By now, many of you know the value of owning dividend stocks. But you may not know which ones to buy, or how to collect the dividend payments once you own the stock.

With a 10-year note that is yielding less than two percent, what is a fixed-income investor to do?

When these policies begin to crumble, it's not bankers and politicians who pay the price. It's people like you and me...

Interest rates aren't just some arbitrary number pulled out of the air by central bankers and credit card companies.

Jason's video analyzes the move of U.S. bonds over the past few years and also shows where I think prices are headed in the long and the short term.

Why are S&P 500 companies holding onto cash instead of paying its investors through dividends?

We all know what the Fed wants. They're really hoping that with super low interest rates, more people will be inclined to borrow money, to open businesses, to invest, and otherwise spend.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has once again managed to penalize responsible savers.

Income stocks have never looked better than after yesterday’s Fed bombshell.

Here are the top 3 hallmark events that sparked the beginning of the end of America.

Yesterday stocks fell on "European pessimism" and that's after stocks rose Friday on "European optimism." But nothing happened over the weekend to change Friday's viewpoint...

It's almost as if the EU and the U.S. Congress are in a contest to see which group can do the most damage to the global economy.

The market seems to be expecting Bernanke to do something. Perhaps he will announce the "twist" selling out of short-term Treasuries and buying the long ones.

U.S. Money Market funds aren't buying as much Euro-bank debt anymore.

The market continued its incredible rally higher on Friday. Volume increased as the bulls tacked on another gain and the SPX finished 5% higher for the week. More importantly, SPX was able to rally past 1175 again.

After the burst past 1175, buyers wasted no time and took the SPX all the way up to 1220 resistance. But much like in the past, 1220 could not be broken.

Over the past month or two months I have stayed bullish, but at the same time I refused to believe SPX could rally past 1250 without government assistance.

We know the government lies to us about inflation. In fact, investors take this lie as just another cost of doing business as a willing participant in the world's greatest economy.

But I'm willing to bet that most people simply have no idea about how long we've been lied to.

And since I try to keep these Friday editions of the Resource Prospector a little more entertaining or amusing, I thought I'd share a War Advertising Council ad from the WW2 era.

So, let me start today by offering my apologies if you had difficulty getting Daily Profit or any of our other letters yesterday. The Wyatt Investment Research offices in Vermont were inaccessible. Check out this incredible photo - tweeted by WPTZ's Jill Glavan yesterday.

That's exit 11 off highway I-89 to Richmond, Vermont. We're used to getting around on skis, snowshoes and snowmobiles. But boats? Not so much.

I'm grateful that none of my staff suffered any major damage or injury, and I certainly hope Daily Profit readers were spared anything more than inconvenience.

Now, let's get back to business.

The end is near for one of the world's greatest tyrants. 40+ years ago, the world allowed a ruthless dictator to come into power. This dictator used their power to fund endless war, terror and State sponsored killings, theft, imprisonment - even torture.

But lately, that power is on the wane. Loyal supporters continue to deny that anything is wrong - or even that anything is changed.

I might be talking about Muammar Gadhafi, but I could just as easily be talking about the Federal Reserve Note, or dollar, in common parlance.

It's always nice to know that stocks can actually rally. And seeing stocks build on their gains throughout the day is a bonus.

Yesterday's rally appears to be a mix of relief and short-covering. For instance, I suspect the move for Citi (NYSE:C) was helped along by shorts saying "enough is enough" and covering their downside positions.

You'll notice that Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) finished in the red, though off its' early lows. Investors are still bearish on banks.

I'm a little surprised by how high QE3 expectations have risen. Given how much flack the Fed took for QE2, and the commodity inflation it sparked, I expected the market to be opposed to another round of liquidity-pumping.

But that's the semi-psychotic nature of the stock market, at times. Investors might complain about the spending, about the monetary expansion and the rising commodity prices.

Still, stocks like liquidity, even if it is inflationary, and even if it creates imbalances and potential bubbles in the economy.

Stocks are up today, so far. Speculation that the Fed will not be able to resist more quantitative easing is putting a floor under stock prices. And the news that Qaddafi is just about defeated in Libya is helping the good vibes.

But clearly, this market will need more than speculation about the Fed and the easing of some geopolitical tension.

We need some economic data to show a little growth, and ease the worries that the U.S. economy is slipping back into recession.

The market declined mildly on Friday. Volume was jacked since Friday was option expiration day. But the price movement wasn't terribly exciting, or even all that frightening.

The selling was steady and persistent, but it didn't look convincing. While stocks declined, very few hit new lows. And the lack of new lows indicates that the indices are forming support zones.

The market action over the past few weeks has been extremely volatile. And it seems like support zones are regained and lost in hours. But SPX is stable around 1115. And hopefully that means it is forming a long term base from which to launch higher.

Many well-meaning people believe that the State is out to help them. That, if all else fails, the United States Federal Government will swoop in and give them a personal bailout.

So what's backstopping the American way of life? Is it the Government?

We live under the strongest political system the world has ever seen. It's the world's largest employer. It has legions of bureaucrats counting beans, measuring widgets and regulating the unregulatable.

It has the largest military force, backed by the most advanced and deadly war machines to ever exist.

The market, once again this month, was obliterated. In a single session the indices lost nearly 4% and volume was high. Every equity index fell, and aside from Gold, Silver, Platinum, Bonds, Dollar and Coffee, every single commodity and currency was also annihilated.

Earlier in the week I cautioned what a difficult resistance area the 1250, and before that the 1220, zone would be to take back. I thought a decline from the 1220 zone would take SPX back to 1175, which would act as support. But yesterday SPX gapped down from 1193 and immediately hit the next support target area, 1155.

Today I'd like to take full advantage of the power you give me. You might not realize it, but you are one of many. Tens of thousands of people read the words I write every day.

And while it's easy to forget while I sit here alone behind a keyboard, my 3 month old son cooing in the next room while my wife makes coffee - I have your attention for a few minutes each day - and that attention means something.

There's nothing about having the attention of thousands of people that I take lightly, which is why you should know that I do not accuse Ben Bernanke lightly.

The market broke free, momentarily, of 1197 resistance yesterday morning and pushed over 1% higher to start the day. But right around 10:00, most indices peaked, and by lunch they traded with minor losses. While the indices were able to bounce off those lows, most still finished flat on the day.

More important than the flat session was the inability of the bulls to keep the market above 1197 for the second time this week. Additionally, all major U.S. indices formed long wicked doji candles, which do qualify as a topping candle.

The reprieve from Euro-news was short-lived. News that the Fed has been meeting with the executives at U.S. branches of European banks is raising the fear level of investors this morning.

It's being reported that one European bank has recently borrowed $500 billion from the European Central Bank. And that's the first time such lending has taken place since February.

Needless to say, at least some European banks are having liquidity problems. The recent statements from European banks like France's Societe Generale that they are fine are being called into question. Rightfully so.

When the Federal Reserve announced last week that it would keep interest rates low until mid-2013, it did so despite the dissension of three Fed governors.

Yesterday, one of the dissenting governors, the Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser told Bloomberg radio that the Fed's decision to keep rates low for another two years was "the inappropriate policy at an inappropriate time."

I was kind of surprised by this type of strong statement from a sitting Fed president. Most of the time, Fed insiders wait until they're not inside the Fed before they start throwing mud.

Right now, Mr. Market is giving you a variety of warning signs. You don't get market volatility like we've seen over the past couple weeks unless there's something very, very wrong with stocks.

You also don't get Italy, Spain, and the United States' debt all downgraded unless there's something wrong in the sovereign debt world.

Gold and silver don't go on decade-long bull market tears unless there's something very wrong with the dollar.

In 2008, we knew that the mortgage-backed securities depleted the cash reserves at banks to the point that they were insolvent. In January of 2010, it was the uncertainty of Greek sovereign debt along with other European countries that caused a very sharp pull back for stock prices.

But it's more difficult to find a culprit for the declines we've seen lately.

Yes, there have been weakening economic data, to the point that GDP growth may be below the 2% line. That's close enough to negative growth that some are throwing around the "r" word: recession.

The market recovered in a major way. Volume soared as the bulls emerged and took the indices 4% to 5% higher, literally in an instant.

Most indices hit session lows in the early afternoon, and were poised to close lower for yet another time. But in the last hour, the major U.S. indices burst higher to the tune of 7% to close positive.

The big gains from the indices on Tuesday erased most of the loss that occurred on Monday, which was attributable to the credit rating fiasco. Over the past few sessions I cautioned against going short.

As I explained, the market could head lower, but that downside was minimal. And once buyers stepped in a sharp and quick counter-trend rally would ensue. Yesterday morning I was looking for that rally to commence, which is exactly what happened.

The late-session snapback rally on Tuesday brought stocks back from the depths of Monday's losses, but many observers still say that we're not out of the woods yet.

What's stalking investors in the dark woods is a bear market. Small-cap stocks on Monday were down 25 percent from the Russell 2000's most recent high of 869 on May 2nd, but Tuesday's buying spree pushed the Russell 2000 back to 'just' a 20 percent decline - the threshold for a bear market.

Still, the latest pronouncement from Federal Reserve policymakers brought the buyers out of the woods and off the sidelines, given the availability of many bargain prices for stocks.

Will stocks go up from here, or will they continue their fall?

That's the question right now, and many mainstream news agencies correctly point out that the answer largely hinges on what the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says later today with regard to monetary policy.

Imagine: the world's largest and most powerful economy ALL tied to the words and deeds of an academic in Washington DC.

How did we get here?

I know I've spent the last two days resisting the temptation to discuss the debt ceiling.

But I can resist no longer.

Monday night, President Obama went on TV and said something that made me very angry...

The market consolidated last week, as expected, although I would have preferred a deeper pull back. The indices rallied hard into the first week of July, and rebounded a little too far and too fast.

The market has a big week, and month, ahead of it. I would have expected the indices to pull-back more ahead of this week, but the time for consolidation is over.

Investors must decide whether the market will break-out to fresh highs, or tank. The market consolidated last week, as expected, although I would have preferred a deeper pull back.

The indices rallied hard into the first week of July, and rebounded a little too far and too fast. The market has a big week, and month, ahead of it. I would have expected the indices to pull-back more ahead of this week, but the time for consolidation is over.

We're all Americans - right? Regardless of how our nation's sovereign debt issue plays out, we still share common values that made this country great, and so shall again allow us to climb from the rubble, and rebuild it again and again.

I'd like to believe this assertion - but unfortunately I've come to realize that this country is divided into two opposed camps, one of which is in direct opposition to the statement above. And these two schools of thought cut across racial, political, religious and socio-economic lines.

Right now the folks in charge in Washington DC overwhelmingly fall into the first camp. While they may sing the national anthem just like you and me, they're only going through the motions. They don't believe it. They don't believe in individual responsibility, liberty, honesty or hard work.

Yesterday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced the potential for a third round of quantitative easing only IF economic conditions continue to decline in the United States. He predicted that “inflation will subside as the effects of past energy and other commodity price increases dissipate”.

The Obama administration decided shortly after Bernanke's press conference that they were not willing to wait for an official third round of easing (QE3). So, in a press release this morning  the International Energy Agency (IEA) announced it would release 60 million barrels of oil from global reserves. Over half of the oil released would come from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is located in a man-made underground salt domes in Louisiana and Texas. The U.S. holds 727 million barrels of oil in the reserves which is enough to cover 85 days worth of U.S. oil imports. The U.S. would release the equivalent of 5 percent of its reserves to the market.

The decision sparked controversy between the Republicans and Democrats. Republicans called the Obama administration’s plan to release the oil a political move, while Democrats said the effort to ease shortages may be too little, too late.

On a global scale, this is the third time that the IEA has released strategic oil reserves. The last time was shortly after the Hurricane Katrina.

Crude oil prices and shares of oil companies plunged after the news was reported. Brent crude oil fell more than $6 to $107 per barrel of oil. Shares of Exxon (NYSE: XOM) and Chevron (NYSE: CVX) were all down 3 percent in mid-morning trading. The Dow was down 200 points, but has pared some of its losses since the announcement.

The timing of the IEA move comes only days ahead of the end of the Federal Reserve’s second quantitative easing program (QE2). In the absence of continued Fed buying of Treasuries, and the liquidity it adds to the financial markets, moving to reduce oil prices will be another helping hand to the U.S. economy. Knocking $20 a barrel off oil prices would reduce America’s annual oil spend by some $150 billion.

In an international game of 3-card Monty, it seems as though the Federal Reserve's Quantitative Easing (QE1/QE2) program has done little else but to help capitalize insolvent European banks.

Take a look at the chart below, which shows the "coincidental" infusion of nearly $700 billion into the balance sheets of Foreign banks at the same time that the Federal Reserve pumped the same amount of money into the markets via QE2.

It's not clear exactly how the funds ended up on the balance sheets of the European banks, but what is clear is that American banks experienced no such balance sheet boost over the same period. Why is the Fed now backstopping European banks? Well it's pretty clear that Europe's sovereign debt issues are somewhat more advanced that America's, so maybe Bernanke is trying to quarantine those issues to the other side of the Atlantic.

In any event, the effect is clear, regardless of how it's achieved.

And the lesson to be learned is now an old one: you can't trust the Fed or the banks.

If you're interested in investing in a bank that has nothing to do with the Fed, Wall Street or the typical too-big-to-fail "bankster" institutions, check out the full write up on a Manhattan bank that didn't take a dime in bailouts. And it's currently paying an 8.2% dividend to shareholders.

Click here.

Back in November, I made some predictions about the then upcoming second round of Quantitative Easing, aka QE2.

In short, I predicted that QE2 would disappoint the market. As a consequence, I thought that most asset classes would trend lower as the dollar strengthened.

I hoped that such an action would occur, because I believed, and still believe, that the commodity market still has plenty of upside, but that such a disappointment would create a stellar buying opportunity to load up on my favorite commodities.

I was wrong, of course. Bernanke’s announcement of $600 billion only encouraged the markets higher.

Everything’s more expensive now – which is exactly the type of market movement that’s highly unlikely if not completely impossible under normal circumstances. Normally, if widget X goes up in price, commodity Y and wage Z will fall. Normally, prices don’t all rise at once…

Paper money system default appears at first glance to be an unhappy accident of progressive governments biting off more debt than they can chew.

And while there’s certainly plenty of blame to go around for progressives, conservatives, RINOs, DINOs and moderates alike – if you take notice of who benefits from the devaluation of paper currencies, you arrive at a different conclusion.

You’d think that progressive candidates would spend money in an effort to end poverty. That would get them elected for life by the formerly impoverished.

Similarly, you’d expect the end-goal for hawkish conservative legislators would be world peace. Nothing would be a bigger victory for the world’s greatest military.

But despite decades of entitlement programs at home and billions of dollars spent annually on intermittently bombing and paying our enemies into submission abroad – we still have more poor people in this country than we know what to do with, and our list of enemies only grows longer every year, not shorter.

So if these programs have failed, then who or what is the real beneficiary of inflationary policy-cum-deficit spending?

Any first year economics student will be able to slowly and cogently explain the theory of maximum employment, or even give you a run-down on modern monetary theory.

Certainly, most hobbyist economists will be able to fumble their way through an explanation of Keynesian stimulus theory.

But where their book learning and theories and financial models break apart is during a crisis.

Why?

Because: you can’t model a currency crisis. You can’t say when one will occur. You can’t say how bad it will be once it starts.

A currency crisis occurs outside the realm of even the best mathematically correct theories. Such a crisis results from a massive, widespread loss of faith in a given currency. It doesn’t happen in textbooks or in charts, models or in Paul Krugman’s daily hack-job column.

It happens in the minds of men.

It’s easy to be cynical about the state of the dollar – after all, it seems as if every bit of news is either terrible for the dollar, or clearly a whitewash attempt from some Pollyanna official or talking head.

When all the real news is bad and all the rest of it is BS, it’s tough to keep a positive outlook.

It’s easy to get angry, frustrated and irritable about the state of this country and its currency – especially as friends, family and acquaintances just don’t “get” what’s going on.

Most people still have no conception of what money really is: a medium of exchange and a store of value. They can’t see that the Federal Reserve Note is an especially poor money unit.

But that’s okay. Even if people in this country have to be pulled, kicking and screaming into gold and silver ownership – they will do so.

Be content with your precious metals ownership and investments. Continue averaging into gold and silver – especially on dips.

The U.S. dollar's bounce has driven a lot of the market's turbulence lately. If you were long the dollar recently, or investments that would rise with the dollar, you've made money over the past two weeks.