Free Republic

It’s well-known that you have to make a declaration if you physically transport $10,000 or more in cash or monetary instruments in or out of the US, or almost any other country; governments collude on these things, often informally. Gold has always been in something of a twilight zone in that regard. It’s no longer officially considered money. So it’s usually regarded as just a commodity, like copper, lead, or zinc, for these purposes. The one-ounce Canadian Maple Leaf and US Eagle both say they’re worth $50 of currency. But I’ve recently had some disturbing experiences crossing borders with coins....

Full Title:This Is What a Currency Collapse Looks Like: Shopping Frenzy: “We Have A Lot Of Rubles Losing Value Every Second” “I don’t need this car,” he said with a shrug. He already owns two Porsches and a Land Rover. But, he figured the prices will soon go up and the ruble will probably go down. “We are headed for a crisis,” he said. … Electronics stores were packed late into the evening as shoppers scooped up iPhones and iPads at prices over $100 lower than what they cost in the United States. Apple’s Russian website halted online sales “due...

Imagine this scene: “Everyone in the country was in shock. People’s net worth had devalued more than 53% overnight.” “The value in savings accounts dropped in half and neither merchants nor consumers knew how to react because they had never been through something like it before…” This is how an American business executive described living through Mexico’s devaluation of the peso exactly 38 years ago on September 1, 1976. Looking back, it was so obvious. Mexico had a mounting debt, destructive policies, and a woefully unsustainable fixed exchange rate with the US dollar. All the writing was on the wall....

We are all familiar with the concept of inflation, which is the intentional byproduct of the Federal Reserve. But I am not just talking inflation, I’m speaking about hyperinflation which is caused by the collapse of the value of the currency resulting in runaway prices. Here are three examples of how quickly a currency collapse can occur when a nation’s money when its money no longer holds it value: 1. In Weimar Germany, from 1922 – 1923, prices doubled every three days. 2. In the modern era, in Yugoslavia from 1992-94, witnessed prices doubling every 34 hours. 3. In Zimbabwe,...

ROME — With political turmoil still plaguing Greece and descending upon the much larger economy of Italy, the fate of the euro and market stability worldwide hinged Tuesday on whether two of Europe’s most tangled and unresponsive political cultures could deal with their tightening fiscal gridlock. The prospect of a new transitional, technocratic government in Greece, and signs that Silvio Berlusconi’s resilient hold on power in Italy was weakening in advance of a crucial parliamentary vote on Tuesday, did little to reassure investors that either country was prepared to grapple with the deep structural changes that investors are demanding to...

Today the Fed bought up 9.7 billion in US Treasury bonds. From what I understand of the bond market is that the Treasury issues bonds at a specific starting interest rate and gives them to the Fed and the Federal Reserve sends over cash in exchange. If there are high demands on bonds then the rate will go lower, if there are low demands on the bonds the rate goes up. Last week after the Obama tax cut deal with the Republicans, the bond market had a huge sell off which rose interest rates almost .5%. This is a big...

The following story in italics is a potential fictional time line for the day the dollar died. I hope not to instill fear or loathing but to give everyone some perspective on a POSSIBLE outcome which does not really take much of a reach to come to any conclusion. Despite popular belief and promises from those who wish to rob you of your savings and investments, the collapse of the dollar might just be an event measured in hours, not days as their control is not what it seems…..

Dow slumps triple digits as Treasury yield curve inverts ($INDU, $COMPQ, $SPX, $TNX) by Tomi Kilgore NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks closed sharply and broadly lower, with the Dow industrials suffering its first triple-digit loss in 2 months, as the Treasury yield curve inverted for the first time in five years, sparking fears of a possible recession. The Dow ($INDU) slumped 105 points to an unofficial close of 10,778, its lowest close in 2 weeks and the biggest one-day point loss since Oct. 27. The Nasdaq Composite ($COMPQ) shed 22 points to 2,227 and the S&P 500 ($SPX) slid...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks stumbled Tuesday as the bond market gave signals that in the past have preceded economic slowdowns. The yield curve, the spread between the yields of short-term and long-term bonds, inverted for the first time in five years. That means short-term interest rates are higher than long-term interest rates. Investors have been watching the yield curve closely because, in the past, inverted yield curves have usually preceded a recession.

Over the past few days, December 21st — when our first Hindenburg Omen (of whatever cluster is coming) — and Thursday December 22nd, the Federal Reserve has conducted one of the largest two-day Repo injections of money into the system since back in September 2001. On Wednesday they added $18.0 billion in reserves and on Thursday they added another $20.0 billion. Is this a coincidence, coming right as we get another Hindenburg Omen? Probably not. Is something high-risk going on behind the scenes here? Let’s review some facts at the Fed. On November 10th, 2005, shortly after appointing Bernanke to...