With the Fed printing like there is no tomorrow and Obama racing to beat Bush in spending how bad will the economy get. Are we talking total collapse? Hyper-Inflation? Should I be stocking up on food or putting my money into precious metals and investing in a wheelbarrow to carry my money around?
My opinion, best case we don’t have a complete dollar collapse or world war. Only a depression for 5 to 10 years.
I can’t predict anything. Someone who does have a good track record of forecasting the future is Gerald Celente. Search for him on Youtube.
Here’s an interesting twist:
http://www.freedomforceinternational.org/freedom.cfm?fuseaction=home
I did see the Obama Deception. Even though the facts may be right the narrative that ties the facts together don’t have much substance.
Gerald Celente seems to think this will be the worst depression ever. Well, it never hurts to stock up.
It’s going to get uglier than two black fighting over a chicken wing.
I wish I knew the severity. I can stock up on non perishables for short term emergencies like riots or something but what if it is a long term problem and need off the grid style solutions to be totally self sufficient.
Looks like there is hope for Zimbabwe after all:
There aren’t any gold deposits where I live and if I try to buy gold with the intention of using it as currency I would get arrested.
bbnet:
Great video clip! Is that an illustration of the fact that money is the most important good in an economy, and that when the government has destroyed the old money, the highest priority becomes to create a new one?
MagnusTokai:
Bah! You can always cheat. Even in North Korea there are today traders trying to supply people with what they demand. It’s just a matter of reaching the point where you’re indifferent between starvation and getting beaten by the police. Normally in such situations, the police mostly beats innocent people anyway! So illegal trades might be a way of reducing the risk of being subject to government violence, because you’ll be able to provide the policemen with something they demand…
In the western world (well, not so much in hypocritic France and Southern Europe [;)] ) most have become helpless in their minds. Many will certainly starve to death waiting for the government to save them, until the general attitude changes and people realize that they’re on their own and that the talk from authorities is just BS. We don’t need them. We never did. They need us. If you trade, they’ll be so much more dependant on you, once they’ve gone far enough in their illegalizations. It’s a matter of degree. I crap on their regulations and taxes already now, although depression here is still mostly something they talk about on TV, not something people feel in reality. It’s always possible to trade.
In a sense, yes! However it seems that those folks may be spending more in calories digging for gold than the loaf of bread they acquire? I think I’d be using part of the day collecting bush food and planting crops also? Then again, I’m not in their situation, thankfully, and perhaps they get shot or robbed if trying anything else?
Looks like a good opprtunity for a gold buyer though.
Hopefully this crash is so bad for the government, that they will not be able to afford the empire, regulations and legistation. There is an opportunity to be free in this crises.
It’s specialization of work, I assume. Some search gold, others (maybe the old people) grow food. In Africa south of Sahara most people live on less than $1 a day. I don’t know how many of those natural grains of gold that corresponds to.
They said 0.1 gram gold for one loaf of bread in the video. That’s about 1/310 of an ounce so it’s about $3 for a loaf of bread. Hey! With todays exchange rates that is very close to what I paid for my loaf of bread yesterday, here in Sweden! Isn’t it funny how the purchasing power of gold is rather constant over time and distance?
(However, with some criticism, I suspect that the gold-only-accepted policy is applied mostly in such gold mining areas. In the big city, barter might still be more practical since few have any gold yet.)
You can hope, you’re going to be thoroughly disappointed when all you hear are calls for a “strong leader”.
Yup, that is just another variant of the ‘worse is better’ doctrine some libertarians seem to believe. With that in mind, I advocate a one party communist state - that will advance liberty.
I think Lenin espoused the idea. In fact, his idea was to make things worse before they got better, the difference is that when everything is collapsing around people they don’t turn liberty, they turn to statism in the naive hope that it can save them. It will always be so, relying on the naive hope that the masses will become enlightened and overthrow the state is a silly idea.
Add to your armageden list of things to get
- gold dust.
This is a very interesting observation and I totally agree. It’s like an unfortunate woman who is in an abusive relationship but yet she clings to the man even though things get really bad because it is all she knows.
I think it is a good idea to have at least a months worth of non perishable food. You know, canned and dried stuff. Have a bit of water. It obviously doesn’t have to be a dire doomsday thing. lol And it is a shame that many people look upon this type of preparation as fringe, because you’re going to have a lot more fun watching this thing unfold if you have a solid base for yourself for if things do get ugly. The government hasn’t been making Marshal Law look more and more like a real possibility for nothing, I suggest. They are certainly prepared and I think it makes sense for us to be as well. Depending upon your outlook, guns can be a great idea. Maybe have a shotgun and a big old box of rounds ready to go if it is needed. Most of all, I say look at it with a fun and adventurous attitude.
Rather than “defensively” preparing for self-sufficiance, I’d “aggressively” speculate in piling up types of goods, the trading of which is likely be outlawed or heavily taxed by the government, or more scarce for whatever reason (like trade barriers or production problems). That might not be canned food (I seriously doubt that people in western countries will starve in the 21th century), but it could be luxury items.
As a hedge against the worst of scenaria, wisely stock up for the black markets to come!
I wouldn’t be so sure of things not being too bad in the 21st century. Look at the way Katrina was handled. Police were more concerned about their families then their duty. Gangs took control of the streets and people were dieing of dehydration and starvation. Probably more from dehydration though. True that there won’t be floods impeding travel but the police will be occupied by riots. Riots and looting will be as much of an impediment to travel as the toxic water in Katrina and maybe even more dangerous.
As for black market items what would be a good thing to stock up on other than canned foods? Wouldn’t trading in desperate times signal to people which house to raid though. I like the more self sufficient route. I live by the ocean so I can go fishing and use water desalinization techniques if my stored food runs out.
Sure, keeping a stock of personal necessities isn’t a bad advice. It’s been a standard operating procedures since hunting/gathering times, abandoned only very recently in history (and see what the capitalist squirrel in my avatar does!). It only takes 1% or so of ones historically accumulated income to do it. It’s a cheap life-insurance.
But I meant that the economy has after all grown substantially since 1929. People will get poor, but not down to the level where they can’t produce enough to eat or wanting to help those who temporarily cannot afford to eat, even if the fall now would be much sharper and deeper than 80 years ago, because the original level was so much higher this time around. I doubt that the government even has the capability of enforcing an abandonment of the pricing system. They won’t succeed with it all the way to the level of starvation, anyway. Even the Soviet government just hardly managed that. Government is only that powerful when individuals start weighting starvation against police violence, and some policemen have families too.
Black markets can be hugely profitable, and they create political influence too (through corruption of bureaucrats)! Division of work is a logic which even the government can’t undo. I never produced any food in my whole life. Still I’ve eaten every day. That’s because I’ve produced scarce stuff which others demand, and traded it for food. In the desperate scenario you propose, division of work and trading might be extraordinarily rare, and therefor extra profitable. Even if food production falls far below the levels needed for the populations to survive (that’s more of a nuclear war scenario than a depression), the one who trades goods in high demand will not be the one who starves. Excess food producers will make large profits. But how will they spend it? Well, my guess is on hard-to-get luxury items…