Kerry Lutz's--Financial Survival Network

Ned Schmidt is back and you won't be surprised to find out that he's not bullish on Apple and the Stock Market. He thinks the bull has run its course and now it's back to commodities and metals. While the bumper corn harvest is driving prices down now, wait till next year when farmers refuse to plant corn. And silver is like a coiled spring, just getting ready to take off. 

Marc Diana run MoneyTips.com. In a recent survey of successful retirees, the site wanted to understand what the key to a happy retirement was. Interestingly, the results showed that it was about more than money. Mental mindset was more important than the level of wealth. Of course material comfort is important, but there was much more to it than that. Marc also went through a list of 5 key points to downsizing. Some were intuitive and some were not, but all were useful. 

Anthony Kovice has written a product guide on what should you have on hand from your bug out backpack to stoves to battery backup and solar chargers to keep your communications powered. Worksheets on keeping track of your emergency supplies, to when members get separated during the storm, Water, Food, Fuel, Shelter Solar Powered and Battery Backup. This Guide will help get you through earthquakes, wildfires, floods and hurricanes. Follow it and you'll the essential products that will make the difference in the first 3 to 10 days.

Craig Hemke a/k/a Turd Ferguson joined us for an analysis of current precious metals prices. The last four years have been a lesson in counter-intuitiveness according to Craig. After QE1 and QE2, gold prices increased 70 percent each time. The question is why didn't that happen after QE3? What's been happening to the metals markets and all the other markets during that past four years? Some believe that they are rigged and will continue to be rigged until something major happens. Certainly the wars in the Ukraine and the Middle East should be bullish for gold and yet it continues to fall. There's obviously more to the story than meets the eye. 

Nadine Lajoie has done many things in her life. Professional motorcycle racer, author, financial planner, consultant, business coach and much more. She even sang a little song for us during the interview. Who would ever believe that for much of her earlier life she constantly contemplated suicide? And yet she never gave up hope and she kept on going. Today, she shares her story and her hope to inspire others to follow their passion and to follow their dreams. An amazing woman who doesn't know how to quit!

Don Mazzella thinks that the 2014 midterm election is one of the most important ones we'll see in our lifetimes. He's genuinely alarmed at the abuses taking place by the current adminstration. While there's many problems with the republicans, he sees a republican senate/congress as the country's best hope. Whether it's too late or not is an open question. 

Danielle Park joined us for our bi-weekly chat. Seems like there's trouble in the wealth creation paradise known as Wall Street. How much more money can you borrow to jack up your stock price? How much more debt can the world run up before it has to address the underlying systemic problems that led to the 2008-09? The point is that we're rapidly reaching the point where the need for solutions will no longer be able to be put off any longer. When that day arrives, who will stand up to the financial sector and do the right thing? 

Rick Ackerman is concerned about gold's future course. If prices keep falling and it breaks technical support, Rick thinks it could drop as low as $820. But that's just from a technical standpoint. The reality could and probably will be quite different. As far as the stock market is concerned, Rick has never been a raging bull, but that's no reason not to make money. He doesn't see much upside potential, but still could see the bull keep going for a while longer. He's focusing more on the tresaury market now, where he's sees many low risk, high profit opportunities. Much to think about in these uncertain times. 

Howard Davidowitz, well known consultant and turnaround expert, is unhappy with the state of affairs in America today. He says there's no leadership and that the appearance of prosperity is being fed by record amounts of debt. The situation can't continue on indefinitely and won't have a happy ending. However, Howard has not lost hope. He believes that the right person will be elected and will help turn it all around. He's seen it happen before in New York City and he believes that it will happen again in Washington, D.C. 

We purchased the new iPhone 6 on Friday. We waited just 25 minutes at Verizon, while hundreds waited hours at the Apple Store. Why? The new iPhone is a major advance, especially for the coming medical applications. And the screen is big and very readable. 

Guess what? The Federal Fracking Study has been completed and the verdict is in, Fracking is good! Any adverse affects that have been realized from Fracked wells have beem caused by defects in the well drilling process, not the Fracking process. A big we told you so on that one. Time for you trolls to fess up and go home. 

Did you hear about the report in Alaska who said eFF it and quit? 

Finally, the EB-5 Visa program which has become a means for wealthy Chinese to obtain green cards, by investing $500k in a new business, now has a two year backlog. But don't worry, where there's a will, there's a lawyer. 

John Rubino writes in his latest column that this bank which is a household name needed to be bailed out last time with trillions in freshly minted fiat dollars. In 2006 when the housing bubble was running out of steam, they doubled down because Wall Street wasn't happy with their results. Now they're at it again. Listen to the intereview and see if you guessed who they are. 

Manipulation Mondays with Andrew Hoffman:

1. Post Labor Day PM smash, and specifically (per the title of today's article, "Cartel Suicide") the insanity of pushing prices this far below the cost of production amidst record demand, plunging inventories, and more oversold conditions than even April 2013.

2.  Last week's news stories

                - FOMC statement, in which "nothing" was said (per my article title).  In fact, far more dovish than even CNBC and Goldman expected - but Fed went all out to push rates back up towards the 2.6% line in sand, and attack PMs

                - Scottish referendum - conclusions, potential ramifications

                - ECB TLTRO first tranche, $100 billion of new, free bank loans

                -"Surprise $80 billion Chinese QE announcement, second in six weeks

                - Collapsing Chinese home price data, Japanese downward revision of economy by perma-bullish BOJ

                -New global currency collapse, amidst "strong dollar" - hyperinflationary fears will be here soon, especially in Japan

3.  Ali Baba, and advanced stage of U.S. equity bubble

                -hedge funds not benefiting, as Calpers/Texas Teachers get rid of them as asset classes

                -public not benefitting, as no one owns stocks

                -record valuations, based on fraudulent accounting

                -record leverage

                -record low interest rates, with worst bond fundamentals EVER

Robert Spencer of JihadWatch writes that Ali Muhammad Brown, currently in jail on $5 million bail for the alleged murder of 19-year-old Brendan Tevlin, whic he Brown described as an act of ‘vengeance’ for innocent lives lost in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Iran. ‘All these lives are taken every single day by America, by this government. "So a life for a life."  He has also been charged with gunning down two men at 29th and King Street in Seattle’s Leschi neighborhood on June 1. Unfortunately the mainstream media was paying little attention to the these murders until a recent announcement by New York Radio Talk Show Host Todd Pettengill, who's child was friends with Brendan. So, it appears that Jihad has already come to America. 

ROBERT MAZUR spent five years undercover infiltrating the criminal hierarchy of Colombia’s drug cartels. The dirty bankers and businessmen he befriended—some of whom still shape power across the globe—knew him as Bob Musella, a wealthy, mob-connected big shot living the good life. Unfortunately, not much has changed. Some of The Too Big To Fail Banks are also some of the world's largest money lauderers. Robert tells us how they do it and how they continue to do it. 

Elan Journo of the Ayn Rand Institute talks about some of the lessons we can draw from what we have witnessed in the Middle East, during the thirteen years since 9/11. How should we judge the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Who is the enemy? How should we think of ISIS?

Other points covered:

• How conventional morality — the notion of altruism, i.e., the idea that self-sacrifice for the sake of others is the essence of morality — crippled our military response to 9/11.

• Why the Bush doctrine of spreading democracy in the Middle East was doomed to fail.

• The nature of the enemy: Who are they and what drives them?

Gordon T. Long and Charles Hugh Smith recently did a blockbuster presentation on the evolution of Crony Capitalism in America. They traced its route causes and the damage that is currently being inflicted upon the country and the population from it. Today Gordon and I dicussed possible strategies that individuals can to take avoid the negative effects of Crony Capitalism and thrive nonetheless. The goal is simple and with a little bit of work anyone can do it. 

Bix Weir joined us today for a look at what's happening now and what's going to happen next. It's all getting very interesting. While gold and silver prices get hammered, there's no supply to be had. Bitcoin is also getting hammered, down to the low $400's, and the dollar keeps going up. Bix is convinced that it's all going to end soon and with a bang, not a whimper. We'll know a lot more soon. 

Nile Nickel is an expert at using Linkedin to expand your business. He's got a free 5 point report to help you get your message out and to help your business thrive. We only had time to discuss a few of them, but they are quite common sense and powerful. And best of all they're free. You should connect with him today. 

We spoke with Sprott Global's Jason Stevens. He's not at all discouraged by the recent price action in gold and silver. He expects to see the gold price stay in the $1250 to $1400 range for a while. But the miners have already learned to exist and thrive in this environment and when the price eventually increases the miners will really profit. There's still plenty of bargains and now is a good time to be looking closer at them. 

Andy Ofiesh is a technologist at Armory Technologies. They produce a Bitcoin wallet but are working on features that are aimed at bringing the cryptocurrency to a whole new level. Their multiple signature feature can require escrow agents to sign off on transactions to allow funds transfers to take place. This is really cutting edge. Based on our discussion, you can see that Bitcoin is rapidly evolving and we're only at the very beginning. 

Heather Wagenhals was back on with us discussing the new, or not so new, Verizon 28 scam. That's where a robocall informs you that because you're such a wonderfull Verizon customer, you're entitled to get $30 back, just go to the Verizon28 website. Give them your account information and then you'll get the credit applied to your next bill, except that the instead of the credit, you'll get a nice $300 charge. Evidently, it's been going on for quite some time and Verizon hasn't been doing much, if anything about it. Be on the look for this and a whole lot more. 

Peter Grandich says that everyone is down on gold and this could be the final down leg down. While timing is always tricky, the near universal bearish sentiment could be the best indicator that the triple bottom will be the final bottom for the yellow metal. While retail investment demand for the gold is near non-existent, there's still plenty of jewelry demand and it might not take much to get it going higher again. Remember, the black swans are still circling. 

There's an emerging trading block-the BRICS-that could and probably will eventually challenge the Dollar's primacy. When is the question? Right now the world's economic system is truly on the edge. If the Dollar's reserve currency status gets upended now, will it cause global chaos, especially if the United States fights back? And will we wind up with chaos anyway due to the insane actions of the world's central banks? John and I discuss these questions and more on today's dicussion. 

Manipulation Mondays with Andrew Hoffman:

Secession -

                - 1.8 million Catalonians rallied Friday for secession, 25% of Spanish

                  tax revnues

                -Majority of Venetians favor secession, 10% of Italian GDP

                -Scotland 50% odds of "yes" vote Wednesday, would destabilize all of

                  Europe (and Scotland would own 90% of North Sea oil revenues)

 Articles:  "SECESSIONIST MOVEMENTS GAINING MOMENTUM"; "WEST TO EAST, GLOBAL ECONOMIC COLLAPSE"; "COMMODITY CRASH"

Collapsing global economy

-IMF reduced global GDP forecast, World Bank warned of global jobs crisis

-China, worst GDP growth since 2008, worst capex growth since 2001, negative yoy electricity output

-Japan, all economic data dramatically revised downward last week, Abenomics to end in April with Japanese economy/inflation (i.e., the "Misery Index") at multi-decade lows-

-Europe - QE set to start next month and NIRP expanding to the point it may catalyze bank runs (i.e., backdoor bail-ins)

- Article - "WE ARE AT THE LOWER BOUND"

-"Strengthening dollar" fallacy, as emerging market - and ALL - currencies plummeting, per the expansion of the "FINAL CURRENCY WAR" circa 2011-12 that keeps gaining momentum.

Articles: "THE LOWEST INFLATION IN FIVE YEARS"; "THE SINGLE MOST PRECIOUS METALS BULLISH FACTOR"; "IF A NUCLEAR BOMB DESTROYED EUROPE…" (publishing today)

-COMEX manipulation, as silver open interest explodes despite plunging prices - Harvey Organ believes Chinese no longer able to source metal, end is nigh

-Russian sanctions, upcoming blowback (especially with Ruble at all-time low)

-FOMC meeting Wednesday, ECB TLTRO uptake announcement Wednesday, Scottish vote Thursday