Well it seems our "chosen" politicians work hard on the final break-downs of their currencies. We just have to follow von Mises ideas about credit expansion. One can not see any tries to deflate credit. No it's always more and cheaper credit which should do the "trick". We know that can't work.
So what are the preparations to get through this all?
I guess for many of us the answer are precious metals and real goods. That's a hand. But we also know we are dependent on functioning markets because we can't make/have all we need ourselves. We still need food and shelter.
So having some own land and even a small own house seems to be a "good" thing to have. What else are the things we will need to get through this all ?
I was thinking not having all invested or hanging around in one country would be a good idea. It seems to be a good idea also to have something to barter with. Gold is fine for larger values, silver maybe for smaller things?
Anyway it would be better still to stop this maniac run into the abyss, but what choices do we have to get this stampede changing course? The last choice in Germany gave a liberal party more than 15% of the votes. But this party just decided to run with the masses. Now it's down to 2-3 %. But there is not alternative for voting.
Any ideas?
If you own a gun that shoots a popular round size (7.62, 5.56, .22, etc.) you might as well stock up. Worst case you'll have a lot of bullets. Best case you'll have a highly valued and transportable good, good conditions for emergent currency. If you don't have one, you might want to get one.
Iodine droplets are very useful for making water potable if you can't access fire.
Lighters. They'll be a hot ticket once people can't pay their gas bills anymore.
Brown rice or Oats. It's nutritious and stores well. and could also be traded easily.
Booze. Another good like bullets - great if you want it, great even if you don't want it. You can't assume that every person who you might want to trade with will readily accept coins.
That's it for me.
The Anarch is to the Anarchist what the Monarch is to the Monarchist. -Ernst Jünger
The US has survived a Great Depression before...
I don't think the OP is talking about hording a bunch of goods. Generally, I think there's a few ways to prepare for any kind of economic hardships on the horizon, aside from protecting your wealth/investments.
Firstly, integrate yourself into your local community as much as you feel comfortable. Find a trustworthy mechanic, get to know your local shop owners, your neighbors, heck even the cops. When the shit hits the fan, having a good network of friends and contacts who you know and trust (and vis versa) will probably be far, far more useful than a sack full of gold coins, at least until things stabilize again.
Secondly, try and learn as many useful skills as you can. Not the usual "survivalist" line of stuff, but general laborer skills. You want to be able to pick up a job if you need one, or offer your skills/know-how in trade. Basic carpentry, plumbing, welding, etc. Also, Learn the "value of things", so you can have a better idea of what might be a good trade or not. Your stockpile of ammo and canned goods can be stolen or destroyed, your skills cannot. It's all going to be about surviving as comfortably as possible until the market system recovers. The advice above will help you to integrate into and master whatever local ad-hoc markets develop in the meantime. You are not going to go into the woods and live off the land, and I honestly think that skipping town to a different country may also be a non-option for the vast majority of people. Banking your success on becoming an emmigrant may be bad news.
I do not think that this will change. But at least there was civil war before the US "came into beeing" And this was cruel. I wished for a less cruel way this time but if we look over history. Currency break-downs without violence never had happen. So there will be violence. And we know also after a break the markets come back on the "origirinal" and "right" way people coming together exchanging things. So you have to get through the violence and after that you have to have something to deal with. That's the unfortunatly brutal truth.
As I wrote I expect military in the inner and a massive police force. And you know, they have the guns and will not respect what's yours if they are hungry or angry .....
Irrational fears like this are precisely why libertarian ideas aren't more popular.
Fears of recessions/depressions are irrational?
Hi. I am in the process of choosing another country to move to (outside of Europe) once I liquidated all my non-movable assets, a painful process which is taking more time than I'd like without doing a downright fire sale. I see no hope for Europe right now: even Switzerland (where I go often for business) is on a very dangerous slippery slope. I understand not everyone has the means to leave his/her homeland or wants to leave his/her friends behind but I think if there's a place where I can live off the rest of my life without being robbed daily (or at least where the robbers are less greedy), so be it. I am sick and tired of it all. Tired of banksters running amok, tired of politicians and sick of people which cannot even be described as "selfish" because a selfish person would at least fight for his/her own money.
Precious metals are now making more sense than ever. Easy to transport, easy to hide and pack quite a formidable financial punch. Weapons (if the law allows them) are making more sense than ever, for no other reason crime is on the rise (just ask any ordinary policeman on the street, not their bosses). Owning property away from population centers where you can grow vegetables is making more sense than ever, for no other reason you save money and avoid eating stuff I wouldn't feed to animals. Chicken, ducks and rabbits are time consuming but are easily raised, mature quickly and provide a good source of meat. Diversifying your skills and buying tools makes more sense than ever: you save money and become more self-sufficient. Knowing how to work on plumbing and electrics, repairing an engine... whatever works for you.
But there's one thing that needs to be done above all: gather people to our standards. A network of similarly minded individuals stands better chances of making it through than a simple collection of individuals. Our Gaulish ancestors spent all their time quarreling among themselves and allowed themselves to be bribed, blackmailed and cajoled by the Romans to fight among themselves or insolate themselves from one another, making those who resisted easy pickings, with Gaulish legionaries usually doing the dirty work for the Eagle. We are allowing history to repeat itself once again. As much as I love the idea of a heroic last stand I'd rather avoid living up to my signature...
I really wouldn't call preparing for severe economic troubles "irrational". I don't think the OP is a Freedom4Me chicken-little that thinks the whole world is going to come down on his head. There are numerous instances of economic/currency disasters in recent history. Argentina, the Soviet collapse are the two biggies, and even the US had the Great Depression. Greece is falling apart, and many other European countries have deep systemic problems. It's not irrational to try and plan in the event things go down the tube.
Well what do you think we see? It's the last moves of credit expansion and not country is stopping it just looking for the next round of easy money and what does von Mises told us:
"There is no means of avoiding a final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved."
It's not me that is irrational, it's the world of fiat-money which is.
I have considered that myself. But whereever you go the fiat-money systems are there. I was even visiting NZ for migration, and would be there since at least a year. But my family does not want to leave Germany. Germany has miserable history of breaking it's currency. We have gone through it two times the last 100 years. And it was on of the worst experiences according to the elder ones. And know we are expanding credit, bailing out, making more debt. That is unsound like hell....
It's nice for those who have the luxury to move out of the path of destruction (what you might call the "Doug Casey Strategy") but many of us can't move out of the way of trouble for a variety of reasons. I am one of those who can't get out of the way. I think that it's important to start reparing your family relations to the best extent possible. Be prepared to help each other out if things get really bad. Family provides a natural form of insurance. In very desperate times, two families cramming into one house can more likely pay the bills and keep the staples coming in than two families each staying separately and both ending up on the street.
Clayton -