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Thursday, May 27, 2021

Elites are tanking the real economy so they can steal your wealth

 

Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…

www.poormansurvivor.net

ISSN 2161-5543

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

 




 Elites are tanking the real economy so they can steal your wealth through the 'paper' economy

The Federal Reserve — and most Americans — don't realize that we have parallel economies in the United States. There's the financial economy (which I might also call the "fantasy" economy). Then there's the real economy that has a direct effect on daily life for you and me.

The financial economy represented by the Fed, the banks, and the stock market does not reflect real-world valuations — that is, true intrinsic worth. It is instead a house of cards where the value of an asset is determined by clicks of a mouse on a computer, not in the reality of producing something useful and valuable. It was created by the Federal Reserve to avoid deflation, with the unfortunate consequence of creating a constant flow of bubbles in asset markets.

"To critics who warn that pumping trillions of dollars into the economy in a short period is bound to drive up inflation, today's central bankers point to stagnant consumer prices and say, 'Look, Ma, no inflation.' But this ignores the fact that when money is nominally free, strange things happen, and today record-low rates are fueling an unprecedented bout of inflation across asset prices," wrote Ruchir Sharma, head of emerging markets and global macro at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

Further, consumer prices aren't stagnant. Go buy a sheet of plywood from your local home improvement store. It'll cost you three times what it did a few months ago.

Inflation by itself is not so painful if your income is keeping pace. But for most American workers and producers, it's not. That's what stagflation is all about — rising prices and stagnant wages.

Stagflation is coming. A retreat in the share prices of stocks will inevitably happen. No one can say how or how long it will last... and remember that when a stock begins to perform poorly while in the Dow (think Kodak) the financial engineers behind the stock exchanges simply toss it out for a better-performing one, and the Dow continues to rise. Even a 50 percent crash wouldn't last because the market-makers wouldn't allow it.




However, there is evidence we may have the encroaching squeeze of stagflation ahead. Therefore you should prepare for it now by getting your financial house in order. Here are some things you should be doing to get ready.

  • Investments: Realign your stock portfolio to favor consumer staple, utility, and healthcare stocks. Even in hard times, there are some things people have to have. Stocks in these sectors also tend to pay higher dividends, which help offset inflation. Gold has traditionally been an effective inflation hedge and rental properties can be profitable because you can raise rents as inflation climbs. Bonds are iffy and savings accounts are the worst investments in a stagflation scenario.
  • Home: If you're renting, this might be one of the only times you would want to lock in debt... if you can find a home to buy. Prices are rising, but interest rates are exceedingly low. Be sure to get a fixed-rate mortgage that will not go up if interest rates climb.
  • Transportation: Buy, don't lease a car. But insist on a fixed-rate auto loan... or pay cash. As inflation heats up, lease rates will climb. Keep the car for at least 6 years or more and skip the rising cost of new cars.
  • Debt: Pay off all credit cards as soon as you can and keep them at zero balance each month to avoid rising interest charged by the banksters. The rates on credit cards will go astronomical as the virus casedemic pushes people away from cash and over to using cards exclusively.

There are more than enough reasons to take personal measures to retain a certain level of freedom in your financial affairs by converting a portion of your wealth into non-paper assets like gold and silver bullion coins and bars, jewelry, precious gems, art and antiques or other hard assets. Of these, gold and silver bullion requires the least amount of specialized knowledge.

Of course, you'll have to provide storage and security for these hard asset valuables. You may want to consider offshore non-bank storage to get your goods as far from U.S. government hands as is legally permissible, both to protect privacy and to protect against seizure or even confiscation.

Be sure to abide by all U.S. and international laws when considering offshore storage for your valuables. Bob Livingston Alerts in no way advocates illegal activities. You also want to do due diligence on the integrity of the storage institution you choose and the political stability of the country where they operate.

Yours for the truth,

Bob Livingston
Editor, 
The Bob Livingston Letter®

 

SIDEBAR

 

I have always recommended buying gold and keeping it in your possession, not in an ETF or a bank.

You should also accumulate silver coins, which have accelerated in price over the last few weeks, but the historical ratio of the price of silver compared with gold is still low. Buy with confidence.

For gold coins, we recommend the Gold Eagle, Canadian Maple Leaf, African Krugerrand or the Australian Kangaroo. We prefer these because they are stamped in English, have their gold content stamped on them, come in convenient, well-known sizes (1 oz., 1/2 oz., 1/4 oz. and 1/10 oz.) and sell at small premiums over the value of their gold content.

You should not need to pay more than around 3 percent above spot price when buying gold bullion in general, nor should you accept lower than 3 percent below spot price when selling, as those are the typical markup or margins for a reputable dealer. I use goldprice.orgkitco.com, or bulliondesk.com to find reliable spot pricing.

Inevitably, whenever I recommend buying gold and silver, readers in droves ask me to recommend a dealer.

Your best bet, I believe, is to find a local dealer who is well established, has been in the community a long time and has a good reputation with both the Better Business Bureau and his customers.

 

 

 

USEFUL STUFF…

 


Liberty Band Emergency Solar Radio

Staying informed could be a matter of life and death.

That’s why federal and state agencies advise that every American home should have an emergency radio.

Don't get caught off guard during a lengthy quarantine or natural disasters. Preparation is, as usual, the absolute key...

https://www.bonanza.com/listings/Liberty-Band-Emergency-Solar-Radio/975136935

 

Our phones are extremely important in a crisis.

They hold information and special functions that are essential for survival.

Essential information like important contacts, incoming public alerts, and they give us online access to survival strategies and life-saving techniques.

Your phone also has special functions like digital compasses, levels, and even the tiny flashlight that can be the difference between life or death in a crisis.

Your phone is that important, and should not be overlooked as an essential survival device.

THE MAJOR PROBLEM: Your phone’s power fails quicker than any survival tool you own.

THE SOLUTION: Fortunately, when you grab this "forever charger," your phone will always be charged…available at our storefront!

Wide range of manuals/e-books offering tools to survival &covert operations

 

 https://1drv.ms/b/s!AgMpmQI6plfXiBmzFUr64nXsFOxM?e=sy9CWA

 

Free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom!

 

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.

You Can’t Buy Life Insurance After You’re Dead


You Can’t Buy Life Insurance After You’re Dead-Prepare NOW for Emergencies…Small radios, books, emergency power cell or solar/battery radio weather radio!

 

Support our efforts by shopping my storefront…

http://RetroGuy.net

 

 


 

 

A Smoking Frog Feature, Shallow Planet Production

 

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Why Do The Shortages Just Keep Getting Worse?

 

Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…

www.poormansurvivor.net

ISSN 2161-5543

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

 


If Everything Is Going To Be Just Fine, Why Do The Shortages Just Keep Getting Worse?

They keep telling us that economic conditions are improving, but if that is true why are the shortages worse than ever?  For a moment, I would like to take you all the way back to 2019.  Before the pandemic came along, we didn’t have any shortages.  If you wanted something, you just went to the store and got it or you ordered it online.  Prices were low, global supply chains were functioning smoothly, and to most people it seemed like it would stay that way for the foreseeable future. 

But then the pandemic hit, and “panic buying” caused short-term shortages of certain items such as toilet paper and hand sanitizer.  It was understandable that people would want to hoard those things, because there was a lot of fear in the air.  But we also knew that those shortages were only going to be temporary.

Now here we are in 2021, and we were told that things would be getting back to normal by now.

But instead, there are severe shortages everywhere around us.

In fact, the shortages are far worse than anything that we experienced in 2020.

For example, did you know that dozens of important drugs are in short supply?  According to the official FDA website, there are shortages of more than 100 drugs in the United States right now

If you found yourself in a situation like this, you can check the FDA’s drug shortage tracking system.

Right now there are currently about 120 drugs listed as having a shortage.

On the website, if you type in a drug name in the database search field you can see if and why it’s in short supply. You can also see whether it is scheduled to be discontinued, and when the supply may start flowing again.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Shortages just continue to get worse for the home building industry as well

“Builders are delaying starting new construction because of the marked increase in costs for lumber and other inputs,” said Mike Fratantoni, senior vice president and chief economist with the Mortgage Bankers Association, in a report Tuesday.

He added that supply shortages for appliances are also putting a damper on new home building activity.

Just over our northern border, the shortages have gotten really severe.  In some cases, the construction of homes “is months behind schedule” because the shortages have gotten so bad…

Home builders across Canada are getting hit by a string of supply-chain disruptions, resulting in widespread product shortages and explosive costs for the industry.

In some cases, home construction is months behind schedule as developers struggle to source everything from lumber to PVC pipes, insulation to windows. Builders are also holding back on presales, unable to accurately price their homes too far in advance, given that material costs can fluctuate wildly on a daily basis.

When asked about these shortages, one home building executive said that “it’s getting worse and worse every day”

“The whole supply chain is out of whack,” said Matt McCurrach, president of Homex Development Corp. in Kamloops, B.C.

“It’s getting worse and worse every day,” added Sue Wastell, president of Wastell Homes in London, Ont. “Literally every day, we’re finding out something else is not arriving when it was scheduled to. … We’ve never seen anything like this.”

Of even greater concern is the global shortage of computer chips.  This is something that I discussed extensively in my recent article entitled “A Severe Computer Chip Shortage Will Last ‘A Few Years’, And This Could Plunge The Global Economy Into Utter Chaos”.  Just about every industry that you can name is extremely dependent on equipment that uses computer chips, and CNN is telling us that this shortage “is going from bad to worse”

The shortage is going from bad to worse, spreading from cars to consumer electronics. With the bulk of chip production concentrated in a handful of suppliers, analysts warn that the crunch is likely to last through 2021.

According to Goldman Sachs, 169 US industries embed semiconductors in their products. The bank is forecasting a 20% average shortfall of computer chips among affected industries, with some of the components used to make chips in short supply until at least this fall and possibly into 2022.

Actually, as I pointed out the other day, many executives now expect the computer chip shortage to extend into 2023.

For automakers, this is rapidly becoming a complete and total nightmare.  During the first quarter, global auto production was down by about 10 percent due to the chip shortage, but Ford has announced that production in the second quarter will be down by about 50 percent

Investors have heard plenty about the current state of capacity problems for months. Roughly 2 million cars—or about 10% of quarterly global automotive production—weren’t built in the first quarter because of no chips. Ford Motor (ticker: F), one of the auto makers feeling the shortage most acutely, said in late April that it expects to lose about 50% of planned second-quarter production.

A 50 percent decline in production?




That is nuts!

If automakers can’t make vehicles, then they will have to start laying off workers.

Unfortunately, that is precisely what just happened at one factory in northern Illinois

Some 1,600 jobs are being cut at a Jeep Cherokee factory in northern Illinois as automakers continue being plagued by the global shortage of semiconductors.

The U.S. arm of Stellantis, formerly known as Fiat Chrysler, said Friday it was cutting one of the two work shifts at its Belvidere Assembly Plant as of July 26. That could result in the layoffs of 1,641 workers, company spokeswoman Jodi Tinson said.

The economic optimists keep telling us that better days are right around the corner, but those better days never seem to materialize.

Instead, employment is still way below pre-pandemic levels, global supply chains are in a state of complete and utter chaos, and we are facing severe shortages of just about everything

Copper, iron ore and steel. Corn, coffee, wheat and soybeans. Lumber, semiconductors, plastic and cardboard for packaging. The world is seemingly low on all of it. “You name it, and we have a shortage on it,” Tom Linebarger, chairman and chief executive of engine and generator manufacturer Cummins Inc., said on a call this month. Clients are “trying to get everything they can because they see high demand,” Jennifer Rumsey, the Columbus, Indiana-based company’s president, said. “They think it’s going to extend into next year.”

The difference between the big crunch of 2021 and past supply disruptions is the sheer magnitude of it, and the fact that there is — as far as anyone can tell — no clear end in sight. Big or small, few businesses are spared. Europe’s largest fleet of trucks, Girteka Logistics, says there’s been a struggle to find enough capacity. Monster Beverage Corp. of Corona, California, is dealing with an aluminum can scarcity. Hong Kong’s MOMAX Technology Ltd. is delaying production of a new product because of a dearth of semiconductors.

If this is the “recovery”, what will things look like when the next severe economic downturn hits us?

In my entire lifetime, I have never seen such widespread shortages.

Those that are running things keep insisting that they have everything totally under control and that things will eventually get back to normal.

You can believe them if you want, but millions of others are preparing for a future in which their optimistic assessments of the future turn out to be very, very wrong.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

 

RELATED STORIES

When demand is greater than supply: 10 items that are in shortage right now

And the shortage might not end any time soon

 

Have you noticed higher prices at the grocery store or other stores? A report earlier this month from the Labor Department showed sharply higher prices for everything from food and clothes to housing. A 10% surge in the prices of used cars and trucks — a record jump — accounted for roughly one-third of last month’s overall increases.

The cost of new cars was up 0.5%, the largest increase since last July. Prices for vehicles, both used and new, have been soaring as a result of heavy demand and a computer chip shortage that has slowed auto production and reduced dealer supplies.

Shortages of goods and parts related to disrupted supply chains have been a key factor.

READ ON: 10 items that are in shortage right now

 

Gas Prices Hit Six-Year High

New Studies: TV Makes You Stupid

Warnings Of A Dramatic Inflationary Collapse Just Keep Getting Louder

John Williams of shadowstats.com insists that we are “eventually headed into a hyperinflationary economic collapse”

 

SIDEBAR:



Since man first started chipping away at rocks to make rudimentary tools, we have had knives of some form. From these early beginnings, thousands upon thousands of knife designs have been created. Every people on this planet have made a knife that reflects their culture and lifestyle in some way.

 Our modern age is no different. Today we have countless blades to choose from for a wide variety of general or complex tasks. But which one is right for you?

 To help you find the "perfect" knife for your needs, we have put together this quick guide. Here we will cover the basics of knife design and help you understand what you should be looking for. We will also include links to good knives that are available for purchase...

 How to Choose the Right Knife: A Guide for Preppers

You may also like...

 6 Best Budget-Friendly Knives For Preppers

 

Survival Knives Book , By James Morgan Ayres, former U.S. Special Forces. Condition is "Brand New"

 


https://www.bonanza.com/listings/Survival-Knives-Book-By-James-Ayres-former-U

 

Useful stuff      

Liberty Band Emergency Solar Radio



Staying informed could be a matter of life and death.

That’s why federal and state agencies advise that every American home should have an emergency radio.

Don't get caught off guard during a lengthy quarantine or natural disasters. Preparation is, as usual, the absolute key...

https://www.bonanza.com/listings/Liberty-Band-Emergency-Solar-Radio/975136935

 

Useful Resources from our storefront-See new items!

You Can’t Buy Life Insurance After You’re Dead-Prepare NOW for Emergencies…

 

A portion of our proceeds is donated to charitable Veterans groups such as Wounded Warriors & the VFW!

 

Support our efforts by shopping my storefront…

http://RetroGuy.net

Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…

www.poormansurvivor.net

ISSN 2161-5543

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

 

If Everything Is Going To Be Just Fine, Why Do The Shortages Just Keep Getting Worse?

They keep telling us that economic conditions are improving, but if that is true why are the shortages worse than ever?  For a moment, I would like to take you all the way back to 2019.  Before the pandemic came along, we didn’t have any shortages.  If you wanted something, you just went to the store and got it or you ordered it online.  Prices were low, global supply chains were functioning smoothly, and to most people it seemed like it would stay that way for the foreseeable future. 

But then the pandemic hit, and “panic buying” caused short-term shortages of certain items such as toilet paper and hand sanitizer.  It was understandable that people would want to hoard those things, because there was a lot of fear in the air.  But we also knew that those shortages were only going to be temporary.

Now here we are in 2021, and we were told that things would be getting back to normal by now.

But instead, there are severe shortages everywhere around us.

In fact, the shortages are far worse than anything that we experienced in 2020.

For example, did you know that dozens of important drugs are in short supply?  According to the official FDA website, there are shortages of more than 100 drugs in the United States right now

If you found yourself in a situation like this, you can check the FDA’s drug shortage tracking system.

Right now there are currently about 120 drugs listed as having a shortage.

On the website, if you type in a drug name in the database search field you can see if and why it’s in short supply. You can also see whether it is scheduled to be discontinued, and when the supply may start flowing again.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Shortages just continue to get worse for the home building industry as well

“Builders are delaying starting new construction because of the marked increase in costs for lumber and other inputs,” said Mike Fratantoni, senior vice president and chief economist with the Mortgage Bankers Association, in a report Tuesday.

He added that supply shortages for appliances are also putting a damper on new home building activity.

Just over our northern border, the shortages have gotten really severe.  In some cases, the construction of homes “is months behind schedule” because the shortages have gotten so bad…

Home builders across Canada are getting hit by a string of supply-chain disruptions, resulting in widespread product shortages and explosive costs for the industry.

In some cases, home construction is months behind schedule as developers struggle to source everything from lumber to PVC pipes, insulation to windows. Builders are also holding back on presales, unable to accurately price their homes too far in advance, given that material costs can fluctuate wildly on a daily basis.

When asked about these shortages, one home building executive said that “it’s getting worse and worse every day”

“The whole supply chain is out of whack,” said Matt McCurrach, president of Homex Development Corp. in Kamloops, B.C.

“It’s getting worse and worse every day,” added Sue Wastell, president of Wastell Homes in London, Ont. “Literally every day, we’re finding out something else is not arriving when it was scheduled to. … We’ve never seen anything like this.”

Of even greater concern is the global shortage of computer chips.  This is something that I discussed extensively in my recent article entitled “A Severe Computer Chip Shortage Will Last ‘A Few Years’, And This Could Plunge The Global Economy Into Utter Chaos”.  Just about every industry that you can name is extremely dependent on equipment that uses computer chips, and CNN is telling us that this shortage “is going from bad to worse”

The shortage is going from bad to worse, spreading from cars to consumer electronics. With the bulk of chip production concentrated in a handful of suppliers, analysts warn that the crunch is likely to last through 2021.

According to Goldman Sachs, 169 US industries embed semiconductors in their products. The bank is forecasting a 20% average shortfall of computer chips among affected industries, with some of the components used to make chips in short supply until at least this fall and possibly into 2022.

Actually, as I pointed out the other day, many executives now expect the computer chip shortage to extend into 2023.

For automakers, this is rapidly becoming a complete and total nightmare.  During the first quarter, global auto production was down by about 10 percent due to the chip shortage, but Ford has announced that production in the second quarter will be down by about 50 percent

Investors have heard plenty about the current state of capacity problems for months. Roughly 2 million cars—or about 10% of quarterly global automotive production—weren’t built in the first quarter because of no chips. Ford Motor (ticker: F), one of the auto makers feeling the shortage most acutely, said in late April that it expects to lose about 50% of planned second-quarter production.

A 50 percent decline in production?

That is nuts!

If automakers can’t make vehicles, then they will have to start laying off workers.

Unfortunately, that is precisely what just happened at one factory in northern Illinois

Some 1,600 jobs are being cut at a Jeep Cherokee factory in northern Illinois as automakers continue being plagued by the global shortage of semiconductors.

The U.S. arm of Stellantis, formerly known as Fiat Chrysler, said Friday it was cutting one of the two work shifts at its Belvidere Assembly Plant as of July 26. That could result in the layoffs of 1,641 workers, company spokeswoman Jodi Tinson said.

The economic optimists keep telling us that better days are right around the corner, but those better days never seem to materialize.

Instead, employment is still way below pre-pandemic levels, global supply chains are in a state of complete and utter chaos, and we are facing severe shortages of just about everything

Copper, iron ore and steel. Corn, coffee, wheat and soybeans. Lumber, semiconductors, plastic and cardboard for packaging. The world is seemingly low on all of it. “You name it, and we have a shortage on it,” Tom Linebarger, chairman and chief executive of engine and generator manufacturer Cummins Inc., said on a call this month. Clients are “trying to get everything they can because they see high demand,” Jennifer Rumsey, the Columbus, Indiana-based company’s president, said. “They think it’s going to extend into next year.”

The difference between the big crunch of 2021 and past supply disruptions is the sheer magnitude of it, and the fact that there is — as far as anyone can tell — no clear end in sight. Big or small, few businesses are spared. Europe’s largest fleet of trucks, Girteka Logistics, says there’s been a struggle to find enough capacity. Monster Beverage Corp. of Corona, California, is dealing with an aluminum can scarcity. Hong Kong’s MOMAX Technology Ltd. is delaying production of a new product because of a dearth of semiconductors.

If this is the “recovery”, what will things look like when the next severe economic downturn hits us?

In my entire lifetime, I have never seen such widespread shortages.

Those that are running things keep insisting that they have everything totally under control and that things will eventually get back to normal.

You can believe them if you want, but millions of others are preparing for a future in which their optimistic assessments of the future turn out to be very, very wrong.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

 

RELATED STORIES

When demand is greater than supply: 10 items that are in shortage right now

And the shortage might not end any time soon

 

Have you noticed higher prices at the grocery store or other stores? A report earlier this month from the Labor Department showed sharply higher prices for everything from food and clothes to housing. A 10% surge in the prices of used cars and trucks — a record jump — accounted for roughly one-third of last month’s overall increases.

The cost of new cars was up 0.5%, the largest increase since last July. Prices for vehicles, both used and new, have been soaring as a result of heavy demand and a computer chip shortage that has slowed auto production and reduced dealer supplies.

Shortages of goods and parts related to disrupted supply chains have been a key factor.

READ ON: 10 items that are in shortage right now

 

Gas Prices Hit Six-Year High

New Studies: TV Makes You Stupid

Warnings Of A Dramatic Inflationary Collapse Just Keep Getting Louder

John Williams of shadowstats.com insists that we are “eventually headed into a hyperinflationary economic collapse”

 

SIDEBAR:

Since man first started chipping away at rocks to make rudimentary tools, we have had knives of some form. From these early beginnings, thousands upon thousands of knife designs have been created. Every people on this planet have made a knife that reflects their culture and lifestyle in some way.

 Our modern age is no different. Today we have countless blades to choose from for a wide variety of general or complex tasks. But which one is right for you?

 To help you find the "perfect" knife for your needs, we have put together this quick guide. Here we will cover the basics of knife design and help you understand what you should be looking for. We will also include links to good knives that are available for purchase...

 How to Choose the Right Knife: A Guide for Preppers

You may also like...

 6 Best Budget-Friendly Knives For Preppers

 

Survival Knives Book , By James Morgan Ayres, former U.S. Special Forces. Condition is "Brand New"

 

https://www.bonanza.com/listings/Survival-Knives-Book-By-James-Ayres-former-U

 

Useful stuff      

Liberty Band Emergency Solar Radio

Staying informed could be a matter of life and death.

That’s why federal and state agencies advise that every American home should have an emergency radio.

Don't get caught off guard during a lengthy quarantine or natural disasters. Preparation is, as usual, the absolute key...

https://www.bonanza.com/listings/Liberty-Band-Emergency-Solar-Radio/975136935

 

Useful Resources from our storefront-See new items!

You Can’t Buy Life Insurance After You’re Dead-Prepare NOW for Emergencies…

 

A portion of our proceeds is donated to charitable Veterans groups such as Wounded Warriors & the VFW!

 


Support our efforts by shopping my storefront…

http://RetroGuy.net