France’s President Hollande: Eradicate tax havens

"We think we can recognize a dominant social theme when we see one. This sudden emphasis on eradicating tax havens is a manufactured media firestorm, intended to go on and on until there are few places to hide money from increasingly demanding governments. Believe, if you wish, that taxes are a legitimate duty of citizens in the 21st century. This argument still begs the question of why, in an era of central banking, governments need to collect taxes. Banks can print as much as is necessary. And according to such wise men as Ben Bernanke, banks can also drain money if the economy is getting overheated. So why taxes?" Continue reading

Continue ReadingFrance’s President Hollande: Eradicate tax havens

Study reveals GMO corn to be highly toxic

"A leaked study examining genetically-modified corn reveals that the lab-made alternative to organic crops contains a startling level of toxic chemicals. The report was provided by a representative for De Dell Seed Company, an Ontario-based farm that’s touted as being Canadian only non-GMO corn seed company. According to the analysis, GMO corn tested by Profit Pro contains a number of elements absent from traditional cord, including chlorides, formaldehyde and glyphosate. While those elements don’t appear naturally in corn, they were present in GMO samples to the tune of 60 ppm, 200pm and 13 ppm, respectively." Continue reading

Continue ReadingStudy reveals GMO corn to be highly toxic

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

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Happy Tax Freedom Day?

"Tax Freedom Day is the day that 'the nation as a whole has earned enough money to pay its total tax bill for the year.' National Tax Freedom Day comes just a few days behind our deadline to pay up, with the exception of Texas, where residents have a lower average state and local tax burden. Tax Freedom Day for Texans began on April 10. On average, Americans nationwide will work 40 days just to pay their income tax, another 25 days for payroll taxes, 15 days for excise taxes, and 12 days for property taxes. Overall, Americans will spend more on taxes than on food, housing, and clothing combined this year." Continue reading

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Gold: Fear vs. Greed – and Taxes [Bullish]

"I've yet to be convinced that the Keynesians are right, governments of the world have cured what ails the global economy with their virtual printing presses, and the next boom is a done deal. That doesn't mean gold can't or won't go lower – just that if it does, the fundamentals say it's a buying opportunity. I know that some analysts are saying that having retreated more than 20%, gold has entered 'official' bear market territory, and that signals a long wait for recovery, but experience has shown that when gold sells off for the wrong reasons, it usually bounces back. Strongly. Remember the second half of the 1970s gold bull market." Continue reading

Continue ReadingGold: Fear vs. Greed – and Taxes [Bullish]

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

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: Tough luck for investors!

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

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John Browne Explains the Great Game

"Of countries that have to make something, like the Swiss – the Swiss have got a heap of granite with icing on the top of it and yet they're one of the richest countries in the world. It's the people that do this stuff. It's the people and the leadership and if they believe in something they do it, and the Germans, too. They believe in hard work but what's more, they believe that the hard work of today's citizens should be kept intact so that those hard working people, when they retire, should be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor. The Anglo-Americans say the hell with the future, the hell with children, the hell with grandchildren. We want that money now." Continue reading

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Bill Bonner: $10,000 each in two suitcases

"Price controls didn't work for the Romans. They didn't work for the Germans. They didn't work for the Zimbabweans or any of the other hundreds of governments that have tried them. But who knows? Maybe they'll work for the Argentinians. But inflation is just getting started here. The rate is officially about 10%. Unofficially, it's 30%. Officially, you can trade a dollar for 5.4 pesos. Unofficially, you'd be a fool to do so. The black market rate is eight to the dollar – and more. So what do we do? Every time we come to Argentina we bring the maximum - $10,000 each – in $100 bills. Then, when we need to buy things, we trade our dollars on the black market." Continue reading

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: $10,000 each in two suitcases

Dad Finds 4th-Grader’s Crayon-Written Paper: ‘I’ll Give Up Constitutional Rights To Be Safer’

"The words are written in crayon, in the haphazard bumpiness of a child’s scrawl. 'I am willing to give up some of my constitutional rights in order to be safer or more secure.' They’re the words that Florida father Aaron Harvey was stunned to find his fourth-grade son had written, after a lesson in school about the Constitution. Harvey’s son attends Cedar Hills Elementary in Jacksonville, Fla. Back in January, a local attorney came in to teach the students about the Bill of Rights. But after the attorney left, fourth-grade teacher Cheryl Sabb dictated the sentence to part of the class and had them copy it down, he said." Continue reading

Continue ReadingDad Finds 4th-Grader’s Crayon-Written Paper: ‘I’ll Give Up Constitutional Rights To Be Safer’