Uncle Sam: Busted - Robert P. Murphy - Mises Daily

Uncle Sam: Busted - Robert P. Murphy - Mises Daily: "As Lew Rockwell has said of any would-be budget hawks, tell me how much you want to cut spending this year — not ten years from now when someone else will be in office."

"So under the Ryan plan's own rosy forecast, the federal budget won't actually be balanced for almost three decades. Does that strike most readers as 'savage' budget cutting that recognizes the fiscal emergency upon us?"

"but the pattern is the same: the difficult choices only affect future politicians. The Republicans are not daring to tell voting seniors that their benefits will be cut today."

Fear the Boom, Not the Bust - Patrick Barron - Mises Daily

Fear the Boom, Not the Bust - Patrick Barron - Mises Daily: "it is very difficult to invest safely in such [a monetary inflation] environment, because government will expropriate resources. Your challenge is to avoid investments that appear to be sound under normal financial analysis but are more likely to suffer losses due to the distorted economic environment in which you must operate. So, here are some guidelines."

"Avoid those industries that are most capital intensive"

"Be very careful investing in the expansion of industries that are most removed temporally, meaning further away in time, from generating revenue."

"Avoid industries that depend upon increased money creation or some form of government coercion for their existence."

"Avoid investments that catch the eye of government and environmentalists, such as natural-resource exploration companies. Also avoid investments that governments might tax, regulate, or confiscate."

"Do not base investment decisions on tax credits, subsidies, and the like"

"Do not rely upon government oversight agencies or private rating agencies"

"Instead of looking at the rising price of gold in money terms, we should be looking at the falling value of various types of money in terms of gold."

"Anchoring the monetary base in gold today would mean a dollar price of gold of almost $8,000 per ounce. Anchoring M1 would mean over $7,000 per ounce, and anchoring M2 would mean almost $34,000 per ounce."