The Long Cold Winter

[Ugly Dougly]

This will be the last Shoe he'll throw...

Iraqi 'shoe-thrower' shot dead by US forces
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id ... _article=1

Makes sense; they make us take our shoes off at the airport, because they're pret-ty sure one of us has a shoe bomb....

[can't sit still]

"O woe is me, what shall we do? will we survive? "
Rick, personally, I'd advise you to get a new gig. Vid production seems a bit shaky. The Hot cart has some possibilities but, people don't have much disposable income. The restaurant business has been losing clientèle for 23 straight months.
Gotta make some bucks !! Can you prostitute yourself and work as a grip or lighting?
If you don't mind driving a truck, Craigslist always has openings for that.

And, NO we won't all survive. Sooner or later, our imports will be affected. There will be interruptions in oil deliveries. GOV will take it's share and the farmers will come up short. All it takes is a shortage here and there and there will be a run on food. That's when the panic will hit. The way that things are going NOW , I don't see a panic happening for several months. The economy is animal, not machine. It's really tough to predict.
It looks like stocks will crash by November. The investor will get reamed again but, the guy in the street will just see another shrinkage in the available money.

GOV is a bunch of fucking morons. They want to cause high inflation to make it easier to repay the national debt and [effectively] bring down American's wages. In the end, the inflation will kill the economy worse and there won't BE a consumer economy. SO, there still won't be any money to repay the debt. The banks are willing to kill the dollar to save themselves. But, in killing the economy, they just postpone their own demise.
The U.S. will settle in between 25---40 % unemployment.

[Rabbi Dali Rick]

Here is a great video and article...



Oversight on U.S. Federal Reserve is a Disaster

The video shows the shocking and unsettling testimony of Elizabeth Coleman, Inspector General of the Federal Reserve.

When Alan Grayson questions her about whether or not her office has investigated the more than $1 trillion expansion in the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet since September, 2008, she claims they are conducting a “high level review of the various lending facilities, collectively, to identify risk.â€

[can't sit still]

I guess that the FED wants to appear vacuous, uninformed and innocent.
You should picture the FED as a bunch of SOBs in black coats sitting around a table in London. The West is no longer productive enough to redeem their mountains of instruments. They converted all the wealth of the West into instruments so that it wouldn't circulate in the general economy.
It's not that they need all that wealth. They took it because they can. They took it to use as leverage to remake the world according to their vision. They took it to reward the producers and punish the non-producers in their brave new world of the corporatocracy.
Their vision is not working out quite so well. The East is rising and has caught on to the ways of the bankers.
The Western bankers have mountains of instruments that are a call on the goods and services produced by the Western producer. The Western producer is no longer producing. The instruments are losing value. The Western bakers are reaching farther and farther into the future production of Western workers to give value to their instruments. Using tomorrow's production to give value to today's instruments can only work for just so long.
The East is allowing the wealth to improve the standard of living,,,, a great motivator.
The Western bankers have robbed us so consistently that people are starting to go on strike. They aren't having kids. They're ditching the high-flying credit lifestyle. They've been robbed and they know it.
The East is basically socialist but allows motivation. The West has stolen motivation.
China has an economy about the size of California's. China has saved up $ 2 trillion in just a few years. China has motivation for the producers.

In the West, the laws are made by the bureaucrats, banks, corporations, The West only has motivation for the bureaucrats, banks, corporations.
Plato, Hegel, Keynes, Marx and all the rest of the idiots may ignore motivation. Workers don't.

The bankers have to satisfy their counter party obligations. At the same time, the proletariat has told the banks to take their loan and shove it.
The bastards sitting around the table in London know that they can't stop Americans from defaulting. The bastards are printing money as fast as they can. Problem is; the banks won't loan it. They need it for their counter party exposure. The consumer won't borrow it. With no motivation, confidence or security, he's quitting the debt party.

The SOBs in London are trying to figure how to saddle your kids with their paper.
That's the real FED.

[can't sit still]

It's very often difficult to understand the concepts that comprise and control our economic system. There is a blogger who goes by the name of FOFOA who demonstrates absolute mastery at describing certain facets of the money system and our economy. His latest writings are an epiphany for most people;
http://fofoa.blogspot.com/2009/09/say-g ... treet.html
I don't know where he gets his inspiration BUT, in reading his several articles, it appears impossible to argue his conclusions or logic. One can get a very good lesson by examining history. The problem at the moment is that things are occurring that have no exact historical precedent. FOFOA may be wrong in the matter of degree. It's doubtful that he is wrong in outcome.
Dan

[Ugly Dougly]

Here's another interesting one:
http://www.elliottfractals.com/
Using fractal theory to make sense of the markets.

[can't sit still]

Dougly, The Elliot wave stuff is pretty impressive. The fractals,,,, even more so.

Here is an article from Jim Willie. I won't even do excerpts. You can read it if you want.
http://www.kingworldnews.com/kingworldn ... ie_CB.html

The fact is that most people who I talk to prefer to have their head in the sand. We have a multitude of historical examples. You can dig into this stuff or you can ignore it.
Just don't come pounding on my door and demand that I share with you because I have provisions and you don't.
Years ago, I traveled around the world. I was on the road for 15 years. People would tell me that I was lucky. I told them to quit their job,, get rid of the dog, the cat and the plants. Sell everything,,, and they too could travel. "oh, I CAN'T do THAT !!!!
OK, then don't tell me that I'm lucky.

Like the guy who keeps re-filling his orange juice pitcher with water,,, we have continually substituted credit for wealth. We've diluted the wealth so badly, there's nothing of substance left.
Look from sea to shining sea. Our money is a debt instrument backed by "The Full faith and Credit of the United States" Our treasury bonds are backed by GOV and our industrial production. The rest of the world has little use for our production. Our corporate bonds are defaulting at the highest rate in history. Our stock market has no earnings,,, just price appreciation.
GOV and banking have hijacked the country but, it's been so hollowed out, there's nothing left to steal. They ONLY know how to create debt, not wealth. So, they create debt. There is no escape. If the people have no money, GOV can't very well steal it from them. GOV and banks will eventually default.
It's a sad situation all around but, GOV has made it worse by trying to postpone it.
Dan

[can't sit still]

Well, it's time for me to update the doom and gloom. I hope that all you good Burners are taking this to heart. For those of you interested in theory, here is a great article from John Maudlin;
http://www.safehaven.com/article-14636.htm

For those of you who are interested in what the GOV has to say, here is an article related to the report from the Congressional Budget Office;
http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/three-go ... ay-4-35722

A few quotes,,,, NOT for the faint hearted.


We have door A and door B "The CBO paints two future scenarios for the U.S. budget deficit and the national debt. But it plainly declares that fiscal disaster will strike in EITHER scenario. Furthermore … "
The good news "could cause severe economic declines for decades to come, including hyperinflation"
The bad news; "admit that even its worse-case scenario could be understated by a wide margin due to panic"

Bad news; "And despite all this, neither Congress nor the Obama Administration have proposed a plan or a timetable for averting these doomsday scenarios."
Good news;"The one bright spot: Unlike some governments, ours does not conceal the evidence of its folly.
Bad news again;"But the CBO admits that even these frightening projections may be grossly understated because:" ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,“The growth of debt would lead to a vicious cycle in which the government had to issue ever-larger amounts of debt in order to pay ever-higher interest charges.â€

[can't sit still]

Well, the world is sort of, finally catching on to the fact that a country has to have manufacturing and exports to survive. Countries like Australia and Canada have lots of resources so they can export raw materials rather than finsihed goods. Same, more or less for OPEC countries. The US tried to make it on just financing. It didn't work.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... ok-at.html
So, we have to export. The FED is printing dollars by the gazillion. That makes our currency worth less and less. So, our exports are cheaper. Other countries see this and bemoan their stronger currencies. So, they, in turn, trash their currencies. It's called "competitive devaluation".
http://www.caseyresearch.com/displayCdd.php?id=243

The US is printing a lot of money. China is printing even more. They're trying to sitmulate their economy to produce exports for a market that just isn't buying.
"Every country wants to grow by ramping up exports in a world of decreasing consumer demand. To achieve that end, every country wants its currency to be weaker against every other currency".
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... ok-at.html
Several currencies are in a "race to the bottom" Paper is unlimited,, resources are not. Eventually, we will have big increases in commodity prices. As the currencies of the resource countries grow stronger, they will raise their interest rates and attract the "hot money" Of course, commodity demand is down so, it will be difficult to raise prices.

The US is a long way from being competitive in both manufacturing and commodities. We made our money off the dollar. That's now falling apart. We can't sell our stuff so we're going to have to work a lot harder.

The whole world built too much manufacturing capacity. The bankers issued gargantuan mountains of credit so that people could buy the mountains of goods that were produced by our gargantuan production capacity. That credit can not be repaid. The manufacturing capacity can not be utilized. The people who operated that capacity can not all be employed. Since they're unemployed, the credit can not be redeemed.

The various countries are each trying to utilize their domestic capacity and credit facilities. Whatever countries are least competitive will find their bonds are least attractive. Their debt-service costs will bury them.

[Sail Man]

OK, I'm not very market savvy, don't own stocks, but do invest in my companies 401k. Don't have a bunch of $ in the bank because, frankly, I don't make a shit-load of $ to begin with.

But, I have always been of the closet survivalist mentality and try to keep my homefront stocked up. Food, equipment, the armory stocked, locked, and ready to rock etc etc etc.

Question I have is that from what I recall reading, is that it is wise to have a stash of precious metals, gold and silver, on hand. Is this a good idea? And, any opinions on why in the last year or 2, does every jeweler offer to buy your gold, and they keep having these buy your precious metal and jewel events at the local hotel meeting rooms? What gives?

Is this a precurser of something? Are they themselves trying to prepare for catastrophe?

[Ugly Dougly]

Gold is at its highest level ever historically, around $1000 an ounce.
I bought a Krugerrand a few years ago for less than $300.

Sailman, buy high, sell low! That's the way to make the other guy rich!

[can't sit still]

Sailman, no fiat currency has ever survived. If it's not backed by something tangible, it's toast. The average life of a currency is 30--40 years. The US dollar, as a fiat currency is 38 years old. When Nixon took us off the gold standard, that was the end.
Everyone is trying to buy gold because it's very portable and has a long history as a monetary metal. Both China and Germany have been on the silver standard before. Gold is the king of monetary metals, even though Platinum hit $ 2000 and Rhodium hit $ 10,000 an ounce.
You could even invest in zinc. It's very uesful. I'm betting on silver. It was recently discovered how to make a catalytic convertor with silver rather than Palladium and Rhodium. Silver is also very useful in tons of industrial applications.
To keep the dollar from falling against gold, The PTB invented investment funds that actually hold silver or gold in your name. SLV and GLD are the two commonest.
They're a complete ripoff. They have very little physical metal. It's the same for the banks. They don't have every penny that every depositor ever brought in. If everyone went to the bank to withdraw their money, the bank would go bust. It's the same for precious metal investing. Reportedly, there is 6 times as much paper silver as physical silver.

This takes the pressure off the dollar. Gold is rarely consumed so it doesn't "run out". Silver, on the other hand is consumed in great quantity. Reportedly, there is more physical gold in the world than silver. When industry demands physical delivery, there will be, sooner or later, a failure to deliver. that will cause enormous problems. Who knows when it might happen?

JIC you didn't know, JFK printed US notes in 1963. they w ere backed by our 4 billion ounces of silver. These were not federal reserve notes. He was killed a couple of months later. LBJ stopped the printing a couple of weeks later. LBJ did not want to be DOA. Then, the silver was sold off to make sure than no one else tried the same thing [competing with the FED]. After <45> years, the silver finally ran out in November of '05. I bought 2 weeks later.
You would be best to put your money into something tangible.
In this article [a repost] the congressional budget office states that retirement savings will be destroyed;
http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/three-go ... ay-4-35722
It's up to you.
Dan

[Ugly Dougly]

When Nixon took us off the gold standard, that was the end.

Up until that point, the price of gold was fixed at $35 and ounce, and it was illegal to own bullion.

[Sail Man]

You would be best to put your money into something tangible.

In tangible I assume you mean the metals you mentioned, zinc, silver or gold? It would appear that in the last few years with the sudden surge of buying up of gold, and to a lesser extent, precious stones, jewelry etc, that there would be an underlying reason behind it. Would I be correct to assume that the reason it is happening CSS is that they are doing exactly what you may be suggesting? Are they preparing for a "tanking" of the US's paper currency?

UD, at 1000$ an ounce, this poor mofo isnt buying much anytime soon. And that includes platinum, which is higher, or even Palladium.

What about precious jewels? Would that be a wise investment?

[ygmir]

nope, just keep your family jewels...........jewels are a bad investment in bad times, IMHO......


precious metals, and, some industrials, like copper, aluminum, zinc, and lead, are good hedges, especially against a falling dollar.......the whole world uses them........

gold, IMHO, is a good one, but, is as much emotion driven as "supply/demand".....silver seems more stable, not as prone to excess price swings....
Gold is easier to transport larger monetary amounts of, and, has no "Maintenance" regarding moisture, etc.......silver can tarnish if not stored correctly........

silver pre 64 U.S. coins are good, in that it's a known quantity of silver, already weighed and have a set value, relating to spot silver.......no need to assay to trade........

If India, China and some of the other "emerging economies" keep "industrializing" and adding infrastructure, the prices of industrial metals will climb......copper, zinc, aluminum, lead, iron.
and, those are used widely here, pipe, tubing, etc.........

one investment strategy is to buy expendable, or high use products made of these materials........ie........
copper pipe, wire, sheets
aluminum tubing, sheets,
lead ingots
zinc ingots
dimensions iron (fabrication stock)
and galvanized metal products.

hold these products, since, they're mostly made off shore, and, as the dollar sinks and demand is still there, the price relative to dollars will rise........at least at the pace of inflation..........
of course, with these, there are storage issues, as well as having then to sell them to suppliers or consumers........
but, it can work.

just some thoughts.......

[can't sit still]

ygmir is right, stones are not a good bet,,, unless you go out and find them. The whole world is awash in surplus capacity. If you're going to hoard something, look for something that is in relatively short supply and is very useful.
The overwhelming consensus is that the US will have to default eventually. Thanks to saint Cheney, everybody that has oil hates us. When we default, they aren't going to send oil out of the goodness of their hearts. Canada is our # one supplier. They can't survive on wheat and moose so, they'll send some oil.
As unemployment worsens, demand for gasoline will drop off. It's risky to buy oil futures.
Natural gas is a good bet. It's very difficult to be sure what the demand will be ahead of time. Buy a cathouse.

[Sail Man]

CSS, I just read the link you posted, and linked from that to the CBO's long term financial outlook. A lot of heady reading, much of which I dont really understand, but the gist I pick up from it is that unless something is done soon, we're screwed.

I dont like the fact that more and more, we are owned by other countries, many of whom don't like us none too much.

OK, so hold onto the family jewels.

As far as buying up items like copper, lead, aluminum as you suggest Ygmir, there are metal superstores here in the detroit area to purchase from, however as you point out, storage can be an issue. Especially when one happens to live in a single wide mobile home. The ingots would probably prove to be the easiest to deal with, as well as silver. Storage as my Mom's farm up north would prove to offer more room, but there is the issue of distance.

[Ugly Dougly]

Arable land, a flatbed truck, maybe go into biofuel.
That's assuming a desperate future, of course.

[can't sit still]

Sailman, if your mother has a farm, you could invest your money in seeds. The whole world is planting genetically modified crops. Because of weak sections in the DNA, the crops are starting to fail more and more. 1,000 indian farmers have suicided because of crop failures. You can read the story here;
http://www.rense.com/general80/seedsofdestruction.htm
Because of erratic climate, there are increasing crop failures.
For decades, the world has had 110 days of food reserves. It's now down under 28 days.
Good seeds are increasingly hard to get.
As I posted in the "survival" thread, all the food reserves in the US are gone. You could always buy canned bacon.
Dunno, Detroit seems like a tough place to keep a stash.

[can't sit still]

Sailman, it's a good idea to listen to those who have been right all along. This article talks about the effects of the world dumping the dollar in oil transactions.
http://news.goldseek.com/GoldenJackass/1255032000.php
\They're talking about a hyper inflationary collapse in less than a year. I DO NOT KNOW.
if you look at the dollar action in the few days since the announcement in the British papers, It IS moving down.
If Iran is attacked, immediately buy drums of gas and head for the farm. The entire US fleet is a siting duck. If they're destroyed, the nukes may very well fly. It's not beyond credibility that the US may be itching for a BIG war since they know that they're on the way out anyway. Sad, Sad state of affairs.

[can't sit still]

There is some talk about a "tipping point" Here's a couple of snips from a related post.
Peter Bernholz (Professor Emeritus of Economics in the Center for Economics and Business (WWZ) at the University of Basel, Switzerland)
"His conclusion: the tipping point for hyperinflation occurs when the government's deficit exceed 40% of its expenditures."
",,,,the fact that the FY 2009 deficit turned out to be just over 40% of outlays"

http://www.financialsense.com/Market/wrapup.htm
Jim Willie is a bit more direct in his writing;
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/ ... ie_CB.html
California has had to raise interest rates to get buyers to buy bonds. This will eventually happen to the US treasury.
China knows that when we default, we will send what little cash we have to our oil suppliers,,,, not to china and japan. Russia knows that we use borrowed dollars to finance the wars to try to steal eastern oil.
Once the bond buyers catch on, the US treasury will have a hard time selling it's $ <2> trillion in bonds every quarter.
The good professor did mention hyperinflation. That would especially affect imports. Think oil.

[Sail Man]

Seeds are a good idea. Mom grows alot of produce, cans it as well which is something I'd like to start on my own. I've always stocked up on camping, survival gear and keep a good food stash on hand but I have never really given much thought to a "future currency". Or, reverting back to what once was "the" currency, gold and silver for exp.

I'm not a very religious person, though I have perused Revelations from time to time. During the first gulf war, it was like the headlines in the papers were straight out of Revelations. It talks about a million man army, hmmm, China? The end of times starting in the middle east. And then there's the Mayan? calender that ends in 2012. I don't know...........

Hasnt the US been drawing down on the strategic oil reserve? Stupid, if you ask me. What do they expect to do if our "friends" in the middle east cut us off? Somehow, invading Iran doesnt seem so far-fetched, But it would probably be the beginning of the end.

[can't sit still]

Here's another article by FOFOA. He's absolutely brilliant at delineating complicated financial relationships. He's definitely a "gold bug" so you have to be careful about his prejudice. He shows a fantastic relationship between gold and value as to how it relates to central bank balance sheets.

"This is why China is buying gold. Very soon China's balance sheet will be swelling in size even as it writes off its remaining dollar holdings. They will become worthless. Even so, their balance sheet will EXPLODE in real value!"
http://fofoa.blogspot.com/2009/10/your- ... egold.html
China is the largest gold producer but sells NONE. They have recently told their people to buy any precious metal that they can.
It might interest you to know that the FED values it's [our] gold hoard at $ 42 an ounce. There is a fair amount of proof to show that the FED actually has very little gold.
As instruments lose more and more value, tangibles gain value. It's all just numbers but, when your paper loses value against tangibles,,,, you can't afford the tangibles.

[can't sit still]

Here's a progress report on the "recovery".from Bill Bonner.
"foreclosures. They're running 23% ahead of last year."
"The foreclosure crisis affected nearly 938,000 properties in the July- September quarter, compared with about 890,000 in the prior three months" " hit about 3.5 million this year, up from more than 2.3 million last year."
"The Dow is now back over the 10,000 mark...just where it was in March 1999 " "During that time, the dollar has lost about a quarter of its purchasing power. That means stock market investors have lost only about 25% or their money over the decade."

AP continues:

"Unemployment is the main reason homeowners are falling into trouble. While the economy is likely out of recession,"
That's great news !. The economy is out of recession,,,, according to Associated Press
The dollar has dropped from 89 to 75 in 7.5 months. Several counties have dropped the dollar peg. More are sidestepping the dollar by doing currency swaps. We're beating the drums of war because Iran dropped the dollar.

2/3 of U.S. currency circulates outside the country. If all those dollars came back home, it would cause big problems,,, of course. Central banks worldwide are cutting back on their purchase of US securities. As the dollar continues to drop, more people will shun it.
The dollar is at 75.55. One has to keep in mind that this number is the dollar's relative value compared to other dropping currencies.
The immediate problem is that US debt has a maturity date of about 3 years. We're borrowing tons of money to repay earlier debt. There is NO predicting when bond buyers will desert the market.
One new trend that has just started is that many investors are buying physical commodities and not buying futures. That isn't very reassuring.

There's a "wild card" that has recently surfaced in the mortgage problem. MERS is an acronym of a sort-of holding company. A few judges have ruled that a mortgage can't be foreclosed if MERS is involved. It's a bit convoluted. If people followed up big-time, it would be very hard to throw people out of their homes. I suspect that a lot of people will just stop paying the mortgage and just give the middle finger to the banks;
http://rismedia.com/2009-09-28/op-ed-60 ... z0U06CCgHP

Imagine how that will affect the bottom line at the banks. Prime loans now make up 58% of foreclosures. EVERYBODY is walking.
JP is having a bit of trouble;
"with its credit card unit losing $700 million in the quarter and its retail bank...barely breaking even." It wrote off $7 billion in uncollectible consumer loans" Let's see,,, $ 7.7 billion in 90 days comes to $ 85.55 million a day in losses. That doesn't include operating expenses.
OK,, the federal GOV claims to be going in the red at $ 15 billion a day.

The consumer was responsible for <78> % of the economy. It was all done on credit and now the consumer is maxed out. The consumer/credit economy is not coming back but the banks have enormous overhead and losses.
JP is probably trying to cover $ 90 million a day in expenses and losses. I'll bet they're glad the recession is finally over.

[Sail Man]

Looking at prices of metals etc online, silver seems to be the metal that I can afford in any appreciable amount. I find a plethora of online precious metal/coin dealers, as well as the usual brick and mortar stores in my area.

Can I go wrong by buying silver over the net? I am looking at the modern coins, not older collector coins (unless that is the best coin to purchase)

I am leaning towards the .999 boullion, or mint sets, or proof. Opinions.

Does anybody here purchase online and if so where?

I am not looking to buy a huge quantity, but I think it is prudent to start buying a little bit each month.

Any other suggestions?

[can't sit still]

sailman, I started with silver bag. It's circulated early silver coins. It has the lowest premium. It';s referred to as "junk silver"
http://www.silvermonthly.com/246/junk-silver-ratings/
I also bought 100 oz bars. IF, you need to do barter for survival items, most people aren't going to give a damn if your coins are the rarest in the world. They only want weight.
Small weights are the easiest to divide. You can't buy a pound of bacon with a 100 oz bar. Actually, you could,,, and it would make someone very happy.
Another thing to consider is money from countries that have lots of resources. Canada comes to mind.
Gold is at the top of the heap as far as acceptance. Silver is at the top as far as rarity. Have you considered buying lost of bicycle tires and tubes? After we default and oil is cut off,,,,, there are going to be a lot of people who try to fix up the old bike.

[Sail Man]

CSS, thats a great point about the tires/tubes. It makes alot of sense. And it also makes one pause and think what other "simple" items could become a hot commodity to stash.

The silver I was looking at was strictly coinage as I felt that was easier to use for currency and also to split up so all the eggs werent in one basket.

[can't sit still]

There are quite a few simple items that might become scarce;
http://thepowerhour.com/news/items_disappearfirst.htm

The CBO says that we can't possibly service our debt in the long run. So,, OK,, what does that mean? It means that we declare force majeure and tell everybody to stick it. Our imports become COD in gold or commodities or the currency-of-choice of our suppliers.
BUT, at the same time, a dollar collapse will take down other currencies.

The most important, simple fact to remember is that your average flint-hearted investment banker will screw anybody. Your average resource-supplier knows this. When the US defaults, the dollar will crash. Western banks will eat shit. OK, so how are you going to import necessary goods when you have no trade instrument? It's normally done with "Letters of Credit". Without LOCs, things just don't get shipped.

We have a bunch of crooked fucks running the show and nobody is going to trust them.
Our system is a piece of shit. In the Far East, most transactions are done on transparency and trust. They just won't deal with us. Look at their money transfer system; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawala
If they get too much owed in one area, they just fill up a plane with cash and even things out.

The US is the "crooked shopkeeper" that nobody wants to deal with. Imagine what the world would be like if every banker and politician had a rating like the E-bay system.
So, when we default, our reputation is going to hinder recovery.
Russia bought their way out of default with cheap oil,,, Brazil with cheap labor and hard work. The US has very few things that we can competitively trade on the world market.

When you buy supplies,,,, buy for the long-term.

[Sail Man]

The list is a good one, I have many items on it already but I can use it to guide further purchases. When ever I have upgraded my camping/backpacking gear, I have always kept the old gear. Even though I live in a single wide trailer, I have tried to maximize my storage potential both inside, and outside with a couple out-buildings. One of our recent purchases (thank-you dust storms ) is a travel trailer that we keep stocked up and ready to go.

Cleared into the station, time to go home.

[can't sit still]

That's GOOD. just remember to leave the delta quadrant before everybody else.

The main problem with the economy is our business plan. It's a bad plan that is being used to leverage-in a political system. Plato's Republic was just too attractive to ignore. Then came Hegel and Marx, et al trying to implement the perfect system. Keynesian economics promises to shift power to GOV. That allows GOV to implement / form the perfect state.

The idea was sold to bankers that they would have a total monopoly and control of all wealth transfers. The Illuminaughty is so stupid that they believe the bullshit. There can never be a chance of total control without a socialistic police state. Just as socialism destroys incentive, the police state destroys society.

Socialism destroys incentive. What kind of dynamic society are we going to have without incentive? Obama's science advisor says that the US needs to de-industrialize. Is that going to result in 1984 or Brazil? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_(film)
Imagine the US without industry. One big Amish lovefest.

We're following a bad business plan so that GOV can get more power. It won't work. It's a failed system and the PTB refuse to abandon it. Flogging a failed system is what is going to cause so much damage.

Here's a quote from "Prudent Bear"

Clinging to Misguided Monetary Mentalities:

Nobel Prize economist Paul Krugman – of Princeton and the New York Times – wrote a noteworthy piece this week: Misguided Monetary Mentalities (NYT 10/12/09).

“One lesson from the Great Depression is that you should never underestimate the destructive power of bad ideas. And some of the bad ideas that helped cause the Depression have, alas, proved all too durable: in modified form, they continue to influence economic debate today.

What ideas am I talking about? The economic historian Peter Temin has argued that a key cause of the Depression was what he calls the ‘gold-standard mentality’ By this he means not just belief in the sacred importance of maintaining the gold value of one’s currency, but a set of associated attitudes: obsessive fear of inflation even in the face of deflation; opposition to easy credit, even when the economy desperately needs it, on the grounds that it would be somehow corrupting; assertions that even if the government can create jobs it shouldn’t, because this would only be an ‘artificial’ recovery.

In the early 1930s this mentality led governments to raise interest rates and slash spending, despite mass unemployment, in an attempt to defend their gold reserves. And even when countries went off gold, the prevailing mentality made them reluctant to cut rates and create jobs. But we’re past all that now. Or are we? America isn’t about to go back on the gold standard. But a modern version of the gold standard mentality is nonetheless exerting a growing influence on our economic discourse. And this new version of a bad old idea could undermine our chances for full recovery.â€