Sack Cloth and Ashes
 

Back in 1980 I saw that the US government was spending way beyond its means. That it was business as usual no matter what the circumstances. I thought in terms of a 30 year time horizon, and that eventually the system would go bust, as the government could no longer control itself. At the time I did not realize when this all started. Within the past year or two I finally realized that it was LBJ that took the SS Trust and put it into the US Govt general account..."We are rich and can afford to have it all."

What i saw was a never ending inflationary environment. This is partially due to an ever increasing population.

So what I did was start to collect spoons not only as an investment but as a hedge against the day things went bust. Besides that I just liked them.

We have not yet come to the real day of reckoning that is still out in the future. If the USA does not get the Federal, State and Trade deficits in hand within 2 to 3 years the world will mandate a Conservator ship of the USA or the world economy will collapse and fall into chaos. All the foregners have to do is start to decline the buying of our debt and/or start lightening up on their USD positions. Interest rates will rise at least to their previous 1981 heights of 16% to 20% on the 30 year Bond.

I have been saying it for so long I am sick of saying it. Most of you now have gotten the message loud & clear, from the events of this past week. But everything you have ever known is about to be turned upside down. No longer will you be thinking about that 959, but just how to feed the family tonight.

LBJ had a little help from Congress to do the dirty deed re: SS Trust Fund, didn't he? Regardless, all involved should have been drawn and quartered.

On the "you will be thinking about how to feed the family"... don't forget to arm yourselves well, because there are plenty of people in this country who won't go to the trouble to plant a garden in their back yard to feed themselves or their family if all this goes where it looks like it's going... they'll just kick your door down and come in an take what you have... along with anything else they want... by force.

And that will be LBJ's legacy... people killing each other over food... and food riots... that no-good, evil rat bastard.

And people say Cheney's evil... Cheney's an altar boy compared to Johnson.

With all due respect, spoons are not a hedge against the economy going kaput. Gold maybe but not spoons.

Spoons have value only when people have discretionary income to spend on collecting extraneous items like spoons.

Otherwise they are good for eating soup...which you can also do with a plastic spoon.

Yes, the spoons part of his post is not even germane. But, tabs has points to consider.

Yes, that's exactly what happened in the 1930's when the market collapsed! Just like a scene out of Mad Max! :rolleyes:

Let's hope we have more faith in humanity than this. I remember people stocking up provisions and arming themselves in Dec. 1999 (remember the dreaded Y2K bug that would herald the new apocalypse?)

Well, that does show that we should have more faith in IT. However, it's never a bad idea to have some food and cash on hand. The smart and informed may be slowly stock piling and this time it may pay off, even only if that can of beans you bought a year before cost half of what the replacement can costs.

There is a similarity between a market crash and an internet crash.... they are both totally artificial, man-made problems. If we built the machine, then we can damn well fix it!

I hope you're correct, but each time we go thru this, one has to wonder. I'm old enough to have seen several recessions. I still assert that the '90-92 debacle was a depression as far as CA was concerned. We now have numbers as bad as then and no end in sight. Of course, I was not alive during the Great Depression of the 1930's. In my mind the only difference between that deal and the current deal is that stock was owned on margin. Not that many mortgages then, not like now. What is really the difference?

The Spoons I collect are made of Sterling Silver...

Oh! That makes all the difference!