Surviving A Global Crisis

A S U R V I VA L T R E A S U RY
Surviving a
Global
Financial
Crisis
and Currency Collapse
Practical, Real-World Strategies for Building
(and Rebuilding!) Wealth During a
Global Financial Meltdown
By Bob Livingston
Founder, Personal Liberty Alerts
Editor, The Bob Livingston Letter
Surviving a
Global
Financial
Crisis
and Currency
Collapse
Practical, Real-World Strategies for
Building (and Rebuilding!) Wealth
During a Global Financial Meltdown
By Bob Livingston
Founder, Personal Liberty Alerts
Editor, The Bob Livingston Letter
Copyright © 2009 The Bob Livingston Letter
All rights reserved.
The information contained in this book is meant to educate the reader,

and is in no way intended to provide medical, financial, legal, or any
other services for individual problems or circumstances. We encourage
readers to seek advice from competent professionals for personal health,
financial, and legal needs.
This information is published under the First Amendment of the

Constitution of the United States, which guarantees the right to discuss
openly and freely all matters of public concern and to express view-
points, no matter how controversial or unaccepted they may be. Any
references for additional information that we may provide are for the
reader’s benefit only and are not affiliated with The Bob Livingston
Letter in any way, unless otherwise stated. All information is believed
to be correct, but its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. The owner,
publisher, and editor are not responsible for errors and omissions.
Published by The Bob Livingston Letter,

P.O. Box 3623, Hueytown, AL 35023
www.BobLivingstonLetter.com
www.PersonalLiberty.com
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Surviving a
Global
Financial
Crisis
and Currency
Collapse
3
4
Contents
Chapter 1:
Protect Your Savings from Failing Banks..............................7
Chapter 2:
How to Live Through Hyperinflation ..................................15
Chapter 3:
Protect Your Privacy from Illegal Surveillance ...................35
Chapter 4:
You Can Still Enjoy a Prosperous Retirement .....................65
Index ....................................................................................90
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6
C HAPTE R 1
Protect Your Savings from

Failing Banks
Worldwide stocks are tumbling. Banks are insolvent.
Governments are printing more and more worthless paper to
prop up the economic system. Large American banking insti-
tutions are posting multi-billion dollar losses and the system
is bankrupt. European banks are facing the same problems.
A complete collapse of the global banking system is
inevitable. You’ve seen the beginning already, as banks run
out of money to lend, businesses are unable to restock and
consumers no longer have money to buy products. With no
products moving, companies are forced to lay off employees,
shrinking the pool of consumers even further. The spiral
grows tighter and faster.
People watch as their retirement funds and stock holdings
nosedive and begin to wonder if their bank-held savings and
checking accounts are safe.
Of course the government promises they are. After all,
there’s the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
which guarantees your deposits up to $250,000, at least
through Dec. 31, 2009 when it will return to $100,000.
So everything is okay, right? The FDIC’s website says,
“FDIC deposit insurance is backed by the full faith and
credit of the United States government.”
7
8 Surviving a Global Financial Crisis
But, with the president and members of congress throwing

around money figures of hundreds-of-billions of dollars like
they’re talking about Monopoly money, what is that promise
worth? According to an early March, 2009 letter from the
chairman of the FDIC to banks across the nation, maybe
not much.
“Without substantial amounts of additional assessment
revenue in the near future, current projections indicate that
the (FDIC insurance) fund balance will approach zero or
even become negative,” FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair wrote
in the letter to the chief executives of the nation’s 8,305
federally insured banks and thrifts.
As loan defaults have soared, reflecting the ravages of
rising unemployment and sliding home prices, bank failures
have cascaded and sapped billions out of the fund that
insures regular accounts up to $250,000. The fund now
stands at its lowest level in nearly a quarter-century, $18.9
billion as of Dec. 31, compared with $52.4 billion at the
Bob Livingston 9
end of 2007, according to an Associated Press report about

Blair’s letter.
Since January of 2008, at least 42 banks have failed,
despite the government’s efforts, according to the FDIC.
In 2008 alone the failures amounted to more than $341
billion in assets. And that doesn’t count the banks receiving
government bailouts.
What if your bank failed? What if you walked up to the
door and found a sign telling you the bank was closed and
there was a temporary freeze on all your accounts?
What would you do if, (because of a string of bank
failures), the Federal Government decided to limit the
amount you can withdraw?
Before long, without access to your money, your bills
begin to pile up and creditors begin calling. Think that
can’t happen in America? Let’s look at recent history.
Between 1986 and 1995 more than 1,000 savings and
loan institutions with total assets of more than $500 billion
failed. In 1989 the government agency Resolution Trust
Corporation resold S&L assets and used the proceeds to
pay back depositors. It took years for many depositors to
receive their own money. Many of them only received
$50,000, the insured limit at the time.
The current crisis is much worse. Look at some of the
names involved—banks that were deemed too big to fail
and thus received funds from the Troubled Asset Relief
Protection (TARP) program include: Bank of America,
Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs,
PNC Financial Services, Regions Financial Corp, SunTrust
Bank, Fifth Third Bancorp, BB&T, Bank of New York
Mellon, and Comerica.
Others, like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Washington

Mutual, and Wachovia were forced to merge with other
banks, combining their bad assets with those of the banks
they merged with.
Citigroup, the second largest banking conglomerate, held
$2 trillion in total assets in the fall of 2008. However, it also
was seeing huge losses in mortgage defaults (and still had
almost $200 billion more on its books, some of which will
default) and a massive credit card portfolio.
It has seen bad credit cards increase 67 percent over the
previous year, and the number of cardholders, 90 or more
days past due, have skyrocketed.
In addition, Citigroup held $37.1 trillion in derivatives,
according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
An article on the investor website iStockAnalyst.com
said:
“Derivatives are bets made mostly with borrowed money.
They are bets on interest rates, bets on foreign currencies,
bets on stocks, bets on corporate failures, even bets on
bets. The bets are placed by banks with each other, banks
with brokerage firms, brokers with hedge funds, hedge
funds with banks, and more.
“They are often high risk. And they are huge.”
And Citigroup held about one-fifth of all U.S. derivatives.
New York University professor Nouriel Roubini, who
predicted last year’s economic collapse, says U.S. financial
losses from the credit crisis may reach $3.6 trillion. If that’s
true, Roubini says, it means the banking system is effectively
insolvent because it starts with a capital of only $1.4 trillion.
If the crisis reaches Roubini’s prediction, the $700 billion
allocated through the TARP fund is only a drop in the bucket
Bob Livingston 11
compared to the total of the problem. Clearly, the global

banking system is in trouble.
TARP funds and other so-called stimulus bills passed by
the congress and signed by the president have essentially
nationalized the banking system. Now the Federal Govern-
ment owns large portions of the major banks. That ownership
requires oversight and a growing influence over bank opera-
tions. So government bureaucrats now have a say in how
much bank executives are compensated, who the banks lend
to and, ultimately, what happens to the funds the bank holds.
This puts your holdings at great risk. Even your safety
deposit boxes are accessible to a government grab. There’s
precedence for this, too.
In 1933, with banks beginning to fail across the nation,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed through congress
the Emergency Banking Relief Act, which mandated a four-
day banking holiday. This shut down the banks so federal
regulators could scour the books to determine which banks
were solvent.
Roosevelt also convinced Congress to amend the Trading
with the Enemy Act to confiscate the gold of private citizens,
effectively raiding their safety deposit boxes. Gold owners
received cash, but their gold bullion was gone. Those who
had gold in their possession and chose to keep it rather than
give it to the state (and there were many) were considered
enemies of the state.
Should the government decide that confiscating the contents of
your safety deposit box—or your savings accounts or retirement
funds would help stem the tide of a collapsing economy, you can
bet it will do just that. And, as with Roosevelt’s confiscation of
gold, there is nothing you can do to stop it.
The Federal Reserve Ponzi Scheme

There is a great myth that the Federal Government is in
debt. Thanks to central banking and the Federal Reserve, all
the government has to do to erase its so-called debt is to print
more money.
In a column he wrote in 1995 the late economist and
author Murray N. Rothbard explained the Fed this way:
“I set up a Rothbard Bank, and invest $1,000 of cash
(whether gold or government paper does not matter
here). Then I ‘lend out’ $10,000 to someone, either for
consumer spending or to invest in his business. How can I
‘lend out’ far more than I have? Ahh, that’s the magic of
the ‘fraction’ in the fractional reserve. I simply open up
a checking account of $10,000 which I am happy to lend
to Mr. Jones. Why does Jones borrow from me? Well, for
one thing, I can charge a lower rate of interest than savers
would. I don’t have to save up the money myself, but can
simply counterfeit it out of thin air. (In the 19th century, I
would have been able to issue bank notes, but the Federal
Reserve now monopolizes note issues.) Since demand
deposits at the Rothbard Bank function as equivalent
to cash, the nation’s money supply has just, by magic,
increased by $10,000. The inflationary, counterfeiting
process is under way.”
The Federal Reserve works this way, by “loaning” money
to other banks, through either a mark on a ledger sheet or
by computer transfer. Hard money never changes hand.
So, when agents of the government talk about debt they
are talking about something that doesn’t actually exist.
Remember, since the U.S. monetary system is no longer
on the gold standard; Federal Reserve Notes (dollars) are no
longer redeemable for gold as they were prior to 1933. Now
Bob Livingston 13
the government recognizes a slip of paper with a printed

value on it as money. That slip of paper is backed by the
“full faith and credit of the U.S. Government.” However,
that government can simply print money whenever the
supply runs short or the government decides to spend
more on certain projects (as in the case of the recently-
passed stimulus package).
However, the process of printing additional money to
cover the so-called debt causes inflation and a devaluation
of the dollar. Consider that prior to 1933 an ounce of gold
was equal to $20.67. Roosevelt’s New Deal set the price at
$35 per ounce. Once President Richard Nixon separated
the dollar from gold the price increased, and at this writing,
stands at about $950 per ounce.
In 1933 the Consumer Price Index (CPI) (the price
of a basket of common goods purchased by the average
consumer) was 12.8. In 2008 the CPI was 225. In other
words, that same basket of goods had increased from
just under $13 to $225.
That inflation is the effect the Fed’s Ponzi scheme has
wrought. It makes the notorious swindler Bernie Madoff
(perhaps a name change to a Madoff scheme is in order
since his is greater by far than Ponzi’s), look like a piker.
Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan in 1966 wrote an
essay entitled Gold and Economic Freedom. In it he said:
“In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to
protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There
is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would
have to make its holding illegal, as was done in the case of
gold. If everyone decided, for example, to convert all his bank
deposits to silver or copper or any other good, and thereafter
declined to accept checks as payment for goods, bank deposits
would lose their purchasing power and government-created

bank credit would be worthless as a claim on goods. The
financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be
no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves.”
All fiat systems in history have been in socialist states.
All socialist states in history have a history of suppressing
their own people. And all socialist fiat money states/countries
transfer wealth and production to the state without payment.
Of course, as in America today, this transfer takes place via
the depreciation of paper money. The owner of the money
printing press controls all wealth and production.
All that we ever get from our paper money is the
promise to pay. Thomas Jefferson warned of this when
he said, “The trifling economy of paper, as a cheaper
medium, or its convenience for transmission, weighs
nothing in opposition to the advantages of the precious
metals… it is liable to be abused, has been, is, and forever
will be abused, in every country in which it is permitted.”
And President James A. Garfield said: “Whoever controls
the volume of money in any country is absolute master of
all industry and commerce.”
History has shown that manipulating the volume of
money leads to hyperinflation and economic collapse.
Bob Livingston 15
C HAPTE R 2
How to Live Through

Hyperinflation
Financially, it seems as if the end is near. Economic
Armageddon is upon us, as the Federal Government
lubricates the moving parts on the printing presses and
new money begins to fly out.
In his special report, Shadow Government Statistics:
Analysis Behind and Beyond Government Economic
Reporting, John Williams writes, “The U.S. economy is
in an intensifying inflationary recession that eventually
will evolve into a hyperinflationary great depression.
Hyperinflation could be experienced as early as 2010, if
not before, and likely no more than a decade down the
road. The U.S. government and Federal Reserve already
have committed the system to this course through the easy
politics of a bottomless pocketbook, the servicing of big-
money special interests, and gross mismanagement.”
And that was written before the U.S. Congress passed and
President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 also known as the
economic stimulus bill. The grandiose-sounding name of
the bill hides the fact that the bill will do nothing to spur
recovery or stimulate the economy of anything other than
the payroll of the Federal Government and the bank
accounts of politicians’ favorite constituency groups.
The amount of money being spent is unprecedented in

human history. The economic stimulus bill alone is nearly
double what the U.S. spent on Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s
New Deal in inflation-adjusted terms. It is eight times more
than the U.S. spent on the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe
after World War II. It’s more than we spent on NASA, on
the race with Russia to the moon or the Iraq, Vietnam, or
Korean Wars.
Our government has tried before to spend its way out of
a recession. In the 1970s the inflation rate increased by 500
percent—from a 70-year average of 2.5 percent per year to
a high of 13.5 percent in 1979.
But government spending in the 1970s is practically
zero when compared to what the U.S. government is
spending today.
So what will the enormous spending program do? It will
push simple inflation (a continuing rise in prices due to an
Bob Livingston 17
increased volume of money and credit relative to available

goods and services) into hyperinflation.
That’s because fiat money implies by its definition that it
self destructs through depreciation (inflation). Anything that
can be created to infinity with political incentive eventually
becomes worthless. There are no exceptions. For paper
money to work, its issue must be equal to the production
of goods and services.
The dollar or any paper money is a myth. The value of all
paper money changes value each day. Paper money in its
inception is created to defraud.
Plus, government loves inflation because it allows the
government to secretly take your wealth without your realizing
it. In his book, Crash Proof, Wall Street prognosticator Peter
Schiff gives five reasons the government likes inflation:
■ Inflation makes the national debt more manageable
because it can be repaid with cheaper dollars.
■ In a democracy full of personally indebted voters, the
government will pursue monetary policies hospitable
to debtors, even as it accommodates the special interests
that lend to them.
■ Inflation finances social programs that voters demand,
while allowing politicians to avoid the politically
unpopular alternative of higher taxes, enabling
Uncle Sam to play Santa Claus.
■ Inflationary spending is confused with economic growth,
which is confused with economic health. (Of course,
GDP numbers are theoretically adjusted for inflation
but that doesn’t mean much if the inflation figures are
misrepresented.)
■ Inflation causes nominal asset prices to rise, such as those
of stocks and real estate, instilling in the minds of voters

the illusion of wealth creation even as the real purchasing
power of their assets falls.
While housing prices have plummeted, and gas prices
have fallen from their 2008 high exceeding $5 per gallon,
this is just the calm before the coming storm. You remember
how much $5 gas hurt you in 2008? Think about $20 per
gallon gas, hamburgers that cost $30 each, and house rental
payments of $10,000 or more.
Think government policy can’t create such a thing? Ask
the German people who lived during the time of the Weimar
Republic. They lost everything because their paper money
became worthless
During the period of 1918-1923, the Weimar Republic in
Germany began printing money at a dizzying rate, setting
off hyperinflation. Prices were rising so fast that workers
receiving their pay would immediately run to the store to
buy foodstuffs before prices climbed again. Business and
industry were paying their employees with wheelbarrow-
loads of cash.
In trying to keep up with the falling currency rate, Reichs-
bank printed a 1,000-billion Mark note that was so worthless
that when it was spent few bothered to collect the change.
By 1923, with one dollar equal to one trillion Marks and
inflation at 30,000 percent, the collapse of German currency
was complete.
The John Law experiment with paper money (the estab-
lishment of a state-chartered bank with the power to issue
un-backed paper currency) failed at the beginning of the
18th century in France and ended badly with a depression
amongst chaos.
Bob Livingston 19
There is plenty of historical precedent for prolificacy of

money creation bringing hyperinflationary chaos which then
collapses into depression. The stark reality is that the public
has no clue until a collapse arrives and completely destroys
their assets and their lives.
A currency collapse is progressing every day with each
new dollar that is printed. Now is the time to realize it, rather
than later when chaos reigns and everyone is trying to survive
at the same time.
We can’t have wide open money printing and have a
viable and strong currency at the same time. Dream on if
you think so.
So, What are Our Predictions?

Long dated treasuries will show huge losses when interest
rates begin to rise. In time Treasury securities will reach
“junk status” and in the long term all U.S. debt will become
junk. This outcome is near, as Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton recently went to the Chinese with hat in hand,
asking them to keep buying U.S. debt.
Even at this time Treasuries pay less than the rate of official
inflation, never mind the unofficial inflation numbers. Millions
of retired people are now experiencing a lower standard of
living.
The same is true with certificates of deposit (CD), which
pay an interest rate less than the rate of inflation. In other
words, if you have your money stashed in what you believe
is a safe return CD, you are losing money every day.
Though most are oblivious, U.S. dollar savers are being
routed. Savings accounts are paying interest rates less than
the devaluation of the dollar, and retirement accounts hold-
ing stocks and bonds are being pummeled. This U.S. dollar
crash syndrome is an auto immune disease where people

(the rich and the poor) are impoverished because they were
thrifty and saved.
But saving your money by putting it under the mattress
is no good either. The reason is simple, when the value of
the dollar shrinks so does the value of your savings.
With depreciating currency comes rising prices.
Depreciating currency brings a lower standard of living
and equally a permanent loss of asset values.
Look to Zimbabwe as a Current Example

According to reports from the country, inflation hit 11
million percent in September, 2008 in Zimbabwe. The
government then acknowledged that its own currency
was done and began issuing licenses, allowing stores and
businesses to begin accepting U.S. dollars, South African
rand, and other foreign currencies.
Bob Livingston 21
By December, 2008, inflation was over a trillion percent

and the economy had been “dollarized,” signifying that
local currency was virtually unacceptable as legal tender.
Many began barter trading, with the most prominent bartered
item being a fuel coupon worth about $30 U.S. dollars.
Sadly, Zimbabwe is not the only modern example of an
economy ruined by government overspending. In fact, there
are many other examples:
■ Turkey, 2007—Turkey has suffered from chronic
inflation for decades. In 1980, one U.S. dollar was worth
90 Turkish liras. By 2004, a U.S. dollar was worth 1.3
million Turkish liras. As a result, in 2007 the government
simply declared a revaluation of the Turkish lira. One
million Turkish liras would, from then on, be worth
only one lira.
■ Romania, 2005—In 1998, the highest denomination
in Romania was 100,000 lei. By 2005 the highest had
become 1 million lei. The Romanian government then
devalued its currency, declaring that one new leu would
be worth 10,000 lei.
■ Argentina, 2001—Overspending by the Argentine
government resulted in massive inflation in the 1980s
and ‘90s. By 1992, one new peso was worth 100 billion
pre-1983 pesos. (Because the old peso had been devalued
so much, Argentines who stuffed pesos under their
mattress in 1982 would have ended up with nothing.)
■ Russia, 1994—Following the collapse of the Soviet
Union, the new Russia saw annual inflation as high as
2,500 percent in 1992. By 1994 it had dropped to 850
percent because of a tightening of money policy and the
failure to pay wages to workers in state enterprises, a
policy that kept prices low by depressing demand. The
value of the ruble declined from 40 rubles to the dollar

in 1991 to 30,000 rubles to the dollar by 1999.
If the annual cost-of-living increases just 5 percent or 6
percent, the purchasing power of money will rapidly vanish.
And because of negative real interest rates, consumer price
inflation will accelerate, a fact not known by the public.
The real spending power of households whose income
depends on fixed interest instruments will be cut,
reducing their standard of living.
For example, in 1933 the Consumer Price Index (CPI)
(the price of a basket of common goods purchased by the
average consumer) was 12.8. In 2008 the CPI was 225.
In other words, that same basket of goods has increased
from just under $13 to $225.
And once again, inflation is starting to outpace economic
predictions. This from the Labor Department in late February
2009, as reported by the Associated Press:
Inflation at the wholesale level surged unexpectedly
in January, reflecting sharply higher prices for gasoline
and other energy products.
…Wholesale prices increased by 0.8 percent last month,
the biggest gain since last July and well above the 0.2
percent increase that economists had expected.
The acceleration was led by a 3.7 percent surge in energy
prices with gasoline prices jumping by 15 percent, the
biggest gain in 14 months.
Even outside the volatile food and energy sectors,
wholesale prices showed a bigger-than-expected increase,
rising by 0.4 percent. Economists had expected a slight
0.1 percent rise in so-called core inflation.
In addition to the big jump in gasoline costs, prices for
Bob Livingston 23
home heating oil were up by 5.4 percent and liquefied

petroleum gas, which is often used to heat homes in rural
areas, surged by 20.2 percent, the biggest jump in more
than six years.
Outside of food and energy, there were increases
for pharmaceuticals, light trucks, passenger cars,
and civilian aircraft.
A small gain, to be sure, and nothing like the 8 percent
to 9 ½ percent annual inflation increase during the Carter
years, but nonetheless it is a harbinger of what is coming
as the stock market collapses and the president’s Obama-
nomics begins to roil the economy.
Under Obamanomics, the rich are targeted with ever-
increasing taxes as a way to offset the government spending
increases. More government spending means more money
printing. Seeking to garner favor from the masses—most
of which don’t pay any taxes—Obama and his socialist-
thinking sidekicks demonize the taxpayers and offer
handouts to the non-taxpayers.
As prices rise and the lower classes find it increasingly
more difficult to buy necessities, Obamanomics would
increase taxes on the producers even more, hoping to
spread the wealth around. There has even been talk of a
new value-added tax (VAT). A VAT puts taxes on all goods
at all steps through the production process. It’s a tax that
would further increase the cost of all goods sold.
As Obamanomics kicks in the formerly profligate-
spending conservatives claim to have had an epiphany.
They now kick and scream at the thought of running up
more debt than they already have caused. But Federal
debt is a world-class delusion.
A better description of U.S. so-called federal or national

debt is Ponzi. The pretended debt and the pretended interest
on the debt is only an extension of the paper regime. All
so-called government expenditures are nothing more than
fiat and any pretended interest is, if anything, only more fiat.
The American system turns non-substance into substance
by exchanging fiat (pretended money) into nationalizing
(stealing) the wealth of the U.S. and the world under the
pretense of a “bailout.” Never in history have so many
been so deceived about the monetary illusion in modern-
day America.
In all, the U.S. government has pledged to spend
$7.4 trillion on bailouts of banks and businesses and in
Federal guarantees. According to the financial website
Bloomberg.com, some of the amounts and their
destinations are:
■ $1.8 trillion in Net Portfolio Commercial Paper Funding
through the Federal Reserve.
■ $1.4 trillion in Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
(FDIC) Liquidity Guarantees.
■ $900 billion in the Term Auction Facility (TAF).
■ $540 billion in the Money Market Investor Funding
Facility (MMIFF).
■ $700 billion in the Troubled Asset Relief Program
(TARP).
■ $300 billion in the Hope for Homeowners program run
by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).
■ $200 billion for the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bailout.
■ $128 billion for the American Insurance Group (AIG)
loans.
Bob Livingston 25
■ $250 billion for Term Securities Lending.

■ $139 billion loan guarantee for General Electric.
We are still trying to understand America in terms of
capitalism and free enterprise, when in fact America is now
a socialist country with a pretty face called democracy.
But the government has another wealth-robbing arrow in
its quiver, and there are rumblings in Congress that it may be
fired soon. That is the conversion of your retirement funds—
IRAs and 401(k)s—into a government-backed retirement
fund similar to Social Security.
Congressional hearings were held in November, 2008 to
discuss just such a thing under the guise of strengthening
and protecting Americans’ retirement plans. And in March,
2009 a vice president of the Service Employees International
Union—which played an integral role in helping to elect
Obama—was reported in a union publication as saying all
private retirement plans should be pooled and managed by
professional investment managers.
There is precedent in the U.S. for government confiscation
of wealth. In April, 1933, newly elected president Franklin
D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6102 requiring all
U.S. citizens to hand over their gold assets to the Federal
Government. Many failed to comply.
The order read:
All persons are hereby required to deliver on or before
May 1, 1933, to a Federal Reserve bank or a branch or
agency thereof or to any member bank of the Federal
Reserve System all gold coin, gold bullion, and gold
certificates now owned by them or coming into their
ownership on or before April 28, 1933, except the
following…
(b) Gold coin and gold certificates in an amount not

exceeding in the aggregate $100.00 belonging to any
one person; and gold coins having recognized special
value to collectors of rare and unusual coins…
Section 9. Whoever willfully violates any provision of
this Executive Order or of these regulations or of any rule,
regulation or license issued thereunder may be fined not
more than $10,000, or, if a natural person, may be impris-
oned for not more than ten years, or both; and any officer,
director, or agent of any corporation who knowingly
participates in any such violation may be punished by
a like fine, imprisonment, or both.
Nevertheless, it’s doubtful the government will soon
confiscate gold again because the amount of gold stockpiled
in the U.S. (currently valued at about $200 billion) is too
small when compared to the total U.S. money supply.
However, the wealth in individual retirement funds will
probably be too enticing to lawmakers and they will be unable
to keep their hands off it. And stealing it would be an easy
thing to do. That would allow them to put the money into
Treasury bonds and continue their spending spree.
Congress is constantly rewriting laws to achieve its ends,
and IRAs and 401(k) came into existence through laws
passed by Congress. So the idea of Congress changing
the law to grab the funds, or make it seem to the taxpayer
advantageous to hand them over is no stretch.
Practical Use of Gold after Currency Collapse

The time will come when gold and silver will have
extremely high value as money.
The proper use of gold is barter. In other words, gold or
Bob Livingston 27
silver will be exchanged or traded in lieu of dollars. I can

visualize a very practical use of old pre-1965 U.S. silver
coins as they are still legal tender.
Measured in gold and silver dollar prices, it is easy to see
that dollars are inflating/depreciating very fast. People who
have not accumulated gold and silver are losing big. If you
have bank CDs you are losing money because of inflation
and because you are paying taxes.
There are three basic reasons to purchase gold and silver:
As an investment, as a hedge against inflation, or for reasons
of survival should the entire economic system collapse.
When buying as an investment you are betting that the
price will rise above the price at which it was bought. Since
it doesn’t pay dividends, like many stocks do, that is the only
way you will see a return on your investment. With gold
prices nearing historic highs you have to consider whether
you are investing short term or long term, and whether the
price trend will be up or down.
If you are buying as an inflation hedge you want to watch the
value of the dollar. Historically, whenever the value of the dollar
has dropped, gold’s value has increased. It also tends to move
inversely with the stock market. So, while stocks do well in times
of stability and economic growth, gold does better during shaky
economic times and falling interest rates because it has real value.
If you are buying for survival purposes, then you, as
do we, expect the worst and believe that because the Fed
is printing so many dollars that money will become
worthless—a situation which, as has been shown,
has repeated itself many times over in history.
How to Buy Gold and Silver

The simplest and most obvious way to buy gold is in its
physical or bullion form. Bullion refers to the metal cast in
bars or minted into coins with the weights marked on them.
For gold, actual coins we recommend are American Gold
Eagle, Canadian Maple Leaf, African Krugerrand, or the
Australian Kangaroo.
We prefer these because they are stamped in English,
have their gold content stamped on them, come in conven-
ient, well-known sizes (1 oz., ½ oz., ¼ oz., and 1/10 oz.) and
sell at small premiums over the value of their gold content.
For survival purposes you may want to have 1/10 oz. and
¼ oz. sizes since they would be easier to use than larger
sizes. Also, in the case of the American Eagles, the U.S.
Mint lists them as legal tender.
For silver we recommend buying pre-1965 U.S silver
coins. They were minted using 90 percent silver. They are
still legal tender and are more valuable than their face value
(proving the devaluation of the dollar) because of their silver
content. One of the best ways to buy these is in bags with a
thousand dollars face value of dimes, quarters, half-dollars,
and silver dollars. A bag contains 715 oz. of coins and
currently costs between $10,000 and $11,000. You can
also buy American Silver Eagles.
Bob Livingston 29
There are many choices for buying gold and silver coins,
both locally and over the internet. Local dealers give you
the confidence that you are shopping with a legitimate
business—particularly if they have been around a while—
and the ability to actually see and hold what you are
about to buy. You can make your purchases with
cash, if you choose, which will help you remain under
the radar. Finding a local dealer is as simple as looking
in your telephone directory’s yellow pages.
We don’t recommend you buy numismatic coins.
Numismatic refers to coins collected for their value based
on how rare they are or their condition. These coins may
have a bullion value, but their price is based on the value
they have to collectors. These are not useful investments
for survival planning, as they sell for a premium and
their numismatic value will drop in times of crisis.
Also, stay away from arcane foreign coins. Their
gold content and weights may differ from standard, easily
understandable amounts, they may be stamped in a foreign
language, and they often don’t have their gold content
stamped on them. If the gold content and weight is not
readily identifiable the coins can be difficult to trade or sell.
Be very careful and operate quietly in accumulating your
gold and silver, because the government can’t take from you
what it doesn’t know you have. When practical, make your
purchases of gold and silver with cash from private dealers,
in amounts below the $10,000 threshold. If the crash arrives
and times get tough you may have a jealous neighbor who
will tell the authorities what you are up to.
Gold and silver have historically been stores of value
against paper money. The reason is simply that an infinite
amount of paper money can be created by the government
while the supply of gold and silver is inelastic and very

limited. This is precisely the reason that governments do
not like gold in the hands of the people. Rising gold prices
demonstrate the worthlessness of paper money.
Time to Start Protecting Yourself

The time is now to protect you and your family from a
coming collapse. First, divest yourself of cash as much
as possible.
For obvious reasons, you must have some cash on hand
to make purchases and dollars in the bank to carry out most
transactions and pay bills. But don’t keep any more than is
necessary in the bank.
Why? U.S. dollar savers are being routed. Savings accounts
are paying interest rates less than the devaluation of the dollar,
and retirement accounts holding stocks and bonds are being
pummeled.
To withdraw your cash, fill out a cash withdrawal
form and take your money. However, if you have more
than $10,000 in the account, know that the government
will be aware of your withdrawal because of financial
reporting laws. Don’t try to take the money in small
increments, as this is called structuring, and is illegal.
If you are withdrawing more than $10,000 and the teller
asks why you’re withdrawing your money, simply tell
them you no longer trust banks and want your money.
Empty your safety deposit box and close that account.
Bring your valuables home and put them in a fireproof
home safe, strategically hidden and secured, so if found
it can’t be removed.
If you have stocks, take possession of the stock certificates.
Bob Livingston 31
If a brokerage house keeps your certificates for you they use

them to make money for themselves. Keep your stock
certificates in your safe.
Continue Your Preparations

Preparation can be summed up in two words: Buy gold
in the manner outlined above. If gold is out of reach for you,
silver is good, too. In fact, silver is a good addition to your
portfolio at all times.
Why gold? I like the wealth effect of rising gold prices,
but gold has other and more important attributes. It is
shallow thinking to hear someone say that gold is a bad
investment because it pays no interest. This implies a total
misunderstanding of gold, to say nothing of the fiat paper
money system.
Paper profits or interest received are good for a warm and
fuzzy feeling. But the more serious reason for holding gold is
for insurance against a total collapse of the financial system of
fiat which eventually takes down all paper currencies.
Gold in hand and in the ground will be the only thing of
substance left after the paper money empire collapses.
It is very easy for most people to get confused about
long-term value of gold versus the paper. All paper money
empires throughout history breed excessive greed and
overconfidence until all caution is thrown to the wind.
Before the recent financial collapse it seemed that
everybody had a manic mentality. This state of mind
promotes widespread gambling and the false euphoria
causes a lapse in a sense of history of how the human
condition always reverts to the mean… hence recent
bubbles.
In addition to physical gold and silver, look to companies

that mine the metals. Stock in these companies, as well as
those that are involved in oil and natural gas exploration and
production, are good bets.
Consider buying stocks in foreign countries. Canadian
electric, oil, and gas utilities are a positive play. And don’t
forget China. China and India are still two growing
economies in an otherwise dismal global market.
But if you are getting into foreign stocks, be sure you find
a broker that specializes in foreign stocks. There are a few
in the U.S. When you think you’ve found one make sure
it’s not one that trades through domestic market makers
through so-called Pink Sheets, which can cost you money.
There are some blue chip stocks that are great hedge
plays against inflation. These are large companies, foreign
owned, that pay dividends and produce products that are
not only popular with Americans, but around the world.
These are companies like Addidas Shoes (Adidas Salomon
AG/Germany); Alka-Seltzer (Bayer AG/Germany); Aquafresh
(SmithKline Beecham/UK); Baskin-Robbins (Allied Domecq
PLC/UK); Carnation (Nestle SA/Switzerland); Close-Up
Toothpaste (Unilever/UK); Dannon Yogurt (Danone/France);
French’s Mustard (Reckitt Benckiser PLC/UK); Glidden
Paint (Imperial Chemical/UK); Panasonic (Matsushita/Japan);
Sunkist (Cadbury Schweppes/UK); and T.V. Guide (Newscorp/
Australia).
As we stated earlier, if you do decide to invest in the stock
market, be sure you take delivery of your stock certificates.
Don’t leave them in the hands of the brokerage house.
Taking possession of your certificates is your safeguard
against a collapse of the power grid or devastating computer
virus or worm. Either of these could wipe out the database
Bob Livingston 33
of your brokerage house and leave you with nothing but the
hope that, when you show up to get your certificates, the
brokerage house takes your word about what you own.
If oil drops below $50 per barrel, it is a good investment.
When hyperinflation kicks in oil prices will go through the roof.
Although most investment advisors recommend government
bonds as a conservative investment and inflation hedge, we
don’t. Stay away from U.S. Treasuries. They are low yield and
trail inflation, costing you money. The less they yield the more
they are adored for their safety by the go-with-the-flow crowd.
But these are toxic assets by all definitions. They are designed
to feed the Ponzi scheme.
As Peter Schiff says in his book, Crash Proof, “It’s the perfect
example of trusting the fox to guard your henhouse… they
are indexed to the consumer price index (CPI), which does
not reflect actual inflation, but rather the government’s highly
understated version of it. Ultimately, the CPI can be manipulated
to produce any result the government wants.”
If there is a key to investing and the preservation of wealth,
it is wide diversification of assets.
What Other Steps Should You Take?

With hyperinflation—as experienced in Germany in
the last century and Zimbabwe in this one—will come
the breakdown of the social order. There are a few things
you can do to prepare to ensure your survival and that
of your family.
You should consider:
■ Stockpiling food and water. (Food and water are going
to become precious commodities when hyperinflation
strikes. During the German hyperinflation women
prostituted themselves just to put food on the table because

they couldn’t afford to buy food for their children.)
■ Stockpiling weapons and ammunition. (Ammunition
will become valuable commodities for protection and
barter during the hyperinflation.)
■ Where feasible, stockpile tools and supplies needed
for growing your own food.
■ Plan for an alternative source of heat in case the gas,
oil, and electricity pipeline collapses.
If you have watched the stock market plunge and the
government’s ham-handed attempts to stem the tide, but
haven’t already taken steps to protect your investments,
it’s almost too late. To avoid the coming catastrophe you
need to move quickly to divest yourself of U.S. dollars
and accumulate as much as you can of the only things
that will retain value. You also need to take steps to
ensure your privacy and make your preparations as
much out of the government eye as is currently possible.
Bob Livingston 35
C HAPTE R 3
Protect Your Privacy from

Illegal Surveillance
Fans of popular television shows and movies like 24 or
the Jason Bourne series may find the idea of government
agents tracking someone’s every move through satellite
and surveillance cameras a little far fetched. But hold on.
Hollywood’s depiction of government surveillance is not
very far from the truth.
Every day you may walk by dozens of surveillance
cameras—traffic cams, ATM cameras, and store security
cameras—and never even realize it. And every transaction
you make with a credit or debit card or a check leaves a
paper trail that can easily be followed.

Not to mention, the government’s Terrorist Surveillance
Program, location technology found in your cellular
telephone, camera phones, store courtesy cards, and
credit bureaus.
Face it, your personal privacy is gone. We live in an era
of total surveillance, and it can be a frightening prospect if
you cherish your privacy and want to remain below the
radar of Big Brother government or out of the sight of
private detectives.
What is Privacy?
It used to be that if someone wanted complete and total
privacy all he had to do was gather up enough gear and
supplies to help him survive and wander off into the
unexplored wilderness.
In the mid-1700s a 16-year-old named Simon Kenton
fought with an older rival over the affections of a girl.
Kenton thought he had killed the other youth and so he
fled the area, changed his name to Simon Butler, and set
off for the Kentucky wilderness. Only a handful of people,
other than American Indians, lived there then, and they
weren’t interested in what someone had done in the past.
So, aside from other mountain men he chanced across,
much of his early life was spent in isolation and total pri-
vacy. It was many years before he revealed his true identity
to others, including his wife.
More recently, some semblance of privacy could be
had by closing the curtains or lowering the shades. Most
transactions were done with cash, so there was no paper
trail and most merchants respected their customers’ privacy.
Bob Livingston 37
In 2009, living a private life is much more difficult. Just

ask Marcus Schrenker.
Schrenker, a businessman facing bankruptcy and charges
he had bilked investors, attempted to disappear by flying to
Florida in his own plane, making a distress call, and jumping
from the plane. He then recovered a motorcycle from a storage
unit he had rented in Alabama, and fled.
Investigators learned for sure Shrenker was alive after
a Childersburg, AL police officer, unaware of Shrenker’s
situation, spoke with Shrenker, checked his driver’s license,
and then took him to a hotel.
When police learned of Shrenker’s disappearance they
went back to the hotel but Shrenker was gone. He had paid
cash for his room, and he later paid cash for a campsite in
his efforts to cover his tracks. But information found in the
crashed plane helped authorities track him. He was soon
arrested at a campsite in northern Florida.
The privacy Shrenker sought was elusive. Just disappearing
into the woods, like Kenton did, is not as simple as it once
was. Staying out of sight of the government’s prying eyes is
difficult even if authorities aren’t specifically looking for
you. And pulling the curtains or lowering the shades can’t
keep out the snoops anymore.
Privacy means different things to different people. To
some, privacy just means being left alone. According to
the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the first definition is, “the
quality or state of being apart from company or observation.”
The second is, “freedom from unauthorized intrusion.”
For most people, their idea of privacy would combine the
two. In other words: Being apart from observation and freedom
from unauthorized intrusion. But as technology develops it is
becoming more and more difficult to achieve that.
Government today both observes and intrudes. And it

doesn’t care whether you authorize it or not.
USA Patriot Act

Couched in a feel-good name, the USA Patriot Act of
2001 is legislation that threatens your fundamental freedoms
by giving the government the power to access your medical
records, tax records, information about the books you buy
or borrow, and the power to break into your home and
conduct secret searches without telling you for weeks,
months or indefinitely, according to the American Civil
Liberties Union.
Passed within two months of the 9/11 attacks on the
U.S., it is a prime example of what the government can get
away with when exploiting a crisis to achieve its ends. In
addition to previously-mentioned intrusions, the act allows
the government to use “roving” wiretaps to monitor pay
phones as well as computers at public libraries. The roving
wiretap permits agents to tap any phone that sends or
Bob Livingston 39
receives a call from a suspect, enabling agents to jump

from one phone to the next until large portions of whole
cities might legally be covered in taps.
Government officials can now easily intercept and listen
in on wireless communications.
Before the Patriot Act, this was supposedly done only on
calls outside the U.S. which weren’t covered by a legal tap.
However, there is a small loophole here. Since the Supreme
Court has held that interception of radio waves, even from a
cordless phone, is not a strict invasion of privacy, the FBI
has been able to build on this legal precedent to make a
defense for intercepting messages going to and from commu-
nications satellites as well as all cellular phone calls, in some
cases, circumventing the requirement to obtain a warrant.
The FBI has been sharing its data with the EU and other
foreign governments. That means if a foreign government
had collected data on a citizen, including recordings of his
conversations, it could be traded to the FBI.
So the agency could gain access to tapes that would have
been illegal for it to produce, but perfectly legal for another
nation to record and hand over.
The Patriot Act also permits foreign intelligence agencies
to spy on U.S. citizens. Remember, unlike officials of
domestic agencies, foreign intelligence authorities aren’t
compelled to follow laws designed to protect citizens.
That means illegal wiretaps and so forth might be
employed and the results then conveniently “shared”
with various domestic agencies.
But it goes further that this. In December, 2005, Bush
administration Director of National Intelligence Mike
McConnell revealed that with a single executive order in
late 2001, President Bush authorized a much broader series

of surveillance activities than had been previously described.
Under the auspices of the so-called Terrorist Surveillance
Program (TSP)—the Bush administration committed
undisclosed intelligence activities beyond the warrantless
surveillance of e-mails and telephone calls. These activities
were all part of National Security Agency efforts to gather com-
munications about suspected terrorists.
Because these invasions of your privacy were carried out
covertly you have no way of knowing which, if any, of your
innocent remarks, personal opinions or sensitive financial
information has been intercepted, analyzed, and marked as
suspicious. This random surveillance doesn’t stop with
snooping in your e-mail messages and telephone calls.
Government spooks also have nearly unlimited access to
banking transactions, credit card purchases, and tax returns.
Today’s supercomputers make it easier than ever for the
“Big Brother” government to carve away chunks of your
freedom and put a chokehold on your civil liberties!
FinCEN
The Federal Government has at its disposal a massive
data bank filled with information about our tax returns,
our bank accounts, and even our credit card purchases.
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a branch
of the Treasury Department, is the government’s enormous
financial data collection arm. FinCEN basically operates
through the systematic collation and cross-analysis of law
enforcement, intelligence, public and financial databases.
That means it has access to anything from old IRS forms
to your latest credit rating.
FinCEN pulls in personnel and information from the
Bob Livingston 41
IRS, FBI, DEA and Secret Service, as well as customs and

the postal inspection agency. According to some experts,
FinCEN taps into the National Security Council and the
State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research.
FinCEN even gets information from the likes of your
friendly banker.
If an operator at the FinCEN computer has just your
name and a vague idea of where you live, or if you’ve left
a “paper trail” in the form of a charge slip, he can enter
the information into his computer terminal and quickly
find your full name, Social Security number, date of birth,
home address, driver’s license number, and possibly bank
account numbers. If you have service or criminal records,
he can locate those, along with, perhaps, your fingerprints
or photograph.
By going into the IRS database the analyst can check on
how much income you’ve reported and whether you’ve ever
been audited or penalized by the IRS.
Financial institutions are scared to death of being fined or
even shut down by the Federal Government for being out of
compliance with provisions of the Patriot Act. So, just to be
safe, they are busily sending in information to FinCEN about
their customers and filing reports on any customer activity
that the feds might potentially regard as “unusual.”
FinCEN reports show that banks are turning in their
customers for investigation by FinCEN and the IRS for
such “offenses” as making heavy use of an automated
teller machine, for receiving or sending international wire
transfers, or because the bank does not know the source
of deposited money.
According to the Internet Retirement Alliance
www.ira.com:
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network requires

that securities investment advisors create an anti-money
laundering program as mandated under the USA Patriot
Act. Firms must also appoint an anti-money laundering
officer who will oversee the compliance process. The
Patriot Act also demands that firms adopt formal proce-
dures for obtaining and inspecting client identification
and for monitoring client transactions for suspicious
activities. Failure to report suspicious activity to the
government has resulted in fines and the permanent
revocation of securities licenses.
Under the Gramm-Lech-Bliley Act, the information
kept on you by financial institutions and consultants must
be protected. Information is not supposed to be given out
without your authorization. However, the Patriot Act essen-
tially supersedes all other statutory privacy protections.
Once the door is open to share information without
your consent, there’s no telling where the information may
wind up. The information you share with brokers, financial
planners, insurance agents, accountants, and lawyers is
highly sensitive—and highly prized.
Among the third parties who regularly try to access the
records kept on clients are identity thieves, private investigators,
marketers, and government agencies. The consequences of
having your private information “leaked” to unauthorized
third parties can be ruinous, both financially and personally.
Suspicious Activity Reports

A key weapon in the war on financial privacy is
the requirement that financial institutions file a federal
Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) on anyone who engages
in any, “suspicious transaction relevant to a possible violation
Bob Livingston 43
of law or regulation.”
According to the Treasury Department, “All financial
institutions operating in the United States, including
insured banks, savings associations, savings association
service corporations, credit unions, bank holding compa-
nies, non-bank subsidiaries of bank holding companies,
Edge and Agreement corporations, and U.S. branches and
agencies of foreign banks, are required to make this report
following the discovery of: Insider abuse involving any
amount; violations aggregating $5,000 or more where a
suspect can be identified; violations aggregating $25,000
or more regardless of a potential suspect; or transactions
aggregating $5,000 or more that involve potential money
laundering or violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.”
The government began mandating SARs in 1992 and
the Patriot Act broadened its scope. Section 358 of the Act
allows for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to receive
these financial reports on citizens. This means the CIA is
definitely back in the business of spying on Americans.
And it is, with the help of Suspicious Activity Reports,
creating files on perhaps hundreds of thousands of citizens.
Almost any institution that borrows, loans, or otherwise
deals with money has everything to lose and almost nothing
to gain by being uncooperative with the government. So they
dutifully fill out the SARs and send them off to be filed away
in FinCEN. With things as they stand, the push is for anything
even remotely abnormal to get reported, since doing so takes
the bank off the hook with regulators as well as the CIA,
IRS, FBI, and other government agencies that could cause
the bank great harm.
The law compels banks to report any transactions
that have no, “apparent lawful purpose or are not the sort
in which the particular customer would normally be

expected to engage.” This, of course, is an entirely
subjective judgment, and banks are apt to err on the
side of safety (which means that they can be expected
to report anything and everything that seems the
slightest bit out of the ordinary).
FinCEN has the ability to identify and punish businesses
that turn in suspicious activity reports at a substantially
lesser rate than the national average. To keep regulators
off their backs, banks are “ratting out” a record number of
their unsuspecting customers to the Treasury Department.
The Wall Street Journal reported that in 2004, “689,414
suspicious activity reports on private citizens were filed,
up from 507,217 in 2003 and 281,373 in 2002.”
Under the Patriot Act, when a financial institution files
a suspicious activity report on a person, it is illegal for the
“subject” to be told that a report is being forwarded to the
government for analysis.
Thousands of accounts have been frozen and perhaps
millions of transactions have been cancelled by banks
trying to comply with the Patriot Act. Almost invariably,
these “security” measures are carried out for no
good reason.
In fall 2005, Wachovia bank, apparently motivated by
concerns over Patriot Act requirements, froze a “suspicious”
bank account.
The account was used by nuns at Florida’s Holy Name
Monastery, who were not buying gifts for al-Qaida or doing
anything else illegal with their account. The bank later
apologized and reimbursed the nuns for hundreds of
dollars in bounced check fees.
Bob Livingston 45
Currency Transaction Reports

Various financial institutions are also busily filling out
secret “Currency Transaction Report” (CTR) forms on
customers who engage in transactions involving $10,000
or more. And those suspect individuals who have several
such reports filed on them may be audited by the IRS or
investigated for dealing drugs. There are a lot of honest
citizens who have their names attached to CTR forms,
given that the banking industry is filing over 12 million
CTRs each year.
This government mandate also prevents banking officials
from revealing to customers their compliance with the CTR
system. Telling you could mean a ten-year jail sentence or a
$500,000 fine per offense! If you ask about what information
may be reported to the feds, bank employees either have to
lie or beg ignorance.
Those who know about this law can structure their
withdrawals to avoid hitting the $10,000 limit. But such
“structuring” is also illegal. If you appear to have planned
withdrawals to avoid hitting $10,000 at any given time,
bank employees are instructed to file a special form that
suggests you might be trying to circumvent the law.
So a word to the wise: Be careful whenever withdrawing
more than (or close to) $10,000 in cash from a bank account.
Doing so may jeopardize your financial privacy and security.
Data Mining
Data mining is a process by which government snoops
analyze credit card purchase records and other private-sector
financial transactions made by individuals. Data mining
came to public attention in the wake of adverse publicity
over the Pentagon’s “Total Information Awareness” project,

which involves the use of Pentagon computers to track many
aspects of citizens’ buying and travel habits.
Shortly after the Pentagon’s Total Information
Awareness spy program was unleashed in 2002, it was
shut down due to public backlash over its audacious scope.
The National Journal has reported that Total Information
Awareness “was stopped in name only.” The overriding
mentality of our nation’s intelligence agencies remains
that of a giant eye gazing out over the entire globe, entitled
to know everything about anyone. A little-known system
called Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and
Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE) is now assuming a large
role in the government’s data mining efforts. According
to the Christian Science Monitor (February 9, 2006),
“Only a few public documents mention it.”
Even most Congressman don’t know it by name and
certainly don’t know the extent of ADVISE’s activities.
According to a March 8, 2007 article in The Washington
Times, “The technology is expected to analyze more
than three million “relationships” or connections per
hour, which included an example of how friends, family
members, locations, and workplaces can be linked by
pinging the data.”
Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information
Act by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
confirm that in addition to the Pentagon’s data mining
programs, many federal law enforcement agencies have
quietly set up data-mining operations of their own. One
private software firm, Visual Analytics, for example,
already tracks some people who use ATM banking cards
and make phone calls (on behalf of their clients, the National
Bob Livingston 47
Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency).

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) believes it has a lot to
gain from data mining—namely, more of our money. Sifting
through private business records will be much easier for
the IRS once all business documents are in electronic form.
One of the provisions of the IRS Restructuring and
Reform Act of 1998 is to convert to paperless filing of all
taxes. The act originally called for 80 percent of all taxes
to be filed electronically by 2008. That goal is now set to
be reached by 2012.
These new filing requirements will give the IRS plenty
of information to decide who’ll be targeted for tax audits.
Congressmen, eager to find more money to spend on
their spurious earmarked projects, are wanting to use
aspects of the Patriot Act—which many of them denounced
as egregious infringements on personal privacy—to try
and catch people they call tax cheats.
According to a New York Times article that ran Feb. 11, 2009:
Hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes are owed to the
government each year but are not being collected, said
Rep. Charles B. Rangel (who is under an ethical cloud
for underpaying his taxes), Democrat of New York and
chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
“It’s like somebody saying, you’re in the will, but
you’re not going to get the money anyway,” he said.
“We’re still going to go after it.”
The vast bulk of the missing $300 billion, officials
estimate, is lost through garden-variety cheating by
people who simply do not report everything they earn:
Self-employed painters and plumbers, small family
businesses (from local florists and dry-cleaners to
restaurants), and the growing legions who sell things

on eBay and other Internet auction sites.
Another big part of the “tax gap”‘ comes from millions
of people who cash in stocks each year but fudge on
their capital gains.
Another area ripe for exploitation came into existence
with the signing of the Economic Stimulus bill signed by
President Barack Obama in February, 2009. In it was a
provision to create electronic health records for every
U.S. citizen. And under the law you can’t opt out.
This means that people and corporations—including
insurance companies and the government—will be elec-
tronically linked together to share any information in
your health records. This includes the most personal
information about you like mental health treatment
and abortions as well as whatever complaints you’ve
discussed with your physician.
This moves beyond the privacy hit you took when spuriously-
named Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
(HIPAA) Privacy Rule was passed in 1996.
Without the ability to opt out of the database “Americans’
electronic health records could be shared—without their
consent—with over 600,000 covered entities through the
forthcoming nationally linked electronic health records
network,” said Sue A. Blevins, president of the Institute
for Health Freedom.
Marketing
It’s not only the government that’s mining data. Retailers,
banks—in fact any company that sells a service—can benefit
from mining data on its customers. Why do you think retailers
Bob Livingston 49
like grocery, drug and book stores give you a discount card?
Of course, they are glad to have your business. And
they want to reward your purchases. But, they also want
to understand your shopping habits: What you buy, when
you shop, how much you spend.
It allows companies to know almost everything about you,
particularly when you make it easy on them by filling out the
questionnaire required to obtain the card. You do this for the
discount. They do it to learn everything they can about
you… Then possibly sell that information to others.
Food Lion, a grocery chain in North Carolina, has been
accused by an ex-employee, of selling purchasing data and
contact information to database marketing companies and
product manufacturers, according to David H. Holtzman in
his book, Privacy Lost.
Hotzman writes that no one is better at exploiting
customer data than the casino industry, which knows how
long a person plays, how much money he drops, betting
strategies, even whether the customer likes onions on his
hamburger. This information is used so workers know
better how to handle customers. All of this information
is collected from the use of loyalty cards.
Identity Theft
Government and corporations aren’t alone in using
data mining. Identity thieves do it, too. The Federal Trade
Commission estimates that as many as 9 million Americans
have their identities stolen each year.
Anytime you are online there is someone, somewhere
attempting to reach into your computer, locate your personal
data, and steal it so they can shop on your dime, or do something
even more nefarious

with your identity.
Thieves then use the
information to, among
other things, take out
loans, obtain credit
cards, steal money from
the victim’s account,
rent property, establish
utilities, or obtain a
job. Often, by the time
the theft is recognized,
a person’s finances and
credit are in shambles.
And it’s not just adults
who have to worry.
More and more identity thieves are targeting the identities
of children because it takes longer for the activity to be
discovered.
And thieves don’t need to have a computer to steal
information. Following is a list of ways the FTC says
thieves steal identities:
■ Dumpster Diving: They rummage through trash looking for
bills or other paper with your personal information on it.
■ Skimming: They steal credit/debit card numbers by using
a special storage device when processing your card.
■ Phishing: They pretend to be financial institutions or
companies and send spam or pop-up messages to get
you to reveal your personal information.
■ Changing Your Address: They divert your billing
statements to another location by completing a change
of address form.
Bob Livingston 51
■ Old-Fashioned Theft: They steal wallets and purses;

mail, including bank and credit card statements;
pre-approved credit offers; and new checks or tax
information. They steal personnel records, or bribe
employees who have access.
■ Pretexting: They use false pretenses to obtain your
personal information from financial institutions,
telephone companies, and other sources.
What Are the Effects of Lost Privacy?

The Founding Fathers recognized that an oppressive
government could use its powers to intimidate, harass or
steal the possessions of average citizens. In fact, British
royal officers would use “writs of assistance” to conduct
searches of the home of colonists in an effort to detect
violations of British customs laws.
So the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution was passed
which says, “The right of the people to be secure in their
persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable
search and seizures shall not be violated, and no Warrants
shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or
affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be
searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Yet today the Federal Government tramples all over
the spirit, if not the letter, of the Fourth Amendment with
its Patriot Act, FinCEN, SAR, CTR, TIA and ADVISE
programs. Bureaucrats, businesses, and crooks alike are
mining the data of millions of Americans looking at what
you read, what you buy, where you shop and what you eat,
and making a determination about you and your character
based on the information a computer kicks out.
Government spooks are now pushing for new, expanded
police powers that will include mandatory fingerprinting, iris

scans, and DNA sampling of all citizens, national biometric
ID cards, transponder tracking of vehicles (some politicians
are advocating a mileage tax), and even geographical track-
ing of citizens through microchip implants.
And even though it may not be happening now, in the
very near future you could see discrimination, profiling,
or harassment resulting from all the information stored in
government computers. Don’t think so? Ask the Japanese,
some of whom are experiencing “bura-hara,” which is
blood type harassment.
Based on what many call sham science, many Japanese are
being segregated based on their blood type, even though doing
so is supposedly against Japanese law. The theory is that a
person’s personality, work ethic, and morals can be deter-
mined by blood type. It is affecting children in kindergarten,
and the Japanese women’s softball team members had their
training regiments personalized based on their blood type.
Any information in your electronic database could set
off “flags” or could be pulled out and used against you at
any time and for any reason. And if you have the courage
or occasion to speak out against your government, some
vindictive member of the person’s staff may very well be
into your files looking at your records for a way to slime
your reputation like they tried to do to Joe the Plumber.
What Can You Do About It?

One thing you can’t do is put the genie back in the bottle.
If you have been using credit cards, debit cards, or loyalty
cards, or you have rented movies or given out your social
security number, or if you have a cellular telephone or other
wireless device, you are in the database. The watchers have
Bob Livingston 53
your information.
However, that doesn’t mean they have to have your latest
information. You can begin now to make it more difficult to
be tracked or found.
When making a purchase, do so with cash. If you feel
you must have a credit card for emergencies, or to make
online purchases, don’t sign up for more credit accounts
than you really need. For most people, a major credit
card—two at most—and perhaps two or three cards from
department stores or other retailers will provide all the
credit and flexibility that they need. If you have dozens
of credit cards, consider cutting some of them up. When
you do, be sure to also call or write the issuing companies
to cancel your accounts individually.
In his book, Privacy Crisis, Grant Hall recommends
using credit cards to pay large bills if the company agrees
not to retain your name and credit card information in their
database. He says that some large companies are willing to
do this—if you speak with a company manager in advance—
but smaller companies are usually reluctant.
Hall says a better way to make purchases electronically
is to use a pre-paid debit card that has the VISA or Master-
Card logo stamped on it. Those accounts can be opened
without having to provide personal details and the cards
can be funded with cash payments. That way, no electronic
trail is left that leads back to you.
To bank anonymously, Hall recommends setting up a
revocable trust and opening a non-interest bearing checking
account in an American bank.
Hall describes in his book how to set up the trust account.
First, you as trustee or someone else as administrative trustee
must file Form SS4 with the IRS to receive an Employer Iden-
tification Number. Since a company tax identification or Social
Security number must be included on the form, this does give a
paper trail to the IRS. However, since you are going to open a
non-interest bearing account, no Form 1099 will be generated
and the IRS will neither know nor care about the trust.
Second, create your trust with a name that has no
similarity to your true name. You can employ the services
of an attorney to set up the trust or use a legal forms store
or online service. A trust is better for banking privacy than
a corporation or LLC because there is no registration require-
ment to establish a trust. Also, business entities are designed
to separate personal and business money and assets while a
trust can be used for the deposit of checks to the trustee or
trustees individually or to the trust itself.
Next, open a non-interest bearing checking account in the
trust’s name with yourself and whoever else you designate
as signers of the account. The bank will recognize your
signature on any checks written, but the owner of the
account will be the trust.
With a trust account no investigator trying to find you can
trace the transactions back to you.
A trust can also help your heirs inherit more of your estate
and avoid probate after your death. Probate involves inventory-
ing and appraising the property, paying debts and taxes, and
distributing the remainder of the property as outlined in the
will. However, if a living trust is formed; surviving heirs can
transfer the property quickly and easily. And, because of the
way a trust is structured, the property can avoid estate taxes.
There are two types of trusts available for this strategy,
the living trust and the AB trust, and the one that best suits
you is determined by the size of the estate and your personal
Bob Livingston 55
circumstances. It is advisable to seek the advice of an

attorney when considering this strategy because each
person’s situation is different and Congress is always
tinkering with tax laws.
A trust can also help protect your home if you are a
party to a lawsuit or get into trouble with the IRS. Even
more home protection can come from placing your home
in the name of a limited liability company (LLC). By
using a single-member LLC you don’t run afoul of tax
laws requiring you maintain residence in the home to keep
your homestead exemption. However, if you become party
to a lawsuit or if the IRS tries to seize your property to
settle a tax debt, the house is protected
because it is owned by the LLC
rather than you as an individual.
Be sure you consult an attorney
for full information on laws
particular to your state and
circumstance.
Always completely
destroy sensitive docu-
ments such as old credit
reports, credit card
statements, tax docu-
ments, etc. That means
shredding them instead of
simply tossing them into
the trash can. When buy-
ing a shredder, opt for
one with cross-cut
capabilities. Traditional
shredders that merely
cut papers into a few
vertical strips may still leave you vulnerable.

A persistent thief could piece documents back together.
Even two or three strips of paper taped together could reveal
your bank account number, Social Security number, and/or
other information that could enable a low-life to steal your
identity. A cross-cut shredder essentially turns every docu-
ment into hundreds of tiny confetti-like squares of paper that
are virtually impossible to piece back together.
Never give out your social security number except when
necessary on government forms like tax returns. Question
every request you get to provide your number and try to
negotiate an alternative such as a driver’s license,
Holtzman suggests.
If you are concerned about being tracked, avoid using
modern technology like cell phones, a global positioning
system, or similar items. Find out whether your vehicle has
GPS technology of some kind built in—many newer ones
do—and trade vehicles or have the GPS disabled if possible,
according to Holtzman.
If you feel a cell phone is a must, use a prepaid cell phone.
There are many now that don’t require a contract or credit
check—TracFone and Net10 are two—and they are perfect
for someone wanting to maintain privacy. The retailer may
ask for a billing address, but it is not necessary to provide
one, so use your discretion about what information you
provide.
He also suggests you don’t use wireless internet, cordless
telephones, or unencrypted e-mail.
When using the internet, be sure you have a virus
protection program. This is a program that checks your
computer to make sure a file or program hasn’t been down-
Bob Livingston 57
loaded—whether inadvertently or not—onto your computer.

Viruses can enable others to get into your computer informa-
tion or destroy your files. There are several that you can use
for free. Try http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/1/.
Be sure you keep your programs updated. Programs that
need to be patched are weak spots through which intruders
can more easily gain access to your computer. To protect
yourself you need to keep all of the software you’ve pur-
chased patched with all of the patches provided as updates
by the vendors who write that software. Each vendor will
tell you where to find and how to patch and update the
software you’ve purchased.
Use care when reading e-mail with attachments. E-mail
attachments that you weren’t expecting are often viruses.
Your virus software, if it is up to date, should catch and
quarantine any virus, but it is best not to take a chance.
Install and use a good firewall program to block outside
attempts to gain access to your computer. A firewall program
works like your locked front door that keeps unwanted people
out and your toddler in. If intruders can’t get to your computer
resources, they can’t use them for their purposes.
Use strong passwords to protect your information. These
days, most computer access uses a login and a password.
Selecting a strong password makes it harder for intruders to
access your computer resources. Don’t use numbers or letters
in sequence, like 1234 or abcd, but use a combination of
letters, numbers, and symbols. Don’t use names of relatives
or pets. A hacker got into Paris Hilton’s cell phone directory
and accessed all her telephone contacts because the password
was the name of her dog.
Use care when downloading and installing programs,
especially from third party vendors. The Internet is a
powerful resource for finding and using the work of others

to enhance your computing resources. Programs are one
example. However, not all programs on the internet are what
they say they are. Some programs contain or are viruses
Install and use a file encryption program and access
controls. Access controls are attributes of files and folders
that limit access to only those who should have access. As
a failsafe, encryption scrambles file contents so that only
those who have access to a file and know the decryption
keys can see a file’s contents.
The intent of these tasks is to keep what belongs to
you yours and deny access to all others. It doesn’t matter
whether an intruder tries to gain access by sending you a
virus as an e-mail attachment, exploiting a program that
hasn’t yet been patched, or accessing your system in a
way that a firewall would normally prevent. They’re all
examples of the same fundamental concept: Someone
is trying to access your computer resources and you
don’t want them to have that access. These computer
safety steps are from: www.cert.org.
If you have something stored on a disk, whether it is the
hard drive or a removable storage device, don’t think that
you can erase the data and remove it completely. There are
many ways to retrieve information that you thought had long
ago been deleted. If you have something on your computer
that you absolutely don’t want found you have to completely
destroy the hard drive or storage device.
If you suspect you have been the victim of identify theft,
the FTC recommends you do the following:
■ File a police report with your local police jurisdiction.
■ File a fraud alert. Fraud alerts can help prevent an identity
Bob Livingston 59
thief from opening any more accounts in your name.

Contact the toll-free fraud number of any of the three
consumer reporting companies to place a fraud alert on
your credit report. You only need to contact one of the
three companies to place an alert. The company you call
is required to contact the other two, which will place an
alert on their versions of your report, too. If you do not
receive a confirmation from a company, you should
contact that company directly to place a fraud alert.
TransUnion—1-800-680-7289, www.transunion.com,
Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790,
Fullerton, CA 92834-6790; Equifax—1-800-525-6285;
www.equifax.com, P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-
0241; Experian—1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742),
www.experian.com, P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013.
■ Continue to check your credit reports periodically, especially
for the first year after you discover the identity theft, to make
sure no new fraudulent activity has occurred.
■ Close the accounts that you know, or believe, have been
tampered with or opened fraudulently.
■ Call and speak with someone in the security or fraud
department of each company. Follow up in writing, and
include copies (NOT originals) of supporting documents.
It’s important to notify credit card companies and banks
in writing. Send your letters by certified mail, return
receipt requested, so you can document what the company
received and when. Keep a file of your correspondence
and enclosures.
■ When you open new accounts, use new Personal
Identification Numbers (PINs) and passwords. Avoid
using easily available information like your mother’s
maiden name, your birth date, the last four digits of
your Social Security number or your phone number,

or a series of consecutive numbers.
If the identity thief has made charges or debits on your
accounts, or has fraudulently opened accounts, ask the
company for the forms to dispute those transactions:
■ For charges and debits on existing accounts, ask the
representative to send you the company’s fraud dispute
forms. If the company doesn’t have special forms, use
the sample letter (available at www.ftc.gov) to dispute
the fraudulent charges or debits. In either case, write to
the company at the address given for “billing inquiries,”
NOT the address for sending your payments.
■ File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.
Protect Your Money by Moving it Offshore

Most of us have a psychological fence at the waters edge. We
can’t think outside of the U.S. But in today’s world, believe it or
not, there is greater opportunity and security in going offshore.
In fact, you may consider strategies for offshore living,
residency, second citizenship, investing, bank accounts, etc.
Or you may be keenly interested in a tax and asset haven.
There are a lot of options, all fully legal, that will give you
leverage and privacy that you don’t now have in the United
States. These strategies are for people who do their homework.
They are not to be taken lightly.
Since passage of the Patriot Act, foreign bankers as well
as foreign countries are careful about dealing with American
citizens. They don’t want to incur the wrath of the U.S.
government. And make no mistake; there are members of
the government—including your elected representatives in
Congress—who believe you are cheating the government if
Bob Livingston 61
you take your money offshore.

Following is an excerpt from a column written by Sen. Carl
Levin of Michigan:
Tax cheats come in all shapes and sizes, so it would be hard
to pick out of a lineup the 100 Americans whom the IRS
suspects of hiding funds in Liechtenstein, a tiny Alpine
country known for opening bank accounts and accepting
large deposits of funds with few questions asked.
In contrast, identifying the guilty in a lineup of nations that
facilitate international tax evasion is comparatively easy.
Even before recent disclosures dramatized Liechtenstein as
a roadblock to those of us fighting tax evasion, the nation
had been identified by the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development as an “uncooperative”
tax haven that routinely declines to help other countries
enforce their tax laws.
A tax haven is a jurisdiction with low taxes or no taxes
and secrecy laws and practices that make it hard for other
countries to discover if their taxpayers are concealing assets
there. In effect, tax havens sell secrecy to attract tax cheats,
peddling their services by evoking gentler terms like
“financial privacy” and “wealth management.”
Liechtenstein’s LGT Bank, which is controlled by the royal
family, is suspected of harboring assets for thousands of
tax dodgers from around the world. A nation of just 35,000
citizens—a population so small it would not fill even a third
of the football stadium at the University of Michigan—
Liechtenstein boasts more than a dozen banks with
client assets that top $145 billion.
It is far from the only country holding tax evading money.
Over 50 tax havens operate in the world today, helping tax
cheats offload their tax burden onto the backs of honest
taxpayers who are left to make up the difference. The Tax

Justice Network has estimated that over $11 trillion is stashed
offshore by individuals alone. In the United States, offshore
tax evasion robs the U.S. Treasury of an estimated $100
billion in unpaid taxes each year.
So if you try to protect your assets by placing it in an offshore
account you are a robber, according to Sen. Levin.
Offshore banking is a big business worldwide. There are
estimates that $2 trillion to $5 trillion from the U.S. stashed
in nearly 40 offshore banking havens that impose no taxes,
guarantee privacy and cater to nonresidents. One-third of the
entire world’s private wealth is stashed in Switzerland alone.
Offshore banks, unlike most U.S. banks, are stockbrokers.
This means that one can invest in almost anything with a foreign
bank account. The big advantages of a foreign bank account
or annuity policy are privacy and asset protection from U.S.
litigation. This puts funds out of reach of suit-happy U.S.
lawyers and government snoops.
One of the best foreign “bank accounts” is the Swiss annu-
ity—perfectly legal and not required to be reported on U.S. tax
returns because it’s an insurance policy.
Swiss annuities are essentially insurance policies. You invest
your money with one of the country’s premier rated insurance
companies and are issued a policy contract. You receive interest
plus dividends upon maturity. You can choose your schedule of
receiving your returns.
Swiss annuities have the following great features:
■ They are exempt from the 35 percent Swiss withholding tax.
■ They are insurance policies and therefore are not bound by
strict Swiss bank secrecy laws.
■ As insurance policies, rather than bank or investment
Bob Livingston 63
accounts, they are exempt from IRS regulations on reporting

and taxation of offshore investments. There is no requirement
to report insurance policies to the IRS.
At $1.12 to $1.17 the Swiss franc is now worth more than the
U.S. dollar. People who bought Swiss annuities using the Swiss
franc, when the Swiss franc was worth only 70 cents, have done
quite well. They made interest plus excellent currency gains.
Using offshore trusts and bank accounts can be an excellent
way for U.S. citizens to legally and securely protect their
assets and themselves from lawsuits. Offshore trusts offer an
individual a fair degree of personal confidentiality, privacy,
and asset protection from a business client—or even an
ex-spouse. Remember, to maintain your privacy, don’t
sign any waiver to give foreign banks the authority to
release information about you or your account.
Offshore insurance policies are another means of asset
protection. A U.S. tax compliant life insurance policy issued
by a carrier outside the U.S. offers additional benefits:
■ Increased asset protection. No protection for life insurance
proceeds exists under federal laws. While many states have
enacted laws that provide limited protection for life insurance
policies, coverage varies from significant to non-existent. In
contrast, many offshore jurisdictions provide statutory asset
protection for the death benefit and investments held by an
insurance policy. And, as a practical matter, it is much more
expensive for a creditor to bring a claim before a foreign
court than a domestic court.
■ Access to global investments. Offshore insurance policies
provide tax-advantaged access to international asset managers
and to offshore funds that are generally not accessible to
U.S. investors.
■ Increased privacy. Domestic assets, including life insurance
policies, can easily be discovered by private investigators

with access to any of the hundreds of “asset tracking” services
now existing in the U.S. In contrast, assets held offshore are
off the domestic “radar screen” and cannot easily be identified
in a routine asset search. The confidentiality statutes of
some offshore jurisdictions are an additional barrier against
frivolous claims and investigations.
■ Not reportable as a “foreign bank account.” A life
insurance policy purchased from a non-U.S. carrier is not
considered a “foreign bank, security, or other financial
account.” This means that there is no requirement to report
the existence of, or the income derived, from an offshore
insurance policy to any government authority. However,
depending on what country you purchase an offshore insur-
ance policy from, it may be necessary to make a onetime
excise tax payment to the IRS amounting to 1 percent of the
policy premium.
■ Currency diversification. Life insurance policies are free to
make investments in non-U.S. dollar assets that may gain in
the event of future declines in the value of the U.S. dollar.
Modern technology is, in many ways, making our lives sim-
pler. It’s easier to gather information, easier to transact business,
easier to communicate with others. But it’s also easier for people
to learn more about us than we want them to know. So in many
ways the same technology is making our lives more compli-
cated—particularly if you cherish your privacy.
You can no longer easily drop completely out of the main-
stream and fly totally under the radar. But, if you are diligent,
you can blunt any efforts by Big Brother government to
know all that you do all of the time.
Plus if you heed the advice in this report you can ensure
you’ll enter your golden years with your nest egg fully intact.
Bob Livingston 65
C HAPTE R 4
You Can Still Enjoy a

Prosperous Retirement
On Oct. 11, 2007, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
reached a high of 14,198.10 and the S&P 500 hit a high
of 1,576.09. By March 6, 2009, both indices had lost more
than half their value, falling to lows of 6,469.95 and 666.79
respectively.
If you left your retirement funds in an IRA or 401(k)
during that period you saw your nest egg cut in half, or
worse. In 17 months you went from feeling like you would
be comfortable in your retirement years to wondering how
you are going to get by. Now you think that rather than
retiring soon you’ll be working ten more years just to get
back what you’ve lost.
But don’t despair. It is possible to make money or
increase your retirement holdings in a bad economy. In
fact, many have become wealthy in bad economies. A great
many fortunes were even made during the Great Depression.
For example, Joseph Kennedy, the patriarch of the Kennedy
dynasty, made his fortune during the 1930s by shorting the
stock market and investing in rock-bottom real estate that
soared in value after World War II.
To make money in a bad economy you just have to think
differently from the way you have thought in the past. You
have to educate yourself, and to do so you have to read more.
Unfortunately, money won’t fall out of the sky. So, if you

want to live richer than the average “Joe” (or as rich as Joe
Kennedy) during your retirement years, you must read and
think for yourself. This is, in itself, unique, because few
people read anymore, and it seems even fewer people think.
Most people live a lifetime never having had an original or
creative thought. They are oblivious to how rigid their lives are.
If you want to capitalize on new opportunities you’ve
got to be different. And you must also realize that there are
many people who will do all they can to keep you as poor
as a church mouse. Here are some of them:
■ The Federal Government, which takes as much as it can
from citizens in income taxes, ad valorem taxes, inheritance
taxes and many others. The very philosophy of the Federal
Government is to steal under the pretense of taxing.
■ Local governments like cities and counties, whose
lifeblood is your blood. Once they pass additional taxes
to fund some program they never remove it.
Bob Livingston 67
■ The company you work for, which may default on your

pension. General Motors is doing it now. It will get worse.
Also, you may work for a company for 30 years and just
before retirement they may cut you off along with your
pension. It happens every day.
■ Scams. There are new ones every minute designed to trick
you out of your hard-earned money. They prey on the
gullible and those who always want something for nothing.
■ Lawyers. This is a huge risk in the United States. They
love to sue and they will sue under any pretense. If they
don’t have a case they will create one.
To retire richer, you need to become people smart. This
alone can help make you rich because you’ll learn to read
people and avoid the crooks. Do you know that being unable
to properly read others is the downfall of many otherwise
smart people? Look at all those taken in by Bernie Madoff—
some very intelligent, wealthy and well-known individuals.
You can’t be too people smart.
The More You Read,

the Richer You Will Get
If you read enough, you won’t have to wait until retire-
ment age to be wealthy. You can be young and rich. Here’s
why: The more you read, the more that goes into your mental
computer. The mind will have many variables to draw on.
This makes for creativity and originality—something a
nonreader doesn’t have.
But don’t read comic books or novels—except as a
momentary diversion. Read financial books and newsletters
like The Bob Livingston Letter and the ones recommended
below. It’s a proven fact that the more you read, the richer
you will get. It is such a simple thing, but few people

know it.
In addition to The Bob Livingston Letter, the best market
newsletters, in my opinion, are:
■ The Dines Letter, P.O. Box 22, Belvedere, CA 94920;
■ The Aden Forecast at www.adenforecast.com;
■ Freemarket Report, by James Turk, P.O. Box 5002,
North Conway, New Hampshire 03860.
These people can advance your investment knowledge
and they frequently refer to (as I do) other financial newsletters
and books. In a few pages they can share with you what you
would never learn in a lifetime.
Now, here are a few recommendations to help you to
enjoy a prosperous retirement:
The Stock Market—Most people lose money in the
stock market, but a few, like Warren Buffet, get super rich.
Why? Because they read. They also always invest with the
market trend.
Market trends are like the seasons; they come and go.
Most of the time trends last two to four years, some much
longer. But you need to know if you are in an up or down
market. This is a changing phenomenon so you have to read
market letters like those listed above to become familiar
with the current trend.
But even knowing and understanding the trend is no
guarantee. Buffett’s Berkshire-Hathaway, Inc. lost 62 percent
of its value in 2008. So no one is immune to the potential
for losses in the market.
Another secret to successful investing is to go contrary
to the crowd. You should always note the way the crowd is
Bob Livingston 69
going and go in the opposite direction. If you’re thinking

of investing in something that a lot of people are excited
about, don’t do it. Other people’s excitement is an excellent
indicator that it’s too late.
It’s important to remember that even though a stock
sector may be in an up trend, stocks or market sectors
never go straight up.
In fact, about 80 percent of the time up-trend stocks are
just sitting or even correcting down against the trend. But,
if the trend is up, they will always rise to new highs until
the top when they reverse to a new down-trend and prices
start down.
You should be out of this sector at this point. Know the
trend because the trend is your friend.
The market has taken a nosedive in the last 15 months,
and a lot of wealth has been lost. If you invested in the Dow
or the S&P 500 index at the beginning of January, 2002,
you saw the market rise from 9,619.14 (Dow), and 1,100.64
(S&P) to a high of 14,198.10 (Dow) and 1,576.09 (S&P)
on Oct. 11, 2007. If you got out of the market then, you
did fine—an increase of more than 43 percent.
But if you stayed in for the long-term, as advisors suggest
you do, you lost 32 percent of your money in the Dow and
39 percent in the S&P, as we have seen the market plummet
to its March 11, 2009 low.
Now the signs seem to indicate a rally is in place. After a
slow start to 2009, the stock market finally took off in March
which made the first quarter one of the best in history. We
believe it is a bear rally, as is typical in bear markets. If you
pick the right equities you can make money in this bear rally.
But don’t get in too deep. And don’t forget to keep stop
losses on your holdings.

Stop losses, which put an automatic sell on your equities
when they drop to a certain price, can save you from disaster
when the bear rally is over. Just stay on top of your holdings
and ease those stop-losses up as the stock prices rise.
Typically, the public invests at the top when everyone is
in a frenzy about a stock or investment. This is the time for
you to get out.
The profits are gone and the stock or the market is at its
top and ready to go down. For the greatest profits, buy quality
when they are out of favor. The yield should be high and the
price low. These are important concepts, but they will all
come together fast for you if you read the market letters
and books I recommend.
The Hidden New Bull Market—Stocks that the public
does not know or care about right now are gold, silver, and
uranium stocks. As of this writing, these stocks should be
bought and held for two to five years for huge profit potential.
Here are some stocks that we believe have considerable
upside to them (buy on dips in the market):
Gold stocks:
1. Freeport-McMoran Copper and Gold, Inc. (FCX, NYSE)
2. Eagle Plains (EPL.V, Canadian)
3. Novagold (NG, AMEX)
4. Gold Corp, Inc. (GG, NYSE)
5. Agnico-Eagle Mines, Ltd. (AEM, NYSE)
6. Royal Gold, Inc. (RGLD, Nasdaq)
7. BHP Billiton, Ltd. (BHP, NYSE)
8. Compania Min Buen (BVN, NYSE)
9. The Tocqueville Gold Fund (TGLDX)
Bob Livingston 71
Silver stocks:
1. Pan American Silver (PAAS, Nasdaq)
2. Silver Standard (SSRI, Nasdaq)
3. Silver Wheaton Corp. (SLW, NYSE)
Consider Uranium
The 21st Century reveals a world running low on fossil
fuels and the main source of today’s reserves are found in the
unstable Middle East. Plus, more people believe that fossil
fuels, or hydrocarbons, are suffocating the planet. But nuclear
energy is clean, and more Democrats in Congress and the
White House are finally recognizing this.
Also, uranium is a particularly good investment because
its prices are low. Like almost everything else, they have
dropped in recent months as the price of oil has fallen
But this can’t and won’t last. The world’s energy needs—
combined with a new push for reducing dependence on
so-called pollution-causing carbon fuels—will force most
of the world’s governments to turn to uranium as an
alternative. So companies that mine uranium are going
to be good investments.
Uranium Stocks:
1. Denison Mines (DNN, AMEX)
2. Cameco Corp. (CCJ, NYSE)
These are not stocks that the public generally knows
about. When the public does want these stocks, the market
will be at the top and we will sell. This is what savvy
investors know as contrary opinion. Successful investors
know this and it is fundamental to their investing.
Commodities and Natural Resource Stocks—This
sector is also now in a bull market and should be profitable

for a few years. What are commodities?
Commodities can be gold, silver, oil, lead, zinc, tin,
uranium, or all the farm products like corn, wheat, hogs,
and cattle.
My recommendation is the Rogers Raw Material Fund.
This fund has a market basket of commodities in it. The
minimum investment is $10,000. For information contact:
Mr. James D. Baer, Uhlmann Price Securities, LLC.,
Chicago Board of Trade, 141 W. Jackson Blvd., Suite
1340A, Chicago, IL 60604; 1-800-444-7075.
Beyond the gold, silver, and uranium stocks mentioned
above, some of these energy stocks are worth considering:
Newfield Exploration (NFX), Peabody Energy (BTU),
Devon Energy (DVN), Chevron (CVX), and Massey
Energy (MEE).
Don’t Lose Money

This may sound ridiculous to say, but believe me it
isn’t. If you want to be wealthy, you must not lose money,
or I should say must not lose big money. Is this an absurd,
silly rule? Maybe, but most people lose money in disastrous
investments, gambling, rotten business deals, greed, or
poor timing. Yes, after almost five decades of investing
and talking to investors, I can tell you that most people
definitely do lose money. And they lose big time.
Rich Man, Poor Man

In the investment world the wealthy investor has one
major advantage over the little guy, the stock market
amateur and neophyte trader. The advantage that the
Bob Livingston 73
wealthy investor enjoys is that he doesn’t need the markets.

I can’t begin to tell you what a difference that makes,
both in one’s mental attitude and in the way one actually
handles his own money.
The wealthy investor doesn’t need the markets, because
he already has all the income he needs. He has money
coming in via bonds, T-bills, money market funds, stocks,
and real estate. In other words, the wealthy investor never
feels pressured to “make money” in the market.
The wealthy investor tends to be an expert on values.
When bonds are cheap and bond yields are irresistibly
high, he buys bonds. When stocks are on the bargain table
and stock yields are attractive, he buys stocks. When real
estate is a great value, he buys real estate.
When fine art and jewelry or gold is on the “give away”
table, he buys them. In other words, the wealthy investor
puts his money where the greatest values are.
And if no outstanding values are available, the wealthy
investor waits. He can afford to wait. He has money coming
in daily, weekly, and monthly. The wealthy investor knows
what he is looking for, and he doesn’t mind waiting months
or even years for his next investment. That is patience.
But what about the little guy? This fellow always feels
pressured to “make money.” And in return he’s always
pressuring the market to “do something” for him. But
sadly, the market isn’t interested.
When the little guy isn’t buying stocks offering 1 percent or
2 percent yields, he’s off to Las Vegas or Atlantic City trying
to beat the house at roulette. Or, he’s spending $20 a week on lot-
tery tickets, or he’s “investing” in some crackpot scheme that his
neighbor told him about (in strictest confidence, of course).
Because the little guy is trying to force the market to do

something for him, he’s guaranteed to lose. The little guy
doesn’t understand value so he constantly overpays. He
doesn’t comprehend the power of compounding, and he
doesn’t understand money. He’s never heard the adage,
“He who understands interest—earns it. He who doesn’t
understand interest—pays it.” The little guy is the typical
American, and he’s deeply in debt.
In fact, the little guy is in hock up to his ears. As a result,
he’s always sweating—sweating to make payments on his
house, his refrigerator, his car, or his lawn mower. He’s
impatient, and he feels perpetually put upon. He tells himself
that he has to make money—fast. And he dreams of those
“big, juicy mega-bucks.”
In the end, the little guy wastes his money in the market,
or he loses his money gambling, or he dribbles it away on
senseless schemes. In short, this “money-nerd” spends his
life dashing up the financial down-escalator. But here’s the
ironic part of it. If, from the beginning, the little guy had
adopted a strict policy of never spending more than he
made, if he had taken his extra savings and compounded
it in intelligent, income-producing securities, then in due
time he’d have money coming in daily, weekly and monthly,
just like the rich man. The little guy would have become a
financial winner.
Values
The only time the average investor should stray outside
the basic compounding system is when a given market offers
outstanding value. I judge an investment to be a great value
when it offers: (a) Safety; (b) an attractive return; and (c) a
good chance of appreciating in price. At all other times,
Bob Livingston 75
the compounding route is safer and probably a lot more

profitable, at least in the long run.
Time
Here’s something they don’t tell you at your local
brokerage office or in the “How to Beat the Market” books.
All investing and speculation is basically an exercise in
attempting to beat time.
Reference: Some of the thoughts here are from Richard
Russell of Dow Theory Letters, P.O. Box 759, La Jolla,
CA 92038 www.dowtheoryletters.com subscriptions
$250 per year.
Why Not Just a Passbook Savings

Account at Your Local Bank?
Regular commercial bank savings accounts are not very
popular because interest rates are lower and interest received
is taxed as ordinary income. There is not much of a way to
defer taxes as in stocks and U.S. government bonds.
Unless you can compound, taxes and inflation will eat
you alive. Any wealth planning should always factor in taxes
and inflation. Otherwise you may accumulate dollars with
greatly reduced purchasing power. After all, if you get rich
in mini-dollars you have lived an illusion.
Millions are doing this because over time U.S. dollars
have not been constant in purchasing power.
Commercial bank CDs also don’t pay much interest
and taxes take most of the interest. But there are bank CDs
that are profitable. These are CDs in foreign currencies like
the Euro, Canadian dollar, and the Australian and New
Zealand dollar.
Some of these CDs can be bought in three month, six

month, and one year increments. And the six-month CDs
pay about as much as the one year CDs do. The bank is
EverBank at 1-800-926-4922 or www.everbank.com.
Currencies go up and down in cycles or trends just like
stocks. Foreign currencies most of the time go opposite the
U.S. dollar. Currently, the U.S. dollar is in a bear market, so
it has been trending down with some rallies against the trend.
Likewise, some of the foreign currencies have been trending
up just opposite the U.S. dollar.
Gains can be made if you pick the right currencies. They
go up, plus accumulate interest, which gives a double income
potential. This double income potential can be considerable,
up to 30 percent or more. This is far better than investing
within the U.S. as most Americans do.
Currency Risk
Money can be made in foreign currencies but there are
risks. Governments manage their currencies through their
central banks. Central banks use printing press money to
fund their spending.
In other words they create money for whatever they want.
If they need an army to fight a war, they just print the money.
Of course they don’t publicly say this. National currencies
can be stable when backed by gold. Sir Isaac Newton created
a gold standard with the British pound in the early 1700s
and it ended in 1914. All that time the British pound had
essentially the same purchasing power.
Wealth building requires a close watch on national
currencies. Inflating paper money can undermine
everything you do in your personal finance.
Bob Livingston 77
The Retiree’s Golden Egg

As the purchase value of paper money goes down, the
dollar prices of gold and silver go up. People who under-
stand the system accumulate gold and silver coins and have
them available for emergencies and retirement. They keep
them in their possession, not in banks.
The golden idea is to preserve your savings from inflation
and taxes and sell your coins off during retirement as you
need cash income. You can always sell your coins for cash.
This is a low profile way to be private. You can buy all
sized gold and silver coins and they will last thousands of
years when all the paper money is gone.
There are also options available for those wanting to
own larger quantities of bullion but have issues with storage.
One of those is the Perth Mint, a 100-year-old mint owned
by the government of Western Australia. In the Perth Mint
Certificate Program bullion can be purchased at the mint’s
spot market ask price with no markup. There is a service fee
and administrative fee, but storage is free. Safety is assured
because the metals remain on site and cannot be lent out.
Another option is GoldMoney, available at
www.goldmoney.com. Through
GoldMoney you can open a free
account and buy as much gold
or silver as you want as often
as you want. You own the
actual metal and it is stored
in vaults in London and
Zurich. The wealth in your
account is readily accessible
by electronic transfer.
Unreported Retirement Leverage

One of the very best ways to build retirement income
besides gold coins is to start a small business of your own.
There are millions of small businesses and many huge com-
panies that grew from these small ventures.
There are literally thousands of ideas for starting a small
business. Remember I told you earlier that the more you read,
the faster you will lead your mental computer and the faster
your mind will trigger money making ideas. I guarantee it.
Taxes are a huge factor in a lifetime. And a small business
affords plenty of tax breaks. The most important small
business page in a tax return is schedule C. This is where
small business people take their many deductions.
The taxing authorities don’t like small businesses because
they know that they can’t keep up with them. No matter
what they do, they can’t collect near as much as they can
from people who just work jobs and automatically have
tax taken from their paychecks.
I suggest that you go to the IRS or your accountant and
ask for a schedule C and study it. It’s a gold mine (and you
don’t have to get your hands dirty mining it). As you read
more about the benefits of small business, you’ll learn that
a small business does not have to show a profit. They have
to only display an intention to make a profit. This can go
on for years. Imagine what an opportunity this is to create
income through tax savings.
Avoid Probate
Probate is for lawyers and state governments. When
possible avoid getting involved in it. As far as personal
property is concerned, just arrange things by informing
Bob Livingston 79
your children to simply divide up your property. In other

words, after the funeral, simply meet and divide up the
property if there is more than one child. It makes absolutely
no sense to file probate and list personal items.
However, if you suspect your children are not up to the
task of dividing up your assets without messy bickering you
could consider establishing a trust and putting your property
in the name of the trust.
Real Property
There is little difference in the way you should handle
real property, except you have to prepare your deed(s) while
you are still alive. Here is what you do. Make a new deed to
yourself and your children (or whomever you want to have
your real property.) Have it notarized. Once your children’s
names are on your deed(s) then nobody is going to question
your deed from a legal standpoint and your real property
will not have to go through probate.
Your children (or whomever) don’t have to sign anything
for you to list them on the deed in this fashion, and they
don’t even have to know that their name is on your real
property. You could reveal it to them in your will. The next
step is to go to the courthouse where all property records
are and file your new deed. Probate is the same as public
notice. Don’t do it. You don’t have to.
Another little secret about real property transfer: If you
suspect that government or lawyers for some reason, real
or imagined, are after your assets, you can deed complete
ownership of your property to your children or family.
They don’t even have to sign the deed.
If you feel insecure about deeding your property to
your children, then prepare a second deed that transfers
100 percent of your property right back to yourself. This time,

the people that you deeded your property to will have to sign
the second deed, transferring your property back to you.
What you can do is record the first deed and don’t record
the second deed until all is clear and you feel safe deeding
your property back to yourself.
One warning: Things of this nature have to be done way
ahead of time, otherwise you may be charged with “fraudulent
conveyance” and the judge may set it aside and move to take
your property.
Life Insurance
Life insurance is a big investment for a lot of people. It’s
like all other assets. Make it as invisible as you can and that
means putting it out of reach of the system. The system was
created to impoverish the people. Be aware of this.
Whole Life Insurance

A warning here: Most life insurance agents recommend
and insist on selling you whole life insurance. They can and
will give you many “reasons” why you should buy whole life
insurance, but they won’t tell you the main reason for this. Their
main reason is because all life insurance companies train agents
to solicit whole life or universal whole life insurance sales.
The insurance companies pay commissions based on the
amount of the policy premium. The agent makes a bigger
commission on whole life insurance policies because the
premium on this type of insurance is much higher than the
premium on term insurance. Most Americans have been
sold on whole life insurance. American insurance agents
have done their jobs well.
Bob Livingston 81
Whole life insurance is a rip-off and a fraud in most

cases. Life insurance companies have absolutely no risk
for your premium above the cost of the insurance. Under
most policies, when you die, the company keeps your cash
value and only pays the beneficiary the death benefit. I can
easily define this as fraud because the public is unaware
of this fact. If you die, your cash value is not yours. The
insurance company keeps your cash value. I’ll bet no one
has ever told you this.
Whole life insurance builds cash value and this cash
value can be grabbed by the IRS, lawsuits, and just about
anyone else with a claim while you are still alive.
There is a way to put life insurance cash values out of
reach of debtors, lawsuits and the IRS. You can make your
beneficiary the owner of your policy. The owner does not
have to be the insured. However, when you transfer owner-
ship, you relinquish all rights of your insurance policy.
If your life changes and you decide that you no longer
wish for your named beneficiary to be your beneficiary or
owner, then you can stop payment on the policy. However,
by doing this you will give up all your investment. One other
possibility is when you sign your policy over to your beneficiary
as the owner of the policy, get him or her to sign the policy
back over to you, but don’t file the second assignment of
ownership with the insurance company unless you later
decide you want to.
Keep this document in your possession in a safe place.
If you later decide you want to reclaim control of your life
insurance and cash value, simply file the ownership papers
with the insurance company. You can change your beneficiary
on the same form. Make sure from the very beginning that
the change of ownership form also allows you to change the
beneficiary on the same form. This is very simple and you

can secretly own and control your life insurance and cash
values.
Never, ever make your beneficiary your estate! If you do, as
many lawyers advise, you are putting the proceeds of your life
insurance into probate and these proceeds then become taxable.
Term Insurance
Term insurance policies, regardless of the variation, do
not have cash value accumulations. Term insurance is simply
described as dying insurance. For many people it is the
best kind of insurance, especially for people at young
ages. However, as one passes age 65, term insurance
begins to get prohibitive in cost.
However, you can reduce the face amount, thereby
reducing the cost, or it can be converted to whole life
insurance without any health qualifications. Most life
insurance should be term insurance, at least up to age 65.
It is preferable to buy level term insurance, meaning that
the premium will not increase while the term insurance
is in effect.
Term insurance is the best way to get the lowest cost
insurance available and at the same time, not have to
worry about asset grabbers. Term insurance has no cash
value to steal, and they can’t touch the death benefit.
Avoid Estate Taxes

It really would be a cruel hoax to go through life trying
to avoid the system to accumulate assets and then die and
leave your estate to the wolf pack estate taxes. Unfortunately,
tens of thousands do every year because they don’t think
it through.
Bob Livingston 83
What to Do
■ Give to your children as the years go by. Avoid gift
taxes by giving them assets outside the paper trail.
You can’t wait until the last minute. This has to be
done over time, maybe years:
■ Save up cash and give cash.
■ Accumulate gold and silver coins and distribute to
your children.
■ Put your real property in joint ownership as
described above.
■ Invest in a Swiss annuity and make your children
the beneficiary.
■ Buy life insurance and make your children the
beneficiaries. Life insurance proceeds are not taxable.
■ Buy a foreign endowment and make your children
beneficiaries.
■ Irrevocable trust. In this area you need professional help.
■ If you have a foreign bank account, you could deposit your
stock certificates and sell them outside U.S. jurisdiction.
More on Trusts
A bypass trust enables married couples that expect to
have taxable estates in excess of the allowable exemption
($3.5 million if the death comes in 2009) to reduce their
estate taxes. Under current Federal estate tax law, any assets
of the first spouse to die that pass to the surviving spouse
are free of any estate tax. This is known as the unlimited
marital deduction. However, when the surviving spouse
dies, any portion of his or her taxable estate over the
exemption will be subject to estate tax.
By using a bypass trust, couples can reduce this tax

by taking advantage of the estate tax exemptions that are
available to the first spouse to die. In effect, they can take
this exemption, which may otherwise be wasted “if the
unlimited marital deduction” is taken to create a trust
that “bypasses” the survivor’s taxable estate.
Have a Big Estate Problem?

If you have a large estate and you find that you can’t
really give it all away to your family or other party, then
life insurance can be quite valuable. Your life insurance,
which is tax free to the beneficiary on your death, can be
used to pay the estate taxes on your other property.
Be sure to get the insurance while you are still
medically insurable. You can virtually eliminate your
estate taxes by carrying enough life insurance to cover
the taxes when you die.
Bob Livingston 85
Make a Will
You should make a will, even if it’s nothing more
than you just writing out what you want to happen to
your assets after you die.
Some people with high net worth may need to get a lawyer
to draw up a will. This, however, is not very private because you
have to disclose everything you own to the lawyer. Hopefully
you know a lawyer you can trust. A will is far from airtight,
and very often wills are inquired into and are broken. People
often find ways to break wills… so be careful.
Your Homeowners Policy

Many people have jewelry, fur coats, precious stones,
valuable coins, guns, art, etc., that they feel they need to
insure. They carefully list them all for extra coverage under
their homeowner policy. The question is: Is the insurance
worth the disclosure, especially if this list falls into the hands
of the taxing authorities? Yes, they are aware that these lists
exist. They will order a copy from your insurance agent if
they do a field audit on you.
They most certainly will do so if they suspect you of fraud.
Government agents think of everybody as tax avoiders at the
least and tax evaders at the most. They are not nice. The irony
is that they think you are not nice. What if some unscrupulous
authority or vendor passes that list to others? You become a
victim of crime before you become a victim of government.
Few people know that the IRS sometimes computes a
“net worth” assessment of taxes if they think your standard
of living (i.e., what you display) is greater than your income.
Low profile is the rule nowadays. Don’t drive a Mercedes on
a Chevrolet income. Ah, okay, you knew that. What to do?
Buy or build a safe, then decide where you want to put it,
on or off your property or residence. Accessibility to thieves
of any stripe is a concern. Safes are heavy or should be.
Thieves don’t run off with them easily.
The IRA Trap

The IRA, or Individual Retirement Account, under the
pretense of a tax deduction is a classic Machiavellian trick
that few have ever suspected. The pretense is that you get
a tax deduction now and pay taxes at a lower rate at retire-
ment. Nobody ever mentioned that inflation and income
tax indexing will operate to gain you nothing financially.
What benefits the government? The IRA scheme effectively
withholds your consumption. In the U.S., under a credit creation
system, erroneously called money, consumption must be
restricted to balance production. This is something that the
politicians and bureaucrats won’t talk about. The reason they
won’t is that they don’t want the American people to ever
figure out that the government prints money without limits
or creates credit as money without limits.
This fiat money system could not exist, let alone survive
without strict regulation of consumption. Well, the IRA is
one of many ingenious creations used to delay and restrict
consumption. You will agree that putting your money into
an IRA account restricts your consumption for many years.
Then guess what? When it shows up in your probated estate,
guess who gets part or all of it back again as taxes and fees?
But that’s not all. IRAs put your assets under the strict control
of the government. Who is to say that the government may
declare that your funds must be invested in government obliga-
tions with depreciating dollars? In fact, it is being discussed
among members and Congress and pushed by union bosses.
Bob Livingston 87
There has already been political talk of requiring IRA

funds to be invested in government agencies which are
responsible for public housing and low rent projects. This
is a black hole. I fully expect that the government will
one day nationalize private pension funds into a universal,
mandatory government pension fund. The word nationalize
is a cover word for steal or take forcible control.
The French began in 1982 to require all workers to loan
10 percent of their taxable income to the government by
purchasing government bonds. Pension plans mean government
control of your money and eventual confiscation by one
means or another.
You may be sure that some creative scheme to force your
pension savings into the “national interest” will be found.
Trillions of dollars of pension funds is a huge potential con-
sumption threat. The government must control consumption,
and it will control private consumption. Private consumption
competes against government consumption.
In the past our economic system has given U.S. citizens
a reasonable living and a social security retirement. Many
people had good company pensions.
But this system, as well as private companies, is
shaky now. It’s like Russia when everything fell apart.
People lost their pensions and on top of the whole mess
the government devalued the currency so that it was
almost worthless. Old people went back to garbage
cans for something to eat.
But you want to avoid ending up like this. You want
to retire and enjoy your remaining years in comfort, and
with plenty. It’s still possible to do. You just have to think
outside the box.
To Sum It Up
Many people have seen their savings (in the form of their
pension, 401(k), IRA and stock holdings) lose as much as
half their values. It’s a depressing turn of events, but that’s
one reason they call it a depression.
The Ponzi scheme that is the U.S. banking system is about
to fold. But it’s not too late to protect yourself in the face of
the coming collapse.
When the collapse does come there is going to be a period
of turmoil. There may be street riots, looting, and all manner
of social chaos. If you have gold and silver on hand, not in
the bank, you will be able to survive.
You should also have weapons and ammunition to help
you protect what is yours.
Goods such as canned and dried foods and survival gear
will be essential, both for survival and for barter, which is
likely to become the primary means of commerce. It’s never
too early to begin stockpiling food.
Have water on hand, preferably longer than a week supply
for every member of your household. The average person
needs about two gallons of water a day, one for drinking
and cooking, the other for cleaning and personal hygiene.
You should also have the means for purifying additional
water. Boiling or using water purification tablets, iodine, or
chlorine are the preferred methods. This can help get you
through the difficult times.
Buy gold and/or silver. We recommend American Eagle,
Canadian Maple Leaf, African Krugerrand, and Australian
Kangaroo gold bullion coins in various weights. We also
recommend pre-1965 silver U.S. coins and American Silver
Eagles. But stay away from arcane foreign gold pieces and
Bob Livingston 89
coins valued for their numismatic value.

Watch the amount of your transactions to protect yourself
from Big Brother’s spying eyes. And secure your gold in a
place out of reach of the Fed’s long arms. Prepare yourself
for the inevitable collapse.
Buy stocks that mine gold, silver, and uranium, and
consider those that explore and drill for oil.
And, finally, don’t be afraid to look outside the U.S. Swiss
Annuities, Swiss francs, and offshore accounts are safer bets
than anything you can find in the U.S.
Keep reading, especially the market letters and books
recommended by me in The Bob Livingston Letter and
you should do just fine.
*We are not investment advisors and are not in a position to recommend
stocks for individual investors. Investing in particular stocks carries
inherent risks.
Index
A Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) 43
Aden Forecast 68
American Civil Liberties Certificates of deposit
Union 38 (CD), 19
American Insurance Group Clinton, Hillary, Secretary of
(AIG) 24 State 19
American Recovery and Commodities and Natural
Reinvestment Act of 2009 15 Resource Stocks 71
Analysis, Dissemination, Consumer Price Index (CPI)
Visualization, Insight and 13, 22, 33
Semantic Enhancement Currency Collapse 19, 26
(ADVISE) 46, 51, 82 Currency Risk 76
Argentina 21 Currency Transaction Report
Associated Press 9, 22 (CTR) 45, 51
B D
Bank Secrecy Act 43 Data Mining 45, 46, 47, 49
Bair, Sheila, FDIC Defense Intelligence
Chairman 8 Agency 47
“Big Brother” 36, 40, 64, 89 Dines Letter 68
Blevins, Sue A. 48 Dow 65, 69, 75
Blue chip stocks 32 Dow Jones Industrial
Buffet, Warren 68 Average 65
Bush, George W. 40
E
C Economic Armageddon 15
Carter 23 Economic collapse 10, 14
Bob Livingston 91
Economic stimulus bill 15, Food Lion 49

16, 48 Freedom of Information
Effects of Lost Privacy 51 Act by the Electronic
Emergency Banking Relief Privacy Information
Act 11 Center (EPIC) 46
Equifax 59 Freemarket Report 68
Estate Problem 84
G
Estate Taxes 54, 82, 83, 84
Garfield, James A. 14
Experian 59
GDP 17
F General Electric 25
Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Gold 11, 12, 13, 25, 26, 27,
bailout 24 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 70, 72,
FBI 39, 41, 43 73, 76, 77, 78, 83, 88, 89
Federal Deposit Insurance GoldMoney 77
Corporation (FDIC) 7, 8, Gramm-Lech-Bliley Act 42
9, 24 Great Depression 15, 65
Federal Housing Greenspan, Alan 13
Administration (FHA) 24
Federal Reserve 12, 15, H
24, 25
Hall, Grant 53
Federal Reserve Notes 12
Health Insurance Portability
Federal Reserve Ponzi and Accountability Act
Scheme 12 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule 48
Federal Trade Commission Hidden New Bull Market 70
(FTC) 49, 50, 58, 60
Holtzman, David H. 49
Fiat money 14, 17, 86
Homeowners Policy 85
Financial Crimes
Enforcement Network (Fin- Hope for Homeowners 24
CEN) 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 51 How to Buy Gold and
Silver 28 L
Hyperinflation 14, 15, 17, Labor Department 22
18, 33, 34 Levin, Carl, Sen. 61, 62
I Life Insurance 63, 64, 80, 81,
82, 83, 84
Identity Theft 49, 59
Illegal Surveillance 35 M
Individual Retirement Madoff, Bernie 13, 67
Account (IRA) 41, 65, 86, Madoff scheme 13
87, 88 Marketing 48, 49
Institute for Health Marshall Plan 16
Freedom 48 McConnell, Mike 39
Internal Revenue Service Money Market Investor
(IRS) 40, 41, 43, 45, 47, 54, Funding Facility
55, 61, 63, 64, 78, 81, 85 (MMIFF) 24
Internet Retirement
N
Alliance 41
NASA 16
IRA Trap 86
National Security Agency
IRAs and 401(k)s 25 40, 47
IRS Restructuring and Nationalizing 24
Reform Act 47 Net Portfolio Commercial
Paper Funding 24
J
Newton, Sir Isaac 76
Jefferson, Thomas 14 Nixon, Richard 13
The John Law 18
O
K Obama, Barack 15, 25, 48
Kennedy, Joseph 65 Obamanomics 23
Bob Livingston 93
Office of the Comptroller of Retiree’s Golden Egg 77

the Currency 10 Romania 21
Offshore account 62, 89 Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Offshore insurance 11, 25
policies 63 Roosevelt’s New Deal 13, 16
Other Steps Should You Rothbard, Murray N. 12
Take 33
Roubini, Nouriel 10
P Russell, Richard 75
Pentagon 46 Russia 16, 21, 87
Perth Mint Certificate
Program 77 S
Ponzi 12, 13, 24, 33, 88 S&P 500 65, 69
Preparations 31 Savings accounts 11, 19,
30, 75
Privacy 34, 35, 36, 37, 39,
40, 42, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51, Schiff, Peter 17, 33
53, 54, 56, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64 Schrenker, Marcus 37
Probate 54, 78, 79, 82, 86 Service Employees
Prosperous Retirement 65, International Union 25
68 Silver 13, 26, 27, 28, 29,
Protect Your Money 60 30, 31, 32, 70, 71, 72, 77,
Protecting Yourself 30 83, 88, 89
Simple inflation 16
R Social Security 25, 41,
Rangel, Charles B. Rangel, 52, 54, 56, 60, 87
Rep. 47 State Department’s Bureau
Real Property 79, 83 of Intelligence and
Reichsbank 18 Research 41
Resolution Trust Stimulus package 13
Corporation 9 Stock certificates 30, 32, 83
Stock Market 23, 28, Trusts 54, 63, 83

32, 34, 65, 68, 69, 72 Turkey 21
Supreme Court 39
Suspicious Activity Report U
(SAR) 42, 43, 44, 51 U.S. Treasuries 33
Swiss annuities 62, 63, 89 Unreported Retirement
Leverage 78
T Uranium 70, 71, 72, 89
Troubled Asset Relief Pro- USA Patriot Act 38, 39, 41,
tection (TARP) program 9, 42, 43, 44, 47, 51, 60
10, 11, 24
Tax Justice Network 62 V
Term Auction Facility Value-added tax (VAT) 23
(TAF) 24 Values 20, 73, 74, 81, 82, 88
Term Insurance 80, 82
Term Securities Lending 25 W
Terrorist Surveillance Weimar Republic 18
Program (TSP) 36, 40 Whole Life Insurance 80, 81,
“Total Information Aware- 82
ness” project 46 Will 54, 79, 85
Trading with the Enemy Williams, John 15
Act 11
TransUnion 59 Z
Treasury Department 40, Zimbabwe 20, 21, 33
43, 44
Bob Livingston 95
Financial Preparedness Notes/Things to Do:

Financial Preparedness Notes/Things to Do:

The Bob Livingston Letter
The Bob Livingston Letter
P.O. Box 3623
Hueytown, AL 35023
1-800-773-5699
www.BobLivingstonLetter.com
www.PersonalLiberty.com BL-PR159-9

Surviving A Global Crisis

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A S U R V I VA L T R E A S U RY

The information contained in this book is meant to educate the reader,

This information is published under the First Amendment of the

Published by The Bob Livingston Letter,

Protect Your Savings from

But, with the president and members of congress throwing

end of 2007, according to an Associated Press report about

Others, like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Washington

compared to the total of the problem. Clearly, the global

The Federal Reserve Ponzi Scheme

the government recognizes a slip of paper with a printed

would lose their purchasing power and government-created

How to Live Through

The amount of money being spent is unprecedented in

increased volume of money and credit relative to available

of stocks and real estate, instilling in the minds of voters

There is plenty of historical precedent for prolificacy of

So, What are Our Predictions?

crash syndrome is an auto immune disease where people

Look to Zimbabwe as a Current Example

By December, 2008, inflation was over a trillion percent

value of the ruble declined from 40 rubles to the dollar

home heating oil were up by 5.4 percent and liquefied

A better description of U.S. so-called federal or national

■ $250 billion for Term Securities Lending.

(b) Gold coin and gold certificates in an amount not

Practical Use of Gold after Currency Collapse

silver will be exchanged or traded in lieu of dollars. I can

How to Buy Gold and Silver

while the supply of gold and silver is inelastic and very

Time to Start Protecting Yourself

If a brokerage house keeps your certificates for you they use

Continue Your Preparations

In addition to physical gold and silver, look to companies

What Other Steps Should You Take?

prostituted themselves just to put food on the table because

Protect Your Privacy from

paper trail that can easily be followed.

In 2009, living a private life is much more difficult. Just

Government today both observes and intrudes. And it

USA Patriot Act

receives a call from a suspect, enabling agents to jump

late 2001, President Bush authorized a much broader series

IRS, FBI, DEA and Secret Service, as well as customs and

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network requires

Suspicious Activity Reports

in which the particular customer would normally be

Currency Transaction Reports

over the Pentagon’s “Total Information Awareness” project,

Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency).

restaurants), and the growing legions who sell things

even more nefarious

■ Old-Fashioned Theft: They steal wallets and purses;

What Are the Effects of Lost Privacy?

police powers that will include mandatory fingerprinting, iris

What Can You Do About It?

circumstances. It is advisable to seek the advice of an

vertical strips may still leave you vulnerable.

loaded—whether inadvertently or not—onto your computer.

powerful resource for finding and using the work of others

thief from opening any more accounts in your name.

your Social Security number or your phone number,

Protect Your Money by Moving it Offshore