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Paul van Eeden: Finding Value Amidst Volatility

Cranberry Capital Inc. President Paul van Eeden still favors the natural resources sector above all others because they are "absolutely central to our standard of living, our quality of life and the technological progress we've made." Despite the dangers, frothiness of equities and absence of fundamentals to support current valuations, he says, "there are always opportunities in the market. . .you just have to recognize them." Find out where Paul believes investors can find good value in the current market in this interview with A lot has changed in three years and the recession was not as deep or severe as I had expected. Many people have been adversely affected, no doubt, although it could've been much worse.

I'm not an apologist for central bankers or the Federal Reserve, and I don't believe in fiat money or that the Fed has a role to play in our economy. But in the context that they exist, and given Bernanke's job description, I think he did a good job during the crisis. Of course, what we really need is for the system to get flushed clean. But that would be far less attractive to the majority of the population to hold much hope for its occurrence. After all, a democracy is really nothing more than mob rule; and in this case, the Fed saved the mob.

I agree that it is merely postponing the inevitable, but that is the Fed's job. It's nothing new – it's what central bankers do. While central bankers are part of the banking system that debases our currency and, therefore, is partly to blame for some of our troubles, it certainly isn't solely to blame.

Part of the blame also lies with all of us – people who buy cars and houses they can't afford or go on shopping sprees with credit cards they cannot repay. Just because we have fiat money and people manipulating it doesn't mean we have to live above our means. It's very convenient to blame Bernanke for debasing our currency, banks for making us offers that sound too good to refuse and credit card companies for issuing cards to people who aren't creditworthy. But does that mean we have to partake in those activities? No. We have to take personal responsibility for our actions. Only by taking responsibility for our actions can we figure a way out of this. Stated another way, as long as we rely on others to solve our problems and live above our means with the expectation that somehow, someone will fix it for us later, we will never get out of this mess.