Reality is approaching fast....

[sww914]

Humans have been prophesizing our demise since civilization began. A great deal of Christianity is based on the eventuality of our potential demise. Purgatory, Rapture, etc. In fact most religion promises rewards after our earthly death. In the year 1799, December 31st a couple thousand (IIRC) people rid themselves of all of their belongings and hiked to the top of Mount Carmel in white robes and waited to be whisked off the planet. In 1899, Dec 31, people did the same thing in several places around the world. In my youth we trained ourselves to survive a nuclear blast (damned Russkies) by covering our heads with our hands under our desks.
Remember Y2K?
Now it's either Islamic terrorists or financial meltdown.
I'm planning to jump off the boat in my trunks and surf tomorrow and then eat some carnitas tacos.

[Kettlewell]

I'm planning to jump off the boat in my trunks and surf tomorrow and then eat some carnitas tacos.

I'm glad to see you're taking this with the solemn respect it deserves.

[DeepFrz]

Or watch Bernanke's lectures.

The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis - YouTube

[atoll]

nothing to worry about,the poor people will allways survive.

[bobconnie]

For those of us who have lived the Hard way all our lives and lived well doing it ! Will just keep on doing what we have always done, makeing do with what we can ! Atoll understands! Ya do it one day at a time ! It's called life

[simonpickard]

The fact is he's totally right about a lot of things in that video. Most countries are broke, borrowing is increasing at an exponential rate. Basically everyone's getting deeper and deeper into dept (The US by over $3.5 BILLION every day alone).

The question really is, will the madness continue? If so we don't really have anything to worry about, the numbers just get larger. If however things do change- the rate of borrowing rises to a critical amount, etc, then I believe it will go the road of first inflation, then hyper inflation. Which is very bad for your savings- and why he says to buy into gold.

The "Bill" everyone owes isn't really the problem, it's how much governments shrink that bill (the only option they have), and how controlled the inflation is. No one seems to mind the fact that inflation is at 3-4%- i.e your money is worth 3-4% less each year. You don't really notice it day to day. However if is runs away from them and gets up to say 3-4% per MONTH.....

Regards,
Simon

[bobconnie]

For those of us who have lived the Hard way all our lives and lived well doing it ! Will just keep on doing what we have always done, makeing do with what we can ! Atoll understands! Ya do it one day at a time ! It's called life

[zboss]

Originally Posted by atoll

nothing to worry about,the poor people will allways survive.

I guess if you feel that since you cannot lose what you don't have. However, the poor will be the ones starving and fighting each other for breadcrumbs when the welfare goes away.

However, I happen to agree with the interviewee.

He is right... the US consumer is highly leveraged - more so then ever in history. "Everyone" (yes in quotes) owes mortgages or rent, doesn't own the car, don't really even own their education (student loans), and forget that 50% of our population is divorced and probably owes alimony and lawyers fees.

Average US credit card debt is over 15K but the average yearly income is less than 29K.

Monthly US average mortgage is $1061... or $12,732 a year.

So... After credit card and mortgage/rent debt the average US household has only about 2K left over. If they keep paying minimum then they can free up some cash but then all that has to happen is for interest rates to rise (which they will)... credit cards go to 50% to 65% like in Mexico and you have a disaster.

[delmarrey]

So if the USA, Canada and Japan don't have any gold left, where is it? That would be the place to be!

[hpeer]

FWIW, our broker, a very old conservative type, and very well respected, has told us to buy precious metals.

I'm resisting for various reasons, but, ya know, the two guys just are not that far apart.

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by hpeer

FWIW, our broker, a very old conservative type, and very well respected, has told us to buy precious metals.

I'm resisting for various reasons, but, ya know, the two guys just are not that far apart.

I buy stainless, bronze, copper and aluminum. Everything else is plastic and silicone.

[CarlF]

Well, if we've got to all go out and buy gold, at least we've got the perfect place to hide it after the collapse -- in the keel!!

Just replace that lead with gold, slap on a little antifouling paint, and who would know? And the specific gravity of gold is about twice that of lead so you'll probably pick up 1/2 knot from the smaller keels lower drag.

For me, the superior gold carrying capacity of a mono pretty much settles the mono-cat argument too

[daddle]

...and "gold mine" sounds so much better than "lead mine".

[Richard_W]

Back to video in first OP:

It's an infomercial ... the guy never answers questions directly, refers to truisms like "diversify", and steers people to gold and silver ... which he or his shady business will help you buy if you purchase their how-to book/course somewhere on the web, or worse they will sell you gold or silver contract for the outrageous commission, or in the worst case they will sell you a fake contract. Stay away ...

[DeepFrz]

It's an infomercial ... the guy never answers questions directly, refers to truisms like "diversify", and steers people to gold and silver ... which he or his shady business will help you buy if you purchase their how-to book/course somewhere on the web, or worse they will sell you gold or silver contract for the outrageous commission, or in the worst case they will sell you a fake contract. Stay away ...

Pretty much. However it doesn't mean that the ideas expressed are not valid arguments.

So... After credit card and mortgage/rent debt the average US household has only about 2K left over. If they keep paying minimum then they can free up some cash but then all that has to happen is for interest rates to rise (which they will)... credit cards go to 50% to 65% like in Mexico and you have a disaster.

And in a consumer financial model there seems to be no way out. If you work to lower debt then you lose jobs and the economy suffers. If you do nothing then the debt continues to sky rocket. Some people think that the way out of a financial crisis is to start a war. Another way out is another Great Depression. Oh, that was ended by a war wasn't it...