Are we headed for a depression and/or hyper-inflation? How would one prepare? nm

but no, I think we are in a recession that will last until late 2009.

start by acclimating yourself to the taste of soilent green.

Get out of debt.
Grow your own food.
Ride a bicycle.
Get a couple of chickens.
Live close to services.
Enjoy your free time.

all economies of the world. Serious Commentators have said this
is a long and protracted recession. Some have said it will be
2015 before we really turn around. Some of this is due to trade
policies which are forcing the First World economies to harmonize
incomes downward. Notice how the middle class continue to have
their salaries drop. This is the goal of trade policy--to equalize
salaries around the world. Countries such as US cannot have such
a high standard of living and expect the other countries be able
to buy products. Too bad they shipped all the mfg overseas. We
will have only minimum wage jobs here and not enough of them.

I call this a Depression. My parents would call this a depression
were they alive.

What to do. Plan on living minimally. Get rid of debt. Buy sales.
If you can, when things are at a good sale price, stock up so
you are always using or eating at a lower price. Instead of packaged
cereals, make pancakes and waffles. You get the picture.
Americans should prepare to downscale their lifestyle. You will get
through it.

It's a depression when there is no longer any place to buy it.

be having a depression in oil products. Just being sarcastic. But I hear what you are saying.

She told me that chills ran down her spine when talk of bank falures hit the news as the "Housing Crisis" started becoming a "Credit Crisis"...

:sarcasm:


The rest of us will meet at the dumpsters for the "fresh discards" each evening at 5:00.

"Midnight gleaning" gets a better product.

Punk rock and new wave grew up in the wreckage of the East Village in the bombed out 70s. Then the yuppies arrived and closed down even CBGBs. Expect the return of neighborhoods that look like post war Berlin. In those places art will be reborn in America.

Enjoy!

beyond developing a good survival skill set.

By that I mean learning how to mend and repair, how to figure out what to keep and what to do without, and how to barter.

People who adapt to changing conditions quickly generally do well, no matter how far those conditions deteriorate before things get better. It's the ones who cling to the way things are supposed to be who do the worst, the ones with a rigid sense of entitlement developed during times of plenty and who refuse to develop skills they think are beneath them.

Five years ago, I warned people to get out of debt to prepare for this. Now the best thing you can do is hone those skills.

comes to your door, thinking they're after your gold.

Gold didn't do that well in the Depression and it's a fool's investment in any deflationary period. It's a thief magnet and difficult to hide and transport. Stories abound in the Depression of people trading valuable gold items just for a few meals at a cheap diner to keep them going on the road while they were looking for work.

Be miserly and paranoid if you want. Just be aware it isn't going to work.

republican depression?

January 30, 1934 to be exact, when FDR raised the official price from $20.67 to $35.00 per ounce. After that, though, the price was controlled, and ownership of gold was essentially restricted to coins, jewelry, and dental work. Today is a different ballgame.

As far as gold being a "thief magnet" is concerned, one trick is to be discreet if you are holding it. If you go around blabbing that you're buying gold like there's no tomorrow, then you'll probably eventually attract the attention of unsavory elements. And if you keep it at home, you need to keep it in a place that isn't obvious like a dresser drawer, desk, or lockbox.

What's the grower supposed to give you for change?

You sell it to a dealer for cash first. A reputable dealer, not a pawn shop.

and my winter mud boots are cracked in the back.

I bought 3 new pairs of thick socks for $5.

But instead of throwing away the old holey socks like I would have before, I wear 2 pairs now. Each foot gets 1 sock with a hole and 1 sock without. The outer socks tend to get wet due to the boots, but come off when I come back inside, so my feet stay dry and warm.

And I'll get much more wear out of each pair now. I'd be wearing 2 pairs much of the time now anyway, with the cold here.

Little things like this keep you warm and dry.

I got out of debt many years ago, and now I'm getting back in. But it's all school debt in health care so hopefully I'll be able to get a job when school is done. Otherwise I've fucked big time.

and keep your feet warm. Get silicone caulk or you can find silicone in a tube. Use the silicone to patch your boots. You can even find plastic/rubber adhesive patches to put over the crack after patching it.

Get two empty clean breadbags. Put your feet in them before putting on the boots. They will keep your feet dry, the two pair of socks will keep your feet warm. You can learn to darn socks too but the above measures are very easy, quick, and economical and don't require a learning curve.

I may even have some silicon caulk for the bathroom laying around...I'll have to try it!

I definitely have some bread bags. There's plenty of room in the boots -- I bought them a bit big to fit many socks. Need them this time of year up here in the north country when the morning is frozen until it's icy muck...

We have our own "North Country" in upstate NY. I am in Central NY and the area I am in gets a lot of snow and ice but not as much as our North Country (Watertown, Adams St. Lawrence--heck even Oswego which is just one county north of us).

further north is downeast. then canuck. Actually, I'm about parallel with Nova Scotia.

The quickest way I have to get to Canada (as the crow flies) is cross Lake Ontario.

but just don't pay it back. I know lots of folks who do this, just to stick it to the man.

Doesn't really matter when EVERYONE has bad credit.

for now, I protect the roof over my head and my credit. If, after selling my home at a loss and "downsizing" to a lesser location and going into debt for 10s of thousands for healtch care school, I still can't find a job because, oh, I don't know, maybe people still won't hire someone in their late 50s or maybe health care need dries up because nobody can afford any anyway, then it's time to run up the credit card bills and let'em come and get me.

For the moment I'm ok, though. A bit skeered, but ok.

I know I'm gonna get old, whither, and die.

I sure lived it up in my 20s and 30s. Stories a rock star would die for. I've had money, spent money, had no money...It's all a big life continuum to me, and I know we're all doomed in the end anyhows.

Hey, I WAS a rock star, if you count Urban Appalachian Cabaret Soul Music as rock.

when EVERYONE has bad credit. And those are the folks people want to throw money at?

If there is hyperinflation, don't worry about debt.

... deflation is the opposite of inflation. With inflation, you pay off your debt with less-valuable dollars. With DEflation, you will be paying off your debt with MORE-VALUABLE dollars. Something you really don't want to do, because it's like paying extra.

:rofl:

"The man" doesn't lose money on that - it just costs everyone else who is responsible, more.

gamble and if he loses, he just asks his friendly congress-critter to give him some money from the middle-class.

Currently the risk is more toward persistent deflation.

Deflation is the ultimate result of Monetarist and "Neo-Classical" economic policies, money gets "invested" into speculative Ponzi Schemes and then that money disappears when the Ponzi Scheme collapses. Then the banks fail. Then credit disappears. Happened regularly about every 20 years in the 1800s after Jackson killed the Bank of the US and kept happening until the Great Depression. The people going on and on about hyperinflation have sucked up too much "Austrian School" Libertarian BS. This is why Bernanke was talking about needing dumping money out of helicopters if that's what it takes to prevent deflation. Deflation makes it so that it's best just to stuff one's money in the mattress rather then invest it into the economy, it is the great destroyer of economies, it far more dangerous then the moderate levels of inflation Austrian School Libertarian nutters complain about can ever be.