Joe Withrow, Author at Zenconomics

The Case for Gold

submitted by jwithrow.

“The process [of debauching the currency] engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.” – John Maynard Keynes

This chart illustrates the construct of the global financial system denominated in U.S. dollars.

There is an estimated 171,000 tons of physical gold bullion currently in existence which is $7 trillion if priced at $1,300 per ounce. Physical gold served the global financial system as an anchor in some capacity from the Industrial Revolution all the way up until 1971.

The U.S. dollar became the sole anchor of the international monetary system in 1971 and there is now approximately $25 trillion sitting in cash globally. Additionally, global equity markets are valued at roughly $57.5 trillion and global investable real estate valuations are roughly $70 trillion.

Global debt has reached $175 trillion with governments being the biggest debtors. This number does not include all of the unfunded liabilities accrued by the social welfare states of the world.

Dwarfing all other U.S. dollar denominated asset classes is the over-the-counter derivatives market. According to the BIS, OTC derivatives total $639 trillion with interest rate derivatives being the largest category by far.

So there is approximately $1,028 trillion worth of U.S. dollar denominated global assets in existence and physical gold, the market’s choice for money over several centuries, makes up less than 1% of total global assets.

Gold is the only asset on this chart that has no counterparty risk meaning there are no other contractual parties involved when you hold physical gold.

The U.S. dollar is issued and managed by the Federal Reserve and the Fed can (and does) reduce the value of the dollar simply by creating more dollars. Equity values obviously depend on the particular company’s financial performance. Real estate investments depend on a tenant to make payments in a timely fashion. The counterparty to debt is the debtor who must make timely payments and the debtor typically has counterparties as well. Derivatives, the largest global asset class, come with a complex web of counterparties that are virtually impossible to predict.

Global dollar denominated assets have been able to balloon up to $1,028 almost exclusively because of 40+ years of constant credit and credit-based money expansion. One day credit will have to contract and that $1,028 trillion figure will dissipate rather quickly. Where do you think capital will fly to when that day comes?

My bet is physical gold.

Image Source: Global Precious Metals

A List of GMO-FREE Food Companies

by Why Don’t You Try This?:

These brands, at the time of writing, source their ingredients from GMO-free supplies. If you’re concerned about the very real threat that genetically modified organisms pose to our food supply and ultimate health, please purchase from these companies and contact them to let them know that you support and value their decision to use non-gmo soy, corn, canola and other ingredients.

Please enjoy this GMO-free food list and share it.

If you have a question about a certain product or brand that is not listed here, please call the company and ask or contact us.

Remember: one of the best ways to raise awareness among the food corporations is to voice your concerns directly to them and boycott companies who continue to source ingredients from genetically modified sources.

Arrowhead Mills: GMO-free providers of baking mixes and flours found in both natural health food stores and regular supermarkets.
Eden Foods: GMO-free providers of canned goods, noodles, tamari, miso, vinegar and Asian foodstuffs.
Natural Choice Foods: GMO free providers of frozen dessert products.
Purity Foods: GMO free makers of spelt-based noodles, snacks and other goodies.
Rapunzel: My all-time favorite chocolate company. They also sell speciality oils.
Spectrum Oils: GMO free manufacturer of speciality oils, cooking oils, salad oils and natural shortening.
Genisoy: Uses only certified GMO-free soybeans for their many soy products.
Earth’s Best: Baby food manufacturer uses non-GMO ingredients.
Healthy Times: Baby food manufacturer uses non-gmo ingredients.
Bob’s Red Mill: GMO free provider of baking mixes and specialty flours.
Pamela’s Products: Provider of luscious gluten-free baking mixes sources non-GMO ingredients.
Cascadian Farms: Provider of frozen entrees, juices, frozen vegetables and fruit, yogurt and other foods.
Imagine Foods: GMO free provider of soy and rice milk as well as broth and other foods.
Muir Glen: Source of canned goods and vegetable juice uses gmo-free foods.
Thai Kitchen: Source for coconut milks and Asian ingredients sources gmo-free ingredients.
Amy’s Kitchen: GMO-free source of canned soups, chilies, boxed and frozen meals.
Nature’s Path: Manufacturer of cereals and snack bars made with ingredients sourced gmo-free.
Annie’s Naturals: Manufacturer of BBQ sauce, salad dressings and other condiments sourced from gmo-free ingredients.
San J: GMO-free manufacturer of soy sauce, shoyu and tamari. Tradition
Miso: Manufacturer of miso pastes that are made from GMO-free ingredients.
Barbara’s Bakery: Manufacturer of cookies sources from gmo-free ingredients.
Lundberg Family Farms: GMO-free provider of rice and wild rice foods including raw rice, soups and convenience foods.
Walkers: Provider of the best shortbread cookies ever as well as other sweet treats.
Fantastic Foods: Provider of hummus, falafel, risotto couscous, soup and other mixes with gmo-free ingredients.
Vitasoy: Manufacturer of soy-based foods sourced from gmo-free ingredients.
Clif: Manufacturer of energy bars sourced from gmo-free foods.
Kettle Chips: GMO-free manufacturer of potato and tortilla chips.
Que Pasa: Manufacturer of tortilla chips and other Mexican foods sourced from non-gmo ingredients.
Garden of Eatin: Manufacturer of chips, salsas and other snack foods.
French Meadow Bakery: Manufacturer of bread and baked goods using non-gmo ingredients.
White Wave: Manufacturer of soy products including tofu and tempeh using gmo-free soy.
Bearitos: Manufacturer of snack foods and dips using gmo-free foods.
Chaffin Family Orchards: Is committed to GMO-free foods and sells an assortment of goods including olive oil.
Cultures for Health: All starters and products sold at Cultures for Health are GMO-free.
Grindstone Bakery: GMO-free provider of wheat- and gluten-free bread.
Pure Indian Foods: GMO-free provider of grass-fed ghee.
To Your Health: Provider of gmo-free sprouted breads and sprouted flours.
Trader Joe’s : GMO-free provider on their personal products. All labels with Trader Joe’s, Jose’s, Ming’s, etc. are GMO-free
US Wellness Meats: Provider of pasture- and grass-fed meats free of GMO supplemental feed.
Zukay: Provider of live cultured condiments and salsa free from GMO.
Wisconsin Healthy Grown Potatoes: GMO-free potatoes.

Article originally posted at whydontyoutrythis.com.

Homeschooling: The Future of Liberty

by Daniel McAdams – Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity:

A common feature of authoritarian regimes is the criminalization of alternatives to government-controlled education. Dictators recognize the danger that free thought poses to their rule, and few things promote the thinking of “unapproved” thoughts like an education controlled by parents instead of the state. That is why the National Socialist (Nazi) government of Germany outlawed homeschooling in 1938.

Sadly, these Nazi-era restrictions on parental rights remain the law in Germany, leaving parents who wish greater control over their children’s education without options. That is why in 2006 Uwe and Hannalore, Romeike a German couple who wanted to homeschool their three children for religious reasons, sought asylum in the United States. Immigration judge Lawrence Burman upheld their application for asylum, recognizing that the freedom of parents to homeschool was a “basic human right.”

Unfortunately, the current US administration does not see it that way, and has announced that it is appealing Judge Burman’s decision. If the administration is successful, the Romeikes could be sent back to Germany where they will be forced to send their children to schools whose teaching violates their religious beliefs. If they refuse, they face huge fines, jail time, or even the loss of custody of their children!

The Administration’s appeal claims that the federal government has the constitutional authority to ban homeschooling in all fifty states. The truth is, the Constitution gives the federal government no power to control any aspect of education. Furthermore, parents who, like the Romeikes, have a religious motivation for homeschooling should be protected by the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.

The federal government’s hostility to homeschooling is shared by officials at all levels of government. Despite the movement’s success in legalizing homeschooling in every state, many families are still subjected to harassment by local officials. The harassment ranges from “home visits” by child protective agencies to criminal prosecution for violating truancy laws.

Every American who values liberty should support the homeschoolers’ cause. If the government can usurp parental authority over something as fundamental as the education of their children, there is almost no area of parenthood off limits to government interference.

Homeschooling has proven to be an effective means of education. We are all familiar with the remarkable academic achievements, including in national spelling bees and other competitions, by homeshcooled children. In addition, homeschooled students generally fare better than their public school educated peers on all measures of academic performance.

It makes sense that children do better when their education is controlled by those who know their unique needs best, rather than by a federal bureaucrat. A strong homeschooling movement may also improve other forms of education. If competition improves goods and services in other areas of life, why wouldn’t competition improve education? A large and growing homeschooling movement could inspire public and private schools to innovate and improve.

When the government interferes with a parent’s ability to choose the type of education that is best for their child, it is acting immorally and in manner inconsistent with a free society. A government that infringes on the rights of homeschooling will eventually infringe on the rights of all parents. Homeschooled children are more likely to embrace the philosophy of freedom, and to join the efforts to restore liberty. In fact, I would not be surprised if the future leaders of the liberty movement where homeschooled.

I believe so strongly in the homeschooling movement that I have just announced my own curriculum for homeschooling families. Please visit this revolutionary new project at http://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com

Article originally posted at The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

Mindful Eating

by Stephen Scott Cowan, MD – ICPA:

Eating right is certainly in the news these days. From fads like the South Beach Diet to the front-page image of the First Lady planting an organic vegetable garden on the White House lawn, Americans are beginning to pay closer attention to their eating habits. Staggering reports of the epidemic of obesity are flooding the scientific community and serve as fodder for TV shows like The Biggest Loser. One in five children in the U.S. are obese today…

Why We Eat

While choosing what we eat is certainly critical to our cognitive health, a truly holistic understanding of eating goes much further, considering how we eat, where we eat, when we eat and why we eat. So: Why do we eat?

I pose this question to children all the time, and they giggle and stumble around for answers like “we eat so we can grow.” But we are not just machines requiring the right set of nutrients as basic fuel to keep going. We are living organisms, not automobiles! In a recent workshop, I asked participants to describe the taste of a blueberry. No one could get far past the fact that they’re sweet and blue. While scientists might accurately analyze all the phyto-nutrients in a blueberry, this tells us very little about the actual experience of eating one.

Eating is a deeply personal encounter. It conveys something about ourselves at a particular moment in time. It feeds our memory and points directly to who we are, to our mood and temperament. Eating reflects our basic sanity because it is how we make contact with the world—how we exchange with the world. Our hunger to grow and know the world is not just physical, but intellectual and spiritual. Eating is how we become the world.

In Chinese medicine, the “spleen/stomach network” is considered central to our being. It corresponds to the ground we live on, the good earth, which supplies all that we need to grow. But the spleen is home to our thoughts, as well. We gather information from the world in all different forms. As we take it in, it gets sorted. Some is integrated into our being, and some is eliminated. This gathering, sorting, integrating and eliminating is a cognitive process. It represents how we learn. Our immune system (with which we learn to identify the world), digestive system (which tastes the world), and neurologic system (which perceives the world) are interconnected aspects of information processing. The body does not know these are separate systems. They only seem separate to us because there are immunologists, gastroenterologists and neurologists. As a field of medicine, the study of this cognitive network might be more accurately described as neuro-immuno-gastroenterology.

Industrially Fed, Spiritually Starved

If we take a minute to look at how we eat in America, we begin to see how it directly relates to the modern epidemics of childhood: obesity, allergies and ADHD. We eat as if we are in a race. This is the real purpose of “fast food.” It’s cheap and convenient, just like a roadside gas station is for your car. But, again, we are living organisms, not automobiles. The same kind of assembly-line mentality informs the way our children are force-fed information in school. We’ve been led to believe that education is a race, and that the fastest child is the smartest. But in my 22 years as a developmental pediatrician watching children grow, I’ve found that this simply isn’t true. Sometimes the smartest kid turns out to be the one who took her time digesting the world. The current trends in standardized education have left us with a system that treats children as if they are USDA Grade A meat. The education of our children must be more than simply passing inspection! What’s more, when we are not given the time to digest the material, whether it is food or academics, it stagnates.

Chinese medicine considers stagnation to be of grave significance. A healthy life is defined by the free flow of qi, that which animates our life. Stagnation represents the accumulation of “stuff” that drags health down. It’s as if the body recognizes the need to slow down in order to work on unfinished business, even if it results in a pathological condition. This feeling of stagnation is not satisfying, because things are simply not moving properly. The lack of movement is boring, and boredom leads to the need for distractions—so we try to spice up our lives. We try not to look at all that unfinished business accumulating within…which makes us agitated. We try to get things moving and shake up all that stagnation. This hyperactive state drives us to look for happiness somewhere else. TV ads capitalize on this, promising happiness with a Whopper or a Happy Meal. This leads to infatuations, bizarre cravings, impulsive eating and binge-buying. We feel like we deserve to be happy—we deserve that tub of ice cream, for having had to work under these conditions. And when we can’t have what we think we deserve, we become hostile: Don’t take a piece of my pie!

This state of agitation, distractibility and impulsivity defines Attention Deficit Disorder. The Chinese medicine classics say that accumulation causes an inflamed state, and this phlegm can “mist the mind.” We become confused, unable to think straight, and find it difficult to concentrate on one thing for very long. And so we take stimulants to try to wake ourselves up.

Likewise, the same vicious cycle leads to the accumulation of phlegm in our bodies; our neuro-immunodigestive system becomes confused, hostile and inflamed. In my practice, I see a host of chronic health problems in children that can be traced back to the phlegm of stagnation: ear infections, asthma, obesity, colitis and autoimmune disorders. These manifestations of chronic inflammation did not exist to such a degree a century ago, or even 50 years ago. The inflamed state of autoimmunity is a spiritual crisis. When the mind-body remains in such a confused state, we no longer have time to recognize who we are. We are left with a Spiritual Deficit Disorder.

Taking Time

Correcting this vicious cycle begins at birth. I work with many mothers on that first day, counseling them about breastfeeding or bottle feeding. In that moment, there is a real opportunity to learn how to learn, how to digest the world calmly, attentively and with ease. Feeding a baby when she is crying is a common mistake. Moments of hunger are not a crime. Hunger is a way of waking up. We may naturally feel the urge to feed our child when she cries; feeding is a basic way we show our love. But it is vital to pause and consider the true reasons for eating. Babies feed much better when they are fully awake. They are less gassy and more likely to gain weight properly. They are actually learning to pay attention with their whole bodymind. This is a simple yet profound lesson for us all to live by.

When you select information, whether food or academic, as a conscious process, you are determining which aspects of the external environment you will allow inside your body to operate on an unconscious level. This is the meaning of “mindful eating.” We should take the lead from our babies. Whether we are stimulating our immune system, going to school, or sitting down at the dinner table as a family, taking time to digest is how we become truly sane in this world. Ultimately, time is the greatest alternative medicine. And taking time to digest the world is the ultimate spiritual practice.

Article originally posted at ICPA.org.

Should You Buy Gold Now?

by Jeff Clark – Hard Assets Alliance:

There’s a subset of investors who see the big picture for gold, believe in the fundamental case, and have the means to buy, but are holding off because they think gold is headed lower. By waiting, they believe they’ll get a better price.

With all due respect to those of you in that camp, I think that’s a mistake.

If one is convinced gold will be cheaper a week or month or quarter from now, it might seem prudent to wait to buy. But obviously no one knows if gold is headed lower or if it’s already bottomed. So don’t kid yourself: you may or may not get a better price.

And premiums don’t stay the same. The US Mint raised the price it charges authorized silver purchasers by a substantial 50¢ after last month’s big retreat. The price retail silver buyers paid was not as attractive as they thought it would be.

But these issues miss the bigger point. Here’s what I think is perhaps a better way to view the subject, along with how to handle the dilemma…

Gold Is Not an Investment—It’s Insurance

“A dollar is worth only 70¢ now,” my dad once told me as we worked in the back yard. “And they say it’ll only be worth 50¢ in a few years.”

It was the mid-1970s. I was helping my dad build a dirt road to our barn, and he wasn’t happy. Not about the hard work or humidity, but from what was happening to the dollar. Inflation was starting to kick into high gear, grabbing headlines that even a girl-chasing teenager could understand.

I remember being appalled by the thought of going to the store and having the clerk demand $1.30 for an item marked $1. Knowing what I know now, my thinking wasn’t that far off.

Our local paper ran a story of a blue-collar worker who had stuffed wads of dollars into the back of his gun cabinet early in his working life. The money was discovered by the family after his death. While saving money is good, the duck-hunter equivalent of “Family Mattress Bank & Trust” won’t keep your money from depreciating; the stash of $10s and $20s had lost over half its purchasing power since he’d hidden it some 30 years earlier.

About the same time the gun locker was being lined with legal tender, both of my grandfathers—unbeknownst to me at the time—bought some gold and silver coins for me and likewise stored them away. I inherited them a few years ago—and the purchasing power of the coins is still the same as it was 30 years ago, despite the price fluctuations along the way.

If gold were an investment, it might be prudent to see if you can get a better price. But it’s not. It’s lifestyle insurance. It’s an alternate currency that will withstand the inevitable fallout of government excess, the start of which grows closer by the day. It is purchasing-power protection—protection that you and I may use sooner than we’d like.

You might argue that you always try to get the best price when you buy auto insurance and life insurance. That’s true—but the difference is that you shop among different brokers for the best price; you don’t put off the decision because you read somewhere the insurance industry might lower its rates at some point in the future.

So, what to do?

Don’t “Buy” Gold—Accumulate It

Neither you nor I nor anyone else knows exactly when the very best price for gold will occur. But since it’s an increasingly critical form of insurance in today’s world, the thing to do is to take a portion of your dollars earmarked for gold and buy some now, but keep some powder dry for the next potential dip. That way you’ve got a good price in case the bottom is in, but still have some cash available if the price falls lower. Then buy another tranche next week or next month or next quarter—whatever suits your cash flow and financial plan—but make it a regular occurrence until you have the full allotment you want.

This is exactly how central banks buy.

Central banks aren’t trying to snag the bottom. They’re focused on how many ounces they own.

Further, almost no institutional investor or money manager buys in one lump sum. They accumulate.
Our focus should be the same. Our amounts are a lot less, of course, but the point is to buy in regular tranches, working toward our allocation goal.

I cringe when I hear people say they’re waiting for a better price. What if the market takes off higher or simply stops falling—then what?

Start your accumulation plan today. Heck, you can even use the MetalStream service to buy automatically each month, and the amounts can be adjusted each time if you want. Just log into your Hard Assets Alliance account and once logged in, click the MetalStream signup button to get started.

In a short period, you’ll have a nice stash of hard assets purchased via dollar cost averaging (i.e., at the best cost basis you could hope to achieve).

Whatever you do, start now. Then keep going.

Article originally posted in the December issue of Smart Metals Investor at HardAssetsAlliance.com.

Living the 10 Tenets of Wellness

by Michael Arloski, PhD – ICPA:

Wellness always seems to be working toward answering one critical question: Why don’t people do what they know they need to do for themselves? Providing people with good information about physical fitness, stress management, nutrition, etc., is important, but insufficient. A lack of information isn’t the problem. With the amount of media attention given to health and well-being, it is hard to believe that most people don’t already know more than enough to live very well lives. Articles on cholesterol, healthy relationships, exercise and smoking cessation abound. But where is the motivation to change, and what is blocking it?

Whether we are looking at our individual health, or wellness programming for a small or large organization, there seem to be certain factors that have emerged in the decades that the wellness movement could call itself a field of study. Let me share some informal suggestions or tenets that, after many years in the “wellness biz,” it all comes down to for me.

1) Wellness is a holistic concept. Anything short of that is incomplete and ultimately ineffective. We need to look at the whole person and program for the mind, body, spirit and environment. Just picking the dimension of wellness that you like and minimizing the others doesn’t work in the long run.

* Imagine each dimension of wellness in your life like a spoke on a wheel. Draw a picture of your wellness wheel, extending your physical fitness spoke, your spiritual development spoke, your nutrition spoke, etc., out as far as you feel you have developed it, and practice what you preach. Do you have a wheel that rolls reasonably well? Where do you need to put your energy into learning more and practicing more?

2) Self-esteem is the critical factor in change. Wellness is caring enough about yourself to take stock of your life, make the necessary changes and find the support to maintain your motivation. Heal the wounds. Find what is holding you back from feeling good about yourself and work through the blocks, not around them.

As psychiatrist Jerry Jampolsky says, everything we do comes either from love or from fear. Where do your wellness lifestyle efforts come from? For many of us, change requires the hard, roll-up-the-sleeves work of facing our fears and healing old wounds received during our experience growing up in our families of origin and from our peer groups and communities. Positive affirmations, or self-statements, are excellent, but need to be coupled with this type of lifelong self-reflective work.

* Identify one negative message you frequently say to yourself (“You’re so stupid!” “You’ll never amount to anything,” etc.). Relax for a minute or two with your eyes closed. Think of the negative message, and say out loud in a shout, “Who says?” Notice who flashes into your mind: a parent, a teacher, a one-time peer? See with whom you have some unfinished business to deal with.

3) The people with whom we surround ourselves either help us stretch our wings and soar, or clip them again and again. Positive peer health norms encourage wellness lifestyle changes. Mutually beneficial relationships with friends, lovers, family members and colleagues who care about us as people are what we need to seek and create in our lives. Rather than being threatened by our personal growth, they support it. Do your friends, partners, etc., bring out your OK or not-OK feelings? Giving and receiving strokes are what it’s all about. Friends keep friends well.

* List who has joined your inner circle of supportive friends in the last ten years. Give thanks—or grieve, and get busy making new friends!

4) Break out of the trance! Conscious living means becoming aware of all the choices we have and acting on them. It involves a realization that we don’t have to run our lives on automatic pilot. We can turn off the television (remember, TV stands for “time vacuum”), read labels, turn off the lawn sprinklers when we have enough rain, notice how our food tastes, and notice how tense and contracted we are when we drive 15 mph over the speed limit. It means consciously working on our relationships, life goals and maximizing our potential.

* For three work days in a row, minimize your attachment to the world of the media: no radio, television, Internet, newspapers or magazines. See what you become aware of about yourself and the world around you.

5) A sense of connectedness — to other people, other species, the Earth and the “something greater” — grounds us in our lives. We are all of one heart. Much of this sense can come out of the land we live on. By identifying with where we live and getting to know the plants, animals, weather patterns, water sources and the landscape itself, we develop not only a love for it, but feel that love returned. Through our commitment to our place on earth we value and protect our environment by the way we live our lives, and by how we speak at the ballot box. Through our contact with the natural world we experience a solid sense of belonging, peace and harmony.

Theologian Matthew Fox likes to say that we can relate to the Earth in any of three ways. We can exploit it, recreate on it, or we can be in awe of it. I believe it is within a sense of awe that our potential for growth and healing is multiplied. From such a state of wonder it is easy to see all other species as relatives. The Lakota like to close every prayer with the words “Mitakaue Oyasin”: “For all my relations.”

* Spend twenty minutes in a natural area just listening to every sound you hear. Locate its origin. Identify patterns. Try it with your eyes closed part of the time. Cup your hands behind your ears and try it. Note your awarenesses.

6) We are primarily responsible for our health. There are the risk factors of genetics, toxic environments and the like, but our emotional and lifestyle choices determine our health and well-being more than anything else. As much as we’d like to cling to blame and cop-outs, we do have to be honest with ourselves. The flip side is the empowerment that this realization gives us.
One path out of passivity and illness is to realize what you can do to boost your immune system. Stress, fatigue and poor diet have a tremendous influence on our body’s ability to resist illness and disease. Most people report excessive stress and chronic sleep deprivation.

* To take charge of your own health and boost your immune system, follow the usual wellness advice and live a well-balanced, healthy lifestyle but, more specifically, experiment with getting more rest and practicing some established form of relaxation training.

7) From increased self-sufficiency comes the confidence and power that overshadows fear. The Australian aboriginal people say that when a person cannot walk out onto the land and feed, clothe and shelter himself adequately, a deep, primal fear grips his soul. Recognizing our interconnectedness, we grow tremendously when we can care for ourselves on many different levels. Skills, information and tools that enable us to live more fully all increase our self-respect and self-confidence. These could include knowing how to choose our food wisely (or even how to grow it ourselves); how to become more competent at our career; how to adjust the shifter on our bicycle; how to take a hike into a wilderness area; or even how to bake bread from scratch. We need to learn these skills and teach them to others, especially our children.

* Identify some skill you want to learn that would make your life easier, more economical or fun (baking, something mechanical, an outdoors skill). Locate a person from whom you can learn that skill and arrange an exchange of knowledge, skill, time, or some other reciprocal arrangement you both like.

8) As much as we all need time with others, we all need time apart. Solo time, especially in the natural world, helps us relax, de-contract and get beyond the distractions of modern life that prevent us from really knowing ourselves. Peoples from all around the world have traditions of spending time alone (usually in a wilderness setting) in order to gain vision about the direction and meaning in their lives. There are some powerful reasons for this.

* Find a partner who shares your desire to spend one full day in solo time. Locate a nearby natural area where you both feel safe and would enjoy spending the day. Pick a day with a relatively good weather forecast. Take a whistle with you, appropriate clothing, rain gear, etc. Bring water, but no food unless you have a special dietary consideration. Do not bring anything to read, or anything to write with. When you arrive, you should both select a small area (10 to 15 yards in diameter, max) where you would like to spend five to eight hours alone. Your site should be close enough for your partner to hear your whistle easily, but far enough away that you can have complete privacy. Taking opposite sides of the same hilltop ridge works very well for this. Reunite at a prearranged time. Spend your time in contemplation and awareness of everything around you. This is a journey into inner and outer nature. Reflect and write about your experience afterward if you like.

The goal here is not endurance. Bail out if you have a nasty change in weather, feel ill, etc. You can always reschedule. Though this exercise in solo time is not physically demanding, you need to be your own judge, or seek your physician’s advice, if you have any health concerns.

9) You don’t have to be perfect to be well. Extreme perfectionism is a shame-based process that feeds a really negative view of ourselves. Workaholism, anorexia and other addictive behaviors can result. Wellness does not mean swearing off hot-fudge sundaes. It just means not “b.s.-ing” yourself about when you last had one! Whenever our healthy habits move from being positive addictions to being compulsive behavior that works against us, we’re usually the last ones to know. A lot of time, extreme behavior is a way to distract yourself from some other issue that needs your attention.

* Get a gauge on your diet, exercise, etc. Read several sources and see what the experts recommend. Check your program out with a qualified local resource, such as a nutritionist or exercise specialist.

10) Play! We all need to lighten up and not take ourselves (and wellness) so seriously. Remember the lessons of the coyote and be playful, even ornery in a non-malicious way. Let the child within out to play. Give yourself permission.

The “work hard, play hard” philosophy does little to help us maintain the balance needed for a healthy life. Psychophysiology works twenty four hours a day, every day (not just on weekends). Integrate a healthy sense of humor and play into the workplace. Make sure your yang equals your yin!

* List several of your favorite “play” activities that you either do, or did at one time in your life. Now note when you last engaged in each of these activities. Celebrate, or contemplate what you’ve (temporarily) let go of in your life. Have fun reclaiming it!

Even with these tenets, there is no concrete wellness formula. You have to discover what works for you. Take them not as rules, but as modern folklore gathered by one who has walked the wellness way for quite a few years.

Article originally posted at ICPA.org.

Of Gold, Energy Stocks, and Bitcoin – Opportunities for the New Year

submitted by jwithrow.

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
Of Gold, Energy Stocks, and Bitcoin – Opportunities for the New Year

January 2, 2015
Hot Springs, VA

Welcome to the first business day of 2015! The S&P opened at $2,055 today. Gold is down to $1,171 per ounce. Oil is down to $52 per barrel. Bitcoin remains rather flat at $315 per BTC, and the 10-year Treasury rate opened at 2.20% today.

We spent our time yesterday going over how fiat money enslaves society and we agreed that this was critical to understand if we are going to have a chance at being financially independent. Wife Rachel said it was a rather dreary journal entry so today we will endeavor to be more positive.

Let’s take a look at some of the financial opportunities we have for 2015.

First, the precious metals are as cheap in dollar terms as they have been in several years. Gold and silver could still drift lower in 2015 but the fundamental case for owning them is as strong as ever. This is a great time to pick up some ounces if you are a little short on your precious metals asset allocation.

Over in the equity markets, energy stocks of all sorts have taken a beating with plummeting oil prices. Fund managers accentuated the crash in energy stocks as they sold at a loss for tax purposes and to show little exposure to the sector at year-end. This is a great opportunity for a contrarian to add some energy exposure to his or her portfolio. It is advisable to be very diligent in this endeavor, however, as marginable producers will be squeezed if oil prices remain this low for an extended period of time. Be sure to go with the companies that can survive at current prices, keep position sizes reasonable, and stick to your stop-losses.

Several notable analysts expect the Fed to launch QE4 the moment the S&P starts to tumble which would send stock prices soaring even further. Some of these analysts think this will occur in 2015. The Day of Reckoning will eventually come for the current fiat monetary system as the Great Reset continues to unfold, but that day is not here yet. 2015 may provide an opportunity to capture gains in the market and convert those gains into hard assets.

Even more speculative is Bitcoin which plummeted from a 2014 high of $939 in January all the way down to its current price of $315 over the course of the year. Maybe $315 is a good entry point, I don’t know. Of course Bitcoin opened 2013 at $13 so maybe it is still reverting back to the mean.

Personally, I am not sure what to make of Bitcoin. Free market advocates are die-hard in their belief that Bitcoin has the potential to rid the world of fiat money by eliminating the need for any middlemen and thus eliminating transactional friction. Free market detractors are pretty adamant in their belief that Bitcoin is a pump and dump scheme that will not be relevant for long because it does not meet all of the standard qualifications for hard money.

I am in the middle somewhere – Bitcoin’s functionality fascinates me but I don’t think it eliminates the need for precious metals within the monetary system. I think a small dollar-cost-average approach may be a reasonable method of testing the Bitcoin waters.

Of course there is no room for speculation until you have built a sensible level of resiliency and have a sturdy asset allocation model in place. Having debt cleared out, cash on hand, precious metals for insurance, a back-up energy source, and some food and wine stored in the cellar will insulate you from any storm that comes your way, regardless of how your speculation works out. Throw in good family and friends and you will be in great shape no matter what happens in 2015 and beyond.

What else could you ask for?

More to come,

Joe Withrow
Wayward Philosopher

For more of Joe’s thoughts on the “Great Reset” and the fiat monetary system please read “The Individual is Rising” which is available at http://www.theindividualisrising.com/. The book is also available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions.

The Homeschooling Renaissance

submitted by jwithrow.

Massachusetts passed the first compulsory school attendance law in 1852. By 1918 all states had compulsory school attendance legislation on the books. Prior to these compulsory education laws, a child’s education was the business and responsibility of the parents. Some children went to community schools, some went to boarding schools, and many received their education at home. The widespread emergence of compulsory public education ushered in the rise of the public school system and the majority of American children have made their way through the public system ever since.

The 1970’s and 80’s witnessed a homeschooling renaissance of sorts as a significant minority of parents began to seriously question the existing educational system. Those parents who chose to opt out of the system and homeschool their children found that they could facilitate an educational experience that was actually superior and the modern homeschooling movement was born.

Of course homeschooling was especially looked down upon in the early days of the renaissance. A few states prohibited homeschooling altogether and most school officials acted as though it were illegal everywhere. According to the HSLDA:

Homeschooling parents faced threats of jail time and having their children removed from their home. Some were arrested. Many were taken to court.

Parents were confronted by concerned neighbors, worried friends, and aghast relatives—all of whom were sure that the homeschooling mom and dad were ruining their children’s lives and dooming them to an unproductive future of illiteracy and isolation.

But those early homeschoolers hung tough. They fought the court battles. They went to the library and crafted their own curricula. And they quietly continued teaching, letting their children’s achievement answer the charges of their fiercest critics.

The valiant efforts of the 70’s and 80’s homeschoolers paired with the Internet Reformation has created a scenario today in which homeschooling can be done much more effectively and at a much lower cost than ever before. Students can now read articles and watch lectures on literally any topic imaginable with just the few clicks of a mouse. Students can use email, chat rooms, and video webinar software to interact with tutors and other students anywhere in the world without any location restrictions whatsoever. Students can even engage in freelance networks to test certain skills in the marketplace without ever leaving the security of their own home.

A world-class education is now available to every family for the price of an internet connection – something even the poorest Americans have access to. This is unprecedented in recorded human history!

According to the HSLDA, the number of families choosing to homeschool is growing at an annual rate of 7-15 percent. Parents are slowly waking up to this and removing their children from the existing educational system. The homeschooling renaissance is slowly creating the future of education.

The Benefits of Laughter

by Daniel Decker – ICPA.org:

Fact: Preschool-aged children laugh up to 400 times a day, but by the time we reach adulthood, we only laugh about 17 times per day!

I don’t know about you but when I read that statistic above, it makes me wonder why there is such a drop in laughter as we age. Is it because we begin to take life too seriously? Is it because our jobs and obligations begin to demand so much from us that we forget life is about living rather than just existing? Maybe it’s because as we enter adulthood we want people to take us seriously; in the process we trade laughter and silliness for what we consider maturity and respect. Or, it could just be that we no longer have a Big Wheel or crayons or can sit and watch an episode of Barney without someone making fun of us. Who knows?

The answer may be a mystery but the significant benefits of laughter are not.

Did you know that when you make someone laugh that you very well may be helping them strengthen their immune system, reduce food cravings, or even increase their threshold for pain? There’s even an emerging field known as “humor therapy” that is helping patients heal more quickly after surgery. Laughter reduces the level of stress hormones like cortisol, epinephrine, adrenaline, and dopamine. It also increases the level of health-enhancing hormones like endorphins, and neurotransmitters. Laughter has also been found to increase the number of antibody-producing cells and enhances the effectiveness of T cells within the body. All this creates a stronger immune system and better ability to ward off the effects of daily stress.

A good laugh also exercises the diaphragm, contracts the abs and even works out the shoulders, leaving muscles more relaxed afterward. Some research suggests it even provides a good workout for the heart. Laughter shifts our focus away from anger, guilt, stress, and negative emotions that can create more discomfort and stress within our lives. Laughter is contagious. If you bring more laughter into your life, you will not only help others around you to laugh more, but you will realize these same healthy benefits yourself.

So it seems that laughter really is the best medicine but how do we increase our dosage? Here are a few ideas…

Start with a shift in your perception. Studies show that our response to stressful events can be altered by whether we view something as a “threat” or a “challenge.” Humor can give us a more lighthearted perspective and help us view events as “challenges,” making them less threatening and more positive. The next time you are faced with what seems to be a roadblock in life (a threat), don’t get upset—becoming bitter and resentful—instead look at it as an opportunity to detour around it (a challenge). Sure, it may take a little more time but that detour may have something in store for you that you never dreamed possible.

Slow down. Regardless of how much we try, humans are not machines. Slowing down and spending time with others is vital to bringing more laughter into our lives. We can’t make someone laugh if we don’t take the time to engage them or genuinely care about them. Take a few minutes each day and when you pass a co-worker in the hall or even some stranger at the store…say hello and pay them a compliment. As you rush through your day, remember to also take time for those who serve you. The drycleaner, the waiter, the waitress, the clerk…use each interaction as a way to try and make someone else’s day instead of expecting them to make yours!

Tell a joke. Here’s a good clean one from my 5-year-old:

Q: Why did the cookie go to the doctor?
A: He felt crummy.

Say “Thank you” by sending someone an electronic thank-you card. Greeting card web sites make it easy to send someone a note just to say “thanks”…maybe for no reason at all other than for being a part of your life.

This week, be encouraged to laugh like a child. Make someone laugh and know that their laughter is not only making them feel good but improving their health (and yours as well).

Article originally posted at ICPA.org.

How Fiat Money Enslaves Society

submitted by jwithrow.

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
How Fiat Money Enslaves Society

January 1, 2015
Hot Springs, VA

Happy New Year!

The markets stayed in bed today nursing their hangovers so we have no updates for you. Check back with us tomorrow for market updates.

We have recently been discussing the difference between fiat money and real money so I thought it would be prudent to kick off 2015 by discussing how fiat money enslaves society.

I know, nobody is walking around in shackles and chains – the slavery is much more subtle than that. But I firmly believe this is the single most important issue of our time. You cannot understand finance and economics unless you understand how fiat money operates. And you cannot become financially independent unless you understand finance and economics.

So here’s how it works:

Government creates a currency and decrees it money. Being the narcissist institution that it is, Government usually prints faces of past government officials on the physical currency. Next Government creates a central bank and declares that the central bank will issue and manage the currency. Government then implements an income tax to supplement the other taxes in existence and decrees that all taxes must be paid with the government’s currency. Government then passes legal tender laws requiring citizens to accept its currency as payment for all private debts as well. The penalty for not paying taxes or for not accepting government currency as payment is jail.

In this way the government/central bank alliance has effectively created a situation where everyone under the government’s claimed jurisdiction is forced to use its fiat money. There is no way to completely opt out; at minimum everyone has to acquire enough fiat money to pay taxes or else they will be thrown in jail. And we’re not talking about one or two little taxes; we are talking about taxes on all income earned, taxes on all investment gains earned, taxes on all real estate owned, taxes on all vehicles owned, taxes on all gas purchased for those vehicles, taxes on all food and goods purchased, and taxes on any inheritance received. Virtually everything you do is taxed!

Add up all of the taxes across all levels of government and it is very likely you are paying out 50% of what you earn in taxes, especially if you live in a major metropolitan city. That means you are working six months of the year just to pay the government.

But wait, it gets even better!

The central bank is free to issue as much new fiat money as it pleases and the record clearly shows that all central banks very much enjoy creating lots of new currency. The law of supply and demand tells us that each unit of currency will be worth less as new currency enters the economy – this is intuitive. What’s less intuitive is something called the Cantillon Effect.

Classical economist Richard Cantillon noticed something very important about inflation back around 1730 in France. Cantillon observed that the original recipients of newly created money enjoyed much higher standards of living at the expense of later recipients. The reason for this, Cantillon noted in his economic treatise Essai, is because of the disproportionate rise in prices as a result of inflation; prices do not rise until after the first recipients of the new money spend it into the general economy.

What this means is the very act of creating new money from nothing effectively steals purchasing power from everyone except those who first receive the new money!

So who first receives the new money? Why, governments and their favored institutions of course! This is how governments and their favored institutions grew to be so fantastically large in the 1900’s – they steadily picked the public’s pocket for an entire century!

To tie it all together: Government creates currency from nothing and forces you to use it by levying all manner of taxes on you that can only be paid with the government’s fiat money. Then Government’s buddy, the central bank, inflates the money supply which depreciates the value of the currency you are forced to use and transfers that lost purchasing power from you to Government. This makes it very difficult for you to save money because the money constantly loses value over time. The result is you have to work harder and harder just to pay off Government lest it throw you in jail. And that is how fiat money enslaves society.

This process is why you could drive down Main Street in Small Town USA back in 1950 and see bustling storefronts and a vibrant economy. Drive down that same Main Street today and you will probably see empty buildings and boarded up windows. You just can’t earn an honest living as a small proprietor or shopkeep anymore because you are Cantillon’s last recipient of new money in those businesses. Decades of unrestricted inflation has destroyed the value of the money to the point where small proprietors cannot earn enough of it to keep up with rising prices. Fiat money has hollowed out Middle America to the point where there’s not much of it left. This is exactly what has happened throughout history where fiat money has been implemented – the middle class is destroyed.

Governments have experimented with fiat money all through history and the most recent monetary model is the most deceptive to date. Fortunately, a fiat monetary system always sows the seeds of its own destruction and cannot last forever. In the meantime you can employ some basic financial strategies to protect yourself once you understand how the fiat money system works. We’ll look at some of those strategies in a later entry.

Until the morrow,

Joe Withrow
Wayward Philosopher