Why I Quit

My Two Cents

By Andy Sutton

As many of you probably already know, I have decided that it is no longer in the best interests of clients to provide ‘advisory’ services regarding securities specifically, and paper investments in general. This decision follows a rather similar move made by former broker Ann Barnhart and while our reasons differ slightly, the bottom line is the same: I feel that it is no longer possible to provide even a reasonable assurance to my clients that I can provide anything in the way of protection from market volatility, bail-ins, cleanouts like 2008, and so forth in an advisor capacity. So, to put it bluntly…I quit. But I’m not done if that makes any sense. Please bear with me and keep reading.

I could spend the next five thousand words going into the reasons why, but that has already been done. There is not a single event that caused me to say ‘that’s it’. I am not predicting a massive and complete crash in the next 30 days or anything like what you might find online at 3am. This is not a publicity stunt, a game, or a shuck and jive to con folks out of even more of their hard earned money.

Instead, I’m going to keep this one pretty short and provide a library, if you will, of links to articles that I’ve either written or that others have written that I’ve posted on the blog over the past few years. The library is not going to be all-inclusive. There are literally thousands of articles just on the Internet about these topics. I’m providing a small sampling. Hopefully the amount of material presented won’t be so daunting so as to discourage people from reading it, but at the same time will be sufficient to provoke each of you towards going out and doing your own research into these matters and then passing along the results of that research to others in the community. We truly are a community. I hate labels, so we’ll just leave it at that.

A library of links is also easily shared and that is one thing that isn’t happening nearly enough. Too many are coming to an understanding about these matters, but aren’t taking it to the next step and urging their families, friends, and co-workers to become aware as well.I do realize that in many ways we’re dealing with the ‘boy who cried wolf’ syndrome. The instant gratification nature of our society has caused people to expect immediate action. When myself or another analyst writes about something or Joe Cristiano talks about it, most people expect something to happen in the near future even though we specifically say we aren’t guessing at a timeline and, quite honestly, don’t know when a particular event might take place.

Yet when these events don’t happen within a reasonable time frame, we lose some credibility. Keep in mind that we’ve been doing the slow spiral exercise in America since 2008. Sure the Dow went back up, but look at median incomes – back around 1995 (or even earlier) levels depending on whom you listen to. The fact that something happened over 5 years instead of 5 weeks doesn’t change the fact that it still happened.

Getting back to the firm, the reaction from my clients was somewhat predictable. The ones who truly understand the precarious position of assets globally and have actively sought that understanding were immediately able to comprehend why I’d close a profitable enterprise. The rest? Well, they did the predictable thing. They ignored my pleadings and went and found themselves another ‘financial guy’ without even bothering to learn how that person does business, is paid, etc. While this is a shame, it is certainly not a surprise. I don’t think any less of them as individuals; each is entitled to do what best fits them.

I don’t want to be a ‘financial guy’ anymore. When I started out writing this column, the goal was to educate and bring awareness, hopefully presented in a way that was easily understandable. I need to get back to that. I think we were able to do some strong work these past 7 years advising people, but I was asked one too many times how I could say the things I say about the financial industry, banking, and the money system yet still work within that system. At first the answer was easy; there were still niches in the markets where people could ‘hide’ and do reasonably well and that’s exactly what we helped them do. Those hiding places have, for the most part, been stripped away. And adding to that, the very safety of not only your positions, but your cash as well has been placed in jeopardy, as you’ll read about below.

With the hiding places largely gone, it is time to get back to basics. Time to get back to being an advocate for those who are interested in broadening their understanding. I’m convinced those folks are still out there; my goal is to find them or vice versa. Accomplishing this without the albatross of being a ‘financial guy’ on my back should be quite a bit easier.

For now, if you’d like to stay in contact, there is nothing to do. I’ll continue publishing at the websites that have been kind enough to publish ‘My Two Cents’ as well as posting the articles to my blog and maintaining the email list. If you’re a ‘Centsible Investor’ subscriber, those releases will continue on a quarterly basis. If you’d like to email me directly, you can do so at mtc@andysutton.com. I’d love to hear from you. I truly cherish the many friends I’ve made over the course of the last 8+ years and look forward to continuing those relationships as well as forming new ones. If you do your own research or write pieces, please send them to me and I’ll gladly post them as so many other sites have generously done for me all these years.

Now, on to the library. With each link, there is a short summary of the article and its contents. There is no particular order that needs to be followed in terms of reading. Most of the articles I’ve written reference other articles that myself or others have published. Some will be included in the library, some won’t. This is merely a primer.

The Bail-In Series – this is probably the most important group of the over 200 articles I’ve written. It’s all condensed into PDF format. I had some good help from ‘Graham Mehl’ on some of this series and hope to coax him into doing some more collaboration in the future.

“Death of the American Mind” – A piece about groupthink and how it has taken over a nation. Not meant as a jab, but meant to be a wake up call. All of us, myself included, are susceptible.

“Economic Stockholm Syndrome” – Dissects the grips that various entities have on not just Americans, but on a global scale. Also discusses how all of us to varying degrees have come to embrace those who would seek to enslave us.

“EU Adopts the Bail-In” – Another piece with Graham and an update on the bail-in situation and the European Union’s adoption of the mechanism whereby depositors are cleaned out to make good on the bad debts of a failed institution.

“Rigged” – The popular television show ’60 Minutes’ acknowledges market manipulation.

“Everything is Rigged” – The Rolling Stone. Please pardon some of the language. This is not my style of journalism, but the points made cannot be ignored.

“Pump Team Working Overtime” - John Crudele of the NY Post. Written the day after I notified my clients of the firm’s impending closure. Ironic to say the least.

The rest of the articles I’ve written are available by clicking here. My blog, which mostly contains material written by others, can be accessed here. Again, this is just a sampling, focusing mostly on the rigging of markets and the threat to deposits and assets held in street name. In my opinion, these are the most serious threats, although there certainly are others. Please use the materials in good health and don’t hesitate to pass them on if you feel they’re worthwhile.

"Formerly of the financial community, now involved for the sole purpose of blowing the whistle on corruption and helping people around the globe become their own advocates."