Alan, you’ve written a book entitled “The Critical Flaw: How to profit and protect wealth in history’s greatest opportunity” – tell my readers a bit about your book.
I have written my first book, “The Critical Flaw: How to profit and protect wealth in history’s greatest opportunity” with the mission to increase awareness on the global unsustainable macroeconomic forces and help concerned individuals take action today before an increasingly likely currency crisis occurs once again. However, I prefer sharing what others had to say about my book, in order to offer your readers an objective opinion; therefore, I invite everybody to read what ForeWord Clarion Reviews had to say on this matter.
“In his first book, The Critical Flaw: How to profit and protect wealth in history’s greatest opportunity, Dr. Alan P. Chan is using this Greenspan quote to assert his belief that the “critical flaw” presents a great investment opportunity. Dr. Chan makes a very solid case that physical gold and silver, rather than traditional currency, will be part of an enormous wealth transfer system and that those who recognize the potential shift will benefit.
With a straightforward, accessible writing style that conveys his obvious passion for the topic, Dr. Chan articulates important points of economic theory without becoming too abstract. He covers topics like inflation, quantitative easing, the “fiscal cliff”, and the global debt crisis with clarity and purpose.
As an experienced precious metals trader, the author has a unique perspective from the inside. In presenting research and evidence of money’s shaky foundation as an economic driver, Dr. Chan’s insight is enthralling.
Well-argued and ultimately quite persuasive, Dr. Chan’s comprehensive guide to precious-metals investment will spark discussion about current economic models and the gold standard’s return. When the next financial crisis hits, readers of The Critical Flaw will have all the information they need to be ready.”
The title draws the reader in and I sense there is a story behind it. Please share.
The title came directly from the transcript of the October 23rd 2008’s Congressional hearing of the Federal Reserve Chairman where Congress was desperate to find out why and how the financial crisis happened:
“Well, remember that what an ideology is, is a conceptual framework with the way people deal with reality. Everyone has one. You have to — to exist, you need an ideology. The question IS whether it is accurate or not. And what I’m saying to you is, yes, I found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is, but I’ve been very distressed by that fact. Flaw in the model that I perceived is the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works” -Dr. Alan Greenspan, Former Federal Reserve Chairman
Greenspan was referring to the ability of banks and markets to regulate themselves, an ideology he admitted went wrong with the 2008 economic meltdown.
On the other hand, the financial crisis in 2008 left my investment portfolio wounded, having lost then around 75% of my heavily leveraged real estate portfolio.
Corroborating these two aspects, I have started researching the flaws in the US financial system, together with an in-depth analysis of macroeconomics. 4 years of intense work resulted in these shocking facts and data. Hereby, they now act as a wake-up call to those with concerned by future bubbles to come.
“Bubble” is a term that is tossed around by the politicians and media with almost little meaning. Experts often explain too much money rushing into a speculative investment causes economic bubbles. Although that is partially the answer, it does not explain why these bubbles get exponentially larger and more lethal.
The goal of The Critical Flaw is to explain the fundamental mechanism of macroeconomics with historic evidence on why and how this have happened many times over in the course of human history. In addition, it shows us a way in how to profit and protect ourselves from the next massive bubble burst. Precious metals have always been the choice of a true free market when fiat money destabilizes the economy throughout human history.
As a result, I am on a mission with the goal to increase awareness of the global unsustainable macroeconomic forces and help concerned individuals take action today before an increasingly likely currency crisis occurs once again.
What was your motivation in writing this book?
After I was impacted by the financial crisis in 2008, I began writing with the goal to increase awareness on the impact a financial crisis has on ones business portfolio by asking fundamental questions, such as:
- What causes bubbles?
- How and why do they form?
- How can our financial system and monetary policies allow this to happen?
- Do we REALLY have a “free market”?
- How can we protect ourselves from future bubbles? And profit from bursting bubbles?”
Now I regard my book as a valuable fundamental investing tool which will enrich its readers with in-depth economic knowledge and proven strategies on how to invest in precious metals in order to protect their assets.
One of my goal is to develop a close community who wishes to broaden their know-how, resulting in a global learning environment, where people would share their stories and develop strategies for protecting and increasing their net worth.
The Critical Flaw was written with the sole purpose of informing and educating people on what happened in the past and why. History tends to repeat itself in the same manner, it’s best to be informed, as knowledge is power.
The book is well written and evidences that you’ve done your homework. However, based on the current recovery and drop in the price of hard assets, do you think that economic collapse is still realistic? Moreover, are your investment alternatives, including the ones in the form of precious metals still stand, given the current situation?
These are excellent questions and probably the biggest questions for those standing on the outside. Proper Perspective must be achieved to understand the basic fundamentals.
There is no true economic recovery. In fact, economically speaking, we are getting worse. Readers of The Critical Flaw will understand how government and media calculate their numbers which do not show the whole truth.
For example: calculation of GDP includes sum total of prices in goods and services. As long as the Feds continues bail outs programs (such as: QE, bond purchasing…etc) and government continues to increase debt ceiling, these acts in getting further in debt will continue to give us the illusion of “recovery” because our GDP will always increase through inflating prices. All at the expense of devaluing the hard-earned paper dollar we earned worth less. The “recovery” is with respect to recovering and repeating the previous bubbles.
Short answer is YES, these suggestions still stands very firm and even more realistic. Readers of The Critical Flaw will gain confident knowledge in why and how macroeconomics works, they will learn gold and silver’s crucial role in today’s internationalized economy and financial system. The intrinsic economic fundamentals for gold and silver have actually gotten much stronger during this time of price fluctuation.
So when readers know exactly why and how to invest in precious metals, this is a GREAT OPPORTUNITY!
Gold and Silver are undervalue assets. Gold should be worth more than $5,000 / troy oz. Silver over $100/ troy oz.
During this time of fluctuation, gold and silver were flying out of the vaults. Due to unprecedented demand, the U.S. mint ran out of silver Eagles temporarily beginning of this year. This is a global phenomenon. Especially in Asia, where the general population there understands what will ensue when rate of fiat money printing keeps on increasing by central banks around the world.
Now, here is an interesting question. Think about Supply and Demand curve. How is it possible that an already undervalue asset with high global demands, have even higher record global demands when prices drop?
Readers of The Critical Flaw will confidently understand the following:
- How are gold and silver prices determined?
- What does History have written about gold and silver?
- Are you a trader or investor?
1st. Without going too much into the complex mechanism, basically the precious metal prices are determined by a few main news driven factors:
- Global and U.S. Inflation (think CPI of US, China and other countries)
- Trade imbalance and U.S. debt
- Global central banks money printing activities (such as Quantitative Easing, bail outs and Bond purchasing programs)
- Interest rates
- Private physical gold and silver investment demand and supply
- Liquidity and amount of paper gold and silver (such as future contracts, ETFs like the GLD and SLV that you can trade like stocks with just a push of a button in your brokage account)
Generally speaking, like all investments, price fluctuation in gold and silver is within normal characteristic. It is easy to lose track and lose confidence in your investments if you do not understand the fundamentals.
The 2nd Question, The Critical Flaw, will supply readers with ample evidence that history is littered with sovereign defaults to show readers how it will CERTAINLY happen again and WHY today’s economic conditions is RIPE for the Perfect Storm.
Since recorded history of civilization, EVERY SINGLE TIME when a government deviate their money from gold and silver as monetary vehicle and use other less valuable things with less or no intrinsic value to be used as legal tender (such as: paper currencies) to finance wars and other deficit spending via printing, their currency ALWAYS collapse approximately every 30-40 years, YES, even in the very short History of the U.S. The only way to truly recover from defaults and bankruptcies, civilizations have always reverted back to a monetary system backed by gold and silver.
By the way, do you know which country was the 1st recorded sovereign default that happened in 400 B.C.?
It is Greece. Talk about having experience in giving haircuts!
So, 42 years have passed since President Nixon delinked the dollar to gold ending the Bretton Wood System in 1971. Coupled with all the symptoms and evidences described in The Critical Flaw, the next collapse or next much greater depression is just around the murky corner.
Armed with the Proper Perspective provided by The Critical Flaw, to answer what I think about the recent price fluctuation will only yield a short sighted explanation. What’s more important is to ask yourself, HOW? WHY? and WHEN? an economic collapse will happen again. The Critical Flaw will equip readers with POWERFUL KNOWLEDGE to navigate the coming tough times.
Ultimately the choice is yours. To take action, participate and learn…. Or not and chose the easier option, to live in a reality that do not exist.
What do you hope the reader will gain from your book?
I believe that my greatest strength as a writer is researching truth, therefore my readers will gain proper perspective on what’s truly happening in the economy and readers will learn important strategies in how to profit and protect wealth using precious metals.
I have spent over 4 years on researching and analyzing evidences and data with an objective approach to give readers the true picture of what is behind the mainstream media, banks, and government headliners. I believe that it will help readers to make informed and confident decisions towards protecting their assets and profiting from the next financial crisis.
There are other books that take a similar stance toward the economy – what makes your book different for the reader?
The big difference is The Critical Flaw is independently published with autonomous voice and perspective. As an author, I am not under the political and financial influence of some national publishers and mainstream media that have bias or conflict of interest(s) with the subject matter. And most importantly, I’m reachable, I’m real and I understand, I was in the same boat as many people who was hurt badly by the last financial crisis and I’m determined to protect and profit in the next crisis.
A number of my readers are in the media, so as we conclude this interview – what two things would you want them to know about the uniqueness of your book?
- The Critical Flaw address, explore and takes advantage of the flaw that Dr. Alan Greenspan, Former Federal Reserve Chairman, have admitted in the 2008 Congressional hearing.
- The Critical Flaw also explore how the following quote will impact our future:
“In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. … This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists’ tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists’ antagonism toward the gold standard.” -Dr. Alan Greenspan, Former Federal Reserve Chairman
AS ALWAYS YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME!
