Free Republic

“Ponzi Scheme” is a term that was coined about 100 years ago. It was named after an Italian immigrant, Charles Ponzi, who realized he could get investors by promising large returns for undefined, high-yield investments. His endeavor needed to make just enough money to keep attracting new investors, whose money, after Ponzi’s cut, was used to pay some of the earlier investors. In our modern day, Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme resulted in losses in the billions of dollars when the stock market tanked during the Great Recession. Selling the Deal Americans are just beginning to see the tip of the...

Although Social Security has been around for a long time, the program continues to evolve. And one positive change that has the potential to arise in the near term is a generous cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA. COLAs are the annual raises seniors on Social Security are entitled to. They're not guaranteed, and there have been years when seniors have gotten no boost to their benefits at all. A nice windfall could be on the way In recent years, Social Security's COLAs haven't been much to write home about. In 2021, seniors saw their benefits increase by 1.3%. In 2020, they...

Wicked glee from Bill Gates to deny retired people their Social Security unless they get vaccinated. https://twitter.com/NewsAlternative/status/1423164308167352320

2020 is here, and many people are excited about starting a new decade. Yet for those who watch Social Security's financial condition, New Year's Day just means we're a year closer to the challenges facing the key government program.This year is likely to be the last one that Social Security manages to keep its spending under a key psychological level. Starting in 2021, the amount of money that the Social Security Administration spends on benefits for retirees and survivors of retired workers will exceed $1 trillion for the first time -- and that's just the beginning of an upward surge...

Casey Files: Government Debt – Termites in the HouseAs I write, gold has rebounded handsomely over the $600 mark, perhaps putting a stake through the heart of the recent steep correction. Or, perhaps not.After all, it isn’t the fundamentals, per se, that are currently causing gold to spike. It’s largely just the chattering of the trading community based on their reading of the tea leaves revealed in the Fed’s latest press release.In order to make any real sense of where gold should be trading, and will be trading soon enough, you have to look deeper, much deeper, into the...