Things like nuclear winter, the tremendous growth of population in the 20th century, the concept of peak oil, and ozone depletion are surely worthy of our attention, no? If scientists aren't talking about them, who is going to? For me the danger is that actions can be taken by governments that are h...

Dualstow, your Sam Harris post (http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/why-dont-i-criticize-israel) was terrific. I just got around to giving it a read today. And PS's follow up comments were spot on if more than little bit sobering. I can't quite get behind the title of this thread though. To me it fee...

Murphy, How much cash do you want access to? If it's a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars, my vote would be to keep it in your underwear drawer or some other clever hiding place at home. Depending on where you live, I think the odds of theft are rather low when balanced against the advantage...

Desert,

I am a self-employed freelance entertainer. To say I "run" a business is even a bit of a stretch.

Anyone have anything to add or quibble with on WildAboutHarry's list? Again, he suggests ("in no particular order"): 1) Diversify investments among different tax treatments (taxable, Roth, IRA, etc.) 2) Hold physical precious metals, in your possession. 3) Own real estate (mortgage free if...

Thanks for posting that, Reub. Hoisington doesn't come right out and say it but they are also essentially predicting a "Japan-style" economy for the US. In FB's example from July of 2008 to January of 2009, LTTs carried the PP. That was pretty clearly covered in Craig & MT's book as we...

Desert, I agree with you that its amazing they have not been knocked off. Could it be that the rest of our society is more civilized than they are? My 16-year-old daughter is watching the segment right now and says she feels like it's an episode of Animal Planet.

FB, thanks for that and sorry to have forgotten to give a timeframe. Hmm, those are nice returns but not really enough to carry the PP if we really hit a deflationary period... at least that is what it seems to me. What am I missing here? Let's see... cash at 0% means that that asset is gaining in r...

To clarify, how much would LTTs go up between here (3.24% yield, I believe) and 2.5% or 2%?

A lot of people on this forum are way better than I am at calculating this stuff... I am wondering how much upside there is for the long bond if rates go to, say, 2.5% or 2%. And I realize that if rates get that low and stay there, my 3.75% coupons will look good. Just wondering (worried a bit) abou...

I'm sure this is probably obvious but I'd like to point out that most people simply don't have the means to just pick up and leave their country. The Arabs in Gaza are terribly poor and have not exactly been welcomed when they have moved either forcibly or by choice. That said, yes, it seems silly t...

Very interesting, PS. Along the same lines, I saw a figure today that I had been wondering about for quite some time. I always wondered what kind of returns the average stock investor got over time, figuring that it would be way below the 9% or 10% that is usually considered the "historic norm....

PS, What are you getting at with these points? - Raised in an internationalist environment - Raised in a multicultural, multi-racial environment - Spent the vast majority of his life living in deep blue liberal strongholds (Hawaii, LA, Chicago) - Came from a broken family Are any of these really aga...

PP67, Tyler is being modest. He posted two awesome charts on that thread he is referring to which show "10-year rolling maximum portfolio-preserving withdrawal rates." I have printed those out and stuck them in my investment file so that if I kick the bucket, my wife and whoever is helping...

I vote for NO fundraisers ever by a sitting president. The practice is just disgusting. Or is POTUS only a part-time job?

Fradika,

No experience with them but it looks like you have to own a minimum of 100,000 shares in order to redeem them for physical gold. Just checked the share price and it's around $13 a share.

I totally forgot to tell you guys that I was liquidating a large gold position earlier today. My bad. Sorry for the drop.

Thought this Wiki link might be of interest: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_by_country Having traveled around quite a bit I am surprised to see that it's legal in Turkey but not so in Thailand. Enforcement of laws against prostitution is notoriously spotty because cops are often (non-payi...

K, are you exclusively talking about "purely consensual paid sex?"

I have a problem with it when women are being coerced into doing that kind of work. It's not always a financial agreement between two consenting adults. That being said, I often think how out of balance many relationships would be without sex, so that in effect one party often seems to be paying wit...

If you buy a used car, you kick the tires, take it for a test drive and ask to see the maintenance record. If you buy a house, you hire a home inspector, ask a lot of questions about drainage, the neighborhood, nearby schools, etc. Regarding cheaper items ... If you buy a pair of shoes, you try them...

Sam, I think the important thing is not to feel like a noob. I suggest you do the research and let the rest of us know.  :) Seriously, any reputable dealer should think it's fine if you want to make sure a $1300-$1400 coin is real. With all the recent concern about fake gold coins, I have been plann...

I'm often confused why PRPFX would be an acceptable substitute for the PP. Just found this pie chart online: http://www.permanentportfoliofunds.com/pdfs/perm/prpfx.pdf From what I have read, silver and Swiss Francs were in Harry Browne's original PP but he simplified it and got rid of those two piec...

Very interesting to see these charts though I am curious what they would look like if housing equity were included. My limited knowledge of Chinese tastes is that they put a really high priority on owning a home/apartment, if possible, and prices are not at all cheap over there. For Americans I susp...

The K-Man was just writing about incentives which is what a lot of the threads on this forum are about.

K, when you played soccer in the army, did everyone collapse to the ground and writhe around in pain every few minutes?