Category: Economics & Investing

Welcome to SurvivalBlog’s Precious Metals Month in Review, by Steven Cochran of Gainesville Coins. Every month, we’ll take a look at the “month that was” in precious metals, covering everything from price action to the information that’s driving the numbers. January in Precious Metals December closed on the usual down note as the last bit of tax-related selling went through, but January started off strong, as the big commodities index funds had to buy gold to meet new percentages. The index rebalancing only added fuel to an oversold gold market, as the price jumped $30 in 48 hours. Part of …

Russian Bank Halts All Cash Withdrawals – BR And the Brits’ government isn’t fairing any better than us: Queen down to her last million due to courtiers’ overspending, report finds – GP Restaurant Owners Fight Rise in Minimum Wage for Tipped Workers – L. Items from The Economatrix: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: World Risks Deflationary Shock As BRICS Puncture Credit Bubbles In A Typhoon, Even Pigs Can Fly (For A While) No, The Plunge In Home Sales Was “Not” Due To Cold Weather Initial Jobless Claims Miss; Back To Levels First Seen 6 Months Ago

Mike sent in this: The Republican governor of Michigan has proposed using immigrants to revitalize Detroit. 50,000 of them over five years. The Bank of Union, El Reno, OK, Becomes Second Bank Failure of 2014– G.G. And in the middle of winter: Scott Walker pledges millions of dollars to ease propane shortage – M. Items from The Economatrix: Yellen Will Reverse The Taper: Schiff Fed Poised For $10 Billion Taper As Bernanke Bids Adieu Why Millions Of Americans Will Never Retire: How The Prospect Of Retirement Went From A realistic Goal To An Outrageous Dream For Most American Families. Buckle …

Video: 0% is the Highest Interest Rate the U.S. Economy can Afford – D.D. 2019 U.S. Army budget would eliminate 100,000 Troops – T. An interesting development as many of the emerging markets are faltering simultaneous with one of China’s largest holidays: China’s Central Bank Announces Halt of Cash Transfers – SurvivalBlog reader Fourth-Quarter Earnings Season Another Dud Items from The Economatrix: January 1, 2014 All Americans Will Bail Out The Banks Bundesbank Calls For Capital Levy To Avert Government Bankruptcies World Market Index (Seeing a lot of red ink…)

Hello Gentlemen, I am as capitalistic as they come and have spent the entirety of my life as the son of a self-employed concrete contractor, then owning and running several of my own businesses. Some of us though are questioning the huge profits rolling out of some of the Wall St. firms due to the QE policy of the Fed. It seems like the scales are getting out of balance because of this policy, and the distribution of wealth is appeasing Wall Street while the POTUS’s policies and regulations discourage middle income entrepreneurs. The top few percent get government bailouts …

B.B. sent in this video preparing for an Economic crash. On that same note, T. sent in this article on holding physical gold rather than paper gold. 7 setbacks for the middle class – H. L. Walmart is cutting more jobs from Sam’s club. – T. G.G. sent this link on on The Big Reset, part 2. Lloyds Banking Group says it has fixed problems that affected Halifax, Lloyds, Bank of Scotland and TSB customers using ATMs and debit cards. – S.R. Items from The Economatrix: TNX Chart: Specter Of Rising Rates HSBC Bank On Verge Of Collapse: Second Major …

G.G sent this in: The Taxman Driveth: In the future, Your Car May Rat You Out to the Tax Collector. Santelli Slams Central Bank Policies – P.M. B.B sent in this link about just how badly the American People are messed over by their elected officials. Record One-day Withdrawal of Gold from JP Morgan G.C. sent a link to his video about the HSBC debacle Standing out in the video is this quote: “As this was not a change to the Terms and Conditions of your bank account, we had no need to pre-notify customers of the change,” And the …

Dear Editor, In your post under Economics and Investing, you said: “It’s important to understand that when a person creates wealth, they are not taking more of the pie from you; they are actually creating a bigger pie. It’s really only government that forcibly takes from you.” I wish to respectfully disagree. If a merger and acquisitions corporation, such as Bain capital, buys out the company you worked for (Dade Behring, where I worked for over 17 years), slices and dices, sells off the profitable parts to foreign companies, makes you train the new foreign employees (which I had to …

D. B. sent in this link asking if it is The Beginning of the End for the U.S. Dollar? S.E. sent in a link showing how many Americans feel about the financial future. And M.R sent this email warning of the coming Global Financial Meltdown caused by China’s crdit bubble. Items from The Economatrix: 20 Early Warning Signs That We Are Approaching A Global Economic Meltdown Celente – The Entire World Is Now Unraveling Before Our Eyes JPMorgan’s Gold Vault Has Biggest One-Day Withdrawal Ever Bank-Run Fears Continue; HSBC Restricts Large Cash Withdrawals

P. sent in this interesting link about Russia:Russia’s Growing Regional Debts Threaten Stability o o o Local governments extending tax breaks to movie production companies is becoming commonplace now; Even to the point where cities and states compete with each other to be the hosting location for the movie company. Several readers sent this link in showing How Leonardo DiCaprio Cost New York Taxpayers $30 Million. HJL Adds: My own city recently released financials showing that in the past year, they hosted four movie productions, giving significant tax breaks to the production companies, with less than $9,000 increased revenue to …

H.L. sent this item: Oil Set to Rocket. HJL Adds: This sounds interesting. My concern is the statement: “The oil companies will be raking it in…” I’ve heard this before and it smacks of the 1% talk. The oil companies may make a pretty good profit, but nowhere near as good as some other companies. I have been receiving a large number of submissions regarding income inequality, usually describing that the top 1% now have as much as one half the world’s wealth. It seems repugnant at first, but it’s important to note that this concept is based on an …

Sent in by P.W.: Russia’s Growing Regional Debts Threaten Stability H.L informed us of this: Wells Fargo bans staff from investing in P2P loans C.S sent this link in: The Economic Slowdown No One is Talking About. Items from The Economatrix: What The Unemployment And Labor Force Participation Rates Would Be If All Of The Discouraged Workers Came Back IMF Paper Warns Of ‘Savings Tax’ And Mass Write-Offs As West’s Debt Hits 200-Year High Global Freight Data Indicates No Economic Recovery

G.G sent these two videos: Mike Maloney: The US Dollar WILL Collapse, and A ‘tsunami’ of store closings expected to hit retaile Thanks to C.R. for this: Fed approves Chinese bank purchase of U.S. bank Items from The Economatrix: What If All This Prosperity Was Just An Illusion? Six Things You Should Know How To Improvise Is the International Monetary Fund Hinting About An Economic Reset?

From J.B.G.: How to Survive the Coming Final Dollar ‘Bear Raid’ G.G. sends us this news article showing a Record 20% of Households on Food Stamps in 2013. G.G also sent this: Argentines Must File Tax Report On Web Purchases. Items from The Economatrix: Why Is Goldman Sachs Warning That The Stock Market Could Decline By 10 Percent Or More? Gold And Silver – There Are Reasons Greater Than Demand For Owning Them Max Keiser: Economics Of Human Extinction

Jim, I enjoyed the January 10 letter titled “How To Use Your IRA /401k to Fund a Survival Retreat Property“. I’d like to offer a few comments that your readers might find helpful. My bona fides: I am a tax attorney who has dealt with self-directed IRA’s in audits and in Tax Court. I have gotten my clients some very good results in those arenas. I deal primarily with real estate in IRA’s. The same rules that govern real estate would apply to other non-traditional investments via Self-Directed IRA’s (“SDIRA”). ROBS: The transaction that was described by “An Anonymous CPA” …