Dana H.

The Problem of Where to Invest

"We proceed at our peril."

Well, that's life. Unless you plan to kill yourself, there's no option not to proceed. There never was such a thing as a risk-free existence, and this is true more than ever, thanks to the artificially created risks due to irrational government action over the past decades (and especially over the past two years).

Unless you're a day or swing trader, or have great faith in your powers of prognostication, the rational approach is to diversify and hedge against the various risks. Keep some assets in cash, some in precious metals, some in U.S. stocks, some in international stocks, etc. Adjust the weighting of each asset class according to your best judgment of the relative risks of inflation, deflation, collapsing dollar, collapsing U.S. economy, etc.

Is Dollar Revulsion for Real?

"Having a strong dollar is more about 'national pride' than logic."

This is total crap. Inflation (which is what a weak dollar implies for the U.S.) is a destroyer of wealth, savings, and prosperity. It rewards the irrational spendthrift at the expense of the conscientious saver. Only someone who thinks of the stagflation of the 70s as the "good old days" could favor a declining dollar.

Remember the Falling Dollar?

Nice article. Refreshing to see someone who doesn't claim to have "the perfect, can't lose dollar-hedging strategy!!!", but instead gives a balanced account of the pluses and minuses of the various approaches.

China's Well-Prepared; We're Not

"There is simply no way five billion people can enjoy the lifestyle of today's average New Yorker – unless we somehow discover a few more resource-rich planets we can cheaply exploit."

This, and the statement that wind is the "cheapest and easiest" form of alternative energy, are the statements of a scientific and historical illiterate. There is no intrinsic shortage of natural resources. The limits on their present and future availability are purely political -- restrictions on drilling, on oil shale exploitation, on nuclear power plants, on mining, on carbon emissions, and so on. And on the other side of the political coin, massive subsidies wasted on wind and solar boondoggles that suck investment capital away from better uses.

We don't need to hoard natural resources (as China is allegedly doing). We simply need to free them. More precisely, we need to free the businessmen and engineers who would exploit them if allowed to.

Inflation with Gary North or Deflation with Mish?

If the intelligibility of the prose in this essay reflects the intelligibility of your book, I think I'll pass. The various coherent bits are lost in a prolix fog.

National Health Insurance, 'Cap and Trade': Two Steps in the Wrong Direction

"But without such a plan, the financial recklessness of the behavior of our leaders makes no sense to me, as they are so clearly self destructive."

To understand this, read *Atlas Shrugged*. In short, there is no exit-plan, no plan at all beyond short-range expediency.

Dagny Taggart, the novel's heroine, was also baffled by this self-destructive behavior and kept asking herself, "Don't they want to live?" In the end, she discovered the answer: No, they don't want to live. They want you to die.

Economic Decapitation via Cap and Trade

"Economic Decapitation via Cap and Trade"

An excellent and accurate title.

As for some people's pipe dream that green energy will bail us out, see here: www.aynrand.org/site/N...

Will India's Changes Bring Headwinds for Gold?

Your reply to c300man's comment is a non sequitur. The relevant section of your article states:

"India imports between 500-700 tons of gold annually, and is the largest exporter of gold jewelry. Some estimates place the amount of gold in private hands in the form of jewelry as high as 25,000 tons (roughly a 5 year supply of India's imports),..."

At least one of the above numbers is wrong, because 25,000 divided by 500 is 50, not 5. Stated another way, if 25,000 tons represents a 5 year supply of India's imports, then India's annual imports must be 5,000 tons. The age of grandma's wedding band has nothing to do with this; this is an issue of basic math.

Bernanke Speaks, Stocks Fall

The statement "free market officials in control" betrays the ignorance of those who blame the financial crisis on the free market.

In a genuinely free market, no one is "in control". There is no Fed, no Fannie, no Freddie, no TARP, and no Community Reinvestment Act. If you want to see how an economy can thrive in the absence of all these, read the first part of the following Seeking Alpha post: seekingalpha.com/artic...

China's Economic Ascendancy (Part 2)

Very nice to see a long-term historical perspective in an article for a change, and a debunking of the myth that economic growth requires money supply growth.

Indeed, the choice is ours. Do we want to return to the founding principles of our country, in which government exists to protect individuals' life, liberty, and property, but otherwise gets out of the way? Or do we want to continue the trend toward the stagnation and decline resulting from an Atlas Shrugged-like assault on the country's producers and a nanny state that interferes in every aspect of our lives?

Is Your House Worth Its Weight In Gold?

Interesting charts. Thanks for posting them. Like you, I'm not sure they tell us anything we don't already know, but they are fun to ponder.

Stephen Leeb's 'Game Over': Good Advice for Tough Times

Anyone who claims wind power is a solution to our energy needs is ignorant, deluded, or dishonest -- and it has nothing to do with any alleged shortage of iron. See here for a good article on the green energy fantasy (or talk to an engineer who knows something about the reliability requirements of an electrical grid power source, rather than a Caltech scientist who apparently does not): www.capmag.com/article...

The solution to our energy problems is to remove government restrictions on oil exploration and drilling, on oil shale exploitation, and on nuclear power plant construction -- and to drop the idea of carbon emission restrictions once and for all. If this doesn't happen, be prepared for your standard of living to collapse.

The Vicious Cycle of a Falling Dollar

I agree with some points, but alternative energy is an unrealistic fantasy (unless you include nuclear and oil shale as "alternatives"). The numbers just don't add up, as any honest engineer could tell you. See here for a good article on the subject: www.opposingviews.com/...

The solution to our energy problems is to free the energy markets -- in particular to allow unhampered oil exploration and drilling, attempts at oil shale exploitation, and streamlined nuclear power plant construction (without all the enviromental impact statements, lawsuits, and everything else that makes building a plant take 5 times longer than it should).

Should GE Shareholders Sell to Protest MSNBC's Left Leaning News Bias?

I'm simply not going to buy GE, because any company stupid enough to think MSNBC can be a viable business probably has other management problems as well. There are plenty of other potential investments; why throw your money at a company that raises such red flags about its judgment?

Silver: The New Magic Bullet for Investors?

"The world's stock of silver is one hundredth that of gold"

I don't even know what this statement means. Is this by weight, or by dollar value? If the former, I don't believe it for a minute.

And to repeat another comment: Where the heck does this "one hundredth" figure come from?