New Orleans Investment Conference Marks 50 Years of Market Insights and Contrarian Wisdom

Taking place a few weeks later than usual — likely to accommodate the US election — this year's New Orleans Investment Conference saw many resource sector analysts, newsletter writers, speculators and contrarians offer insight on the economy, potential market movements and which commodities to watch.

Hosted by Brien Lundin, CEO and president of Jefferson Financial and editor of Gold Newsletter, the New Orleans Investment Conference first launched in 1975 as the brainchild of entrepreneur James Blanchard, a well-known dealer of fine coins and precious metals and the founder of Blanchard and Company.

Blanchard was fondly remembered at the conference's 50th anniversary by presenters and panelists, including popular investor and speculator Rick Rule, proprietor of Rule Investment Media.

Rule recounted first attending the event in 1986, beginning his presentation with an acknowledgment of the show’s founder, noting that Blanchard was one of the “most wonderful mentors and best friends of my life.”

He spent the remainder of his 20 minute presentation — "Another Bull Market: Don’t Waste This One!" — pointing out that the precious and industrial metals markets are in an early stage bull run driven by mounting US debt and liabilities.

To address these challenges, Rule expects the US government to print more money — boosting gold.

He underscored the need for a contrarian approach, explaining the difference between beta, the outperformance of a sector relative to the broad market, and alpha, an investment or speculation that outperforms even the beta.

"If the gold sector does well, beta would be the difference between the performance of gold stocks relative to the stock market in general," he said. Alpha would be gold stocks that outperform gold even as the metal is outperforming.

"If you aren't a contrarian in this racket, you're going to be a victim,” he said several times during his presentation.

Rule's nostalgic sentiment was echoed by economist and author Dr. Mark Skousen, who told audience members that he has been attending the New Orleans Investment Conference since the late 1970s.

Skousen showed several photos of him and previous event guests over the decades.

"There I am burning my Social Security card, and later I tore up my Medicare card,” he said pointing to a large screen. “And today I am on Social Security and Medicare. So much for tearing up these state-run programs.”

He later quipped that Social Security has yielded poor returns compared to the stock market.

“Let me tell you something — these state-run programs are lousy programs, because for Social Security, if you had invested your money in the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX), you wouldn't be getting US$3,000 or US$4,000 a month, you'd be getting US$12,000 a month, which you can live on,” Skousen commented.

Keep an eye out for the rest of INN’s coverage from the New Orleans Investment Conference, including exclusive video interviews and full panel overviews.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Georgia Williams, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

Editorial Disclosure: The Investing News Network does not guarantee the accuracy or thoroughness of the information reported in the interviews it conducts. The opinions expressed in these interviews do not reflect the opinions of the Investing News Network and do not constitute investment advice. All readers are encouraged to perform their own due diligence.