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Adam Taggart

A Short Lesson in Bad Decision-Making

In business school I had to take an introductory class in statistics that we colloquially called "D&D." The official course name was Data & Decision-making.

In retrospect, it was a truly valuable class (one of very few I encountered in b-school). If you can figure out how to use statistics to determine the most probable outcome from a set of scenarios, or find predictive correlations from within a sea of data, that's real power. You can take a lot of the guesswork out of decision-making and consequently make the "right" call much more often.

A Short Lesson in Bad Decision-Making

In business school I had to take an introductory class in statistics that we colloquially called "D&D." The official course name was Data & Decision-making.

Time to Focus on ‘Return of Capital’

I am more concerned with the return of my money than the return on my money.

– unknown (often attributed to Mark Twain or Will Rogers)

The U.S. Presidential race is now behind us. And this morning the world woke up and realized that all the issues the election postponed now lie before us.

In his victory speech, President Obama focused on moving 'forward':

Time to Focus on ‘Return of Capital’

I am more concerned with the return of my money than the return on my money.

– unknown (often attributed to Mark Twain or Will Rogers)

The U.S. Presidential race is now behind us. And this morning the world woke up and realized that all the issues the election postponed now lie before us.

In his victory speech, President Obama focused on moving 'forward':

Happy 50th, Chris!

On Saturday, Chris turns 50. The Fed would have to announce QE4-ever as Chris prepares to celebrate his half-century milestone….

While his family toasts (and roasts) him this weekend, there's no reason we shouldn't do the same.

Happy 50th, Chris!

On Saturday, Chris turns 50. The Fed would have to announce QE4-ever as Chris prepares to celebrate his half-century milestone….

While his family toasts (and roasts) him this weekend, there's no reason we shouldn't do the same.

Our New Endorsed Solution for Purchasing Precious Metals

We're very pleased to announce our participation in the Hard Assets Alliance, our newly endorsed solution for purchasing precious metals.

For years, we've received a continuous stream of questions from readers, all essentially asking where's the best place to buy gold and silver?

While we've done our best to review and present an assessed list of the top bullion vendors, the remaining work readers needed to do in comparing each of them was still more challenging and confusing than we were comfortable with. It's been clear that folks are hoping for a single "best of the best" recommendation.

That's why we were so glad when the Hard Assets Alliance was formed, and we had the good fortune to be invited to be a Founding Member. This new platform offers so many clear advantages to customers that we were happy to throw our support behind it.

Our New Endorsed Solution for Purchasing Precious Metals

We're very pleased to announce our participation in the Hard Assets Alliance, our newly endorsed solution for purchasing precious metals.

For years, we've received a continuous stream of questions from readers, all essentially asking where's the best place to buy gold and silver?

Introducing Peak Prosperity

Welcome to Peak Prosperity!

After more than a year of planning and hard work, we’re thrilled to share this new site with you.

What We Focused On

Our principal goals for Peak Prosperity are to offer a better user experience than ChrisMartenson.com (our recently-retired previous site — may it rest in peace, *sniff*), and to introduce solutions for the needs most-frequently voiced by our readers over the years.

We gave priority to the following benefits when building this site:

make it more intuitive to navigate & find what you’re looking for
improve our ability to deliver more content, more frequently to our readers
clarify our brand, our positive vision, and what we stand for
better empower resiliency-building at the personal and community level
improve site performance, stability & reliability

What To Look For

As you start to use the new site, keep your eye out for the following enhancements:

Introducing Peak Prosperity

Welcome to Peak Prosperity!

After more than a year of planning and hard work, we’re thrilled to share this new site with you.

What We Focused On

We gave priority to the following benefits when building this site:

make it more intuitive to navigate & find what you’re looking for
improve our ability to deliver more content, more frequently to our readers
clarify our brand, our positive vision, and what we stand for
better empower resiliency-building at the personal and community level
improve site performance, stability & reliability

What To Look For

As you start to use the new site, keep your eye out for the following enhancements:

My Career Transition Story

Late 2009

Stress and anxiety defined my world. But on the surface, no one suspected that.

I was a Vice President at a Fortune 300 Silicon Valley tech giant, about to celebrate my ninth anniversary there. I had arrived there after a successful start-up stint, and before that, an MBA from Stanford and a few years at a Wall Street bulge-bracket firm.

My career appeared to be progressing right on schedule. So what was there to worry about?

My Career Transition Story

Late 2009

Stress and anxiety defined my world. But on the surface, no one suspected that.

My career appeared to be progressing right on schedule. So what was there to worry about?

Attending to Your Financial Resiliency

It's been a frenetic couple of weeks.

Amidst the deterioration in Europe and the growing weakness in the US markets, in mid-May Chris issued the warning Get Ready: We're About to Have Another 2008-Style Crisis. Downside momentum has built since then, leading him to release a rare call to buy gold last week (which has since proved prescient in the immediate term) as well as a more-pointed report today to our enrolled members: Buckle Up – Market Breakdown In Progress.

It's times of heightened uncertainty like this where dislocating change has the potential to occur swiftly and sharply. Often events move much faster than people's ability to react appropriately to them. We've been recommending a defensive posture for investors for a long time now, but it's critical to adopt that position before the big market swings occur.

If you are going to keep money in the financial markets (stocks, bonds, etc.), you need to honestly ask yourself if you have the expertise and the bandwidth to intelligently and actively manage your investments throughout a coming period of potentially gut-wrenching volatility and uncertainty. If you know you don't or are uncertain, we can't stress enough the importance of working with a good financial advisor who will design and steward a prudent, risk-managed portfolio for you.

Attending to Your Financial Resiliency

It's been a frenetic couple of weeks.

What Should I Be Doing Now?

Uncertainty and anxiety have returned to the financial markets. Gold is down 18% from its high last year, and silver down over 40%. Europe is a powder keg and Greece a smoldering fuse. An Asian slowdown is happening in real-time before our eyes. Energy prices remain stubbornly elevated. Dangerously high unemployment persists in many countries and consumer confidence is again on the wane. Housing prices show no signs of rebounding anytime soon. Budget woes are accelerating at both the federal and state level. The cost of key essentials for living (food, fuel, medical care) and taxes relentlessly march upwards.

In the midst of all this, we're hearing many longtime readers ask: What should I be doing now?

The short answer is: making the most of the time you have today, putting into action your prioritized plans to increase the resiliency of yourself, your family and community.

This is the focus of our last weekend seminar of 2012, which will be held a month from now, from June 29-July 1.

If you don't yet have your plan together, or could use some help in re-grounding yourself on what steps to take and how to prioritize them, you should really consider this opportunity.

What Should I Be Doing Now?

In the midst of all this, we're hearing many longtime readers ask: What should I be doing now?

The short answer is: making the most of the time you have today, putting into action your prioritized plans to increase the resiliency of yourself, your family and community.

This is the focus of our last weekend seminar of 2012, which will be held a month from now, from June 29-July 1.

If you don't yet have your plan together, or could use some help in re-grounding yourself on what steps to take and how to prioritize them, you should really consider this opportunity.

An Opportunity To Own Farmland

PREVIEW

Today we are trying something new. We are bringing an investment opportunity to CM.com readers, one that many of you have been quite vocal about finding for years. As an enrolled member, you are learning about this in advance of the general public. Please note that this opportunity is not for everyone, so read carefully. If the CM.com community appreciates being made privy to similar opportunities like this in the future, we'll continue to keep looking for them.

Gaining exposure to farmland as an investment asset class is highly desired by many of our readers, but very challenging to obtain in practice. Chris and I have been seeking a good solution to which we can refer interested individuals, and we believe we've finally found one.

An Opportunity To Own Farmland

PREVIEW

Sharing Our Virtual Thanksgiving Table

The core of this site is its community. Having conscientious discussion about a post-Peak Oil future with smart, supportive, and experienced minds from all over the planet is an incredibly valuable resource.

At Thanksgiving time on this site, we like to reflect on the good fortune we share: that Chris had the courage to share his Crash Course vision with the world, that this like-minded community has flourished around it, and that we still have the gift of time to make progress in our resiliency-building preparations.

So, let’s make the most of the “virtual” Thanksgiving table we’ve created here at this site, and if you have a moment today, share a thought, story, or photo of what you’re thankful for this season.