Wells Hall Off Topic Board

I would hardly say I am a "survival of the richest" sort of guy. But it is typical of you to at best not understand my position, or at worst, lie about my position.

I am a "rule of law" kind of guy. As long as the rules of the game are fairly applied to everyone, then I really don't care who ends up "the richest".

Well that sounds simple enough!! Why didn't I think of that?!? Just apply the rules fairly to everyone, and we'll be all set. Duh!

Of course, this ignores the following:
1. That we all agree the current rules/laws are fair to begin with.
2. That rules/laws change from time to time.
3. That rules/laws are enforced by authorities who have their own biases.

Oh well....It sounded good for a while. Nice try Comp.

I have no crystal ball, but I can tell you what I think will happen and how i have prepared.

I think the Western industrialized world will address the debt problem by debasing their currencies. You have already seen this here in the US with QE1 (Fed buying MBS and GSE debt) and QE2 (Fed buying Treasury debt) and in the EU with the ECB buying sovereign government debt of the PIIGS. I expect this approach of central bank government debt purchases to accelerate quickly in 2012 and eventually lead to some sort of hyper-inflation or economic collapse over the next couple of years. The only alternative would be serious austerity measures, which would certainly lead to a much worse depression, or debt default, which would result in the same.

Personally, I see no way out. We are past the point of no return. Economic collapse is assured. Though the $USD might hold up relative to other currencies in the short run, it is still only the best looking horse at the glue factory. As protection or survival I look to several things: Precious metals, staying strong and healthy so I won't need to access the medical system, being very flexible and adaptive to change and psychologically preparing for very, very difficult times.

What to look for? For me I like to watch the price of oil and gold. Once you start to see week over week or month over month increases in price, you know time is growing short. When oil prices are high, economies slow. You might also look for continued war, more laws of "control" like the Patriot Act and the NDAA, and more OWS movements, but much more aggressive as things turn from bad to worse.

There is an old Chinese proverb: "May you live in interesting times". Lucky us...we do...and will.

Wow, you're even crazier than I thought. "No way out"...."past the point of no return"....

Man, were's Jim Jones when you need him?? We need to end our suffering before things get really ugly out there.

OK...there is one way out. We need to find an energy source that has an EROEI (energy return on energy invested) that is higher than conventional oil. I'm not counting on that. Otherwise, yes, there is no way out of this debt crisis other than a collapse and a reset. Moreover, it will not be solved (only made much worse) by adding even more debt at an increased rate.

Japan's stock market peaked in 1990 and 21 years later it is still 67% off its high. They were capable of managing their decline because they were a huge exporting country who's citizens saved 30+% of their income and bought gov. bonds. We run a huge trade deficit and 80+% of our citizens save nothing. We will not follow Japan's path.

Vlad-t-Grasshopper, us ants are going to go about preparing for the worst if it's all the same with you.