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

Nobel gurus fear globalization is going horribly wrong … An interconnected world was meant to reduce inequality – but that doesn't seem to be happening. David Ricardo's Theory of Comparative Advantage has broken down after 200 years, or so I learned at the Lindau forum of Nobel laureates in Bavaria. The theory published in 1817 has been a guiding principle of free trade, taken...Read More

Janet Yellen Takes On Jackson Hole … The economic-policy debate in the U.S. is moving from, "Why is the recovery so sluggish?" to "Is inflation starting to get out of hand?" This shift is premature, to say the least. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen should say so Friday when she addresses the annual summer confab of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. – Bloo...Read More

Islamic State threat 'beyond anything we've seen': Pentagon … The sophistication, wealth and military might of Islamic State militants represent a major threat to the United States that may surpass that once posed by al Qaeda, U.S. military leaders said on Thursday. "They are an imminent threat to every interest we have, whether it's in Iraq or anywhere else," Defen...Read More

Nobel economists say policy blunders pushing Europe into depression … German Chancellor Angela Merkel defends eurozone and says it is hard to manage a currency for 18 states … Professor Joseph Stiglitz said austerity policies had been a 'disastrous failure' and are directly responsible for the failed recovery. – UK TelegraphDominant Social Theme: The central bankers have...Read More

Black market boom lays bare a social divide in Colorado's marijuana market … Nascent cannabis industry splits between wealthy with clean criminal records and those who turn to less than legal methods … The red card – part of the state's legal landscape since 2000 when voters approved the sale of marijuana for medical use – allows the grower to cultivate a doctor-pre...Read More

Government unveils significant stimulus measures to prop up cooling economy Korea … Economic growth decelerated in the second quarter of the year and more recent data indicate that the economy is still losing momentum. …, Although exports have been rising, growth is moderate, mainly due to the strong appreciation of the Korean won. Against this backdrop, Choi Kyoung-hwan's economic...Read More

I'm a cop. If you don't want to get hurt, don't challenge me. It's not the police, but the people they stop, who can prevent a detention from turning into a tragedy … No officer goes out in the field wishing to shoot anyone, armed or unarmed. And while they're unlikely to defend it quite as loudly during a time of national angst like this one, people who work in law enfor...Read More

Stocks rally: Dow up 175, Nasdaq hits 14-year high … Stocks closed sharply higher Monday as the Dow surged 175 points and the Nasdaq jumped to a 14-year high. The rebound came as concerns over the Ukrainian conflict began to ease and investors shifted focus to corporate dealmaking and economic news. – USA TodayDominant Social Theme: The Dow climbs a wall of worry.Free-Market Analysis:...Read More

36% Of Americans Haven't Saved Anything For Retirement … Over a third of all Americans (36%) have not saved any money for retirement, according to a new Bankrate.com (NYSE: RATE) report. Sixty-nine percent of 18-29 year-olds haven't saved anything, along with 33% of 30-49 year-olds, 26% of 50-64 year-olds and 14% of people 65 and older. –CBSDominant Social Theme: It's bad o...Read More

Can central bankers succeed in getting global economy back on track? … Why is the world economy still so weak and can anything more be done to accelerate growth? Six years after the near-collapse of the global financial system and more than five years into one of the strongest bull markets in history, the answer still baffles policymakers, investors and business leaders. This week brought an...Read More

IMF tax bombshell: its plans for higher VAT and a property raid are wrong … The IMF's suggestions for VAT would destroy any government that sought to implement them. The IMF, led by Christine Lagarde, has adopted a position which is far too political for comfort … For an international bureaucracy that sometimes seems to specialise in getting it spectacularly wrong, the Internationa...Read More

Europe's Greater Depression is worse than the 1930s … Europe hasn't recovered, because it hasn't let itself. Too much fiscal austerity and too little monetary stimulus have, instead, put it more than halfway to a lost decade that's already worse than the 1930s. It's a greater depression. And as the latest GDP numbers show, it's not getting any less so. – Washing...Read More

Study: You have 'near zero' impact on U.S. Policy … A startling new political science study concludes that corporate interests and mega wealthy individuals control U.S. policy to such a degree that "the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact." – BreitbartDominant Social Theme: If people were...Read More

Legalizing pot is OK, but not a priority for Canadians: poll … Poll shows Canadians are OK with legalization … According to a new poll, most Canadians support legalizing marijuana, but don't see it as a pressing issue. Six out of every 10 people polled said they would support pro-marijuana legislation, according to a survey by Angus Reid Global. However, most respondents said it...Read More

All the myths that are fit to print: Why your news feels familiar …. Has some wise guy flipped a switch and thrown the news into summer reruns? Everywhere you look in your news feed is a story you've seen before … There are two reasons we shouldn't automatically reject news that's dressed up as myth by our favorite publications, websites, and TV channels. Used judiciously b...Read More

Crisis stalks Europe again as deflation deepens, Germany stalls … Data from Germany, Italy and Portugal put pressure on ECB to act … The ECB is waiting to see whether its new four-year loans for banks will stop the relentless contraction of credit and stave off the threat of a Japanese-style deflation trap … Portugal has crashed into deep deflation and Italy's inflation rate...Read More

The US, IS and the conspiracy theory sweeping Lebanon … Is America behind the creation of the Islamic State? … The BBC's Suzanne Kianpour, in Beirut, looks at the latest conspiracy theory doing the rounds in Lebanon. "In the Middle East, conspiracy theories are in our blood," one former Lebanese official said over lunch in a restaurant in central Beirut. He was referring...Read More

US Fed's Fischer warns of poor growth … The Federal Reserve's vice-chairman has pointed to weak labour force participation and a soft US housing recovery as two reasons for disappointing global growth, saying this could be a long-term phenomenon. Stanley Fischer's comments reflected continuing concern about the economy that has fuelled debate over whether the Fed should move soon...Read More

The Libertarian Fantasy … In the latest Times Magazine, Robert Draper profiled youngish libertarians — roughly speaking, people who combine free-market economics with permissive social views — and asked whether we might be heading for a "libertarian moment." Well, probably not. Polling suggests that young Americans tend, if anything, to be more supportive of the case fo...Read More

Karl Marx was right — at least about one thing … While the steady or slightly accelerating global growth rates predicted by the IMF is the most likely outcome, it may not be achievable because of three imbalances: social, geographical and demographic. These seem deeply embedded in the structure of global capitalism today. They are weakening demand, creating excess savings and driving t...Read More