So we can’t save “the public” and we can’t forestall the crash but we can survive it. Lots of people always do. What gives me hope is that we have seen mini-mass movements in the recent past. Not enough to change the last election, but enough to see a lot more Chic-fil-A sandwiches sold. And thanks to the best gun salesman in the history of the country, Barack Obama, we see men, women and couples buying guns and ammo at a record pace even as the media is demonizing them as crazed baby killers. WE have ways of talking to each other unfiltered by the bird cage liner like the LA Times.

For example, despite the best efforts of the media and this administration, the reaction of school boards and local governments around the country is actually to follow the NRAs advice and increase armed police protection in schools. My local paper, the Virginian Pilot, told Wayne LaPierre to shut up and sit down after his speech to the press. Meanwhile the local gun shops are crowded and getting on a range is a two hour wait. This morning the Virginian Pilot’s headline is about the increased police protection in local schools.

What does this have to do with the financial crash coming up? First we have to stop thinking that we have to change everybody’s (read “the public’s”) mind. All we have to do is to talk amongst ourselves and then find a series of actions that we can take that will cushion the blow even if we can’t avoid it completely.
Is there a magic bullet? Buy guns and build a [object TextRange]? Well, some people are doing that but it’s not practical for a lot of people. Buy gold? I have a problem seeing the local merchants accepting my gold coins. But the collapse of the housing market tells us that there are things that we can do that will help us avoid much of the trouble. People who were buying houses in 2003 – 2007 should have known they were buying into a speculative bubble. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out, all they had to do was go shopping for a house, stop and think about it, watch TV and see a whole channel devoted to flipping houses. You could feel it in the air. So you either rented or, as my son did, got a very good deal from a friend.

There are one or two things that people can do to make the next crash a lot easier. First have no debt, or as small a debt as possible. No car loans and no credit card debt, and pay off that mortgage fast (get one of Dave Ramsay’s books). That leaves the “outgo” part of the “in go/out go” much smaller. Second, don’t own any long term bonds or bond funds. When the crisis hits, it will be a debt crisis and bonds are debt instruments. The most likely move in bond prices is down and it’s going to come from two directions: downgrades and rising interest rates. The 30 year Treasury bond yields roughly 3%. If rates double, the price of this bond will drop by nearly 50%, and if it’s downgraded it will be even worse.

Anyway, that’s a start. Think Camp of the Saints.

Did their lips move? Secretary Solis moving on.

Thanks for the warning, Petey. (Not that it’s gonna help much…)

What are you going to do to cure cancer?

Continuing to comment on blogs isn’t helping much.

Isn’t that what the Left condemns when it is advised to rape victims to not resist, just to embrace the inevitable?

Why is it wrong for a rape victim to not resist, yet it is the acceptable response when an ever-encroaching government is slowly nibbling away at your Liberty & Freedom.

Its better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.” ― Emiliano Zapata

steve – I’m glad you agree, because admitting there is a problem is the first step to finding a solution. Now if only the media and Democrat leadership will admit there is a problem we could be on our way.