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http://rt.com/programs/capital-account/

Shadow Bank Runs & Central Bank Gaffes

Watch Chris' latest interview on RT's Capital Account
by Adam Taggart
Tuesday, June 26, 2012, 6:34 PM

orded an interview today with Capital Account's Lauren Lyster discussing shadow banking & crisis risk. Watch it below: » Read more

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Becca Martenson

Join Us at Kripalu Next Weekend

This will be our last weekend seminar in 2012
by Chris Martenson
Friday, June 22, 2012, 5:11 PM

I would like you to join me, Becca, Adam, and other Crash Course-aware individuals for a powerful, calming, transformative, and intimate weekend session at the Kripalu Center June 29-July 1. This is the only remaining seminar on the 2012 calendar, so be sure to register or be prepared to wait until at least 2013 for the next one.

So much is transpiring so rapidly these days (welcome to the steep portion of the exponential curve) that anything and everything we can do to prepare ourselves mentally, financially, physically, and emotionally is the best use of our time.

You should especially come if you want to get to meet other like-minded people in a relaxing setting, be invigorated, and come away with a clear sense of what to do next.

We will address:

  • Talking to (and living with) reluctant partners (friends, colleagues, and neighbors, too)
  • Emotional barriers to action
  • How our beliefs can be limiting or enhancing, and knowing which we are holding
  • The six stages of awareness
  • A full tour of the precise steps that Chris and Becca have taken at their homestead
  • Hope & Fears - an open discussion among friends about the future
  • Creating community
  • Developing your own resilience steps and checklists
  • Financial steps you should take - we'll have one of our endorsed financial advisors on hand to address your questions
» Read more
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When Will Reality Intrude?

When will the market hit bottom?
by Charles Hugh Smith
Thursday, June 21, 2012, 9:57 PM

If we pursue the line of inquiry established by Chris Martenson’s recent call to Buckle Up -- Market Breakdown in Progress, we come to these basic questions: When will the market reflect the fundamental weakness of the global economy? And when will the market finally hit bottom? » Read more

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Abandoning Ship

The Eurozone is failing at an accelerating rate
by Alasdair Macleod
Monday, June 18, 2012, 4:19 PM

It will be no surprise to PeakProsperity.com readers that the news coming out of the Eurozone just gets worse and worse. The reality is that (in no particular order) Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Greece and France are all in debt traps from which there is no escape. A debt trap is sprung when bankruptcy becomes the only outcome. With corporations this usually becomes readily apparent and directors are forced by law to stop trading, but countries conceal this reality by printing money. » Read more

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Introducing Peak Prosperity

What you need to know about this new site
by Adam Taggart
Sunday, June 17, 2012, 7:07 AM

Welcome to Peak Prosperity!

After more than a year of planning and hard work, we're thrilled to share this new site with you.

What We Focused On

Our principal goals for Peak Prosperity are to offer a better user experience than ChrisMartenson.com (our recently-retired previous site -- may it rest in peace, *sniff*), and to introduce solutions for the needs most-frequently voiced by our readers over the years.

We gave priority to the following benefits when building this site:

  • make it more intuitive to navigate & find what you're looking for
  • improve our ability to deliver more content, more frequently to our readers
  • clarify our brand, our positive vision, and what we stand for
  • better empower resiliency-building at the personal and community level
  • improve site performance, stability & reliability

What To Look For

As you start to use the new site, keep your eye out for the following enhancements: » Read more

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Never in Doubt

More money printing and bailouts are assured
by Chris Martenson
Sunday, June 17, 2012, 7:06 AM

What has never been in doubt in my mind is that thin-air money printing and the bailing out of banks and financial institutions would be tried and tried again.  The alternative is unthinkable to those in power, because it involves living within one's means and letting those who took the risks eat the losses. 

Here we are at the tail end of a forty year credit bubble in which everybody participated (although China and India were late to the event) and nobody wants that party to end.  It is simply so much easier to simply borrow, spend and kick the can down the road.

As noted here repeatedly, we have an exponential credit system which, by extension, gives us an exponential money system.  Until and unless the credit markets can be coerced back onto an exponential trajectory, nothing will work quite right to the point that systemic financial collapse is a distinct possibility.

Given that possibility, nobody in power has even the slightest wish to test out the odds and so they will opt to print, print, print.

Just yesterday the UK opted for another round of printing but look how they applied it:

» Read more
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The New Site is (Finally!) Here

The long wait is almost over
by Adam Taggart
Monday, June 11, 2012, 11:12 AM

At long last, the new site is ready for launch!

We're very proud and excited about it. There's a lot to bring you up to speed on, so let's dive right in.

First: while we migrate over to the new site over the next several days, this PeakProsperity.com site will be frozen in "read only" mode -- meaning you won't be able to post comments to articles or Forum threads, or purchase an enrollment. 

The migration process should take 2-3 days. Once it's completed, the new site will replace this one. We're hoping everything is up and running by Friday (but you never know how complicated switchovers like this will go, so please keep your fingers crossed!).

Second: here's what WON'T be changing with the new site -- all of the past PeakProsperity.com content will be available on the new site. All of the articles, comments, guides, Forum threads, etc on the site today will still readily be found after we make the site switchover. 

You should look at this new site as keeping all of the things you like about PeakProsperity.com, AND adding a bunch of new improvements and features to make the experience even better.

Third: so what should you expect from the new site?

  » Read more

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The Pernicious Dynamics of Debt, Deleveraging, and Deflation

Developing an understanding of the "Three Ds"
by Charles Hugh Smith
Tuesday, June 5, 2012, 2:27 PM

At this moment, the news media is constantly clamoring about the "Three Ds" that are buffeting the markets: debt, deleveraging, and deflation. We intuitively sense that they're linked -- but how, exactly?

Understanding this linking is critical; as debt has fueled the global expansion, it will also dominate its contraction.

Debt and Deleveraging

To illustrate the forces of debt and deleveraging, let’s consider a home mortgage. » Read more

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Attending to Your Financial Resiliency

The time for action is now
by Adam Taggart
Saturday, June 2, 2012, 1:19 AM

It's been a frenetic couple of weeks.

Amidst the deterioration in Europe and the growing weakness in the US markets, in mid-May Chris issued the warning Get Ready: We're About to Have Another 2008-Style Crisis. Downside momentum has built since then, leading him to release a rare call to buy gold last week (which has since proved prescient in the immediate term) as well as a more-pointed report today to our enrolled members: Buckle Up - Market Breakdown In Progress.

It's times of heightened uncertainty like this where dislocating change has the potential to occur swiftly and sharply. Often events move much faster than people's ability to react appropriately to them. We've been recommending a defensive posture for investors for a long time now, but it's critical to adopt that position before the big market swings occur.

If you are going to keep money in the financial markets (stocks, bonds, etc.), you need to honestly ask yourself if you have the expertise and the bandwidth to intelligently and actively manage your investments throughout a coming period of potentially gut-wrenching volatility and uncertainty. If you know you don't or are uncertain, we can't stress enough the importance of working with a good financial advisor who will design and steward a prudent, risk-managed portfolio for you. » Read more

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What Should I Be Doing Now?

Re-ground yourself on what steps to take & how to prioritize
by Adam Taggart
Thursday, May 24, 2012, 3:09 PM

Uncertainty and anxiety have returned to the financial markets. Gold is down 18% from its high last year, and silver down over 40%. Europe is a powder keg and Greece a smoldering fuse. An Asian slowdown is happening in real-time before our eyes. Energy prices remain stubbornly elevated. Dangerously high unemployment persists in many countries and consumer confidence is again on the wane. Housing prices show no signs of rebounding anytime soon. Budget woes are accelerating at both the federal and state level. The cost of key essentials for living (food, fuel, medical care) and taxes relentlessly march upwards.

In the midst of all this, we're hearing many longtime readers ask: What should I be doing now?

The short answer is: making the most of the time you have today, putting into action your prioritized plans to increase the resiliency of yourself, your family and community.

This is the focus of our last weekend seminar of 2012, which will be held a month from now, from June 29-July 1.

If you don't yet have your plan together, or could use some help in re-grounding yourself on what steps to take and how to prioritize them, you should really consider this opportunity. » Read more