In 1997, Valerie, a French citizen , bought an off-grid lot from the Stuckey Trust and then her husband, Jordan, with the help of skilled local artisans, built a beautiful, tiny, sturdy, adobe/ladrillo, off-grid, vacation home in the Arizona Friends Community. As they developed their plans, they spent eight nights, and ate that many breakfasts, with us in the Starbuck House. Ruth Stuckey and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Valerie is an artist, photojournalist, and professional French cuisine caterer. Jordan is a professional Broadway musician. They have a home base in Connecticut and a second vacation home in the French province of Brittany. Some of Valerie’s catered party clients are hedge fund traders who give her advice. In the spring of 1997 the boom was still on, but she told us, around the breakfast table, that a big economic crash was coming, not only in the US but also in the world. This, Valerie said, was part of the reason she had made an investment in land and had shifted a significant portion of her assets into gold.

Two years later, her lot is worth more than she paid for it and, Valerie recently recommended to us the economist, Martin D. Weiss, who has just sent us free of charge, on the internet, this morning, the letter beginning, as shown below. I believe Dr Weiss may be right in his dire evaluations of the world’s bonds, stock and sovereign currencies. Paper assets can dwindle over night and soon become almost, if not totally, worthless. It is Not so with Land. It is there forever, so long as you do not abuse it. Gold is also there forever; but land is, infinitely more useful. You can live on it, eat from it, and, if you have a beautiful spot surrounded by mountains, as do Valerie and Jordan, you can enjoy it much.

On the Brink of a Bond Market Apocalypse

by Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D. 

Dear Roy,

Trusting Washington and Wall Street is bankrupting millions of Americans ... and now they’re at it again!

In the 1990s, Wall Street urged you to buy Internet stocks at 500 and 1,000 times earnings — and even tried to railroad you into stocks with no earnings at all.

Result: According to the Fed, nearly $6.6 trillion vanished into thin air when those stocks crashed and burned.

Then, in 2001, Washington got into the act — driving interest rates to their lowest levels since World War II ... helping to create the greatest real estate bubble in history ... and doing absolutely nothing when money-hungry bankers and brokers broke every rule in the book.

Result: The Fed’s latest report reveals another $15.5 trillion in losses the great real estate bust, credit crisis and recession.The bottom line: In less than one decade, investors who trusted Washington and Wall Street were fleeced to the tune of $22.1 TRILLION! Now, by bailing out bankers, brokers and CEOs, Washington has created the most dangerous bubble so far: The enormous and rapidly growing explosion of federal debt — U.S. treasuries — dumped on investors worldwide.You don’t need a Ph.D. in economics to know what’s next: Like the Tech Bubble and Real Estate Bubble that preceded it, this new bubble will also burst, wiping out trillions more dollars of invested wealth.