American Investment Services, Inc.

Disciplined, Diversified, & Cost Effective

2011

Feb. 2011 – Price Inflation, Social Security & Senior Citizens’ Burdens

While the broader media has largely ignored until only recently the flaws inherent in Social Security, our parent organization, AIER, has consistently pointed to these deficiencies. In 1935, when Social Security first became law, AIER warned against the depressive effects of Social Security’s taxes. In 1939, the first of many expansions was enacted, prompting AIER …

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Apr. 2011 – Fiat Follies and the Dollar: Where the Buck Stops

Politicians have met the bond market. Legislators in Washington have spent lavishly for decades, and the bill is now due. Standard and Poor’s change in outlook for U.S. Treasury securities from “stable” to “negative” serves as a stark reminder that profligate spending has consequences. While fiat currencies can mask the ill effects of unchecked fiscal …

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Jul. 2011 – Treasury Bonds, Defaults, and Credit Ratings

Those of us who attended economics classes dutifully recorded in our notebooks that the returns on obligations of the U.S. Treasury were the “proxy for the risk-free rate of return.” They provide a foundation to which “risk premiums” could be added in order to approximate higher expected rates of return for the universe of inherently …

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