Inflation and the world’s problems continue to churn along. How can you best avoid being depressed by this news? Don’t read, listen to or watch the news! Of course, this is what the tyrants want you to do so they can continue to be re-elected and continue to siphon wealth from the average person to the ultra wealthy.
From following along with what is happening, I see no sign of “good news” so my advice remains: “shift your savings to gold (or other precious metals or other assets), “prep” and be prepared for rough times ahead”. Can I go back to sticking my head in the sand now? I’ve got an okay job, my neighborhood isn’t having excessive crime and I’m continuing to prepare for worse times. So unless I lose my job, life’s okay for me. (I’ve already given up any dreams of more international vacations in the future.) No, don’t come crying to me for help. I don’t have the resources to spare. I’m busy trying to make sure I don’t starve in the future.
Quoting Gary Mead:
“The assertion that Covid caused global economic damage is false; it was the global response to Covid, i.e. a worldwide lockdown that stopped people from going to work, making and delivering things that caused the damage. With Russia and Ukraine it’s not the war itself which has pushed up energy and food prices, it’s the response of the West to the war – the imposition of sanctions, the weaponization of the Dollar – which has driven up energy prices. This is not to take either a pro or anti attitude towards the Covid lockdowns, or the sanctions on Russia; it’s simply to straighten out our thinking.”
This is really important to understand:
Covid didn’t do any harm (it’s just a virus), the response to it was a catastrophe.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine didn’t do any harm (it’s just another war), but the policies of the USA have created a catastrophe.
USA economic policies continue to devastate the rest of the world. Maybe the tyrants doing this feel it’s a good thing, but I disagree. It’s not exactly as if the economy is going well here in the USA. Their attempts to moderate the harm short term will cause even more harm long term.
Image courtesy of RawPixel.com
As I continue to study history, the rise and fall of empires, the good news is that these changes tend to play out over decades so all the people predicting imminent disaster tend to always be wrong. Looking at it from the scale of the entire population it’s long term good times and bad times, not the “end of the world”. But of course, looking at it from an individual’s point of view this current disaster could be quite severe! If you have lost your job, lost your home, can’t afford to feed your family, out of control criminals have robbed you or worse, well that’s terrible!
So yes, living in the wrong location or not being reasonably well off financially, those are serious on an individual level. Re-electing the same tyrants sure isn’t going to help. So we really need to step up as individuals and take care of ourselves, our families and our friends.
If you think the tyrants know what they are doing, think again. Olivier Blanchard (former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund) suggested doubling the target rate for inflation because he did a “Google search” which showed him that people don’t pay attention until inflation is above 3% to 4%. To quote Gary Mead again: “Setting an inflation target may be silly, but setting it according to a Google search seems quirky beyond belief.”
Perhaps I should spend the time writing about the solutions the tyrants should be implementing? But no, they aren’t listening to me, so my time is better spent writing toward my audience of individuals.
What amazes me is that so many people complain about these problems yet very few do anything (like using Glint) to address the problems. Once again I’ll suggest: If the tyrants are going to destroy the value of USA dollars, don’t keep your wealth in dollars, shift it to gold (like the very wealthy are doing). If higher food prices and food shortages are coming, then buy a freezer and stockpile some food now. And for heaven’s sake, make sure you have plenty of toilet paper! {laugh}