Given the chaos and insistent inflation over time that the Federal Reserve and fiat currency have produced, it is hard to argue that the current system is one that should be encouraged.

In secular bull markets, an investor should search for assets that offer relative returns -- stocks and funds that will perform better than the market averages.

We simply must pay attention to what Spain has done this week.  What we will find may be considered a tipping point when the crisis is analyzed by some future historian.

Today's employment numbers were decidedly soft, but the unemployment rate went down anyway, and that is about the best you can say. And this being a holiday weekend, it provides us an opportunity to look deep into the employment numbers.

John Mauldin takes a look at a few random subjects in this week's article.

Everyone knows by now that the US is facing difficult choices. Depending on what assumptions you use, the unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare are between $50 and $80 trillion and rising. It really doesn't matter, as there is no way that much money can be found, given the current system, even under the best of assumptions. Things not only must change, they will change.

John Mauldin looks at the shift in Fed policy, and at the balance sheets of central banks, US GDP, Portugal and the ECB, the LTRO policy, and yes, there's even a tidbit on Greece.

Europe's leaders are committed to keeping both the euro and the eurozone as it is. But for it to do so, everything must change.

What is in store for Europe for the year and the next five years?