HJL,
My wife and I were giving a home school economics lesson at the pumps the other day. We talked to our kids about how most people live and work and the daily driving it requires. My wife and I concluded that this gas price drop has put $350 per month back in the pocket of the average neighbor around here. That is no small thing.
I saw sales at my antique store rise in the last half of December and continue at a brisk pace this month. That people are buying used stuff points to the new frugality that the economic media has trouble pulling their arms around. Somehow we are supposed to continue to act like sheeple and blindly go pay top dollar at the mall for landfill bound junk made in China and live like the glamorous people portrayed on television.
There is a group of people I call my “board”. They are smart in their own areas. I floated the idea that Congress and Fed have closed the interest expense loop with that bill that requires the Fed to turn over to the Treasury excess earning. With that act they have given the Fed the ability to raise interest rates without immediately making the government insolvent. I got a collective “oh my!” as the dawning spread over their faces. The other thing that I floated is that whenever some jerk that is shorting the market, like Soros or RBS, makes a scare announcement hoping to inspire panic and make a killing with their short positions I flip up Kitco (they offer pretty graphs that can be easily manipulated). If the price of gold is still static, then it is not a real panic. Of course if gold has spiked then all there is for me to do is stop by the grocery for one last load because there will be nothing I can do to avoid loss. I will be ahead of the people that depend on the evening news, and I’ll be back to throwing mutual fund statements in the corner unopened for the duration.
Another thing about pretty graphs, people that want to scare you play with the time period shown. Not only can liars figure but they can draw pretty graphs. Shorter is scarier, and longer gives perspective.
Am I committed to prepping? Absolutely! We are clearly on our own. I become more resilient every day, week, and month.
However, it takes more than practicing your preps. It is the right thought process, but you have to have a developed skill that others want/need to pay for. Never allow yourself to be just a worker that can be cast off. If you are that worker, you start your journey to being a sovereign individual by learning the why and the substance of everything around you.
RV