Gold Proves Safest as Goldman Forecasts Record: Riskless ReturnGold provided the best returns of all commodities in the past five years when adjusted for volatility, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says the rally will continue as options traders signal no change in the metal’s relatively low risk.
The BLOOMBERG RISKLESS RETURN RANKING shows the Standard & Poor’s GSCI Gold Total Return Index produced a 6.5 percent risk- adjusted return in the five years ended yesterday, the highest among 24 commodities tracked by S&P, data compiled by... (more)
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Gold Spikes up $46.50 to $1710/oz on Fed Announcement
Gold spikes up $46.50, or 2.79% after the Fed says interest rates are unlikely to rise all the way through 2014.
Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the Federal Reserve is considering additional asset purchases to boost growth after extending its pledge to keep interest rates low through at least late 2014.
Policy makers are “prepared to provide further monetary accommodation if employment is not making sufficient pr ... (more)
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Tax Evaders Renounce U.S. CitizenshipRather than deal with the complexities of U.S. tax law, Americans living overseas are increasingly renouncing their citizenship in order to avoid paying their income taxes.
According to National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson, approximately 4,000 people gave up their citizenship from fiscal year 2005 to FY 2010. Renunciations increased sharply within the past three years, from 146 in FY 2008 to 1,534 in FY 2010. And during the first two quarters of FY 2011 alone, 1,024 Americans... (more)
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The Fed's Men Behind the CurtainThe debate about the Fed is under way, and thank goodness. But as with many policy debates, there really shouldn't be a debate at all. That's because, if you think about it, the idea of central banking makes no sense.
We don't have a government-created central repository that plans and manages shoe distribution. The market takes care of that. We don't have one for cabbage, keyboards or curtains. Somehow we get books, clothes, tree-cutting services and everything else we need and w... (more)
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Buffalo teachers still get free plastic surgery courtesy of taxpayersPublic school teachers in Buffalo can get botox, liposuction, hair removal, and various other nips and tucks from plastic surgeons -- all completely free. And taxpayers are footing the bill.
The Atlantic reports the perk is part of a self-insured rider in its teachers' contracts. There's no co-pay, so the school district pays for the... (more)
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India to pay gold instead of dollars for Iranian oil. Oil and gold markets stunnedIndia is the first buyer of Iranian oil to agree to pay for its purchases in gold instead of the US dollar, DEBKAfile's intelligence and Iranian sources report exclusively. Those sources expect China to follow suit. India and China take about one million barrels per day, or 40 percent of Iran's total exports of 2.5 million bpd. Both are superpowers in terms of gold assets.
By trading in gold, New Delhi and Beijing enable Tehran to bypass the upcoming freeze on its central bank's ... (more)
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Bankrupt Solyndra Caught Destroying Brand New PartsFREMONT (CBS 5) — After filing for bankruptcy last year, Fremont solar company Solyndra still owes American taxpayers half a billion dollars. But CBS 5 caught them destroying millions of dollars worth of parts.
At Solyndra’s sprawling complex in Fremont, workers in white jumpsuits were unwrapping brand new glass tubes used in solar panels last week. They are the latest, most cutting-edge solar technology, and they are being thrown into dumpsters.
Forklif... (more) You know, the government burned some $500 million taxpayer money on this company, that's around the same amount the DOJ (falsely) claims megaupload cost the movie studios. - Chris |
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The US Government Is BankruptEveryone knows that the US government is bankrupt and has been for many years. But I thought it might be instructive to see what its current cash-flow situation actually is. At least insofar as it's possible to get a clear picture.
As you know, the so-called Super Committee recently tried to come up with a plan to cut the deficit by $1.5 trillion and failed completely. To anyone who understands the nature of the political process, the failure was, of course, as predic... (more)
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Mere Mortals at the FedThe secrecy of the Federal Reserve is legendary, but pressure in recent years has led to some opening up. Already in the last 12 months, we've seen some eye-popping records of who received credit during the 2008-09 credit crunch. We've seen lists of institutions that the Fed favors, and these lists have confirmed the worst fears. Hint: It's all about the big banks.
But now we get the really fun stuff. The transcripts, released five years after the fact, of the open market committe... (more)
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24 Statistics To Show To Anyone Who Believes That America Has A Bright Economic FutureBeware of bubbles of false hope. Right now there is a lot of talk about how the U.S. economy is improving, but it is all a lie. The mainstream media can be very seductive. When you sit down to watch television your brain tends to go into a very relaxed mode. In such a state, it becomes easy to slip thoughts and ideas past your defenses. Sometimes when I am watching television I realize what the media is trying to do and yet I can still feel it happening to me. ... (more)
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Rand Paul returns $500K in office budget to TreasuryThanks Rand, we'll make sure to spend this money on killing people instead!
- Sincerely, the US government |
Bernanke Doubles Down on Fed Mortgage BetBen S. Bernanke is signaling his willingness to double down on a three-year bet that’s failed to revive housing, showing the extent of the Federal Reserve chairman’s effort to wrest a recovery from the deepest recession.
Since the Fed started buying $1.25 trillion of mortgage bonds in January 2009, the value of U.S. housing has fallen 4.1 percent, and is down 32 percent from its 2006 peak, according to an S&P/Case-Shiller index. The central bank is poised to buy about ... (more)
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Money or Capitalism in Crisis?When the Financial Times started its series on "Capitalism in Crisis," I winced. Here we go yet again, an attempt to blame private enterprise for what are actually the failures of the state and paper money. And some writers — but not all — in the series have done exactly this, while obscuring the differences between free and unfree markets by referring only to the way "the system" has failed.
And what is the evidence of this failure? It is everywhere. Household income ... (more)
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The Dollar's Lucky StreakRecent U.S. economic data, such as the modest drop in the unemployment rate and the massive expansion of consumer credit, have suggested that the American economy is finally recovering. Opposite conclusions are being thrown at Europe, where many are convinced that recession is returning. Not surprisingly then, the dollar is currently hitting a multi-year high against the euro. The strength of the dollar itself is often held up as one of the major proof points that the U.S. economy is “impr... (more)
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The Prospects for Sound MoneyA silver lining of the global economic crisis is that millions of people have been awakened to the importance of sound money to a modern economy. The housing bubble and subsequent bust, excessive leveraging, reckless speculation, and the sovereign-debt crisis afflicting Europe and the United States would all have been averted had money been commodity-based (e.g., gold and silver) and therefore not subject to periodic devaluation by political authorities.
Since President Richard Ni... (more)
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Liberal Minimum-Wage Nonsense Hurts the PoorThe liberals are at it again. They’re calling for another increase in the minimum wage in their purported attempt to help the poor. Two new minimum-wage articles have recently been posted on the liberal websites Counterpunch and Common Dreams. One is entitled “The Bogus Case Against the Minimum Wage Hike” by Dean Baker and John Schmitt and the other is “America&rs... (more)
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Massive Beat? Not So Fast - Morgan Stanley Warns 42,000 "Jobs" Bogus Due To Seasonal Quirk Enamored with the 200,000 number? Don't be - the reason why the market has basically yawned at this BLS data is that as Morgan Stanley's David Greenlaw reports, 42,000 of the 200,000 is basically a seasonal quirk, which will be given back next month, meaning the true adjusted number is 158,000, essentially right on top of the expectation. From David Greenlaw: "some of the strength in this report should be discounted because of an seasonal quirk in the courier category of payrolls (Fed-ex, UPS, ... (more)
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U.S. IRS Audited Record Millionaires in Fiscal '11The U.S. Internal Revenue Service said it audited 12.48 percent of individual tax returns (USCBTAXR) with income exceeding $1 million during fiscal 2011, a high reached at a time of debate over the taxation of top earners.
The announcement marks the third consecutive year that the IRS increased its audit rate on returns showing income of more than $1 million. According to IRS data, the previous record was the 8.36 percent of returns in that category audited during fiscal 2010.
... (more)
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Paradise Lost for Aussie Surfboard Makers Amid China ImportsOn Australia’s Gold Coast, a 22-mile- long (35-kilometer) stretch of beaches named Surfers Paradise and Rainbow Bay, Neil Rech opened a surf shop in December and unwittingly disturbed the peace.
His store, Sedition Surfboards, sells Chinese imports for A$250 ($258), one-third the cost of some Australian-made boards that competitors are offering. Rival retailers averse to discounts and upset about local job losses questioned his patriotism, and even threatened violence, he sa... (more) Awesome story, I can't wait to buy one. - Chris |
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It's The Little ThingsIn their last desperate months, the management of MF Global instituted cost cutting initiatives to try and save the company. The Wall Street Journal’s Aaron Lucchetti and Mike Spector write that a memo went out to the firm’s 2,800 employees telling them to start printing on both sides of paper and listed other ways to save the company mone... (more)
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Gloom, Doom, and OptimismMarc Faber is a market analyst and publisher of the "Gloom, Boom and Doom Report" newsletter. As you may have gathered from that title, he's rather pessimistic about the economy. (He's also been very accurate concerning economic trends over his career.) But he really dropped jaws recently when he made the following statement on CNBC:
I am a great optimist in life; otherwise I would commit suicide in view of the kind of governments we have nowadays. Hyperbo... (more)
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