For much of the 1940's we had an overwhelmingly government-controlled economy, with austerity not prosperity. Even when things improved after the War, the efficiency of marginal tax rates often depended on the alternate opportunities available to taxpayers.  Shifting one's assets to Europe, China, o...

Raising revenue is not the same as raising tax rates.  The latter often results in lower revenue flows, while the former has often occurred when rates were cut.  In fact, lowered rates are more, not less, likely to shift tax incidence onto the wealthy, since their share of declared income usually in...

So, anyone who holds IAU for the long term (i.e. lots of folks in the PP) will have to do these calculations every year for each lot.  An even greater nuisance if you're rebalancing or adding to your holdings.  This sure does lessen the appeal of this ETF in my eyes.  Goldmoney or BullionVault are l...

Looks like the Sell Direct service is no longer available.  Here's the text from the Treasury Direct website... Selling Treasury Bills, Notes, Bonds, or TIPS You can hold Treasury bills, notes, bonds, or TIPS until they mature, or sell them before they mature. To sell a Treasury bill, note, bond, or...

MT, how would you figure in a federal TSP account in place of EDV? Could you simply do 10% of total PP in the G fund instead? I've read that the G fund should be used for TSP's instead of the F, bond fund. Any comments? There is nothing in the TSP that resembles EDV, or TLT for that matter.  The TS...

The prospectus says that NAV is determined on the basis of the value of the gold on hand minus expenses and liabilities.  One would hope that the Trust will not incur an especially large liability, e.g. as a result of a lawsuit. Once the NAV is determined, shareholders can redeem shares, but not by ...

Thanks, but what I was aiming at was the lower "good" volatility that directly-owned 30-year bonds will have as their duration decreases (i.e. as they get closer to the 10th year of ownership.)  So, aside from the cost of ownership aspect, do you get more clout from TLT and its collection ...

TLT keeps the duration very close to 15, which is accomplished (as I understand it) by holding bonds with maturity dates very close to 30 years from now.  This increases the usefulness of LT bonds in the PP mix because it elevates their price volatility during periods when LT bond gains are needed t...

Thanks very much for all of your replies!! Having just created my own permanent portfolio, I am impressed with the long-term performance of Harry Browne's 4x25 approach.  The radio shows and now craigr's podcasts have reinforced for me the soundness of the approach.  However, while I was catching up...

I used the gold returns from the periodic table + BLS inflation stats to examine the relationship between gold returns and inflation.  From 1972-2010, there were 15 years when inflation exceeded 4 percent.  In eight of them, gold went DOWN.  In some of those years, the degree to which gold lagged in...