Mark Twain, in an unverified quote, once described a mine as “a hole in the ground owned by a liar.” Using that definition, a horde of liars were in Las Vegas last week to pitch their projects and bright prospects to hundreds of gold geeks who attended the Gold & Precious Metals Conference.
Nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, and frequent LRC contributor, Vin Suprynowicz has written tirelessly of the abuses of government. Alas, the stories of the ham-handed antics of petty bureaucrats and the goons representing the various branches of this nations law enforcement agencies are so frequent he cannot cover all of them.
Keynesian policies used to be all about building infrastructure, bridges to nowhere, and the like. Put people to work, replace private investment, prop up aggregate demand and all of that. Remnants of FDR’s New Deal are still standing, not to mention projects constructed by the Roman Empire. But Detroit’s new mayor Dave Bing is shooting and scoring with a plan to “right-size” the Motor City.
Talk to any financial advisor or read a book about saving for retirement and the word diversification comes up time and time again. Diversify, diversify, and diversify. Like your mom told you: don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.
For too many people, diversification means putting a certain percentage of your money in stocks and the rest in bonds. But, what’s a person to do when stocks are overvalued on a historical basis and bond yields are near all time lows? Clearly neither asset class is a bargain and retirement is just around the corner.
[Excerpted from Ludwig von Mises on Money and Inflation: A Synthesis of Several Lectures, compiled by Bettina Bien Greaves. This lecture was given at the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE).]
To paraphrase Mark Twain, it’s a difference of opinion that makes a horse race. And for most people the most critical race of all is to amass sufficient assets to live a comfortable retirement.
