Raising the Minimum Wage: Why it Does More Harm than Good

In the State of the Union Address President Obama’s proposal to increase the minimum wage attracted a great deal of attention. At the time, the assembled audience greeted his statement with a standing applause. A few days post-speech is the nation finally ready to forget the rhetoric and focus on the consequences raising the minimum wage imposes on the middle class?

Let’s take a look at a local example. A smoothie business owner works every day to maintain a profitable store, support his growing family, and keep on three hard working employees at minimum wage. If the government mandate to increase the minimum wage he could be looking at $11,000 in additional annual expenses. Since businesses survive on profit, the owner may be forced to lay off a worker and pick up the extra hours himself. What happens to this former employee? All odds point to another person added to the unemployment payroll.

Additional government mandates on businesses places a strain on the middle class. Companies’ inability to retain employees send these individuals back onto the government’s payroll and forces the burden onto the hard working middle class.

What happens when the government finds itself faced with increased unemployment benefits to cover? Washington needs to instantly gain the funds while keeping the source practically invisible to the untrained eye. Enter a “stealth tax” coded as inflation.  When the government presses the magic button to print more currency the dollar loses its purchasing power. Suddenly, the middle class’s money earning 1% in the bank can no longer keep up with the 10% price increase that we are seeing in the vital staples of life; i.e. food and energy.. These consequences trickle back down to the smoothie store owner who is now forced to provide more free labor himself while paying more money as prices for ingredients and shipping costs continue to rise. The $1.75 appears to be a much bigger deal than the number lets on. Pretty soon the local businesses are going to run much like the government: on a deficit. The only difference is, the local smoothie store will not survive.

Silver Stockings

By: John Cioffoletti
CIO: RS Bullion 

There are about 60 million children in the United States under the age
of 15. Whether you celebrate Christmas as a Christian, or elevate
Hanukkah to its commercial equivalent, that means about 60 million
stocking-stuffers will be needed come December 25th.

What better stocking-stuffer than a one-ounce round of triple-nine
fine silver? It's the gift that will keep on giving to your children,
your grandchildren, your nephews and nieces and their kids as well.

When you think about the world's most vital purchasable commodity the
first thing that comes to most people's mind is oil – and rightfully
so. The global power-generating society that we've developed is fueled
by black gold.

World dependence on oil is unquestioned. Wars and lies are started over it.

But I wonder how many people realize what the second-most used
commodity in the world is? It's silver.

The world greatest conductor of heat and electricity, silver has
become vital in the technologically driven society we live in today.
The explosion in electronics now requires over 60 percent of the
silver that is mined to go the GE's, Apples and Samsung's of the world

Even though we are at the early stages of a global fiat currency collapse
the one area of growth that will be hard to suppress is technology.
Hyperinflation will not stop the iPhone 6 or 7, or the next great 4D
television by Samsung.

One can argue that we are as dependent on silver as oil. From the
first moment we wake up each morning – before we take one step out of
our beds – silver is helping us start our day. Silver is in the alarm
clock that wakes us; in the cell phone we check all bleary eyed; the
light switch we turn on and the computer or tablet we use to check our
email, Twitter and Facebook.

Those chores done, it's time to start the car and get moving. Oh wait!
There's silver in the ignition switch, and in that remote control you
zap the car doors with. Behind the scenes, silver is performing its
anti-bacterial and anti-fungal and anti-oxidation chores in your
laundry, your dishwasher, and on your computer keyboard. Silver has
more than 12,000 known and useful applications, and these applications
grow daily. It is truly the universal metal, and yet we use 200
million more ounces of it a year than we currently produce.

Without silver we'd be back in the Stone Age tomorrow. Without silver,
we certainly wouldn't have any use for oil or its byproducts. Without
it, we couldn't start our cars.


Silver's historic use is as money. Its original use was as medicine.
Because it's more difficult to produce than to use, silver reaches
back to the earliest civilizations as a means to settle accounts. You
cannot counterfeit silver. Silver keeps transactions honest. And in
recent as well as ancient times, silver appreciates in value as
governments pollute their currency with base metals (Rome) and paper.

Silver keeps us honest, and is our best friend in hard times. Like
gold it keeps its promises. Unlike a dishonest government's currency,
silver's value will never go to zero.


Which is why a one-ounce round of pure silver should be in every
child's Christmas stocking this year. The weak among them will
surrender their silver for paper money. The smart ones will save it
for the days when our currencies collapse. Either way, it sure beats a
lump of coal.