TFMR Podcast #17 - Chris Martenson
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On Thursday, I had an opportunity to visit with Chris Martenson. Chris is obviously very smart but, best of all, he's just a regular guy. Like most of us, Chris had an "awakening" a few years ago and he has devoted his efforts ever since to preparing his family, as well as the general public, for what we all know lies ahead. I think you'll enjoy this podcast and appreciate getting to know Chris a little bit better.
p.s. I finally found a new recording software that I like and I think that you'll be able to notice the difference in audio quality. There is a bit of a gap, about halfway through, where Chris loses his internet connection. It's only about 5 seconds so I hope that it's not too distracting for everyone.
Chris Martenson
I would normally concoct a bio myself for the guest. In this case, the bio on Chris' site needs no improvement.
I think it’s important that you understand who I am, how I have arrived at my conclusions and opinions, and why I’ve dedicated my life to communicating them to you.
First of all, I am not an economist. I am trained as a scientist, having completed both a PhD and a post-doctoral program at Duke University, where I specialized in neurotoxicology. I tell you this because my extensive training as a scientist informs and guides how I think. I gather data, I develop hypotheses, and I continually seek to accept or reject my hypotheses based on the evidence at hand. I let the data tell me the story.
It is also important for you to know that I entered the profession of science with the intention of teaching at the college level. I love teaching, and I especially enjoy the challenge of explaining difficult or complicated subjects to people with limited or no background in those subjects. Over the years I’ve gotten pretty good at it.
Once I figured out that most of the (so-called) better colleges place "effective teacher" pretty much near the bottom of their list of characteristics that factor into tenure review, I switched gears, obtained an MBA from Cornell (in Finance), and spent the next ten years working my way through positions in both corporate finance and strategic consulting. From these experiences I gather my comfort with numbers and finance.
So much for the credentials.
The most important thing for you to know is the impact that the information that I’ve now placed on this site had on me. Let’s do this as a Before and After.
Before: I am a 40-year-old professional who has worked his way up to Vice President of a large, international Fortune 300 company and is living in a waterfront, 5 bathroom house in Mystic, CT, which is mostly paid off. My three young children are either in or about to enter public school, and my portfolio of investments is being managed by a broker at a large institution. I do not really know any of my neighbors, and many of my local connections are superficial at best.
After: I am a 45-year-old who has willingly terminated his former high-paying, high-status position because it seemed like an unnecessary diversion from the real tasks at hand. My children are now homeschooled, and the big house in Mystic was sold in July of 2003 in preference for a 1.5 bathroom rental in rural western Massachusetts. In 2002, I discovered that my broker was unable to navigate a bear market, and I’ve been managing our investments ever since. Since that time, my portfolio has gained 166%, which works out to a compounded yearly gain of 27.8% for five years running (whereas my broker, by keeping me in the usual assortment of stocks, would have scored me a 38% return, or 8.39%/yr). I grow a garden every year; preserve food, know how to brew beer & wine, and raise chickens. I’ve carefully examined each support system (food, energy, security, etc), and for each of them I've figured out either a means of being more self-sufficient or a way to do without. But, most importantly, I now know that the most important descriptor of wealth is not my dollar holdings, but the depth and richness of my community.
As you can tell by reviewing his bio, not only does Chris "talk the talk", he also "walks the walk". This makes his one of the preeminent voices of sanity and preparation in the financial blogosphere. His site can be found by clicking the link below:
http://www.chrismartenson.com/
I would also encourage you to watch his "Crash Course" video series. Here's a summary to get you started:
And if you're interested in purchasing the "Crash Course" book, here's an Amazon link, as well.
-
Friday, April 13, 2012
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Comments
I love this man.
Nice one Turd. Bed time listening tonight. Cheers!
PS: I think you forgot the Amazon link...
Yes
The technically-challenged Turd doesn't know how to do it. The Tech team will be adding it later.
Go Turd....
Thanks.... for going the extra mile with these podcasts! :-)
link is up now
you can find it above
Crash Course
IMO Chris Martenson is probably the single best person for putting it all together in a very clear, logical way. I highly recommend watching his Crash Course which is about 3.5 hours (I see he has a 45-minute version too). Whenever I need to convince somebody that maybe things aren't normal, this is where I steer them. Very accessible, no hyperbole, excellent big-picture stuff.
Looking forward to listening tonight. Keep up the outstanding work Turd, don't let the bastards get you down.
Just sold PHYS and PSLV as the US Tres wants its money next week
Made some on PHYS, lost some on PLSV , netted out as making basically no gains in a whole year of semi paper PM investing, lovely!
Thanks Bernanke and the Evil Empire for not allowing me to pay off my mortgage, credit cards, student loan debt, gas bill, electricity bill, food bill, gas for the car, car insurance, home insurance, property taxes, kids supplies, day care... thanks so much so NOT allowing me to spend any money I now don't have for anything that makes life enjoyable, like vacations, restaurants, golf, buying presents for the family etc.... thanks a bunch!
Meanwhile during the last year of making no gains in PM's, bubblalicious Apple doubles. Once again I missed stumbling blind drunk onto the Apple train to richville and am still waiting on the PM platform. Argggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
After selling, I expect PM's to skyrocket, typical!
Whining rant over, for now!
Always a bridesmaid.........
Never a bride....... top 10
Have to look at the big picture
I might sound a bit pompous with this opinion, but many people have a good take on the financial state of the world, a few people have a good take on the energy and resource issues facing us and how the future will be quite different from the past. Vey, very few people are able to present a synctretic understanding of both themes, and as far as I can see, Chris Martenson and a few others (Erik Townsend, Jim Puplava are some) really do better than the other experts when it comes to trying to view all the facets of the problems facing us.
It's pointless discussing the problems with currencies, debt and economies and ignoring the other issues Chris talks about, and he's accessible and inspiring.
Note to Cartel
1. I know you are reading this.
2. I know you don't care who I am.
3. I also know you are driving down the price of silver and gold in order to "exchange" at more favorable terms.
4. Do not believe that East Asian interests will oppose your attempt to drive down the costs.
After all, the East Asian nations (Japan and China) have 3 trillion USD FRN's in UST bonds.
That's alot of gold and silver isn't it?
Don't think about going lower than 1620 on Sunday night.
If you do attempt 1580, UST bonds will go cheap and the Chinese/Japanese interests will purchase the European gold reserves from Fed Reserve Bank of New York.
Western European interests should think twice before permitting third parties (i.e. not US counterparties) to withdraw European gold reserves.
How is it that you made no
How is it that you made no gains in metals in a year? How is that even possible? Gold is up 14% from this time last year. All you would have had to do is sell just a few of the peaks and buy a few of the dips and you should be up even more that that. I'm almost special needs and I was even able to do that - lmao...with physical metal of course. I don't fugg with the casino. Stops maybe? :scratching head, thinking "no, seriously, how"?:
@punk
Someone who responds to the CNBC shills and buys when they say to would have bought near the tops on 2011.
They would have blown their savings on it.
That's why I don't listen to Bob Pisani.
And, I know you're reading this Mr. Pisani because you're becoming increasinly bellicose in your morning cacophony at 0910 hrs EST on CNBC.
Quit shilling for the NYSE.
You've been walking that floor a little too long and you've lost your journalistic impartiality.
Thanks big, yellow-hatted one called TF
Cool stuff, appreciate the effort
re: CM
CM was the one of the top causes to make my "light bulb" go off, back in 08 or 09.
Way to go TF.
so
whats up with the limit increase on silver, haven't seen this adressed that much?
is it true that silver rallied on the latest hike?
Best Summary of the Crash Course EVER!
The video shows it's an hour and 11 minutes, but the first 38 minutes is Chris speaking. The rest is him answering questions from the audience.
Chris Martenson is the man!
Great Podcast
Could have listened to you both for another hour. Can we have more Turd and Chris?
Loose Lips Sink Ships
Loose Lips Sink Ships........I fully understand....But can any member of Turd's Army lemme know if they have made any FIAT out of recent trades?Kindly reply to my personal inbox.I will be highly obliged if the Great Turd can himself reply to this query.$500 amounts to Indian Rs 26,000.That's a hell lotta money...so I wanna make it sure that it's worth my money.Kindly don't misconstrue the things;I am a loyal Turdite & I wanna be a part of the army but the Great$$$ cost us Indians a lot.
Good Morning
Just need to join the love fest for Chris - from his 'before' and 'after' bio to the clear way he presents his information - absolutely a great introduction for people.
More of this would be great. I am a total audiophile when it comes to gaining knowledge.
And in case anyone missed it (just kidding), here is a link to an excellent interview by my Austrian economics professor
(Russ Roberts is also the man - if you like carefully dissecting economics from a really thoughtful perspective) with Nasim Taleb, where they discuss the idea of 'anti-fragility' - i.e. systems that become stronger through feedback. It is relevant to the market, in that the Fed has essentially attempted to take a system that requires feedback and squished it all out. There is a bad end to systems that have their volatility dampened (as I go on about on my Mandlebrot days):
Nassim Taleb, author of Fooled By Randomness and The Black Swan, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about antifragility, the concept behind Taleb's next book, a work in progress. Taleb talks about how we can cope with our ignorance and uncertainty in a complex world. Topics covered include health, finance, political systems, the Fed, your career, Seneca, shame, heroism, and a few more.
http://files.libertyfund.org/econtalk/y2012/Talebantifragility.mp3
A big fan here too
I'm also a big Chris Martinson fan.
For those who forgot, Turd and Chris did a gig over on Chris' site in November. I thought it was terrific, and kept it on my bookmarks bar for the longest time (until I had to make room for more bacon videos).
Settling in now with a cuppa tea and giving this new one a listen...
Not a trader, thats how
Buy PSLV when Silver at $38, PHYS when Gold at $1500. That is how you net nothing when the tax man forces you to sell every year!
Turd
Can you shed a little light on the COT report especially silver they both look good to me; but in conjuction w/the reduced OI numbers. Your understanding should provide a bit more depth to just commertial long short take on things. Harvey O commented on the COT but I'm wondering what YOU THINK.
TIA
@Turd
Thank you kindly for the HUGE quality-improvement to your recordings ... That's MUCH better.
I'd now put the quality at circa 97%/98% compared to your AM/Turd-Army podcast at circa 60%
position limits
I have not been reading every day, but....
There seems to be a general resignation that agreed position limits by Bart Simpson and the CFTC have basically 2 hopes of being implemented (No hope and Bob Hope)....
There was even the story that JPM had been exempted till May to get their s##t together.
It seems a bit like the recent margin reduction from CME, which can hardly muster a golf-clap from the muppet show audience....
I did however wonder whether the appearance of Blythe Masters (anag. The Beastly Mrs) was in the slightest related.
Enjoyed the podcast, thx v much
Good stuff, Turd! Chris makes some great points.
I especially liked the point he made noting that we *know* that the Fed intervenes in the currency markets. We *know* that the fed intervenes in the bond markets as that's what QE is. We all but officially know that the Fed intervenes in the equities market. Why in the world would we NOT believe that the Fed intervenes in commodities and specifically gold and silver? It would be an anomaly if they didn't intervene, not if they did!
end of the bull market
Martenson talks a lot of the end of the bull market at his website which I've found pretty good stuff. He knows these markets are changed forever and basically now we've got to wait as our tombstone austerity undermines the world.
silvervigilante.com
Eric Original
That podcast you posted from Chris Martenson's interview of TF was actually how I decided to jump on the PMs bandwagon. Now that we have another opportunity to see these two collaborate again I am very excited to see what we get this time.
Gubmint Intervention?
Great podcast, Turd - many thanks.
I was tickled by the following, from Detlev Schlichter's book, 'Paper Money Collapse', writing about the fiat introduced during the Civil War:
"As should be expected, greenbacks quickly began to lose purchasing power and declined sharply versus gold. Greenbacks were declared legal tender, and in 1863 and 1864 various measures were taken to disrupt the gold market. The goal of these policies was to suppress the price of gold and to discourage the use of gold as a basis for contractual exchange."
Nice precedent for what's undoubtedly going on today.
Good stuff!
Don't fight the Fed. Everyone knows that Qe has been constantly going on behind the scenes so it would make sense that inflation is occurring but because the hedge funds will not dare go against the official announcements they follow along in doing the Feds bidding. They live by , don't fight the Fed.
I liked how Chris said that he would put stops in to protect himself but they would magically would just hit the stop and then bounce right back up stealing his money.. How true!
Andrew stated that 90% of people trading silver go broke in 90 days. Ouch! If trading doesn't kill your pocket book it will kill you mentally and physically! I know it's sucked a lot of life from me over the years. I dont think it is worth the stress investment
More groanings
For every soldier U.S. loses in combat, 25 commit suicide.
For every soldier U.S. loses in combat, 25 commit suicide.
@ zilverreiger
For every soldier U.S. loses in combat, 25 commit suicide.
For every soldier U.S. loses in combat, 25 commit suicide.
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I can't seem to shake the feeling that you derive a perverse pleasure in posting these little "tidbits".
Several Scandinavian countries have higher suicide rates than the U.S., so what's your point?