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Chris Martenson

Image | Bill Black (Part II): A Mess of Our Own Making
Bill Black (Part II): A Mess of Our Own Making
 PREVIEW

In Part II of Chris' shocking interview with Bill Black on the extreme vulnerability that our economic system has to fraud (click here for Part I), the discussion deepens, exploring a number of disturbing topics including:

  • Why there is such a crisis of accountability today
  • Why future fraud-driven crises are inevitable if status quo continues
  • What strategies are needed to reduce the prevalence of fraud

 

Bill Black (Part II): A Mess of Our Own Making
 PREVIEW

In Part II of Chris' shocking interview with Bill Black on the extreme vulnerability that our economic system has to fraud (click here for Part I), the discussion deepens, exploring a number of disturbing topics including:

  • Why there is such a crisis of accountability today
  • Why future fraud-driven crises are inevitable if status quo continues
  • What strategies are needed to reduce the prevalence of fraud

 

Image | Harvey Organ (Part II): The Road Ahead for the Precious Metals
Harvey Organ (Part II): The Road Ahead for the Precious Metals
 PREVIEW

In Part II of Chris’ fascinating interview with Harvey Organ on the precious metals (click here for Part I), the discussion deepens, exploring a number of popular topics including:

  • All things Silver
  • How much gold is there really backing the major ETFs?, and 
  • Harvey’s 2012 forecast for bullion prices

Harvey Organ (Part II): The Road Ahead for the Precious Metals
 PREVIEW

In Part II of Chris’ fascinating interview with Harvey Organ on the precious metals (click here for Part I), the discussion deepens, exploring a number of popular topics including:

  • All things Silver
  • How much gold is there really backing the major ETFs?, and 
  • Harvey’s 2012 forecast for bullion prices

Image | Harvey Organ: Get Physical Gold & Silver!
Harvey Organ: Get Physical Gold & Silver!

Harvey Organ has been analyzing the bullion markets closely for decades. The quality and accuracy of his work is respected enough to have earned him an invitation to testify before the CFTC on position limits for precious metals back in 2010.

And he minces no words: Gold and silver prices are suppressed. With extreme prejudice.

In this detailed interview, Harvey explains to Chris the mechanics of how he sees this manipulation occurring, why he predicts this fraudulent pricing scheme will collapse soon, and why it's critical to be holding physical (vs. paper) bullion when it does.

 
Harvey Organ: Get Physical Gold & Silver!

Harvey Organ has been analyzing the bullion markets closely for decades. The quality and accuracy of his work is respected enough to have earned him an invitation to testify before the CFTC on position limits for precious metals back in 2010.

And he minces no words: Gold and silver prices are suppressed. With extreme prejudice.

In this detailed interview, Harvey explains to Chris the mechanics of how he sees this manipulation occurring, why he predicts this fraudulent pricing scheme will collapse soon, and why it's critical to be holding physical (vs. paper) bullion when it does.

 
Image | Off the Cuff: Inflation, aka the ‘Sinister Tax’
Off the Cuff: Inflation, aka the ‘Sinister Tax’
 PREVIEW

The most sinister of all taxes is the inflation tax and it is the most regressive. It hits the poor and the middle class. ~ Ron Paul

In this week’s Off the Cuff with Mish & Chris podcast, Mish has the week off, so Chris takes the mic and delivers an in-depth look at consumer price inflation. He cites a plethora of data that validates what anyone who eats, drives, or visits the doctor already knows: The “official” CPI (Consumer Price Index) numbers released by our government and others around the world are completely bogus.

Money expansion is a cornerstone of modern central banking strategy. With so much outstanding total debt, increasing the money supply (i.e., inflation) becomes increasingly essential for perpetuating the system.

Today, Chris focuses on the question, What is going to happen when that strategy no longer works?

Off the Cuff: Inflation, aka the ‘Sinister Tax’
 PREVIEW

The most sinister of all taxes is the inflation tax and it is the most regressive. It hits the poor and the middle class. ~ Ron Paul

In this week’s Off the Cuff with Mish & Chris podcast, Mish has the week off, so Chris takes the mic and delivers an in-depth look at consumer price inflation. He cites a plethora of data that validates what anyone who eats, drives, or visits the doctor already knows: The “official” CPI (Consumer Price Index) numbers released by our government and others around the world are completely bogus.

Money expansion is a cornerstone of modern central banking strategy. With so much outstanding total debt, increasing the money supply (i.e., inflation) becomes increasingly essential for perpetuating the system.

Today, Chris focuses on the question, What is going to happen when that strategy no longer works?

Image | The Trouble with Money
The Trouble with Money
A Broken Narrative

Recently I was asked by a high school teacher if I had any ideas about why students today seem so apathetic when it comes to engaging with the world around them. I waggishly responded, "Probably because they're smart."

In my opinion, we're asking our young adults to step into a story that doesn't make any sense.

Sure, we can grow the earth's population to 9 billion (and probably will), and sure, we can extract our natural gas and oil resources as fast as possible, and sure, we can continue to pile on official debts at a staggering pace — but why are we doing all this? Even more troubling, what do we say to our youth when they ask what role they should play in this story — a story with a plot line they didn't get to write?

So far, the narrative we're asking them to step into sounds a lot like this: Study hard, go to college, maybe graduate school. And when you get out, not only will you be indebted to your education loans and your mortgage, but you'll be asked to help pay back trillions and trillions of debt to cover the decisions of those who came before you. All while operating within a crumbling, substandard infrastructure. Oh, and by the way, the government and corporate sector appear to have no real interest in your long-term future; you're on your own there.

 
The Trouble with Money
A Broken Narrative

Recently I was asked by a high school teacher if I had any ideas about why students today seem so apathetic when it comes to engaging with the world around them. I waggishly responded, "Probably because they're smart."

In my opinion, we're asking our young adults to step into a story that doesn't make any sense.

Sure, we can grow the earth's population to 9 billion (and probably will), and sure, we can extract our natural gas and oil resources as fast as possible, and sure, we can continue to pile on official debts at a staggering pace — but why are we doing all this? Even more troubling, what do we say to our youth when they ask what role they should play in this story — a story with a plot line they didn't get to write?

So far, the narrative we're asking them to step into sounds a lot like this: Study hard, go to college, maybe graduate school. And when you get out, not only will you be indebted to your education loans and your mortgage, but you'll be asked to help pay back trillions and trillions of debt to cover the decisions of those who came before you. All while operating within a crumbling, substandard infrastructure. Oh, and by the way, the government and corporate sector appear to have no real interest in your long-term future; you're on your own there.

 
Image | True Prosperity
True Prosperity
 PREVIEW

True Prosperity

by Chris Martenson 
Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Executive Summary

  • Why once you understand the oil situation, you understand how systemic change is inevitable
  • Why to expect a major financial crisis this year
  • Why now is the best time to understand what true prosperity is (beyond just money), and how it should shape your priorities in advance of the coming changes
  • Our guidance on where to focus your efforts most for the greatest returns

Part I: The Trouble with Money

If you have not yet read Part I, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

Part II: True Prosperity

In understanding material wealth, the role of energy — and particularly oil, in today’s world — is hard to underestimate. 

Primary Wealth

This point cannot be made often enough: Oil is responsible for everything we see around us.

This means that oil is responsible for most everything we might think is delivered by our economy. Which means that oil is the source of nearly all wealth.

As Gregor Macdonald recently penned for us in an excellent report: 

True Prosperity
 PREVIEW

True Prosperity

by Chris Martenson 
Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Executive Summary

  • Why once you understand the oil situation, you understand how systemic change is inevitable
  • Why to expect a major financial crisis this year
  • Why now is the best time to understand what true prosperity is (beyond just money), and how it should shape your priorities in advance of the coming changes
  • Our guidance on where to focus your efforts most for the greatest returns

Part I: The Trouble with Money

If you have not yet read Part I, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

Part II: True Prosperity

In understanding material wealth, the role of energy — and particularly oil, in today’s world — is hard to underestimate. 

Primary Wealth

This point cannot be made often enough: Oil is responsible for everything we see around us.

This means that oil is responsible for most everything we might think is delivered by our economy. Which means that oil is the source of nearly all wealth.

As Gregor Macdonald recently penned for us in an excellent report: 

Image | Off the Cuff: Death and Taxes
Off the Cuff: Death and Taxes
 PREVIEW

In this week’s Off the Cuff with Mish & Chris podcast, Mish and Chris opine on:

  • The Death of the Bull Market?

    • Is the market at an important turning?
  • Painful Math
    • The US is only a ‘bright spot’ if you close your eyes to the data.
  • Taxes!

    • Why we get so little bang-for-the-buck from the taxes we pay.

Chris and Mish’s calls for caution over the past weeks are increasingly looking like very sage advice. A nasty week in the stock market finishes with depressing technical indicators for what’s to come next. Add to that the ugly progress the economy is making when you take a more macro view, and top it off with the taxman’s coming arrival. It’s enough to make you reach for the Pepto-Bismol — or a stiff drink.

Off the Cuff: Death and Taxes
 PREVIEW

In this week’s Off the Cuff with Mish & Chris podcast, Mish and Chris opine on:

  • The Death of the Bull Market?

    • Is the market at an important turning?
  • Painful Math
    • The US is only a ‘bright spot’ if you close your eyes to the data.
  • Taxes!

    • Why we get so little bang-for-the-buck from the taxes we pay.

Chris and Mish’s calls for caution over the past weeks are increasingly looking like very sage advice. A nasty week in the stock market finishes with depressing technical indicators for what’s to come next. Add to that the ugly progress the economy is making when you take a more macro view, and top it off with the taxman’s coming arrival. It’s enough to make you reach for the Pepto-Bismol — or a stiff drink.

Image | Paul Tustain: Be Wary of Balance Sheet Risk
Paul Tustain: Be Wary of Balance Sheet Risk

"I always tell people when they look at their bank account, they think they have got maybe $50,000 in the bank. It says $50,000 CR. Credit.

You are a creditor. It is the bank’s property, that $50,000. And they recognize in that document that they owe it to you.

So, you have to watch out for that word 'creditor'. When you see CR, you are on the balance sheet. You are at risk."

So says Paul Tustain, founder of BullionVault and advocate for minimizing counterparty risk in a world of rehypothecation and 100-to-1 leveraged paper markets.

 

Paul Tustain: Be Wary of Balance Sheet Risk

"I always tell people when they look at their bank account, they think they have got maybe $50,000 in the bank. It says $50,000 CR. Credit.

You are a creditor. It is the bank’s property, that $50,000. And they recognize in that document that they owe it to you.

So, you have to watch out for that word 'creditor'. When you see CR, you are on the balance sheet. You are at risk."

So says Paul Tustain, founder of BullionVault and advocate for minimizing counterparty risk in a world of rehypothecation and 100-to-1 leveraged paper markets.

 

Image | Central Follies
Central Follies
 PREVIEW

Note: Mish was unavailable for our podcast today, so I am writing up the topics I had hoped to cover for my portion.

src=Perhaps not enough has been said about the folly of central planning, with ‘folly’ being a relatively neutral word along the spectrum of possible nouns that might describe what the central banks have been doing. Others might be ‘insanity’ or ‘absurdity.’

For many it is axiomatic that when the government tries to direct an economy by favoring this company over that one, or trying to pick a technology over another, it stands a better than even chance of doing it inefficiently.

But nothing can be more ruinous than attempting to steer the entire economy by fooling around with the price of money itself, as the Fed has been doing.
Central Follies
 PREVIEW

Note: Mish was unavailable for our podcast today, so I am writing up the topics I had hoped to cover for my portion.

src=Perhaps not enough has been said about the folly of central planning, with ‘folly’ being a relatively neutral word along the spectrum of possible nouns that might describe what the central banks have been doing. Others might be ‘insanity’ or ‘absurdity.’

For many it is axiomatic that when the government tries to direct an economy by favoring this company over that one, or trying to pick a technology over another, it stands a better than even chance of doing it inefficiently.

But nothing can be more ruinous than attempting to steer the entire economy by fooling around with the price of money itself, as the Fed has been doing.
Image | Khosla Ventures: The US is Massively Underfunding the Innovations Critical to Its Energy Future
Khosla Ventures: The US is Massively Underfunding the Innovations Critical to Its Energy Future

"The age of cheap oil is over," agrees Andrew Chung, partner at Khosla Ventures, arguably the most knowledgeable venture capital firm spearheading next-generation energy projects.

While perhaps more optimistic than Chris on the odds that the world can transition off fossil energy sources without experiencing some duration of lower overall energy output, Andrew is clear to point out that large and near-term capital investments are essential for such a smooth transition.

The size and scale of the investments necessary to evolve and replace our existing (and increasingly outdated) power infrastructure are enormous, and too big for private companies alone to address the issue on an acceptable timeline.

And as of now, the U.S. is decidedly NOT treating the matter with the urgency it deserves.
Khosla Ventures: The US is Massively Underfunding the Innovations Critical to Its Energy Future

"The age of cheap oil is over," agrees Andrew Chung, partner at Khosla Ventures, arguably the most knowledgeable venture capital firm spearheading next-generation energy projects.

While perhaps more optimistic than Chris on the odds that the world can transition off fossil energy sources without experiencing some duration of lower overall energy output, Andrew is clear to point out that large and near-term capital investments are essential for such a smooth transition.

The size and scale of the investments necessary to evolve and replace our existing (and increasingly outdated) power infrastructure are enormous, and too big for private companies alone to address the issue on an acceptable timeline.

And as of now, the U.S. is decidedly NOT treating the matter with the urgency it deserves.
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