I see an economic diasater coming...

[triffid]

When it rains, it pours. And, when that rain is bad news in bad emerging markets, it can pour even in the United States.
Brazil, Argentina, Turkey, Egypt... the list goes on and on of countries that are seeing their currencies and markets get hit all at once.
While all are in some way affected by major global factors such as China's economic slowing or the US tapering its monetary stimulus, each one is also affected by their own idiosyncratic issues.
Nonetheless, these localized troubles may conflate – and conflagrate – leading to real problems in developed markets, including the United States.
Gartman Letter. "If it were just Venezuela, we could deal with it. If it were just China, we could deal with it. But, you throw them all in the pot at one time, you've got a problem everywhere... This is very real."
"The real reason that we've gotten the stock markets to tumble as strongly as they have are these problems all coming in one fell swoop at one time. It's quite serious."
Gartman sees emerging markets causing trouble for the rest of the world for at least the next several weeks. But, while most emerging market currencies are dealing with their currencies weakening, one of the world's most developed markets, Japan, is dealing with a sudden rise in the yen.
The US dollar has declined more than two yen since Thursday, when it was trading at 104.64. Three months ago, the dollar was 97.42. Gartman doesn't believe there will be intervention by the Bank of Japan under the direction of the Ministry of Finance.
"I doubt that we'll see any intervention unless things get really, really ugly," says Gartman. "And, right now, they're ugly but they're not really, really ugly – yet."
But, for American investors, there may be a problem a lot closer to home. In fact, it may even be in the home. Extraordinarily cold weather in North America has helped push natural gas above $5 per million British thermal units (BTUs), if not higher. And what it's doing to the market terrifies Gartman.

[triffid]

I have been really lucky.If I see 2 or 3 inches of snow and/or ice on my car and on my street I stay home.Of course being retired helps a lot too!No need to brave the weather for a job.I have an exit plan too, Lee, just started it.Privacy will be my goal.triffid


Food banks are a part of my plan.Ive been going to them for a year now.I get milk that can sit on a shelf for half a year.Once open you put it in the icebox.At the dollar store a quart costs one dollar each.That $4.00 a gallon I know but no icebox is needed.

[the_big_m_in_ok]

Hi Lee ,heres the latest happening worldwide,
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/talking-numbers/here-s-why-emerging-markets-scare-me--but-here-s-what-terrifies-me--gartman-193123915.html
Temps have really been bad here(cold).triffid

Yeah, I agree, triffid.
There's something else related to the subject of this thread?   Take a look at this...
       http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/it-is-now-mathematically-impossible-to-pay-off-the-u-s-national-debt

Yeah, right.   I can at least point to this article and confidently predict the economy will 'collapse', as this thread implies, and the    social/legal/military/judicial/financial/survival     complications associated with all of this are going to be more than merely 'enormous'.
       That's the point of this thread.   People are still looking at it (this thread) and reading it, to this day.   I'm just delivering a warning, is all.

--Lee

[triffid]

It seems the chinese elite are hiding money in  offshore locations.About four trillion US dollars since the year 2000.  The British virgin Islands was named as a major location.http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2014/01/22/chinese-elite-hide-money-offshore.html


I did meet a retired DA  for the st.louis,mo.He said that soon peoples Food stamps will be cut off and then the hungry hordes will go house to house looking for food to take by force.He did say to arm myself if I stay in the city.

[triffid]

This article on california households in financial distress most likely is close to being true for all the other states in the union.
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-study-nearly-half-of-people-in-california-are-in-chronic-financial-stress-20140130,0,5504688.story#axzz2rzkKpaJN  triffid