The Value of This Site

Last fall (2008), I wrote a series of Martenson Reports where I advised people to brace for a potential systemic banking collapse.  I did not have any special insider information, only clues from financial markets that had me quite worried about the possibility of a complete shutdown of major international banks (and by extension the entire banking system).

I was looking at some obvious things like credit spreads and the collapse of financial stock prices, but I was even more unnerved by unusual behaviors between asset classes.  For example, the dollar, interest rates, and gold normally behave in a perfectly reasonable and predictable fashion, but they began to "uncouple" last fall.

In turbulent situations, the ability to react without knowing everything can be a vital determinant of the final outcome.  So I advised people to take cash out of the bank 'just in case,' under the theory that it could be used even if the banks were shuttered.