The Freedom Factory

Rep. Jane Harman exchanged favors for power-aided Israeli lobbyists accused of espionage, top government investigator says that bank bailouts are open to fraud, Obama tells Cabinet to cut spending by 0.02%, U.S. Treasury estimates it has lost $900 million of taxpayer money from holding $301 billion in Citigroup junk assets, Russian tariffs take toll on U.S. companies, and could the U.S. be headed for a Russian-style economic collapse circa 1998? Continue Reading

The stock market hit and then furiously bounced off a low on March 9th. Since then it has shot up about 30% nearly uninterrupted. Hope abounds that we may be emerging from one of the worst economic disasters in 20+ years. By many measures the frantic chaos of the last year appears to be subsiding, particularly when looking at the resurgence of corporate earnings, stock prices, and declining value of the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX). Yet it is at times like these when it makes most sense to buy insurance, and it just happens to be cheaper than it has been in a long time. Continue Reading