The Feds HATE munis worse than cold week old double anchovy pizza.  They have been trying to get rid of them for decades... and they keep failing.  The state and local gov't lobby is very powerful, as also are the unions whose members would lose jobs that are dependent on munis for financing them.  ...

If you have a long term investment horizon and can tune out any near-intermediate term volatility, I think food and particularly food production might be a very attractive speculation.  The world's population is expanding rapidly and its food supply is not.  Commodity that everyone needs + increased...

Hi Clive
Given your emphasis on currency diversification would it be reasonable to infer you are more favorable to the asset allocation in PRPFX, which in addition to gold and silver holds 10% in Swiss Francs, than the 4 x 25% PP?

I rarely spend much time on Seeking Alpha anymore.  Its overwhelmingly about quick money and speculative investing.  I only pop in now and then when the PP or PRPFX comes up.  And then it seems there are always people trying to figure how to trade it.  Sometimes I feel like I am banging my head on a...

If you haven't had your quota of laughs for the day I refer you to this and some of the comments below it.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/358191- ... io-part-ii

It will happen. But only after the US goes through another 10 years of bad inflation and finger pointing blaming everyone and everything but the guys at the printing press. I agree.  Interest rates are lower now than they ever were in the 1960's and 70's and the base money supply has tripled in the...

Can it's stability and tax efficiency be predicted? I think stability (as in its been around a while and hasn't changed its asset allocation) is something that can only be shown with time.  Setting aside any of its shortcoming, PRPFX has an established record that gives me a reasonable level of con...

Thanks for posting.  I am definitely keeping an eye on PERM.  If it shows some stability and decent tax efficiency over a year or two I may recommend it over PRPFX as my favorite second choice for those who want maximum simplicity and one stop shopping.

Yep... that and on other threads I get a Ron Paul ad.  I wonder why? 

If you are aware of the weakness of the PP to rising real interest rates, it goes double whammy for the PRPFX.  It is too commodity heavy.  That's why its had a better peformance vs PP the last decade. What kind of investments do well (or less poorly) in an environment of rising interest rates?  I ...

Rachel Maddow.  She's just like Suzi Orman, minus the Strap&n. Gratuitous and shocking mental image. The horror...the horror. Sorry I couldn't resist.  Hope I didn't give readers nightmare material. It's OK.  MediumTex cannot complain after what he posted in another thread.  I had nightmares fr...

...Probably the best form of paper gold, with the least layers of intermediaries, is the Perth Mint Certificate or Mocatta Delivery Order as that is specific title to a specific claim of assets (if allocated).  Very easy to transport across borders too... ...But, Hong Kong is the next best place fo...

MF Global commodity customers whose cash vanished when the firm collapsed last year are owed $1.6 billion – up significantly from previous estimates — the trustee tasked with recovering the money said on Friday. The revised figure reflects growing concerns that the trustee cannot claw back $700 mil...

FOX is busy lining up the troops behind Romney.  Judge Napolitano was not likely to tow the appropriate political line.

MediumTex wrote: I was thinking more along these lines:

EYE BLEACH! For the love of God, someone pass me some eye bleach!

Clive, Interesting article and thanks for posting.  Brother Buffet of course is a well known gold bear of long standing.  What he neglects to note is the cyclical nature of the movement in prices for various asset classes.  Gold has sharply outperformed stocks for two of the last four decades and dr...

While I agree with Ad Orientem, let's try to keep this convo as cool as possible (sorry to barge in on policing duties MT, and yes, the usual instigator of sarcastic retorts is calling for calmer language)... any time we hit the middle east we get heated.  What is it about that damn place?  We live...

When I first heard about this a while back I was highly skeptical.  I am now dialing that down to somewhat skeptical.  PERM's asset allocation more closely mirrors the HB PP than PRPFX and there is less risk that comes from stock picking.  And while PERM's F&E are on the high end for what I cons...

"The last time I checked Iran was a sovereign country." A sovereign country whose leaders are in office because of an illegitimate  election? One that brutalizes those who disagree? One that threatens to wipe its neighbors off of the face of the earth? One that recently plotted to kill a ...

The two links above don't seem to be working.  I have however found two articles on the new permanent ETF which can be found here and here .  The first link has the breakdown of the fund's holdings... Asset                       Weight Physical Gold               20% Physical Silver                 ...

I too would like for the "Neocons" to help the oppressed citizens of Iran implement regime change. Wouldn't you? The last time I checked Iran was a sovereign country.  Interfering in the internal affairs of another country and acting against its government is generally considered an act o...

Iran is not Nazi Germany. Iran is not perfect, but we can't police the entire planet. Can I have an Amen please? It's time we stop comparing every country in the world we have differences with to Nazi Germany.  It discredits the analogy and it demonstrates a lack of comprehension for the true evil ...

North Korea is downright creepy.  There are a lot of places I think are creepy including some areas of San Francisco and Utah (for different reasons).  But I don't think we need to spend billions for stationing troops around them.  N. Korea is a Stalinist monstrosity and I thank God I don't live th...

The Cold War is over, and we won.  It's time to rethink our place in the world and stop trying to run a global empire.  We absolutely need to reassess all of our overseas commitments.  This is not the same thing as saying we need to wall ourselves off from the world.  But it is time to ask some hard...