Instead, let me be so bold as to say that all public goods (be they highways, schools, police, defense, etc.) are a gift to society (though not quite as voluntary as the word gift might imply) by the relatively few among us who pay most of the income taxes.  Let's not forget the other benefactors, ...

Moda:  I wrote a fairly lengthy reply, but decided against posting it.  Instead, let me be so bold as to say that all public goods (be they highways, schools, police, defense, etc.) are a gift to society (though not quite as voluntary as the word gift might imply) by the relatively few among us who ...

In no respect does government recognition of private property confer unearned value on the owner.  Even in feudal societies, lands were granted in recognition of past or future service to the state (e.g. in payment for military service, or in the form of Ottoman Empire style "iltizam" tax ...

k9:  I've nothing profound to add to Craigr's reply, except to say that the PP doesn't prevent losses.  It does, however, minimize them.  The unspecified double digit loss that a Greek PP investor may have incurred in the last year is certainly better than being all-in with any combination of Greek ...

Vaccines are not a huge profit center for a pharma company.  They are often administered only once or twice in the lifetime of an individual, and require literally years if not decades of testing and FDA approval before they can even reach the marketplace. Not trying to come down on either side of ...

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a man-made chemical present in a variety of products including food containers, receipt paper and dental sealants and is now widely detected in human urine and blood. Public health concerns have been fueled by findings that BPA exposure can influence brain development. In mice,...

TBV, MT may have his analogies, but that was one of the most artful pull-backs into a thread's main purpose from a well-intentioned but definite hijacking I've ever seen.  Good form, sir. Way to give credit where it's due. TBV's technique and execution were masterly. Reading his posts is like liste...

Do you think the Revolution would have succeeded without Common Sense ? It seems to have really turned the tide on public opinion, in addition to being a great recruiting and retention tool for the army. Perhaps.  It's hard to say.  Even with the pamphlet's strong impact, victory was by no means as...

MediumTex wrote: It's not that no one else was in favor of revolution, it was just that Paine was perhaps the better writer.

The above sentence sounds much better than "...None of it would have happened without the wisdom and leadership of Thomas Paine."

Do you believe that Paine wrote the Declaration of Independence? Actually, no I don't, though some Paine admirers claim he did.  The Committee of Five who did write it were certainly no slouches, and I have no reason to believe they needed a ghost writer to express themselves. In any event, the Dec...

To be fair, Paine did not persuade the "rest of the Founding Fathers" to opt for independence, though some Continental Congress delegates (of which he was not one) were indeed reluctant.  Fighting had already begun, Washington had already been appointed as head of the army, and British col...

MachineGhost wrote: How come we never hear from people in such countries on this forum?  Are they all just clueless about the PP?
PP seems kinda elitist in that only the Anglo-Saxon citizens seem to be true believers.

Tal vez el problema es la barrera del idioma.

Since Eduardo Severin was born in Brazil and spent half of his life there, maybe Sen. Schumer should send half of that tax money to Brasilia in gratitude for nurturing such a prodigious talent.  Fair is fair, right? A country like the US which imports a large portion of its hi-tech brainpower from o...

Well before leaving federal service, you could sell everything that is not G fund and then fully buy G fund with the proceeds. You could then just consider this as a "lifetime"/deep-cash bond and rebalance with cash that is outside of the G fund. I'm just thinking if I were to leave gover...

The TSP G Fund is really a fine PP cash option.  Super low expense ratio and a guaranteed positive return.  However, as others have already noted, the TSP F Fund (Bonds) does not provide the long duration volatility needed to offset declines in the stock portion of a PP.  And the TSP isn't able to c...

Then again, there's this.....

http://www.may1stseattle.org/wp-content ... olfnet.jpg

TripleB: Your post suggests a certain pessimism about SS that is not entirely out of line, but may be counter-productive.  We should acknowledge that every penny that has ever been paid in FICA tax has already been spent, mostly on unrelated programs. All future benefits, including the portion finan...

Paper money already competed against gold during the 1800s. Fiat Greenbacks — first issued by President Lincoln — were extremely popular in the mid-west while they were in circulation. Many farmers were vehemently opposed to a gold standard at the time. Creditors preferred deflationary gold and deb...

gnucash is a full-fledged double-entry accounting package, so it might be overkill for portfolio tracking. On the other hand, I have set up a separate "Tracking - positive" account that does exactly that - every disparate asset which is a "stock", "bond" or "gold&...

Thanks very much. I was hoping someone would come along and do precisely what you've done.  Good job!!

ZedThou:  Thanks for your valuable contribution.  I tried it out on a random 30-yr Treasury (CUSIP=912810QN1) and noticed that it returned a value of $134.72 following the close on Jan. 6, 2012.  The FidelityFixed website's BID price was $134.687.  The ASK price was $134.750 and the THIRD PARTY Pric...

Looks like Rick Perry has company. http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/fast.htm http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/fdr-prayer.htm http://celebrateyourfaithblog.com/2011/05/national-day-of-prayer-2011/ Even when the subject is the economy... http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/in...

brick-house: .......7,8,9,10  DING, DING, DING!!!

Growth in funds earmarked for "recovery" has been more than the fall-off in revenue.  Even that, however, is just part of the pie.  The administration is on record as being willing to run large deficits for the next ten years or more.  In the midst of all this, it also seeks out new ways t...

Stone: The kernel of truth in all this may be the migration issue.  Over the centuries, millions of Europeans have voted with their feet in pursuit of greater economic and political freedom....of the sort to be found in America, Canada, Australia, etc.  The desire to acquire and keep earned wealth i...