Dominant Social Theme: An additional, reasonable tax ...

Free-Market Analysis: This US law seems fairly invasive. Year-to-year, any payments to a vendor of more than US$600 will have to be reported to the IRS. While we were aware of this payment mandate, we hadn't fully realized the consequences for gold and silver until a feedbacker pointed them out yesterday. Go on the Internet now and you will find reports that spell out the ramifications for precious metals purchases. Again, if someone buys aggregate annual gold and silver above US$600, the purchases apparently have to be reported, along with other purchases as well.

Predictably, there is already political pushback. Representative Daniel E. Lungren of California has introduced a bill, H. R. 5141 (referred to the Committee on Ways and Means), "to repeal the expansion of information reporting requirements for payments of $600 or more to corporations, and for other purposes." But commentary on the Internet regarding such efforts is not uniformly encouraging.