“Oh, ye of little faith! If you have faith of a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove. Nothing shall be impossible unto you.” — Matthew 17:20
As investors, we live in fear, not faith. We fear the pandemic, we fear the economic depression and we fear a bear market.
Where is our faith in capitalism, in free enterprise and entrepreneurship? Certainly, our government’s leaders do not believe in the ability and common sense of business owners to make their own decisions about dealing with customers, employees and suppliers.
Dale Carnegie wrote a bestseller, “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.” If he were alive today, he would need to write a sequel, “Live in Faith, Not Fear.”
We have plenty of faith in the medical authorities. We trust our leaders, but where is our faith in God and in ourselves to make the right decisions?
We live in fear. The pandemic scare is a perfect example of this. Everyone is running scared and our leaders are mandating shutdowns, the wearing of masks, social distancing, the sanitization of everything and the closure of businesses, trade, transportation, sporting events, concerts and conferences.
The government is making all the decisions for us, instead of letting us make the right choices.
We should hope and pray that we can live our lives and go back to work, play and worship without fearing that everyone will die. Certainly, we should take the proper precautions. Let’s not tempt God. But where are the modern-day Daniels who can enter the lion’s den and not be harmed? The Greatest Generation would never put up with this.
Hillsdale College Makes Heroic Decision
Hillsdale’s president, Larry Arnn, has faith in both God and man. He defied the governor of Michigan and went ahead with Hillsdale’s in-person graduation ceremonies last weekend. More than 2,600 students and family members showed up. The college took all precautions to make the event safe, and they succeeded.
Your editor visiting Larry Arnn in his Hillsdale office last year.
In defense of the First Amendment right to the freedom of peaceful assembly, Arnn stated, “Since 1856, the college has exercised those rights by holding annual commencement exercises — including during the Civil War, World War I, the 1918 Pandemic, the Great Depression and World War II.”
It was gutsy for Hillsdale to do its graduation in 1918, and the administration pulled it off again in 2020.
Dr. Arnn has agreed to tell us the whole story at our FreedomFest conference, which will occur from July 14-17, 2021 (mark your calendars).
I’m convinced I could have taught the rest of my spring semester at Chapman University, and the students and I would have been fine. We could have had FreedomFest in Vegas this year with 1,500-plus people without incident because we had arranged to take all the precautions that we thought would be needed to protect us. But my faith was never tested. The imperial governor of Nevada shut us down. Everyone panicked and the scaremongering continues, month after month.
Last week, Sen. Rand Paul, a physician and one of our keynote speakers at FreedomFest, commented on the recently re-imposed restrictions in states that are seeing new COVID-19 spikes.
Sen. Paul said individuals “need to assess their own risks with regard to the virus,” saying that for “those under 18, the risk of mortality is about one in a million or a little bit less. For those ages 18 to 45, it’s about 10 out of 100,000 for the mortality.”
“Under age 45, this disease we’re looking at is less dangerous than the seasonal flu. Above age 45, it’s more dangerous than the seasonal flu,” he said.
And for this we panicked and closed schools, universities, concerts, sporting events, trade and businesses? It is like we used a sledge hammer to crack a nut. Oh, ye of little faith!
And now we are paying the price. Heather Mac Donald (Manhattan Institute) described the government’s response as “four months of unprecedented malfeasance” in a lecture at Hillsdale College. Read it here.
Me? I have faith that entrepreneurs, not government bureaucrats, will solve our problems. They will come up with the solutions, the vaccines and the best plans for us to remain health, wealthy and wise.
In my newsletter, Forecasts & Strategies, I’m demonstrating my faith in capitalism by recommending the tech stocks that have a great future.
But I also know that the government is making a huge mistake by giving away free money and living beyond its means. So, I continue to recommend investing in gold and silver.
‘Maxims’ Has Never Been More Popular
Alex Green, chief investment strategist of the Oxford Club and a long-time friend, just wrote up an unexpected and much appreciated review of the latest edition of “Maxims of Wall Street,” calling it a “crash course for investors.”
He wrote, “The Maxims is a pithy and indispensable guide, and is destined to be a classic. I found myself chuckling (and occasionally sighing) when I first read this book. And I still refer to it regularly.” Read his review.
His review has led to the sale of more than 500 copies, and I’ve had to reorder! People are buying the book like crazy during this lockdown. They need a guide to these uncertain times.
Most buy more than one copy to give to friends and clients.
The first copy is $20, and all additional copies are only $10 — I number and autograph each copy and pay the postage if mailed in the United States. Several subscribers have bought an entire box of 32 copies for only $300. As Hetty Green, America’s first female millionaire, stated, “When I see a bargain, I buy a lot.”
To purchase one or more copies, go to www.skousenbooks.com.
Good investing, AEIOU,
Mark Skousen
You Nailed It!
An Olivia de Havilland Story by FBI Agent W. Cleon Skousen
Last week, the great actress, Olivia de Havilland, passed away at the age of 104. She was the last actor in the classic film, “Gone With the Wind,” to die.
I thought you’d enjoy this remarkable little known story about her:
An Olivia de Havilland Story, Excerpted From The Journals of FBI Agent W. Cleon Skousen
The first time my uncle Cleon told me this story in the early 1990s, I thought that it should be published. However, Cleon insisted that we wait until after she died. As it turned out, Cleon lived to be 93 and died in early 2006, and Olivia lived to be 104.
Now, the story is out — I sent it to the New York Times, but the newspaper didn’t use it in its obituary. Even so, it is an incredible part of her life.
We plan to dedicate a room to Olivia de Havilland at next year’s FreedomFest, assuming that the imperial governor of Nevada allows us to hold the event next year after forcing its cancelation earlier this month. See you there!
Special to ConservativeHQ by Mark and Jo Ann Skousen
