Several well-known billionaires are forming the new company Planetary Resources with plans to send a robotic spacecraft to mine precious metals from an asteroid and bring them back to Earth.
A proposal from the Obama administration to prevent children from doing farm chores has drawn plenty of criticism from rural-district members of Congress. But now it's attracting barbs from farm kids themselves.
The Department of Labor is poised to put the finishing touches on a rule that would apply child-labor laws to children work... (more)
Last week, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) extended its reach and tightened its grip on every cent Americans earn or try to preserve anywhere in the world. The final regulations of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) were announced.
Enacted in March 2010 as part of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act, FATCA seeks to have foreign financial institutions report on accounts held by any American living in the United States or abroad. You can take your m... (more)
To do serious business in America requires vast campaign contributions to several layers of elected politicians, an army of lobbyists in Washington, retired government employees on your board and public devotion to the American civic religion. It goes on every year and restarts every election cycle.
Even then, it is hard to know if you are going to get what you pay for.
It's easier and more efficient in Mexico. You pay bribes directly. The decision maker gets the mo... (more)
In the modern world, a country's natural resources have very little to do whether goods are on the nation's shelves for people to buy. Singapore isn't rich in resources, neither is Hong Kong, but both have vibrant market economies and shoppers can find whatever their collective heart's desire on the shelves of stores in these two cities.
On the other hand, there is Venezuela, a country rich in resources. It is one the world's top oil producers at the same time gas pric... (more)
If you are in college right now, you will most likely either be unemployed or working a job that only requires a high school degree when you graduate. The truth is that the U.S. economy is not coming anywhere close to producing enough jobs for the hordes of new college graduates that are entering the workforce every year. In 2011, 53 percent of all Americans with a bachelor's degree under the age of 25 were either unemployed or underemployed. Millions upon millions of young... (more)
Most everyone is really down on financial companies these days. What kind of scam are they running, anyway? It seems as if everywhere we turn, there are fees, fees, fees. Because most everyone has some kind of credit or debit card, the popular mind is particularly focused on them, expecting to find signs of exploitation and graft.
Let's look a bit closer.
A friend of mine is in a Virginia diner and receives an odd offer with the check. There is a note: If you pay wi... (more)
The Democrats, the Republicans and especially Barack Obama promised that something would be done about the too big to fail banks so that they would never again be a threat to destroy our financial system. Well, those promises have not been kept and the too big to fail banks are now much bigger and much more powerful than ever. The assets of the five biggest U.S. banks were equivalent to about 43 percent of U.S. GDP before the financial crisis. ... (more)
It's often thought that the technology sector is the least regulated and therefore has been the most productive during the past couple of decades. Famously, Bill Gates had no interest in politics. "In the beginning, Microsoft tried to ignore the powerful political forces arrayed against it, hunkering down in Redmond, Washington, to focus on its core businesses," William F. Shugart wrote in the Freeman. Of course, the Department of Justice snapped Mr. Gates to attention.
Is there one thing that Tony Robbins, Ron Paul and Ben Bernanke can all agree on? Yes, there actually is. Recently they have all come forward with warnings that the national debt crisis could destroy America if something is not done. Unfortunately, our politicians continue to spend us into oblivion as if there will never be any consequences. When Barack Obama took office, the U.S. national debt was 10.6 trillion dollars. Today, it is 15.6 trillion dollars and it is ... (more)
The renowned Dr. Doom also known as Dr. Marc Faber joined FSN today to discuss his latest commentary that it might just be time to start looking at real estate investments in severely distressed markets such as Florida and Arizona. Dr. Faber explained his outlook for the Western Economies, his forecasts for Gold and Silver, and his take on "printing press" economics.... (more)
In the last decade, something astonishing has happened that has escaped the attention of nearly every American citizen. In the past, and with good reason, we were inclined to imagine that if we were living here, we were living everywhere. We were used to being ahead. The trends of the world would follow us, so there wasn't really much point in paying that close attention. This national myopia has long been an affliction, but one without much cost. Until very recently.
And this is good news, great news, it was freedom which created the prosperity in America and now that it's being murdered the previously least free places on earth are going in the opposite direction because they're sick of being poor. These other countries are now the "new America" and these trends will only continue as the U.S. spends itself into bankruptcy. - Chris
