Weather Report: The Economy — Houses Continue to Fall, Food — Government Policies & Great Depression Lessons

THE ECONOMY–HOUSES CONTINUE TO FALL: A Michael Kling article at money news.newsmax.com

com on January 2, 2009 entitled “Housing Will Get Even Worse, ” Fitch Says notes that, “Housing will continue to weaken well into 2009, as the economy deteriorates with no bottom before the second half, or even later, Fitch Ratings predicts in a new report.”

The article continues, noting that while pundits agree that housing will continue to fall in 2009, they can find no such agreement as to when the housing market will begin recovery. What does seem beyond agreement in this regard, is the observation by IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn that if housing deterioration should continue, deflation will become a real possibility.

FOOD–GOVERNMENT POLICIES: “Corporate and Government Policies Spark Food Crisis in America” is the title of the Barbara Minton piece from Natural News on 1-02-09 posted on infowars.net,1-03-09. The article opens, ”Americans are losing the ability to feed themselves. Nothing signifies this loss of the golden age in America more than our growing reliance on foreign countries for our food. Yet American’s happily buy their produce from Mexico and their fish from China without giving it a thought. These are the same American’s who bemoan the loss of our manufacturing base saying that we should have done something about it before it was to late. Why can’t they see the similarity to us losing our agricultural base ?  …

The article continues by giving examples of American food production businesses falling to cheap, overseas production and the apparent worldwide effort to accumulate farmland in order to effect price controls.

The article concludes by offering to two effective actions that individuals can take in response: one, become aware of where your food is produced, and two, buy locally.

Note: PrudentHome would like to add a third, grow your own!

FOOD–GREAT DEPRESSION LESSIONS: The Los Angeles Times offered this article (presented on energybulletin.net, 1-03-09) by Mary MacVean, “Food Lessons from the Great Depression”.

Ms. MacVean notes, “…At a time when Americans face frightening and disorienting economic uncertainty, the Great Depression provides valuable lessons….People who remember what it was like to eat during the Depression talk about thrift, growing their own, sharing with neighbors and learning to cope with what they had.”

Continuing, the author observes that making do was a kitchen art form as people were relegated to food that they could find, kill or grow and that leftovers were planned for future meals. The times ahead could become similar and require similar approaches.

The times we’re facing, and apparently about to face, will require great efforts on the part of the family to sustain itself and to thrive. It’s the goal of PrudentHome to provide some of the tools necessary to help the family to achieve these two objectives.

Until our next post, keep your eyes on the horizon.