Steve Cortes

Drawing upon the themes he voices regularly on his daily CNBC Commentary, and those described in his 2011 book Against The Herd. Steve Cortes challenges investors to think independently and develop a healthy skepticism towards the conventional market wisdom of Wall ST. and the financial media. As a noted contrarian, Cortes presents six alternative opinions on major international investment events. These alternatives include challenging the belief that China represents an emerging superpower; detailing why Japan’s economy is locked in an unalterable downward spiral; urging against investing in gold as a safety play; concluding that the housing market has not hit rock bottom; seeming assurance of America’s decline, that in fact the United States’ power is young — and growing. Pulling no punches, Cortes presents genuinely actionable alternatives to common market wisdom. His contrarian forecasts — while sometimes counterintuitive, controversial, and even alarming — will have a profound effect on global markets, and Steve provides invaluable information on how and when to cash in.

China’s growth has amazed, and stunned, the world as “Middle Kingdom” has grown at break-neck-speed for 30 years without a recession, moving seemingly overnight from the 18th to the 21 Century. Conventional wisdom throughout the Western world hold that China will lead a growth trajectory among emerging markets that will soon place China as pre-eminent superpower over the United States, especially economically. But is the Chinese growth phenomenon sustainable? Or, is China forming the most recent, and incredibly dangerous, investing bubble, akin to the global housing crisis? Steve Cortes makes a powerful case that systemic hindrances preclude further expansion for China. Specifically, its terrible demographic, lack of transparency and concomitant lack of innovation, and the ultimate folly of central planning

As Neil Diamond so eloquently crooned, “on the boats and on the planes, they’re coming to America.” Americans, so long accustomed to massive immigration and successful continual assimilation of new arrivals easily lose sight of the singularity of America’s experience as the world’s foremost destination for talent, aspiration, and investment. The son of an immigrant, Steve speaks passionately about the importance of immigration in the United States, and its primacy in forming a country unique in the world, culturally and economically. From the sweat-soaked produce worker in a California farm to the graduate level engineer in a lab at MIT, immigrants provide the energy, ideas – and even the reproduction – that America so badly needs and so powerfully harnesses. Moreover, the immigration provides the only realistic “Silver Bullet” solution to solve so many pressing problems of the United States — from low housing demand to political climate resistant to this productive heritage of renewal. He argues firmly, though, that the better traditions of America’s openness will continue to flourish, ensuring that america’s economic growth will not only continue, but accelerate, in coming decades as immigration continues to regenerate America. Cortes presents actionable business and investing strategies to capitalize on this primary aspect of American exceptionalism.

Americans widely believe that our country’s best days have passed and that the U.S. faces, at best, a managed decline from its historic superpower status. Admittedly, the United States has recently pursued policies antithetical to growth and even to our own national historic ideals. But nonetheless, the over-arching trajectory of America’s steady rise as the world’s leader remains solidly intact and, in fact, should accelerate in coming decades. Six powerful macro forces argue for a prosperous American future:

1. Culture of Innovation
2. Demographic Advantages
3. Immigration
4. Geography
5. Energy Revolution
6. Military Dominance

While acknowledging the very real risks to America’s future, I explain why those risks are mitigated and project that American power is young and growing and that the United States, the indispensable nation, will remain exceptional far beyond our lifetimes.

Americans have grown convinced, through a drumbeat of negativity concerning America’s prospects, that the United States faces a future of decline and a diminished standing in the world — a loss of our superpower status, replaced instead by a multi-polar global power structure.

Steve Cortes provides a sharp and invigorating rebuke of this pessimism and instead unveils a potent argument that America’s power – economic, political, cultural – is in fact very young…and growing.

Focusing primarily on economics, Steve uses his years of experience trading and broadcasting in the financial markets to prove that indeed the 21st century will unfold as the second consecutive “American Century.” First, he debunks the notion of the assumed ascendance of China as America’s chief rival. Then, he detail that because of demographics, immigration, innovation, and the nascent Energy revolution, only America stands ready to lead the world for decades to come as the indispensable nation. He describes the singularity of America as a geographic, cultural, and economic outlier, truly exceptional in all the world.

Moreover, Steve provides audiences with specific investment themes to safely grow capital in this world with America at its center.