Free Republic

Swiss America Chairman Craig R. Smith comments on the Bernanke/Geithner testimony to Congress: While watching the testimony of U.S. Treasury Secretary Geithner and Fed Chairman Bernanke today, I was struck by several answers provided by the witnesses. One answer stood out amongst them all. In answering questions about funding of the IMF for the financial needs in the Eurozone, the U.S. Treasury Secretary said the chance of a default by the IMF, or any of its borrowers of money provided by the U.S. is extremely low. Why? Because the loans are all "backed by IMF gold"! ...

RICHARD RUSSELL: The Gold Skyrocketing Phase Still Lies Ahead Cullen Roche, Pragmatic Capitalism Nov. 24, 2011, 4:41 AM Via Richard Russell’s Dow Theory Letters: “Day after day, everyone asks whether gold has topped out. Nobody ever asks whether the market has topped out. Think about it, we’re in a low inflation, low investor fear environment, a dollar that appears to have bottomed and is now firming, and still gold holds above 1700 an ounce. This is a remarkable performance aided by heavy buying in China, India, and Asian nations. But what happens when we hit the inevitable inflation; when investors...

Ron Paul explains why we need to put our money in gold and how we can do that as America slowly drifts towards socialism. I'm fully aware I can't change any one's mind about Dr. Paul on FR but please listen to this video you might agree with some of what he says.

Fearing a lasting burden on taxpayers, the German government is preparing a set of insolvency rules for countries in the euro zone. It would require private investors to bear some of the financial burden and force the affected countries to give up some sovereignty. The plan is guaranteed to meet with resistance. As a physicist and an avowed admirer of the Swabian housewife, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, leader of the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU), is seeking to establish binding rules in the midst of the chaos of financial and monetary crises. Her desire for order was reinforced recently when the...

It takes a lot to spook the solid old gold market. But when it emerged last week that one or more banks had lent 380 tonnes of gold to the Bank of International Settlements in return for foreign currencies, there was widespread surprise and confusion * * * According to the World Gold Council, central banks in Greece, Spain and Portugal held 112.2, 281.6 and 382.5 tons of gold respectively in June – leading analysts to point fingers at Portugal, or a combination of the three. But an analyst from UBS noted that eurozone central banks would be severely limited...

Who in their right mind would suggest that gold will eventually reach $2,500, let alone $5,000 or even $10,000? Well, I did some investigation and, believe it or not, there are almost 70 economists, academics, gold analysts and market commentators who believe gold may go as high as $10,000 an ounce before the bubble finally pops. Below is a list of such individuals each of whom has sound reasons to substantiate his or her views. I encourage you to check out their articles and their rationale for such high gold prices in the years (and in some cases just months)...

Gold Going to Parabolic Top of $10,000 by 2012 For Good Reasons Commodities / Gold and Silver 2010 Jun 13, 2010 - 03:05 PM By: Lorimer Wilson No wishful thinking here! As I see it gold is going to a parabolic top of $10,000 by 2012 for very good reasons - sovereign debt defaults, bankruptcies of “too big to fail” banks and other financial entities, currency inflation and devaluations - which will all contribute to rampant price inflation. Not surprisingly, I have company in that view: Money manager, Peter Schiff, told Business Week recently that, "Gold could reach $5,000 to...

This is a very sad day for me. In Part One of this series, when I argued that gold might be about to go vertical, I made a whole bunch of new friends among the gold bugs. And now I'm going to lose them all. That's because even though I think gold might be about to take off, I don't recommend you rush out and put all your money into gold bars or exchange-traded funds that hold bullion. And this is for one simple reason: At some levels, gold, as an investment, is absolutely ridiculous. Warren Buffett put it well....

This is the chart they don't want you to see: the purchasing power of the dollar over the past 76 years has declined by 94%. And based on current monetary and fiscal policy, we have at least another 94% to go. The only question is whether this will be achieved in 76 months this time. (Click chart to enlarge.)

Is this the VERY beginning of the downward spiral of our currency? I am beginning to notice that the Euro and Pound are going up daily. The Euro was at 1.23 now at 1.35 and the Pound previously 1.36 to 1.50...is this the beginning of inflation? Oil rising as well...this could be the tip of the "turd" ready to erupt. Hey, printing all that $$$ will eventually have consequences, there really is no escape from that. Never in the history of man kind has "throwing money" at a crisis helped...NEVER!

Probably almost everyone is familiar with the hyperinflationary episode that engulfed Germany after the First World War. That nation’s economy was crippled by monetary problems that resulted in dreadful personal hardships, even though up to that time Germany had achieved one of the highest living standards in the world. The newly formed German government, named for the city where their constitution was drafted after the Kaiser’s abdication in 1918, kept pumping up the money supply. The process started relatively slowly, but quickly the pace of money creation accelerated. The Weimar government was paying its bills on credit – just like...

On this Valentine's day, let us remember and pay a tribute to all people who love the Government, and while we are at it, let's pay tribute to the Government itself by buying a T-Bill ! Thank goodness most of America and the rest of the world still loves the Federal Government of the United States and the Federal Reserve enough to continue to hold about $30 trillion worth of bonds that are paying, on average, about 5% while inflation is about 17%. Such Fed-loving bond holders clearly approve of all the spending habits of the United States government, by...

U.S. central banks may have less than half the gold they claim to possess in their vaults, charges a watchdog group in an ad scheduled for publication in the Wall Street Journal this week. As WND reported, the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, or GATA, claims the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury are surreptitiously manipulating the country's gold reserves by participating in undisclosed leases, according to an advance copy WND obtained of the ad running in Thursday's edition of the Journal. GATA believes much of the borrowed gold out on lease will never be returned to the central banks. "With...

Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul sounds radical when he advocates the elimination of the individual income tax, a return to a gold standard, the wholesale downsizing of the federal government, and the abolition of the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Reserve. The media and the other presidential candidates treat him as a nut. Indeed, Paul often enough opens himself up to that treatment in the flamboyant way he expresses himself. Sometimes he even seems to relish his image as a gadfly on the political fringe. But it’s time to start taking the ten-term Texas congressman seriously. He came in...

KENNER, La. — Ron Paul, a Republican presidential contender and Texas congressman, said Monday that the Federal Reserve is to blame for the country’s weakening economy. Paul highlighted his economic remedies — abolishing the federal income tax and returning to the gold standard, among them — on a three-city tour of Louisiana. The libertarian-minded Paul was the only candidate to visit Louisiana on the eve of the state’s Republican caucuses Tuesday. The caucuses are an intermediary step in picking a favorite candidate. A presidential primary will take place on Feb. 9 and a state convention will convene on Feb. 16....

The golden rule: He who has the gold makes the rules. In the 1964 James Bond Movie, Goldfinger, an international financial terrorist attempts to take over the world financial system by destroying American gold reserves stored at Fort Know with a nuclear bomb - a foreboding yet imaginative plot, but very messy and not too likely to succeed. What if you came up with a lucrative plan, ....

Federal agencies have indicated that the accumulated trade debts of the United States have reached $9 trillion.  This can be explained once one realizes that outsourcing of production jobs and manufacturing has gathered speed over the last twenty years to a point where we don’t make more than a nominal percentage of our own necessities.  These debts result in accumulated “TRADE DEFICITS” which are discussed in the daily papers.  What is not discussed, however, is how these “trade debts” will ever be paid.  Well, common sense would tell most of us that — they will be paid in some form....

After pretending an unwonted firmness for a few weeks, the central banks in both Britain and the United States caved this week, accepting financial sector bailouts and in the Fed’s case lowering interest rates. Moral hazard has thus been made immoral certainty; financial market participants who indulge in grossly speculative activity can be “highly confident” (in the words of the old Drexel Burnham commitment letters) that they will be bailed out by the public sector, i.e. ultimately by the taxpayer. Rarely has there been such an obvious subsidy of the overpaid by the beleaguered. It raises the question: what if...

I knew it. This headline draws attention these days. As the world wakes up to the fact that all currencies are created out of thin air by a simple entry into the electronic ledgers of the world's central banks investors begin to look for investments whose safety does not depend on an agency rating. This chart from the World Gold Council may help your investment decisions. GRAPH: This chart is a very graphic description what happens once nations abolish the gold standard in favor of unbacked fiat currencies. Remember: No fiat currency has existed longer than a human's lifespan and...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An economist who has long predicted this decade's housing market bubble would deflate said the residential real estate downturn could spiral into "the most severe since the Great Depression" and could lead to a recession. Yale University economist Robert Shiller's written comments to lawmakers came a day after the Federal Reserve responded to credit market turmoil by slashing the target federal funds rate by a half point to 4.75 percent. Shiller, in testimony prepared for a hearing of the Joint Economic Committee said the loss of a boom mentality among the public may bring on a drop...