Economic Game Changer

Here's an old investment pitch that is as true today as when they pitched it (although their solutions sucked in historical 20/20 hindsight)...

America's already descending into economic anarchy. We're all trapped in a historic economic supercycle, a turning point that must bleed through a no-man's land of lawless self-destructive anarchy before a neo-capitalistic world can re-emerge. Investors tell me they "feel" it at a deep level, "know" it's happening. They keep asking: "What's the best investment strategy to prepare now?"

This is no joke, folks. Are you prepared? Or preparing? Will your family survive in a post-apocalyptic world, when anarchy is rampant in America? Look at Washington, Wall Street and Corporate America today. You know it's already begun.

You are witnessing a fundamental breakdown of the American dream, a systemic breakdown of our democracy and our capitalism, a breakdown driven by the blind insatiable greed of Wall Street: Dysfunctional government, insane markets, economy on the brink. Multiply that many times over and see a world in total disarray. Ignore it now, tomorrow will be too late.
Not a war about ideology, but an economic game-changer

This is a war to control 299 million Americans. A war waged by the "Happy Conspiracy" Jack Bogle profiled in his 2004 "Battle for the Soul of Capitalism," a war machine of Fat Cat Bankers, CEOs, 42,000 mercenary lobbyists and a Congress held hostage to unlimited campaign donations. Their conspiracy has been waging this war against Americans for decades, long before the Supreme Court exposed their dirty secret.

Yes, your enemy is that "Happy Conspiracy:" It has degraded into a pseudo-capitalism with no conscience, no sense of the public good, hell-bent on controlling America's mind, your money and the global markets for its own selfish ends. And eventually it will trigger the game-changing global-debt bomb, the third global meltdown of the century that finally ignites the Great Depression II, plunging us into an era of anarchy.

Investors keep asking: "If it is coming, how do I invest? Buy gold? Commodities? Hedge? Short trading? TIPS? Hoard cash? Buy and hold? Lazy Portfolios?" What if the Dow sinks below 5,000? Maybe the worst-case scenario recently predicted by Bob Prechter: A deeper plunge to the 1,000 range? Imagine a global depression, a bear market dragging on for decades: "How do I protect my family? Can I ever retire? What do I invest in? How can anyone prepare?"

How America's two classes are preparing for a descent into anarchy

As America descends into anarchy your family's survival and your ability to retire will depend on which of America's two economic classes you belong to out of our total of roughly 300 million citizens:

1. "Average Joe & Jane" Americans: You're one of 299 million Main Street Americans. Average income is $50,000, only 10% of the average bonuses paid to Wall Street's Fat-Cat Bankers. Or you're already one of America's 20% underemployed ... maybe on food stamps ... maybe among the 47 million with no medical insurance ... your retirement assets are about $50,000, a year's survival. And you are "mad-as-hell" you're not working "inside" the "Happy Conspiracy."

2. "Happy Conspiracy" Insiders: You're one of the lucky million or so elite Insiders in the "Happy Conspiracy." You may work for a Fat-Cat Bank that American taxpayers bailed out last year so you pocketed a 2009 bonus gift of somewhere between $600,000 and $10 million. Maybe you're a Corporate American CEO. Maybe you're on the Forbes 400 list. Or you're a U.S. Senator.

Here's how these savvy Insiders are preparing: In his 2008 best-seller, "Wealth, War and Wisdom," hedge fund manager Barton Biggs, a highly respected Insider in the "Happy Conspiracy," advised rich insiders to expect the "possibility of a breakdown of the civilized infrastructure."

His advice: Make tons of money. Buy an isolated farm in the mountains. Protect family against the barbarians: "Your safe haven must be self-sufficient and capable of growing some kind of food ... It should be well-stocked with seed, fertilizer, canned food, wine, medicine, clothes, etc. Think Swiss Family Robinson."
How Wall Street insiders will treat Main Street in 'The Anarchy'

And when the barbarians do come, firing "a few rounds over the approaching brigands' heads would probably be a compelling persuader that there are easier farms to pillage." Imagine a scene like Port-au-Prince after the quake. Biggs is no radical anarchist, he's an establishment Insider, a great guy. We both arrived at Morgan Stanley about the same time. Biggs remained 30 years, was Morgan's chief global strategist. Ten times Institutional Investor magazine put him on Wall Street's "All-America Research Team."

True, he did hedge his prediction of the coming anarchy. His odds: 1 in 10. But in an early 2009 Newsweek article, "A Generation of Destruction: Throwing money at the problem and propping up greedy banks is like trying to put out a fire by pouring gasoline on it," Biggs teased us with a bleak scenario: "Great cycles of wealth creation have usually lasted about two generations, or 60 years. Inevitably, unequal riches corrupt and create envy, and they are always followed by a generation of enormous wealth destruction."

Warning: By vastly understating the risks while his Insiders prepare for the coming anarchy, Biggs is quietly misleading and disarming the rest of America.                                         Source

That quoted - I emphasize that you really have to be wary of all the schmucks out to empty your wallet for you.  Their advice sucked.  You can profitably get gold out of sea water at roughly $2,000/oz.  I highly doubt it will go much higher than that.  I'm of the opinion that when the crap really hits the fan....the precious metals will be worthless.  Food & water will be the real precious items.  To each their own though.

Here's a little real world application of selling fear for money via FerFal whom I have followed for years now...

Doug Casey's opinions of Argentina?

you seem (http://ferfal.blogspot.com/) to differ much from Doug Casey's opinions of Argentina?

http://www.caseyresearch.com/displayCwc.php?id=40

http://www.caseyresearch.com/displayCwc.php?e=true

Hi! Yes, that would be because I’m not buildings condos in Salta, Argentina, to sell to Americans and I don’t need to lie about it! :-)

Salta is beautiful (I’ve been there) but you know what, its in the middle of nowhere. Certain things are cheap, food and wine, half the price compared to similar places in Europe or USA.

Now the part your buddy isn’t telling you: Cell phone? 3x the price you’d find in USA or Europe, TV? Maybe x4 the price. A car? Easily x4 or x5 the price. Golf instructor? Sure, that would be pretty cheap. Food and services in general will be very cheap. You’ll be able afford a maid, gardener, and pool guy for the price of cable in NY (so to speak)

I doubt any of the real estate this man is pushing would be cheap. You sure would get MUCH better deals contacting local realtors directly, and you’d get the same benefits as well. Gated neighborhoods with private security are all over Argentina for those that can afford it, and given the crime situation, more are being built.

In case you have no idea of whats going on, these guys are pissed with me:
http://www.caseyresearch.com/cdd/contrarian-view-argentina

Because of these articles I wrote some time ago:
http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2011/08/moving-to-cafayate-salta-in-argentina.html
http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2010/10/real-estate-and-relocating-investing-in.html
http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2010/03/doug-caseys-opinions-of-argentina.html

Basically it comes down to this: These people are selling property in a country club in an Argentine province called Salta, pitching it as a high society, wine sipping, polo playing paradise, and selling houses there for exorbitant prices. I simply answered some questions readers sent me, and very kindly explained why putting that kind of money in such a far away place, in a dirt poor province, within an already unstable third world country with a president similar to Chavez was the most stupid thing I’ve head in the last decade. It seems that some people didn’t like my opinion on the matter, specifically those trying to sell property there.
This may have caused them to lose a couple sales. At least two that I know of because the potential buyers contacted me and I told them they would be idiots if they bought into this BS. Yes, I used those exact same words.

Isn't it wonderful how the “Casey Research Group “concludes that the best thing for you is to buy property from Doug Casey in crappy poor Argentina?. JAJAJAJAA!!!!

You’d think that being rich and loving a wine sipping, golf playing sophisticated lifestyle you’d be better off in Napa Valley or something, but no, the best thing for you is to go to the middle of nowhere Argentina and then go from there to a middle of nowhere province where land used to sell for a dollar a square mile, that is until good ol’ Doug bought it and his research now shows that its in your best interest to pay 300.000 a pop for a place in his Estancia…  in one of the poorest provinces of Argentina… in the middle of the desert, where not a blade of grass would survive without artificial irrigation. JA!! Amazing what you can achieve with research!

Here at the “FerFAL Anti-BS Foundation”, we’ve done some research of our own and came to the following conclusions:

Health and Education

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/south-america/argentina
http://www.mdtravelhealth.com/destinations/samerica/argentina.php

Wow! So one of the cool things about Salta is that you need to get shots for Dengue, Malaria and Yellow fever. That sounds like fun!  Its of notice that in my +30 years of living in Buenos Aires yellow fever shots where never recommended unless you traveled to these poor, far away provinces. Why would that be? Because Buenos Aires sucks while Salta is the best place in the planet for rich wine drinking golf playing billionaires..hmm… or maybe is its because Salta is a poor province in the middle of nowhere?… mmm.. . And you know whats additional fun factor Dengue, a deadly disease spread by a mosquito. That theres billions of those little rascals flying around the Super Rich guy retreat is just a bonus!! Unlike Buenos Aires where during dengue season you see the trucks driving around fumigating to kill them and stop the disease.

But hey, if you’re an old snobby fart that feels better surrounding yourself by some of the most awful misery in South America while you sip wine, there’s even better news: You’ll die very, very fast!! Who want to retire to Boca or spend your golden years skiing in Beaver Creek like those other unoriginal rich old farts? Go to better life like Indiana Jones would: Die of easily curable diseases in a poor crappy hospital of Salta! You want an even cooler death? Suffer a stroke in Casey’s Estancia Cafayate… and require a 4 hour drive, then a 2 hour plane trip to Buenos Aires to get serious medical attention! Now isn’t that fun? Of course it is!

I believed in 2008 that we were going to descend into the black hole some time in 2009.  But the abyss never appeared.  We've limped along and I then moved my timeline to 2012 (convenient I know).  Now that we are in 2012 I am thinking we have a few more years.  Perhaps even another round of Obama before a libertarian Ron Paul steps into the lime light to take the country over the cliff into the anarchist abyss.  Time will tell the story though....I don't see another conclusion without massive changes in government as well as the power structure that are the result of the masses deciding to voluntarily constrain themselves to law - both moral and otherwise (the 10 commandments and the Constitution).

There's plenty of material here on the blog....but for a quick and efficient ramp up...I suggest:

THE RED PILL - The Red Pill

How can you prepare for this economic collapse now?

Food

• Begin stocking up your cabinets, pantries, and closets with non-perishable food items.
• Purchase a portable camping stove in case your home’s electricity is shut off.
• Start consuming a healthier diet so your body isn’t dependent on the processed and junk foods we’ve grown accustom to.
• If your have the space in your yard, plant and grow a garden.
• Stock up on vitamins and necessary supplements to ensure you stay healthy in the next Great Depression.

Household

• Discuss emergency plans with your family, roommates, friends, and/or loved ones.
• Store a stockpile of hygiene items including deodorant, toothpaste, towels, washcloths, and toilet paper.
• Make sure you have a hefty reserve of bottled water on hand, stored in a safe place.
• Keep extra pillows, sheets, and blankets in your closets.
• Have at least one shotgun, rifle, or handgun, if not more.
• Ensure you have enough ammunition to defend yourself, your household, and your loved ones in emergency situations.

Community

• Get to know your neighbors.
• Know who you can and cannot trust in your local community.
• Gather together with like-minded individuals in your community, choose designated methods of contact, and choose a few leaders.
• Pick a safe house, where your community coalition will go in emergency situations.
• Pick two alternative safe houses, in case the primary safe house becomes compromised.
• In times of peace, continue to make your community aware of political, social, and economic dangers.

Money

• Save paper and coin money in a safe place in your house.
• Invest in a small or medium size safe to store your money and other valuables.
• Slowly begin withdrawing from your savings and investment accounts on a regular basis. Store this money in a safe location.
• If you can purchase gold, buy it. Gold retains the same value no matter how low or high the currency markets go.
• Stop paying taxes to save money and force government leaders to listen to the citizenry, the people who put them in office.

Further Reading

Read the survival documents:

It’s better to prepare for the worse, and hope for the best.

Take Action

Remember the government belongs to the people and it’s our duty to ensure our rights and freedom.                                                                                                                       Source

Lots of useful sites on the web for additional information.  Here's a few for starters - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.