Back on UPThinking Finance with Emerson Fersch, and Alex Krainer
‘If we’re going to reclaim our countries there are a limited number of ways you can do it. All three of them begin with ‘v’: violent insurrection, velvet revolution, voting.’
Image in shop window, Claddagh, Galway, 24/7/2024 — four days before Galway lost to Armagh in the All-Ireland final, and 11 days after the failed attempt to assassinate President Trump.
Will November spawn a monster?
In this conversation, conducted July 29th, I speak with Utah-based financial adviser, Emerson Fersch, and Croatian-born geopolitical commentator and financial analyst, Alex Krainer about current geopolitical matters and the immediate possibilities for a better world than the one we have been anticipating.
A name like ‘UPTthinking Finance’ may seen inauspicious, especially to those who realise that the concept of ‘finance’ is at the core of the threats and risks facing the world at this moment. After all, as we have seen, the fetishisation of money is the root of much evil. But, as well as delivering the world into unprecedented danger, the present conditions, driven by greed, power-lust, insecurity and lack of faith, have also brought to the fore the voices of people whose interest in the concept of money relates primarily to its scope as an instrument of disbursing goodness and justice in the world. Two of these are Emerson Fersch and Alex Krainer, two men with background sin finance whom I’ve had the pleasure of encountering in the past couple of years. They have in common that their interest and expertise in matters financial is but the context of their broader explorations of reality, which, by virtue of their desire to make accurate predictions they have learned to look deeply into and subject to their common need to perceive connections. These qualities place them among the best and most reliable of the many commentators currently parsing and dissenting an increasingly fragmented and baffling world. They are men of spirit and soul — spirit in the sense of seeking not merely The Good, but also the hopeful; and soul in that they recognise that the material exists only as a shadow of the spiritual world, and that between the two sits the gatekeeper that is Providence.
The questions we touch on include:
How will the upcoming US elections impact the geopolitical landscape? Last month, we saw an attempt on former President Trump’s life. Withing days, the incumbent in the White House, Joe Biden bowed out of running for another term. How are these events likely to affect election to take place in three months’ time?
We’ve seen and continue to see the corruption of elections worldwide. Will things change? How?
Can Donald Trump makes a difference in spite of having the full force of Official America marshalled against him?
Does any of this matter if the world is really being run by an unelected, anonymous cabal?
‘They [journalists} are creating this demonic “enemy-of-the-people” — not just of themselves but of the people! And I’m it! And they’re very polite to me, but they’re looking at me and they’re kind of saying, “Oh no, you’re it! You’re the bad guy!” And I’ve been in Irish journalism for 35 years, and they all know me, and they all know that I’m, you know, “crazy” about certain things, that I have certain views that they don’t agree with, but they also know that I’m not Adolf Hitler! But that’s what they’re required to believe — and they do, in a funny kind of way! So you’ll get these journalists who’’ll come up to me and maybe say, “Oh, I read an article . . . “ and he’ll mention something I wrote 15 years ago, and he’ll say, ‘That was a great article!” And we’re having this bizarre conversation. And I’ve written all this stuff about journaliars and all this, over the last four years, essentially saying, “You guys are criminals!”, and he’s not pretending it’s happened. So it isn’t even clear why I’m the bad guy! There’s no charge sheet!’
— John Waters
‘Reality has become so surreal now that you would be inclined to believe almost anything, Anything is possible. But Donald Trump is obviously such a problem for them. . . . And that assassination attempt didn’t come out of the blue. It came at the end of years and years and years of political, public relations and judicial harassment of the man. They did everything that they could to stop him, to put him behind bars, to remove him from ballots in different states. They’ve gone outside of the bounds of law to try to stop him, And then, the same basic structures of power have killed before. It’s not like there’s some kind of red line, whereby we’re too decent to assassinate a political candidate!’
— Alex Krainer
‘I think that they would prefer to partition the United States, so that this great power doesn’t switch sides — against the imperial cabal. If they can’t control it, they would rather destroy it. With the Biden administration, they’re served well. Biden administration officials can’t find a war that they don’t love. All the weapons are going to Israel, to Ukraine, to Taiwan. “Every war! Any war! Next, we’re going to attack Iran! No problem! All of it! All of it! We’ll do everything!” And then, if Donald Trump comes into the White house, all of that will stop.’
— Alex Krainer
‘In a certain sense, what I’ve felt for the last few years is that we have discussions about politics, and there’s some great streams online — like The Duran — I mean, these guys know their stuff inside out. But every time I watch them and listen to their logic, I think, “Yeah, but does any of this matter? The history — does it matter?” Because what’s going to happen is whatever those bastards want to happen. It’s not going to be anything to do with voting. It’s going to be nothing to do with policies. Nothing even to do with ideology. It’s going to do with with what do they want to do with us and our lives?”
— John Waters
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Emerson Fersch
Emerson began his career in the savings and loan industry in 1986, working his way up to branch manager, eventually earning his first securities license in 1992 while working as a financial advisor for Great Western Financial Securities in Long Beach, CA. In 1995, he left to start Capital Investment Advisers LLC, feeling the need to provide a broader array of products and services and a desire to establish relationships that were less transactional and more personal with his clients and those he worked with. He felt he could have a greater impact working on his own. He completed a master’s degree in financial services from the American College and has an undergraduate degree in general studies from Saint Louis University. He is a Certified Financial Planning Practitioner (CFP®) and holds several other professional designations. He served in a variety of leadership positions for his church, and as an elected official when based in Southern California.
Currently, Emerson resides in the Southern Utah area with his wife Darci and son Ethan.
Alex Krainer
Alex is the founder of Krainer Analytics and creator of I-System Trend Following. He has worked as a market analyst, researcher, trader and hedge fund manager since 1996. Alex was born and raised in a socialist regime of former Yugoslavia, under one-party communist rule. As a 17-year old he joined a student exchange programme and took up his university studies there, ultimately transferring to Switzerland on a scholarship where he completed a degree in Business and Economics. From Switzerland his path led him to Venezuela where he lived for a year and experienced his first banking crisis in 1994 when 9 of Venezuela’s 16 largest banks failed and brought the country’s economy to a grinding halt. The same year he returned to Croatia and joined the military where he served through 1995 during the last phases of Croatia’s war of independence. In 1996, upon discharge from the military, Alex took employment at an oil trading company in Monaco. In 1998 he became the head of risk, and CEO in 2000. Alex had originated the firm’s research and development program in market analysis and application of neural networks and artificial intelligence in trading of financial and commodities markets. In 2007 Alex launched his own investment management business and was among the small minority of managers who generated positive investment returns (+27%) during the 2008 financial crisis. Over the following six years, his fund outperformed the Dow Jones Credit Suisse index of Blue Chip commodity futures trading funds. In 2011 Alex Joined Lee Robinson’s Altana Wealth to manage the firm’s inflation hedging strategy. In 2019 Alex created Altana Wealth’s systematic portfolio allocation strategy designed to bridge the gap between technology and finance.
In more recent years, Alex also launched a career as an author. He published his first book Mastering Uncertainty in Commodities Trading in 2015. In 2021 this book was selected as #1 on Financial-Expert.co.uk’s list of ‘The 5 Best Commodities Books for Investors and Traders.’ In 2017 he published The Grand Deception which is available exclusively from the RedPill Press. In 2021 he published Alex Krainer’s Trend Following Bible.