Free Republic

Sorry to post this vanity, but I was wondering what investment ideas people had in our changing country. I'm relatively young, have a little 401K, or 201K money, and am seriously considering putting a major amount of it in a fund that tracks the price of oil. It seems like the with such a business unfriendly environment, the old investment rules may not apply anymore. Any thoughts?

More than 100 members of Congress—past and present—as well as congressional campaign committees and the national parties benefited from political donations from the political action committee or employees of Stanford Financial Group since 2000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged the firm’s head, R. Allen Stanford, on Tuesday with orchestrating a $8 billion fraud. Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal reported on Stanford’s status as an “international cricket sponsor, Washington political donor and private banker to Latin America’s wealthy.” President Barack Obama was the third-ranking recipient among lawmakers, with $31,750 collected from company employees during...

CNBC's Rick Santelli this morning at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange With tongue only partially in cheek, a CNBC analyst on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange this morning responded to President Obama's proposed $275 billion deficit-financed homeowner bailout plan and other massive spending measures with a call for a new "tea party." Rick Santelli, in a nearly three-minute rant that drew approving hoots and comments from nearby traders, said the Obama administration's promotion of bad behavior must be causing the founding fathers to roll over in their graves. "We're thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July," Santelli...

With job losses continuing to mount, tens of thousands of laid-off workers are now turning to their 401(k)'s, IRA accounts and other retirement savings to keep their families afloat. However, individuals considering a premature distribution from their retirement savings should be wary, know their options, and develop a strategy before withdrawing from these accounts. If they don't, they may find themselves subject to a larger than necessary tax burden. Most individuals are aware that ...

Gold demand has risen to 3,659 tons: WGC Commodity Online LONDON: The global economic meltdown has propelled a surge in demand for gold jewellery, bars and coins that the demand for the yellow metal has risen to touch 3,659 tons, says a new report from the World Gold Council (WGC). The Gold Demand Trends, compiled for WGC by GFMS Limited said that investment demand for gold, including gold exchange traded funds (ETFs), bars and coins, was 64% higher in 2008 than in 2007. ”This is equivalent to an additional inflow of $US15 billion. Demand for gold bars and gold coins...

As reported at Socialist Worker.org, a Communist website: Socialistworker.org February 9, 2009 STUDENTS AT the University of Rochester (UR) and their supporters from the community occupied a campus building February 6 in solidarity with the victims of Israel's siege of Gaza--and in a matter of half a day declared victory after winning important concessions from the administration. The university agreed to a public forum to discuss UR's financial policies, and its investments in Israel and companies that do business in Israel. It also promised support for a campus-wide fund drive for Palestine, donations to Gaza of surplus supplies, and international...

One day in the early 1960s, Arnold Gingrich, Esquire magazine's founder and editor-in-chief, phoned his stockbroker with an unusual request: Gingrich needed a cashier's check for $12,000 right away. Would the broker please sell some of Gingrich's stocks? The stockbroker complied. But when it came time to hand over the check, the broker said to Gingrich, only half-jokingly, "I hope you haven't gotten some girl in trouble." Gingrich assured his broker that that was not the case, but declined to reveal why he needed such an amount—$84,953.73 in 2008 dollars. Months later, Gingrich encountered his broker at a social function....

I actually started looking at because Mrs. FD said she wanted to buy some Mexican Centinenarios (not a good idea IMHO -- you lose too much value from raw gold prices). But that started me looking at gold in general and gold bullion. Historically, gold had done pretty well -- it doubled in the last 5 years and even went up bout 20% in the 5 years before (not bad but a portfolio that did that well would b well-regarded indeed). Has anyone here invested directly in bullion (I am too fiscally conservative to mess with futures and the like)?...

The Obama administration backed off Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s statement last week that China is “manipulating” its currency. In an interview with CNBC on Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden said the administration has made “no judgment” on whether the Chinese have manipulated their currency, an accusation that would have international legal ramifications. “The policy of this administration is going to be to say to China, which occasionally the last administration was reluctant to do. `You're a major player on the world scene economically, and you've got to play by the rules that

It is hard to believe, but a majority of Americans (including Christians and conservatives) seem oblivious to the fact that there is a very real, very legitimate New World Order (NWO) unfolding. In the face of overwhelming evidence, most Americans not only seem totally unaware of this reality, they seem unwilling to even remotely entertain the notion. On one hand, it is understandable that so many Americans would be ignorant of the emerging New World Order. After all, the mainstream media refuses to report, or even acknowledge, the NWO. Even "conservative" commentators and talk show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh,...

I missed Clintonite moldy oldie-turned-Obama economic adviser Robert Reich’s testimony a few weeks ago on how the government should spend federal stimulus money. The Berkeley professor engaged in academic fantasy land talk about getting all the cash out to workers as quickly as possible — a pipe dream debunked by the CBO report I mentioned in my column yesterday. Even more noteworthy, however, were the comments Reich made about which workers deserve the stimulus bucks most. Reich’s proposal exposes the lie that the Obama administration is actually interested in revitalizing basic infrastructure for the good of the economy. No, what...

An 82-year-old businessman was charged Thursday with running a Ponzi scheme that took in at least $17 million from a clientele gleaned largely through ads in Catholic newspapers. Richard Piccoli of suburban Buffalo declined to comment after appearing in federal court on a criminal complaint charging him with mail fraud. He was ordered to return Tuesday for arraignment. He could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, meanwhile, moved to freeze the assets of Piccoli and his 33-year-old company, Gen-See Capital Corp. Investigators said Piccoli guaranteed annual returns...

Our society tends to see things as black and white, good and bad, and, economically speaking, rich and poor. Like the small town in the Old West, we see the economy as a zero-sum game; there’s only room in this town for one sheriff. This type of thinking promotes the idea that if you are making money, you are taking money. And if you have money, you made someone else poor. The sheriff, in this case, the financial regulator, rides in with a pen and paper a’blazing to try to right the wrongs of this limited economic vision. But, the...

Corporate bonds will be among next year’s best investments as real estate and equity markets remain in the doldrums, the chief executive of Mashreq Capital has said. “Things have fallen down to levels where it is difficult to think that they could really get a lot lower,” Abdul Kadir Hussain said of the region’s debt markets. “In that environment, where interest rates and volatility are likely to stay low, you can easily get 10, 12, or 15 percent total return on the blue chip, stronger names.” Kadir believes an economic recovery will start in the second half of the year,...

Is the author of this complaint any relation to Madoff. They appear to have the same last name.

The New York Times is criticizing Ave Maria Mutual Funds, whose Web site promises “smart investing and Catholic values.” Now, I'm not getting into the merits of the company which I don't know. I don't have the money to do much investing anyway. But the Times Editorial Staff used a little story about Ave Maria as a jumping off point to make a political point about the Church. Ave Maria says it is designed for people who want to put their money “in companies that do not violate core teachings of the Catholic Church.” It says it screens companies using...

Doing the kind of investigative reporting we should expect from the major media, a financial research and consulting firm has released a major analysis of the “credit crisis” that concludes that the claims made by Treasury Department Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke to justify a socialist takeover of the financial industry were demonstrably false. The analysis, Flawed Assumptions about the Credit Crisis: A Critical Examination of US Policymakers,concludes that the result of the unjustified massive federal intervention in the economy could be similar to the economic crisis in the Weimar Republic of 1922, where disastrous hyperinflation...

I am often asked what is the best or safest way to get exposure to precious metals. To be sure, there is a dizzying array of options from owning and storing the physical metal yourself to buying junior mining stocks. But the current crisis of confidence, brought on by the collapse of institutions that nobody thought could fail and the most recent $50 billion Ponzi scheme, has investors looking at safety and wealth preservation more than ever. Buying physical gold and silver gives the owner definite possession, but comes with high premiums and the necessity to store and protect the...

As startling as a $50 billion Ponzi scheme is, more staggering has to be the SEC's failure to catch the scheme years ago...Harry Markopolos, who years ago worked for a rival firm, is a money manger and a fraud investigator, wrote to the SEC in 1999 about Madoff after researching Madoff's supposed stock-options strategy and was convinced the results likely weren't real. "Madoff Securities is the world's largest Ponzi Scheme," Markopolos, wrote in his 1999 letter to the SEC..Markopolos didn't stop there. He pursued his accusations over the past nine years, dealing with both the New York and Boston bureaus...

Over the next year, the U.S. government will need to borrow somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 trillion, the most ever by far. Estimates go as high as $2 trillion, depending on how quickly the economy cools and how fast tax revenues fall. The simple question most of America has not asked is this: Where is the money going to come from? The federal government already knows the answer to that question, and it has implications Americans are not ready for but will soon be faced with. America is going cap in hand to Middle East oil exporters. What government...