The American Jubilee is a book by contrarian author, Porter Stansberry. It is often used as a marketing tool to lure people into one of Stansberry Researches subscription services, which is why there have been so many complaints and scam accusations about it, but the book itself is not bad.
Overview of The American Jubilee
- Product: The American Jubilee
- Type: Book
- Author: Porter Stansberry
- Length: 266 pages
- Cost: $5 – $15 (depending on where you buy)
*Note: Someone shared the PDF version of the book for free online. You can find it here.
The American Jubilee is a book by Porter Stansberry, a right-wing contrarian author who often promotes preparation for forthcoming financial disasters.
The full title of the book is: The American Jubilee, A National Nightmare Is Closer Than You Think, and in it Stansberry predicts “the next big American crisis” coming from a jubilee, which is an old Jewish custom of forgiveness, and in this particular case we are talking about debt forgiveness.
Overall the book is 277 pages and is mainly focused on Stansberry’s investment strategies to protect one’s wealth from financial crises. He does provide evidence of his argument that a jubilee is soon to occur, but the books main focus is on investing to prepare for it.
It has a pessimistic outlook on the future financial situations in the US, but it is also a very realistic and logical outlook. And although it’s a bit outdated, having been published in 2017, much of the information provided is still relevant to today.
If you are looking for a book that goes against the grain when it comes to the future of America and something that provides advice on how to stay safe during the very real possibility of a jubilee (but certainly not guaranteed), then this might be for you.
Some readers have left reviews stating that it…
- provides an “interesting perspective”
- contains “tough but true information”
- is “sobering and important”
- and is full of “scary and worth reading” information
Overall the book is not a scam, as some people have claimed. The scammy part of it all comes from the marketing the book is used for, which I’ll explain in detail shortly.
About The Author
Porter Stansberry is the author of this book as well as the founder of Stansberry Research, which is a financial advisory firm that publishes investment newsletters similar to Casey Research that he established in 1999.
Besides his own work, he also is a contributor to WorldNet Daily and was the first American editor for a financial newsletter in Britain called Fleet Street Letter.
He is what you call a contrarian, and often goes against what the mainstream media is saying. It’s also worth mentioning that he has a right-wing political approach and most of his views are that held by people who label themselves as conservatives in the US.
Some people love him and others strongly disagree with his controversial opinions, but this all depends on one’s views. If you also identify with the conservative right, then you will likely agree with much of what he has to say and find his perspective on things refreshing.
Often his publications take a pessimistic outlook on things, predicting future catastrophes and crises. And while the advertising around his products is often over-the-top, they do hold truth and some of his predictions have came true, such as his prediction of the mortgage meltdown. That said, some of his pessimistic prophecies have never materialized, such as how he was predicting the end of America back around 2011.
What It’s About
The title is a bit misleading. Yes, the beginning of the book is focused on the future-coming debt jubilee, as Stansberry predicts, but most of the book is actually focused on Stansberry’s investment strategies, which is why this book is so often used as a marketing lure to get people to subscribe to the various newsletter services at Stansberry Research.
Porter predicts that a new debt jubilee will happen in the US. This makes logical sense. After all, student loan debts are largely going unpaid, credit card debt is on the rise, and of course the US government may be the worst violator of all, with over $20 trillion in debt… and of course people have trouble paying back this debt.
But the problem isn’t the debt itself, but rather the jubilee that will happen. During his next predicted jubilee, Porter believes the government will seize assets of banks and consumers, pay off the trillions of dollars of debt, and of course this will result in a financial crisis.
But as stated, the book is largely focused on Stansberry’s strategies for investing, and many readers wish it stayed a little more focused with the thesis.
To give a better idea of what type of information the book actually covers, let’s take a look at the 6 parts it contains…
Part 1: What Is the American Debt Jubilee
To find out the answer to this is probably why most people are buying the book, although this section is only about 40 pages. Here, Porter Stansberry talks about the corruption in politics, of our national debt, and of the US currency to explain why the debt jubilee is coming… and in his opinion this is certain.
Part 2: How to Survive the Debt Jubilee
This section is all about surviving the jubilee. Things that are discussed here include what you should avoid investing in, creating a safety fund, and there is a big focus on 9 things you must do to survive the crisis, which Porter Stansberry is doing himself.
Part 3: Secrets of the Silver Markets
This is all about investing in silver. Insight is provided on how you should be investing and what types of silver investments you want to avoid.
Stansberry is a big fan of precious metal investment, and in particular investing in silver (at least at the moment). Some of the promotional content coming out of Stansberry Research has said things like: “Why You Must Buy Gold, or Even Better, Silver, Now”.
Part 4: How to Own the World’s Trophy Assets
In part 4 there is a big focus on how private equity works and investing in private equity-like stocks. Here he covers what you need to focus on when buying in order to maximize returns and why it can be so profitable if done right.
Part 5: Porter Stansberry’s Crash Course on How to Become a Better Investor
This section is great for people just getting into investing for the first time, and even veteran investors could learn a thing or two. Here is where he talks a lot about his strategy, such as how he invests in commodities “risk free”, his 4-step test to filter out bad investments and find winners, finding good investment conditions, and even things like investing in discounted corporate bonds and options trading.
This section includes lot of information, and it’s nearly 100 page length reflects that.
Part 6: How to Earn Crisis-Proof, Inflation-Proof Income Streams in the Stock Market
This is the last core chapter of the book and, as the title suggests, is all about investing in the safest businesses when it comes to financial crises. Porter Stansberry goes over what traits you should be looking for when searching for “elite” businesses to invest in, his little secret to making the search easier, buying shares of these businesses at discount prices, why dividend paying businesses should be a major part of your portfolio, and more.
What I Liked/Didn’t Like
Liked:
In a world were opinions are largely manipulated by the big media outlets, it can be nice to hear a contrarian approach, like that which Porter Stansberry brings to the table. Additionally, he adheres to logic and backs up his opinions with facts and historical evidence.
An American jubilee is not guaranteed to happen, but in the book Porter provides historical information that shows the idea isn’t too far-fetched. After all, President Trump proposed forgiving Puerto Rico’s bond debt after the recent hurricane Maria, and in the 1800’s there was a debt forgiveness program in the US that forgave the debt of over 40,000 people. Not only that, but ancient civilizations, such as that of Babylon, regularly practiced debt forgiveness (but there methods were different to protect from financial crises).
It’s also worth mentioning that in the book he does a good job at keeping things free of any political agenda. It’s obvious he has a conservative mindset politically, but he’s able to set this aside and focus on things from an unbiased and factual/logical standpoint.
Didn’t Like:
Being the contrarian that Porter is, his viewpoints are almost always controversial and sometimes a bit too extreme. This entire book is based on a future debt jubilee occurring, but is this really ever going to happen? It’s true that some of his predictions have come true in the past, but full-blown debt forgiveness isn’t even a mainstream viewpoint, and there has been no proposal of such yet.
Sometimes his views are a little too extreme.
Customer Reviews
Besides being sold from Stansberry Research directly, the book is also available on Amazon and other 3rd party sellers.
On amazon the reviews are pretty impressive, with a 4.3 out of 5 star rating at the time of me writing this…
Most people enjoy reading the book and also like his contrarian viewpoints. Even those who have expressed disappointment due to the fact that much of the book is focused on his investment strategies have enjoyed reading it overall.
And besides the reviews on Amazon, it also has a fairly good customer rating on GoodReads.
The Cost & Refunds
This depends where you buy it. If you purchase The American Jubilee directly from Stansberry Research then the starting price is $5. However, when I went to exit the page a pop-up appeared with an offer to download the digital version of the book for just $1.
There is a no refund policy if you purchase directly from Stansberry Research. This is understandable since the cost is so low. But if you purchase from a third-party site like Amazon, the price is a bit higher but there may be the possibility of refunds.
The Scammy Part
This book is often used as a marketing tool for the promotion of the subscription advisory service at Stansberry Research called Porter’s Investment Advisory, which costs $199/yr.
The way some of their marketing works is like this: when someone purchases the book they also get a free 30-day trial of Porter’s Investment Advisory, and if they don’t cancel within 30 days then they are billed the $199 for the entire year subscription. And, of course, many people don’t realize this because they don’t read the fine-print.
This somewhat deceptive type of marketing is the reason for many of the complaints with the BBB on Stansberry Research, such as this one for example…
The book itself is not a scam in any way, shape, or form… but the marketing tactics in which they use the book to deceptively lure people into subscriptions is a bit on the scammy side no-doubt.
That said, it seems that they have done away with this practice. Now when you order the book you aren’t automatically subscribed to their newsletter service, but you do give them consent to send promotional emails.
Conclusion – Worth Buying?
Porter Stansberry comes across quite strong with his opinions here, and let me remind you that they are just opinions. Sure, he does back his arguments up with historical evidence that is relevant, but as stated, there has not been any substantial action towards an actual nation-wide debt jubilee happening.
It’s a possibility however, and if you are the type of person that wants to prepare for the worse, then this is worth a read.
Have you read the book? What is your opinion of it? Leave your comments below…
PS: Anyone looking for a good & honest investment advisory service, here is what I recommend.