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The best investment of all might be a functioning crystal ball. Venezuela's current plight took 19 years to develop, and at each point down people were saying "surely it can't get worse, surely it can't last much longer." But it has.

In a state-sanctioned political apocalypse the only real options consist of escape to a safer place or joining the victorious party. Where the state is formally involved in control and settling the order into permanence, the options for the non-involved consist of slow starvation or violent revolution, an it is the unvarying objective of such a state to remove the people's ability to perform the latter at the earliest opportunity. That might be one certain warning sign.

One of the most interesting studies of what happened in Venezuela and how is one we'll likely never read: how the party enforcers and their Cuban "consultants" have managed to keep the lid on. A similar study might be conducted of Iran, whose government we know has purchased the services of mercenaries from everywhere from Uzbekistan to the Palestine Authority. That state does so under the color of religion, but thugs are thugs, and their importation might be another certain warning sign.

Possession of the sort of redoubt capable of growing its own food is vital in the case of a natural disaster, futile in the face of a state determined to maintain control by seizing the food as the Soviets did in Ukraine. You grow it, they steal it. And they have a neighborhood watch network to ensure they know where it is. Those onions you're taking to the Farmer's Market, citizen, where did you get them? The gun to your wife's head will ensure that you tell them.

The overall point is that a political disaster is harder to survive than any natural disaster short of a planet-destroying volcano or asteroid. It's also far easier to produce and common to witness. If there is a place to run, prepare it and be ready for a timely exit. If there is no place to run, prepare to fight it out. If someone seems unusually eager to confiscate the means of defense under the color of state safety, they're not your friend.

The overall point is that a political disaster is harder to survive than any natural disaster short of a planet-destroying volcano or asteroid.

Or maybe a disaster is a disaster. Depending on how you look at it, Venezuela could be going thru a “high fever” to reach the cure or maybe resistance is lowered for another “disease” to take over.

Hard times are the cure for our ailments also as proven through out history.........................