[Editor's Note: The following post is by TDV Editor-in-Chief, Jeff Berwick]

Another rich US subject is getting ready to flee the growing predation of the taxman. This week John Paulson of hedge fund Paulson & Co. is taking a long, hard look at a move to Puerto Rico for the explicit purpose of eliminating taxes on $9.5 billion in gains he invested in his own hedge funds.

[Editor's Note: The following post is by TDV Editor, Gary Gibson]

The end of civilization is already here. Most of humanity has been turned into an unthinking mass of economic zombies that are looking to feast on the still living flesh of the few survivors. This may explain the increasing popularity or obsession with all things zombie. From fiction to pub crawls, the zombie apocalypse seems to be on a lot of minds, probably as an unconcious manifestation of economic reality.

According to Clemson University professor Sarah Lauro in a recent AP article:

[Editor’s Note: The following is by TDV contributor, Wendy McElroy]

Hello from the belly of the beast,

A very dear friend from Europe has had a run of health problems and it has started to interfere with this friend's ability to keep earning an income. I've spent a couple of years talking to this person about freedom and free markets. Inevitably brought up then is the command-and-control commercial Communism of both the European continent and the Amerikan, as well as the destructiveness of taxation and government programs and the immorality of the violence upon which they base themselves.

Hello from the beach in beautiful Ambergris Caye in Belize,

We appreciate Rand Paul's lengthy talk to offer some resistance to the trial-less assassination of Americans via drone. But we're going to keep things shorter here and allow for a little bit of feedback. Read on below...

FINANCES AND TDV

[Editor's Note: The following post is by TDV contributor, Justin O'Connell]

So you're in an African prison and being tortured after being stripped of your citizenship while on vacation with your family. And then, during your kidnapping, you are forced to sign a Soviet-style confession at the hands of the CIA. That could be your fate if what is happening to British citizens is any sign. But it doesn’t end there…

When your family goes to the State Department or Foreign Office for help, your captors will tell your family there is nothing they can do. After all, you had been stripped of your citizenship.

Ben Bernanke must have been smirking and nodding smugly all day yesterday. The Dow hit an all-time high at 14,286 and closed at 14,253.77. What's even more impressive is that this is double where the Dow stood just four years ago. And it only took five and a half years and previously unmatched amounts of new money creation to do it.

Source

[Editor's Note: The following post is by TDV Editor-in-Chief, Jeff Berwick]

“I would like to see American students develop as much fanaticism about the US political system as young Nazis did about their political system during the War.” —Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965

You probably haven't heard, as these things aren't announced over the government propaganda channels (AKA mainstream media), but Obama wants every single young American 18 to 25 years old to be forced into national service and ready to go into military service whenever the president wants more bodies to enforce his will abroad.

[Editor’s Note: The following post is by TDV Editor-in-Chief, Jeff Berwick]

There is an old saying: to “pound the table”. It essentially means to vehemently assert one's position. I rarely pound the table. I am, as of today, pounding the table!

I am talking about the junior gold stocks. Gold stocks in general, but especially the juniors.

To preface, those of you invested in these securities in 2008 remember the worst crash of all time: the crash of the junior gold stocks from a high on the TSX-Venture exchange (where most are traded) of over 3,000 to under 700 in less than a year.