"It used to be the main exchange currency in Europe, but soon after WW1 governments ditched it. Now, amid turbulent financial times and economic woes, gold is fashionable once more, as RT's Peter Oliver explains." Continue reading →
"A depressed Florida man shot his wife and two children before killing himself after closing his hot air balloon business and facing losing his job as a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector because of automatic budget cuts known as 'sequestration.' A source told CBS News that 45-year-old Carlos Zuniga was depressed in the weeks before he shot his wife 43-year-old wife, Michelle, his 14-year-old daughter, Lauren, and his 11-year-old son, Stefan. Carlos Zuniga then killed himself. Stefan Zuniga died at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center on Thursday morning. Both the wife and the daughter were in critical condition." Continue reading →
"Lucy, who suffers from Spina bifida and is confined to a wheelchair was on her way to Disney World when she was stopped after going through security at her home airport. She, along with her parents and siblings made it through the security checkpoint without a problem until the TSA stopped them on their way to their gate. TSA promptly took away Lucy's favorite toy which led her to weep uncontrollably. TSA demanded that her parents stop recording. Lucy's father, a lawyer, told them that he was legally allowed to record them and her mother said repeatedly 'you're not touching my daughter' without a camera documenting their actions." Continue reading →
"Older Americans recall the jokes made at the expense of Allegheny Airlines in the 1960s and 1970s. Then it became U.S. Airways in 1979. It went bankrupt in 2002. It was able to stiff its 6,000 pilots by canceling its pension obligations in 2003. American taxpayers became responsible through ERISA. It filed bankruptcy again in 2005. This week, it may absorb American Airlines, which is in bankruptcy. The government will probably allow the merger. What does this teach us? This: if you can get out of your corporate pension liabilities through bankruptcy, you can live long and prosper. This strategy will work for municipal governments, too." Continue reading →
"The game is this: Whenever a politician is 'threatened' with a minor slowdown in spending, the first thing to do is to eliminate police, firefighters, ambulance services, school buses, etc. -- everything that inflicts the maximum discomfort on the victims of the government monopoly (a.k.a., taxpayers). The booboisie then wake up from their American Idol stupor for a moment to raise a fuss. But it may not work for the Obammunists, for their biggest threat so far is to furlough 'civilian defense employees.' Unlike ambulance or school bus drivers, these bureaucrats provide no useful service to anyone. They will be the only ones complaining." Continue reading →
"Lew Rockwell talks to John Mackey, founder of Whole Foods." Continue reading →
"Law enforcement officers at the local level are making their stand and they want you to be a part of that. While I’ve written on various sheriffs that have made their own stance to protect their citizens from anyone attempting to confiscate guns, I recently ran across Police Chief Mark Kessler of the Gilberton Borough Police Department in Pennsylvania. He wants citizens to join with his police department in building a 'reserve force' that will aid his police force should the need arise to resist Federal authorities when it comes to the Second Amendment." Continue reading →
"In light of an overbearing federal government pushing gun control, health care reform, and the NDAA, some local governments have taken actions to increase the freedom in their states. There are, of course, so many ways that states try to exert their constitutional power but these are the top seven." Continue reading →
"Cisco has $46 billion in cash, but CEO John Chambers says he is no longer willing to use it to acquire U.S. companies. That's because 80 percent of that cash is stored in overseas accounts and if Cisco spends it in the U.S., the company will have to fork over 35 percent in taxes. For years, he has been trying to get the U.S. to change that tax rule. He's said before that this prevents him from hiring more U.S. workers. But now he's said he's also stopped shopping for acquisition targets in the U.S., too. Microsoft keeps about 87 percent of its $66.6 billion stored outside the U.S.; Oracle, 80 percent of its $31.6 billion; and Apple about 68 percent of its $121.3 billion." Continue reading →
"The world's biggest gold importer has been trying to get its population to buy less of the metal. Late January, the government hiked the import duty on gold and platinum to 6% from 4% to curb imports of the precious metal. However, realising that an import duty hike was in the offing, bullion retailers purchased 23% more gold in January this year, ahead of the duty hike. 'The shipment was the highest in 18 months and clearly undermined the government's efforts to cap imports. A purchase of 100 tonne in one month is 40% more than the monthly average. This has got the government worried once again,' said Baijal Pushpesh, bullion retailer." Continue reading →