tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145574052024-03-07T03:03:03.672-06:00American LibertySpreading the ideas of freedom. Discusses economic, political, and social issues in the context of liberty and individual rights. Shows freedom and capitalism are essential to human advancement on all levels. Identifies government actions that are anti-liberty and detrimental to our rights, our lives and health, and the nation's prosperity and future.Edmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.comBlogger215125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-42535246253659349902019-07-16T12:30:00.000-05:002019-07-17T11:53:14.301-05:00What Is Gold Telling Us?
Earlier this year we wrote that gold
buying rose spectacularly in 2018 led by the world's central banks,
which increased their physical purchases by 651.5 tonnes. That's an
astonishing 74 percent over 2017. This was the most gold these banks
bought in more than a half century, since 1967. Not only
have central banks purchased more gold, but a number of new buyers
have entered the market. Edmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-33169172087153922182019-05-27T13:46:00.000-05:002019-07-16T12:36:36.498-05:00Uncommon Thoughts On Global Warming
Despite all the scare stories about
global warming, we are actually in an Ice Age. We are in a relatively
warm period within a much larger incredibly cold period says
geologist Dan
Britt. In his lecture Orbits and Ice Ages: The History of
Climate, he says “reading the
rocks” gives us a really good record of climate for the past
500,000 years. And the climate for the latitude of Pensacola, for
Edmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com70tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-19535467011045286492019-03-27T10:27:00.000-05:002019-04-04T16:07:26.389-05:00Gold and Cryptocurrencies
The CHICAGO BOARD OPTIONS EXCHANGE was
the first exchange (in December 2017) to provide futures trading in
bitcoin. When a few days ago it announced it was terminating this
service with the expiration of the June contract, severe selling of
those still holding positions was expected to drive prices lower.
That didn't happen. Trading was orderly with little changes in
prices, which hovered justEdmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com56tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-13627873533191379582019-02-28T22:04:00.000-06:002019-04-04T15:43:23.401-05:00Central Banks Buying Gold
Gold buying rose spectacularly in 2018
led by the world's central banks, which increased their physical
purchases by 651.5 tonnes. That's an astonishing 74 percent over
2017. This was the most gold these banks bought in more than a half
century, since 1967. The world consumed 4,345.1 tonnes
of gold in 2018, up from 4,159.9 tonnes in 2017. Jewelry demand was
relatively unchanged at 2,200 Edmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com57tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-33755393842593183702018-09-30T21:45:00.000-05:002018-12-24T11:43:14.446-06:00A Critical Look at the U.S. Economy
The stock market has been
soaring, unemployment is low, and there is some improvement in wages
and corporate earnings, though significantly less than from other
recession recoveries. But there are other issues here that should be
of concern. First of all, it should be noted that stocks are at lofty
levels that marked the tops of major bull markets preceding the Great
Recession, the “dot.com” Edmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-27288510854458089332018-08-31T22:31:00.001-05:002018-09-04T11:23:10.974-05:00Nature is the Greatest Polluter
We began our posting on this
blog on June 29, 2017 with this question: In a room 20
feet by 20 feet with a ten foot ceiling, how many matches would you
have to light for the air in that room to have the same percentage of
carbon dioxide as the atmosphere from the annual emissions of all the
automobiles (about 800 million) in the world? The answer is provided
by Ivar Giaever,
a Nobel laureate Edmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-91076378327539040872018-07-30T21:47:00.001-05:002018-07-31T12:50:26.087-05:00Welfare Programs, Promises, Pensions and Problems
Everyone knows that Social Security and
Medicare are underfunded. They can only provide the benefits they
have promised by borrowing from future taxpayers who are obligated to
pay for them. And these programs will never be fully funded because
the obligations are growing faster than the public's ability to pay
for them. The nation's economic growth cannot keep up with the
politicians' promisesEdmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-50939329695082938202018-06-30T12:25:00.000-05:002018-07-02T22:05:09.094-05:00Last Days of the European Union?
Greece is on the verge of
settling the repayment of its bailout loans from the International
Monetary Fund, European banks and other creditors. The bailout
program is scheduled to end on August 21, 2018, but the creditors
agreed June 22 to grant an additional ten years to repay nearly 100
billion euros ($116 billion) and to defer interest payments and
amortization for another ten years, to Edmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-36633429266248148372018-05-31T21:52:00.002-05:002018-07-13T11:45:32.944-05:00 Gold Appears Quiescent
Gold news has not received much media
coverage lately. That's not because what's been happening is
unimportant. Rather it has been eclipsed by sensational stories of
the latest school shooting, the eruption of a Hawaiian volcano, the
on-again-off-again summit plans with North Korea, tariffs on steel and
aluminum, Italian political problems, the price of bitcoin, the
Edmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-67745963092388836542018-04-29T22:04:00.001-05:002018-05-07T15:14:08.075-05:00Welcome to the 1930s
President Trump
fired the opening salvo in a trade war—reminiscent of the 1930s
trade war from the Smoot-Hawley Act, which prolonged the Great Depression—when he announced he will
impose tariffs of 25% and 10% on imported steel and aluminum.
Chinese officials quickly responded saying they would impose a 25%
tariff on 106 U.S. products, including automobiles, pork, soybeans,
fruit, nuts and Edmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-40546184945814632752018-03-31T14:00:00.000-05:002018-03-31T14:00:28.983-05:00Obama Policy Linked to School Shootings
When Nikolas
Cruz murdered 14 of his fellow students and 3 staff members at a
Florida high school, there were a lot of questions and hand wringing
over how this could have happened. How could he have passed a
background check to purchase guns, especially since he had already
committed a string of arrestable
offenses on campus? It was widely assumed that the massacre
had simply been a Edmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-46048683034106373182018-02-27T14:26:00.001-06:002018-02-27T14:59:28.481-06:00Fed Gov't Won't Restrain Spending
In February President Trump
proposed a $4.4 trillion budget for 2018 and projects a budget
deficit for 2019 almost double his estimate last year. Mick
Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget says,
“Mr. Trump has now given up on balancing the budget over the next
decade.” Instead, he proposes to increase the deficit by $7
trillion over ten years with no balanced budget in Edmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-70297313119183802172018-01-01T08:48:00.001-06:002018-01-09T12:34:23.062-06:00Fake Science Basis of Regulations
Americans are frightened by the
drumbeat of claims they are in danger of cancer from chemicals in the
environment and hence need more government regulation for protection.
Paul Driessen is a scientist exposing the corruption of science,
collusion of regulators with anti-chemical activist groups and
activist lawyers, and diversion of U.S. taxpayer dollars to the
International Agency for Edmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-15867657701507011682017-11-28T08:37:00.000-06:002018-01-01T11:17:59.322-06:00Quick Lesson on Wind Power
The obvious successes of past technologies have made politicians
and environmentalists eager to be in the forefront of promoting
futuristic schemes for their goals. Everyone wants to be on the
side of the next Great Idea. All too often these futuristic
fantasies are sold to a gullible public, as well as fellow
politicians and the news media, with impressive but
scientifically-flawedEdmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-63646445705825000072017-10-24T12:59:00.000-05:002017-10-24T13:02:58.918-05:00 Warning Signs on the Economy
Last month we wrote about rising debt levels in the U.S. and worldwide. They are too high
to be paid now and will never be paid because they are rising faster
than incomes. And in July we wrote that central banks are buying not
only government debt—thereby increasing their money supplies—but
are buying common stocks in American companies, which has the same
effect. The leader in this has been Edmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-38550431013735867152017-09-29T21:43:00.001-05:002017-12-03T20:39:51.891-06:00DANGER: Rising Debt Levels
Global debt levels reached an
astronomical $217 trillion in the first quarter of 2017. That's 327
percent of the entire world's economic production (GDP.) Before the
financial crisis, global debt was “only” around $150 trillion,
meaning almost $120 trillion have been added to the debt in a mere
decade.
For individual countries, analysts
generally consider a debt-to-GDP ratio above Edmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-30915254919495620042017-08-11T13:38:00.002-05:002019-02-22T11:54:10.993-06:00The Fed and GoldOn August 11, 2017, the Wall
Street Journal carried a front-page article on the Fed, raising a
question of its storage of gold. In my latest book I provide much
more information on this subject. The following is excerpted from my
book The Impending Monetary Revolution, the Dollar and Gold,
Second Edition:
After WWII when there were
fears of an invasion from the Soviet Union, Germany—which wasEdmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-25252478820292051242017-07-31T21:34:00.000-05:002017-08-06T06:44:07.945-05:00What's Keeping the Stock Market UP?
Central banks are buying
stocks. As you probably know, when the Federal Reserve buys bonds
from the U.S. Treasury, it creates—out of thin air—a
corresponding deposit in one of the large commercial banks where the
Treasury has an account. The money from that deposit gets into
circulation when the government spends it by buying something with
it, for which the seller makes a deposit in his Edmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-88616888333566527252017-06-29T16:52:00.000-05:002017-07-15T07:33:36.959-05:00Agenda Behind Global Warming Alarmism
Here's an
intriguing question for you: In a room 20 feet by 20 feet with a ten
foot ceiling, how many matches would you have to light for the air in
that room to have the same percentage of carbon dioxide as is emitted
into the atmosphere annually by all the automobiles (about 800
million) in the world ? The answer is provided by Ivar Giaever, a
Nobel laureate in physics, who says the Edmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-88016746919535513212017-05-31T13:28:00.001-05:002017-06-07T12:13:42.021-05:00PBS' Fake History: Greeks and Democracy
Recently
the Public Broadcasting Service aired a three-part series about
Greece on its Nature
program. It explained
that with limited arable land, Greece grew from rude beginnings to
unprecedented prosperity by becoming a center for trade in the
Mediterranean. PBS would have us believe this occurred because of
democracy. But historian Louis Rougier writes that two other
factors—which the PBSEdmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-25126618172886584472017-04-28T00:21:00.000-05:002017-05-28T13:36:21.371-05:00Greece on Collision Course With Creditors
Greece is in
the familiar position of needing more money. It must come up with
about 7 billion euros ($7.5 billion) in July 2017 for debt payments on loans
from three previous bailouts. If it defaults on these payments, it
will be out of the European Union.
Since the three
previous bailouts have failed to provide Greece with a sustainable
economy, there is great reluctance by the previousEdmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-60586034519534352242017-03-31T12:56:00.000-05:002017-04-23T07:05:06.635-05:00A New Way to Pick Supreme Court Justices
President Trump's nomination of Neil
Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court has brought to the fore a
troublesome feature of our federal government, namely the selection
of Supreme Court justices. The problem developed from the Senate's
failure to approve the nomination of Robert Bork to the Court thirty
years ago.
James Robertson, now a retired district
judge, led a team of lawyers to Edmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-52922219365655101172017-02-22T16:42:00.000-06:002017-02-25T02:38:59.349-06:00Calm Before the Financial Storm?
Widely watched statistics
recently give the impression of modest growth in the economy. Nothing
to worry about, it seems. Slight movements up or down in a number of
statistical categories don't seem meaningful, but some very
significant negative numbers aren't being mentioned at all. For
example:
A growing number of U.S.
companies are going bankrupt. In 2016 there were 37,823 of these.
Edmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-86975521764154926222017-01-16T14:11:00.000-06:002017-02-25T02:54:52.526-06:00
A New Review of Our Latest Book, The Impending Monetary Revolution, the Dollar and Gold, Second Edition.
By Patrick Barron
Austrian school
economist Edmund Contoski has written a welcome addition to his 2012
explanation of the inevitable consequences of forcing fiat money on
society. Six additional chapters have been added to his fifteen
chapter 2012 first edition. Not only are readers of Edmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14557405.post-54707234024687849152016-12-29T15:47:00.000-06:002017-01-06T08:56:38.389-06:00The Sun—not CO2—Determines Our Climate
Sunspots and Solar Cycles
Figure
1
The
above chart clearly shows a weakening trend of sunspots in solar
cycles 22, 23 and 24. These are the latest in a sequence dating from
1755, when extensive Edmund Contoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785679880793143900noreply@blogger.com5