If You're Not Listening to Chris Martenson...

[MD]

you are missing the most important energy voice in America, right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WBiTnBw ... r_embedded

The link is a repeat from this board. It deserves his name in the subject line.

[Revi]

I really like the way he brings the three E's together. Energy, the environment and the economy. He is one of the best speakers and I think anyone not convinced of peak oil and it's attendant problems should be directed to this video. Most people will get it.

[mmasters]

I'm not sure how wise his strategy is in putting 75% in precious metals...once the money system starts going bonkers you can bet the government is going to seize metals and attempt to put some sort of backing on the currency, on a new currency or on oil itself (once peak oil becomes public knowledge). I think it's a bad investment strategy. Funny money is here to stay for the most part. Energy is the place to invest at least for now.

[MD]

All commodities will fare well, long into the future, unless the load on resource is lowered by a significant percentage, and that won't happen without great conflict.

[mmasters]

All commodities will fare well, long into the future, unless the load on resource is lowered by a significant percentage, and that won't happen without great conflict.

We're talking gold and silver though, monetary metals that are tracked by the government and have a history of being seized during monetary crises.

[Loki]

As a complete ignoramus on PMs, could someone inform me about off-paper gold and silver transactions? What is the minimum amount it's worth investing for any given transaction, on or off paper? Would you lose money if you only did $500?

As for Chris Martenson, it's a name I've heard quite a bit, I'll check him out.

[radon]

When answering the questions, he made a very good point separating the energy generation issue from the transportation one. The difference between these two is too often totally ignored. Although indeed interlinked, they are far from being identical.

[The Practician]

Chris Martensons a pretty smart guy, but he's also a goldbug, and I don't trust goldbugs on principle.

[kiwichick]

th practician

so you trust paper

been to zimbabwe lately?

[JohnRM]

You can't eat Gold.

Unless you're wealthy (I'm talking $100,000/yr or more), I wouldn't bother buying precious metals. Buy resilience to the collapse of industrial civilization by stocking up on food, the ability to purify water, and other supplies, and most important of all, invest in the knowledge to survive.

[SeaGypsy]

There are very many places in the world where gold can be bought for cash with zero government involvement. Then try bringing it home! They aint just scanning for guns and drugs. Gold smuggling is still big business from what I have been hearing.

[Corella]

I´m still not convinced, why the money-system necessarily is like a ponzi-scheme. Shouldn´t inflation be a possible compensation, theoretically? The force to grow for each participant could just as well be one of the destructive components of competition (catchword Schumpeter). As a layman in such things i´m open for any correction. So far i agree to Practician, to distrust a goldbug.

[SeaGypsy]

At this juncture you are wrong & so is he.
It is. Inflation is a bandaid on a limb in need of amputation. We have read that stuff yes, clever. If you were open to correction you might have spent a bit of time reading before you started posting. Personally I had not a word to say about peak oil until I had read every damn thing I could find on the matter, which took about 3 years. In the course of which I totally changed my perspective on a great many things, a continuum of which is embedded in continuous quest for knowledge, lust for freedom of movement and preparedness to utterly switch between plan A plan/ B plan/....plan AZ175...

We pretty much have consensus here on the core of your question Corella. Gold has to go up simply because of it's universal recognition in time of doubt.

[Corella]

Means, you can´t explain unless writing a hundred pages or so? There is much more to read mate, and the more you read from the one thingy the less you know about the other... (btw. debtees loosing money adds to inflation). I however agree we are in a ponzi-scheme-system, the question risen is, whether the ponzi-scheme is founded on loan money!

[SeaGypsy]

You clearly don't get it. It's peakoil.com as in peak oil.
If you knew anything about peak oil you would know your very own backside is based on it, along with most of what you own and yeah, the whole giant global ponzi scheme. Oil. Oil Oil.

[Corella]

Personally i stick with the club of rome, who is in the tradition founded by Malthus which is one of the pioneers of that "think-art", right and so far consensus between us? And just as i´m thinking that way, i´m aware about the errors Malthus made. And same objections have to be placed to Martenson to avoid predicting TEOTWAKI another time too early, so once it happens really, nobody listens any longer

[SeaGypsy]

Everyone is selling something. That's survival. The pitch is the thing here, not necessarily the product or less the messenger. I don't think MD put this up as a warranty on gold certificates from a particular mint.


BTW it's a little naive to scoff at Perth as a place to buy gold. http://www.perthmint.com.au/1-tonne-gold-coin.aspx

(newbies here may not be aware that very few posters here are comfortable with less than physical gold or other PMs. Most conversations about PMs quickly get around to getting one's hands on the good stuff, where to stash it, how to protect it)

[Cloud9]

It is the exponential doubling in the last five minutes that trips up our monkey brains. The rise in gas prices. The collapse of private enterprise. The draconian laws. The zeitgeist of the herd. All these things point to the coming storm.

I think the phase shift is soon.

[Pops]

Yeah everyone is selling something, that's the problem with gurus.

The thing about PMs, and I'm sure why they are so attractive, is that they are the ultimate "EOTWAWKI Fantasy Shopping List". Just buy a bunch of gold, when the ballon goes up it becomes fabulously valuable and you become fabulously rich, EOS. The cool thing is you don't need to change anything about how you live today and in the most horrific future you'll be lord of the manor to boot! What's not to like?

It seems to me, unless you live off your investments today, the whole gold debate is moot. So you have a month's income (or 2 or 6) in gold bars, so what? It's better than a sharp stick in the eye but it isn't going to replace your job or pay the rent for long if you've changed nothing else to make your life resilient.


Anyway, I'll compliment CM, at least I think it was him, on explaining very well how to develop a matrix of scenarios that worry you and how to prioritize mitigation actions beyond just buying stuff. The best part is that you not only decide the scariest scenarios for you but also how difficult the mitigation is in your specific situation. I copied this from an earlier post of mine...

...draw a matrix, in the first column list scary scenarios. In the second column, give each scenario a probability score of 1-9, no such thing as zero probability and no 100% either. Then in the third column, place a number representing ease/efficacy of preparation with 0 = practically impossible to 10 = so easy it's almost done already. You can be as detailed as necessary, break down big scenarios into manageable tasks, "total collapse" reduces to: "clean water", "toilet paper", "lattés", etc

Once you've listed the scenarios that concern you, given them a probability of occurrence and assigned a mitigation score, multiply the probability number by the ease factor for each scenario to come up with a prioritized list of actions, highest numbers go first.

Or just buy some gold, lol.

.

[SeaGypsy]

Yeah, I'm only in this for the laughs too. Despite being perhaps the best forcaster in the world ( ) I don't own a liter of petrol let alone a barrel of oil. I do however have strong interests in geography, living anthropology and human capital. That's where my time and money go.