The markets always find a way to surprise us; you can count on that. But, by one route or another, gold will end up at twice today's price – at least.

The European democratic social welfare model is putting in a giant, multi-decade top. Birthrates are low. GDP growth is low. Job creation is low. Debt is high.

The more the takers take the less the makers want to make.

In Europe, governments are broke. They have borrowed too much. They can only service their debts if interest rates remain low, or if they get bailouts.

In Europe, no sooner was one can kicked down the road than another one showed up. Greece disappeared from the headlines. Italy took its place.

Economists can't really predict levels of employment, growth, prices, or anything else. And they are especially bad at it when they have the wrong idea of how things work.

What's imperial suicide? It's what empires do. If no other empire arises to kill them, they kill themselves.

Moody's downgraded Portuguese debt to junk status. The IMF says it will still take the debt as collateral until all four rating agencies downgrade it.

The United States was once the most blessed nation on the face of the earth, but now we are literally falling to pieces.  Does anyone have any ideas about why this could be happening?

The debt ceiling is distraction. It's just an American nuance to a genuine problem that is plaguing all the mature democratic economies.