The Greatest President and Ex-President of the 20th Century

“If one wants to harvest quickly, one must plant carrots and salads; if one has the ambition to plant oaks, one must have the sense to tell oneself: my grandchildren will owe me this shade.” — Leon Walras

Former president Jimmy Carter died at age 100. It’s incredible to think that he lived 20 years longer than Ronald Reagan (who died in 2004 at age 93), even though Reagan succeeded Carter as president. But Carter was considerably younger than Reagan.

I used to attend the White House press conferences when Carter was president, and his press conferences were frequent and chaotic. He had so many press conferences that much of the media stopped coming, and right before the president showed up, half the seats were empty. But the seats were suddenly filled up by White House staff before the president arrived.

Members of the media would jump up and shout “Mr. President! Mr. President!” to get his attention. Veteran reporter Sam Donaldson would prance around like he owned the place.

Then, when Reagan became president, I attended his first press conference. Before he arrived, the press secretary announced that from now on, the media had to raise their hand silently, and the president would call on one journalist at a time. I suspect Nancy Reagan had something to do with it.

Ronald Reagan press conference in the early 1980s. I attended several press conferences in the White House. Can you find me in the photo? Credit: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Carter was a better ex-president than president, with his humanitarian efforts, monitoring elections abroad, teaching Sunday School lessons and building homes for Habitat for Humanity.

The best things he did as president were his Middle East peace agreement (Camp David Accords); deregulating the airline industry and phasing out the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) and appointing Paul Volcker to head up the Federal Reserve, resulting in ending the inflationary binge of the 1970s.

My Introduction to Ronald Reagan

In a way, Jimmy Carter introduced me to Ronald Reagan. In 1977, Carter proposed a treaty to return the Panama Canal to Panama. Reagan appeared before the Senate to oppose the treaty. Senator Orrin Hatch arranged for me to meet Reagan and his wife Nancy. We spent some time talking about his friend and my uncle W. Cleon Skousen.

Cleon and Reagan were friends over the years in the fight against communism and support of the Constitution. Their special relationship is described in several places in my new book “There Were Giants in the Land: Episodes in the Life of W. Cleon Skousen.” See https://www.markskousen.com/our-new-book-is-banned-in-beijing/. To purchase the Giants book at a discount, go to www.skousenbooks.com.

How Reagan Changed My Investment Strategy for the Better

It was a thrill to meet the man whom I regard as the greatest president of the twentieth century. I’m proud of the fact that I started my investment newsletter, Forecasts & Strategies, in the year Reagan was elected. I’ve been going 45 years strong since then.

Reagan’s election in 1980 convinced me that the future belonged to investing in America, not survival hard assets. Early on in my investment newsletter, I decided that Reaganomics would work. I tell the story here.

As Reagan said in his 1982 State of the Union address: “I’m urging the American people: Seize these new opportunities to produce, to save, to invest, and together we’ll make this economy a mighty engine of freedom, hope and prosperity again.”

Throughout my career, I’ve recommended investing in the U.S. stock market rather than gold. To read more, click here.

Investing in gold and hard assets made sense in the Inflationary 1970s under Jimmy Carter; investing in American businesses made more sense in the disinflationary growth era of Ronald Reagan. That era is still going strong into the mid-2020s.

My well-diversified portfolio in technology, dividend-paying stocks, foreign emerging markets like Argentina and some gold has proven highly successful.

Earlier this week, I met up with Keith and Marta Krantz, longtime friends of my wife, who came to Orlando for a family reunion and holiday vacation. They are also long-term subscribers to my newsletter.

“Your recommendations paid for our Christmas vacation,” Keith said. I was deeply touched that I made a difference in their lives.

We met them at SeaWorld in Orlando, where my daughter Hayley is principal ice skater in the Holiday on Ice show. She is one of the few female skaters in the world to do a backflip! See her doing an interview here about her show, where she does the backflip.

FreedomFest Holiday Special: Early Bird Discount Ends on January 31, 2025!

During the holidays, take the time to talk to your family and friends about attending the greatest libertarian show on earth: FreedomFest, June 11-14, 2025, at the Palm Springs Convention Center in California. The beautiful Renaissance Resort Hotel is right next door.

Many attendees are making it a family vacation, a chance to visit the golden state without having to pay California’s high taxes!

I will be announcing a big-name celebrity speaker soon, someone you won’t want to miss.

So far, we have confirmed Jim Rogers, the famous financial guru, who will be coming from Singapore to address us on “China vs. USA: Who Is Winning the Battle of the Super Powers?” 

Also, Larry Sanger, the co-founder of Wikipedia (he came up with the name), will speak on “The Threat of Centralized Control of Social Media and What Can Be Done About It”…

I will also be debating John Tamny, publisher and editor of RealClearMarkets, on his dangerous new book “The Deficit Delusion.”

We are also happy to welcome back Marc Eliot, Hollywood’s biographer, who will talk about Hollywood’s love affair with Palm Springs as THE getaway for the jet set; he will be leading a tour of the secluded homes of Frank Sinatra and other celebrities. (And yes, Ronald and Nancy Reagan were frequent guests at the homes of other celebrities in the area.)

See you in Palm Springs in June!

Take advantage of our “early bird” discount, only $400 per person, by going to www.freedomfest.com, or call Hayley at 1-855-850-3733, ext. 201.

May you all have a happy and most prosperous New Year!

Good investing, AEIOU,

Mark Skousen

You Nailed it!

The New Theists Gain Ground

By Mark Skousen

“H. G. Wells [the atheist] suffers from the disadvantage that if he’s right he’ll never know. He’ll only know if he’s wrong.” — G. K. Chesterton

For years the Four Horsemen of the New Atheism — Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett — were all the rage on college campuses around the world with their bestselling books, such as “God Is Not Great,” and “The God Delusion.” Christianity and religion in general were on the defensive.

In 2008, we sponsored an entertaining debate between Hitchens and Dinesh D’Souza at FreedomFest, with Alex Green as the moderator. You can watch it here.

The Rise and Fall of the New Atheists

But now things have changed, and Christianity and religion are making a comeback. Last week, the Free Press ran a major story on how intellectuals are converting to religion, and specifically Christianity. It’s entitled, “How Intellectuals Found God: Almost 150 years after Nietzsche said ‘God is dead,’ some of our most important thinkers are getting religion.” You can read it here.

They include Niall Ferguson and his wife Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Peter Thiel and Jordan Peterson.

They find Christianity appealing often on pragmatic grounds. As Niall Ferguson states, “You can’t organize a society on the basis of atheism.” Indeed, as I asked Richard Dawkins a few years ago, “Where are the atheist organizations donating time and money to help victims of hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural disasters?” The relief efforts come from largely Christian, Jewish and other religious organizations. Even the Red Cross and Alcoholics Anonymous started as Christian organizations, as did most hospitals.

Besides, atheism suffers from an inferior model. What’s the point of life if there’s no afterlife? The Christian hope of a life after death involves restoring justice, forgiveness and happiness — and a resurrected being is far superior.

The fact is that the atheist model can’t compete with the Christian mode of living –belief in and worshiping a loving God, looking forward to an afterlife, living high moral standards, engaging charitable work and socializing with friends of similar faith through organized religion. Most people want more from life than a secular lifestyle.