Frequently Asked Questions

The ads you see on ChrisMartenson.com do not necessarily reflect our views, but we do rely on the revenue they generate. At this time we are using Google AdSense to manage the ads shown on our site.  We do not condone or encourage any particular ads. Google uses their own automated technology to determine what types of ads they think will be a good fit for our site.  While we would prefer that no political or religious ads appear on our site, we cannot categorically block ads.

We can choose to block individual URLs if we are aware of them, but we have no way of knowing about them until they pop up on the site and we happen to see them or someone brings them to our attention. If you see an ad that you feel our readership would find offensive, please share with us the destination URL listed beneath the ad so that we can consider blocking it.  Once we have blocked an ad, it may take several hours to be removed from our site, so please be patient.  Thank you for your understanding.

At this time we are using Google AdSense to manage the ads shown on our site. Please contact us if you would like to receive more information about targeting advertising directly at ChrisMartenson.com using Google AdWords.

We also intend to invite direct advertising on ChrisMartenson.com in the future.  We are currently working toward making dedicated ad space available to advertisers, but that option is not available at this time.

If you are using an iPod Touch, you can watch them through the YouTube application as they are (since they are hosted by YouTube).

We have not yet podcasted the video chapters, so downloading them into your library is not yet an option.  We hope to be able to offer this at some point in the future.

You may not directly upload a chapter of the Crash Course to your YouTube account.  However, you are welcome to link to one of our existing Crash Course videos at www.youtube.com/ChrisMartensondotcom by adding it to a playlist or to your favorites. 

You may embed one or more Crash Course chapters in your blog or website, but only the You Tube versions may be embedded, not the high-resolution versions.  To embed a video in a personal website or blog page (anywhere that HTML can be pasted), you will need to go to the above-linked YouTube page to find the video you want to embed, copy the the 'embed HTML code' from the YouTube page, and paste the HTML code onto the page where you want to have the video.  This is the same code that is used to embed the videos on ChrisMartenson.com. 

Outside forums and some blogs have their own different system to allow for embedded videos, so if the above instructions don't work for you, you will need to contact those website providers directly to find out more about how to embed in their sites.

Duplium, a DVD fulfillment company contracted by ChrisMartenson.com, is handling DVD sales and customer service for us so that we can continue to focus on what Chris does best - site content, reports, podcasts, and more.

For customer service related to DVD orders, please contact Duplium directly at 800-928-2018 or Mia at mraggio@duplium.com.  We at ChrisMartenson.com are not handling DVD orders and are unable to provide assistance for issues related to orders placed through Duplium. 

Please be sure to doublecheck your address carefully before completing your order, because once the order has been sent it is not possible to change the shipping address. Thank you.

Yes, a PAL version of the Special Edition DVD is available here.  Click here  for more information on all the available options. You can also download the PAL version here if you want to burn a PAL DVD yourself.  If you are not sure whether you need the PAL or NTSC version, the following information should help:

• If you are in North America (including the United States), Japan, South Korea, etc., you want the NTSC version of the DVD.  To see a map of countries which use NTSC, click here.
• If you are in most of Europe, Australia, and many Asian countries, you need the PAL version of the DVD.  To see a map of countries which use PAL, click here.

The Basic Edition (v.1) is available as YouTube and high-resolution videos on our site and can also be downloaded from the ISO/bittorrent files (see here for more info).  The Basic Edition was also sold in DVD format from November 2008 to February 2009 and will be available for purchase again soon, but only in bulk quantities.  This edition is the one to buy (or download) if you're looking for an inexpensive already-made version to hand out to people.

The Special Edition (v.2) is available as a new 3-disc DVD set and can be ordered here as of March 2009.  This is the version to buy if you're planning to own a copy for yourself or present it to a group.  The Special Edition is enhanced with the following improvements: 

• Live video introductions and summaries by Chris Martenson to put a face to the material and provide framing for each section.

• Three-disc format.  The Crash Course material has been reorganized and separated into three discs, each less than 1.5 hours, to better support group showings. 

• Minor reorganization of the chapters:
  • Chapters 1, 2, and 3 from the Basic Edition were combined into one chapter in the Special Edition.
  • The chapter entitled "How Much Is a Trillion?" was moved to an earlier spot in the lineup in the Basic Edition.
  • The chapters were renumbered in the Special Edition, so they do not necessarily have the same chapter numbers that they did in the Basic Edition.

• A 16-page Presenter's Pack that includes:
  • How to present and what to discuss
  • Study questions (by chapter and/or section)
  • Spreading the word
  • Tips and advice for hosting a house party
  • Tips and advice for hosting a community presentation

We are committed to continuing to offer the Crash Course online for free, but you can now also purchase Crash Course DVDs and/or download the Crash Course for yourself.

You should be able to watch the Crash Course on a Pocket PC/Mobile Phone, but you may need to download and install Flash Lite on the device first.

Click this link to view a threaded conversation about Flash for Mobile devices on Adobe's site.  Also here is a page to download Flash Lite for Windows Mobile: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/wm.html

In creating the Crash Course, Chris generally used only what most people would call “Grade-A’ sources for the data.  Some examples of sources used:

• All monetary, bank reserve, and interest rate data comes from the St. Louis Fed.
• All oil production and discovery data comes from the DOE (Tonto).
• Housing bubble data comes from a variety of sources, including OFHEO, BLS, CENSUS, Robert Shiller, Robert Prechter (historical bubble examples).
• Population data comes from the UN (future) and Wikipedia (historical).
• All national debt figures come from the US Treasury Department.
• Much of the data on household debt, credit market growth, etc, comes from the Federal Reserve Z.1 report.
• To fill in a lot of the gaps and to simplify some of the data searching, Chris used economagic.com, and they use only “official” sources.
• Inflation data comes from the BLS, except for the counter-argument data, which, as noted in the presentation, comes from John Williams at Shadowstats.
• ALL of the demonstration graphs (e.g., ore body % and mine waste) were created by Chris in Excel.

First, be sure to watch Crash Course: Chapter 20.  Downloadable self-assessment materials are available here.  For more information on what you can do to protect yourself from the effects of the present and future economic storm, you can find information on the Planning Guides pages as well as in some of the past Martenson Reports. Some of that material is available only enrolled members, although some is available for free to registers users as well.

We understand that this is a big question for many people, ourselves included.  We are currently working on developing more site content that will address this question.

Every enrollment defaults to automatic renewal.  However, we are well aware that some of our enrolled members do not wish to have their account automatically renewed.

If you would like to opt out of this automatic process, you may. You will need to follow these additional steps at the time of enrollment or re-enrollment to opt out of the auto-renewal process:

1. Log in to your account, click on the "My Account" link at the top of the page, and make sure that your enrollment is active.
2. On that page, under "Membership Autorenewal," you will see your order information. On the right-hand side of the order is a link with the words "opt out." Click this link.
3. You will see a confirmation page asking you to verify that you do really want to opt out. If you click "Opt Out," you will be taken back to your "My Account" page, where you will see that the order information under "Membership Autorenewal" has disappeared. This confirms that your account will not be automatically renewed.

If you need help opting out, you can e-mail us for assistance well in advance of your expiration date. 

Please note that you will have to follow this opt-out process each time you reactivate your enrollment.  This means that if you forget to opt out or notify us before your expiration date that you want to opt out, the system will, by default, automatically renew your enrollment.

We understand that this process inconveniences a small number of our enrolled members.  Most of our enrolled members prefer this option.  Unfortunately, we are not able to provide refunds for any reason (you can read our policy here.  We appreciate your understanding.

Good question!  In a nutshell, they are the same thing.  Paid memberships used to be called "subscriptions," but now they are called "enrollments."  Subscribers are now called "enrolled members" (and unpaid members are now called "registered users.")  Paid members pay the same price and receive the same benefits as before; all that has changed is the wording we use. 

We found it necessary to make this change to accommodate a new and useful feature called Content Subscriptions.  You might notice the word "Subscribe" shown as a link in blog posts and forum threads.  If you click on this link, it gives you a number of options to choose from.  Subscribing to content in this way will result in your receiving e-mail notification when various additions or changes are made in that thread, by that author, or in other ways, according to the options you choose.  To manage your content subscriptions and preferences, click on "My Account" in the navigation bar and choose "My Content Subscriptions."

Most Martenson Reports are only available to enrolled members, but a handful of them are available for free to registered users.  If you'd like to get a taste of what a Martenson Report contains, or you'd simply like to take advantage of the free reports that Chris has made available to all, you can find them here:

• The Great Asset Bubble
• It's Simple: Trust Yourself
• How The Credit Markets Affect Us All
• The Six Stages of Awareness
• A Preview of Chapter 20 (or, Navigating a Martenson Report)
• Commodities Crushed and How This Can Help You
• Charting a Course Through the Recession
• The Federal Reserve Plays A Dangerous Game
• So Long, Mr. Dollar
• Exponential Money in a Finite World
• How Safe Is My FDIC-Insured Bank Account?
• Uh Oh.
• The End of Money
• Housing - Simple As That
• The Unkindest Cut of All
• The Game Is Afoot
• The United States Is Insolvent

If you are unsure about whether or not you are currently enrolled, you can figure it out at a glance while you are logged in.  If you are currently enrolled, your enrollment expiration date is visible at the top of the page in red, and the number of days left in your enrollment is also noted.

We regret that we are unable to give refunds of any kind. Chris Martenson has devoted five full-time years of his life to developing the content on this site while supporting his family exclusively from his personal savings. The enrollment fees and donations received by ChrisMartenson.com are applied toward site maintenance and projects that benefit site readers. Chris is passionately devoted to making as much of this information free to the public as possible while drawing enough financial support to keep the site running. We simply do not have the resources to process refunds.

This policy applies to automatic renewals.  When you enroll, you receive information about how to opt out of the automatic renewal process.  If you choose not to opt out, your account will continue to be automatically renewed by the system at the end of each enrollment period. 

This policy also applies to accounts that have been suspended or blocked due to noncompliance with the Forum Guidelines and Rules.

We hope and anticipate that ChrisMartenson.com will continue for as long as its message is needed, and we feel the message will be valid for a very long time. By enrolling, you are agreeing to our no-refund policy and accepting the risk that, should the site become financially unviable, your enrollment might end prematurely. We will do everything possible to prevent this situation but want to be clear about this possibility so that you can make an informed choice when purchasing an enrollment.

Thank you for your understanding.

Our enrollment renewal process now defaults to automatic renewal.  For most users, this means that your account will be renewed after each enrollment period without any additional steps on your part.  However, under certain circumstances you will need to re-enroll to regain access after your expiration date.

Three groups of users will not be automatically renewed and will find it necessary to re-enroll after their accounts have expired if they wish to continue benefits.  This is necessary for 1) people who enrolled prior to the implementation of our automatic renewal system, who will need to re-enroll only ONCE to be covered under our new protocol; 2) users who voluntarily opted out of our automatic renewal process, who will need to re-enroll after expiration each time they opt out; and 3) users whose credit cards are declined at the time of auto-renewal, who will find their account has expired and will need to re-enroll to continue receiving benefits.  If you find that your account has expired for one of these reasons, you will need to re-active your enrollment by repeating the enrollment process.  

To regain access after your expiration date, you will need to follow these instructions:

1. Make sure you are logged in.
2. Click on the "Enroll Today" button on any page.
3. Follow the instructions and your account will be reinstated.

We understand that not everyone will want their account to be automatically renewed. If you would like to opt out of this automatic process, you may. You will need to follow these additional steps to opt out of the auto-renewal process:

1. Log in to your account, click on the "My Account" link at the top of the page, and make sure that your enrollment is active.
2. On that page, under "Membership Autorenewal," you will see your order information. On the right-hand side of the order is a link with the words "opt out." Click this link.
3. You will see a confirmation page asking you to verify that you do really want to opt out. If you click "Opt Out," you will be taken back to your "My Account" page, where you will see that the order information under "Membership Autorenewal" has disappeared. This confirms that your account will not be automatically renewed.

Please note that you will have to follow this opt-out process each time you reactivate your enrollment.

If you would like to change the length of time that your subscription covers, please contact us for help. 

You have our word that we will never sell your info or use it for anything that is not related to ChrisMartenson.com.  We value the integrity of our own personal information and take the same care with your information that we take with our own.

Yes.  You can send an enrollment payment via www.paypal.com to paypal@chrismartenson.com.  If your payment is for a donation, you can use the Donate button to send us a Paypal payment.  If you want to mail us a payment by check or money order, please make it payable to Chris Martenson and mail it to PO Box 903, Montague, MA, 01351

If your payment is for an enrollment, please be sure to indicate “Enrollment Payment” as the subject, or our processors will assume your payment is meant as a donation.  Also be sure to include your username and/or the e-mail address that is associated with your user registration so that we can properly credit your payment to your account.   We will activate or renew your enrollment after your payment has been received and processed.

If you have had trouble getting your transaction completed, it may be due to a credit card error.  There are a few common problems that could be the culprit.  First, make sure that your name and address are entered exactly as they appear on your credit card statement.  Next, please make sure you have correctly entered the CVV code – this is a common cause of transaction failure.

If you are a customer located outside of the United States, your address will need to be entered in the standard format used in your country.  This information can usually be found on each country's postal service website. Sometimes the locally-accepted form of an address does not match the official postal service version.  For additional help in determining this format, you may find the following websites helpful: http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/postal.html and/or http://www.bitboost.com/ref/international-address-formats.html.

If you still have difficulty, you may want to try submitting your credit card payment via Paypal as an alternative.  

We understand that some readers do not have the resources to enroll.  We are considering future changes to our enrollment offerings that would address this.  If he could, Chris would give all his services away for free to everyone who was interested in his work. 

Unfortunately, this is not realistic, as the site is costing him thousands of dollars to run, he has supported it almost completely out-of-pocket for the past five years, and he isn't drawing any profit from it, despite working more than fulltime on the site and his cause.  And we just increased the size of our part-time staff, which will help us better fulfill the needs of site visitors but will also increase our running costs.

Enrolled receive access to more extensive site content than registered users, including special in-depth reports and  guides, and to special features such as the Subscribers-Only forum, where Chris personally participates in discussing the issues.  However, Chris remains generously committed to keeping the entire Crash Course free and available to everyone, along with the other fundamental features of the site. 

Very occasionally, generous supporters offer to sponsor scholarships for interested readers who cannot afford to enroll.  If you would like to be considered for a scholarship, please contact us and explain why you feel you would be a good candidate. Scholarship opportunities are limited, but we will take your inquiry under consideration when and if another scholarship is sponsored.

If you are interested in sponsoring a scholarship for someone who is unable to afford one, please contact us to make arrangements. Thank you.

Site Posting Terms of Use

SITE MISSION 

1. Have the Crash Course viewed as widely as possible
2. Increase collective understanding of the role that energy, the economy, and natural resources play in our future
3. Move individuals towards personal and common responsibility for the future

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

The goal of ChrisMartenson.com is to draw attention to the important messages in the Crash Course and also to create a safe and welcoming place for people to discuss its implications in an intelligent and enlightened way.

Together we will continue to hold this site to a higher standard than is usually found elsewhere on the Internet.  We will be civil with each other, respectful, thoughtful, and considerate. 

Anything that causes people to feel unwelcome or unsafe will be discouraged or removed, as will things that serve to detract from our high standard of intelligent discourse.  Our mission is to engage, not to repel.

Posts must be data-rich, fact-based, and constructive, especially if they are critical.  We ask that all critical commentary be accompanied by thoughtful suggestions for improvement—or not offered at all. 

TERMS OF USE

We expect people to maintain the same level of civility in posting that a polite person would at the dinner table of a wedding—before drinks are served.

We expect and require courteous interactions everywhere comments can be posted to the site. In an online community, social courtesies are observed, just as at a physical gathering.  One doesn't monopolize the conversation, pound the table about a single point until others' eyes glaze over, insult their host or their fellow guests, or spew patently offensive slurs.  Tactfulness is a reasonable expectation within a voluntary community.  

Please ask yourself these questions before making a post:

1. Does my post constructively illuminate an issue or answer a specific question?
2. If constructively critical, is it emotionally neutral and considerate? Does it offer specific, actionable solutions?
3. If asking a question, is it a bona fide question that will lead to an increased understanding of the 3E’s and related issues?

Users should strive to post with integrity and accuracy.  We expect that users will not abuse their anonymity by posting things that a polite individual would refrain from saying in person. 

We expect users to take reasonable care to make sure that their posts are accurate and always use verifiable facts to support an argument.  We expect users to do their best to offer constructive solutions to problems, and to remember that this site is about strengthening our communities, not tearing them down or otherwise damaging them.

GUIDELINES

For posts that stray outside of our admittedly subjective boundary lines, we reserve the right to modify or remove any given post to conform to our definition of “acceptable posting.”

Posts may be edited or removed for any of the following:

• Personal attacks
• Posts which are in violation of any law or which openly advocate breaking the law
• Posts containing information known to be false
• Posts violating copyright laws
• Hateful, taunting, violent, or harassing posts
• Posts that are invasive of personal privacy
• Posts in blatant disregard of purpose for which a specific thread was created
• Posts containing any language not suitable for all audiences or that would trigger a corporate firewall or cause responsible parents to block us out.  This includes all profanity.
• Spam and commercial advertisements

Please be sure to always include a link to the source for any posted material.  A snippet and a link, please.  Do not post entire articles.  We respect copyright laws here.

No posting in all caps!  This means titles, especially.  We view this as the equivalent of shouting.  We'll either replace the capital letters with lowercase letters, or we'll delete the post if that is too troublesome.

We really don’t want to remove anyone’s posts or censor anyone’s words, and it is a very rare event for us, but we need to make sure this community stays focused on the reasons we are here.  Please be responsible for your words, and do your best to ensure that none of your own posts ever need to be removed.

Thank you for your understanding.

CONSEQUENCES

Consequences for violating the forum rules may include a warning, editing or removal of the offending material, or suspension of posting privileges, potentially up to and including account deactivation and/or permanent banning from posting on the site. 

Moderators have the complete authority to act in what they see as the site's best interests.  The line is not always crisp, and the job is not easy.  They deserve your support.

CONTROVERSIAL TOPICS

We have given careful thought to the mission of this site and how information is best presented here to preserve the focus and effectiveness of our central message, especially to new users who may be unfamiliar with the main purpose of the site.

The function of the main forums is to discuss energy, economy, and the environment, personal finances, preparing for a future of expensive energy and less abundant natural resources, and those topics most directly related to them.

Although we prefer free discussion, we believe that there are some topics that can give the first-time visitor a mistaken impression of this site and run counter to its primary mission.

The Controversial Topics forum area is a place where veteran ChrisMartenson.com users can discuss topics which are outside of the main thrust of the site, and which, in our opinion, are controversial and/or might deflect a new visitor from understanding the central message of the website. 

We respect that there can be value in these topics, but have found that they can deflect new visitors who may not be ready to engage in this material.  We are not banning or limiting your ability to converse on these topics in any way; we are simply asking that these conversations happen at a location on the site where they will not be prominently displayed to every casual visitor.

Therefore, new threads covering the following topics may be created only in the Controversial Topics folder:

• Global conspiracy theories
• New world order conspiracy theories
• 9/11 conspiracy theories
• Guns and weapons
• Global warming
• Discussions on faith (not religion - see below)
• Other topics which are potentially interesting but not necessarily related to the purpose of this site

OFF-LIMIT TOPICS

Regretfully, through much trial and even more error, we've determined that there are several topics that seem to escape the ability of otherwise careful and considerate people to discuss pleasantly in an online forum: 

• Religion
• Abortion 

These topics are not allowed, and any threads or posts containing them will be promptly removed.  We wish it could be otherwise, but our hard-earned experience is that these topics are not worth the trouble. We appreciate your understanding.

YOUR HELP IS NEEDED

We can’t be everywhere at once.  If you encounter a post that crosses a line, just click on the "alert moderator" button at the bottom of the post to let us know immediately.  Please be sure to provide us with specific information about why you are flagging the post so that we can take action if it is warranted.  We appreciate your help.

These designations are based on the number of posts a user has made, as follows:

• 0-24 posts = New Member
• 25-49 posts = Full Member
• 50-99 posts = Bronze Member
• 100-249 posts = Silver Member
• 250-499 posts = Gold Member
• 500-999 posts = Platinum Member
• 1000+ posts = Diamond Member

When you reply to a forum post, look in the box surrounding the post you want to quote in your reply and click the "Quote" button. This will set up a reply box for you to type your own response under the quote and will add a tag above the quote saying who originally wrote it. Click on "Post comment" when you are ready to post what you have written.

At this time we do not allow forum contributions to be edited after they are posted.

Chris agrees with the many website experts who believe that original forum posts (and comments) should not be editable once they are posted. The thought is if someone changes the original post, it may make the entire thread irrelevant, and users will have a hard time understanding the other posts in the thread.

We appreciate your desire to make your post more readable. You may want to make an extra effort to hit preview your words carefully before you hit post. Thank you for understanding.

Every folder and thread in the forums has an icon next to it. These icons provide additional information about the item, which can be useful to site members.  The key below provides a description of each icons you will encounter in the forums:

• Green folder means the folder contains posts you have not read (see also the Topics column, which will have a hyperlink in it with "# new" posts).
• Red folder means you have read all the posts in that particular folder (there will be no extra hyperlink in the Topics column).
• Thumbtack icon represents a "sticky" thread, an important thread placed at the top of the list by site administrators.
• Star icon represents a new thread you have not read.
• Multiple-bubble icon represents a thread which is "hot" (lots of recent posts).
• Multiple-bubble + star icon represents a thread which is "hot" and you have not read.
• Lock icon represents a thread that has been locked from further comments.
• Single-bubble icon represents a basic forum thread with no special designation.

Absolutely!  In fact, we strongly encourage it.  If you would like to use all or part of the existing Crash Course in a presentation, you may.  However, you may not alter the Crash Course content for this or any other purpose without specific permission.

Chris asks three things in return:  First, to be given credit for his work; second, to have his URL (ChrisMartenson.com) included as part of your presentation, and third, that he be provided with feedback on how well-received the materials were.  Thank you for helping to spread Chris' message.

To play a podcast, click on the right arrow (triangle) in the podcast player located directly underneath the title of the podcast that you want to hear.  (Make sure the sound on your computer is turned on!)

To jump forward or go back in the podcast, "grab" the gray shaded bar and drag it forward or backward.  The time counter will be helpful in saving and finding your place.

To increase or decrease the volume, click on the height bars on the left-hand side of the podcast player.  You can also use the volume control on your computer to further fine-tune the volume.

To pause the podcast, click on the double vertical bars on the right-hand side of the podcast player.

To save the podcast to your computer, click on the text link (mp3 file) below the podcast player and podcast description. If that doesn't work, you might need to right-click the link and open the download in a new window by selecting "Save Link As" or "Open Link in New Tab" instead of simply clicking on the link.

Sometimes we hear that site visitors are having difficulty downloading or listening to the complete podcast.

The problem can usually be solved by one or more of the following:

• Clear the browser cache.  Some information in the cache may have corrupted the podcast download.
• Close all instances of the browser and restart. 
• Avoid using "embedded" browsers, such as the browser which comes with AOL.  Instead, access the Internet using a fully functional browser such as Firefox or Internet Explorer.
• Reboot the computer. 
• Attempt to listen to the podcast using a different Internet connection.
• Attempt to listen to the podcast on a different computer.  Try on your computer at work, or on a friend's computer.  Some older computers may not have the processing power or memory capacity to handle multiple videos running at once.

One of our astute readers sent in the following helpful hints for downloading podcasts to an iPhone:

1. Download mp3 to desktop.
2. Launch iTunes and drag mp3 to music library.
3. Add new playlist titled "podcasts."
4. Drag mp3 to "podcasts" playlist.
5. Connect iPhone to computer. On main sync screen check off "transfer only checked playlists and music." Under iPod tab, check off "podcasts" playlist.
6. Apply sync.

After clicking the audio player to start a podcast, you may see a brief message which says "Connecting..." followed by a message stating "File Not Found".  If this happens, the download process may have corrupted the podcast MP3 file.

The best action is to clear your browser cache, and attempt to play the podcast again.  To clear your browser cache in Firefox, perform the following steps:

• Select "Tools > Clear Private Data..." from the browser navigation menu.
• Ensure the "Cache" checkbox is selected.
• Click the "Clear Private Data Now" button.
• Attempt to play the podcast again.

To clear your browser cache in Microsoft Internet Explorer, perform the following steps:

• Select "Tools > Internet Options" from the browser navigation menu.
• Locate the "Browsing History" section, and click the "Delete..." button.  This will pop up a new window called "Delete Browsing History".
• On the "Delete Browsing History" window, click the "Delete files..." button.
• Clicking the "Delete files..." button pops up another window, which asks, "Are you sure you want to delete all temporary Internet Explorer files?"  Click "Yes", then click "Close" on the "Delete Browsing History" window.
• Click "OK" on the "Internet Options" window to finish the process.
• Attempt to play the podcast again.

Please note, clearing the Internet files stored for your browser may require you to log in to the site again.  If you have any further questions, please contact us using our Contact form.

If you want to receive private messages from some people but you don't want to receive any private messages from a particular user, go to their User Profile page, which will have a link that says "Block Messages."  Click this link and click Confirm.  Once you have blocked a person, you can unblock them at any time by following the same steps. Users are not notified when they are blocked by other users.

Private messages are enabled by default. If you don't want to receive private messages from anyone at all, or if you want to change your notification preferences for private messaging, go to your My Account page and click on the Edit tab. Scroll down to the section titled "Private Message Settings," where you can choose whether or not to allow private messages, whether or not to receive aggressive message notification, and how often you'd like to be notified (never, once daily, or with every message.)

There are three ways to send a private message:

1. You can click on the "Send PM" link that is located under a person's avatar (picture) and username on the left-hand side of a forum post or blog comment.
2. You can go to your My Account page, where you will see a Private Messages area containing a link that says "Write private message." This takes you to a form that you can fill out to send a private message to any user who has the private messaging option enabled. You need to know the person's exact username to be able to send a message this way.
3. You can go to the User Profile page of the user you want to send a message to, and click on the words "Write private message" for a form that will enable you to send that particular user a private message.

If you are a registered user and like what you see, please consider supporting ChrisMartenson.com at the enrollment level. By financially supporting ChrisMartenson.com with an enrollment, you gain access to exclusive members-only content that is not available to the general public.  Here are some of the benefits you receive:

Enrolled members receive additional information that is not available to registered or public readers of the site. You will have access to additional in-depth posts, reports and podcasts, get more detailed recommendations on how to protect your assets and your family's needs in case of further economic crisis, and receive exclusive, timely e-mail newsletters, along with special alerts, as warranted. And you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you are playing a role in helping to keep the Crash Course and its message available to all.

Benefits of Enrollment:

• Access to the Martenson Insider: Chris' frequent (often daily) commentary on news, events, and market trends
• The unabridged version of every Martenson Report
• The latest Chris Martenson Podcasts, which are available in streaming format online or can be downloaded to your iPod
• Access to all previous and current Newsletters ever sent to enrolled members
• Timely alerts regarding fast-breaking news that require your immediate attention or action
• Full access to all site material, past and present
• Access to the Enrolled Member Forum area, where Chris engages in running dialog about the day's events and responds to questions from enrolled members.
• No advertising

To become an enrolled member, click here.

Yes. You can find us on Facebook here:  http://www.facebook.com/ChrisMartensonDo...

If you are a registered user or an enrolled member, first make sure you are logged in. Then click here and you will be taken to a form that will allow you to send us a message. You can also send an email directly to our Daily Digest email, which is dd@chrismartenson.com.

It’s free and it will help us a great deal to count you among our registered users. The more registered users we have, the more credible we are when we apply for grants and other sources of support to help keep Chris’ work moving forward. Here are some of the other benefits at ChrisMartenson.com that are only available to registered users and enrolled members:

• Enjoy better service from our system. The system constantly updates itself for registered users, but only updates itself every 15 minutes for anonymous users (or logged-out users).
• Watch high-resolution versions of the Crash Course videos.
• Receive registered-user-only newsletters.
• Comment on Chris Martenson's blog entries.
• Start new threads and reply to existing threads in the Forums.
• Gain access to special Martenson Reports and podcasts that have been made available for free to registered users.
• Allow other registered users and enrolled members to e-mail you through our system without needing to know your e-mail address.

We are a very small team and are working very hard to make critical changes and improvements to the site while preparing for future ventures. Chris himself is spending every available moment keeping his finger on the pulse of the market, working on upcoming projects, continuing to offer blog posts and Martenson Reports, and providing occasional forum input. We hope this effort will be appreciated by readers. You may also want to post your question on the site in the Site Feedback and Comments forum so that other community members can offer helpful input.

Chris is not able to respond personally to every message he receives, but he is encouraged to know that readers are seeking more information on the issues. Suggestions for site improvement or blog topics are also welcome. You may also want to post your suggestion on the site in the Site Feedback and Comments forum so that others can discuss it and offer feedback as well.

While Chris is not able to respond personally to all of the email he receives, he is always grateful for tips from sharp readers. You may want to post your link on the site in the Current News & Events forum so that others can discuss it. Enrolled members also receive privileged access to an inner Subscribers-Only forum, where Chris personally answers questions and discusses the issues. The Subscribers-Only forum is also a good place to get Chris’ attention about current news.

Simply send us an e-mail and let us know how you feel!  Chris works hard to help people and finds it encouraging knowing that his efforts are appreciated.  He especially appreciates hearing how his work has been meaningful to individuals.  If we feel your testimonial is one others would find helpful, we will post it on the Testimonials page (with minimal editing for grammar and punctuation).

Your account password can be changed by visiting the "My Account" section of the site when logged in.  If you are not logged in, you will not see a "My Account" link.

To reach the "My Account" section of the site, either click the "My Account" link on the upper bar of any page on ChrisMartenson.com, or click the "My Account" menu item on the far right of the top navigation bar.  Once viewing the account, click the "Edit" tab, then look for the "Account information" section.

In the "Account information" section, you'll see two fields: "Password" and "Confirm password".  Enter the new password for your account in both of these fields, then scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Save".  Your password will now be changed.

You might have noticed the word "Subscribe" shown as a link in blog posts and forum threads.  If you click on this link, it gives you a number of options to choose from.  Subscribing to content in this way will result in your receiving e-mail notification when various additions or changes are made in that thread, by that author, or in other ways, according to the options you choose.  To manage your content subscriptions and preferences, click on "My Account" in the navigation bar and choose "My Content Subscriptions."

Here are some hints and tips on how to make the most of this feature:

1. To receive every post Chris Martenson makes on the site, you will want to subscribe to content authored by Chris.
2. The easiest way to do this is first find a post Chris has made on the site.  Any post will do -- a blog entry, Martenson Report, etc.
3. At the bottom of the post and above the start of the comments, you will see a "Subscribe" link.  Click this link, and the screen will expand to show a table of options.
4. In the options list, check "To posts by this author."  Next, click the "Save" button.
5. You will now receive an email notification when Chris has posted new content that he has written.  Notifications are sent out once a day, so a notification may arrive hours after a post has been published.
6. You can also find more options under the "My Content Subscriptions" tab in your account.  This area allows you to choose to receive emails after a comment is made on a particular post, be notified if someone comments on a post you have made, or receive messages if content has been recently updated or modified.

We hope these options will make it easier and more convenient for you to be aware of new content in a timely manner.

First, be sure to use the link sent within 24 hours of requesting it.  If more than that time elapses, you will need to visit the homepage and click on "New Password" again to send yourself a updated link.

If that isn't the issue, read on.

Users can choose to receive their email as HTML or plain text.  This is an option set within your email client (Thunderbird, Outlook, Entourage, etc.)  If you have your email client set to receive HTML, you can click directly on the link to use it.  You may not see the entire link; it will probably look like this:

https://www.chrismartenson.com/user/rese...

If your email client is set to receive messages only in plain-text format, the URL will look like this:

https://www.chrismartenson.com/user/rese... [1] 

The "[1]" next to the URL is a footnote.  You must then scroll to the bottom of the e-mail to find the full link.  You may be able to click on it, or you may need to cut-and-paste the full link into your browser.  It will be a long link and you will need to make sure to include every bit of it or it won't work.

If you currently receive e-mail in plain-text format, switching to HTML format will make it possible for you to receive clickable links from us.

To change your e-mail address, follow these instructions:

1. Make sure you are logged in, or enter your current username and password at the top of the page and click "Log in."
2. After you have logged in, select "My Account > Edit My Profile" from the navigation bar to access your user profile edit page.  Click on the "Edit" tab.
3. Enter your new e-mail in the field titled "E-mail address."
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Submit."

You can go to another member's User Profile page by clicking on their username or avatar anywhere that it appears. You can also search for a link to a user's profile by typing their username in the Search box in the upper right-hand corner and then clicking on their username when it appears in the search results.

If you e-mail us with a question about a problem you are having with our site, you will likely get a response asking you to answer a number of questions that will help us to better investigate the problem.  One of the questions we ask is about JavaScript.  If you are not sure if JavaScript is enabled in your browser, here is how you can find out:

Check if JavaScript is enabled for your browser. This can typically be found in the browser's "Internet Options" section.

For example, in Firefox 3, it can be found by selecting "Tools > Internet Options" from the browser menu, then selecting the "Content" tab.

In Internet Explorer 8, it can be found by doing the following:

1. Select "Tools > Internet Options" from the browser menu
2. Select the "Security" tab, then select "Internet zone" within the Security tab
3. Click the "Custom level..." button and a window will pop up.
4. Scroll down and under the "Scripting" section, check to see if "Active scripting" is set to "Enable."

Clicking on the RSS icon allows you to set up an e-mail feed so that new content on that area of the site is delivered to you via e-mail.  

Whenever an RSS icon is present on a page, it represents an RSS feed for only the dynamic (changing) content on that page.  If content on the given page is "static" by nature, it will not be carried along as part of the feed. 

Here are a few examples:

• An RSS feed icon is found on the main blog page next to the title.  This represents a feed for all blog posts.  As new blog entries are created, this RSS feed will update .
• There is also an RSS feed icon next to the title of every blog post.  This represents a feed containing all of the reader comments for that particular blog entry.  
• You can also subscribe to an RSS feed for each individual forum thread.  The RSS feed for each thread is a continual listing of all the reader comments and responses to the original forum post.
• There are also RSS feeds specifically for Chris' Blog and the Daily Digest.  The RSS for Chris' Blog can be found next to the title on the main page for Chris' blog entries, and the RSS for the Daily Digest can be found next to the title on the main page of Daily Digest entries.

To change your username, just follow these easy instructions:

1. Click the "Secure Login" link at the top of the homepage.
2. Enter your current username and password.
3. After you have logged in, select "My Account > Edit My Profile" from the navigation bar to access your user profile edit page.  Click on the "Edit" tab.
4. Enter a new username for yourself in the field titled "Username."
5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Submit."
6. Write your new username somewhere as a reminder for the future.

If CAPTCHA is hard to read, you can keep selecting a new word set until you find one that is legible to you. This is done by clicking the "double arrows" button.

If you click a Recent Comments link and you are taken to the top of the post rather than the comment itself, this means the posted comments are stretching beyond one page.  If you scroll to the bottom of the post, you will see "1", "2", "3", "next >", etc. representing each page of comments.

The easiest way to fix this is display more comments per page.   At the bottom of each page is a "Comment viewing options" section.  By default it shows 50 comments per page.  Increase the number, then click "Save settings".  This will ensure all comments throughout the site are now displayed with more comments per page.  (One important note -- increasing the number of comments per page allows more to be displayed at once, but can also slow down the page load time dramatically.  Use this with caution based on your Internet connection speed.)

Another option is to change the sort order of comments such that newest is first.  This can be done in the same "Comment viewing options" section by selecting "Date - newest first".  By making this change, you will always be taken to the top of the list of comments by click a Recent Comments link.

Please check to see if you are logged in to the site.  If you are, you will see in the upper left corner language which states, "You are logged in as <your username>."  If you are not logged in, please do so to gain access to the reports.

Often an announcement will be placed on the home page of the site letting everyone know a new Martenson Report is available.  This announcement is not the report itself, just an informational notice.  To access the actual reports, visit the Martenson Reports home page by clicking here.

One other consideration is that your enrollment may have recently expired.  To see if your enrollment is current, select "My Account > My Subscription" from the top navigation menu bar when you are logged in to the site.

When reading your e-mail, please check to see if you are viewing it as HTML or plain-text. If you are currently viewing in plain-text, try changing the setting to HTML. Viewing the e-mail in HTML should fix the problem. You may want to adjust your settings so that all incoming mail is read as HTML. If you still have trouble, please tell us what email client and operating system you are using, and we will try to help.

We are currently working to remedy this issue by changing our outgoing e-mails so that they can be read properly in all formats. In the interim, we also have another solution to help our registered users and enrolled members. All newsletter emails sent by ChrisMartenson.com are available in our Newsletters section. The information in this section is exactly the same as the content sent by email.

However, if you are a shaw.ca customer, the e-mails you get from our website may be blank due to a glitch in their system. Please contact shaw.ca’s customer service for help in resolving the issue on their end.

Please perform the following steps:

• Select "My Account" and then "My Profile" from the menu bar.
• Choose the "Edit" tab and scroll down to the "Contact Settings" section.
• Select the checkbox for "Personal contact form."
• Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "Submit."

This will place an email icon underneath your picture on all posts throughout the site. (You won't see an icon under your picture, because you cannot send an email to yourself.) Other registered users will be able to click this icon, which will take them to a page where they can send an email.

Please note, your email address is not displayed to others during this entire process. Only if you decide to respond to the person directly by email will your address be revealed to them.

If you want to contact another user by email, you can only do so if they have enabled the email feature through the above steps.  If you look at a post made by that user, you will see the email icon underneath their picture.  You can click on that icon to send them an email. If there is no email icon it means that they are not open to receiving emails from other users through our system. 

You will not see this e-mail icon underneath your own picture because you cannot send an e-mail to yourself. 

A few email programs have rather strict policies in regards to spam and will automatically place any unknown sender in your spam folder. Yahoo Mail is quite notorious for putting valid emails into spam.

To ensure that you receive all of our emails in your inbox, we recommend telling your system that "chrismartenson.com" is a safe domain from which you would like to receive e-mail.  By doing so, you will be sure to receive every important newsletter, email, alert, and support message from the site.

If it is not possible for you to accept an entire domain name, we recommend adding two email addresses in your email client's address book. When email addresses are added to your address book, you are effectively telling email delivery systems that you consider the sender to be a valid source from which you want to receive messages.  To do this, create new contacts in your email program as you typically would. Add one contact with an email address of "info@chrismartenson.com" and a second with an email address of "support@chrismartenson.com."  This will allow you to receive some of our mailings, but you will still need to check your spam folder periodically as well.  

Please check with your Internet service provider if you have further questions about your spam filter settings.

This can happen when you attempt to copy from Microsoft Word to an Internet page. We use a rich text editor for formatting. The rich text editor is the box you type in that has the buttons on the top for options such as bullet point, bold, italic, etc. Performing a direct copy/paste from Microsoft Word can cause extra Microsoft code to show up on the page.

There are two options:

• Use the button on the top that looks like a little Microsoft Word icon.  If you hover over it, it says "Paste from Word." Click the button and paste your text into that window. Click "Insert" when done.
• If you're still having problems, you can use the button next to it, which has a little icon that has a "T" on it.  When you hover over the button, it says "Paste as Plain Text." Do the same thing...click the button, then paste your text into the window. Click "Insert" when done.

One of those two should work, but a third option would be to disable the rich text editor completely by clicking the "disable rich-text" link right beneath the entry field. You can paste your text in this field, but it will lack formatting without adding basic HTML tags.

1. Click on the "New Password" link at the top of the homepage. If you're already on the Login page, there is a "New Password" tab that you can click on instead.
2. Enter your username or the e-mail address associated with your account.  Click the "E-mail new password" button.
3. A temporary login link will be e-mailed to that address. This link will expire after one day.  If you don't receive a message from us containing a temporary login link, be sure to check your Junk Mail folder or your spam folder to see if it was filtered out by your spam filter.  You may need to make sure your spam filter is set to allow messages from support@chrismartenson.com.
4. Click on the password-embedded link or cut and paste it into your browser.
5. Click on the "Login" button.
6. You will see that you are on the "Edit Account Settings" page.  Enter a new password for yourself in the field titled "Password."
7. Confirm your password by re-entering your new password in the field titled "Confirm Password."
8. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Submit."
9. Write your password somewhere as a reminder for the future.

On occasion, some users may receive a blank page when attempting to view the site. This is fairly uncommon, but when it does happen can be quite frustrating. In most situations, it has to do with a firewall blocking the website, or a local Internet Service Provider (ISP) not updating their cache frequently enough to see site changes.

The list below provides some suggestions of what to do if this problem occurs:

• First, try reloading the page.  Sometimes this is all that is needed.
• Temporarily turn off your computer's firewall, and see if you can then view the site. Sometimes firewall settings can be so restrictive that valid websites are also blocked.
• Clear your computer's cache. This can be done by selecting "Clear Private Data" within the Tools menu of Firefox, or by selecting "Delete Browsing History" under the Tools menu on Internet Explorer.
• Use traceroute (http://www.traceroute.org/#USA) to see if you can notice anything odd in the connection between your computer and our server (174.133.161.183).  Sometimes you might be able to see the jump point where the connection breaks.
• Contact your ISP to ask them about connectivity to 174.133.161.183, and caching of 174.133.161.183 server content.  We have seen a number of situations with smaller ISPs where they do not refresh their caches often enough, and the site is briefly not visible.
• Ask your ISP if they have any policies in place for blocking certain websites.
• Ask a friend, family member, or neighbor to go to the site and see if they are able to access it.  This can help to determine if it is more of a local issue or something more specific to your ISP.
• If you have a laptop, take it to a local coffee shop to see if you can connect to the site through their wireless Internet connection.
• If you work in an office with computers, try accessing the site from work.  This can at least narrow the problem to either a hardware or connectivity issue.

Occasionally we have visitors mention they are having issues viewing one of the Crash Course chapters.  The issues are not specific to any one given chapter, and most often the problems have to do with browser issues, computer processing/memory, or speed of Internet connection. The current Crash Course format provides a rich viewing experience with high-quality video, but the size of the videos has been known to cause viewing issues for some visitors.

The problem can typically be solved by performing one or more of the following:

• Clear the browser cache.  Some information in the cache may have corrupted the video download.
• Close all instances of the browser and restart.  Often the video will not be displayed in this situation because the browser is using too much computer memory.  This might be because the video is competing for memory with another web page, or the viewer has multiple chapters running in multiple windows at the same time.
• Avoid using "embedded" browsers, such as the browser which comes with AOL.  Instead, access the Internet using a fully functional browser such as Firefox or Internet Explorer.
• Reboot the computer.  Sometimes a program running in the operating system might be causing a conflict with the video.
• Attempt to watch the video with a different Internet connection.  We have had situations where the viewer's Internet connection is either having problems, or just not powerful enough to watch the videos.  He or she was then able to see the video when they took their computer to a coffee shop and connected to the shop's wireless Internet connection.
• Attempt to watch the video on a different computer.  Try on your computer at work, or on a friend's computer.  Some older computers may not have the processing power or memory capacity to handle multiple videos running at once.

Yes. First. make sure you are logged in. Click on "My Account" at the top of the page, then click on the words "My Posts" (or you can click on the "Track" tab on your "My Account" page.)  You'll see a list of all the comments, forum posts, and replies that you have made on the site.

Many people access this site from work.  Whether or not we agree, many work places have content filters that will ban a site based on certain words. Swear words and hate language are two types of content that can get this site on a ban list.

To be fair to the people who might check in at ChrisMartenson.com while at work, and to ensure the accessibility of our message, we need to ask that everyone refrain from using this type of language.  In the event that we find such language, we may modify it.  If the post in question is completely irreparable, we may remove it. 

We hope you will understand why this is necessary.

If attempting to add a link with the rich-text editor enabled, it is necessary to highlight the text to be turned into a link, then click the icon above which looks like a "chain link".  A window will then pop up which allows entry of the URL to be referenced. If "<a href="http://www.chrismartenson.com">link</a>" is written in the rich-text editor, it will be displayed as text, not a link. 

The reason it works this way is the text editor doesn't know if the commenter wants to create a link, or if a comment post is in regards to HTML programming and the goal is to display the actual written code.  This approach allows for both to be included.

Second, it is possible to have "<a href="http://www.chrismartenson.com">link</a>" recognized automatically as a link, but only if the rich-text editor is disabled, and if the URL is prefixed with "http://".  The editor can be disabled by clicking the "disable rich-text" link below any entry field.

There is a known bug with using Safari and the rich-text editor.

If you use Safari, you have one of two options: (a) disable the rich-text editor and type the HTML directly (by clicking the "disable rich-text" link below the text entry field), or (b) use an alternate browser such as Firefox (recommended) or Camino.

Right now the best way you can help is to spread the word by telling others about ChrisMartenson.com and the Crash Course.  We also need to make people aware that we depend on the support of subscribers and donors to make it possible for Chris to do this work.

We know there are a lot of you who have time, energy, and skills to offer that could be useful in specific ways to help further ChrisMartenson.com, the Crash Course, and Chris’ message.  If you would like to contribute in this way, please email us with a description of what you could do for us.  We keep all volunteer offers on file and will contact you if we have need of someone with your skills and interest. 

You may also be interested in joining the Martenson Brigade.

From time to time, when we have a project we need to recruit volunteers for, we will post a notice in the blog, so stay tuned.  ChrisMartenson.com is run mostly by volunteers at this point, and we are sincerely grateful for all of the offers of help we have receive, whether or not we are in a position to take advantage of them at this time.