Search






Jeff's Amazon.com Wish List

Archive Calendar

November 2024
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  

Archives

Economist: Prepare for an “economic Pearl Harbor”

James Rickards and Newsmax financial editor Aaron DeHoog come together to scare the living shit out of you.

The powers that be, they argue, are intentionally weakening the dollar to try to stave off a collapse. That’s what QE is really about. And global retaliation for the currency war — the third in history, and potentially the most destructive — is coming.

We are its pawns.

Stock up on seeds. And whiskey. And ammo. Because when Ben Bernanke is running the chess board for you, the chances of your winning the game are next to nil.

49 Replies to “Economist: Prepare for an “economic Pearl Harbor””

  1. sdferr says:

    Speaking of chess, the Armenians are preparing to own the world. Hill people: been there, still doing that.

  2. BuckIV says:

    Even in California, where guns are verboten, it’s practically impossible to get decent ammo. Well, if I had a .243 Winchester I could get a few boxes, but the popular stuff, ain’t happening. I do have some being shipped in but how much .22lr at $.44 cents a round should I get? It’s getting to be re-goddamned-ickulous.

  3. A couple of notes. There is some merit to what he says and I yield to no one in doubting the wisdom of what Washington and Wall Street (and Brussels, Berlin, Tokyo and Beijing) are doing, and I am still listening to the presentation, but it would be more impressive if it wasn’t packaged as a scary infomercial to protect us and help us get what we deserve, not to mention the handwaving behind the variant of the “I can tell you but then I’d have to kill you” window dressing. Having worked in that environment, the appeal to the authority of top secret clearances does not impress me. I known lots of people over a long period of time across a broad spectrum of politics and intelligence (no pun intended) that had top secret clearances. It is no guarantee of validity or quality of thought behind the assertions.

    The end would come faster if Europe, Japan and China weren’t doing their damnedest to devalue their currencies as well. Can you imagine if America had had the foresight to have their financial house in good working order as the others collapsed. We could have virtually owned the world, or at least set the terms of engagement somewhat more in our favor and along the lines of the type of values we wish to promote.

    Allow me to sum up and augment your suggestion: buy seeds, whiskey, ammo and precious metals (lead, copper, silver, gold, paladium and platinum — whatever you can afford).

  4. dicentra says:

    Nice presentation, except that it’s Flash, so you can’t pause it or rewind or FF.

    And maybe it could cut to the chase earlier for those of us who already believe that the Fed and Treasury and Bloomberg and Soros and other evil actors are crashing our currency.

    I’m also extremely skeptical of the idea that ANY financial instrument is “safe.” Certain investments? Foreign currencies “that are backed by gold”?

    You can’t eat gold, silver, or platinum. Anything on paper or in a bank/investment account is likely to get erased or seized or just plain devalued.

    If you can’t live in it, eat it, or defend yourself with it, why have it?

    OH! All that great advice can be yours if you subscribe to their thing!

  5. mojo says:

    The Japanese are gonna bomb Honolulu with big bundles of Yen?

  6. bgbear says:

    I assume that Beanie Baby collection is not going to cut it.

  7. Outlaw Gunsmith says:

    Stealing an idea from mojo and channeling John Belushi

    Whaddaya mean its over? We’re Americans, goddammit!! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor with Deutschmarks!! NO!

  8. newrouter says:

    You can’t eat gold, silver, or platinum.

    no but there will be stuff to be had using that medium of exchange

  9. Ernst Schreiber says:

    That’s what the Romanovs thought.

  10. happyfeet says:

    the economy is crap all on its own without a pearl harbor falling on its head

    and getting crappier

    it’s cause of the policies i think

  11. Squid says:

    no but there will be stuff to be had using that medium of exchange

    You hope. Better check with your neighbors, just to make sure they really want that kind of stuff.

  12. Danby says:

    20 minutes of unpausable flash to tell me what I already know:

  13. newrouter says:

    just to make sure they really want that kind of stuff.

    really when the economic hickenlooper hits the fan nobody will want gold?

  14. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Oh, there’ll be people who want gold, alright. But you won’t like the rate of exchange.

  15. leigh says:

    Indeed, Ernst.

  16. newrouter says:

    “there’ll be people who want gold, alright. ”

    that was my only point that it will still be a medium of exchange. its worth to be determined by the market.

  17. Ernst Schreiber says:

    that was my only point that it will still be a medium of exchange. its worth to be determined by the market.

    And my only point was gold won’t seem such a good store of value (or whatever the phrase is) when you’re trading two ounces of gold for one ounce of wheat.

    Hence, beans an’ bullets, as they used to say.

  18. A lot of folks will value your hoard of gold at about nine grams of lead, if they can get the drop on you.

    Or so I’ve heard. <innocently cleans gun>

  19. dicentra says:

    n: no, but there will be stuff to be had using that medium of exchange

    s: You hope. Better check with your neighbors, just to make sure they really want that kind of stuff.

    Think Hurley on Lost, who was worth millions of dollars, only on the island he totally wasn’t. He could have been carrying it all in gold doubloons and nobody would care, because they only wanted stuff to eat, water to drink, a place to sleep peacefully, and a way to shut off those awful 1970s videos by the Dharma Project guy.

  20. Ernst Schreiber says:

    A lot of folks will value your hoard of gold at about nine grams of lead, if they can get the drop on you.
    Or so I’ve heard.

    Under those conditions, gold will mostly be valued for display purposes. In this instance, it will be melted down into trinkets with which to adorn the harem girls —all of whom will pretend that those 30 seconds with Lord Aryu Inyet’s tiny member are EPIC.

  21. beemoe says:

    From the behavior of folks around here apparently 22lr cartridges will be the most common standard of exchange…

  22. Ruby Lennox says:

    I would love to stock up on all kinds of stuff, and prepare in other ways, if I had any goddamn money to do so in this goddamn economy.

  23. newrouter says:

    a barter economy will reach it’s/its limits . 22 lr is valuable too someone who needs it but not the person who has stockpiled it.

  24. newrouter says:

    just like wheat farmer not wanting to trade say, use of a tractor,for your wheat

  25. Ruby Lennox says:

    And really, what difference does it make anyway? I have a nice brick house in a nice neighborhood, which would immediately be a target for looters, and a few guns. No bugout property and no means to aquire any. No extra hundreds of dollars to stockpile whatever ammo we can manage to find in the stores. How long can my husband hold off a pack of twenty determined looters anyway? They will kill him, rape and kill me, rape and steal our daughters, and either kill our son or rape and steal him too.

    Or maybe we’ll get lucky and the government will put us in a FEMA camp early on in the game.

  26. SBP says:

    Wheat isn’t a problem (as long as there’s wheat at all, that is). It’s small, fungible, valuable to just about everybody (except maybe celiac sufferers), and storable, but not for an extremely long term (doesn’t perish immediately, but perishes soon enough that it creates an incentive to trade).

    Making change for, say, a beef cow is a lot harder. If you need one tomato and all you have is a beef cow, you have something of a problem.

  27. SBP says:

    Ruby: if it gets that bad, the key is going to be running your own gang (or at least belonging to one that’s somewhat less rapy and killy).

    I’m a law-abiding sort, mostly, but if it comes down to a tooth, fang, and claw, wolf and sheep situation, I won’t be one of the sheep.

    Unlike the homeboys, I know how to hold a pistol.

  28. beemoe says:

    The way I figure it Ruby is I just need enough guns and ammo to kill off the first wave of looters. I can loot them for more guns and ammo to use on the second wave.

  29. SBP says:

    “Gold won’t necessarily get you good soldiers, but good soldiers can always get you gold.” — source?

  30. beemoe says:

    You’ve stumped Google, SBP.

  31. geoffb says:

    The first of what I assume will be at least several posts: “Let’s Do Monetary Theory

  32. SBP says:

    Found it.

    “I maintain, therefore, that it is not gold, as is vulgarly supposed, that is the sinews of war, but good soldiers; or while gold by itself will not gain you good soldiers, good soldiers may readily get you gold.” — Niccolo Machiavelli, Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius, as translated by Ninian Hill Thomson

    I think I may have seen a different translation, but that’s clearly the source (unless Ol’ Nick cribbed it from someone else).

  33. geoffb says:

    Connected to Daveinsocal’s 4:14pm.

    MO Senator Subpoenas Department Of Revenue”

  34. sdferr says:

    cribbed it from someone else

    Check Xenophon.

  35. Swen says:

    beemoe says March 26, 2013 at 3:41 pm
    From the behavior of folks around here apparently 22lr cartridges will be the most common standard of exchange…

    I’ve invested in ammunition of all calibers for many years with that in mind. Plus a whole lot of beans and rice and etc. for personal consumption. Most of my “gang” have a .22, a centerfire rifle, and a shotgun, but most probably don’t have a whole box of ammo for any of them. The local hardware store might have had two boxes of ammo in any given caliber back when ammo was easy to get, but now have mostly bare shelves. Gang recruiting ought to be pretty easy if things get dicy.

    There’s an old saying: “In a gun fight bring all your guns and bring all your friends who have guns.” To which I’ll add “and make sure all your friends who have guns have ammunition.” I figure I’ll have lots of friends if I ever need them….

  36. SBP says:

    Checking, sdferr, but haven’t found it yet.

  37. beemoe says:

    That’s the problem with living in Athens. Most of my friends are musicians and artists who are scared shitless of guns.

  38. SBP says:

    I got confused for a moment there, because one of the Xenophon works I was checking was his comparison of the Athenians and Spartans, Polity Athenians and Lacedaemonians. It seemed a likely source, the Spartans being poster boys for caring more about good soldiers than gold (they didn’t even ‘low no gold on their turf).

    You mean B-52s and R.E.M. Aythens, eh?

  39. Ernst Schreiber says:

    All Persian Gold got the Greeks was a long walk home.

  40. Patrick Chester says:

    “Gold won’t necessarily get you good soldiers, but good soldiers can always get you gold.” — source?

    I think it’s Machiavelli.

  41. beemoe says:

    lol, yeah. Wouldn’t be much resistance for the Spartans in this Athens.

  42. sdferr says:

    It’s (as concept, or in substance, if not as literal verbiage) in the Cyropaedia, albeit in a couple of forms and a couple of different places. In the first instance, in bk. I, ch. 4, in Cyrus’ conversation with his father on provisioning his army. In Bk 5, ch. 2, Gobyras’ remark that Cyrus doesn’t seem possessed of stuff as much as possessed of capabilities. In bk. 8, ch. 2, especially, Cyrus in conversation with Croesus on the needful quantities of gold in Croesus view, together with a demonstration by Cyrus for Croesus edification on the subject of attaining needful gold beyond Croesus’ reckoning. The military implications, while not necessarily prominent, loom in the background nevertheless.

  43. SBP says:

    I haven’t read it, but will.

  44. sdferr says:

    Nicolo did, with a microscope and one of those inbetweenthelines thingers.

  45. Squid says:

    I have a nice brick house in a nice neighborhood, which would immediately be a target for looters, and a few guns. No bugout property and no means to acquire any.

    If that’s your attitude, then you deserve what’s coming. For myself, I’m planning to drive out of the Cities well ahead of the horde, and “acquire” a very nice cottage on a lake up north. I figure there will be plenty to choose from, given how many lake home owners will have a similar attitude of denial and helplessness.

  46. RI Red says:

    Problem being, Squid, that it may be difficult to determine which lake home owners are 2A advocates. Of course, if they have an Obama sticker on their Prius, you’re probably ok.
    I don’t have a Prius . . .

Comments are closed.