I recommend all to visit Ben Jones' blog and read what the kooksters are talking about: Depression, Armageddon. Unbelievable how farking stupid people are. Reading it is pure comedy.
Readers suggest a topic around personal finance strategies. “Yesterday an angry troll chastised the arrogant HBB bloggers for wishing financial harm to the system. The point was that a recession or depression would hurt all of us and it would serve us right. First off, I disagree with this. Some people do very well during downturns. The key to success during hard times is the preparation that one has taken in advance.”
“What is the best way to prepare for a recession or even depression? Personally, I would say step number one is to treat debt like the ultimate evil. It would be nice to see what people think we terribly arrogant bloggers can do to ensure that the bad times are good to us.”
One replied, “I feel like in many ways preparing for a Depression is exactly what I’ve been doing recently. I’m not worried about the return on what capital I have as so much it’s return back to me. Given the 20% increase in my stock value over the last year, I think it’s getting close to time to bail on equities. What are other people doing?”
One has this plan, “I’ve got a shotgun, rifle, and a 4WD and a country boy can survive. Really, if the SHTF and it’s time to evacuate, I’ll play ‘row row row your boat, gently down the keys’ (to Cuba in a canoe - talk about reverse migration).”
One homeowner said, “I bailed out of stocks 2 yrs ago, have no debt, own my home and car outright, and have savings that will last me for 10 yrs. What else do I need to prepare for a severe downturn? (My hope is that a severe downturn won’t last too long so that I have enough cash to catch the stock mkt on an upswing.)”
One got into specifics, “I think that most on this blog realize that we are headed toward some financial ‘black hole’ (unchartered territory). Each has their own idea of how to protect themselves such as buying gold, t-bills, bonds, specific stocks, or bank CD’s.”
“Yes, I can buy gold now only to see it go down by liquidations sales of margin calls. I can put my money in CD’s only to find out that the FDIC protection is there but that it will take me 5 years to get my money back on an installment plan. Even payments on t-bills could be put in abeyance like withdrawals on the hedge funds downunder.”
“I hear some on this blog advocate buying gold funds that retain the hard metal. Do you really know what is in their vault? If you own the metal, if it is not in coinage you have to pay an assay fee; if you own the coinage you need to own coins that aren’t counterfeit, remember the Krugerrand.”
A reply, “Krugerrands trade quite freely on the open market and i’ve never seen a counterfeit. Gold in coin or bar form is an incredibly dense metal, not easy to counterfeit.”
To which was posted, “Then you haven’t done your homework. Sometime in the ’80’s or ’90’s they were counterfeiting Krugerrands.”
Another asked, “I’d like a discussion of where we should put the funds from an IRA or a 401K.”
One sees this, “Regardless of fiat currency or hard money, I think the things that will get one by in a depression scenario that is often painted around here are mobility and common sense. If you have some kind of skill you can trade work with people, and if you are willing to walk away and not look back you have vastly opened doors.”
“I know that I’m preparing myself to walk away from everything with just a laptop in my bag and the clothes on my back, not that I EVER want to have to, but it’s best to be prepared.”
Another sees this trend, “Farmland & a way to protect it. We might see more co-ops or communes of one type or another, where multiple families farm a piece of land & defend it together.”
“Other than that, flexibility & having skills (to trade) would be a good idea, absolutely.”
From Bloomberg. “Contagion from the allegedly self-contained implosion in the U.S. subprime mortgage market is drifting through the securities industry like mustard gas. It helped push the dollar to a record low yesterday, triggered the biggest deterioration in European corporate-bond risk in at least three years, and drove an index that tracks leveraged-buyout loans to a nine-month low.”
“The bigger unknown is whether the ripples will spread from financial markets into the broader economy, as stricter lending standards reduce the flow of cheap money that has been keeping global growth afloat.”
“‘The incremental risk aversion now evident in the financial markets seems to us to be a sign that the financial liquidity spigot is starting to tighten,’ said Richard Bernstein, chief investment strategist at Merrill Lynch & Co. in New York. ‘The childhood alliteration to remember how to turn a spigot is ‘righty-tighty, lefty-loosey.’ It’s now righty-tighty time for the financial markets.’” |
