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Conversations With Chris Martenson

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Zero Hedge had the pleasure of sharing some perspectives with Chris Martenson, for his latest Straight Talk installment. For some recent views on media, the economy, commodities, and sundry other topics, we invite readers to check out the Q&A at the following link.

 

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Wed, 12/15/2010 - 12:47 | 808283 Thomas
Thomas's picture

Chris is fantastic.

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 12:47 | 808286 Cognitive Dissonance
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I suspect this "straight Talk" installment will be the closest we get to a bonafide Zero Hedge editorial for a while. Thanks Tyler for letting us know your thoughts.

BTW, based upon the excerpt below it appears Tyler was a boy scout when he was younger because he's telling us to be prepared for anything.

8. What is your advice to concerned individuals looking to position/protect themselves from the likely economic turmoil ahead of us? What strategies and tactics should they consider?

We always recommend looking at the opportunity costs of behavior that is an alternative to prevailing modes. In other words, look at potential outcomes the way an investment manager evaluates an investing opportunity: in terms of upside/downside and associated probabilities. While currently the probability of a truly dire outcome is very, very minor, the cost of insurance is very small. One can buy a year’s worth of provisions, medicine, and other forms of protection for a very cheap price. Should the worst happen, and such items be required, they would be unprocurable, period. This is probably our first advice to those who, like Paolo Pellegrini, wish to insure themselves, very cheaply, to the equivalent of a collapse in the subprime market back in 2006. While many laughed in his face at the time, his obstinacy and persistence is what made both him and John Paulson billions. It is always better to be early on a trade that has even very small chances of success, then too late on a sure trade. And aside from such unpleasant “survivalist” thoughts, we can only recommend, as we have been doing on Zero Hedge for nearly two years, that readers purchase as many hard assets as they can.  Anything that Ben Bernanke will dilute by printing, he will; this we are certain of. Which is why purchasing precious metals, hard assets, non-perishable supplies, arable land, and means to protect the above four, is probably the best advice we can give to anyone.

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 14:22 | 808648 chinaguy
chinaguy's picture

dbl

 

 

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 14:20 | 808651 chinaguy
chinaguy's picture

CD, going to link/rant off of your comment.

FEMA has proved itself incapable of providing disaster aid beyond a simple river flooding.

The majority of the country lives in areas subject to catastrophic disaster by earth quakes, hurricanes, floods, snowstorms etc.

You are an irresponsible A-hole if you do not have at least two weeks supplies for you & your family. I'm talking to YOU pea brain.

As long as you have two week's supplies, and are worried about a hyperinflationary bout, then, you should increase this number to four - eight weeks.

If you are worried about a Mad Max scenario, you should buy a farm & some Akitas & get out.

If years down the road, you decide all of this prepration is not necessary, then give your extra food to the poor

rant off

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 12:49 | 808298 Sqworl
Sqworl's picture

uneffing believable....+trillion

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 12:50 | 808302 umop episdn
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I liked the Q and A session, even tho the interviewer kept lobbing easy, stupid Lamestream Media type questions to Tyler. (Where do you expect ZH to be in three years? Do you see yourself as an exposé journalist? Sheesh.) Excellent job of staying on the message, which no doubt contributes to the explosive growth that ZH has had over the last couple years. Keep that truthy, relevant news coming, please!

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:08 | 808366 Mark Medinnus
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Not just any interviewer, Chris Martenson - like Tyler Durden - is a journalistic icon.  Together, they're kindred spirits.  Although easy, Chris's questions were not stupid.  By holding a mirror up to Tyler, they revealed the man behind the mission.  I enjoyed the interview.  

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 12:52 | 808308 Mark Medinnus
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A treat, thanks.

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 12:54 | 808321 terranstyler
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Tyler, actually I feel being part of a "personality cult" and I would love to know what are the reasons that make you work for this blog in such a fascinating way and what must have happened to make you behave the way you do.

It seems like you gave up everything to be the Robin Hood that steals from the secret elite that knows the game and gives it to the uninformed.

On the other hand, I understand your worries on this matter and just thank you a million times (inflation adjusted) because I even feel somehow chosen, as one of the few who starts knowing as well. It's like when you find the force is very strong in you...

Thxalot =)

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:05 | 808361 Spalding_Smailes
Spalding_Smailes's picture

Buy the fucking dip.

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:17 | 808396 rocker
rocker's picture

+1

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:12 | 808378 john milton
john milton's picture

wow...let me ask you one thing, have any of u tried their wings at politics??

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:15 | 808390 Confused Indian
Confused Indian's picture

I hope Ben reads it and borrows a good idea or two.

May God bless him woth wisdom and get him out of his madness and obsession.

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:15 | 808395 RobotTrader
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Dollar is rocketing.

EUR and AUD getting smoked.

Gold and silver grinding down towards the LOD.

Chain-selling in PM stocks.

Meanwhile, the SPY in foreign currencies is making new highs today.

http://stockcharts.com/scripts/php/candleglance.php?$spx:FXE,$spx:FXY,$spx:FXC,$spx:FXS,$spx:FXA,$spx:FXM,$spx:FXB,$spx:FXF|D

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 14:35 | 808716 Panafrican Funk...
Panafrican Funktron Robot's picture

"Meanwhile, the SPY in foreign currencies is making new highs today."

Fucking pathetic lol.

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 15:15 | 808845 American Dreams
American Dreams's picture

++++1

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:17 | 808397 Tic tock
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I think Tyler Durden should run for election as Prime minister of Italy - it can't be that expensive.

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:21 | 808412 truont
truont's picture

Good interview, TD.

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:21 | 808413 43 Steelie
43 Steelie's picture

TD, the following is one of the most concise and comprehensive summaries I've ever read. It's tough to truly explain my views to others around me at times, but I think you just solved that problem:

 

We tend to simplify the world: When everything else is stripped, the only two things that matter are a)where is the money coming from? and b) where is it going? And never in the history of the world have so many assets created so little cash flow. To a big extent, this is due to the fact that a bulk of asset purchases in the past three decades have been due not to asset turnover, but as a result of cheap credit resulting from an explosion of credit money through the quadrillion dollar derivative boom. As a result, most incremental dollars go not to organic business growth and economic output, but to satisfying what has become the biggest debt burden in the history of the world, whereby the labor and intellectual output of most goes to fund the living standards of a very few. 



Indicatively, when looking at total exchange and OTC traded derivatives, which eventually are converted into some form of credit money, the total tally at last check is just over $1.3 quadrillion. This is about 20 times the total economic output in the world each year. It becomes very clear why the current status quo is unsustainable absent a major global corporate and sovereign liability restructuring: In the bankruptcy business, this process is known as “growing into your balance sheet.” Yet the main reason why the kleptocratic elite has been so opposed to this act is because no debt impairment is possible without eliminating the equity tranche below it. And in an ironic twist in which the Fed supports both the debt and equity markets, there is now about $13 trillion in equity capitalization in the US, which is backed by debt that for all intents and purposes needs to be impaired. 



As a result, unless stakeholders in the liabilities of corporate America realize that the assets that collateralize these liabilities are woefully insufficient and come to a compromise in which either they alone or in combination with the creditors come to a consensual “restructuring” of the underlying claims, there is no other possible outcome than a free-fall bankruptcy. However, this will not be some Chapter 7 filed in the bankruptcy court of Southern District of New York. This will be the end of the current financial system. This is also what some consider a "deflationary death spiral." And yes, no matter how much paper the Fed prints, this outcome is inevitable: All the Fed does through money printing is dilute the claims on both sides of the ledger. The best the Fed could then hope for to counteract the deflationary outcome is to generate hyperinflation through a collapse in the reserve currency (i.e., the Zimbabwe outcome). And since this is far more palatable to the Fed, we believe that one way or another, whether by fire or ice (to paraphrase Robert Frost), the existing, very unstable financial system will reach a point when the global systematic reset is inevitable.

 

Those three paragraphs should be kept on file for anyone who is uncertain of the purpose of this site. Thank you, as always. 

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:23 | 808423 Ferg .
Ferg .'s picture

Exellent interview . Great questions and candid , informative and fluent responses .

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:24 | 808427 DaveyJones
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whenever anyone starts quoting Robert Frost, you know he's a thoughtful realist. Thanks for the truth.

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:25 | 808431 Tic tock
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...and Robo, smae price action following from yesterday in the futures; almost as if even the Dark Lords  don't which way things may unfold... I reckon it's the equity fund outflow that's driving bonds down., or is it the other way round?

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:25 | 808434 Clayton Bigsby
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Great fucking interview.  I passed it along to all appropriate homies...

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:26 | 808439 absinthejo
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Tyler got it when it comes peak oil. Conventional crude oil peaked in 2006 and EROEI is the key to understand the concept.

The fact that the oil market has a short-term view, it's already too late for alternatives and rethink the infrastructure. 8-9 years ago, people talking about alternatives (solar&wind) as something that will comes more or less naturally. But shortages are coming before 2015.

Everything is linked and as to what happens after the reset, [pick a late year in this decade, if you're optimistic], we'll see.

 

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:31 | 808453 Double down
Double down's picture

Good stuff

 

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:33 | 808462 Dick Darlington
Dick Darlington's picture

Good stuff, keep up the good work Tyler!

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:35 | 808469 CU1981
CU1981's picture

He never did answer Q#2 ... LOL

 

Great read tho. Keep up the great work TD.

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:38 | 808485 YHC-FTSE
YHC-FTSE's picture

Good interview. I followed Tyler from Seeking Alpha a year ago after noticing he had buggered off from there, and haven't left since.

 

With the readership increasing the way it is, Tyler is going to find it increasingly difficult to maintain his goal of presenting the objective and verifiable truth by seeking to ridicule, disparage, and ultimately discredit the overwhelming candy floss of propaganda that is the staple diet of most Americans. He has far more faith in them than I do, and already I regularly encounter calls for censorship when some view or other gives a newbie-piece-of-shit indigestion. 

 

It's getting so you can hardly read the comments without encountering some fat fuck using caps to spell "SOCIALISM" or equally worse, "CAPITALISM", as if, in their infantile tiny little cretinous experiences they are words of derision and insult, instead of merely economic/political philosophies penned by the greatest minds of the last century and worth consideration in all its ugly/beautiful forms.

 

Welcome to the world of the lowest common denominator. As soon as people latch on to a beautiful idea, it's not long before they fuck it up. But I hope ZH lasts forever uninhibited and unhindered by popularity. All the best.

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:46 | 808510 FatFingered
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Nice TD!

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:46 | 808511 chinaguy
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Thanks, esp. liked ZH's stated position on peak oil. Chris is more alarmist on this point.

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:48 | 808518 Sad Sufi
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I appreciate the nice straight interview.   Thanks.

Keep up the stunning work!!

SS

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:51 | 808531 dick cheneys ghost
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Thanks to the zerohedge staff for all you do.

 

happy holidays!!!!

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 14:00 | 808571 Bolweevil
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"makes the reader think and reevaluate existing preconceptions"

done and done. and for that I am eternally grateful.

 

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 14:03 | 808582 velobabe
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zerohedge, bitchez†

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 15:05 | 808820 Pegasus Muse
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Great interview.  You can't be an informed citizen/investor unless you read Zero Hedge every day.    

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 15:20 | 808872 no cnbc cretin
no cnbc cretin's picture

It was a great interview.

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 15:48 | 809015 sandorgb
sandorgb's picture

A+. email blast #6 to all concerned

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 16:31 | 809251 Tic tock
Tic tock's picture

It's one thing to lambast an anchor, it's something else to be part of a discussion.. further, blog-reading is also more voluntary, there are more than a few expert responses, so it's a little more of a learning thing, and if things do get out hand, the moderator doesn't get sued for gatekeeping. 

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 17:50 | 809586 bilbert
bilbert's picture

Great piece, TD - just sent you another $20 - wish I could send 20 times that much, but still wouldn't begin to repay all the education I've received here.

Thanks! to everyone on the ZH team.

 

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 18:41 | 809750 redrob25
redrob25's picture

Interesting comment about the low chance we are headed for something truly dire was probably my least favorite. Not that I want us to head for something dire, but that I simply think it is inevitable that we are.

 

Otherwise, great interview.

Wed, 12/15/2010 - 19:01 | 809812 Dabale arroz a ...
Dabale arroz a la zorra el abad's picture

Hey, that was a good union, Chris and "Tyler". I've been following both of them for quite some time. Keep up the good work!

Thu, 12/16/2010 - 00:22 | 810716 greenbear
greenbear's picture

.

Thu, 12/16/2010 - 00:24 | 810718 greenbear
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I agree it seems very unlikely TPTB plan to lay waste to the west via deflationary collapse.  Hyperinflate then issue another currency, possibly a regional one, seems more likely, as a one-world currency/govt. seems to be their ultimate goal.  Then there's the question or perhaps the certainly of world war.  A good plan would be to buy a piece of arable land with water sources, hunting, remoteness, preferably off-grid... perhaps outside the US.

Thu, 12/16/2010 - 01:14 | 810789 Dr Hackenbush
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Martenson's crash course is highly recommended.

Thu, 12/16/2010 - 02:23 | 810821 All Risk No Reward
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>>All the Fed does through money printing is dilute the claims on both sides of the ledger. The best the Fed could then hope for to counteract the deflationary outcome is to generate hyperinflation through a collapse in the reserve currency (i.e., the Zimbabwe outcome). And since this is far more palatable to the Fed<<

Why do you think this is true?  I think the private banking community thinks they can do better than cause bank runs and bust their banks and their debt slave dollar.

Private banks control the fed, not the government.

So, why do the uber private bankers benefit more from hyper-inflation than a severe looting (going on now - cash outright, guarantees, off loading bad assets), severe deflation and then buy up the planet for pennies on the dollar?

If I were the bankers and missing a soul and any concept of morality, I'd inflate (done), I'd loot (going on), I'd bust 'em (like they did in the late 1800s) and then I'd take all my Ponzi debt money and buy up all the real assets and put myself into the position of feudal lord.

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