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Charting The WTF Economy
America's WTF (certainly not to be confused with Winning The Future) economy summarized in one easy chart.
Conclusion: go long the WTF economy by shorting BAC which is a proud sponsor (courtesy of not having received one cash payment for hundreds of billions in inversely overwater mortgages) of the WTF spread.
h/t John Lohman
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Well how many black people have you euthanized, Trav? Lazy motherfucker!
Trav .ne. Sanger nor "Planned Parenthood."
- Ned
policy supporter though, the "sterilise 'em" parts.
Amen. Reverse Darwinism. Collectively weaking the gene pool. LOL. I remember a comedian talking about this... keeping people alive that otherwise would have eliminated themselves long ago. Like putting warning labels on things like fan belt for car that says "do not install on a running engine."
Seriously, not everyone is equipped the same. This is fact and in many ways is genetic, social, developmental, etc.
But, I would further that our money system has been largely part of the problem. It, along with our own stupidity, has resulted in the total breakdown of the family... the community... etc. A complete social disaster that makes children wards of the state.
The design of the current money system is nothing but criminal genious in how it plays so perfectly off of human aspirations as well as it's vices and fears.
NMS got me in-state tuition at UT, Austin. $250/semester and I had tuition, fees and books.
Them was the days, when the oil was still paying the tuition bills.
I was also a National Merit Scholar. Got to meet old Ronnie Boy in a Rose Garden ceremony (Lights were on but nobody home even then) Where he accidentally paraphrased Ginsberg and called us "The finest minds of a generation"
Know what?
I am still a moron, and so is the Bernank.
Jump! You Fuckers!
shit...all I got was a little Finalist card followed by the tiny little check for an amount that didn't cover freakin books for a year.
Mine got me 2 semesters at Yale, where I (almost) learned something...about how they separate the Men from the Boyz: with a crowbar.
i was fif graid speling bee champiun. got my pikjure taken with missus hoyt. that's gotta be wurth sumthun?
he got a 1590 on the SAT's
So did I, along with a 36 on the ACT and another perfect score on the ASVAT. Still doesn't stop me from being a f'ing moron half the time.
Who sez?
bernank is not half as smart as krugman. krugman says we need more inflation. now that's winning the future, bitchez
http://azizonomics.com/2011/08/12/krugman-calls-for-more-riots/
Krugman, let us not forget that he came from Enron.
So did Fisher in 1933: "reflate". The argument being: In a debt deflation, the way out is to bring down the real value of debt. The thing is: How do you bring down the real value of debt FASTER than the dropping real value of assets. Now, THAT, nobody knows. It all deppends on the asset bubble, is my guess. If the bubble took asset prices too high, they will fall faster than any debt deflation through monetary policy. If the bubble is not so big, It might work. My view is that the asset bubbles in the EU are SO big that this would never work, and if they go, we go. It's like 1931 again, unbelievable.
http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/docs/meltzer/fisdeb33.pdf
Ya, I b with u. The situation is, well:
Well, we all know and all is pandemonium. See, e.g.:
http://stockcharts.com/freecharts/historical/djia1900.html
And, well, I concur, this is '31, '32, not yet at '37/38. We don't have a guy with the (shall I say?) testicular fortitude to say what Morgenthau said back then.
- Ned
we don't need more jew confetti
It's '32 for me, too.
MBS and CDS make the problem exponentially larger than the Great Depression. This one will be referred to by historians as The Great Collapse. Orders of magnitude more devastating than the GD.
Actually its worse. 30,000 bank failures and all that debt died with them. Not this time.
reflating the bubble is a waste of time if you don't liquidate the bullshit, and tackle underlying infrastructural, productivity and corruption issues.
Oh the Bernak will save the situation all right, for the banks and the central governments that matter. They are buying gold, and when they announce a gold standard, you can bet they will move those prices to make themselves solvent. They have no intention of getting down from the saddle.
We are never, ever going to see the re-institution of the gold standard. Ever.
No argument there. They will call it a gold standard. They will tell you your paper is backed by gold. These are the same people telling you the GLD is backed by gold.
Look, the nation states are broke and the banks are broke, and yet they are using critical liquidity to buy and illiquid asset, gold. It ain't out of a sense of tradition. Similarly, all of the central banks are going it at the same time. That's not a coincidence. If they announce a "gold standard" and minipulate gold prices, which have been held down for decades, they can run it up to any price they want. This woulld amount to a tax on you, because everything else measured in gold would go down in value. Boom, they are instantly solvent.
It is a stealth tax like inflation in a fiat currency, only in reverse.
Jin Sinclair says there will be a "Gold Cover Clause" invoked when the walls come tumbling down.
Explained in the article below:
http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/coverclause.html
So what does that mean for the private holder of PM's?
Dude, this administration is retracing the Wilson/FDR "Progressive" agenda, you know, where after the Great Depression, the Unions had better employment than the normal folks had.
It was confiscation of almost all gold back when. Do you think that isn't in their playbook? Ya gotta look at the 1933 playbook and watch what is happenin'
- Ned
Yeah well, I guess I'm still seeking an alternative answer to "we're fucked". I can see little fruit in the labor of investing when the government can and does change the rules to suit their agenda.
Self sufficiency, if you can achieve it, and keep it, is the best you could hope for.
I don't think you understand that US currency, when on the gold standard, WAS paper backed by gold. And that's perfect. Gold certificates insured against reckless printing, ensured price stability and had the convenience of a paper proxy for gold. That's fine and we will have a new global reserve currency backed by a basket which includes gold
Central banks have a history of buying gold at the top and selling at the bottom. I take the move by the central banks as a signal that a top is in or close. But, I could be wrong, which is why I'm not gambling on it. My gold is the shiny kind, and it's not for sale. There will be a good time to load up, but I don't think it's right now.
Does that mean the 500 oz's of Pamps i've got in my safe are worthless, or soon to be? (I FUCKING THINK NOT!). YOU guys seem to forget that there is a whole different world out THERE. You forge your thoughts on the good ole Amerika system only. The global "SITUATION" will dictate what gold and silver will be, and in turn what the demise/value of the FRN will be in the future. Not the Fed, NOT the Gov.com, but countries like China, India, and billions of other peoples. Get out of the fishbowl, you're living in the past, you're living in "their" false future plans. btfd..........
A fake so-called "gold standard" where they keep on printing money with no gold in reserve? Yes possibly.
But a REAL gold standard where currency is redeemable in gold? No, never.
Biflation nation. Or, if you prefer: "Bi, Bi, Miss American Pie"
http://www.bollyn.com/the-fleecing-of-america-9-11-and-the-crisis-on-wal...
the bernank learned a lot during the summer working at his summer job in south carolina....
@popo-- as per bloomberg:
Excluding autos, gasoline and building materials, which are the figures used to calculate GDP, sales rose 0.3 percent after a 0.4 percent gain the prior month.
.3% nothing but noise and inside rounding error, theyre now trying to show .1% differences? I believe its pure horseshit and totaly made up.
its ok though. everybody knows that when americans get depressed, they shop. the chart actually makes perfect sense to me.
When you are already busted and underwater on your mortgage, you have nothing to lose.
Sure, but it doesnt say what theyre shopping for. Might not be for LuluLamon leotard outfits, but food and ammo.
That was my thought- I don't know what everyone else is buying, but I've been putting all available cash into food, ammo and silver. And it's precisely because of a lack of confidence in the system- in good times, I don't feel any need to purchase three months worth of food every month, or ammo boxes full of shells. (Though I might buy the silver regardless, if the trend is in my favor.)
Since it's still retail, I'm sure that those $600 and $700 trips to Sam's Club and the hardware/gun store are rolling into that number as well.
I'm not goofing on you here, but what food are you buying and where are you storing it all? And what are you going to do for your water supply if things get so bad that the food distribution system breaks down? Just curious.
SurvivalBlog.com
Great starting point, the archives are full of great info.
Lot's of good stuff on Youtube, too.
Guns, gold and ground. The new 401k:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78Jmxdyrnj8
I told fat boy he should cut the kids some slack and maybe his fat ass should pick up the rake instead! LOL!!
I am such a ball buster!
Mobile food storage, no need for mylar or #10 cans. Planted two more fruit trees today at the retreat.
Hi Lunatic.
BIG thumbs up SurvivalBlog.com.
Survivalblog is created and edited by James Wesley Rawles. James also wrote a now popular book Patriots, written years ago. The book is an informative and entertaining fiction novel about a group of friends who had foreseen and prepared for surviving total complete collapse of the economy and US civil authority. Rawles is a former Army Intelligence officer.
He also wrote this prepping primer:
How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times Another good book is "One Second After".Elvis, look into super pails and how to make them. Like someone else said there's great instructional vids on youtube, and here's my favorite supplier of necessary materials.
http://www.sorbentsystems.com/
The threads are all the same- they start out with a fairly coherent analysis of economic trends, and a brave attempt to find solutions. At every turn, National Merit Scholars with nothing better to do than blurp on the internet trash the brave solutions, destroying them with unassailable logic, until the conversation degenerates into how to hoard food, gold, and guns/ammo.
Really. To sm up: A gold standard will never work, unless it works to enslave you & me further.
No-one wants to go into debt today- or, at best, it's a contest in reluctance, as banks don't want to lend, and no-one wants to borrow. Liquidity crunch continues/worsens. M2 aneurism (sp?) grows and stretches...
Peak Oil is the new way to say nothing that we kow hhow to do to fix the economy will really work.
So, hoarding is the only viable option. Or, as Bill still pointed out, the birds don't care about the economy. Oh, and this dude named Jesus mentioned something about birds in connection with economic concerns as well.
Which brings me to the only two really viable solutions:
1. Subsistence. If you're getting your FCS (food clothig shelter) needs met mostly through your own resource extraction, you're in a subsistece economy. This is austerity on steroids, but unlike Banker-dictated austerity, it comes with the dubious (to some) benefit of personal freedom and human dignity. If everyone's reduced to austerity (get used to it bitchez), those who can say, "Fuck you, I make my own goddamn shoes out of leather I tanned from a deer I killed by myself," are, in some undefinable but very real way, better off.
2. Faith. Just don't worry about it. God, or whatever Greater Power you decide to believe in will somehow make sure you get what you eed when you need it. Even if this is no more than a mental crutch, it is a more resilient mental crutch than looking at one's steadily diminishing supply of hoarded food, gold, and ammunition, and having to be stressed aout about where to get more, and how to protect it, and who might want to steal it from you, etc, etc.
[...until the conversation degenerates into how to hoard food, gold, and guns/ammo.]---mess nonster
Hi mess nonster.
I'll take the "personal freedom and human dignity" thank you.
It's funny, but actually it was always this way.
I am coming to it that the stress of maintaining this lifestyle I am in, and worrying about the economy, is really fucking with the quality of my life. I keep fantasizing about quitting my job (with decent bennies and pay) and reducing my standard of living just to jettison the stress.I can't because I carry the insurance and one of my bennies pays for part of my kid's college, which is coming up in 2 years.
I was happier when I was a poor kid who did not "know better."
I don't think I have said it all in this post, but I sure feel a lot about this.
[I was happier when I was a poor kid who did not "know better."]---MsCreant
The knowing bears a heavy price.
I feel it too, MsCreant. I carry the burden of knowing for my family. My wife cannot tolerate the details. Wants only to know the bottom line. That's OK. She carries other burdens I'd rather not.
The stress and worry I feel today, is nothing compared sadly to the horror others unprepared will feel soon.
You might find this helpful. After squaring away your family's needs, turn your attention to how you might help others when the time comes.
My husband is the same way, only wants the bottom line (though he does get ZH tweets, thus he knows the headlines I do). But he is not into "timing" or details. Cares not about inflation, deflation, biflation or hyperinflation. He supports me buying PMs. He likes guns/defense (ex-service) anyway so I can set him on that job and he is a very happy camper, ditto communications equipment and such.
I was a lot more squared away until my house was destroyed, but we will be okay soon. The house will be a better one so it will be a win, in the end. Good suggestion on helping others. It will be an issue, I can see how it will go in my neighborhood. There are good folks there with skills, but few clues.
In my fantasy, I drop out, get off the grid, figure out how to do it well, locally, and THAT is what I share with my neighbors.
[In my fantasy, I drop out, get off the grid, figure out how to do it well, locally, and THAT is what I share with my neighbors.]---MsCreant
I wonder too. In what capacity of service will God lead me and my family. My wife's skills are very different than mine. We do not think it is by accident that I caught on to the great ponzi scheme back in 2008. So few people did. Why us? Why were we awakened?
IMO the awakening is a gift. A gift and a burden. The gift, an opportunity to be of service to others. The burden, responsibility. (In our own small way, of course.)
Your "fantasy" is a noble one. Virtuous. I am humbled by your faith and courage. God Bless.
;-)
Yes, MsCreant, you hit the nail squarely on the head. When I think back to when my husband and I were first starting out, and all we had in the world was some garage sale furniture in a cheap apartment, I realize to my own shock that we were happier then. Stress kills.
Awesome. Another chick, bad girl too. Love the whole motif you have going there. When I first saw your avatar, I laughed pretty darn hard.
I remember being worried about how to pay the rent. The things I worry about now, so much of it is about looking right to maintain privilidges. I am full of shit, not myself. That is what I'd like to escape. Getting out of that is part of my "preparations." Take care sistah!
When you don't have any money in "the market", you tend to care less about the swings and more about the direction. We are investing in getting debt free, a self-sufficent lifestyle and spending time together as a family preparing our new downsized "retreat" on 2.5 acres. Today I planted two fruit trees and put up some more fencing (deer really like fruit trees).
Hope you can jump off the merry-go-round before it breaks down and crashes. One of my all time favorite songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m8uoObnWQM
I am purchasing in bulk from the big-box stores (In my case, Sam's Club- but Costco and others would provide the same function elsewhere.) I did a fair amount of research online beforehand, and try to balance the essentials with my prepping. I am also keeping in mind that stored food is useless if my kids refuse to eat it.
So, the short list is as follows, with a great deal of variety that I am not going to go into. 40% is carbs in the form of flours and pastas- and I do have vacuum-sealed yeast in mylar pouches to ensure that I can actually make bread. 30% is canned fruits and veggies- corn, peas, peaches, pears, beans, and other staples. 20% is canned protein in the form of peanut butter, tuna and chicken. The remainder is split between sugars, powdered milk, and luxuries like coffee and alcohol.
I also have a wide variety of spices and powdered drink mixes like kool-aid (yeah, I know) and powdered lemonaide. The biggest beverage reserve is coffee- we have better than 100#. Wish I could afford a huge stock of smoking tobacco, but the taxes make that difficult, and it's not essential to life. I may add in a couple of logs of chewing tobacco one day, just in case.
Water supply is not a huge issue- I know the neighbors, and we have an artesian well fed stream running about 50 yards from my front door. I still would not drink it directly, but I do have water filtration systems in the kit, along with first aid supplies and standard OTC medications (for example, I have almost ten thousand tabs of ibuprofen and a case of peroxide- not that important, until you need it to break a fever or disinfect a cut.) We are also stockpiling soap, bleach, and razors for hygenic purposes. We are two blocks from a lake, if it is needed for bathing. In the winter, there is usually plenty of snow that could be melted.
I store it all underground (in my basement) in sealed plastic pails with mylar bags and O2 absorbers (long-term) and on store-style shelving (short-term). Living in a rural area means that I have a big house that was not terribly expensive, so I have plenty of room. We have a system in place (Simply put, shop the pantry first) to ensure that we are eating the stored food on a regular basis and continually replacing it with fresh stuff. All items are labeled by date, and rotated on any given stock day. Long-term gets rotated to short-term, and short-term gets moved to the kitchen cupboards for use.
Along with the food, we have a firepit and a grill for cooking over it, and I purchase seasoned cordwood to ensure a steady supply of fuel. Aside from a dutch oven, I have everything a serious prepper needs to be an ol' fashioned mountain man, and we make a point of making it fun for the kids now, so that when it becomes necessary, they don't necessarily catch on.
The toughest thing is heat- and living in Wisconsin, that is a big one. My homeowner's insurance will not cover me if I install a wood stove or furnace, so I am straddling the fence on that one. Before it gets cold, I intend to purchase a stove and keep it, uninstalled in the basement, for the possibility that it may be needed- then I will have it on-hand if it turns out that freezing ais a bigger danger than pissing off the insurance company. In the interim, I have multiple heat sources in the house, with central nat gas heat, electric baseboards, and a conversion kit and free-standing propane tank should it be required (it can run the BBQ and my forge for now, so it isn't a total loss.)
Along with that, we also have potassium iodine, chemical filtration masks for all members of the household, and enough lead to collapse the floor if it was stored in the living area. And of course, a nice silver collection for the stuff I'm sure I have forgotten. I also have an established hidden campsite with a water supply dead in the middle of a thousand square miles of public forest for a bug-out location (probably unnecessary, but once you get going, it's hard to stop- and the kids like to camp there.)
But the most important thing? After 2008, I let my lot "go to seed" and decided not to paint the house. I'm not selling, and I figure that diminshed curb appeal is a small price to pay to come off as poor folk. It's easy enough to let weeds grow in the cracks of the sidewalk, and ignore peeling paint when the inside is nice. Anyone rolling down my block will hit the neighbors first, even though they are credit-monsters with no tangible assets.
Camoflague, Bitchez- don't forget it.
Hi Prometheus418.
Then you can attest to the time and money it takes to learn, plan, purchase, store, maintain, and secure preps.
Impressive work Prome. I envy your water situation.
Good points...lets also pull out inflation, the sales of gold & silver, and guns to get a better picture??
Car sales also are being boosted by 0 interest rates offered by many car companies and the perception of consumers that inflation is indeed here prompting the purchase now rather than later.
There is no such thing as 0% interest on a new car. It's a scam. They make you forfeit all of the rebates in order to get the 0%, effectively rolling your interest into the loan. It saves you very little on your monthly payment and it takes a lot longer to get equity in the vehicle.
WTF would you want "equity" in a vehicle? The damn things are worth 50% of what you paid for them the minute you drive them off the lot! :)
Retail sales showed another faux statistic. Just like when gas cost more it raises the numbers. The same applies to clothing and food. Credit to Bloomberg for digging this sham out.
Or, leaving gasoline in, at $85 now down from last months $100/gal., with gas prices down 2.7 cents X $15 decline = a 40 cent drop in pump prices in a month, and the next retail sales lie is headed even lower, no?
Popo@14:53
Funny they count gasoline/fuel in the stats as sales, but do not include it in the CPI...................
Let's all play the "Shell Game!!'
I do not believe this is a lie.
It is the phenomenon of people getting out of paper and into real things, basic things, fun things, things that you store, things that you piss away; doesn't matter. It is a death spasm of the system. People know its over and are blowing their wad while they still can.
Agreed. After 4 years, people are numb. They have given up. Hell, I bought a TV just to watch the riots.
Shoulda bought a window for that ;)
^ an honest "laugh out loud" on that.
+ 14.2 Trillion!!!
genius!
LOL, better make that a polycarbonate window!
++++++++++++++++++++++
1/2 General Electirc Lexan Sheets!
http://www.eplastics.com/Plastic/Lexan_Clear_Polycarbonate_Sheet/LEXAN-CLR-0-500AM48X96
there are much, MUCH BETTER Prices to be had! just using this as a reference point!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqTZAzUj1PQ
500 Birnell!
Leave a panel loose JW. Much greater stopping power that way...quarter of an inch will stop a S&W 40.
Retail sales don't contradict the idea that we're in a depression. There's always some commerce because people have to live: during the Great Depression, movie theaters were packed. Didn't mean that there wasn't 25% unemployment.
Do stocks count as a retail item?
My family is blowing out our fiat on major prepping - but I sure don't see too many other folks on the same page - at least not enough to justify that chart.
My vote is that this increase in consumer spending is just an indication of rampant inflation.
but I sure don't see too many other folks on the same page
Me either. I was in Sam's club a few weeks ago. I had 6 50lb bags of ACTII popcorn and a bunch of other long term goods and the checker asked me what I was going to do with all the popcorn and I said "save it" she gave me a weird look so I don't think she has too many preppers going through her line.
Popcorn?
Are you going to have movie night for the rioting masses or is there some nutritional value in popcorn for survival reasons. Does it keep well? Is it unusually inexpensive? Please explain.
He'd better make sure the kernels don't become dry. Popcorn only pops because of steam pressure within the kernel. If they dry out, he's just going to have a bunch of teeth-breaking stones to eat.
See below, not too worried about it drying out as most will be ground into corn meal. I do the Mylar bag/o2 absorber/co2 storing method and store the bags in 55g barrels with a 450gram silica gel pack. My storage area can get very damp so I'm more worried about mold then it drying out.
If you bought 6 50lb bags of popcorn, I would definitely dig a hole in your backyard and hide it. Rumors circulating that the gubbermint is going to start confiscating food. Very fluid situation right now. Will keep you posted.
It's okay. It's aaaall going to be okay. Just pass the bong and monetize the shit..
Rumors also circulating that gubmint considerations of confiscating PMs and food will be cancelled due to the threat of lead poisoning.
LOL. Love that.
Come and Take It....
i'm behind this guy i'm heading out tomorrow
Popcorn keeps as well as yellow corn and makes great corn bread plus of course you can pop it. It is $17 at Sam's club so it is about $5 more a bag then regular bulk yellow corn but it is cleaner then feed corn(only bulk corn I can find here) so you don't have to clean it before grinding. You need to have a good grinder as it is harder then yellow corn.
This is why I love ZH. A veritable mine of information in THE most unlikely places. Thanks for the tips guys.
Makes an nice load for a shotgun shell, too.
Fifty lb. bag of popcorn and a 50 lb. bag of rice = 1 oz. of silver = 100 rounds of .223 = 40 FRNs on 8/12/2011
Another plus for popcorn- it isn't GMO.
http://www.grist.org/article/Checkout-Line-Iffy-pop
Except that nasty microwave shit. It's all fucked up, grown by Con Agra.
"Sufferin' succotash". If you want a survival food staple, stock up on dried corn, rice and beans. That combination has all the amino acids to sustain life. Succotash was a Great Depression staple.
+1
Don't neglect your history lessons, peeps. And if you were really smart, you listened to those stories your Gran and Gramps used to tell. I used to listen because those stories made me laugh really hard (Gran would have made a great comedian). Never thought I'd have cause to to actually use the info.
history lesson in easily readable form:
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=roth&sts=t&tn=depressio...
- Ned
the food grown & eaten during the Great Depression came mostly from small farms / family farmers - today's GMO corn, rice, etc. has much less nutritional value due to soil nutrient depletion, combined with more toxic "additives" needed to get yields. . .
however, I do realise that if it comes to eating "survival" style, crap food will be further down the list of things to worry about. getting the WATER situation secured should be first on anyone's list.
Movie night! :)
I couldn't quite bring myself around to the popcorn idea, myself- but there are all sorts of alternatives. We're really heavy on pasta and peanut butter, as well as canned fruits and veggies.
The canned chicken as Sam's club is also surprisingly decent. We try to rotate the pantry, so we do use the stuff, and it is actually pretty good, especially if you warm it up in a frying pan.
Though there is one lookout for potential preppers- coffee and flour are still going through the roof, so stock heavily on those. I think we have about 100# of coffee stored, and I'm still a buyer. There are four things that always have trade value in a SHTF situation- coffee, sugar, tobacco and alcohol. People may trade for flour and corn meal, but the premium items are those that are considered "luxuries." Ammo might work as well, but it assumes the presence of violence- and sometimes that just doesn't materialize.
Quaker Oats have disappeared from the shelves at my grocery store.
maybe you should order more?
the graph of the sales v. confidence is fun to view as sales v. purchasing value of $$$, too!
we shop because we have a strong dollar poilicy! hahaha
What kind of coffee do you buy? Beans or Maxwell house big cans of ground?
http://www.sweetmarias.com/index.php
I know a lot of guys here talk of "maxwell house & folgers" cans of pre-ground - but if you love coffee & know that it loses quality & flavour rather quickly after roasting, even if it's canned, you might try the website above - they have great service,and "teach" how to roast small batches at home. . . green beans keep longer, & and a quick morning roast for a cuppa might make the squirrel & beans breakfast almost palatable. . .
If you clean and cook it right squirrel is actually quite tasty. Much better than Kow.
EET MOR SKWERL!
In good times, I love Caribou whole beans- but for purposes of stockpiling, we have been reduced to pre-ground Folgers. It does the trick, but no one is about to call it gourmet. After the price spikes on beans, though, I think Caribou is now in the realm of hollidays and special occasions in my household.
I also have been loading up on barter items. I have over 300lbs of sugar(lasts forever, just keep it dry) and have some honey(also lasts forever) along with alcohol. Another item that may become scarce in some areas is salt. Chlorine is something else you might want to store for water purification. One idea I read about is to make up care packages to hand out to the less fortunate. A gallon zip lock bag with smaller bags of rice, beans and some salt along with a small container of chlorine would help people move along.
I have several thousand care packages ready right now. They're not that much (from 55gr to 175gr each) but they're really easy to distribute and would encourage people to move along.
God Bless you, KowPie.
god bless you for blessing everybody.
Saving one for you. :)
or not ;-)
- Ned
{eat more ckick'n}
Great idea, KowPie- Now that we're relatively set, I think I'll follow suit.
God Bless you, RobD.
I've never understood the point of trying to plan for an event which is essentially a statistical outlier.
Then consider reading The Black Swan.
[I've never understood the point of trying to plan for an event which is essentially a statistical outlier.]---onearmedlove
The wise call it preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.
You never bought auto or home insurance?
So I guess you don't buy insurance.
The subprime crisis was an 'outlier'...until the copulas copulated you.
lol
You're not alone...
https://www.gunsgrubandgold.com/forum
Perhaps. But people are not going to take not buying shit as fast as they think they should any longer dammit. There is no method to the madness. They are just buying shit because everyone else is. As soon as cash is in the the account...it's gone.
Yep, probably right. Ive heard people lately saying things like may as well go out for a big dinner, while you still can. Lots of that.
Heard that too, only with regard to vacations. "We really can't afford to go to _____, but we figure it's the last chance we have til we go BK or TSHTF". Been hearing that a lot to justify buying some stupid thing they really don't need, but I need to treat myself since things have been so shitty i can't stand it anymore................
It's amazing how ingrained consumerism seems to be in most folks. They think the cure to depression and unhappiness is to "treat themselves," which inevitably means "buy something so expensive, I can't afford it without credit."
I get a treat when I see my young son learn to stand on his own. That's enough for me. :)
Is it ingrained...or induced? How much reality TV with spoiled shits in houses they could never afford spending checks they don't deserve on shit they don't need can the average consumer-tard watch before that the itch to spend some scratch takes its toll?
My wife and I are in the top 1%, but I'm driving a 10 year old Jetta. I've smacked down the urge to "buy something nice" for myself hundreds of times; it takes a sincere application of will to resist the daily bombardment from the media and consumer culture and most people don't even have a desire to do the right thing, much less the psyche to carry it out.
Compare and contrast with my sister-in-law and her husband who have gone BK twice and have almost literally filled a McMansion with crap that sometimes doesn't even leave the box it was purchased in. That's not "mall therapy"...that's a society-sanctioned addiction, but how are Americans supposed to react when their president says, "Go Shopping!" in times of crisis?
Agreed on the joy to be had from little ones...my two-year-old and I 'play' with the hose from the vacuum cleaner (his hands down favorite item in the entire house) by generating standing waves so we can talk about fast waves, slow waves, little waves, and big waves and I know he's having more fun than he could ever have with plastic crap from China with this week's marketing ploy emblazoned on the side because he's doing it "with daddy" and his curiousity is being satisfied. He's keen on the differences between incandescent and 'corkscrew' lightbulbs and there's nothing like him trying to say 'Tungsten' or 'hot metal makes light'. He gets a kick out of playing with daddy's bars and eagles too.
When I was a kid I was the typical image of a preadolescent consumer. I had to read, eat, munch, crunch, everthing. My dad tried to educate me. He bought me a book called 'the hidden persuaders' by V. Packard. I kept that book for six years, I never read it until I was twenty. Then I read it in University, and I enjoyed it immensly as it was the sign of the times written ten/fifteen years before MAd men from Madison Avenue were running New York. That's genius for you...V.Packard (I got my authors mixed), was Hawkeye, he could see far ahead of his times...The funny thing is my father sensed it...so he was no dumb mutton, although he never understood economics or advertising like the author of book. That was before TV spoiled the mind set of the kids. Our generation grew up with comics and books, not TV, now the Internet.
It dates me but it also saves me from current hyper consumer trends.
I had a friend, who is a saver, who just got hit with a major plumbing crisis (had to dig up everything), the freezer busted, all his food went bad, had a pay cut, his savings are gone now. That is exactly what he did, he said, "Fuck it, we're going to the lake." Incredible. He will be okay though, he is a really good woodsman and an excellent shot. He does not get it, but he will make it when he wakes up better than most of us.
If he couldn't weather replacing the plumbing and a freezer, you can't really call him a saver. Savers have multiple YEARS of income saved.
What you are describing is the typical family. ZH covered the survey a few months ago -- something like 80% can't come up with $2000 in 30 days.
His plumbing thing cost him over $25,000 (dug up the yard to the street, under the house, it was bad). He has no debt. I hear what you are saying, but in a relative way (he did have over $30,000 saved) he was ahead of many folks. So I called him a saver. Without the disaster he would have built it up more, he is a good guy. What stunned me is his "fuck it" choice to take a trip he can no longer afford (going against what I consider to be a saver impulse).
He is 35. He got out of debt (house student loans) not all that long ago. I think age is relevant.
I am only just now matching your definition of a saver. But I was a saver when I was on my way...Plus I don't spend anything like what I earn, so it would last longer if I was unemployed.
I guess, with all due respect, I don't think the definition of a saver is as cut and dry as all that.
accent grave over the "e". As in Buckaroo Banzai; almost as great as Fight Club.
No doubt. What a great flick. Spent many a Saturday on the couch as a kid watching it. Good times.
"It's your hand, man."
How 'bout girls? R they included? Or r we going full on A Boy and Dog here?
Poor stinky boy, wants America crumble. Shouldn't be plotting somewhere in evil dungeon? too poor for evil dungeon? Well you come to my block you see fascism. A neighbor who lost job. He not take gun to rob others or go bury self in bunker. He tell neighbors of problem and all of us help him. We paint house, get him food, help raise money and find job. That's the stink hole you wish.
Okay try to respond to stinky boy comment. WTF doing down here.
pfffsss I don't see any evidence that kicking the can (the same as the last 2 decades) hase done America, or the "free world" any good. If it doesn't work, change it.
The comment above about watching the first steps of your son says something very meaningful. Consumerism is for many the kneejerk reaction. There are other things that are more important. Being a human being with some dignity. Being free to do whatever you want, as long as you don't hurt anyone. I don't see anyone in the slave stream media step up and say that. While that would be the logical thing. So much conditioning.
And "First the free market dies, then dies democracy" Folker Hellmeyer (I never get tired of quoting this) That's why we're here, no?
It's the other way around. Plebiscitarian Mobocracy (Demos, Democracy) kills the Free Market as, over time, the mob will consistently vote for pols that hand out the most bennies for the least taxes. Result: more and more people hooked on bennies, deficits bigger and bigger, system collapse, then....Dictatorship. Republic not "democracy", preserves free market. Brother Woodrow (WW I) and FDR (WW II) killed the Republic long ago. It can be restored, but only thru Civil War II.
The consumer confidence number is clearly off. Confidence around UMich should be rising now that Jim Tressel retired.
anyone seen how the state pension plans are getting ass blasted by this market?
No. How are they 'ass blasted?' then see beneath me and ponder the alternative.
We live amidst the interminable reproduction of the 2008-2009 finance crisis which is now behind us, yet which we must continue to reproduce in a sort of inescapable indifference. Nothing (not even the Fed's monetary easing) now comes to save us, but instead appears to contaminate us, by extenuating itself throughout the world, as a result of the transfer of money into the secondary realm of dispersal and devaluation. The logic of trading and investment is no longer a logic of value, but of viral dispersion in networks of fevered, speed-driven exchange which creates a tendency for trading systems to explode beyond their own limits, to override their own logic--in the sense of an increase of power, a fantastic potentialization whereby the existence of the system if put at risk,.
Wow, all those deep thoughts, and tits too!
i liked the part abt the "...dispersion in networks of fevered, speed-driven exchange..."
got milk? it does a body good!
I don't actually read his posts because of that avatar.
well, you can see how much i was able to glean, right there
Udderly unfair of you.
How do you know its a he? Could be velobabe is back
He said on another thread that the tits are his partner's AND he bought her the gold chain she is wearing. All of us could be lying, but I'll give em the benefit of the doubt.
I think there is a titty trend here on ZH avatars. It is the latest rage started by the very fashionable Plad! All the dudes are wearing them now.
You get this picture of a man bemused by exposed naked tits, derivative hedges, puts and calls galore, his hands feverish as he breaks the speedometer limit...like a speed driven exchange spewing fevered, viral dispersion into a secondary, devaluated realm...one image of a wanker derailed like a chinese high speed train.
Very poetic masturbation of an addicted trader on the job in his algorithmic push button world.
> inversely overwater
LOL! I love it!