Economy

All the hype surrounding Bitcoin is a dead giveaway that you should be suspicious. Forget all the economic arguments against the currency, though. The biggest risk is a technological one. Add in the neck-snapping volatility, and you’re telling me this is the future of money? Keep dreaming! It’s little more than a wild speculation. One with a fatal flaw, at that, so please, whatever you do, refrain from converting your life savings – or any meaningful amount of money – into Bitcoins. At least until you read this article.

Did you know that financial institutions all over the world are warning that we could see a mega default on a very prominent high-yield investment product in China on January 31st? We are being told that this could lead to a cascading collapse of the shadow banking system in China which could potentially result in sky-high interest rates and a precipitous plunge in credit. It could be a Lehman Brothers moment for Asia and, since much of that "hot money" has flowed into stocks, bonds and real estate in the United States, that would be very bad news for the U.S. as well. [Let me explain.]

With international reserves in virtual free-fall, the black market peso rate plunging, and no sign for months that President Kirchner has any appreciation at all of the gravity of the situation, the country is in the advanced stages of another financial panic/meltdown. This will end badly, another chapter in the long history of Argentine financial crises extending back almost 100 years.

Below is an infographic presenting a crash course in the need for, problems with, and benefits of, building the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta through the American midwest to the refineries in Texas.

Only when derivatives are discussed by one of the ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’ posing nude in bed with one of the cast members of ‘Duck Dynasty’ will derivatives receive the attention they deserve.

Some of the most respected prognosticators in the financial world are warning that what is coming in 2014 and beyond is going to shake America to the core. Many of the quotes that you are about to read are from individuals that actually predicted the sub-prime mortgage meltdown and the financial crisis of 2008 ahead of time so they have a track record of being right. Does that guarantee that they will be right about what is coming in 2014? Of course not. In fact, as you will see below, not all of them agree about exactly what is coming next but, without a doubt, all of their forecasts are quite ominous.

Households in the U.S., Europe and Japan may soon face fiscal shocks worse than any market crash. Powerful economic players are deciding that with an ever-deteriorating global fiscal outlook, conventional levels and methods of taxation will no longer suffice. Indebted governments may soon consider making weapons of mass wealth destruction , such as the IMF's one-off capital levy, Cyprus's bank deposit confiscation, or outright sovereign defaults, likelier by the day.

munKNEE.com will receive well over 1,000,000 visitors again in 2013 and is now a “go-to” destination for a diversified account of economic, financial and investment analyses, opinion, advice and education including the current state of the U.S. dollar and its possible future.

munKNEE.com will receive well over 1,000,000 visitors again in 2013 and is now a "go-to" destination for the most diversified account of economic, financial and investment (gold, silver and the stock markets) analyses, opinion, advice and education. Below are introductions (with links) to the 13 most read such articles in 2013 in order of popularity. Interestingly, each of the 13 are as relevant today as the day they were posted so they are well worth taking the time to read.

It now seems like the U.S. might be getting closer to acknowledging that it has a serious fiscal problem; or at least this is what one might infer from the strong support from Congressmen and Senators from both sides of the aisle, thousands of business leaders and economists from all stripes, as well as from fifteen Nobel Laureates in Economics, for a new bill called the Intergenerational Financial Obligations Reform Act or “Inform Act” - in spite of the fact that the proposal is being totally ignored by the mainstream media and, as evidenced by the case of Detroit, the longer we wait, the worse it gets.