Archives for August 2012

Get ready to be blindsided by a barrage of new taxes. $569 billion worth…

They'll be coming courtesy of the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.

And they won't just be affecting those who make over $250,000 as you'll soon see. The bulk of these taxes will be passed on directly to the middle class.

That's because while a majority of these "stealth taxes" were designed to be taxes on businesses, they're actually be transferred directly to ordinary citizens.

They include an investment income surtax, a medicate payroll tax, even a "tanning tax" on those who utilize indoor tanning services.

"Many of those [hidden] taxes, especially those on hospitals, insurers and medical device manufacturers, will ultimately be passed on through higher health costs," said Michael Tanner an expert on the healthcare law.

An alarming new report from McKinsey & Company, one of the world leaders in global research and analysis for business and government, reports that nothing less than a "revolution" is needed to prevent high, volatile prices for energy, food, steel and water.

"Progressively cheaper natural resources underpinned 20th-century global economic growth," the report states. "But the 21st century could be different. Indeed, over the past ten years, rapid economic development in emerging markets has wiped out all of the previous century's declines in real commodity prices."

In the 1970s, fears about commodity shortages were quelled by "a combination of technological progress, the discovery of (and expansion into) new low-cost sources of supply, and more productive ways of using it… These developments pushed down-by almost half, in real terms-the price of an index of critical commodities (energy, food, steel, and water) during the 20th century. That reduction came despite demand for those resources growing as much as 20-fold during the period."

But today, the report states, we're in dire need of a revolution if there's any hope for a rescue.

Billionaire investors George Soros and John Paulson dramatically increased their gold stakes this month, as market analysts fear economic dangers lay ahead.

Paulson purchased 4.53 million shares of SPDR Gold Trust for his $21 billion hedge fund Paulson & Co. That leaves a whopping 44 percent of Paulson's U.S. traded equities tied to bullion.

On the same day, the Soros Fund Management revealed it more than doubled its shares of gold.

And it's not just billionaires loading up on the yellow metal.

According to the World Gold Council, Central Banks across the globe increased their gold hoards by 400 metric tons already this year.

Gold is considered the single best hedge against a plummeting dollar and high inflation. And several economic experts such as Richard Duncan and Jim Rogers have issued ominous warnings about America's ballooning debt.

Is this gold hoarding by banks and billionaires yet another sign of economic trouble to come?

New research released last month suggests severe economic trouble is indeed imminent.

In a newly released documentary, a team of influential economic experts say they have discovered a "frightening pattern" they believe points to a massive economic catastrophe. Right now, they say, we're on a countdown clock to disaster, and the ticking is speeding up.