Copyright 2012 by John T. Reed
I am famous for not suffering fools gladly. Many have emailed links to my order info page because they thought it was very funny. It’s just rules for ordering my stuff and dealing with order problems. I guess it’s funny because I am not from the “Customer is always right” school of thought. Enjoy.
I used to do one- and two-day seminars. I did not swear off them, but neither do I have any planned.
I am speaking at the Money Show in San Francisco on August 24, 2012. They do not charge for that and I do not get paid for it.
However, when I did charge, I learned over the years that certain rules were necessary. One was I would not allow you to attend unless you paid for it yourself out of your own pocket. No one whose fee was paid by anyone else could attend.
I also began the first morning with comments along the following lines.
Good morning. Ground rules. I may not be the smartest person in the room. I’m not ruling it out, but I am not claiming it either. But for the purposes of my formal remarks, we will all make the working assumption that I am the smartest person in the room. That means this is not a debate. I talk, You take notes. If you have a legitimate question, I will try to answer it. But I will not allow questions that violate the Federal Rules of Evidence, like rhetorical questions, argumentative questions, irrelevant questions, questions that have already been answered and so on.
Since I am the advertised speaker, everyone is here to hear me. No one came to hear you. Therefore they WILL hear me and they will NOT hear you.
We will have a 15 minute break in the middle of each of the morning and afternoon session, we will do lunch together, and I will hold court at 5:30 PM after the seminar is over in the lobby in the upholstered chairs next to the bar. During breaks, lunch, or my holding court at the end of the formal session, you may debate me if you wish, but not during class.
I usually had to slap one person down, figuratively speaking, who did not believe those comments, per weekend, but after that, all was quiet on the audience front.
I also write sports coaching books. Like all my books, they are iconoclastic. I do not write any other kind of book.
But iconoclasm generates debate. In coaching, I get a lot of theoretical questions or arguments along the line of:
I like your football defense, but my assistant coaches say it won’t work. Could you talk to them or tell me how to convince them.
Me:
I could talk to them, but I won’t. I will not waste my time. If you are the head coach, fire them. Basically, the suggestion that my defense won’t work implies that my defense is some untested theory. I have sold thousands of copies of that book. I used it when I coached. It did work. My readers have used it. Read my testimonials. Some are from guys who won the U.S. national Pop Warner Superbowl with my defense. These critics on your staff probably have never even seen my defense in action. What the hell would they know about it?
Put my defense in as I said in my book. If you have an actual problem, as opposed to a theoretical one like these guys are bringing up in somebody’s dining room, call me. I will diagnose it and prescribe a remedy, probably within minutes. Then you will implement the remedy and everyone will live happily ever after.
There are now so many readers and users of my book that you will probably coach against one this season. If you do not use my stuff, he will kick your ass. During that game, point out to your assistants that they are now facing the defense they said would not work and point out to them that the plays they said would be so easy to run against the defense are the only things not working out on the field.
You can see my rule against theoretical problem calls in the bottom right of the web page http://www.johntreed.com/fbarticles.html.
All right, now all of that is the build-up to my new rules for critiquing my recommended currencies for diversification against USD hyperinflation. I am fed up with hearing from nit pickers who say I am wrong about Australia because their unions like a carbon tax or New Zealand because the finance minister there stubbed his toe, etc.
My position is that I have moved savings account money to Australian dollars (AUD), Canadian dollars (CAD), New Zealand dollars (NZD) and Swiss francs (CHF) because I believe the U.S. government will hyperinflate the U.S. dollar (USD) within the next four years, a little less now that Obamacare has been upheld by the Supreme Court. You should follow my example.
My recommendations imply that I believe those currencies will not hyperinflate more than the USD.
That’s all I’m saying.
If all of them hyperinflate the same as the USD, I am no worse off for having diversified.
To the pedant who thinks I am worse off by the amount of the currency conversions charges: I say this.
If you ignore my advice, stay totally in the USD, and lose your life savings as a result, and a friend says, “Well, at least you saved the currency conversion charges you would have paid if you followed Reed’s advice,” you will punch him in the nose.
If those other countries hyperinflate, but not as much as the USD, I will be better off.
If they inflate not at all or only a little bit, I will be infinitely better off.
So I am not interested in vague discussions about the economies of any of these countries or impending recessions or trade imbalances or any of that macroeconomic nonsense. Show me the greater-than-USD hyperinflation!
So here are the rules for criticizing my four choices:
1. You must state the facts and logic that prove those countries, or any of them, will hyperinflate more than the USD in the next four or five years.
2. You must identify the new country you say will be the best one to replace the country you claim does not belong on the list.
3. If you feel four countries other than the US are not enough, you must provide the facts and logic that prove that, plus identify the country or countries you say should be added to the list.
I will ignore all criticism that fails to comply with those rules. If you are inspired to find fault, that fails to comply with my rules, with one of my four recommended countries/currencies, please write it up, print it out, and stick it up your ass. I accept Mastercard or Visa, but not half-baked criticism.
John T. Reed