and beer runs most farms in rural VA
The lunacy of using fossil fuels to produce fossil fuel substitutes that are only competitive because they are subsidized/mandated. Agreed on the diesel for sure, not a great example more for effect.
I hear you loud and clear on quantity over quality! Feeding the world is a big ag meme that is alive and well.
I prefer not to get into Monsanto either, I worked there in a previous life :-/
Something I am watching this growing season is production and insurance. We are due for a low production year and the prices (per bushel of corn/beans) used for crop insurance are on the low side given the last couple of years…
Perhaps it isn’t 2% of the population. Maybe it’s more like 1.8%. Does that include driving to the market to pick up a pre-made salad to enjoy with a bottle of wine or maybe a beer, instead.
Great question gkcjrrt and one which I’d love to see some further discussion on. It’s really the question at the heart of whether the ‘Ka-Poom’ strategy is correct (i.e. waiting with cash for a debt-default deflationary bust, investing in real assets at the lows, then being protected from the subsequent CB-induced inflation).
Your question is a good one - can the CBs keep using financial repression to slowly grind their way out from under the debt load, or is a debt-default deflationary bust inevitable? I’m inclined to think the debt-default is inevitable, as the debt loads continue to grow. However, I also think it could take 10 to 20 years for this all to play out. Look how long things are taking to unfold in Venezuela and the governance there is a complete disaster. Still no crisis in Japan or the Yen even though it’s been predicted for years.
The time factor has to be considered when deciding a strategy.
kaimu wrote:
Next time you have a crap load of cash sitting around and need to put it somewhere think about what it feels like to have no food, even if you own a billion in gold and a billion USD! No food ... no water ... no life!
Aloha! As much as city dwellers seeking the rural life think it is “Green Acres” … it isn’t!
In every rural farming community there are the rules of farming and the rules of life where you live. Something hugely overlooked by the Southern California cashed up mentality that I see moving to the islands. Hawaii is not SoCal!! There is a very entrenched cultural part to assimilation here. I have been here for eighteen years now and while I know the players here and I know the Hawaiian history and the mentalities around foreigners I still do not “feel it”. I accept that I am not Hawaiian and can never be. That is something again that no amount of time or lessons can make happen. I see a lot of attempted assimilations of the monied class here. I prefer not to subjugate myself to something impossible to achieve. Like Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry character says … “A man’s got to know his limits”!
Not only do you have to navigate farming, which by itself is quite a feat, but no matter where your rural life is you have to navigate the culture and the mindfulness of existing on the land. There is an aura to this and you have to say goodbye to a lot of your urban comfort, not just the physical comfort. There is psychological and somewhat spiritual assimilation that has to take place within yourself. There are some who cannot handle the sheer isolation.
The easiest part to this is “buying” the farm. It is a deeper struggle ever after to succeed. Like life is there is no road map that is a one size fits all! You are rolling the dice every day in so many ways and on so many levels. It is 9 to 5 less! Money … always a concept … never really a solution!