Editor’s Note: This post is another entry in the Prepper Writing Contest from Brian the Banker. If you have information for Preppers that you would like to share and possibly win a $300 Amazon Gift Card to purchase your own prepping supplies, enter today.
The economy will never collapse.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am a banker. That’s right, that evil, fat cat, wall street banker that became such a popular moniker during our last administration and I’m also a prepper. Rather than debate the topic of bugging in/out of an incredibly densely populated area which I contend with all the time, I wanted to write about a topic that I see a lot of op-eds about and that is the impending doom of economic collapse and it being the pretense for TEOTWAWKI.
As anyone who is skilled in their field of practice is, I have the ability (mostly because I’m intricately connected to it every day) to decipher the ongoing fear that we as a nation are teetering on the brink of economic collapse and that you must immediately liquidate all holdings and bank accounts and mattress those funds. I will try to impress upon you below how unlikely and improbable this really is.
As a student of Finance you’re taught words like inflation, bubbles and leverage. You pause and look at “The Market” throughout the day and wonder why Apple is up or why oil is down but you really don’t understand how tightly things are tied together and quite frankly how much reliance on everything a simple stock or sector has on everything else in the global economy. Now don’t get me wrong, any company can have a bad day, or week or year. I’s talked about all the time. But the system crashing down as a result of just the system and not some other calamity like plague or an EMP for that matter is just not going to happen.
Checks and Balances
For an economy like the U.S. to go belly up, that would essentially mean that every other country in the world just doesn’t care about receiving payments on their debt. When I spoke above about things being so tied together, did you know that practically every country in the world owns the United States? That’s right, the Chinese own the statue of liberty, the French own the grand canyon and our friends in the Congo own Mt Rushmore. It’s true, well maybe not exactly but that deficit everyone hears about is nothing more than conceptual money that we owe ourselves not to mention every other country out there. No one is coming to collect.
Do you think there’s a vault out there with trillions of dollars in it? I promise you there’s not. Corporations, foreign governments and independent debt owners care about one thing and one thing only, the interest payment. The interest on the debt they have in the investment they make. That monthly stipend of interest is what’s real and more importantly how people balance the check book. No one ever assumes they’ll get their money back, in fact if they did, we’d be in a far better position. All we’d have to do is print the money but guess what, it wouldn’t be worth very much if there was an excess of it would it? Nobody wants to be paid back these ridiculous sums of money for one simple reason, their value will go down. 1 trillion dollars in owed money is worth 100 times what 1 trillion dollars in cash is. Checks and Balances is just that, what makes the world go round is certainty that you can collect on your debt, not by collecting on what’s owed. The country’s of the world can’t function with trillions of dollars sitting in a vault, they’d essentially be broke.
Value is just perception
If you have a house, and you want to sell it, what’s it worth? Whatever you think your house is worth based on improvements you might have made or what your county is assessing a tax figure on and holding you accountable to pay is really not the answer. Your home and anything for that matter is worth what we call fair market value. Fair market value is the price that some else (the market) is willing to pay (fair value). I bring this up because such is the case with everything when it comes to what things are worth. Now a house is much different from an investment vehicle like a bond for example. You live in your house, it provides you safety, security, memories all of which are equitable things. You might even be willing to put a price tag on that in your mind. A bond or a stock or balance sheet doesn’t really stack up to that house of yours does it? Yet this is what the world economy is made up of, fictional pieces of perceived value. They don’t even print shares of stock or bond anymore so you couldn’t burn it to keep you warm at night. That’s not me being a cynic it’s just the truth. Everything we have with regard to wealth is just in the perception of faith and tied to nothing really tangible. Take a minute to think about that.
Every once in a while, corrections are needed.
But banker you ask, what about the next recession, my portfolio might evaporate if it’s not allocated appropriately. Well folks, I’m here to tell you, you losing money is all part of the master plan. Making money is too however. There’s an old adage, maybe you’ve heard it. “Markets can digest good news and bad news but they hate uncertainty”. Isn’t that true of mostly everything come to think of it? Fact is our entire system was built on bull runs (times in which there’s a surge in value) and bear runs (times in which there’s a decline in value). If no one ever lost money the system wouldn’t work. Value wouldn’t change because risk would be taken out of the equation. Everyone would be richer but no one would be richer. What makes the world economy function is that there’s no guarantee that stipend I mentioned that all governments are tied to will be insured and reliable. This is where jockeying comes in and the gambling mentality takes over. Since the dawn of modern finance prospectors and prognosticators have set the benchmark to try to out-earn (even by just the tiniest of margins) their competitors. People wager on perceived value and that’s the x-factor (greed that is) that sets the bulls or bears running and ushers in peaks and valleys. Corrections are there by design and you’ll have to stomach it unless you plan to completely go off grid. That’s not really prepping though, that’s fully prepared. For the rest of us that aspire to “get there”, you have to be prepared to get bounced around with the financial tide.
Conclusion
OK oh ye faithful that have stuck around and for those of you that did, thank you, here’s the synopsis. Unless greed is wiped from the earth OR unless the debt holders want to stop making money, the system will not collapse. Even in the greatest of calamity’s like The Great Depression and or The Great Recession people made money. They just chose the right time to bet against common thought. Point is the system always recovers. We as preppers, for lack of a better way to say it are prepared. We’re prepared beyond what’s in our refrigerator or a minor terrorist crisis in our general vicinity or at least we’re trying to get there. Know this, peaks and valleys within our financial system will always continue but with 100% certainty, the system is rigged.
If things ever got bad enough for the U.S. to the point of bread lines and soup kitchens, we’d just print the money we needed as a government to make our debt payment. If another country couldn’t make their payment, we’d just chisel away at their principal and then auction it off again to the highest bidder for, that’s right you guessed it, another payment plan. Take solace in the fact that there are 100 others ways all of them far more likely to disrupt the balance and cause us to make tough decisions for our family’s. For the ones convinced that the economic system will fail them, you might be caught short-handed in your preps. Invest instead in gas masks or wind turbines or lamp oil, hey, you might just make someone rich.
And I remember when the smartest people in the world said the earth was flat., then some guy in a wooden boat sailed “AROUND” it.. And when the smartest people in the world said that man could not fly, and some guy with an old bicycle put wings on it and flew around with it. Now a banker tells me the banks can’t fail. I have a lot of confidence in that, NOT.
Oh, wait,,, this article wasnt satire? This guy is serious?
AGREED! I read through this piece twice to be sure it wasn’t satire, sadly it wasn’t. Good Lord who is this Brian individual? Did he just graduate from the Madoff School of Bizness? It seems that the broad gist of Brian’s grasp of finance is the following: We must all adopt a totally religious belief in a perpetual motion machine of financial fraud and debt and as long as we all ‘go along’ and don’t question anything it will all end in rainbows and unicorns. I blame the editors and owners of Preppers Journal for publishing this BS and if… Read more »
“I will be cancelling asap” Do you need to go to your safe space? Or do you need some money to go to the dollar store and buy some thicker skin? My friggen word, get a grip. If you did cancel I for one would conclude, there’s no great loss.
This is well written and I can see that you’ve much time into it. However, I feel like you are telling people not to prepare.. that the system will always work. It kind of goes against everything a prepper stands for. Even if the government were to print more money, do you honestly think they would be handing it out to the everyday people? Even if they did.. when are people going to realise that you can’t eat money. Money is just a tool, a tool used to buy things.. if the shelves are bare what good is some money… Read more »
I guess history is not relevant… 2008 when the banks did fail and were bailed out … Great Depression when the system failed and people starved. I get the idea that those who collect interest on dept owed don’t want the system to fail, it sounds comforting and I hope it doesn’t. This thought process is just plain reckless and irresponsible. Money has not existed since the we stopped backing it with gold, and because the fed is printing currency is the reason a loaf of bread cost $3.00 and it used to cost a nickel.
Never mind the huge exposure to derivatives,
A loaf of bread here in the islands generally runs in the 6-8$ range
History is very relevant. The world saw the US economy collapse. Then their economies collapsed. World bankers, economists, and politicians fully understand that if the center post of the tent collapses, the whole thing comes down. Some may want to see us fail, but understand that when we go down, they go down. The ramifications of a US economic collapse will reach every country in the world, either directly (China, Mexico, Japan), or indirectly (Kosovo, Ethopia, Lithuania) in ways that see a 2nd great depression. How? Simple. Look at who owns the national debt of the US. Japan, China, Australia,… Read more »
Today’s economy (including the stock market) runs on electricity. You knock that out, the economy collapses. The possible causes include:
* EMP
* CME/Solar storm
* Cyberattack
Since these are possible, and some, like solar storms, are inevitable, yes the economy could collapse.
You forget all out nuclear war. The author is talking about a complete global collapse caused by a complete financial collapse unrelated to anything else
Exactly. Seems like a lot of folks are missing the focus of the piece. I thought it was well written.
There are many existential risks to our countries. Internal economic collapse has to be very low on the list. All those other risks listed would result in the secondary effect of an economic collapse.
Its called “normalcy bias”, and this author is chronically infected.
I would say that the author of this financial puff piece, is TERMINALLY infected with the disease of”normalcy bias”.
Then again, I don’t believe nor do I ever trust any banker nor politician.
I would suggest the author of this piece is the same guy who advised Mr. T to drop the laws preventing Mom and Pop investors from being fleeced out of their life savings Throck!
Well, Brian the banker, I think you just pissed in a whole bunch of people’s cherrios. Excellent article! I think it’s a realistic intelligent approach to the subject as opposed to the doom and gloom attitude that so infects the prepper lifestyle. I’ve had prepper friends actually tell me to cash out my 401k based on news headlines or what they read on the web! Lmao! If I had listened, I’d be in the same position they are in, have zero money for retirement. I tend to agree with the author in that the system will not collapse. Yes what… Read more »
We all know of Prepper web sites that are constantly screaming about the coming economic disaster. Why is it that they are always moving the date forward? Because their last prediction went belly up. Every time. Mr. Banker is inherently correct. The problem is, it shatters the uninformed belief systems of many people. Nothing he says negates the value of being a Prepper, and if everything goes south one day, it will be for reasons that have nothing to do with your local bank or ATM.
Looks like you and I are the only realists. You are exactly right. I totally agree with your post. It’s sad that some people will let life pass them by because they believe in the doom and gloom that “might” happen. Funny thing is, if it were to happen, there isn’t a damn thing they could do about it. So I don’t waste my time worrying about things that are out of my control. Instead I worry about things I can control, like my health, and my skills.
No JD & Bolofia, you’re not the only ones. This article presented an intelligent look @ reality. Did no one notice that he mentioned in the beginning he was also a prepper? While the US economy won’t suddenly collapse, your personal economy could; a job loss, illness, more scenarios than we want to think about. Some folks just hate it when you mess with their fantasy.
Add me as well. He’s totally correct and the part about your home being worthless without a buyer is very appropriate. In Canada a lot of people are sitting on massively over valued homes via holding mega mortgages. They all believe housing prices will forever go up. Yup until the next collapse. Banks are the Government so they cannot collapse unless society collapses first. If that happens I’m prepped and the cash in the banks can just disappear. I’m not counting on it in shtf but would be nice for retirement
The Fed bailed out Wall Street in 2008/2009. Unfortunately, the Fed still has all those ugly “assets” on their balance sheet, they have not divested themselves of them. So now if something happens, the Fed is out of ammunition. Who will bail them out? The IMF, which has the only clean balance sheet left? Are you sure you want that? Read up on how the IMF operates. And the 2008 recession, which is still with us and has not been fixed, just covered with a bandaid and allowed to fester underneath, is certainly not nearly as bad as it can… Read more »
I would disagree with your contention that the US descended into chaos during the Spanish flu. It was a more civil society back then. Were there dead bodies in the streets? I’ve never read that, but can’t say its not true. Your statement sounds a lot more like the Black Death in the 14-17th centuries. Yes, it took time to spread, and yes, it recurred several times into the 1600s. Without the financial system, in my somewhat learned opinion, there is a 100% chance of societal collapse. No finances, no EBT/ATM/Debit/Credit system. With the quietly and slowly shrinking money supply… Read more »
I don’t know, it seems to me, after WWI, the US was thriving. Manufacterers were so busy it opened up lots of jobs in society for women. The economy was booming. And the country was at the spear tip for technology and manufacturing. Countries like Germany and Austria didn’t do so well because they had the shit bombed out of them. I’m not saying that life will be peachy full of butterflies and rainbows. Obviously. By all means prepare for your environment, possible job loss, or layoff, or whatever you feel you should prep for. But don’t sell yourself short… Read more »
Spanish flu did not collapse civilization in 1918/1919. Nor were bodies piled up in USA cities. Now what happened in the poorer areas of the world is anyone’s guess. The civil war did not cause shtf or chaos either nationally. America has been lucky and luck always runs out. However a total financial sector collapse will be a symptom not a cause of shtf nationally. Ration Books, Nationalization, Propoganda are all tools that would be used to keep banking alive by the government that basically is the financial sector. It is ultimately futile to argue about the cause of shtf… Read more »
Hi JD, Agree with you on this one:-) It is more likely that my RRSP (Canadian 401) will have some value when I retire than the world will completely be screwed. If it goes totally bust I’ve had tax relief every year by adding to my RRSP. For the Canadian banks to go bust then the Government who prints money has to go bust as they directly insure a lot of the bank holdings for us Canadians. Not saying it could not happen but I see it only happening if civilization goes down due to another reason. A lot of… Read more »
Lol, and I agree with you on this one! People have been crying for years the end of the world is coming, and those people have long since died. I for one will not let the fear of the world ending skew my retirement plans. But at the same time I’m not saying to not prepare for bad days either. I live in the extreme northeast and if one has not prepared, one is plain foolish. Chances are I will hit retirement and trucks will still be rolling and planes will still be flying and I will be enjoying my… Read more »
Agreed except about murdering the fish 🙂
The people who devote 100% of their efforts and money to prepping need professional help. It is insurance. It is smart. I’ve a few years worth of food and spend a lot of time reading, watching, thinking about it but it is a hobby not a life style. Life lived waiting for mass death seems a bit depressing
Correct! A total, systemic collapse of a national or global banking system would be have to be precipitated by something on a scale that far exceeds the banking system itself. In your case and mine, the entire governments of Canada AND the U.S. would have to fail either simultaneously, or in quick succession. And, when I say “fail,” I mean totally. No government. No federal or local authority. No means of communicating information, directives or policies, etc.
‘Preparing for the world to descend into chaos’ Really? Preparing?
So What world have you been on for the past X years pal?
The real world. Apparently it’s different from the one you live in. Perhaps you might need to change your tinfoil hat. I think it’s getting too small and cutting off circulation to your brain.
Seeing as you are obviously a true believer in the current system of global funny money masquerading as a financial model may I suggest the following course of action to show that you are not a scaredy cat like the rest of us sane retirees? Take every liquid Dollar you currently have on hand, then to be sure that you have sufficient skin in the game pawn your vehicles, take out a monstrous loan against your house and plonk the entire proceeds on a 30 year NEGATIVE interest bearing bond, sovereign or commercial and then tell us how well you… Read more »
Lmao! Ya ok. Your reply is about the lamest I’ve seen in these commentaries. Where in the bloody hell did anyone say anything even remotely close to what you posted?! Anyone that is of middle age like I am, that has an opportunity to partake in a 401k or retirement account, but doesn’t because of the coming “financial collapse” is a blithering idiot! I never said to not have preps put away, what I’m saying is, what happens if it doesn’t happen? So what, your gonna work the rest of your life till you drop dead? You’re gonna live off… Read more »
Dream on with your prepper lunacies. Do you imagine that anyone will give a fiddlers for property rights when the system implodes? Your local community War Lords will be round to your bug-out plot/land/whatever and forcibly take the lot from you while they snuff out your life with contempt. Be advised, I’m long retired, very healthy, doing well and still extremely solvent so I wont be pumping gas for you or anyone else and that includes your mentor Brian the Genius Financial Planner for many a long year. BCNU —– Original Message —– From: Disqus To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, February… Read more »
Dave, go back on your meds, your drifting into fantasy land again..
Now that was fun!
I’m still trying to get my brain around the ‘because you think the system will never fail…leverage everything into negative rate bonds…’
A person believing the house of cards won’t collapse doesn’t suddenly make them stupid enough to procure bad investments.
That’s some strong deep end material.
Lol, I know right? It’s obvious he can’t maintain a coherent, on subject conversation. I think he needs stronger Prozac…
Thanks for the good laugh. You have reinforced the lie that banks are stable,and our current world financial “system” is in deed the largest Ponzi Scheme ever devised. Sorry Brian, I never have felt the need for snake oil. We prep in our family because we have witnessed personal financial disasters NOT of our own making, political chicanery and natural “act of God” events, that show us we need to have our own supply of “money” independent of any financial institutions that, like the Cypriot banks, are salivating over being granted the “opportunity” to make money from confiscated depositors via… Read more »
Move along, nothing to see here.
This article doesn’t deal with the increasing chances of high inflation. In the history of economies, EVERY nation in our situation (very high debt level, printing massive amounts of currency) has experience extremely high inflation -no, not talking about 8-10% inflation, but rather 25-75% inflation. It will devalue the US dollar. It may not cause the US govt to collapse, but it will cause major problems for everyone who uses the US dollar. Look at what Venezuela is going thru now, or google 1920s Germany. yes, it does happen. We’ve been born in the greatest nation on earth, but many… Read more »
One problem that stand in the way of your statement. The U.S. dollar is the world reserve currency. The rest of the world values its currency based on how much they hold in their central bank of U.S. dollars. The day it stops being the reserve currency we’re doomed!!!!!
1. This is not how the value of non us currencies are determined. 2. Although the us dollar was named as the world’s reserve currency, countries hold multiple foreign exchange currencies in reserve. 3. There are tangible moves to define new ‘reserve’ currency(ies). 4. Bring called the world’s reserve currency is meaningless in all practical puposes.
wow.. and they said the Titanic wouldnt sink also.. sorry, your not the only person that works for a bank…banks do fail. and yes on thier own for many reasons… the gov has a interest in keeping them afloat. why? because it will cause a cascade effect. The US system is sturdier than most countries but can still fail.. at 19 trillion in debt and them want to print more? then what happens when your dollar is worthless and it takes 100 dollars for a loaf of of bread…everything eventually fails… everything..
I am curious….. Let us look at Greece, Venezuela, Croatia, Italy, Spain, Argentina… (All in the last few years…)
To the author and anyone else… with them failing or failed… who can say we are or are not next? Although America is great… we are still only human
And although the author does mention corrections to the market, he is correct in that aspect, we are due for a major correction.
There is no comparison between a Greece or Venezuela (both socialist countries) and the U.S. The economic foundations, fiscal policies and regulatory structures are entirely different.
And the current admin wants to void many of those protective regulatory structures, of course in order to help out those poor “job creators” who would create SO many jobs manipulating markets if only we would let them.
I manage my retirement mutual funds (individual stocks are for the very rich only). Move most stocks to bonds to money market and back again depending on how high the DOW goes. When it drops I take a bit of a loss but then move back into stocks. Repeat. Does take much adjusting nor have to do it more than 3-6 times a year. I emerged from 2008 even so down about $10000 as I had added to the funds. Not market timing but a gradual readjustment over a year or so. You need to look at GDP to Debt… Read more »
Okay, the world will go on…in some form. But that doesn’t mean ordinary people, even those with means, will not suffer a great deal. How about Germany and Austria post-World War I? People starved and died for years, as their currency value dropped to nothing. That certainly was not fundamentally the fault of bankers, but the point is lots of DIFFERENT things can happen that can dramatically change our lives. I don’t think anybody on this forum is saying that when the stock market crashes (as it will) everybody will starve, and the world as we know it will end.… Read more »
Of course the future is unknown. Basic tenet of futurism. It could be much better than today. Shtf is not certain nor is living until I retire. I’m planning for both and neither
Well written BUT…….. what about the Derivatives, bail INs, the war on CASH(see India)., the collapse of RETAIL (see Sears, Kmart, Macys, Aeropostale, Learners, Staples, Kohls, etc,etc,etc.)?
Well written “feel good” article. Although I am undeniably (as we all are) part of this man made system, I’m going to continue preparing for what could come. The monetary system is deeply ingrained into society, but is based on lies, greed and deception. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
Just finished reading all the comments. Apparently some think having all their wealth in ones and zeros out is cyber space is smart planning ahead. Its electronic fiat currency, or course, that is backed by the full faith and credit of the US, which now is next to nothing. Good luck with that.
Thanks. I am also preparing for a major global nuclear war. I am not preparing for an independent global complete failure of the banking system. I am prepared for a severe economic downturn
No one on here said that. I do not. What is the point is some fear porn quasi intellects on YouTube are endlessly spouting financial doom SOON! Videos that are not based on any reasonably possible future scenario. Many of them think hoarding gold and silver will protect them from said end of banking which is amusing. You need a banking system to use bullion. Otherwise if you can carry it it’s only use is decorative or to establish a new life in a new country that has a functioning banking sector. You have faith bullion will be valuable? It’s… Read more »
When or if the SHTF, the bankers will be the first to grab the money bag and run. That’s prepping for bankers. The rest of us will have to struggle along while the bankers bank is locked up tight and he has our money. Bankers and lawyers are never, never to be trusted or believed
Be specific. Exactly where to you think the bankers will “run” with their bags of money?
So you’re saying Rob Kirby, P. C. Roberts, and more are miss-informed? I think you need to show more citation for what is currently just a bunch of vague assurances.
Well writen, BUT……. what about bank bail in’s (Cyprus), the war on cash (India and much of the EU), limited transactions in cash( most of Europe and the US), the loss of value for the dollar (worth 4% of what it was 100 years ago), multiple trillions of worthless derivatives, the colapse of retail (Sears, Kmart, Macy’s, Learners, Aeropostale, Kohls, Staples, Coldwater Creek, Radio Shack etc.)?
While I don’t disagree with the author, I do believe that he is missing a point. He is correct that the economy will always go on. It will rebound and yes there will be people that will find a way to make money through an “event”. However, an Economic Collapse doesn’t mean that the economy just stops cold turkey. There will be winners and there will be losers. By being prepared, you are increasing your odds of getting through the event until the economy bounces back, and for some to even thrive through it. Look at Venezuela… just a few… Read more »
The commentary really illustrates that some get it, but many do not.
Great comment Bob 🙂
I think every comment has truth here but in the context of the article Brian is correct. Preppers are planning a sudden total banking collapse unrelated to anything else (highly unlikely) but see their homes as having cash value (maybe, maybe not)
But we actually had a sudden and unpredicted banking collapse in 2008 that was pretty much complete and derived solely from within the banking system. It is very easy to say in hindsight that “of course the government bailed out the ststem” but it was not so clear cut at the time and they could easily have let the whole banking system collapse. Yes,it is unlikely, but disaster is by definition not the norm.
Good example Simon. The world’s banking system was no where near total collapse in 2008. The USA and parts of Europe and Asia were near bankruptcy. Would have sucked but strong and safe banks from elsewhere would have filled the void.
In banking ups and downs are normative. The 2008 was clearly predicted. See the excellent film The Big Short for a fun example. I had mainly moved out of stocks by the end of 2007 and dashed back in at the end of 2008
Like I said above, the U.S. dollar is the world reserve currency. The rest of the world values its currency based on how much they hold in their central bank of U.S. dollars. The day it stops being the reserve currency we’re doomed!!!!!
The USA certainly will suffer unbelievable hardship but globally we will be fine
I think that this author is most likely correct in that an economic collapse won’t be what starts TEOTWAWKI however I think economic collapse will result if the end ever happens. As he stated, the world is tied together and if there is something serious enough to change all of our lives, and the way we currently live, survival not the economy will be on our minds. I choose to spend money on supplies and gaining skills, not hording gold, silver, or any other type of currency. If there is an end to the world and resulting economic collapse we… Read more »
If Indonesia were to suddenly stop producing coconuts (it is the world’s largest producer), the global economy would be largely unaffected. However, if the loss of sunlight was the cause of Indonesia’s coconut crop failure, the entire world would be affected simultaneously, and for reasons that are far more important than coconuts.
I liked the article, good to keep the synapses firing. As usual the comments are all over the map, it’s so nice to have the First Amendment. Unfortunately some a little hateful to others thinking. Oh well, the world we live in now I guess. My take; are we already not in an economic collapse? Anyone here remember when the “market” was 3000? How about when gas cost 55¢? And theNational Debt was balanced”? Is inflation NOT a collapse? Now the market is 20K, gas is back to $250+ (and rising) and the National Debt is $20 TRILLION. So basically… Read more »
remember about the website “The Prepper Journal is a daily survival blog devoted to a wide variety of preparedness, survival, self-reliance and personal defense topics for readers who want to protect themselves and their family from seen and unseen disasters in our future.” why would you need to protect yourself from something you think will never happen? I agree it has generated a heated discussion, which i think is fine, & personall,y I like the back and forth, but lets not go overboard on things that havent happened. I think if you are a prepper, you want to prepare for… Read more »
Well said!
This interdependent finanvil status of the world reminds me of that time when war was impossible because there was thus huge interconnected network of a bazillion defence alliance treaties. No country would ever want to start a war with everyone. Then some idiot killed Franz Ferdinand.
It really depends on what you mean by “collapse.” If things are so bad that most people are starving and the streets are filled with rioters, I’d say that’s a collapse, regardless of whether people are still trading on Wall Street.
Lets not mix topics with economic paranoia with the fed. I don’t want to go on a rant…The Fed IS evil. Read that history some time. Midnight congressional votes where only ‘friends’ were invited. In some cases, some congressmen and senators were forbidden entry. The acts that created the fed, and the federal income tax were beyond shady, and fail to meet constitutional standards. In fact, the decision by the supremes to deem income tax legal does not meet constitutional muster either. It was bought and paid for. And yet, the people rolled over. We fought a revolution over a… Read more »
Some people view a 30-50% slide as a collapse, this would be merely another “recession”… I, along with many others, view the stock market as overbought as of right now and think we “should” be facing about a 16-20% correction sometime in the near (2-4 month) future. Then again, the market can be manipulated in so many ways, any prediction should be taken with a grain of salt.
All that being said, I am not 100% out of the market, but hold approximately 35%-40% in cash.
***** Well said. Unfortunately based on many of the comments, not read well. SAD. So to all my fellow Prepper Peeps; repeat after me, “A ‘collapse’ is not The End, it’s An Ending – that’s all. Then I will pick myself up, check on the well-being of those near me and (importantly and inevitably) GET ON WITH IT.” The Great Recession of Greed (2008) was devastating, I had friends who went from being ‘paper millionaires’ with 7 and 8 figure net worth to zero or worse, some even lost their own homes. Yet others who were not ‘way out on… Read more »
Take a good, long look at Venezuvala, please ! They are eating all the dogs, cats and birds, and little kids are dropping like flies from starvation, because of Socialism, but we hardly hear about that on the Lame Stream “News.” “Man has ruled man –to his injury.” The KJV Bible tells me that much. I am happy and glad that I voted for President Trump, but he is up against so many evil, wicked, people and entities… sorry. If he can get U.S. thru this year in one piece with all the Lefty-Loser dogs nipping at his heels, it… Read more »