Category: Economics & Investing

Suckers! Many conservatives are aquiver with excitement that George Delano is daring to brave the third rail of American politics, the much-beloved welfare program set up by his philosophical predecessor, FDR. It is true, of course, that Social Security is nothing but a government-run Ponzi scheme, that there is no trust fund, that as an investment it is a complete rip-off, that it rewards white women at the expense of black men and that it is an outrageous violation of the Constitution of the United States of America. But this does not mean that the Bush administration’s plan to allow …

Mr. Rawles, Not long ago you mentioned the price of precious metals had fallen. Today the market ended with spot precious metals taking a sharp dive. If any reader does not have at least some silver or gold for when the economy really drops off, now is definitely the time to get them. Kitco is one source. I use the Northwest Territorial Mint for large purchases. For smaller buys, I have used Mint Products, but they are more for the collector, and not bullion speculator. I have been able to amass a large sum of bullion, in the forms of …

Recent events in the financial markets have renewed concerns that should be considered by any American who has worked, paid taxes, invested and saved for the future. It is no secret that America is swimming in debt. Currently the U.S national debt is $9.6 trillion. That is $47,000 for every adult or $94,000 for couples. One can only imagine the future burden that will put on taxpayers as the politicians continue to print money to pay off everything from health care to foreclosed mortgages. No level of taxation will support this kind of unbridled spending. We are now spending money …

Dear Mr. Rawles, Thanks for the great blog, and your “Patriots” novel. Reading your site has become a daily routine for me. One thing that I am finding amusing in today’s investment market is this mythical line in the sand of when we are officially in a Bear market. At present the market seems to be fighting to stay just above this line and almost daily some market pundit states how one average or another has “officially’ entered an intraday Bear Market. Few people know, especially those in the investment market, the origins of the terms Bulls and Bears. In …

Hi James – Nice letter from D.C. today, but for cryin’ out load Jim, please advise him to get his precious metals out of a bank’s safety deposit box. He seems to be able to afford a decent wall safe and the few bucks it might cost to install and camouflage it. When banks fail, they close the safety deposit boxes too – at least for a while. Not a great strategy to be cut off from your contingency funding right when you need it most. Too, get sideways with the IRS, and you will go to bank to see …

Dear Mr. Rawles: You don’t seem to be the type of guy who enjoys saying “I told you so” when you are proven to be right, but I thought I’d at least give you that opportunity. Back in May, I wrote to you singing the praises of synthetic gold ownership via Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), and opined that “physical gold combines the worst of all worlds.” I’ve since started building my long position in gold (and silver), and I surprised myself by deciding quite early on to hold physical metals rather than to express my long position synthetically. This was …

Mr. Rawles, My wife and I have a Certificate of Deposit (CD) at 5.25% of $425,000 that will be maturing in December. She is all fired-up to travel to Canada in September, and with an interest-only withdrawal using $20, 000 to open bank account using converted US Dollars [(USDs) to another currency] as a hedge against the falling value of the USD. I have a bad feeling about this. From reading your site for several months, I suspect that you would suggest buying tangibles but, I fear that my wife will not agree to spending that kind of money on …