As the saying goes, “No good deed goes unpunished”, with the recent announcement that several billionaires will end up donating much of their wealth to philanthropy before they die rather than passing it on to heirs (along with a substantial portion to US coffers by way of the estate tax),...

Social Security will actually pay out more benefits this year than it will take in which is a pretty shocking wakeup call.  While I’d been hearing about skepticism over the solvency of Social Security ever since I was a little kid, 2010 marks a year when the payouts don’t match the intake...

Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays. I started out loving it, because I was a pyromaniac as a kid, and any excuse to play with fireworks sounded GREAT to me. I still love playing with fireworks and watching them, but the 4th of July has brought so much more meaning in my life when I think...

With all the public ire over Wall Street compensation and the public inquiry occurring this week demanding the heads of the major Wall Street banks testify (oddly, they’re grilling the heads of firms that survived rather than the ones that failed), one key theme has been Wall Street compensation....

I was rather dismayed but not surprised when I saw the news that the United Kingdom was enacting a “bonus tax” which is to be a one-time tax on bonuses of bankers in excess of $40,000.  As the circus spread its influence, France signaled that it will enact a similar policy and Germany’s...

I was rather dismayed but not surprised when I saw the news that the United Kingdom was enacting a “bonus tax” which is to be a one-time tax on bonuses of bankers in excess of $40,000.  As the circus spread its influence, France signaled that it will enact a similar policy and Germany’s...

Last week, I had posted on how the euphoric gold hype was really just a proxy for a weak dollar investment and there are more highly correlated and efficient means to exploit currency changes than buying an anachronistic, useless metal.  Additionally, there’s talk of a dollar crisis and what...

Could a basket of currencies and gold replace the US Dollar as the primary reserve currency globally? That’s a question that’s been batted around for a while, usually amongst fringe naysayers and ranting leaders of Venezuela and middle east regions.  However, I read with interest this article...

Could a basket of currencies and gold replace the US Dollar as the primary reserve currency globally? That’s a question that’s been batted around for a while, usually amongst fringe naysayers and ranting leaders of Venezuela and middle east regions.  However, I read with interest this article...

There’s been much fanfare made of gold breaking an all-time high in US Dollar terms, even though the dollar has declined precipitously against virtually every foreign currency (so it’s not really appreciating that much in terms of other global currencies), but the trend is your friend and...