I like Tony Robbins and have listened to his training material in the past. I agree with his methods for training to be successful in life, but his most recent book Unshakeable I do not agree with and here is why. Tony speaks about all the great investors he interviewed and their take on the US economy and stock market. The main focus of the book is centered around the stock market and investing. Tony used some examples from the DOT com bubble and crash as well as the 2008 crash. He touts the people who were willing to keep investing through those market crashes did very well coming out of them. He also talks about how we are overdue for another stock market correction. Here is where our opinions diverge. What his book fails to mention is this time around we are sitting on a US dollar currency crisis as well. The only reason people re-entered the stock market after the 2008 crash is because the system was still intact. Wall Street accomplished this through the Federal Reserve starting up the printing presses to support the US treasuries and debt markets. The plunge protection team has also been actively involved in not allowing the stock market to find fair market value but rather drive up prices to record highs. The price to earnings on many stocks that make up the DOW or Nasdaq are insane and completely out of line with reality. It now takes 27 weeks of salary to buy 1 share of the DOW. No retail buyer or 401K holder are supporting and taking this market to new highs. It is all commercial banks, hedge funds, and big pension funds that are speculating or forced to take on riskier investments as they try and chase yields in this near 0% interest rate threshold. This Ponzi scheme is going to end badly and it will end. However, no one knows the exact timing.
The Federal Reserve raising or threatening to raise interest rates into obvious weak economic data is also amusing. This is something I believe they will quickly reverse as everything begins to crumble. We are in a very different scenario present day compared to 2000 and 2008. The US dollar has enjoyed being the world reserve currency for too long and we have abused that privilege. The artificial demand for our dollar will be going away eventually and our trading partners will not desire the dollar. The US dollar is the prettiest pig in the pen of currencies but compared to Gold and Silver it is a cow pie.
There is a central banker war against Gold and Silver and always will be. Precious metals are the shining light compared to this corrupt Ponzi scheme. JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, and others have been caught rigging the metal markets through naked short selling. This is what angers me a bit about Tony’s book. Because most everyone he has interviewed is an insider. Of course it is easy to make loads of money when you have inside information. A case in point would be Warren Buffet loading up on US Bank stock not long after the 2008 crash. Banks were in big trouble why would anyone commit funds to them unless he knew the Government was going to bail them out with billions and now trillions of dollars? If I knew that information beforehand I also would have loaded up on US Bank stock.
In the next coming crash I fear many good people will be left holding the bag in the stock market. The elite and ultra-rich have already hedged their wealth using physical gold and silver and preparing to short the stock market, not dollar cost average into it. We got lucky twice in the last crashes, but this time around the Federal Reserve has nothing left to jump start our zombie economy. It is only by the good graces or foolishness of other nations that keep extending us a life line. This next worldwide economic crisis will most likely and unfortunately lead to world war. Instead of everyone just taking their lashes for believing we all can get something for nothing in this fake financial world we live in, we will wind up in war, blaming and killing other people for our own foolishness.
In closing, if the people from Venezuela applied the teachings from this book it would be folly. Their stock market is hitting all-time highs but their currency is hyper inflating. Tony said that you only take a loss if you sell. He is implying that as long as you keep your money in la la land everything will be fine. So if the people of Venezuela would only keep their money in the stock market all their pain and suffering will be fine. This is complete nonsense. Eventually people need to draw on their savings and investments and if the underlying currency is being obliterated how does dollar cost averaging save your portfolio?
Until we blow up this debt based system and start on a wealth based system that is honest we will always have suffering. At some point in the future there will be too many dollars chasing after the same goods and services and price inflation will go sky high. Eventually other nations will give up on our dishonest practices and mismanagement of monetary policy and send all their dollars home to buy tangible things. All common citizens will be holding worthless paper and find themselves in the same situation as the people of Venezuela. Just because we were able to push off our day of punishment doesn’t mean that we won’t experience it.
Tony is going to have to donate a lot more to feed all the hungery people in America after this next crash happens.