that the U.S. would see "massive inflation," stating, as far back as 2008, that inflation would go "through the roof" in the "next year." In fact, inflation remained low in 2009 and 2010 and looks to remain the same in 2011. Let's review Beck's prognostications one by one and come to our own conclusion. Words: 1764

A major crisis is coming in the first half of 2011 and it could cause a worldwide financial disaster, global market crashes and the destruction of wealth that will make the popping of the dot-com and housing bubbles feel like a mild inconvenience! Why? Because, quite simply, America is playing a dangerous game of “chicken” with its national debt - and the ramifications are extraordinary. Words: 1475

The chief institutional strategist at Canada’s biggest bank, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), believes gold prices are probably heading the way of the NASDAQ in the 1990s and the Nikkei in the 1980s into mania territory on the road to $3,800 an ounce. Words: 647

The National Inflation Association (NIA) believes it is very unlikely that our representatives in Washington will have the political backbone and courage to implement any of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform's proposed cuts in domestic and defense expenditures and increases in tax revenues. [Instead, as the NIA sees it,] the U.S. is on a path towards exploding budget deficits in the years ahead that could cause an outbreak of hyperinflation by the end of calendar year 2015. Words: 887

"QE 2" is radically different – and radically more dangerous – than the risky games that were played with earlier "quantitative easings". This brief article is intended to warn readers about some of the key differences this time around. Words:

In spite of the continuing ascent of the stock market we are not in a perfectly bullish scenario because a major concern going forward is whether or not the Bush tax cuts will be extended. I am of the opinion that they will be, because if they are not, then the markets will have a very ugly December.