Peak Prosperity

Paul Tustain is a gold market analyst and founder of BullionVault. In his view, gold serves as a beacon who's price is currently signaling the monetary system is in grave danger. He and Chris discuss the primary factors driving the price of gold and smart strategies for investors looking to build or maintain their holdings of the metal.

Francis Koster specializes in identifying community investment opportunities that offer attractive returns for the capital provider as well as longterm benefits for the local residents. Chris and I met Francis earlier in the year and were impressed by his inventive and scrappy approach to finding fresh, sustainable solutions for many of the long-term Three E challenges we face. He's one of the new voices you may not be familiar that with we think merits attention.

Francis Koster specializes in identifying community investment opportunities that offer attractive returns for the capital provider as well as longterm benefits for the local residents. Chris and I met Francis earlier in the year and were impressed by his inventive and scrappy approach to finding fresh, sustainable solutions for many of the long-term Three E challenges we face. He's one of the new voices you may not be familiar that with we think merits attention.

In this detailed interview, Chris talks with longtime ChrisMartenson.com member Dogs_In_A_Pile.

In this detailed interview, Chris talks with longtime ChrisMartenson.com member Dogs_In_A_Pile, an expert on nuclear energy who has been posting frequent updates to this site covering the developments at the Fukushima reactor in Japan as they have unfolded. Based on his decades of experience, Dogs provides a detailed overview of how nuclear reactors work and then speculates as best he can (as the world is still dealing with imperfect information on the situation) how the technical situation at Fukushima likely degraded since the 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit on March 11.

Bud Conrad, Casey Research's chief economist, believes that our historic paradigm of continuous economic growth has reached an end. In his view, we have been funding growth in recent decades via first issuing an unsustainable amount of public and private debt, and more recently by runaway money printing. This has led to a temporary sense of calm - which Bud calls the 'eye of the storm' - which he believes we are now emerging from into much more troubled waters.

Bud Conrad, Casey Research's chief economist, believes that our historic paradigm of continuous economic growth has reached an end. In his view, we have been funding growth in recent decades via first issuing an unsustainable amount of public and private debt, and more recently by runaway money printing. This has led to a temporary sense of calm - which Bud calls the 'eye of the storm' - which he believes we are now emerging from into much more troubled waters.

Government statistics guru John Williams believes the most important economic indicators used by our political leaders in their decison-making - the Consumer Price Index, the unemployment rate, the Gross Domestic Product - are deeply flawed in how they're calculated. Whether these flaws result from letting theory trump reality or by machinating politicians, the result is the same: we are fooling ourselves at our peril. We have been understating the risks we face - which is why we are working harder for less today than the previous generation, and why our economy is not only not in "recovery" - but on the precipice of crisis.

Today's interview focuses on current US energy policy and the risks it faces. Mr. McFarlane's many decades of public and private service in both the Middle East and global energy markets make him uniquely qualified to opine on the merits (or lack thereof) of the energy strategy that the US is pursuing.

Today's interview focuses on current US energy policy and the risks it faces. Mr. McFarlane's many decades of public and private service in both the Middle East and global energy markets make him uniquely qualified to opine on the merits (or lack thereof) of the energy strategy that the US is pursuing.

David Collum may be a new voice to many of you. Like Chris, David came to the field of macroeconomic study from a scientific background. Again like Chris, his published observations and predictions have begun to amass a readership built on respect for his emprical approach to projecting the future. For those of you unfamilar with David's work, we think you'll enjoy having this insider's ear to his recent recorded discussion with Chris, which covers a wide range of topics. In short, David sees a world where market risk has been removed (through misguided government intervention), leading to perverse behavior. In many ways, we are repeating the sins of past empires - and he warns us that history has a much higher incident rate of soverign insolvency than we may want to believe.

David Collum may be a new voice to many of you. Like Chris, David came to the field of macroeconomic study from a scientific background. Again like Chris, his published observations and predictions have begun to amass a readership built on respect for his emprical approach to projecting the future. For those of you unfamilar with David's work, we think you'll enjoy having this insider's ear to his recent recorded discussion with Chris, which covers a wide range of topics. In short, David sees a world where market risk has been removed (through misguided government intervention), leading to perverse behavior. In many ways, we are repeating the sins of past empires - and he warns us that history has a much higher incident rate of soverign insolvency than we may want to believe.

Joe Saluzzi, co-founder of Themis Trading LLC and outspoken exchange expert, is concerned with how high-frequency trading has brought the capital markets into uncharted - and dangerous - territory.

Joe Saluzzi, co-founder of Themis Trading LLC and outspoken exchange expert, is concerned with how high-frequency trading has brought the capital markets into uncharted - and dangerous - territory.

Investing legend Jim Rogers spoke recently with ChrisMartenson.com about the inflationary pressures rising dramatically around the globe, despite some governments' best efforts to downplay them. Jim shares his "outside in" perspective on US monetary and fiscal policy, and how international players find themselves forced to react. He sees a lot of fundamental imbalances that need to be corrected for, as well as shortages of almost everything developing. In his words, "It's going to be a real mess before it's over."