At Lew Rockwell, David Calderwood writes:
“If one believes that the failure of the Federal Debt system is imminent, then one should be preparing for TEOTWAWKI (Lila: The End of The World As We Know It). In this event, prudent preparation includes quitting the job, selling the house, moving the family to a temperate rural area and converting all assets to guns, food, ammo, farmland, livestock, barter goods, and books on how to live an 18th century lifestyle.
The trouble is that preparing for TEOTWAWKI renders one in a very poor position should things not be quite so catastrophic. People are incredibly resourceful and the history of communism shows us that even unsustainable systems don’t necessarily collapse all at once.
If the federal government system survives for a period of time after the Federal Reserve banking cartel crashes (or more likely, is seized by an Act of Congress), instead of an immediate dollar collapse, surviving dollars would soar in value. Ironically, the closer any dollar credit exists to the U.S. Treasury, the longer it may survive. The idea in this case would be to hold the last surviving dollar credits, stepping off that boat to the dry land of hard assets when all vulnerable credits have disappeared and asset values have declined about as far as they’re going to. Then will be the time to flee dollars in fear of the appearance of ever-larger denominations of currency, the hallmark of currency hyperinflation.”
My Comment:
I’m playing both sides. I’ve left for a temperate clime, started scouting out my rural retreat, am on my way to learning how to skin squirrels, drive a buggy, and forage for roots (in a manner of speaking)….AND I cling to my dollars.
I’ve been a dollar contrarian…all through the ups and downs of the last three years. (It’s been a sickening ride) Why? Because someone who knows a lot about the world told me this a few years ago: “Don’t bet against the United States of America.”
[Note: That’s not a vote for the dollar, which I think has terrible fundamentals. It’s a contrarian approach to moving out of the dollar. And as always, if things change fast, I’ll change my mind with them. I’d modify that: don’t bet too confidently against the United States.
“Don’t bet against the United States of America.”
The Anti-Federalist Confederates did, and look where that got them? Still to this day even.
Cover the action both ways? An LRC article suggested saving US nickels, once they are no longer used, it would be ok to melt them as scrap which should produce a higher return than the face value of the nickel. If somehow the economy doesn’t crash and such, unlike with investing in things like HGTV manufacturers stock, simply turn the nickels back into paper Dollars, your protected both ways without suffering a loss. A box of those are heavy and difficult to move around, I wonder what other similar savings/investing moves there are that cover both sides?
“…on my way to learning how to skin squirrels, drive a buggy, and forage for roots…” Are you really? That’s cool, and very Midwestern-like. The image of you doing so is very… tough.
Not Little House on the Prairie , but Little House on the Pampas?
oops, HGTV manufacturers stock is a bad example, maybe …. well I can’t think of what would do really poorly if the economy/US Dollar didn’t crash, the stock of TEOTWAWKI companies? Even those might still do well as the Zombie Squad is a widespread recreational pastime hobby for many.
The story of the lady who waited too long and got stuck with piles of bedpans in Germany’s hyperinflaion – waiting until the last minute to switch out of fiat dollars – can turn out bad.
It seems that betting the US won’t crash is where the biggest loss potential is.
Well – I wouldn’t say – Don’t bet against the US..I would modify it..bet with caution.
Just remember who has the guns
Just a thought: Advances in weapons technology making current power structures shift. Sidewinder surface to surface anti-aircraft carrier missiles for one, T-33 or something like that. The past is full of such shifts.
TEOTWAWKI is a very clever acroynm. Maybe I’m naive in not hearing it before. I’m sure Mr. Calderwood is being more than a tad facetious. 18th century lifestyle? Not a chance. We’d still be left with beaucoup internal combustion engines that anyone could fuel using gas produced from biomass or wood. Somewhere around here I have plans for a portable (vehicle-mounted) wood gas generator made from common junk parts that I bought at an alternative technology fair at (I think) the ultra-hippie Oregon Country Fair sometime around 1978…which indicates two things:
a) I was thinking TEOTWAKI when you were still in high school.
b) I have too much stuff.
Yes, current times, they remind me of what the adults were doing in the 1970’s, only the climate fear was an ice age then. – love the junk piles.
“…internal combustion engines that anyone could fuel using gas produced from biomass or wood.”
Not quite anyone. Very few know mechanical anything these days. And, if I’m not mistaken, alcohol eats and swells the rubber in fuel lines and fuel injectors, that narrows it down to carbs with steel fuel lines, not so many of those around anymore.
The popular (1980’s?) band REM sings TEOTWAWKI , the end of the world as we know it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGqroT1FZ5Y
I found a pretty good thread started by FerFal on a site called Zombie Squad (Where the motto seems to be, Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.) about what people can do and shouldn’t do to prepare for economic collapse and afterwards.
There’s a bit of a rif between FerFal’s outlook and what many history buffs extrapolate from the history of The Great Depression in the US including their conclusions from interviews with people who lived through it. In the past I’ve interviewed a number of people who went through TGD and as a result, combined with this five pager, I’m leaning more away from *some* of what FerFal says. Have a look for yourself, it’s five pages of “entertaining” reading:
http://zombiehunters.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=19926
I didn’t read the links mentioned about EMF bombs, but they seem like a realistic threat, especially in light of how difficult and time intensive building replacement parts are for our national electrical grid. Hint: it’s all built in China or places like that, so even without an attack, the grid is vulnerable to extended downtime.
I never thought I would spend time reading a website called Zombie Squad but it does have some very informative stuff, especially about what baggage to carry to be prepared for an emergency in your area, and food storage. From that website I found a good link to an article about where is a good place to hide/store your gold and other valuables:
http://www.pfadvice.com/2007/02/05/the-best-place-to-hide-money-conversation-with-a-burglar/
This was a good quote I found somewhere on ZS:
“People tend to not prepare until it is too late.. We live in a society that believes it is beneath them to do for themselves. Self-sufficiency was the dream of people escaping tyranny and poverty… The American dream is now luxury and convenience. Anything else is squalor, antisocial-insanity or amusing and pitiable eccentricity at best.”
Thanks. Will check it out.
On that note, I’ve had a couple of people ask me about private banks holding gold down in S. America