Over the last few days, I’ve laid out the multi-decade chain of events that led to the inaugural Phoenician League Investment Summit last week. We’ll wrap up that story today…
It all started with my experience working in corporate banking in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. That opened my eyes to the fact that the financial system is not exactly what they portray it as.
Around the same time, this OB/GYN from Texas named Ron Paul was running for president, and he kept talking about gold, Austrian economics, and the monetary system.
At first, I had no idea what he was talking about. So I started buying these books written by the economists he would name-drop in the debates… and it wasn’t long until my worldview cracked open.
At that point I had no choice – I quit my banking job and moved up to the mountains. From my quiet mountain home, I kept learning about economics, and I began to study investing also. That’s how I discovered the financial newsletter industry… and I was hooked.
I can’t tell you how many different investment newsletters I subscribed to. And I read them religiously whenever a new issue came out.
Then, one day, I found a curious advertisement in one of them. The ad said that this particular publishing outfit was looking for an analyst to join the company.
At first I just skimmed over it and kept reading, as my eyes are trained to do. But then it hit me… maybe you should answer the ad.
I struggled with that thought for a minute. But I couldn’t help but think to myself – Joe, you read all their stuff anyway. You have a good feel for how the business works. You would probably be perfect for the job. And you know what, I’m sure you would learn a ton. Whatever happens, you’ll never lose that experience.
So I responded to the ad, and next thing I know, I’m working out of their office in South Florida… which gave me the opportunity to meet quite a few of the guys that I looked up to so much from reading their work.
The first several years were a blast. And I was proud of the research we were putting out. But over time, things started to change… as things always do.
That publishing group was owned by a larger holding company. For reasons I could never figure out, that company was hellbent on going public. And it linked up with the British entertainment group to do so through a reverse merger.
Long story short, they forced the original founder and CEO out, took the company public, and as best I can tell, they proceeded to legally loot the company by dumping all their stock and securing shady warrant deals… that they also proceeded to dump.
As a result, the share price fell by over 80% – wiping out the equity that the original founders held. Meanwhile, the best people left the company in disgust, and it turned into a giant marketing engine that masqueraded as an investment research group.
It was during that process that I built and launched The Phoenician League. And it was built to be different…
-Joe Withrow
P.S. If you would like to hear a more detailed account of what happens when your company gets raided like I briefly explained above, I laid out the full story from my perspective in Episode 5 of the Phoenician League podcast. You can find all our past episodes at: https://phoenicianleague.com/podcast/