Short term borrowing on long term debt and the annual interest payment is 2,333 bucks a year per capita. Not too bad if your family of four is bringing in 250,000 a year, but the other 95% ain’t going to find that very easy to pony up . When the tax bill starts looking like the vig from a payday loan joint or a credit card company’s interest rate the jig is up for the Treasury. And you just can’t goon on 100 million debtors. Look at how banks are simply putting off foreclosures to get an idea of what institutional “fuck it” looks like.
Just like more and more people are figuring out that a closet full of toilet paper is better than having money in a bank the rest of the world is coming to grips that US currency is truly worthless and is beginning to shop elsewhere. Where I have been looking at the whole thing wrongly is focusing on that silly bit about the US consuming a 1/4 of the worlds energy, resources etc and that the world depends upon us buying shit to stay afloat. Like if we stopped buying Chinese stuff China would fall harder than we would. So ponder the ramifications of the rest of the world saying “no more stuff for dollars”.
Guess what? The US gets no oil, resources, manufactured goods, baubles or trinkets. The Saudis say we’ll trade this boatload of oil for a boatload of Chinese or Indian steel. A container ship full of Japanese made electronics for a backhaul of Canadian lumber. See, the US doesn’t have any oil or steel, Ipods or natural resources… just dollars, so if you throw dollars out of the world economic equation the oil steel and etc keeps its value and trade can continue. We just get left out of the loop, that’s all.
It’s currency collapse that’s going to be the wrecking ball on our economy, setting up a huge migration of people going back “home” if they have one, another block of folks hunkering down as best they can, the usual suspects (with swelled numbers) going ape shit Viking, and whatever’s left over lumbering towards the relief camps. Some big city riots to keep the media and the sheeple viewers entertained. Just in time for the ‘12 presidential election circus to make something other than food in the pie hole seem important. Answers the question of why the Republicans keep Sarah “Moose Knuckle” Palin on the back burner – nothing like a total political party power shift to make the formerly middle class masses think they have a shot in getting it all back again.
Yep. Groked it. It’s all too clear now.
Which brings me to me once again, which is all I’m really concerned about. Yeah, I’ll demonstrate some token concern for my fellow man via yammering on about Thunder BucketsTM and Rocket Stoves, a smattering of organic grower’s wisdom etc, but me and mine rate a hell of a lot higher than them and theirs. (notice I left “you” out of course, my loyal readers, bwahahaha). I am home. Hunkering down has been a way of life for some time now. The Mad Max’ers are in far distant cities, proximity decreasing as dinosaur juice gets harder to come by in direct correlation to the depth of collapse. In other words, when it’s time to go marauding gas for the Monster Truck of Death will be the hardest thing to come up with and no self respecting MZB will be caught dead in a Chevy Volt. The grid is probably down anyway. I should plant an extra half acre of turnips and kale so’s the folks dragging their way to the FEMA camp at Fort Crowder can be given a meal.
Looking bad and looking good all at the same time. Decreasing options can be a blessing in disguise. Get your ass home now or dig up the yard. The other two options aren’t much to write home about.
A fine post my friend. When our economy is based on hot air (as it currently is) it’s got nowhere to go but down. In the end, it all boils down to tangibles. Food, water, shelter, warmth, and things that can be traded for those. The rest is all smoke and mirrors….
Can’t argue with you. But my wife could.
The economy isn’t even based on “hot-air”, at least that may be actually worth something. It’s all based on a promise to consume and buy more useless shit, and now when you’re unemployed you can’t keep consuming that useless crap. Economists sit and scratch their heads over why the economy is tanking?!?!?
So, I know..let’s print up a bunch more useless FRN’s and shovel them out the door, ’cause that’ll get’em spending again….er…maybe not? What a bunch of idiots…
I can only imagine how much people will be willing to part with when their bellies are empty…ain’t gettin’ none of mine.
Hunker down, that’s all you can do. Although it’s unbelievable how long we’ve kept this sinking ship afloat, she’s gotta go down soon, the hat’s about out of rabbits now…
Comrade,
I was at the big city feed store this weekend putting a half ton of concentrated feed in the mini van so I can feed my critters while we hunker down even tighter while the flu bug blows by and had some interesting conversation. A couple of good redneck boys with USMC hats and shirts come over and strike up a conversation about Chinese shoes with my ancient long haired hippie ass. We discussed the sad state of Amerikan manufacturing and business in general, and played a couple of rounds of where were you and what did you do in Vietnam. The conversation became friendly and earnest and moved to the discussion of how many guns and how much ammo a 60 year old broken down ex whatever is going to need and the consensus was that like a carpenter and hammers likely a few would be necessary, but the current shopping spree by citizens is pretty much out of control and misdirected.
We are already at war in this country. A good description, this essay from one of the beltways brightest “Bill Lind”, can be found here. http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/lind/ There will be plenty of suffering, and definitely some bloodshed around the corner, and not one bit of it can be solved by more violence, or even by more organic vegetables. The best we can hope for is that our children and grandchildren have the necessary integrity and trust in their fellow man to rebuild the sense of community that existed in this country in previous generations. To paraphrase Jefferson, since we have failed to hang together, I will be working my ass off to try to avoid hanging separately.
tired john
Two possible American futures: physical —Detroit [looking like post war Berlin] and/or, financial– Arizona [50% of all mortgages "underwater" in that desert state that should never have been built out the way it was]. The Capitalist war is about to be over. The Capitalists “won” but in all long wars there are no winners.
..
Currency collapse will indeed be a wrecking ball but a Mad Max landscape? Come on.
The third most populous country on the planet starting from the largest economy still full of a diversity of abundant resources is going to inflict global damage while going down. With one fifth the population of China but with 5 times the arable land the Chinese ain’t going to be looking to Canada for food until Miami is underwater. Then they’ll be competing with a lot of other hungry populations.
Throw in the worlds largest nuclear arsenal already with global reach and I think the rest of the world will start to itch as nations start to take off the gloves for resources. The Americans can cut the military budget in half, take 80 percent of the troops out of the field and still yell at the kids running on the lawn if America gets mean enough.
It’ll be back to the Thirties and a certain meanness will set in. Manufacturing will come around again by necessity and maybe by then we’ll have learned how to make steel, textiles and chemicals without shitting in our own backyard.
The other scenario you have to look out for is if something stops the electronic payments coming out of a major American city. MIT looked into that some time ago and figured if you took Boston off the map the state would be in a depression after a day, the nation after 3 days and, the world after a week.
The shift from the oil economy will be ugly, mean and, painful. It’s just a question of degree and I just don’t see utter devastation. Maybe I’m just stupid that way.
to sense
..
I agree totally on all points without reservation. That’s why I’m investing in beans, rice, ammo, toilet paper, and other such essentials.
Just saw an interesting piece in Harpers:
“…we must reject both the reckless optimism of those who might argue that understanding history will protect us from repeating it and the reckless despair of those who spy the specter of a police state in every act of government.”
It is a complex world out there. Simplifying it can’t hurt.
http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006176