As an investor, you may be sick of the turmoil in the traditional financial markets and looking for alternative forms of investment that can provide decent returns. Alternative investments are considered “alternative” for a reason — they often have limits to their upside, are illiquid, or have an entire set of risks that isn’t fully ... Read More »
In London, copper prices climbed for the second day on Wednesday due to speculation that Chinese demand will increase. State Information Center chief economist Zhu Baoliang reported that after hitting a low this quarter, Chinese growth should slowly accelerate during the remainder of 2012. By 9:27 AM on Wednesday, London Metal Exchange (LME) three-month delivery ... Read More »
By Doug Casey, Casey Research. Even if you are already wealthy, some thought on this topic is worthwhile. What would you do if some act of God or of government, a catastrophic lawsuit or a really serious misjudgment took you back to Square One? One thing about a real depression is that everybody loses. As Richard ... Read More »
The price of gold hit its all time high yesterday at over $1,600. Silver went over $40. Yesterday, I emailed you a link to an article where I explain what I think will happen over the next five years to gold and silver, and what I’m doing about it. Why Gold Hit 1600 and Silver ... Read More »
I’ve long argued that the stock market is just one area for investors. The stock market is often seen as the default place to invest, but this absolutely isn’t a justified assumption. The stock market only outperforms inflation by a few percentage points — if even that. The stock market is also absolutely and hideously ... Read More »
Gold prices will go through the roof. Silver prices won’t be cheap. Commodities will most likely soar in general. The dollar will take a complete flogging. Stocks and the entire financial industry will shake — and possibly even tumble. You can read more about what might happen if the US defaults on its debt at ... Read More »
The phrase “Greater Depression” was coined by Doug Casey a decade or so back as a way of describing the economic crisis he foresaw as inevitable, and which is now materializing. Because I think it is important for every organization to constantly challenge its own assumptions, I’ve long acted as something of a devil’s advocate ... Read More »
Understanding basic economics is critical to knowing what to do as the economy continues to sink. Perhaps the greatest flaw economists make — is not understanding how politics work. The very nature of politics is what makes sure every “micromanage the economy” plan will fail — pretty much no matter what. Why central economic planning ... Read More »
Incredibly enough, the US government has banned all gold and silver derivatives trading for “retail” investors. In other words, normal people will no longer be able to trade derivatives on a margin. This is extremely important — this will impact gold and silver prices, and it might just be a sign of what’s coming to gold and silver in ... Read More »
The price of both gold and silver have dipped in the last week, causing plenty of people to ask me if this is the beginning of something good or bad for the markets. The answer is that the gold market is most likely “correcting” and everyone needs to know exactly what this means, because most ... Read More »
The last few days have been fairly intense for those keeping up with gold, silver, oil, or the stock market. The DOW dropped below 12000, oil prices plunged, silver prices corrected, and other events kept us all on our toes. The Federal Government is Clueless. The United States government has no real idea of what’s ... Read More »
The price of natural gas has been pretty cheap since the financial crisis a few years ago — much cheaper than many predictions and forecasts have concluded. There are plenty of reasons for this that anyone considering energy investing should understand. If your goal is to invest in energy at all, then you should read this. ... Read More »
A popular argument among risk-tolerant investors and entrepreneurs is the idea that debt is a good way to hedge against inflation. Some, including Mike Dillard who is one of my business heroes, argue that if you know inflation is going to be about 5%, and you can buy a house at a 4.5% mortgage, you ... Read More »
In the last few weeks, I’ve been posting less for two reasons — first, I’ve been enjoying learning about economics, investing, and finance on an online membership training program. I’ll be writing about this sometime this week to explain how you can join to learn as well. Second, I’ve actually sold my main gold website, ... Read More »
I love the Mises Institute. They are, hands down, one of the strongest forces for rational thought when it comes to the study of economics. They support a free market, non-corporatist, non-statist approach to the economy. In other words, they don’t believe in subsidizing big business, they don’t believe in a welfare state, and they ... Read More »
Is copper going to be the next gold? Some people say yes — including the world’s biggest gold mining company. Gold is breaking records in terms of price but it may be copper that wins the prize. In a surprise move, the top gold bullion producer in the world, Barrick Gold Corp., recently bid for ... Read More »
Stocks are taking a massive dive on news that Standard and Poors, one of the leading rating and outlook agencies in the world, has changed its outlook on the United States. They now claim that our outlook is “negative”. They explain that our debt and budget deficits will probably not be remedied by our politicians. ... Read More »
A common question I’ve heard plenty of times from readers is whether it’s a good idea to invest for retirement or to pay off one’s mortgage first. While I don’t give personalized investment advice, I will explain my personal preference, and explain why I focus more on doing what makes me financially secure than whatever ... Read More »
It’s tax day in the United States. My friends and family understand that this means I’ll be a little grumpier than usual. Taxes in the United States are too high for many, too low for many, and are absurdly complicated. Our tax code is something like 70,000 pages long, and essentially no one understands their ... Read More »
I’ve always argued that the best hyper-inflation hedge is an investment in “stuff” or “real investments.” Academics and the politically correct financial community will probably never take such terminology seriously, because it sounds old fashioned, makes me seem suspicious, and sounds like I don’t trust the system. Then again, all of this is true about ... Read More »
As I’ve written about repeatedly in the past, the government routinely changes how it reports inflation in order to make the new larger numbers look smaller. If we reported inflation now the way we used to report it in the 70s before some of the major “changes” in reporting protocol, we’d see that for february, ... Read More »
In the last few months, we’ve written exhaustively about inflation. The last article published on inflation explained the three stages of inflation, and we offer a 16-part course on inflation completely for free. A common question I receive is, “Are TIPS safe ways to beat inflation?” TIPS are Treasury Inflation Protected Securities — essentially investments ... Read More »
I’m a huge, huge, huge fan of income investing. This should come as no surprise, as I’ve mentioned time and time again that I’m also a huge fan of cash — cash is king, and always will be king. But in this article, I’m going to be focusing on a specific form of income investing ... Read More »
The biggest myth about wealth building is that having a “high income” is the same as being “wealthy”. They’re not the same concepts. People with huge incomes are often flat-out broke. If you keep up with financial news, you’ll hear almost every day about millionaires and billionaires going belly up. You’ll hear about celebrities having ... Read More »
It’s not uncommon to hear economists, politicians, and even normal folks to talk about the different economic “classes” in America. The lower class, the middle class, and the upper class. While dividing people up on the basis of their financial situation is probably not a healthy idea, it’s something that can be useful for looking ... Read More »