At separate news conferences Democratic and Republican leaders accused each other of political opportunism after Congress again failed to raise the debt ceiling and banks refused the President’s request to fund a government bailout.
As a result, the federal government shutdown that began in 2011 will continue for another year. [read full story]
Today I heard it again on the car radio — an advertisement claiming that since gold has topped $1,500 an ounce it’s a “must buy” for every responsible saver.
If only it were true that I could protect my family from economic Armageddon by buying gold.
Unfortunately, the hard facts are that increasingly since 2000 gold has been the opposite of an inflation hedge. Even worse, when interest rates rise in response to inflation, gold will fall in value, and maybe by a lot.
The historical relationship of gold to inflation, i.e., that it is a hedge, is no longer true. Gold has been “financialized” by Wall Street and its price is being driven by institutional speculators that buy it by borrowing money at near 0% interest. As long as interest rates remain low, the cost of betting on gold is very low and money flows into the gold market.
As gold prices soar individual investors need to beware. One day interest rates will start to rise and gold prices will plummet. Innocent victims that buy gold because of a mass market sales pitch will be sorry.
My strong advice to readers is don’t be a gold bug. It’s only a matter of time before the Fed exterminates you. [read full story]
Please explain your Medicare plan to me and my wife. We are in our early fifties and are concerned about how your changes to Medicare will affect us. We know that Washington can seem disconnected from the real world but, for people of our age, your plan to do away with Medicare is very real.
Getting rid of Medicare feels like a free markets experiment to us and neither of us wants to be a “lab rat” for a social and economic experiment gone awry. Lab rats are usually expendable and we don’t want to be part of a discarded generation. [read full story]
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