Is anybody here as afraid as I am?

[FarmerChick]

Mailing you a tin foil hat also HM......HA HA HA HA

yea Tony isn't on board with my "hidden agenda going to happen" either. He knows the hard times but doesn't think that a big change is coming. I sure do!

 

[enjoy the ride]

Maybe not so much a change as a return to older principles. People of my Mom's generation who had been through the Spanish flu epidemic, Great Depression, WW II, cold war, etc felt much less entitled and much less secure than a lot of people do today. I can remember my parents debating about whether it was a good time to spend money on somthing not really neccessary but desired- not whether they even had the money but whether it was a good idea- that conversation would not happen in a lot of homes in recent years. As long as the credit card was there, the item was purchased.
This is the first substantial homefront problem that a lot of people have ever seen. Even the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have been removed from real life for many Mostly the idea of a "disaster" had come from movies. Not real life. Movies are over in 90 minutes but life has it's own agenda.

 

[VT-Chicklit]

Our government is doing alot of VERY STUPID things right now with the money system here in the US.

They gave Paulson, the head of the treasury, 700 billion to do with as he saw fit! Paulson gave 125 billion to AIG with no strings attached. He did this after AIG went and had parties on the first bailout they were given. Now we hear that they are going to use alot of the money for bonuses for the upper management. The 700 billiout was to go to buy "toxic assets" from the banks so that they would start lending again. The money was given to the banks without any strings, like AIG, and they used their bailout to buy other banks or they have sat on the money and are not lending it out. So now states, cities and large companies are going to the Fed for loans because the banks still will not do any short term loans, which was the reason for the bailout to start with.

Additionally, while they are giving all this money to companies and banks that have no intent of doing what is needed to get the economy back on tract ( short term loans to companies so that they can make payroll and expand), the treasury (Paulson and others) have the printing presses turned on full blast. They have churned out an additional 2 Trillion dollars that is currently being sat on by the banks. There is normally 800 billion dollars in circulation at any one time, so this additional influx of cash will greatly devalue the dollars in circulation. Since the banks are sitting on this money right now, we are not feeling the effect of the huge inflation that the release of this money into circulation will have. A few years ago the treasury stopped reporting how many dollars were in circulation, so it is difficult to know any more how much is really out there. When the banks release the spigot on all the additional dollars they are sittiing on, there will be massive inflation and the money that you have saved with be basically worthless.

If we are lucky the 2 trillion dollars, wont be added to the money in circulation, but I am not banking on it. The crazy way that everyone is treating the financial problem that this country has tells me it is only a matter of time before they open the spigot and release all those additional dollars into circulation. It is like they want to trash the economy. There is talk about some wanting a "one world currency". This would be much easier if the currency that is the strongest and most relaible, the US dollar, is no longer strong and reliable. It would put the currancys of the world on a more or less even basis.

In the end we are either going to have a deep recession, a depression, or worse yet . . . a depression with hyperinflation. I am trying to prepare for the worst. Any thing less will be a cake walk by comparison. Anyone who is interested in learning about depression with hyperinflation should Google the Weimar Republic. My German grandmother had relatives there and use to talk about the wheelbarrow full of money for a loaf of bread. It was always a concern of hers and she always kept anything that still had some value for a "rainy" day. I never thought that I would see it happen here but it looks like she might have been right all along, though a little ahead of reality. Hyperinflation is happening already in one of the countries of Africa where they keep printing money with more and more zeros. The only thing that will have value will be things that you have stock piled. Clothing, shoes, food and seeds for food, etc that you can supply yourself and barter with others that may have a service that you need.

Sorry to be such a "doom and gloomer" I just washed my foil hat and I cant do a thing with it!

 

[johnElarue]

the treasury (Paulson and others) have the printing presses turned on full blast. They have churned out an additional 2 Trillion dollars that is currently being sat on by the banks. There is normally 800 billion dollars in circulation at any one time, so this additional influx of cash will greatly devalue the dollars in circulation. Since the banks are sitting on this money right now, we are not feeling the effect of the huge inflation that the release of this money into circulation will have. A few years ago the treasury stopped reporting how many dollars were in circulation

This is the scariest part. Also 3/4 of all dollars are held outside the US, they will also flow back home as is starting now

All the problems are being paid for with the printing press, I hope the president elect has a blue shirt with a big red and yellow S on it, cause he's gonna need it to clean up this mess.

That said, stay cool and stock up, read up.

 

[sweetcorn]

I've been telling the hubby and kids that bad times are coming for about the last year and a half, just felt the need to be ready for it which is why we keep a full pantry , heirloom seeds now instead of hybrids and part of the reason we got the girls for eggs. I've always canned and gardened but I wanted to know I could keep feeding my babies should we lose our jobs. He kept looking at me like I was a loon when I'd come home from the grocery store. He stopped that recently when his 401k fell in the toilet and many people started getting laid off around here and now thinks I might be right Never discount momma's intuition.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

My mom instilled the need to be prepared from the time I was young.

At one time, my mom had a 3 year supply of food in our home. We might have been vegetarian for a month or two a few of those times when she was actively stockpiling, LOL, but we didn't mind.

Now I find that I shop much the same way she did. I buy in bulk as much as I can. I also buy 3 months worth at one time. Say I am in the store today, buying canned foods, I'll buy 3 months worth. Means I'll be skimping on the other types of foods (meats, cheeses, etc) until the next grocery day, but it is soooo worth it! Next time, 3 months of staples (flour, sugar, baking soda, spices, etc) and one time meats...etc..and keep rotating it out on what I buy.

I have quit doing the meats so much. After Ike knocked out power out and we lost a freezer full of food, I am not as gung ho about buying huge amounts of meat. I have chickens, and DH hunts, so I figure we can find meat for a little while.

I also buy canned meat!

 

[sweetcorn]

We have an extra freezer full of meat because we get butchered hogs and steer family raises or extra 4 - h animals we butcher because they can only auction 2 animals per kid , but i keep canned meat too thinking , yup , what if power fails. At least the gas works when the electric ity goes out and I could start pressure canning meat , I guess, just feel better having some of both.

 

[MorelCabin]

We have an extra freezer full of meat because we get butchered hogs and steer family raises or extra 4 - h animals we butcher because they can only auction 2 animals per kid , but i keep canned meat too thinking , yup , what if power fails. At least the gas works when the electric ity goes out and I could start pressure canning meat , I guess, just feel better having some of both.

During winter here I have a freezer in the shed that we don't even bother plugging in. If all else fails I just take everything out of our in house freezer and move it out there. That's the good part of living up north:>)
When I was very young and had my first apartment we had no fridge...but we had double hung windows so I would hang stuff in bags to put outside the window and the stuff that merely needed refridgeration I put between the windows. Worked really well. Now windows aren't made like that anymore so you can't put anything between them.

 

[Homesteadmom]

I hope the president elect has a blue shirt with a big red and yellow S on it, cause he's gonna need it to clean up this mess.

That said, stay cool and stock up, read up.

He does not have one & it will only get worse under him, because the other far lefters do not care about us & he does not either.

 

[Dace]

I started reading about peak oil theories last year and a lot of predictions have rung true. I am a firm believer that things are going to get ugly. I am trying to learn simple skills, bread making, sewing, knitting canning, candle making, working on my gardening etc. I think that the masses are in for a really rude awakening yet, I think it will be a slow process. You know that saying about cooking a frog? if you put him in a pot of hot water he will jump right out, the trick is to put him in a pot of cool water and then turn up the heat...by the time he realizes it is hot, it is too late and he succumbs. I think the water is warming up quickly and a lot of people are beginning to notice but by the time they are fully aware they will have no time to prepare.

I know I sound like a doomer and in some ways I am, but ultimately I think what is happening is a good thing, we need to change how we live. We are such a throw away society built on heavy consumerism...things have just got to change. So I am doing my little part to prepare...scale back ease the spending, be more frugal in every aspect of my life and set a good example for my children, especially my daughters....where we live everyone gets weekly pedicures, frequent spa visits and grocery shops wearing their True Religions, Gucci purse in one hand and their Starbucks in the other. That does not equate to a happy and fulfilled life, it is not about things and luxuries.
Sorry, I will hop off my soap box now