First I would like to say it's nice to see some of the old-timers on this thread. If you guys actually stick around, it would make CM.com a more interesting place.Where the heck is MachineHead?????? David Rosenberg: “The Best Currency May Be Physical Gold” &
“You know why Warren Buffett doesn’t like gold, doesn’t understand gold, because gold has out performed his stock in the last ten years by three and a half times.”~Egon von Greyerz (KWN link)Link to Zero Hedge for the chart.
[quote=Mark_BC]I got an electric car and I think that within 10 years (more likely 2) when we see where gas prices are going it will have turned out to be a very good investment. There are very few electric cars in the world right now.
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For good reason. You never want to buy first generation technological devices. It almost always turns out to be a bad economic choice. They’re already recalling the Volt. There will be other unanticipated problems as well until they get the bugs worked out. And if it is a pure electric, the range problem would be a deal killer for me.
You boys may want to review this little gem from our old timer friend strabes.
http://csper.org/lesson-61-sovereign-money.html
Davos
MachineHead left soon after you. I miss him very much. I PMed him with no reply. If anyone can contact him to encourage him back, then please do.
David Stockman gave a dynamite interview to the AP. He wants to go on record with a national audience. I found it via the first poster in the David Rosenberg article. The first time I ever found a post that was worthwhile after a Zero Hedge article! You all need to read this.
Travlin
[quote=Poet]And I really love Erik Townsend’s take on agility. I hadn’t really thought about it that way before. My focus has always been about trying to find a way to build up resiliency, when agility is obviously just as important. Thank you.
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+1
Agility and flexibility is my family’s focus as well. For us and at our stage in life and available resources, we have a selective advantage in mobility and flexibility over trying to buy and establish a home. If one is young, odds are that agility is your biggest advantage!
Another selling point of the "agility path" is if one has close family that is in the other position, and you and they are willing to pool efforts and resources. This is the case with us, where our extended family have established homes they own outright with gardens and a couple other modest resiliency measures, but little mobility or flexibility in the economic sense. I think we are better off complementing each other’s strengths & weaknesses rather than us weakly duplicating what they already have (and having to go into debt to do so). I kind of suspect that their retirement means will not live up to the promises and eventually they will need any income we can bring them, and we can’t do that very well if we’re working through mortgage payments or can’t move to take advantage of opportunities.
Lastly, I like Erik’s outlook on traveling to see what place he and his significant other might like to eventually settle down and comparing pros and cons of each place. You never know what you might be missing if you don’t go out there and see new places. Even if after all that you find that the place you originally called home is the best place for you after all, you will still have acquired some great experiences.
The Aussie Dollar was around 0,60-0,70 US$ About 5 years ago. Now it is 1.08 US$ I don’t think the US has exported its inflation. They have devalued severly which will feel like inflation whenever you buy something overseas.
I sense some confirmation bias going on wrt the food/menu prices issue. So many folks want to believe the end is near - and maybe it is! - that the story of a 50+ dollar "pot pie" gains traction.
First of all, Erik needs to get out more.There are plenty of great places to eat in Melbourne that will be $20/main, or there’s a huge Chinatown area filled with authentic, tasty and inexpensive places to eat. At Donovan’s you’re in St Kilda, it’s trendy, and you’re overpaying. Maybe sitting on an outdoor patio with a view of the ocean is worth something extra, I don’t know. Lot’s of people think it is, at least for special occasions.
OK, New Zealand has Pizza Hut and Dominos like everywhere else. You can look up their prices on the net. But maybe the gold standard for designer pizza is the Hell’s pizza chain. hellpizza.com. Pick a 12" nice pie like Lust or Wrath click through the menu and you’ll find it’s $15.50. "Pepperoni, Salami, Ham, Bacon & Cabanossi, Lashed With Your Choice Of Sauce. e.g, BBQ, Sweet Chilli, Smokey BBQ or Tomato."
So again we must be talking about something extra special at $25+. Nuff about that.
Yes you do pay for delivery in NZ. It’s $7 from Hell’s, though you’ll sometimes see free delivery added in as an offer. Let’s talk about this, and about why it is so. In NZ the minimum wage is $13. So if you work a 5 hr shift as a pizza delivery guy, say from 5-10 PM, you’re going to earn $65, plus you may need to cover vehicle costs if it’s not a company vehicle. Well, in NZ people don’t tip, so the pizza company can’t count on hungry (desperate?) employees willing to work basically for tips plus a minimal salary.
When I waited tables in the states I was paid $2.01/hour. Don’t know if this is still the practice, or if this is in all states, but you were essentially free labor to the restaurant. You could work a lunch, have your station shut down after a few tables, and walk out of a shift with ten dollars in your pocket. That’s unfettered free enterprise for you.
So as we globetrot around the world it’s interesting to look at the nitty gritty details of life and how things work in different places. What would it look like to raise the minimum wage in the USA to a liveable amount? What would that do all the way down the - literally - food chain.
But the idea of a $50 pot pie has legs, because it sounds so outrageous. Hopefully it was a good pie. But the fact is, if you’re not choosy, you can buy a classic meat pie in any dairy (Stop n Go) for under 5 dollars. These are the frozen burritos of australasia - but you won’t get the ambience, you won’t impress anybody, and don’t mind the petrol fumes while you unwrap it and gobble it down on the sidewalk.
Thanks Travlin, I’ll check out Stockman. I’m going to email Mike P, I had dinner with him over the summer, and I’ll email Farmber Brown and 2 Beers With Steve. Stockman is a good guy, he reads the blogs, he donated support money to Jim Quinns burning platform too.
Erik is right. I traveled to Sydney several years ago and was shocked at some of the prices. Even the Subway sandwich shop was expensive, and this was when the US dollar was buying 1.20 Aussie dollars. And I’m used to high prices as I live in an expensive state and work in one of the most expensive places in the US. I went to Quebec last month and again, some of the prices I saw on things like food, drink and fuel(high taxes) just made me scratch my head how folks can afford to live. I think Schiff said it: The US biggest export is inflation.
As for prices in the US - other than houses, I’m still waiting for those to come down. Just bought a roll of insulation at Home Depot the other day. Was less than $10 in the winter, now it’s $15. I need to invest in tissues for the deflationists, they are going to need them. 
Welcome back Davos. Who knew my little weekend getaway down to Virginia would get both you and Dogs back to the site. We need machinehead back too.
Thanks Joe, it was great to finally me you, Dogs & Cat.
Travlin, that was a super read.
Here you have Stockman the ex-budget director holding gold and totally out of the stock market.
And check out the crew slamming gold.
You have a moral degererate wall decorator (don't click on this link if you don't want to see disgusting skulptures). Roubini's investment research firm is on the block after loosing $2 million.Davos and Joemanc
By all means, round up the old stalwarts. The lull before the storm is coming to an end. We’re going to need them.
Travlin
Well, the US reported inflation is under-reported (see John Williams Shadow Stats). Then the Velocity of money is not very good so that is keeping a lid on the hot money. But Velocity could take off at any time so the US would be in real trouble then. Think $50 pot pie one week then $100 pot pie 3 months later.
For Velocity. And my prediction is that this will be spun in a very counterintuitive way… and I have said this before… when V increases… it will look very much like a RECOVERY. The MSM and TPTB will be all over the numbers… not noting Velocity per se, but interpreting the numbers in a very positive way, vs. the underlying reality of people using their savings (or the last of their available credit) to buy some stuff they need, or will need in the future, now while they can still afford to. Retail sales will be great! This will be the last, great misdirection. Gold and Silver will probably get a beat down when this report comes out to paint the tape and support the propaganda; Wow… we are recovering… who needs Gold and Silver… sell, sell, sell!
I will continue to point out that, not one person in a hundred will understand what we are talking about here… and that is why the propaganda has been, and will continue to be so effective. There are so many parallel downward spirals happening now that all are part of the same, holistic ponzi unwind;
* Tightening Financial repression; endless, and ever extended ZIRP
* Loss of free markets; Gov’t/FED/Banker interference
* Loss of USD reserve currency status (by 1000 cuts)
* More and more veiled QE/money printing
* Loss of Rule-of-Law/breech of contract law (the subject of this piece Chris wrote)
* Deepening falsification of data by BLS, etc, MSM propaganda
* Capital controls, loss of personal freedom, loss of constitutional freedoms.
* Budgetary madness, fiscal instanity… inability to make necessary/meaningful cuts in Federal budget
As you look at these categories… do you see things improving on any front? No? Then some kind of endgame is coming.
Hi Erik, that $54 AUD quote must be at least a year old, our Aussie dollar is now well above parity with yours, $1AUD today buys ~$1.08US.
Also, Aussie pies are something else! But I usually pay $4.50 for them…
Mike
[quote=Jim H]For Velocity. And my prediction is that this will be spun in a very counterintuitive way… and I have said this before… when V increases… it will look very much like a RECOVERY. The MSM and TPTB will be all over the numbers… not noting Velocity per se, but interpreting the numbers in a very positive way, vs. the underlying reality of people using their savings (or the last of their available credit) to buy some stuff they need, or will need in the future, now while they can still afford to. Retail sales will be great! This will be the last, great misdirection. Gold and Silver will probably get a beat down when this report comes out to paint the tape and support the propaganda; Wow… we are recovering… who needs Gold and Silver… sell, sell, sell!
I will continue to point out that, not one person in a hundred will understand what we are talking about here… and that is why the propaganda has been, and will continue to be so effective. There are so many parallel downward spirals happening now that all are part of the same, holistic ponzi unwind;
* Tightening Financial repression; endless, and ever extended ZIRP
* Loss of free markets; Gov’t/FED/Banker interference
* Loss of USD reserve currency status (by 1000 cuts)
* More and more veiled QE/money printing
* Loss of Rule-of-Law/breech of contract law (the subject of this piece Chris wrote)
* Deepening falsification of data by BLS, etc, MSM propaganda
* Capital controls, loss of personal freedom, loss of constitutional freedoms.
* Budgetary madness, fiscal instanity… inability to make necessary/meaningful cuts in Federal budget
As you look at these categories… do you see things improving on any front? No? Then some kind of endgame is coming.
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Good post Jim. The question now is all in the timing. Things will be forestalled until the presidential election but it’ll be interesting to see what happens afterwards. My gut feeling for the longest time has been that events will peak in 2015. We’ll see. There’s certainly no real recovery. In my mind, the most likely outcome will be repression and subjugation rather than resistance and revolution. Another alternative though, a wiser one in my mind and therefore the least likely to occur, would be widespread non-violent, passive civil non-participation (as opposed to active and overt civil disobedience) to bring about reform. I’ve been mulling over some thoughts along these lines but it’s late and I’m heading to bed. Tomorrow, if my day allows …
I have never been dissapointed by Greasy Joe. He builds a generous hamburger at a reasonable price.Who is Greasy Joe? He is that un-syndicated caravan parked on the side of the road. He goes by a many nom-de-plumes, and you will find him throughout the world.
Go, Go Greasy Joe.
...widespread non-violent, passive civil non-participation (as opposed to active and overt civil disobedience) to bring about reform
I, like many I’m sure, have been looking for some action to feel like I’m doing SOMETHING to be a positive force for change. Stuff beyond my own personal preps and choices. Would love to hear your take on what that might be for you, and others. Maybe a new thread? Aloha, Steve.
Greasy Joe’s under pressure in Oakland, CA, USA. Check out today’s DD. Aloha, Steve.
In my mind, the repression and subjugation are already here and accelerating. I expect them to get much worse. I too doubt we’ll see serious resistance and revolution. The last two generations of “consumers” have been conditioned to be very passive and conformist to fit into our corporate and bureaucratic culture. They have too much to lose to “rock the boat”. It takes real desperation to risk it all. The last time we had a revolution we were a nation of small farmers, craftsmen, and merchants. People were much more independent in every sense of the word, but especially their livelihoods.
I am intrigued by your idea of passive civil non-participation as opposed to active civil disobedience. How does that work? As Thatchmo said, this deserves its own thread. I’d love to hear more of your thoughts on these issues.
Travlin
[quote=Travlin]
I am intrigued by your idea of passive civil non-participation as opposed to active civil disobedience. How does that work? As Thatchmo said, this deserves its own thread. I’d love to hear more of your thoughts on these issues.[/quote]
How about taking one’s money and labor more or less out of the US ‘official’ economy? Either by participating primarily in the shadow economy or by taking your money and labor overseas, whichever is your cup of tea. I’m taking the latter approach, but let me say Uncle Sam sure isn’t making it easy for me to take my money or do business out of the country. Which makes me think that I’m probably doing something right (and I will know for sure that’s the case once they start making it illegal).
I can’t think of many better ways to hit them where it hurts than to take money and skilled people out of their system. They can try all they want, but people WILL find ways to either participate in underground/shadow economies or pack their s*** and head elsewhere