Free Republic

How to survive a depression How to Survive A Depression Today Solutions On This Site - How To Survive A Depression A Global Depression Survival Store and Resource Site Many of us are wondering how to survive a depression today in 2010. Current global economies appear to be on a downward spiral and there is no end in sight. Everyday there's a new industry that is tanking. The key is to plan on how to survive a depression without anyone telling you that a depression is full swing. By the time they tell you it's a depression it will be...

Get a kit.” “Make a plan.” “Be informed.” For years, Evonne Richards had seen the signs and read the messages urging her to prepare for an emergency. A mother of four, she found it easy to push off the task. After all, the only threat that seemed likely in the landlocked 21 acres where the family had lived 27 years was a house fire. In September, she finally printed off the checklist from ready.gov. She stockpiled about 60 gallons of water in empty milk and juice containers, adding a dash of bleach to each. She bought a three-day supply of...

In today’s “modern” globalist economy, we have relied upon centralized and highly manipulated trade, forced interdependency, senseless and undisciplined consumption, endless debt creation, welfare addiction, and the erosion of quality, as a means to sustain a system that ultimately is DESIGNED to erode our freedoms not to mention our ability to effectively take care of ourselves. We have been infantized by our financial environment. In the near future, those who wish to live beyond a meager staple of government handouts (if any are even given) will be required to make a 180 degree reversal from their current lifestyle of dependency...

I am posting this vanity to take the pulse of fellow Freepers regarding the possibility of martial law being imposed, and your thoughts on the best way to react when it is. I’ve been something of a “prepper” for a few years now, watching history unfold and putting store by the truth of the old Boy Scout Motto. I’ve watched our imperfect US Constitution be easily subverted, but I have held fast to my faith in the much more fundamental Declaration of Independence. Preparedness, the “eternal vigilance” our Forefathers’ spoke of, has seemed a patriotic duty in these dark times....

Top Post-Collapse Barter Items And Trade Skills Brandon Smith June 10th, 2011 The concept of private barter and alternative economies has been so far removed from our daily existence here in America that the very idea of participating in commerce without the use of dollars or without the inclusion of corporate chains seems almost outlandish to many people.However, the fact remains that up until very recently (perhaps the last three to four decades) barter and independent trade was commonplace in this country. Without it, many families could not have survived. Whether we like it or not, such economic methods will...

Be prepared to "shelter in place" or "bug out" as appropriate. "Wilding" events have already happened in some major cities. This is likely to spread if there is a "fiscal" or "monetary" accident and the "FSA" (free **** army) funds get cut off. These events could spread very quickly, and many large cities could go near-feral within days. You need to know what you're going to do about that if it happens. If you think it can't, you're wrong - it both can and might. Being prepared costs nothing. Being unprepared might cost you your life. Consider walking down the...

Reality is beginning to break through. Gas and grocery prices are on the rise, home values are down, and vast majorities think the country is on the wrong track. The result is sadness and frustration, but also an inchoate rage more profound than the sign-waving political fury documented during the elections last fall. -SNIP- •Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair said: "The global economic crisis ... already looms as the most serious one in decades, if not in centuries ... Economic crises increase the risk of regime-threatening instability if they are prolonged for a one- or two-year period," said...

Alternate headline: Great Depression worries go mainstream. I guess we can count Barack Obama among the 51% who aren’t worried about it, since he’s not even worrying about a double-dip recession. CNN’s latest poll shows an almost even split between Americans who expect a big collapse within a year, and, er, Americans who aren’t quite as worried about it: President Barack Obama’s overall approval rating has dropped below 50 percent as a growing number of Americans worry that the U.S. is likely to slip into another Great Depression within the next 12 months, according to a new national poll. The...

The global economy has become so incredibly unstable at this point that it is not going to take much to plunge the world into a horrific economic nightmare. The foundations of the world economic system are so decayed and so corrupted that even a stiff breeze could potentially topple the entire structure over. Over the past couple of months a constant parade of bad economic news has come streaming in from Europe, Asia and the United States. Signs of an impending economic slowdown are everywhere. So what “tipping point” will trigger the next global economic downturn? Nobody knows for sure,...

While I won’t follow all the LDS advice – nor were the Mormons saying I should – I learned some pointers I will put into practice as time and my household budget permit. There are many daunting questions to consider when it comes to emergency preparedness. To start simply, would you have water available if your tap water supply was interrupted? Just FYI, a gallon of water per person per day for two weeks is considered a standard by the American Red Cross. (My 5-gallon water jug in the basement surely doesn’t look like much, does it?) My Mormon mentors...

On the rare occasion that New Yorkers talk about farming, it's usually something along the lines of what sort of organic kale to plant in the vanity garden at the second house in the Adirondacks. But on a recent afternoon, The Observer had a conversation of a different sort about agricultural pursuits with a hedge fund manager he'd met at one of the many dark-paneled private clubs in midtown a few weeks prior. "A friend of mine is actually the largest owner of agricultural land in Uruguay," said the hedge fund manager. "He's a year older than I am. We're...

Freepers: Due to last night's storms in Central Arkansas, our family found out the HARD WAY just how important communications (commo) is when the power goes out, telephone lines get blown down, the cell towers are destroyed, and we are left in the dark with multiple tornados inbound.Anyways, I wanted to solicit Freepers help on unconventional communications with family such as Citizen Band (CB), FRS, GMRS, etc. I am going to attend our Central Arkansas Ham Radio meeting next month and see about going "one step further" to get my ham radio license. Please read below for my situational needs.

NEW YORK (AP) - Damage from the housing bust is spreading to areas once thought to be immune. In at least 14 major U.S. metro areas, prices are now at 2003 levels—when the housing bubble was just starting to inflate. Prices will likely fall further this year, making many people reluctant to buy or sell. That would push down sales and prices more. The depressed housing industry is slowing an economy that has shown strength elsewhere. And it's starting to hurt those who bought years before the housing boom began. In some cities, people who have paid their mortgages for...

During the housing boom, anyone who could fog a mirror could get a mortgage. Today, only highly qualified borrowers can get financing — let alone the best rates. The latest data from the Federal Reserve shows that nearly a quarter of people who apply for loans are turned down. “Good borrowers with one or two blemishes on their credit are being denied credit,“ said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. The denial rates tell only half the story. Many potential buyers aren’t even applying for loans because they assume they can’t get one — even with...

The latest house price data (the S&P Case-Shiller index) shows a clear downward trend for the most recent six months, as shown in the graph below: The next graph shows how this year's data fits in with the long-term trend.  It is clear that the house price bubble, which began in 1997 and peaked in 2006, has not yet finished popping: How We Got Here The black stars in the above graph highlight 1951 and 1997, the two years when Congress changed how the capital gains tax applies to home sales.  The first change produced 46 years of wealth...

Online retail sales keep climbing, big box retailers keep wondering what to do with all their space, and small stores struggle to survive at all. As a result of that nasty brew, Malls Face Surge in Vacancies. Mall vacancies hit their highest level in at least 11 years in the first quarter, new figures from real-estate research company Reis Inc. showed. In the top 80 U.S. markets, the average vacancy rate was 9.1%, up from 8.7%. The outlook is especially bad for strip malls and other neighborhood shopping centers. Their vacancy rate is expected to top 11.1% later this year,...

Housing prices will not get a Spring bounce and will actually fall during the industry’s historically best season as buyers continue to wait for that elusive “housing bottom,” according to surveys and analysis by two top Wall Street firms. “Our monthly survey of real estate agents indicated a decline in buyer traffic in March, as buyers chose to wait for more signs of balance in the market,” said Credit Suisse’s Daniel Oppenheim, who surveyed 1,200 real estate agents from across the country. “We would expect additional weakness in pricing, as sellers will likely attempt to use price to sell their...

It was during that conversation with Ray a few days ago that he nailed me with that question. We had been talking for about an hour about how things went down here in Argentina, the similarities, inflation, how “shopping carts” keep getting more and more expensive, how crime affects your lifestyle. But what to do? The person now gets it, the person not only understands the wisdom in preparing for disasters large and small but comprehends that due to the current economic situation, life in general is going to change from now on, unemployment, inflation, loss of life quality in...

In the survival/emergency preparedness community, there is an inordinate amount of discussion devoted to exactly what kind of gear and how much each would-be survivor needs to live through whichever approaching cataclysm they foresee. While the nuts and bolts of survival gear are certainly important, it is the intangible aspects of attitude, knowledge and skill that truly separate the survivor from the person who just bought a bunch of stuff. Before you start throwing money into a survival kit, you need to start thinking like a survivor.

As a truck driver hauling produce and food up and down the West Coast, Tom Martin knows first-hand how vulnerable the U.S. food supply is to disruption. "I know what our supply chains are like," he says. "I know grocery stores rely on just in time services; they only have three days worth of food in any grocery store." In a disaster, that food will be gone in less than a day, and if you don't have food stored up, you'll be stuck, says Martin, who is one of a growing number of "preppers," or people who are prepping for...