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.

Happy Birthday, Murray!

As I write this, it's still Murray Rothbard's birthday. Rothbard, of course, is the world's first professed anarcho-capitalist (he coined the phrase) and hence a man we here at TDV celebrate warmly and with vigor.

Hello from the beach,

I've got sequestration on my mind this week. This is actually the first time I've ever mentioned it because I mostly ignore the largest terrorist organization on Earth, the US government. Plus, living mostly in the tropics in the freest country in North America (can you guess which one it is? Don't say Kanada) and in beautiful much freer areas like Chile, it just never comes up in conversation. Outside of the USSA, where many people listen to the nightly news on TV like it is the truth, the USSA is mostly irrelevant—except for the drones and US government terrorist wars like the war on plants and personal choice. (Sorry, they call it the "war on drugs".)

Another week has passed. Did you enjoy the Oscars? Best Picture went to Argo, a film that celebrated the heroic CIA. Who doesn't love the CIA? Listening in on your phone calls, checking your email, funded by your taxes. It beat out Zero Dark Thirty, a film that celebrates torture and murder by O'Bomber! Oh, what a wonderful USSA it is...

On to your feedback...

A VISITOR FROM THE TDV FORUM

Wow, what can I say? Where to start? (Yaaa I met Jeff Berwick!!!!) 

How to Find Happiness When You’re Stuck in America – Part 1

Hi Slaveys,

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

The US Treasury Bond market is the longest unbroken bull market known to the financial world. For more than 30 years it has trended higher in nominal US dollar terms.

Of course, it has been helped greatly by price fixed and market fixed, Ben Bernanke, who has now bought up more Treasuries, by far, than any other identifiable group, but didn't pay for them out of production; he just did it with the pressing of a button, using a pretty fat finger!

[Editor's Note: The following post is by TDV senior analyst, Ed Bugos]

“Every Communist must grasp the truth: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” — Chairman Mao Zedong (The Little Red Book, 1964)

I don’t think anyone can truly understand the idea of freedom without understanding why a shrinking group of Americans cherish their 2nd amendment rights so passionately. Obama says that the voices of dead children compel change, by which he means to disarm Americans at a faster pace.

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

What else can explain their actions and attitudes?