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Belongs in jail? A strong opinion. But believe me, such opinions are out there. Indeed, the bulk of my mailbox on the Porter Stansberry question is strident in its criticism of the tipster. Take as another example the views of Chris Bray. He didn’t say where he was.
I recently got a free pamphlet from Porter Stansberry called “the end of America“. Since I am not prone to hysteria, but merely curious, I read it. As a journalism major and someone who by nature is suspicious of outrageous claims, it’s clear that most of the allegations are taken out of context and the conclusions are absolutely ridiculous.
This is the vexed question of Porter Stansberry’s predictions, about which I have written recently. Some are so bizarre – such as that Barack Obama would serve a third term – that I’ve dubbed them “postmodern predictions”. Another way of saying it, is that they are so palpably absurd that they need to be judged a different way.
Porter and the professionals
I’m not an investment adviser, but some of my correspondents are professionals, and they don’t show him much respect. For example, Michael J Parks in Seattle is editor emeritus of the excellent Marples Letter, which since 1949 has given tips on opportunities in the northwestern United States, and currently publishes a four-page newsletter. He wrote to tell me that I was doing a good job, and suggested that Mr Stansberry was a sign of the times:
Just found your Porter Stansberry stuff. Bravo! I told a relative there is a grain of truth to Stansberry’s snake oil, which helps make it plausible to the ill-informed. It doesn’t help that the agencies charged with safeguarding the hen house were
asleep during the financial crisis. These are the best of times for cynics and skeptics.
Then Joe D Pope who was so effusive in his praise of my modest reports that I felt it only fair that I should lie down in a dark room with a wet flannel across my face:
I have read with amazement his scares and ”insider” trading information for quite sometime and have almost always been left with a feeling of ”what?” and, I must admit, been left several times with a feeling of doomsday and that ‘the sky just may be falling’!
Me too.
I was so excited to run across your wonderful articles which reflected the results of your research on Porter Stansberry. As I stated above a large portion of my limited intellect kept telling me this person is a purveyor of doom and/or simply a huckster out to enrich his own coffers. Oftentimes I had some doubt.
You’re too hard on yourself, Joe.
Thanks again for your wonderful research and for sharing it with the investing world. There is no doubt that your work has saved countless thousands of people their fortunes, large or small.
Well, that would be nice, but who’s to know? Maybe Sue is an example, but I’m guessing:
I almost bought the Porter Stansberry scam. Thanks to you I was saved.
Steady on! Not sure about the “saved”, but people have sure noticed my interest. Other critics of Mr Stansberry let me know about it when they file complaints with his company, such as when they find it mysteriously hard to cancel their subscriptions.
And then there’s people such as Kurt Klingbeil, who copied me an email to Mr Stansberry, stuffed with distinctly “belongs in jail” views:
I stumbled onto your video and, after enduring the jingoistic, paternalistic stilted style for a while, I bailed, only to discover that the whole spiel, promising to reveal some critical information, was in fact a late-night-shopping-channel-esque promo piece for your info-rag.
As an independent pollster, I couldn’t possibly comment, but Mr Klingbeil hadn’t finished twisting the knife into Porter. And, believe me, I’ve truncated his remarks:
You are fundamentally dishonest in promising to reveal information in a particular
transmission, when in fact you are just doing a feeder into a typical multi-level info-scam in which the allegedly “real” information is a perpetual carrot, luring the dupes along into recursive/successive (pay-as-they-go) product offerings.
But, hey, I’ve teased you too long already. The moment of truth has arrived. And remember this is truly the only independent opinion assessment offering data on Porter Stansberry’s profile.
So now, with a fanfare, we can cut to the chase: the first Porter Poll results.