The Silver Bear Cafe

We want to believe those on whom we are dependent. If we are being betrayed, then we are at risk. If we are being betrayed on life-and-death matters, then we are at extreme risk. So, in life-and-death matters, we dearly want to believe. We become soft touches, marks, and suckers for those who prey on trusting souls.

The voters know that politicians in general are liars who will say anything to get elected. But they except their Congressman, who shook hands with them once at a fund-raiser. Parents know that the American public schools are disintegrating. But they except the local public school to which they send their children, which somehow has avoided the decay. And so it goes, liar by liar, fraud by fraud. People want to believe. The more dependent they are, the more they want to believe. MORE>>

We live in Ottawa, one of the coldest capital cities in the world. Tonight, as I write, it's minus 40 with the wind chill - exactly the same temperature both in Celsius as in Fahrenheit. Montreal, and Toronto are almost as cold. Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, are probably colder. In all there are somewhere just over 30 million people in Canada, most of them experiencing this same frigid week of winter. Imagine how depressed everyone would be if they all kept thinking, "What's going to happen in 25 years when the oil and gas runs out?. How will 30 million people heat their homes? Is our way of life sustainable?" MORE>>

Brokers like to create a lot of mystique about selling homes, insisting that the process is complicated and best left to professionals with multiple listings and loads of house hunters. Not so, say homeowners who have sold their homes themselves (about 20 to 30% do so each year). William Supple, publisher of the sale-by-owner real estate magazine Picket Fence Preview and author of How to Sell Your Own Home, says that "properly priced and advertised, a house sells itself," adding that sellers should plant a yard sign and post online ads with local sites aligned with print publications (call current advertisers to see if the given site is effective). After all, when it comes to the inevitable negotiations between buyers and sellers, Supple figures that brokers and their commissions get in the way: "Usually, the haggling occurs over a 5 to 10% difference, and that is, more or less, the broker's cut of the sale price. You don't need him." MORE>>

The present 'strong' recovery phase in the US economy won't last for long, as it is totally artificial.

There are simply too many imbalances in the system, as reflected by a record low national saving rate, record household debts, and record trade and current account deficits, for this recovery to lead to sustainable strong growth that would justify the present stock valuations. MORE>>

02.18.04- Hurricane Alan....Dr. Dinero

02.17.04- The Day the Internet Died....Lechner

02.15.04- A Short Primer on Cycles in the Current Market....Chapman

02.14.04- Survival is a Long Term Plan....Kippes

02.10.04- Globalization Dissected....Price

02.09.04- Little Green Lies....North

02.07.04- The Writing on the Wall....The Mogambo Guru

02.01.04- No Place to Hide....Sjuggerud

01.30.04- What Time Is It Mr. Bear?....Gale

01.23.04- The Dollar Tanks....Stott

01.22.04- Contrarian Roundtable....Bullock, Sanders, Paulos, Noble, Palha, Lunt, Fekete

01.20.04- Treasury Reneges On 30 Year Bond Holders....Henry

01.20.04- Permanent Intervention....Willie

01.09.04- Leaks in The Real Estate Bubble!....Kettell

01.07.04- Ten Things Your Real Estate Broker Won't Tell You....Kaplan

01.06.04- Dr Faber's views on 2004....Faber

01.02.04- Why Prices Go Up....Stott

12.25.03- House Prices in a Post-Fiat World....Sanborn

12.20.03- Special Effects....Stott

12.19.03- Still Crazy After All These Years....Sinclair

12.15.03- Economic Meltdown, Secessionist Crackup?....Hultberg

12.10.03- Monty Guild Looks Ahead to 2004....Guild

12.09.03- Dollar's dramatic decline comes out of your wallet....Fleckenstein

12.09.03- The Ant Farm....Stott

12.08.03- Don't trust your computer....Day

12.08.03- The Madness of King George....Bonner

12.05.03- US Dollar Implosion - Part II....Field

12.01.03- Let the revolution begin....Myers

12.01.03- The 22 Rules of Trading....Gartman

11.25.03- Buying, Holding and Selling Mutual Funds....Gordon

11.24.03- Inflation: The Great Financial Pox....Tyler

11.20.03- How to Police Your Fund....Ferris

11.17.03- Global Events Indicate That Commodities Will Be Rising For Years To Come....Guild

11.15.03- Hard assets are precious assets....Calandra

11.14.03- I'm not saying it is time to run for the hills, but.......The Mogambo Guru

11.11.03- Will rising interest rates unravel all of the gains of the recent housing boom?....Max

11.05.03- Deep in Debt, Caught in a Net....Sennholz

11.02.03- Templeton Trepidations, Buffett Battle Stations....Fox

10.31.03- Six Reasons to Invest Offshore...Nestmann

10.27.03- Snow Job....Krugman

10.24.03- The Price You Really Pay For Stocks & Options....Finger

10.23.03- Market prophet is battening the hatches....Markman

10.20.03- The New"Sons of Liberty"....Hultberg

10.17.03- The picture that does not tell the story....Korelin

10.17.03- Templeton feeling bearish....Braga

10.15.03- Saving Gold to Save America? ....Wallenwein

10.15.03- Hard money....The Economist

10.14.03- Poor House, Part 2....Bonner

10.09.03- The Coming Currency Devaluation....Droke

10.07.03- Paying Dearly for Free Prescription Drugs....Paul

10.06.03- The Chasm....Griffin

10.04.03- Poor House, Part 1....Bonner

10.03.03- Two things...Own gold, and a big gun....The Mogambo Guru

10.02.03- Power Corrupts....Bloom

09.30.03- Potential Catalyst - Real Estate....Comstock Partners

09.24.03- We cannot speculate our way to prosperity....Fleckenstein

09.22.03- Goodbye Dubai, Hello Folly....Sinclair

09.15.03- Neo-Conned....Paul

09.12.03- The Only Safe Place To Put Money....The Mogambo Guru

09.10.03- Thinking the Unthinkable....Gordon

09.08.03- Paper Money and Tyranny....Paul

09.05.03- What, WE Worry?....Gross

09.04.03- Storm Warning...Nyquist

09.03.03- Apocalypse this way comes....Hultberg

09.02.03- Running on Empty....Sinclair

08.28.03- The Clueless Dimwit Chronicles....The Mogambo Guru

08.27.03- Look out for the Fall....Benson

08.26.03- Cash Return on Investment....Bloom

08.25.03- The United Socialist States of America....Day

08.24.03- Pop Goes the Bubble....North

08.22.03- The Ultimate Consumer Survival Guide....The Mogambo Guru

08.12.03- Contrarians and the Keynesian Myth ....Hultberg

08.12.03- Secret Organizations and Hidden Agendas....Griffin

08.06.03- Why Hasn't "IT" Happened Yet? ....Riley

08.05.03- Federal Frankstein....Cook

08.04.03- Weapons of Mass Destruction In the Market For Mortgage Backed Securities....Sinclair

08.04.03- A Historic Juncture - Part 1....Cashin

07.31.03- Man your battle stations, this is no drill....Moriarty

07.30.03- Wise up, or join the "escape generation"....Russell

07.30.03- Is a 1987-Style Scenario Taking Shape?....Temple

07.21.03- Ron Paul -- The Modern Cincinnatus....Hultberg

07.11.03- The Big Theoretical Bugaboo ....The Mogambo Guru

07.07.03- The Fuss About Interest Rates....Lasco Report

07.04.03- Going Offshore: Is It For You?....Wealth International, Ltd.

07.04.03- Belize & its Merits as a Trust Jurisdiction....Wealth International, Ltd.

06.30.03- HillaryCare, Republican Style....Paul

06.23.03- The Coming Depression....PJ Lafleur

06.10.03- Insiders' big stock sales may be omen....Zuckerman

06.05.03- The Parable of the Cards....Sanders

05.28.03- The Ark of Freedom....Hultberg

05.27.03- Economic Fascism and Tax Slavery....Hultberg

05.20.03- Obscene Prophets....Cook

05.06.03- The Sucker Traps, parts one through four....Skolnick

04.28.03- Gold Money and Equal Tax Rates....Hultberg

04.23.03- Exploiting the Delusions of Money....Bugos

04.20.03- How Americans Lost Their Right To Own Gold And Became Criminals in the Process....Holzer

04.16.03- Michael O'Higgins thinks the country is heading into a slump that could be worse than the Great Depression....Brackey

04.08.03- Is the Power Protection Team an "Urban Myth?"....Hultberg

03.26.03- The Real Deal About Enron....Armstrong

03.21.03- Forget Iraq....Richebächer

03.15.03- U.S. jobs jumping ship. Cheap offshore labor is not just for manufacturing any more -- is your job heading overseas, too?....Gongloff

03.09.03- The Historians vs. American History....Thompson

03.01.03- The Meaning of Money: Its Purposes and Functions....Helfield

02.28.03- After the coming financial system collapse....Schicht

02.27.03- Avalanches, Neo-Fasicsm and Gold....Hultberg

02.23.03- A Loaf of Bread....Stott

01.30.03- How the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds are competing for world domination....Schicht

01.30.03- Is the global economy about to crash?....Buchanan

01.29.03- Three Things You Need to Know Right Now....Swanson

01.29.03- What will be "hot" in 2003?....Sabnani

01.25.03- Narco-Dollars for Beginners
"How the Money Works" in the Illicit Drug Trade....Fitts

01.13.03- The Euro looks technically bound for the $1.20 range....Sinclair

01.09.03- Social Security Falling Down

01.07.03- The Golden Paradox (Why Gold is Actually Worthless --and How it Can Make You Rich)....Van Artsdalen

01.07.03- Questions to Ask a Financial Advisor....Gordon

01.07.03- Pension-fund 'time bomb' is detonating on companies' profits....Evans

01.06.03- Delusions and Denial Prevent Recognition of the Truth