Replies

"So...what do I want to be holding when this 'crash' (devaluation) happens?"

I wish that I knew a great answer for that one. Here's a poor answer. Real necessities will be in demand (e.g., food), but those are always risky (natural disasters, conglomerates using government to step on competition,...).

"And...why won't the Fed just inflate things away as so many have told us they'd do?"

Highly placed government employees and their non-government bosses/beneficiaries (NIMBYs, animal worshipers and associates) want to have more than worthless currency. Without a strong currency, they would also lose their regulatory influence over properties of others. But they'll lose influence without inflating, too, by being forced to lay off huge numbers of regulatory employees working for them. IMO, they're walking a tightrope.

"What make Stockman's ideas correct?"

Here's my take. Stockman shouldn't get all of the credit for seeing what's going on. We need to look around us and put ourselves in the shoes of others for the purpose of seeing what's going on outside of our own more secure and serene existences. Yes, there are large numbers of Americans who have been denied traditional options (like starting a small business, building one's own home, rejecting some of administratively decreed "fees," etc.).

After government and its favored, bipartisan constituents rob other constituents and obstruct business to certain extents, a critical mass of other constituents may get unhappy. The eventual, unhappy majority of constituents respond by working less, buying less, investing less, becoming politically more quiet, and so on.

People who have the freedom to start producing and selling can be more generous, but there are many signs that it might be too late for that. Very few are allowed to continue producing that way (without submitting to bizarre, contemporary social politics of being employed by global corporates or government offices). We're seeing new heights of hysteria in sponsored propaganda and efforts to convince the population that they have no rights or freedoms. The so-called "news" has been looking more weird each year for several years.

See Czechoslovakia and Poland just before the fall of the Soviet Union. There are perceived positions of power at all levels of government and business, but maybe none of us are really as powerful as we believe some of us to be.

There are also the crazy messages of fear/spite being disseminated from many of those we view as the "elite"--people in leadership and wealth--of various terrible disasters like overpopulation, famine, cosmic disaster,... Apparently, they think that the planet is not big enough for any of the rest of us. Or maybe they want everyone to panic and trigger some mad response on their part. Pathetic.

Anyway, IMO, we should arrange for ourselves, loved ones and maybe a few more to be alright and to get out of the way for a time. None of us who comment on FR are members of the "1%," and we know it. Let the communist/fascist 1%-ers fight each other for dominion over the universe without having us on their plantations to use as catapult fodder.