Most Interesting Read In a Long Time: The Great Taking

A while back I stumbled on what's a most interesting read. To short-cut any drama or tension here, it's a publication called The Great Taking by David Rogers Webb. (You should be able to easily find a free pdf.)

The author was conducting some Youtube interviews a while back. Having watched one, getting the pdf - which he purposely makes readily available. The body of the work contains the meat and potatoes of his message. 

Briefly, he unveils the truth about how exactly we own certain financial assets. Seems pretty simple, right? I buy a stock. I own the stock. I'm a stockholder who is an owner of a company. Except that I don't really own the stock. At least not in the sense that most of us think of "ownership" of an asset.

We think it's ours, but it's not really ours. We're "beneficial owners." And we don't have absolute property rights as such owners. The item - in this case a stock - can be taken from us.

Now part of the book's narrative is to paint a scenario of who this could happen and what that might mean to any of us on a practical level. It's kind of draconian, even apocalyptic. But you don't have to buy into the theory that what could happen will happen. The author seems to lean towards caution here, in the sense that he seems to have re-jiggered his life in light of his discovery of this "beneficial owner" thing a while back.

So he eats his own cooking to some degree.

And he's not talking his book in any way I can fathom. Having left Wall Street he apparently bought a farm in Sweden and lives there now. So we get the benefit of his deep knowledge of financial matters without the overhang of thinking he'll get something out of his short book.

Frankly, I'm not sure what to do with the facts the author reveals. After being quite taken aback by the revelations, I was left with...well, what exactly do we do now?

The author seems to think it's quite possible - perhaps probable - that the powers that be, having now control of many of our assets (without our knowledge!), could very well assert their legal rights and snatch our stuff from right under our eyes.

Now, I'm not getting into any detail here because, frankly, what the author reveals needs to be unveiled by him, in the detail he presents. He's not just speculating about the facts he presents. They do seem to be actual facts, as presented. And it's important to follow the presentation of those facts, as opposed to reading a quick summary. A quick summary would likely result in a "Yeah, right" reaction. Understandable, given the rather shocking nature of those facts. 

Anyway, read the pdf and see for yourself.

From this end, it just doesn't seem likely that the powers that be would - under any conceivable circumstances, actually just take our stuff.

Then again, it's certainly possible that such conceivable circumstances may give way to the inconceivable. In which case...

Well, you get the drift, right?

Meanwhile, some of the stock indices - like the Dow Industrials - have continued churning higher, reaching all-time highs. Of course, others have not. (And the fact that the Dow Transports have not - by any stretch - hit new all-time highs does, according to the venerable Dow Theory, pull the rug out of the euphoria of higher and higher...or will eventually so pull.

So read this pdf. Knowing reality and facing it squarely has not down side (outside of the initial shock). Not knowing it exposes us to unexpected and possibly horrendous consequences.

With that, the weekend looms. Enjoy!