News Commentary

Bill Bonner: How to Invest Like the Swiss

"You can barely throw a Krugerrand in any direction without hitting a rich banker or his model wife. They stroll along the Limmatquai. They dine at the Kronenhalle. They shop on Bahnhofstrasse. And what do they think of today's markets? 'It's crazy what is happening,' said our friend. 'But crazy things happen. You just have to make sure you're not doing something crazy too.' Only a fool would pretend to know where gold will come to a bottom. Nobody knows. But a lot of people think they know. And when people think they know something that they can't really know, it is an opportunity for those who don't know and who know they don't know. Is that clear?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: How to Invest Like the Swiss

Peter Schiff: The Golden Cycle

"This analysis provides a good representation of the current conventional wisdom. The only twist here is that the article from which this summary is derived appeared in the August 29, 1976 edition of The New York Times. When the gold price approached $100 per ounce, a nearly 50% decline, the obituaries came fast and furious. Everyone assumed that the gold mania would never return. Although the writer of The Times piece did not yet know it, the bottom for gold had been established four days before his article was published. Few realized at the time that the real economic pain of the 1970's had (to paraphrase The Carpenters 1970's hit) 'Only Just Begun'." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPeter Schiff: The Golden Cycle

Bill Bonner: How Low Can Gold Go?

"The price can easily step back 50% in a bull market... then continue its upward surge. 'At the moment gold shares are not far off pricing in the end of the world,' says Evy Hambro of Blackrock. End of the world? Not quite. The end of the world can come at any time... and at any gold price. But we doubt that it will come on July 1, with gold at $1,200 an ounce. The feds have created an economy that can't be sustained. Because it requires bigger and bigger inputs of cash and credit. Everyone knows this can't go on forever. That's why the Fed is talking about 'tapering.' But you don't 'taper' a major addiction; you have to hit bottom first." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: How Low Can Gold Go?

Snowden Is Not the Story

"Deep Throat was not the story in 1972, and Edward Snowden is not the story today. The abuse of America’s intelligence agencies is. And yet, we are not having an open discussion. We are instead seeing a media circus. The messenger, Edward Snowden, has been made 'the story.' Keeping under safe political cover, President Obama is deferring to the Justice Department—the same Justice Department which seized the Associated Press’ phone records and criminalized Fox News reporter James Rosen to pursue a leak investigation into a former State Department contractor." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSnowden Is Not the Story

To those who say ‘trust the government’: Remember J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI?

"Hundreds of these sorts of companies have come about in the last few years, operating in close partnerships with the state, yet existing beyond the view of Congress, the media and 'public eyes'. Even in the unlikely instance when their activities come to light, potentially illegal behavior goes unpunished; even calls by congressmen to investigate the sordid Themis conspiracy were ignored by the Department of Justice. This, then, is the environment in which public officials and Beltway insiders like Friedman are asking us to trust the intelligence community and its private partner firms with increasing power over information." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTo those who say ‘trust the government’: Remember J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI?

A Rare Anomaly in the Gold Market

"So does this mean we should buy now? To be sure, book values fall when precious metals prices decline, and costs have risen substantially since 2001 as well. So it's possible values could fall further. But in that scenario the relationship between stock prices and book value would remain in rarified territory, making the anomaly even more appealing to a contrarian investor." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingA Rare Anomaly in the Gold Market

Confiscation by the Installment Plan

"One plan might be to find locations in less-risky countries that will accept you as a client. Another possibility may be to resort (at least for moderate amounts) to what a very large portion of the population routinely did less than a century ago – keep some money at home. To modern culture, this latter idea seems downright primitive, yet well into the 20th century, this was the norm. In years to come, 2013 may be looked back upon as 'the arrival of modern bank confiscations,' and the majority of those who actually still have wealth in five to ten years may be the ones who foresaw the inevitable, got their money out, and put it in comparatively safer places." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingConfiscation by the Installment Plan

Ron Paul: If You Like The Surveillance State, You’ll Love E-Verify

"The mandatory E-Verify system requires Americans to carry a 'tamper-proof' social security card. Before they can legally begin a job, American citizens will have to show the card to their prospective employer, who will then have to verify their identity and eligibility to hold a job in the US by running the information through the newly-created federal E-Verify database. The database will contain photographs taken from passport files and state driver’s licenses. The law gives federal bureaucrats broad discretion in adding other 'biometric' identifiers to the database and broad authority to determine what features the 'tamper proof' card should contain." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRon Paul: If You Like The Surveillance State, You’ll Love E-Verify

The Surveillance State: How The War On Drugs And The War On Terror Go Hand In Hand

"It is telling that in ten years there were only 15 terrorism related 'sneak and peak' warrants issued while the rest were predominantly for drugs. It is this mission creep which has led to many of the abuses behind not just the Drug War, but the War on Terror. It is the permanent state of war that has contributed to the lack of transparency that should concern all Americans as laws and technology collide. How do we balance the need for security and maintain our civil liberties? It is this discussion that requires the full light of day. Whether Edward Snowden’s leak of NSA information is heroic or treasonous, what he revealed about America should startle us all." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Surveillance State: How The War On Drugs And The War On Terror Go Hand In Hand

NSA scandal separates liberty lovers from poseurs

"I’ve reported on government at the local and state level and have seen firsthand that agencies always grab as much power as they can. The most secretive agencies are the ones rife with abuse, and those agencies often cover up the misdeeds of their own agents. People often are drawn to power for less-than-noble reasons. That’s the nature of humanity and of government, although such lessons – at the core of the nation’s founding – are lost on the likes of McConnell and Obama. That coalition of left and right better expand rapidly or else this program will just be the stepping stool to another bigger and more effective governmental intrusion." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNSA scandal separates liberty lovers from poseurs