THE ECONOMY-THE ‘SMELL’: There’s a smell in the air and it’s not just the fall season. It’s FEAR! It’s not just the decline in industrial production (money.cnn.com of 10/16/08 headline: “Factories: Drop worst in 34 years”) with it’s promise of weaker corporate profits and it’s not just the short-lived “success” of the first stimulus package. This is a bone-deep, gut wrenching uncertainty that what has been done so far isn’t nearly enough (the new package proposals run from $150-$300 billion with some of the biggest players favoring the $300 billion end), in the right place (the government keeps expanding the list of recipients for bail-out), or is in any way definitive.
A month or so ago the Democrat members of congress proposed a second stimulus and it appeared at the time to have been a “sweetener” for their election efforts but just within the last 48 hours, the “ Head of the Fed” allowed as how this idea was the “wine of wisdom” and needed to be enacted as quickly as possible (money.cnn.com of 10/20/08-”Bernanke: It’s time for stimulus plan”).
So here we are at PrudentHome, having to fall back on the comments of a former hedge fund manager to offer a possible explanation for how we got here and perhaps some insight as to just who’s running this “show” : “ So long, suckers. Millionaire hedge fund boss thanks ‘idiot’ traders and retires at 37” (guardian.co.uk of 10/18/08)
“The low hanging fruit, ie idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking,” he ( Andrew Lahde) wrote. “These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG , Bear Stearns, and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government…. God bless America.”
The problem Mr. Lahde, isn’t just with people educated beyond their ability but with people educated beyond any common sense.
THE 11TH HOUR: We refer our readers here to survivalblog.com of 10/19/08 to a letter from one of their readers, Mr. Yankee, entitled “Letter Re: 11th Hour Preparation: It is Not Too Late to Start”
The letter points not to just the timeliness of preparation but to the priorities of preparation. Mr. Yankee notes the value of water, food, hygiene, shelter, medicine, proper clothing, etc. over things like barter goods and even home defense in terms of preparation priorities.
It’s worth a read.
A RECURRING RECOMMENDATION: Over at Post Carbon Institute (postcarbon.org/food-10/15/08), a recent article by Richard Heinberg entitled “Food Crisis on the Way” comments on the global nature if the current economic crisis and it’s effect on the U.S. and Europe as well as other input factors in rising food costs. The article is insightful and informative and ends where a growing number of food and economic articles seem to be ending: “Time to start planning next years garden”.
Keep your eyes on the horizon.
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