Economic Forecast with Adam Markel & Mike Lathigee

Actually, hold on a second. Let me just check this out. Yep, we're actually live. This is good. Hope you're all having an amazing night. I couldn't be happier to be hanging out with all of you. As you can see, I'm just in the office here at our house, and it's just fun to be able to be with you in this environment. A little more casual than maybe we all get to see each other from time to time. And I have a friend that's hanging out with us and I'm going to introduce him in just a second. But I want to say from my heart to yours, I hope you're having an amazing start to your 2015 when we were all together last as I know. Who has been invited to hang out tonight are all the graduates of our Never Work Again program from Palm Springs. And if you recall, we made a promise at that event that about 30 days after the end of that network, again, we would get together for a hangout to talk about what's happening in the economy and especially what's happening now in 2015 at the early part of the year, but also what's in store, what's coming down the road a bit. Not that any of us have a crystal ball, because you know, we don't. So I'll state that nothing on this hangout is intended to be investment advice. Nothing on this hangout is intended to give you, let's say, the direction to go out and spend your money or invest your money in a certain way. All we want to do is give you information. We bring somebody on that is an expert and someone that can provide information based on his understanding of that certain areas of the economy, certain areas of things that you could potentially look into for investment purposes. And he's somebody that's had a great deal of success in the past. Again, that's not a promise of the future, but it just means he's a guy that knows a lot more than most people. He. He knows a lot more than me in this area. So I listen to him and I think he's not only a really smart guy, but he's also really authentic guy, really regular, authentic person. Those are the kind of people we want to not only work with, we want to learn from and have some fun with. So that's why we're here tonight. You guys probably remember that Mike Lathagee was a gentleman at the very beginning of Never Work Again that came up and spent about an hour just kind of giving you an overview of what happened in 2014. And talk to you a little bit about different things in the economy and things with commodity prices and all that kind of stuff. And Mike graciously agreed then to come and hang out with us now. So without further ado, going to bring Mike on. Hi, Mike. How are you, buddy?

Yeah, great. I really appreciate it, Adam. And hello to everyone from Never Work Again and anyone who may have not have been there, but happens to be on the Hangout tonight. Love the fact that you came and joined us.

Beautiful. Just out, Mike, a little bit. This is actually the first Google hangout he's ever done. He told me that earlier. I'm not like a Google hangout freak or anything, but I've done a couple. So we decided to introduce this particular medium to Mike. And I know a lot of you out there probably have never done this before too. So it's kind of new. It's new technology. Technology. It's super cool. Only an hour ago I was at Max's high school watching him wrestle. And now I'm just hanging out with all of you. So it's pretty neat. And we're going to start off with some questions and then if we have time at the end, we can take some questions from all of you for Mike. But for now, I've got some questions for him. So, Mike, if you could give us a bit of a sense of, in an overview, what do you think of the economy in North America? So we'll say U.S. and Canada. And what's on the radar for you in terms of looking at the economy in 2015?

I did run into some Canadians when I was at Never Work Again. So it's a smaller economy. So I'll address a little bit about Canada, because a lot of people. What happens in America a lot of times, Adam, as we become very ethnocentric and America becomes the center of the universe and we forget about talking about other countries and other things. So I really do want to do a little bit more of a global context of what's happening and give people an understanding of how it relates to them tonight on a personal level, like I said at Never Work Again. And I'll say it again this evening, whether you're a licensed professional with 30 years of investment experience or this is the first investment call or webinar or anything that you've ever been involved in, I'll make sure that you get some value tonight and some understanding. So Canada is primarily, in many respects, a commodity driven economic powerhouse. But what's happened, of course, is what we've seen over the last six months is the price of oil drop off by about approximately 60%. That impact on Canada, what it's done is it's weakened its economic output or its gdp. And in addition to that, you're really seeing a lot of challenges in a lot of the provinces, particularly, particularly Alberta, that is a major producer of bitumen, which is very, very thick oil. To give you some sort of idea, the cost of production is somewhere around $50 a barrel. Well, obviously bitumen out of Alberta doesn't make any sense. Right now we're talking tens of billions of dollars. All of a sudden that's no longer in play in Canada. And just the effect and the ripple effects on the fact that you're seeing commodities worldwide in a declining cycle. And a lot of that is actually driven, Adam, by the fact that China is so weak right now. And the reason China, China actually, In the early 1980s, basically what happened is China realized it could no longer operate the way it was as a communist state. So it had to move away from a communist state to a market society. And what they did is they had a motto in those days and they used to say, and the President used to say, to be rich is glorious. So it was a totally cultural shift in the way that they were thinking. And what you saw over a 20 year time period is a situation where they did massive amounts of expansion and growth in China, building constantly. And what happened was that created a massive demand for commodities. And that's why you saw commodity prices skyrocket for several years and people who were involved in commodities made a lot of money. So I guess to start out, and then I'll move to America because I know that we're going to have a lot more Americans on the call. But right now Canada is certainly seeing lot of slowdown in its economic output and its economic growth just because of what's really happening with commodities. And we're also seeing a much weaker Canadian dollar. I remember it was about $1.08 Canadian to a US dollar. And that was within the last two years. Right now it hovers around 82 cents to the US dollar. It's gone down that quickly. And so am I concerned about the Canadian economy? No, not really. It's very well, the budgets in Canada, in many respects, they're well run. They don't run massive fiscal deficits and so on, unlike the United States. Now in America, what's really happened is, is we've really seen a situation of the great divide. We've seen, first of all, the top 1% say the top 5%, generally, people who own a lot of real estate and a lot of stocks, have done very, very well since 2008. But what we've seen on the flip side, as I referred to the great divide, is a middle class that has significantly less spending power. Their paychecks have decreased. And what we do know, just kind of a few quick facts, is that over 50% of Americans right now earn an income of less than $27,000 per year. And we also know that only 36% of people under the age of 35 own a host, and that's the lowest that it's ever been. There's a lot of other sort of stats, but I won't go too stat heavy tonight. But I guess the one thing that always amazes me, Adam, is the fact that the government in the United states sends out 100 million government checks every month to people who are in some sort of need. That's almost one third of the entire American population. So my overview for America is very much continues to be be a society of two types of classes, the poor and the middle class, which are consistently getting hurt. And I believe that's going to continue. But then what you also have is you have an upper class who owns a lot of stock in real estate, and they're going to continue under the policies that are happening right now. They're going to continue to build their wealth. And what I want everyone on the phone tonight is, is to understand what's going on and how they, too can jump on the train and make some money for themselves. And I think it's important to sell it because you're a lawyer, formerly a lawyer, you may still have your certification and licensing. But the key tonight is, I think it's very important, Adam, that everyone understands we have nothing to sell. All we're trying to do with the listeners is give them value and give them guidance, tell them what's happening and what they should do. So there's a lot more I could talk about that, but that kind of gives you a little bit of an opening that, look, why don't we take the people from Never Work Again and try to bring them into that train that's moving in the right direction to make a lot of money. Otherwise they're just going to get hammered.

Yeah. Thank you for that, Mike. One of the things that I noticed, I was looking at the Wall Street Journal earlier today and, and it said that the Fed met the US Fed, Federal Reserve, and the minutes of their meeting were published, which is what happens in the ordinary course. And as part of those meetings and the minutes of the meetings, they said that they're doing some things or planning or looking seriously doing some things with interest rates in sort of the middle of the year. And I think that's a pretty significant statement from the Fed. Since this point, for quite a while now, the only thing the Fed has said was that job growth was slowing or was slow, sluggish in the US and there was concern about inflation and some other things. And for those reasons and others, they've kept interest rates very, very low in the US for many, many years. And so that's a fairly significant statement, I think. But then what do I know? So I'm asking you, and hopefully our folks will also be interested in that answer.

Yeah, I really think what's happening, Adam, is the fact that other than the United States, there isn't really another powerhouse economic powerhouse happening right now. So the Feds, I don't think they're overly concerned about inflation at this point, although I believe inflation is much higher than it's reported. I think what they're very concerned about is the fact that the United States gets impacted by all these other economies around the world that are not growing or that have absolute minimal growth. I mean, very quickly we talked about Canada at the Open, Australia is in the same position. Brazil is, is very much suffering and its economy is on the brink of a recession. In Russia, I mean, because of the oil prices and because of the war in the Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia, the ruble is at half of what it was a year ago against the US Dollar. And there's been a massive exodus out of anything to do with Russian investing. And in Europe right now they're once again, I mean, they have our treasury rates, I think on the 10 year 1.78. In the European Central Union, I think it's 0.33. And so there's a lot of concern. And China, we know, was growing for many years upwards of 13% plus right now it's down to about 6. That might sound like a lot, but really isn't. And you're seeing just massive amounts of drops in real estate. A lot of ghost cities in China, we've all heard what they are basically cities that are sitting completely empty with no one living in the buildings that have been built. So the big concern that the Fed has is, yes, there's some domestic concern, but I think there's a lot of international concern that the United States has to continue to lead the worldwide recovery. Otherwise it's going to get sucked into the vortex of what's happening in these other countries around the world and itself find itself in an economic recession or even worse, a depression. So the Fed is really left in a position where leaving interest rates low. Look, they've been talking about raising interest rates at some point. Every time they talk about raising them, they delay it Again, I don't think that we're going to see any interest rate raises for a long period of time because they can't. I think that we're just going to continue to see the status quo of what's happening right now and we're going to look at ways tonight where you can make money as a result of what's happening right now in the economy. So, yeah, that's kind of my take on the interest rates.

Thank you, Mike. One last question related to that because I'm just curious, maybe you don't, don't speculate, don't guess, but do you think that there's a reason, let's say, why the Fed would then make those kind of statements? Is it trying to keep people a little off balance so that they're not so predictable or just is it sending sort of a shot across the bow in some way? Is there a reason why they would say that then?

Well, the Fed is so careful of every word that it says in its meetings that get published and because every single word gets completely scrutinized and they've learned in the past that it can actually see a market very quickly, have a major rally or a major sell off. And I think that at this stage that the Fed right now, I think is reacting on data on a week to week basis and are not really able to plan out two quarters ahead. But are you saying that they want to hold everyone in check by sort of putting out a statement that interest rates could possibly raise in a couple of quarters? I don't think so. I'm never a big sort of theorist on the fact that there's different types of conspiracies that happen or anything like that. I think, Adam, it is a case that the Fed is actually really keeping a close eye internationally. And I don't think that they're doing. I think that their wording is such that it keeps people to a degree guessing because I myself don't think they 100% know what they're going to do two quarters down the road because they can't. They've got to watch the world economy. They're really in a difficult situation.

Yeah, that makes sense. So, you know, obviously in the last year, and it may even be maybe a little earlier or longer than that. But the US Dollar has certainly rallied. And I know you mentioned that in regard to the Canadian currency. But the US Dollar is quite strong against most of the, if not all, the major currencies in the world right now. So is there a reason for that, do you think?

Well, yeah, what's really happening is the Chinese, the Japanese, the Europeans, to a lesser degree, Canadians. They're looking at, if I'm going to invest my money, where can I put my money? Where it's going to grow and where can I put it, where it's going to be safe. And they know that all these economies around the world are slowing down and some of them are in recession. So they're saying if I'm going to get the best return on my money, I better get out of, for example, Europe and I better go into the United States. So when all of these investors, and we're talking well over a trillion dollars, when all of these investors start to say that, what happens is they come into America, they start buying American real estate, they start buying American stocks, American bonds, and they have to buy US securities and trade it into US Dollars. And all of that type of buying of US Dollars creates a lot of demand for US Dollars. That's why, here's the reason, Adam, when quantitative easing ended, now this is where I don't want to lose anybody. But in America, when they stopped buying, when the Fed stopped buying treasury bonds, which basically what they would do is they would print in the beginning $85 billion worth of treasury bonds, they would go to the treasury auction. And if the 10 year treasury note came up at 2% and the Chinese, Japanese and Brazilians didn't buy it, our own Fed would buy the treasury note. Otherwise they'd have to move it up to two and a quarter to attract a buyer. So they would create this artificial money in order to buy their own bonds and keep interest rates low. Well, what happened when we stopped printing money artificially to buy these treasury bonds? What happened is because America is really the only economy that's growing right now, the Feds essentially didn't have to keep printing money because all these foreigners were coming in and still buying their treasury notes and because they wanted the safety of the American security and the growth and the potential here. So that's why, although QEA ended, we didn't see interest rates skyrocket because we have all these foreigners who are buying our bonds right now as a safe haven. And that's probably the number one reason why we see such strength in the US Dollar. But there is a major concern right now, Adam, and for those from NWA who joined us is earning season is happening right now. Well, there's a lot of companies right now that are not hitting the mark on their earning target. And the reason is because the goods and services of America have become much more expensive. And they become much more expensive because it costs a lot more for these foreigners to buy American product because the US Dollar is so strong. And how is that impacting lower sales for all of these US Corporations around the world? That's a negative of what's happening right now with this strong.

Yeah, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but just say that one more time if you could.

I go with so many ideas, sometimes I forget where I was at.

But basically, corporate earnings are the concern right now.

Yeah, well, the corporate earnings are the concern because you see, most stocks are valued upon. One of the big criteria for valuing a stock is how much money that company makes. So, so if a stock is valued at, say $10 and it has 100 and it has $1 earning per shares, the price earning multiple is now 10 because it's $1 of earnings for a share value of 10. Well, the problem that's happened right now with these companies missing their earnings, well, all of a sudden, if we see a company expected to make a dollar and it only makes 60 cents, well, the pressure on that particular stock is downward maybe to $9 or less. If it trades at a multiple of, say, 10. Well, instead of making $1 a share, it's only making $0.80 a share, then the stock value may drop to $8 instead of 10. So there's a lot of concern right now with American companies, and the strong dollar is causing a major impact on the earnings potential of all these big American companies. So, yeah, it is certainly a big concern now for Americans out there, which is the majority of the listeners. I mean, gas prices are extremely low right now. We're able to buy gas in US Dollars. So that's why it's really been great for the consumer. If you're traveling and you're retired and you have lots of income, you couldn't be any happier because you get to travel to Europe now. And what's Europe right now? Probably like $1.13 to a euro to the US dollar. I mean, I remember not long ago it was $1.60. Europe is on sale to the American traveler right now. So there are some advantages, but there's certainly some disadvantages and it all depends on where you sit as a US Consumer. And if you like the strong dollar or you don't like the strong dollar. As an investor, though, you have to be informed that you have to have some concern.

Great, There are some concerns. There are different things that are happening. As you say, in certain scenarios, a strong US Dollar is great. That's what we want. And then in other ways, especially when it comes to corporate earnings, US Company earnings, a strong dollar is not necessarily what will translate to a higher stock market or higher individual stock prices. So that's why I wanted to spend a little time just explaining sort of that inverse relationship. But the fact of the matter is, in any economy, there are places where it is wise or at least.

There.

Are investments, let's say, that are proven, that they work, that they're advantageous no matter what's happening in the economy. Could you give our viewers, because that's the cool part about this is folks are actually watching us. Can you give our viewers a little sense of where you would think money would be wisely invested today? And that could be in the US it could be in Canada, it could be in other markets around the world.

Yeah. First of all, I really like, if you're Canadian, you can stay in Canada. If you're American, stay in America. Because I'm going to start with the stock market because there's a lot of ways in Canada you can take advantage of the US Bull market run and what's happening, but you can also buy U.S. stocks. And I certainly prefer the U.S. stock market. Now, as long as America continues to be the strongest economic powerhouse in the world and people continue to see America as the safe haven, we're going to continue to see likely a continued rally in the stock market and a continued pressure of stocks moving upward. And there's a number of reasons for that. One of the big reasons is all these large corporations, they have so much money in their treasury, they continue to buy back their own shares. That doesn't create any jobs. But what it does do is it puts upward pressure. You just had the Japanese. What they've done is they announced their own printing of money, their own quantitative easing program. And with all that artificial money that they're creating, a good chunk of that money is being exported into America and it's buying the American stock market. A lot of the Chinese, we're very, very aware that there's a lot of money that is coming out of China right now and a lot of that money, once again, it's focused on America. So what's happening is all eyes are on America right now. And when that starts to turn, that's when you have to move out of the stock market. And with the Fed, I believe, still in a situation where interest rates remain low, I think that the stock market remains a very good place to be. Now, I will say this, Adam, that people have to be aware that things can change and sometimes things can change quickly. And that's the whole reason why the Google hangout session that we're doing, that people, if they come out, they have to come out again to get the update as to what's happening. Because I might right now say this is a great time to be in the stock market. But let's say that the US dollar goes up against the basket of currencies, another 20%. Let's say that for whatever reason, inflation, because I believe it's under reported, really starts to move up quickly. Well, then the Fed is forced to raise interest rates. If the Fed does raise interest rates at that point, what we're going to see is, I would be saying, okay, look, move quickly and get at least 50% of your portfolio out of the stock market. How are you going to know that you're going to have to tune into the economic Google hangout or else learn to do it yourself and follow the markets every day? Yes, I would say one good place to be is in fact the stock market. Another thing I'd like to see investors do is, is look as a hedge, traditionalists will say, put 2 to 4% of your portfolio in gold and silver. We have for too long kept interest rates too low. We've had to in order to stimulate the economy and get it back solid on its feet. But when you keep interest rates this low for so long, you create all this easy money. When things start to go up again, interest rates, you're going to see a decline, a major decline in stock market. You're going to see a major decline in real estate values with much higher interest rates. And what impact is that going to have? Well, all of a sudden, you potentially could see panic. And I always say, look, traditionalists will say 2 to 4% of your portfolio in gold and silver. I say 10%. And the reason that I say 10% is this. A lot of people do not understand the derivatives market, the complex financial instruments that exist. But I can tell you that every major bank in the world, well, especially the American ones and the bigger ones around the world, they are leveraged anywhere from factors from 20 to 60 to 1, which means if interest Rates went up too fast, too quickly. What we would see is a collapse of the US banking system. Now what are the odds on that? I believe less than 1%. But if interest rates also went up too quickly and we saw a lot of uncertainty in the market, we would see people run to safety, which is silver and gold. And so my whole guidance is this. I believe everyone and everything that I say I do. I believe that everyone should hold 10% of their net worth in gold and silver. And here's the way you look at it. If you bought, say you had a net worth of a million dollars and you had $100,000 in gold and silver, and in three years that 100,000 is only worth 100,000, well, you should not be happy or sad. Okay, I'll tell you why. Conversely, if that 100,000 went to a million dollars and you've made 10 times on your investment, you also should not be happy. Because what that means is that we did see a financial collapse. And that's the whole reason why you have a hedge of gold and silver. Because although it's gone up tenfold, it's very likely that the real estate market is down by 60, 70% and it's very likely that the stock market is down 70, 80%. If we see those extreme type of numbers, that's the only reason why you would wait up. Gold and silver is absolutely a hedge and an insurance for your portfolio. If you go beyond 10%, what you're doing is you're betting, in my opinion, on gold and silver as an investment. And I don't really bet on it as an investment, I simply use it as an insurance. And a lot of people say, well, 2 to 4%. I disagree with that because I think there's more volatility and, and more exposure in this market than we've seen in many, many decades. Because you cannot keep interest rates and money being forced fed into the system in the tune of trillions of dollars. Because that's what's happened for this long and the party go this good. But I'm telling you, when the hangover comes, it will be equally as bad, if not worse. And it will happen. I don't know if it's going to be one year, three years or five years. But that's why I'm advocating everyone. You have to have a large position of gold and silver. And don't you dare call your financial advisor and tell your financial advisor to buy you an exchange traded fund. Because an exchange traded fund is simply paper. So if you buy an exchange traded fund from your broker, like GLD or SLV for silver, all they're going to do is they're going to give you paper where it's only backed one ounce of silver, for example, for 100 ounces that you just bought the same thing for gold. So if the market collapses and you said give me my gold and silver, they're not going to have it. I'm talking about taking physical possession of gold and silver. And that's another thing that I'd really like to see everybody, everybody doing in the marketplace.

Yes. Mike, I want to ask you something that's related, which is that if the US Dollar stays strong for any length of time, does it ameliorate some of that risk that you just spoke about, since obviously the quantitative easing was going on for so long and we were printing trillions of dollars to buy back our own debt to keep those interest rates low, as you explained earlier. So if the US economy, excuse me, if the US Dollar stays strong for any length of time, does it help to ease your concern there.

The US Dollar? And it's. Well, I have to look at the answer to that is much more in a global context, Adam, because what we're having going on right now is in a lot of respects a currency war. And all gold and silver are, it's a hedge, but it's also another form of currency. What you saw in the last month was the Swiss, for the first time, they actually disconnected from the euro and the Swiss Franc went up 30% in one day. And what's going to happen is you can't just base it upon one currency and its impact on gold. All I'm saying is all the countries around the world right now, except the US seem to be trying to push down in some respects their currency because it makes their export market much stronger because their goods and services become a lot cheaper for export. So when that's happening, what they're doing is they're pushing it down. So gold and silver actually are up dramatically in relation in price. In euros, they're priced in Canadian dollars, they're up dramatically. But according in US Dollars, they are not up nearly so much because the US Dollar is so strong. But this will also shock you, Adam, and this is, I said at neverwork again that I told everyone, I think we're going to see a short term rally right now in gold and silver and this would be a fantastic time to pick some up. That's exactly what I said on stage when I was there. And you filmed it. You have it there. What's actually happened since I've done that talk is Silver is up 20.2% and Gold is up 13%. Now do I see right now, what do I see in the near term for gold and silver? I actually see some weakness. I actually see some weakness. But at that time, and this is why the Google hangout is so important because what I do is I will tell you what I see. So I think you can wait a little bit and then you can buy some gold and silver in the months that are coming. And I believe probably we'll be seeing gold, it could get back down to as low as $11.50, suffering close to 1300 right now. So these are the type of things that I watch closely. But yes, the US dollar could remain strong for a long period of time, but at some point the Fed is going to say it's really starting to hurt our major companies. And then that's another reason they can't raise interest rates. Because if we raise interest rates, it's going to make the American dollar even more, more attractive because people are going to want to buy our Treasuries even more. So they're really in a very, very tough situation and things are constantly changing. And if you listen to the talking heads on cnbc, you're going to get six different opinions at six different times and what you should do. And what I'm trying to do is just bring it all together, give simple information and not go in 10 different directions, but just constantly say here's where we're at, here's what I think you should do and keep doing it until you hear differently.

So Mike, just because I know we're going to keep these hangouts quarterly and sometimes we actually do them more frequently, but for now, quarterly and we're going to keep them to 45 minutes or so and I want to make sure we do that. I'd say that you spoke a bit about oil earlier. So I think we've got a good handle on commodities and your advice. And as you said, if people had followed your advice in December, what they would have found was that gold was up, silver was up, and double digit return on that advice is pretty good. I think it's beyond good. What's your thoughts on oil stocks? Obviously, unlike gold and silver, where you recommend physically holding the commodity, the actual article, I know you're not going to tell anybody to go and drill a hole in their backyard. Well, hold on to oil or try to anyway. What's your thoughts on the oil stock?

Yeah, I think that the environmentalists will have some issues with that. But to answer the question, and this is where I think a good thing with the Google hangout is, yes, quarterly, but occasionally we may want to look at a, possibly a. I don't know if I want to say an emergency Google hangout, but I think that there are times where with what's happening, there could be panic and people want to. They want to be able to come to a place where they feel comfortable, and they want to come to a place where they're getting the straight information with no vested interest. As far as oil right now goes, Adam, it's premature. What I do know is we still have a glut of oil. The Saudis have almost a trillion dollars in reserves, and they can wait out and continue to flood oil into the marketplace because their objective is to drive out of business all the shale companies in the United States and many, many producers around the world because it's become too competitive. So by being able to essentially have this massive reserve of dollars and they can wait out for a very, very long period of time and drive all these companies out of business by having very, very low oil prices. That's a big reason why we're seeing low oil prices. Plus we have worldwide demand, which, although oil prices are a lot lower, we're seeing a much weaker worldwide economy, and that's having an impact. And then, frankly, we just have so much oil out there that's been produced and it's literally sitting there and it has to get used up. But let me tell you this, let me tell you what I do know for sure. And this is where the timing at some point will be really important. I know that all the major reservoirs around the world, Cantarelle, Gawar, Bergen, those all produce. Gawor is 5 million barrels a day. Bergen is 2 million a day. And Cantarell is about a million and a half a day. And their cost of production is the lowest on the planet. It's somewhere around $20 plus a barrel. But they're a diminishing supply. We have not had a low cost of production oil well below about $45 probably in the last 25 years. All the easy stuff that's extracted easily at a low price has already been found. What's going to happen over a period of time as we run low supply, these companies are going to have to start producing again because there's going to be more demand than available supply. And I believe that we're going to see a wild rebound in oil and it won't be moving up slowly. I think we're going to see something rebound much more quickly. And what I'm looking at right now is those companies that have a very, very low production cost. They've been oversold. I'm not buying them yet. But I'll tell you something. At some point on one of these Google hangouts, I will say, look, I think now is a very good time to buy oil stocks. Now, I want to say something very important right now, Adam. I can tell you that I tried this week. I wanted to call up and I wanted to have an addition to myself. I wanted to have an interactive dialogue with a stockbroker and someone who I could run ideas from, some of my own ideas and so on. Well, when I spoke to Merrill lynch and some of the other broker houses, there wasn't one person who I could work with that was going to pick individual stocks. They all put you in a portfolio of ETFs and balance funds and everything else. And to me, that's just a path to the poorhouse. And that's the way all Americans monies are managed. The reason for that is because 100%. Let me just draw a number here. I'm going to draw something for you, okay? I want to draw something.

All right, Let me.

I haven't left, Adam. I will be back. All right? I want to draw something here.

All right?

Here's what's so important. If you invest 10,000 and you put it in the stock market for 50 years and the stock market's done over 10%, but let's say 10%, you have 1.17 million. Well, by them just charging a small management fee of about $200 a year on the 10,000, you would only end up with $470,000. That means you've lost out over that period of your life, $700,000 in gains. And that's the problem. That's how Americans manage their money. The reason I'm so concerned about that is because if you call a financial advisor, he's just going to stick you into a bunch of balance funds and so on. The reason I always perform the market and I'm not right all the time, Adam. But I will go into the oil sector and I'll find out who the low cost producers are. I'll do my own research and I'll pick out the big best stocks. And I don't have to pay a management fee because I do it myself. The problem with a lot of people, they go on to TD Ameritrade or in Canada, TD Waterhouse. And they think they're great traders because we've been in a secular bull market run for five years. But the reality is if I ask them any questions about the balance sheets of these questions, they wouldn't have a clue to how to answer the question. So it's very, very difficult because when the time comes, I'm going to recommend yes. That people do buy oil. And I will talk about the timing. It's not yet. It might be close, but it may not be. I'm watching you closely but I would like to see people pick up some individual stocks and not be as reliant on their financial advisor. Alternatively, they could go the route that I showed them, that I just showed where you see the damage of the management feature fee and you could pick up an exchange traded fund of oil stocks. If you do that, you're going to underperform the market. But if it goes up 15% in a year or 20%, you're giving away a couple of points. My point is you're going to underperform that part because you can't do it on your own. This is where I really want to work with you and take the Google hangout to a position of much more personal empowerment. Maybe they don't do it 100% on their own, but they're at least a lot more interactive in their discussions with their financial advisors. And that's really where I want to take people and hopefully guide them to is a higher level of personal accountability when they're interacting and not just go along with what someone tells them because they sound educated. Because a lot of times, unfortunately those people have a vested interest that may not be in their best interest. This program, this is just what's best for everyone who's listening today. And we're just trying to give you the best information of how to make money. And we're not doing anything, not trying to sell anything other than just try to give you the best information to help you.

Well, Mike, thank you so much. And I agree with you that the intention for the hangout is strictly to be able to look at what's going on right now, identify if there are any imbalances or ways for people to invest wisely. Right now what I heard you say just a moment ago is that investing in oil stocks is a little premature. But at some hangout in the near future, you may be changing your tune. You might be saying, yeah, it's time to in fact invest in oil stocks as you're predicting. And then at that time I think it'll be a good idea to also provide a few different options. Again, not to suggest that you have to invest in any one thing, but just give our students some options to research and look at themselves and things that in fact, you're invested in. So we've come to the end of our time for this first Google hangout of a number of them that will be coming along. And I also think, Mike, it makes sense as well. If there's something that's emergent in the market, something that we think that our folks really would benefit from, knowing that we can create some alerts, we may do that in the form of email, but we also may decide to convene sort of an emergent Google hangout. And for the purposes that you just stated earlier, which is empowerment. And that's what our company is committed to. Our vision is to create something really beautiful in the world, which we all want, which is peace. We want to create peace through our own self actualization. That means our own consciousness. It means our own intelligence. So being a part of a get together like this so that you can raise your own consciousness, your own awareness of what's happening in the world, you don't just bury your head in the sand and you don't just believe blindly what your stockbroker might say or even what you read in the newspaper, but that we can have this kind of a dialogue and people can hear some alternative viewpoints and raise their awareness and then make up their own minds. Because ultimately, as you said, we want to be empowered. And to me, empowerment starts with personal responsibility. You take responsibility for your education, your understanding and your investment decisions. So, Mike, it has been a pleasure, thank you for joining us. Thank you for keeping your word. From the time we were together in California just a couple of months back and getting together to share some of your thoughts with our students again. What a blessing. Thank you so much for being with us, Adam.

10 out of 10. I always appreciate your energy and like I've said before, and I was on stage, I have spoken in front of a lot of groups and absolutely the funnest one on the planet is the group that you lead, which is peak potential. So keep up the great work because I see you put a lot of smile on a lot of people's faces. So thank you so much, my friend.

Beautiful. Thanks, Mike. We'll see you again soon. And for everybody that's watching, by the way, you have a beautiful rest of your, your day or evening, wherever you might be watching this from. And I'm not sure when I'm going to see you again. I know we've got a wonderful event coming up in March, which is our World's Greatest Marketing Seminar. And this may be actually the last time we're doing it as a standalone program overseas. It's actually a combo program of Guerrilla Business School, which we have in May, and World's Greatest Marketing Seminar, which we have in March. Our March program is five full days. It's just committed to nothing but your marketing. Basically, you walk in, some of you with a plan, marketing plan you've been using. Most people. I want to generalize, but most people don't have a marketing plan. They're in business without a marketing plan. It's like driving a car. And you don't have. I don't know, you don't have any sales. You don't have an engine. Marketing is your engine, and it is a safety net for business. So people walk in with no plan. They walk out five days later, have a written plan. It's just unbelievable. But we find that a lot of people just can't get away that much during the year. So we're going to push those two programs together. They're going to be a combo like we do overseas, where Guerrilla Business School and World's Greatest Marketing Seminars are combined. So this could be your last chance. Literally, it could be your last chance to get to our marketing program. It is in Orlando. And if for any reason you have not already let us know that you will be coming, please let us know right away because those seats are filling up fast. And if you're in Quantum Leap and part of your package, then go ahead and just call our Client Care folks and let us know that you'll be there so we can reserve a great seat for you. And if you are not registered, but you'd like to be, call Client Care and to see if there's some way that we can find a. A great deal for you to be in that room as well, in Orlando in March, right around my birthday. So it's nothing but great. And I can't wait to see you all again soon. Very soon. Have a beautiful rest of your day or evening, everybody. Ciao for now.