Neo-Survivalist

I’m a fairly politically engaged individual here in America.  I’m familiar with the debate going on over issues like health care, immigration, etc.  More importantly, and more passionately, I’m an econ-junkie.  I read constantly on the markets, the economy and global events in relation to the global economy.  The more you read on the economy and the financial situations of the United States and many countries around the world, the more the other issues (like health care) become less significant.  The reality is that the economic and fiscal woes of America and most of the developed world are nothing short of horrific.  This consequences of these issues will be felt much more and much sooner than say health care rationing as a result of America moving towards social medicine.

The policy responses to the global recession over the last few years are completely unprecendented.  Never before have global economies performed such an economic experiment to this degree in the history of the world.  Simply put, the central banks and their printing of money in concert together around the globe has never been done to this extent.  We are definitely in uncharted waters.

It is imperative that individuals take necessary precautions to hedge against these massive risks that we are facing in the years to come.  Investing in real assets like precious metals is imperative.  Holding physical gold is not an investment, it is insurance.  Furthermore, invest in useful, necessary items like ammunition, food, water, clothing, health products, etc.  If the shelf life is long enough, you won’t lose on these items, and any gains you haev on them won’t be taxed.  It’s a win-win scenario.  For more on such a strategy, check out the Alpha Strategy.  A must read for economic preppers.

The days ahead are scary.  For me, I have a growing family, and I look at my little children and wonder if we’re crazy to try and raise a family with the world moving into the direction that it is.  I take solace in the fact that God is sovereign and that my family will be fine without the luxuries that most Americans have become accustomed to.  Furthermore, I will take necessary steps to prepare and make our family more aware and more able to withstand potential risks down the road.

America, Financial Preparation

Last week, we had some fairly large disruptions to the financial systems of America and the global economy.  With the major events of Europe surrounding the debt crisis of Greece, the ramifications were felt around the world (welcome to the global integrated economy).  The result was on Thursday a major drop in the stock markets including a one-thousand point drop in a matter of minutes on the Dow.  While the markets recovered slightly, this is hardly a sign of stability.

The event is an important one even as the media and financial “experts” downplay its significance.  The reality is that the markets are a house of cards.  In fact, the entire global economy is a house of cards.  We have seen hard evidence of this in recent years with the financial crash in 2008 and events like a 1,000 point Dow move just last week.  While these events are papered over with freshly printed currency and government bailouts, the structural issues remain underneath the surface.

As such, I’m losing faith in the “systems” that we rely on.  Specifically, I’m losing faith in the financial systems and even the stock market.  Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs announces that they did not have a single day of trading losses in the last 63 days.  Yes, 63 out of 63 profitable trading days last quarter.  Can you say, “rigged’?

If and when the system comes crashing down as many of us predict, an entire generation of Americans will be crushed.  Over the last 30+ years, Americans have become way too connected to the financial markets.  Wall St. and their partners in Washington D.C. have convinced a generation of Americans that the only way to have any sort of retirement or financial security is to be invested fully at all times in the U.S. stock market.  While Americans see their savings and funds go up and down with volatility, there is always a consistent winner: Wall St and their constant fees that are generated regardless of performance.

The dependence on the stock market is one of many dependencies that have been cemented over the recent decades.  Dependence on government, welfare, corporate America, pensions, stocks, etc. have together replaced self-reliance and self directed financial security.

If the system collapses under its own weight, the result will be ugly.  Not only will people’s savings be wiped out, but they will demand answers or demand someone’s head.  I’d hate to be a wealthy Wall St. exec at this point in time.

It’s important to take action now.  Don’t be fully invested in the stock market.  Have some of your wealth in real assets: precious metals, consumer products, other things that have real value.  I’m not saying you should abandon all paper assets, but understand the volatility (just look at last Thursday’s Dow chart).

In the meantime, if you want to stay invested in stocks to some extent, I’d say you can afford to be patient before you buy more stocks.  Wait for the next crash.  Then, deploy your funds into well-run, well-established companies that pay a nice dividend.  Think stocks like Philip Morris Int’l (PM), Wal-Mart (WMT), McDonalds (MCD).  Then continue to collect dividends, pool your cash, and wait for the next crash.  Rinse.  Repeat.

Good luck and don’t trust the markets to act like pure markets.  They are manipulated and corrupt.  Be extremely careful with any trading or investing you do, and make sure you do your own research before acting upon anything mentioned here.

America, Financial Preparation

I’ve been watching the History Channel’s “America: The Story Of Us” mini-series.  It’s a pretty cool production, probably not the most accurate, but the acting and film work make it worth watching.  One of the things that has stuck out to me the most has been the part that discusses the first settling of America by the European settlers.  It is truly amazing the courage and adventurous spirit that it must have taken for these people to sail across the Atlantic and create a new life in a completely strange and unsettled world.  Truly amazing.

One thing that I didn’t realize was that the pilgrims that landed at Plymouth after sailing over on the Mayflower… after settling, the Mayflower went back to Europe!  They had no way to return home.  It was either they make it or die trying.  Talk about survivalism.

This nation was founded by individuals with the most rugged sense of survivalism and the most dogged determination to survive and create a new life for themselves.  How far we have come since then.  Nowadays, we live in a country where tens of millions would have no idea how to feed themselves if they couldn’t go purchase food from a store.  We also have millions that refuse to get up and work in order to support themselves; instead, they expect government welfare and assistence programs to take care of their basic needs.

The prosperity and policies of this nation have softened millions of our citizens.  In fact, it seems like the people with the best work ethic these days might be many of the illegal immigrants who work tirelessly to attempt to create a better life for themselves.  Sound familiar?  So, how can we get back to this?  How can Americans get back to sefl reliance and survivalism?

I believe the following steps would help get our country back to its roots:

1. Make people become self reliant unless they have a legitimate disability that prevents them from being able to do just about anything.  This requires ending most welfare programs.
2. Encourage the public to learn basic survival & life skills like growing food.
3. Remove the presence of government from many aspects of life.  Cut taxes and cut the size of government.

It’s time for a revival in terms of self-reliance in this country.  It’s time for America to look back to the brave individuals who first came to this country!

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America, General Preparedness

I’m currently reading “The Black Swan” by Taleb (a very interesteing read).  The basic summary of the book is that major, catastrophic events can and do take place on a regular basis without any ability to see them coming.  Taleb goes through an indepth analysis with a large focus on human psychology to explain why we fail to see these enormous events coming.  Black Swan events have been the financial crisis in 2008, September 11th, etc.

As I’m reading this book, I can’t help but think of America and the prevailing attitude of most Americans that nothing catastrophically bad can happen on any large scale to America.  Sure we have our bumps in the road like Hurricane Katrina and the Los Angeles riots in the 90s, but those are confined to specific regions or cities.  Anything on a large scale that has far reaching and long lasting devastation is simply not going to happen here.  This plays into the Black Swan Theory perfectly and eerily.

The survivalist community often discusses TEOTWAWKI.  This refers to a completely different world than what we know now.  The cause of this shift might be a war, a bomb, an economic collapse, something, but nevertheless, it is a time when things are drastically different.  I’m also currently reading “One Second After,” by Forstchen which describes a man’s struggle following an EMP attack here in America (I read multiple books simultaneously).

These events are unimaginable for 99% of America and are not even considered.  We do not realize how fragile our communities, our existence and our systems that we depend on really are.  When you get “awakened” to these realities, it really changes you and forces you to think differently.  As somebody with little children, I probably think about these things even more than those without children.

Reading “The Black Swan” is a must read for anyone in the survival community.  It is an unusual read and a fairly difficult one, but it sheds light on America today in my opinion, especially when it comes to possible societal collapse which most Americans view as an impossibility.

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More evidence of the oligarchy that runs America these days.  It has come out that Goldman Sachs CEO has been a frequent visitor of the Obama White House, even as the lawyers prepared for the SEC fraud case against Goldman Sachs (GS).

Take a look at the article from McClatchy:

While Goldman Sachs’ lawyers negotiated with the Securities and Exchange Commission over potentially explosive civil fraud charges, Goldman’s chief executive visited the White House at least four times.

Also, apparently, Goldman and Obama share legal advisors:

Meanwhile, however, Goldman is retaining former Obama White House counsel Gregory Craig as a member of its legal team. In addition, when he worked as an investment banker in Chicago a decade ago, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel advised one client who also retained Goldman as an adviser on the same $8.2 billion deal.

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