Kerry Lutz's--Financial Survival Network

2018 is the first year where the affects of the so-called tax reform act were experienced. It appears that some businesses are doing quite well. How many companies have just taken the money and bought their stock back is an issue. For individuals there are some high earner losers in high tax blue states (I repeat myself) and there's a lot in the middle who don't see much difference either way and then there's those at the bottom who've gotten some crumbs, as Nancy Pelosi would say. One thing that can't be disputed, employment demand has increased dramatically and wages have started to go higher. In the end it's a mixed bag. One thing is for certain, US Corporate tax rates were the highest in the world and needed a dramatic reduction. 

Chris Vermeulen is first and foremost a technical trader. Fundamentals hold little interest to him, probably because he can't make money off of them. He sees a big potential rally coming in gold, after one last round of weakness. He thinks it could be a considerable decline, which he welcomes, as it would provide confirmation to his theory. His other big play is NatGas - a/k/a the Widowmaker - as hit a 2.55 low, a point from which it quite often rallies. As I said on the show, I would never bet against Chris, because he's right so often. 

Lisa Bradley was a military wife with too much time on her hands and not enough cash. She conceived of R. Riveter as means to earn some extra income, but more importantly to help other military spouses who were suffering a similar fate. She appeared on the television show Shark Tank and immediately achieved an offer from Mark Cuban. The company has taken off and she's employing more military spouses than ever. She is an amazing person and we wish her the best of luck. 

Recently public rental bicycles have appeared in many large cities, to much popular acclaim. Anwar Sukkarie believes it's time for a public electric sit-down scooter revolution. His company Loop Share Ltd. (FSN sponsor), has already placed scooters in Beirut Lebanon and has more cities on its list. The concept is simple, provide the public with economical electric, environmentally safe scooters with a driving range up to 40 miles and watch drivers give up their cars. And it's safety first, the scooters come with a helmet which must be worn before starting. There are other companies with similar goals, but Loop has just purchased the IP for lower speed scooters that could further revolutionize personal mobility as we know it. It's a giant step forward in Micro-Mobility. 

Much like the soldier during the Vietnam War who notably quipped - We had to kill the village to save it, Paul Krugman probably believes that we need to kill the economy before it can be saved. He should be thrilled with the Trump Admin's debt on steroids policy. After all Krugman was always saying the answer to what ails the economy is debt and more debt. Predictably Krugman is calling for a recession later this year. So much for the stock market's January effect. 

What's happening in the economy? Where's the price of gold heading? Should you be worried about an economic decline. What's going to happen in 2019. Our round table answers these questions and many more. We answer some listener questions and let you know where we think things are heading. An important conversation that you need to hear. 

David Morgan is one of the most knowledgeable precious metals authority on the planet. He's been doing it for 40 years. We had a wide ranging discussion covering the folly of the Fed, why precious metals are the ultimate hedge and how you can make up for a lot of bad investment decisions with just one right one. A look at the world economic situation shows at some point precious metals could very well be the answer to global chaos. Precious metals will once again become very important and relevant. 

Imagine going into your bank to apply for a loan, having all of your documents perfectly organized and one sheet summarizing the important points of your loan request. John Matheson has developed a cloud based solution that will allow you to meet your loan officer and get treated as an equal. It all comes down to preparation and experience. John will help prepare and make the experience a positive one. 

Financial advisor Dee Carter lives in the midst of the booming Permian Basin in Texas. They keep producing more and more oil and keep discovering new fields. The world may indeed go green one day, but it's going to need petroleum to get there. And for the foreseeable future, there's nothing else that is going to power the transportation of people and goods better than petroleum based fuels. It's nice to dream about an all electric future, but for now it's just that - a dream. 

CEO Dan Anglin was recently named to High Times's list of 100 Most Influential People in Cannabis. He's an FSN show sponsor and he's been involved in the Cannabis industry from the beginning. It is still a nascent industry and no one knows exactly where it's heading. However, Dan is charting a course to become a branding powerhouse and licensing operator. In the end, it's all about the brand. He's built a team that's got major Cannabis experience and is rapidly moving ahead. The company is publicly traded on the CSE: CANA and the OTCQB: CNNXT. It's well capitalized and upon completion of its current raise, it will be debt free. While no one knows when Washington DC will legalize Cannabis, it's a pretty good bet they will at some point. But when the government gives you something, it always comes with strings. And no one knows what those strings will be. 

Prepping doesn't have to be extreme to be effective. Dunnagan Kaiser explains to us how he got involved. It was the realization reinforced by a friendly police office that when disaster struck, he would be on his own. That gave birth to a highly successful YouTube channel and website. Having some emergency food on hand, a water filter, some self-defense tools and some precious metals is just a start. There's a lot more to it than that. It's a process and a life long study. 

Making money in investments is more about you than the actual investment. The first rule of successful investing should be know thyself. When you're aware of your goals and understand the risks you need to take to achieve them, investing takes on a whole new realm. Why we act is as important as what we actually do. Joel's new book goes into this in depth and shows you how to adopt a winning attitude. 

Luke Gromen believes that the much ballyhooed celebration over the end of the US-China trade war is extremely premature. To Luke, it's a case of an immovable object getting hit by an unstoppable force. For the US to prosper and start making things again, it will have to give up the dollar's reserve currency status. For China to move forward, it will have to give up its predatory IP policy and other China First measures. It's effectively a fight for world domination. And it has a long way to go before it's resolved. 

It was an exciting January with stock markets vigorously bouncing back, metals performing well with gold breaking 1300 and silver topping 16.Palladium continued its major bull move. A bit of a bounce back in WTI and Brent. Henry Hub kept falling. Bitcoin lost another 7.3%. Rates on the 10 year Treasury declined. While the VIX dropped, volatility in most markets is on the rise. Just wait till next month!

Jarl Jensen is an expert in innovation, creativity, and reimagining the economic and social order. He is passionate about talking to people about what they can do to do their part to fix our economy because it is one of the biggest problems we as Americans (and as people) are facing today. Since his exit from his very successful company, Jarl has been focusing on the dysfunctional economy and has written the book Optimizing America, through which he encourages the reader to change the way we think about the distribution of wealth in America.

When last we spoke with Nick Santiago the market was tanking but he was nearly certain that it would shortly head higher. He was recommending the homebuilders and retailers. Again he was right on the money. The market recovered a good portion of its losses and his recommendations have taken off. Now he's bullish on gold and the dollar. He sees the stock markets heading sideway until 4Q when it will be heading higher. Gold is heading higher but will probably see a pullback shortly. A remarkable record call these markets. 

John Miller lives in Vietnam. His dear wife Monica was suffering from Stage 4 cancer and they decided to try stem cell therapy. Unfortunately the cells arrived at her time of passing. So they sent John 500 million cells derived from an umbilical cord. John received them and incredible things started to happen. His arthritis diminished greatly. His hair turned dark and his freckles and liver spots disappeared. He's feeling great and thankful to this novel treatment. We're not endorsing it or recommending it. We're just telling John's remarkable story. 

The principles in Jeffrey's new book The Secret Life could resolve the impasse between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Trump on the wall impasse. Not pre-judging the other and being willing to give the other the benefit of the doubt, all done in a spirit of moderation and focusing on the larger relationships within our country that are so important to maintain - rather than continued focus on far narrower interests - could lead to a resolution between the two on this issue that is important to our entire nation. When Pelosi says she will negotiate funding for enhanced border security and barriers in good faith once government is reopened, that is something on which she could be given the benefit of the doubt by President Trump. The two might pre-agree on some amount of new barrier funding that would be part of any subsequently negotiated deal - to be fully hashed out only after the government is reopened. President Trump might lengthen the new grace period for DACA recipients from the three years now on the table, in order to further build trust between the two sides. If there could be a thaw in the current deep freeze between the two polarized sides in our society, we would all reap the benefits.

Now that California Senator Kamala Harris has thrown her hat into the presidential ring, the Medicare for all debate has been reignited. While it sounds great, we need only look at our neighbor to the north - Canada, or across the pond at the UK. Their experiments with socialized medicine have been a disaster. Long weighting times to see a specialist and to obtain a medical procedures have condemned many to increased suffering and death. Sally has no doubt that that's what would happen here. 

Noted commentator and author Noah Rothman's latest book Unjust: Social Justice and the Unmaking of America, makes the case that Social Justice Warriors are a threat to our nation. As someone famous person once said, "They've learned nothing and forgotten nothing." Sounds like the very definition of an SJW. They just can' t quite grasp the notion of free speech and the Bill of Rights. They're under the misguided impression that rights spring from the government and not God. Hopefully they can still learn, but don't count on it. 

Why buy Apple when you can own gold? For the past 10 years the stock market has been the place to be. Oversized returns have crowded out most other investments or speculations. That situation appears to be changing. Gold just broke the critical $1300 mark and to Ned that means let the good times roll. Silver won't be too far behind as it's about to break the $16 mark. 

Ag commodities have also been ignored. Ned believes that the Indian population's appetite for more calories is just taking off. A few hundred calories per day more added to the average Indian diet will lead to a massive increase in commodities/food demand. Ned thinks it won't be too long in coming. 

Noted tax litigator and author joined us to discuss the coming Big Brother IRS tracking systems. The IRS has spent a fortune bringing their systems up to date. They've signed up a company to build a massive database to allow the IRS to search, analyze and visual data to do real time tracking of taxpayers spending patterns. They've already got the data and now they're serious about doing something about it. They'll be taking your credit card info, bank transaction data, real estate, cellphone and email data and identify patterns and make them available to audit questionable returns. It's truly a frightening Brave New World. 

Events over the past week have proven the Media for what it truly is, a mob of congenital liars. Witness the racist Covington kids tale and the Buzzfeed story about Trump supposedly directing Michael Cohen to lie to Congress. Any pretense at objective reporting has now been blown out of the water. The press cannot be trusted and should not be trusted. That's why alternative media is so popular. But look out, the big three internet companies are censoring like never before. 

According to Mason Weaver black Americans are being kept down on the Democrat Plantation doing their masters' bidding. Poverty Pimps such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson don't care about the community. They only care about their power and wealth. They've destroyed the black family and have created a culture of dependency, but Mason believes people are waking up and that the battle has already been won. Here's hoping that he's right. 

Andrew Zatlin has turned bearish on the economy and employment. We've plateaued and that means it's down from here. How we get there is the question. Obviously, central banks will be pumping in liquidity like crazy. China is already doing it now. A new infrastructure bill is coming to the USA. But will it be enough?