Podcast

CM.com Alert:

After hearing reports of depleting inventories of pre-packaged, ready-to-purchase stored food, CM.com did a little investigating. It turns out there's truth behind the rumor.

Yesterday, Zero Hedge observed:

It appears that Mountain House, which is one of the better purveyors of freeze dried food and holds over 30 servings and last for 20 years because they are packed with nitrogen rather than oxygen, is now sold out of all #10 cans. And for those who go to NitroPak, which sells these products, they have the following message:

***CURRENT INVENTORY UPDATE***

There is currently EXTREMELY high demand for all of our Mountain House foods nationwide due to current economic uncertainty and inflation fears. With this increase in demand, our food order processing times have increased also. As Mountain House’s leading distributor, we are receiving huge shipments weekly to fill our customer orders. We are shipping as quickly as we can. Your charge card will not be charged-up until we are ready to process your order. Thank you for your understanding and patience! Harry R Weyandt President

Nitro-Pak is one of the distributors we often recommend to our readers, so we started there. Sure enough, the above inventory update is prominently posted.

I then placed a call to The Ready Store, whose products we link to from the Storing Food section of our 'What Should I Do?' guide. They also include a lot of Mountain House products in their food packages. They, too, are seeing high demand, which is affecting their promised shipping times.

CM.com Alert:

PREVIEW by Adam Taggart

After hearing reports of depleting inventories of pre-packaged, ready-to-purchase stored food, CM.com did a little investigating. It turns out there's truth behind the rumor.

Yesterday, Zero Hedge observed:

It appears that Mountain House, which is one of the better purveyors of freeze dried food and holds over 30 servings and last for 20 years because they are packed with nitrogen rather than oxygen, is now sold out of all #10 cans. And for those who go to NitroPak, which sells these products, they have the following message:

***CURRENT INVENTORY UPDATE***

There is currently EXTREMELY high demand for all of our Mountain House foods nationwide due to current economic uncertainty and inflation fears. With this increase in demand, our food order processing times have increased also. As Mountain House’s leading distributor, we are receiving huge shipments weekly to fill our customer orders. We are shipping as quickly as we can. Your charge card will not be charged-up until we are ready to process your order. Thank you for your understanding and patience! Harry R Weyandt President

Nitro-Pak is one of the distributors we often recommend to our readers, so we started there. Sure enough, the above inventory update is prominently posted.

Bond Market Rebels

PREVIEW

by Chris Martenson

The news is full of stories about how the bond market seems to be defying the Fed. While it is not yet clear what the drivers of the recent sell-off in bonds truly are, the action bears watching.

As I mentioned previously, there are both innocent and sinister explanations for why bonds might be selling off. The innocent explanation involves a return to economic health that is being discounted in the bond market. The idea here is that a return to economic health will include both the cessation of Fed bond buying activity (QE II) and higher interest rates. Under this scenario, which is supported by recent economic data, one does not want to be holding bonds, which will only lose value over time. Best to beat the rush and sell them now.

The sinister explanation involves the idea that the Fed is losing control of the market and is not as powerful as some might have thought. This is the angle that the WSJ is playing up today:

Bond Market Rebels

PREVIEW by Chris Martenson

The news is full of stories about how the bond market seems to be defying the Fed. While it is not yet clear what the drivers of the recent sell-off in bonds truly are, the action bears watching.

The sinister explanation involves the idea that the Fed is losing control of the market and is not as powerful as some might have thought. This is the angle that the WSJ is playing up today:

ChrisMartenson.com Alert: Food Storage Shortage Risk Emerging

PREVIEW

by Adam Taggart

As an enrolled member, we’re bringing this alert to you first, before we make it available to the general PeakProsperity.com audience on Friday morning.

After hearing reports of depleting inventories of pre-packaged, ready-to-purchase stored food, PeakProsperity.com did a little investigating. It turns out there’s truth behind the rumor.

ChrisMartenson.com Alert: Food Storage Shortage Risk Emerging

PREVIEW by Adam Taggart

As an enrolled member, we’re bringing this alert to you first, before we make it available to the general PeakProsperity.com audience on Friday morning.

After hearing reports of depleting inventories of pre-packaged, ready-to-purchase stored food, PeakProsperity.com did a little investigating. It turns out there’s truth behind the rumor.

CM.com Alert: Food Storage Shortage Risk Emerging

PREVIEW

by Adam Taggart

After hearing reports of depleting inventories of pre-packaged, ready-to-purchase stored food, CM.com did a little investigating. It turns out there’s truth behind the rumor.

Earlier today, Zero Hedge observed:

It appears that Mountain House, which is one of the better purveyors of freeze dried food and holds over 30 servings and last for 20 years because they are packed with nitrogen rather than oxygen, is now sold out of all #10 cans -link.And for those who go to NitroPak, which sells these products, they have the following message:

***CURRENT INVENTORY UPDATE*** There is currently EXTREMELY high demand for all of our Mountain House foods nationwide due to current economic uncertainty and inflation fears. With this increase in demand, our food order processing times have increased also. As Mountain House’s leading distributor, we are receiving huge shipments weekly to fill our customer orders. We are shipping as quickly as we can. Your charge card will not be charged-up until we are ready to process your order. Thank you for your understanding and patience! Harry R Weyandt President

Nitro-Pak is one of the distributors we often recommend to our readers, so we started there. Sure enough, the above inventory update is prominently posted.

I then placed a call to The Ready Store, whose products we link to from the Storing Food section of our ‘What Should I Do?’ guide. They also include a lot of Mountain House products in their food packages. They, too, are seeing high demand which is affecting their promised shipping times.

CM.com Alert: Food Storage Shortage Risk Emerging

PREVIEW by Adam Taggart

After hearing reports of depleting inventories of pre-packaged, ready-to-purchase stored food, CM.com did a little investigating. It turns out there’s truth behind the rumor.

Earlier today, Zero Hedge observed:

It appears that Mountain House, which is one of the better purveyors of freeze dried food and holds over 30 servings and last for 20 years because they are packed with nitrogen rather than oxygen, is now sold out of all #10 cans -link.And for those who go to NitroPak, which sells these products, they have the following message:

***CURRENT INVENTORY UPDATE*** There is currently EXTREMELY high demand for all of our Mountain House foods nationwide due to current economic uncertainty and inflation fears. With this increase in demand, our food order processing times have increased also. As Mountain House’s leading distributor, we are receiving huge shipments weekly to fill our customer orders. We are shipping as quickly as we can. Your charge card will not be charged-up until we are ready to process your order. Thank you for your understanding and patience! Harry R Weyandt President

Nitro-Pak is one of the distributors we often recommend to our readers, so we started there. Sure enough, the above inventory update is prominently posted.

Don’t Be Fooled: Inflation Has The Upper Hand

PREVIEW

by Chris Martenson

Don’t Be Fooled: Inflation Has The Upper Hand

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Executive Summary

Money supply (M2) has been steadily growing for a decade, and banks hold an unprecedented amount of excess reserves that could enter the market at any time.
Credit growth is flatlining.
Debt in the household & financial sectors (the big enchilada) exhibits the deflationary trends that are pre-occupying the Fed.
Federal government credit is exploding upwards as a result.
Corporate and state debt are increasing, but at more moderate rates.
Energy costs are high and getting higher = inflationary.
Confidence in paper currencies is plummeting = potentially hyperinflationary.
Forecast for the future…

Part I

If you have not yet read Part I of this report, please click here to read it first.

Part II

In Part I, we stepped through prices as useful indicators of whether we are in a period of inflation or deflation. Because there’s no more important determination to make than to get an early read on whether we are facing a future of inflation or deflation, we are going to dive a bit more deeply into the evidence here to round out the story.

Let’s begin with….

Money

The classic definition of inflation or deflation is a “relative change in the amount of money compared to goods and services.” Too much money and you have inflation; too little and you have deflation.

Don’t Be Fooled: Inflation Has The Upper Hand

PREVIEW by Chris Martenson

Don’t Be Fooled: Inflation Has The Upper Hand

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Executive Summary

Money supply (M2) has been steadily growing for a decade, and banks hold an unprecedented amount of excess reserves that could enter the market at any time.
Credit growth is flatlining.
Debt in the household & financial sectors (the big enchilada) exhibits the deflationary trends that are pre-occupying the Fed.
Federal government credit is exploding upwards as a result.
Corporate and state debt are increasing, but at more moderate rates.
Energy costs are high and getting higher = inflationary.
Confidence in paper currencies is plummeting = potentially hyperinflationary.
Forecast for the future…

Part I

If you have not yet read Part I of this report, please click here to read it first.

Part II

Let’s begin with….

Money

Budget Wars

PREVIEW

by Chris Martenson

All the world was waiting to see what form of budgetary punishment would be visited upon the Irish people as a consequence of banking mistakes and the perceived “need” by the European political class to assure that no bank investors shouldered any of the losses.

While the proposed budget may not be capital punishment, it is not far off.

Budget Wars

PREVIEW by Chris Martenson

While the proposed budget may not be capital punishment, it is not far off.

Straight Talk with Charles Hugh Smith: Why The Status Quo Is Unsustainable

by Chris Martenson

"Straight Talk" features thinking from notable minds that the PeakProsperity.com audience has indicated it wants to learn more about. Readers submit the questions they want addressed and our guests take their best crack at answering. The comments and opinions expressed by our guests are their own.

This week's Straight Talk contributor is Charles Hugh Smith, who has been an independent journalist for 22 years. His weblog, www.oftwominds.com, is a daily compendium of observations and analysis on the global economy and financial markets, as well as notable political, social, and cultural trends. Charles has authored a number of books across several genres, including the recent Survival+: Structuring Prosperity for Yourself and the Nation.

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1. Of the many forces at play that you write about within the economy, society, and politics, which ones do you see as the most defining for the future? How do you expect things to unfold?

CHS: Clearly, demographics and Peak Oil are forces which cannot be massaged away by policy tweaks or financial engineering. I think the exhaustion of Global Neoliberal Capitalism and State Capitalism is apparent, as is the bankruptcy of the two ideologies that more or less define our politics. The reliance on expansion of credit and State power is a dynamic with only unhappy endings.

Straight Talk with Charles Hugh Smith: Why The Status Quo Is Unsustainable

by Chris Martenson

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1. Of the many forces at play that you write about within the economy, society, and politics, which ones do you see as the most defining for the future? How do you expect things to unfold?

The Keys to Transitioning Healthcare: Empowerment, Education, & Prevention

by suziegruber

A few months ago, I developed red spots on my face and neck that were kind of itchy. After another day or so, the spots had progressed down my torso and onto my thighs, so I decided to go to a doctor. Although I have health insurance, at the time I did not have a primary care physician, so seeing a doctor quickly proved to be difficult. Most everyone I called told me to go the emergency room, a ridiculously expensive suggestion, given that my situation was certainly not a life-threatening emergency. I finally got an appointment with a nurse practitioner at a local clinic. She hurriedly looked at the red spots, pronounced that I had hives, and immediately decided to give me a steroid injection and to prescribe a week-long dose of Prednisone. There was no discussion of reasoning for her prescription, likely symptom progression, or treatment options.

I know that steroids significantly impact my body through increased anxiety, difficulty sleeping, and suppressed immune response, and I was about to leave on a month long trip, so I really didn’t want any of these side effects. I slowed her down long enough to get her to tell me what I could expect if I didn’t take the shot or the Prednisone. She told me the hives would likely progress through the rest of my body, enter my lungs and then cause difficulty breathing, and that I definitely needed both the injection and the Prednisone. By this point, I internally questioned her judgment due to her extreme prognosis and lack of willingness to engage with me, so I accepted the shot and decided to mull over whether or not to fill the Prednisone prescription. That afternoon I spoke with a friend of mine who is an MD (I should have called him first), and he said that I likely would not need the Prednisone and that I should see how it goes for a couple of days. I did not need the Prednisone and the hives disappeared in a week or so.

So why am I sharing this story? In my opinion, health care remains one of the thorniest problems that we face, because even with relatively abundant cheap oil, our current system serves us poorly.

The Keys to Transitioning Healthcare: Empowerment, Education, & Prevention

by suziegruber

So why am I sharing this story? In my opinion, health care remains one of the thorniest problems that we face, because even with relatively abundant cheap oil, our current system serves us poorly.

It’s Coming…From The Outside In

PREVIEW

by Chris Martenson

What Europe fears, and the reason that the EU members on the Ireland negotiating team “went berserk” when Ireland raised the prospect of a haircut (losses) for the failed bank’s bondholders, is that the contagion will spread from the periphery to the core.

That is, that the disease will progress from the outside in.

The strange market counter currents that we began tracking a couple of weeks ago are still with us and getting stranger by the day.

At this point I am quite concerned about another major banking crisis, quite similar to the one that nearly took down the system in October of 2008. The evidence is mounting.

Here are the similarities:

It’s Coming…From The Outside In

PREVIEW by Chris Martenson

That is, that the disease will progress from the outside in.

The strange market counter currents that we began tracking a couple of weeks ago are still with us and getting stranger by the day.

At this point I am quite concerned about another major banking crisis, quite similar to the one that nearly took down the system in October of 2008. The evidence is mounting.

Here are the similarities:

Straight Talk with G. Edward Griffin: What’s Coming Next Isn’t Pretty

by Chris Martenson

"Straight Talk" features thinking from notable minds who you, the PeakProsperity.com audience, have indicated that you want to learn more about. Readers submit the questions they want addressed and our guests take their best crack at answering. The comments and opinions expressed by our guests are their own.

This week's Straight Talk contributor is G. Edward Griffin — political lecturer, film producer, and author. In his best-known book, The Creature from Jekyll Island, Griffin details how money is created and exposes the anything-but-boring history of how the Federal Reserve came into being. The book provides one of the best explanations of how our monetary system works, as well as a prescient foreshadowing of the Fed's bailout of the financial system at taxpayer expense.