Canned goods and ammunition.
I think Mr. Elliott is right we are not even in the end of the beginning moment. The Fed, Bank of England, and ECB are way behind what it took to finally end the inflation that plagued the 70s. Yet Central Banks recently released statements claiming they are done with the aggressive rate hikes for now.
Brilliant essay on the collapse of civilization. Please read and share.
“Collapse of Civilization: Lessons Voters Might Take From Roman Britain”
2 November, 2022
[Conclustion] Of course electricity is only one element of what keeps our society civilized. There’s gasoline, there’s trade, there’s what used to be a widespread respect for the rule of law. Imagine no diesel fuel. Trucks wouldn’t be able to deliver food and store shelves will go bare. You probably have enough food in your kitchen for your family to last a few days or maybe a week at most. Then what? Are you going to grow wheat on your windowsill or in your backyard? Is the neighborhood stray cat going to be your family’s next meal? Do you have a cow for milk? Not to mention medicines, building materials, gasoline for your car… the list of goods delivered via diesel is endless.
One of the downsides of trade, division of labor and economies of scale is that most of us are dependent on others to provide for us those things we don’t produce for ourselves… which is to say, almost everything. Our society is based on a trade system where we get paid to do some things and we pay others to do the things we don’t. It’s a well oiled machine… until it’s not.
And that’s the point. The climate alarmists who want to do away with fossil fuels have no concept of the ramifications of that folly. The equity cultists who want to eliminate the police and “reform” the justice system don’t care about the consequences of that absurdity.
Just as the razor thin layer of atmosphere surrounding the earth sustains life on earth, our modern society thrives thanks to plentiful, inexpensive energy and a respect for the rule of law. Inexplicably, those are the two primary targets of the Democrats who are currently in charge of wide swaths of the United States. Indeed Californians regularly endure the absurd manmade disaster of rolling blackouts while Illinois is about to essentially decriminalize crime. Neither is necessary…
When Americans step into their well lit, safe and private voting booths on November 8th they’d do well to think of those 5th century Britons who were about to careen into a darkness from which it would take almost a millennia to emerge, and vote accordingly.
Socialism’s great till you run out of other people’s money.
Bull crap. Money is still cheap, historically speaking. It’s just not free anymore. Hedge fund managers will complain because interest is an expense and their costs just went up.
We went to total fiat money in 1971 so people and banks partied hardy.
The result is similar to what happens when people are encouraged to gamble - they can't quit and many get in over their heads.
Trouble is, they took out loans using the "Full Faith and Credit Clause" (Article IV, Sec. 1) which means on the credit card of "We the People".
Without constraints (like species money) Congress spent like drunken sailors with a bottomless credit card.
"Here come da' Judgement!"
This statement at the beginning of the article shows part of the problem. So many hedge funds and so much "asset" management and so much investment advice spews forth daily and splashes across the political landscape as well.
The average American has never needed asset management, merely the good advice to "save for a rainy day" and not hand over their savings to people who will only profit from it, even through losses to "investors."
The financialization of everything and easy credit has become the drug of choice for too many, who now owe more than they can repay, and the poster child for this is the US Treasury, courtesy of politics. Time to abrogate national debt, period, and start over.
On a side note, this important topic seems to not interest the cadres of Freepers whose only and deep interest has been Covid and the non-vaccine vaccines, and non-NATO and non-allies Ukraine and Russia, as "one issue" voters. A far greater threat to our beloved nation has been the massive rise in national debt, a true "real and present danger" now. Courtesy of Democrats and RINOs exclusively.
Societal collapse and chaos is not a bug, it’s a feature of Western economic policy. It’s hard to start a Great Reset when everyone is fat and happy.
They sky is falling! The sky is falling!
‘Cheap money’ has only been around since about GWB’s 2nd term. Hardly 20 years.
Many of us remember the rising prices/interest rates that started during the Nixon-Ford era and skyrocketed during the Carter era. We adjusted. We survived.
The current hyperbole makes for newsies filling up print space/cable air time. The economy is like a pendulum — it swings back and forth, usually taking a couple or more decades. These used to be called economic corrections. Painful yes. But necessary.
We are beginning to pay in pain for the near-zero GWB interest rates.
Some caution is needed here. Yes, inflation is a problem but derailing the world economic train with sudden and ridiculous rate hikes is worse.