Between 1980 and 2000, the wealth of our nation grew enormously. Interest rates dropped, dot com businesses grew, and then the housing market was rocketing. We then went into a tricky period where overall net worth grew a bit until the dot com crash; the middle class was sustained to some degree by the housing boom, and then dropped sharply with the housing crash. Dr. H. Woody Brock, President and Founder of Strategic Economic Decisions and author of American Gridlock, joins Jason Hartman for an in-depth explanation of the financial health of our nation across social classes.

Dr. Brock discusses the nation overall and then breaks it down into the rich, the middle class, and the poor. The distribution of wealth have left the poor worse off and the rich very well off, as well as shrinking the middle class, but as Dr. Brock explains, looking at the distribution of consumption, the poor and middle classes are in a better position than when looking at the distribution of income.

Dr. Brock also expounds on QE3, the Federal Reserve actions, bank reserves, de-leveraging, and more. He wraps up on the subject of his book, American Gridlock: Why the Right and Left are Both Wrong.

Founder of Strategic Economic Decisions (SED), Inc., Dr. Horace “Woody” Brock specializes in applications of the modern Economics of Uncertainty (originally developed and championed by Kenneth J. Arrow of Stanford University) to forecasting and risk assessment in the international economy and its asset markets.

Holder of five academic degrees, Dr. Brock earned his B.A., M.B.A., and M.S. (mathematics) from Harvard University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University (mathematical economics and political philosophy). He was elected an Andrew Mellon Foundation Bicentennial Fellow of the Aspen Institute in 1976. Dr. Brock studied under Kenneth J. Arrow, Professor of Economics, and John C. Harsanyi, Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley, both winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics. Dr. Brock founded SED in 1985, and in doing so was sponsored by Fidelity, GE Capital, IBM Pension Fund, and twenty other institutions looking for a much deeper level of analysis of interest rates and the economy.

In its research, SED has focused on apprehending ongoing structural changes in the economy and markets to help clients avoid the pitfalls of illegitimately extrapolating the past into the future. In this regard, Dr. Brock has worked closely with Professor Mordecai Kurz of Stanford University in developing the new theory of Rational Beliefs that is now replacing the classical theory of “Efficient Markets”. This new theory explains for the first time the way in which history rhymes but does not repeat itself.

Jason talks briefly about some upcoming events and Creating Wealth shows.

With the November Presidential election right around the corner, nothing could be more timely or more important than understanding the electronic voting system and the risk to our right for a fair and honest voting system. Jason Hartman interviews Black Box Voting founder, Bev Harris, who was featured in the HBO documentary, “Hacking Democracy,” and has been researching and writing on the subject of electronic voting since 2002 after she discovered that U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel had ownership in and had been CEO of the company that built the machines which counted his own votes.

Bev shares the seriousness of the situation, explaining that the monopoly on the manufacturing of the machines gives the corporate owners (shareholders) complete control over voting outcomes, and that the structural problems with electronic voting prevent the public from being able to authenticate.

Vanity Fair magazine credits Bev Harris with founding the movement to reform electronic voting. Time Magazine calls her book, Black Box Voting, "the bible" of electronic voting. The Boston Globe has referred to her as "the godmother" of the election reform movement. Her articles were among the first to reveal that modern-day voting systems are run by private for-profit corporations, relying on a few cronies for oversight, using a certification system so fundamentally flawed that it allows machines to miscount and lose votes, with hidden back doors that enable "end runs" around the voting system.

Bev’s investigations have led some to call her the "Erin Brockovich of elections." (Salon.com) In 2003, just weeks after a stunning electoral upset in Georgia that tipped control of the U.S. Senate, she discovered 40,000 secret voting machine files -- including a set of files called "rob-georgia," containing instructions to replace Georgia's computerized voting files before the election.

The files she found contained databases with votes in them and the voting machine programs themselves. She downloaded the files on Jan. 23, 2003 and set them free on the Internet a few months later, where they were studied by scientists and security experts.

Jason Hartman has his mom back on the show to discuss her DIY property management/self-management strategies and one of her tenants who has occupying a property for 23 years - no vacancy! Then Jason interviews his Birmingham, Alabama Local Market Specialist (LMS) and talks to a caller/listener with some good real estate investing questions.

Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia on this market:

Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. The city's population was 212,237 according to the 2010 United States Census. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area had a population of about 1,128,047 according to the 2010 Census, which is approximately one-quarter of Alabama's population. Birmingham was founded in 1871, during the post-Civil War Reconstruction period, through the merger of three pre-existing farm towns, notably, former Elyton.

It grew from there, annexing many more of its smaller neighbors, into an industrial and railroad transportation center with a focus on mining, the iron and steel industry, and railroading. Birmingham was named for Birmingham, one of the major industrial cities of the United Kingdom. Many, if not most, of the original settlers who founded Birmingham were of English ancestry. In one writer's view, the city was planned as a place where cheap, non-unionized, and African-American labor from rural Alabama could be employed in the city's steel mills and blast furnaces, giving it a competitive advantage over industrial cities in the Midwest and Northeast.

From its founding through the end of the 1960s, Birmingham was a primary industrial center of the South. The pace of Birmingham's growth during the period from 1881 through 1920 earned its nicknames The Magic City andThe Pittsburgh of the South. Much like Pittsburgh, Birmingham's major industries were iron and steel production, plus a major component of the railroading industry, where rails and railroad cars were both manufactured in Birmingham. In the field of railroading, the two primary hubs of railroading in the Deep South were nearby Atlanta and Birmingham, beginning in the 1860s and continuing through to the present day. The economy diversified during the later half of the twentieth century. Though the manufacturing industry maintains a strong presence in Birmingham, other businesses and industries such as banking, telecommunications, transportation, electrical power transmission, medical care, college education, and insurance have risen in stature.

Mining in the Birmingham area is no longer a major industry with the exception of coal mining. Birmingham ranks as one of the most important business centers in the Southeastern United States and is also one of the largest banking centers in the United States. In addition, the Birmingham area serves as headquarters to one Fortune 500 company:Regions Financial.

Five Fortune 1000 companies are headquartered in Birmingham. In the field of college and university education, Birmingham has been the location of the University of Alabama School of Medicine (formerly known as the Medical College of Alabama) and the University of Alabama School of Dentistry since 1947, and since that time, it has also become provided with the University of Alabama at Birmingham (founded circa 1969), one of three main campuses of the University of Alabama, and also with the private Birmingham-Southern College.

Between these two universities and Samford University, the Birmingham area has major colleges of medicine, dentistry, optometry, pharmacy, law, engineering, and nursing. Birmingham is home to three of the state's five law schools: Cumberland School of Law, Birmingham School of Law, and Miles Law School. Birmingham is also the headquarters of the Southeastern Conference, one of the major U.S. collegiate athletic conferences.

When people think of addiction, the most common thought is drug or alcohol addiction and the stereotypical image of people with these addictions, but as Jason Hartman’s guest, life coach David Essel, explains, addiction comes in numerous forms and is very prevalent in our country. In fact, he guarantees that every person in this country is suffering from one form of addiction or another. Examples of addictions include such things as:  spending, greed, power, being right, controlling others, nicotine, food, gossip and many more.

David is passionate about helping people understand addictions and learning how to lead full and inspiring lives. His focus is on finding The One Thing™ that will radically change your life. David stresses the importance of not viewing one addiction to be worse than another because it opens the door to walking away from recovery. He shares his own story of alcohol addiction and the view he held before recovery versus the view he realized once he was sober. David also discusses the process of recovery, which starts with becoming accountable to someone else.

David Essel, M.S. is an author of six books, National Radio and Television host, Master Life and Business Coach, Adjunct Professor, All Faiths Minister, Addiction Recovery Coach and International Speaker. His mission is to inspire others to reach their own exceptional potential in their business and personal life. His radio show, which is celebrating 21 years on air, is the most respected, purely positive radio show in the USA. "David Essel Alive!" is heard on XM Satellite Radio, Channel 168, and streaming live on the web at www.davidessel.com, every Saturday from 6-9pm EST, 3-6pm PST.

Jason Hartman is joined by George Farah, author of No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates, and founder of Open Debates, for an inside look at how the presidential debates are a rigged game. George refers to the debates as “the Super Bowl of politics.” So what really goes on in the debates?

The people would like to know. As George explains, the debates are tightly controlled by the Commission on Presidential Debates through scripting, strict time limits, and the exclusion of third-party candidates. This commission is supposed to be non-partisan, but the reality is it’s a private corporation that was created by the Republican and Democratic parties and financed by companies like Anheuser-Busch, to allow the two main party nominees to dictate the terms of the presidential debates. A secret contract is negotiated by the Republican and Democratic parties and given to the Commission to implement.

Third-party candidates have been excluded repeatedly from the debates and the questions that the American people have are restricted and manipulated by the Commission.

Jason Hartman welcomes guest co-host/listener, Brandon, from Portland, Oregon as they discuss several things.  First, a discussion of some of Jason's recent book consumption including; Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler and Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson.

Next, Jason and Brandon analyze Peter Schiff's most recent video criticizing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and QE3 (Quantitative Easing).  Peter has some things right and others wrong.  As Jason has pointed out in so many prior episodes gold and silver are mediocre asset classes and shouldn't really be considered 'investments' but rather defensive ways to save money, a way to store wealth and keep pace with inflation.  

An investment is an OFFENSIVE tool, gold and silver are only defensive tools. The real way to profit is to exploit the next housing bubble.

Jason Hartman is joined by Dr. Steve Sjuggerrud, editor for Stansberry Research, for a discussion of real estate investing domestic and international, attractive mortgage rates, and government deals that are making real estate a much more attractive investment. Steve talks about what he calls the “Bernanke Asset Bubble,” where the Fed would like to see a booming real estate market and stock market to get the country back on its feet.  Jason and Steve also talk about the demographics of the rental market and comparative returns of the rental market and stocks.

Dr. Steve Sjuggerud is the founder and editor of one of the largest financial newsletters in the world, True Wealth.  Since inception in 2001, True Wealth readers have made money every year with safe, contrarian investment ideas. Steve did his PhD dissertation on international currencies, he's traveled to dozens of countries looking at investment ideas, and he's run mutual funds, hedge funds, and investment research departments. Steve's investment philosophy is simple: "You buy something of extraordinary value at a time when nobody else wants it. And you sell it at a time when people are willing to pay any price to get it." It's harder than it sounds, but Steve continues to be able to do just that for his readers.

 A quick announcement that due to popular demand, the Atlanta Property Tour is now sold out. Stay tuned for your next chance to participate in a property tour with Jason Hartman.

Jason Hartman talks with one of his Investment Counselors, Steve, about a Naked Capitalism blog post on the new real estate train wreck in securitized rentals.  Wall Street's newest "innovation" based on rental income.  Will this be another Wall Street scam like the pools of subprime mortgages, auction rate securities, derivatives or numerous other products that were misrepresented to investors.

Next up, a discussion of the 'lost decade' for the American middle class based on a Newser article and some talk about the investor-driven recovery in real estate.