89 TIPS THAT WILL HELP YOU PREPARE FOR THE COMING ECONOMIC DEPRESSION PARTS 1,2,& 3

89 Tips That Will Help You Prepare For The Coming Economic Depression

By Michael Snyder, on January 13th, 2015

 


What do we need to do in order to prepare for the coming economic collapse?  Are there practical steps that we can take right now that will help us and our families survive the economic depression that is approaching?  As the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog, I get asked these kinds of questions a lot.  Once people become convinced that an economic collapse is coming, they want to know what they should do.  And so in this article I am going to share some key pieces of advice from some of the top experts in the entire country.  If you are not convinced that economic disaster is on the way, this article might not be for you.  Instead, I would encourage you to go to my website where you will find more than 1,200 articles that set out the case for the coming economic collapse in excruciating detail.  For those of you that are interested in getting prepared, I apologize in advance for the outline format of this article.  To examine each of these points in detail would take an entire book.  In fact, I am the co-author of a book that will soon be published that discusses many of these things in great depth.  But you don’t have to wait for a book to get prepared.  Mostly, it comes down to common sense.  In this article, I share 89 common sense tips that will help you get prepared for the coming economic depression.  Hopefully a lot of people will find these to be very helpful.
This first set of tips are 11 things that I strongly encourage my readers to do…
#1 Have An Emergency Fund – This is so important that I wrote an entire article about this recently.
#2 Don’t Put All Of Your Eggs Into One Basket – In addition to having an emergency fund, you will also want to have gold, silver and other hard assets.  It is also a very good idea to keep a limited amount of cash at home in case you can’t access an ATM during a major emergency of some sort.
#3 Reduce Your Expenses And Get Out Of Debt – During a time of crisis you want to be as “lean and mean” as possible.  If you simplify your life and reduce your debt load now, you will be in much better shape when the next economic depression does arrive.
#4 Move Your Money Away From Unsafe Investments – When the financial world falls apart, you don’t want your finances to be exposed.  Markets tend to go down much faster than they go up, and during the next great financial crisis millions of Americans that have their life savings in stocks and bonds are going to get totally wiped out.
#5 Store Food And Supplies – Your dollars will never stretch farther than they do right now.  You probably will not need emergency food and supplies in the short-term, but the truth is that none of us ever knows when a major emergency will strike.  During 2014, my wife and I felt more of an urgency to stock up then ever before, and I hope that people are using this brief period of relative stability to do what they can to get prepared.
#6 Learn To Grow Your Own Food – Anything that you can do to become more independent of the system is a good thing.  This includes growing your own food.  And the truth is that some of the most expensive items in the grocery store these days are fresh fruits and vegetables.
#7 Defending Yourself And Your Family – As our world become increasingly unstable, people are going to become a lot more desperate.  And desperate people do desperate things.  You are going to need to have a plan for that.
#8 Move Away From The Big Cities If Possible – For a lot of people that are dependent on their current jobs, this is simply not possible right now.  But if it is possible for you, this is something that I strongly recommend that you think about.  Being stuck in the middle of a major city is not going to be a good place to be in the years ahead.
#9 Be Ready To Bug Out – There may come a time when you are forced to evacuate from your current location.  This may happen with very short notice.  If this ever does happen to you, the key will be to be prepared for it.
#10 Build A Community – Your neighbors and close friends can be an invaluable resource.  A cord of multiple threads is not easily broken, and if you have people that you can depend upon during a crisis that can make a world of difference.
#11 Have A Back-Up Plan And Be Flexible – Mike Tyson once aptly observed that everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. The years ahead are going to require a great deal of flexibility, and you may find that the plans that you have made need to be altered.  So don’t get fixated on just one approach.
When there is a major emergency, some of the most simple items suddenly become some of the most important.
The following are 11 items that I recommend that every household have on hand…
– an axe
– a can opener
– flashlights
– battery-powered radio
– extra batteries
– lighters or matches
– fire extinguisher
– blankets
– sewing kit
– duct tape
– tools
And here are about a dozen more key items that should be on your list from Survival Mom…

• Lightsticks.  You can pick up one of these every time you wander into a Home Depot.  They don’t need batteries and can be hung around the neck with a string making it easier to spot everyone in your party when it gets dark. An alternative is the UVPaqlite, which never needs batteries.
  
• Wool socks and sweaters.  People have literally frozen to death wearing their layers of cotton knit tees and hoodies.  For true survival conditions, nothing beats wool.
  
• Upholstery needles and thread.  What if a sleeping bag or tent rips and you have no way of mending it?
  
• Roll of quarters.  Handy for phone calls, although payphones aren’t as common as they used to be, and laundromats, but if you put it in a sock and wield it like a sling, you have a handy-dandy weapon! If the quarters are pre-1965 and 90% silver, you have a whole new type of currency.
  
• Pencils.  Forget the pens.  They can run out of ink and freeze in cold weather.  With a pocket knife, you’ll always have a sharp pencil.
  
• Super glue.  Professional hockey players always have this on hand to seal up small cuts, and the glue itself is harmless.  Unless you get it in your eye, like I did.  But that’s a story for a different type of post!
  
• Rubber bands.  String just doesn’t cut it when what you really need is a rubber band
  
• Tampons in a cardboard tube.  Did you know a tampon can be fit snugly into a bullet wound?  Guys on the battlefield carry these with them.  Just be aware that the blood in the wound will begin to clot.  Leave it to a medical professional to remove the tampon from the wound.  They’re also good for kindling.
  
• Paracord belt.  It’s an accessory and survival tool in one!
  
• Waterproof wrist watch.  Makes perfect sense.  I had just never thought of it.
  
• Animal repellant trash bags.  Use these when you’re camping and animals will stay the heck away from your trash.
  
• Safety pins.
  
• Dental floss.  Besides helping to keep your teeth clean, it makes sturdy thread for mending.
  

But don’t just get focused on acquiring things.
Some of the most important elements of preparation involve things that we need to do for ourselves.
Acclaimed survival expert James Wesley Rawles has put together a “personal list” of things that everyone should think about before a crisis strikes.  A lot of these things are topics that “preppers” never seem to write about…
Spare glasses.
Prescription and nonprescription medications.
Birth control.
Keep dentistry up to date.
Any elective surgery that you’ve been postponing
Work off that gut.
Stay in shape.
Back strength and health—particularly important, given the heavy manual tasks required for self-sufficiency.
Educate yourself on survival topics, and practice them. For example, even if you don’t presently live at your retreat, you should plant a vegetable garden every year. It is better to learn through experience and make mistakes now, when the loss of crop is an annoyance rather than a crucial event.
“Comfort” items to help get through high stress times. (Books, games, CDs, chocolates, etc.)
If you have a serious illness or disease, that is going to need to be one of your top priorities when making preparations for the coming crisis.
This next tip comes from an excellent article that Dave Hodges published recently…

If you or your family has a chronic health condition, it is critical that you have 6 months to a year in medicine. Also, you should research natural alternatives to treatment for health conditions in case you are not able to meet this goal due to the inability to obtain prescriptions. Don’t forget to obtain some pain medication and antibiotics in case of unforeseen emergencies.

Probably one of the most popular topics for preppers to write about is food storage.
But those that are new to prepping are often very confused about how to get started.
It doesn’t have to be complicated.  If you start out by focusing on staples that you eat all the time, you should be in great shape.  The following are some recommendations about food storage that Pat Henry of the Prepper Journal has shared…

• Rice – First off, buy a 50lb. bag of rice. These contain 504 servings and I don’t know too many people who won’t eat rice. It is simple to cook and stores for years if you keep it cool and dry. This bag at Sam’s costs about $19 now.
  
• Beans – Next buy a bag of dry beans. This will check off the Beans part of your Beans, Bullets and Band-Aids list. A good size bag is about $5 and makes 126 servings. Buy two if you think your family would like them.
  
• Canned meat – Cans are great for fruits and vegetables and anyone can find something they will eat. For canned meat, I recommend tuna or chicken because it tastes a heck of a lot better than Spam and you can easily mix that into your rice. For the meat you will need approximately 35 cans. Each can has about 3 servings and this will be the most costly, but they last over a year usually and your family probably eats chicken or tuna on a semi-regular basis anyway so restocking this should be simple.
  
• Canned Vegetables – you will need about 40 cans of vegetables and again this can be whatever your family will eat. Expect to pay around a dollar each so $40 for veggies to last your family a month.
  
• Canned Fruit – again, simple fruits that your family will eat. These can even be fruit cocktail if that is the safest thing. At Costco they have the #10 cans of fruit like pears or apple slices and each of these has 25 servings. 5 of these will cost about $25 and give your family their daily dose of fruit.
  
• Oatmeal – Good old-fashioned oatmeal is simple to cook and store. A normal container has 30 servings each so purchase about 4 of these and your family won’t starve for breakfast. At $2 each that is about $8 for breakfast for a month for a family of four. Could you exchange Pop-tarts? Maybe, but I find oatmeal more filling and less likely to be snacked on.
  
• Honey– Honey is a miracle food really as it will never go bad if you keep it dry and cool. Honey will last you forever and Sam’s has large containers that hold 108 servings. You can use this in place of sugar to satisfy the sweet tooth. Honey even has medicinal properties and you can use this to add some flavor to your oatmeal for breakfast.
  
• Salt – Same as honey, salt will never go bad if you keep it dry and helps the flavor of anything. You can buy a big box of salt for around $1 and that will last your whole family a month easily.
  
• Vitamins – I recommend getting some multivitamins to augment your nutrition in the case of a disaster or emergency. Granted, rice and beans aren’t the best and you won’t be getting as many nutrients from canned fruit and vegetables so the vitamins help to fill in the gaps and keep you healthy. One big bottle costs about $8. You will need to get a kids version too if you have children small enough that they can’t or won’t swallow a big multivitamin.
  

And as I mentioned above, another key to getting prepared is self-defense.  If you make all the preparations in the world, but somebody comes along and steals them from you, they won’t end up doing you any good.
The following are some basic tips about home security from prepping expert Todd Sepulveda…
Front Door – Your front door is a layer. But it shouldn’t be your only layer. Besides reinforcing the strike plate with 2 inch screws, you should have a solid deadbolt. Another layer could be a storm door with a lock or even burglar bars. A good latch is valuable too! If you want to add even more layers, utilizing a security door bar is a good idea. But you don’t only want to make sure that your front door is securely layered. Take some time to layer all the doors in your home.
Windows – Every window has a lock. But you can add a layer by including sliding window locks for about $5. Other options would include tint or blinds, which would make it harder for someone to look inside your house.
Burglar Alarm – A burglar alarm is a serious layer. Alarms can be monitored by an alarm company or they can be self-monitored. Self-monitored systems have greatly advanced and will even allow you to view your home on your smartphone.
Dogs – A dog or dogs can be a great layer, especially if they bark. My dogs alert me the minute someone is in the front of the yard. They run and bark at the door and don’t stop until I open it. Outside dogs are a layer to your perimeter. A big dog on the other side of the fence will make any criminal think twice.
Outside Lights – Lights that are mounted on the outside of your home, especially ones that are triggered by motion sensors are a must! Roaches run when you turn on the lights! Someone who is watching your house will not want to approach it if they know the lights are going to draw attention to them.
Outside Landscaping – Bushes can be a layer around windows. It is important that you don’t create an environment that will create a hiding place for someone to lay in waiting. Make sure that the bushes you choose to plant are thorny and cause a lot of discomfort if someone wants to go through them.
Personal Defense – A firearm is a layer that you would want to have if needed. If you want to use something that is not so deadly, you can always pick up a can of ColdSteel Inferno to spray in someone’s face. Having a few of these cans hidden in different parts of the house is a good idea.
Safe Room – A safe room would be a last ditch layer. Some people are putting them into their homes. If this is a scenario you want to take, you should research the necessary components for a “safe” safe room.
Neighborhood Watch – Although a Neighborhood Watch isn’t just focused on your home, it is a layer that could cause the bad guys to go looking in a different neighborhood altogether. Neighborhoods that have a Neighborhood Watch usually post signs in the entrances of their neighborhood.
Neighbors – Even if you don’t have a Neighborhood Watch, you should get to know your neighbors, especially those pesky ones that stay in everyone’s business…because they are going to keep a lookout! You gotta take some bad with the good!
Street Lights – Sticking with your neighborhood, it would be a good idea to immediately report any street lights that are out to the city or county that manages them. Again, light causes the roaches to run for cover!
Signs – Don’t underestimate the power of a cheap sign. A sign on a fence that reads “Beware of Dog” or a Security company sign on the front lawn somewhere will cause the bad guys to think twice before attempting to break into your house.
If you do need to leave your home during a crisis, you should have a “bug out bag” ready for each member of your family.
The following are 7 key items that Survival Cache recommends including in each bug out bag…
1. Water
2. Food
3. Clothing
4. Shelter
5. First Aid Kit
6. Basic Gear
7. Weapons
Finally, it is important to remember that nobody is perfect and that everyone makes mistakes.
The following are 14 common mistakes that Backdoor Survival says a lot of preppers make…
1. Failure to inventory stored food supplies
2. Failure to perform a risk analysis and prepping for the most likely disruptive events first
3. Preparing mostly to bug out rather than bugging in
4. Failure to evacuate at just the right time
5. Having the gear but not knowing how to use it
6. Underestimating other humans as a threat
7. Spending your entire budget on gear instead of on food, water, and medical supplies
8. Lacking the knowledge to properly store your food supplies
9. Buying gear and supplies while ignoring the need to develop skills
10. Relying only on yourself and ignoring like-minded members of your community
11. Just because someone else does something does not mean that you should do it to
12. Falling victim to prepper procrastination
13. Obsessing about being behind the curve-ball
14. Forgetting that there is a life beyond prepping
Are there any additions that you would make to this list of tips?
Please feel free to add to the discussion by posting a comment below…

PART 2
Please feel free to add to the discussion by posting a comment below…


Tags: Depression, Economic, Economic Depression, Economic Disaster,
Experts, Families, Get Prepared, Getting Prepared, Michael T. Snyder,
Prepare, Prepper, Preppers, Prepping, Survive, Tips | Category:
Commentary, The Next Great Depression | 123 Comments - ()

Prepare For Tough Times If Your Job Has Anything To Do With Real
Estate Or Mortgages

If you have a job that involves building homes, buying homes, selling
homes or that is in any way related to the mortgage industry, you
might want to start searching for alternate employment.  Seriously.
Interest rates are starting to rise dramatically, and mortgage lenders
such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase are all
cutting thousands of mortgage-related jobs.  Last week, mortgage
refinance activity plunged to the lowest level that we have seen since
June 2009 and total mortgage activity dropped to the lowest level
since October 2008.  Unfortunately, this is only the beginning.
Mortgage rates closely mirror the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries,
the the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries has nearly doubled since
early May.  But it is still only sitting at about 3 percent right now.
As I have written about previously, it has a ton of room to go up
before it hits “normal” historical levels, and so do mortgage rates.
As I noted the other day, some analysts believe that the yield on 10
year U.S. Treasuries is going to hit 7 percent eventually.  If that
happens, mortgage rates will be more than double what they are today.
And we have already seen the average rate on a 30 year fixed rate
mortgage go from 3.35 percent in May to 4.57 percent last week.  If
interest rates continue to rise we could be heading for a “housing
Armageddon” that will make the last housing crash look like a Sunday
picnic.

The mini-housing bubble that we have been enjoying for the last couple
of years is coming to an abrupt end.  It doesn’t matter what the
mainstream media is telling you about a “sustainable” housing
recovery.  Just look at how the big mortgage lenders are behaving.
They know the gig is up.  According to Bloomberg, Bank of America has
just announced that they will be eliminating 2,100 mortgage-related
jobs…

Bank of America Corp., the second-largest U.S. lender, will eliminate
about 2,100 jobs and shutter 16 mortgage offices as rising interest
rates weaken loan demand, said two people with direct knowledge of the
plans.

Would they be doing that if we were really heading into a “sustainable
housing recovery”?

And Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase are also both eliminating thousands
of mortgage-related jobs…

Mortgage lenders are paring staff as higher interest rates discourage
refinancing and cast doubt on how long the housing market rebound will
last. Wells Fargo & Co., the biggest U.S. home lender, plans more than
2,300 job cuts, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. may dismiss 15,000.

Would they be doing this if they thought that brighter days were ahead?

Of course not.

In fact, Well Fargo just announced that it expects to make 30 percent
fewer home loans this quarter because of rapidly rising interest
rates.

It’s over folks.

The mini-housing bubble that the mainstream media has been hyping so
much is over.

If your job has anything to do with real estate or mortgages, it is
time to start thinking about a career change.

This is especially true if your job is related to refinancing
mortgages.  All of the smart people have already refinanced.  As rates
continue to rise rapidly, the only ones that will be refinancing are
really stupid people.  According to Zero Hedge, mortgage refinance
activity has already dropped by a whopping 70 percent since early May…

For the 16th of the last 18 weeks, mortgage refinance activity plunged
(dropping 20% this week alone). Since early May, when the dreaded word
“Taper” was first uttered, refis have collapsed over 70%. With
mortgage servicers and providers large and small laying people off, it
seems hard for even the most egregiously biased bull to still suggest
that the housing recovery is sustainable.

And this rise in interest rates is just getting started.  The Federal
Reserve has not even begun to “taper” yet.  Once that starts
happening, the consequences could be quite dramatic…

“In early 1994, when the U.S. recovery gained strength, the Fed
started a tightening cycle and bond markets crashed not only in the
U.S. but also around the world,” European Central Bank Executive Board
member Joerg Asmussen said on Tuesday.

“If spillovers were large in 1994, we can expect them to be even
larger today in an even more deeply interconnected world,” he added in
the text of a speech for delivery in Brussels.

Of course when the Federal Reserve “tapers” their quantitative easing
it won’t really be “tightening” as much as it will be slowing down the
pace at which they are recklessly creating tens of billions of dollars
out of thin air.  But the effect will be similar to what we saw back
in 1994.

As interest rates rise, it will become much more expensive to buy a
home and much more difficult to sell a home.  To give you an idea of
how dramatically interest rates can affect housing affordability, I
wanted to share some numbers from one of my previous articles…

A year ago, the 30 year rate was sitting at 3.66 percent.  The monthly
payment on a 30 year, $300,000 mortgage at that rate would be
$1374.07.

If the 30 year rate rises to 8 percent, the monthly payment on a 30
year, $300,000 mortgage at that rate would be $2201.29.

Does 8 percent sound crazy to you?

It shouldn’t.  8 percent was considered to be normal back in the year 2000.

Are you starting to get the picture?

As interest rates go up, home prices will have to fall.  Otherwise,
nobody will be able to afford them.

In the end, we could end up with tens of millions more homeowners that
are substantially “underwater” on their mortgages.

So who is to blame?

The Federal Reserve of course.

They created this bubble by forcing interest rates down to record low levels.

At some point it was inevitable that interest rates would start
reverting back to more “normal” levels, and that “adjustment” is going
to be immensely painful for the U.S. economy.

As we saw back in 2008 and 2009, when the housing industry suffers the
entire economy suffers.

And the higher that interest rates go, the more suffering there will be.

So let us hope and pray that interest rates do not go any higher, but
let us also start preparing for the very worst.

Tags: Armageddon, Bank Of America, Buying Homes, Fixed Rate Mortgage,
Interest Rates, JPMorgan Chase, Michael T. Snyder, Mortgage, Mortgage
Industry, Mortgage Lenders, Mortgage Rates, Mortgage Refinance,
Mortgage-Related Jobs, Mortgages, Prepare, Real Estate, Refinance,
Selling Homes, Tough Times, Wells Fargo | Category: Housing Crash |
171 Comments - ()

Is It “Anti-Faith” To Prepare For The Coming Economic Collapse?

Does being a prepper show a lack of faith in God?  Should good
Christians reject prepping altogether?  Yesterday, someone actually
accused me of being “anti-faith” because I am encouraging people to
prepare for the coming economic collapse.  This person believes that
if I had faith, then I would make “no provision” for what is ahead and
simply trust “in God’s providence alone”.  So is that person right?
Is it really “anti-faith” to prepare for the coming economic collapse?
 I spent quite a bit of time thinking about these questions today.

Those that visit my site on a regular basis know that I am a Christian
and I am very open about that fact.  I am someone that places a very
high value on faith.  The Scriptures tell us to “trust in the Lord
with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”.  Without
God, none of us has any hope.  In fact, without God I would probably
be dead by now.

But faith is not about sitting on your couch and waiting for God to do
everything for you.  Rather, faith is about taking action on what God
has directed you to do.

What I don’t understand is why any of these Christians that are 100%
against prepping continue to go to work.  If we are to make “no
provision” for ourselves and simply trust “in God’s providence alone”,
then why do they need to earn a paycheck?  Why can’t they just sit
home and wait for God to fill up their bank accounts?

Yes, God can do mind blowing supernatural things that require
absolutely no participation on our part.  I know, because it has
happened to me.  But the vast majority of the time, God works with us.
He requires us to take steps of faith and obedience, and in the
process He leads us, He guides us, He blesses us and He opens doors
for us.

The story of Noah is a perfect example of this.  He was perhaps the
very first “prepper”.  God could have kept Noah and his family safe
from the flood by transporting them to some sort of very comfortable
“heavenly waiting area” and brought them back when everything was dry,
but He didn’t do that.  Instead, God warned Noah about what was coming
and ordered him to build a boat.

So did Noah just sit back and wait for God to do everything for Him?
No, he exercised his faith by taking action.  He believed the warning
and he built a giant boat.  In Hebrews 11:7, Noah is commended for his
radical faith which produced radical action…

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear
built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world
and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

Faith almost always involves action.  God wants to see if we are going
to believe Him and do what He has instructed us to do.

And the amount of faith that Noah exhibited was staggering.  The boat
that he and his family built was approximately the size of a World War
II aircraft carrier.  It took a very, very long time to build that
boat and collect all of the food and supplies for his family and for
all of the animals.

And surely Noah must have gotten very tired of all of the mocking as
he warned everyone else about what was coming for decades.

But in the end, Noah’s prepping paid off.  He and his family were
saved, and everyone else drowned.

Unfortunately, there are lots of Christians out there today that are
100% against preparing for what is ahead, even though they will admit
that an economic collapse is coming.

The individual that accused me of being “anti-faith” is an example of
this.  The following is an excerpt from the message that this person
wrote to me…

Now, although I agree with you about the things you write about the
corruption of the financial system, and that there will be a collapse,
yet I do not agree with you in promoting people to be self-sufficient
contrary to the Lord’s teaching. If you truly have God then no
provision needs to be made at all for yourself, just trust in God’s
providence alone.

This individual agrees that a collapse is coming, but insists that we
should do absolutely nothing to prepare for it.

Is that really what God would have us do?

In Genesis 41, God revealed to Joseph that there would be seven good
years followed by seven lean years.  So did Joseph party for seven
years and “trust in God’s providence alone” for the lean years?

No, Joseph engaged in an “emergency food storage project” unlike
anything that the world had ever seen up until that point.  By heeding
God’s warning and taking action, he ended up saving the nation of
Egypt and his entire family.

Some people believe that preparing for hard times means that you are
“fearful”, but I don’t see it that way at all.

Rather, I believe that there is hope in understanding what is
happening and that there is hope in getting prepared.

The people that stick their heads in the sand right now are going to
get blindsided by what is coming.  Many of them will totally give in
to despair when they realize that they have lost everything.

I think that we would all benefit greatly by taking advantage of the
wisdom found in Proverbs 6:6-11…

Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no
commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in
summer and gathers its food at harvest.

How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from
your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the
hands to rest— and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity
like an armed man.

You don’t prepare when the storm hits.  Rather, you prepare while the
storm is still off in the distance.

Throughout the Scriptures, those that “prepare” are commended.

For example, just check out the following parable of Jesus that we
find in Matthew 25…

“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took
their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were
foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did
not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars
along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and
they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

“At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’

“Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish
ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going
out.’

“‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you.
Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

“But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom
arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding
banquet. And the door was shut.

“Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’

“But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

Do we want to be like the wise virgins or the foolish virgins?

Yes, we never want to become obsessed with material things.  We need
to keep our priorities in order and focus on the things that are
really important.

But that doesn’t mean that we can all just sit on our couches, eat
chips, and wait for God to do everything for us.

In my opinion, we have been warned about the coming economic collapse
in a multitude of different ways.  At this point, what is coming
should be glaringly obvious to anyone with half a brain.

On my site, I have shared thousands upon thousands of facts and
statistics that show that a horrific economic collapse is coming.  If
you are new to all of this, the following are just a couple of
articles that can get you started…

-“40 Statistics About The Fall Of The U.S. Economy That Are Almost Too
Crazy To Believe”

-“Show This To Anyone That Believes That Things Are Getting Better In America”

I am trying to do my best to warn people about what is coming from my
little spot on the wall.  In the Scriptures, those that are aware that
a threat is coming are responsible for warning others about it.  The
following is a short excerpt from Ezekiel 33…

Son of man, speak to your people and say to them: ‘When I bring the
sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their
men and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming against
the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, then if anyone
hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes
and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head. Since
they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning,
their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning,
they would have saved themselves. But if the watchman sees the sword
coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword
comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken
because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for
their blood.’

Are you a watchman on the wall?

Are you blowing your trumpet?

That is one of the reasons why I work so hard on my articles.  I hope
that people will use them as a tool to help warn others about what is
coming.

My goal is never to create fear.  Rather, my goal is to wake people up
and give them hope.

Yes, very, very painful economic times are coming.

Those that heed the warnings and diligently prepare will have a good
chance of weathering the coming storm.

I honestly don’t know what those that have made absolutely no
preparations are going to do.

Tags: Anti-Faith, Christians, Faith In God, Michael T. Snyder, Prep,
Prepare, Prepper, Preppers, Prepping | Category: Commentary | 363
Comments - ()

The Dow Hits An All-Time High! Translation: A Bubble Is Always Biggest
Right Before It Bursts

Reckless money printing by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has
pumped up the Dow to a brand new all-time high.  So what comes next?
Will the Dow go even higher?  Hopefully it will.  In fact, it would be
great if the Dow was able to hit 15,000 before it finally came
crashing down.  That would give all of us some more time to prepare
for the nightmarish economic crisis that is rapidly approaching.  As
you will see below, the U.S. economy is in far, far worse shape than
it was the last time the Dow reached a record high back in 2007.  In
addition, all of the long-term trends that are ripping our economy to
shreds just continue to get even worse and our debt just continues to
explode.  Unfortunately, the Dow has become completely divorced from
economic reality in recent years because of Fed manipulation.  All of
this funny money that the Federal Reserve has been cranking out has
made the wealthy even wealthier, but this bubble will not last for too
much longer.  What goes up must come down.  And remember, a bubble is
always biggest right before it bursts.

Fortunately, it looks like an increasing number of people out there
are starting to recognize that the primary reason why stocks have been
going up is because of the Fed.  Just check out this excerpt from a
recent article by the USA Today editorial board…

The Federal Reserve’s purchases have driven interest rates to near
zero. This has stimulated the economy but not without cost. Savers,
particularly older ones trying to live on income from their
investments, are starved for safe options. They’ve been forced into
stocks, which is one reason the market has been acting as if it’s on
steroids. Further, with borrowing costs low, Congress and the White
House have less incentive to rein in the national debt. Rock-bottom
interest rates have also distorted markets.

The best indication that the Fed’s bond-buying purchases are pushing
stocks up artificially is that investors run for cover whenever there
is a hint that the Fed might change course, as happened recently. On
Monday, billionaire superinvestor Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren
Buffett told CNBC that markets are on a “hair trigger” waiting for
signs of change from the Fed. The market is “hooked on the drug” of
easy money, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher told Reuters.

Fisher’s comparison of Fed policies to a drug is apt. Markets might
not like the idea of the drug being withdrawn now, when the Fed holds
a portfolio of $3 trillion. But the withdrawal symptoms will be a lot
worse once the portfolio grows to $4 trillion, or more.

Those sentiments were echoed by Gordon Charlop, a trader at Rosenblatt
Securities, during a recent appearance on CNBC…

“The Wizard of the Fed, Ben [Bernanke], has done a great job propping
up the market, but the question is how does the wizard move the pin
from the balloon without blowing the whole thing up?” said Charlop.
“This is getting out of balance and he’s got to figure out a way to
justify the levels that we’ve gotten to and draw back on some of the
stimulus.”

Of course, in the end, the bursting of this bubble is going to be very messy.

The Fed has dramatically distorted the market in an attempt to make
things look good, but now the financial markets are completely and
totally addicted to easy money.  Is there any chance that the Fed will
be able to take away that easy money without causing disaster?

There are only a few ways that this current scenario can play out.
The following is what Stanley Druckenmiller recently told CNBC…

“I don’t know when it’s going to end, but my guess is, it’s going to
end very badly; and it’s going to end very badly because, again, when
you get the biggest price in the world, interest rates, being
manipulated you get a misallocation of resources and this is going to
end in one of two ways – with a malinvestment bust which we got in
’07-’08 (we didn’t get inflation). We got a malinvestment bust because
of the bubble that was created in housing. Or it could end with just
monetizing the debt and off we go in inflation. So that’s a very
binary outcome – they’re both bad.”

What the Fed has done to the money supply in recent years has been
absolutely unprecedented.  Just check out how our money supply has
skyrocketed since the last financial crisis…

So what happens when the amount of money in an economy rises rapidly?

Well, if I remember Econ 101 correctly, that would mean that prices
should go up.

And that is exactly what has happened.  And since most of the money
that the Fed has created has gone into the financial system first, it
should not be a surprise that we have seen a bubble in financial
assets.

In a previous article that I wrote last September, I warned that QE3
would cause stocks to go up…

So what have the previous rounds of quantitative easing accomplished?
Well, they have driven up the prices of financial assets.  Those that
own stocks have done very well the past couple of years.  So who owns
stocks?  The wealthy do.  In fact, 82 percent of all individually held
stocks are owned by the wealthiest 5 percent of all Americans.  Those
that have invested in commodities have also done very nicely in recent
years.  We have seen gold, silver, oil and agricultural commodities
all do very well.  But that also means that average Americans are
paying more for basic necessities such as food and gasoline.  So the
first two rounds of quantitative easing made the wealthy even
wealthier while causing living standards to fall for all the rest of
us.  Is there any reason to believe that QE3 will be any different?

Of course not.

So will stocks continue to go up indefinitely?

No way.

As I have also written about previously, the money printing that the
Fed is doing right now is not nearly enough to stop the mammoth
derivatives crisis that is coming.

A derivatives crisis was one of the primary reasons for the financial
crash of 2008, but most Americans still have no idea what derivatives
are.

They can be very complex, but I think that it is easiest just to think
of them as side bets.

When someone buys a derivative, they are not buying anything real.
They are simply betting that something will or will not happen.

For example, if you bet $100 that the Chicago Cubs will win the World
Series this year, would you be “investing” in anything real?

Of course not.

Well, it is the same with most derivatives.

Today, Wall Street has become the biggest casino in the entire world
and trillions of dollars of very reckless bets have been made.

In fact, most Americans would be absolutely shocked to learn how
exposed to derivatives some of our largest financial institutions are.
The following is an excerpt from one of my previous articles entitled
“The Coming Derivatives Panic That Will Destroy Global Financial
Markets“…

It would be hard to overstate the recklessness of these banks.  The
numbers that you are about to see are absolutely jaw-dropping.
According to the Comptroller of the Currency, four of the largest U.S.
banks are walking a tightrope of risk, leverage and debt when it comes
to derivatives.  Just check out how exposed they are…

JPMorgan Chase

Total Assets: $1,812,837,000,000 (just over 1.8 trillion dollars)

Total Exposure To Derivatives: $69,238,349,000,000 (more than 69
trillion dollars)

Citibank

Total Assets: $1,347,841,000,000 (a bit more than 1.3 trillion dollars)

Total Exposure To Derivatives: $52,150,970,000,000 (more than 52
trillion dollars)

Bank Of America

Total Assets: $1,445,093,000,000 (a bit more than 1.4 trillion dollars)

Total Exposure To Derivatives: $44,405,372,000,000 (more than 44
trillion dollars)

Goldman Sachs

Total Assets: $114,693,000,000 (a bit more than 114 billion dollars –
yes, you read that correctly)

Total Exposure To Derivatives: $41,580,395,000,000 (more than 41
trillion dollars)

That means that the total exposure that Goldman Sachs has to
derivatives contracts is more than 362 times greater than their total
assets.

When the derivatives crash happens, there won’t be enough money in the
entire world to fix it.

So enjoy this little stock market bubble while you can.

It will end soon enough.

And of course stocks should not be this high in the first place.  The
underlying economic fundamentals do not justify these kinds of stock
prices whatsoever.

A recent CNN article noted that the last time the Dow hit a record
high that unemployment in the U.S. was much lower…

Consider this. When the Dow hit its now old record high back in
October 2007, the economy was still in good shape — although it was
just a few months away from the beginning of the Great Recession.

The unemployment rate in October 2007 was 4.7%. In January of this
year, the unemployment rate was 7.9%.

And that same article also pointed out that GDP growth and housing
prices were also much stronger back in 2007…

Gross domestic product grew 3% in the third quarter of 2007. Revised
figures from the government last week showed that GDP in the fourth
quarter of 2012 rose a scant 0.1%. But I guess that’s good news
considering the first estimate showed a 0.1% decline.

And despite all the hoopla about the steady recovery in the housing
market over the past year, real estate is still in a bear market. The
most recent level of the S&P Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index,
one of the most widely watched gauges of the health of housing, is
still 24% below where it was in October 2007.

We have never even come close to recovering from the last economic
crisis.  Most Americans seem to have forgotten how good things were
back then, but a recent Zero Hedge article included some more points
of comparison between October 2007 and today…

Dow Jones Industrial Average: Then 14164.5; Now 14164.5
Regular Gas Price: Then $2.75; Now $3.73
GDP Growth: Then +2.5%; Now +1.6%
Americans Unemployed (in Labor Force): Then 6.7 million; Now 13.2 million
Americans On Food Stamps: Then 26.9 million; Now 47.69 million
Size of Fed’s Balance Sheet: Then $0.89 trillion; Now $3.01 trillion
US Debt as a Percentage of GDP: Then ~38%; Now 74.2%
US Deficit (LTM): Then $97 billion; Now $975.6 billion
Total US Debt Oustanding: Then $9.008 trillion; Now $16.43 trillion
US Household Debt: Then $13.5 trillion; Now 12.87 trillion
Labor Force Particpation Rate: Then 65.8%; Now 63.6%
Consumer Confidence: Then 99.5; Now 69.6

And of course anyone that reads my site regularly knows that the U.S.
economy has been in a state of persistent decline over the past
several years.

Just consider the following data points…

-The percentage of the civilian labor force in the United States that
is actually employed has been steadily declining every single year
since 2006.

-In 2007, the unemployment rate for the 20 to 29 age bracket was about
6.5 percent.  Today, the unemployment rate for that same age group is
about 13 percent.

-According to one study, 60 percent of the jobs lost during the last
recession were mid-wage jobs, but 58 percent of the jobs created since
then have been low wage jobs.

-Median household income in America has fallen for four consecutive
years.  Overall, it has declined by more than $4000 during that time
span.

-At this point, an astounding 53 percent of all American workers make
less than $30,000 a year.

That is the other side of the Fed’s insidious money printing.  Incomes
in the United States are going down, but the cost of living is
skyrocketing.  This is squeezing millions of Americans out of the
middle class…

When Debbie Bruister buys a gallon of milk at her local Kroger
supermarket, she pays $3.69, up 70 cents from what she paid last year.

Getting to the store costs more, too. Gas in Corinth, Miss., her
hometown, costs $3.51 a gallon now, compared to less than three bucks
in 2012. That really hurts, considering her husband’s 112-mile daily
round-trip commute to his job as a pharmacist.

Perhaps you can identify with this.  Perhaps your paychecks are about
the same as they used to be back in 2007 but the cost of living has
gone up dramatically since then.

I wish I could tell you that things were going to get better, but
unfortunately there are all kinds of indications that things are about
to get even worse for the U.S. economy.  If you doubt this, just read
this article and this article.

READ PART 3

PART 3

  Yes, the Dow is at an all-time high.  But do you want to know what
else has hit an all-time high up in New York?

Homelessness.

The following is from a recent report in the New York Times…

An average of more than 50,000 people slept each night in New York
City’s homeless shelters for the first time in January, a record that
underscores an unsettling national trend: a rising number of families
without permanent housing.

And apparently families and children have been hit particularly hard
over the past year…

More than 21,000 children—an unprecedented 1% of the city’s
youth—slept each night in a city shelter in January, an increase of
22% in the past year, the report said, while homeless families now
spend more than a year in a shelter, on average, for the first time
since 1987. In January, an average of 11,984 homeless families slept
in shelters each night, a rise of 18% from a year earlier.

Of course New York is far from alone.  There has been a surge in
homelessness all over the United States.  In fact, at this point more
than a million public school students in the United States are
homeless.  This is the first time that has ever happened in U.S.
history.

But the Dow just hit a record high so we should all be wildly happy, right?

Hopefully we can get more Americans to understand that the
“prosperity” that we are enjoying right now is just an illusion.  It
isn’t real.  It is a bubble created by reckless money printing by the
Fed and reckless borrowing by the U.S. government.  If you can believe
it, the U.S. government borrowed another 253 billion dollars during
the month of February alone.

The Fed and the U.S. government will continue to engage in this kind
of reckless behavior until the bubble eventually bursts.

So what should all the rest of us do?

We should be feverishly preparing for the hard times that are coming.
As Daisy Luther recently wrote about, one of the most important things
to do is to create an emergency fund.  Instead of going out and
blowing your money on the latest toys and gadgets, set some money
aside so that you will have something to live on if the economy
crashes and you suddenly lose your income.

Just remember what happened back in 2008.  Millions of Americans
suddenly lost their jobs, and because many of them had no financial
reserves, a lot of Americans suddenly could not pay their mortgages
and they lost their homes.

So put some money away in a place where it will be safe – and that
does not mean the stock market.

Jim Cramer of CNBC and a lot of the other talking heads on the
financial news channels are trying to encourage ordinary Americans to
jump into “the bull market” right now and make some money, and many
people will take their advice.

But the truth is that a bubble is always biggest right before it bursts.

This bubble is awfully big right now, and I don’t know how much larger
it can possibly get.

Tags: Ben Bernanke, Biggest, Bubble, Bursts, Crashing Down, Crisis,
Debt, Divorced, Dow 15, Economic Crisis, Economic Reality, Fed
Manipulation, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Funny Money,
Long-Term Trends, Money, Money Printing, Our Debt, Our Economy,
Prepare, Reckless, The Dow, The U.S. Economy, Wealthier, Wealthy |
Category: Financial Markets | 118 Comments - ()

Lock Your Doors And Prepare To Defend Your Family

Do you think that is an alarmist headline?  Well, I am not the one
saying this.  Law enforcement authorities all over the country are
telling citizens that they can no longer deal with all the crime and
that people need to lock their doors and prepare to defend their
families.  Just recently, the city attorney of San Bernardino,
California told citizens to “lock their doors and load their guns”
because there is not enough money to pay for adequate police
protection any longer.  The murder rate in San Bernardino is up 50
percent this year, but the city is dealing with bankruptcy and has
been forced to lay off 80 police officers.  But San Bernardino is not
the only city dealing with this kind of a thing.  In Oakland,
burglaries are up 43 percent so far this year, and to say that there
is a “crime wave” going on in Oakland would be a massive
understatement.  If you can believe it, in Oakland “more than 11,000
homes, cars or businesses have been broken into so far this year –
translating to about 33 burglaries a day.”  Sadly, there simply are
not enough police to keep up with it all.  Due to budget cuts, it is
being projected that by February the size of the police force in
Oakland will be about 25 percent smaller than it was back in 2008.
But what is happening in Detroit is perhaps even more frightening.
Today there are about 1,000 fewer police officers in Detroit than
there was a decade ago.  But crime just continues to rise.  So now
even the police are telling people to “enter Detroit at your own
risk“.  With very little police protection, an increasing number of
citizens are taking matters into their own hands.  As I noted in a
previous article, justifiable homicide in the city of Detroit
increased by 79 percent in 2011, and the rate of self-defense killings
in Detroit is approximately 2200 percent above the national average.
But don’t laugh at what is happening in cities like San Bernardino,
Oakland and Detroit.  What is happening in those cities will be coming
to your community soon enough.

From coast to coast, criminals are becoming increasingly bold and
increasingly desperate.  My sister lives near a large city in the
middle part of the country, and a house across the street from the one
her family just moved into was recently vandalized.  The criminals
took all of the exposed copper pipe and copper wire that could be
accessed easily.

Other criminals have become very focused on gold because it has soared
in value and it is easy to resell.  For example, there have been more
than 250 gold chain robberies in Stockton, California just since the
month of April.  According to the CBS News affiliate in Sacramento,
criminals are just ripping these chains right off of the necks of
unsuspecting citizens, and many of the victims that have tried to
resist have ended up getting hurt.  Normally the criminals sell off
the jewelry within 24 hours, so solving these crimes is a real
challenge…

Most victims of the robberies are female (65 percent), and 44 percent
of victims are age 50 or older, the data showed. The most common time
of day for the crimes were between 12 and 5 p.m., though this only
accounts for about a third of the crime.

Parino said robbers took even police by surprise initially.

“When [criminals] do these crimes, they normally get rid of the items
within 24 hours,” he said.

That’s why police are now checking up on secondhand stores and pawn
shops on a weekly basis.

Many dismiss reports such as these as “anomalies”, but how many
“anomalies” do we need before we finally admit that we have a
widespread problem in our society?

Personally, there are many major U.S. cities that I would not want to
be living right in the middle of right now.

Just take a look at Chicago.  It has become one of the deadliest major
cities on the entire globe.  In recent years we have seen massive cuts
to the police budget coupled with a dramatic increase in gang activity
in Chicago.

The murder rate in Chicago is way up this year and the police force is
massively outnumbered.

As I have written about previously, there are only about 200 police
officers assigned to Chicago’s Gang Enforcement Unit.  It is their job
to handle the estimated 100,000 gang members living in the city.

How would you like to be outnumbered 100,000 to 200?

When things really hit the fan, Chicago is going to be a complete and
utter nightmare.

And sometimes we get a peek into how people will behave when things
break down.  Just look at what happened during the aftermath of
Hurricane Sandy.

If you can believe it, some criminals actually took advantage of the
Thanksgiving holiday to loot homes in the Breezy Point neighborhood of
Queens.  That was the neighborhood where approximately 100 homes
burned down.  The suffering of the residents of that neighborhood made
headlines all over the nation.  But that has not stopped criminals
from moving in and taking advantage of their vulnerability…

Cops told the victims burglaries are on the rise in Breezy Point.

There were 14 home break-ins from Nov. 12 to Nov. 18, compared with
none a year before.

And in the 28 days before that, there were 48 burglaries. Only four
break-ins were reported in that time period the year before.

In the days after Sandy, some of the hardest-hit areas were plagued
with store looting, home burglaries, street muggings and other crimes.

There are some very sick people out there.  These days you simply do
not know who you can trust.  The person you meet on the street may be
perfectly fine or they may be a total sicko.  It is so hard to tell.
But without a doubt there are a lot of sickos out there.  Just check
out what authorities in Pennsylvania found recently…

Animal welfare workers say 11 puppies were found dead and skinned near
an eastern Pennsylvania park.

Sadly, authorities in that area had come across another similar
incident recently…

The discovery is second disturbing incident in the county in less than
a week. About 20 miles away in Lynn Township police say a dog was
discovered skinned and cooked.

Who would do such things?

What in the world is happening to this country?

Things are changing, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.  As
conditions shift, we are all going to have to carefully evaluate what
is necessary to protect our families.  Don’t ignore all of the warning
signs.  Sticking our heads in the sand and pretending that everything
is going to be okay is not going to help anything.

So what do all of you think about all of this?  Please feel free to
post a comment with your opinion below…

Tags: Attorney, Bankruptcy, Budget, Burglaries, Businesses, Crime,
Crime Wave, Defend, Detroit, Families, Family, Guns, Law Enforcement,
Money, Murder, Oakland, Police, Prepare, Protection, Self-Defense |
Category: Societal Collapse | 121 Comments - ()

14 Questions People Ask About How To Prepare For The Collapse Of The Economy

How in the world is someone supposed to actually prepare for an
economic collapse?  What should you do with your money?  How can you
make sure that your family is going to be okay?  How can you prepare
if your resources are extremely limited?  These are the kinds of
questions people ask me all the time.  Once people understand that the
economy has been collapsing and will continue to collapse, then the
next step for most of them is that they want to get prepared for the
storm that is coming.  So where should someone get started?  Well, the
truth is that no two people are facing the exact same set of
circumstances, so preparation is going to look different for each
individual.  But there are certain core principles that we can all
benefit from.  For example, when a financial storm is coming that is
not the time to be blowing thousands of dollars on vacations and new
toys.  You would be surprised at how many people there are that claim
that they have no extra money in their budgets and yet somehow have
plenty of money to run down to Wal-Mart and buy a big stack of DVDs.
When times are difficult, each hard-earned dollar becomes much more
precious, and we all need to start getting into the habit of making
the most out of our limited resources.  The seemingly endless
prosperity that we have all been enjoying for decades is coming to an
end, and most of us have absolutely no experience on how to deal with
truly hard times.  If you are under the age of 60, it might be a
really good idea to read a book or two on what conditions were like
during the Great Depression of the 1930s.  There is a lot that we can
learn from our own history.

Another key characteristic that we will all need in the years ahead is
flexibility.  Anyone that has spent any time in the military knows
that very few plans ever work out perfectly.  As the global economy
breaks down and the world becomes increasingly unstable, conditions
are going to change rapidly.  What might work really well in one
situation might be the exact wrong thing to do 6 months later.  If you
are not willing or able to adapt to dramatic change then you are going
to have a lot of difficulty in the years ahead.

Many people refer to me as a “doom and gloomer” because I run a
website called “The Economic Collapse” and I am constantly pointing
out that the entire world is heading for a complete and total
financial nightmare.

But I don’t think that it does any good to stick your head in the
sand.  I believe that there is hope in understanding what is happening
and I believe that there is hope in getting prepared.

It is those that are completely oblivious to what is really going on
that will be totally blindsided by the coming crisis.  When they
finally realize what has come upon them many of them will totally lose
it.

From my little spot on the wall I am trying my best to warn people so
that they can have a chance to be prepared for what is coming.

I am not spreading doom and gloom.

I am spreading hope.

And I want to make another point.  Generally, things are going to be
getting progressively worse as the years roll along.  As I have
written about before, I believe that the economic collapse is not a
single event.  Rather, I see it as a series of waves that will be
punctuated by moments of great crisis.

So advice about preparation is going to be different depending on
whether you are talking about the short-term or the mid-term or the
long-term.  Hopefully you will keep that in mind as you read my
answers to the questions below.

The following are common questions that people ask about how to
prepare for the collapse of the economy….

#1 How Do I Get Started?

When the financial crisis of 2008 hit, what was the biggest danger for
most Americans?

The biggest danger was that they would lose their jobs and not be able
to pay their bills.

During the last recession, millions and millions of Americans did end
up losing their jobs.

And because many of them were living paycheck to paycheck many of them
also ended up losing their homes.

You do not want that to happen to you.

So what I am about to say next is not considered to be very “sexy” in
prepper circles, but it is absolutely crucial advice.

You need to have an emergency fund saved up that can cover your
expenses for at least six months.

That way if you lose your job or your business goes under you will be
able to keep going for a while as you figure out what your next move
will be.

These days it takes the average unemployed American nearly 40 weeks to
find a new job, and it will likely be even worse in the next major
economic downturn.

So make sure that you have plenty of cash saved up just in case.  If
you are currently living paycheck to paycheck you are extremely
vulnerable.

#2 What Should I Do With My Money?

I get this question a lot.

People always want to know where they should put their money.

Well, my first piece of advice is always to build an emergency fund.
See #1 above.  Most people do not have one.

After that is done, I am a big believer in not putting all of my eggs
into one basket.

Sometimes people will tell me that they are going to take all of their
money out of the banks because they don’t feel safe having their money
in them.

Well, if you stick all of your money in your mattress, what happens if
there is a fire or what happens if someone robs you?

That is why I believe in spreading your risk around.  Having money a
bunch of different places is a good thing.

But one place I would not put it is in the stock market.  If you were
fortunate enough to catch the recent rally you should get out while
the getting is good.

If you have blind faith in the stock market you are going to be deeply
disappointed eventually.  I do not have a single penny in the stock
market, and a couple of years from now that is going to look like a
very wise move.

#3 Should I Invest In Precious Metals?

A lot of people that write about the economic crisis in this country
really advocate investing in precious metals because they tend to hold
value over time (unlike fiat currencies).

I like precious metals myself, but if you are going to invest you need
to get educated so that you know what you are doing.  If you go in
blindly you are likely to get burned at some point.

In addition, you need to be prepared for wild fluctuations in price
over the coming years.  There will be times when gold and silver
absolutely soar and there will be times when they drop like a rock.

So if you are going to play the game you need to be able to handle the ride.

#4 Should I Get Out Of Debt?

Many that write about the coming economic collapse say that you
shouldn’t even bother to pay off your debts because the financial
system is going to collapse anyway.

I don’t see it that way.

I don’t believe that our banks are going to totally collapse and
suddenly go out of existence.

Not in the short-term anyway.

So I believe that it is actually a good idea to get out of debt.  When
financial troubles hit you don’t want a horde of bill collectors
coming after you.

There is a lot of freedom that comes with getting out of debt, and in
this environment it is wise to become as independent of the system as
possible.

#5 What If I Don’t Have Any Money To Prepare?

In this kind of economic environment it is no surprise that I get this
question a lot.

Many families are just barely scraping by each month and they do not
have much money to put into anything.

And I can definitely sympathize with that.

However, I would say that there are very, very few families out there
that do not have anything that can be cut out of the budget.

The truth is that American families are experts at blowing money on
really stupid stuff.

In general, I recommend that all families do what they can to reduce
their expenses.

The smaller of a financial footprint you have, the better off you will
be and the more resources you will have to help you get prepared.

Also, now is the time to be looking for ways that you can increase your income.

For many Americans, starting a side business is a way to bring in some
extra cash.  Yes, this will cut into your television watching time,
but now is not the time to be lazy.

The time you spend working hard now while the sun is still shining
will pay off later.

Don’t be afraid to work harder than you ever have before.

#6 Should I Rent Or Buy?

This is a question that I also get a lot, and it really depends on
your situation.

If you rent, that gives you a lot more flexibility.  You can move for
a new job or a new opportunity without having to sell a house.  And
you get to avoid a lot of the expenses and hassles that come with
being a homeowner.

If you buy, you get to “lock in” your housing expenses for many years.
In a highly inflationary environment this would potentially be very
beneficial.  And interest rates are very low right now.

In addition, it is going to be really hard to rent a really good
“prepper” property.  If you are looking for a property that is away
from the big cities where you can grow your own food and become more
independent of the system, then in most cases you are going to have to
buy such a property.

But if you do buy, it is going to be much harder to move if something
does happen and you need to go somewhere else.

#7 What About My Health Condition?

Over the next few years, our health care system should continue
operating at least somewhat normally.  But the truth is that our
health care system is in horrible shape and it is not a good thing to
be totally dependent on pills and doctors.

Even if economic conditions were perfect it would be a good idea to
learn what you can do on your own to improve your health.  But this is
especially true as we move into a time of great economic instability.

#8 Should I Be Storing Food?

Yes.

However, even though the United States is experiencing a historic
drought right now, I do not believe that there will be major food
shortages in America this year or next year.

Down the road, however, is a different story.

And your food dollars are never going to go farther than they do right
now.  As I wrote about the other day, this drought is likely to cause
food prices to go up substantially, and so the food you store now
might end up being twice as valuable a few years from now.

In addition, you never know when a major disaster or emergency is
going to strike so it is always good to become more independent of the
system.

I encourage everyone to learn how to grow a garden.  Yes, your space
may be limited, but there is actually one family that produces 6000
pounds of produce every year on just 1/10th of an acre right in the
middle of Pasadena, California.

If they can do such extraordinary things with their little plot of
land, why can’t you try to do what you can with what you have?

#9 Should I Be Storing Water?

It is always good to have some water on hand in case disaster or
emergency strikes.

And you should be rotating whatever water you currently have on hand
because you don’t want water sitting around indefinitely.

But what is much more important is to make sure that you and your
family have access to a source of water that you can depend on if
disaster strikes and the grid goes down.

In a previous article I discussed a report put out by the American
Trucker Associations entitled “When Trucks Stop, America Stops” that
detailed just how incredibly vulnerable our water supply really is….

According to the American Water Works Association, Americans drink
more than one billion glasses of tap water per day. For safety and
security reasons, most water supply plants maintain a larger inventory
of supplies than the typical business. However, the amount of chemical
storage varies significantly and is site specific. According to the
Chlorine Institute, most water treatment facilities receive chlorine
in cylinders (150 pounds and one ton cylinders) that are delivered by
motor carriers. On average, trucks deliver purification chemicals to
water supply plants every seven to 14 days. Without these chemicals,
water cannot be purified and made safe for drinking. Without truck
deliveries of purification chemicals, water supply plants will run out
of drinkable water in 14 to 28 days. Once the water supply is drained,
water will be deemed safe for drinking only when boiled. Lack of clean
drinking water will lead to increased gastrointestinal and other
illnesses, further taxing an already weakened healthcare system.

So yes, water is definitely something you should be accounting for in
your preparations.

#10 Other Than Food And Water What Other Supplies Will I Need?

Anything that you use on a regular basis or that you would use in an
emergency situation is something that you should consider storing up.

For example, if you could not buy any more toilet paper from the
stores, what would you do?

Basic things like that are often overlooked by many preppers.

In a previous article, I listed dozens of things you may want to
consider storing.  Preparation is going to look different for every
family, but hopefully that list will give you some ideas.

#11 What Happens If The Power Grid Goes Down?

This is a very important consideration – especially if you live in a
colder climate.

Some people have a backup generator for such circumstances.

Others have set up wind and/or solar systems for their homes.

Alternative energy solutions are great if you can afford them, and
they will enable you to become much more independent of the system.

But not everyone can afford to put in solar panels or a big wind turbine.

So do what you can with what you have.

#12 Should I Leave The Big Cities?

A lot of people ask me this, but there is no easy answer.

In this day and age, a good job is like gold.  It can be really,
really tough to give up a good job and move to the middle of nowhere.

But without a doubt, society is starting to come apart at the seams
and I do expect rioting and major civil unrest in our major cities at
some point in the future.

In the end, you need to do what is right for you and your own family.
Nobody else can make this decision for you.

#13 Should I Get Some Self-Defense Training?

America seems to be overrun by psychopaths and sociopaths these days,
and in such an environment being able to defend yourself becomes more
important.

When criminals come to your home, they are not going to sit down and
have a debate with you.  They are not going to care what your
political outlook is or if you sympathize with their plight.

The criminals are simply going to do what they came there to do unless
someone stops them.

So yes, some self-defense training may come in very handy in the years ahead.

#14 What Should I Do If My Family And Friends Won’t Listen To Me?

This is another very common question that I get.

What should people do if nobody will listen to them?

Well, you just have to do the best that you can.  If they won’t listen
now, just keep planting seeds.  Keep sending them articles that are
packed with statistics and information that show why an economic
collapse is going to happen.

In the years ahead we are all going to need our families and our
friends because communities will endure what is coming much better
than “lone wolf” individuals will be able to.

No matter how hard you prepare, at some point you are going to need
the help of someone else.

So don’t be afraid to reach out to others.

If nobody among your family or friends will listen to you at the
moment, you may have to prepare on your own right now.

In fact, you may have to do extra preparation because at some point it
is probably inevitable that your family and friends will come to you
for help.

That is the perspective that my wife and I take.  We are not only
preparing for ourselves.  We are also preparing for the family members
that may have to depend on us someday.

Nobody said that preparing was going to be easy.

But beyond any physical preparations, I also believe that it is
absolutely crucial to prepare mentally and spiritually.

The times that are coming are going to be incredibly challenging.
They are going to require a great deal of physical, mental, emotional
and spiritual strength.

If you are a “lone wolf” that believes that you don’t need anyone or
anything, then I feel sorry for you and I honestly don’t know how you
are going to make it.

None of us have all the answers.

I know that I certainly do not.

I have just written nearly 3000 words, but after I post this article I
know that some of the great visitors to my site will post ideas that I
never even considered for this article.

We can all learn from each other.  Most of the people that I have met
that think “they know it all” are some of the most clueless people
that I have ever come across.

I never want to stop learning, and hopefully that is the case for you as well.

If we work together, perhaps we can all make it through the horrible,
horrible times that are coming.

Tags: 1930s, Collapsing, Depression, Family, Financial, Financial
Storm, Great Depression, Hard Times, History, Money, My Money,
Preparation, Prepare, Prosperity, Questions, The Economy, Vacations |
Category: Commentary | 285 Comments - ()

10 Things That We Can Learn About Shortages And Preparation From The
Economic Collapse In Greece

When the economy of a nation collapses, almost everything changes.
Unfortunately, most people have never been through anything like that,
so it can be difficult to know how to prepare.  For those that are
busy preparing for the coming global financial collapse, there is a
lot to be learned from the economic depression that is happening right
now in Greece.  Essentially, what Greece is experiencing is a low
level economic collapse.  Unemployment is absolutely rampant and
poverty is rapidly spreading, but the good news for Greece is that the
global financial system is still operating somewhat normally and they
are getting some financial assistance from the outside.  Things in
Greece could be a whole lot worse, and they will probably get a whole
lot worse before it is all said and done.  But already things have
gotten bad enough in Greece that it gives us an idea of what a
full-blown economic collapse in the 21st century may look like.  There
are reports of food and medicine shortages in Greece, crime and
suicides are on the rise and people have been rapidly pulling their
money out of the banks.  Hopefully this article will give you some
ideas that you can use as you prepare for the economic chaos that will
soon be unfolding all over the globe.

The following are 10 things that we can learn about shortages and
preparation from the economic collapse in Greece….

#1 Food Shortages Can Actually Happen

Most people assume that they will always be able to run out to their
local supermarket or to Wal-Mart and get all of the supplies they
need.

Unfortunately, that is a false assumption.  The truth is that our food
distribution system is extremely vulnerable.

In Greece, many people are starting to totally run out of food.  Even
some government institutions (such as prisons) are now reporting food
shortages.  The following was originally from a Greek news source….

The financing for many prisons has decreased to a minimum for some
months now, resulting in hundreds of detainees being malnourished and
surviving on the charity of local communities.

The latest example is the prison in Corinth where after the supply
stoppage from the nearby military camp, the prisoners are at the mercy
of God because, as reported by prison staff, not even one grain of
rice has been left in their warehouses. When a few days earlier the
commander of the camp announced to the prison management the
transportation stoppage, citing lack of food supplies even for the
soldiers, he shut down the last source of supply for 84 prisoners. The
response of some Corinth citizens was immediate as they took it upon
themselves to support the prisoners, since all protests to the Justice
ministry were fruitless.

#2 Medicine Is One Of The First Things That Becomes Scarce During An
Economic Collapse

If you are dependent on medicine in order to survive, you might want
to figure out how you are going to get by if your supply of medicine
is totally cut off someday.

In Greece, medicine shortages have become a massive problem.  The
following is from a recent Bloomberg article….

Mina Mavrou, who runs a pharmacy in a middle-class Athens suburb,
spends hours each day pleading with drugmakers, wholesalers and
colleagues to hunt down medicines for clients. Life-saving drugs such
as Sanofi (SAN)’s blood-thinner Clexane and GlaxoSmithKline Plc
(GSK)’s asthma inhaler Flixotide often appear as lines of crimson data
on pharmacists’ computer screens, meaning the products aren’t in stock
or that pharmacists can’t order as many units as they need.

“When we see red, we want to cry,” Mavrou said. “The situation is
worsening day by day.”

The 12,000 pharmacies that dot almost every street corner in Greek
cities are the damaged capillaries of a complex system for getting
treatment to patients. The Panhellenic Association of Pharmacists
reports shortages of almost half the country’s 500 most-used
medicines. Even when drugs are available, pharmacists often must foot
the bill up front, or patients simply do without.

#3 When An Economy Collapses, So Might The Power Grid

Try this some time – turn off all power to your home for 24 hours and
try to live normally.

Sadly, most people simply do not understand just how dependent we are
on the power grid.  Without power, all of our lives would change
dramatically.

In Greece, authorities are warning of an impending “collapse” of the
power grid.  If it goes down for an extended period of time in Greece,
the consequences would be catastrophic….

Greece’s power regulator RAE told Reuters on Friday it was calling an
emergency meeting next week to avert a collapse of the debt-stricken
country’s electricity and natural gas system.

“RAE is taking crisis initiatives throughout next week to avert the
collapse of the natural gas and electricity system,” the regulator’s
chief Nikos Vasilakos told Reuters.

RAE took the decision after receiving a letter from Greece’s natural
gas company DEPA, which threatened to cut supplies to electricity
producers if they failed to settle their arrears with the company.

#4 During An Economic Collapse You Cannot Even Take Water For Granted

If the power grid goes down, you will soon no longer have clean water
coming out of your faucets.  That is one of the reasons why it is
absolutely imperative that the power grid stay operable in Greece.

Sadly, most people don’t understand just how vulnerable our water
system is.  In a previous article, I quoted from a report that
discussed how rapidly our water supply would be in jeopardy in the
event of a major transportation disruption….

According to the American Water Works Association, Americans drink
more than one billion glasses of tap water per day. For safety and
security reasons, most water supply plants maintain a larger inventory
of supplies than the typical business. However, the amount of chemical
storage varies significantly and is site specific. According to the
Chlorine Institute, most water treatment facilities receive chlorine
in cylinders (150 pounds and one ton cylinders) that are delivered by
motor carriers. On average, trucks deliver purification chemicals to
water supply plants every seven to 14 days. Without these chemicals,
water cannot be purified and made safe for drinking. Without truck
deliveries of purification chemicals, water supply plants will run out
of drinkable water in 14 to 28 days. Once the water supply is drained,
water will be deemed safe for drinking only when boiled. Lack of clean
drinking water will lead to increased gastrointestinal and other
illnesses, further taxing an already weakened healthcare system.

What will you do when clean water stops coming out of your faucets?

You might want to start thinking about that.

#5 During An Economic Crisis Your Credit Cards And Debit Cards May Stop Working

Most people have become very accustomed to using either debit cards or
credit cards for almost everything.

But what would happen if the financial system locked up for a period
of time and you were not able to use them?

This is something that the citizens of Greece are potentially facing
in the coming months, and this is something that all of us need to
start thinking about.

#6 Crime, Rioting And Looting Become Commonplace During An Economic Collapse

Big corporations are already making extensive plans for how to protect
their stores in the event that Greece switches from the euro to the
drachma.

The following is from a recent Reuters article….

British electrical retailer Dixons has spent the last few weeks
stockpiling security shutters to protect its nearly 100 stores across
Greece in case of riot.

The planning, says Dixons chief Sebastian James, may look alarmist but
it’s good to be prepared.

Company bosses around Europe agree. As the financial crisis in Greece
worsens, companies are getting ready for everything from social unrest
to a complete meltdown of the financial system.

#7 During A Financial Meltdown Many Average Citizens Will Start Bartering

During this economic depression, alternative currencies have already
been popping up in Greece.

When things fall apart on a global scale, will you have things to
barter for the things that you need?

#8 Suicides Spike During An Economic Collapse

When you think of the Great Depression of the 1930s, what do you think of?

Many people think of images of people jumping out of buildings.

Well, something similar has been happening in Greece.  Suicide
statistics in Greece have been absolutely soaring during the last
couple of years.

Once prosperity disappears, many people feel as though life is not
worth living anymore.

#9 Your Currency May Rapidly Lose Value During An Economic Crisis

Just remember what happened in Germany during the Weimar Republic and
what has happened recently in places like Zimbabwe.

The truth is that it can happen anywhere.

Right now, Greeks are pulling their money out of the banks because
they are worried that their euros will be turned into drachmas which
would rapidly lose value.

If I was living in Greece I would definitely be concerned about that.
The return of the drachma seems to get closer with each passing day.
Just check out these screenshots.

#10 When Things Hit The Fan The Government Will Not Save You

Has the government of Greece come to the rescue of all of those that
are deeply suffering right now?

Of course not.  The truth is that the Greek government can barely take
care of itself at the moment.

History has shown us that governments simply cannot be counted on when
things hit the fan.

Just remember what happened during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In the end, the only one that can be counted on to take care of you
and your family is you.

So you better start preparing.

Unfortunately, as I wrote about the other day, time is rapidly running
out for the global financial system.

Even some of the top economic officials in the world are warning that
another major crisis could be on the way.

Just check out what World Bank President Robert Zoellick said the other day….

“Events in Greece could trigger financial fright in Spain, Italy and
across the eurozone. The summer of 2012 offers an eerie echo of 2008.”

He also compared a potential exit of Greece from the eurozone to the
collapse of Lehman Brothers back during the last financial crisis….

“If Greece leaves the eurozone, the contagion is impossible to
predict, just as Lehman had unexpected consequences.”

So what are some things that the average person can do to get prepared?

Well, a recent article on SHTFplan.com entitled “The List: A to Z
Survival for the Abysmal Times Ahead” contains hundreds of ideas for
preparing for the chaotic economic environment that we are heading
into.

Preparation is going to look different for every family.  No two
situations are exactly the same.

But there are some practical steps that nearly all of us can take to
better position ourselves for what is coming.  Now is the time to get
educated and now is the time to take action.

Or you could be like all of those that laughed at Noah while he was
building that big boat.

In the end, things did not work out too well for those folks.


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Tags: Banks, Collapses, Crime, Depression, Economic Chaos, Economic
Depression, Economy, Financial, Financial Assistance, Global
Financial, Global Financial Collapse, Greece, Medicine, Poverty,
Prepare, Preparing, Shortages, Suicides, The Economy | Category:
Commentary, Economic Despair | 153 Comments - ()

Read This First Before You Decide That Preppers Are Crazy

Do you believe that preppers are a few cards short of a full deck?  Do
you assume that anyone that is “preparing for doomsday” does not have
their elevator going all the way to the top floor?  Well, you might
want to read this first before you make a final decision that all
preppers are crazy.  The information that you are about to read shook
me up a bit when I first looked it over.  To be honest, I had no idea
how incredibly vulnerable our economic system is to a transportation
disruption.  I am continually getting emails and comments on my
websites asking “how to prepare” for what is coming, so when I came
across this information I knew that I had to share it with all of you.
Hopefully what you are about to read will motivate you to prepare like
never before, and hopefully you will share this information with
others.

Originally, I was going to write an article about the rising
unemployment in Europe today.  Did you know that unemployment in the
eurozone is now at a 15 year high?  It has risen for 10 months in a
row with no end in sight.

But I have written dozens of articles about the economic crisis in
Europe already.  So before starting on that article I started thinking
of all the “preparation” questions I have been getting lately and I
went over and checked out one of my favorite preparation websites:
shtfplan.com.

Well, an article had just been posted over there about a report put
out by the American Trucker Associations entitled “When Trucks Stop,
America Stops“.

I went and found that original report and I was stunned as I read it.

The truth is that our “just in time” inventory and delivery systems
leave us incredibly vulnerable to a nationwide disaster.

You see, it is very expensive to hold and store inventory, so most
manufacturers and retailers rely on a continual flow of deliveries
that are scheduled to arrive “just in time”, and this significantly
reduces their operating expenses.

This is considered to be good business practice for manufacturers and
retailers, but it also means that if there was a major nationwide
transportation disruption that our economic system would grind to a
halt almost immediately.

Once store shelves are picked clean, they would not be able to be
replenished until trucks could get back on the road.  In the event of
a major nationwide disaster, that could be quite a while.

So what could potentially cause a nationwide transportation shutdown?

Well, it is easy to imagine a lot of potential scenarios – a volcanic
eruption, a historic earthquake, an EMP attack, a solar megastorm, a
war, a major terror attack, an asteroid strike, a killer pandemic,
mass rioting in U.S. cities, or even martial law.

If something caused the trucks to stop running, life in America would
immediately start changing.

So exactly what would that look like?

The following is an excerpt from the report mentioned above put out by
the American Trucker Associations entitled “When Trucks Stop, America
Stops“….

*****

A Timeline Showing the Deterioration of Major Industries Following a
Truck Stoppage

The first 24 hours

• Delivery of medical supplies to the affected area will cease.
• Hospitals will run out of basic supplies such as syringes and
catheters within hours. Radiopharmaceuticals will deteriorate and
become unusable.
• Service stations will begin to run out of fuel.
• Manufacturers using just-in-time manufacturing will develop
component shortages.
• U.S. mail and other package delivery will cease.

Within one day

• Food shortages will begin to develop.
• Automobile fuel availability and delivery will dwindle, leading to
skyrocketing prices and long lines at the gas pumps.
• Without manufacturing components and trucks for product delivery,
assembly lines will shut down, putting thousands out of work.

Within two to three days

• Food shortages will escalate, especially in the face of hoarding and
consumer panic.
• Supplies of essentials—such as bottled water, powdered milk, and
canned meat—at major retailers will disappear.
• ATMs will run out of cash and banks will be unable to process
transactions.
• Service stations will completely run out of fuel for autos and trucks.
• Garbage will start piling up in urban and suburban areas.
• Container ships will sit idle in ports and rail transport will be
disrupted, eventually coming to a standstill.

Within a week

• Automobile travel will cease due to the lack of fuel. Without autos
and busses, many people will not be able to get to work, shop for
groceries, or access medical care.
• Hospitals will begin to exhaust oxygen supplies.

Within two weeks

• The nation’s clean water supply will begin to run dry.

Within four weeks

• The nation will exhaust its clean water supply and water will be
safe for drinking only after boiling. As a result gastrointestinal
illnesses will increase, further taxing an already weakened health
care system.

This timeline presents only the primary effects of a freeze on truck
travel. Secondary effects must be considered as well, such as
inability to maintain telecommunications service, reduced law
enforcement, increased crime, increased illness and injury, higher
death rates, and likely, civil unrest.

*****

Earlier in the report, the reasons why America’s water supply would be
in such jeopardy are described in greater detail….

According to the American Water Works Association, Americans drink
more than one billion glasses of tap water per day. For safety and
security reasons, most water supply plants maintain a larger inventory
of supplies than the typical business. However, the amount of chemical
storage varies significantly and is site specific. According to the
Chlorine Institute, most water treatment facilities receive chlorine
in cylinders (150 pounds and one ton cylinders) that are delivered by
motor carriers. On average, trucks deliver purification chemicals to
water supply plants every seven to 14 days. Without these chemicals,
water cannot be purified and made safe for drinking. Without truck
deliveries of purification chemicals, water supply plants will run out
of drinkable water in 14 to 28 days. Once the water supply is drained,
water will be deemed safe for drinking only when boiled. Lack of clean
drinking water will lead to increased gastrointestinal and other
illnesses, further taxing an already weakened healthcare system.

Can you see why I always recommend that you make sure that you and
your family have access to fresh water and a way to purify it?

This report should be very sobering for all of us.

What would you and your family do if you had no food, no clean water
and the stores were shut down because their supplies were gone?

An article by Tess Pennington entitled “Emergency Items: What Will
Disappear First” contains a list of 100 things that are likely to
disappear from store shelves first.  The following are the first 10
things on her list….

1. Generators (Good ones cost dearly. Gas storage, risky. Noisy…target of
thieves; maintenance etc.)
2. Water Filters/Purifiers
3. Portable Toilets
4. Seasoned Firewood. Wood takes about 6 – 12 months to become dried, for home
uses.
5. Lamp Oil, Wicks, Lamps (First Choice: Buy CLEAR oil. If scarce, stockpile
ANY!)
6. Coleman Fuel. Impossible to stockpile too much.
7. Guns, Ammunition, Pepper Spray, Knives, Clubs, Bats & Slingshots.
8. Hand-can openers, & hand egg beaters, whisks.
9. Honey/Syrups/white, brown sugar
10. Rice – Beans – Wheat

You can find the rest of the list right here.

Most Americans just assume that they will always be able to run out to
the supermarket or to Wal-Mart and buy anything that they need.

But if the trucks stop running that will change almost overnight.

After reading the information above, does anyone out there still
believe that preppers are crazy?

The truth is that there are good, solid reasons why millions of
Americans have been storing up food, water filters and other supplies.

Our world is becoming increasingly unstable, and all of us need to get
educated about how to prepare for the difficult years that are coming.

One nightmarish event can change everything that we take for granted
in a single moment.

Just remember what happened after Hurricane Katrina.  Even though that
was only a regional disaster, millions of people had their lives
completely turned upside down by that tragedy.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming that just because the U.S. has
always known tremendous peace and prosperity since World War II that
things will always be that way.

Our lives will only continue to be “normal” as long as the trucks
continue running.

When the trucks stop running in America, there will be mass chaos.

Are you prepared for that?

Tags: Crazy, Doomsday, Economic, Economic System, Motivate, Prepare,
Preparing, Preppers, To Prepare, Transportation | Category: Commentary
| 263 Comments - ()

Yes, It Is Halftime In America – So Now Is The Time To Get Your
Financial Priorities In Order

Did you see the Chrysler commercial featuring Clint Eastwood that
aired during the Super Bowl the other night?  It was entitled “It’s
Halftime In America”, and it was truly a great ad.  To me, it was the
most memorable Super Bowl ad this year by far.  It conjured up images
of the America that so many of us remember so fondly.  It reminded us
of how life in this country used to be.  Unfortunately, America is
currently headed down a road that is taking us in the opposite
direction.  Yes, it is halftime in America, but there is no guarantee
that what is ahead is going to be great.  In fact, if we continue to
make the same choices that we have been making, a national nightmare
is inevitable.  Let us hope and pray for a fundamental change of
direction for America, but let us also prepare for what is going to
happen if that does not take place.  There is a “pause in the action”
at the moment, so now is the time to get your financial priorities in
order.  Now is the time to prepare for the storm that is coming.  If
you wait until the storm is right on top of you it will probably be
too late.

But I must admit that I really loved that ad.  First of all, any Super
Bowl ad that includes Clint Eastwood is almost automatically going to
be a great ad.  Secondly, it was very refreshing to see a commercial
address some of the very serious problems that this country is facing.

The ad ended with Eastwood making the following statement….

“This country can’t be knocked out with one punch. We get right back
up again, and when we do the world is going to hear the roar of our
engines. Ya, it’s halftime in America, and our second h...