The Economy

Also been thinking about this topic in terms of Jeanne's vision of a $50 apple. I wonder if that has more to do with a worthless dollar, rather than a scarcity of food. 

Melissa,

We usually have tomatoes coming "out of our ears" every summer. I'd be happy to sell them for half that! What a bargain! (Guess I'd better keep planting them anyway, just in case.)

Haha! Was just thinking we should all learn how to be farmer/gardeners! :)

I really hope to someday have my own garden, and perhaps a greenhouse too.  But I sense that if that happens, I'd  be part of a community in which we helped each other and traded food. Psychic Kyra Oser wrote this about surviving climate change: "People will develop self-sufficient homes with indoor, above-ground, and possibly underground greenhouses with vegetable gardens, complex refuse systems, meetinghouses, and waterways. I don’t see the practice as being solitary, as most of this looks community-based. Even individual plans also have an overriding local community plan that most people in each town will know about and agree to." http://kyraoser.com/climate-change-predictions-2017/

There is a precedent for this idea from WWII - Victory Gardens. The idea that everyone should plant a garden and learn how to preserve their fruits and vegetables was thought of by the government as a way to help people feel invested in the war. To their amazement, fully 1/3 of all fruits and vegetables were grown in Victory Gardens within a year. Like I have mentioned, we garden just a little but very much enjoy using our own peppers, onions, asparagus, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. as we cook.

Found this article, it's warning about china matches a dream I had few weeks ago.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/global-financial-crash-central-bankers-warn-back-with-a-vengeance-china-debt-gdp-ratio-a7807811.html?amp

Asian, thank you for this information. In addition to learning how to live in a self-sustainable way and engaging in community, do you have any thoughts or future sights on where existing money could potentially be safeguarded?  (Realizing no one will be making any in the financial markets for quite some time.)  You mentioned digital cash, any sense as to whether that could be a place to safeguard current assets?  I can deal with the economy stalling out (while it'll be awful), but my biggest fear is losing everything we have worked so hard to earn already.

I started gardening this year and love it! It's relaxing and highly satisfying. Everyone should learn how!

Becoming self-sustainable is the key here. Don't expect anything from the govetment when situation really starts to turn towards bad. I don't think there are many places where money could be safeguarded except hard assets.

This is not a normal stock market crash or recession. This is far bigger than that. Unlike 2008, this time there will be social instability and political crisis in many countries. There will be trade war, there will be real wars(in asia). All of this is going to turn the whole picture really messy. Not a good time for financial and commercial activities. Something like 1930's but not quite the same. Elites know what is coming. The system is crashing, they have taken protective measures. In the right moment they will dump the market. It's the normal public who is clueless and bickering among themselves regarding political & religious ideologies.

Anyway, my advice is to get out of debt, start gardening because food prices will go up steadily in coming years, convert wealth from stock, bonds, money market-funds into hard assets like land, precious metals and private equity where you have written records instead of digital records. Because this time govt could freeze your accounts to stop money fleeing from the country like greece in 2015 or cyprus in 2012(A desparate measure to save banks, depending on the situation).

The first sign will in be in late-2017(probably a crash in US stock market) then afterwards a discouraging 2018 situation will start to turn serious in spring 2019(probably turned into a recession). By 2020-21 this is a depression. The crisis period runs upto 2026(not only economy). Situation starts to go for better slowly. I still don't have the full picture in economy, when I will have that I will post it.

Asian, thanks for the update. I would also point out to our US readers that during the darkest days of the Great Depression a number of US states limited bank withdrawals (like Greece did a few years ago). In the last several weeks before FDR's inauguration the US banking system was near collapse and the entire state of Michigan did not have a single bank that was open for business. I would also point out that, as bleak as these scenarios were, people survived. 

Great advice about debt btw. All financial planners will tell you to avoid debt during times of uncertainty.

I forgot to write about cryptocurrency. Actually it is the money of future. Right now paper moneies are going to remain as mainstream. Later, after financial crash when govts will impose strict control over finance and banking then digital money will start to become mainstream.

Thank you for this, Asian. Very helpful. I keep telling my husband that I want to shift out of the financial markets and into land ownership (for some reason, it feels less daunting than the precious metals market) but it seems like such an unknown area for us. Guess I need to brush up on my research. I did already purchase a bit of Bitcoin, but not sure if that's even the way things will move. But I do know in my heart of hearts that you're right about the outlook.

Wondering if anyone on the boards has seen anything in recent scans regarding the economy. There seems to be a lot of economists lately saying that the crash is imminent - and that it won't be based on the presidency or North Korea or anything like that, just a dramatic crash due to overvalued stock markets. This would have a huge impact, of course, on everyone and everything. Has anyone had anything pop up around this lately?

Regarding safeguarding money, I'm going to cash in my 401ks and store the money into a safe deposit box.  You would think it would be a better idea to put that money into a savings or checking account but I don't have a great outlook of the economy in the next several years.  I think WW3 is going to happen and the government in an act of desperation might seize retirement accounts to fund the war effort.

In a reading I did several years ago, I saw something coming in 2019 or 2020 that looked like a bear market. If those visions are accurate, I can't tell you why the market crashes, although it doesn't take a psychic to see that there's enough built into the system to make it happen.  I can tell you that I feel it comes from the actions and policies of this president and the reactionary oligarchs who fund the GOP Congress. Their policies are not sustainable. They are raiding the system, that's how they operate. They are like locusts. And so that system will collapse. 

In the short term, the Republican policies drive the market up. And that has happened in the past year. But it's not from policies that create a strong economy.  It's more like cocaine or sugar driving up someone's nervous system.  It's a temporary high. In the case of the economy, it is from policies that benefit only a tiny fringe of society.  The society itself is collapsing from within. 

I saw this bear market coming when on a week-long silent  retreat back in 2013 or 2014. I saw it in two or three meditations -- a downward descent in the U.S. markets.  It is possible that in its early phases (2017 and 2019) I was seeing was a graph of the U.S. Collective nervous system rather than the Dow Jones Industrial Average. But they are related, and if the U.S. Collective nervous system takes a downward plunge into depression, then the markets can't too far behind. But I felt I was seeing the markets themselves starting in late 2019.  I also saw it come back in 2028.

If I'm correct, it will be big. I advise paying off debt now.

Thank you both for your insights. It seems like 2019 seems to come up over and over, so we may be able to last in this current market for a while, but I want to be prepared to pull things out BEFORE things turn.. but obviously not be short-sighted and do it too early. We're lucky in that most debt is taken care of, but we do have a significant sum in investments and I literally am losing sleep at night with the notion of the market taking a sharp and sudden nosedive. I'll keep an eye on things through the rest of 2017 and into 2018, but I agree with the idea that things are likely to really dive in 2019. The economic indicators seem to follow that at this moment.

Danzi, I wish I could guarantee that these visions will be correct but I can't!  So be careful what you do and go into your gut and do more research.  Best of luck!

I read this article, Gary Cohn fears this is how the next crisis will happen, and my boyfriend, who lost his job as a hedgefund analyst in the last downturn, said this is definitely a concern.

Ran across an article on the rising cost of extracting energy and how that affects the overall economy. The amount of energy required to extract a unit of energy has steadily increased since the 1930s. They don't paint a pretty picture for economic growth through the end of the century.

Danzi, Talk to a financial planner (one who you pay by the hour, not one who wants to sell you something) about creating a "defensive" investment strategy. (Many people see a bubble in stocks and are doing this now.) If you really think that everything is going to heck in a handbasket in the near future, do what Mormons do and build up a six month supply of food staples stored in your basement (slowly over time). (Forget the Army rations.)  

Thanks for the good advice, all. I certainly am not counting on this forum to be the answer, certainly supplementing with my own research.. but I do agree that I think the time is upon us to do some sort of defensive reallocation before we are too late.  I do worry things are going to hell in a hand basket, but I'm just not entirely sure when. By current economic indicators, we could have another year of artificial, insane growth before it all falls apart. Who knows. If anything, better to be prepared on all fronts, as you all said.