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No, its not some tin foil
hat conspiracy rumor, its happening right now in Venezuela.
The food shortage in
Venezuela is so bad the country is mandating that people scan their fingerprints at grocery stores in order to keep people from buying too much of
a single item. I have written several times before about shortages of food in
Venezuela, and how people were being marked and tattooed in their hands to stop
people from buying more than permitted.
Several people see Argentina
as a window to the future of America. Footage like the Ferguson rioting does
little to dispel that claim. While militarily and economically still powerful,
American society and standards of living have decayed noticeably in recent
years.
While some Americans look at
events such as the ones that took place in Argentina as something that may be
heading their way, for people in Argentina Venezuela is our window into the
authoritarian future ahead of us, so much that the painful term Argenzuela was
coined.
Fortunately I’m not stuck in
Venezuela, and I hope we never see such madness in any civilized country, but the
fact that fingerprints will be scanned anywhere in the world to buy food sends
chills down my spine.
FerFAL
4 comments:
What would be worse would be for a future government to do away with cash money and mandate that everyone use a debit or credit card to buy things. Sold as a necessary measure to halt "terrorist money laundering".
Then, if you are deemed an anti-social element by a secret tribunal, your ability to exist and survive --- to buy food, pay rent, buy medicine,gasoline for a car, buy train tickets , etc
-- could be removed with a mouse click on a remote computer at an undisclosed fortified location.
My thoughts as well Don. Just today the news had info on GMS tracking per fed law on cell phones. International community has adapted same regulations. This means per your smart phone, federal agents can track your location and movements. Also, fed regulations require auto manufactures to implement tracking devices. It will be very hard to disappear with such electronic fingerprints and detail data base. Just saying if you are packing valuables, owe back taxes, fines, and penalties good luck. I'm sure government will have myriad ways to steal citizens wealth. How to go grey with wealth? If the U.S. flips into socialism, any one with savings will be exploited and targeted. Only the most capable and wealthy could foretell and setup camp upon foreign soil as most nations would coordinate to stop such attempts. The little guy could easily be stomped upon. No, I think most would be better served staying put per the knowledge of locale, people, and supporting neighbors. Better to have industrial hardened home, property, food stores, emergency preparations, back up power, ammo, and food production.
My thoughts, talents, and specific location within U.S.. Keep finances within zone of maximum security and return as safety also means working within acceptable risk to keep/maintain and even increase money supply. Put the money to work paying off debt, S&P 500 index funds, and hardware. Hardware would make one more self sufficient, productive, and provide alternative home business, if SHTF. These economic calamities don't quickly explode. Meaning, trust your gut instincts upon tempering the hype, but still pick up trend upon increasing danger and prepare proportional. Most preparation will foster lower cost of living. Develop hobbies and talent that will serve you well upon difficult times. Examples to consider. Well water with backup hand pump or manual bail. Solar power, battery, inverter, small quiet generator with gasoline, natural gas, and E85 capability. Gardening, hoop house gardening, canning, fruit and nut bushes/trees. Fish tank, root cellar, drying, vacuum pack, aeroponic sprouting transplants, hydroponic grow systems, small farm tractor with attachments, chain saw, pickup, high mpg motor bike, high mpg car, trailer, beer and wine making equipment, bottles, caps, lids, jars. In my case if future looked precarious, I would purchase small CNC verticle mill and stock metal and plastic. Also, not bad to stock up common copper electricians wire. Investing in small silo as corn would come in extremely handy per local grain market and ability to brew ethanol motor fuel and animal feed. Also, this grow zone good for cigar tobacco. Why would I leave and give up all of these advantages? Especially being a few years from retirement?
The finger print scans foretell of futility of citizens ability to shortcut fed controls. Sales upon black market, foreign currency, and foreign escapes with money in hand will lose out per the long arm of international federal control to reign in citizens. The extremely rich will have adequate resources, but average man will succumb. U.S. has ample technology and power to make such easy solutions obsolete. However, they have little power to control home sufficiency. Go that direction as the process will be helpful even upon losing need. Talents and abilities are slowly gained. Best to start now. Also, we often read and expose the riots per frustrated citizens. That these poor suffer per lack of economic support. I'm from a large family with old father. My personal experience per family is way over 100 years. The popular narrative of poor is inaccurate. Some of world's most poor are happy and satisfied with life. What the U.S. poor suffer is quality of life issues. These issues long in establishing and very hard to change. They are personal in nature and can not easily be blamed on others. IOWs it is not financial. In fact the U.S. poor are receiving historically high benefits. Their is no lack of free easy money.
Anon at 5:59 AM
1) Watch out with the S&P 500 index fund. In probably 50% of the time at least it is a good way to go --you will earn much more over time than with low interest Treasury bills, Savings
Bonds, or Long Term Treasury Bonds. However, a S&P 500 investment lost roughly
HALF its value during the 1970s era of high inflation (Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy
Carter administration) whereas savings bonds almost kept up with inflation because their
interest rates were increased with inflation. The S&P 500 was also down in 2008 from
its value in 1998 (so much for buy and hold.)
2) I'm not a financial advisor but it seems to me that the yield curve is a good indicator for
the S&P or stocks. Stocks seem good if the 10 year bond is 2% or higher than the 3 month
rate. But if the yield curve flattens ( 10year rate about same as 3 month rate ) or inverts
(10 year rate BELOW 3 month rate) then that signals a recession in about 6 months and I would
bail.
One reason for the 10 Year bond rate dropping is because the bond is in high demand -- i.e, smart money is moving into bonds because they do well in the first part of recessions. If you
have a 10 year Treasury paying a guaranteed 7% then that is very sweet when many other assets are falling through the floor and deflation is setting in. So the current market price of the bond
goes up.
3) Obviously the stock market has done extremely well from the depths of 2009 --but the government has also run up $9 Trillion in debt and dumped it into the economy. What happens if the spigot has to be cut back significantly -- e.g, due to rising inflation? This market looks similar to the one in
the 1980s when Reagan /Bush also ran up high debt as a percentage of GDP.
4) In the 1970s Harry Brown suggested the Permanent Portfolio -- splitting principal into 4 piles and putting 25% each into S&P 500index fund, short term Treasury bills, Long Term Treasury bonds, and gold.
Against , this was for money that had to be protected against anything that could occur -- idea was that an event bad for one investment ( e.g, rising inflation hurting value of Long Term bonds) would be offset by increased value of another asset (e.g, rise in gold.) Again, this was for money to be
protected but not earning a profit -- vice another pile you could put aside if you wanted to aggressively speculate in order to get greater profits in exchange for greater risk of losses.
5) Because of the rising news reports of fake gold (gold plated tungsten, which has similar density -- weight/volume) I am negative toward gold. In my opinion, platinum coins, Treasury TIPS, commodities or maybe some foreign securities might be better options to consider for protection against US inflation.
Some gold advocates argue that gold is safe if you have ownership of a piece that is kept in a controlled vault and has been subjected to verification tests (e.g, melted down and recast) before being placed in the vault.
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