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According to various intelligence agencies, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) organization controls an area roughly the size of Great Britain and may have 200,000 fighters under arms - all fanatics inspired by an ultra-strict interpretation of the Koran and a desire to return the world to a warped vision of purity that they believe existed in the 7th century.
They pose a grave threat to the West, one that they've consistently telegraphed with their widespread use of social media. The Paris attacks, for example, were preceded by ISIS' supporters posting images of the Eiffel Tower and weapons a full 72 hours prior. Now there's new footage vowing that any nation involved in Syrian airstrikes will "suffer France's fate."
The horrific events in Paris last week are, sadly, only an opening gambit, but whether through arrogance or ignorance, our leaders are woefully unprepared for the continuing challenge.
My job as Chief Investment Strategist is to guide you through what's happening, help you protect your money, and insulate your financial future from anything or anybody who threatens it.
So let's get right to what it takes to keep your money safe - no hype, no conspiracies, and no nonsense.
What Happens Next for Your Money
Most investors are preprogrammed to run from chaos and that's entirely understandable. We fear the unknown.
The better course of action is to engage it, especially now.
I made my case on FOX Business' "Varney & Co." Monday morning before the bell opened based on three market truisms:
- Buy low and sell high is your best path to profits no matter what creates the opening.
- There's a lot of money trapped on the sidelines that's going to have to chase performance into the end of the year. Many hedge funds and institutional investors, for example, are way behind this year, so they have an incentive to do a lot of buying in the next few weeks.
- History shows beyond any shadow of a doubt that buying when "there's blood in the streets" is prudent. Warren Buffett, the legendary Jim Rogers, and the late Sir John Templeton have all made billions building positions with strong fundamentals at times when others are selling.
Then, following a moment of silence at the exchange, the markets took off as traders did exactly what I was suggesting... and bought. All three averages powered higher.
Host Stuart Varney asked me why the stability when he, like many others, was expecting a knee-jerk sell-off.
I replied it was because we will not cower to terrorism.
You see, higher markets are a function of the resilience of capitalism. They're a vote for the future, not the past, and certainly not the dystopian vision of it that ISIS is peddling.
Still, there's no doubt in my mind that there will be another attack someday, somewhere.
When that happens is anybody's guess. The world's intelligence services have to get it "right" every time. A terrorist has to get it "right" only once.
So you want to prepare now... ahead of time.
The Questions on Everyone's Mind
About the Author
Keith is a seasoned market analyst and professional trader with more than 37 years of global experience. He is one of very few experts to correctly see both the dot.bomb crisis and the ongoing financial crisis coming ahead of time - and one of even fewer to help millions of investors around the world successfully navigate them both. Forbes hailed him as a "Market Visionary." He is a regular on FOX Business News and Yahoo! Finance, and his observations have been featured in Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, WIRED, and MarketWatch. Keith previously led The Money Map Report, Money Map's flagship newsletter, as Chief Investment Strategist, from 20007 to 2020. Keith holds a BS in management and finance from Skidmore College and an MS in international finance (with a focus on Japanese business science) from Chaminade University. He regularly travels the world in search of investment opportunities others don't yet see or understand.
ISIS, Al Queda and all terrorists are blatant hippocrates. According to the Koran that they are following, they are not allowed to use any items that they did not make or a follow Muslim invent (Eg. Cellphones, guns, bullets C-4, tanks, etc.). If they truly followed the Koran they should all be killing themselves for breaking the Law of Allah. I never understood why a public campaign of propaganda, using their definitions and followings, was never used against them.
"ISIS may be the most serious threat to humanity in 2,000 years."
Oh please. Spare us the neocon hype.
And how big is this threat exactly if we can still make gobs of money war profiteering. I guess the financial system will still be operating, which means the cyber infrastructure will be intact, as will be the electric grid, transporation, water, energy systems, etc.
You can't have it both ways. Either they're some kind of existential threat or they're not.
This is scare mongering. Shameful.
And who exactly put Putin out in the cold? The same neocon beltway "warriors" who started the whole mess in Ukraine and the middle east in the first place. They're provocateurs. Or do you dispute the fact that the Maidan revolution was a actually a coup orchestrated and financed by Asst. Secy., Victoria Nuland, US ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt as part of an official, if clandestine State Department policy ? They've admitted as much. A coup carried off largely by neo-Nazi elements Svoboda and Right Sector.
The French never really wanted to ostracize Putin. It's cost them a lot of money … and they've been in the lead in thawing relations. It's no wonder they would align with the only actors on the scene in Syria, other than the Iranians and the Kurds, who are actually interested in attacking ISIS and seriously degrading their capabilities?
Why has the US done effectively nothing so far, despite endless chatter? Why do the Saudis and the Qataris and the Turks do nothing … not to mention the Israelis if ISIS is such an existential threat?
Could it be because the US, the Saudi's, et al, … and Israel … want to oust Assad and install their guys who will look favorably on a pipeline running through Syria that can compete with the Russians in supplying nat gas to Europe? Why yes it could.
So, why would the US and the Saudis want to eliminate or even degrade ISIS? ISIS may have gone off the reservation, but they are OUR proxies. They, along with the Al Qaeda elements … and the mythical "moderates" … all "4 or 5" of them … are the ones fighting Assad. How convenient that we drop weapons on the "moderates" that somehow automatically end up in terrorist decapitator hands to go with the all the surrendered armaments they got from the Iraqi army who abandoned them?
The US has no intention whatsoever of mounting any kind of substantive campaign against their own proxy warriors.
The world is just lucky that Putin, as unsavory a character as he is, has been willing to take decisive enough action with his tiny force to blunt the advances of the jihadist elements and force them to play defense. At least we get a standoff and not a takeover of Syria by the Sunni coalition. In case you don;t get it, our "friends" the Saudis and the Qataris have been bankrolling ISIS. Joe Biden admitted as much in one of his regular slips.
The Russians hit strategic targets. The French have hit strategic targets and degraded ISIS capabilities. Why wasn't that done before? Answer that question before doing any more pretending that we and ISIS and the Turks and the Saudis and the Israelis and the Qatari's (who have a LOT of nat gas) aren't effectively on the same side against Assad.
Amen to that.
So rare to find somebody who knows what's going on.
Load of BS. doctors kill way more people than ISIS can even hope to do.