War is a Racket

Speaker 1 00:00:05 This is annuity straight talk since 2008. Your host Brian Anderson has helped clients nationwide navigate the complex market for a meeting with Brian's assistance. Hundreds of clients have achieved a profitable and secure retirement. I would know because Brian has answered many of my questions concerning annuities and retirement planning so that you can benefit as well. Let's get started. Here's Brian Speaker 2 00:00:49 Hello, and welcome everyone to the annuity straight top podcast. My name is Brian Anderson, founder and creator of annuity straight talk. And I'm here with something that's a little bit off topic today, but we'll wrap it into things that you can care about. Things that hopefully you can use in a different mindset, going into retirement, managing assets, crazy things going on in the world right now. And so I kind of wanted to talk about that today. This is episode number 33, called the war is a racket. That's a little bit of foreshadowing for some of the things I'm going to talk about it. I don't know if anybody recognizes that, but bonus if you do, if you don't, I'll tell you. Okay. So I think it shouldn't really come as a surprise to any of you that I've been fairly cynical about how the world really works. Speaker 2 00:01:39 And you know, obviously I have some contrarian ideas now, as far as like politics or social ideas and certainly finance and all that, it's been an evolution of thought process for me over several years. I don't support the things I used to or think about things the same way that I used to 20 years ago. And I think that's critical for everyone to grow and some of it's maturity and some of it's just growth and in more knowledge and all that stuff, but it's very important to me to have continually evolving thought. That's how we grow. That's how we learn more. And I guess the point of this is like, you know, they look at like Washington DC, it's an absolute circus. And I'm at the point right now where it's like, literally that is, it is nothing more than entertainment. So obviously what happens there affects our daily lives, but I'm of the thought or the belief system that there's so much more going on there that we don't ever see. Speaker 2 00:02:37 Okay. Now I wrote a newsletter with this. I've got the newsletter in my hand, I'm going to try to do my best to just commentate. Instead of read this, I wrote, normally I'll do the podcast first and then I'll write it later. But today I had to make sure that I got all my thoughts out. So I've got a little bit of an aide here, anyhow, but when you talk about certainly politics and all that stuff, I believe the objective is to pit us against each other and divide us by race, religion, politics, social class, et cetera. I mean, even meat eaters versus vegetarians, right? So long as we're bickering and fighting with each other. We've got no time to realize that the whole system is actually really working against all of us collectively. So I mean, I think the solution to that is to stop fighting, stop arguing, understand we have to identify that first. Speaker 2 00:03:27 And then, you know, we can, I think it's going to be a lot more productive for most people, uh, because everywhere you look, people are arguing different persuasions, all that stuff. So brings me back to a great quote from, I think it was the first or second century a poet by the name of juvenile. And many people have heard this, but it says, give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt. So keep them entertained, keep them occupied, keep them arguing about the little things about whether a boy can wear a dress or whether a girl's got to do this. You know, all that ridiculous stuff that we sit here and argue about. Meanwhile, there's some serious things that are happening that affect us and we need to see that. So the reason I bring this up right now is because obviously Ukraine is kind of front and center. Speaker 2 00:04:08 So I'm recording this about 36 hours ago, Russia invaded. And as soon as I saw it, I thought, oh, you gotta be kidding me. You know, it's a complicated, uh, massive alliances, grudges history, NATO members. Non-members, I'm not going to pretend to understand all I don't at all. And, but what I can tell you is to me, it sounds like it a steaming pile of crap to me, honestly, it was never more so when, when this hit me is I think a few days ago I read the Bloomberg open. And so in the Bloomberg open, I've talked about it before. They just have little snippets of what's in the news for the day. Like, you know, market reports, all sorts of stuff, right? And there was an op-ed. Now I know it's an opinion piece, but the op-ed. And you're able to verify a little bit of the information in there that before this whole thing even kicked off the us and Russia had agreed to leave commodities out of the battle, which is interesting to me Russia's we need Russia's oil. Speaker 2 00:05:04 I mean, I thought we were energy independent a couple of years ago, but now we need Russia's oil and Russia needs the cash flow to continue to finance the war. Like without that. And then we got to these sanctions going on all this stuff. Right. But now I don't know if anybody else catches up, but what kind of war is that? Honestly, it's like, you know what? The important stuff, let's just make sure this all stays here, keep this going. And then, you know, we'll make sure the critical stuff is taken care of. Meanwhile, we'll create a big show for the nightly news. I watch local news probably three days a week. And it's, you know, it's, the TV comes on. It's about five o'clock and then five 30, the ABC nightly news comes on after that, that guy is so dang serious. Like everything's a problem, right? Speaker 2 00:05:48 Like your blood pressure goes up just by listening to them. So I usually turn it off before he finishes three sentences. Anyway, what happens like, you know, they create this big show. Meanwhile, nothing's really changing. And they got sanctions. This sanctions that, but no, no, no. We'll keep your buying your oil. Don't you worry about that. Okay. NPR is going to trot out their panel of experts and Fox news is going to bring some more experts that are on the other side of it. The liberals got what they want. Conservatives got what they want. They all get to lap it up and then they've got fodder for the next argument. And then we'll just battle back and forth and fight with each other. Right. Which is exactly what they want. The truth is somewhere in the middle or in a lot of cases. I think all of that stuff should be discarded. Speaker 2 00:06:33 When I look at it, I say, who's making the money behind every social political or economic problem is a pile of money that somebody controls. So I was talking to, you guys have met some of the other advisors. Some of you met him, personally, others seen in the podcast, but I was talking to John and talking about this. This is actually a topic that's really good for a rant. And I was talking to John Balmer and I had a really good rant. He said, you know what? You're right. You're right. And so I'm trying, that's why I try not to read it because I want to get, I don't want to be too angry about it. I'm not really angry, but passionate is a good word. Anyway. So I talked to John and then I was talking to a show grungy guy in Seattle that everybody loves. Speaker 2 00:07:11 And you know, we're talking about Ukraine and he said, you know what, there's this great little book that you got to read that explains everything. And I said, okay, what is it? He said, it's written by general Smedley D Butler. It's the title is called. War is a racket. And I told them, I said, right off the bat, ding, it said, I have that book. He said, it's perfect. And so it goes anyway. So I ran to, you know, my box, I've got a couple of boxes with books in it. And I thought, I knew where it was. And dang, if I didn't nail it, I found that little book right away. And boom, here it is. So I'm not going to get up and get close enough, a little red book. You can see how paper thin it is. It's 50 pages. Double-spaced probably 14 point font. Speaker 2 00:07:50 I read it during halftime of the Gonzaga basketball game last night. It doesn't take very long, find it about anywhere. I forget where I got it, but it's about 10 bucks. It's got lessons in it that everybody should at least read it and understand that it's a possibility. I'm not trying to change anybody's mind, but like I consider it, you know, waking up a little bit. Okay. So he goes, Butler does in the book is he goes into the basic details of what he learned when he was a Marine Corps general during the first world war. So, and he was a decorated general. So it comes from that perspective during the war, he had his assumptions, you know, and this was, I mean, the all quiet on the Western front first world war was atrocious, a lot of pain and suffering when he was done with it. Speaker 2 00:08:36 And when he was done with the war, he came back home and he retired to civil duty. That's when his suspicions and assumptions were confirmed. He did a little bit of research and figured it out. And he wrote the book. War is a rackets. It's great. Because again, it takes 20, 30 minutes to read it. I might, I read through halftime and it might've been a couple minutes of the second half, but anyway, but it was quick and it's got some good lessons. And if you don't want to, I'm going to summarize it right here. So what I'm going to do is like in the first chapter, he talks about profit being the main motivation of war. So instead of I could actually have done the podcast and I could have just read it in 30 minutes, but I'm not going to do that. He says a racket is best described. Speaker 2 00:09:14 I believe as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people, only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few. At the expense of the very many out of war. A few people make huge fortunes in world war one, a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States. During that war, that many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns? No one knows how many of these millionaire shouldered a rifle. How many dug a trench? That's a really good question. His point being again, profit is the only motivation. So in the second chapter, I hope it marked him correctly. So go to the next one. So chapter two, who makes the profits? Speaker 2 00:10:10 So the normal profits of a business concern in the United States are 6, 8, 10, and sometimes 12%, but wartime profits, ah, that is another matter 20, 6100, 300, even 1800%. The sky's the limit. All that traffic will bear uncle Sam has the money, let's get it. And he goes through examples of several companies that many of you have heard about the DuPont corporation, us steel. What else was it? Utah copper, let's see central leather company. So he basically talks about the increase in profits. Many of these companies went from being very profitable to quadrupling or more their annual revenues during the war. So I thought that was very, very interesting. So I'm not going to go through every single one of those. All right. Now, chapter three talks about how the banks were involved in how those institutions actually made out better than anyone else because they finance everything. Speaker 2 00:11:12 One of the biggest things is bank sold, Liberty bonds, be patriotic, buy the Liberty bonds, the hunter bucks. They sold them to the American public and the even sold them to the soldiers in the battlefield. Now, when the war was over, you go think you could go cash those in, they create another quick crisis. I don't know exactly what it was or how they did it. But many times, many cases, he says they were buying. The banks were buying the bonds back at 84 or $86. So they've got a 14, 16% rate of return on those bonds just by creating fear in the population. All right. There's another instance. There's a very interesting thing in chapter three that I really liked, that kind of explains it all. Another little excerpt I'm going to read for you. And then who pays the price? Obviously taxation, inflation, all that stuff, right? Speaker 2 00:11:58 So just a bunch of money. Okay. So in the world war, we use propaganda to make the boys except conscription. They were made to feel ashamed if they didn't join in the army. So vicious was this war propaganda that even God was brought into it with few exceptions, our clergymen joined in the clamor to kill, kill, kill, to kill the Germans. God is on our side. It is his will that the Germans be killed. And in Germany, the good pastors called upon the Germans to kill the allies to please the same God that was part of the general propaganda built up to make people war conscious and murder conscious. Ah, if that doesn't kind of piss you off. I don't know, man. I think it's a, it's a travesty chapter four Smedley. It talks about how to put an end, all wars. And it's, it's interesting. Speaker 2 00:12:49 It's a little bit idealistic, but essentially he says, you know what, take the profit out of it. And the people that vote for the war, they have to be the ones that fight the war. So only the soldiers can vote on whether they think we should go to war. And I think, well, as idealistic does is that would be, uh, uh, you know, a good problem, fathers and mothers, you're sending your son. What do you think about it? What do you think we should do it instead? It's controlled by the people who will make money on it. So, and then in chapter five, he closes it up. You know, the title of the war of the chapter is to hell with war. And clearly his experience of starvation suffering on the front lines gave him a good reason to be furious when so many became wealthy by taking a vantage of the opportunity. Speaker 2 00:13:28 So what he, you know, he says at numerous points, there are a couple of points in the book where essentially that turned the blood and the battlefield into golden, their pockets. So again, a little bit of a history lesson. Now you might say, what the heck does that have to do with anything? And why is this on the annuity straight talk podcast? But it does, I think in a way translate to what's happening today. And I don't know, I'm just going to hypothesize. I've got some ideas now, you know, what's Ukraine all about somebody could be making a whole lot of money, could be a lobby from corporations who make money, manufacturing, things that are needed for war. It could be a way to destroy evidence of crimes or corruption. Ukraine has a history of being a very corrupt nation and controlled by people or, you know, and you can even think like, well, you know what may be the new president? Speaker 2 00:14:11 What is it Zelenskyi? Maybe he's not playing ball with the people that are really in charge and they need to replace him. So they're thinking of a reason to do it either way. It just seems like a big old clown show to me. So you can call it a conspiracy theory if you want, but this is definitely accomplished. One thing that can't be argued now we're two days into it, essentially. And okay, so what Russia invaded will the U S go, will NATO be dragged into it? Will France have to fight. They all say they don't want war. Putin was even saying it up until a few days ago, but he was lying. Obviously what happened is that it created concern in the general population worldwide. Everybody's now like up a little bit on edge. I mean, when I saw it, I remember John balmar sent me when it happened, sent me a live Twitter feed. Speaker 2 00:14:56 And so I listened to it for about 45 minutes. And it was a bunch of military guys that were kind of talking about what was going on, like current events, what they can confirm, talking about different war strategies, whatever military guys do, but it was pretty interesting. And I, I can admit that it was concerning and it kind of like, it made me a little bit nervous. And what I'll tell you, the reason why I think that's important is because it goes back to like making financial decisions, fear and greed drive all decisions. Okay. The market rise goes up, people get greedy. And I know this for a fact. I mean, you know, you look at your IRA, 401k balances, whatever, and you have about as much money as you did a year ago. Maybe even still a little bit more. So the market goes up, everybody's like, oh, I'm just going to keep riding. Speaker 2 00:15:41 And there's actually a lot of people that got in on the way up or even toward the top, right? So no one sells at the top because they want more. And they don't know where the top is. So eventually the bottom's going to drop out and the average person rushes for the exit, but it's always just a little too late. Some people sell it the wrong time. Others ride it all the way to the bottom and are stuck until it rebounds, which could be years. It depends corporations, no matter what happens like corporations and the ultra wealthy, however, are always able to swoop in at just the right time to buy assets at a significant discount. So you think about it, like you get scared, oh, I'm going to bail out of the market. I'm going to, I'm out, I'm done. And they feed that fear and they get good deals because of it. Speaker 2 00:16:31 So they did it in the housing crisis in 2008 and in the stock market, they did it during COVID obviously, that's why it dropped so sharply. And you know, they could be doing it again now. Well, all we do know is it's not the last time that it's going to happen. So that's just something you have to think about now, public fear and panic is one thing, but computer algorithms are a completely different thing. So computers run the stock market, no matter what anybody says, if you're the average person with an IRA in the market, you have no control over it. And it doesn't matter how much analysis you do. There's just some things you can't avoid. So, you know, as the market bounces around it really bad news comes out and the market takes a hit at certain points. The computers are not emotional. Speaker 2 00:17:14 They're logical, they've got orders. They're going to sell, right? If it hits a point, sell, if an option comes, sell, what it does is it creates a cascade of offloading. And then the market just goes crazy. So it just goes drops very, very quickly. So anyone stuck in that, the only thing I can hope for is a soft landing. And then, you know, puts a lot of people in a real financial bind. So they got to sit there and float around with it until everything gets bought up and people start coming back in, but it's never the rich people that, that have a problem, the wealthy people. So I guess at the end of the day, I'm not trying to scare anybody. I'm not trying to convince you to do anything. I'm not saying get out of the market. I'm not saying buy annuities, but you have to understand that. Speaker 2 00:18:01 I believe there are forces at play. And it's pretty obvious to me. And it's pretty clear that there's a different group of people controlling the world. And you've got some, a lot of these events are manufactured. So it's not about any financial moves. I like, I think emotional reactions come as the result of its manufactured fear-mongering so you have to act on your own motivations. And if you do this, shouldn't scare you. So if it causes you to take action, then you weren't prepared for it. If you were prepared, then it doesn't matter. That's what I'm trying to do. If you're prepared and there's nothing to worry about the next time, this kind of thing happens. You can just ignore it. And honestly, you know, maybe general Butler has different ideas, but I think if we all stop fighting ourselves and just ignore the garbage, it might go away without an audience. Speaker 2 00:18:53 There is no show. So tone down the drama, tone down the arguing. Don't fight someone. You disagree with understand that there is probably someone who wants you to be at odds with that person. And there's probably a movement that wants you to be at odds with that person. And that's not solving anything. I would love some comments on this, but please keep politics out of it. So down below the explanation below the video, you can go ahead and post a comment, no politics. What's the point. I, I may not agree with you. And I'm certainly not in a position right now where I'm going to start a fight in the comment section. If you disagree with what I said, it's fine. I'd love to hear about it. So there's a lot of things I learned from you guys. I hope you learned something from me. Speaker 2 00:19:36 And the idea is just to kind of create a dialogue and let you know that, you know, there's ways you can do things to make sure that this stuff doesn't matter. And if any of this stuff caused you financial concern, then you're not in the right position. So you need to evaluate that as time goes by and make sure that you get to a point where it doesn't matter anymore. So anyway, I want to thank you guys for my little rant on war, as a racket. And what I think is ridiculous about this time. I mean, you look at all the people that are hurt. And again, this is no knock on the armed forces. I appreciate the sacrifice they do make. I just think that they're taken advantage of, and a lot of this stuff is completely unnecessary. That is certainly something I've changed my mind on in the past, I used to be like, oh, I'm a Republican. Speaker 2 00:20:18 And I think the war is justified. You know what? Looking back on it, I was wrong and I don't think it's justified. And I think it's a waste of time. So anyway, Brian Anderson here from annuity straight talk, go ahead, subscribe to the YouTube channel. As you can see, if you watch the video, there's no visual aids, except for the little book that I held up, I'm wearing a cowboy hat today. I'm switching up the costumes. Plus I'm getting ready to take the horses and mules out. Hopefully earlier than I ever have this year, it might be about a month away, but this is a new hat. So I like it. And I got kind of got weird a little bit and fit it. So that's kind of the point here, but subscribe to YouTube, subscribe to the podcast. He have any comments go to, you know, annuity straight talk.com hit the newsletter or the podcast below each post. Speaker 2 00:20:58 You can post comments. And also if you want to make an appointment, if you want to talk about this, if you want to have a deep dive into history or any of these, you know, the fallout from these big social and economic shocks, I love stuff like that. And that's a lot of what I do. So trying to keep you guys prepared, trying to keep you happy. And I can tell you, it's interesting is during all this, I know a lot of people were concerned, but I didn't have one person call me one client say, oh, what about my annuity? Am I okay? I guarantee you, they might add other stuff that they were worried about, but not those things. So anyway, thank you again for joining me on episode number 33, Brian Anderson signing out. Have a great weekend guys. Okay, bye Speaker 1 00:21:51 You've been listening to the . The views expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the insurance company.