Peter's Blog

Feeling the Burn of Socialism in Venezuela: $150 for One-Dozen Eggs

Not long ago, a video surfaced featuring Democratic Party candidate Bernie Sanders claiming bread lines were a sign of good times. You know, it’s funny. Sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is when people are lining up for food. That’s a good thing. In other countries, people don’t line up for food. […]

News Flash: Gold and Silver Bullion Coins Selling at a Frenzied Pace

Demand for physical gold and silver continues to surge with bullion coins flying out of the US Mint at a frenzied pace. May gold coin sales increased more than 206% over the same month last year. The mint sold 76,500 ounces of American Gold Eagles in May and 18,500 ounces of Gold Buffalos. That compares […]

Illinois Budget Debacle Proves Politicians Can’t Fix the Problems They Create

The US faces a massive debt problem. We all know it. But politicians and government officials are either unwilling or incapable of doing anything about it. David Stockman mentioned the burden of debt in a recent interview with Neil Cavuto on Fox Business: We have $63 trillion of total debt in this economy. The public […]

Will You Ever Retire? Many Americans Won’t

Will you ever retire? More and more Americans will not. According to the latest data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, almost 20% of Americans 65 and older are still working. That’s the largest percentage of older Americans on the job since the early 1960s. With Baby Boomers hitting retirement age, it’s the largest […]

How About a Beard Tax?

When you think about government, innovation isn’t exactly the first thing that comes to mind. Just last week, CNN reported that the US Department of Defense still uses 1970s era computing systems that require “eight-inch floppy disks.” Some of these ancient computers run US nuclear weapon systems: Such disks were already becoming obsolete by the […]

Silver Mining CEO: Triple-Digit Silver Prices Coming in the Near Future

The head of a major silver mining company says he thinks we will see triple-digit silver prices in the near future. Keith Neumeyer serves as CEO of First Majestic Silver Corp. The company ranks as the second largest silver producer in Mexico – the world’s leading country in silver production. Neumeyer told Bloomberg a major […]

Puerto Rico Default Is Coming and It’s Just the Tip of the Iceberg

Good morning Puerto Rico. Default is coming. Legislation moving in Congress would set up an oversight board to guide the US territory through what essentially amounts to bankruptcy. It would not expend federal funds to bail out Puerto Rico, but would allow the island’s government to pay back debtors at less than 100%. This is […]

News Flash: China and Russia Continue to Add to Gold Reserves

Last week we reported that central banks were jettisoning US debt and buying gold. Figures released by the IMF this week indicate central bank gold hoarding has not abated. Russia and China both extended their prolonged buying spree in April. Russia added 16.2 tons to its reserves. China increased its holdings by 10.9 tons. Another […]

Millions of “Subprime Consumers” Getting Credit Cards; What Could Go Wrong?

We’ve said before that the growing level of debt in the US is the elephant in the room we are going to have to address at some point. We’ve talked about the massive government debt and the drag it puts on the US economy. We’ve talked about the crushing weight of student loan debt – […]

Congress Helped Break Puerto Rico; Now It’s Trying to Fix It

Policies create by Congress helped break Puerto Rico. Now it’s  wrangling over over how to fix it, as time seems to be running out on the US territory. Congress has struggled to find solutions acceptable to both Republicans and Democrats. The House Natural Resources Committee released a compromise bill around midnight Wednesday, hoping to bring […]