Poor Man Survival
Self Reliance tools
for independent minded people…
ISSN 2161-5543
A Digest of Urban Survival Resources
The market is sending
signs a major war and/or a major recession may be imminent…
We’ve seen the Middle
Class living standard steadily degrade over a generation, with a slight uptick
under President Trump. But it may be too
late for a rescue to undo all of the damage which has been done to our economy
due to our wasteful non-stop wars and other wasteful spending [Trump’s latest
budget certainly won’t help in the long run]…
When will the downtrodden finally have had enough, and turn on
their powerful oppressors?
The worms should finally turn against the privileged elites --
those who have benefited so greatly from globalization, corruption, central
bank stimulus and the profiteering of state-enforced cartels.
The government essentially steals money from one group and
hands it to another.
In order for this to occur, four elements must be in place...
In order for this to occur, four elements must be in place...
|
1.
|
The wealth gap must be getting
dramatically bigger.
|
|
2.
|
There must be cultural threats
from those with different values or from outsiders (in other words, minority
populations and immigrants).
|
|
3.
|
The government must be ineffective
at providing solutions.
|
|
4.
|
And there must be growing anger
toward the "elites."
|
Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
We have the largest gap ever between the rich and poor...
We have huge increases in violent protests about immigration and race...
We have a completely ineffective government...
And we have extreme animosity toward the "elites" from both the left and right.
The
central banks of the world have failed: colossally, completely and
dangerously. Yes, they will try to rescue the “markets” once again, as
they did in 2011 and 2016 when things similarly looked to be falling apart.
The
reason they might not be able to succeed this time?
They
are out of rabbits to pull from the proverbial hat.
Our new Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is
fairly unconcerned with economic theory or asset prices. What he cares most
about is regulation and the continued functioning of markets. So as long as
credit -- the lifeblood of the global economy -- is flowing, he may not care
much where prices end up...
Note: For all those
investors expecting the Fed to step in to backstop the recent weakness seen in
the stock market: The
cavalry isn't coming.
After years of force-feeding too much liquidity into world
markets, the central banking cartel is now aware of the Franken-markets it has
created. And now with a new head at the US Federal Reserve, and soon at
the ECB, central bankers have shifted their priority from supporting asset
prices to now actively engineering lower prices.
The specifics about the future elude us today, “predicting” the macro
trends most likely to influence the coming decades is very doable:
Rising trends:
·
Populism
in politics
·
Federal
debt levels
·
Geopolitical
tensions
·
Interest
rates
Falling trends:
·
Funding
levels for pensions [47 states are in very real trouble…IL is at the top of the
list]
·
The
numbers of insects world wide
·
Confidence
in the future among the younger generations
·
Wealth
and income equality
Collapse is a process, not a singular event.
It happens over time, not overnight… set in motion in most cases by people in
positions of power, but helped along by useful idiots among the masses [usually
those who hope to gain something, usually wealth, power and/or control over another
group].
·
“In general, I regard the future as a multitude of
possibilities, but most of them don't look good,” Elias Schwartzman,
29, a musician, told me. “When I'm at retirement age, around 2050, I
think it's possible we'll have seen a breakdown of modern society.” Schwartzman said
that he saw the future as encompassing one of two possibilities: an apocalyptic
“total breakdown of industrial society,” or “capitalism morphing into a
complete plutocracy.” “I think the argument can be made that we're well on the
way to that reality,” he added.
·
Wood, 32, a political consultant, told me via Twitter that she felt
similarly. “I don’t think the world can sustain capitalism for
another decade,” she explained. “It’s socialism or bust. We will literally
start having resource wars that will kill us all if we don’t accept that the
free market will absolutely destroy us within our lifetime [if] we don’t
start fighting its hegemony,” she added.
What the
older generations don't yet understand is that the economic and social models
that rewarded them so richly well are not doing the same for younger
folks. In fact, those old models are visibly breaking down. And
confidence in them is failing, too.
In a desperate attempt to mask the costs of of slower and lower growth,
the world's central banking cartel has deployed its “one weird trick”:
lowering interest rates to historic rock-bottom levels. This has allowed for
more debt to be crammed into the system for a few more years, to keep the
mirage of the party continuing for just a little bit longer.
Because of that hail Mary, we have ended up in this
very bizarre situation where our debt has been growing at twice the rate of our
income -- which clearly will end up in a solvency crisis:
Perversely,
the central banks are doing everything in their power to defend
and propagate this unsustainable status quo, even though fourth grade
math tells us it will surely end in ruin. How is it possible that this very
simple observation eludes so many of those in positions of power? You’d
have to be an intellectual
yet idiot
to hold that view.
Your decisions today will control which outcome you experience.
The US has
been going deeper and deeper in debt simply to maintain the appearance of
"economic growth". This whole illusion is being limped along
for just a little while longer.
Don’t count on currency “money” retaining its purchasing
power.
States (governments) always follow the same pathway: when
financial promises can’t be kept, states debauch/devalue their currencies as a politically
expedient short-term solution.
Many people reckon the US dollar (USD) is the weakest, and
perhaps they’ll be right, but I think the Chinese yuan (RMB), Japanese yen and
EU euro will lose purchasing power first.
For the first time ever, young Americans have less consumer confidence
than their parents…
Being
Frugal Is For The Rich (blackeagle)
The most curious feature of the Frugalwoods’ saga is what’s missing from
the narrative, and what gets magnified. Here’s one example: in the Guardian
piece, which is culled from the book, Liz dedicates multiple paragraphs to
describing how she and Nate started “insourcing” various household projects that
might otherwise be farmed out to contractors, like painting their kitchen
cabinets. What’s weird is the book’s assumption that hiring a cabinet painter
is an expense that Millennials are liable to encounter — and that doing the job
yourself is somehow empowering, innovative, and thrifty. Which leads to the
Godzilla-sized question that overshadows so much of what the Frugalwoods write.
How much money do they have, and where does it come from?
My
3-Point Checklist for Prospering in a Crash (Tiffany D.)
Now, I’m not saying the market is headed that way at the moment. But
manufacturers, aluminum producers and steelmakers’ shares slid sharply lower
this week over trade war concerns. Add to the mix worries over inflation,
rising interest rates and falling technology shares … and you can see why the
market has been so volatile lately.
Bruce, the Poor Man, free thinker, social critic & cynic
Get this while I still have it posted!
The Middle Class Survival
Kit
Poor
Man’s Insider Tips
To
Saving and Making Money
Here’s
a special FREE report for our readers that you can download from the link below
or from the folder on this blog page…
Take
advantage of these resources and you will save money, something I’ve helped our
readers do for more than ten years now!
You can help me continue such work by making a donation using the PayPal
button above.
Researched by our editors and
include 100s of tips, tricks and insider methods of saving money, earning extra
money [many from the comfort of your home], the best places to live, How
to find little-known freebies, discounts and other benefits-over 2,000
programs!
How Good are Your State's Consumer Laws?
The National Consumer Law Center just
released a study of how effective each state's consumer laws are. This
chart summarizes how good or how bad each state is on
various consumer topics. One important note: the best consumer laws are useless
if your state attorney general and/or office of consumer affairs just sits on
its hands and doesn't enforce those laws vigorously.
The Cheapskate’s Guide
to the Good Life…
The Wall Street Journal
has compiled a list of 50 ways you can indulge in the good life with ideas of
how to score affordable luxury from style steals to décor
discounts to steep travel bargains.
More Retirees Want a Side Gig.
Here's How to Get One: Whether by choice of necessity, nearly
three out of four Americans plan to work beyond traditional retirement age - at
least on a part-time basis. CNBC
·
Special Offer for our
Readers
72-hour Emergency Meal kit that's being
offered contains 16 total servings of such delicious meals as Blue Ribbon
Creamy Chicken Rice, the always-loved Granny's Homestyle Potato Soup and the
stick-to-your-ribs breakfast favorite Maple Grove Oatmeal.
This kit normally sells
for $27, plus shipping and handling and is rated 4½ out of five stars by
customers.
While supplies last,
these kits are available for only $21.95 and that includes Priority Shipping
[we were forced to increase prices due to another round of USPS price hikes].
Go here for this deal:
Additional Related Resources:
Preparedness
Contributors and subscribers
enable the Poor Man Survivor to post 150+ free essays annually. It is for this
reason they are Heroes and Heroines of New Media. Without your financial
support, the free content would disappear for the simple reason that I cannot
keep body and soul together on my meager book sales & ecommerce alone.
Bruce, the Poor Man- philosopher, social critic & cynic
Support our efforts by shopping my storefront…
A Smoking Frog Feature, Shallow Planet Production
2 comments:
It's all a crap shoot.
I'm with you-our crystal ball is cloudy. Things change rapidly & it is a challenge to stay ahead of the curve.
Post a Comment