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
The lessons from Obamacare's flawed Web launch … As the president has recognized, the failure of his administration to deliver a functioning website that Americans can use to enroll in Obamacare represents an inexcusable error. Having succeeded after more than a century of failed efforts in achieving the progressive dream goal of legislating universal health insurance in America, it is t...Read More
Bernanke Says Failing Bank Process Needed to Reduce Crises … Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said a process under development that would allow regulators to take down a failing bank will help ensure investors discipline weak firms and prevent them from taking risks without consequence. "As we try to make the financial system safer, we must inevitably confront the problem of mor...Read More
Paranoia Has Undermined United States Claim to Liberal Democracy … Agent Carrie Mathison is a topical figure. The main character in the American TV series "Homeland," played by the wonderful Claire Danes, shows her true relevance in the first few episodes, in which Mathison is nervously sitting at home, observing and listening in on the life of a terror suspect on a large screen. H...Read More
Twitter Surges in Trading Debut After $1.82 Billion Share Sale. Twitter Inc. jumped 73 percent in its trading debut, as investors paid a premium for its promises of fast growth. The stock rose to $44.90 at the close in New York from the initial public offering price of $26, delivering the biggest one-day pop for an IPO that raised more than $1 billion since Alibaba.com Ltd. debuted in 2007, accord...Read More
Politics Revealed: Obama Campaign Bundler Helping Fund Libertarian in Tight Va. Gubernatorial Race … A major Democratic Party benefactor and Obama campaign bundler helped pay for professional petition circulators responsible for getting Virginia Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Robert C. Sarvis on the ballot – a move that could split conservative votes in a tight race. Campaign fina...Read More
China seeks world role for 'people's money' … With deals from London to Singapore, China is seeking a greater role for its yuan currency in global markets to challenge the hegemony of the almighty dollar. The most attention-grabbing reform planned for Shanghai's new free trade zone is free convertibility of the yuan – also known as the renminbi, or "people's mo...Read More
Virginia, Alabama Voter Choices Show Tea Party Declining … In the closing days of his losing campaign for Virginia's governorship, Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli called the contest a referendum on Obamacare. Virginia voter Lee Killen saw it instead as a referendum on the Tea Party – and he voted no. Killen, a Republican-turned-independent from Fairfax, cast his ballot f...Read More
Private Equity Played Large Role In Rush Of Initial Public Offerings (IPO) So Far In 2013 … Initial public offerings (IPO) in the United States have taken off this year, with October seeing the most IPOs since 2007, as 33 companies raised more than $12 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. – International Business TimesDominant Social Theme: Ain't capitalism grand?Free-...Read More
Greek protesters rally against IMF and EU inspection. Anti-austerity demonstrators jeer, heckle and throw coins at auditors from bailout troika amid fears of more public sector cuts … Only hours before, the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, had resolutely declared that Greece was not at war with the international bodies keeping the debt-stricken country afloat. But on Tuesday, inspector...Read More
Gold Bug Schiff Counters Goldman on First Drop Since 2000 … Peter Schiff lays an iPod-sized bar valued at about $40,000 on the sun room floor of his Connecticut mansion, and calculates it would cost about $250,000 for each floor tile to pave the room with gold. He shows off $50 gold chips, to be used when paper money becomes worthless, a prediction repeated on his daily two-hour radio show b...Read More
Twitter Raises IPO Price Range, Looks To Sell Shares For $23-$25 … Twitter's roadshow must be going pretty well. The social network has been pitching its forthcoming initial public offering to institutional investors over the last week-plus and raised the price range for the deal Monday morning according to an updated SEC filing. Twitter now aims to sell shares for between $23 and $25 ap...Read More
In Alabama Race, a Test of Business Efforts to Derail Tea … With only days to go before a special Republican primary runoff for Congress here in South Alabama, the national business lobby is going all in … In the first test of its post-government-shutdown effort to derail Tea Party candidates, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce put on a rally on Tuesday in the warehouse of an aluminum plant...Read More
International panel's leaked report predicts more illness, war, disease with global warming … Starvation, poverty, flooding, heat waves, droughts, war and disease already lead to human tragedies. They're likely to worsen as the world warms from man-made climate change, a leaked draft of an international scientific report forecasts. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Pane...Read More
Gross Says America's Privileged 1% Should Pay Higher Taxes … Bill Gross said that wealthy Americans, having reaped the benefits of favorable tax treatment, should be willing to pay a greater share to bolster the prospects of the working class. "If you're in the privileged 1 percent, you should be paddling right alongside and willing to support higher taxes on carried interest, a...Read More
Swiss bank bailout turned poison into profit … When the final chapter of the UBS bailout closes in November, the bank accounts will show tax payers, ordinary account holders and small businesses as the chief beneficiaries. It's been a success story that's proven difficult to repeat elsewhere in the world. Far from losing money on the $31.8 billion (CHF29 billion) rescue act, the gove...Read More
JP Morgan sees 'most extreme excess' of global liquidity ever … If you think there is far too much money sloshing through the global financial system and causing unstable asset booms, you are not alone. A new report by JP Morgan says the bank's measure of excess global money supply has reached an all-time high. "The current episode of excess liquidity, which began in May 201...Read More
Are conspiracy theories destroying democracy? The more information we have about what governments and corporations are up to the less we seem to trust them. Will conspiracy theories eventually destroy democracy? What if I told you I had conclusive proof that the moon landings were faked, but I had been told to keep it under wraps by my BBC bosses acting under orders from the CIA, NSA and MI6. Most...Read More
Cameron Announces U.K. Plans for Debut Issue of Islamic Gilts … Minister David Cameron said the U.K. plans to become the first country outside the Muslim world to sell a Shariah-compliant bond as soon as next year. Cameron laid out his government's intentions in a speech to the World Islamic Economic Forum in London. The Islamic bonds, known as sukuk, would be valued at about 200 million...Read More
The Bank of Japan's massive stimulus is working, the International Monetary Fund's mission chief to Japan said, and there is still room to increase purchases of government bonds and exchange-traded funds if a further boost was needed. Jerry Schiff, who is also deputy director of the IMF's Asia-Pacific Department, stressed he saw no need for the central bank to offer additional stimulus...Read More
Central banks need to 'keep up' with markets says Mark Carney … The Bank of England, Mark Carney said on Thursday night, is open for business. The governor's message to the City was clear. The days when the Old Lady preached the perils of "moral hazard" without due regard to financial pressures are well and truly over. – Financial TimesDominant Social Theme: Mark...Read More