In this video Chris Martenson, economic analyst at http://chrismartenson.com and author of ‘The Crash Course’, explains why he thinks that the coming 20 years are going to look completely unlike the last 20 years. In his presentation he focuses on the so-called three “Es”: Economy, Energy and Environment. He argues that at this point in time it is no longer possible to view either one of those topics separately from one another.

Since all our money is loaned onto existence, our economy has to grow exponentially. Martenson proves this point empirically by showing a 99.9% fit of the actual growth curve of the last 40 years to an exponential curve. If we wanted to continue on this path, our debt load would have to double again over the next 10 years. By continually increasing our debt relative to GDP we are making the assumption that our future will always be wealthier than our past. He believes that this assumption is flawed and that the debt loads are already unmanageable.

Martenson explains how exponential growth works and why it is so scary that our economy is based on it. In an example he illustrates how unimaginably fast things speed up towards the end of an exponential curve. He shows that an exponential chart can be found in every one of the three “E’s” for instance in GDP growth, oil production, water use or species extinction. Due to the natural limitations on resources, Martenson comes to the conclusion that we are facing a serious energy crisis.

This energy predicament is namely that the quantity of oil as well as the quality of oil are in decline. He shows that oil discoveries peaked in 1964 and oil production peaked 40 years later. Martenson also shows how our return on invested energy is rapidly declining — the “cheap and easy” oil fields have already been exploited. In 1930 the energy return for oil was 100:1 or greater. Today it is already down to 3:1 and newer technologies such as corn-based ethanol only provide a 1.5:1 return. Martenson predicts that the time in between oil shocks will get shorter and shorter and that oil prices will go much higher.

Not only oil but also other natural resources are being rapidly used up as well. At the current projected pace of use, known reserves for many metals and minerals will be gone within the next 10 to 20 years. The energy needed to get these non-renewable resources out of the ground is growing exponentially. So we live in a world that must grow, but can’t grow and is subject to depletion. The conclusion out of all this is that our money system is poorly designed and that we need to rethink how we do things as quickly as possible.

After finishing his presentation Chris Martenson answers questions regarding a rise in efficiency, alternative technologies and oil prices. He also responds to questions regarding electricity, shale gas, gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and uranium and the race for global resources.

This video was recorded on November 16 at the Gold & Silver Meeting 2011 in Madrid.

By Jeff Clark, BIG GOLD

It may not feel like it after a 12% correction in the past 30 days, but Mike Maloney – founder of GoldSilver.com – is convinced that we’re in a gold bull market that will be life changing for those who participate. I interviewed him for our current edition of BIG GOLD and am sharing some of what we talked about here. You may be shocked at what you read, because he’s devoted a larger allocation to gold and silver than we have. See why he’s convinced a bubble is ahead for precious metals, how high prices will go, and why he stores some gold overseas.

Jeff Clark: For those who don’t know you, why is Mike Maloney such a big believer in gold and silver?

Mike Maloney: Around 1999, my mother needed help with the estate my father had left her. My sister and I interviewed a dozen financial planners and picked the one that had the most glowing recommendations and gave him control of the assets. He lost about 50% of them in the next year and a half. What I’ve found is most financial planners get it wrong. They’re always chasing yesterday’s news. To be fair, there was a market crash, but with 50% of her assets gone by 2001, I ripped everything away from him, moved it to cash, and started studying the economy like crazy.

I discovered that the people concerned about budget deficits and trade imbalances at that time were in the precious metals sector, the hard money advocates. All the rest of the economists and newsletter writers didn’t really care. Concerns about international trade imbalances and how they were going to come back to bite us one day were coming from the hard money analysts. They also wrote about monetary history, something I just fell in love with. The fact that things just repeat over and over again is amazing.

I have hard data from 1918 to today, and anecdotal evidence before 1918, that shows that throughout history a society has a certain amount of real money – gold and silver. Then they either come out with debased coinage, or paper representations of gold and silver and expand the currency supply, which eventually cause prices to rise. People then realize there was something wrong with the currency and they rush back toward gold and silver to protect their purchasing power… and in doing so, they bid up the value of the gold and silver in the country until it matches the value of the circulating medium.

It appears to me this process has been going on since 407 BC, with the first great inflation in Athens. I have charts in my book, Guide to Investing in Gold and Silver, starting in the year 1918, showing the value of the gold held at the United States Treasury compared to the value of all of the base money or paper currency, and it was a 1:1 ratio.

Jeff: So history shows that the value of gold eventually equals the value of all paper money in circulation?

Mike: Yes. Back then, the US dollar was a claim check on real money – gold. Base money was the number of US Treasury gold notes in circulation. Before World War I, base money equaled the value of the gold held at the US Treasury. Then we established the Federal Reserve and did a bunch of deficit spending for WWI, expanding the currency supply, so now there wasn’t enough gold to cover all the dollars they printed. In 1934 the price of gold was changed to $35 per ounce and the values of base money and gold at the Treasury were once again in equilibrium.

Then we expanded the currency supply to pay for WWII, Korea, and Vietnam, and in the ‘70s the price of gold rose until its value at the Treasury exceeded base money. But, for a short time in 1980, the value of gold at the Treasury not only exceeded the base money, it surpassed base money plus outstanding credit card balances. This is important because credit cards are replacing cash in circulation, so you must include it if you want to estimate a price target.

Jeff: So how high do gold and silver go?

Mike: When I finished the book, it required a $6,000 gold price to cover base money plus outstanding revolving credit. I’m not saying that that’s going to happen, but if history were to repeat, that would be the price.

However, since the book was written, Bernanke created a whole bunch of base money to bail out the banks, and now it takes a $15,000 to $20,000 gold price. One caveat is that $1.6 trillion of excess currency is sitting on banks’ balance sheets. It has yet to enter circulation, and if it never does, then this price target changes. My point is that prices are a moving target. Putting a dollar figure on them is an exercise in stupidity, I think, because the dollar is always changing. You can’t use it as a measuring stick.

My target for gold is that it should be equivalent to 1/40 of a single-family, medium-priced home, or two shares of the Dow. So gold will probably buy you about 12 times more stocks and 3 times more real estate in the future than it does now. So those are my prices.

And silver will leverage you to that. There is more gold on the exchanges and with the dealers that investors can buy than there is silver. Their current prices do not reflect this. Gold is way too cheap compared to dollars, and silver is too cheap compared to gold.

Jeff: Sounds like it’s not too late to buy gold and silver.

Mike: No. What investors need to be aware of is that we are on the last legs of our currency system. History shows that the world sees a brand-new monetary system every 30-40 years – and ours is 40 years old. Right now all currencies on the planet are backed by debt. All of the previous transitions were baby steps from something (gold) to nothing (debt). In order to give confidence back to the currencies, we’ll have to go from nothing (debt) to something (most likely gold again) in one big, huge, gigantic leap. This will cause an economic convulsion the likes of which the world has never seen.

The end of this precious metals bull market will be marked by panic buying. Gold and silver will be going into an astronomical bubble one day, probably the biggest bubble in financial history. That is why I think gold and silver are still fundamentally undervalued.

Jeff: Investors reading this might be a little skeptical that a bullion dealer is telling them to buy gold and silver. Do you mind sharing what percentage of your assets is held in gold and silver?

Mike: My personal portfolio is 100% in gold and silver. I have no other investments. I am completely committed to this because I absolutely believe it. I spent 2-1/2 years writing what is now a bestselling book on gold, and I opened a precious metals dealership. There isn’t anything I do, no action I take, that isn’t somehow connected to gold and silver.

Jeff: What separates GoldSilver.com from other bullion dealers?

Mike: Everybody at GoldSilver.com invests in gold and silver. They have all been invested in precious metals since I started the company in 2005. Everyone is absolutely committed and very knowledgeable. So we are all on the same side of the boat as Casey Research. If you become a gold and silver client, you’ll know we’re invested just like you are. We’re walking the walk and talking the talk.

We also have a team of researchers who are constantly analyzing where we are in this bull market. It’s in our best interest to try to find the top of this bull market and sell when the time is right. I believe we can multiply your winnings by letting you know what we’re doing when it comes time to sell. The way I’ve set up my company is that if you don’t win, I don’t win.

Another thing you should know is that I am not a gold or silver bug. I couldn’t care less about these metals. They are just in their cycle right now and will be the best performing asset for the coming years – period – just based on history.

There are these brief moments in history where the safe-haven asset also becomes the asset class with the single greatest potential gains in absolute purchasing power. We’re in one of these cycles right now; as the currency supply gets ramped up and people realize there is something wrong with it, they’ll rush back toward gold and silver and bid the price up until it matches the value of the currency supply.

Jeff: You’re increasing the number of storage facilities outside the US; why should a US citizen consider storing bullion outside the country?

Mike: Some investors are concerned about “confiscation,” which is technically incorrect. The US government never confiscated gold; they “nationalized” it. In 1933, they bought it from US citizens at full face so that the Treasury could hold it as an asset for the entire nation. That’s the very definition of nationalization.

Jeff: Are you saying you don’t think gold could be confiscated?

Mike: It’s possible, but I don’t believe it would happen in the United States. More than half of our currency resides outside the border. We’re the only country in that situation. If Obama passed an executive order today once again nationalizing gold, I believe that banks and brokerage houses around the world would suspect something was wrong with the dollar, and they would immediately dump their dollars and buy gold and silver. That would cause the dollar to fall to zero and send gold and silver to infinity in a matter of weeks. I would hope there is someone in the government smart enough to know this. If so, then it makes nationalization very unlikely.

Jeff: Good point.

Mike: But I do believe that it is good to have some geographical diversity. I think we’re going to see governments trying to limit our financial freedom even more than we’ve seen since 9/11. They’ll do this by instituting such draconian capital controls that today’s IRS will seem magnanimous by comparison. I want to be able to travel freely and have access to my funds no matter what happens. Therefore, I keep some of my gold in offshore storage accounts in several countries.

Jeff: But why go to the hassle and bother with the reporting requirements?

Mike: Because if you’ve got ownership outside the country, you may be able to retain it, even in a nationalization. The point is, we don’t know the future. All we can do is look at what’s happening, try to figure out what governments are going to do, and then protect ourselves with a little bit of diversity. And of all the assets you could own offshore, I believe none are safer than physical gold or silver.

Jeff: Do you think foreign storage puts a target on my back with government officials?

Mike: Well, they want to make sure you’re declaring any capital gain. And I do think that precious metals investors will see some sort of windfall profit tax when the government tries to punish those nasty gold speculators that caused the dollar to crash. They will always point the finger anywhere but where it belongs – which is squarely at the government and the Federal Reserve. People are just trying to protect themselves from government stupidity and the Fed by buying gold and silver.

I think the reason they require the reporting is to make it difficult for people to cheat on their taxes. I don’t think it’s going to make you any more of a target than anybody else if you report everything. If you play within the rules, you’re not a target. I myself walk the straight and narrow. I make sure I comply with everything the IRS and the Treasury require.

Jeff: What about the small investor? Do you have any advice for the person who has limited funds?

Mike: Yes. It only takes $40 to become a silver investor. Regardless of what your income level is, you’re going to come out much better in the end. And once you take the leap and become an investor, your mindset changes and you find yourself starting to plan. A lot of people are not really planning on the future that much – but once you buy an ounce of silver and become educated, you give yourself a tremendous advantage over the rest of the population.

So just buy small quantities of silver. It has such leverage to it. And silver will probably go into some sort of super-spike that you will want to catch, which means you probably need some sort of guidance. That’s where subscribing to newsletters such as yours is very, very important for anybody who’s going to get into this.

Jeff: Thanks for your time, Mike.

Mike: You’re very welcome.

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One of the most dangerous lies in all of finance and economics is the implied myth that inflation somehow “destroys” wealth. It doesn’t. Inflation doesn’t hurt everyone equally — inflation helps some and hurts others.

Inflation is actually one of the biggest reasons large corporations are so powerful in society. The government and big banks use inflation to force people to spend their money and go into as much debt as they can afford.

But how does it all work? Before we answer that, let’s first look at a parable. Some things are best learned in a story format, and inflation is one of those.

The Saver and the Slave: An Inflation Story

There were once two men who were neighbors. Their names were “Jack” and “John”.

Jack was a saver. He spent his entire life saving every penny he could get his hands on. He saved money with coupons, saved money by buying stuff only in off-seasons, saved money by spending as little as he could, etc. He was a saver. By the time he was 45, he had saved exactly $100,000.

John was a spender. He spent every dime he ever earned. Back in his 20s, he even took out a $100,000 loan, and bought two houses with it. He never used coupons, never looked at prices before buying anything, and wore nicer clothes.

During this time, inflation started to hit in. Inflation was fairly high. By the time Jack and John were 45, inflation destroyed 90% of the value of the US dollar.

For Jack, this was disastrous. He spent his whole life saving $100,000, and suddenly it was worth only 10% of what it should have been worth. This means that rather than having 100k it was as though he only had 10k. Not enough to even buy a house.

For John, this was perfect. He spent his whole life spending his money, so he didn’t see his money lose value. He took out a 100k loan, but his loan was only like he had a 10k loan now — and he still has two houses. John ended up selling one house, paying off the loan, and walking away with a free house, and 90k.

Inflation Destroys Debt and Dollars

Inflation doesn’t destroy wealth — inflation destroys dollars. This means if you’re in debt, inflation makes your debt less and less. If inflation is 10%, it’s like your debt is getting 10% smaller every year. If you’re a saver, inflation makes your savings 10% smaller every year.

Every year people in debt see their net worth increase because of inflation.

Every year people who are savers see their net worth decrease because of inflation.

Inflation doesn’t hurt everyone equally — it just hurts people with cash, and forces them to spend their money and get into debt. Inflation essentially forces people to become slaves to banks and to not have money.

In an inflationary society, people who are willing to go into debt to buy houses, businesses and such are at a huge, huge advantage over people who just save their money. Savers are penalized. Spenders are rewarded.

What This Really Means

Because inflation makes debt more attractive, an economy with inflation will see a much higher level of debt than societies with less inflation. This leads to the economy becoming much less secure, and sets us up for financial catastrophe.

Inflation is one of the reasons so many people purchase houses and property even before they have the money — inflation makes cash less profitable or secure.

There’s a reason the government and large banks support creating inflation. It pushes individuals into debt. It makes consumers slaves to creditors. It transfers wealth from savers to people in debt. It stops frugal people from being able to make ends meet unless they have large incomes.

This all means several things:

a) Investing makes more sense. Savings accounts don’t pay interest that’s higher than inflation. This means that most people will use the stock market to build up wealth over time — they have to take part in the financial system. Plenty will get fleeced in the system. Big financial institutions make more money this way.

b) Debt makes more sense. This should be obvious. You’re using inflation to essentially get free money. Most debt comes from banks, meaning you’ll be a voluntary debt slave to a bank because it’s profitable to become one. You’re shackled to the system.

c) An independent retirement is difficult. Being able to save your own money for retirement is much, much more difficult with inflation. If it wasn’t for inflation, social security would be much less likely to exist. This means inflation makes the people more dependent on the government. The establishment loves this.

If you save $1,000,000 for retirement over the course of 50 years, and inflation is 4.07%… you actually only save $136,000 in today’s money, which probably won’t be enough to own a nice house.

Does this mean you shouldn’t save? Does this mean you should go into debt? Not quite. I’ll be writing what you should do in the future… hint: gold is a great inflation hedge.

Right now, inflation is skyrocketing. Gold is exploding. Silver is exploding. The dollar is dying. This is all happening in a way that is destroying savers, rewarding debt, and creating an economy that is based on debt and insecurity.

Shaun Connell is the the founder and editor of Stand Strong Research. He’s an entrepreneur and investor living in rural America. He’s also a firm believer in income investing, inflation hedging, and debt-free living.

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Click play to hear Robert Kiyosaki Audio Podcast on Gold Vs. US Dollar (Please wait a moment for podcast to load)

Leave your comments at the end!

With perspectives on money and investing that often contradict conventional wisdom, Robert Kiyosaki has earned a reputation for straight talk, irreverence and courage. His point of view that ‘old’ advice – get a good job, save money, get out of debt, invest for the long term, and diversify – is ‘bad’ (both obsolete and flawed) advice, challenges the status quo. Robert is the author of The New York Times bestseller Rich Dad Poor Dad.

Since 2002, Michael Maloney has specialized in education on monetary history, economics, and financial literacy. He is widely regarded as an expert on economic cycles. Michael is the owner and founder of GoldSilver.com , an online precious metals dealership. GoldSilver.com provides invaluable research and commentary for its clients, assisting them in their wealth building endeavors. Since 2005 Michael has been the precious metals investment advisor to Robert Kiyosaki. He is the author of Guide to Investing in Gold and Silver.

Richard Duncan is the author of The Dollar Crisis: Causes , Consequences, Cures – the bestseller that accurately predicted the global economic crisis that began in 2008. His latest book is The Corruption of Capitalism – A strategy to rebalance the global economy and restore sustainable growth, Duncan has worked as a financial sector specialist for the World Bank in Washington, DC. He also worked as a consultant for the IMF in Thailand during the Asian Crisis and is now chief economist at Blackhorse Asset Management.

As the middle class gets smaller and smaller, more of the tax burden will fall on highly compensated individuals. This is especially true of highly compensated employees and professionals. The tax laws will always favor business owners and investors because they provide jobs and housing.

As Social Security and Medicare go further and further into a deficit, more and more taxes will have to be raised to pay for this deficit. These taxes will fall primarily on highly compensated employees and professionals.

The sooner you start learning about and planning for the coming inflation and higher taxes, the less you will be affected by inflation and the lower your taxes will be.

Rich Dad’s Advisors: Guide to Investing In Gold and Silver: Protect Your Financial Future

With inflation, middle income earners will be pushed into higher tax brackets and will lose many of their deductions just as many people have become part of the alternative minimum tax (AMT) system through inflation.

Tax laws are basically the same throughout the world. They favor the entrepreneur and active investor and punish the employee, self employed, and casual investor. Wherever you are in the world, your taxes will be impacted by the inflationary practices of the United States and other countries.

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