Free Republic

I'm very bearish on the U.S. dollar and have been for years. That's why I have so many of them. This sounds like a contradiction, but let me explain. The reason I have so many dollars, even though I think they're worth less and less, is because I don't hang on to them. In my mind, cash is trash. One of the reasons why we have this enormous gap between the world's haves and have-nots is because the have-nots value money -- they work for it, save it, cling to it, and lose it.A friend just bought a new SUV....

How Economic News is Spun Paul Craig Roberts Friday, March 3, 2006 Readers ask me to reconcile the jobs and debt data that I report to them with the positive economic outlook and good news that comes to them from regular news sources. Some readers are being snide, but most are sincere. I am pleased to provide the explanation. First, let me give my reassurances that the numbers I report to you come straight from official U.S. government statistics. I do not massage the numbers or rework them in any way. I cannot assure you that the numbers are perfectly...

The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse Krassimir Petrov, Ph.D.January 15, 2006 Abstract: the proposed Iranian Oil Bourse will accelerate the fall of the American Empire. I. Economics of Empires A nation-state taxes its own citizens, while an empire taxes other nation-states. The history of empires, from Greek and Roman, to Ottoman and British, teaches that the economic foundation of every single empire is the taxation of other nations. The imperial ability to tax has always rested on a better and stronger economy, and as a consequence, a better and stronger military. One part of the subject taxes went to improve the...

The prospect of further rises in interest rates in the eurozone unnerved both equity and bond markets on Thursday. ... The price of silver rose to a fresh 22-year high above $10 an ounce amid expectations that a silver exchange-traded fund would soon receive US regulatory approval.

In a shocking development, the Treasury Department website is openly stating that as of January 24, 2006 our national debt stood at $8,185.3 billion and on January 26th at $8,190.5 billion. http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm Yet the US national debt ‘ceiling’, the maximum amount of debt the US government may hold at any one time, stands at $8,184 billion – a full $5.5 billion less. Although called upon by John Snow, Congress has not yet passed an expansion of the debt ceiling and so the US government is now operating in technical default. You may recall that when last the debt ceiling was...

M-3 has been launched into outer space, up another $56.3 billion last week, up $92.4 billion over the past two. This is some real horsepower. Over six weeks, the meaningless figure, ahem, is up $177.8 billion. These annualized growth rates are 28.7 percent, 23.6 percent, and 15.3 percent respectively. Those are the seasonally adjusted figures. The raw, non-seasonally adjusted, figure is up $293.3 billion over the past 12 weeks, on a pace to add 1.2 trillion in money to the economy. Wow. There must be a need for this. Maybe the master Planners see a coming need to monetize our...

These are good times for gold investors, according Frank Holmes, Chief Investment Officer for U.S. Global Investors. In a recent webcast, Holmes told listeners: “We have a unique situation where all critical drivers for gold are pointing in the same direction.” Holmes identified six key drivers and talked about why they are all pointing to higher gold prices. ”There are many components here that are driving gold, and they sort of rotate around,” says Holmes. “It’s not linear.” Currently, we are in a secular bull market in commodities because gold is the ultimate money, says Holmes, and because demand is...

The HeraldTribune is reporting the clock is winding down on the Hybrid Loan and Sub-Prime mortgage time bombs. Starting in 2006 and accelerating into 2007, as much as $2.5 trillion worth of the fancy mortgages called "hybrids" are coming to the end of the free-lunch part of the deal. Economists are still trying to put numbers on this reset factor, particularly when it comes to the riskiest home loans, referred to as "sub-prime." "We don't have enough data to know how big a problem this will be," said David Berson, chief economist at Fannie Mae, the nation's largest mortgage packager....

Australian gold stocks continued to rally today as the gold price raced back towards a 24-year high. At 1245 AEDT the spot price of gold in Sydney was US$533.20 per fine ounce, up US$13.20 on last night's close. This comes on the back of a US$6 rise yesterday, with gold moving back towards the 24 year record high of US$540.90 set in December. Australia's biggest gold producer Newcrest Mining Ltd (ASX:NCM) led the pack in early trade today, racing up A$1.45 or 5.88 per cent to A$26.13 by 1240 AEDT. Papua New Guinea miner Lihir Gold Ltd (ASX:LHG) also shot...

Over the past few days, December 21st — when our first Hindenburg Omen (of whatever cluster is coming) — and Thursday December 22nd, the Federal Reserve has conducted one of the largest two-day Repo injections of money into the system since back in September 2001. On Wednesday they added $18.0 billion in reserves and on Thursday they added another $20.0 billion. Is this a coincidence, coming right as we get another Hindenburg Omen? Probably not. Is something high-risk going on behind the scenes here? Let’s review some facts at the Fed. On November 10th, 2005, shortly after appointing Bernanke to...

Has anyone heard anything?

An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal discussed how self-proclaimed “Depression buff” Ben Bernanke claims understanding of how the Fed caused the Great Depression and precisely what he would do to prevent such a calamity from reoccurring under his tenure. Not only are his assertions naïve and egotistical, but flat-out absurd. Though he claims to have studied The Great Depression in depth, Bernanke is completely clueless as to its actual cause. However, he is partially right about one thing: the Fed did help create the Depression, but for the opposite reasons Bernanke believes. The Fed-induced credit boom of the roaring...

The price of gold has continued to rise in Asian trading, climbing to its highest level since 1981. Gains came despite concerns that the market may be set for a correction and some analysts are now predicting that prices have even higher to go. Precious metals have been given a boost as investors look to protect themselves against higher inflation and weakening currencies such as the Japanese yen. Gold climbed as high as $522.70 an ounce, before falling back. It was hovering around the $521 mark during afternoon trading in Asia. 'Dizzy high' "There's some profit-taking now, but look at...

The price of gold passed $500 an ounce last week, its highest level since the late 1980s. This is either an ominous development—or it isn't... If you'd lived a century ago, gold would have been the basis of your money. Great Britain dominated the global gold standard; its currency, the pound, was freely convertible into gold... On April 5, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered Americans to surrender their gold coin; the country effectively went on a paper-money standard... Higher demand collides with constricted supplies; wham, prices rise... Gold is an unending mystery, because its value lies less in what...

December 5, 2005 The market price for an ounce of gold rose to over $500 last week, a significant milestone for economists watching precious metals and commodities markets. The last time gold topped $500 was December 1987, in the wake of the “Black Monday” stock market collapse earlier that fall. Gold prices historically rise when faith in paper currencies erodes, as investors seek the intrinsic value of gold to protect themselves from inflation. It’s interesting to note that while the U.S. dollar has regained some of its value relative to other paper currencies like the Euro, it continues to lose...

As gold flirts with 20-year highs, we are hearing more from the "gold bugs" or, as they are sometimes appropriately called, the "doom-and-gloomers". Appropriately, because a gold bug's current outlook for the future of traditional financial assets such as stocks, bonds and currencies is not optimistic, particularly in the US. A gold bug traces today's financial problems back to the removal of gold backing from global currencies; without such backing, there is no limit to the amount of money that politicians and the banking system can create. Monetary inflation inevitably leads to price inflation, and creates asset bubbles and excess...

"All the perplexities, confusion and distresses in America arise not from defects in the Constitution or confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue, as much from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation." [1] Abstract Ignorantia juris non excusat (ignorance of the law does not excuse) is a well established principle dating back thousands of years. Roman and English law, precursors of the American system of jurisprudence, both recognized the maxim. Be it not forgotten – justice excuses not the law. The laws of the land are to be made in pursuance of the Constitution. The...