Doug has offended me more times than I can count…
He’s offended my colleagues, my staff, and multiple members of my board. Not to mention tens of thousands of readers – hundreds of thousands, probably. Every day, we receive letters from people who are “shocked” and “appalled” that we would publish whichever of Doug’s idea we just shared.
So why do we do it?
At Legacy, it’s our job to help you make money. And to tell a good story while we’re at it. But… plenty of our competitors can do both those things, too.
So we believe that we owe you something else: Big Ideas. We should be bringing you strong opinions, unknown investments, and insights you won’t find anywhere else.
Often, these ideas will make you a little uncomfortable. (Or at least they’ll discomfort some of your fellow readers, whose minds are slightly narrower than yours.)
Take cannabis investing, for example. Doug and his team were covering the opportunity here long before the competition… and years before the mainstream press.
They first started recommending pot stocks in 2017. Today, some of the biggest winners are up 271%… 442%… and 540%.
We published Casey’s research despite the avalanche of negative feedback from readers who hate the idea of legalizing marijuana… and despite key partners threatening to pull out of their deals with us.
Or consider Doug’s essay on “Toxic Masculinity and White Privilege.” It’s a reasoned takedown of PC culture.
But my editorial team made sure they had my “ok” before it went out… because they knew the blowback that would come. Over the following weeks, we refunded tens of thousands of dollars in subscription fees.
Now, he’s saying a few things that might be even harder for some readers to stomach…
He’s predicting the end of Donald Trump, for example… a shooting war with China… and a civil war here at home.
We’re preparing to share everything this Wednesday. I’m more than a little nervous about how our subscribers will react. But we’re going ahead anyway. It’s our job.
Before you do, though, I have to ask: “Are you easily offended?”
If you are, do me a favor and don’t tune in.
Regards,
Amber Mason
Publisher, Legacy Research Group
Doug Casey on the ultimate way to be a contrarian… Crisis investing – It’s a lot less risky than most people think… In the mailbag: “Is the current system so corrupt that it’s non-fixable?”…
And it’s all about Wednesday’s live event with Legacy’s most controversial figure – cofounder Doug Casey.
Doug is taking to the airwaves to reveal five politically incorrect crisis predictions for 2019 and beyond.
And he’ll discuss the five best ways to potentially make 1,000% gains or more from each of them.
You can save your spot for this free event… and get more details on what to expect… right here.
Doug’s longtime readers know he made several fortunes by speculating in crisis markets around the world.
But if you’re new to the conversation, you may be wondering what causes money-making crisis opportunities in the first place.
We’ll answer that question today.
And we’ll show you why, despite the potential for outsized returns, this approach is a lot less risky than you may think.
| Recommended Link | |||
|
|||
In 1979, he wrote the hit financial book Crisis Investing.
It was No. 1 on The New York Times Best Sellers list for non-fiction books for several weeks. And it went on to become the No. 1 best-selling financial book in 1980.
After his book came out, Doug launched a newsletter of the same name. (We continue to publish Crisis Investing here at Legacy Research. These days, it’s headed up by Doug’s globetrotting protégée, Nick Giambruno.)
Its mission was to seek out quality assets in markets where crisis conditions had pushed down prices so far that there was the potential for massive gains. Here’s Doug with more…
I used the Chinese symbol for crisis as the logo for Crisis Investing. It’s actually a combination of two symbols: the symbol for danger and the symbol for opportunity. The danger is what everybody sees; the opportunity is never quite so obvious as the danger, but it’s always there.
Speculating in crisis markets is the ultimate way to be a contrarian, which means buying when nobody else wants to buy. It is true, as a general rule, that you want to “make the trend your friend.” But there always comes an inflection point when trends change because a market becomes either greatly overvalued or greatly undervalued.
So when any market is down by 90% or more, you’ve got to reflexively look at it, no matter how bad the news is, and see if it’s a place where you want to put some speculative capital.
How does a market go down that far?
As Doug has been telling his readers, it’s nearly always a result of political distortions.
| Recommended Link | |||
|
|||
But it’s an insight Doug has honed in on throughout his career as a crisis investor. These money-making crisis opportunities are nearly always political in nature.
As Doug explains it…
A successful speculator capitalizes on politically caused distortions in the market. If we lived in a completely free-market world – one without government interventions like taxes, regulations, inflation, war, persecutions, and the like – it would be impossible to speculate in the sense I’m using the word.
But we don’t live in a free-market world, so there are lots of speculative opportunities that, in effect, let you turn a lemon into lemonade.
And you get to do it for a relatively small amount of risk.
Legendary investor Sir John Templeton called it the “moment of maximum pessimism.”
It’s the point at which all the selling has been wrung from the market… prices are beaten to a pulp… and the only way from there is up again.
Templeton put his money where his mouth is.
During the Great Depression, he invested $10,000 in U.S. stocks (the equivalent of $167,000 today).
He knew the extreme fear in the world had pushed U.S. stocks down to ridiculously cheap prices. So he bought every stock on the New York and American stock exchanges selling for less than $1 a share.
Four years later, Templeton sold his portfolio for a 300% gain.
Britain had governed Hong Kong for nearly 150 years.
But in 1986, rumors started swirling that the Chinese were going to take back power. Fear started to stalk the Hong Kong real estate market as a result. And Doug picked up a penthouse apartment right above the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club.
It was selling for less than the ground floor apartment in the building. People were worried that, when the Chinese took over, the elevator would stop working… and folks wouldn’t want to climb the 13 flights of stairs to the top floor.
Doug bought the penthouse for $40,000… and spent another $40,000 to renovate and decorate it.
A few years back, he got a call from his lawyer to say that one of the apartments in the building had sold for a ridiculous amount. And Doug told him to hit the bid the next morning.
He did… And Doug sold the place for $1.2 million. That’s a 1,400% return.
Here’s Doug again…
The original Baron Rothschild said, “Buy when blood is running in the streets.” Since I’m a contrarian by nature, I agree. I like to go where other people don’t go. That’s where you get the bargains.
Everybody knows the old expression, “Buy low, sell high.” Well, when are the prices absolutely the lowest? When everybody else is afraid of the situation and, as Rothschild said, “blood is running in the streets.” That’s often during a war or a revolution.
Risk is mostly a function of price. So, investing in crisis markets can actually be less risky – not more risky. Everything else being equal, when prices are low, it’s less risky. Most people think the opposite – they only buy when there’s “a good track record.” Which means prices are high.
And usually they are.
But as Doug will be talking about in detail during Wednesday’s live event, the next crisis will hit the U.S.
As Doug puts it, the “Everything Bubble” – in stocks, bonds, real estate, and other assets – will pop soon. And when it does, we’ll see the mother of all financial crises hit American investors hard.
If he’s right, you’ll want to protect your wealth before this crisis hits. To learn more – and secure your spot for Doug’s big event on Wednesday – read on here.
The mailbag debate around socialism vs. capitalism continues…
Crony capitalism is an absolute failure. Some sort of modified socialism is the most likely best way forward. Or is the current system so corrupt that it’s non-fixable?
– Jim M.
It is true that Scandinavian countries have strong welfare systems, but these “social” programs are not run by the government but are, in fact, privatized. This includes schools, healthcare, pensions, etc.
These programs are paid for by taxing the poor and the rich and are not a distribution of wealth like the current ideas being suggested here in the U.S. These countries are able to pay for these services because of their strong capitalist economies that have little regulation to incentivize entrepreneurship.
The major economic problems the U.S. is suffering from today all stem from the government meddling in the markets. If we take a more socialist approach, these problems will only get worse.
– Laci O.
Winston Churchill said, “You cannot make the poor rich by making the rich poor.” He also said, “The government cannot give you anything it didn’t take from you in the first place.”
I believe party politics have outlived their usefulness. What’s needed is a government of “Independents” with capitalist business sense and a social (not socialist) conscience.
– Jack C.
Will a more socialist approach only make the economic problems in the U.S. worse, as Laci O. says? Or do you agree with Jim M. that some sort of modified socialism is the best way forward? Write us at feedback@legacyresearch.com.
Until tomorrow…
Chris Lowe
March 25, 2019
Dublin, Ireland