July 18, 2007

Hi Steve,

You don't have to read it, but I feel better writing it.

Ever since I was about 16-17 years old (I'm 39 now), I have had a sense of foreboding about what the future would hold for me and humanity in my lifetime. I consider myself a "truther", meaning I can smell the truth about what I'm being fed from a mile away, just as I can smell a rat from the same distance. I don't know how I am able to sort out the "white noise" that constantly bombards me, but I usually can. I don't talk about it too much except with my closest friends who get it, because it sounds looney, but my track record for fortune is known to them and lately, I have friends on the business "numbers" side of things calling me now to discuss world events and the economy. Your show is a big piece of this, Steve, and I need to thank you for being on the air and really cutting through the BS and educating those who have the same sense of the end times. I don't live doom and gloom. Contrary to popular belief, just because you believe it, doesn't mean you need to curl up like a sowbug and cry "woes me". I am a surviver and I have a great hope for the future of my son and family. That is why your show is so important to me.

I owe my success to listening to my gut (no relation to Chertoff's, who I feel is really setting us up for the BIG one), having an open mind, making good value judgments, and not ignoring anything. It was hard to pull my roots up from Southern California and move to Oregon seven years ago in a U-Haul with no jobs and a two-year-old. We gave our family two years notice and left stable jobs in a family business that is still going strong after 80+ years along with an enormous base of friends and family. But that gut feeling was growing and I knew it was time to get out of the city and start raising my family in a small town on higher ground. We left a LOT on the table and created quite a stir in the community when we left, but the understanding is there now for my family and friends. It helped that we picked up great jobs (and I mean really great) and bought a home and things looked good.

To wind down, I felt I was not getting enough good information, even on the internet—there was too much spin and noise and it was becoming more and more difficult to ferret out the nuggets of truth. That's when I heard you for the first time on C2C. I knew immediately you were being called to do what you do. I could tell by your absolute frankness with your audience—you weren't trying to be political or please sponsors. You just called it like it is. Last year in March 2005, after having enough of of the housing market and really sensing the bust about to go, I came to my wife and told her we needed to sell our house NOW. We built a 5 bedroom custom home and had been in it for less than two years. I knew we were going to pay capital gains taxes, but I knew in my gut the market was about to bust. We sold in March 2005 at the top of the market and doubled our investment, even after paying capital gains. Everyone in the neighborhood saw what we sold our house for and threw theirs up, too within a couple of months. Not another house sold in in that development of big, custom homes that year. Prices in my area I have seen since go down $100,000 on $5-600,000 homes. I talked to my dad yesterday in SB and he finally gets it. He told me home prices are down 20% (!) in Santa Barbara—where prices supposedly would NEVER go down. He implored my to buy something when we got out a couple of years ago, but he now understands why we are waiting and watching.

I don't just listen to your show—I listen and read blogs to the tune of 35-40 hours a week late at night and I have so many to thank—JSmineset (Thanks for that tip), C2C, Strieber, Jones, Rense, the many, many economic blogs (which, coincidentally is where I get my world news now, which is telling), Hawk, John Galt, Raiders News Network, and on and on. But I'll tell you Steve, I've never missed one show of yours since I started listening in over a year ago. It's way too valuable to me to miss.

I have seven months of storable food coming very soon from one of your vendors and man, does it feel great! I'm not anywhere near as prepared as I'd like to be, but I'll tell you what, it my fault and I'm working on it. It's certainly not from the lack of knowledge! And I'll tell you one last thing, I don't need to explain my gut feeling to anyone anymore. EVERYONE has the same feeling that isn't dead in the eyes (I think you know what I mean), but I can really see that more and more are finding it hard to IGNORE.

God bless you, Steve.

Paul

P.S. Look, if you think we're loonies, consider both my wife and I graduated from a Pac Ten schools in Journalism and Sociology respectively and have directorships in both our current professions in publishing and the healthcare industry now. We like to think we're pretty well informed. You might not agree with Steve, but you would be wise to listen to him as long as his calling is to be on the air helping to get the word out.