4 Ways the Government Is Set to Take Your Money

“Persons traveling with more than $10,000 worth of currency or monetary instruments must declare their holdings to Customs and Border Protection under penalty of perjury.”
That’s exactly what it states, in powder blue ink, on the card that airline flight attendants hand to you, before landing at international airports across the U.S. So imagine this…
It’s 3 p.m. (NOTE — Int’l flights from Europe usually land in the afternoon) in Newark Liberty International Airport, and a respectable-looking American woman is returning from a trip to Switzerland. She was visiting Zurich, on business, with a little bit of tourism on the side.
This business-traveler/tourist returnee is a good person, from all appearances. She’s married, with children; has a job; pays taxes; no criminal record; heck, not even a traffic ticket. She’s the nice lady next door, basically. (more)

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The Default of Social Security: How the Government is Secretly Pilfering Your Retirement

Social Security ran a deficit of $71 billion in 2013. This was the fourth year in a row in which Social Security paid out more than it collected.
A recent piece by the Heritage Foundation states that the Social Security Trust Fund (which includes Social Security and disability) will be out of money by the year 2033.
These deficits came on a lot faster than what had been predicted several years ago. The major downturn in the economy in 2008 led to higher government expenditures and lower tax collections.
Imagine how bad the Social Security deficits will be if we see another major downturn.
(more)

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Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACHN)

Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes anti-infective drug therapies in the United States and internationally. It focuses on developing combination therapies for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C (HCV) infection and resistant bacterial infections. The company’s drug candidates for treating chronic HCV infection comprise Sovaprevir, a NS3/4A protease inhibitor, which has completed a Phase IIa clinical trial; ACH-3102, a NS5A inhibitor that is in Phase IIa clinical trial; ACH-3422, a NS5B nucleotide polymerase inhibitor, which has completed preclinical studies; and ACH-2684, a NS3/4A protease inhibitor that has completed Phase Ia and Ib clinical trials. It has a license and development agreement with Ora, Inc. for the development and commercialization of ACH-702, an antibacterial drug candidate that is delivered topically or locally.
Take a look at the 1-year chart of Achillion (Nasdaq: ACHN) with added notations:

After trading between $2 and $4 from October through May, ACHN shot up to hit a new high of $8.50 in June, and then sold off into July. Since that time, the stock has rallied back up to the $8.50 resistance (red) and appears to have now formed the cup (blue) portion of a potential cup and handle pattern. Regardless if the stock forms the handle or not, the stock should be headed higher if it breaks through resistance.

The Tale of the Tape: ACHN may have formed the cup in a C&H pattern. A long trade should be entered on a breakout above the $8.50 level with a stop placed under that level.
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The Problem That I See With Silver

One of the most important themes that we focus on every day is the idea that the more times that a level is tested, the higher the likelihood that it breaks. This goes in both directions. A good example of an upside break after multiple tests of resistance is $HD the last few days. I loved that chart coming into the week. But to the downside, I think Silver is testing this key support way too many times for comfort. It looks to me like the resolution here is going to be to the downside.
First, here is a weekly line chart showing these lows just below 19 tested successfully 3 times. Where I come from triple bottoms and triple tops are very very rare, if they even exist at all. In all likelihood, as I mentioned on Fox Business in late May, we’ll see a 4th or 5th test that eventually cracks the support. Well as we can see in this chart, we’re seeing just that: a 4th test of support in a commodity that is still in a 3+ year downtrend:

We have yet to see any evidence that this downtrend is reversing. In fact, with each bounce off this key support level, the sellers have become less and less patient. Notice how each rally off support has been weaker and weaker. The theory is that the next bounce won’t be much of a bounce at all and support will break leading to a bigger sell off.  (more)
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The Guerrilla Economist "V" : August 17, 2014

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