The Long Cold Winter

[ygmir]

CSS:
I guess I may have described my list un-clearly.
In "valuable" I meant, most sought after across the "masses", easiest to trade.
That list is the list of comfort and escape.
When things seems worst, it's where people go.......

I understand, and agree with your assessment of "valuable" as in useful and necessary. Right with ya there.

My list are things, that, everywhere you go, someone will really, really miss, and, want, and be willing to trade dearly for.......Because most won't have saved much if any of that, and, probably rightly so........
It almost becomes currency......and has been proven out in times of war and strife over the centuries.......
People will strive for comfort and escape, even if just for a short while........

The galactic plane:
I agree, it could be something worth noting.
Isn't that "peak alignment" roughly 2012? around the "end date" of several ancient calendars? Mayan, Hopi, Yi-ching? IIRC.........

Also, consider this:
With the coming TV switch to digital, and, radio swiftly going that way, even a "perceived" or "manufactured" power loss will totally shut down communication..........
We can build crystal radio receivers, and, even crude televisions, but, only in analog. If, by then, most or all broadcast is digital, they can tell us what they want us to hear and we really can't go around it.
I know, Ham radio and such will still exist, but, so limited that the majority of folks won't have access anyway, and, it is easy to track broadcast locations.........

Part of my return to the roots of "my" organic, ancestral spirituality, stems from it's having come into existence in a time of little if any technology (as we know it now), and, if we return there, I feel it will be more valid than ever........

Not that I spend much time thinking about this stuff.........

Ygmir

[can't sit still]

YGMIR, as you say,,, the mayan calendar runs for about 6,000 years and is divided into epoches or something like that. It ends December 21, 2012. The galactic plane is quite large so we won't wake up one day and be aligned. It will be gradual.
We are currently having problems with our sun. Strangely, there are no sunspots. I haven't checked in the last couple of months so I'm not current. Sunspots are connected to our weather. Both Minnesota and california have had tornadoes. It's considered to be an anomaly to get this kind of weather when there aren't any sunspots. Snow in Iran was also anomalous.
If you check out the work of Jennifer Lawson, PHD, she has been very accurate predicting violent storms using the sun and planets. She wrote me and said that the weather would turn very violent after 2010. She has quit research and is writing her memoirs.
It doesn't matter if it's flood or drought,,, the crops suffer. Reportedly, we are inviting disaster by planting mono-cultures; http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/380.html

The truckers tell me that there isn't anything growing in Iowa after the big storm. Several countries have stopped exporting food to insure domestic supply. Australia has lost 98% of their rice production capacity because of an ongoing drought.
The high cost of energy is driving up the price of fertiliser. Gradually, millions of people will no longer be able to afford food. Malthus has to be right sooner or later; http://www.henrygeorge.org/popsup.htm

Sustainability is just a word now. It will eventually become more important; http://culturechange.org/cms/index.php? ... iew&id=124
http://dieoff.org/page40.htm
A big disaster would involve interruptions in food and energy deliveries. Being prepared esentially means surviving while others die.
35,000 kids under 5 years old die every day. It's sad to contemplate this number going way up.

[ygmir]

CSS:
Yup, a lot is changing, and, I think some of it is driven by the belief it's changing........we're accelerating it somewhat through force of will, or thought........

I guess the big question is how to survive, and, perhaps thrive, in this changing environment/times...........

I think, at the end of the day, the most adaptable, best "thinkers outside the box" will be the ones.........

As is so often the case, "Mr. Murphy" will throw the one thing you didn't plan for at you.........

I'll just hope, if it happens, I can adapt, and, have folks around me that can do the same............with a variety of viewpoints and experience........

I'll hope to meet you and many of the others on Eplaya this year........

Ygmir

[can't sit still]

Well, GOV is going to bail out Fannie and Freddie.... No worries. They just raised our debt ceiling. "Congress had the foresight to raise the national debt limit to $10.6 trillion. Who says that politicians don't plan ahead?"

There are people who predicted all of this with an accurate timeline;

"CNBC once nicknamed me “Dr. Doomâ€

[Rabbi Dali Rick]

I think this is the set-up to the big cash out? It goes like this....


the illuminati controlled fannie-mae and freddie-mac are going to take this bail-out money, put it in there pocket, and tie this all into their last big pay-out, because they are about to execute the End Game Move. As soon as it is converted to gold, or some other form of liquidity, they will pull their finger out of the hole in the Dyke, and let all hell break loose. I think they will liquidate all the major banks by making them insolvent, and blantantly take everyones money, then bring our whole financial system back up under a one world bank, controlled and overseen by them.

The world population reduction plan (already in effect, where will they send you for termination? http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/FE ... 3sep04.htm ), Operation Cable Splicer and Garden Plot will be stepped up to a rate of extermination not seen since Hilter, and even his acts will pale by comparison. The goal will be to reduce the world population from 6 1/2 billion down to 1/2 billion. Yeah it will seem like the event in the bible where everyone suddenly dissappears? Yeah like that, but it won't be them going to join God in Heaven, it will be more like vaporized on the concrete like the people in Japan.


We don't have to worry who will win the presidential race, Obama or McCain, because there will be no election. After the media incited race wars begin, the Terrorist(?) attacks that I think are due, will begin to rock our major cities will send our world into utter kaos, and bring our country to it's knees. Bush will take this as his opportunity, and will step in with his Martial Law scheme and thus starts another ruthless and Orwellan regeim, one not seen since Poi Pot or the Guy in N. Korea.

Gas Will be sold by the Liter like soda and you will buy it at the market like Milk. They will close all the gas stations so that the distribution of gas can be taken over by the government, because Homeland Security deems gas stations to easy of a target for terrorist, and with over 75% of the cars electric, where you go to the store and just turn in an empty battery for a fully charged one at the charging station kiosks everywhere, and with the other 20% hybrid gas cars getting 150 miles to the gallon you only need a coulple of liters once a week, of course at that point a liter will be $15.


"To Get Through To The Homeland Security Checkpoint At Wilshire And Western, And Into Hollywood City, You're Gonna Have Show Me Your Passport!"


Like I say, I don't see us lasting till Nov. Everybody I know is struggling, and I mean struggling. If they have not already lost their job, it seems like it's in the works. If they are working they are close to the edge with the lifestyle they have been hoodwinked into living, most are 1-2 paychecks from homeless, and are already dipping into their 401ks, savings, or supplementing their incomes with their credit cards, trying to keep their heads above water, but when the banking industry collapses and takes all the money and savings it will have all been for naught. Food is already so high, it's "almost" unaffordable, and the gas price increase hasn't even hit the price of food yet, which will ding us even more as the retailers and mfgrs can no longer absorb the increases, and are still reeling from the droughts and floods, and fires across the country.




BRING ON THE PLAGUES!!!!!!!!







the rebbi

[Sceloporus]

"It's called the American Dream because
you have to be asleep to believe in it".

George Carlin (1937 - 2008)

[can't sit still]

Rabbi, I've heard other whispers in the dark;
WHO picks our candidates? Main stream media. Who owns the main stream media? 98% Jewish owned. If you recall the movie "Look who's Coming to Dinner", It used to be openly accepted that the jews didn't like the colored races. Now, it's not mentioned.
When blacks immigrated to israel they were/are forced to join the army. A couple years ago it came out that the blood that blacks donated while in the army was tossed in the trash.
The whispers say that after Obama is elected, but before he takes office, he will be killed. The cities will explode, Bush will be king, the military will be forced to go along because of insurrection. An elegant little plan to dispose of "useless eaters"
True or false,,,, who knows. BUT, the country is flat broke and the leaders are going to need a diversion. An NWO diversion is a possibility.

As a post script, the RR ranch would be a good staging place for escapees. If the caca hits the fan, we have to get out before they clamp down on the roads.
It's hard to look out at the blue skytb and think of it filled with smoke from burning cities, but, who knows?

[Ugly Dougly]

"It's called the American Dream because
you have to be asleep to believe in it".

George Carlin (1937 - 2008)

So, do you have your pajamas picked out for this year?

[Ugly Dougly]

The whispers say that after Obama is elected, but before he takes office, he will be killed. The cities will explode, Bush will be king, the military will be forced to go along because of insurrection. An elegant little plan to dispose of "useless eaters"
True or false,,,, who knows. BUT, the country is flat broke and the leaders are going to need a diversion. An NWO diversion is a possibility.

It's certainly plausible and would play into the hands of the powerful.
You would be wrong to be surprised if it happens.

[can't sit still]

The sad fact is that most of mankind is reactive. It's a sad scenario that I laid out but, the results are along the lines of what a few powerful groups are trying to accomplish.
When mankind invented modern medicine, he removed some of the Darwinian presures that had winnowed out the gene pool for all of man's history. We removed most of the land predators, we made food abundant. This allowed the survival of many infants who would not have survived millenia ago. This was good because it allowed the survival of many who might not have been the fittest physically but, these people made great intellectual or artistic contributions to society.

It also allowed the survival of infants who would never make any contribution to society. We took the good with the bad.
As we get closer to the carrying capacity of Terra, there are groups who would like to make up for the lack of Darwinian pressures. Like any breeder of horses or dogs,,,or fighting bulls, they want to limit the population of humans who don't appear to be contributing to society. They would prefer to impose these limits before conception but, they are willing to impose them after birth.
These groups are proactive. Man, being reactive is always one step behind the plan.
We are in the late Holocene. It has been nice for an unusually long period. Eventually, the ice will return. There is increasing evidence that we're in transition to global cooling. Mother nature may deal us a tough hand.
If you look objectively at the pop reduction plans of the globalists, they do have some valid points. It takes energy to make fertiliser to make food. The average Ugandan woman has 8.2 kids.
When all is said and done, it's VERY risky to grow your population beyond what your own land will support. If just a few countries do this, other countries can make up the slack. If several countries do this, there is never enough surplus production. IF countries creat surplus production, the high birth countries grow to that new limit.

All populations grow to the limits of their resources. The exception is the western countries where women have broken away from traditional roles.
The US has plenty of oil that it won't drill. It would be safe to assume that the globalists have some control in this area.
The US could make the transition to solar and wind coupled with hydroelectric. With enough electricity, we could do desalinisation.
Apparently the PTB want to bring on a food crunch in the short term.

The big storm over Iowa that destroyed many crops had some signatures of HAARP. Some very strange atmospheric phenomena were recorded.
This storm exacerbated an existing food shortage. Because of the ethanol bust, 8 million fewer acres of corn were planted.
A serious food shortage would starve out the middle-east and southern africa. Africa is the big prise. 2.5 billion years ago a giant meteor hit Africa. It left a 330 mile diameter ring wall,, The Vroodefort crater.
It broke through the earth's mantle and brought up huge amounts of minerals. This and other mineral-rich areas in Africa are on our wish-list.

It will be much easier if we depopulate the area first. They are now contending with AIDS, MDRX tuberculosis, A few retro-viruses [ebola, hanta] starvation and bad leaders,,, who we propped up.

If you take a strictly objective view of the plans of the globalists, it appears that the people who are going to survive in the developed countries are the people who will take responsibility for their own survival. The people who just sit there and scream to be taken care of will probably be shoved out of the picture.

They should do just fine in Kentucky,,, they eat 1.5 million squirrels a year http://www.greysquirrel.net/brain.html
As long as the globalists are proactive and powerful, most of us are just along for the ride. "Advanced" populations have always conspired to eliminate "inferior" populations.
Homo-sapiens is in his adolescence. Our sense of responsibility may never catch up to our powers of destruction.
Dan

[can't sit still]

The banks are holding trillions in investments that can't be valued...marked to market. The Australian national bank just wrote off 90% of the value of their American investments. This sets up a precedent for establishing a market value for distressed securities.
Also, new rules were going to go into effect that banks had to show their Tier 3 investments [the worst] The combination of showing the quantity of investment and now , a current method for valuing these investments, would have shown that the banks are completely insolvent, was just too much.
The new rule won't go into effect until Novemebr '09. Like everything else in the American economic system, we go for another postponement.

"National Australia Bank has made a “decision to write off 90 per cent of its US conduit loansâ€

[Sceloporus]

this is by FAR my favorite thread on eplaya.

[can't sit still]

Sceloporus, on the off-chance that you're not being facetious, what makes this thread interesting? morbid curosity around the chronicle of our descent? I try to be balanced and accurate but, all the time, I'm writing I'm aware of the destruction of families and individuals. Half the people in Ohio and Michigan are on food stamps. Suicide is going up like crazy in Japan.
All this was done so that the "Haliburtons" and the Hedge funds could squeeze out amoral profits. Wanton destruction of humanity for a few more bucks. It's nothing new but, it's a sad commentary on mankind.
Homo-sapiens is in his adolescence. If he can't drop the cave-man attitudes and learn to co-operate, mother nature may just slap him down and start over again.

[Sceloporus]

Homo-sapiens is in his adolescence. If he can't drop the cave-man attitudes and learn to co-operate, mother nature may just slap him down and start over again.

"MAY just slap him down"??

there's no question about the impending spanking we our fixin to receive from mother nature, i'd say she's deeep into her backswing...

i'll just say this.. i enjoy this thread because it helps me to see that there are a few (relatively few) things that I can do/change/improve, in an attempt to make this world a better place, while at the same time preparing for the extremely high probability that it will become much 'worse' in our lifetimes.
it also helps to show me that there are very many things that i can do very little, if anything, to alter.

humanity is going to be humanity till the end.
Homo-sapiens CAN evolve.
long live the mutant.


morbid curiosity....? nahhhh.




Insectivorous Reptilian Citizen of Earth

[can't sit still]

You have to wonder about OUR sense of survival as a species. Researchers have gone and dug up bodies that were interred during the 1918 flu pandemic. They wanted to preserve the flu virus that killed <40> million. That's nice. The 1918 flu was different in that it killed the healthiest people.
Now, the next boggeyman is avian flu. You're 1,000 times more likely to be struck by lightning but, they're spending big bucks to immunise; http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsrele ... fluvax.htm
They say that if the vaccine is safe in the healthy adults, they'll move on to trials for children and elderly.
They don't say what they'll do if the vaccine is unsafe. You can bet that GOV labs have supplies of all the virulent plagues. Smallpox was eliminated in 1980. Gov is keeping it around in labs just in case,,,, just in case WHAT? Anthrax was weaponised. We're masters of the implements of our desruction,,,, helping mother nature.

[ygmir]

I've always been somewhat suspect of "vaccines"......
what better way to target certain segments of the population, for "manipulation"........

They suggest certain demographics get "immunized" (young, old, unhealthy, emergency workers, healthy adults, etc, etc,)

If you had something to effect a certain segment (s) of the population, it'd be great to convince them to line up for it..........

Nope, not cynical.........

[Sceloporus]

was shopping for burn gear and came across these..

http://cgi.ebay.com/Lot-of-3-SEA-Scott- ... dZViewItem


i got a deal on a lot of 2 (his & hers)

they arrived today... i'm happy with them.
the voice amps even came with batteries in them.

better than a wet rag, anyway.

[can't sit still]

YGMIR, GOV doesn't think much of your objections or suspicians about vaccines. It drafted MEHPA.
"Among other provisions, MEHPA includes sections that:

" Require any individual to be vaccinated. Refusal could constitute a felony and will result in quarantine.

" Require any individual to undergo specific medical treatment. Refusal could constitute a felony and will result in quarantine.

" Allow state or local governments to seize any property, including real estate, food, medicine, fuel or clothing, an official thinks necessary to handle the emergency.

" Allow state or local governments to seize and destroy any property alleged to be hazardous. There will be no compensation or recourse.

" Draft you or your business into state service in the event of a declared emergency.

" Impose rationing, price controls, quotas and transportation controls.

" Suspend any state law, regulation or rule that is thought to interfere with handling the declared emergency. "

Notice; "seize any property, including real estate, food," also "draft you"
There is a nascent movement in GOV to get everyone to volunteer for 2 years of service to GOV. There is even talk of it not being so "voluntary"
What kind of mutant do you get when you combine corporate fascism with militant socialism? Beats the shit outta me.
Your distrust in vaccines is well-grounded. Many contain pathogens that aren't as weak as they're supposed to be. Many contain mercury; http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/20 ... autism.htm
Mercury in our fillings and vaccines. Just what we need BTW, cilantro has been show to cause the excretement of mercury.
I don't know if MEHPA is law yet.

[can't sit still]

We seem to be at crunch time.
America doesn't seem to have much of a future. Nobody wants to buy 20 or 30 year treasury bonds. Without bond sales, we're screwed.
Look at california, nobody will buy their bonds. The legislature is at a deadlock. There is no way that they can write a budget that maintains the state and retires existing bonds. They're so desperate that they want to sell bonds based on future lottery gains. Pretty pathetic. They want to raise the sales tax. What a joke. ALL tax revenues are drying up.
New York is reporting a 97% reduction in some areas of tax revenue.

Now, US GOV wants to bail out everybody,,, especially the banks. So far, they've passed out 1/2 trillion at the TAF window and the discount window. GOV is controlled by business and business doesn't want to bite the bullet,,,, they want YOU to cover the shortfall.
Right NOW, GOV has to make a decision to save big business and destroy the credibility of the GOV.... or... let big business fail and save America.

Bush has just short of 5 months. The hallmark of his economic policy has been, for the most part, benign neglect. He would have to take strong, decisive action,,, let the GSEs [fannie,freddie], banks and auto makers FAIL. He doesn't have it in him. I'll be the first to admit that he's a turd but, unfortunately, he's the head turd. Here's a very interesting piece of speculation on the situation; http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article5766.html

I don't see Obama or McCain having the moxie to hit the ground running. If the US doesn't rescue it's credibility, it can't sell bonds. If it lets business fail and raises interest, it destroys the economy. There is very little time left to take action. Bush will probably elect to drop it in the lap of his succesor.... assuminmg that he passes the torch on to someone else. I seriously doubt that the neocons can convince him that they can handle all of this and he should stay on as king.
This is Bush's legacy; http://www.agorafinancial.com/iousa/movietrailer.html

[Sceloporus]

What kind of mutant do you get when you combine corporate fascism with militant socialism?

hopefully, the kind who is able to overthrow it or at least transcend it.

[can't sit still]

Decades ago, managers or owners made about 5 times the salary of workers. Now , it's about 50 times. The officers of a company vote golden parachutes. Even when they get sacked, they get 50 million or so,, in some cases. Mozillo at countrywide took out 50 million when the company was sinking.
Evidently, managers need more money " Monday’s Wall Street Journal adds to the total tonnage of crud with the page-one headline “Companies Tap Pension Plans To Fund Executive Benefitsâ€

[can't sit still]

Gold and silver news;
"On Friday, as the COMEX gold price was collapsing, the U.S. Mint suspended gold bullion coin production because it cannot source enough gold bullion! That could not happen if bullion banks were selling claims to real physical metal into the marketplace. Indeed, the Mint began rationing silver bullion coins two months ago, when it started having trouble sourcing silver bullion. Word from the Perth Mint in Australia is that it is taking weeks or months to take physical delivery of gold and silver, even though investors are already supposed to own that metal. Supposedly, it is simply being kept in the Mint's vault for safe storage. But, it is getting harder to take it out of “storageâ€

[ygmir]

In advance of reading this:
I'm no author, or, even a writer of skill. please understand that when reading my unending sentences and poor grammar.......at least I have spell check.......



I think the commodity markets, more specifically metals, and, mostly gold and silver, are a pure product of manipulation.
they are trying to achieve their "natural" levels, but, big players are moving them around to squeeze the last shekels from smaller, but very numerous, investors that bet on emotion, or world events, etc.........
the big guys just watch how much money is there, and, when there's enough, take some........
Those of us small guys, might get lucky, but, that's all it is,,,,,,,
I've also heard about different governments selling metals when the price is high, secretly, but being able to state the dollar amount in the 'vault' is still the same, like:
an ounce of gold, when acquired, say, cost 300 dollars......the price goes :roll:to 900 dollars/oz. you sell 2/3 of what you have, but, state that your gold reserves are steady at 300 dollars.......
the public sees that as good, and, you get the rest of the dough unnoticed. and, if the market goes down, of course, you explain the value of the gold in storage is lower.......

I'm really a believer in real estate, and one home, as an investment........
It always stays relative.........if you take screwy dollars out of the equation.
IE:
5 acres in a certain area may be worth the same as 20 acres in a certain area in Oklahoma.
Not matter what the price, that ratio stays pretty stable. Of course there are exceptions like land subject to repeated natural disasters, or, beach type land in "posh" areas.
But, in general, real estate stays relative, and, you have a place to stay, and, if you develop your home and property , you can get income from renting rooms, apartments, guest houses, etc, that you build with your investment money........

Not that I claim expert status, it's just what I do and my opinion........

[can't sit still]

YGMIR, I have spell-check too,,,somewhere, but I believe that it makes me lazy so I don't use it because I'd rather engage my brain than have perfect accuracy and also I try not to do looooooooooong sentences that just run on and on.
At one time, we were all hunter'gatherers and self-sufficient. The more divorced we get from that arrangement, the more susceptible we are to manipulation. The best thing to do is to ignore all advertising. We actually can survive without pet rocks and 3 speed toothbrushes.
Too many people have done nothing of consequence with their life. They buy lots of bling and hope to be judged on their bling rather than their accomplishments, character and personality.
Their lives are darkened by insecurity and only brightened by baubbles. They get a custom license plate to prove that they're special. Their lives are dictated by their fears,, not their desires. They certainly don't come to Burning man
Goldman--Sachs, among others, says that the economy is going to get much worse. People with character will knuckle down and survive. People who can't tough it out will give up. It isn't going to be fun.

[ygmir]

Dan,
all good points.
It'd/ll be interesting to see how many New Orleans superdome or Midwest flooding scenarios play out........if you get the character difference I intend.........
I'm sure there would be plenty of both.........
Of course, we'll not see it with digital radio and tv being co-opted and shut off, and, our old analog stuff not working anymore........Some of us will hold onto our old technology just for fun, and, it may still work.
we can all make a crystal radio set if we need, but, not a digital one.

I hope we can avoid the worst of it........

[can't sit still]

"While credit paved the way in the past, it will not do so in the future. Character and courage, not credit and hubris, will be the requisite currency demanded in the new era."
Something to think about.
http://www.321gold.com/editorials/schoo ... 90108.html
I'd be interested in hearing Larry's views on the ideas in the cited paper, Dan

[Ugly Dougly]

"Character and courage" - that's like saying "God help you, you poor wretch". Not overwhelmingly positive.

[ygmir]

Dan,.
I, again, think you're spot on with the "character and courage" statement.........

It may not be positive, UD, but, it's true and pragmatic.
Kind of flies in the face of the "coombiya" (sp?) singing, pie in the sky, head in the sand folks that just think if we smile and hope it'll be ok, it will.

Not that I don't love em for being that way, and, truly, we need dreamers, it's just the balance thing, for me anyway.........

[can't sit still]

The old saying "as goes california, so goes the rest of the country" is getting pretty scary. Ca adds 1 B debt every month,,, now at $22B. 50% of Americans work directly or indirectly for GOV and are paid with borrowed money. Private sector workers have had salary reductions because of off-shoring and low-wage competition. Public sector workers have , for the most part, maintained their nice wage and benefit package.

At the state level, the borrowed money has stopped. At the federal level it's slowing down pretty fast. Does anyone believe that the public sector is not going to take a huge hit?

The simple fact is that , in a global economy, there is no way to pay out a good benefit package to anyone. Not with guns and butter. GOV income at the federal level is off 6%. The world has noticed that the emperor has no clothes,,, or shoes.

All democracies have failed in the past. Californians voted down the "live within our means " budget prop. So what are californians going to do when the credit stops? What % of Californians live from check to check? What programs are going to get cut when the legislature finally comes up with a budget?
Do they cut social programs and education? How about prisons? It costs $31,000 a year for a prisoner,,,, 1 million for Charles Manson.

The flower children don't cost much. Prisoners, preemies and Down's cost much more. Do we continue to spend $$ for special needs people? When the budget axe drops, should it hit the elderly? After all, they paid their own way years ago. Do we chop the productive,,, the non-productive,,, the no-longer-productive?
Do we chop immigrants? 86 hospitals in Ca and Az have gone broke, mostly from caring for non-paying immigrants.
Do we chop enviornmental protection?
How will the military-industrial-banking complex deal with losing the gravy train? Will they promote domestic insurrection to justify their continued existence? This has already happened in Canada and one state here.
Ca can't print it's own money, so it has to deal with these questions right now. The GOV just prints more money to pay bills. This has diluted the value of existing money and investors are holding $19 trillion in bonds that lose money every day.
The central bankers are in colusion worldwide to weaken all currencies so that none of them are attractive as a safe haven. There is $1 quadrillion in derrivatives floating around that is looking for a safe haven. With a world GDP of only $50 trillion, it isn't possible. Buffet estimates that $517 trillion will be lost.
The other thing that I find scary is the fact that all of this was predicted years ago with specifics. As it now turns out, the pessimists from 2004 were far too optomistic. Things have gotten far worse than they predicted. On writer has referred to our situation as the "end of the Beginning" The link might not be good; www.rense.com/general82/bblk.htm
History does not favor us.

like ygmir, I've tried to prepare. I'll probably die of a beesting or something stupid like that
The people most at risk are those who can't or won't take care of themselves.

[can't sit still]

"Non-farm payroll employment fell by 84,000 in August and the unemployment rate rose to 6.1% from 5.7% in July. Revisions to June and July job numbers tacked on another 58,000 lost jobs. In the first eight months of 2008, on average 76,000 jobs have been lost each month. The decline in payrolls and the rise in the unemployment rate were both larger than expected by consensus forecasts, fueling concerns about the pace of consumer spending in the months ahead".
I'm touched. They're worried about spending. They don't give a flying fuck about the people being destroyed by job loss.

Shadow stats has a good writeup on unemployment;

"Up until the Clinton administration, a discouraged worker was one who was willing, able and ready to work but had given up looking because there were no jobs to be had. The Clinton administration dismissed to the non-reporting netherworld about five million discouraged workers who had been so categorized for more than a year. As of July 2004, the less-than-a-year discouraged workers total 504,000. Adding in the netherworld takes the unemployment rate up to about 12.5%."

http://www.shadowstats.com/article/54