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That's one of those bullshit cliches that is totally meaningless. Early is not always the same thing as wrong, it just depends on your timeframe and the nature of your position. Everything is not the same as everything else.

On the metric that they are running out of domestic savings to fund their debt issuance. As Japan increasingly needs to go to the foreign credit markets for funding, they will have to either raise interest rates or monetize the debt. And with their debt already standing at over 200% of GDP, it...

Because that's what happens in a deflationary environment, the currency appreciates. Until the deflation has run its course, at which point the economy flips into massive inflation and the currency plummets. Japan isn't there yet, but they're getting close...

The problem is, there is NO shot at fiscal responsibility with what he's proposing, and he doesn't even realize it. And the reason is that he doesn't understand that there are TWO parts to Keynesian theory. The only part Krugman and his Keynesian compatriots focus on is the part where...

BINGO. Krugman proves over and over again that a little knowledge is dangerous (and also that they'll give out Nobel prizes to just about anyone these days). What he doesn't understand is that YOU CANNOT STOP DEFLATION, you can only prolong it, just as we did during the First Great...

Indeed. However, looking at it's "supposed" holdings, the GLD fund now supposedly holds almost 1300 tons of physical gold bullion, meaning they supposedly hold more physical gold than China or the ECB, and whose buying supposedly accounted for almost all of the gold production over the past...

Right, but have they ever actually been audited?

Gold is most certainly not fiat. Fiat means to be created by decree. Gold cannot be created or conjured out of thin air, like paper currencies can. A government can cut down a tree that might be worth a few hundred dollars in the marketplace, and by virtue of what numbers they happen to print...

The reason is that gold cannot completely replace a currency for the purposes of conducting daily commerce in a large economy. Gold is a hedge to preserve purchasing power and be exchanged for whatever the prevailing currency is when needed, but gold can never become the primary currency of a...

Actually, that's all the meaning you need. That's precisely the point of gold. To preserve purchasing power during times of severe currency debasement, not necessarily to profit from holding it. So you can choose to hold an ounce of gold, or 1200 pieces of green paper right now. And...

Well, depending on how mild the inflation is, it could be something like that. In a mild or controlled inflationary period that coincides with economic expansion, such as we saw from 1982-2000, you can be in stocks or treasuries. But what I was really referring to was examples of severe...

Exactly. And the reverse is true during periods of deflation, where borrowers are punished, which I believe we will see over the next couple years. But at some point when massive inflation is sparked (which is an inevitability given the global government borrowing and spending being...

Yes, but it depends on what you're investing in, and whether the rate of return on whatever investment you choose is greater than the rate of inflation. As I mentioned previously, if you were invested in the broad stock market from 1965-1982, in nominal terms you made no money at the end of...

Sort of, although it's not that simple. When one talks about inflation being a hidden tax, it is in reference to savers, creditors and investors, and as such it punishes and discourages saving and investment. Retired people and others who live on fixed income are devastated by it. So are...

I guess you see what you want to see then. Facts are stubborn things, they don't need you to believe them for them to be true. The facts are that during every era of stagnation the U.S. Dollar index has historically been one of several leading indicators against the U.S. equity market. You...

Yep, it's amazing. Never in a million years after what we went through after 2000 and then the collapse in 2008 did I think that just a year later we'd have the same kind of mindless euphoria, hype and complacency again so soon. Looks like the ol' bear has a lot more work to do before the...

This is true, to the extent that the IRS simply doesn't have the resources to go after citizens abroad, just like they don't have the resources to check and audit every taxpayer who cheats on their tax returns here in the U.S. But I will say that if the people you speak of never even bothered...

There is so much fail in this post I don't even know where to begin, so I won't.

Not really. All the activity is still stimulus and Fed induced, it just took a long time for the full force of it to show up in economic indicators. Meanwhile, bank failures and foreclosures continue at a record pace, real unemployment as measured by U6 continues to climb, credit continues to...

Depends on the country, every one has different regulations and procedures. There are some countries that will literally let you buy citizenship. Others such as Israel, will give it to you automatically if you are Jewish and move to Israel. And on and on... Yes, although again there are...