If you want to buy a beer at Flatstick pub in Seattle, don’t whip out a $10 bill to pay—you’ll walk away thirsty. Flatstick, a hot new mini-chain in the Pacific Northwest, doesn’t take cash. Neither does Bluestone Lane, a coffee chain with locations in New York, Philly and D.C. Patrons there have to pay with plastic or an app called LevelUp. Want to grab a Sweetgreen salad for lunch wit... read more

There are ample signs of change in the wind: The Federal Reserve is raising short-term interest rates, and U.S. inflation is at target for the first time since 2012. The global trade order that has existed for decades is being disrupted. Several economic indicators are running hot even as the current U.S. expansion has begun its tenth year. Volatility is higher as some investors price a dire ou... read more

Australia's ABC News reported that an unexpected discovery of gold in Western Australia has delivered more than 15 million Australian dollars ($10.66 million) in value of the precious metal in just four days. "You might go your whole life and you'll never see anything like it. It's definitely a once-in-a-lifetime discovery," a geologist at the mine said, according to the Australian media outle... read more

A contrarian is defined as an individual who opposes or rejects popular opinion. In other words, when the crowd zigs, contrarians zag, or when the investing masses buy, contrarians sell (and vice versa). Contrarian investing tends to work well when groupthink becomes extreme. Why? Just as a fire needs wood to burn, any market needs fresh buyers to “burn” higher. When no more buyers are... read more

Advisers to Asia’s super rich think their clients should put more of their money into gold, taking advantage of price declines to buy the yellow metal amid volatile global markets and US-China trade tensions, a new report said. A survey of these advisers found a preference for gold holdings amounting to 5 per cent to 10 per cent of total assets. That is up from an earlier recommendation of 3... read more

Sudden, severe stock sell-offs sparked by lightning-fast machines. Unprecedented actions by central banks to shore up asset prices. Social unrest not seen in the U.S. in half a century. That's how J.P. Morgan Chase's head quant, Marko Kolanovic, envisions the next financial crisis. The forces that have transformed markets in the last decade, namely the rise of computerized trading and passi... read more

Sept 4 (Reuters) - Sales of gold products by the Perth Mint in August rose from a month earlier to their highest since October 2017, as lower bullion prices attracted buying, the mint said on Monday. Sales of gold coins and minted bars surged 30 percent to 38,904 ounces last month, the mint said in a blog post. Gold sales in August nearly doubled from a year-ago period. "Lowe... read more

Gold is a safeguard for crisis, as it stands for trust - at least when bought in physical form and not in the form of derivatives or some kind of futures. Warren Buffett doesn’t consider gold as an investment, but compared to the S&P 500 since 1970, gold outperformed the stock market, as the gold price increased about 7.5% every year. An important goal of investing is diversification, and... read more

In 1966, Milton Friedman wrote, as he often did, some memorable lines that have entered the lexicon of economic quotables. As Friedman correctly put it in a book chapter titled “What Price Guideposts?”: “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon, resulting from and accompanied by a rise in the quantity of money relative to output…. It follows that the only effective way t... read more

The vast majority of Americans, 78 percent, say they're "extremely" or "somewhat" concerned about not having enough money for retirement, according to Northwestern Mutual's 2018 Planning & Progress Study. And for good reason: A shocking 21 percent of Americans have nothing at all saved for the future, and another 10 percent have less than $5,000 tucked away, the study finds. That means about... read more