Tomorrow is 9 days from when I posted the Financial Times article that the Eurozone has 9 Days Left. While it's still possible some event may force them over the edge, it looks like the "rumors of the EU's death are greatly exaggerated". A day or two after posting that, I heard that they've put off the big bank deal until December 19th, so the EU should survive till then. Over the weekend, I posted that Kyle Bass video that said the EU is going to collapse very soon, and there's no way out. While driving home today, I heard Stuart Varney opine that this Friday (the 9th), they would pass some sort of financial austerity, and by Monday the streets of the European capitals would be burning. Then tonight, Jim Rogers, the very successful and famous investor, was on Glenn Beck's GBTV show for most of an hour. He wouldn't give a date but talked about the coming collapse of the EU and how it will slam the entire world.
How do you know a time to be prepared for? The fact that there has to be an end to the exponential increases in spending is simply unavoidable. Math is math is math. That there will be a collapse may not be mathematically unavoidable, but the character of none of the people involved lead me to think a collapse will be avoided.
On the 4th, Borepatch, whom I respect tremendously, posted the question of whether folks in our corner of the world are being too pessimistic. As an engineer, I've always thought that reality is what it is, and I'm neither optimist nor pessimist but a realist. As a kid of 6th or 7th grade, someone tried the "is the glass half full or half empty?" bit on me, and I instinctively answered, "it's half a glass" and never told them what they wanted to hear. The way my mind worked, if water was being poured in, it's half full, if it was being poured out, it's half empty. Without that information, you can't know. (I wasn't much more normal at "if a tree falls in the forest..." either)
It seems obvious to me that those of us in the "gun culture 2.0" crowd, who war game out in our minds what steps to take if someone assaults us on the street or in our homes, and who invest in training and preparing for bad things; it seems we are the sort of people who will look at the broader world and prepare for bad times we see coming. Being metaphorically shot in the back by the Fed destroying our life's savings may not hurt as intensely as actually being shot in the back with live ammo, but it will be like that same amount of pain on the installment plan. The same pain, and probably the same mortality, spread out over years.
Jim Rogers also said that by 2020 America will essentially be gone. Life is going to be more expensive, and harder. He said food prices are going to skyrocket and then said it a few more times for emphasis. I remember saying once that no one would be more surprised than me if I turn around and it's 2020, and find we avoided the collapse; life is the same as it is in 2011 except I'm retired living a peaceful life in the land of liberty, playing by day and gradually working my way through antique Mountain House food.
Don't worry - you have lots of time.
I'm not saying that all hell isn't about to break loose, just that we'll weather the storm.
ReplyDeleteBut as you point out, there's nothing wrong with being prepared.
Not us Boomers. We'll go down beneath the clawed hands of the Gen-X and Gen-Y folks who blame us for the last fifty years of oligarchy that we didn't rise up and destroy somehow. Of course our magazines will be empty, the barrels hot and smoking, the dead piled up at our feet, Ka-bar snapped off in the skull of the next-to-last guy to reach us.
ReplyDeleteOur 401ks will be gone, stolen by .gov, our food stocks used up or taken by FEMA, along with whatever is left of our ammo. The blacksmithing tools, reloading equipment, wood and metal working equipment will rust because they just don't hook up to the X-Box and WII (Wee?) controllers.
No great loss. Besides, who can "Dance with the Stars" to classical music? My skills as an EMT, peace officer, registered nurse, helicopter pilot, stockman (draft horses and dairy goats) and all the rest will no longer be available, but that will be a small price to pay for ending all the pain I've caused by being born at the end of WWII and allowing government to roll over the top of all of the other folks who have tried so hard to stop it. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Could someone explain to me the difference between irony and sarcasm? I tend to get them confused.
Its irony if you don't get the sarcasm.
ReplyDeleteHey SGB its not if the glass is half full or half empty.
Its only important if it has beer in it or not.
Moose:
ReplyDeleteIf it has beer in it, it's half-empty.
Q
That's too good for me to add any content to.
ReplyDeleteRegT: You underestimate how thoughtful quite a few 20-something and 30-something folks are. I'm an old Gen-X-er, USAF vet, and I know a bunch of younger people who are worth trusting with my life.
ReplyDeleteYes, your 401K and any investments are going to be worth the paper they are printed on, and not much more. SSI will pay off in digital "money", which will not be accepted by anyone who can refuse it. Your landlord will be forced to accept it, as will Safeway accept cash or EBT. If you want real food grown by Americans, you should bring Mercury Dimes.
I'd have your blacksmithing, woodworking, reloading gear, but would prefer that you come with it.
Dividing Americans is the main strategy of the powers that be. The most important group to divide is the Traditional White Middle Class. These people can save the nation and restore America-That-Was, if united. This can not be allowed to happen.
Find some younger people and teach them what you know. They are young & strong, are aware of how F'd they are by the current regime. in 2002, an hour of minimum wage work bought 8 gallons of gas, now it buys 2 gallons. They ride bikes to work not because they want to save the Earth, but because it's better than walking or riding with the herd on mass transit. They've done as told, got degrees in useful things like law enforcement, leading to a minimum wage part time job with Securitas, guarding the playgrounds and homes of the elite. The only way out (inside the system) is to join the Army and take chances.
Cheers.
'The most important group to divide is the Traditional White Middle Class. These people can save the nation and restore America-That-Was, if united. This cannot be allowed to happen'
DeleteThat's the most honest assessment I've ever read. I am just beginning to realize that.