Port Phillip Publishing — Local services in Melbourne

Another great book I've just read is "The Road to Ruin" by James Rickards. He was one of the principals of Long Term Capital Management, a huge financial management company that collapsed in 1998 (a good story in itself). This new book is the third in a series of four. You can buy the book from Port Phillip Publishing for about $8 (a bargain, but be careful as they use the book as a loss leader for a newsletter, which you may not want to buy). I just phoned them and paid for the book, which they packaged and posted to me; excellent service, that’s for sure.

In this superbly written book, Rickards argues the case for a fairly imminent debt induced financial crisis the magnitude of which the world has never seen before. He outlines how the G20, in particular the G8, have been setting up their response to what they also believe is inevitable. Really, he is a brilliant writer (even if he does slip in a quote from Henry Kissinger and scratch his head re the causes of global warming). He also has an excellent editor. As an English teacher, I find typos wherever they might be hidden way, but I found none in this book.

Rickards goes to some length to explain complexity theory. He points out that people do not act rationally. They do what they do for a multitude of reasons and on top of all this psychological unpredictability, there are a myriad of other interacting factors, any one of which can trigger an avalanche of panic selling in an already highly leveraged and stressed financial system.

Rickards also explains the concept of “Ice 9”, a term derived from a science fiction movie from some time past, where the movers and shakers of world finance met in Brisbane a few years ago to work out a strategy for the coming debt crisis that involves closing the system down by freezing the availability of everyone’s assets. This is sometimes called the Cyprus solution, where, instead of a national bail out for the stupid greedy people who have created the situation, we have a bail in. Once the system is locked up securely enough to prevent people like you and me from accessing our hard earnt wealth, the money men then set about creating enormous inflation, their only hope of eliminating the enormous debt. So, basically, the same people (us) pay the bill and the same scoundrels get away with robbery once again. It’s just done in a slightly different way.

Rickards is as erudite as he is insightful. His arguments are compellingly logical. He has taken me out of my cultural box in several new ways, and I very much appreciate my new awareness of these issues. I didn’t expect such a good read (by half). It was the best eight dollars I have spent in a long while. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone seriously interested in broadening their knowledge of financial matters.

Arthur...

Hi Thank you for the opportunity to comment on being an Alliance member. Although I think it is a great service that you have offered to us, I myself have been disappointed with the results that I have received. First of all let me say that I find the daily emails from all of the various writers that come through, are far too lengthy in detail. By the time I get through all of the daily emails, a couple of hours of my day have been lost. I believe that too much detail is being written by all of your writers. I recommend that a precis of each of the articles would be better, then to only go to the full article if it is of interest to us. Also going through all the hoops to go to the special reports, seems unnecessary to me. To have to sign in to your site should be enough. to have to sign in, go to the individual service, go to the reports and then have to then type in the required code to access the report, seems a little over the top to me. I have been disappointed with the results that I have received in following many of the recommendations. I originally used to only have up to 20 to 30 share holdings at any one time with satisfactory results. But for the last couple of years of being an Alliance member, my portfolio has grown considerably. Mainly following the Quant Trader with the many buys and sells. Together with many Small Cap recommendations , Crisis and Opportunity, Cycle Trends and Forcasts, Time Trader and Billion Dollar Breakout, all produced a huge amount of work for myself. Being mainly small buys, my portfolio grew up to 150 holdings at the top. Overall I achieved a small loss with these trades. As I run both a manual register as well as a computerised system on my portfolio, I found it a lot of work as well as a costly exercise. Along with all the buy and sell brokerages, there was also the extra fees charge by my Accountant and the Auditor, due to the amount of extra paperwork with all the holdings. I no longer follow the Quant Trader due to the losses achieved and the work required. I am currently in the process of reducing the number of my holdings to a more workable option. And I am only buying a small number of share holdings from your Recommendations that I feel confident will possibly grow. I acknowledge that Port Phillip Publishing offers us Alliance members a fantastic service with the various experts providing advice from within their allotted fields they operate...

Hi Vern I will share more about my life experiences later, however I love virtually all your advice , research and reasoning and have read a couple of your books, especially The End of Australia. I can relate to a lot you talk about because I have walked some of it. I am a thinker out of the box, small entrepreneur, enthusiast and risk taker. My involvement in the share market is relatively new, so I'm very cautious but I do recognize good advice when I find it. I have had good times and bad in an industry somewhat like gambling or the share market, and it's called Agriculture. I've worked in most divisions of it and love it for what it is most of the time. I actually regard it as a privileged life, but I like trying things outside my field of expertise. For 20 years now I have been operating our Organic Vegetable Farm in NW Tasmania, selling direct into the Wholesale Markets across the Country and we are have an awesome season this year with strong sales all through this pandemic. We are so fortunate to be in this position right now. I am 63 with Scottish & English ancestry on my fathers side with an early 1800's pioneering history in Australia, and my mother is German. I grew up on Kangaroo Island along with my now deceased wife and we have a Son & two Daughters now in their 20's. I have never had superannuation so can't lose anything there thankfully. My other main fan in your team is James Rickards and the rest of the team I also highly regard for their great work & advice. Keep up the good work. I highly recommend you all. My heart goes out to all those people that are facing or will soon face extreme hardship and depression etc. I have already been there a couple of times. Just look for the best way forward, that's what I had to work out for myself. I may share some of my financial experiences another time that involve Banks, the Legal system, Real Estate, common family issues, sickness and Health. Been there done that, what's next!! The sharing of knowledge gives us power and strength for the future. Until...