Gold Outperformed the S&P by 12% per Year since 1999!

Over the past 10 years, gold outperformed the S&P 500 by 12% *PER YEAR* (200% total difference). That's a pretty severe discrepancy.

Check that article on my blog for the full details.

I'm always amused when the comedians on the Communism Channel (CNBC) say "People who buy gold are idiots!" Any mutual fund or hedge fund manager with the same track record as physical gold would be on CNBC every day bragging about how awesome he is.

I noticed this post citing "Ron Paul Forums and Paid Disinformation Agents" from my blog.

There's some other interesting bits on my blog besides that article. I figured I'd make some other posts here highlighting them, since that discussion drove a lot of traffic to my blog.

Recapping my conclusions from that post, there are several types of people who may troll a forum.

1. There's people who are just plain stupid. They get offended when they hear something that contradicts their brainwashing, and aggressively defend their false beliefs.
2. There's people who have a professional interest in disinformation. They might be journalists/bankers/politicians/lawyers/economists/professors/etc., whose profession depends on them not noticing the flaws in the current system. These people might not be on the direct payroll of the bad guys, but they're going to aggressively defend their false beliefs.
3. There's professional PR agents hired by a corporation. I'm convinced that drug company PR agents troll Wikipedia, censoring negative information about their drugs. Financial industry PR groups might be interested in disrupting discussions where people criticize the Federal Reserve.
4. There's spies directly planted by the State. I've heard that the police plant spies in citizen activist groups. Similarly, online discussion forums would be a target.

The trolls of type (3) and (4) are most dangerous. Spreading disinformation is their full-time job. They can easily create multiple identities and swarm a forum with disinformation. They can post, under 10-20 different identities, "FSK is wrong!", giving a superficial impression that a correct viewpoint is unpopular. They have nothing better to do than post all day (It's their job!) They build up a huge posting track record and a high "karma" rating. Displaying the IP address of users isn't a full solution, because proxies can be used and a clever person can hide their IP address.

On a Ron Paul forum, I'd be very suspicious of anyone who defends the Federal Reserve, the income tax, or big government. Anybody who supports any of those isn't really listening or understanding Ron Paul.

I got frustrated arguing with trolls/idiots on the other Ron Paul forum, and decided to start my own blog.