Financial Sense Blog

On that Tax Hike for the Rich Folks

I was looking at some IRS numbers on who pays taxes to the federal government. This data is from 2008. That was a bad year to look at incomes/taxes. There was a big drop in income due to the recession and market crash. But it’s still useful to look at. If we’re going to raise any significant amount of new revenue it will have to come from the top 5% of earners. Note that in 2008 the top 5% was anyone who made over $159k. That number has crept up in the last few years. For 2012 the top 5% will be any household income that is in excess of ~$170k. Depending on where you live and how big your family is that is really not so much these days. But it is greater than the rest of the 95%, so that is where the new taxes will have to fall.

Debunking Anti-Gold Propaganda

A meme is now circulating that gold is in a bubble and that it's time for the wise investor to sell. To me, that’s a ridiculous notion. Certainly a premature one.

First Time in 75 Years, Handouts Exceeding Taxes

In raw numbers, in February of this year, households received $2.3 trillion in income support from unemployment benefits, Social Security, disability insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans' benefits, education assistance and other cash transfers of government funds to individuals. The same month, households paid $2.2 trillion in income, payroll, and other taxes. The difference was nearly $100 billion, or around 1% of personal income.

Opportunities & Peril

The Gold Food Oil QE Connection

By Deepcaster

The increasing number of Commentators who claim that Fed Money Printing (e.g. QE) and Credit Policies are The Main Cause of recent Rampant Food and Energy Price Inflation are correct.

Silver Still Soaring

While we don't often cover silver, it is worth noticing that it is about 6% below its all-time highs of 48 (closing basis) and moving up quickly. Technicians will assume that there is probably strong long-term overhead resistance at 48, and, considering that silver is in the vertical phase of a parabolic advance, there could be serious problems when the resistance is reached. Perhaps that is true, but I think there are other considerations.

Gold - a Flight to Quality

Unlike other commodities that have skyrocketed and crashed, the climb in gold has been very orderly. It is the only commodity whose long-term trendline is long and unbroken. Gold could take a substantial hit, just as it did in 2008 and still keep its long-term trendline intact. Why is that?

Our “Let’s Pretend” Economy

There are two economies--the real one, which is in decline, and the "let's pretend" one touted by the State and corporate propaganda machines. Children love to play "let's pretend." Let's pretend the economy is "recovering."Why does this "recovery" remind me of an addict who's conning his caseworker? (Yes, I'm really in recovery--those aren't tracks, they're insect bites....)

Bailing Out the Thimble With the Titanic

Dr. Steve Keen, the ever-insightful Australian economist who runs the Debt Deflation website, wrote an excellent piece in March of 2009 entitled Bailing out the Titanic with a Thimble. It essentially argued that the U.S. government's fiscal stimulus and the Fed's liquidity injections would be wholly insufficient to restart growth in the private credit markets, and so far this analysis has been spot on.

Too Many Similarities To A Year Ago!

By Sy Harding

There are a spooky number of conditions and situations that are similar to a year ago today. That’s uncomfortable because exactly a year ago today, in the similar excitement over first-quarter earnings reports, the stock market was just three trading days from topping out into the scary April-July correction of last year.

Bernanke’s QEx Box

Chairman Bernanke has placed himself in a box. It is not a box of his choosing, but rather the result of his misguided economic beliefs, use of flawed statistical data, geo-political events occurring during his watch, poor decisions and a penchant for political pandering. Some of these may be requirements for academia success but not for leading global financial markets during turbulent times.

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