Posted by Randall A Reinwasser on Wednesday, February 29, 2012,
In :
Personal Finance
Friend and former classmate Mike Ferrari is the co-founder of SmartyPig, an innovative online service which allows users to save for future purchases such as vacations, electronics or furniture, all through an FDIC insured bank account at no charge to the user. SmartyPig's social network capabilities are cutting edge and the bonus payments upon goal redemption add to the attraction of this novel service. Mike was kind enough to give me a few minutes of his time to allow us to get an inside ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Randall A Reinwasser on Wednesday, February 29, 2012,
In :
Gold and Silver
Besides silver, you do not see charts like this. Yet, in silver, we see this crap on regular basis. Admittedly, Silver was overbought this morning and due for a drop in price, but swan dives like this do not happen unless there is coordinated action by a handful of market participants. As another example, when silver got up near $50 last year, it dropped $6 in 15 minutes. Of course the regulator, the CFTC, is completely out to lunch. They've had an ongoing silver manipulation investigati... Continue reading ...
Posted by Randall A Reinwasser on Monday, February 27, 2012,
In :
Personal Finance
If you've saved up a substantial amount of wealth, have young children, or value your privacy you should strongly consider setting up a Revocable Trust. A Revocable Trust is simply a trust created during a person’s lifetime, with full power to revoke the trust or amend any and all of the terms, as long as the creator of the trust is alive and mentally competent. Here are five reasons almost everyone should at least consider setting up a Revocable Trust:
Posted by Randall A Reinwasser on Friday, February 24, 2012,
In :
Stocks
If you have a self-directed 401k brokerage account, consider yourself lucky. Approximately 15% of companies offer this investment option to their employees and, if you know what you're doing, it can greatly improve your 401k returns.
Self-directed 401k brokerage accounts offer you more investment options, greater flexibility and lower costs. Moreover, if you're adept, you can almost certainly get a better return than the mediocre and expensive funds that are likely to be available in your re... Continue reading ...
Posted by Randall A Reinwasser on Thursday, February 23, 2012,
In :
Politics
In the never-ending Greece debt crisis, the media tends to portray the Greeks as lazy and the Germans as tireless workers. Well, believe it or not, that couldn't be more wrong. According to OECD data from 2010, the Greeks rank second in Average Annual Hours Worked per Worker, behind only South Korea. The average Greek works 2,109 hours per year. Germans, on the other hand, rank 28th out of 30, working just 1,419 hours per year. In other words, Greeks work almost 50% harder than Germans. ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Randall A Reinwasser on Sunday, February 19, 2012,
In :
Politics
1913 was a dreadful year for the United States. Not only did the treacherous Federal Reserve begin operations, but also Congress and President Wilson established federal income taxes. As you'll see below, 100 years ago the initial tax rates were rational, low and uncomplicated. Unfortunately, like everything else government touches, today's tax system has become corrupt, complex and costly.
1913Nominal Dollar Tax Rates Marginal Income Level Tax Rate Over U... Continue reading ...
Posted by Randall A Reinwasser on Wednesday, February 15, 2012,
In :
Culture
It's so nice to read stories like this once in a while...
Gettysburg’s 83-69 men’s basketball victory over Washington College on Saturday didn’t end on a buzzer beater, but it sure was a one-point win for Bullets’ senior guard Cory Weissman.
Weissman, who suffered a life-threatening stroke while weight training during the off-season of his freshman year, had worked his way back to the team but hadn’t played a single minute until this game – on Senior Day. Gettysburg coach George ...
Posted by Randall A Reinwasser on Tuesday, February 14, 2012,
In :
Politics
There are two voices in the mainstream media that speak the truth: Jon Stewart and Judge Napolitano. Make that one voice. The Judge was fired by Fox yesterday. Frankly, I'm surprised Fox let the Judge speak so freely and with such ebullience and alacrity regarding freedom, liberty and the pathetic state of both political parties and the people that lead them.
In this video, his last speech of his last show, he once again speaks the truth, which Fox, MSNBC and the rest of them so desperate... Continue reading ...
Posted by Randall A Reinwasser on Thursday, February 9, 2012,
In :
Permanent Portfolio
Today Global X announced the launch of a Permanent Portfolio Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), ticker PERM. Based on the incredible success of the Permanent Portfolio mutual fund (PRPFX), I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Not only has PRPFX returned nearly 10% per year over the last decade, it has also gathered a whopping $16.8 billion in assets.
The original Permanent Portfolio was developed by the late Harry Browne. In his seminal work on the matter, Fail Safe Investing, Harry laid-out a stra... Continue reading ...
Posted by Randall A Reinwasser on Thursday, February 9, 2012,
In :
Politics
The big news out of Europe today, is the European Central Bank has agreed to take a haircut on the value of their Greek debt, which will hopefully lead the way to a resolution of the Greek debt crisis. The ECB will take a major write down (and loan Greece billions of more Euros) if the Greek government agrees to a 20% minimum wage cut, reduced pension payments and radically lower spending levels.
Tomorrow, the Greek leadership decides on whether to sign. If they do and this thing is resolved... Continue reading ...
Posted by Randall A Reinwasser on Wednesday, February 8, 2012,
In :
Stocks
I really like all the exposed wires on the right hand side...this country used to be a bastion of capitalism before friggin' Mugabe destroyed the place:
Posted by Randall A Reinwasser on Monday, February 6, 2012,
In :
Gold and Silver
An American court has ruled that the treasure hunting company the Odyssey must return 594,000 gold and silver coins found at a ship wreck site in the Atlantic. I agree, the coins do not belong to the owners of the Odyssey but they sure as hell don't belong to Spain either. To set the record straight, the Spaniards went to Peru in 1532 and began looting all the gold and silver from Incan temples. Then, once all that gold/silver was stolen they literally enslaved the Peruvians and forced them... Continue reading ...
Posted by Randall A Reinwasser on Sunday, February 5, 2012,
In :
Gold and Silver
COMEX is the futures and options exchange where the price of many
commodities is set, including silver. Since peaking at 138.5 million
ounces in August 2008, the silver inventory dropped sharply for nearly
three straight years and bottomed this past June at 98 million ounces.
This rapid drop led many silver observers to believe we were on the
precipice of a severe supply crunch in silver that would lead to a
skyrocketing silver price.
Posted by Randall A Reinwasser on Sunday, February 5, 2012,
In :
Culture
A certain famous sports blog has made the harebrained decision to blindly bet against all 25 of my Superbowl prop bets. Since I'll be too busy rolling in the dough later tonight, here they are for the record:
Mario Manningham - Total Receptions O/U 3.5 => my bet UNDER (-160)
Hakeem Nicks - Total Receiving Yards on 1st Reception O/U 11.5 => my bet UNDER
Eli Manning - Will he throw an Interception => my bet NO (+155)
Distance of 1st Eli TD Pass O/U 10.5 => my bet OVER
Google changes its privacy policy: Another reminder to use offshore email
by Simon Black
If you're like almost every single Internet user on the planet, you probably use Google for something. Maybe Gmail, maybe Google search, maybe Google Docs, maybe Google Voice... or maybe all of the above.
Google recently began circulating a new privacy policy that will take place effective March 1, 2012. With so many services ranging from a new social network to an online office platform, Google has ...
