Bogleheads.org

I don't see any intrinsic value in bitcoins. Even gold has a decent long term history of holding value but I can't even pay my taxes in bitcoin. And just because something is rare or hard to acquire doesn't make it valuable. This is even worse than the tulip bulb mania because with that at least you...

When I need to microwave something for 20 seconds, I do it for 22 seconds instead - so that I move my finger one less time. Ha ha ha, I thought I was the only one who did this!! I also use a hand towel to dry off after taking a shower because a regular towel is way too much towel. Wife thinks I'm w...

A few months ago I bought a new droidx for $120 on ebay and activated it on page plus with the $29.95/month plan and trashed my dumb phone.

Agree 100% with the last post. I don't care if I loose a little in efficiency if that means I don't have the hassle of replacing every 5 or so years and going to the laundry mat. We save enough by washing everything in cold water. Simple is better, the problem I am having is not being able to find a...

double post.

Thanks to all who have replied especially whomever mentioned the insurance issues as I never would have thought of that and will need to check on. I have a lot to chew on. For the record as of now I'm kinda leaning towards the HELOC. At my local bank looks like the only fees are an appraisal cost wh...

My wife and I are looking at upgrading to a nicer home and met with a realtor for the first time last night. I was planning on selling the old home first (or at the same time) as buying the new one and then taking some savings I had along with the old house money (old house is payed off and we are d...

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Agree with those who said Toyota's and Honda's. I prefer Toyota's because they have timing chains instead of belts. Wife has a 2007 Yaris sedan that was listed in Consumer Reports as the most reliable used car a few years ago. If I was looking for something more sporty I like the new style Mazda3's ...

We all know that to increase the money supply, the Federal Reserve buys securities, which creates new money. Except that's not how it works in a fiat money system. That's a leftover vestige from the gold standard that nowadays isn't about the money supply it's about interest rates. The correct way ...

I use page plus for about 15 months now. I buy 2000 minutes for $80 which last me about 9-10 months then rinse and repeat.

I am 42 and imagine I will get my full benefits. Worst case I will get 75%.

In fact I think there is just as good a chance that SS will be increased rather than decreased.

We have a cruise scheduled for later this year and have no doubts about going. This will only make cruises safer. I don't know why they are giving that poor captain such a hard time...he didn't mean to get off the ship, he merely tripped and fell into a lifeboat. :lol: http://www.smh.com.au/world/ca...

If you think all inflation is always bad for everybody all of the time, then either you are a net creditor (i.e. wealthy) who has never thought about debtors, or you have been successfully propagandized by the contingent that benefits from low inflation. Excellent post. The other week I googled &qu...

With more and more jobs being automated there just isn't going to be enough work for everyone in the future. Indeed this may already be happening currently with especially lower skilled jobs. Eventually we may have to go with some kind of basic guarenteed income of like say $15000/year that everyon...

With more and more jobs being automated there just isn't going to be enough work for everyone in the future. Indeed this may already be happening currently with especially lower skilled jobs. Eventually we may have to go with some kind of basic guarenteed income of like say $15000/year that everyone...

Listen to a live stream of Radio 104.5 http://www.iheart.com/#/live/3401/?autoplay=true They play Incubus Foster the People The Naked and Famous Jimmy Eat World My Chemical Romance Muse The Roots Young the Giant Soundgarden Pearl Jam Nirvana Audioslave Florence and the Machine Adele 30 Seconds to Ma...

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Cullen Roche has this explaination in "Hyperinflation - It’s more than just a monetary phenomenon" http://pragcap.com/hyperinflation-its-more-than-just-a-monetary-phenomenon The Case of Weimar The Weimar Republic is the most notable hyperinflation. But it was not the only case of hyperinfl...

I think we should bring back debtors prisons for all these kids who don't pay their student loans. Anything to hasten the revolution.

Whenever someone is worried about the US not being able to pay back it's "debt" you can safely ignore any of their economic analysis. The US is a sovereign nation and all of its debts are denominated in its own currency. This whole idea of public debt being "burden" on future ge...

MMT guys like Warren Mosler say we could be out of this mess in a matter of months with his recommended policies.

He has some interesting ideas, check out http://moslereconomics.com/

So far so bad!

I never could understand why we make such a big deal about our debt. Along with Japan, Britian had 250% debt at two different times. As long as you print your own currency, debt is never a problem unless you have high inflation. To that I will just add- too bad we can't keep unemployment under 17% ...

I never could understand why we make such a big deal about our debt. Along with Japan, Britian had 250% debt at two different times. As long as you print your own currency, debt is never a problem unless you have high inflation. To that I will just add- too bad we can't keep unemployment under 17% w...

I don't use the Perm Port but I have taken its concepts and created my own portfolio which has less gold and riskier equities.

Switched over about 2 months ago and I plan to switch back to my old portfolio when environment is better.

Isn't the fed trying to lower the longer term rates? If anything I'de think you would want to go long the 10 year.

More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.

You know what they say. "When the going gets tough, the tough go eating, drinking, and smoking".

[political remark removed by Mod]

the Wikipedia list of recessions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions_in_the_United_States that's a lot of recessions. you'd think economists and policymakers would have some kind of handle on how to get out of them by now. we can put a man on the moon but not create a job. I wonder if e...

Suze has jumped the shark. She used to give decent advice...lately not so much. Orman will have you saving 3 times what you need to retire and Ramsey will have you saving half of what you need. I don't know why we can't get better "experts".

You mean there are introverts on the interwebs?!

INFJ here.

Strong I
Strong N
T and F almost equal
Moderate J

Nobody buys gold anymore because it goes up too fast. -Yogi Berra?

With federal deficit around 9% of GDP continually adding money I think we should avoid a double dip(at this time anyways). --tax and economic policy comments deleted-- would greatly help. Not enough to lift unemployment much but stocks could do well over the next year or so. Course Europe could alwa...

I don't know what all the cantankerous back and forth is about. Bill Bernstein, cited here, put up an essay on the Permanent Portfolio ("Wild About Harry"), and he said it worked as prescribed. But he also said that the investors now piling into it due to its recent high performance would...

The ideas are interesting, but the US shouldn't give any H1-B visas to the Chinese or other adversarial countries. The best way (and the only way for the US short of war) to beat your adversaries is to syphon off their human capital. Nick http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage Thanks fo...

I'm thinking about changing my strategy from buy and hold to long on odd days and short on even days.

I stand by what I said earlier. The excellent returns of the PP over the last 40 years have been driven largely by the higher than normal returns of gold and bonds. That does not mean I think the PP isn't a good way to invest. Like I said I think it is rock solid, just don't expect the same returns...

Gumby wrote:

snodog wrote:Now going forward: Here are the long term returns of each element which should give us the best guess of what it will do in the future.

A 'best guess,' based on historical returns, is how we predict future returns of each asset class??

Know of a better way?

However I would not expect the nice 9% returns to continue. During the 40 year period gold has returned about 9% and bonds about 8%. That would be unlikely to continue in the future. It doesn't work that way. Looking at the assets in isolation will only confuse you. If gold or bonds are underperfor...

However I would not expect the nice 9% returns to continue. During the 40 year period gold has returned about 9% and bonds about 8%. That would be unlikely to continue in the future. It doesn't work that way. Looking at the assets in isolation will only confuse you. If gold or bonds are underperfor...

I am no expert but to me it appears as if the Permanent Port. is rock solid. I've been tracking it for a couple years day to day and it's just slow and steady. In fact it actually went up yesterday when the dow was down 634. However I would not expect the nice 9% returns to continue. During the 40 y...

richard wrote:Surveys of business owners and managers show that far and away the main concern is lack of demand for what they're selling. If there was more demand, they'd hire and expand to meet the demand. If regulations or taxes change to make this uneconomic, they'd fire the extra people.

+1

It is my suspicion that several of you are missing the macro issue here. The downgrade of US sovereign is NOT irrelevant due to the following: 1) It will force S&P to downgrade JP Morgan (as the sovereign stands behind the banking system, you cannot have a bank rated higher than the sovereign),...

It is my suspicion that several of you are missing the macro issue here. The downgrade of US sovereign is NOT irrelevant due to the following: 1) It will force S&P to downgrade JP Morgan (as the sovereign stands behind the banking system, you cannot have a bank rated higher than the sovereign),...

Incidently, perhaps someone knows the answer to this -I've read that this is the first time in well over a 100 years the US has lost its AAA rating. Were there actually credit ratings of US debt at the time of WWII? It seems to me that after a great depresson which left the country in terrible fina...

I am always baffled by the amount of people pointing out how the US can't default because they have the capability to print money. I cannot stress enough how stupid this line of thought is. You do not care whether the goverment will default on it's obligations, that does not concern you . What conc...

News Flash! Pluto has just downgraded the Earth to: Dwarf Planet+.

I think downgrade was based on US willingness to pay and not ability. Since US is in control of its own currency it can always pay its debts.