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The Daily Reckoning Weekend Edition Saturday, June 4, 2011 Buenos Aires, Argentina -------------------------------------------------------- Greece, Goldman and the post-"Summer of Recovery" Double Dip, Readers weigh in on competing currencies, the IRS and more, Plus, all the rest of this week's reckonings, archived for your digital reading enjoyment... -------------------------------------------------------- Tiny Company Discovers "New Silicon" – It's 200 Times Stronger Than Steel! One tiny company in Ottawa just cracked a $2.5 billion puzzle. Find out how you could cash in today – with this shocking briefing. Watch it now – right here. -------------------------------------------------------- Joel Bowman, checking in from Buenos Aires, Argentina... Did you see this chart from Wednesday's Daily Reckoning? That double dip that nobody thought was possible last year has now come to pass. And after the administration's much-ballyhooed "Summer of Recovery," no less! Gee... Who woulda thunk it? "The Case-Shiller 20-City Index of home prices has dropped to its lowest level since mid-2003," explains Eric in this week's "Financial World in Pictures" feature column. "After adjusting for inflation, the index has tumbled to 1999 levels." The index reading seems to confirm what Eric and some of our other editors have been reckoning for some time now: That last year's homebuyer's tax credit did little more than bring forward demand, goosing markets while they were in effect, but ultimately only providing yet another unhelpful market distortion. "Remember those people who were tempted into buying a house with an $8,000 tax credit?" chimed Bill in Thursday's issue. "Alas, another government program backfires. Many buyers also used the handy services of FHA financing, with just a 3.5% down payment [...] So what happened to those new homeowners? They're underwater! Thanks a lot, feds!" Perhaps not coincidentally, Washington, DC, the belly of the beast, was the only major metropolitan area to register gains. Hmmm... You can read the rest of this week's feature column, which includes Eric's thoughts on the worsening situation in Greece, the tribulations of Goldman Sachs and the lamentable state of the US housing market, right here: Where the Wildest Things Are ~ By Eric Fry -------------------------------------------------------- Uncovered: A Way to Tap into an "Other" Pool of Government-Backed Income Potential... ..that only a handful of Americans know about. And with Social Security becoming less and less of a guarantee, now is the time to act. Click here now and discover a way to protect your retirement from the uncertainties surrounding Social Security. -------------------------------------------------------- ALSO THIS WEEK in The Daily Reckoning... Liquefied Natural Gas Goes Boom! By Chris Mayer Gaithersburg, Maryland Even before the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami reminded the world that nuclear power is not risk-free, the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market was booming in Japan. In fact, the LNG market has been booming throughout Asia for the last several years. That's good news for Australia...and for a variety of companies that serve the LNG industry. Nano-Engineering Making Big Strides By Ray Blanco Marco Island, Florida Scientific and technological advances are increasingly powered by our ability to build things at the atomic level. Mimicking processes that take place in biology, scientists are using custom self-assembling structures to power new molecular breakthroughs. At the atomic level, there is no fundamental difference between the various scientific disciplines. Improving nanotechnology is converging them at an accelerating rate. The New World Order By Chris Hunter My job takes me all over the world. So far this year, I've traveled on your behalf to visit Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Brazil. And we're not even at the halfway point yet! These trips make up the backbone of my research into the best investments the world has to offer. I pound the sidewalk. Talk to locals. Meet with experts on the ground. And do my best to get "under the hood" of the places I visit. -------------------------------------------------------- KO's Cancer in 36 Hours! A little-known biotech company is making medical history...but with FDA fast track review status for their cancer treatment, this small company might not stay "little-known" for long... So you must move fast if you want to get in on the ground floor of what could be the biggest medical breakthrough in decades... Click here to learn more now. -------------------------------------------------------- The Weekly Endnote: And now, as has become customary this time of the week, we turn the floor over to our Fellow Reckoners... First up, this one from Reckoner W.H. ... Regarding Bill's recent post concerning the SEC: VERY INTERESTING INDEED! In a perhaps unrelated incident, my wife and I have recently, after a two year battle with the IRS where they claimed my wife owed $8,700 in capitol gains back taxes from 2007, and after having proved undeniably that she did not in fact owe any amount of money, my wife was forced to pay a reduced amount of $2,600 to get the IRS off her back. Talk about being strong-armed! And now after hearing Bill's story... I strongly believe that the US Government is broke...broke...broke and they are shaking down the peasants for whatever pennies fall out. So sad...so sad... Our government used to steal from other countries and lie to us. Now they lie to other countries and steal from us. What's to become of the middle class when the lies no longer work and the peasants' pockets are empty? I suspect, as that is already the case...the government is now eying the rich and circling like sharks.... Try to keep your feet dry. Keep up the good fight and keep us posted. And this, from Reckoner S.D.... Hi Guys, love your stuff. Over and over writers recommend purchasing houses (who could go wrong at rock-bottom?) for a variety of reasons. One of which is the expectation that today's DOLLARS will lose so much value that a 30-year loan pays back peanuts... True, but consider that the money lenders control the system, always, and that sheeple will always be sheeple. Seems likely as the Bosses anticipate loss LAWS will be passed to again favor the Bankers, and likely new money issued; all part of the turmoil that must come as a result of present actions and contractions, and likely coming war. Leaving property owners as sitting ducks for the many new taxes and fees that must be coming. Real Estate? In moderation with serious discrimination, and location, location, location. And finally, this thoughtful email from a Fellow Reckoner, N.H., checking in from his post in Australia... Totally agree with your competing currencies comments. I keep notes from the four note-issuing banks in Scotland in my bag and show people who don't believe me that banks used to issue their own currencies. Did you know the UK has about 10 note-issuing banks – the remnants of Free Banking? They are all deemed of equivalent value by the Bank of England, but carry the names and designs of the banks they are from. Funnily enough, some English won't accept Scottish notes, so even discounting is alive and well. The Aussie customs guys held me up for an hour once, trying to find an exchange rate for the "Scottish Pounds" that I had, which didn't exist in their systems. --- And that's it, Fellow Reckoner. No nasty name calling this week...no recommended dates with The Antichrist...and nary a malediction, deserved or otherwise, to clog up the DR inbox. Guess we'll have to try harder next week... And as always, enjoy your weekend. Cheers, Joel Bowman Managing Editor The Daily Reckoning