Over the years, I’ve developed quite a network of contacts. If I have a question about natural gas in Kentucky, I know someone who can tell me what I need to know. He’ll know exactly what property I’m talking about and who the operators are. If I want to know about Barnett Shale, I know a guy who’s spent many years in the area. Heck, I talked to a fellow the other day who’s been drilling for oil and gas for 50 years. He talked about 1970 as if it were yesterday. If I want to talk to someone about mining whatever in Western Canada, I have a contact for that, too.

These are all successful and smart people. They are my behind-the-scenes eyes and ears. And while no one wants to call a bottom — they are too smart for that — they all say they are buyers, or at least hanging onto their commodity investments. The view from the field is bullish. Many marvel at how cheap some names have become.

Investing in the Age of Scarcity — the View from Vancouver

“Gastown, Vancouver’s oldest neighborhood…founded on the shoulders of desperate alcoholics by an entrepreneurial bar owner.”

— Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations

It might be too much to say Vancouver got its start with a bunch of alcoholics, but there’s no denying that Jack Deighton, or “Gassy Jack,” as he was known, had a hand in making the city.

As legend has it, Gassy Jack, a garrulous Yorkshire-born steamship operator, arrived in 1867 with a yellow dog, a First Nations wife and a barrel of whiskey. He solicited help from workers by telling them if they helped him build a tavern, he’d give them free drinks. So they did, and within 24 hours, the Globe Saloon was open for business, slaking the thirst of a rough frontier crowd of miners, trappers and loggers.

When a little village grew up around the saloon, Gastown was born.

This is where modern Vancouver began. Today, Gastown is the old section of the city. You can stroll down its cobblestone streets adorned with antique street lamps and stop off at one of the many bars and restaurants. You can see the old steam clock on Water Street, a local landmark. (But it’s kind of a sham, because the steam clock is actually powered by electricity. It was also built in 1977, despite its antique look.) There are also some shops hocking the usual kitschy fare like faux totem poles and snow globes.

Salute the bronze statue of Gassy Jack, standing atop a whiskey barrel, in Maple Square. Then head over to my favorite microbrewery in the city, Steamworks, and order a Lions Gate Lager and a brick-oven pizza.

As you wipe the beer foam from your lips, you can think about the story of early wealth creation in Vancouver. Spanish explorers in search of the Northwest Passage arrived in the 18th century. You can still see their influence in street names such as Cordova, Cardero and Valdez. The British explorer Capt. James Cook also hit the west coast of Vancouver Island, looking for the Northwest Passage. Vancouver, though, gets its name from George Vancouver, who sailed the inlet in 1792.

Eventually, a number of early explorers, including Simon Fraser and Alexander MacKenzie, helped map the region’s interior. In 1824, the Hudson Bay Co. began running fur trading posts out here. In 1858, prospectors found gold on the banks of the Fraser and Thompson rivers. The first sawmills along the Fraser River opened up in 1860. And there you have the triumvirate that drew adventurers and entrepreneurs from all over — furs, gold and timber. Into that swirl stepped Gassy Jack.

I like the city of Vancouver and enjoy going there every year for my publisher’s big annual conference. This year’s theme tackled investing in the age of scarcity. Perfectly appropriate for the market we find ourselves in.

Your Path to Riches Is Well Trodden

Gassy Jack and all those early explorers, adventurers, prospectors, loggers and miners did their part to spice up the 19th century. As with most of the history of the Americas, fortunes bloomed as men beat paths to nature’s riches. It was the basic stuff — metals, timber and other commodities — that made men rich. The voracious appetites fueled by the Industrial Revolution and rising urbanization created enormous demand for the natural storehouse of riches in the largely untapped Americas. If you were bold and talented (and lucky), you could strike out on some open valley or inviting hillside or promising riverbank — and dig or plant or pan your way to fame and fortune.

Despite all the advances and promises of the 21st century, we still need those basics. We’ve always needed them, but there is new urgency to the quest. The motor for that demand is a sort of second Industrial Revolution, in China and India, in particular. But it’s a revolution that broadens out to many emerging markets. The analogy is not lost on certain investors.

Jeremy Grantham heads up GMO, a respected money manager. Grantham has been largely spot on in the big-picture sense of staying bearish on stocks for the last eight years or so. He is bullish long term on commodities. In his latest quarterly letter, Grantham makes some good points about the future of commodities and emerging markets.

His conclusion first: “In the short term, slowing world economic growth combines with credit, currency and inflation problems to dominate the outlook and offer poor prospects for emerging markets and commodities. Longer term, the reverse is true, and they look like the assets to own.”

Regards,
Chris Mayer
September 10, 2008

Finding the Bottom in Commodities was originally featured on Whiskey and Gunpowder. Visit Laissez Faire Books for the best selection of libertarian book titles.

So many things I want to talk about have come to the fore in just the two short months since my last essay. The Supreme Court decision on the DC gun ban. The Chinese pollution debacle that’s becoming more evident by the day as the Olympics approach. The coming U.S. Presidential election. The slow, years-too-late movement toward more domestic oil drilling. The explosion of SUV and truck sales in Kyoto-exempt Russia and China (oh yes, look it up). And so much more…

Right now, there are exciting new developments on every one of my core beats: Personal liberties, the surveillance state, global warming, guns and personal defense, the outdoors, and the utter corruption of the American political machine and the mainstream media that’s furthering it. Don’t worry, I’m keeping a file on all of it — so I’ll be loaded for bear when the time comes for my double-barreled return to Whiskey & Gunpowder.

Alas, today is not that day. I’m still on hiatus. But I’ve come back with this brief essay to offer you a gesture of gratitude that’s more than just words — one that I specifically asked the publishers of Whiskey & Gunpowder to allow me to extend to you today…

It’s worth exactly $50. Or a few million dollars, depending on how you calculate it.

Setting the Record Straight, Straightaway

First things first…

As you’ll recall, my last Whiskey & Gunpowder articles were a two-part series inviting you to the ninth annual Agora Financial Investment Symposium at the luxurious Fairmont Hotel at one of the most progressive, vibrant, and prosperous cities on the planet: Vancouver, British Columbia.

To recap a bit, that series was a “thank you” as well.

That’s because your voluminous and passionate feedback to my 67 Whiskey articles over three and a half years is the reason I found myself invited (for the second year in a row) to rub elbows at the Symposium with such world-class financial and political thinkers as Bill Bonner, Doug Casey, James Howard Kunstler, and former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker — plus fellow Agora Financial luminaries Dan Denning, Byron King, Chris Mayer, Kevin Kerr, and about a million others…

Like world-renowned bestselling financial author and swashbuckling “adventure capitalist” Jim Rogers, for instance.

By all accounts, I have no right sharing oxygen with such folks, much less the stage. And now that I’m back from Vancouver and the exhilarating 2008 Symposium, I must express my thanks to you again — for a very different reason. But before I get into the meat and potatoes of the gift I’ve arranged for you today, I need (as usual) to clear the air about something…

Though the vast majority of those who wrote in to Whiskey & Gunpowder when I announced my indefinite self-suspension were complimentary to my work, dedication, and passion in this forum (even if they didn’t always agree with me), some were less so. Of course, this is to be expected — I pressed a lot of buttons and raised a lot of hackles during my tenure here.

However, a few of these letters questioned the sincerity of my last pair of essays — whining that they were nothing more than a sales pitch for the 2008 Symposium. At least a few people even claimed that they weren’t even written by me, but by some slick copywriter pretending to be me…

To these folks, I say this: Not only did I write those letters myself (you ought to know I’m too arrogant to ever allow my name to be put on something I didn’t write) — but I wasn’t paid one red cent extra for “pitching” the 2008 Agora Financial Investment Symposium to you.

No cut of the profits, no royalties, no nuthin.’

I did it because I wanted all those who’d read my work over the years — love me, hate me, or want to debate me — to be able to shake my hand, flip me off, wag a finger in my face, or tilt a shot-glass with me for perhaps the last time, and in a breathtakingly beautiful and entertaining place.

I also wanted you all to have the same chance I was getting to become stupid-rich on the always prophetic, can’t-get-anywhere-else, money-in-the-bank actionable investing advice from minds you’ll never get a chance to meet face-to-face anywhere else but at the Symposium…

So yeah, I DID write those letters to convince you to sign up for this year’s event.

But not because I got paid to, or because it’s my passion in life to sell you stuff. I did it purely because I believe in the Symposium’s ability to change your life. And like I said two months ago, I wanted to be the one to have brought that power to you — as a reward to those who’ve supported me and as an olive branch to those who despise me…

And today, I’m here to once again offer you something I believe can change your life for the better, no catches or strings attached.

Lost in Truncation

As some of you may know, I was flattered to be asked to cover the 2008 Agora Financial Investment Symposium as the “roving reporter” for The Daily Reckoning. And over the five days I covered the event, I wrote more than 12,500 words to DR readers about the day-to-day goings-on in Vancouver (these dispatches also ran in Whiskey & Gunpowder )…

That’s around 40 single-spaced, typewritten pages — about as long as the body text of a typical master’s thesis. And I probably only covered around ONE THIRD of what there was to report. I tell you this so that you’ll get a sense of the Symposium’s scope and depth…

I also mention it to show you how I could never summarize such an event in the 2,500 words or so of even one of my typically longish Whiskey & Gunpowder essays. And even if I could come close, I know that a lot of what was conveyed by the money wizards that attend and speak at the Symposium would be “lost in truncation.”

So I won’t even try.

Instead, I’ll simply let you know once again that the heart and soul of the 2008 Agora Financial Investment Symposium — every minute of the 16-plus hours worth of general session commentary AND a comprehensive Special Report with all the specific picks and other recommendations from the more than 70 “break out” sessions — is now available on CDs or MP3 recordings.

This is a resource that could literally make you millions of dollars in the next few years. Or save you a few million, as well. And today, you’ll get the last chance at the lowest price on this incredible profit resource. More on this in a minute — right now, I want to go back to the event itself…

The theme of this year’s Symposium was A View From the Peak: Seeking Profits in a Time of Risk and Scarcity. Most every presentation dovetailed into this theme, and the “view” is indeed unnerving. Like I said, I couldn’t come anywhere near giving you a realistic “Readers’ Digest” version of this event — but I can share with you just a few of the invaluable lessons that I took away from it:

• Not only is the world currently at the mercy of multiple commodities and resources peaks — oil, gas, water, etc. — but America in particular faces some crippling peaks of its own: Peak dollars, peak credit, and the most sobering of all to the future of our republic, peak western influence (details on what this means for your money in your Symposium CDs or MP3s)…
• Why Bill Bonner sees the end of the world as we know it: Since FDR, America has been increasingly moving toward a state of nationalization, the death knell of many a republic. Government has now entangled itself in mortgage companies (FNMA and FHLMC), health care (Medicare and Medicaid), and may soon, through bailouts, have its tentacles into banks, airlines, automakers, and more. This “biggest-ever seizure of industry by government” spells the inexorable transformation from a capitalist America to a neo-Socialist state — and eventual decline and demise…
• Four reasons why the resources bull market still has legs — despite what the mainstream pundits say. This, from the man Bill Bonner himself claims “knows more about natural resource investing than anyone I know.” I also discovered, straight from this investing legend’s mouth (he’s made his clients 1880% on their money in just the last seven years ), a few specific resource profit-plays that are set to explode in the near future. Yes, they’ll be on your CDs…
• Seven reasons why farming costs are going through the roof — and not just in America. What’s this mean for food commodities prices? It means that those who play this crisis right stand to make some mind-boggling gains. But according to the Symposium’s acknowledged expert on the topic (you may already know him), making a killing in food-related commodity investment can be tricky. Find out why one particular play that everyone’s into — ethanol — is the kiss of death…
• Why a lot of us (maybe you?) may have lost more money from the modern dollar slide than they would have from a foreclosure or bankruptcy! An expert on the subject shows us why those who foresee a near-term stronger dollar are oblivious to four fundamental crises America faces that will drive the dollar still weaker. He also claims that the U.S. is headed for a rebirth of the 70s: High interest rates, high inflation, and low employment. But there are some easy — yet not intuitive — ways to stop the erosion of assets and investments you hold in U.S. dollars (yep, all on the CDs or MP3s)…
• How government book-cooking has changed the definition of “money” — and why it’s dead wrong. Also from this internationally known authority on the dollar and economics: The real definition of inflation and how The Fed causes it on purpose, how the U.S. rate of true inflation is higher right now than in the 1970s, and how, after adjusting for real-world inflation, any investment that’s not paying you back at least 8.79% right now is losing you money. What can you do? He’s got some specific suggestions…
• Why investing legend and bestselling money author Jim Rogers (Investment Biker, Adventure Capitalist, Hot Commodities ) is hot right now on four particular countries for small-cap stock investment, three kinds of commodities for max gains (and three countries to get them in), two types of Taiwanese companies, and one particular segment of the Japanese stock market. He’s also heavily investing in one kind of Chinese company: Wine makers. Find out why when you listen to the Symposium for yourself…

Again, these are just a few of the high spots I can remember off the top of my head from the 2008 Agora Financial Investment Symposium. To get all the specifics — from people who actually know what they’re talking about instead of from a clueless half-redneck like me — you really need to hear it from their own mouths. Again and again…

And today, I’ve made that a little easier for you. Keep reading.

The Perfect Excuse to Write a Whiskey Essay…

So, what’s this big gift I’m offering, you’re asking me?

Well, if you read any of the dispatches I wrote from the Symposium, you might remember that during the conference itself, the price of these recordings (plus the Special Report on all the picks from 70 or more “break out” sessions) was a low $99 for downloadable MP3s — and just $149 for a complete set of hard CDs…

Or both formats (so you can listen anywhere — at home, in the car, on iPod, etc.) for just $149 combined.

However, since the conference is no longer in session, this price has jumped by $50: To $149 for the MP3s — and $199 for the CDs or the CD/MP3 “dual-media” combo pack…

Now don’t get me wrong, this is still an absurdly cheap bargain for what you’re getting. However, since Agora got its “roving reporter” from the Whiskey family, I thought it was only fair that my readers should get the last crack at the lowest possible price for all the life-changing investment revelations from the 2008 Symposium…

So I asked Greg Grillot (Whiskey’s Managing Editor) to take the matter up with Addison Wiggin, the President and Publisher of Agora Financial. After appropriate consideration, Addison agreed to allow me to extend this special opportunity to you.

And so I write to you today with this one-day offer, only for Whiskey & Gunpowder readers. Here it is once again:

Click on the ordering link at the bottom of this e-Mail TODAY (or click right here now), and you’ll have the chance to buy the complete recordings of the general sessions from the 2008 Agora Financial Investment Symposium for just $99 for MP3 files — or on CD for only $149…

Oh, or BOTH CDs and MP3s for the same $149.

Any way you cut it, that’s $50 in your pocket. Or a few million, maybe.

A Disclosure — and Some Closure…

Now, to make sure that none of you reading this write in to excoriate me for being a “sell-out” or morphing into some sort of pitchman instead of a serious editorialist, I need to make the following disclosure:

I am not, in ANY WAY, receiving one cent of extra money or perks for making this offer to you today. No royalties, no cut of the sales, nothing. I’m getting only the standard (and modest, I might add) fee that I’d get for any other Whiskey & Gunpowder essay…

Also, aside from a room and reimbursement of basic expenses — which I would have received anyway for my participation in the Whiskey Bar panel discussion at this year’s Symposium — my only compensation for my 12,500-word stint as “roving reporter” for The Daily Reckoning was my own free set of CDs/MP3 recordings (and the Special Report) from the 2008 Symposium…

That is it. No loopholes, no BS.

I hope this proves that I really am bringing this opportunity to you today because of how much I believe in the things I’ve learned from the Agora Financial Investment Symposium for two years running…

And that I want to give you something back for putting me in a position where I could learn secrets to protecting and nurturing my money that only a true insider in the contrarian investing world would be able to discover.

I owe that to you, and I’m truly thankful for it.

Also, I want to thank you once again for your support and feedback — and even your derision. Along those lines, I have to close with this…

Thank you so much, all those who approached me at the Symposium. I was overwhelmed by how many people (some of them other speakers!) not only bothered to single me out in the midst of so many superior minds — but who actually remembered various, specific things I’d written, some of them years ago, and wanted to talk about them with me.

Your cordiality, engagement, support, good-natured admonishments (sure, there were a few of these), and especially your urgings that I return to these pages soon brought many fond memories of my time with Whiskey & Gunpowder flooding back to me…

In a word, it touched me — as I hope this small gesture on my part touches you.

Thank you, yet again,

Jim Amrhein
Freedoms Editor, Whiskey & Gunpowder
July 31, 2008

Our Freedoms Editor Stops in — Bearing a Gift! was originally featured on Whiskey and Gunpowder. Visit Laissez Faire Books for the best selection of libertarian book titles.

A Parting Gift, Part II

“I’ll be back.”

— Arnold Schwarzenegger, as The Terminator, 1984

Yesterday I gave you some of my highlights from last year’s Agora Financial Investment Symposium. While last year’s experience is one that I’ll remember forever, what you can expect this year will be even better. And there’s a big reason for that. I teased you yesterday, but now I’ll let you know why you really can’t afford to miss it this year.

The “Indiana Jones of Investing” Rides with Agora

You probably already know that I’m talking about Jim Rogers.

That’s right, the world-renowned co-founder (with George Soros) of the Quantum Fund, originator of the Rogers International Commodities Index, and author of bestselling financial titles Investment Biker, Adventure Capitalist, Hot Commodities, and A Bull in China has just been inked as the keynote speaker at this year’s Agora Financial Investment Symposium.

For those few who may not know, Rogers is without doubt the most in-demand speaker on the finance and business circuit. And believe me when I tell you that RIGHT NOW may be the only chance you’ll ever get to see, hear, and maybe even meet and talk money with the man they call the “Indiana Jones of Investing”…

Especially for the relatively low cost of the 2008 Agora Financial Investing Symposium. (For some of you reading this, it may even be FREE to attend .)

Rogers is a big part of the reason there are now only 97 seats to this conference left. Actually, it’s probably way less than this — no doubt some Whiskey & Gunpowder subscribers have already jumped ahead and signed up while you’ve been reading…

Now, if this isn’t enough incentive to make you go to the bottom of the page and sign up for this incredible event right now, I don’t know what would seal the deal.

But in case it isn’t (and in case meeting me isn’t enough of a draw), here are a few other things that might help you make up your mind to come to Vancouver and learn how to become a multi-millionaire…

An Advance Screening of the Biggest Budget Movie in American History

“…(An} alternately amusing and alarming primer on America’s off-the-charts fiscal irresponsibility…”

— Variety.com

“I.O.U.S.A. is crucial viewing for anyone who claims to care about America.”

— IndieWIRE.com

Agora Financial’s first foray into the Tinseltown scene, I.O.U.S.A., is a feature-length documentary about America’s real inconvenient truth: Our alarming budget, trade, savings, and leadership deficits…

Inspired by Bill Bonner/Addison Wiggins’ New York Times bestselling book, Empire of Debt: The Rise of an Epic Financial Crisis, I.O.U.S.A. drew rave reviews at this year’s Sundance Film Festival — and was the only film to sell out all three of its showings at the recent Maryland Film Festival. I attended one of these that was oversold, and people were literally sitting in the aisles.

Told with flair and frighteningly clear graphic illustration by director Patrick Creadon (Wordplay), I.O.U.S.A. is completely non-partisan — and features interviews with such financial luminaries as former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker (slated to attend this year’s Symposium, by the way), former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Paul Volcker, investing legend Warren Buffett, Robert Rudin, Paul O’Neill and Arthur Laffer.

Also featured are plenty of revealing sound bites from average Americans (who seem universally to know almost nothing about how our budget or currency system works), Chinese industrialists and their employees, heads of U.S. companies whose businesses are in transition because of Asian demand and competition — and key media snipetts from Ron Paul, Alan Greenspan, numerous U.S. Presidents and more…

I.O.U.S.A. also follows then-Comptroller General Walker and Tab-swilling Concord Coalition Executive Director Robert Bixby’s Fiscal Wakeup Tour as it travels from city to U.S. city, warning rank and file Americans of the dangers of our $9 trillion national debt. Watch (or cry) as their incredibly important message gets bumped from nightly newscasts for segments on lost-then-found-again diamond rings and other piffle…

This is an important film. And were it not for its engaging and even-handed, yet magnetic narrative style, I’d very nearly classify as a horror movie. Its all-too-true message is that disturbing. The film is scheduled for theatrical release sometime in late summer…

But at the 2008 Agora Financial Investment Symposium, you can see this groundbreaking film on the big screen before everyone else — and even meet director Creadon, author Wiggin, and “star” Walker — on opening night of the conference in the Fairmount Hotel Vancouver’s spacious British Columbia Hall.

Trust me, you don’t want to miss it. And remember, there’s only room in this venue for 97 more lucky investors. This is not including those who may be signing up right now with each passing minute. Jump to the sign-up link below to lock in your spot now!

But there’s so much more you won’t want to miss…

Viva Vancouver!

I used to wonder why Agora Financial chose Vancouver for it’s annual symposium…

Now I understand.

I’ve been to a fair amount of places, but I’ve never been anywhere on this side of the Atlantic that’s anywhere near as beautiful and wonderful to be in as Vancouver. It’s not only gorgeous, temperate, clean, and reasonably priced, but it’s an incredibly progressive and cutting-edge place. It’s more of a melting pot that anywhere I’ve been in America — and very nearly qualifies as an Asian city, so great are the Eastern cultures’ influence there. Bubble tea, anyone? Vancouver’s got a shop that sells it on every corner, it seems…

But don’t let that fool you. The options for entertainment and dining are as diverse as you can get. You want a great steak, like I always crave? Remember, you’re in Canada, home of some of the best red meat you can get anywhere. I can name you four places to get a fine slab of cow-meat cooked any way you like, all within walking distance of the Fairmount.

Jonesing for some seafood? With the cool waters of the Pacific only minutes away, Vancouver’s naturally got some of the world’s finest ocean-fare (the best tuna I’ve ever tasted was in a restaurant there — incredible).

Bars your thing? Some of the coolest, hippest ones I’ve ever been to in my life (and I’ve been to a few) were in Vancouver’s entertainment district, down near the waterfront. Everything from ethnic-flavored joints to Irish pubs with fiddle-bands blaring to shi-shi hipster hangouts to good ol’ beer-and-billiards joints…

And speaking of the waterfront, you can take a night cruise of the harbor while you’re in town and catch some of the Celebration of Light — the world’s largest fireworks competition.

If you do nothing else while you’re in town, though, you simply must check out the glorious Stanley Park. It’s a pristine, thousand-acre peninsula of fir and hemlock intermingled with tracts of ancient, simply enormous (redwood-sized) cedar trees. Well-tended hike-or-bike trails wind through most sections of the forest, and many streams and ponds dot the landscape:

Multiple beaches border the outer edge of the park, and it’s not uncommon to spy dolphins, seals, and all manner of water birds — especially Cormorants. It’s worth the trip to Vancouver all by itself. You simply must rent a bike at one of the many cycle shops near the park (around $12 U.S.) and take a leisurely two-wheeled tour of one of the most breathtakingly beautiful places you’ll ever see…

Or, if art and culture’s your thing, catch whoever’s playing at the Vancouver Center for the Performing Arts. Last year, I lucked into a ticket to see the incredible Bobby McFerrin. Mind-bogglingly talented, and the perfect venue to showcase it.

In short, there are a million reasons to come join me in Vancouver this summer. Getting rich is only one of them…

Happy Trails, Then

Can you tell I’m excited about being invited back to the Agora Financial Investment Symposium? What with Jim Rogers as keynote, I.O.U.S.A. as and opening-night special event, and all the best speakers from last year already booked, it should be even better in 2008 than 2007’s sold-out event…

And this year’s theme — A View From the Peak: Seeking Profits in a Time of Risk and Scarcity — is just as urgent and timely as ever.

Last but not least, I want you to have a chance (what may be your last chance) to meet me and experience the singular thrill of the second annual Whiskey Bar, a good-natured, yet unpredictable and electric debate on all manner of audience-chosen topics featuring your favorite Whiskey & Gunpowder columnists and guests. All of it takes place over heaping plates of delicious meats and other lite fare — and of course, plenty of whiskey to choose from…

2007’s Whiskey Bar evening event was scheduled for 45 minutes, and we’d hoped for a solid turnout of around 300 attendees. But we were stunned when 700 people showed up — and took the panel to task for nearly two hours! According to our surveys, the Bar was one of last year’s highest-reviewed events. I expect nothing less this year, except perhaps we’ll order more food.

Here’s my bottom line with all this: This may be my last article ever for Whiskey & Gunpowder — and 2008’s A View From the Peak Agora Financial Investment Symposium in Vancouver will very likely be my last hurrah as Freedoms Editor. So I want to savor it with even more of my readers than the dozens I met, debated, ate, and drank with last year…

To those of you who’ve mostly agreed with me and written in with words of praise or encouragement over the years, come say goodbye — and let me give you something back that you’ll never forget. If you like me now, think how much you’ll love me in a few years, when you’re rolling in the dough from the things you learned at the 2008 Symposium…

To those who’ve I’ve butted heads with and who have loosed your bile upon me in print, let me offer your these secrets to wealth as an olive branch — in hopes that, once you get rich, you’ll be forced to re-evaluate me. After all, if I was right about this, perhaps I was right about a few other things, too…

But whatever your reason for wanting to come to the 2008 Agora Financial Investment Symposium this July 22-25 in Vancouver, British Columbia, I urge you not to wait to sign up. Click the link below and do it now. This event WILL sell out, especially with I.O.U.S.A. in the mix and with Jim Rogers keynoting.

I’ll be there, glad to be among friends, foes, readers, and some of the most incredible forward-thinkers in the investing and political universe…

But sad that it may be for the last time as your Freedoms Editor.

Happy trails to you, until we meet again.
Some trails are happy ones,
Others are blue.
It’s the way you ride the trail that counts,
Here’s a happy one for you.

Happy trails to you, ‘til we meet again!

— Happy Trails, Dale Evans

Jim Amrhein
Freedoms Editor, Whiskey and Gunpowder
May 30, 2008

Only 97 More of My Readers Can Get a View from the Peak was originally featured on Whiskey and Gunpowder. Visit Laissez Faire Books for the best selection of libertarian book titles.

IF EVER THERE were truth to the motto of a city, the motto of Vancouver fits the bill. What a great city! I have been traveling to and from Vancouver for well over 20 years, and I just love the place.

I even have a theory about Vancouver. If you cannot have a great time in this most delightful and cosmopolitan of places, there is something wrong with you. Get help.

So with that introduction, please permit me to leap at the opportunity to tell you that Agora Financial, whence comes your regular subscription to Whiskey & Gunpowder, is holding its annual Agora Financial Investment Symposium in Vancouver this July 24-27, 2007.

If you ever needed an excuse to travel to one of the world’s great cities, and enjoy yourself during Vancouver’s perfect summer weather, and maybe even learn something…well, this is it.

Hi, this is Byron King, contributing editor of Whiskey & Gunpowder, and I’m delighted to invite you to one of the year’s most exciting events in Canada’s most stunning city. Year after year, the Agora Financial Investment Symposium has provided its attendees with cutting-edge advice from the world’s foremost experts. I’ve been speaking at and attending this symposium for years, and I can’t wait to tell you more about it.

First of all, the Agora Financial Investment Symposium is being held in Vancouver (did I mention that?) during the time of year when it has the best weather in North America, if not the world.

You will be able to take advantage of the opportunity to see the magnificent granite spires that form the backdrop to the West Coast’s other “city by the bay.” You will be able to see the tree-covered hillsides that dip precipitously toward azure blue waters.

You will be able to stroll in nearby Stanley Park, one of the world’s finest urban parks, which offers as close as one can get to the original unspoiled nature of the Pacific coastline of centuries past. Stand on the sandy shoreline and you might even see a few whales breaching the surface of the salty sea.

Second, the Agora Financial Investment Symposium is being held at the historic Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, a classic work of hotel architecture from a grand era long past, and at the same time, a modern gem of a convention facility.

Agora has negotiated an outstanding rate with the Fairmont, particularly considering that this is the height of the summer travel season.

So you will enjoy that famous Fairmont five-star level of accommodation and service, for a significant savings while you attend the symposium and enjoy the sights and amenities of Vancouver.

And last but not least, the Agora Financial Investment Symposium will offer a lineup of top-notch speakers that will just plain make your head spin.

If you ever wanted to sit in the same room and listen to the unvarnished comments of the likes of Agora Financial’s Bill Bonner, Addison Wiggin, Dan Denning, Chris Mayer, and Kevin Kerr – and many, many more – this is your chance.

In addition to the regular writers with whom you are probably familiar, the Agora Financial Investment Symposium will also feature speakers from Agora friends such as Doug Casey, Jim Kunstler and Nassim Nicholas Taleb, and still more…

Any one of these great speakers would be an e-ticket in his or her own right, but you will get them all in one place as part of your attendance at the Agora Financial Investment Symposium.

One last item, and this in all humility. The Agora folks have invited me to be a speaker at the Agora Financial Investment Symposium, along with all of the aforementioned luminaries.

What am I going to talk about, you ask?

All I can say just now is that my goal is to tell you things that you did not know about this world of ours, and to get your brains working overtime.

If you have some time in July, come on out to Vancouver.

If you do not have any time in July, make some and come on out to Vancouver anyway.

Come to the Agora Financial Investment Symposium. Enjoy yourself. Learn a lot of really useful information at the conference about where this world of ours is heading.

I’ve included a letter by Addison Wiggin, our executive publisher at Agora Financial. If you are even the slightest bit interested in joining me this year in Vancouver, Addison has some fantastic details about our symposium and I would encourage you to click on the link below and read on.

So remember the motto, “By Sea, Land, and Air We Prosper.” Let’s prosper together, and enjoy ourselves, out in Vancouver.

Until we meet again…

Byron W. King,
Whiskey & Gunpowder

May 25, 2007

“By Sea, Land, and Air We Prosper” was originally featured on Whiskey and Gunpowder. Visit Laissez Faire Books for the best selection of libertarian book titles.