Tuesday, March 15, 2016

iceburg ahoy!


ICEBERG AHOY
*
note: If you were planning on buying it anyway, a small bonus in volume 70, issue 9, page 30 of Shotgun News ( I hate the new name of Firearms News ) is a hilarious truck gun debate.  Clean yet funny put-downs and insults of no small wit.
*
I don’t know about you’all, but I for one have been closely following economic events as of late.  And from all I can see, it’s full speed ahead and icebergs ahoy!  Now, nobody wants to be the schmuck who missed calling the 2008 economic implosion, once again.  So ever since then we have had our share of Chicken Littles On Crack running around creating quite the racket and the traffic jam.  I was calling for the collapse of western civilization far before that, and so I do NOT feel really bad about constantly telling you to panic, but even still I have been hesitant at times about joining the chorus of voices screeching that the sky is falling ( at least from an economic viewpoint.  Resource depletion is another matter entirely ).  In fact, I’d hazard a wager that at times many of the warning voices were government run, just to create the frenzy of false fear used to create a Boy Who Cried Wolf deal, putting the herd back to sleep.  Hush, my precious, hush.  Nothing to see here, move along.  The crazy alarmists are just agitated again.

*

But let’s review the last six to nine months, shall we?  Chinese growth, reversing for quite a few years but protected by official statistic manipulation ( no doubt taught to an exchange student by the US government ), dipped to such hideous levels as to be noticeable.  Since quantitative easing had always been about enriching the 1% rather than stimulating the economy, we finally reached the point where consumerism was no longer possible as an economic engine.  Banks were reducing consumer credit in fear of losing what few assets they had propping up a teetering doubled down derivatives market, and credit was all that got us through the decade previous to the housing bubble pop.  Credit was contracting, cheaper energy was being replaced by dear and expensive energy and real unemployment/wage shrink was rising ( shrinking pay, shrinking hours, mandatory new healthcare tax, on top of a contracting economy needing credit, consumption and cheap energy ).  As demand for consumer goods shrank, inventory contracted and raw materials orders shrunk ( including oil ).  China had little choice but to contract, the new paradigm of a middle class propelling its own economy patently false.

*

You don’t get to pretend that the economy is strong when oil production has been falling for years ( everywhere but the US and Canada, net global production flat.  NOT increasing as our economy demands ) yet prices went into free-fall suddenly ( the fantasy of OPEC trying to crush the frackers at the expense of their own economies full of malcontents waiting to rebel is nice in that it preserves the myth of the Thousand Year Fracking Reich, the myth that the middle east won’t run out of oil and the myth that the economy is doing super duper, all at the same time.  That is what is known as a 3-fer.  But it is three helpings of horse apples, not of good news ).  Oil prices fell below the level of production cost for the obvious reason the economy is faltering.  Not many can any longer afford the extras that took energy to produce and ship.  China just announced its exports dropped 8% in February alone.  Oops-add that to the last Christmas season fiasco.  Does this prove that the economy is about to crash?  Of course not.  The only good economic news we’ve had in the last nine years is that the can is able to be kicked down the road some more.  The latest bout of bad news is just that, the latest.  Not necessarily the last.

*

Yet, how many times do you think the gods agree to help out a brother and actually give him a warning to jump into the first lifeboat?  You keep ignoring the signs and soon all the boats are filled up and launched and you are stuck on the deck listening to the band, holding your junk in your hands.  Are you telling me that most of my minions are silly enough to stare dumbly at each other, their reproductive organs firming entrenched in a grasp, not sure what to do?  While it is true that no one can time the collapse, no one can afford to ignore it indefinitely either.  If you don’t know which straw breaks the camels back you need to step away before the heavy bastards collapses on you, squishing you and your junk.  When the volcano starts spitting more and more rocks and smoke, do you really want to ignore it, knowing it has done this a time or two already and nothing major happened?

*

I am not saying you should panic.  What I AM saying is that you should be asking yourself if failing to panic is really all that smart this time.  I think this sucker is going down, myself.  Your mileage may vary.  I’ve already written on this, talking about that gut feeling, that subconscious warning.  And it just keeps getting worse.  I hope like hell I am here in a year still writing to you.  But that is hope.  Realistically, I would be surprised.

END

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page.  IF YOU DON’T SEE THE AD, DISABLE AD BLOCK ( go to the Ad Blocker while on my page and scroll down the menu to “disable this site” ). You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year.  Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for mere Book Money, so do your part.*** 
*Contact Information*  Links To Other Blogs *  Land In Elko*  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com
*Link To All My Published Books
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

15 comments:

  1. I too, feel the rubber band about to snap.
    So, just in case...

    I'd like to thank once again, you and your minions whom helped me out during my recent rough patch. Just goes to prove, that those least able to afford it, can be the most emphatic generous souls ! You all, will be remembered for your kindness.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here is a comparison for you. The Bison Minions donated the same amount as the Survival Acres guy got on his fundraiser. At least on the first go-round. And I'm sure he has more readers.

      Delete
  2. What do you need to have to be "ready" for the collapse.
    A plan.
    A back up plan.
    A back up to the backup plan.
    Security (self defense AND some level of defense of your goods)
    Shelter (for yourself an your goods)
    Water (collection, storage, purification)
    Food (storage, preparation, creation)
    Clothing (sturdy long lasting stored, and reparable clothing for all situations)
    Hygiene and medicines
    Skills, Knowledge, Entertainment, Social Interactions.
    How much / how long of each of the above? 3 days, 3 weeks, 7 weeks, 7 months, 7 years, 7 decades. Get a little enough to fulfill the first duration, then a little more for the second, and then the third, and so on and so forth. Once you have reached 7 decades worth you have planned for yourself and your immediate descendants, and should leave your descendants only advice and guidance for how to prepare for themselves and their descendants.
    And the three fold plan should be figured out for each level of time and other item on the list of necessities.
    You can address individual issues/emergencies/crisis with the plans, but just having generic plans for the items will cover most of the individual causes of needing them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I feel comfortable with having near seven years, albeit at a peasant living level. No need to leave more, I don't think my kids will move closer.

      Delete
    2. Even in the great depression with no money at all people moved to any place where they thought they had a better chance, across mountains rivers deserts forests ghettos etc etc. Even internationally. MIL was born in Austria grew up in Poland (family moved because of the depression) until @ 5yrs old, was rounded up as part of the holocaust, her mother and her escaped just before getting to auswitch, then hid in Nazi Germany until the end of the war escaping to western berlin just as the wall went up, proceeded to escape to the USA ahead of the late 60s depression by marrying an American service man. So in her life she moved for economic or political reasons through borders teeming with armed guards at least 3 times (depending on how you count it). Sure oil down it will be even harder than it was then but SOME transport will exist of some sort, so don't be too surprised if your kids or parents or cousins or whomever, show up at your door expecting a better chance than they had where they were.
      And if not them, you could quite possibly, find yourself with some one else you care about that you would like to leave a legacy to. (maybe the nurse that changes your old age diapers?)

      Delete
    3. Some transport most likely won't suffice, at 300 and 3000 miles for family. Outside the New Old Ladies immediate one of course. Gluten intolerant bastards, needing expensive rice rather than wheat.

      Delete
  3. For those of us who see collapse coming - every day is one day closer to it. Alas, that doesn't mean I'm ready, or that I have many resources to get readier, but this woman is still doing what she can.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey, what else can you do? At least your priorities are there.

      Delete
  4. “I hope like hell I am here in a year still writing to you.  But that is hope.  Realistically, I would be surprised.”

    I hope so too James? Maybe now is a good time to start planning that monthly newsletter once again? When Kevin Costner comes riding up on his horse with mail sack we'll know the end is here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Still pondering a mailed CD-ROM as a monthly deal. Not sure if the PO or the Web goes first, or together.

      Delete
  5. If anyone has been completely ignoring the warning alarms since 2008, these latest alarms should have woken them up. If they continue to ignore them, well, they had their chance to find a floatation device or floating object to cling to, and their demise wont wring too many tears from me, other than those children whose parents were the ones ignoring the clangor.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I will still cry for them. But that doesn't mean I will feed them at the cost of my family.
      Might have to 'adopt' some into the family (to marry my kids if they are ideal physically mentally and emotionally, so that I can keep the family genetics strong and diverse. (the local pool(s) are a little to 'insular' for my liking.

      Delete
    2. Help, my gene pool is stagnant!

      Delete
  6. There is a huge psychological advantage to understanding that things might get really crappy at any moment. It took some people months to recalibrate after the 2008 recession. Some just stayed in denial. That, plus the "not available at any cost" items in a crash are important.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Take a look at "The Baltic Dry Index" I think it's down to 290 from a past high of about 12,000. It's a measurement of goods movement by sea across the globe.


    As far as a crash, I just prep, buy food, grow food, am learning to preserve food, buy tools and expand and refine skills. And do 100 other prepping/ homesteading things to better my chance of weathering the storm (Category 100 economic Hurricane coming) we are about to get hit with.


    Chuck Findlay

    ReplyDelete

COMMENTS HAVE BEEN CLOSED