Welcome to David Stockman’s Contra Corner
Thank you for joining David Stockman’s Contra Corner.
Within this series we will be explaining the benefits of your Contra Corner subscription.
I should start by saying, Contra Corner isn’t going to be your typical financial tipsheet. Instead it’s an ongoing dialogue about what’s really happening in the markets… the economy… and governments… so you can understand the world around you and make better decisions for yourself.
I believe the world — certainly the United States — is at a great inflection point in human history. The massive credit inflation of the last three decades has reached its apogee and is now going to splatter spectacularly.
This will have lasting ramifications on how governments tax and regulate you… the type of work you and your family members will have available and what you get paid… the value of your nest egg… and all other areas comprising your quality of life.
We will have some recommendations for you to build a basic permanent portfolio. But the information we publish is written in the spirit of giving you the tools to take action in your own life. Not handing you step-by-step instructions for what to do with your money or person.
You can’t achieve full understanding of the world around you using the information and investigative journalism of the mainstream media.
They are part and parcel of the “bubble finance” system that I often write about. They have a stake in keeping the credit-driven bubble going.
Which is why I’ve decided to turn my previously free e-letter into a paid subscription research service. This will give us the resources to collaborate with great minds and do the proprietary research needed to get to the bottom of the facts and tell you the truth.
Getting Started with Contra Corner
Congratulations New Reader!
David Stockman’s Contra Corner is the only place where mainstream delusions and cant about the Warfare State, the Bailout State, Bubble Finance and Washington D.C.’s Beltway Banditry are ripped, refuted and rebuked.
Every day, I’ll be sending you my latest research on a top of mind topic pertaining to finance, economics, politics or geopolitics. I assure you it will be a point of view about what’s going on in the world today that you simply will not hear from MSNBC or CNN.
These media outlets are essentially arms of the Government-Wall Street complex. They collude to keep the cheap credit system… ever increasing national debt… never falling stock markets… and rosy narratives about the consequences of those policies going.
There is no incentive for them to tell you the truth about the real state of markets, the social fabric of the country, Americans place in the world, or the future of the economy.
That’s where Contra Corner comes in.
Between my daily research, analysis and commentary… a proprietary data service we’ll be providing you… and insights and analysis from leading contrarian thinkers that I personally curate, you’ll be armed with the knowledge you need to make the decisions that will either improve or degrade the quality of your life.
I’ve put together this Contra Corner Welcome Series to help you get started today.
It can be overwhelming to receive new subscription materials without an explanation as to when they’re coming and what they mean for you. This series will help you make the most of the analysis I’ll be sending you.
You’ve already noticed our archive of posts, data dives, recommended reads and a suite of investor modules that give you the tools you need to wisely manage your money.
What should you read first? What are the most recent recommendations and what action should you take today?
Allow Me to Fully Introduce Myself… and My Top Analyst…
I like to say I’ve served two life sentences: One in Washington D.C. and the other on Wall Street.
My first job in Washington, DC was as a special assistant to Republican congressman John Anderson of Illinois. From there, I was the executive director of the U.S. House of Representatives Republican Conference.
In 1976, at just 29 years old, the state of Michigan elected me to Congress. From 1981 to 1985 I was the director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Reagan. I was also the youngest U.S. Cabinet member of the 20th century.
After I left the White House in 1985, I wrote a book called The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed. The title pretty much sums up the story. Republican politicians were far more interested in two more years in office than they were in shrinking government by even 2% of GDP.
I was initially attracted to national politics because of anti-government idealism. As a student in the late 1960s, I was an anti-government radical and organizer/agitator against the Vietnam War.
When I got my first job on Capitol Hill a few years later I began to see that Big Government was a generic threat to prosperity and liberty. I witnessed this throughout my political career and I still believe it today. Especially when it comes to the Federal Reserve.
After leaving the White House, I worked at the Wall Street investment bank Salomon Brothers and later helped found private equity firm Blackstone. Since then, monetary policy has changed. The Fed has turned the capital markets into casinos where speculators and gamblers are showered with ill-gotten gains and financial operators strip-mine the Main Street economy.
The Fed is a rogue central bank that has destroyed honest price discovery in the money and capital markets. This has led to a dangerous bubble in stock and bond prices. The bubble will eventually burst and destroy massive amounts of wealth.
The impending bursting bubble is what inspired me to start publishing Contra Corner. I don’t want everyday Americans, like you, to be negatively impacted by the bursting bubble. I’ve even partnered with a seasoned analyst to help you find the best way to profit when the bubble finally pops.
Introducing Lee Adler
Lee Adler has been with me since the very beginning of Contra Corner. And when I launched this new, premium research version of my old blog, I naturally asked him to take on a bigger role.
Lee will be compiling and presenting you with what we call the Daily Data Dive. These data dives will show you the true dynamics of the economy, government bond markets, the housing sector and much more.
Consider Lee’s daily data dive an antidote to the phony facts and statistics the Bureau of Labor Statistics compiles on behalf of the government.
I’m thrilled to be able to continue working with him. When I started David Stockman’s Contra Corner, Lee developed my website and helped me find contributors who have valuable insights to share with you.
Lee is also the publisher of the Wall Street Examiner. He’s been publishing the Wall Street Examiner and its predecessor since October 2000.
He’s held a wide variety of finance related jobs in the past 44 years, including a stint on Wall Street in both analytical and sales capacities. Prior to starting the Wall Street Examiner he worked as a commercial real estate appraiser in Florida for 15 years. He also worked in the residential mortgage and real estate businesses in parts of the 1970s and 80s.
Lee has been charting stocks and markets and doing analytical work since he was a teenager. His perspective is not of the Ivory Tower. It is from having his boots on the ground and in the trenches of the industries that he analyzes and writes about every day.
Below I’ve also included links to a few additional resources you should check out today. These resources will further explain how we got to our present state of bubble finance and prepare you for understanding everything I’ll be writing in your Contra Corner recommendations and alerts…
Resources for Getting the Most Out of your Subscription:
The next step to getting started with your Contra Corner subscription today is working your way through the resources below. They’ll help you better understand the topics, strategy and theories behind the content I’ll cover in the coming weeks. With the help of these resources you’ll be a pro before the next alert even hits your inbox.
- Investing Modules 1-10:
- Book Preview: Trumped!: A Nation on the Brink of Ruin and How to Bring it Back
- Video: [GET FROM KATE INC.]
I’m Excited to Hear from You Today…
I told you all about myself and Lee. Now I’d like to hear about you and your family…
You see, we like to know whom we’re writing to each month. Knowing about our readers helps us craft each alert and data dive we send. Without your feedback I’m essentially writing to myself.
That’s why it would be great if you could take a few minutes to answer the questions in the link below. Simply click the “Complete Survey” button.
[survey form here]Your Complete Contra Corner Guide
The responses that I’ve received from readers have been incredibly helpful in crafting your next alert and Lee his next data dive.
Today I’ll walk you through each of the benefits included in your subscription and explain exactly what you can expect in the coming days, weeks and months.
After reading this you should have a clear schedule of what you’ll receive, when you’ll receive it, and what to do next.
But before I dive into your benefits, I want to recap what I covered previously.
I introduced you briefly to myself and my top analyst, Lee Adler.
Today I’d like to briefly explain in more detail how bubble finance has come to exist and how Lee and I can easily recognize the companies in danger for you to profit from.
The stock market has become a clear and present danger to your financial health and wealth. It’s stranded in unchartered waters. That’s because its driving mechanism — the old-fashioned business cycle — is done and gone.
It has been supplanted over the past two decades by a deadly excursion led by central banks. The Federal Reserve-led convoy of global central banks launched their madcap money printing spree about 20 years ago. Then lapsed gold bug Alan Greenspan bailed out the big Wall Street banks at the time of the 1994 peso crisis. He never took his foot off the monetary accelerator thereafter and essentially forced the rest of the world’s central banks to follow suit.
Today, central bank balance sheets have become a telltale sign that financial markets are not on the level. As I’ll explain in the coming days, financial markets have become inherently inflated, distorted and falsified by two decades of relentless printing press money.
The biggest hazard threatening you and your wealth are the distortions, malinvestments and ticking time bombs that were generated in financial markets as this elephantine credit expansion grew and grew.
Now we’re at the great inflection point. If you venture into the stock market blindly, you’re sure to get slaughtered in the months and years ahead. But if you know what to do with your money as this gargantuan central bank bubble splatters, you’ll be able to generate respectable returns.
Vast fortunes have been made riding the expanding bubble. Now I predict the safest route to profits will be playing the collapsing bubble.
There are ways for you and other investors to make big gains as the air whooshes out of these Fed-fueled bubbles. For example, I recently executed a sophisticated trade known as a “call spread.” I was able to generate $6,250 in six months. It worked out to be a 25% return over that time frame or, when annualized, a 50% return.
Fortunately for you, we’ve identified a much easier way for you to see these types of gains. In fact, had you bought this type of investment on May 19, 2015, you would’ve seen triple-digit gains by the August 2015 bottom.
This strategy is a way of betting that the central bank-driven 20-year financial bubble is in its final days, and that the vastly inflated stock prices it has generated can no longer be artificially levitated by the small posse of monetary central planners.
Now let’s go over a review of what your subscription includes.
Your Contra Corner Subscription Includes:
Benefit #1: Daily Stockman’s Corner Analysis
Inside each Stockman’s Corner you will receive my analysis emailed to you once a day. And don’t worry, all alerts are always archived on our website.
[Read the Latest Stockman’s Corner Alert]Benefit #2: Daily Adler’s Data Dive
Every day Lee will post his daily data dive that will show you the true dynamics of the economy, government bond markets, the housing sector and much more.
[Access the Latest Adler’s Data Dive]Benefit #3: Access to our Portfolio
Whenever Lee, Dan and I believe it’s time to rebalance or exit a trade, we’ll email you a sell alert.
[Access the Portfolio]My Exclusive E-Letter
There are two more important benefits to your Contra Corner subscription that I’d like to introduce you to.
I’ll tell you about one of them and the other in the next section below.
I’ve already explained to you that you’ll be receiving daily Stockman’s Corner alerts… daily Adler’s data dives… and access to our portfolio.
But I’d also like to tack on Agora Financial’s flagship daily investment letter free of charge. It’s called the 5 Minute Forecast.
“The 5”, as it’s called, is Agora Financial’s attempt to bring brief, concise judgment to the mind-numbing world of financial media.
It cuts the fluff out of the news cycle and distills the day’s headlines into brief, digestible insights.
You’ll get only the most important stories in politics, finance, technology and much more. Then Agora Financial’s team weigh in, providing succinct analysis you can’t find anywhere else… giving you insights you can use to profit from the news.
Even better, the 5 Min. Forecast lets you join the conversation — and will respond to reader comments and emails every day, so you can share your thoughts, skepticism, wit and wisdom.
When you receive your first issue tomorrow, give it a try — it could quickly become your most important five-minute read of your day.
It will not only build on the themes you read about in Contra Corner, but it will expose you to a wide swath of other economic and investment analysis — from income investing… technology… deep-value investments and resources… to short-term trading… technical analysis… and one-time catalysts that could send special situations soaring.
[insert Dave’s headshot]It’s penned by Dave Gonigam, a veteran of the news industry who’s worked in newsrooms across the country. He’s even won an emmy. Dave’s early-afternoon missive will catch you up on the five news items that you must know as an investor — all in five minutes or less.
Since you’re now a member of the Contra Corner family, we’d like to grant you daily access for free. It’s our way of thanking you for subscribing to Contra Corner.
The email will come from “Agora Financial” and look like the picture below. Be sure to add customerservice@agorafinancial.com to your contacts so it doesn’t hit your junk box.
Via Email
The 5 Min. Forecast will hit your inbox every afternoon — starting tomorrow.
If you do not wish to receive it, there will be an easy unsubscribe link in every e-letter. Please allow up to 48 hours for your name to be removed from our list.
Via the Website
Dave’s daily missives are all archived on the Agora Financial website.
Simply click the link below to access the latest issue.
View the 5 Min. Forecast Online
The Daily Reckoning and Why It’s a Must Read…
There’s one more free benefit we’re going to send you along with your Contra Corner subscription.
It’s a complimentary subscription to Agora Financial’s flagship e-letter, called the Daily Reckoning.
The Daily Reckoning is written by Addison Wiggin, Peter Coyne (our Contra Corner publisher) and Brian Maher each day the market is open.
New York Times Magazine described the e-letter as “a freewheeling Website for libertarians, gold bugs and doom enthusiasts of every stripe…” But truthfully, it’s much more than that.
The Daily Reckoning focuses on just one big idea everyday. One way you can profit from and make sense of (or at the very least, laugh at) the world of finance, economics and politics.
Addison Wiggin is a three-time New York Times bestselling author… the award winning producer of the hit documentary I.O.U.S.A…. and the co-founder of the Daily Reckoning.
Here’s how he describes the “DR”:
“For a decade and a half, we’ve aimed to make these reckonings the most entertaining and informative 15-minute read of your day — and we still do.
Our goal at The Daily Reckoning is to help put the often confusing (and infuriating) world of finance into context… to help you connect the dots between your bank account and the decisions that are made in Washington.”
But they haven’t gone at it alone, though. I contribute my work to the Daily Reckoning — you’ll see me published there often.
And thanks to Agora Financial’s “golden rolodex”, they’ve had the distinct pleasure to work with the leading minds in publishing, mining, oil services, finance, banking, genetics, economics and government.
Everything from the Fed’s next rate hike…to the latest advances in regenerative medicine… to the future of energy… you’ll find it all in the Daily Reckoning.
Addison, Peter and Brian know that the world of money isn’t just bankers and stock market moves. Or energy and technology. It’s all of these pieces together that make up the larger story.
A free subscription to The Daily Reckoning, delivers coverage from across the globe. It will update you daily on how events in the news tie into the trends that I’ll be writing about every day in Contra Corner.
The team will a look at the world and markets, make an educated guess about where they’re headed and alert you to ways they think you can protect yourself and profit from the trends that the mainstream press has overlooked.
The from line will be “Daily Reckoning” and the email will look like the picture below. To make sure it doesn’t hit your junk mail, be sure to add dr@dailyreckoning.com to your contacts.
Via Email
Your Daily Reckonings are sent by email, each and every afternoon — which you’ll start receiving tomorrow.
If you do not wish to receive it, there will be an easy unsubscribe link in every e-letter. Please allow up to 48 hours for your name to be removed from our list.
Via the Website
Dailyreckoning.com is a place to visit to get even more current articles then the daily email provides.
Simply click the link below to read the most recent articles, commentary, videos and more.
View The Daily Reckoning Online
Getting Started in Three Easy Steps
Over the past week we’ve covered everything from accessing the subscriber only website to our unique investing strategy and resources to read in preparation for you next issue. I’ve done my best along the way to explain what you can expect from Contra Corner and how it could change you and your family’s future starting today…
That said, some of it might have been overwhelming, you may have missed something along the way, or you’d simply like to go back and review it all again.
That’s why I’ve broken it all down into four easy steps…
Step #1: Review all the Recommended Resources
A key to getting the most out of your subscription is having the necessary background knowledge and understanding of what will be covered in each recommendation and portfolio update. It’s like trying to ride a bike without having ever had training wheels – not impossible, but it makes the task much harder and leaves you more vulnerable for failure. Consider these resources your training wheels in preparation for our next recommendation.
Click the links below to access these resources now:
- Report:
- Book Preview: Trumped!: A Nation on the Brink of Ruin and How to Bring it Back
- Video:
Step #2: Understand Everything Your Subscription Includes
It’s not uncommon for our customer service staff to receive calls or emails from confused and even overwhelmed subscribers. The problem? They’re not aware of all the benefits included in their subscription, what to do or when to expect them.
To help you out, here is a complete list of everything you’ll receive with your Contra Corner subscription:
- Daily Stockman’s Corner alerts delivered to your inbox every day
- Daily Adler’s Data Dives delivered to your inbox every day
- Access to our model portfolio
- Full Library of Contra Corner special reports
- A free daily subscription to 5 Minute Forecast
- A free daily subscription to the Daily Reckoning
Step #3: Watch Your Inbox
You’d be amazed at how many people overlook their daily alerts and data dives when they hit their inbox. Knowing how crazy my inbox can get, I completely understand. But this last step is critical. All the market analysis and insider knowledge in the world can’t help you if you don’t take action.
So keep your eye on your inbox!
As always you can reach out by emailing: davidstockman@davidstockmanscontracorner.com
Or, if you have any questions about how your subscription works and what you’re entitled to, pick up the phone and call our customer service team. They’re available from 9:00 a.m. ET until 5:00 p.m. ET at 1-800-708-1020 and will be happy to help you.
Otherwise, keep your eyes peeled for our latest analysis to hit your inbox.
All the best,
[signature]David Stockman
Editor, Contra Corner
