Mark Skousen: Achieving True Freedom With Your Investments

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welcome to fun with annuities with your

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host me stan the annuity man america's

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annuity agent can annuities be fun can

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contractual guarantees be fun

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absolutely they can find out the brutal

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facts about annuities with no sales

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pitches or high pressure nonsense just

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the brutal and factual annuity truth

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which is all you need to hear

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let's have some fun with annuities and

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let's have that fun start right now

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[Music]

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welcome to fun with annuities i'm your

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host stan the annuity man america's

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annuity agent licensed in all 50 states

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i am so glad you joined us today for

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financial royalty gracing our presence

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his name is dr mark skousen i've known

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him for a long long time let me tell you

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just a little bit about him

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i was reading his bio and it is it is as

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chunky of a bio as i've ever seen

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um he is a nationally known investment

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expert that's been doing it for 40 to 50

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years that i can remember i mean he's

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been around the block forgotten more

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than most people ever know since 1980

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he's been the editor-in-chief of

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forecast and strategies which is the

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investment newsletter you need to get

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and all of this is going to be on his um

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celebrity guest page on the

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annuityman.com we'll have all the links

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to everything that he has done and you

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need to be a part of he's the producer

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of something called freedom fest which

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is the world's largest gathering of free

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minds it's actually a face-to-face

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convention that meets every july

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typically it's in las vegas but he's

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going to start moving it around the

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country which i think is fantastic he

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did one in south dakota during the covid

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time period which is great

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um

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here's the one that's going to trip you

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out a little bit he's a former analyst

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for the cia

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in addition that he's been a columnist

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of forbes he's written a bunch of books

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like bestsellers like the structure of

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production

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economics on trial

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the complete guide to financial privacy

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i can keep going on and on and on him

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and his wife are the dynamic duo over

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the financial world for sure joanne is

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obviously the bigger brain of the two

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but i got mark this time he's got five

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kids he's just a he's just a

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well-traveled guy he's lived in eight

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countries um and has lectured in not

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only the united states but in 70

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countries you grew up one of my favorite

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cities ever portland oregon

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and uh mark skowson thank you so much

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for joining me on fun with annuities i

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appreciate it stan i really appreciate

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it and i understand you officially

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change your name is that true that you

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stand the annuity

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you know your real name now you know

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mark you know when you're married to a

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dynamic female like both of us are and

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the lovely christine has yet to be

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totally convinced that we need to go in

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that direction legally

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she lets me play around with my logoed

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hat and things like that and if you're

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watching this on the fun with annuities

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youtube channel you see the fact that

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mark and i both are sporting hats

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because we have that kind of confidence

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but for all the people on the major

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podcast platforms i welcome you as well

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mark i've always wanted to ask you this

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question kind of to jump off the cliff a

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little bit freedom fest is a um is a

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really neat

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gathering it's it's it's eclectic it's

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eccentric it's high iq it covers a lot

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of

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boundaries and ground

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how did that all start and how

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how did you get involved in that give me

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the genesis of freedom fest

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well actually it came about because uh i

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was i applied for and became the

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president of fee the foundation for

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economic education in new york always

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wanted to live in new york i was an old

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time yankee fan

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so uh and my wife loves broadway so we

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accepted that position it's a non-profit

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it's one of the oldest free market think

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tanks

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known as fee f-e-e

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35-room mansion in uh irvington new york

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in westchester county just 20 miles

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north of uh of the city

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and uh when i was there i thought gee

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people used to hear a fee but

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now it's cato it's heritage it's reason

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foundation these are the

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better known free market think tanks

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but fee was the oldest one um but it

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kind of lost its way and lost uh

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a following and i said what can we do to

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jumpstart

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get people to remember and bring back

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fee and i said let's have a national

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convention let's bring together all the

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free market think tanks

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but let's make it a retail conference

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not for those of us in the movement but

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investors uh authors professors uh

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concerned citizens all of these sorts of

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things

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and because i think we've been losing

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the battle for freedom

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i mean

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you can look at all of the regulations

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and the the irs

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the uh tax code is now 100 000 pages uh

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we're we're being squeezed uh

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in the sense from both sides

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prohibitions and mandates are coming to

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us and especially in the last couple of

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years as you know everybody's mandating

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mass and mandating social distancing and

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lockdowns and all of this

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stuff

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and it concerns me so

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my idea was to start fee fest uh in in

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2022 we did it in las vegas because las

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vegas has the most hotel rooms the

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lowest prices easy to get to

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it's a libertarian city in so many ways

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so we've been holding it at freedom

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freedom fest for a long time since 2020

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i lasted as president fee for just a

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year because i wasn't very good at

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fundraising i don't know about you stan

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but to me uh

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uh is fundraising is a unique ability

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and i just didn't have it i'd rather

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charge somebody a specific price which

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is what we do at freedom fest we don't

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do any fundraising we are a for-profit

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conference

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and our customer

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our customer are our attendees they're

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not donors so it makes a big difference

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and that's why we've been very

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successful and we are

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a gathering of free minds open-minded we

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have lots of debates we discuss uh

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philosophy history science and

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technology economics finance

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uh annuities uh

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we

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it's been great i've spoken there it's

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how long how long has it been going on

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mark how long has it been i know i left

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fee in uh in in 2020 after freedom fest

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even though it was very uh fee fest it

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was very successful uh

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and so we started it up again in 2007 so

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we've been going for some 15 years

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it's always been in las vegas but with

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the lockdown last year we moved to south

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dakota and we had a record crowd of

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nearly 3 000 people

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and senator or

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gnome was there and her husband did a

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wonderful job welcome welcoming us to

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the freest state in the union yep um and

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so we're back in vegas this year we have

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uh john cleese the the british comedian

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and actor and producer as our keynote

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speaker but we also have kennedy from

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fox business who is are going to be our

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mc for all three days we have over a

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thousand people signed up so i mean it's

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it's going to be a really big conference

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and then next year like you said we're

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we're now every other year moving to

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another part of the city so we're going

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to memphis tennessee the following year

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next year

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uh

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we just want to move around a bit we're

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thinking of doing an alaskan cruise

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maybe go to maine new orleans florida

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all kinds of possibilities i recommend

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people to go i've spoken there i've been

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a guest there i've walked the floors

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there i've done that for a long long

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time

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and just when my schedule can permit it

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i actually do go and speak and exhibit

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there but this year they have steve

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forbes and ben stein and glenn glenn

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greenwall just to name a few that's

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going to be speaking there um and we'll

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have that link on our site

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freedomfest.com uh which mark is he's

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kind of the grand poobah of that and him

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and joanne kind of oversee it make sure

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that

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you know the they're attracting talent

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obviously mark knows everybody and

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everyone knows mark so he's one phone

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call away from getting almost anyone

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there but i think what's unique about

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that event too is your film fest it's

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actually you know people say well it's a

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financial event and it's more than that

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it's uh it's it's a

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it's what he says it's a meeting of free

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minds but the the film fest i find very

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very interesting was that i'm assuming

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that's joanne's idea correct right yeah

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joanne is she loves uh

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she loves broadway she loves films she

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goes to films all the time she does

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reviews okay and so the anthem film

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festival

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people have to pay

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you know it's an official film festival

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yes and uh she has to turn away tons of

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i mean she's very careful on uh her and

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her committee on what films are accepted

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and some of them have gone on to win

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emmy awards and so on he's they they've

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actually had a very very big success

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so she's literally inundated like uh

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like uh sundance and all the other film

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festivals and they can

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they have to figure it out the ones to

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to bring in like last year we had reagan

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uh this new film coming out on this

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biopic on ronald reagan

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uh that turned out to be

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uh

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a big successful uh uh appearance and

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and we're hoping to show the entire film

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uh at this year's event with dennis

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quaid as uh as ronald reagan so uh it's

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uh she's done a marvelous job with that

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yes so it's a film present we're also

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adding for the first time the first

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libertarian comedy

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fest

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top comedians you know with john cleese

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being our keynote speaker we thought

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that would be appropriate and frankly

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with what's going on in the world we

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need a little we need a little humor

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we we we really do we're talking to dr

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mark skousen if you don't know who he is

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you've been living under a rock

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but uh you know he's he's done so much

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groundbreak breaking work in economics

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finance management

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um he's just well-known he's been on

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just about every show you've ever

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heard of if you remember a long time ago

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in in like the the late like 2008 2009

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he was on larry kudlow's show

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on cnbc

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way back in the day and he actually has

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grantham university has actually renamed

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its business school the mark skousen

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school of business so

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you talk about chops and credentials

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it's mark skousen i i met him a long

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long time ago

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during what's called the money shows and

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the money shows were like um and they

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still are out there but back then they

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were huge and and anybody who was

11:03
anybody that that knew their stuff on

11:05
their specific topic of choice was their

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speaking and interacting with consumers

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and then what mark has done in my

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opinion has taken that model

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and the freedom fest is just morphed

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into something that's a lot more dynamic

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and not just a one lane i love the

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people at the money show but freedom

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fest is something that you might want to

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look into

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combination vacation combination

11:29
learning about things opening your mind

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to things having some fun and meeting

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some like-minded individuals

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that are um

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you know that that share in what you're

11:39
trying to do and by the way um mark one

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of his accolades that i think is is

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unique and i don't think anyone

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mentions it enough he's been identified

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as one of the most 20 influen most 20

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influential living economists on the

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planet i mean that's that's rarefied air

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and going into that mark

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you know obviously people are are

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listening to this because they want to

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know

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what someone like you thinks about

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current markets and and where we are

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at the time of this taping you know i do

12:11
enough annuity content 600 videos and

12:14
podcasts and and written seven books on

12:16
annuities we can talk annuities but i

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don't want to talk about annuities i

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want you to

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lean in hard and and give some people

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some insight on what you're seeing here

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with markets economy in the global

12:28
environment obviously at the time of

12:29
this taping russia's uh

12:31
russia is messing around with ukraine so

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i'd love to hear where you're standing

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on all this

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you know it's interesting because there

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there's

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always dynamic changes going on i mean

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you mentioned the money show which you

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and i have spoken to in many occasions

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and you're right back in the 80s they

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used to have hundreds

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thousands of people huge

12:53
show up and and and and that model

12:55
started uh changing uh they used to

12:58
offer a free conference and the only

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people who paid were the exhibitors

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uh and uh

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then then the the turnout started

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drifting downwards so they've actually

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switched to a model where they're

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starting to charge people which i think

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is a better model uh frankly you just

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pioneered that you pioneered that i mean

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you were you were pioneers take all the

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arrows as as they say i remember when

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you first

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put that out and i'm like no he's just

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trying to filter people

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he wants people you know entire kickers

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he wants people that are going to drive

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the car

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yeah that's right we don't want just

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tire kickers you're absolutely right and

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we want qualified individuals so we have

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extremely wealthy people who come to

13:38
freedom fest now we charge for 500

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but you get your money's worth because

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we're not begging you for money we're

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not doing fundraising we're telling

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people we're giving you information

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and we do have exhibitors like yourself

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and so forth but we tell everyone you

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know we're there to give you information

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not just to sell you a product so uh and

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i've always admired you stan for for

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that approach and and so we have oil and

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gas people and so on but we put them up

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on the stage and say well what's the

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outlook for oil and stuff not just uh

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buy my product so um

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that that's really important and so

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we've always charged money for our

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attendees uh because we want to qualify

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them it's so important but we still get

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several thousand people because of what

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we offer alternative points of view we

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have lots of debates on various topics

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and so and we have our mock trial this

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year our mock trial is we're putting

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drug legalization on trial it's really a

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good thing to be moving toward but

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especially in vegas i mean we're talking

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about all that um you know one of the

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things i i think that that's a treasure

14:44
that you put out

14:45
is is your newsletter and um you know

14:48
it's been you've been doing it for so

14:49
long

14:50
and it's just a resource for most people

14:52
that are serious about their retirement

14:54
investing

14:55
getting back to my a question about

14:57
what's happening right now

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um i love the fact that you don't tiptoe

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around you jump in and tell people what

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you think what are you thinking right

15:04
now about the markets and the global

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environment

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so the the market is uh

15:11
constantly changing we need to know the

15:13
signs of the times a war you can't just

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ignore the things that are going on the

15:17
rapid inflation we

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we're we're actually in a major

15:21
transition because really for the last

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40 years since i started my newsletter

15:25
in 1980 when ronald reagan was elected

15:28
president and reaganomics made a huge

15:31
difference and i remember in 1981 i put

15:34
out a promotion i wrote my own promotion

15:36
for my newsletter and it was called the

15:38
financial shock of 1981 you open up the

15:41
envelope and it says reaganomics will

15:43
work sell your gold and silver and buy

15:45
stocks and bonds

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and that was

15:48
a a a promotion that was spot on in

15:52
terms of its prediction but it failed

15:54
miserably because nobody really believed

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that everyone thought well we're just

15:58
going to have more and more rapid

16:00
inflation and and you need to buy gold

16:02
and silver and so forth and that turned

16:04
out to not not be the case so we need to

16:06
be alert to changes that are going on so

16:09
we had a 40-year run

16:11
on uh the stock and bond markets

16:14
i do think we've seen the end of the

16:15
bond market rally because

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the government was so determined to

16:20
bring back inflation they worked at it

16:22
worked out of work that took them years

16:24
but they finally accomplished their goal

16:27
and uh

16:28
so we're back to the 70s style of

16:31
inflation and interest rates are finally

16:34
starting to come back up so

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i think the bond market is morbid

16:38
however

16:39
technology is still very real the

16:42
breakthroughs and advances so i'm still

16:44
bullish on the stock market

16:46
uh i do think that this is going to be a

16:49
difficult year it has been a difficult

16:51
year

16:52
uh biden administration is doing

16:54
everything wrong in terms just throwing

16:56
money at problems causing inflation

16:59
uh it wants to raise taxes on

17:02
entrepreneurs

17:04
attacks on on our most successful

17:06
citizens the billionaires the elon musk

17:09
in the world

17:10
uh i think it's tragic uh what's going

17:13
on and i think they will get their head

17:15
handed to them in november

17:18
assuming their the elections are uh

17:22
clean and not not

17:25
fraudulent like sometimes in the past i

17:28
am concerned about the legitimacy of our

17:31
voting process it's a very serious

17:34
concern

17:35
with ballot uh

17:36
harvesting that the democrats doing so

17:38
and they're just much better than the

17:40
republicans are in squeezing

17:43
squeezing the system i'm afraid so uh

17:46
yeah i'm telling it like it is i i'm not

17:48
happy with

17:50
the biden administration and their

17:52
threats of taxes and regulations i mean

17:54
look

17:56
i was really glad to see the the federal

17:58
judge ruled the mass mandates uh to stop

18:02
the mass mandates on the airlines the

18:04
airlines immediately said okay it's uh

18:07
now optional but look at the biden

18:09
administration they hate to give up

18:11
power so they're they're going after

18:13
this and and they're uh

18:16
going to a higher court

18:18
see if they can overturn

18:20
this decision you know

18:22
when was the last time we let people

18:25
make their own decisions

18:27
rather than government telling us what

18:29
to do

18:30
i think that's that's a serious problem

18:33
in in today's world but look uh

18:36
i don't want to be too pessimistic

18:38
because we're still fully invested we

18:41
think there's great opportunities out

18:43
there we do have a position in gold and

18:45
silver and oil particularly oil has done

18:48
extremely well

18:49
so we like some of our oil stocks as

18:52
well but technology is not dead by any

18:54
means so

18:55
we've been uh

18:57
big investors in tesla and elon musk and

19:01
what he's doing

19:02
um

19:03
so and you know it's funny because uh

19:06
the biden administration has not been

19:08
able to push through any of their tax

19:09
increases

19:11
and so we're still living under the

19:13
trump tax cuts

19:15
so that's a positive that's still going

19:17
on so i'm hoping hopefully that won't be

19:19
reversed but the the big c change is

19:22
that inflation is back

19:24
and that the 40-year bull market in

19:27
bonds that lasted much longer than any

19:29
of us ever thought

19:31
it's over now unfortunately and so now

19:35
i'm telling people to switch out of

19:38
their in bond investments and to switch

19:41
into dividend-paying stocks which

19:43
continue to do very well

19:45
uh certainly annuities fit into that

19:47
category as well we're recommending all

19:50
of these kinds of things income oriented

19:52
investments dividend paying stocks this

19:54
will cushion the fall

19:56
uh and we've certainly seen a sell-off

19:59
in the technology and the high growth

20:01
stocks they were all way overvalued we

20:03
all knew that we just didn't know when

20:05
it was going to reverse it's very

20:07
difficult to figure out the tops of the

20:09
of the markets

20:10
all right mark on the fed i know that

20:13
you've met

20:14
pretty much every fed chair except for

20:16
the current one and that's going to take

20:17
place i guarantee you give me your

20:19
opinion because you're tell us again

20:21
what your your degree was um

20:24
well i think it was monetary economics

20:26
correct yep i have a phd in monetary

20:29
economics from george washington

20:30
university so this has been a major area

20:32
of interest in long-time friends with

20:35
the

20:36
monetarist economist of the 20th century

20:38
milton friedman

20:40
so i'm very much alert to

20:43
the supply of money and the price of

20:46
money which is interest rates

20:48
i don't think j

20:50
powell is anywhere close to a paul

20:52
volcker paul volcker

20:54
was determined to fight and beat

20:56
inflation

20:58
and he did and it took a lot of guts uh

21:01
i mean he he got a lot of public

21:03
criticism for what he did jay powell i

21:05
think is uh too easygoing and too

21:08
political

21:10
to really uh

21:12
hammer and fight inflation in fact he he

21:15
increased the money supply the money

21:17
supply increased 45

21:20
over the last two and a half years 45

21:23
so are you surprised we don't have we

21:25
have inflation and also by demonstration

21:28
help those things along because they

21:30
gave away so much free money

21:33
in

21:34
during the pandemic

21:35
thousands and thousands dollars to the

21:37
point where we now have a labor shortage

21:40
in this country because so many people

21:42
still find it easier not to work than to

21:45
go out and get a job so

21:47
that's still a problem and so the labor

21:50
shortage alone is going to keep

21:52
inflation

21:53
high but in addition we have the supply

21:55
chain shortages

21:57
uh this we have this war going on in

22:00
ukraine ukraine is a major producer

22:03
of uh of grains and uh

22:07
commodities and so forth it's the bread

22:09
basket of europe and it's all been shut

22:12
down because of this war

22:14
so there are shortages and higher prices

22:16
in copper and gold and silver and

22:19
aluminum

22:20
and nickel

22:21
and oil and so on you just go down the

22:24
line and almost all the commodities have

22:26
gone up so inflation

22:29
indexing inflation hedging is extremely

22:32
important

22:33
um

22:34
and you're not going to get that with

22:35
the bond markets unless you unless you

22:37
buy uh

22:39
the uh t-bills you know that are

22:42
tied the tips that are tied to the

22:44
inflation rate and even then the cpi

22:46
kind of underestimates how bad the

22:49
inflation is i basically argue you need

22:52
at least 10 12 percent return on your

22:54
assets just to stay even and real estate

22:57
is one area that you can do that uh real

23:00
estate market has still been extremely

23:02
hot you said you had an office in las

23:04
vegas i mean so when you sell a home in

23:06
las vegas now there are four or five

23:08
bids on this on on these homes and these

23:12
apartments uh

23:14
and even out here in california are

23:17
our

23:18
we bought a home two or three years ago

23:21
and it's already gone up dramatically

23:23
even even though we keep hearing that

23:25
everybody's leaving california so

23:27
um

23:28
so yeah there are some things that you

23:30
can do to protect yourself but uh the

23:32
fed i don't think they have the guts uh

23:35
to really stop inflation they have

23:38
slowed it down the money supply growth

23:40
rate that was 26

23:42
a year or so ago is now down to six six

23:45
or seven percent so we are getting back

23:47
to a little bit more normal we're not

23:50
we're not headed for runaway inflation

23:52
this is not going to be a hyperinflation

23:54
but i just think that when you let the

23:56
cat out of the bag it's really hard to

23:58
control inflation so they have a two

24:00
percent goal

24:02
and it and they fought and worked

24:05
all the time to get it to get it up to

24:07
two percent and then it just zoomed past

24:10
two percent to six or seven percent it's

24:13
uh friedrich hayek the great austrian

24:15
economist said it's like a tiger by the

24:17
tail

24:19
how do you control a tiger by the tail

24:21
well you don't and that's the way

24:23
inflation is inflation is kind of

24:26
uh it's really hard to control it takes

24:28
a while once it gets out

24:31
you just don't know with all these

24:33
shortages and so forth i mean you go and

24:35
i used to buy a donut every once in a

24:37
while at the donut shop here in

24:39
california it was 95 cents for a glazed

24:42
donut and just overnight 1.25

24:46
and the same thing with all the fast

24:47
food restaurants and you go into the

24:49
grocery stores you're going to buy cars

24:52
you go to rent you get on an airplane

24:54
everything is substantially higher and

24:56
that's not going to change for a long

24:58
time

24:59
so do you see the fed

25:01
being tough enough to continue to raise

25:03
rates as needed as all of us who know

25:05
anything about money is

25:08
they have to are they it's one thing to

25:10
have to but are they

25:12
they've announced uh plans uh

25:14
powell has announced plans to increase

25:16
incrementally

25:19
the fed funds rates six percent or the

25:21
discount rate six percent so that or she

25:24
believe that

25:26
six times so that means yes i think they

25:28
will get up to three percent but that

25:31
still means that

25:32
that you have negative real interest

25:34
rates because inflation is six or seven

25:36
percent so yes i think they i think they

25:39
have to raise rates because the you got

25:41
to remember the bond market is what the

25:44
bond market people they're the ones who

25:45
really run things

25:47
and if their interest rates are higher

25:49
than the fed then that's like printing

25:52
money to banks because the banks simply

25:54
borrow all the money they want

25:56
from the federal reserve and then they

25:58
turn right around and get two or three

26:00
or four percent more points

26:04
on leveraged money so that's going to

26:06
continue the boom so if they they wanted

26:08
to be really serious they'd have to

26:10
raise the rate higher than

26:12
six times

26:13
so even though it's just gonna be a

26:15
quarter point each time uh it's it's not

26:18
going to do very much it's moving it's

26:21
in the right direction

26:22
i'm really glad they're doing that but i

26:24
don't i just don't think they have the

26:25
guts to

26:27
really

26:28
crush inflation because they started it

26:30
you know it's like putting the fox in

26:33
charge of the hen house

26:35
i know and i laugh because um i hear

26:38
them trying hear the administration

26:40
trying to blame putin

26:43
for inflation and anyone with a rational

26:46
brain knows that

26:47
if there is a portion that's less than

26:49
10 percent that's attached to that

26:51
increase

26:52
if any at all

26:54
um

26:54
what is your take on their

26:56
their current messaging

26:58
to get out of the front do you think

26:59
that's sticking at all yeah it doesn't

27:02
matter whether you're republicans or

27:03
democrats you're going to try to blame

27:04
someone else i mean trump trump did the

27:07
same thing absolutely but i do think the

27:10
war has something to do with it is

27:11
creating shortages it is creating higher

27:13
oil prices it inc increases the

27:17
in

27:18
military-industrial complex so i i do

27:20
think that plays a role it makes the

27:21
deficits

27:23
higher and it puts more pressure on the

27:26
fed to expand the money supply to pay

27:28
for these uh

27:29
debts and stuff

27:31
but you know look at it this way the

27:33
keynesian policy of uh running deficits

27:37
during a recession and then this

27:39
you run surpluses during full employment

27:42
that that's bankrupt the keynesian model

27:45
is now bankrupt this might tell my

27:47
students because right now we should be

27:48
running a surplus

27:50
because we have full employment not only

27:52
to have full employment we have labor

27:53
shortages so we should be running a

27:55
surplus and yet we're running record

27:56
prof record deficits right now and the

28:00
treasury and the the

28:02
national debt is over 30 trillion

28:04
dollars

28:05
thank thank goodness i mean i have to

28:08
give a shout out to joe manchin

28:10
the senator from west virginia the

28:12
democrat who is stopping all of even

28:15
more spending yeah that uh the biden

28:18
administration wants to do and he's

28:20
saying the buck stops here folks

28:22
uh we're trying to invite joe manchin to

28:25
come and speak at freedom fest he's kind

28:26
of a hero

28:28
but it is kind of nice to be in a senate

28:30
that's 50 50. so that means every

28:32
senator now has a very powerful position

28:36
i i am convinced that again if the voter

28:40
if if you have a legitimate voting

28:44
system in place

28:47
the the democrats are going to be routed

28:50
in november the republicans should get

28:52
substantial positions majority positions

28:55
in both the house and the senate that's

28:57
what

28:59
electionbettingodds.com is predicting

29:01
they've been quite accurate before

29:04
and uh so this is this is a really good

29:06
sign however joe biden

29:09
or kamala harris whoever it is is still

29:12
going to be president for the next two

29:14
more years so

29:15
there's gonna be a lot of

29:17
vetoing and uh gridlock takes place

29:22
the stock market tends to like that but

29:23
i actually think if we get

29:26
due to november

29:28
with

29:30
a no tax increase and biden includes in

29:34
that the elimination of the long-term

29:36
capital gains rate

29:38
this tax on billionaires which is really

29:40
millionaires and it's a wealth tax and

29:43
on top of that

29:45
trying to

29:46
uh

29:47
remove the stepped-up basis in estate

29:49
planning i don't know if you deal with

29:50
that

29:51
absolutely that's a major issue

29:58
assuming none of those pass and that's

30:00
what i'm hoping

30:01
then

30:02
there he's not going to get any kind of

30:04
a tax increase so i think the stock

30:06
market will will actually do quite well

30:08
after the november election with the

30:11
republicans in place so that's my

30:13
interesting i want to pivot a little bit

30:16
um you have obviously seen

30:18
a lot of trends you've been there for a

30:20
lot of the market movements over the

30:21
past

30:23
numerous decades um so you you're a

30:25
student you're a teacher you're i mean

30:28
you you get it

30:29
but the newest thing obviously is

30:30
cryptocurrency and i know that you've

30:32
weighed in on cryptocurrency and

30:35
when i told some of my clients that i

30:37
was having you on

30:39
a lot of them were saying i'd love to

30:41
hear his take on that because i know

30:43
he's he's just going to give me the

30:45
straight the straight stuff on it

30:48
talk

30:49
give me some insight mark on what mark

30:51
skousen thinks about crypto

30:54
well um crypto is is one that we've

30:57
actually

30:59
i say six or seven years ago we had our

31:02
first discussions and panels at freedom

31:05
fest on cryptocurrencies

31:07
and so we were we were in there fairly

31:09
early in the game and we have we have a

31:11
number of subscriber attendees at

31:14
freedom fest who have come up to me and

31:16
said

31:17
you made me a millionaire and i said gee

31:19
how how's that i thought i did okay but

31:21
how did i make you a millionaire and he

31:23
said well i can't came to freedom fast

31:25
you talked about crypto i bought bitcoin

31:28
at 500 bucks and now it's worth 40 40

31:31
000 right uh so there are people out

31:34
there that have benefited from that

31:36
advice so i i'm i'm not a skeptic i

31:39
actually think that crypto and

31:41
blockchain technology and uh

31:44
and it serves a valuable service and we

31:48
need to stay on top of it and so forth

31:50
now

31:51
i do think that

31:52
they're they are at a turning point here

31:55
and i just

31:56
i just don't know i mean i'm always

31:58
skeptical of people that say oh

32:00
oil is at a hundred dollars it's going

32:02
to 200. right uh and and how often have

32:06
they been proven wrong or they get

32:07
excess excessive exuberance and that's

32:10
what's happened to the crypto market

32:12
so we've we've been trying to get into

32:14
crypto and thinking we found the bottom

32:16
here but it has not

32:19
panned out at all i think it's very real

32:21
but it's kind of like the marijuana

32:23
market we've made marijuana legal

32:27
but who's made money on the marijuana

32:29
stocks because there's so much supply

32:32
out there

32:33
and it's the same thing with the crypto

32:35
currencies i mean there's 3 000 crypto

32:37
currencies out there and they're all

32:39
vying to be

32:41
the important one

32:42
we we assume it's going to be a winner

32:44
take all market

32:45
uh with bitcoin but uh there are some

32:48
other cryptocurrencies coming online

32:51
that seem to offer better service you

32:53
know one of the problems with crypto is

32:54
that they can't

32:57
they can't confirm their their

33:00
transactions

33:01
on a timely basis it takes uh 10 minutes

33:05
to

33:05
confirm with all of the other ownerships

33:08
as public information

33:10
on the blockchain it takes like 10

33:12
minutes to confirm a trade well you

33:14
can't do that when you have millions and

33:16
millions of trades every day on the

33:18
financial markets and that sort of thing

33:20
so they're trying to develop alternative

33:23
ways in order to confirm transactions

33:27
with the crypto so cryptos can actually

33:29
be used

33:31
in transactions and not just as a store

33:34
of value or a hedge

33:36
hedge so uh

33:39
it's

33:40
i'm i'm kind of on the sidelines right

33:42
now in some ways uh just waiting for

33:45
this market to really take off again

33:49
and uh

33:50
so we're it's kind of like the marijuana

33:52
stocks we're on the sidelines because

33:54
the supply

33:55
we don't know

33:57
we need to have some kind of a

34:00
consolidation period if you will

34:04
on this whole area and maybe we're

34:06
getting it with the regulations that are

34:08
finally coming in with the the sec

34:10
regulating the cftc regulating crypto we

34:14
do have exchange now we have the futures

34:17
market for

34:18
the blockchain

34:20
for bitcoin

34:21
uh we have gray scales a way to do it uh

34:24
amplify transformational data fund

34:28
symbol block blok but the they're all in

34:31
kind of bear markets we we aren't not

34:34
all technology and this is a technology

34:37
play

34:38
are in bear markets right now and i just

34:41
don't know how long it's going to last

34:42
it's not going to it's not the end of

34:44
the world we are going to see

34:47
a recovery here i just don't know when

34:49
it's going to start so i'm pretty much

34:50
on the sidelines right now and staying

34:52
more in the commodity field that's where

34:54
the inflation hedges are now right right

34:56
now what's your what's your insight we

34:59
hear of smaller governments making their

35:02
own crypto

35:04
the one that cracks me up is the bahamas

35:05
with the sand dollar um but you know you

35:08
you have um

35:10
you have the buy administration

35:12
announcing that they're studying and

35:14
putting together the gold ribbon panel

35:16
the fact that you're not on it makes it

35:17
a less than a gold ribbon to me

35:20
um to study government

35:22
um

35:23
involvement in cryptocurrency my my

35:26
conspiracy theory mark for the day is

35:29
they would love to do cryptocurrency

35:31
because then they could tax us real time

35:32
there would be no more april 15th it'd

35:34
just be they could tax anytime they want

35:36
to and um what's your take on

35:39
governments getting into crypto patriot

35:42
crypto

35:43
eagle crypto whatever the government

35:46
do you see the united states eventually

35:48
entering into that space in a big way

35:51
yeah i think that they see an

35:53
opportunity here uh government has

35:56
always been involved in in monetary

35:58
affairs all the way with the the bank of

36:01
england creating the first bank notes

36:03
and

36:04
under but they had a gold standard

36:06
and the stable coins which is what the

36:09
government's uh coins are called the

36:11
stable coins though they're they link it

36:13
to their currency

36:15
and so i i don't see how that is going

36:18
to

36:19
uh cause investors to say oh yeah we can

36:23
count on that it's linked to the dollars

36:25
linked to the euro meanwhile they

36:27
continue to inflate the the underlying

36:30
security or currency so

36:33
i think there's a real problem there and

36:35
you also have what is known as gresham's

36:36
law gresham's law states that bad money

36:39
drives out good

36:40
so that means that uh you

36:44
you spend this you spend the cash right

36:47
you spend the dollars right and you take

36:50
the bitcoins and you put them in put

36:52
them away just like with your gold or

36:54
silver coins

36:56
i have a gold coin right here the gold

36:58
coin does not circulate

37:01
you've got it in safety deposit boxes

37:04
and so forth it's gresham's law bad

37:06
money drives out good this is the bad

37:08
money the paper money

37:10
and uh cryptos are uh the hard money

37:13
because

37:15
you can only make 21 million bitcoin

37:18
and even 6 million of it has disappeared

37:20
completely because they don't know the

37:22
codes to get it to get to their six

37:25
million bitcoin there's some horror

37:27
stories for sure on those there are some

37:28
horror stories as well but the point is

37:31
that they have limited supply so

37:34
your current when they try to

37:36
link the cryptocurrencies uh to

37:40
a

37:41
unlimited supply

37:43
i don't think that that's going to be

37:45
very successful they will still attempt

37:47
to do it and of course they hate the

37:49
idea that you can have some privacy in

37:51
your transactions with crypto currencies

37:54
and so forth they are trying to

37:57
work hard to

37:58
get around that so they can follow you

38:01
and we're adopting the chinese model in

38:04
the united states and other major

38:06
countries where the government wants to

38:09
monitor everything that you do this is

38:12
the biggest danger by the way these

38:13
wealth taxes like taxing on unrealized

38:16
capital gains under this new

38:19
billionaire's 20 tax thing that's insane

38:22
a lot of people

38:24
don't realize

38:25
you know they've given a lot of

38:26
criticism of it it's complexity and so

38:29
forth but the biggest danger is that now

38:32
you it makes everybody a criminal

38:34
because uh you have to declare all your

38:36
assets

38:37
and that means gold and silver that

38:39
means artwork that means diamonds

38:43
any jewelry it's all assets right and

38:47
theoretically it all has to be measured

38:49
and so this is a great way for the

38:51
government to get into the door and

38:53
where we lose financial privacy

38:56
completely

38:58
this is why france and sweden and these

39:01
other countries have actually

39:03
abolished their wealth taxes because

39:06
they were making every person uh

39:08
basically a criminal uh because they

39:11
weren't declaring all of their assets

39:13
and who would

39:15
in addition to that type of insane

39:18
legislation that's being proposed for

39:20
the baby boomer retiree pre-retirees

39:23
people that are pointing toward

39:24
retirement and planning for it what are

39:27
some of the things that you would tell

39:29
them to watch out for and

39:32
how to go about protecting from from

39:35
those gotchas

39:37
well first of all i think the government

39:40
has been very clever uh in their

39:43
technique to avoid the unfunded

39:45
liability problem you know we always

39:47
talk about well there's these trillions

39:49
of dollars of unfunded liabilities of

39:51
social security and

39:52
medic medicare and so forth

39:55
but you notice that they keep pushing it

39:57
further and further into the future they

39:59
keep saying well i mean i remember the

40:01
in the 1980s saying oh the unfunded

40:03
liability is going to blow up on us in

40:05
the year 2000 and now we're here at

40:07
2022. and here's the reason because

40:12
they made social security now taxable

40:15
the medicare premiums are now 500

40:19
or more a month

40:21
it was we paid into medicare all our

40:24
lives and now when we're on medicare

40:26
we're still paying a premium of 500 a

40:28
month

40:29
and so between social security being

40:31
taxed and then rmd

40:33
rmd required minimum distribution this

40:36
is for anybody who's 72 or older they

40:39
know what rmd is that means that

40:42
seven to eight percent of your tax-free

40:45
ira and i don't know if annuities are

40:47
exempt from this no no no they're not

40:49
yeah

40:50
and and so they have inside of iras

40:53
anything inside of an ira is subject to

40:55
a requirement of distribution right but

40:57
if if you have an annuity outside of

41:00
your ira you'd probably be okay correct

41:03
it can grow tax deferred but but yeah

41:05
this the uh

41:07
all all these 401k plans and these iras

41:10
and sapps and so forth they're all

41:12
subject i've been hit for it i mean i'm

41:14
paying over a hundred thousand dollars

41:15
uh that i have to take out

41:18
and and it becomes taxable so there they

41:21
have all these ways of getting money

41:23
back and so we have to be really

41:25
concerned how do you avoid this and we

41:28
thought the iras and stuff were really

41:30
uh jackpot for us now

41:33
i believe

41:35
here's i guess maybe you could answer me

41:37
this question but if you have a set

41:39
if you have a roth ira

41:42
that's not subject to tax but i think

41:44
it's still

41:45
part of the rmd here's the problem with

41:47
the here's the problem with the roth and

41:48
i leave all tax questions to i'm a smart

41:50
guy leave all tax questions to tax

41:52
lawyers and cpas

41:54
but what i will tell you something

41:56
interesting about the roth and i hope

41:58
this never comes true but

42:00
i wouldn't be surprised if the

42:02
government came back on the roth ira

42:04
that supposedly is going to be tax free

42:06
for life

42:07
no restrictions if they came in and

42:10
started putting restrictions on that

42:12
roth ira

42:13
taxation issue because

42:16
people have to remember everything is a

42:17
voting bloc and roth ira holders are a

42:20
very small voting block and that can be

42:23
easily

42:24
framed as the evil rich by some

42:26
politician

42:27
and i it wouldn't surprise me in the

42:30
future if they came out and said yes we

42:32
know you've paid up the upfront taxes on

42:34
the roth and yes we know that you are

42:37
under the um

42:39
the guys you bought it because you

42:41
thought everything would be tax-free but

42:43
now it's only tax-free for these five

42:45
things

42:46
and that wouldn't surprise me i hope it

42:48
doesn't happen i hope there's an

42:49
uprising but i don't trust politicians

42:51
and when you

42:52
when you front-end load a roth and pay

42:54
all the taxes up front you're saying to

42:56
the politicians in dc i totally trust

42:59
you and that's a tough one for me

43:01
to overcome

43:03
yeah no i stan i think you're absolutely

43:05
right here so

43:06
i think that does push people into

43:09
underground investments to buy gold and

43:12
silver in cash

43:14
squirrel it away

43:15
give it to your heirs here

43:18
this take take this that's that's my

43:21
estate plan here

43:24
pass it on um

43:26
and uh there's a lot to be said for art

43:29
artworks uh jewelry um

43:34
sculptures

43:36
be careful with those non-fungible

43:38
tokens if you don't know what a

43:39
non-fungible token nft is be careful out

43:42
there that's that's a that's a bubble if

43:45
you ask me that's something

43:47
media to me you can you own this but

43:51
if if the electricity goes out you don't

43:53
own it

43:55
and by the way this is a we're one of

43:57
the things we're going to do at freedom

43:59
fest is where we have a film that joanne

44:01
has regarding the the grid going out

44:03
and you know if the grid goes out and

44:06
and they can they can blow up an atomic

44:09
bomb

44:10
in the sky

44:11
okay that knocks out

44:14
the electric grid system

44:17
uh and if that hap we have a whole film

44:20
on this uh and it is a real danger it's

44:24
a much bigger danger frankly than a

44:26
nuclear war

44:29
because they win the war without

44:31
destroying any of the infrastructure

44:33
but imagine what our lives would be like

44:36
of course we wouldn't even be doing this

44:38
if you didn't have an electric power

44:40
system i mean people would be dying

44:42
right and left

44:44
so how do you prepare for that well you

44:46
prepare for that by going to the

44:48
survival modes of survival tools and

44:51
equipment and food and everything that

44:53
that our gold bug people used to talk

44:56
about back in the 70s there's something

44:58
to be said for that

45:00
as a protection while now there are some

45:02
things that electric utilities are doing

45:06
to

45:07
break away from the grid and have their

45:10
own

45:12
electric power system that that's

45:15
something that i think is really going

45:16
to be interesting that we're going to

45:18
discuss in detail at this year's freedom

45:20
fest

45:21
mark we're coming up i got a couple more

45:24
questions for you and then we're going

45:25
to wrap it up but i'm wondering you know

45:27
you've done so much and you've you

45:29
really have your legacy is

45:31
incredible

45:33
what's the future for mark skousen you

45:35
still you still gonna plot away every

45:37
day at this and try to help people with

45:39
uh their decisions what do you what's

45:40
the plan for mark

45:43
well i've established freedom fest and

45:45
that will go on even after i pass on so

45:48
that's that's uh we we're well in place

45:51
how that's taking place i also have uh

45:54
so i've written a couple of textbooks

45:56
which i think are extremely important

45:58
for the future generations and i teach

46:00
at chapman university i give lectures

46:02
and so forth

46:04
so one's called economic logic it's a

46:06
free market textbook that's in its fifth

46:08
edition we're working on the sixth

46:10
edition

46:11
uh

46:12
and that's so important and then i have

46:14
this history of economics called the

46:16
making of modern economics which is in

46:18
its fourth edition published by rutledge

46:20
uh and

46:22
it's

46:23
it's a great way to teach our future

46:25
generation um what what their

46:29
the basic economics

46:31
uh that we need the sound economic

46:34
policies that we need to adopt to

46:36
continue to grow to continue to prosper

46:40
to enjoy life to its fullest uh peace

46:44
prosperity and liberty those are the

46:46
three grand principles

46:48
uh peace prosperity and liberty all go

46:50
together

46:52
uh you can have one without the other

46:54
but you don't have a you don't maximize

46:57
uh your well-being without those things

47:00
peace prosperity and liberty so

47:02
those are the things that i try to call

47:05
case so

47:06
we we leave to the future

47:09
uh books uh speeches articles

47:13
uh i think that's

47:15
that's my

47:16
message to the future yeah one last

47:19
question i do this to all of my

47:20
celebrity guests that are on and i don't

47:22
tell them in advance what i'm going to

47:23
ask but

47:25
i call it i call it mark i call it the

47:27
mic drop moment so i'm going to hand you

47:29
the mic you're going to say something

47:31
that's uh jaw-dropping and inspirational

47:34
and poignant to the listeners and then

47:36
we're going to close this thing up so

47:38
mike drop moment

47:40
mark skousen go

47:44
so what is

47:46
the purpose of life

47:49
something that i think everybody thinks

47:51
of from time to time

47:53
and for me it has always been to

47:57
to find god

47:59
and to find ourselves in relationship

48:02
with

48:04
a divine being

48:06
who i think has created this earth

48:09
and given us the opportunity to be

48:11
tested to see if we can fulfill our

48:14
destiny

48:16
and we make mistakes on the way but if

48:19
we can learn from those mistakes

48:22
that to me is so important so

48:26
i am an optimist

48:28
and i encourage all of your listeners

48:31
to

48:32
be optimistic to learn from our mistakes

48:37
and to also to

48:40
to remember that

48:42
the important things in life are

48:45
love and friendship

48:47
and to avoid grudges

48:50
which is very difficult a lot of times

48:52
people hold major grudges in life and

48:55
it's a source of great

48:57
depression and and irritation

49:00
and i guess the final

49:02
thing i would say is if

49:05
you're not healthy you're not wealthy

49:07
and you really in today's world we need

49:10
to spend more time

49:12
in

49:15
health is more than just exercise it's

49:18
more than just diet it's a certain

49:21
attitude

49:22
and we need to wake up every morning

49:26
and say to ourselves wow it's a

49:28
beautiful day today

49:30
the lord has surely blessed me

49:33
what can i do to

49:35
make it

49:37
a a better day today not only for

49:40
ourselves but for others so that

49:42
involves

49:43
helping others and not just looking at

49:45
yourself in the mirror

49:47
uh and that's

49:49
that's my creed

49:51
that's fantastic and who who said that

49:53
is dr mark skousen he's a good friend

49:55
he's a great person and he's a he's a

49:57
smart as heck economist and financial

50:01
brain that you should tune into once

50:03
again we're going to have all this stuff

50:04
on of our site and you can link to that

50:07
i want to thank everybody on the all the

50:09
major podcast platforms for listening to

50:12
fun with annuities and viewing us on the

50:14
fun with annuities youtube channel and i

50:16
will see you next week

50:23
thanks for listening to fun with

50:25
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50:29
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50:55
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50:57
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51:00
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51:02
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51:12
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51:16
[Music]

51:27
you