If you’ve read Federal Reserve press releases over the past decade, one thing that the Fed constantly drones on about is how low inflation is. The Fed wants to target a 2% annual inflation rate and is always complaining that inflation is running lower than that target. The folks at the Fed act as though rising prices are a...
Read any of the mainstream financial media commentary about gold and you’ll likely hear that gold is a horrendous investment that doesn’t make any gains and doesn’t provide investors with any growth in wealth. But that attitude is most often coming from pundits who made great gains in the ‘80s and ‘90s and haven’t actually taken a good look...
The United States economy is currently faced with a debt bubble of epic proportions. But the most insidious thing about it may not be just its size, but rather how few people are even aware that it exists. The massive debt bubble, fueled both by the federal government and by corporations, has begun to receive a little bit of...
The numbers aren’t looking good for international trade. Industrial production, exports, and imports are all falling around the world. While President Trump gets a significant portion of the blame for that from the mainstream media, the fault isn’t entirely his. Yes, tariffs on Chinese and European goods have exacerbated trade disputes and worsened the trade situation, but things were...
The number of options available to Americans looking to save for retirement has probably never been higher. From stocks to bonds to mutual funds, precious metals to agricultural commodities to ETFs, there are thousands upon thousands of investment options available to investors. In fact, there are so many choices that it can be overwhelming to the investor just looking...
While gold gets all the attention from the mainstream financial media, silver just lurks in the background, drawing attention mainly from dedicated precious metals investors. Often referred to as “poor man’s gold,” silver’s significantly lower price allows investors to dip their toes into precious metals markets without having to shell out huge amounts of cash. Plus, with so much...
Before a recent trip to the border with Mexico, President Trump called on the Fed to end its tightening of monetary policy and begin a new policy of quantitative easing. According to Trump, “I personally think the Fed should drop rates, they’ve really slowed us down. There’s no inflation. In terms of quantitative tightening, it should be quantitative easing.”...
With the price of gold still hovering around the $1,300 per ounce range, many investors are impatiently waiting for a breakout. As with any other investment, patience is a virtue. Investing in gold is a long-term strategy, not a short-term get rich quick type of investment. But those investors who have been patient and who have held on to...
President Trump has had the unprecedented ability to shape the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors in a way that no other President has. Three of the current five Board members were appointed by him, and he just recently announced two new nominations, Stephen Moore and Herman Cain. That means that by the end of his first term he will...
For decades many retirement planning guides have talked about the three-legged stool of retirement: Social Security, private savings, and pensions. But the three legs of that stool have become heavily degraded over time. Many Americans ask themselves “What stool?” when it comes to thinking about the three legs of retirement planning. Social Security is in dire straits and set to...