Kerry Lutz's--Financial Survival Network (general)

2018 Will Be Another Double-Digit Year for the Stock Market. But...

2017 was a banner year for the stock market. The Dow gained over 25 percent, the S&P 500 added about 20 percent, and the Nasdaq nearly 30 percent.1 Looking ahead, David is forecasting another double-digit year for the markets in 2018, but there’s a catch: that double-digit number could come in the form of more gains or big losses. It's still too early to tell. 

Millennials prefer a socialist, communist or fascist nation. But Tudor Dixon CEO of Lumen Student News is trying to do something about it by providing unbiased news to America’s middle and high school students.

A recent poll by YouGov finds 58% of millennials would prefer to live in “a socialist, communist or fascist nation rather than a capitalistic one,” the Washington Times reports, with a staggering 44% preferring socialism. “This troubling turn highlights widespread historical illiteracy in American society regarding socialism and the systemic failure of our education system to teach students about the genocide, destruction and misery caused by communism since the Bolshevik Revolution one hundred years ago,” Marion Smith, Executive Director of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, said in a statement. Only two years ago, the same group found 36% of millennials have a positive opinion of socialism - so the trend is troubling, to say the least.

Rob Walch started out podcasting in 2004. The field was wide open. He quickly learned that it's all about the content. Invest the time to make a great show and the world will beat a path to your doorstep. And it's been working out that way ever since. He's written two books on the subject that have become bestsellers. While there's a lot of people out there plying the trade, Rob believes that the opportunity to excel is greater than ever. It just takes the right mix of getting the technology right and total commitment to excellent content. Successful podcasting is never an accident of fate, it's the result of hard work and effort. 

Michael Eastham paints a very upbeat positive picture, but you always need to be aware of the inherent risks in the market. This time isn't going to be different. 

U.S. jobless claims fall to 45-year low
- The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week to the lowest level in 45 years, but the decline likely overstated the health of the labor market as data for several states were estimated.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 41,000 to a seasonally adjusted 220,000 for the week ended Jan. 13, the lowest level since February 1973, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims for the prior week were unrevised.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims falling to 250,000 in the latest week. Claims had increased over the previous four weeks, with economists blaming difficulties adjusting the data for seasonal fluctuations around moving holidays and unseasonably cold weather.

The Labor Department said claims for California, Arkansas, Kentucky, Maine, Hawaii, Virginia and Wyoming were estimated. Government offices were closed on Monday for the Martin Luther King holiday.

It also said claims-taking procedures continued to be disrupted in the Virgin Islands months after they were battered by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, while claims processing in Puerto Rico was still not back to normal.

Last week marked the 150th straight week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold, which is associated with a strong labor market. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labor market was much smaller.

The labor market is near full employment, with the jobless rate at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent.

Last week, the four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, fell 6,250 to 244,500. The claims data covered the survey week for January’s nonfarm payrolls.

The four-week average of claims rose 8,500 between the December and January survey periods, suggesting some moderation in the pace of job growth. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 148,000 in December after surging by 252,000 in November.

Job growth is slowing as the labor market nears full employment. There has been an increase in companies reporting difficulties finding qualified workers. There are about 5.9 million job openings in the country.

In its Beige Book report of anecdotal information on business activity collected from contacts nationwide, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday that “most districts cited on-going labor market tightness and challenges finding qualified workers across skills and sectors.”

Thursday’s claims report also showed the number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid increased 76,000 to 1.95 million in the week ended Jan. 6. The four-week moving average of the so-called continuing claims gained 4,000 to 1.92 million.

Ferraris, Lamborghinis and McLarens, if you're looking to invest in Exotic Supercars the Blockchain just might be the place to go. Charles Kilborn is tokenizing exotic car investing. You'll be able to get your piece by simply purchasing a crypto-coin and keeping it safely stored in your wallet. Then after 5 years you'll be able to vote on whether to keep the cars a while longer or sell them off, hopefully at a profit. 

We're in the everything bubble, enjoy the ride! It feels new to the newbies but for the rest of us it's the same old, same old. We should have learned our lesson already, but we haven't. Younger generations come around and have no sense of history or bubbles. It's interesting and fun and frustrating. 

Dr. Cliff Gross is leading up a team to develop AR (Augmented Reality) glasses available to all. Unlike the Google Glasses released several years ago, these spectacles will greatly enhance a user's visual experience and ability to interact. And they look pretty darned good too. A number of links to crypto-tokens will make the experience a commercial success as well. The company Lucyd has a large patent portfolio combined with a number of PHD's working non-stop to make it happen. 

While attending the North American Bitcoin Conference, we learned that for every developer there are 14 job openings. Now wonder a newly minted Blockchain programmer is pulling down a cool $160k per annum. That's why Jason King jumped in with both feet. He's seeking to massively grow the number of qualified developers. And best of all, student loans are plentiful. This is actually an area where student loans make great economic sense. And veterans are ideally situated to take advantage of the opportunity. Expect a mass influx into the space. 

The Blockchain has the potential to change the world. Cool Cousins Travel is seeking to use Blockchain technology to make world travel much more enriching and rewarding. Specialized guides around the world are working with travelers to help guide them through numerous localities, providing them with lists of places to go to as well as places to avoid. These Cousins should prove an irresistible aid to wannabe world travelers. 

Money & Work Unchainedm started when Charles asked himself: "When we dream of the future of our society, are we hoping for the right things?"

The current conventional-wisdom view of our soon-to-be future is rose-tinted: automation will free millions of people from the drudgery of work, then by taxing the robots doing all the work, we can pay everyone Universal Basic Income (UBI), enabling a life of leisure and artistic pursuit for all. The result: A future of Universal Happiness.

But is this accurate? Is this what UBI is actually capable of doing? More importantly, is this what we want?

And even more importantly: will this “future” be our best future? Will it account for and manage the practicalities of work, money and automation, given the limits of endless growth on a finite planet?

Money and Work Unchained drags the now-popular concept of Universal Basic Income (UBI) from the shadows of Pundit blather into a harsh, illuminating light, and in doing so presents an entirely new view of the future that upends our conventional, foundational, understanding of work and money.

This book lays out a practical pathway that realigns work, money and human fulfillment into a sustainable system that sheds the inequalities and injustices of the status quo in favor of a human-scale way of living.

And – it gives us a future to truly hope for.

Gerald believes that the US has a major problem. The middle class is continuing its descent into oblivion. The big corporations don't care and are accelerating the trend through their unabashed greed. Gerald doesn't see an upside due in large part to the dumbing down of America. Until people are no longer willing to tolerate the situation, it will continue unabated. 

Rick Rule joined us today and had some huge news. The wizards of Sprott have been working overtime to bring us a gold-backed/convertible crypto currency. Imagine taking your token and exchanging it for gold! The physical gold will be stored by the Royal Mint of Canada. As Rick likes to say, "Imagine your gold being protected by NATO." There's going to be a tremendous add-on market for ancillary services once the currency is widely excepted and distributed. And perhaps the reason for precious metal ETF's will diminish or even disappear. And to think it's all going to start within a week to 10 days. Now that's change you can believe in!

It's no secret that stock markets are at already unsustainable levels and getting more so every day. This has led otherwise intelligent people to question whether standard security valuation tools are still relevant. When prices are rapidly increasing it's easy to believe that valuations don't matter. However, at such time when the market inevitably corrects, Danielle's belief (and mine too) is that valuations really do matter and in fact one many so-called investors are going to realize it as well. 

James Hirsen highlights Hollywood's sexual abuse problems in his recent column. James Franco has become the latest target of allegations from no fewer than five women. Worst of all he's in contention for an Oscar after receiving a Golden Globe Award. How will they handle it? It's a real dilemma for them. Add to that declining movie ticket sales and the implosion of the Brand after the Harvey Weinstein eruption and they've got a major mess on their hands. And according to James, Oprah has got a lot of issues of her own, so don't expect to see her on the presidential debate stage anytime soon. 

David Morgan, one of the thought leaders in our community, joined us for a look ahead at 2018 for precious metals. David's got a company that pulls precious metals out of scrap and is poised to cash in. There's more gold in a ton of scrap iPhones than you find in many mines. 2017 showed strength in gold, not so much in silver. David wouldn't be surprised to see a high of $21 or more for silver in 2018. Peak years coming in 2020. Palladium was a major hit for the year going up 55%. Copper was up 30 percent and other base metals went even higher. And we're probably just getting started in the next upswing. 

Somewhere out there is an event or major trend change that will take gold from 1300 to 10000. Then the COT (commitment of traders report) won't matter. You don't want to go all in on a minor technical move that causes you to miss the big move. If you miss it you'll feel stupid for the rest of your life. That's why it's so important to retain your physical holdings as an insurance policy for the inevitable move. 

During the election in 2015 Hillary Clinton wanted some insurance and so did Peter Strzok. The senior FBI figure, who had participated in the Hillary e-mail investigation, interviewed Flynn and had been part of Team Mueller, wasn't looking to State Farm for his insurance needs. Chatting with his mistress, an FBI lawyer who worked for Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, Strzok worried that Trump might win. “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office - that there’s no way [Trump] gets elected - but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” he wrote. “It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.” And thus the scheme was hatched. It went on after the election and its purpose was to undermine President Trump's presidency. 

The economy is starting to blaze. Christmas retail sales were way up, but that increase came from online, not same stores. Home oriented retailers and value based retailers are expanding rapidly. Discounters are crushing it. But there's a residue of many employees who will be phased out by automation. And 10's of thousands of stores that will be shuttered. The industry restructuring will proceed ahead for the next decade. We'll be left with just a portion of the labor market left in retailing. Retraining will only go so far. This is just the beginning. Household names will disappear. There will be a mass redeployment away from retailing and into more profitable and productive sectors of the economy. 

To Gordon T. Long it's a simple matter, things are changing quickly and there's a New New World Order emerging. With the rapid takeover of previously human based industry by artificial intelligence and robotics, how many of today's workers will be needed in the future? Where will the new jobs come from? These are issues that every government will have to deal with in the coming years. Change is coming quickly and the world will have to adapt, but how? 

Al Caceido is urging caution in investing for the year ahead. We just came off an incredible year with the DOW gaining 25%. 2018 could be a more challenging environment. Will the tax cut achieve its desired ends? Will there be currency and trade issues that work against our economy? There's a lot of unknowns that could cause substantial losses so it might not be a bad idea to take some profits now. 

Nick Santiago has had a remarkable 11 year run. He called the peak of the stock market in October 11, 2007, to the day. He wasn't quite so prescient on calling the start of the current bull market, he was five days off. But as Yogi Berra said, prediction is very difficult, especially when you're dealing with the future. Nick's had an amazing run and some of his calls for the coming year might surprise you. But he believes the next crash is still a ways off, so you can rest easy--at least for now. 

Jason joined us today. Just 2 days before the 2018 Meet the Masters of Income Property. Former Congressman Ron Paul will be leading an all star list of guests. Just click here to register now! You'll learn about Jason's latest predictions about the economy, demographics, real estate and much more. A prediction he made in 2011 has come alarmingly true. Jason said the number of renters would increase by 6 million. In fact, the number is far higher. He's now predicting that upper middle class professionals will be dumping their homes in high tax states and renting high end homes. Let's see what happens next. 

Three reasons why Gold will go up. 

1) Gold should have gone down in 2017. 

2) The everything bubble is coming to an end. 

3) The technical picture shows gold coiling for a big breakout!

Soaring stock markets, with all major US markets making numerous new highs throughout the year...

• Raging bitcoin and crypto prices, captivating investors worldwide and dominating headlines, with numerous stories of investors getting rich.

• Rising real estate values, with some areas reporting frothy prices.

• Rising US interest rates, with promises of more from the Fed.

• Higher GDP in the US and many other economies around the world.

• Falling unemployment in the US.

• Higher wages, with the passage of a tax bill that spurred many companies to offer bonuses and wage increases.

• And last, falling gold bullion sales, so soft they reached a 10-year low.

• The VIX (Volatility Index, a general measure of fear in the marketplace) has registered a reading below 10 a total of 54 days in the last 20 years—and 46 of those abnormally low readings have occurred just since last May! The reversal to the upside could be stunning—and push investors into gold.

• The CAPE (Cyclically Adjusted Price-Earnings) ratio has now matched its 1999 level, the second highest reading in over 100 years of data. And you remember what happened in the years following that bloated stock market level. The CAPE has now registered a higher reading only in 1929. Yikes.

When will gold begin its surge? 

It's impossible to pinpoint the day, but we know when:

 Gold will respond when uncertainty and fear creep back into the economy or markets.

Or any other surprise that catches investors off guard. The next event that causes financial instability will likely be the spark that pushes gold out of its current range and kick-starts the next surge. 

Chris is at heart a cycle guy. He sees a rally coming in the US Dollar for the next couple of months, along with a pause in precious metals. He believes that the second half will be the time that gold, etc., breaks out. Volatility is increasing in equities and commodities. Bigger up days and bigger down days until the momentum reverses in the various markets. We're coming to an end in the stock bull market, but they're still extremely strong. Stocks could have reversed in 2016, however, Trump literally saved the market from a major decline. Trumphoria is still alive and well. There's just no fear in the market. Such stages could extend much further than anyone believes possible. Chris believes the Utility Sector is oversold and out of favor right now. They could be a very good buy. 

Trevor Loudon says that if Hillary Clinton was elected there would be no freedom movement in Iran. While right now it appears that the movement has taken a rest, Trevor believes that it will be back before long, in spades. Trump has emboldened freedom warriors around the globe. Perhaps Venezuela and Cuba will be next. We can only hope!