Just about, any way, when a currency is inflated. Let’s go back a few years. To April 1790, as a matter of fact, in France. It was then that the first issue of 400 million paper livres or assignats was issued. This paid the government’s bills, and it was proclaimed that all was well. By […]

Locally, our country fair is on, and the wife and I went last evening. We watched the pigs, goats, ducks, chickens, produce, flowers, and sheep get judged and awarded their respective ribbons. We even bought a shower head that filters out the chlorine…supposedly. (Important. See Don’s Column for Friday) As the sheep went bah, bah, […]

’Hey Don, will gold be lower tomorrow?” Who knows? A lot of people seem to think they do, and this is really a sad state of affairs. Stock brokers are widely known to predict prices…to make a sale. “Better buy today Mabel, as this stock will shoot up tomorrow,” might be typical of a stock […]

For several years now, I have urged my clients and others, to buy silver (AG) if they have a place to store it, plus some patience. All things require patience, be it a marriage, raising kids, watching the grass, flowers, kids, or corn grow. Without patience, we’d be in a heap of trouble. When people […]

“Shave and a haircut, two bits.” Ah those were the days! We know that a quarter is also known as “two bits,” and that when a shave and a haircut was a quarter, it was back in the 1930’s and earlier. Actually, that shave and a haircut for two bits, was the common price for […]

For you out there who aren’t accountants, (neither am I), GAAP stands for “Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.” In other words, financial institutions want good figures before they loan. The stock market wants good figures too. It’s very easy to fudge on accounting, to make everything look like roses when the outfit is going down the […]

Hah! You thought that figure had something to do with economics, didn’t you? No sir, it is part of a nursery rhyme. Remember “Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie?” I have no idea of how that is possible, but I have an idea. Let’s guess how many feathers the blackbirds have. Or let’s […]

The time worn explanation by the Fed, Hizzoner Greenspan, and other employees of government and various universities, is that it is consumer spending which makes the wheels of the economy go ’round. It matters not whether the buyers of all this glop have a dime in the bank or not, nor where the stuff comes […]

A truism in any economic system, is that savings are the source of capital for development. In an ideal, honest situation, a bank can loan only what is has on deposit. If a person wanted to start a company to make widgets, and it would cost $100,000 to start the company, it is to be […]

A while back, I wrote in this column, that the ratios between gold and silver were an all-important factor to use in purchasing…with a few exceptions. This advice needs to be repeated. So I will. I thumbed through some back sheets of daily prices, which I keep in a huge stack. I found that on […]