news.goldseek.com >> 20 January 2012

Suppressing Unemployment To Win The Election
By: Richard Benson, SFGroup
In Presidential politics, when you get beyond the culture wars, wedge issues, religious right, taxing the rich, pro-choice, nuking the gays, the Tea Party Movement, and NIMBY, one election truth holds clear: A sitting President running for a second term has never lost an election when unemployment was low and the economy was good.

news.goldseek.com >> 8 November 2011

"No Bull" Prize in Economics
By: Richard Benson, SFGroup
The crux of any economic theory starts off with the magic words “first assume that” and then using dazzling logic follows an irrefutable happy conclusion. The real key to using economic theory and logic is in the assumptions. Assume the correct things about the world, and you have a chance of getting the outlook right. Assume the wrong things, and any model will generate totally unreliable garbage.

news.goldseek.com >> 5 October 2011

The Fed Pays a King's Ransom to China
By: Richard Benson
If you would like to participate in Operation Payoff, do what the Central Banks will be doing: Sell your long term treasuries to the Fed and then brace for the next round of dollar devaluation and inflation which will soon be on the way.

news.goldseek.com >> 18 July 2011

Pigs Fly and Prices Go Nuts
By: Richard Benson, SFGroup
When business slows down over the summer months, I finally have some time to reflect and do a little economic detective work and, yes, an occasional jig saw puzzle. Trying to figure out what is going on in the world these days is extraordinarily similar to putting the pieces of a puzzle together. Within the pile of pieces, you know there’s a picture somewhere but until you snap those last few pieces into place, the puzzle won’t be complete.

news.goldseek.com >> 28 April 2011

Boomerang Inflation
By: Richard Benson, SFGroup
During the recession we were told that unemployment was the biggest threat, but now it’s becoming clear to hard working Americans that with the Fed’s soft dollar, they won’t be able to buy a tank of gas to drive to work. The central bank itself is now becoming the biggest threat to the average American.

news.goldseek.com >> 31 March 2011

For a House in a Hamlet, To Buy, or Not To Buy, That is the Question
By: Richard Benson, SFGroup
There is no question that buying a home can be an emotional experience. Sometimes the desire to own is so strong the “want” to own outweighs the actual “need” to own. This strong desire can suddenly run into a brick wall of economic reality, however, when a would-be buyer realizes they do not have sufficient cash flow to pay for a 20 percent down payment and a mortgage, high taxes, annual maintenance, and the inevitable but certain major repairs that will be required on the property.

news.goldseek.com >> 16 February 2011

The Collapse of America's Labor Force
By: Richard Benson, SFGroup
America continues to face a true national tragedy as tens of millions of unemployed people have been literally discarded because of big business outsourcing to China, India, and elsewhere. Worse yet, the unemployment statistics are manipulated every month in a cruel hoax to make it look like the unemployment rate is far lower than it really is. A high unemployment rate is embarrassing and would depress workers and business psychology, so workers are surgically removed from the labor force and hidden from view.

news.goldseek.com >> 12 October 2010

Obesity and Taxes
By: Richard Benson, SFGroup
If what I read recently is correct, the cost of medical care linked to obesity in America is approaching $150 billion a year. (At least we’re not alone; worldwide, an estimated 1.6 billion adults are now overweight, and 400 million of them are classified as obese.) We have gone from “living off the fat of the land” to being “the land of the fat”.

news.goldseek.com >> 30 September 2010

An Inflationary Cocktail in the Making
By: Richard Benson, SFGroup
I figure if I have tangible assets like gold in the future, no matter what the world central banks set the price level at, I’ll be able to trade my gold for the necessities I need to live. If prices for goods stay the same, double, or triple I won’t care because it’s all the same to me: gold and silver will follow the government-created inflation wherever it goes!

news.goldseek.com >> 27 July 2010

Americans Are Getting A Lot Less But It's Costing Them More
By: Richard Benson, SFGroup
Inflation is defined as the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services is rising, and, subsequently, the purchasing power is falling. I’ve always thought of inflation in terms of what we get and what we pay, but quality and service are as important as quantity, for the price.

news.goldseek.com >> 29 June 2010

"For the Baby Busters, It's Downsize or Die"
By: Richard Benson, SFG
For lack of a better word, my wife and I were “lucky” to have survived the turmoil of our generation. As my wife politely reminds me from time to time, “it’s nice to live in heaven before you die”, but the joke is if we had upsized in the ‘90s like most Boomers, today we would be having a hell of a time.

news.goldseek.com >> 10 May 2010

Where's my Government Check
By: Richard Benson, SFGroup
My wife and I are getting a little older, so naturally we are beginning to think about where the cash flow will come from when we truly retire. We realize we won’t be able to live on Social Security benefits alone, and even though we have paid into the system our entire lives in the hopes that come retirement age we’ll get something back, I’m not very optimistic about our prospects.

news.goldseek.com >> 8 April 2010

A Trillion Here, A Trillion There.....
By: Richard Benson, SFGroup
“A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money”. This phrase about government expenditures has become a classic but with great inflation underway, it needs to be brought up to date.

news.goldseek.com >> 23 December 2009

Jingle Mail, Jingle Mail
By: Richard Benson, SF Group
How expensive will Jingle Mail be? Well, rumblings out of the US Treasury suggest that taxpayer support for Fannie & Freddie may have to be raised from a potential $400 billion to $800 billion in losses. The extra $400 billion in estimated losses on government-sponsored prime mortgages is a combination of lingering unemployment and Jingle Mail!

news.goldseek.com >> 9 November 2009

Twilight Zone Economy
By: Richard Benson, SFGroup
It’s unfortunate that Rod Serling has passed on because if he were alive today, he would be filled with plenty of ideas for a killer episode of his program, showing how propaganda and the Fed’s printing press can be used to wipe out jobs, eliminate prosperity, and rob savers. The cast of characters would be played by real unemployed people playing truly heart-wrenching roles. The economy desperately needs new scriptwriters.

news.goldseek.com >> 16 September 2009

The Housing Tsunami's Second Wave
By: Richard Benson, SFGroup
Spokesmen for the Obama Administration and the Wall Street establishment refer to the slight up tic in lower-priced housing prices and existing home sales as a positive sign that we’re close to a bottom. Why is it, then, that housing prices in the mid to high-end range are still crashing?

news.goldseek.com >> 9 July 2009

Hard Times
By: Richard Benson, SFGroup
Our measure of how bad is it in this economy for a broad swath of Americans can be analyzed by asking three basic questions: Are people working, are they making any money, and do they have any money in reserves? To answer these questions and more, below are some shocking facts!

news.goldseek.com >> 19 March 2009

Economy: In the Eye of a Hurricane
By: Richard Benson, SFGroup
The $20 trillion of wealth in America that has gone up in smoke from falling stock prices, real estate, and other asset values, is being engulfed by rapid job loss. These combined losses have dealt a catastrophic blow to the consumer whose willingness and ability to spend has, in turn, caused the American and world economy to come to a screeching halt.

news.goldseek.com >> 5 February 2009

Keynes, Upside Down
By: Richard Benson, SFGroup
Calling the situation a liquidity trap is a misnomer. America, and now the rest of the world, is in an insolvency (not liquidity) trap. Banks don't want to lend to bankrupt consumers and businesses any longer became for years there was too much liquidity, and they’ve already borrowed more than they can ever pay back.

news.goldseek.com >> 18 December 2008

Uncle Sam May Grab Your Gold If You're Not Careful
By: Richard Benson, SFGroup
My nature is not to be an alarmist and I honestly don’t know for sure when and if the US will grab the ETF gold. However, over the next two years the federal deficit, funded by selling new Treasury securities, is certain to be over 10 percent of GDP. Holders of the dollar will want out and all that gold sitting in vaults makes it too easy for our federal government to come in and rob you of it in order to save the dollar and pay for socialism.