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Are You a Milk Cow for the Government?

“I thought it would be useful to look at when Tax Freedom Day occurs across the world to gain some perspective. Tax Freedom Day (TFD) is the day of the year that the average person has in theory earned enough money to pay their annual tax bill. If TFD falls on January 1st that means you are a milk cow for ZERO days out of the year for the government. If it falls on June 30th it means you are working 181 days each year to pay off your taxes. Unfortunately most of us will spend some time during the year acting as a milk cow in some fashion for a government. Below is a table showing when TFD hits in the countries within the EU.” Continue reading →

Foreign Central Banks Keep Buying U.S. Treasury Debt

“Latest report: foreign holdings of U.S. government debt are up by 10%, year over year. China has been buying. It now holds $1.2 trillion. The total comes to $5.66 trillion. Of this, 72% is held by foreign governments and central banks. This policy of inflating the domestic currency and buying U.S. Treasury debt with the new money holds down U.S. interest rates. It helps keep recession away. It also holds down the dollar value of foreign currencies. This is great for American consumers. American consumers are getting subsidies from foreign governments. This is mercantilism in action. American consumers are the great beneficiaries.” Continue reading →

Students, troops clash in Venezuela over election

“National Guard troops are firing tear gas and plastic bullets to disperse students protesting the official results in Venezuela’s disputed presidential election. The students are hurling chunks of concrete and stones back at the troops on a highway in the capital of Caracas. The students are trying to reach the western part of Caracas, where most of the government is headquartered and where Nicolas Maduro is being declared winner of Sunday’s election to replace the deceased Hugo Chavez. Citizens around the capital also are banging pots and pans to protest the proclamation of Maduro as the victor.” Continue reading →

Bill Bonner: Tough luck for investors!

“For five years now, the US private sector has been trying to deleverage – while the public sector insists that it borrow more. Result: economic stagnation. Also, US consumers have watched their wages and family incomes fall for more than ten years. And adjusted for inflation (however you calculate it) investors are still below where they were in 2000. And now, the world has changed…almost the opposite of 1980, when the big boom began. Today, stocks are expensive, not cheap like they were in 1980. Interest rates are low, not high like they were in 1980. Total debt is now around 350% of GDP, not 150% like it was in 1980.” Continue reading →

Bill Bonner: Is this the end for the bull market in gold?

“Is this the end for the bull market in gold? Everybody says so. And this was before gold tumbled on Friday. The fact is, the masses never got anywhere near gold. Not even close. Most people have never seen a gold coin….and few are as reckless as the aforementioned Mr. Norstog. Most are even more reckless! They’ll wait gold to hit $2,000…or $3,000 before they buy. Which is why we’re nowhere close to the top. Wall Street never marketed gold, deftly…or any other way. Not even in its usual greedy, heavy handed fashion. And the masses never bought it. Just the opposite. As the price of gold rose we saw ads in the paper soliciting people to SELL gold.” Continue reading →

Iron Age burial site points to long-lost glories of Gaul

“During this time, the Celts expanded from their core territory in central Europe to as far afield as northern Scotland and the Atlantic coast of Spain. They clashed with the emerging Roman empire, whose writers recorded the invaders as pale-skinned savages, dressed in breeches with bleached hair, who cut off their enemies’ heads, preserving those of high rank in cedar oil. The barbarian image, though, has been dispelled by historical research in recent decades. It has laid bare a complex civilisation that had a mastery of metal and a trading system which spanned Europe and generated great wealth.” Continue reading →

Supreme Court refuses to take up challenge against New York public gun law

“The Supreme Court declined on Monday to discuss a challenge to a New York state law requiring prospective gun owners to demonstrate they need to defend themselves before getting a concealed-carry license for a handgun. The New York Times reported that the court’s decision effectively backs a ruling by the federal Court of Appeals for New York upholding the law. New York state attorney general Eric Schneiderman filed a brief to the high court arguing that the New York law, similar to measures in at least seven other states, operated in accordance with the Second Amendment.” Continue reading →

Arizona House Panel Says Cops Can Destroy Marijuana, Even If Patients Had Right To It

“An Arizona House panel voted on Tuesday to let police destroy marijuana they have seized, even if it was seized from legal medical marijuana patients who had a right to possess it. The panel ignored the pleas of Arizona’s former top federal prosecutor, who told members of the Judiciary Committee that SB 1441 — supposedly meant to ‘tighten up’ the state’s medical marijuana law — is an improer end-run around the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act, approved by voters in 2010, reports Howard Fischer at Capitol Media Services.” Continue reading →