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Let us know if you have had memorable encounters with Doug Casey.

Study Doug for a while, his suggestions are well thought out and presented.

From the lens Doug Casey, the international speculator.

Take a look at the Doug Casey Biography.


Doug Casey is a frequently a speaker at major investment conferences, go give him a listen.

Not everything Doug Casey says is right, not all of his picks work out, but overall he has had a very positive influence on thoughtful and inquiring minds, and on their investment accounts. In fact you will find in Doug's investment philosophy that he expects some failure - he just expects his successes to be big enough to overwhelm those mis-steps.

No one can have great success without being willing to experience failure. We can't eliminate risk. My best opinion is to understand the danger and try to manage your risk. This is just one more lesson worth learning from Doug Casey.

  • jmadison2012 May 17, 2012 @ 7:03 am | delete
    Hi Allan, thanks for sharing this. Suprisingly good newsletter on international investment topics. I might have to check out the book.
  • GodlessHeathen Mar 24, 2012 @ 3:40 am | delete
    I have met Doug several times, he is a good friend of another friend of mine Attorney Marc Victor.
  • wolfie10 Nov 30, 2011 @ 10:46 pm | delete
    great lens. lots to ponder about. looking forward to read his book
  • ikari1976 Oct 24, 2011 @ 8:14 am | delete
    Hey Allan,
    I also love Doug Casey. Great lens.
  • SquidooProductReviews Sep 10, 2011 @ 10:55 am | delete
    We control our own destiny.
  • inowits Sep 7, 2011 @ 2:41 am | delete
    Great books and author. love reading his books.........
  • GoldandSilverProfits Jul 19, 2011 @ 1:11 pm | delete
    Good stuff! Economics in One Lesson is a great, short read - great book to open your mind to the immediate and delayed effects of all economic policies.
  • UKGhostwriter Mar 21, 2011 @ 9:41 am | delete
    Food for thought, certainly
  • jvsper63 Mar 14, 2011 @ 3:46 pm | delete
    Thanks for sharing.lots of great information here. I believe it's great to have a mentor also. Nice lens
  • jackiebolen Feb 16, 2011 @ 6:05 pm | delete
    Some interesting stuff, thank you.
  • aesta1 Feb 14, 2011 @ 1:42 am | delete
    I suppose each one has to find the mentor who could best help. Looks like someone with similar values may be more appealing but as you say, it is best to have an open mind. I have not really followed D. Casey so I can't really judge. But your article is worth an angel blessing.
  • MW Jan 8, 2011 @ 12:11 pm | delete
    I respected Doug for many years and still do on many levels yet the reality is his politics are hard right wing. He is very wealthy and in his writings and commentaries he demonstrates agian and again his contempt and distance from the interests of all but the wealthy. Its like every word out of his mouth is "Government is evil". Doug talks a lot about his many travels and his impressions of countires yet to be objective and honest he would have to admit that countires such as Netherlands, Denmark, Germany ect are in his eyes "Socialist" countries yet these countires today provide a far superior living for the average working people in those countires than does the USA not just the top 1% that Casey champions the cause of. He has lost his objectivity and his humanity...

    I have visited his development in Argentina last month..far to remote..4 hour drive from Salta. Four hour drive to the nearest decent Medical care in Salta in the event of heart attack or stroke. And the steak house he mention while great would get old as well as the village after a while. Great place to visit..yes.beautiful ..yes. To live their?? to far from infrastructure and civilization. Doug Casey makes no mention of the growing corporate facsism in the USA instead is its champion. Must be nice to be so wealthy and wish your fellow americans doom. He hates minimum wage ..he hates Social Security..doenst believe government can play a positive roll in society although many other wealthy advanced nations run balanced budgets and provide their citizens with the services they want. No objectivity..all focused on the interests of the few.
  • BFuniv.com Jan 8, 2011 @ 3:51 pm | delete
    MW, Thanks for the comment. It always helps to have a balancing viewpoint. Wise people will consider your views, Doug's views, and my views, then continue to develop their own adaptable views. There are few wise people.

    I've found the best way to open my mind is to encourage others to open their minds. Thanks for the help.
  • BFuniv.com Feb 9, 2011 @ 6:39 pm | delete
    MW,

    In the free Conversations With Casey eLetter (sign up below this guest book) Doug answers one of your concerns in an 09Feb2011 article. Check the archives. It's not a complete answer. It's just part of the conversational thread.

    In similar manner I partially respond to your concern for the poor in my free market article. It is concern for the poor that has me angry at minimum wages. Minimum wages remove training positions giving needed experience; and close marginal businesses who hire those needing to prove themselves. Minimum wage laws remove the bottom rungs of the self-improvement ladder.

    I'm not right wing or left wing. I'm in the middle, concerned about human rights. Inalienable human rights are more important than all usurping or regulatory laws.
  • dcalsup Sep 4, 2011 @ 9:10 pm | delete
    MW,

    Too bad you have bought the line about the collective good over the individual, nothing lasts if you expect to receive more than you provide, simply because everyone else wants in on that game.
  • markwayne Nov 27, 2011 @ 2:31 am | delete
    "nothing lasts if you expect to receive more than you provide" ...The citizens of Wealthy, highly educated countries like Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland,Norway,Israel ..have decided to provide health care, education and social services to all citizens at tax payer expense because this is the society they want and they confirm this with each new government they elect ..these countries are well manged and very sound finances ..the people pay in and they get out the services they want...Perhaps its time for Americans to turn off Rush and Glen Beck..get a passport and see how the world really works first hand without the self serving corporate propaganda...D calsup..have you ever been to Germany or Denmark???
  • BFuniv.com Nov 27, 2011 @ 9:45 am | delete
    Mark, So what you propose is that Americans give up their heritage of an individualistic American Dream and become exactly like other over-developed nations. You won, we have, and now we can watch the USA enter bankruptcy with all those other nations.

    They will implode first, we have yet to fully catch up.

    The world financial system is collapsing under the corrupt load of buying votes and power with stolen taxes and debt. Germany is already feeling the pain.

    "Can I interest you in investing in a Greek Bond or a German Bund?" Do you want your haircut last month or next?

    I'll give it a 75% chance of a new world monetary system within five years. If not this decade due to a tech miracle that changes everything, than in a decade soon. It could happen next week. It will be painful to many.

    You're right, a passport or two are necessary tools -- for exploring the world and planning your escape. Play the odds; adapt and be prepared for a very different world. We can but guess.

    As my ePulp hero Sparrow Swift would say,
    Have Passports -- Will Travel
  • markwayne Nov 27, 2011 @ 4:47 pm | delete
    Trying to compare Greece with Germany is factually dishonest. Greece coached to lie its way about its finances into the European Union by American firm Goldman Sachs who "cooked its books" for a fee. The same American company who sold "Bundled Mortgages" as triple AAA rated while at the same time "selling short" the very products they were selling (all illegal) and calling the products excrement in internal memos.thus cratering the world economies...is this the American Heritage of independence you speak of? Greece has long had a disfunctional tax collection system..so that rather than "pay as you go" running a Balanced budget they borrowed the difference and banks willingly lent the Greeks the money regardless of the meager tax revenue...is there any responsibility on the banks part who loaned money to governments that cant possibly pay it back? ..or is it that the bankers make their money one way or the other and the Greek citizens get the debt in return for the dishonesty of the bankers who run London and Wall street? The Greek people know this..thats why they are rioting...the fat cats who ran the county and the bankers walk away with the $$$ and they are stuck with the debt..sound familiar?

    Germany is an economic powerhouse as is Denmark and Netherlands and these countries have strong finances because they collect taxes and the citizens have no intention of going for an American system were all the money flows to the top 1%,Because higher education is paid for by taxes the average citizen is much more educated than the average American and is that much more econmicaly productive in their lifetimes ..thus able to pay higher taxes...only a person who has not been in these countries could compare Greece to Germany.
  • BFuniv.com Nov 27, 2011 @ 6:22 pm | delete
    Mark, thanks for the response.

    The world ruled by Goldman Sachs is not the American Heritage, that is factually dishonest -- you know to what I referred. A corrupt government bought and paid for by corrupt unions and corporations was not a part of early America; a now ignored Constitution and Bill Of Rights were set up to keep the government from what it has become -- a threat to all. The safeguards failed.

    America was once a society where an individual was unshackled and able to achieve greatness, we changed the world for the better -- that America no longer exists. My family moved here in the late 1600s; it's sadly time to leave and find a new home for the next few hundred years.

    I didn't compare Greece and Germany, I just mentioned them in the same sentence. I will however say they are in the same boat, the difference is a matter of degree, experience, and time. Germany is far safer fiscally: for now. In my children's lifetime it will likely become a cultural Disneyland for adventurous vacationers. The poverty may be sickening, but the castles will still be beautiful.

    The countries you mention reflect a logical error of survivorship on your part. France might have been included in your list two years ago, early next year it will probably lose its AAA bond rating. A good reason not to mention it today. France probably has the best health care in the world -- in fifty years you will flee France if you have a toothache.

    I had friends that argued like this in college. They brought up lists of surviving communist countries and their attributes, quickly forgetting the fallen or overtly despotic. Today who knows who they mention as proof their theories work. (Folks make a similar survivorship error when analyzing mutual funds, closed funds are not averaged into annual return claims)

    Germany's most recent Bund offering was under-subscribed, they are slowly losing their safe haven status. It may take decades, but all of Europe is dying from over-promising and over-governing. Have you noticed their cries for austerity? Too little -- too late.

    It is much more efficient to allow abundance than penalize success. The American heritage and dream was equal opportunity to abundance, it has been turned into corruption, envy, and decay.

    I'm just taking a guess, but you are well traveled. Consider the worlds poverty -- for much of the world YOU are part of the top 1%. Will you be happy when they drag your family to join them in mud huts?

    It's only fair.
  • markwayne Nov 28, 2011 @ 12:52 am | delete
    I have a simple test for all

    1. Do you believe in Minimum wage laws?
    2. Do you believe in Social Security? (Gov prg to keep elderly fr frez or strv to death)
    3. Do you believe Governments can play a positive roll in societies?

    Prior to Social Security the most common cause of unnatural death among Americas elderly was freezing and or starving to death in poverty..this is a fact.

    In response to "will you be happy when they drag your family to join them in mud huts"...the "they" you refer to are in reality corporate America and much of the wealthy elite who run America who hate minimum wage laws, hate any and all regulation (Goldman..the banks..ect) , hate unions, hate workers rights and frankly hate democracy as they perffer facsism (The melding of corporate and state power..pick up a dictionary) and oligarchy..they dont respect human life or democracy only profit...its in the corporate charter. Jefferson thought the corporate bankers were a bigger threat to American democracy than standing armies...he was correct.

    Bf Funiv, Your a bright man as many libertarians ( I to was a libertarian once..then I got out in the world and saw better systems of governance and realized all the lies I had been told as an American about American exceptionalism ")...are and I enjoy chatting with you

    Your premature to give the Germans, Danish Norweigins, Dutch a death sentence for the future because they believe in and practice different social policies than you believe in ..A perfect Libertarian society exisits in the real world today in reality ..Somalia..a Libertarian paradise! No taxes, no regulations, Minimal government , all services privatize, no minimum wage laws, no public services...exactly what Libertarians want...Somalia should be paradise on earth.. for those on the right..its exactly what they have been asking for!

    The reason recent German Bond auction was troubled had nothing to do with Germany itself (they are more than sound) it had to do with the fact that Germany is the economic powerhouse and richest member of the EU in size and only Germany can come up with the funds to bail out the Euro...by the way Germany has all things Libertarians hate..Excellent health care for ALL, Excellent Social programs for ALL, Excellent educational system for ALL...strong unions and is a very wealthy, healthy and extremely educated country...what can we compare our system to?..have you ever been to Florida, Texas..all good "dumbed down" states...How we handle social policy in this country is worse than a joke it a crime (our health care and educational systems) American rank almost last in the industrial world in math and science..highest in the industrial world in children living in poverty and teen pregnancy ...yes tell me more about American exceptioanlism!
  • BFuniv.com Nov 28, 2011 @ 3:05 am | delete
    1) I believe minimum wage laws remove the bottom rungs of the employment ladder. It becomes too expensive to hire someone for an entry level job. I heard one demand from the Occupy-Wall-Street crew that they wanted everyone to have a living wage, based on a forty hour work week at $20.00 an hour -- if they were employed or not.

    That assumes a government money tree exists. Pardon the Reductio ad absurdum, If it's that easy why not make the minimum wage fifty dollars an hour or more. Make it a million dollars an hour and we'll all be rich. Minimum wage is useless except as a political argument based on emotion. It does not stand up to logic.

    2) Social Security as originally sold made some sense; a safety net for the few most desperate. It is now a huge boondoggle that captures a large chunk of a workers wage, and charges his employer a like amount -- another wage expense the worker will never see.

    The money stolen for SS is used in the general fund and replaced by an IOU called a government bond. Who will pay that IOU when it becomes due? Once again the worker from his taxes. This will not end well.

    3) I believe the basis for societies are individuals, families, and small groups or tribes. Governments are not the societies they repress. Governments can have a positive impact. It's a rare thing, and usually short lived until a schemer takes control, but it can happen. As to unions, they are like their cousins: governments and corporations -- a little is usually more than enough.

    We won't agree on the future of Europe, that's okay. I believe my view allows me a safer route on the chance I'm right. I hope I'm wrong, but the steps I'm taking to live a more resilient life won't hurt me if I am wrong.

    Somalia, like many problems is complicated. But it did exist without constant warfare long before the current mess. One cause of the mess is that overdeveloped nations wanted a leadership they could communicate with, and they annotated one tribe as the national leaders. Somalia's problems are a precursor to Saudi Arabia ( where the tribe of Saud was picked) which will also eventually explode in disorder.

    As an aside look at the world's borders laid out by colonial powers, They intentionally chop up and divide societies. Those nations that were created have constant internal strife; therefore they will offer little competition and be easy to reconquer.

    America was once exceptional because it was different. As it has tried to emulate other systems it has lost that claim. America is now just another Greece or Germany, waiting as the fuse burns.

    Mark. I'll allow you the final post if you wish, I won't answer it, I have a novel to write.

    *may you find your best in life and live it* Allan
  • markwayne Nov 28, 2011 @ 5:36 am | delete
    MInimum wage in Denmark today is $20 ph and Denmark is the strongest economy in Europe (sorry Libertarians ..its a fact). Workers at Mc Donalds in Europe get $12-$15 pr hour, A month paid vacation , Free advanced Education, free Medical care ( all this is paid with taxes)
    in short..a life and living wage. And yet McDonalds cant open enough stores in Europe because even after the wages it is profitable.... Oh I forgot Libertarians demand that all the profits in society flow to the very top and all the rest of us are just lazy, undeserving, unproductive...or did the some leader once call us "useless eaters"...enough...only the rich are worthy..all the rest of us can either attempt to get rich in a rigged system or to hell with us ...I get the message..what would Jesus..Buda..Jehova say about this philosophy?
  • JVandewalker Dec 19, 2010 @ 8:08 pm | delete
    Doug Casey has personally helped me to make money. Thanks for all the information on him.
  • Lauren Boyd Jul 27, 2009 @ 9:17 pm | delete
    Got a kick out of reading that you paid over $100 for a used copy of The International Man. I have several hard copies (along with Casey's other books) stored in a box in the basement. As a long-ago 20-year-old who worked with Doug and Bob Kephart to publish these books, I guess I had better hold onto them. Lots of memories....
  • duvallweb May 17, 2009 @ 6:59 pm | delete
    Very good lens I have always liked Doug Casey and believe he has a great business sense. Keep
    up the good work! 5*
  • BFuniv.com Feb 19, 2009 @ 10:42 pm | in reply to kevin | delete
    Doug's best selling book on Crises Investing was followed by another popular book, Crises Investing For The Rest Of The 90's. He must have done something right to get repeat readers.

    Where Doug Casey's books and newsletters have greatest value is in their arguments and understandings of economics. Casey points out opportunity and dangers that lie ahead - it is up to us to decide if and when we pull the trading trigger. As I've said, he tends to be too early at entering and exiting positions - that can be very smart.

    If you can find his 90's book, take a look at either of his suggested portfolio approaches in chapter 7 - both would still be serving you well. Both should offer some protection in the crises times we now find ourselves in.
  • kevin Feb 19, 2009 @ 9:39 pm | delete
    Are you kidding me??? This guy totally was out to lunch in his Crisis Investing book around 1980.
  • Graten Nov 19, 2007 @ 10:54 pm | delete
    I had a long conversation with Doug in Denver recently (2007). He is very funny (though He doesn't try to be). He is a mindful man with a big heart but he also has no patience for stupidity, apathy, or ignorance. Get smart stop voting and start preparing. Read Casey and Bill Bonner. Tune out Hannity

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