I had a phone conversation with a friend of mine this week, and he gave me one of the nicest compliments a guy could receive.
He called me the voice of anarchy. We were discussing the state of affairs in the world today and the worldwide debt crisis that is causing an economic meltdown; or what I call ‘The Great Reset’.
While some people talk about how we will soon enter these tumultuous times, I would argue that ‘The Great Reset is in Full Swing’. As an eternal optimist, these types of major structural changes are a positive going forward. It will lead to smaller governments and more personal responsibility.
My new title given to me by my friend, Scott, reminds me of a book I read a few years ago titled, ‘Market for Liberty’ by Morris Tannehill. Tannehill makes the case for a society completely devoid of any government influence. In his utopian world, every problem is solved by the free market.
So while I am not a complete anarchist ala Tannehill (the book is very thought provoking), we could certainly use a massive cut back in governments around the world.
For productive members of society, there is little argument that government has far out stepped its boundaries in everyday life. We have reached a point where it sometimes feels we are creating government programs, and their necessary tax increases, merely for the purpose of employing government workers.
Two days ago I was walking through a park near my flat in Riga and noticed there was someone working there collecting a small fee for usage of the public restroom. Almost no one was using it, yet this woman was there all day just collecting these toilet fees.
While observing this, I just couldn’t help but think that the cost of paying her to collect fees was probably more than the amount received every day.
When you consider the huge deficits the US, Europe, Japan and many other countries are running these days, is there really any difference here?
We are just hiring workers to collect taxes, but the taxes don’t even come close to paying our bills. So we borrow, borrow, borrow and destroy the productive capacity of future generations for the sake of ballooning the government payrolls.
At least the lady collecting toilet fees knows her job is shitty…
This week I am keeping the newsletter short and sweet. This is the deadline week for publishing our monthly EscapeWealth Ezine, so this has consumed an enormous amount of time. You can view this Ezine here. We have articles every month from experts in the financial world about asset protection, investing, trading, and international living.
Nearly every week I get requests from readers looking for sources of more information about becoming better investors or traders. While you can certainly get your master’s or PhD in finance or go work for an investment firm, in reality the easiest way to improve your skills is to learn from those who have a verifiable track record of success.
As one of my mentors once told me, “Leaders are readers.” So below is a list of a few books I consider required reading for anyone interested in making a lot of money as an investor.
- The Intelligent Investor, by Benjamin Graham
- One Up on Wall Street, by Peter Lynch
- Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, by Edwin Lefevre
- Market Wizards, by Jack Schwager
- The Mystery of Banking, by Murray Rothbard
- Winning on Wall Street, by Martin Zweig
- Investment Biker and Adventure Capitalist, by Jim Rogers
These authors all have a long history of success; they aren’t just academics writing theory. If you add these books to your repertoire of knowledge, you will certainly improve your odds of success as an investor.
If you are interested in getting a direct line to one of the best trader’s I know, I am hosting a free webinar for my readers next Thursday, September 8 at 7pm EST with Tres Knippa.
You can register for the webinar here.
Tres is a good friend of mine and a very accomplished floor trader at the CME. He frequently appears on CNBC, Fox Business, and Bloomberg News. You can view some of his appearances here, here and here.
Join Tres and me next Thursday for this free webinar where he will discuss the current economic environment and what he personally calls his retirement trade.
On a somewhat unrelated note, we are offering a 20% discount off the regular price of our Wealth Fortress Trust for the month of September.
