By Michael Panzner

Intoxicated by the smell of Fed-created funny money and enthralled by visions of bonuses and bull markets, policymakers, punters and pundits have been getting excited about prospects for a post-recession change in consumer spending behavior.

Something tells me, however, that the choices Americans are being faced with nowadays, as detailed in the following Huffington Post commentary, “The New Faces of Poverty,” by the president of the Children’s Defense Fund, are not Read More »

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By The Gold Report

Steady tailwinds benefited the stock market for most of 2010, but Stansberry & Associates Investment Research Founder Porter Stansberry is bracing himself and his clients for a bumpy ride for equities in the new year, as well as unprecedented instability in muni bonds and Treasuries. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Porter, who’s been predicting the dire consequences of unbridled borrowing and continued quantitative easing for some Read More »

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Where Do You Rank as a Taxpayer? – Kiplinger/Yahoo

As Ireland Flails, Europe Lurches Across the Rubicon – Wall Street Journal

Analysis: Consumer Spending Back to Normal? Not So Fast – Reuters

Can Washington Get America’s Economy Moving Again With Cash Rewards? – Slate

A World in Crisis: What the Thirties Tell Us About Today – Weekly Standard

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By Ashvin Pandurangi for The Automatic Earth

But this time it’s not necessarily Communism, or any other label used by humans to conveniently understand their complex forms of socioeconomic organization. It’s the spectre of an unrelenting reality, emerging from the depths of history, with no plans to follow but its own. What exactly, then, is reality and why does it have its own plans? These are not easy questions to answer, but many Read More »

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Ex-Shell President Sees $5 Gas in 2012 – CNN/Money

Where Are the Jobs? For Many Companies, Overseas – AP/Yahoo

U.S. Retailers’ Holiday Sales Increase 5.5%, Most Since 2005 – Bloomberg

Consumer Confidence Dips on Worries – MarketWatch

Home Prices in U.S. Decrease More Than Forecast – Bloomberg

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By Eric Blair for Activist Post

In recent interviews, Congressman Ron Paul has been promoting the idea of legalizing competing currencies in the process of diffusing the Federal Reserve’s monopoly over money.

As the Fed’s strongest political critic, Paul will now be in a position as the new Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy to enforce more transparency and push for alternative currencies to compete with the dollar.

Already, his unprecedented Read More »

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By Bill Bonner for The Daily Reckoning

This week, between Christmas and New Years, is always slow. Traders have mostly taken the week off. The Dow was down a little yesterday. Gold was up a little. Nothing to get excited about.

Here’s a guy who should have taken off too. Bloomberg reports:

“QE2 has had unforeseen benefits in raising risk appetites and improving confidence across the board,” said Mark MacQueen, a partner at Austin, Texas-based Read More »

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By James West

The investment world has become obsessed with phenomena that cause catastrophic loss – so much so that a new language has evolved, subjugating old words to new meanings. Melt-downs, for example. Collapse. Bubbles.

Bubble, in fact, is now the word that classifies any asset class believed to be overpriced as a result of investment hysteria. Right now, we have the gold bubble, the silver bubble, more generally, the commodities bubble. The Read More »

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European Sovereign Debt Crisis Set to Spread … Government Bonds at Risk! – Money and Markets

How to Balance the Budget (Without Raising Taxes) – NY Post

The Era of Bernankeism – Asia Times

Econ-101 with Dr. Ron Paul – Forbes

Job Offers Rising as Economy Warms Up – Wall Street Journal

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