Poor
Man Survival
Self
Reliance tools for independent minded people…
ISSN
2161-5543
A Digest of Urban Survival
Resources
Courage
is the strength to face pain, act under pressure, and maintain one's
values in the face of opposition.
- Eleanor Roosevelt
- Eleanor Roosevelt
Is
our economy that of the zero sum game theorists where essentially no
one wins…and we all lose in the end?
An article from Bloomberg caught my eye. The
theme of the article was that China was in the midst of a debt bubble
just like we were in the states back in 2005-2007. The Chinese
economy has slowed big time. Debt levels keep increasing. And yet
property values also keep increasing. And just like in the U.S., the
bubble will pop and a lot of debts will become uncollectible. You
can read the article here.
Why should you care? One reason sticks out. It may take awhile, but eventually you'll pay more to borrow money (no matter how good your credit score). The Chinese have already slowed the amount of U.S. Treasury bonds that they're buying. That will mean a higher interest rate for treasury bonds and everything else.
That'll hurt people in debt. The solution is to reduce the amount of debt you have with the goal of becoming debt-free.
Why should you care? One reason sticks out. It may take awhile, but eventually you'll pay more to borrow money (no matter how good your credit score). The Chinese have already slowed the amount of U.S. Treasury bonds that they're buying. That will mean a higher interest rate for treasury bonds and everything else.
That'll hurt people in debt. The solution is to reduce the amount of debt you have with the goal of becoming debt-free.
I watched the PBS Business News Hour last
night. Virtually every stock indicator is down. Oil firms are
swimming in red ink, Apple stock is down $43 billion in value,
Twitter stock is falling, Whirlpool, etc. The same is happening is
Asia, China, South America and in many parts of Europe.
And did you know…China
is buying the Chicago Stock Exchange?! This was
announced in early February-members of both parties denounced the
takeover and called for the Treasury Department to investigate the
proposed sale but I sure never heard anything about this on TV news!
In recent days, Barack Obama has been running
around boasting that
he saved the world economy from another Great Depression.
But that isn’t true at all…
The
way that
Doug Casey recently put it…
You’ve
got to remember that all of these governments and central banks all
around the world have driven interest rates not just to zero, but to
negative levels in some cases… and they are simultaneously printing
up trillions of currency units. And
even while they are desperately doing that the economy is falling
apart in lots of different ways.
…They’ve
created a super-bubble in bonds, a bubble in stocks, and
meanwhile commodities have collapsed and are below production costs
in many cases.
…The
economy is going to be very, very bad… It’s the next stage of
what I call the Greater Depression.
Further>>
Black swan events [unknown risks] seem to take
place more frequently. For years I’ve warned readers to steer
clear of the stock market. After losing thousands in the market
[yes, I’ve also made some money] but overall, I think it is too
volatile for the small guy who, at least in this country, has a tough
enough time affording his medical costs or putting food on the table.
In many respects I feel Wall Street and the
government bailed on main street a long time ago. Obama just vetoed
a raise for our troops but wants a hefty raise for himself [he’s
already overpaid and has spent over $100 million on vacations-more
than any other president in history…seems he’d rather play golf
than worry about national or international affairs].
If another financial crisis is about to hit as
many are predicting, its aftermath will be the perfect opportunity
for leftists to herd the sheeple into ever more repressive laws like
the un-Patriot Act, move us toward the cashless society so the
government can better track us and so on.
As I’ve repeatedly advised: It is time to
get a significant portion of your assets outside of the stock market
and banking system and put your money into the Poor Man’s
gold-silver coins, food and gardening stock seeds, bartering goods,
guns and ammunition, small farms and rural land with small livestock
for food, etc. Growing and eating your own produce is like having
money in the bank.
You can purchase various types of heirloom,
open-pollinated seeds from specialty seed firms and might check out
Seed Savers Exchange [563-382-5990] or www.seedsavers.org
which is a non-profit dedicated to sharing heirloom seeds. Seeds can
one day prove to be another useful item for barter as well.
Developing personal skills and sideline
businesses which enable you to generate extra cash which you can use
to acquire the above mentioned items and/or to pay down or eliminate
debt is the wiser course of action.
Always try to keep as many options opens as
possible because as I pointed out earlier…you never know when a
Black Swan event could occur.
Additional
Resources
How to
Save $1,378 in 52 Weeks
Saving more than $1,000 throughout the year is
hard, but it's not impossible. By making small adjustments and
changing up your daily routine, you can easily save a significant
amount of money in just one year. And the 52-week savings challenge
can help.
In this challenge, you will save the dollar
value of the week you're on. So for Week 1, you'll save at least $1.
For Week 2, you'll save at least $2, and so on and so on.
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Can
you do it living paycheck to paycheck? Read
more.
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8
dollar-store bargains you shouldn't miss
If you haven't been to a dollar store in a while, you won't believe the savings. And if you do shop there regularly, don't miss these savings!
If you haven't been to a dollar store in a while, you won't believe the savings. And if you do shop there regularly, don't miss these savings!
Yours for
better living,
Bruce
‘the Poor Man’
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