At the right hand side of every page on this site, you can find a running list of videos, articles, books, etc., that have caught my attention and you might find interesting. Simply look under the Daily Digest header and click on what peaks your curiosity.
Below please find a list of other blogs I routinely visit as my usual morning “newspaper” reading, ordered with my favorites being listed first.
Peak Prosperity (Chris Martenson)
Peak Prosperity focuses on the theory that energy, the economy, and the environment (the “Three E’s”) are all interrelated in a way where you can’t affect one without the others. In addition to an extensive Crash Course outlining how the the world as we know it is on a collision course towards reconciling our massive amounts of debt with a finite amount of resources, they offer routine articles and podcasts that are evidence based, easy to understand for the non-expert, and hugely insightful.
Chris Martenson and Adam Taggart, the two founders, are both former executives working for big companies such as Pfizer and Yahoo! that left their executive lifestyles to build primary wealth and resiliency for when the house of cards comes crashing down. I find their commentary to be invaluable in preparing myself for a world that will inevitably change sooner rather than later.
Topics covered include the economy, stock and bond markets, geopolitics, and the environment. This website is usually my first stop every day.
Of Two Minds (Charles Hugh Smith)
Charles Hugh Smith is a writer and blogger and listed as one of CNBC’s top alternative financial sites. He routinely critiques the status quo when it comes to markets, healthcare, capitalism, and society. Wikipedia says it best: “Smith’s economic works stress the value and efficacy of decentralizing power and wealth, the individual’s power of self-determination and the value of community, which in his view has been diminished by the state.” He has several books, puts out essays almost daily, and is highly responsive to his followers. Coming from a background as a carpenter, he is truly ahead of his time and I find his work extremely informative.
The Survival Podcast (Jack Spirko)
Started in 2008 as a podcast recorded on his 50 minute daily commute to and from work, Jack Spirko started The Survival Podcast as a daily show about self sufficiency and self reliance in the modern world. He’s since quit the 9 to 5 and has thousands of listeners all interested in learning how to “live a better life if times get tough, or even if they don’t.” His shows feature guest interviews as well as Q&A episodes with experts on topics such as permaculture, prepping, energy, cooking, livestock, beekeeping, medicine, finance, and homeschooling, all aimed at helping individuals become self reliant. I’ve found his podcasts to be an endless source of inspiration on how we can take ownership of our own lives.
David Stockman’s Contra Corner
David Stockman was the Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Reagan, later became a very successful Wall Street investor, and is the self-professed “ultimate Washington insider turned iconoclast.” He’s also written a book called The Great Deformation that discusses the history of how American capitalism has become corrupted into its ugly current state. His website focuses almost exclusively on finance and geopolitics but what I love about it is that not only does he come out with one very thorough article every week, he provides daily articles written by over 20 other contrarian minds, which saves me the trouble of having to go digging myself.
>> Visit David Stockman’s Contra Corner
The Economic Collapse Blog (Michael Snyder)
As its name suggests, this blog takes a particularly apocalyptic viewpoint on just about everything that’s happening in the world. Although he always takes the worst-case view on many things, Michael Snyder does publish important news pieces that are all but completely ignored by the mainstream news. He firmly believes that a depression style collapse is coming to America and that we could find ourselves in World War III, both of which are actually not that far-fetched, and I appreciate his articles because they prompt me to make sure I’m continuously playing devil’s advocate when it comes to the direction of events in America and the world.
>> Visit the Economic Collapse Blog
Hussman Funds (John Hussman)
John Hussman is president of Hussman Funds, correctly predicted the 2008-2009 recession, and provides weekly commentary on markets that I find very informative. He takes an alternative method of analyzing markets from most mainstream analysts that looks at not just technical indicators, but also gauges on investor sentiment to arrive at conclusions on whether markets are over/under-valued and how much risk investors are willing to take at any point in time.
>> Visit John Hussman’s Weekly Commentary
Armstrong Economics (Martin Armstrong)
Martin Armstrong is the former chairman of Princeton Economics International and most well known for his “Economic Confidence Model” that he developed which looks at historical events going back to Roman times and makes predictions based on historical business cycles, the oscillation between public and private dominance, and people’s faith in government. He’s known for predicting the stock market crash of ’87 to the very day and claims to have made other similar predictions with great accuracy. He blogs several times a day and it’s difficult to keep up with, and there is a bit of arrogance to his writing, but I have been following him because he takes an alternative viewpoint on things that challenges my thinking and often times seems to make a lot of sense when viewed in a broad historical context.
Clan Against the Grain 