Legend Warned Us To Be Prepared For The Massive Financial Destruction That Lies Ahead

Late last year, the Godfather of newsletter writers, Richard Russell, warned people to be prepared for the massive financial destruction that is ahead: “It’s 1945 and I’m just getting out of the Air Force. Millions of men are being released from the armed services and they are all looking for jobs. Jobs are almost impossible to find at that time, but happily my parents know the head of a textile company. He was nice enough to give me a job and my designing abilities soon became apparent.

I designed cotton fabrics and often went out with my designs to see customers. In the 1940’s Merrill Lynch had an office on 46th street. I would drop in occasionally and over time I became fascinated with the stock market. A lot of old timers would hang around the board room and talk stocks. I became increasingly fascinated with the stock market but being Richard Russell, I wanted to see how it worked.

So I visited the huge New York city public library. The library had an enormous room dedicated to economics. One by one I went through every book I could find on the stock market. Nothing made sense to me. Finally, I was given a loose leaf portfolio with an investment service in it named Dow Theory Comment. It was written by Robert Rhea, an early genius in the history of stock market analysis.

Rhea had called the exact bottom of the 1932 bear market. He told his subscribers to buy stocks in July, 1932. Rhea was a master at reading the movements of the market. And he put particular emphasis on the relationship between the Industrial Average and the Transportation Average.

The more I read Rhea, the more I was impressed with his analysis. In fact I was so impressed with Rhea’s writing that I decided to write a Dow Theory Letter of my own. Rhea died in 1939, and for years later, nothing more was written about Dow Theory. In 1958 the market sank and a severe recession followed. The Industrial Average dropped to 577. I noticed that during the whole bull market that started in 1932, there was no usual third phase explosion.

The Early Days: Barron’s Editor Bob Bleiberg Called Me 57 Years Ago

In the meantime Bob Bleiberg, the editor of Barron’s, had seen some of my writing and called me to visit. He said that nobody since Rhea’s death had written about Dow Theory, and did I want to write an article on Dow Theory at the moment. I quickly agreed and spent the next three nights perfecting an article about Dow Theory. At the time, Wall Street was very gloomy, but my article projected a coming third phase of the bull market. This was just what traders wanted to hear. Over the next two weeks, I received 300 subscriptions to what I called my new Dow Theory Letters.

In those days there was very little competition in investment services and I couldn’t have entered the business at a better time. That was in 1958. During the next many years I continued to write Dow Theory Letters, and at its peak I had 10,000 subscribers.

The Later Years: Things Get Really Tough

Over the last few years, I broke my left hip, and was knocked down by a stroke. Previously, I had a quintuple heart bypass surgery. But I continued without interruption to write Dow Theory Letters. A few years ago, Faye, my wife of 27 years, left me. She left me alone and afraid. And my interest turned to spirituality. I realized that fear was the curse of the world, and I used my own fears as a source of study. I realized that most of the world’s problems stem from fears that were contracted during infancy or childhood. I used myself as a case history.

I can’t believe that with all the progress mankind has made, that we’re about to slide into a massive bear market.

When Counterfeiters Are In Charge You Must Protect Yourself

I just heard Janet Yellen speak. It seems to me that Yellen and the Fed are bullish on the economy. I’m afraid that they’re going to be wrong. The whole picture of the US and world economy is so confusing that the best thing to do is simply follow the stock market.

My subscribers should be invested in bullion silver and gold. It’s time to be out of stocks. The economy is still deflating and deleveraging. Once the Fed recognizes this, they will put off raising rates as long as they can.”

March 24, 2016
KWN