runreason's blog

Free Market Facts and Fallacies by Tom Woods

2012-01-30T07:27:00.000-08:00

Listening to "Peter Schweizer, Throw Them All Out 11-30-2011" from the Financial Sense Newshour podcast.

2011-12-01T12:09:00.001-08:00

Nov/30/2011Peter Schweizer, Throw Them All OutHow Politicians and Their Friends Get Rich Off Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism That Would Send the Rest of Us to PrisonOne of the biggest scandals in American politics is waiting to explode: the full story of the inside game in Washington shows how the permanent political class enriches itself at the expense of the rest of us. Peter Schweizer With James J Puplava CFP

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/fsn/~5/VGnMvgkoa8Y/fsn2011-1130-1.mp3

Sent from Downcast

-Mark

2011 Hypothetical Portfolio Review

2011-11-26T09:24:00.000-08:00

Here are this year's (11/25/2010- 11/25/2011) estimated returns on the hypothetical portfolio I posted back in Nov. 2004. Over the same period, the S&P 500 Index returned approximately -1.17% (including dividends).

Going forward into 2012, we will adjust the allocations to be as follows:

Here are the historical results:

Click here for last year's results.

Ron Paul Highlights in 11/22/11 Debate

2011-11-24T21:55:00.001-08:00

Awesome performance by Ron Paul in this debate. These are just the highlights but if you've seen the other candidates speak, you know they are all mental midgets in comparison to Paul.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHXBXC92eMc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Listening to "Farmageddon-The Unseen War to Shut Down American Family Farms 11-23-2011" from the Financial Sense Newshour podcast.

2011-11-23T16:38:00.001-08:00

Nov/23/2011Farmageddon-The Unseen War to Shut Down American Family FarmsAmericas right to access fresh foods of their choice is under attackFilmmaker Kristin Canty tells the story of small, family farms that were providing safe, healthy foods to their communities and were forced to stop, sometimes through violent action, by agents of government bureaucracies. Kristin seeks to understand why and through this film add her voice to the movement to protect and preserve the dwindling number of American family farms struggling to survive.James J Puplava CFP With Kristin Canty

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/fsn/~5/_-ZcqPHEv2w/fsn2011-1123-1.mp3

Sent from Downcast

-Mark

My Favorite Economics and Investing Podcasts

2011-11-13T08:37:00.000-08:00

These podcasts are must-listens for keeping up on the latest economics and investment market news. Turn off the CNBC fluff for a minute and get some real analysis from experts who have a clue when it comes to economics:

King World News Broadcast

S&A Investor Radio w/ Frank Curzio

Financial Sense Newshour

Global Insights-Global-Macroeconomic Audio Discussions

Peter Schiff Show Whole Show

Downcast iPhone App: an awesome podcast utility

2011-11-13T08:34:00.001-08:00

I recently came across this app while reading this review on lifehacker. It costs $2 but is well worth it. Just put in all your favorite podcasts and it will track them, download the latest episodes and automatically create a playlist of them for you. For all this, no syncing with itunes necessary! Also, you can listen to the podcasts at up to 3x speed which is faster than the ipod app allows. This app saves me a ton of time and may have single app-edly convinced me to stick with my iPhone for now (instead of switching to Android and getting a Samsung Galaxy Nexus).

Check out this application on the App Store:

Downcast

Jamawkinaw Enterprises

Category: News

Updated: Oct 22, 2011

75 Ratings

Check out QuickChartsPro - Stock Market Charting Utility

2011-11-12T11:49:00.001-08:00

QuickChartsPro - Stock Market Charting Utility

Check out my new iPad/iPhone application on the App Store:

QuickChartsPro - Stock Market Charting Utility

RunReason.com

Category: Finance

Updated: Nov 09, 2011

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog at OWS

2011-11-08T07:41:00.000-08:00

Hilarious!

How a Highly Productive and Provident One Percent Provides the Standard of L...

2011-11-02T14:24:00.001-07:00

How a Highly Productive and Provident One Percent Provides the Standard of Living of a Largely Ignorant and Ungrateful Ninety-Nine Percent

via George Reisman's Blog on Economics, Politics, Society, and Culture by noreply@blogger.com (George Reisman's Blog) on 10/19/11

The protesters in the Occupy Wall Street Movement and its numerous clones elsewhere in the country and around the world chant that one percent of the population owns all the wealth and lives at the expense of the remaining ninety-nine percent. The obvious solution that they imply is for the ninety-nine percent to seize the wealth of the one percent and use it for their benefit rather than allowing it to continue to be used for the benefit of the one percent, who are allegedly undeserving greedy capitalist exploiters. In other words, the implicit program of the protesters is that of socialism and the redistribution of wealth.

Putting aside the hyperbole in the movement's claim, it is true that a relatively small minority of people does own the far greater part of the wealth of the country. The figures "one percent" and "ninety-nine" percent, however exaggerated, serve to place that fact in the strongest possible light.

What the protesters do not realize is that the wealth of the one percent provides the standard of living of the ninety-nine percent.

The protesters have no awareness of this, because they see the world through an intellectual lens that is inappropriate to life under capitalism and its market economy. They see a world, still present in some places, and present everywhere a few centuries ago, of self-sufficient farm families, each producing for its own consumption and having no essential connection to markets.

In such a world, if one sees a farmer's field, or his barn, or plow, or draft animals, and asks who do these means of production serve, the answer is the farmer and his family, and no one else. In such a world, apart from the receipt of occasional charity from the owners, those who are not owners of means of production cannot benefit from means of production unless and until they themselves somehow become owners of means of production. They cannot benefit from other people's means of production except by inheriting them or by seizing them.

In the world of the protesters, means of production have the same essential status as consumers' goods, which as a rule are of benefit only to their owners. It is because of this that those who share the mentality of the protesters typically depict capitalists as fat men, whose plates are heaped high with food, while the masses of wage earners must live near starvation. According to this mentality, the redistribution of wealth is a matter merely of taking from the overflowing plates of the capitalists and giving to the starving workers.

Contrary to such beliefs, in the modern world in which we actually live, the wealth of the capitalists is simply not in the form of consumers' goods to any great extent. Not only is it overwhelmingly in the form of means of production but those means of production are employed in the production of goods and services that are sold in the market. Totally unlike the conditions of self-sufficient farm families, the physical beneficiaries of the capitalists' means of production are all the members of the general consuming public who buy the capitalists' products.

Read On . . .

Peter Schiff's Visit to Occupy Wall Street

2011-10-28T22:09:00.001-07:00

I think Schiff has been an awesome apologist for free-market Capitalism these past 10 years.

Here's the Anderson Cooper clip of his visit to OWS:

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/27/video-wall-street-ceo-takes-on-occupiers/

Schiff is right when he says we should blame the gov for distorting markets and being the primary cause of the crisis, not Capitalism itself. The other guy makes a good point that it was "Wall Street" that pressured the gov to do so. But Schiff's counter-point at the end of the clip is even better and gets to the core. I'll take it one step further and say that the main way things get out of control like they have is when gov takes control of the currency and centrally plans/controls banking and interest rates.

Check out this prescient cartoon from 1912 (1 year before the establishment of the federal reserve):

Throughout history, people in power, be it kings/queens, politicians, military leaders, etc have all used currency debasement to steal from everyone else and then use the stolen purchasing power to finance wars, empire building, vote buying and general megalomania. Business leaders also participate by getting in bed with the politicians, funding/manipulating them to their own benefit and/or simply becoming politicians themselves.

Vanity Fair: California and Bust by Michael Lewis

2011-10-28T22:03:00.000-07:00

The smart money says the U.S. economy will splinter, with some states thriving, some states not, and all eyes are on California as the nightmare scenario. After a hair-raising visit with former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who explains why the Golden State has cratered, Michael Lewis goes where the buck literally stops—the local level, where the likes of San Jose mayor Chuck Reed and Vallejo ﬁre chief Paige Meyer are trying to avert even worse catastrophes and rethink what it means to be a society.

Read on . . .

WSJ: Blame the Fed for the Financial Crisis by Ron Paul

2011-10-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

The Fed fails to grasp that an interest rate is a price, the price of time. Attempting to manipulate that price is as destructive as any other government price control.

To know what is wrong with the Federal Reserve, one must first understand the nature of money. Money is like any other good in our economy that emerges from the market to satisfy the needs and wants of consumers. Its particular usefulness is that it helps facilitate indirect exchange, making it easier for us to buy and sell goods because there is a common way of measuring their value. Money is not a government phenomenon, and it need not and should not be managed by government. When central banks like the Fed manage money they are engaging in price fixing, which leads not to prosperity but to disaster.

Read on . . .

Debt Collapse - $20,000 Gold

2011-10-28T21:53:00.000-07:00

MSNBC on NYPD Police Brutality during Occupy Wall Street Lawrence O'donnell with "The Last Word"

2011-09-29T22:31:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgr3DiqWYCI&sns=em

Recent FB Posts

2011-09-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-august-15-2011/indecision-2012---corn-polled-edition---ron-paul---the-top-tier?xrs=share_copy

Gold reaches its inflation adjusted high in Asian Trading

2011-08-09T17:24:00.000-07:00

Trader Dan's Market Views: Gold reaches its inflation adjusted high in Asian Trading ...: "The following chart is more for informative purposes than for trading but I did want to note that using the Federal Government's CPI data . . ."

Floor Speech on Debt Ceiling July 19 2011

2011-08-08T20:07:00.001-07:00

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqfm0zrRs9Q&feature=youtube_gdata_player

-Mark

Federer in the top 4 highest paid athletes

2011-06-13T14:01:00.000-07:00

Offside: A Sports Law Blog: Forbes: Top Paid Athletes - Woods, Kobe & LeBron: "According to Forbes, over the past 12 months, the top paid athlete is Tiger Woods at $75 million. Despite losing Gillette, AT&T and PepsiCo ..."

Is Right and Wrong determined Democratically?

2011-06-11T14:50:00.000-07:00

A career in organized crime?

2011-05-22T22:05:00.000-07:00

New Nuances in Evolutionary Psychology

2011-05-21T10:38:00.000-07:00

Evolutionary Psychology is one of those areas of study, like Economics, which I feel has contributed tremendously to my current understanding of how the world works. This article by David Brooks discusses new and fascinating perspectives in the area:

Nice Guys Finish First
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: May 16, 2011

Developments in the study of evolution suggest that the survival of the fittest depends as much on cooperation as it does on a competition between self-interests.

Read on . . .

Saving: The Power of Compounding

2011-05-16T09:48:00.000-07:00

Porter Stansberry in this past Friday's S&A Digest:

First though, a word about the importance of saving. If you can teach your children one thing about money, it should be teaching them how to save and why it's so important to do so. Share this example with them… and ask, who will end up with the most money at retirement?

Saver No. 1 is a hard worker who understands the value of time and the importance of saving. He gets a job at age 16. Each year, he saves $2,000 – roughly 250 hours of work at minimum wage. That's roughly six weeks of full-time work in the summer, or 25 weeks of part-time work (10 hours per week) during the school year. Either way, it's not an unrealistic amount of money for an enterprising 16 year old to earn, while still having plenty of money for current spending.

Saving $2,000 per year becomes a habit, and Saver No. 1 does it every year. Even after he begins his career in his mid-20s, he simply continues to set aside $2,000 per year. He invests these savings in a conservative way. He opens an IRA account so his investments won't be taxed. He puts 40% of his savings into short-term, highly rated corporate bonds. He puts 40% of his savings into high-quality "dividend growing" stocks. And he puts 10% into gold. Simple.

His portfolio only produces modest returns. Over time, he earns about 8% a year – mostly by reinvesting his dividends and interest payments. He's not worried about getting "rich." He's just saving his money. And it's easy because he never saves more than $2,000 a year. He has plenty of money to spend on things he needs and wants – but he always remembers to save first.

By the time he's 40 years old, he's contributed $48,000 in savings to his portfolio. At that point, he calculates that if he continues to earn 8% a year on this portfolio and reinvest all of his dividends and interest, he'll have plenty of money for retirement at 65 years old. So at age 40, saver No. 1 stops saving money. He's now free to spend all the money he makes for the rest of his life.

Saver No. 2 doesn't learn to save as a child and doesn't even get a job until after college. By that time, he's so busy buying things – cars, vacations, dinners at nice restaurants, clothes, houses, etc., he never can "afford" to save a dime.

He wakes up at age 40 and realizes he doesn't have anything in the way of a retirement fund or really any liquid savings at all. So he begins to save, and he does a great job. He's putting away $10,000 per year, every year. He knows he's got to play "catch-up." Like Saver No. 1 he invests conservatively and earns 8% a year. He reinvests everything, like Saver No. 1. By the time he turns 65 years old, Saver No. 2 has contributed $250,000 towards his retirement.

Guess who has a bigger portfolio at age 65? Is it Saver No. 1 who never contributed more than $2,000 per year and whose savings totaled $48,000 in his lifetime… or is it Saver No. 2, who saved more than five times as much money initially?

At age 65, Saver No. 1's portfolio is worth a bit more than $1 million. Saver No. 2's portfolio is worth $800,000.

An arrogant and ingorant Jon Stewart gets completely destroyed by historian David Barton

2011-05-07T19:55:00.000-07:00

I love Jon Stewart's Daily Show and have watched it for many years. The show is the one of the funniest out there and far superior to pretty much all non-fake (and fake) news shows out there which are filled mostly with fluff and unimportant stories meant to distract people from the harsh reality of current events.

In spite of all this, it's clear that Stewart is, at best, ignorant when it comes to history and economics. This was showcased quite nicely in his recent interview (part 1, part 2) of David Barton. Barton rips Stewart to shreds, exposing his (Stewart's) own blatant biases and lack of understanding and knowledge of history. All this comes through clearly in spite of Stewart's complete control over the interview format, failed ad hominem attack, constant interrupting of Barton and ultimately cutting the interview short. I don't even see the (promised) extended interview online. I'm guessing Barton got fed up or Stewart realized he was overmatched (or maybe I just can't find the link).

In any case, I don't know much about David Barton or his work so I can't endorse him but what I saw was a sharp well-reasoned debate by him, against an otherwise arrogant and ignorant Stewart.

A Golden Tipping Point: University of Texas Takes Delivery Of $1 Billion In Physical Gold

2011-04-19T20:56:00.000-07:00

A Golden Tipping Point: University of Texas Takes Delivery Of $1 Billion In Physical Gold

The Military Industrial Complex in Five Minutes

2011-04-04T18:05:00.000-07:00

Atlas Shrugged Part 1 - Movie Trailer

2011-03-24T08:47:00.000-07:00

I'm really looking forward to this, looks pretty awesome!

Milton Friedman - Greed

2011-03-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

Amazing clip of Milton Friedman defending free markets.

Thomas Woods - Our Wise Overlords Are Here to Serve Us

2011-02-24T07:46:00.000-08:00

Another excellent lecture by Thomas E Woods:

Private property rights challenged in La Jolla - San Diego Conservative | Examiner.com

2011-02-11T07:48:00.000-08:00

Private property rights challenged in La Jolla - San Diego Conservative | Examiner.com

Nullification: Interview With a Zombie

2010-12-13T07:56:00.000-08:00

Thomas Woods is the author of the excellent book Meltdown. His latest is "Nullification" and here's his brilliant, short video intro:

Behold . . Capitalism!

2010-12-08T22:24:00.000-08:00

Lemonaid - Atlas Shrugged Video Contest Entry

2010-12-04T11:34:00.000-08:00

I came across this excellent video recently, check it out.

2010 Hypothetical Portfolio Review

2010-11-25T10:28:00.000-08:00

Here are this year's (11/25/09 - 11/25/10) estimated returns on the hypothetical portfolio I posted back in Nov. 2004. Over the same period, the S&P 500 Index returned approximately 9.47% (including dividends).

Going forward into 2011, we will maintain and track the same allocations:

Here are the historical results:

Click here for last year's results.

Fraud - Federal Reserve governor was paid to write "glowing report" on Iceland before collapse

2010-08-24T10:24:00.000-07:00

Fraud - Federal Reserve governor was paid to write "glowing report" on Iceland before collapse

Report shows gov't workers now making twice as much as employees in the private sector

2010-08-12T15:46:00.000-07:00

Taxes - Report shows gov't workers now making twice as much as employees in the private sector

The Broken Window Fallacy

2010-08-09T08:05:00.000-07:00

Excellent short clip, explains the broken window fallacy and why you shouldn't be fooled by political propaganda that employs it.

Some Thoughts on Gun Control

2010-07-17T08:44:00.001-07:00

One interesting article on the subject: Guns and Violence: The English Experience

A massive and detailed literature has proven time again time that the more guns that are owned in a community, the less crime that community has to put up with. Would like to find something updated more recently but I'm guessing most of this still applies now: http://gunowners.org/fs9901.htm

Some excerpts:

C. Myth #3: Gun Control has reduced the crime rates in other countries.

1. England and Canada's murder rates were ALREADY LOW BEFORE enacting gun control. Thus, their restrictive laws cannot be credited with lowering their crime rates. ¹¹⁴

2. The murder rates in England, Canada and Japan have risen tremendously since passing their gun control laws.¹¹⁵ And most crime rates in England have now surpassed the rates in the U.S.:

* In 1998, a study conducted by a British professor and a U.S. statistician found that most crime is now worse in England than in the United States. "You are more likely to be mugged in England than in the United States," stated the Reuters news agency in summarizing the study that was published by the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ). "The rate of robbery is now 1.4 times higher in England and Wales than in the United States, and the British burglary rate is nearly double America's."¹¹⁶

* The murder rate in the United States is higher than in England, but according to the DOJ study, "the difference between the [murder rates in the] two countries has narrowed over the past 16 years."¹¹⁷

3. United States: Take away the guns, and there is still more murder. United States' NON-GUN murder rate is higher than the TOTAL murder rates in England, Canada or Japan.¹¹⁸ In other words, Americans kill each other more often with weapons other than guns -- such as with knives, fists and feet.

* It is absurd to claim that the U.S. has more murders because it has more guns. If one were to "magically" make every gun disappear in the U.S., the hard fact is that Americans would still kill each other-without guns-more often than the citizens of England, Canada or Japan kill each other will ALL types of weapons.

* The problem is not the type of weapons used, but rather, the failure in America to keep violent criminals off the street. (See point 2 under Myth #2 above.)

4. Violence by any other name is still violent -- Many countries with strict gun control laws have higher violence rates than the United States does. Consider the following rates:

High Gun Ownership Countries				Low Gun Ownership Countries
Country	Suicide	Homicide	Total*	Country	Suicide	Homicide	Total*
Finland	24.4	2.86	27.2	Romania	66.2	n.a.	66.2
Switzerland	24.45	1.13	25.58	France	21.8	4.36	26.16
U.S.	12.2	7.59	19.79	W.Germany	20.37	1.48	21.85
Israel **	6	2	8	Japan	20.3	0.9	21.2

* The figures listed in the table are the rates per 100,000 people.

** Israel's total violence rate is lower than the total rates in England/Wales or Canada.

Source for table: Don B. Kates, Jr., Guns, Murders, and the Constitution: A Realistic Assessment of Gun Control, (1990):42.

D. Myth #4: Recent gun control laws have reduced the U.S. murder rate.

* Murder rate was already decreasing before Brady and semi-auto gun ban passed. Those who claim that the two gun control laws enacted in 1994 have reduced the murder rate ignore the fact that the U.S. murder rate has been decreasing from the high it reached in 1991.¹¹⁹ Thus, the murder rate had already begun decreasing two to three years before the Brady law and the semi-auto gun ban became law.

* Murder rate decrease results from fewer violent youths. The Democratic Judiciary Committee noted in 1991 that, "An analysis of the murder tolls since 1960 offers compelling evidence of the link -- the significant rise of murder in the late 1960's, and the slight decrease in murder in the early 1980's follows from an unusually large number of 18-24 year-olds in the general population. This age group is the most violent one, as well as the group most likely to be victimized -- and the murder figures ebb and flow with their ranks."¹²⁰ (Emphasis added.)

This blog has moved

2010-05-01T08:57:00.001-07:00

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Obama’s Pyramid Schemes Would Make Keynes Happy: Caroline Baum

2010-02-05T10:57:00.000-08:00

I just came across this excellent article by Caroline Baum on Bloomberg.com . . .

Jobs, jobs, jobs. Meet the new mantra, same as the old mantra.

No longer will President Barack Obama be content to cite specious numbers about “jobs saved or created” as a result of last year’s $787 billion fiscal stimulus. Now he’s proposing $100 billion of new spending to “jumpstart job creation,” according to White House Budget Director Peter Orszag. It’s part of a $3.8 trillion budget for fiscal 2011, unveiled Monday, that projects a $1.3 trillion deficit next year, following a $1.6 trillion deficit this year.

Spend money to save money. Spending dressed up as a jump- starter is still spending by another name.

The only thing missing from the energy-cleansing, rural- community-assisting, climate-change-mitigating, health-food- promoting blueprint is money for pyramid building. In Chapter 10, Section VI of “The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money,” John Maynard Keynes advocated building pyramids as a cure for unemployment.

Read on . . .

The End of Global Warming

2009-12-07T17:11:00.000-08:00

From EnergyTribune.com by Art Horn:

The story of manmade global warming is over. In reality it never existed except in the minds and hearts of grant-seeking scientists and academics, ratings-obsessed television networks and their misinformed viewers and opportunistic eco-activists.
That said, climate change is real. The earth has been coming out of a 450-year cold era known as the “Little Ice Age” since it bottomed out in the late 1600s. Hundreds of studies have verified the existence of this cold period. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tried to erase the climate history of the last 1,000 years in its 2001 report. They replaced all the peer-reviewed studies of past climate with one that fit their needs. The now-discredited “hockey stick” graph showed virtually no significant change in temperature of the world over the last 1,000 years. Conveniently, the graph then showed a rapid and abrupt increase in global temperature during the last 100 years. This is, of course, due to our sin of burning fossil fuels and stoking the fires of global warming.

The only evidence that human activity is causing global warming comes from computer models. These models take what the people who develop them know about how the earth’s climate system works and attempt to predict the future. Computer models are not evidence. Evidence is something real, something concrete that is not subject to change. Computer models can be changed by their creator. In fact the creator of the model can make it say whatever the creator wants it to say by adjusting parameters. That is not evidence.

In 2007, a study showed the failings of computer model forecasts. The models showed that there exists a global warming “fingerprint” in the air. This fingerprint is a dramatic warming of the atmosphere, not on the ground, but 20,000 to 50,000 feet in the air above the tropics. The 2007 study revealed that real-world temperature observations by weather balloons over a 50-year period showed no global warming fingerprint at all, none. The computer models had grossly overestimated the warming over the tropics. Real world observations trump computer models. Despite this revelation the climate alarmists continued to trumpet the coming doom if we don’t change our sinful ways. To do otherwise would threaten government grants to colleges and universities, research facilities and government agencies. Large corporations are developing eco-friendly technologies to replace fossil fuels and brokerage houses are looking to cash in big time on the evolving carbon trading markets. The United Nations is looking to use climate treaties to wrestle control of carbon emissions from independent nations. This will elevate the United Nations and its leaders to the role of effectively ruling the world’s energy consumption through one world-government authority.

The greenhouse/global warming theory states that as more carbon dioxide is pumped into the air, the atmosphere’s ability to vent excess heat to space will diminish. This is the mantra of global warming alarmism. More carbon dioxide means more heat gets clogged up in the climate system and the earth gets warmer and warmer. From this we have conjured up all the various climate disasters, movies, concerts, fixes, and swindles, with their varied political and economic benefactors and victims.

Enter 2009 and a new study by Dr. Richard Lindzen and Yong-Sang Choi from MIT that uses temperature data from satellites. As background we start with the predictions. The climate models say that as the oceans warmed by one degree Celsius from the 1980s into the 1990s, the amount of heat escaping to space would decrease. More heat would be trapped in the atmosphere, ultimately due to the burning of fossil fuels. The warming of the oceans was natural and part of the large multi-decadal temperature changes that have been known for years. Now if only we had a way to measure the amount of heat going out to space, then we could get some answers. We do, it’s called the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment Satellite (ERBE). It was in orbit above the earth measuring outgoing long wave radiation (heat) for 16 years from the mid 1980s to the late 1990s. This is very significant. Now we had a tool, and real world data, that we could compare to the computer model predictions. It is the ultimate climate system umpire.

The results from the Lindzen and Choi study were stunning. The computer models, all 11 of them, predicted that as the oceans and atmosphere warmed, the amount of heat escaping to space should decrease by 3 watts per square meter. If this were true, then the theory of manmade global warming would have a strong footing. But the satellite data used by the Lindzen and Choi inflicted a bone crushing blow to this assumption. As the oceans and atmosphere warmed, the measurements showed that the amount of heat escaping to space increased by 4 watts per square meter from the mid 1980s to the late 1990s. All the computer models were wrong. If the atmosphere is not trapping heat generated by warming oceans then there is no manmade global warming taking place.
The atmosphere compensated for the additional heat by opening the window a little more. The theory of global warming is lying on the canvas bloodied and dying. Alarmists will attempt to revive the carcass with even louder cries of impending doom and calls to repent. But this clamoring will fall on deaf ears. Science will ultimately prove the winner and the world will bury global warming in an icy grave where it belongs.
Art Horn is a meteorologist who has worked for CBS, NBC and ABC

Stagnating Temperatures: Climatologists Baffled by Global Warming Time-Out

2009-12-01T12:32:00.000-08:00

From Der Spiegel Magazine:

Global warming appears to have stalled. Climatologists are puzzled as to why average global temperatures have stopped rising over the last 10 years. Some attribute the trend to a lack of sunspots, while others explain it through ocean currents.

At least the weather in Copenhagen is likely to be cooperating. The Danish Meteorological Institute predicts that temperatures in December, when the city will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference, will be one degree above the long-term average.

Otherwise, however, not much is happening with global warming at the moment. The Earth's average temperatures have stopped climbing since the beginning of the millennium, and it even looks as though global warming could come to a standstill this year.
Ironically, climate change appears to have stalled in the run-up to the upcoming world summit in the Danish capital, where thousands of politicians, bureaucrats, scientists, business leaders and environmental activists plan to negotiate a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Billions of euros are at stake in the negotiations.

Read on . . .

Hackers Expose the AGW Fraud

2009-12-01T11:49:00.000-08:00

From Ed Steer's Gold & Silver Daily:

My next four stories deal with one subject... the global warming hoax. I never believed in it for a second and denounced Al Gore's movie even before I saw it. In my younger years, I spent seven years in the meteorological service of Canada... surface weather, upper air, solar radiation, ice thickness, snow depth... and one year in rocket meteorology when I worked for NASA... with all of it occurring in Canada's arctic back in the late 60s and early 70s. There's not a lot about the last thousand years of the world's climate that I'm not familiar with.

The global warming world came crashing down about ten days ago after a hacker broke into the computers at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit [in Norwich, England] and released 61 megabytes of confidential files onto the Internet... including 1,079 emails and 72 documents. This is a huge scandal. I have four stories relating to this, and I urge you to take the time to run through each and every one of them. The second-last story was written before this scandal broke... and the last item is a 75-minute video that was released 8 months ago... denouncing, in no uncertain terms, the whole global warming scam.

1. Climategate: the final nail in the coffin of 'Anthropogenic Global Warming'?.

2. Climategate e-mails sweep America, may scuttle Barack Obama's Cap and Trade laws.

3. Stagnating Temperatures: Climatologists Baffled by Global Warming Time-Out.

4. The Great Global Warming Swindle.

2009 Hypothetical Portfolio Review

2009-11-28T09:04:00.000-08:00

Here are this year's (11/27/08 - 11/26/09) estimated returns on the hypothetical portfolio I posted back in Nov. 2004. Over the same period, the S&P 500 Index returned approximately 27.78% (including dividends).

Going forward into 2010, we will maintain and track the same allocations:

Click here for last year's results.

The U.S. House of Presumptuous Meddlers by John Stossel

2009-11-13T18:38:00.001-08:00

Excellent op-ed by John Stossel:

As an American, I am embarrassed that the U.S. House of Representatives has 220 members who actually believe the government can successfully centrally plan the medical and insurance industries.

I'm embarrassed that my representatives think that government can subsidize the consumption of medical care without increasing the budget deficit or interfering with free choice.

It's a triumph of mindless wishful thinking over logic and experience.

The 1,990-page bill is breathtaking in its bone-headed audacity. The notion that a small group of politicians can know enough to design something so complex and so personal is astounding. That they were advised by "experts" means nothing since no one is expert enough to do that. There are too many tradeoffs faced by unique individuals with infinitely varying needs.

Government cannot do simple things efficiently. The bureaucrats struggle to count votes correctly. They give subsidized loans to "homeowners" who turn out to be 4-year-olds (http://tinyurl.com/yzov923). Yet congressmen want government to manage our medicine and insurance.

Read on . .

the catchwords of Socialism . . .

2009-09-16T21:27:00.000-07:00

From Ed Steer's Gold & Silver Daily, a great Ludwig von Mises quote:

To the masses the catchwords of Socialism sound enticing... so they will continue to work for Socialism, helping thereby to bring about the inevitable decline of the civilization which the nations of the West have taken hundreds of years to build up. - Ludwig von Mises

US credit shrinks at Great Depression rate prompting fears of double-dip recession

2009-09-16T17:01:00.000-07:00

From Telegraph.co.uk by Abrose Evans-Pritchard:

Both bank credit and the M3 money supply in the United States have been contracting at rates comparable to the onset of the Great Depression since early summer, raising fears of a double-dip recession in 2010 and a slide into debt-deflation.

Read on . . .

Stiglitz Says Banking Problems Are Now Bigger Than Pre-Lehman

2009-09-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize- winning economist, said the U.S. has failed to fix the underlying problems of its banking system after the credit crunch and the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

“In the U.S. and many other countries, the too-big-to-fail banks have become even bigger,” Stiglitz said in an interview today in Paris. “The problems are worse than they were in 2007 before the crisis.”

Read More . . .

A million march to US Capitol to protest against 'Obama the socialist'

2009-09-16T10:32:00.000-07:00

As many as one million people
flooded into Washington for a massive rally organised by conservatives
claiming that President Obama is driving America towards socialism.

The size of the crowd - by far the biggest protest since the president took office in January - shocked the White House.

Read more . . .

Official: Real U.S. Unemployment Rate at 16%

2009-08-28T15:51:00.000-07:00

From Newsmax:

The real U.S. unemployment rate is 16 percent if persons who have dropped out of the labor pool and those working less than they would like are counted, a Federal Reserve official said Wednesday.

"If one considers the people who would like a job but have stopped looking -- so-called discouraged workers -- and those who are working fewer hours than they want, the unemployment rate would move from the official 9.4 percent to 16 percent, said Atlanta Fed chief Dennis Lockhart.

Put Anthropogenic Global Warming Theory on Trial!

2009-08-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

From Casey's Daily Dispatch:

Did you hear that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has asked that the EPA put anthropogenic global warming (AGW) on trial?

It comes as no surprise that this request is being firmly resisted by the many groups that make their daily bread by reaching into the pockets of taxpayers for their share of the tens of billions in government grants doled out in the insane effort to save the world from a non-existent global warming threat.

Dr. Brian Valentine of the U.S. Department of Energy wrote a letter, posted on the ClimateWatch website, that challenges the intellectually indefensible resistance of the AGW crowd to ascertaining the truth in a public forum. And I quote…

[Guest Essay by Chemical Scientist Dr. Brian G. Valentine of the U.S. Department of Energy and professor at University of Maryland, who has studied computational fluid dynamics and modeling of complex systems. Dr. Valentine is featured on page 188 of the 2009 U.S. Senate Report of More Than 700 Dissenting Scientists on Global Warming. Below is a August 25, 2009, note Dr. Valentine sent to Brenda Ekwurzel of the environmental group Union of Concerned Scientists.]

Dear Dr Ekwurzel,

According to the American Bar Association, the purpose of any “trial by legal authority” is to “establish the truth.”

I note with interest your skepticism over US Chamber of Commerce's petition of the EPA to carry out a “trial” to examine the facts behind EPA's interest in regulation of greenhouse gases as “a danger to the public.”

What, if anything, do you and your organization have to fear about Chamber of Commerce's proposed trial idea?

Do you fear exposure of the idea of “man-made” global warming for the abject fraud that the idea is?

You know yourself – exactly none of the predictions related to AGW made over the past 20 years by AGW advocates have actualized. You also know there is exactly zero evidence to support any claims that “humans” have influenced the natural global climate in the least – and that means, since the dawn of Human Civilization.

If the US Public were to be made aware of these facts – at the testimony of a trial involving the EPA – then only those with religious convictions of the idea would continue to hold any support for AGW. That is in fact a very small number of people.

Falsehood cannot be sustained indefinitely – and the EPA might as well get it over with and let the facts come to light before all eyes.

I'd be interested in your response to me.

As well as quite surprised. In general, people seem to find themselves “too good” to bother to respond to me when I call AGW the fraud that it is.

Brian G Valentine PhD PE
US Department of Energy
Washington, DC

Related Link:

Exposed: Climate Fear Promoters Greatest Fear -- A Public Trial of the 'Evidence' of Global Warming Fears! - August 25, 2009

Orbital Cycles Control Ice Ages by Doug L. Hoffman

2009-08-26T18:04:00.000-07:00

From Climate Realists:

While the IPCC and global warming alarmists continue to claim climate change is controlled by atmospheric CO2 levels, most knowledgeable scientists will tell you that climate change is caused by variation in Earth's orbit and orientation. These periodic changes in movement and attitude are called the Milankovitch Cycles. A new paper, to be published in Science, confirms that glacial terminations are caused by Earth's orbital cycles, not carbon dioxide.

Read on . . .

Mom Feeds Family For Under $10 A Week

2009-08-26T14:31:00.000-07:00

Mom Feeds Family For Under $10 A Week - Money News Story - WCVB Boston

Mom Feeds Family For Under $10 A Week

Global warming: myth or reality : the erring ways of climatology By Marcel Leroux

2009-08-23T11:36:00.001-07:00

Ron Paul's Foreign Policy Meets Metallica

2009-08-11T07:31:00.000-07:00

It's Not Just That Global Warming Is Fake. What Matters Is Why This Fakery Is Being Promoted.

2009-07-14T17:36:00.001-07:00

It's Not Just That Global Warming Is Fake. What Matters Is Why This Fakery Is Being Promoted.

Gary North

July 3, 2009

Global warming is based 100% on junk science. The most vocal promoters are not interested in the details of physical science. They are interested in two things: political control over the general public and the establishment of international socialism.

Junk Science vs. Real Science

For a detailed, footnoted, 12-page article, written by three scientists, two with Ph.D's from CalTech, click here.

This paper was sent to tens of thousands of natural scientists in the United States.

Over 31,000 scientists have put their reputations on the line and signed a politically incorrect petition opposing the 1997 Kyoto agreement or protocol. Here is a letter from a former president of the National Academy of Sciences. He asks recipients of the petition to sign it.

Back in the 1970's, the bugaboo was the coming ice age, as this Time Magazine article promoted. Not to be outdone, Newsweek got on board. The article warned: "Climatologists are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change, or even to allay its effects." Want more examples? Click here.

It, too, was based on junk science. It, too, had the same solution: government control over the economy. The goal never changes: government management over the economy. The justification has changed. If the voters won't accept control over their lives on the basis of one brand of junk science, maybe they will accept another. As they used to say in the Nixon Administration: "Let's run this up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes."

Socialism's Last Stand

The global warming movement is not about global warming. It is about the creation of an international political control arrangement by which bureaucrats who favor socialism can gain control over the international economy.

This strategy was stated boldly by economist Robert Heilbroner in 1990. Heilbroner, the multi-millionaire socialist and author of the best-selling history of economic thought, The Worldly Philosophers, wrote the manifesto for these bureaucrats. He did this in an article, "Reflections: After Communism," published by The New Yorker (Sept. 10, 1990).

In this article, he made an astounding admission. He said that Ludwig von Mises had been right in 1920 in his article, "Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth." Mises argued that without private ownership, central planners could not know what any resource is worth to consumers. With no capital market, the planners would be flying blind.

Heilbroner said that for 70 years, academic economists had either ignored this article or dismissed it without answering it. Then Heilbroner wrote these words: "Mises was right."

Heilbroner was one of these people. There is no reference to Mises in The Worldly Philosophers.

This admission was the preliminary section of Heilbroner's manifesto. He was cutting off all hope by socialists that there is a theoretically plausible response to Mises. The free market economy will always outproduce a socialist economy. Get used to it, he said.

Then, in the second section, he called on his socialist peers to get behind the ecology movement. Here, he said, is the best political means for promoting central planning, despite its inefficiency. In the name of ecology, he said, socialists can get a hearing from politicians and voters.

The article is not online. An abstract is. Here is the concluding thought of the abstract.

The direction in which things are headed is some version of capitalism, whatever its title. In Eastern Europe, the new system is referred to as Not Socialism. Socialism may not continue as an important force now that Communism is finished. But another way of looking at socialism is as the society that must emerge if humanity is to cope with the ecological burden that economic growth is placing on the environment. From this perspective, the long vista after Communism leads through capitalism into a still unexplored world that roust [must?] be safely attained and settled before it can be named.

Heilbroner did not care that a worldwide government-run economic planning system would not be called called socialism. He just wanted to see the system set up.

Heilbroner's peers got the message. That was what Kyoto was all about.

Conclusion

If you like poverty, inefficiency, and bureaucratic controls over the economy, and therefore control over your choices, the "climate change" movement is ideal.

If you want to subsidize China and India, neither of which will enforce the rules laid down by unelected international bureaucrats, this movement is for you.

If you want to pay more for less energy, there is no better way than to pass the cap and tax bill which the House has passed. It will be sent to the U.S. Senate next week.

The rest of us should oppose it.

I hereby authorize anyone to reprint this article or post it on any website, just so long as the text is not changed.

Peter Schiff Nails it on The Daily Show

2009-06-10T20:28:00.000-07:00

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Newt Gingrich Unedited Interview

Pete Sampras calls Roger Federer ‘Greatest Ever’

2009-06-08T18:41:00.000-07:00

From Yahoo Sports:

PARIS (AP)—Pete Sampras already figured Roger Federer would go down as the greatest tennis player in history.

That Federer tied Sampras’ record of 14 Grand Slam titles by winning the French Open on Sunday only reinforced that opinion.

“What he’s done over the past five years has never, ever been done—and probably will never, ever happen again,” Sampras said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “Regardless if he won there or not, he goes down as the greatest ever. This just confirms it.”

Read On . . .

got communism?

2009-06-08T18:36:00.000-07:00

Porter Stansberry in today's S&A Digest:

If you'll take the time to read the Communist Manifesto, you'll find that nearly every single article has been adopted by the government of the United States, including state-owned schools, paper money, social security, progressive taxation, etc. Most people don't understand communism and democracy aren't mutually exclusive. In fact, history seems to prove when people are given the chance to vote, they tend to vote for communist ideas. Biden is clearly a communist. And a majority of people in the U.S. seem to like it that way. I'm not one of them, as you noted, which makes me a "libertarian." Funny, we used to just call those people "Americans."

Your Doctor Is Wasting Your Time... and Your Money

2009-06-06T10:17:00.000-07:00

Rob Fannon in the Growth Stock Wire:

I'd like nothing more than to fire my doctor...

Anyone else sick of scheduling appointments, only to wait for 30 minutes (or more) before hearing your name called? Then, if you're lucky, you get 10 minutes with a harried physician who shares nothing you didn't already know. When did doctors cease being healers? Most are nothing more than informed technicians, cranking through protocols and patient numbers to make ends meet.

Read on . . .

The progress of mankind . . .

2009-06-01T22:10:00.000-07:00

The progress of mankind can be measured by the ascent of reason and the liberty required to pursue it. One cannot exist without the other. "Global warming" is both an embrace of irrationality and the tyranny required to sustain it. Likewise, one cannot exist with the other.

-Porter Stansberry

Some Thoughts on Healthcare

2009-05-31T10:35:00.000-07:00

John Mauldin in this week's Thoughts From the Frontline:

I want to pass on this quick note from Dennis Gartman's eponymous letter. It should give all of those who favor a nationalized healthcare system pause, before they jump right in. Quoting Dennis:

"Canada is a wonderful place to have a nasty gash on one's forehead stitched, or to break one's nose in a game of pick-up baseball; but have cancer, or need eye surgery, or want an MRI, and the business of medicine in Canada and/or the UK breaks down badly in favour of medical care here in the US. For example... and we wish to thank The Investor's Business Daily for the data noted here this morning...

"... here in the US men and women survived cancer at an average of just a bit better than 65%. In England only 46% survive. In the US, 93% of those diagnosed with diabetes receive treatment within six months; in Canada only 43% do, and in the UK only 15% do! For those seniors needing a hip replacement and getting one within six months, 15% get it done in the UK; 43% get it done in Canada ... and in the US 90% do! For those waiting to see a medical specialist, 23% of those in the US get in within four weeks, while 57% in Canada have not yet done so, and in the UK 60% are still waiting after four weeks.

"When it comes to proper medical equipment, in the US there are 71 MRI or CT scanners available per million people. In Canada there are but 18, and in the UK there are only 14! Ah, but the best figure of all is this: 11.7% of those 'seniors' in the US with 'low incomes' say they are in excellent health, which in and of itself sounds rather low ... rather disconcerting ... and an indictment of the system itself, doesn't it? But in Canada only 5.8% do!

"Yessiree bob, ya' jus' gotta' luv that collectivized, socialized medical care! Let's all go break a collective arm and enjoy the benefits of socialized medicine in the Commonwealth! (Canada) ... but heaven help you if you've got something really, really wrong. If that's the case, you'll be running south to the border faster than you can reach a specialist anywhere in Canada; of that we are certain."

Do we pay too much for health care here in the US? Everyone says yes. And there is a lot of waste (and waist) in the system. But if you are the person who needs treatment, maybe the answer is "not really." If you can't get the medical help you need when you need it, maybe the fact that it is theoretically free doesn't mean anything.

As an aside, I have two friends who have had immediate family members diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease. For all practical purposes, it is a death sentence. Yet one family was told (at a top-five cancer hospital) there could be a cure within a few years, or at least clinical trials. But just not now. Unfortunately, the prognosis is less than a year.

I can guarantee you, if that was me or my family, I would like to be able to make the decision whether to try a radical treatment. What's my downside if I die a little earlier? Shouldn't that be my choice?

And if I don't want some nameless bureaucrat dictating who gets to live or die in the name of his scientific system, why in God's name would I want a bureaucrat deciding to ration my access to health care? But that is what the majority in Congress are planning for our future. And bluntly, I find that far harder to swallow than my taxes going up.

John Mauldin, Best-Selling author and recognized financial expert, is also editor of the free Thoughts From the Frontline that goes to over 1 million readers each week. For more information on John or his FREE weekly economic letter go to: http://www.frontlinethoughts.com/learnmore

The Importance of Position Sizing

2009-05-24T10:01:00.000-07:00

Brian Hunt, in this Growth Stock Wire article explains the importance of position sizing for investors:

Most great traders will tell you to never risk more than 2% of your trading capital on any one position. One percent is better for most folks. A half a percent is also good.

Let's say you're a trader with a $50,000 "grubstake." And you're thinking about buying Intel at $20 per share.

How many shares should you buy? Buy too much and you could suffer catastrophic damage if, say, an accounting scandal strikes Intel. Buy too little and you're not capitalizing on your great idea.

Read On . . .

Hilarious SNL Skit on Geithner's Farcical Bank Stress Test

2009-05-23T11:23:00.000-07:00

Federal Reserve Running Amok: $9 Trillion Unaccounted For

2009-05-13T22:09:00.000-07:00

Positive vs. Negative Rights

2009-05-09T08:18:00.000-07:00

Wise words from David Galland in Casey Research's The Room this week:

While we may be empathetic, concerned, and sensitive to the plight of those less fortunate, the idea of trying to provide the tangible resources those individuals may require to live a better life is actually quite problematic.

Specifically, individuals can and should have certain "negative rights" – for example, the right not to be mugged on the way to the post office, or not be beaten up on a routine police stop. But the only way a society can provide a "positive right" is by violating the negative right of individuals not to be coerced. That's because, as government produces nothing, the only way it can, for example, provide college tuition for the unemployed is to first lift the necessary funds out of the pocket of someone else.

I find it absolutely remarkable that after decades, centuries even, of economic experimentation -- and all of the many clear case studies that such experimentation has provided -- the government at the purported center of the free-market universe still shows no sign of understanding the basic principles of what creates a successful economy.

Rick Santelli to Steve Liesman: "Don't Open Your Mouth and Say Dumb Things!"

2009-05-06T19:15:00.000-07:00

Global temperatures driven by US Postal Charges!

2009-05-04T22:30:00.000-07:00

Amazing news flash from Joanne Nova: "The rise in global temperatures since 1880 closely correlates with increases in postal charges, sparking alarm that CO2 has been usurped as the main driver of climate change."

All joking aside, please take some time to peruse Joanne's Skeptic's Handbook on Global Warming.

Meltdown by Thomas E. Woods Jr.

2009-04-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

I recently read Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse by Thomas E. Woods Jr. and have to say it's simply the best book out there explaining how we got into the economic mess we're currently in.

If you really want to understand the causes of this crisis, you cannot trust mainstream media explanations (by the same idiots who never saw any of this coming) which are politically driven and serve only to obscure the truth and justify continued government intervention.

From the Inside Flap:

Is Capitalism the Culprit?
The media tells us that "deregulation" and "unfettered free markets" have wrecked our economy and will continue to make things worse without a heavy dose of federal regulation. But the real blame lies elsewhere. In Meltdown, bestselling author Thomas E. Woods Jr. unearths the real causes behind the collapse of housing values and the stock market--and it turns out the culprits reside more in Washington than on Wall Street.
And the trillions of dollars in federal bailouts? Our politicians' ham-handed attempts to fix the problems they themselves created will only make things much worse.
Woods, a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute and winner of the 2006 Templeton Enterprise Award, busts the media myths and government spin. He explains how government intervention in the economy--from the Democratic hobby horse called Fannie Mae to affirmative action programs like the Community Redevelopment Act--actually caused the housing bubble.
Most important, Woods, author of the New York Times bestseller The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, traces this most recent boom-and-bust--and all such booms and busts of the past century--back to one of the most revered government institutions of all: the Federal Reserve System, which allows busy-body bureaucrats and ambitious politicians to pull the strings of our financial sector and manipulate the value of the very money we use.
Meltdown also provides a timely history lesson to counter the current clamor for a new New Deal. The Great Depression, Woods demonstrates, was only as deep and as long as it was because of the government interventions by Herbert Hoover (no free-market capitalist, despite what your high school history teacher may have taught you) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (no savior of the American economy, in spite of what the mainstream media says). If you want to understand what caused the financial meltdown--and why none of the big-government solutions being tried today will work--Meltdown explains it all.

Anthropogenic Global Warming: A Theory for Dumbasses

2009-04-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

Man-made global warming theory is, at best, superstition wrapped in pseudo-science. Here are a couple short videos worth watching. For more meat, also refer to my previous post, Anthropogenic (Man-made) Global Warming is a Fraud.

Another Great Thomas Jefferson Quote

2009-04-23T18:30:00.001-07:00

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." - Thomas Jefferson

Global Hoaxing

2009-04-21T18:49:00.000-07:00

Original post retracted due to possible copyright issues. - 5/30/09

Gold Buyers are Enemies of the State?

2009-04-11T09:50:00.001-07:00

Some interesting points in Gary North's recent Reality Check article, some excerpts:

People who own gold coins are skeptics regarding the fiscal
and monetary policies of the government. There are people who
buy gold as a temporary speculation, the same way that they would
buy copper, but I am talking about people who buy gold coins and
take delivery. These people are professional skeptics regarding
governments and central banks. They are the sworn enemies of
governments and central banks. The very fact that they would go
to a coin store and purchase bullion gold coins testifies to
their lack of trust in governments and central banks.

. . .

Prices convey information about economic conditions. The
price of gold conveys information about the likelihood of future
price inflation. This information governments and central banks
want to distort. They do this by manipulating the price of gold
through leases that are actually sales and sales that are
announced in advance.

When an individual invests in gold, he is making a
statement. He is saying that he does not trust the powers that
be. The powers that be deeply resent this. So, an individual
who actively takes steps to increase the price of gold, which he
does by buying it, should be aware in advance that he and people
like him will be the targets of deception, envy, and ridicule.
Buying gold is not the same as buying other commodities. Other
commodities are not perceived as touchstones of central bank
monetary policy. The price of gold is, even though most of the
gold in private hands winds up as jewelry to be used in dowries
in India. Far more than central banks, Indian fathers set the
price of gold. At the margin, however, central banks do affect
the price of gold.

. . .

At some point, the number of investors who figure out that
they had better buy gold is going to go from less than 1% of the
public to 5%. When that happens, the supply of gold will not
increase, and the price of gold will skyrocket. If as many as
10% of the investing public tries to put 10% of their assets in
gold, I suspect the price of gold would go to $10,000 an ounce.
The gold market is so marginal in the overall commodities market
that the attempted 10% of investors to increase their holdings of
gold to 10% of their assets would make today's holders of gold
very rich and very happy. I think at some point this is going to
happen, but I think it is going to happen in a time of price
inflation so bad that the purchasing power of the currencies will
decline so fast and so far that the fact that you can get rich in
fiat money by selling your gold will not persuade you to sell
your gold.

. . .

Governments and central banks can continue to fight the gold
war by means of gold leasing, outright gold sales, and threats of
gold sales, but for as long as they inflate the money supply to
obfuscate the price of economic depression, they will be running
out of ammunition. They are in a war in which ordinance is in
fixed supply. They cannot go into the gold market and replenish
the supply of gold without driving up price of gold.

Central banks are expanding the money supply, which is
providing ammunition for those of us who want to fight the gold
war by buying more gold. In contrast, central banks are not
expanding their holdings of gold, but rather depleting them, and
so they will not be able to fight this fight indefinitely.

They may be able to fight it for as long as the threat of
recession hangs over the world economy. But when the recession
ends, or appears to end, as a result of the massive monetary
inflation and massive deficits that the governments of the world
are running, there will be a new market for gold that is
unprecedented in its intensity.

This does not mean that everybody is going to buy gold. It
probably does not mean that even 20% of investors will buy gold.
All it will take is about 10% of investors decide to put 10% of
their holdings in gold. Governments and central banks are going
to lose the war on gold because they refuse to fight gold by the
one technique that can give them victory: stop printing money.

Banks aren't reselling many foreclosed homes

2009-04-08T18:27:00.000-07:00

Looks like we've got a way to go before the housing market bottoms. Banks have been hiding their foreclosures . . when those things hits the market, look out below.

From SFGate.com:

A vast "shadow inventory" of foreclosed homes that banks are holding off the market could wreak havoc with the already battered real estate sector, industry observers say.
Lenders nationwide are sitting on hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homes that they have not resold or listed for sale, according to numerous data sources. And foreclosures, which banks unload at fire-sale prices, are a major factor driving home values down.

"We believe there are in the neighborhood of 600,000 properties nationwide that banks have repossessed but not put on the market," said Rick Sharga, vice president of RealtyTrac, which compiles nationwide statistics on foreclosures. "California probably represents 80,000 of those homes. It could be disastrous if the banks suddenly flooded the market with those distressed properties. You'd have further depreciation and carnage."

Read On . .

Stock Market's Been Rising Lately

2009-04-08T18:26:00.000-07:00

"The stock market has been rallying because Treasury Secretary Geithner and President Obama are willing to screw taxpayers out of trillions of dollars for the benefit of banks. Such action will not reduce defaults, restore lending, or do a damn thing for cash strapped consumers out of a job with no job prospects."

-Mike "Mish" Shedlock

Real Dumbass With Bill Maher

2009-03-29T17:03:00.000-07:00

In this case, I'm talking about Mos Def, one of the guests on this week's Bill Maher show. Why did Bill Maher bring this annoying child to discuss important topics with actual adults: Salman Rushdie and Christopher Hitchens? In all fairness, Rushdie too brought some dumbass in his voicing of support for the Obama administration's financial bailouts.

The only guy on the show with a clue this week was Christopher Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

A New Global Reserve System: Bye Bye USD as Reserve Currency?

2009-03-29T15:54:00.000-07:00

From Agora's 5 Min.Forecast:

"A new global reserve system,” a panel of United Nations economists declared yesterday, “could contribute to global stability, economic strength and global equity.”

We begin with this today not because the U.N. is saying anything revolutionary, but because the global chorus to ditch the dollar is quickly becoming deafening. The Kremlin last week, China’s central bank earlier this week, Tim Geithner yesterday and now this… a U.N. panel led by an American no less.

There is "a growing consensus that there are problems with the dollar reserve system,” said Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel economics laureate and leader of the U.N. panel. The current system is “relatively volatile, deflationary, unstable and [had] inequity associated with it.

"Developing countries are lending the United States trillions dollars at almost zero interest rates when they have huge needs themselves," Stiglitz said. "It's indicative of the nature of the problem. It's a net transfer, in a sense, to the United States, a form of foreign aid."

Must-See Video: Prime Minister Gordon Brown Publicly Humiliated

2009-03-29T15:33:00.000-07:00

This short (3 min) video is highly recommended. In it, Daniel Hannan, Conservative Party member representing Great Britain in the European Parliament absolutely humiliates Gordon Brown. Like Ron Paul, this guy is one of the very few politicians out there who has something resembling a clue when it comes to the mess that we're in and what its actual causes are (government meddling in the economy by mostly ignorant and irrationally self-serving officials).

In Agreement with Soros on Commercial Real Estate and Inflation

2009-03-29T15:23:00.000-07:00

From Gary North's Reality Check:

George Soros recently made two predictions. First, commercial real estate will decline by 30% in the United States. "It is inevitable, it is written, everybody knows it, there are already some transactions which reflect and anticipate it, so we know, they will drop at least 30 percent." Second, when banks finally begin to lend, the swollen monetary base will lead to serious price inflation. He called this "an explosion of inflation."
...

Soros says we will experience falling commercial property prices and rising general prices. If he believes this, then he has to be making an assumption: the present bailout plans of both the Treasury and the Federal Reserve will not reach the local banks and the local real estate markets. He is saying that Wall Street and Main Street are not in synch. Main street is where consumers meet sellers and work out deals. He is saying that Main Street's businesses will not be able to avoid consumers that refuse to buy.

Fed Begins Monetizing Debt

2009-03-29T14:27:00.001-07:00

In case you missed it, the Fed is now straight-up monetizing debt. That is, they are buying U.S. government debt outright with newly created money. Anybody with even the least bit of common sense should recognize that this is tantamount to counterfeiting. The Fed is stealing purchasing power from holders of U.S. dollars and dollar denominated assets.

If you have any savings, you had better buy some gold if you want to protect it from this legalized theft.

The Resurgence of Ayn Rand

2009-03-28T10:35:00.000-07:00

From Robert Tracinski's recent commentary "The Ayn Rand Factor Revisted":

The biggest under-appreciated cultural/political story of this year is the astonishing surge in the sales of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

Yesterday, I linked to the ranking page which shows the top sellers among all of the books offered through Amazon.com. As of Thursday night, Atlas Shrugged is still at #19, though TIA Daily reader Michael Ryan sent me a note to say that it climbed as high as #16 yesterday. He added: "But that understates the position, maybe by 1 or 2, because there are three separate editions, each with its own ranking." [full article]

Recently, Stephen Colbert did an asinine hit piece on Rand and her work on his Colbert Report. I pretty much already knew Colbert was a liberal asshole with zero intellectual integrity, but that segment really drove it home. In it he equates the heroes of Atlas Shrugged with the crooked execs of AIG and the bailed out banks.

It's truly unfortunately that my favorite funny political shows (Real Time with Bill Maher, The Colbert Report, and the Daily Show with John Stewart) are all increasingly pro-socialist. Moreover, the shows are less and less funny with each passing week. Colbert is off my dvr's record list. Bill Maher is now mostly painful to watch and won't survive much longer at this rate. The best has always been and still remains John Stewart who continues to be the most objective of the bunch, which is not exactly a compliment. In any case, I can at least count on a few good laughs when watching the Daily Show, which is more than I could ever say for Colbert.

More on the death of the MBA

2009-03-28T10:27:00.001-07:00

From: The Big Money

RIP, MBA: The economic crisis has exposed the myth of business-school expertise.

Put your ear to the ground near any business school campus, and you will hear the sound of another bubble about to pop. The MBA will soon be joining equities and house titles in the museum of formerly overvalued pieces of paper.

M.B.A. Schools Have Nothing to Offer in New World

2009-03-25T10:23:00.000-07:00

Excellent commentary in this Bloomberg article:

In the past 20 years, the Master of Business Administration factories have created the conditions that helped land the global economy in the current mess. They legitimized a pseudo- scientific approach to finance that turned out to be bogus; they promoted a management style that was too mechanistic; and they formed a managerial elite more interested in rewards than producing lasting wealth for the economies they operate in.

Great Henry Hazlitt Quote on Marx

2009-03-22T18:51:00.000-07:00

The following is a great quote by Henry Hazlitt I came across on the mises.org blog. It really rings true when you think about the ignorant misanthropes who promote his ideas:

The whole gospel of Karl Marx can be summed up in a single sentence: Hate the man who is better off than you are. Never under any circumstances admit that his success may be due to his own efforts, to the productive contribution he has made to the whole community. Always attribute his success to the exploitation, the cheating, the more or less open robbery of others. Never under any circumstances admit that your own failure may be owing to your own weakness, or that the failure of anyone else may be due to his own defects - his laziness, incompetence, improvidence, or stupidity.

More on Shitibank

2009-03-21T09:21:00.001-07:00

Mish, in a recent blog post, had some delightfully harsh words for the idiots that run Citibank. Apparently they're now whining about Congress's new legislation which limits the amount fo money that would-be failed companies (those that took federal bailout money) can pay out to their employees as bonuses:

Citigroup should not be in existence at all. It is a failed zombie bank, kept alive only by the government (taxpayer) guarantee of $300 billion of likely worthless debt, and additional cash infusions amounting to billion of dollars.

Everyone at Citigroup ought to be damn thankful they have a job at all. The same applies to Bank of America.

Pandit's statement is particularly galling "It would affect countless number of people who will find it difficult, if not impossible, to pay back the bonuses that they earned".

Exactly how many earned anything? Even if they did, why should that be my problem as a taxpayer?

When it comes to being treated fairly, taxpayers have earned that right. Instead we have to listen to ridiculous whining by the CEOs of two failed organizations, begging for taxpayer handouts.

The Next Big Disaster Will Be Insurance Stocks

2009-03-19T18:31:00.003-07:00

Dan Ferris, in today's Daily Wealth, predicts that the next big disaster will be insurance stocks. Sounds about right to me . . .

A major North American life insurance company will fail this year...

I'm talking about AFLAC, Ameriprise, Hartford, MetLife, Prudential, or another familiar insurance provider, possibly the one that holds your life insurance policy. At least one of these companies is going under very soon. Let me explain...

Insurance companies have been the largest purchasers of corporate debt every year since the 1930s. If Berkshire Hathaway and its financial fortress balance sheet can be downgraded from triple-A status (by Fitch Ratings last week), you should assume a great swath of investment-grade corporate debt is in imminent danger of being downgraded to junk. Read on . . .

Well, it's either insurance stocks or Commercial Real-Estate. Probably both . . well those and the collapse of the dollar and our rapid descent into fascist socialism.

Peter Schiff at the Austrian Scholar's Conference

2009-03-18T18:46:00.000-07:00

Why the Meltdown Should Have Surprised No One

America’s Ivy League College: The Dumbass Factory

2009-03-17T18:32:00.000-07:00

I came across a delightfully vitriolic article on LewRockwell.com: "America’s Ivy League College: The Dumbass Factory". The title says it all.

While I don't agree with everything the author says as it mostly applies to liberal arts education and not so much to real disciplines based in engineering and science, I understand the sentiment. Especially when considering ridiculous mainstream teachings in philosophy and economics that have poisoned the minds of many unsuspecting students . . most too helpless to reason their way out the morass, having not been taught even the most basic of critical thinking skills by the mostly pathetic public education system.

Speaking from personal experience, it takes a bit of luck and also quite a bit effort and perseverance to undue years of inculcation and preparation by the establishment for Life as a Trained Monkey.

Is the Fed Powerless (to Avoid Deflation)?

2009-03-17T18:23:00.000-07:00

The monetary base has exploded over the past six-months to levels never before seen. The rate at which the Fed has been pumping money is absolutely astounding. However, the new money is not yet affecting prices for the simple reason that banks aren't lending. They believe it's too risky and without such lending, multiplication of the money supply upon this expanded monetary base will not happen. Tough talk by Bernanke or Geithner is unlikely to make banks start lending anytime soon. So is the Fed stuck? Will we continue down the path of deflation?

The answer is no. The Fed can create price inflation whenever it wants to. Justice Litle, in his excellent Seeking Alpha article has mentioned some surefire ways for the Fed to push forward the massive inflation it's already pumped into the pipes.

* The government could announce a massive payroll tax holiday, at a cost that would blow everyone's mind, that would not have to be paid back.

* The government could announce a one-fell-swoop effort to pay off tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of underwater mortgages.

* The Federal Reserve could hit the banks with a draconian holding tax – sort of like the vigorish a loan shark charges except in reverse. Every day that goes by where bank ABC hasn’t lent out the $100 million in its reserves, a $50,000 holding penalty is assessed. Or something to that effect.

* The Fed and Treasury could just say “You know what, screw it. We’re gonna write y’all some checks. Every American citizen age 18 or over with a social security number gets $10,000 – look for that in the mail.”

It is simply a matter of if/when the Fed will undertake such drastic actions.

John Stewart absolutely humiliates Jim Cramer

2009-03-16T19:06:00.000-07:00

You have to give credit to Cramer for showing up. But like a deer in headlights, he had no idea what was about to him him. Seriously, this was practically a public execution.

Stewart, at his best, destroys Jim Cramer on the Daily Show:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Pt. 1

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

Part 2

Part 3

WTF is Wrong With Bill Maher?

2009-03-08T18:56:00.000-07:00

I'm a long time fan of Bill Maher. I've always enjoyed his stand-up and really enjoyed his recent movie, Religulous.

But I've been watching "Real Time with Bill Maher" recently and I have to admit he's been pretty worthless. Of course he's funny (as are John Stewart and Stephen Colbert) and there are brilliant moments but for the most part he's been simply foaming at the mouth with socialist/altruist nonsense and anticapitalist stupidity.

Hasn't this guy learned anything about economics, politics and basic common-sense from his talks with Ron Paul? I thought this guy was supposed to be a Libertarian but he seems straight-up Liberal extreme-left Democrat lately, as far as I can tell.

What's the deal?!

Daily Show Tears Santelli and CNBC Apart

2009-03-07T09:06:00.000-08:00

For the most part, the clueless idiots on CNBC were blind to the financial catastrophe unfolding right in front of them these past few years. They downplayed prescient warnings by Peter Schiff and played up cheerleading by mindless perma-Bulls. It makes you wonder if they were simply ignorant or purposefully mislead the investing public to their destruction.

On this week's Daily Show, John Stewart unfairly attacks Rick Santelli, once of the few CNBC reporters who did sound warning signals. Nevertheless, Stewart and Co. have put together a hilarious indictment of CNBC's general worthlessness in warning people of the imminent crisis.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

Anthropogenic (Man-Made) Global Warming Theory is a Fraud

2009-02-26T19:20:00.000-08:00

Here's an excellent Skeptic magazine article on the subject:

A Climate of Belief

The claim that anthropogenic CO2 is responsible for the current warming of Earth climate is scientifically insupportable because climate models are unreliable . . .

Reading Redefined

2009-02-25T18:27:00.000-08:00

Amazon's new Kindle 2 dropped recently. Indeed I saw Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, promoting his new gadget on the Daily Show last night. From what I've seen it looks pretty awesome. But it's a bit pricey at $359. In any case, here's a good article from crunchgear:

10 reasons to buy a Kindle 2… and 10 reasons not to.

USO and Super Contango

2009-02-25T18:23:00.001-08:00

I've been wondering for a while why the ETF USO has done such a poor job as a proxy for holding oil futures. Turns out, USO is quite adversely affected by the current super contango as explained in a SeekingAlpha article I came across today:

USO holds all its funds in next-month WTI futures. For example, USO started out February fully invested in the March WTI contract. Midway through February USO rolled all its funds into the April contract. The rollover has all been done on a single day, but USO recently decided to rollover over a multi-day period to minimize market impact.

When oil is in contango, far months are more expensive than near months so USO’s rollover loses money.

More . . .

How the New Stimulus Plan Will Work

2009-02-24T19:36:00.000-08:00

Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House. One is from Chicago, another is from Tennessee, and the third is from Minnesota.

All three go with a White House official to examine the fence. The Minnesota contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. "Well," he says, "I figure the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me."

The Tennessee contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, "I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me."

The Chicago contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the White House official and whispers, "$2,700."

The official, incredulous, says, "You didn't even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?"

The Chicago contractor whispers back, "$1,000 for me, $1,000 for you, and we hire the guy from Tennessee to fix the fence."

"Done!" replies the government official.

And that, my friends, is how the new stimulus plan will work.

-From Casey Research's In the Room.

AUSTRIAN SCHOOL ECONOMICS

2009-02-24T19:32:00.000-08:00

An excerpt from Gary North's recent Reality Check:

AUSTRIAN SCHOOL ECONOMICS

Only one group of academic economists saw this coming:
followers of Mises and Hayek. Ever other group -- Keynesians,
Chicago School, supply-siders, rational expectations, public
choice -- either said nothing or dismissed the Austrians as
neanderthals.

They were wrong. All of them.

Why were they wrong? Because they believe in central
banking. All of them. They rejected Mises' theory of the boom-
bust cycle as created by central bank policies of fiat money.
They correctly understood that Mises was dismissing all central
banking as a government-created cartel to protect commercial
banks and to be the lender of last resort to the national
government. In taking this hard line, Mises and his followers
consigned themselves to academic limbo. They would live on the
fringe.

Austrians were right. Their critics were wrong. All of
them.

The most steadfast of all the Austrian School forecasters
was the late Dr. Kurt Richebacher. In his monthly newsletter for
six years, 2001 until his death in August 2007, he warned that
the Greenspan credit boom would lead to the worst crash since the
Great Depression. He was right. It has.

We are seeing the unraveling of the international capital
markets. As this continues -- and it will continue -- the
academic economists who staff the various Federal Reserve banks
and the Treasury will do what they always do in an economic
recession: call for more fiat money from the central bank. Their
peers in every other central bank will do the same. They are
doing so.

Academic economists are skilled at writing unreadable
articles in unread professional journals. They do not make
forecasts often, but when they do, no one holds them accountable.
They are salaried, usually at taxpayer's expense.

My advice: ignore them.

More Rick Santelli

2009-02-23T18:47:00.000-08:00

White House attacks Santelli and Santelli's response on Kudlow.

Of course, Santelli is right. The White House, as usual, arrogantly defends their economic ignorance. They will continue destroying the economy until all credibility is lost. More failures, moral hazards and straight-up Socialism will result from their asinine policies.

More:

"The appalling economic ignorance of the entire Obama crew--people who know zippo about the relation between cause and effect in the economic realm--will be its undoing. It seems to be happening faster than anyone expected." - Jeffrey Tucker

The Obama stimulus plan is . . .

2009-02-19T21:29:00.000-08:00

"The Obama stimulus plan is nothing more than a socialist redistribution of money from those who are struggling to those who are struggling."

- Robert McHugh, Feb 19, 2009

Rick Santelli of CNBC - "Ayn Rander"

2009-02-19T19:15:00.000-08:00

CNBC's Rick Santelli and the traders on the floor of the CBOE express outrage over the notion they may have to pay their neighbor's mortgage, particularly if they bought far more house than they could actually afford, with Jason Roney, Sharmac Capital.

"Do you think I want to have to take a shower every hour? The last place I'm ever gonna live or work is Washington D.C." - Rick Santelli

Here's the link to the video:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1039849853

runreason's blog

Free Market Facts and Fallacies by Tom Woods

Listening to "Peter Schweizer, Throw Them All Out 11-30-2011" from the Financial Sense Newshour podcast.

2011 Hypothetical Portfolio Review

Ron Paul Highlights in 11/22/11 Debate

Listening to "Farmageddon-The Unseen War to Shut Down American Family Farms 11-23-2011" from the Financial Sense Newshour podcast.

My Favorite Economics and Investing Podcasts

Downcast iPhone App: an awesome podcast utility

Downcast

Check out QuickChartsPro - Stock Market Charting Utility

QuickChartsPro - Stock Market Charting Utility

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog at OWS

How a Highly Productive and Provident One Percent Provides the Standard of L...

How a Highly Productive and Provident One Percent Provides the Standard of Living of a Largely Ignorant and Ungrateful Ninety-Nine Percent

Peter Schiff's Visit to Occupy Wall Street

Vanity Fair: California and Bust by Michael Lewis

WSJ: Blame the Fed for the Financial Crisis by Ron Paul

Debt Collapse - $20,000 Gold

MSNBC on NYPD Police Brutality during Occupy Wall Street Lawrence O'donnell with "The Last Word"

Recent FB Posts

Gold reaches its inflation adjusted high in Asian Trading

Floor Speech on Debt Ceiling July 19 2011

Federer in the top 4 highest paid athletes

Is Right and Wrong determined Democratically?

A career in organized crime?

New Nuances in Evolutionary Psychology

Saving: The Power of Compounding

An arrogant and ingorant Jon Stewart gets completely destroyed by historian David Barton

A Golden Tipping Point: University of Texas Takes Delivery Of $1 Billion In Physical Gold

The Military Industrial Complex in Five Minutes

Atlas Shrugged Part 1 - Movie Trailer

Milton Friedman - Greed

Thomas Woods - Our Wise Overlords Are Here to Serve Us

Private property rights challenged in La Jolla - San Diego Conservative | Examiner.com

Nullification: Interview With a Zombie

Behold . . Capitalism!

Lemonaid - Atlas Shrugged Video Contest Entry

2010 Hypothetical Portfolio Review

Fraud - Federal Reserve governor was paid to write "glowing report" on Iceland before collapse

Report shows gov't workers now making twice as much as employees in the private sector

The Broken Window Fallacy

Some Thoughts on Gun Control

C. Myth #3: Gun Control has reduced the crime rates in other countries.

High GunOwnership Countries

Low GunOwnership Countries

Country

Suicide

Homicide

Total*

Country

Suicide

Homicide

Total*

D. Myth #4: Recent gun control laws have reduced the U.S. murder rate.

This blog has moved

Obama’s Pyramid Schemes Would Make Keynes Happy: Caroline Baum

The End of Global Warming

Stagnating Temperatures: Climatologists Baffled by Global Warming Time-Out

Hackers Expose the AGW Fraud

2009 Hypothetical Portfolio Review

The U.S. House of Presumptuous Meddlers by John Stossel

the catchwords of Socialism . . .

US credit shrinks at Great Depression rate prompting fears of double-dip recession

Stiglitz Says Banking Problems Are Now Bigger Than Pre-Lehman

A million march to US Capitol to protest against 'Obama the socialist'

Official: Real U.S. Unemployment Rate at 16%

Put Anthropogenic Global Warming Theory on Trial!

Orbital Cycles Control Ice Ages by Doug L. Hoffman

Mom Feeds Family For Under $10 A Week

Global warming: myth or reality : the erring ways of climatology By Marcel Leroux

Ron Paul's Foreign Policy Meets Metallica

It's Not Just That Global Warming Is Fake. What Matters Is Why This Fakery Is Being Promoted.

Peter Schiff Nails it on The Daily Show

Pete Sampras calls Roger Federer ‘Greatest Ever’

got communism?

Your Doctor Is Wasting Your Time... and Your Money

The progress of mankind . . .

Some Thoughts on Healthcare

The Importance of Position Sizing

Hilarious SNL Skit on Geithner's Farcical Bank Stress Test

High Gun
Ownership Countries

Low Gun
Ownership Countries