Print

[jhereg]

I just found this blog at NPR: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/.

It might help make sense out of all this.

[BlueHeron]

Wow, jhereg, that was an incredibly lucid explanation.  Thank you.

In other words, if you're in the US and there's anything you've been wanting to buy from another country, do it now.

What about land outside of the US?  Does that count as a foreign "product"?  (eww, gross, I know... but how would an economist see it?)

[jhereg]

Thanks!

Wow, that's a good question. I'm not sure, but I would guess that land would count as a foreign "product". (I may need to shower when I get home.)

[nodedog]

Our economics is based on a total fantasy.  It is like building a house on mud or quicksand.  Sooner or later it has to sink.  This will not be easy for allot of people.  Some years ago I campout allot with homeless people who lived near the beach.  I was one of the homed.  But I remember thinking then that these tough people were like human rats.  They would be the ones that would survive

It is good that some of you are learning a simpler way to live, because if things go as they seem you will be the beginnings of the the afterculture.

[sunflowersFTW!]

I've been hearing about bank runs, work was eerily dead for a Friday(I wait tables), and my dad told me with grave concern when I spoke to him on the phone that this is going to be worse than anything he's lived through in his 60 years (and he was drafted in the 'Nam). The Dow went down, despite all thoughts that it would prosper (relatively speaking, of course)

I have anticipation, mild excitement and extreme uncertainty. I have been expecting this, but have been hoping it could hold off for a couple more years, until I have $8,000-$12,000 in hard currency so I can finally buy some land in rural Nebraska and live free with my closest friends and my parents.

Shall we take bets on how long the economy's stilts will hold up from here on now?

[jhereg]

Via Ran Prieur, I think the best summary I've yet seen:

http://realitysandwich.com/money_and_crisis_civilization

In terms of preparation, as I've been telling various family members, the #1 thing you can do it prepare mentally & emotionally. Really come to terms with the idea of living differently. If you can accept that, and you can review priorities, you'll do as well as anyone. Being forced to change your lifestyle feels horrible, changing voluntarily feels good.

[Fenriswolfr]

"Financial crises pummels stocks"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7654025.stm

[yarrow dreamer]

Via Ran Prieur, I think the best summary I've yet seen:

http://realitysandwich.com/money_and_crisis_civilization

In terms of preparation, as I've been telling various family members, the #1 thing you can do it prepare mentally & emotionally. Really come to terms with the idea of living differently. If you can accept that, and you can review priorities, you'll do as well as anyone. Being forced to change your lifestyle feels horrible, changing voluntarily feels good.

jeez, jhereg, i just almost posted that same link, I saw it on disinfo.com! the part I liked:

. . .the destruction of money has the potential to enrich us. It offers the opportunity to reclaim parts of the lost commonwealth from the realm of money and property.

We actually see this happening every time there is an economic recession. People can no longer pay for various goods and services, and so have to rely on friends and neighbors instead. Where there is no money to facilitate transactions, gift economies reemerge and new kinds of money are created. Ordinarily, though, people and institutions fight tooth and nail to prevent that from happening. The habitual first response to economic crisis is to make and keep more money -- to accelerate the conversion of anything you can into money. On a systemic level, the debt surge is generating enormous pressure to extend the commodification of the commonwealth. We can see this happening with the calls to drill for oil in Alaska, commence deep-sea drilling, and so on. The time is here, though, for the reverse process to begin in earnest -- to remove things from the realm of goods and services, and return them to the realm of gifts, reciprocity, self-sufficiency, and community sharing. Note well: this is going to happen anyway in the wake of a currency collapse, as people lose their jobs or become too poor to buy things. People will help each other and real communities will reemerge.

In the meantime, anything we do to protect some natural or social resource from conversion into money will both hasten the collapse and mitigate its severity. Any forest you save from development, any road you stop, any cooperative playgroup you establish; anyone you teach to heal themselves, or to build their own house, cook their own food, make their own clothes; any wealth you create or add to the public domain; anything you render off-limits to the world-devouring machine, will help shorten the Machine's lifespan. Think of it this way: if you already do not depend on money for some portion of life's necessities and pleasures, then the collapse of money will pose much less of a harsh transition for you. The same applies to the social level. Any network or community or social institution that is not a vehicle for the conversion of life into money will sustain and enrich life after money.

[BlueHeron]

http://www.catandgirl.com/view.php?loc=664
 

[clicketyclack]

As much as I wish it would all dissappear tomorrow, I'm a little skeptical that it's going to be as fast as we would all hope. A buddy the other day was talking about Guatemala, and how they're economy is way more fucked than ours has ever been, but they still have all the trappings of civilization. they haven't gone back to uncivilized ways of living. Neither has Somalia, which barely has a government to keep people in line. I think that one big thing that has to happen before any real change can happen is that the population HAS to come down. All these billions of people will fight to the death to keep civ alive, even if their stocks are worthless.

So, in summary, as much as the economy is fucked, I don't think we can talk about collapses on particular days, this week has proven it. it's going to be a long arduous, agonizing collapse. If you haven't, learn to fight, there are some fucking psychos living in the wooded places I want to live in, and they have more guns than most people i know.