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Chris Martenson

Image | Off the Cuff: Bankers On Edge
Off the Cuff: Bankers On Edge
 PREVIEW

In this week's Off the Cuff podcast, Chris and Charles Hugh Smith discuss:

  • Gold is being driven by speculators in lock-step with the yen
  • So is the S&P 500
  • Why labor pricing power is broken and will stay that way
  • The shale oil Ponzi scheme breaks…and defaults are sure to follow
  • China's economic miracle is about to become a mirage

Charles: And it certainly seems that oil is being used as a weapon. But you know, let's also I would like your view on the idea that the world economy is going into recession. It seems sort of obvious to me. Europe is already either in recession or so stagnant that it is the same as recession. The US is stumbling along with fake growth in terms of households. And then China is rolling over. Japan is going down the sinkhole.

So what will that do to oil if demand really craters like we get another 2008 situation where the financing dries up and people stop borrowing because they are afraid and they stop spending and the whole thing that causes recession. I think that is going to have a potentially huge impact on oil and it would hurt everybody that is producing oil the Saudis included. They may be talking bravely, but I believe that their production costs have risen considerably because they have had to run hundreds of miles of pipe and they are injecting carbon dioxide and sea water and stuff into their wells to keep their production up.

Chris Martenson: The old days of Saudi Arabia sticking a straw in the ground and pulling oil out at a dollar or two a barrel those are long gone because if you have ever seen they have a rack of four pipes that stretch, I forget, 100 miles or something going from the ocean to one of their fields. And each one of those pipes is about the diameter of a large room. They are like 14 feet in diameter they are extraordinarily huge. There is four of them and they are just pumping seawater and they are injecting that down into the field at a variety of points. So yea, that's expensive. And worse the rate of inflation in the mining business has been roughly around 10% for the last 10 years. That means that your costs are going to completely double every seven years when you've got 10% inflation. So that is what the mining industry and particularly the petroleum has been putting up with.
Off the Cuff: Bankers On Edge
 PREVIEW

In this week's Off the Cuff podcast, Chris and Charles Hugh Smith discuss:

  • Gold is being driven by speculators in lock-step with the yen
  • So is the S&P 500
  • Why labor pricing power is broken and will stay that way
  • The shale oil Ponzi scheme breaks…and defaults are sure to follow
  • China's economic miracle is about to become a mirage

Charles: And it certainly seems that oil is being used as a weapon. But you know, let's also I would like your view on the idea that the world economy is going into recession. It seems sort of obvious to me. Europe is already either in recession or so stagnant that it is the same as recession. The US is stumbling along with fake growth in terms of households. And then China is rolling over. Japan is going down the sinkhole.

So what will that do to oil if demand really craters like we get another 2008 situation where the financing dries up and people stop borrowing because they are afraid and they stop spending and the whole thing that causes recession. I think that is going to have a potentially huge impact on oil and it would hurt everybody that is producing oil the Saudis included. They may be talking bravely, but I believe that their production costs have risen considerably because they have had to run hundreds of miles of pipe and they are injecting carbon dioxide and sea water and stuff into their wells to keep their production up.

Chris Martenson: The old days of Saudi Arabia sticking a straw in the ground and pulling oil out at a dollar or two a barrel those are long gone because if you have ever seen they have a rack of four pipes that stretch, I forget, 100 miles or something going from the ocean to one of their fields. And each one of those pipes is about the diameter of a large room. They are like 14 feet in diameter they are extraordinarily huge. There is four of them and they are just pumping seawater and they are injecting that down into the field at a variety of points. So yea, that's expensive. And worse the rate of inflation in the mining business has been roughly around 10% for the last 10 years. That means that your costs are going to completely double every seven years when you've got 10% inflation. So that is what the mining industry and particularly the petroleum has been putting up with.
Image | The Central Banks Have Lost
The Central Banks Have Lost
 PREVIEW

Executive Summary

  • What is 'deflation?'
  • Why do central banks fear it so much?
  • What falling prices really mean.
  • Commodities are telling us that a global slowdown is already here.
  • China's economic miracle is over.
  • What happens next (please keep your preparations on track!)

If you have not yet read Oil And The Global Slowdown available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

The title of this part says it all. So let's begin with an important definition. What is 'deflation'?

To hear the media and central banks tell it, it is something fearful and that must be avoided at all costs. Confusingly they then point to falling prices as evidence of the horror of which they speak.

The only problem is that you and I like falling prices. If my health insurance cost 10% less next year I’d be thrilled. But the central banks would be horrified.

The difference between these two positions lies in the definition of deflation. While the media always blindly regurgitates the central bank line that falling prices are an indication of deflation they really shouldn't.

The Central Banks Have Lost
 PREVIEW

Executive Summary

  • What is 'deflation?'
  • Why do central banks fear it so much?
  • What falling prices really mean.
  • Commodities are telling us that a global slowdown is already here.
  • China's economic miracle is over.
  • What happens next (please keep your preparations on track!)

If you have not yet read Oil And The Global Slowdown available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

The title of this part says it all. So let's begin with an important definition. What is 'deflation'?

To hear the media and central banks tell it, it is something fearful and that must be avoided at all costs. Confusingly they then point to falling prices as evidence of the horror of which they speak.

The only problem is that you and I like falling prices. If my health insurance cost 10% less next year I’d be thrilled. But the central banks would be horrified.

The difference between these two positions lies in the definition of deflation. While the media always blindly regurgitates the central bank line that falling prices are an indication of deflation they really shouldn't.

Image | Oil And The Global Slowdown
Oil And The Global Slowdown

The world economy is slowing down and the authorities are fretting. 

Japan, Italy, Greece and Austria are all in recession.  China is slowing down according to their official statistics, and even more according to the whispers. 

Germany, France and the Netherlands are all at stall speed. 

The US is, according to the BLS, doing just great at nearly 4% growth, but you wouldn't know that from either the quality of the few jobs being created (which is low) or consumer spending (also low). 
Oil And The Global Slowdown

The world economy is slowing down and the authorities are fretting. 

Japan, Italy, Greece and Austria are all in recession.  China is slowing down according to their official statistics, and even more according to the whispers. 

Germany, France and the Netherlands are all at stall speed. 

The US is, according to the BLS, doing just great at nearly 4% growth, but you wouldn't know that from either the quality of the few jobs being created (which is low) or consumer spending (also low). 
Image | Now That’s A Nice Bottom
Now That’s A Nice Bottom
 PREVIEW

  ~ Gold and silver race up off the lows

The failure of the Swiss referendum to repatriate gold was somehow used as the catalyst to hammer gold, silver, oil, and copper…each of them a signature bell-weather for economic activity.

I was ready to write this piece titled "Deflation Wins!"  but that would have been the on-line equivalent of "Dewey Wins!"  because just as Dewey actually lost to Truman, each of the four substances listed bounced back hard after their initial pummeling.
Now That’s A Nice Bottom
 PREVIEW

  ~ Gold and silver race up off the lows

The failure of the Swiss referendum to repatriate gold was somehow used as the catalyst to hammer gold, silver, oil, and copper…each of them a signature bell-weather for economic activity.

I was ready to write this piece titled "Deflation Wins!"  but that would have been the on-line equivalent of "Dewey Wins!"  because just as Dewey actually lost to Truman, each of the four substances listed bounced back hard after their initial pummeling.
Image | Dmitry Orlov: Russia’s Patience Is Wearing Thin
Dmitry Orlov: Russia’s Patience Is Wearing Thin

Having lived in the former USSR before immigrating to the US, Dmitry Orlov has an invaluable perspective on both the US and Russian perspectives, as well as Ukraine.

With the western propaganda flying thick and heavy, it's more important than ever to cut through the chaff and learn what we can about the most important geopolitical realignment (and renewed tensions) in recent memory.
Dmitry Orlov: Russia’s Patience Is Wearing Thin

Having lived in the former USSR before immigrating to the US, Dmitry Orlov has an invaluable perspective on both the US and Russian perspectives, as well as Ukraine.

With the western propaganda flying thick and heavy, it's more important than ever to cut through the chaff and learn what we can about the most important geopolitical realignment (and renewed tensions) in recent memory.
Image | Happy Thanksgiving To All U.S. Readers
Happy Thanksgiving To All U.S. Readers

Today is Thanksgiving in the US, a prominent holiday typically marked by insane travel nightmares for many, and a chance to spend time with non-core relatives.

To balance all that out we usually overeat, over drink, and slip into a tryptophan coma in front of the TV.

At least, that’s what the holiday has become for many.

Here at Peak Prosperity we like to remember that the holiday consists of two words, thanks and giving.
Happy Thanksgiving To All U.S. Readers

Today is Thanksgiving in the US, a prominent holiday typically marked by insane travel nightmares for many, and a chance to spend time with non-core relatives.

To balance all that out we usually overeat, over drink, and slip into a tryptophan coma in front of the TV.

At least, that’s what the holiday has become for many.

Here at Peak Prosperity we like to remember that the holiday consists of two words, thanks and giving.
Image | Off the Cuff: Gold Wars
Off the Cuff: Gold Wars
 PREVIEW

In this week's Off the Cuff podcast, Chris and Alasdair Macleod discuss:

  • The Swiss gold referendum and the extraordinary lengths to which the Swiss National Bank is going to prevent its passage.
  • The World Gold Council's bizarre under-reporting of Chinese gold demand
  • Fuzzy numbers:  GDP is both distorted and not representative of actual economic progress
  • Russia moving toward putting the ruble under a gold standard?
  • Provoking Russia.  The aims of the west are not clear, probably because there's no real strategy in place.

There are very big movements happening in the world of physical gold, with the dutch somehow getting their 120+ tonnes of gold back from the US Federal Reserve over just three months while Germany continues to insist 5 tonnes over an entire year was reasonable.  A major political figure in France has written a letter to the French central bank demanding that all French gold be repatriated while Russia's central bank continues to accumulate gold in preference for dollars.

Yet the price for physical gold remains stuck in a tight band between $1190 and $1200.  

But what if Russia is moving towards a gold standard?  This would make sense for them on a lot of levels and would be a true game changer for a world that currently revolves around the petrodollar.  Alasdair and Chris discuss the hows and the whys.
Off the Cuff: Gold Wars
 PREVIEW

In this week's Off the Cuff podcast, Chris and Alasdair Macleod discuss:

  • The Swiss gold referendum and the extraordinary lengths to which the Swiss National Bank is going to prevent its passage.
  • The World Gold Council's bizarre under-reporting of Chinese gold demand
  • Fuzzy numbers:  GDP is both distorted and not representative of actual economic progress
  • Russia moving toward putting the ruble under a gold standard?
  • Provoking Russia.  The aims of the west are not clear, probably because there's no real strategy in place.

There are very big movements happening in the world of physical gold, with the dutch somehow getting their 120+ tonnes of gold back from the US Federal Reserve over just three months while Germany continues to insist 5 tonnes over an entire year was reasonable.  A major political figure in France has written a letter to the French central bank demanding that all French gold be repatriated while Russia's central bank continues to accumulate gold in preference for dollars.

Yet the price for physical gold remains stuck in a tight band between $1190 and $1200.  

But what if Russia is moving towards a gold standard?  This would make sense for them on a lot of levels and would be a true game changer for a world that currently revolves around the petrodollar.  Alasdair and Chris discuss the hows and the whys.
Image | Treebeard: Becoming The Change We Wish To See
Treebeard: Becoming The Change We Wish To See

Here at Peak Prosperity, we follow a lot of the problems and challenges of the world around us and explore what can be done in response to them. And in seeking solutions, we have to remind ourselves that if we want the world to be different in some way, the only way to begin changing it with 100% certainty is by changing ourselves. In the end, we are responsible for how we perceive and relate to what's happening around us, and true change begins with taking ownership of what our reality is, and what we want it to be.

For such a heady topic, we've responded to previous requests from the PP.com community and invited our own philosopher-in-residence Andrew Graves — better known as Treebeard on the site — to expound on the topic.
Treebeard: Becoming The Change We Wish To See

Here at Peak Prosperity, we follow a lot of the problems and challenges of the world around us and explore what can be done in response to them. And in seeking solutions, we have to remind ourselves that if we want the world to be different in some way, the only way to begin changing it with 100% certainty is by changing ourselves. In the end, we are responsible for how we perceive and relate to what's happening around us, and true change begins with taking ownership of what our reality is, and what we want it to be.

For such a heady topic, we've responded to previous requests from the PP.com community and invited our own philosopher-in-residence Andrew Graves — better known as Treebeard on the site — to expound on the topic.
Image | Off the Cuff: The Shift From Paper Assets To Real Ones Is On
Off the Cuff: The Shift From Paper Assets To Real Ones Is On
 PREVIEW

In this week's Off the Cuff podcast, Chris and John Rubino discuss:

  • Mass-delusional Markets
    • Investors are mistaking the destruction of our fiat system as prosperity
  • The Shift From Paper To Real Assets Is On
    • At least, among the top 1%
  • Generational War
    • Coming to a stagnating economy near you
  • It All Comes Back To Energy
    • And there's still no magic bullet in sight
Off the Cuff: The Shift From Paper Assets To Real Ones Is On
 PREVIEW

In this week's Off the Cuff podcast, Chris and John Rubino discuss:

  • Mass-delusional Markets
    • Investors are mistaking the destruction of our fiat system as prosperity
  • The Shift From Paper To Real Assets Is On
    • At least, among the top 1%
  • Generational War
    • Coming to a stagnating economy near you
  • It All Comes Back To Energy
    • And there's still no magic bullet in sight
Image | Eric Sprott: Global Gold Demand Is Overwhelming Supply
Eric Sprott: Global Gold Demand Is Overwhelming Supply

Precious metals have had an especially tough go of it over the past month. Both gold and silver are back in price territory last seen in 2010.

Eric Sprott returns to the program to discuss the facts as we know them in this market, and what's likely to happen from here. Specifically, he explains the tremendous imbalance currently seen between global supply and demand for precious metals. In his view, prices will have to correct upwards — prodigiously — to bring the two back in alignment.
Eric Sprott: Global Gold Demand Is Overwhelming Supply

Precious metals have had an especially tough go of it over the past month. Both gold and silver are back in price territory last seen in 2010.

Eric Sprott returns to the program to discuss the facts as we know them in this market, and what's likely to happen from here. Specifically, he explains the tremendous imbalance currently seen between global supply and demand for precious metals. In his view, prices will have to correct upwards — prodigiously — to bring the two back in alignment.
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