All-time Favorite Hidden Forces Podcasts
List of my all time favorite Hidden Forces podcasts which I have listened to almost all on a weekly basis.
Charting the transition to a Renewable energy based economy
Charting the transition to a Renewable energy based economy Disclaimer: I have no allegiance to any political party or leader, I vote strategically based on which party is closer to addressing major issues, such as oil dependence and environment. The coming transition to Electric cars There is a debate raging in my home province Alberta about the viability of oil for the future of the economy. I have many family members that are deeply [...]
Charting the likely collapse of society
Links: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2013/05/all-empires-crash-soon-after-they-reach-their-peak/ http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2013/05/americas-inevitable-yet-preventable-decline/
The seemingly inevitable slide to a two-class society
The income inequality gap is growing especially among western nations. There are titanic societal forces at work that are creating a future that has problems that appear to be currently unsolvable. It is a dilemma that permeates all segments of society and goes to the root of how it is economically structured. The changes seem intractable and the future largely uncertain. The above videos detail this problem very well, however both present neither cause or solutions. "Companies that sell [...]
Specific Investing Strategies – 2013 onwards
The global economy since 2008 has begun the process of de-leveraging based on the end of a major debt super-cycle . Central banks have been printing money on a historic scale and interest rates are likely to stay near zero for the next 10 years as well. Return of capital will be challenging let alone return on capital. First of all some context for what the investing environment will be like for the next 10+ years of a [...]
Preparing for Endgame – The World is turning Japanese
"We are facing an extremely difficult time, comparable in many ways to the 1930s, the Great Depression. We are facing now a general retrenchment in the developed world, which threatens to put us in a decade of more stagnation, or worse. The best-case scenario is a deflationary environment. The worst-case scenario is a collapse of the financial system." ~ George Soros
Investing in Farm Funds – Canada
With the global economy teetering on the edge of collapse making for an incredibly risky investing environment there are few good places left to put your money. The standard "safe havens" are gold, cash and bonds. The problem with these are gold's volatility, cash devaluation via inflation and sovereign bonds run the possible future risk of going belly up. (think Greece & Spain) However there are other places that may or may not be considered "safe havens". Precious metals, commodities, real [...]
Consumers are job creators…not rich capitalists
Nick Hanauer's controversial TED Talk via Huffington Post TED 2012 More Slides Final1
The Trouble with Money
A Broken Narrative by Chris Martenson (repost) "Recently I was asked by a high school teacher if I had any ideas about why students today seem so apathetic when it comes to engaging with the world around them. I waggishly responded, "Probably because they're smart." In my opinion, we're asking our young adults to step into a story that doesn't make any sense. Sure, we can grow the earth's population to 9 billion (and probably will), and [...]
Personal Debt on a Canadian level & Mass Denial
As an average number, most Canadians have a personal debt of about $26,000. This does NOT include mortgages. With mortgage debt that number climbs to a staggering $114,000 per borrower. In more absolute breakdown terms, fully 70% of Canadians are in the red with debt and have ZERO net savings. The following graph shows that only 30% of Canadians have no debt, however that is probably the most optimistic number out there. The actual number of Canadians who are debt-free is likely much, much lower. Unknown Date I'm guessing these [...]