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

Fed Open to Expanding QE as It Counters Talk of Tapering … Facing the risk of a fourth straight summertime slowdown, Federal Reserve officials raised the prospect of increasing the monthly pace of bond buying above $85 billion to guard= against any slump in growth or employment. The Fed's statement yesterday that it's "prepared to increase or reduce the pace of its purchases&quo...Read More

If People Could Immigrate Anywhere, Would Poverty Be Eliminated? … What if there was a program that would cost nothing, improve the lives of millions of people from poorer nations, and double world GDP? At least one economist says that increased mobility of people is by far the biggest missed opportunity in development. And an informally aligned group of advocates is doing its best to make t...Read More

The U.S. Has Much, Much More Gas and Oil Than We Thought … The United States has double the amount of oil and three times the amount of natural gas than previously thought, stored deep under the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana, according to new data the Obama administration released Tuesday. – National ReviewDominant Social Theme: There is no oil. It's all been us...Read More

The Real Reason for Swedish 'Equality' … Super-Economy: The Upper Class and Wealth Inequality in Sweden … Sweden is viewed as an egalitarian utopia by outsiders, but reality is complex. In some ways Sweden has less social equality than the United States. While the American upper class is largely meritocratic, the upper class in Sweden are still mostly defined by birth. –...Read More

'The civil war in Iraq has already begun': Politician claims conflict… will be 'worse than Syria' … The Sunni rise again: Uprising in Syria emboldens Iraq's minority community Iraqi army losing hold on north to Sunni and Kurdish rebels as troops desert Iraq's Prime Minister fights off attempt to push him out of office … Iraqi leaders fear that the country...Read More

News … In his new book, The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on = Terrorism, investigative journalist Trevor Aaronson analyzes 10 years of terrorism cases that were prosecuted in the United States after Sept. 11. By assembling a database of the cases and going through court records, he concluded that the FBI, which receives $3 billion per year for counterterrorism, is &q...Read More

Train Wreck Ahead … Most Americans — even those who are legislators — know very little about the details of President Obama's Affordable Care Act, so-called Obamacare. Next year, when it goes into effect, we will learn the hard way. Many people lazily assume that the law will do roughly what it promises: give insurance to the uninsured and lower the cost of health care by lim...Read More

Which Mexico for Obama? … When President Barack Obama meets this week with President Enrique Peña Nieto in Mexico, he will be visiting a country that was much maligned throughout his first term …Today, it is talked about as a promising economic partner. The partnership will be far stronger if — as now appears likely — Congress passes sensible and humane immigration r...Read More

Wealth Gap Among Races Has Widened Since Recession …Given the dynamics of the housing recovery and the rebound in the stock market, the wealth gap might still be growing, experts said, further dimming the prospects for economic advancement for current and future generations of Americans from minority groups. – New York TimesDominant Social Theme: Government regs need to be rejiggered i...Read More

Chinese Way of Doing Business – In Cash We Trust … Lugging nearly $130,000 in cash into a dealership might sound bizarre, but it's not exactly uncommon in China, where hotel bills, jewelry purchases and even the lecture fees for visiting scholars are routinely settled with thick wads of renminbi, China's currency … For all China's modern trappings — the new supe...Read More

Possible Fed Successor Has Admirers and Foe … Ms. Yellen is now widely viewed as a logical candidate to succeed the current Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, when his term ends in January 2014. She has worked closely with him in shaping and building support for the Fed's campaign to stimulate the economy and bring down unemployment. – NY TimesDominant Social Theme: A brilliant woman i...Read More

Is the Federal Reserve Insane? … Americans have been whipsawed by devastating cycles of boom and bust over the past three decades. Now some at the Fed want us to go through it again. – BloombergDominant Social Theme: The Fed is not insane. It is sensible and proactive.Free-Market Analysis: This is an unusual article to appear in Bloomberg, especially given the headline. But unfortunate...Read More

Billionaires Flee Havens as Trillions Pursued Offshore … Billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, Russia's 14th-richest person, and his wife, Elena Rybolovleva, have been brawling for almost five years in at least seven countries over his $9.5 billion fortune … Those wealthy individuals should stop searching for new tax havens to hide their assets, said tax adviser Philip Marcovici. "We...Read More

Consumer confidence rebounds in April … Consumer confidence rebounded in April as Americans felt better about the outlook for the economy and their income prospects, according to a private sector report released on Tuesday. – The Conference Board/ReutersDominant Social Theme: If The Conference Board observes it, it must be so.Free-Market Analysis: What the heck is The Conference Board...Read More

There will be more wealth confiscation, without a doubt' … Savers and investors face further "wealth confiscation" in Europe as the continent struggles to resolve the single currency's problems, a bank chief has said … European politicians will take the "easy option" of taking money from the rich rather than raising taxes and cutting spending to deal with th...Read More

Neil Macdonald: The 'monarchs of money' and the war on savers … Power Shift: First in a series on the rise of the central bankers and the global imposition of cheap credit … Quietly, without much public fuss or discussion, a new ruling class has risen in the richer nations. These men and women are unelected and tend to shun the publicity hogged by the politicians with whom they...Read More

Generation jobless … "YOUNG people ought not to be idle. It is very bad for them," said Margaret Thatcher in 1984. She was right: there are few worse things that society can do to its young than to leave them in limbo …The International Labour Organisation reports that 75m young people globally are looking for a job. World Bank surveys suggest that 262m young people in emergi...Read More

Global Aging 2013: Rising To The Challenge … Since October 2010, when Standard & Poor's Ratings Services published our last update on the implications of population aging on sovereign credit ratings, the continuing economic and financial difficulties, especially in Europe, have accelerated efforts to improve the sustainability of public finances. The rapid buildup of government debt...Read More

Fisker Spent $660,000 on Each $103,000 Plug-in Car … Fisker Automotive Inc. spent more than six times as much U.S. taxpayer and investor money to produce each luxury plug-in car it sold than the company received from customers, according to a research report. The Anaheim, California-based company made about 2,500 of its $103,000 Karmas before halting production last year, disrupting its plan...Read More

Newsweek/Daily Beast Owner: 'I Wish I Hadn't Bought Newsweek, It Was a Mistake' … The Newsweek/Daily Beast owner, Barry Diller, shared his regrets today on Bloomberg TV: "There are some magazines that have no competition essentially in their field, luxury magazines," the Washington Free Beacon reports Diller said. "Advertisers must advertise in them. But for a news...Read More