Special Guest: Jeff Berwickis a Canadian entrepreneur, libertarian
and anarcho-capitalist activist who founded StockHouse Media Corporation in
1994, one of the most active financial website in Canada. He remained CEO until
2002. In 2013, Berwick announced plans to co-found the world's first Bitcoin
automated teller machine (ATM). He presently resides in Acapulco, Mexico and
is Chief Editor of THE DOLLAR VIGILANTE
Recorded 07-17-15
A 25 Minute Video Interview
Jeff Berwick, based in Acapulco, Mexico, has formerly been interviewed in
this series (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O20n_oDUx54 ).
He founded the StockHouse Media Corporation in 1994 and was its CEO until 2002.
He is publisher of the dollar vigilante website (https://www.dollarvigilante.com/),
which went online in 2010. Back then, he predicted the complete collapse of
the US Dollar and the world financial system within the next five to ten years.
He thinks that we are a lot closer now. He recently predicted a massive breakdown
for September 2015 based on the seven year "Shemitah cycle" (http://surviveshemitah.com/).
Jeff is concerned about the dependence of governments and financial market
institutions on extremely low interest rates, even negative interest rates,
which he calls "complete Keynesian insanity". What is happening in Greece right
now is just the beginning. It will eventually happen in other eurozone countries
like Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and in countries all around the world,
including the US.
Government debt in most countries has become so high that minor increases
in the interest rate would lead to immediate default. The explicit US debt
is above $18.3 trillion, as shown in the figure below. This however does not
include implicit debt and liabilities that the US government has accumulated
over the years, for example in the form of social security. Total debt and
liabilities according to Jeff amount to $95 trillion.
"All it takes is, for example, for the Federal Reserve to raise interest
rates by .25 per cent and they can bankrupt the entire financial system.
This is where we are now. It's been complete insanity. They tried to fix
the 2008 crisis by printing money and going into more debt, which is why
they got into that problem in the first place. And we are starting to see
the next wave of major collapses and crises."
As a response to the ongoing war on cash, Jeff suggests to go out of large
cash holdings as soon as possible. He sees one potential solution in BitGold
and even more so in Bitcoin, as a completely decentralized money and payment
system. The price of bitcoin has been rising during the recent Greek crisis,
whereas gold and silver have fallen. However, Jeff points out that the prices
for gold and silver are systematically distorted on a "very manipulated market."
"There is no Bitcoin office, there is no BItcoin servers. So no matter
what the government does, unless they turn off the internet entirely, they
can't stop Bitcoin. That's the beauty of Bitcoin."
Jeff also recommends the internationalization of assets as a hedge against
oppressive interventions by individual countries (suggested links: http://tdvwealthmanagement.com/ and http://tdvoffshore.com/).
Although Mexico is often portrayed as a dangerous third world country, Jeff
can tell from personal experience that it is in many respects a better place
than the US, as there is far less government involvement in private and business
affairs. Mexico will nonetheless face serious problems, because of their close
economic ties to the US. The collapse of the American economy will inevitably
spill over to Mexico.
"But I think people here [in Mexico] are more used to it. So, for example,
they had their peso collapse in the 90s and people lived through it. But
Americans aren't ready for what's coming. They haven't seen it in their lifetime.
And as you know, half the people in the US are on government assistance now,
and a lot of those are on welfare and food stamps. When those EBT cards get
shut down, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near any major population center
in the US."
Jeff generally sees potential in other Latin and South American countries
like Columbia, Chile and even Nicaragua, as well as some Asian countries, but
definitely not in North America, Europe, Japan or Australia, which all share
the same problem: the biggest cohorts of their populations looking for unsustainable
entitlement payments in the near future.
