American Monetary Association (Audio Podcast)

Lewis Schiff is the Executive Director of the Inc. Business Owners Council and author of, "Business Brilliant: Surprising Lessons from the Greatest Self-Made Business Icons."

Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer recently laid down the jackhammer: all her employees must now report to the office... no more working at home. Schiff discusses this debatable cultural phenomena. He also breaks down entrepreneurship and how important ideas are to entrepreneurial success. Apparently, doing what you "love" will not necessarily give you the best return. 

Lewis Schiff is the chairman and executive director of Inc. Business Owners Council. His new book, Business Brilliant: Surprising Lessons from the Greatest Self-Made Business Icons, was released in March, 2013. His new book, as well as his previous books, The Influence of Affluence and The Armchair Millionaire are based on research on best practices of high net worth and high-performing households. 

Visit Lewis Schiff's website at www.lewisschiff.com/. Check out Inc.'s Business Owners Council at www.inc.com/.

Direct download: ama-64-LewisSchiff.mp3
Category:Audio Podcast -- posted at: 11:16am EDT

Joe Peta is the author of, "Trading Bases, A Story About Wall Street, Gambling, and Baseball. He was a fifteen-year all-star Wall Street veteran trader, but decided to give up that lifestyle. Instead, he chose to improve on Moneyball's famed sabermetrics to place bets that would beat Vegas odds on Major League Baseball games. He ended up making a 41% profit over the 2011 season. Peta shares his strategies with Jason. He believes there is a far greater chance of making money betting on baseball than on football or basketball. Peta also talks about the influences Bill James and Nate Silver had on him and his work. 

On the financial side, Peta explains Dick Fuld's rough charm as CEO of Lehman Brothers. As a former Lehman employee, he think the U.S. should have rescued Lehman. Now, it looks like Las Vegas should turn to Wall Street for ideas on ways to increase interest, traffic, and, ultimately, bets in their sports books.

Raised in West Chester, PA by a first generation Italian-American father who adopted baseball as a symbol of his love of America, Joe Peta quickly learned the joy of following the sport --- and the pain of being a 1970s-era Phillies fan.  By the time he was a teenager, Joe felt certain that his heroes Mike Schmidt, Larry Bowa, Steve Carlton, et al would one day be his co-workers. While his father instilled a love of baseball in him, sadly, Joe inherited his mother’s throwing arm, so by the time he was in college he turned his career ambitions toward the glamorous and fast-paced life of a Certified Public Accountant.  His new heroes were men like Bill James and Warren Buffett and Joe parlayed his love of numbers into an MBA from Stanford University.  Even in business school, sports were never far from his mind.  At Stanford, Joe penned columns in The Stanford Daily and The Reporter that earned him a following in spite of the constant references to Melrose Place, and his turning down the opportunity to interview campus golfer Tiger Woods to fruitlessly pursue an interview with Olympic Gold Medal winning swimmer Summer Sanders.

In 2011, while recovering from a massive leg injury which curtailed his trading career on Wall Street, Joe began writing Trading Bases, A Story About Wall Street, Gambling, and Baseball.

Joe lives in San Francisco with his wife and two daughters.

Direct download: ama-63-JoePeta.mp3
Category:Audio Podcast -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Jason speaks with Tres Knippa about Japan's looming debt and how to potentially profit from it. Learn more about Tes at www.shortjapandebt.com.

Direct download: ama-16-TresKinppa.mp3
Category:Audio Podcast -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

Rohan Mathew is the Founder of The Intersect Fund, which is a non-profit organization that helps low-income people get the financial help, training, mentorship and more to turn aspirations into real businesses. Rohan shares some of his success stories that stem from a big boom in micro-entrepreneurship. A small micro loan help turn a worker into a boss. Rohan assesses the state of entrepreneurship and its outlook for 2013 and also gives his tips for building a business from the ground up.

Visit The Intersect Fund at www.intersectfund.org/.

Direct download: ama-61-RohanMatthew.mp3
Category:Audio Podcast -- posted at: 5:00am EDT

Robert Greene is probably the most famous author on power and strategy. His new book is titled Mastery.

Greene explains what can we learn from the lives and philosophies of historical figures like Sun Tzu and Napoleon. He also explains the best way to manipulate someone. 

Through a mastery of subject, Greene believes everyone is capable of professional transcendence.

He also wrote a book with the rapper 50 Cent and thinks there is a lot to learn from the hood life.

Find out more about Robert Greene at www.powerseductionandwar.com.

Direct download: ama-60-RobertGreene.mp3
Category:Audio Podcast -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Jason talks with financial expert Logan Mohtashami regarding the massive student loan debt problem and how students can make smarter decisions. They also discuss where the economy is going.

Logan Mohtashami is a senior loan manager at his family-run mortgage company, AMC Lending Group, which has been providing mortgage services for California residents since 1987. He has been an active trader in the stock market since 1996.  His other passion is our political system in this country.  Logan is also a financial columnist for Benzinga.com and his goal in his blog is to do what he can to provide readers with real time truthful information on the housing sector and finance.

Direct download: ama-59-LoganMohtashami.mp3
Category:Audio Podcast -- posted at: 5:00pm EDT

Jason Hartman is joined by author, Scott Patterson to discuss high frequency trading, of which roughly 70 percent is driven by computers. Scott says the firms using artificial intelligence for high-speed trading make it nearly impossible for the little guy to compete in the markets. According to his book, Dark Pools, these robot systems trade in milliseconds. High frequency firms flood the market with buy and sell orders, effectively clogging up the system and posing a threat to other firms. For more details, listen at: www.JasonHartman.com. While this electronic exchange made the system more effective, one has to wonder if this trading style hasn’t become detrimental to the markets overall when trading successfully is defined by milliseconds. Scott coined the term “A.I. Bandits” to describe electronic high frequency trading. Scott also discusses the history of quant strategies based on his book, The Quants, a mathematical scientific approach to outsmarting Wall Street, which led to the recent financial crash. He calls the quant system “a classic tale of hubris.”

Scott Patterson is author of The Quants and his new release, Dark Pools, and is currently a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, where he covers financial regulation from Washington, D.C. He has also written for the New York Times, Rolling Stone and Mother Earth News. He has a Masters of Arts degree from James Madison University. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

Direct download: AMA58-ScottPatterson.mp3
Category:Audio Podcast -- posted at: 10:00am EDT

Jason Hartman interviews Keith Fitz-Gerald, the Chairman of The Fitz-Gerald Group and Chief Investment Strategist at Money Map Press. More at: http://www.jasonhartman.com. A bestselling financial author, Keith's investment perspective is a daily feature for more than 500,000 Money Morning subscribers in 35 countries. A frequent commentator for financial news outlets including Fox Business, Bloomberg, CNBC Asia, Cavuto, Varney & Company, BNN, MarketWatch, and others, Keith Fitz-Gerald is among an elite handful of world-recognized experts on global investing.

Keith tours constantly on the financial lecture circuit alongside other legendary investor analysts including Jim Rogers, Steve Forbes, and Dr. Mark Faber and was lauded as a "Business Visionary" on the recent Forbes.com list. His engaging style and remarkable predictive record resonates with his audiences in North America, Europe, and Asia; investors and business leaders eager for Keith's insights into how colossal global economic, social, and political trends are disrupting the paradigms of the last 50 years to create the most extraordinary investment opportunities of our lifetimes. The investment community praised Keith's recent book Fiscal Hangover (Wiley) as "Essential reading for every serious investor" and "A brilliant, spirited explanation of the origins of the current mess and more importantly how you can cleverly turn the chaos to your advantage.". His upcoming book Tomorrow (Sutton Hart 2012) spotlights today's global trends and offers a roadmap for business leaders and investors to profitably navigate the turbulent waters of unprecedented global change.

Direct download: AMA57-KeithFitzgerald.mp3
Category:Audio Podcast -- posted at: 10:00am EDT

Jason Hartman is joined by contributing author for GoldMoney.com, Alasdair MacLeod for a rousing discussion of the decline of the European economy, the mistakes of the European Central Bank and EU, and how “governments are eating their own children.” Alasdair makes a rather accurate comparison between the fall of Rome and the current economic disaster around the world, calling it the Nero influence. Governments continue to spend money and introduce new taxes that are detrimental to the people they serve. The ECB is now lowering collateral standards as they run out of quality collateral, such as taking on mortgage-backed securities, in exchange for helping banks and governments. For more details, listen at: www.JasonHartman.com. Alasdair said the real problem among Greece, Spain, Italy and other countries in crisis is that they are broke, yet they continue to meet to discuss increasing spending to build infrastructure and creating token taxes. Governments the world round are in a debt trap, including the U.S. Alasdair feels there is only one way to defer the imminent fall and that is for the Central Banks to come together and put into play quantitative easing. Governments would then need to seriously cut their excessive, wasteful spending.

Direct download: AMA56-AlasdairMacleod.mp3
Category:Audio Podcast -- posted at: 10:00am EDT

Jason Hartman hosts an interesting interview with Professor Laurence Kotlikoff, author of The Clash of Generations: Saving Ourselves, Our Kids, Our Economy, regarding the problems with the economy and the effect that the astronomical national debt and government spending will have on generations to come. Listen at: www.JasonHartman.com. Professor Kotlikoff paints a picture of the magnitude of these issues very clearly, explaining that the fiscal gap is $211 trillion. He explains that we would have to raise every federal tax immediately and permanently by 64 percent or cut all non-interest spending by the government (Medicare, Social Security, defense spending, etc) by 40 percent. “The country is broke, totally broke,” says Professor Kotlikoff. He emphasizes that this applies to today, not 75 years down the road. Jason and Professor Kotlikoff also discuss why the 2007 quadrupled money base through money printing hasn’t hit the streets yet in the form of hyperinflation. Essentially, banks are being bribed to hold money reserves by the Fed. In simplistic terms, the Federal Reserve prints the money, lends it out at very low interest rates to the banks, and then the banks deposit it back with the Federal Reserve and get a higher interest rate. This makes banks more solvent over time without the public ever knowing what is going on. Professor Kotlikoff also talks about a proposal to fix the financial system, which he refers to as a fragile system, presently a “trust me” banking system where the public is unaware of what the banks are doing with their money.
Laurence J. Kotlikoff is a William Fairfield Warren Professor at Boston University, a Professor of Economics at Boston University, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the Econometric Society, a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, President of Economic Security Planning, Inc., a company specializing in financial planning software, a frequent columnist for Bloomberg and Forbes, and a blogger for The Economist and The Huffington Post. Professor Kotlikoff received his B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1973 and his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1977. From 1977 through 1983 he served on the faculties of economics of the University of California, Los Angeles and Yale University. In 1981-82 Professor Kotlikoff was a Senior Economist with the President's Council of Economic Advisers.
Professor Kotlikoff is author or co-author of15 books and hundreds of professional journal articles. His most recent books are The Clash of Generations (co-authored with Scott Burns, MIT Press), Jimmy Stewart Is Dead (John Wiley & Sons), Spend ‘Til the End, (co-authored with Scott Burns, Simon & Schuster), The Healthcare Fix (MIT Press), and The Coming Generational Storm (co-authored with Scott Burns, MIT Press).
Professor Kotlikoff publishes extensively in newspapers, and magazines on issues of financial reform, personal finance, taxes, Social Security, healthcare, deficits, generational accounting, pensions, saving, and insurance. Professor Kotlikoff has served as a consultant to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Harvard Institute for International Development, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Swedish Ministry of Finance, the Norwegian Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Italy, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of England, the Government of Russia, the Government of Ukraine, the Government of Bolivia, the Government of Bulgaria, the Treasury of New Zealand, the Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Joint Committee on Taxation, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, The American Council of Life Insurance, Merrill Lynch, Fidelity Investments, AT&T, AON Corp., and other major U.S. corporations. He has provided expert testimony on numerous occasions to committees of Congress including the Senate Finance Committee, the House Ways and Means Committee, and the Joint Economic Committee.

Direct download: AMA55-LaurenceKotlikoff.mp3
Category:Audio Podcast -- posted at: 10:00am EDT