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

Small-Caps Double Dow in Signal Economy Gaining Speed … The smallest stocks are rallying almost twice as fast as bigger companies in the U.S., a bullish economic signal from businesses whose profits are most dependent on domestic demand. Shares of companies from Rite Aid Corp. to Teledyne Technologies Inc. in the Russell 2000 Index (RTY) have advanced 32 percent in 2013, compared with 19 per...Read More

World's anger at Obama policies goes beyond Europe and the NSA … Whether miffed over spying revelations or feeling sold out by U.S. moves in the Middle East, some of the United States' closest allies are so upset that the Obama administration has gone into damage-control mode to ensure the rifts don't widen and threaten critical partnerships. The quarrels differ in their causes a...Read More

EU Apathy: Leaders Fail to Make Progress at Summit … This week's European Council summit was sidelined by new accusations of US spying in Europe. But despite the distraction, it's clear EU leaders have deferred plans for greater integration, and lack the political will to address pressing concerns like migration. Ahead of talks in Brussels this week, European Union leaders said they...Read More

Most Americans accumulating debt faster than they're saving for retirement … A majority of Americans with 401(k)-type savings accounts are accumulating debt faster than they are setting aside money for retirement, further undermining the nation's troubled system for old-age saving, a new report has found. Three in five workers with defined contribution accounts are "debt savers,...Read More

Central Banks Drop Tightening Talk as Easy Money Enters 2014 … Bank of England Governor Mark Carney talks about changes to the central bank's money-market operations aimed at widening access and cutting the cost of liquidity insurance to the financial system … Bank of England Governor Mark Carney speaks about the U.K. economy and the central bank's policies … The Bank of...Read More

FACEBOOK'S ZUCKERBERG PAID RECORD $2.2 BILLION … Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg set a new record for corporate compensation in 2012 with a package worth more than $2.278 billion, according to a survey by a corporate governance firm. The report by GMI Ratings showed Zuckerberg's salary of $503,000 and bonus of $266,000 were eclipsed by stock options worth some $2.27 billion. This was...Read More

Global climate investment flatlines …The world invested almost a billion dollars a day in limiting global warming last year, but the total figure – $359 billion – was slightly down on last year, and barely half the $700 billion per year that the World Economic Forum has said is needed to tackle climate change. These are the findings spelled out in the latest Climate Policy Initia...Read More

90,609,000: Americans Not in Labor Force Climbs to Another Record … The number of Americans who are 16 years or older and who have decided not to participate in the nation's labor force has climbed to a record 90,609,000 in September, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS counts a person as participating in the labor force if they are 16 years or old...Read More

A chance to reshape the Federal Reserve … In the coming months, President Barack Obama will have the opportunity to make over the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and put his stamp on the U.S. central bank for years to come. Along with naming a new chairman, he will be able to fill as many as four seats on the seven-member board. The question is whether Obama will use his picks as an oppor...Read More

Why is the liquidity trap? Credit where credit is due; Paul Krugman anticipated this where many others did not … Since late 2007 the monetary base has risen more than 300 percent, while GDP and consumer prices have risen less than 20 percent. And no, the disconnect is not all due to the 0.25 percent interest rate the Fed pays on reserves. The bottleneck remains, as it has for most of the pas...Read More

Are the Swiss having second thoughts about capitalism? … Top managers getting huge salaries must now deal with direct democracy … The extraordinary series of political initiatives on pay rates which are being put to Swiss voters is the sign of a rank-and-file "rebellion" against fat-cat salaries for top managers … The shock-waves after the carrying of the popular initia...Read More

Economic recovery proves QE working, says Paul Tucker … Outgoing deputy governor of the Bank of England says the UK's economic recovery is evidence that quantitative easing is finally working … Although Mr Tucker said it was still too early to say whether the economy had reached "escape velocity", his comments come ahead of new GDP figures which are expected to show growt...Read More

Sebelius on the Run … The HHS Secretary refuses to testify about ObamaCare's rollout. The Affordable Care Act's botched rollout has stunned its media cheering section, and it even seems to have surprised the law's architects. The problems run much deeper than even critics expected, and whatever federal officials, White House aides and outside contractors are doing to fix them isn...Read More

Problems with scientific research How science goes wrong Scientific research has changed the world. Now it needs to change itself … A SIMPLE idea underpins science: "trust, but verify". Results should always be subject to challenge from experiment. That simple but powerful idea has generated a vast body of knowledge. Since its birth in the 17th century, modern science has changed t...Read More

Analysis: Washington budget battle may delay Fed taper until 2014 … The Federal Reserve may have to wait until early next year before it sees sufficient strength in the U.S. economy to begin scaling back its bond-buying stimulus, after a destructive Washington budget battle that may take a bite out of growth. Complicating the Fed's task, a 16-day government shutdown choked off the flow o...Read More

Congress announces deal to end government shutdown, avoid US default … The deal would extend US borrowing authority until February 7; US Treasury would have ability to extend borrowing capacity … The US Congress settled on a deal to reopen the federal government and avoid default on America's debt just hours before the Treasury Department would have lost its authority to borrow mon...Read More

Why Pierre Omidyar decided to join forces with Glenn Greenwald for a new venture in news … Yesterday word leaked out that Glenn Greenwald would be leaving the Guardian to help create some new thing backed by Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay. I just got off the phone with Omidyar. So I can report more details about what the new thing is and how it came to be. Here's the story he told m...Read More

U.S. scholars Eugene F. Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert J. Shiller on Monday won the Nobel Prize in Economics, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced. The three experts were honored "for their empirical analysis of asset prices." – GlobalPostDominant Social Theme: Economics is a hard science and don't you forget it.Free-Market Analysis: The Nobel Prize was NOT award...Read More

Time to take bets on Frexit and the French franc? … We have a minor earthquake in France. A party committed to withdrawal from the euro, the restoration of French franc, and the complete destruction of monetary union has just defeated the establishment in the Brignoles run-off election. It is threatening Frexit as well, which rather alters the political chemistry of Britain's EU referend...Read More

The new head of the Federal Reserve: Dove ascendant … Janet Yellen will stick to her predecessor's expansionary policies … an uphill slog awaits. For most of the past few years, monetary policy has urged the economy on while dysfunctional fiscal policy has held it back. Barack Obama's decision to nominate Janet Yellen to succeed Ben Bernanke as the Fed's chairman in Februar...Read More