How To Buy Best Stocks For Long?

Bull! Bull! Bull! Nobody's talking about the REAL THREAT to your wealth right now. Yet one avoidable misstep could cost you thousands... even millions in lost profits over the next 5-10 years

Enough already!

Every time you turn around, the media pumps out another hysterical headline or doomsday prediction.

Yet nobody's got the guts to tell you about the REAL THREAT facing us right now.

That's why...

Dollar for dollar, it's 10 times deadlier than the nastiest market crash any forecaster can predict...

And could wreak more havoc on your personal net worth than the worst bank crisis or "bear market" imaginable.

More than ever, we MUST get our heads straight and keep this threat front and dead center. You probably know what it is...

But you may not realize that overcoming this threat may be our last chance to flip the ugliest, most stressful market in our lifetimes on its head -- setting us up for years of wealth-building gains.

How much worse can it possibly get?

Before the latest "bounce," most investors seemed to think much, much worse.

The New York Times reports that the Conference Board's consumer expectation index recently hit its second-lowest level ever.

"The amount of optimism that things will get better is as low  as it has been in the four decades that the Conference Board has been asking questions."
                               -- The New York Times

Even worse -- a staggering 70% of respondents said they expected the market to continue its slide in the coming year. Only six times in the history of the Conference Board's survey have investors been so uniformly down on the market.

And that's no surprise really, given the never-ending stream of negativity blaring from our televisions and spewing out of Washington.

So, just how much worse did the market get for U.S. investors in the years following those past moments of extreme market pessimism?

The answer may shock -- even anger -- you.

Before I lay out the hard-and-fast numbers... along with what I think you'll agree is a reasoned plan of action for right now... let's consider how we got to this moment of extreme despair in the first place.

An unprecedented crisis... of confidence

By that, I don't mean to imply that the damage inflicted on the credit markets and the resulting blow to the broader global economy are imagined. They are real.

So, too, are the devastating hits that even prudent U.S. investors have taken to their personal net worths over the past 18 months. Me included. I won't lie to you...

I underestimated the severity and duration of the U.S. financial crisis and ensuing stock market sell-off. On paper, at least, I paid a stiff price. Even worse...

My confidence in U.S. stocks was severely tested. And because of that, I almost made a tragic mistake. In short, I was afraid. As I imagine you may be, too.

Truth be told, it took some stern words -- from the lips of three of the world's most successful investors -- to set me straight. For this I owe a sincere debt of gratitude I'd like to pay forward to you right now.

In return, I ask simply that you repeat after me: "What's done is done." Please, indulge me this once. Say it out loud, What's done is done.

All that matters now is what we do now. It can mean the difference between looking back on this historic moment in anguish -- and seizing the once-in-a-generation opportunity standing before us.

Are you with me? Great!

"People say they're afraid of a stock market crash.
Well, we've already had a crash. Look at the numbers."

Those are the words of Peter Lynch, legendary former manager of Fidelity Magellan Fund. Lynch, you may recall, earned his shareholders life-changing returns of 29% per year over more than a decade running Fidelity Magellan.

Returns like that essentially double your money every 2.5 years. So you'll forgive Lynch for coming off a bit glib when he declares that stock market bargains are so plentiful now, "you feel like a mosquito in a nudist colony."

And by no means should we underestimate the urgency and wisdom of what Lynch is telling us. Namely, that a market crash is NOT the REAL THREAT to our wealth right now.

Peter Lynch is one of the three investors I mentioned earlier whose words got me through my own crisis of confidence. The others are John Bogle, founder of Vanguard, and none other than Warren Buffett, arguably the most successful investor in history.

Not surprisingly, both gentlemen agree that "a market crash" is not our real concern. And that there's a more insidious threat on the horizon. I know in my heart they are right. To explain why, let me share with you a bit of my personal history.

In 1987 I was a young buck just out of college

As the storm clouds gathered that summer, I was busy running numbers and making client calls for a successful financial planner.

My boss had a PhD and a lobby full of modern art... if you didn't have a million or a few to invest, you weren't welcome there.

But it wasn't until October 19 of that year that I discovered how smart this guy really was. Maybe you can guess:

My boss got his "high-net-worth" clients 100% out of the market and into cash and treasuries in August. No one lost a dime in the October 1987 crash!

The guy's a hero, right? Well, let's just say we had a difference of opinion on that matter. You'll need to hear the full story before you decide who was right.

But for now, just know that I crammed my new finance degree in a box and stormed out, chucking the business of "giving advice" for good. Or so I thought at the time.

In fact, my exile lasted 15 years.

Until an unusual gentleman and extraordinary investor lured me
back into the fold...

That gentleman was Motley Fool co-founder Tom Gardner -- the same fellow who introduced me to the unusual opportunity (some call it the NEXT Intel) you'll hear more about in just a moment.

Of course, I'd seen Tom's books in the store. I'd seen Tom and his brother David in their silly hats on CNBC and CNN... heard their weekly radio show. I'd even checked out their popular website along with millions of other investors.

But by April 2002, I'd been around. I was skeptical. You see, after ditching the "advice business," I spent years working closely with Wall Street's top money managers, many who managed billions of dollars.

Some of these guys paid thousands of dollars per month for research from my team and yet 80% still didn't consistently beat the market and make enough money for their clients to justify the outrageous fees they charged.

I witnessed a lot of fancy investment strategies and complex models firsthand. Frankly, I had my doubts that anybody could beat the market. Especially "The Motley Fool crowd."

So, you can imagine my surprise when David and Tom Gardner asked me to help them launch Motley Fool Stock Advisor -- their first investment newsletter in a decade. I took the bait.

Why? For the same reason I volunteered to reach out to you in the midst of this latest crisis. After meeting them in person, I sensed they were on to something special...

Something that can help hardworking folks like us come back from this difficult setback

Remember, that was 2002. One of the nastiest markets in history... David and Tom were among the few "advisors" on the scene NOT scaring investors with dire predictions about the grim future for investors...

They weren't interested in grabbing the spotlight with market calls. Or rushing their readers into cash or gold. No, David and Tom Gardner were still upbeat and 100% focused on the long-term prospects for investors like us.

They never lost sight of the fact that, for investors like you and me saving for retirement, "the best time to invest in the world's top companies is always RIGHT NOW."

Frankly, I admired their moxie in the face of such widespread negativity. The more I thought about it, the more I knew deep down that these were the guys who could help me recover from the painful bear market.

And NOT by dumping what was left of my portfolio at the bottom. Much less buying gold bars and stashing them in some rural bank in Canada. Rather by sticking to a disciplined plan of investing in America's best businesses -- and buying MORE, not less -- when they are on sale. Companies like...

Activision recommended in March 2003 -- up 436%

Amazon recommended in October 2002 -- up 366%

Quality Systems recommended in April 2003 -- up 757%

Or like the upstart media powerhouse you'll also hear about just ahead. It's up an astonishing 597% since David Gardner first told me about it in July 2002. If we'd taken David's advice and invested $10,000, we'd have more than $69,000 right now.

Just imagine turning a $10,000 investment into a serious sports car... or a down payment on a vacation home... or three years of college tuition -- and in just 6 years. (Believe me, I think about it almost every day.)

And this might really surprise you: Of the 24 top stocks recommended in Stock Advisor that first year -- a gloomy year much like this one...

16 are (or were sold) in positive territory

6 have doubled in value or more

5 have tripled in value or more

On average, the companies David and Tom Gardner recommended that first year are STILL up 109%. Yes, even after a market sell-off that once again has U.S. investors questioning the wisdom of owning stocks for the long term.

So how'd they do it? Simply by identifying well-managed, financially sound companies with strong competitive advantages AND buying them while they were cheap. Companies exactly like the one I'm going to tell you about right now...

Will there ever be a NEXT Intel? And could this be it?

You've heard the slogan "Intel Inside." Sure, we all have. But did you ever consider how it came about and just how revolutionary it was when you first heard it?

It's a microprocessor, for Pete's sake... a tiny wafer we can't even see, touch, or hear -- yet so powerful we dig deep and pay up for one computer and turn up our nose at another.

Before Intel, nobody dreamed a market leader like Dell would feature another company's logo front and center on its top-of-the-line computers. But you see how it worked for them!

"Intel Inside" conveyed "speed, quality, reliability, even prestige."

That's the sort of "brand mystique" that makes investors fortunes... and why thousands of otherwise ordinary Intel investors banked their first million long ago.

OK, but can you really make that kind of money today? After all we've been through? Don't be too quick to answer. Even if you could earn half or a quarter as much, you'd still be interested, right? Well, read on, because here's your opportunity...

The "new" LOGO top manufacturers display proudly on their products, packaging, and marketing

My friend and colleague Tom Gardner told me to buy this new "Brand-Inside-a-Brand" stock in September 2006. It's already shot up 54% since then.

But Tom says the best stock has just begun its historic run. And he should know -- he's studied this phenomenon closely.

He calls it "customer facing," meaning simply that, like Intel, this company's NAME and LOGO are in the faces of consumers and factor directly into their decision to pay up for top-of-the-line products.

History shows time and again that if you can identify these rare situations and get invested ahead of the crowd, you vastly increase your odds of earning life-changing profits.

Tom Gardner's done it several times recently, with blowout results like...

Middleby in November 2003... up 236%
Buffalo Wild Wings in July 2004... up 192%
CNS Inc. in September 2003... Sold for a 235% gain

Tom also is on record recommending that we buy AOL (up 442%), Bed Bath & Beyond (up 1,000%), and Dell (up 852%)... back in July 1995!

Tom believes this new "Brand-Inside-a-Brand" stock could rack up similar gains. And that's because... Just like Intel...

This new "Brand-Inside-a-Brand's" cutting-edge technology helps drive a multibillion-dollar industry -- in this case, audio electronics and entertainment media.

Serious consumers and professionals actively seek out this brand wherever and whenever they listen to music, buy expensive audiovisual equipment, or even go to the movies.

Its name is synonymous with top-end, premium quality and performance. In fact, it's not only the industry standard... it's the GOLD standard.

But unlike Intel, I have every reason to believe this company almost certainly has its biggest gains ahead.

You see, with its massive $80 BILLION market cap, Intel's early investors are already rich. Their doubles and triples are mostly behind them.

But this NEW "Brand-Inside-a-Brand" company is still a fraction the size of Intel... with its doubles and triples yet to come.

Opportunistic investors like us could potentially land a fortune in windfall profits.

If you like, I'll tell you more about this amazing company, its patented technologies, and its staggering upside potential. Plus, exactly what you need to do to get your share of the profits.

But I've kept you in suspense long enough. It's time we addressed...

The REAL threat facing us right now

Earlier, I told you how my first boss hustled his high-net-worth clients out of the market and into cash just ahead of the 1987 crash. Here's why I say he was no hero...

Sure, he saved his clients -- most with 10-15 years until retirement -- a 20% short-term loss. But the market fully recovered in a matter of months and even posted a gain for the 12 months following the "crash."

Meanwhile, the "experts" laughed it up at us "Pollyanna Bulls"... declaring it was 1929 all over again... warning us about the next Great Depression. All year long these guys were calling us a bunch of chumps, running down the 1,001 reasons why nobody should trust "this rally"!

Sound familiar? Of course. Every single time stocks pulled back in 1991... 1994... 1995... and 1998, these same clowns were trotted out to remind us, "Don't trust this rally!"

And then there was 1979, the year BusinessWeek famously declared, "The Death of Equities." That was 30 YEARS AGO, for Pete's sake.

Or how about when Time magazine asked simply, "Is Capitalism Still Working?" That wasn't last Friday. It was April 21, 1980!

No wonder thousands of hardworking Americans... many, like my boss's clients in 1987, with only 10 or 15 years left until retirement... sold out at the bottom and missed out on the greatest period of wealth creation in history.

I hope you can see why I can't bite my tongue any longer...

If you're serious about saving and investing for a comfortable retirement, listening to this fear-mongering costs you money... just as it cost my boss's clients back in 1987. After all, his brilliant "market call" spared these folks a 20% haircut and maybe a stomachache.

But at what cost?

Do you think he got them back into best stocks right away? Of course not! No doubt some were so spooked, they stayed in cash and treasuries for years or fruitlessly tried to jump in and out of the market. And in so doing, they missed out on the greatest bull market in history -- and in my estimate, millions in lost profits.

"Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful."
                                    -- Warren Buffett

Now we hear the gloom and doom again. Only this time around, with everyone from Lou Dobbs to the White House chiming in, the rhetoric is reaching a fever pitch. Is it any wonder FEAR -- unbridled FEAR -- has taken hold of U.S. investors?

I say, "Hogwash!" I can't speak for you, but I've had enough of this monster-screaming and America-bashing. It's frankly dishonest and unproductive. But you don't have to take my word that being swayed by it is dangerous to your long-term wealth.

I'll prove it to you. The numbers speak for themselves...

Earlier, I mentioned that only six times in the history of the Conference Board have investors had anywhere near such a pessimistic outlook... well, just look how the market has responded following these episodes of extreme market panic...

Now "bearish sentiment" sits at a whopping 70% -- and you have a very important choice to make... one that could forever alter the course of your financial future.

Of course, you can always just "play it safe" and sit on the sidelines...

But I have to warn you, this mistake could cost you a fortune. Perhaps you've seen this remarkable chart, created by data from Fidelity Investments. But I urge you to take a moment to look at it again...

Source: Fidelity Investments

This chart clearly shows how sitting out just the market's 10 best days can cut your portfolio in half.

And that's a modest $10,000 portfolio. You probably have much more set aside for yourself and your loved ones. So, you see how costly it can be to listen to these so-called advisors who claim they can help you time the market. Because the fact is they can't.

I learned that over 20 years in the business. But again, don't take it from me. Take it from John Bogle, legendary founder of Vanguard and the second legendary investor I mentioned earlier. Here's what he has to say about market timing...

"After nearly 50 years in this business, I do not know of anybody who has done it successfully and consistently. I don't even know anybody who knows anybody who has done it successfully and consistently."

Need more proof? For an article I published recently, I ran a few numbers on what would happen if we'd invested in select companies on the day I graduated from college in 1987.

If you had invested just $10,000 in the following companies, you'd have...

Intel... $188,000
Microsoft... $580,000
Apple... $70,000

Are those some remarkable examples? Sure. So let's dial it back a bit. What if you'd bought Johnson & Johnson? Hardly took a genius to buy J&J in 1987, right? Well, now you'd have nearly $118,000.

Or what if you'd simply bought the S&P 500 or the Dow instead? Your original $10,000 investment would still be worth just about $32,000.

Again, that's if you invested all your money in a plain-vanilla index fund in August 1987, JUST BEFORE the big market crash! And were forced to sell right now. In other words, in one of the worst-case scenarios imaginable.

I don't think I can stress this enough: As Peter Lynch points out, we won't be investing BEFORE the market crash. The crash has already happened.

So you're right to wonder: What happens next?

Of course, nobody knows the answer for certain, but we do know this much...

Bear markets occur on average every five years. They last about 15 months and set stock investors back on the order of 33%. Now consider...

On March 9, 2009, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 55% over the course of 17 months.

If nothing else, this tells me we're much nearer the bottom -- and the start of the next bull market -- than the doomsayers on TV would have us believe. And we know this, too...

Including dividends, U.S. stocks have returned on average 9.6% per year since 1926. And that's on average.

As Barron's columnist Gene Epstein points out in the rare rational piece I've read on the subject...

"With consistently strong performance over long periods, it stands to reason that below-par returns over 5-to-10-year intervals [yes, exactly as we've just experienced] would tend to be followed by MUCH BETTER returns over the subsequent 5-and-10-year intervals."

Epstein further points out that historically this has indeed been the case. Still not convinced?

A remarkable study conducted by Hartford Financial Services Group demonstrates how investors who buy U.S. stocks at times JUST LIKE THIS dramatically outperform those who sell... or even those who hold steady.

The Hartford study follows four groups of investors from 1968 through 2008, ranging from those investors...

Who flee to cash each time the market drops 10%

Who stand pat, and

Who BUY MORE when the market drops by 10%

According to the results, those who routinely sold after 10% downturns turned $10,000 into $277,000. Not bad. However, those who ADDED just $2,000 each of the five times the market dropped 10% did MUCH better than any other group.

Over the same period -- by investing an extra $2,000 during five "bear markets" -- these "opportunistic" investors turned a $20,000 total investment into an astonishing $621,000.

That's remarkable. And, amazingly, earning that extra return required no special training, inside information, or macro-economic insight. Rather, it means simply having the courage to buy hot stocks at times just like these.

Of course, you know you can do even better by investing -- not in the broader market -- but in America's best companies. Especially when the market gives you the rare opportunity to get them CHEAP.

Like the amazing "Brand-Inside-a-Brand" company I compared
to Intel earlier

So, let me tell you a little more about it...

The brilliant idea behind it was conceived by a precocious physics PhD from Stanford and Cambridge while meditating in India. (He still owns about $1.7 BILLION worth of stock investment!)

Sales for his remarkable little company are rocketing more than 20% per year... on amazing 34% margins. And with $580 million in the bank and virtually ZERO debt, the company is on its way to cementing its place as "Top Dog" in sound for digital cinema, particularly 3-D technology for theater operators.

Experts agree this will be a HUGE profit opportunity for any company nimble enough to wrest even a small share of this future mass market -- and this company is already the undisputed market leader.

But what really has Tom Gardner (and me) excited is the company's potential to reach hundreds of millions of new customers. Who will they be? You and me!

You see, the multiplex is just for starters. Home theaters, iPods, PDAs, and satellite car stereos... that's where the REAL money is. And this little company's patented technology is so powerful it could one day be used in virtually all of these products.

Once you combine this flood of untapped consumer demand with the hordes of legacy and loyal "professional" customers, you could easily have another Apple on your hands... another Dell (which made PCs available and affordable to all)... or, yes, another Intel.

Yet, despite its huge upside, Wall Street is sleeping on this amazing opportunity!

In fact, only a handful of analysts are currently on board. (Compare that to 31 analysts covering Intel and Apple... and 25 covering Dell.) There's a good reason for this...

It's a huge advantage for individual investors like you and me. It's something Tom Gardner looks for in every stock he recommends to Motley Fool members... and a big part of why his picks are outpacing the market by more than 24 percentage points.

Of course, you need the full story before you invest... preferably straight from Tom Gardner, the famous value investor who told me about it, himself. And getting it couldn't be easier for you.

I just forwarded Annie, my graphic designer, the final edits on a new special report.

It doesn't offer any bold predictions or market calls. Only timely opportunities -- each one passed on to me by Tom Gardner and his brother, fellow Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner, as their No. 1 Stock to Buy Now.

What's more, this report includes the name, stock symbol, and full, detailed stock write-up of Tom Gardner's No. 1 recommendation -- the unstoppable "Brand-Inside-a-Brand" company Tom compares to a young Intel and is convinced can double or even triple your initial investment.

I want you to have it FREE. You can even download it to your desktop instantly if you like. When you do, I'll also include the full write-up on Tom's brother David Gardner's top recommendation -- a tiny multimedia powerhouse that's revolutionizing a century-old industry...

Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner has recommended this remarkable company in Stock Advisor on THREE separate occasions!

I'll confess, when David first told me about this opportunity, it was trading at a fraction of what it costs today. Yet, as impressive as this stock has been in recent years, David believes it will continue to thump the market for years to come.

That's because, even after forking over the lion's share of the profits earned on its valuable intellectual properties, this company's still banked enough cash to pay down $151 million in debt in full, with plenty left over to buy back tons of stock and make individual investors like us extremely wealthy.

In fact, while I didn't invest when David first told me about this opportunity back in 2002, I did buy in September 2008 -- with the promise that I would hold for a minimum 5 years. That's true of all three opportunities you'll read about in this new report.

And right now, thanks to the market sell-off, you can get in for less than I paid. Yet, just as is the case with Tom's No. 1 pick, I'm convinced that the earlier you get in on this one, the better. Have a look...

As you can see, that's around 597% pure profit in six years -- far outpacing any stock in most investors' portfolios. Not to mention 99% of so-called alternative investments out there -- real estate, gold, natural resources, you name it.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Remember, up until now most of the profits earned on this company's copyrighted properties have been handed over to big-money backers. But according to David Gardner, who has been following the company closely for years, that's about to change.

In a recent interview, the company's co-chairman revealed that the company plans to apply the inside knowledge learned over seven years of making billions for other companies... and take over the full production itself.

You can see how this represents an epic shift in the company's already super-high-margin, cash-generating business model -- an extremely profitable shift!

One that, in the words of the company's co-chairman, will allow the company, and us as investors, to "capture more of the profit with little financial risk, since others are providing most of the needed capital."

Hold on. Did he say others will pony up the capital? You bet!

You see, this company's 100% success rate over the past five years paved the way for an extremely favorable financing arrangement. Put plainly, the up-front production money won't have to be repaid unless the projects are successful -- not a single penny.

Yet, only a handful of "big" investment houses are onto this gold mine. And those who do "cover" the best stock have it all wrong. That's something David Gardner looks for in every stock he recommends to Motley Fool Stock Advisor members.

But don't expect Wall Street to sleep on this story for long. This remarkable company is on a roll -- and recently capped a string of global "product" launches with an achievement NEVER BEFORE SEEN in one of America's most storied industries.

That's why I want to rush you a FREE copy of a new special report that reveals the full details on this great growth opportunity

With your permission, I'd like to rush you a free copy of "3 Top Stocks to TRIPLE Our Money in the Next 5 Years."

Though remember, you WON'T get any bold predictions or wild market calls. Just timely investment ideas you can act on right now before the market rebounds -- including the name, stock symbol, and full write-up on David Gardner's top recommendation, the unstoppable "Multimedia Powerhouse" we just discussed.

Ready to get started? You can claim your FREE report and lock in the lowest price offered on Motley Fool Stock Advisor right this minute. Simply click here now to get started.

Want to know more before you send for your FREE report and get your hands on Motley Fool co-founders David and Tom Gardner's stock market research? Fair enough.

Let me tell you a little about David and Tom Gardner. How I've seen them work. And my personal theory on how they defy the odds and continue to find stocks that help their subscribers trounce the market.

David Gardner is a dedicated growth investor with a now-legendary track record. He keeps his eyes peeled for those rare companies with a paradigm-shifting product or service.

Companies like AOL in 1994 and Amazon in 1997.

David recommended both of those hot stocks. In the years listed above. Those who took his recommendations turned $10,000 investments into $340,000 and $274,000!

Tom Gardner -- who also has a remarkable track record of success -- prefers to dig into a company's financials a little more. He fully examines the company's books. He burrows deep into the numbers... digging out hidden liabilities... and sometimes finding hidden assets the companies and Wall Street never seemed to know about.
And you know what?

Both approaches work together, and both approaches have a place
in your portfolio

David has hit some legitimate home runs for subscribers of Motley Fool Stock Advisor -- like 242% gains in Priceline.com... 206% gains in GameStop... and 435% in Activision Blizzard.

Meanwhile, Tom has rapped out a steady string of base hits. Which isn't to say that Tom hasn't hit his share of home runs, too. Tom recommended Quality Systems -- up 756%... Affiliated Managers Group -- up 224%... and LabCorp of America -- up 85%!

Consider, just $5,000 invested in each of these stocks would be worth more than $65,000 in 6 years -- not bad for a "boring" value investor.

How would you like to have hot stocks like these in your portfolio? Sizzling growth companies from David. And strong, steady performers from Tom. Heck, WHY NOT GET BOTH?

Here's how you can position yourself BEFORE the market's next big move...

I'd like to give you David and Tom Gardner's new report FREE, including the full details on Tom Gardner's No. 1 pick, the "Brand-Inside-a-Brand" company that's following in the profitable footsteps of Intel.

Plus, the unstoppable "Multimedia Powerhouse" that's shaking up one of America's oldest and most storied industries -- and that David Gardner has recommended on three separate occasions.

You'll also get all the details on a third breakout company that both David and Tom think could TRIPLE your money over the next five years and beyond.

And unlike so many of those guys you see barking out buy/sell advice on TV, I'm not asking you to consider doing anything I wouldn't do myself.

I own all three top stocks in my own account and have no intention of selling. In fact, I agreed to hold them for a minimum of five years.

In return I ask that you simply agree to sample David and Tom Gardner's stock research risk free for one year. That way you'll get the inside story on all of the incredible companies David and Tom Gardner are recommending... experience the one-of-a-kind Motley Fool investors' community... and position yourself to make some serious profits!

It's easy to do. Especially with the HALF-PRICE offer David and Tom have agreed to let me extend to you today...

Take 50% off your membership today and you still receive all this...

Of course, you'll get prompt access to David and Tom Gardner's new report, "3 Stocks to TRIPLE Our Money in 5 Years!"

You'll also get full access to the Stock Advisor password-protected website, where you can check out David and Tom's interactive scorecard, revealing the performance of every past and current Stock Advisor pick.

Then, every month you're a Stock Advisor member, you'll receive the Motley Fool Stock Advisor advisory letter in the mail. You'll even be alerted by email the moment it is available online, so you can access it instantly.

Each Stock Advisor issue reveals not one but two TOP stocks -- handpicked and thoroughly researched by Motley Fool co-founders David and Tom Gardner -- that are poised to CRUSH the S&P 500 over the next three years.

You also get the full rationale behind every recommendation, including any potential risks, so you'll have everything you need to make your own sound investment decisions.

Plus, when you join the Stock Advisor community without risk today, you'll also receive these features, benefits, and bonuses that are sure to make you a more successful investor:

Monthly issues featuring Motley Fool co-founders David and Tom Gardner's Top Picks of the Month; updates on past recommendations; a clear discussion on the most important elements of successful investing; and plenty of competitive jousting in the Dueling Fools column -- two brothers who want to outdo each other in every profitable recommendation they make for you!

Weekly updates and alerts via email keep you abreast of changes in David's and Tom's advice and keep you squarely on track to build real and lasting wealth! At Stock Advisor, we leave nothing to chance...

24/7 website access for members only: You can read the current newsletter issue as soon as we write it; research back issues; browse our ongoing question & answer section -- anytime you want! Plus, access special reports, interviews, past picks, and latest performance data in the full catalog of Motley Fool Stock Advisor issues...

Online discussion boards for members only, with access to the Stock Advisor team of experts...

I've been told by some subscribers that Motley Fool Stock Advisor is like an investment university. It's certainly an active community of smart investors. You can join David and Tom -- and your fellow members -- online in spirited discussions. Or you can sit back and simply follow the wealth-building recommendations...

Most important, you won't be whipsawed by dire warnings and wild promises...

And that means -- as we already got a glimpse of this week -- you won't risk missing out on the best stocks and the market's best-performing days, when your account value surges ahead!

Remember, as important as what you get with Stock Advisor is what you DON'T get. I've personally subscribed to dozens of investment newsletters over the years.

I've seen how they come at you with laundry lists of model portfolios, sector calls, and rapid-fire hot stock tips. Or worse, macro predictions of $5 gasoline, skyrocketing interest rates, and rampant inflation.

And in so doing, they methodically ROB US investors of millions in profits!

Plus, who wants to spend hours wading through tedious details? What if you're just looking to position yourself for long-term gains -- in just a few minutes a month?

What if, like me, you're looking for honest, independent stock advice to help you become a better investor? Advice that puts you in the best companies at bargain prices... and helps you safely and steadily accumulate real wealth over time.

Well then, Stock Advisor is for you.

Add it all up and your special discounts and FREE gifts (including the valuable prompt-action bonus described below) total more than $200... but you won't pay $200 to join. Not even half that. And as you're about to see, you don't risk a single penny.

Of course, I insist that the risk is all mine

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I've shared some secrets with you today...

Including my first encounter with the financial services industry and my contribution to a Wall Street money machine that doesn't put hardworking investors first.

Thank you for bearing with me for one last revelation. I didn't buy a company called Quality Systems when Tom Gardner first recommended it in Stock Advisor back in March 2003. That's forgivable, I guess.

But I also didn't buy when Tom RE-recommended it in April 2003. Now I know better.

Since Tom first told us about it, it's up 653%. Since Tom RE-recommended Quality Systems, it's up 756%!

If I'd put just $5,000 in that one... already, I'd be sitting on $40,000-plus.

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The Death of Equities?

Give me a break! The first time that dire warning rang out, I was playing junior varsity basketball!

Investors who BOUGHT that day earned 9.5% per year over the next 10 years...

And that's BEFORE we launched into the great bull market of the '90s!

When the dust settles, this latest bear market won't cost individual investors like us millions, either... but sitting out the next bull market almost certainly will.

I've seen it happen with my own eyes. As I imagine you have, too.

That's why Warren Buffett loaded up his personal portfolio with U.S. stocks last October and has repeatedly warned investors...

"Clinging to cash equivalents at present yields is almost certainly a terrible policy if continued for long."

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Promise me you'll remember that the next time some loudmouth on TV tries to scare you into giving up on stocks for the long term.

Even better, join Motley Fool co-founders David and Tom Gardner (and me) at Motley Fool Stock Advisor at half-price today. 

Together, we can turn Panic 2008 into PROFIT 2009!

And remember, the risk is all mine. You have my word on that.

So, please don't put this off another day, and let's make some money.

Has the Tide Gone out on Marine Energy?

Has the tide gone out on marine energy?

The Pelamis wave energy converter project in Portugal was scuttled in March due to technical setbacks. . .

But even with that 21 MW project coming offline, the learning curve for offshore hydropower is getting shorter and shorter. So, we're getting closer and closer to harnessing the 2-3 million MW of coastal wave energy resources around the world.

Even when they're located near seaside cities, ocean energy facilities face many of the same challenges as offshore wind power. Both resources must, of course, be tied back to land with efficient and robust transmission systems.

And as the stiff maritime breezes can generate millions of megawatts, they can also destroy millions of dollars in engineering if extreme weather hits.

For disaster repairs and regular maintenance alike, marine energy devices have to be readily accessible from the ocean surface.

Pelamis aimed too high by shooting for a "hands-free" operation with no maintenance at the offshore site and "no offshore intervention."

Would we expect a coal-fired power plant to run without maintenance? How about a hydroelectric dam, for water-to-water comparison?

The answer is no. . . This was clean-fuel folly, plain and simple.

Of course, there are other companies besides Pelamis in many other resource-rich coastal regions besides western Europe. . .

Beyond Pelamis

In Japan, which imports nearly all of its energy, they've tried a different wave energy conversion technique, channeling tidal water into narrow aqua-corrals along the coastline. Known as Tapchan, this technology has the benefit of being based onshore.

Tropical regions may be able to make use of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC), which operates on many of the same heat vapor conversion principles as geothermal energy.

Here in the U.S., Rhode Island's Ocean Wave Energy Company is developing a system of movable floats anchored to a base plate below. That contrasts with Pelamis, whose floats were more or less strung together end to end with hinged joints.

Pelamis's machines may also be an example of overreaching size for wave energy devices―each cylinder is 180 meters, or nearly two football fields in length. Maybe less is more when it comes to marine energy?

Above all the trial and error we're seeing when it comes to ocean energy modules, if the electricity can't get to shore, then it ain't worth a thing.

That's why the best play on offshore renewable energy, bar none, is European engineering giant ABB (NYSE:ABB).

ABB: the Missing Link for Marine Energy

ABB pioneered high-voltage direct current (HVDC) technology specific to the maritime fossil fuel industry, and those same applications can be used for renewables.

ABB has already delivered undersea grid linkups like the one between Finland's Nordpool grid and Estonia's Baltic grid to the south, running under the Baltic Sea.

HVDC Light, developed by ABB in the 1990s to link oil rig platforms to electricity grids, other platforms, and even nearby wind turbines, is the best bet for bringing marine energy to market. HVDC Light has an economical transmission range extending from just over 30 MW all the way up to 1,200 MW.

Pelamis, with mammoth machines intended to power 15,000 coastal homes with 21 MW output, didn't even hit the lower bound of ABB's HVDC Light capacity.

That's the state of marine energy today in a nutshell: too much and too little at the same time.

Without a doubt, we'll keep you up to date as marine energy changes to meet its challenges.

California Dreamin'

The pall of insolvency hangs over Los Angeles like the smoke from a brush fire. Fire is such a hazard in California that inspectors roam the hills around the city looking for dead wood. Residents are fined if it is found on their lots. But no such penalty awaits those whose financial tinder poses a risk.

We have come to California to look into the future. America may lead the world. But the Golden State leads America. The state is a hothouse of invention...always innovating...always evolving...at such a fast pace the rest of the world gets dizzy trying to keep up.

Detroit may have given the nation the cheap automobile...but L.A. knew what to do with it. It built suburbs all up and down the coast...and then connected them with a network of freeways. Gasoline was cheap. Houses were cheap. And the roads were open.

California is a land of dreamers. Bubbles, like tropical plants, grow big and fast here...creating vast canopies of delusions and conceit. Then, the hot sun beats down and the dried-out dreams fall to the ground as kindling...waiting for a spark.

In the late '90s, the Silicon Valley was the source of a great reverie - that computer technology would transform the world. It has. But not exactly as the hopers hoped. Their dotcom bubble went up in smoke at the end of the decade.

Then, came a group of new bubbles - also largely based in California. The feds panicked in the recession of '01-'02. Their artificially low interest rates - combined with the globalized economy - caused the final mutation that produced the Extreme Bubble Culture circa, 2002- 2007. Housing prices rose, giving consumers the collateral they needed to dream big. Soon they were borrowing money so they could buy German cars, fill their tanks with Saudi oil, and drive to malls to buy Chinese gadgets.

Everyone speculated on housing prices - homeowners, lenders, investors, builders, and Arnold Schwarzenegger's state government itself. But now that housing prices have come down...the whole Bubble Culture may be threatened with extinction. We drove into the heart of L.A. looking for evidence. Our first challenge was to find the heart of the city. The place stretches for many miles in many directions. It has a head...a mayor and a city council, easy to locate in a stately old building. It has long arms too - reaching out to grab parking offenders and collect property taxes. And its legs are in constant motion; the city is always on the move.

What it seems to lack is a heart. The downtown area is just a collection of office buildings. In the morning, people drive in, park in garages, and go directly to their offices. In the late afternoon, the legs turn and move in the opposite direction. By nighttime, the place is as dull and empty as a state senator's head.

The brain is missing too. When ordinary citizens dreamed of riches, so did the state government. Now, the weightlifter faces bankruptcy for the 2nd time since he's been governor. When he was sworn in, the state was threatened with default on $13 billion worth of loans from the previous administration. This time the stakes are higher.

California led the nation on the way up; it's leading on the way down too. When the value of the collateral broke down in 2007, Bubble Culture turned brown. Homeowners went broke. Their lenders went broke. And pretty soon, the whole world was beginning to go broke. In the last two years, house prices in California have fallen 40%...50% in some areas.

Driving through the city, most of the older neighborhoods show few signs of trouble. There are few "For Sale" signs up. Life goes on in the same way it has since this culture began early in the 20th century. It's in the open areas outside the city, where the dreams got most sun, that the trouble begins. Just drive down Lincoln Street from Santa Monica to the airport. When you come to Marina del Mar you will soon notice huge housing developments on both sides of the road. "Now Leasing" says one. "Luxury Units for Sale" says the other. No lines were seen outside the sales offices. Throughout Southern California there are thousands of these new houses...mostly at the fringe of stretched-out suburbs and outlying towns...many of them practically deserted. It was the rare developer who imagined that prices would be cut in half.

Naturally, when the bubble blew up...so did California's state budget. Suddenly, tax revenues collapsed...while expenses rose. This was completely foreseeable to a person off normal intelligence; it nevertheless seemed to come as a complete surprise to the legislature. For months, the government has warned that it was running out of money. In this too, California leads the nation. Not only are its people going broke - so is its government. When this year began, the government faced a $42 billion deficit and was forced to pay its employees in IOUs.

Unlike the federal government, California can't print money. But between issuing IOUs to employees and issuing dollar bills to foreign lenders there is not a lot of difference. Whether they have the emblem of the Great State of California or that of the United States of America, both pieces of paper will come to be worth what people will give you for them...and not a penny more.

Bubble Culture now seems tawdry, out-of-fashion and broke. But Californians are still dreaming. When the underbrush finally is burned away, perhaps they'll dream up something new.

Kept Women Cope with Financial Crisis

Rumor has it that times are tough for Manhattan's "girlfriend elite."

Now that investment banking, proprietary trading and various other seven-figure Wall Street professions are losing a digit or two, funding is drying up for high-maintenance, extra-marital relationships.

During the go-go days (and nights) of the late nineties and early aughts, Manhattan's "kept women" enjoyed 5-star lifestyles. But the disappearance of over-the-top pay packages has crimped the economics of under-the-covers liaisons. As Wall Street's pampered professionals lose their perks, so do their girlfriends. Many of these privileged ladies must now adjust their lifestyles "down island," so to speak. The posh, Upper East Side digs of 2007 are yielding to Lower East Side lofts and studios.

Some of these gals are suffering such a severe drop in income and lifestyle that they are starting to resemble, dare I say, prostitutes. It's humiliating. Sadly, these voiceless victims of the financial crisis possess almost no recourse. Either they accept a cut in pay or choose a new line of work, just like their boyfriends must do. But the transition away from high-priced prostitution to less lucrative lines of work can be very stressful. And it's not easy for the girls to change their professions either.

Even the fortunate members of the girlfriend elite who have survived this initial wave of layoffs face new stresses. They must now carefully consider the security of their revenue stream, and contemplate a vast new range of potential risks. They must ask themselves, "Does my boyfriend work for one of the big banks or does he work for a hedge fund? If he works for a bank, is the bank receiving TARP funding? If yes, is my boyfriend's bonus 'contractually obligated' or discretionary? If no, can my boyfriend's bank survive without bailout monies? If my boyfriend works for a hedge fund, is the fund suffering from poor performance in 2008? Or, if the fund's numbers were good in 2008, were they also real? Who's auditing this thing anyway? Is the auditing firm reputable or does it operate out of a small, dingy office in Florida?"

Younger members of the girlfriend elite will also want to contemplate long-term economic trends, like the prospective path of the U.S. dollar relative to foreign currencies or gold. There's almost nothing more tragic than devoting a lifetime to backbreaking labor, only to accumulate savings in a fatally flawed currency. Sure, you get to keep all the memories from a career of faithful service, but what happens to your golden years?

So every highly compensated girlfriend owes it to herself to ask, "Would it be best to save money in dollars or euros or yen…or perhaps something more exotic like Brazilian reals?" After all, this is business.

"According to a survey by Prince & Associates, a Connecticut-based wealth-research firm, the average 'price' that men and women demand to marry for money these days is $1.5 million," reports Robert Frank in a fascinating column for the Wall Street Journal entitled, "Marrying for Love…of Money."

"The survey polled 1,134 people nationwide with incomes ranging between $30,000 to $60,000 (squarely in the median range for nationwide incomes)," Frank continues. "The survey asked: 'How willing are you to marry an average-looking person that you liked, if they had money?'

"Fully two-thirds of women and half of the men said they were 'very' or 'extremely' willing to marry for money. The answers varied by age: Women in their 30s were the most likely to say they would marry for money (74%) while men in their 20s were the least likely (41%). The matrimonial price tag varies by gender and age. Asked how much a potential spouse would need to have to be money-marriage material, women in their 20s said $2.5 million."

Let's think about this; $2.5 million seems like a lot of money. But it seems like a lot less money if you're a 20-year old facing a new cycle of hyper-inflation. Therefore, given the crisis of the last 24 months, and the Fed's inflationary response to that crisis, every forward-looking gold-digger has reason to wonder if $2.5 million is really enough…and whether the dollar is really the best store of value.

And one final note gals; PLEASE know your counterparty! Contracts ― both actual and implied ― are only as good as your counterparty. Specifically, examine the size of prospective "senior claims," like the divorce settlement that might ensue from your first chance encounter with Mrs. Investment Banker. Additionally, be certain that your counterparty has not issued multiple, redundant claims on the identical underlying asset.

The "Risk Factors" section of the prospectus may not include all the relevant disclosures.

A big thanks to Eric for stopping by. You know, Shooters, this is the exact sort of thing I love: An unflagging look at the world the way it actually works, not as we wished it worked.

True love? Bah! Economics! Every emotion has its roots in heartless natural selection; women with their precious eggs try to reproduce the fittest carriers of good genes they are able to attract with their endowments.

Sound mercenary? Tough. Things are as they are, not as we wish them to be. It's something a lot more of us are going to be learning the hard way in the ensuing months…

Now, as promised we'll address the umbrage brooked by some readers due to James Howard Kunstler's characterization of Glenn Beck and his followers:

Sir:
 
In his otherwise well written April 7, 2009 article, Strange Days, Mr. James H. Kunstler badly mischaracterized broadcast commentator Glenn Beck.
 
Mr. Kunstler says, "cheerleaders such as Glenn Beck on Fox News calling for the formation of militias....
 
To my knowledge, Mr. Beck has NOT called for "formation of militias", He has instead emphasized that we citizens who feel disenfranchised respond to our government's errors in a peaceful, non- violent manner.
 
Despite the many errors our politicians- of both parties- have and are making, despite their steering us into a Fascist society, they need not fear "the tattooed minions of Glenn Beck come a'calling."
 
Mr. Kunstler would do well to check out the facts before writing about anyone. He owes Mr. Beck an apology.

I sent your concerns along to Jim and here's what he had to say:

The new form of demagogic broadcast "news" is designed specifically to "stir up the animals" by presenting figures to model "angry" behavior. Obviously, it is a marketing ploy by the companies who present the "news."  It is also a gross departure from the values and norms of broadcast news that had existed in an exemplary form of self-regulation until fairly recently
 
These new histrionics are pure emotional manipulation (for profit) and it is a kind of playing with fire.  By the way, I regard the smug, sneering performances of figures like Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow on the "Left" to be as disgusting as the wild-eyed hysteria of "Rightists" like Glenn Beck.  The entire landscape of cable TV news has degenerated into a toxic swamp of hatred and anger. The consequences are apt to be very unpleasant as our social and economic woes mount.

We tend to agree on the big ideas about scarcity, commodities, commodity money and the inevitable failure of government. The particulars, however, can get a little hairy. Some of our letters to you are bound to insult some person or idea you hold dear. You are of course encouraged to let us know when we've upset you.

Now we turn our attention to the rest of the article…

Good Afternoon

After reading about Peak Oil and sources to replace it, I have to agree on several things.

I am a headhunter who works for several nuclear entities here in the U.S. as well as a hydropower engineering firm.

Our dams are already built, why not harness them for more power? It's clean, no environmental impact, except may be some fresh sushi from fish that get sucked into the turbines.

Nuclear is even better. It's clean and cheap and runs constantly. If you do your energy research and look at capacity factors and how long out of a day can the station produce power, then nuclear, geothermal and hydro are the best of the bunch.

Unfortunately, environmentalists see two out of three as destructive. But then, isn't anything? Environmentalists forget to talk about the birds that fly into wind turbine blades.

I do enjoy your columns and subscribe to a few for Agora Financial newsletters.

Well, thank you! And you're right; everything has a cost. Ain't no such thing as a free lunch as the old folks and physicists say. Everything has an impact and the circle of life is a chain of suffering and predation. But what can you do?

We won't let the lights go out without a fight. Our geologist and energy expert Byron King likes nuclear, geothermal and hydro, too. You can read more about that here.

Promise me you'll see what Byron has to say before you move into a cave and try to survive solely on air.

Gary ―

Hi!  I like the Shots a whole lot ― thanks for the great work.  In response to the Peak Oil doubter:

I find that people who reference only estimated underground reserves  have not had much exposure the complex processes it takes to get oil  from the ground to your local Shell station.  Yes, there all sorts of  reserves underground.  But the real questions are "how do we get the oil up" and "how much does it cost to do so"?   It does help to have  done some field work in geology (I have a BA in it) to understand the  importance of those questions.

My personal 30 second speech explaining Peak Oil is that we have blown  through most of the *cheap* oil and the world must change because of  that.  I don't see us actually running out of oil in my lifetime, but I do suspect my children or my grandchildren will inquire with interest about a world where plastics were thrown out daily, by the ton.  It's comforting notion to think the only thing that stands in the way of endless oil prosperity is The Nature Conservancy, but it is not the case.

Thanks. I gave up trying to explain Peak Oil to anyone in my everyday life. Now I act just as surprised as everyone else during the bumpy tumble down the far side. As James Howard Kunstler is probably tired of pointing out, this is going to prove to be about a lot more than different ways to run all our cars.

Dear Gary,

James Kunstler is right to point out the potential for social unrest which could follow from the continued unraveling of the economy brought about by the financial community's stupendous fraud. At least in the United States the citizens are armed and can fight back against the perceived plunderers. Here in Britain, the citizens have been systematically disarmed since the end of the First World War when the ruling class feared the returning army.

But in both countries we can look forward to increasing inroads of 'fascist' economics ― we are already a long way down the track. Extensive government regulation, expanding public works, state-enforced cartels, generous social programmes. The state will continue to take over failing banks and corporations, while the rest of big business will survive in direct proportion to its willingness to co-operate with the state. The 'national' part of national socialism (fascism) will come through trade barriers, restrictions on capital movements, and travel constraints on individuals. Through this melding of nationalism and socialism we will be able to see fascism for what it always was ― no more than a Marxist heresy with a rump of a possessing class.

The strange thing is that the great bulk of people in the western world will welcome this ― because the fascist government will promise salvation from anarchy and starvation.

Meh. Anarchy isn't all that bad, but your point is taken. Still, anarchy doesn't mean chaos. More on that later. Till then…

Three Important Pieces of Advice from a Gold Bug

As far as I'm concerned, there are three things you ought to be doing with your money right now…

The first is to have at least 5-10% of your portfolio invested in precious metals. (Or more, if it helps you sleep at night.) That's gold, G-O-L-D. Or silver, S-I-L-V-E-R. Take delivery. Don't entrust your gold and silver to somebody else. An ETF like streetTRACKS Gold (GLD: NYSE ARCA) is good for trading in your account. But it ain't real gold. It's a CLAIM on somebody else's gold. And somebody else might say "no" one of these days.

This is Gold 101: For absolute monetary safety, you want real metal under your control. Remember the old expression, "Gold is money." Some people ― economists, mostly ― disagree with that. OK, buy their gold. Smile. Say thank you. Walk away briskly with the gold. Don't look back.

Here's the second: Accumulate positions in solid, cash-rich gold miners. Sure, some of the junior mining guys are great speculations. Eventually, the really good explorers and mine developers will get bought out by the large companies. That's how it works. Eventually. But for now, especially if you are just getting into owning gold miners, go with the ones that have large reserves, strong operations and plenty of cash flow.

Here are some of the best gold miners. Look at AngloGold Ashanti (AU: NYSE), Agnico-Eagle Mines (AEM: NYSE), Goldcorp (GG: NYSE), Kinross Gold Corp (KGC: NYSE), or Yamana Gold (AUY: NYSE).

I like all of these companies. All of them have good management, reserves, operations, technical ability, cash flow and sheets. Are there any risks? Yes, the stock prices tend to track the price for gold. So if the price of gold falls, these stocks take the hit.

Also, if the stock market has another round of selling, the gold miners may go down in the suction. That's bad. What happens is that when the market tumbles, some players have to raise cash in a hurry. So they sell their winners, which of late have included many gold miners. Or their broker sells them out at the end of a trading session to meet a margin call. So moving down with the market is a chance we're taking by owning shares in any stocks at all. Even owning good gold miners has risk.

The third thing you ought to do is be sure to assemble positions in good, solid energy plays. I noted above that gold is money. Let me add that energy is wealth. Really, it's hard to do very much in this world without energy supplies. You can live in a cave and freeze your butt off, maybe. So the view from my perch is that well-run companies with energy reserves and good cash flow ought to hold up over the long term.

The Death of the Stocks Market

The death of the small town has been widely exaggerated. On the contrary, small towns are thriving just as they have for decades, in perfect balance. Population is steady, infrastructure is sufficient, all goods and services required are available, and it is rarely more than 25 miles to the nearest Wally World ― an outing everyone enjoys. There is very little unemployment; kids know that they will either take over the family farm or business or that they will have to seek their futures elsewhere, or some combination of working elsewhere until family concerns or opportunities call them back.

This model has functioned beautifully since...well, since forever, in one form or another. The wealthy Roman's latifundia had workers who produced everything in what was virtually a small city needed from food to harnesses, from wine to clothing, or traded for what could not be grown or manufactured. The same was true on feudal estates during the Dark Ages; the serfs produced, using the local Baron's resources, what was needed to sustain life and such comforts as the period afforded. 

Just as England was getting too crowded, the colonies provided room for the expanding population to move to an area that offered living room. Germany has been seeking "lebensraum," which means the same thing, for centuries. In general America was settled by westward expansion as each area reached sustainable population. When the land and population reached a good balance the more adventurous or those wanting more than was available moved on. The main thing wrong with earth is that interplanetary travel has not evolved! Malthus was right, although it is taking longer than he expected, and government land grabs have tied up vast chunks suitable for establishing new self-sufficient social units.

It is only in the last hundred years that vast metroplexes have sprawled across America breeding crime and problems that never existed before. Instead of the increased population becoming self-sufficient in small cohesive groups, as had been the norm since colonial days, people now huddle in cities selling things to each other.

James Howard Kunstler proposed that the salvation of America was deactivating urban and suburban sprawl in a vast migration to the country. As much as one must admire Mr. Kunstler's analysis of the problem, that "solution" simply will not work: The housing is not there, the jobs are not there, the schools and water systems are not sufficient, and room for gentle growth is not there. If it were, the young would not go off to the big cities. Starting a small town from scratch isn't plausible, either.

The usual small town of about 2,500 has two grocery stores, two feed stores, a couple of veterinarians, a "good" restaurant, a burger joint and a Mexican restaurant, a beauty shop, a lawyer or three, an insurance agent, a hardware store, and a pharmacy. You might find a nail salon and a movie house that is open Friday and Saturday nights. It can't absorb many newcomers because everything is already in balance, sufficient for the needs of the area, but neither lacking nor needing to expand. 

Has spreading the sprawl to the country on purpose been tried? Yes, it has. Consider Roundrock, a charming little Texas town until a very few years ago when Dell decided to locate there to build computers. It would be easy to get excited and think of a large corporation bringing new jobs, new commerce, and an increased tax base, envisioning a gentle absorption process whereby the Dell people became part of the community and the indigenous population benefited from increased trade opportunities. 

WERE new jobs created? Yes, jobs were brought in but personnel were imported to fill them. Very few of the jobs were available to locals. 

Well, there had to be an increase in commerce, didn't there? Absolutely. The new workers and management needed housing, groceries, gasoline, and some professional services such as a CPA or title company. However, this did not lead to expansion by established businesses in the area; like Ford deciding there was a 5% market niche for the Edsel, Chili's et al. decided Roundrock was now big enough (or was becoming big enough) to justify opening franchises. Local restaurants did not see a vast influx of customers. In very short order Roundrock has become indistinguishable from New Braunfels or San Marcos (absorbed as the 'burbs reach out from San Antonio towards Austin, and vice versa) or innumerable small towns in the DFW area that have been surrounded and overrun. Large chain grocers moved in, rather than the newcomers patronizing Godwin's and  Brookshire Br others. An army of ants dumped "civilization" on a nice place to live in very short order, and very soon afterwards it stopped being a nice place to live.

Housing? Oh, yes. The newcomers have their own ― "ghetto" is too harsh ― enclave where the sort of housing they are accustomed to is being built. There are now billboards advertising "homes from the 110's to the 190's!" in an area where the median house value was more on the order of $50,000. The newcomers huddle together in their own separate area, doing their own separate things...and criticize how Roundrock is and most residents would much have prefered it to stay. 

"They said this was progress and to live with it," a small business owner said in angry frustration. "I told them to progress elsewhere!"

The newcomers have banded together and are running their own candidates locally! An office seeker whose slogan is "efficient...sustainable...environmentally friendly" is not the descendant of those who have lived in Roundrock since 1843. (That phrase, with "green" for the last clause is to be found in the G-20 report, a classic of the C. North Parkinson school which was written before the meeting took place and is couched in such terms that the few who were responsible for content can claim it covers anything they want to do, and then claim success, in the unlikely event they have any.) Roundrock was actually living that way and didn't need outsiders clamoring for new services to solve problems expansion brought.

Locals are bitter over losing a quarter-mile swath of prime farmland to build the large highway Dell requires to do business. The land is gone, fields are cut up badly, and all the long time residents get out of it is increased traffic (they had been blissfully ignorant of rush hour traffic heretofore) from a lot of people they didn't want there in the first place.

For the most part there will be two Roundrocks from now on: The old guard, and the newcomers. They have almost nothing in common and little to cooperate on even if either side wanted to. The Dellians want to recreate the cities from which they came, and the Roundrockians for the most part want the good old days back. They can't have it.

"Increased tax base!" proponents might cry. "What about THAT? You can't deny that there is more tax money to do good." Ah...that's one of the major problems. The big city's idea of "good" isn't that of the local populace, and the problems the Dellians want to solve weren't problems until they got there. Worse, there are now or will be big, new bond issues to fund increased school facilities, a hospital, expansion of water lines (bear in mind that Roundrock is bordering on the Hill Country and water is in less supply than areas with more rainfall), and buses. There aren't in bus routes in small town America because they are neither needed nor wanted! Bureaucracy is on the rise, of course, which will necessitate more building and more taxes. A large sign urges donating because "There were 558 cases of child abuse here last yea r! Five children died." Old Roundrock didn't have child abuse.
 
Dell built an arena/stadium/gathering center…which the newcomers no doubt enjoy. Small town Roundrock was perfectly happy watching the kids play baseball, football, and soccer outdoors and basketball in the school gym. Watching the kids play is far more thrilling to small town dwellers than the Super Bowl is. Utter excitement is having the HS football team make it to the playoffs even if the division is AA.

A financial professional weighed in, "Yes, I have some new clients, but it isn't worth what it cost us having Dell here." It isn't, either. Dell won by getting cheaper land and a lower cost of living that their presence will raise, and it was downhill from there. 

Those who work for Dell got a chance to see how the other half lives and didn't want any part of it. They want their strip malls, big movie theaters, and all the comforts of their former cities. They tend to be contemptuous of the locals and "life in the sticks." Perhaps that means they want a tattoo parlor and a porn bookstore, but it also conveys that they aren't comfortable with life in the slow lane. They don't understand an unhurried lifestyle and think Roundrockians need stirring up to become "useful members of society." The long-time residents still think low crime, low unemployment, traditional schools (ever harder to hold on to), helping their neighbors because they want to, and a stable, "efficient" and "sustainable" life are what America is all about. They already had those.

The locals lost most of all. Against their will, their traditional lifestyle is being destroyed. They have to fight traffic, hunt for parking places, stand in lines, hear what they were proud of denigrated, and attempt to battle the "progress" the invaders are determined to have. Chances are the kids are whining, "Jimmy has..." and "Susie's mom lets her..."

They're back to the same old issue that has plagued mankind since the Saxons and the Normans: Those who are tied to the land and their communities, and those who believe in conquest and commerce. Big government vs. small, a leisurely life vs. the rat race, the "good" of anonymous, idle others vs. standing on our own two feet and offering a deserving neighbor an occasional steadying hand.

If you get a chance, visit Roundrock while the flavor is still there. The natives are friendly, sensible, and outgoing. If you are able, find a similar small town and move there yourself. 

A Window of Opportunity Opens

This is your opportunity to join the contrarian investing elite.

For the first time in two years, the best economic minds and analysts are opening their doors to new members.

I hope you'll take advantage of this rare offer.

When the San Francisco earthquake sucked insurance companies dry in 1906... and share dumping sheered nearly 9% from the Dow that next spring...

Four wealthy New York businessmen and a Boston economist decided to form a "secret" financial club that went on to include presidents and prime ministers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and billionaires.

Then there was famous economist John Maynard Keynes, who lost a bundle — nearly three-quarters of everything he owned — in the great Crash of '29.

He went on to form his own little cult of economic ideology, become a living celebrity, and went on to build personal investing wealth of nearly $30 million.

In 1947 and in the wake of World War II recovery, economic giants Friedrich von Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, and Milton Friedman quietly pulled "people with money" together again... in a small mountain town near Montreaux, Switzerland.

The influential group still meets today.

And as stagflation sapped the strength of the U.S. economy in 1978, another "secret" society formed. It was strictly limited to the top 30 investors, entrepreneurs, and economists of the day.

They call themselves the "Group of Thirty" and of course, they still meet today, headed up by none other than Fed Chairman and start economist Paul Volcker.

I'm guessing already that you had no idea some of these "secret" societies even existed.

In the past, they included some of the richest and most elite money minds of a generation... not just to help members rebuild and grow their personal fortunes... but with the goal of changing the course of history.

And I have the same ambition for the "secret society" I'm about invite you to join today.

Let me explain...

Your Chance To Get Rich While Making History

What I'm about to tell you about has been almost two years in the making... and I've already invested over $532,171 to make sure this day arrived. But now it's finally ready.

Introducing a new alliance of high-end "Big Picture" thinkers. People who not only seek ways to heal the damage this market has done, but who can appreciate a much larger, more intelligent approach to figuring out exactly what's going on in the markets today.

I'd like to invite you to join this new alliance.

And here's the thing: I'd like to invite you to join free for a full year.

That's right. I'll simply waive your membership dues... and send you everything full members in this new society will receive, at no charge for a full 12 months.

You'll find out how in just a moment.

First, here's a glimpse of what you'll receive if you accept my invitation...

You'll start immediately with what I call our Parachute Portfolio Library, a double-pronged wealth protection resource centered around the only two kinds of market moves you should consider making over the next 12 to 16 months ahead

Then you'll also get a copy of my 218-page book, The Demise of the Dollar and Why It's Great For Your Investments, which you'll want to read before the inevitable greenback implosion ahead

You'll start receiving published updates every single week... plus additional members-only briefings every month... both with updates on everything in the recommended portfolio plus advanced private research on the markets, the world economy and — of course — this unfolding crisis

Plus an immediate private conference call that shares insights and answers vital questions about the evolving state of this market

Access to more of these live conference calls every single financial quarter, featuring one of the two most experienced and intelligent working economists I've met in the last nearly two decades of market research

Online and personal networking opportunities where you can interact with your fellow society members, both to exchange more market insights and to build the bonds that can be so vital to your financial survival in turbulent times like these

Access to a precious archive of nearly 18 years of research from one of the greatest financial minds of our generation — and worth nearly $6,947 — yours free

Plus, you'll also be entitled, as the newest member of our elite new wealth-protection society, to help nominate recipients of a prestigious new award in economics... as well as a memorial scholarship, dedicated to teaching the next generation to help us steer clear from these kinds of debacles in the future.

Again...

All of this — worth an estimated $9,554 — can be yours free for a full year.

But I need to hear back from you before Tuesday, April 21 at 5 P.M.

Accept by that deadline and all the above can be yours at no cost for a full 12 months. I'll simply waive a year's worth of membership dues and you'll start getting everything I just mentioned.

"On me."

I'll explain it all at the end of this letter.

Now why on earth would I want to do that?

Before you scroll down to find out, just give me a moment and I'll explain. Starting with the story of the great man who inspired this me to write this letter to you today in the first place...

The Smartest Investor You'll Never Meet

He was a friend. He was a legend.

He was also one of the smartest — and richest — investors I've ever met. In fact, he was so successful, I happen to know he twice paid cash for luxury apartments on the French Riviera.

He collected valuable antiques... drove a classic Mercedes well into his 80s... and carried an ornate silver-tipped cane with him everywhere he went. He was a character you don't forget.

When he spoke, everyone listened. He dominated every room he ever entered.

Once, in my office, he borrowed the phone... and in four minutes chattering away in German to his broker... made a trade that, by our best estimate, netted him around $8 million.

How? It was a hedge on a slide in the U.S. dollar.

"That," he said as he hung up the phone, "was for my grandchildren..."

And then we went to lunch, to talk economics over thyme-roasted chicken and bottle of French Bordeaux. Not your average day for most people. But no surprise for this gentleman.

His name was Dr. Kurt Richebächer.

You may already know his story. Or maybe you don't.

A survivor of Nazi Germany... the former chief economist of the Dresdener Bank... and so controversial, former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt once tried to silence him.

By the time we'd first met, Kurt had already advised billionaires, financial ministers, and market makers. Former Fed Chief Paul Volcker had been a big fan and personal friend. So was the late, great economist Murray Rothbard.

Bill Fleckenstein, a regular columnist for CNBC and MSN Money, regularly recommended Dr. Richebächer's research to other investors. Other gurus lined up to praise him too, including the legendary Richard Russell... plus best-selling authors Doug Casey and William Bonner...

Along with Barron's contributor James Grant... CNBC's David Tice... famous analysts Dr. Martin Weiss, Doug Noland, Dr. Marc Faber, and Michael Belkin... and a host of other market "luminaries."

During his lifetime, some had even compared Dr. Kurt Richebächer to visionary financial geniuses like John Templeton, Stephen Roach, Ben Graham, Charles Dow, Robert Prechter, and Benoit Mandelbrot.

Sadly, We Lost Kurt In 2007

Sadly, we lost Dr. Richebächer at the fiery age of 88.

But not before he managed to publicly and forcefully predict almost every detail of today's mess... before it even began to unfold... and certainly not before he'd already dedicated a lifetime — a full and fascinating 67-year career — to studying markets in a way that no green sub-40-year-old Wall Street lackey could even begin to imagine.

In the 67 years Dr. Richebächer researched and reported on markets, money, and economies, not only had he witnessed the booms of the 1980s and '90s...

But he'd also seen — and survived — the '73-74 market bust... the '87 "Black Monday" collapse... the massive S&L crisis of 1989 and '90... and the infamous junk bond blowout and early '90s recession...

Not to mention, the 1997 Asian and Russian currency collapses... Internet-mania and the Dotcom Bomb... and, of course, 9/11 and the subsequent stock market aftermath.

Kurt had been through it all. He's seen it all. And he's survived it, financially speaking, with huge personal success... even while others saw their accounts flattened.

But of course, in his monumental career, Kurt had ALSO served as analyst and living witness to the "Go-Go" fund jockey wipeout of 1969...

He had even seen and survived the world-flattening recession of 1958... and had lived in the middle of the post-war financial chaos in Europe just after WW II...

He was even around long enough to have living memory of the '29 crash itself, and the near-decade of stagnant years that followed.

I don't know about you, but I can't think of a SINGLE Wall Street analyst or grinning TV commentator that could ever produce anything even close to that kind of pedigree.

Yet there was "Dr. Kurt," as we loved to call him, not just seeing us through it all... but drawing out the details and making forecasts even about this current economic catastrophe...

Right up to when he left us, in August 2007.

A Timely Warning Only a Few Had the Sense to Follow

A few of us were lucky.

We got the chance to hear Kurt's warnings in time. We also had the chance to take steps to protect ourselves. Had you been with us, you would have had that chance too.

See, not long after Dr. Richebächer and I met in Paris that afternoon, I pushed my team to put together and send out a special report. It looked a lot like the one you're reading now. It was early 2006 and, inside that report, Dr. Richebächer repeated for our readers what he'd told me...

"I am dismayed at the low level of U.S. economic thinking. Elementary insights into economic processes that have been accepted by all schools of thought for more than 200 years are unknown, discarded or even put on their head. The facts are that you have serious structural problems that exclude any possibility of a sustained economic recovery... A profits decline, a record savings shortfall, a capital spending collapse, an unprecedented consumer borrowing and spending binge, a massive current account deficit, ravaged balance sheets and record high debt levels."

I'm sure you'll remember, that's when Americans still believed property would always go up. The Dow had just hit 11,000 too. And the Gross National Debt? It was high... but nobody then even dreamed it would rocket nearly $3 trillion higher by today.

For his readers, Kurt went on to warn that the ultimate "credit trap was about to spring shut"... and that the U.S. economy was headed for an imminent and enormous "fundamental breakdown."

Of course, that's exactly what happened.

Said the report...

"The U.S. consumer... the U.S. government... in fact, the entire U.S. economy... is living on borrowed time. The credit trap is about to snap shut. The wall holding back a tidal wave of financial pressure is about to collapse."

Could General Motors go broke, we asked in the 2006 forecast report. Could Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac survive, saddled by $4 trillion in loans to questionable borrowers?

Of course, those events sounded impossible to most people then. But Kurt warned us that it could happen more easily than anybody imagined. And he remains right about that too.

Back then, experts at the Fed talked about "positive inflation" as a tool to fight off an economic collapse. Kurt warned against it. Yet today, the Fed is actively doing it... dumping trillions into a black hole.

Kurt warned too about the insane debt leverage we were handing over to China and other foreign lenders... today, our government has ignored his warnings and we're in deeper than ever before.

Of course, Dr. Richebächer — a rich investor himself — was too much of a gentleman to reveal what he did with his own money. He wasn't just an advisor. Kurt was a serious economist with a "big picture" view no penny-ante Wall Street broker or hot-tip jockey could match. A class act.

His circle of readers and admirers were happy enough just to hear his analysis.

But knowing that he was forecasting a major economic crisis... and that Dr. Richebächer himself wouldn't be with us much longer... I arranged for Eric Fry, one of our best analysts, to travel to the Riviera (a dream assignment) and interview Dr. Richebächer in person.

Days later, Eric came back with Kurt's famous "Last Interview"... and five powerful, simple wealth-fortifying strategies were grounded on what Kurt had revealed...

In one visionary detail after another, Kurt laid out his map of the now infamous credit bust... from the deadly dangers of "zero-money-down" mortgages... and the billions that would disappear from banks and property values... to the rising risk of shameless U.S. debt and evaporating U.S. industry... and how, in Kurt's convictions, the treasured American way of life was surely on the brink of extinction.

Just as importantly, we discovered how to turn that vision into opportunity. As I'll show you, in ways that could have made a few individuals very rich.

For instance, the 46% his readers could have made in just 13 months playing Eurodollar puts... or the 96% in six weeks they could have piled up with puts on the dollar... Plus another money-doubling U.S. dollar spread in just 10 weeks not long thereafter. Then there's another 292% in three months, again with puts on the dollar... and 425% in just eight weeks on brilliant euro calls... the list could go on.

Of course, the window on those opportunities has since closed. However, Dr. Richebächer's stunning "last" forecast continues to unfold, almost to the letter of what he told Eric in that six-hour interview back in 2006.

Perhaps even more amazing, is that what he revealed offers you — even now — another chance to avert or even recover from these later stages of financial catastrophe.

How? Allow me to explain...

A Second Chance to Escape Even Today's Market Collapse

See, I'm so certain now of both the value and timing of the deeper kinds of insights Dr. Richebächer shared with his readers... that I'm writing you today with a very special invitation.

I'd like you to be a part of a brand new "wealth-protection" society we've just formed.

We call it the Richebächer Society, named after man who inspired us.

And as I said, this project is so important to me, I'm willing to waive membership for a full year, for anybody who answers my invitation by the cutoff date — Tuesday, April 21 at 5 P.M.

As a member, you'll get all $9,554 worth of benefits that I mentioned — at no charge for a full year. Like I said, I'll explain it all at the end of this letter. That includes, by the way, the full transcript of Dr. Richebächer's "Last Interview".

And of course, it also includes much more...

The Only Two Market "Bets" You Can Count on This Year

As soon as you accept my invitation, you'll also gain members-only access to the Parachute Portfolio Library I mentioned earlier. Inside, you'll find two "paired" research reports.

In the first report, The Parachute Portoflio, Volume One: Seven Super Hedges Against the Coming Market Catastrophes of 2009-2010... you'll see how even regular market followers can hedge their wealth against each of the "toxic timebomb" events ahead.

In the second report, called The Parachute Portfolio, Volume Two: The Only Five "Long" Market Moves You Need to Make This Year, you'll see how to take the strategy one step further... to where you could actually double or triple your money, even as the crisis unfolds.

This library isn't for sale.

And you'll never find it offered anywhere else.

But it's yours to download directly from the private Richebächer Society website, just as soon as you tell me you're ready to try a full year of FREE membership in the Richebächer Society.

These strategies won't take years to pay off. And you won't need to "wait" for the recovery. Just about everything you'll find inside involves a 12 to 16 month move.

Of course, NOT making these moves now could cost you much more... in lost ground and lost opportunity... which is why I urge you to let me hear your answer by the Tuesday, April 21 at 5 P.M. deadline.

And yes, this deadline isn't the only reason you'll want to move quickly.

See, we've been hard at work continuing the good Doctor's research. And what we've discovered, as you're about to hear, is even more troubling than the shocking forecasts Dr. Richebächer himself shared just before this mess first started to unravel.

Let me just show you the first of the three coming "toxic timebombs" we've uncovered and you can judge for yourself...

Toxic Timebomb #1:The "Recession Multiplier" That Could Double the Impact of This Downturn by 2010

Forget, for a moment, about the bankers, bailouts and bureaucrats.

And simply sink into this idea instead...

In the bedrooms and boardrooms across America, we're waking up to a very scary realization. All those big houses we bought... the cars and fancy techno gadgets... the fancy clothes and furniture... the $100 dinners and $5,000 vacations... and suddenly we're looking back and realizing... we've got so little to show for it.

Over the last three decades, we've taken one of the greatest industrial nations in history... and traded it off piece by piece. In it's place, we became the world's #1 shopping nation.

Not makers, but buyers.

Even now, consumer buying is supposed to drive more than 70% of the U.S. economy. What happens when the buyers and their credit cards just stop showing up?

Ask yourself this...

How many people born into a real bust do you know? Not like the '87 crash or even the market collapse in 1973... but on the scale of the 1930s? Over seven decades later, the survivors still rinse off used tinfoil... save string... and keep rusty nails in a jar.

Little busts don't change consumer behavior... but the big busts do.

The lesson Americans learned then, they're learning all over again today: That the law of personal and financial responsibility is as irreversible as the law of gravity. It's the egg that no bureaucrat or multi-billion dollar bailout can unscramble.

Bills piling up on the table. Expensive toys gathering dust. Calculators whirring, as the Americans who felt "rich" just over a year ago... figure out how they'll get by if their incomes disappear.

Luxury and indulgence are out.

And the classic virtues — thrift, value, prudence — are back.

In short, the hearts and minds of the American consumer have been thrown into reverse. And it's this total psychological "snap" that's a much tougher obstacle to a real recovery.

Saving is good. It's essential. But with the death of the American consumer culture, expect a force that multiplies the force of this downturn... and could very well stretch out for many, many years to come.

How so? Just take a look at Japan.

Japan's big market breakdown — and it looked a lot like this one — happened over 17 years ago. To this day, the Japanese consumer culture hasn't recovered.

Already high savings rates soared even higher... car sales plunged by half... cabbage replaced meat on Tokyo dinner tables... middle class Japanese started washing their clothes in used bathwater.

And yes, these are the Japanese with good jobs and incomes.

Working as though they could lose those paychecks again at any time.

What happens if the same level of consumer breakdown grips the U.S.? The news nobody in Washington or on Wall Street wants to own up to... is that it already has.

The Big "Buyer Breakdown" Already Underway

See, a recession where credit is tight is one thing. But a recession where consumers stop buying, that's a much bigger deal. And much harder to turn around.

Yet, that's exactly where we are right now.

Take private consumer debt. Whipping out the credit card was as natural as breathing for a lot of Americans, up until as recently as a year ago. Yet, with houses and stocks down... and that "wealthy" feeling gone... soaring household debt has just hit a concrete ceiling.

Right now, total private consumer debt is nearly $2.5 trillion.

Nobody worried much when they felt rich.

But they're worried now. That's why the U.S. savings rate, once actually negative, has completely turned around. Instead of shopping, Americans are saving. Just in the last year, they socked away $545.5 billion — the biggest level since tracking started in 1959.

Like I said, savings are great in many ways. But when you've got a country that's 70% dependent on people going out to spend, spend, spend... it can spell even greater catastrophe. Just like they've seen for more than 17 years now in Japan.

But a lot closer to home...

On New York's Madison Avenue, shops that used to sell $2,390 bed sheets and $2,400 handbags have packed up and slapped "For Rent" signs in their windows...

Penny-pincher clubs are back. And coupon-clipping sites are getting some of the highest traffic on the Web. Discount sales and all-you-can-eat buffets have lines going out the door

Last holiday season was the slowest in four decades. Meanwhile, luxury products are "out," showing off how budget-wise you are is back "in"

Big "box" stores continue to close at record rates too, while department store sales are down as much as 24%. The Gap? Sales are down 23%. Other clothing chains are down 22%

What's more, U.S. cars sell slower than in 1982. For the first time in history, China sells more cars that we do. Keep in mind, about 20% of all the retail in the U.S. comes from car sales

Planes can't sell seats in business or first class either. Not to mention a 20% drop in airline freight shipping. Meanwhile, train and truck shippers are in absolute freefall

Even FedEx and UPS — slammed by the double-whammy of crashing buyer demand and no-shipment digital book, document, and movie delivery — have seen overnight shipping profits vaporize.

Consider... total U.S. retail sales have rolled back to levels we haven't seen since 2005. Can you imagine if every single retail shop opened in the last three years... going dark?

It's already that bad.

Here's how the consumer-collapse is about to get a lot worse...

From Bad to Worse: Vanishing Jobs and Disappearing Paychecks

Since the start of the downturn in December 27, we're already out 4.4 million jobs.

How much deeper could this go?

Well, today's crash is already bigger dollar-wise than anything that we lost in 1974. And even back then, 1% of U.S. jobs disappeared. Do that today and you're talking about a total 13.2 million Americans out of work.

That's 13 million people not buying cars or new houses... 13 million cutting back on groceries... 13 million not buying flat screen TVs or going to strip malls... in fact, it's the same number of Americans who lost their jobs during the 1930s.

You've seen pictures.

The jobs that disappeared were the "multiplier effect" that turned a stock market bust until a decade-long downturn. Today's record setting job losses could do the same.

With over 650,000 disappearing in each of the first couple months alone... we're on pace to lose a total of 7.8 million jobs just this year.

Boomers cancelling retirement... middle-aged workers swarming college job fairs... at one Ohio high school, over 700 people showed up for a janitorial job... these aren't people set to dive back into impulse shopping anytime soon.

In your members-only Parachute Portfolio Library, I'll show you the two best ways to protect yourself and your money from the complete "consumer collapse" ahead.

But first, let me show you another atomic "multiplier effect" ahead that makes a 2009 or even 2010 recovery unlikely for America's consumer-driven economy...

From Bad to Worse, Part Two: The Second Surprise Mortgage Bust Ahead

When "subprime" blew up in the faces of bankers, brokers, and derivative traders... it lit a powder keg under the whole global financial system... and sparked every bit of the catastrophe you and I have seen so far.

What would happen if a whole new wave of toxic loans were to slam into bank balance sheets? We could see just as many or more billion-dollar writedowns... and more stock market pain ahead.

You can see that subprime "resets" — when some loan payments doubled and defaults soared — have started to wind down. And that's good. But there's a whole new wave of bad loan "resets" just now starting to hit.

These are the so-called "option ARM" or "Alt-A" loans.

These were the fancy mortgages snapped up by middle Americans... to buy homes nobody imagined would be worth a fraction of their selling price, just two years later.

Just like subprime, these loan contracts also carry a "reset" risk in the fine print, when already high monthly mortgage payments could as much as double — right at the height of the second biggest market meltdown since the Great Depression.

Millions more consumers will freeze up as their finances go over the cliff... more bank losses will drag down even more so-called "blue chip" retirement portfolios... and the impact of the consumer bust I've told you about will get "multiplied" yet again.

Millions more Americans could lose everything.

But that doesn't have to happen to you...

The Two Simple Moves That Could Protect You

If there's a silver lining to the next round of meltdowns ahead, it's the strategy you can use not only to protect yourself... but to actually grow your money faster as this unravels.

The first move is a classic hedge play against the next domino to fall. Almost every American stock and sector driven by consumers — from construction to retail — has already taken a fat hit.

But few realize how far this next sector is about to fall. In the Parachute Portfolio Library, you'll see why... but you'll also see how to play it on the downside as a kind of "insurance" against the coming collapse.

You'll also find a second report in the Parachute Portfolio Library that names a "way out" and even a "way up" from all the chaos — in the handful of opportunities bound by demographic destiny to still go up over the years ahead.

I can't go into the full details here. That's reserved for Richebächer Society members only. But accept my special "full-year-free" invitation and you'll find everything you need in your Parachute Portfolio Library reports.

And of course, you'll also get the society's weekly portfolio updates... our monthly members-only briefings... and a lot more... yours free for a full year, provided I hear back from you before Tuesday, April 21 at 5 P.M. Why then? You'll find out in just a moment, along with exactly how to get started.

Personally, I believe this could be the most valuable decision you make this year.

And it couldn't come at a more critical time...

Toxic Timebomb #2:Asian Ghost Towns and the "Chinese Miracle" Meltdown

With American consumers in hiding, can China's economy survive?

Beijing wants you to think so.

So do a lot of our own Wall Street "experts."

It's China, they say, who will lead us out of this mess.

But we're not buying it.

Get ready as the world's next industrial ghost towns — the next Detroit —turn up not in America, but in the Chinese provinces of Shenzhen, Guangzhou, or Dongguan.

Over 15,000 factories in those areas alone have already shut down... with more slated to close. And it's an epidemic that's happening everywhere.

Remember the lead paint scare?

Since then, half of China's toy factories have shut down. In fact, at least 67,000 factories overall closed in the last six months of 2008. With another 60,000 factories in the Wen Zhou Province alone about to shut down.

As many as 27 million Chinese are already out of work — with 20 million of them streaming out of the cities and back to the abandoned farms of the Chinese countryside.

What's going on?

It's simple. China needs exports.

Yet, with the West choking on debt... America bleeding jobs... and the financial markets still in the "third or fourth inning" of history's biggest mortgage meltdown...

The Chinese miracle has all but ground to a halt.

China's Secret "Stealth" Depression

You wouldn't know any of this if you take the "party line" coming out of Beijing. They still claim growth as big as 8% for 2009. But the facts on the ground tell a different story...

According to Merrill Lynch, China's economy didn't grow at all in the last quarter of 2008. And it's still contracting fast, ever since the start of this year

Of course, official Chinese growth last year topped 9%. But if you did the math the way we do in the U.S. and they do in Europe, the real growth rate — for the last three months of 2008 — was zero

Keep in mind that China needs at least 9% growth to soak up the 24 million new Chinese workers who come of age each year — something even the Chinese Premier doesn't like to mention.

Even Chinese analysts will tell you their homeland is already deep into recession.

Says expat Prof. Tian Xie of Drexel University, China's elaborate campaign to falsify GDP numbers "is all part of a sophisticated strategy to cheat the world."
But they can't keep up the deception much longer...

In one huge textile factory — as big as 31 football fields and with 4,000 workers — the owner racked up $200 million in debts. Afraid to tell Beijing, he burned his records and fled the country

Officially, nobody's protesting about losing their jobs or going broke. Unofficially, dozens of riots have broken out in front of closed Chinese factories

1,000 schoolteachers clashed with police over wages in early January. Hundreds of workers swarmed a city government building in Foshan, demanding back pay

In Northern China, a TV journalist covered a story about a hostile labor takeover in a textile mill. Local authorities immediately punished him and pulled the story

Creditors showed up to seize equipment from deadbeat borrowers at a factory in southern China. Police broke up a dozen riots in the aftermath, all of which they hid from the newspapers.

Padded revenue reports... fake production numbers... overstated employment... keeping a double set of books in China isn't just common, it's too often considered "good business."

In the days of emperors, Chinese generals lied about battle kills... to keep from losing their own heads. In the days of Mao, farmers lied about crop results... even as 20 million Chinese starve to death.

Today, local bureaucrats fudge the books to get ahead in the Party... and the top dogs in Beijing lie to hang onto foreign investors.

Meanwhile, northeast China — home to 110 million people — looks more like rusted-out Detroit by the day... only it's a bigger rustbelt, by a factor of ten.

You've also got under-regulated Chinese banks hiding as much as $500 billion in bad debts — China's own "subprime" loans to small businesses and Asian property speculators...

Plus, you've got a $40 billion tab left over from the Beijing Olympics... and a $140 billion tab for rebuilding Sichuan after their 2008 earthquake…

How Long Can China Hide the Truth?

Here's the bottom line:

China — with 80 different car makers to bail out... tens of thousands of huge socialist-era factories... and 100s of millions of workers to support — has a big problem.

Much bigger than they're letting on.

And it's not just China about to take an even bigger hit.

Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam. Thailand. Malaysia. And Indonesia... just to name a few, all soared thanks to the China boom. Now they're going bust in kind.

Korean production alone is already down 14%. Japan is off 20%. Taiwan's exports have dropped 28.5%. Singapore is already deep into recession. Thailand's decayed into political crisis.

Until U.S. and European consumers come out of their shells, the new Asian meltdown doesn't end any time soon. But that doesn't mean there's nothing you can do. In fact, taking the opposite position could be the quickest way to protect yourself...

How to Turn the New Asian Meltdown Into Triple-Digit Safe Haven Gains Instead

While Shanghai stocks haven't yet collapsed anything close to what we're seeing on this side of the ocean... it won't be long before they catch up.

Before that happens, you could use the move you'll find in one of Parachute Portfolio Library reports to lock in as much as triple-digits gains... that could soar as the dragon-driven markets fall apart.

The move is a downside play on a single stock... that acts as a near-perfect proxy for the entire Chinese manufacturing market. It's down already. But has much more room to fall.

Play it the way you'll discover in your members-only report, and you could see a substantial gain as the Asian markets unwind even further than they already have.

As you'll read in the Parachute Portfolio Library, this is a "set and forget" move... and doesn't take more than five-minutes for you to set up.

At the same time, you'll find a second perfect move in your Parachute Portfolio Library that reveals a surprise currency gain you could make... as panicking Asian governments raise to save sagging exports with a radical new unraveling of their own currencies.

Remember the '97 Asian Currency contagion?

That sell-off sheered 35-40% from Asian indexes, sent oil prices plunging to $8, and forced a $4.6 billion collapse over at Long Term Capital Management.

Most market players took a battering.

Had you been on the right side of that move, you could have made a fortune. And this opportunity you'll find in the Parachute Portfolio Library shows you how to do it this time around.

I'll send you this private library of reports at no charge, included with your full free year of membership in our new elite Richebächer Society.

Again, this full free year of membership I'm offering you includes not just this library of special reports... but a total of at least $9,554 in additional benefits.

And it's yours if I hear back from you by Tuesday, April 21 at 5 P.M.

A Total of $9,554 in Benefits The Moment You Decide to Join

Of course, none of what you're discovering right now would be possible... if Dr. Richebächer himself hadn't spent 67 years studying economics and markets... not to mention, had he not spent the last nearly eighteen years of his life sharing that research with people like me and you.

That's why I sincerely hope you'll accept my invitation.

Who are we exactly?

We're not just a handful of stock market hopefuls and armchair prophets. In the circle of Richebächer fans and followers, you'll find some of the world's richest, most educated and successful members...

Entrepreneurs, best-selling authors, high-ranked advisors, international speakers, working economists and academics... all sharing their insights and their secrets.

As I said, some of the greatest minds in financial history paid close attention to Dr. Richebächer during his lifetime. With the help of his generous family, we've even assembled a complete archive of all 18 years of Dr. Richebächer's research.

And that complete and searchable resource is also yours, as part of Richebächer Society membership. This alone is worth a considerable figure.

And it's yours to tap as often as you like.

Just take a look at some of the uncanny calls Dr. Richebächer made, which you can find captured in this enormous and impressive body of work...

In September 1996, Dr. Richebächer warned that the Asian Tigers "were teetering on the edge of a cliff." And in March 1997, he alerted his readers these countries were about to face "tremendous currency turmoil"

Sure enough, by July 1997 those currencies fell like dominoes... and French national newspaper Le Figaro began calling Dr. Richebächer "the man who predicted the Asian crisis"

In July 1998 Dr. Richebächer saw debt spiraling out of control in Brazil. The country's currency was in serious jeopardy. He warned his readers about the coming market shock

By early 1999, the Brazilian real crashed to the ground. Anyone who heeded the warning had the chance to get out of Brazil's stock market... and escape the catastrophe

In January 2000, Dr. Richebächer warned frenzied investors that the days of dotcom stocks' days were numbered. "Next Christmas," he wrote "very many of them will no longer be around"

Sure enough, the Internet bubble popped in March 2000 and over the months that followed, tech companies declared bankruptcy in droves. By the end of that year, $8 trillion of investors' wealth had already disappeared

In November 2006, while millions of Americans still believed in high property values, Dr. Richebächer wrote, "The housing bubble... has barely started. Wealth effects have disappeared and with falling house prices will soon turn substantially negative." And he went on to warn of the great deleveraging that a bust in huge, hidden derivative markets would bring

I don't have to tell you that he was right again. As the bubble popped and loan-backed derivatives crushed Wall Street and choked off credit, consumer confidence — and spending — slammed into a wall. The downturn he'd called started right on schedule.

As an honored Richebächer Society member, you'll have unlimited access to the entire searchable archive. Included with your full free year of membership.

Not only will you see how Dr. Richebächer helped enlightened the market elite about the increasingly insane cycle of credit-fueled asset bubbles... but also how one could have easily used those same insights to save and even grow countless fortunes.

Including the 46% his readers could have made in just 13 months playing Eurodollar puts... or the 96% in six weeks they could have piled up with puts on the dollar...

Plus another money-doubling move using a U.S. dollar spread over a 10 week span... and 292% in three months, again with dollar puts... along with 425% in just eight weeks on euro calls...

This list could go on.

And so can Dr. Richebächer's legacy.

Which is why I hope you'll accept my invitation today, while there's still time to get a full year of membership — including at least $9,554 in member benefits — absolutely free.

See the end of this letter for full details.

But be sure you do so before time runs out — in more ways than one!

Toxic Timebomb #3: America's "Minsky Moment" And the Coming Dollar Collapse

What's a "Minsky Moment?"

It's what America can't avoid, now that both our own consumer-powered economy and China's fabled growth "miracle" have so clearly hit the skids.

See... when times are good, said great American economist Hyman Minsky, it's easy to take on big risks. That includes big debts. But pretty soon, the risks get bigger than the reward... the bills come due... and you have to start dumping assets just to cover your tail.

That's the big secret behind today's endless cycle of booms and busts.

It's what's already happened to real estate. It's what's happened with the big selloff in stocks. And now it's what will happen to the U.S. dollar... and the idea of America itself.

The Giant Pin About to "Pop" the American Bubble

The U.S. dollar has been the world's "go to" currency for decades, backed by faith in the U.S. economy. But if you get paid in dollars or save in dollars, you have to ask yourself...

How much longer can that last?

With just shy of $11 trillion in debt already piled up... another $8.5 trillion already committed to the bailouts... and $3.6 trillion more in new spending on the table...

Not much longer. Think about it.

How much faith would you put in an I.O.U. from a friend with shrinking job prospects, a sky-high credit card bill, a chronic gambling problem, nervous creditors, and a bad habit of lying about the balance of his bank account?

Even Obama admits this can't go on forever.

He recently told 60 Minutes, "If we don't get a handle on this and also start looking at our long-term deficit projections, at a certain point people will stop buying those Treasury bills."

You'd better believe it.

China alone backs U.S. spending with dollar reserves worth nearly $2 trillion. These are the loans we use to fund our bailouts and more. What happens when those loans no longer look like a good deal?

With China slipping into crisis mode, that day could come a lot sooner than you might think. Already, China's prime minister Wen Jiabao says he's "worried." And both China and Russia have already called for a new world reserve currency.

All it would take is a shift of opinion...

And the dollar could go into freefall overnight!

In fact, no matter what our overseas lenders say in public... privately they've already started slinking toward the exits. Three times in the last four months of 2008, they dumped U.S. long term securities. Not just the Chinese, but Japan, India, the Saudis, and Europe... just to name a few.

When even your dollar savings aren't safe, what should you do?

A Much Better "Exit" Strategy: Dollar Super-Hedges That Go Beyond Gold

Both the reports you'll find inside your members only Parachute Portfolio Library...

Including The Parachute Portoflio, Volume One: Seven Super Hedges Against the Coming Market Catastrophes of 2009-2010...

And The Parachute Portfolio, Volume Two: The Only Five "Long" Market Moves You Need to Make This Year...

Will show you not just how to escape the dollar collapse with savings intact, but also how to turn the situation around to actually make gains. Even as the Fed liquidates the wealth of anybody holding greenbacks outright.

As a new member of the Richebächer Society, you'll also get a free copy of my own 218-page book, The Demise of the Dollar and Why It's Great for Your Investments.

Inside you'll read more about the actions that have made this dollar unraveling so inevitable. You'll also read some very real and forward looking solutions.

Naturally, one of the options you'll read more about is gold.

Consider that right now, just 1.1% of China's "other" foreign currency reserves are in gold... compared to nearly 80% gold in our foreign currency reserves here in the U.S.

China would need to seize three-quarters of the world's total gold production for an entire year, just to match our same GDP-to-Gold ratio. Impossible?

They're talking about it. Hou Huimin, vice chair of the China Gold Association says, "China should have at least several thousand tons of gold in its reserves, five to six times the officially announced 600 tons."

Even if China switched over to 3% gold reserves, that would send the bullion price through the skylights. But just holding physical gold isn't your only option.

In your copy of the full Parachute Portfolio Library — including my published 218-page book, The Demise of the Dollar and Why It's Great for Your Investments — you'll find at least seven more protective and wealth growing moves you can make.

I just hope I can hear back from you soon.

The Only Financial "Playbook" Worth Following During 2009-2010

Look, here's the bottom line.

I know you can easily find "experts" out there with two-bit explanations of what's going on. I know you're already swarmed by headlines and financial shows, newsletters, magazines and more.

Every one of them with something to say. With some who are right on the money and others who haven't a clue. But the brand new Richebächer Society isn't any of that.

The idea behind our alliance is much more simple...

See, we don't plan to wait for someone else to "fix" this mess. We don't plan to sit by and watch it ravage our wealth, either. We're not "hot stock" day traders. We're not looking for tin-pan insights or cheap thrills.

Instead I've organized what could be the best team of analysts in the business — lead by a real economist with 26 years of top analysis experience — to take a whole new kind of look at what's really going on.

This is not insight for timid men.

It's full and it's direct. It's advanced. And it's serious.

Most of all, what you'll have exclusive access to as a member of the new Richebächer Society is what could be the only thinking out there clear enough to help you both sidestep the damage and turn even the worst of these events into real and sustainable opportunity.

Look, Dr. Richebächer wasn't just someone I published for years. He was also a close personal friend. He met my wife. He met my children. We even spent time working together, side by side, on the book he was writing just before he passed away.

So launching this society isn't just another "project" for me.

It's a personal mission. One I take very seriously.

I've written two New York Times #1 bestsellers... I've made an award-winning theatre release documentary... I've even interviewed Warren Buffett, Paul Volcker, Alan Greenspan and Steve Forbes in person and one-on-one... yet I still consider this invitation I'm offering you today one of the most important moves of my entire 16 year career in financial research.

I hope you'll take it just as seriously.

In fact, I'm already confident you do.

Which is why I hope to hear back from you about this special inaugural invitation as soon as possible, preferably before the Tuesday, April 21 at 5 P.M. deadline. Again, if I hear from you by that crucial date... all of this can be yours free for a full year.

Here's how this works...

Join the Ranks of the World's Elite by Tuesday, April 21 at 5 P.M... and I'll Waive All Your Dues for an Entire Year

On Tuesday, April 21 at 5 P.M., we're going to broadcast a very special interview with Dr. Richebächer's natural successor and the editor of our new Richebächer Society, economist Robert Parenteau.

Rob was the chief U.S. economist and investment strategist for RCM, one of the investment management firms of Allianz Global Investors. And has over 20 years experience guiding global asset allocation, sector research, and equity selection for that same firm's top portfolio managers.

Rob has also founded and runs his own market analysis firm, rooted deeply in the same kind of disciplined macroeconomics Dr. Richebächer subscribed to in his lifetime.

In his members-only April 21 interview, he's going to tell you exactly how to read these three "toxic timebomb" events we talked about. He'll also walk you through the entire strategy you'll find in the Parachute Portfolio Library I'll send.

In fact, I've arranged for you to receive the full library on the same date of the interview, so Rob can explain it all with the full grounding of his considerable expertise.

If I hear from you before the date of this members-only broadcast, you'll receive a full year of membership in our brand new Richebächer Society, absolutely free.

As publisher and founder, I'll simply waive your dues for one year.

Is there a "catch?" Of course, but it's one I don't think you'll mind much at all.

Because, you see, there's much more to your membership in the Richebächer Society than just the library of reports, the 218-page book we talked about, and Rob's special interview...

Let's Run Through Everything You'll Receive One More Time

Once you accept my "full year free" special invitation, here's what you'll get...

1) First, You'll Immediately Receive the Complete "Parachute Portfolio Library"...

The most urgent thing I can do for you, the moment you tell me you're ready to join, is to rush you the complete Parachute Portfolio Library we talked about.

This is the set of two straight-talking special research reports that reveal exactly how to hedge yourself against the remainder of this crisis... and how to find the handful of recommendations you actually can still count on, even during the rest of the turbulence ahead.

Here's what you'll find inside the Parachute Portfolio Library...

The Parachute Portoflio, Volume One: Seven Super Hedges Against the Coming Market Catastrophes of 2009-2010 — This is your definitive guide to the seven most toxic economic trends of 2009-2010 and how to hedge yourself and your wealth against them.

The Parachute Portfolio, Volume Two: The Only Five "Long" Market Moves You Need to Make This Year — In a time of almost evaporated opportunity, these five market plays could be the only five safe enough for you to make over the next 12 to 24 months ahead.

The moment you join us, I'll even send you a private password and a web link where you can download these reports.

Your two-volume Parachute Portfolio Library is conservatively worth $98. But both reports in the library are yours free, just as soon as you accept my invitation to join.

And of course, there's more...

2) Next You'll Get a FREE 218-page Copy of My Popular and Newly Updated Book, "The Demise of the Dollar and Why It's Great For Your Investments"

With a wall of bailout reserves backing up in the vaults of stingy banks... and U.S. consumers too terrified right now to spend... we're watching prices fall in most big assets, not take off.

Yet gold is creeping upward. Why? And what's the truth about gold and the role it could play in protecting your wealth from the rest of this crisis? Many experts are getting it wrong.

This book not only sets the record straight, it also outlines a total of seven ways to protect and grow your wealth — not just in spite of a coming U.S. currency collapse, but as a direct result.

This book debuted on Amazon.com at $20.

But I've made a special arrangement to get you a complimentary copy, as one of the gifts you're entitled to as a charter Richebächer Society subscriber.

3) You'll Immediately Start Getting Weekly Portfolio Updates:

Rob Parenteau has agreed to email you targeted updates every week on everything vital that's happening with the "parachute plays" outlined in your member library... with the economy... or with the other opportunities you'll discover as a Richebächer Society subscriber.

Given that Rob is not just an economist with 24 years of experience as a global investment manager... but also the senior proprietor and sole founder of a macro-strategy investment firm... that's an enormous "members-only" advantage right there.

And worth a fortune, all by itself.

Easily, a research service like that is worth at least $549 per year. However, you'll get Rob's weekly briefings free for a full year, along with everything else, when you accept my special Richebächer Society invitation.

4) You'll Also Start Getting Our Elite Monthly Bulletins:

For nearly two decades, the Richebächer Letter has been a trusted "insider's" resource to some of the world's most intelligent and advanced investors and market commentators in the world.

With Dr. Richebächer gone, we had to withhold the letter until we could find someone as skilled at stripping away the mainstream fluff... and as brilliant at unearthing and revealing the kinds of powerful, one-of-a-kind insights the good doctor himself used to produce.

But with economist Robert Parenteau guiding the Richebächer Society, we finally have someone who help the great tradition of the Richebächer Letter continue, bringing fresh new and in-depth analysis to our small circle of elite readership, every month without fail.

I know of no resource like it.

When Dr. Richebächer was at the helm, the letter itself cost members $497 per year. But it's yours right now, as the cornerstone of my invitation, free for an entire year... the moment you accept membership in the newly formed Richebächer Society. I'll explain how in a moment.

But first, there's still more...

5) You'll Also Have Unlimited Access to The Society's New "Blog & Daily Dialogue" Forum:

Dr. Richebächer pounded out his first issues and analysis on a typewriter. Today, we have access to technology the good Doctor never imagined.

Who could guess, for instance, what he would say as we launch our entirely new members-only "Blog & Daily Dialogue" forum.

This is your online space where Richebächer Society members can read new market insights and launch into exchanges with other Society members.

Frankly, this is too new for me to know how to value it. But it's clearly worth at least $49. However, it's yours as a member. Use it as often as you like, whenever you like.

Free for an entire year, as long as I hear back from you by the Tuesday, April 21 at 5 P.M. deadline.

What's more...

6) Every Quarter, You're Invited to the Private Society Conference Call

Each financial quarter, we'll gather on a member's only conference call.

You can participate from anywhere. And you can listen live as Rob and other financial experts dissect what's happening now — and next — across the markets and the world economy.

If the timing isn't convenient, you'll have the option of listening online or downloading an audio recording. You'll also get the chance to download and print out the full transcript.

A ticket for this kind of session with a top financial analyst and seasoned economist — live — would be worth at least $249 for even just a single call. As a member, you'll get four of these members-only conference calls per year, for a total value of $996.

And it's also included with your Richebächer Society membership.

Just in case you're keeping tabs, that's already $2,109 in value. However, you can have all this free for a full year just by accepting my invitation by Tuesday, April 21 at 5 P.M.

And there's still more...

7) You'll Also Get Dr. Richebächer's Famous "Last Interview"

Every member will immediately receive a full transcript of Dr. Richebächer's now-famous "Last Interview" with investing expert Eric Fry, recorded live at Kurt's home on the French Riviera.

You'll read as Kurt exposes one prescient forecast after another about the financial crises... which at the time, had yet to unravel. From his call about the peak in real estate... to the impending implosion of credit markets and the Wall Street catastrophe... and quite a bit more.

What's especially shocking, though, is how much more we're in for if Kurt's already stunning forecasts continue to prove true. You'll see what I mean when you read the full interview.

This full, uncensored transcript is easily worth $149.

But you can download your copy immediately, free with the rest of your Richebächer Society materials, just as soon as you agree to sign on.

Plus...

8) You'll Get the "First Interview" With Economist Rob Parenteau

When we lost Dr. Richebächer at age 88, we knew immediately that we couldn't rush the search for a spiritual torch-bearer and natural successor to his legacy.

Economist Robert Parenteau more than fills those shoes.

You'll see why when you dig into the printed and audio "first interview" with Rob that's also included once you sign on to try the Richebächer Society.

Even now, Rob sees even greater debt-driven dangers lurking on our horizon. The good news is that, he also has a very simple strategy that he can share with you, including things you can do now — immediately — to prepare.

Few are willing or able to share these details. But Rob will reveal all.

We're making this broadcast available on Tuesday, April 21 at 5 P.M. — worth at least $149 — available free to Richebächer Society members only. You'll want to make sure I hear from you by that deadline.

9) You'll Also Receive a "Virtual Key" to $6,947 Worth of Richebächer Research

Your membership also includes a "virtual key" to the final seventeen and a half years of Dr. Richebächer's personal market research and analysis. It's all there, available in a fully searchable online archive.

This is like having your own veritable Encyclopedia of Modern Markets and Economics.

In my opinion, this is a priceless resource.

But if I had to put a monetary value on it, the most natural thing to figure out what others would have paid to gain access to Dr. Richebächer's brilliant research over that same period — a total of $6,947.50, at standard subscription rates.

You'll pay nothing of the sort. The entire seventeen-and-a-half year archive is yours to use as often as you like — including free access for a full year — as long as I hear back from you about your Richebächer Society invitation by Tuesday, April 21 at 5 P.M.

There's still more...

10) You're Immediately Invited to All Private Richebächer Society Gatherings

Every year, we host one of the largest and best-known financial conferences, the Agora Financial Investment Symposium in Vancouver. For the first time this year, we'll be hosting a special private event at the same conference, exclusively for Richebächer Society members.

We'll sip fine wines, mingle, and then listen to a private briefing from an invited guest speaker. As a member of the Society, you're automatically invited to this private event. And if you can't get to Vancouver this year, you can watch the speaker's presentation on the private Richebächer Society website.

This private event could easily be a $100 per person. However, as a member, you and a friend are both automatically entitled to attend these side events at no additional charge.

11) You'll Play an Official Role in Awarding the Annual Richebächer Scholarship Prize

One of the greatest missions of Dr. Richebächer's 42-year career — and one of his great concerns in life — was that the study of macroeconomics was all but dead in today's colleges and universities.

That's why I'm proud to announce that the official Richebächer Economics Scholarship, to be awarded to a student with excellence or promise in the study of macroeconomics.

This crisis, these half-baked bailouts, they largely result from a widespread lack of understanding of basic economics. You'll have your chance, as a Society subscriber, to vote on candidates learning how to change that by the pursuit of excellence in economics studies.

12) You'll Help Nominate the Next Recipient of the Prestigious Richebächer Award

In the past, I've sat for long one-on-one interviews with two former Federal Reserve chairman... two former White House Treasury Secretaries... the world's richest investors... and more.

I've also appeared on CNBC, MSNBC, Fox, and more, to talk about some of the very same issues you and I discussed here today. That kind of exposure gives me access to some of the top minds in markets and economics today.

It's also going to give us, as members of the Richebächer Society, a special opportunity to reward those who continue the work Kurt Richebächer dedicated himself to during his lifetime.

And as a member, you'll have a chance to be part of that.

Each year, we'll select a recipient for the honorary Richebächer Memorial Award for Excellence. Anybody distinguished in the fields of economics or financial research could be a candidate. And when the time comes, you'll have a spot on the member "board" that helps us make our decision.

That's $9,554 in Member Benefits...Yours FREE for an Entire Year

Naturally, the Richebächer Society is for elite members... individuals who are ready and able to grasp advanced insights and who understand the value of "Big Picture" thinking.

Which is precisely why I've chosen to write to you today.

It's also why my team has so carefully put together this package of new member benefits — worth at least $9,554 total — to help assist and inform you immediately, should you decide to join.

And as I've said, you can have all $9,554 of these benefits free for a full year... as long as I hear from you by our reservation deadline on Tuesday, April 21 at 5 P.M.

What I'm offering you couldn't be clearer.

Except to say this...

Please be sure you understand, this is for men and women who can appreciate the higher quality of service and analysis the Richebächer Society intends to offer. Like Dr. Richebächer, our chief analyst Robert Parenteau is a published and working economist.

Not only has Rob been a chartered financial analyst for nearly 19 years... he's also a macroeconomics Research Associate and lecturer at the prestigious Levy Economics Institute of Bard College... and a scholar in the works of economist Hyman P. Minsky.

So if you're looking for day trades or watered-down, feel-good market research... the society's inner circle might not be for you. On the other hand, the members I do hope to attract are the kind that mirror the individuals Kurt himself worked with during his lifetime...

Billionaire investors stock market dignitaries. Best-selling financial authors. International journalists. Ivy League academics. Successful businessmen.

And you, if you'll have us.

Of course, creating an elite circle of like-minded thinkers like this has challenges.

And costs.

From hiring Robert and his team to hosting the archives... sending out the monthly briefings and weekly alerts... creating the conference calls and the transcripts... arranging society functions... it all adds up.

So here's what we're going to do...

I'll stand by my promise to offer you Richebächer Society charter membership, free for an entire year... if you agree to cover the dues for a second year. It's that simple.

In other words, sign up for one year of membership in the Richebächer Society — including nearly $10,000 of member benefits, for the low cost of $497 per year — and you'll get an entire second year of membership absolutely free.

You'll get double the membership at half the cost.

That works out to just $4.78 per week — less than you'd shell out for a single financial magazine or a handful of leading business newspapers.

That's truly an impressive deal.

And if even that isn't enough, here's one more thing...

Your 60-Day 100% Satisfaction Guarantee

Simply fill out the charter membership invitation that follows this letter.

Your Richebächer Society benefits will start arriving immediately. Look over our research. Start using the insights to safeguard your wealth. Review Rob's recommendations for how to multiply gains, even over the duration of this world-shaking financial crisis.

You've got a full two months — 60 days — to decide for yourself if everything I've said about the new Richebächer Society lives up to the deal. If I'm wrong or if it just turns out — for any reason — this isn't your cup of tea, shoot me an email or call the member's hotline. I'll send you a full refund, even if it's the last day of your trial period.

Of course, you'll still get to keep the free Parachute Portfolio Library, your copy of the interview transcripts with Dr. Richebächer and Rob Parenteau, the 218-page copy of The Demise of the Dollar and Why It's Great For Your Investments, and all the issues and briefings you've already received.

No questions asked.

No Matter What, You'll Have Nothing to Lose

You risk nothing.

For an experience inside of a community unlike any other.

Still trying to decide?

If you're the kind of person who worries about bond investments... if you have substantial wealth that's impacted by inflation or currency swings... or if you own real estate, either private or commercial, worth quite a bit of money... then you're the kind of world-class individual who belongs inside this inner circle.

If you're heading up your own growing business empire... if you're the kind of person who understands the worth of offshore bank accounts... overseas investments... or the simple unvarnished truth about markets, wealth and the economy... then this is for you.

Even if you're simply as morally offended as I am by the tsunami of debt and reckless spending that's taken hold with American consumers... and worse, our own government... and the shameful multi-billion dollar handouts they've doled out almost unrestricted to the banks and financiers...

I assure you, this special invitation is for you.

I hope to hear from you by the deadline on Tuesday, April 21 at 5 P.M.