Gold has big year in 2020 and outlook for this year robust. Learn about monetary expansion and gold future prices.Read More

The gold futures price reached US$1,767/ounce this week before retreating, which was the second time it has surpassed US$1,760 in the past two months, marking some of gold's highest levels in several years.Read More

Olympia rally draws defiant gun owners to protest new edict … A crowd of gun rights activists, many armed, estimated at 1,000 by the Washington State Patrol and at up to 3,000 per a photo gallery caption accompanying The Seattle Times' report, gathered at the State Capitol in Olympia Saturday to collectively declare "I will not comply" with the recently passed Initiative 594. T...Read More

Corporate transparency … The openness revolution … As multinationals are forced to reveal more about themselves, where should the limits of transparency lie? … Howard Schulz, the head of Starbucks, said last year that "the currency of leadership is transparency." If so, bosses should be feeling ever more qualified to command their troops. Business is being forced to ope...Read More

Sadly, as a result of a new Spanish law, we'll shortly have to close Google News in Spain. Let me explain why. This new legislation requires every Spanish publication to charge services like Google News for showing even the smallest snippet from their publications, whether they want to or not. As Google News itself makes no money (we do not show any advertising on the site) this new approach i...Read More

Congressional leaders hammer out deal to allow pension plans to cut retiree benefits … The measure would alter 40 years of federal law and could affect millions of workers. A measure that would for the first time allow the benefits of current retirees to be severely cut is set to be attached to a massive spending bill, part of an effort to save some of the nation's most distressed pensio...Read More

Congress will block marijuana legalization in Washington, DC … Congress's massive appropriations bill will likely block a voter-approved marijuana legalization initiative in Washington, DC. The bill "prohibits both federal and local funds from being used to implement a referendum legalizing recreational marijuana use in the District," according to a summary from the House Appro...Read More

Greek turmoil and China worries spark market sell-off …The FTSE 100 suffered its second-heaviest fall this year, wiping £36bn off the value of the index … Political turmoil in Greece and worries about a violent swing in the Chinese stock market combined to spark a global sell-off in equities … In Greece, the ASE index tumbled 12.8pc, a plunge that was its worst one-day fall...Read More

To deter U.S. from torturing again, those involved should be prosecuted … The publication of the long-awaited summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA's torture provides a useful moment to consider the lessons learned from this sorry chapter in American history and the steps that might be taken to avoid its recurrence. With the truth now told about this blatantly il...Read More

The status of economists … The power of self-belief … A new paper looks at how economists became so influential … "If economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people, on a level with dentists, that would be splendid!" said John Maynard Keynes, a British economist. Despite their collective failure to predict the financial crisis, let alon...Read More

Pew: 75% 'better informed' because of Internet news sites, don't feel 'overloaded' … The Internet is revolutionizing news consumption, with more than seven in 10 telling Pew Research Center that they are better informed than they were five years ago because of the news websites they visit daily. In Pew's latest survey of Internet use, 75 percent said they are "be...Read More

Is Europe Too Rigid to Survive? … The European Union is suffering from a democracy problem: Too many Europeans feel that integration is being forced upon them. What's worse, they may be right … New research from a group of economists – Luigi Guiso, Paola Sapienza and Luigi Zingales – paints a grim picture of the European project from the perspective of its participants....Read More

Arkansas governor pardons own son for a pot offense. He should pardon a lot more people … Mike Beebe, the Arkansas Democrat whose term as governor is expiring early next year, has formally announced that he plans to pardon his own son for a 2003 marijuana conviction. The plan was first reported last month by local media. It's perfectly reasonable to believe that dealing marijuana –...Read More

Draghi says will not allow dissenters to block possible ECB action … European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi addresses an ECB news conference December 4, 2014, for the first time in the ECB's new 1.3 billion euro headquarters in Frankfurt … The European Central Bank will decide early next year whether to take further action to revive the euro zone's economy, its pres...Read More

It is now 65 years since George Orwell died, and he has never been bigger. His phrases are on our lips, his ideas are in our heads, his warnings have come true. One answer to "why Orwell?" is because of his posthumous career. Five years before his death in 1950, he was, in the words of one of his biographers, D.J. Taylor, "still a faintly marginal figure" … It was only wi...Read More

Five reasons why markets are heading for a crash … Hold onto your hats. Stock markets look much as they did in 2000 and 2007 … We had a slight premonition of what's to come in the October mini-crash … Many stock markets are close to their all-time highs, the oil price is plummeting, delivering a significant boost to Western and Asian economies, the European Central Bank is ge...Read More

How Science Suffers During Government Shutdown … Congress (probably) won't defund the government next week. But if they do, their decision will be disastrous for science … No one wants another government shutdown. Not President Obama, who needs the funding to fight ISIS and Ebola abroad. Not Speaker Boehner, who warned House Republicans last month that defunding the government woul...Read More

The Gold Fairy Tale Fails Again … Will they never learn? Yesterday, oil rallied 4.3 percent and gold gained 3.6 percent as commodities had an up day after a long and painful fall. The fascinating aspect of the trading wasn't the $45 pop in gold, nor the even greater percentage rally in oil, but the accompanying narrative. … When it comes to speculating, especially in precious metal...Read More

Here Are Exactly What Types Of Porn The UK Just Banned … The UK just announced a change in the guidelines that govern online pornography, and people are scared that the government is embarking on a far-reaching crackdown on porn. The Independent, for instance, is reporting that "the measures appear to take aim at female pleasure." That's not really true. There isn't a lengt...Read More

Rand Paul dives back into Ferguson debate … Rand Paul wrote a column for TIME following the decision in Ferguson. He said that politicians are to blame in Ferguson and elsewhere … Individuals, he argued, are ultimately responsible for their own fate … His comments are part of his aggressive minority outreach. – CNNDominant Social Theme: This is a crazy conservative who does...Read More

The People's Republic of Plymouth … The strange and persistent right-wing myth that Thanksgiving celebrates the pilgrims' triumph over socialism. The first Thanksgiving, socialism "Down with the Commies! Let's eat!" … This Thursday, Americans will gather together for an evening of family, food, football, and arguing with the relatives about politics. And why shoul...Read More

Stock markets set to take off as Europe, Asia abandon austerity … The Great Divergence is a term coined by economic historians to explain the sudden acceleration of growth and technology in Europe from the 16th century onward, while other civilizations such as China, India, Japan and Persia remained in their pre-modern state. This phrase has recently acquired a very different meaning, howeve...Read More