Rethinking Diversification

February 2, 2009

[Originally Posted on Feb 2, 2009]

For our entire lives, most of us have depended on highly centralized systems. Our food comes from a thousand or more miles away. Our savings is shipped into distant financial centers and invested by strangers in enterprises run by strangers. We watch highly scripted news that serves the same spin no matter how many channels we try. We bank at impersonal global banks with criminal records that would make a felon blush and have no idea where our money goes, just that the government guarantees that we will get it back.

Within this centralized system, diversification means having your financial assets deposited into a “one-stop-shop” brokerage account invested in securities representing different global industries, the idea being when one industry is doing poorly, another “countercyclical” industry would be doing well.

But suddenly, we find that we may not be able to trust these centralized systems. Suddenly, traditional portfolio theory no longer addresses our anxiety. This is because we need to shift from diversification within a centralized system to real diversification in a decentralized, possibly “out of control” world.

If you study the investment patterns of families and wealth that has survived through the generations, including through periods of lawlessness and warfare, you come to understand that for those who want to thrive in all economic and political scenarios, diversification has had a far deeper meaning than what is commonly understood in the financial markets today. For the astute strategist, it means not putting all your eggs in one basket in every important aspect of your life. Given what is happening in our world and economy, it’s time to revisit the deeper meaning of diversification.

Diversification means that our assets are invested such that an economic, political, or natural event — particularly a catastrophic event — cannot wipe us out. So, for example, we don’t invest all of our savings in a single financial institution or fund. Investors who lost their life savings in the Madoff scandal were not practicing even the most basic form of financial diversification.

Diversification also means having multiple types of assets and custodians in multiple places. Custodians (i.e., those who hold our assets for us) might be brokerage firms, banks, depositories or our own safe.

Diversification by place means locating our assets in states or countries subject to different legal and political risks. It means denominating our assets in currencies of multiple countries. It means selecting assets subject to different risks of loss due to climate change, weather conditions, social conditions and other uniquely local vicissitudes. Local investment is a great idea, but the people who lived through Katrina can tell you why having all of your eggs in one local basket may not be the best idea.

Diversification means that we don’t have all of our savings in just one type of asset. So we don’t invest in securities only — we also invest in tangibles. If possible, we buy a house without debt, or with debt that can be serviced by one family member’s income, or invest in our home to lower energy and food costs permanently. We also maintain a sufficient inventory of household goods. And it’s a good idea to invest in disaster preparedness if we live in an area that experiences earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, or tornadoes or  is prone to power outages.

Having all your money in one currency or one country is pretty risky – a risk many in the US tend to take. Ask your Jewish friends whose parents got out of Germany in time because they had gold coins or family and assets abroad. Gold coins may hold their value if the dollar collapses, but they can also disappear in a burglary or if you forget where you put them. Digital gold may be a great thing, but if the Internet is not reliable where you are, cold cash may be a good thing. Or if your cash is worthless, a stockpile of food, vitamins and liquor can be priceless. However, food, vitamins and liquor are only good when you are bartering with someone who wants them or is close by. Which takes us back to gold coins or digital gold or some other currencies. So you see, there is no magic bullet – just diversification.

Diversification of life risks is an integral part of all matters related to financial capital. Living things are the source of all wealth. That includes you and me.

Diversification means that we invest in our physical and mental well-being. We invest our time in understanding the toxic chemicals, drugs and other influences that increasingly contribute to poor health and cause us to need so much more funding for more drugs and medical treatments to cure what ails us. One of the greatest – and growing — threats to our financial health is physical illness. The notion that corporate stock investments will create security while one saves money eating unhealthy food is contradictory to the principles of building real wealth.

Diversification means that we invest not just in our own human capital but also in the human capital of other members of our family and those around us. In this way, we are not betting on financial assets alone to see us through. We are investing in each other because it is family, friends and communities that help see us through. An active network of mutually-supportive friends and colleagues is important. For those with sufficient capital and skills, financing the farmers and companies we depend on for our daily bread may not provide much of a return — it may, however, ensure that we have healthy, safe food.

Diversification also applies to the work we do. For most people, our labor is our most important source of financial assets. Skill diversity can mean, for example, that you have a number of skills. If one skill goes out of favor, another will give you the ability to be economically useful. If you have a business that fails, you have the ability to start a new business because you have the experience and diversity of skills to make a business run.

The ability to generate income through your own business or practice is invaluable, particularly when the economic environment makes “W-2” employment more difficult to find. If you are an employee and your company closes, if you have taken care to broaden your skill base, your skills can be valuable commodities for other, different types of employers or employers in other industries or places less affected by a downturn. Better yet, you know how to do many things for yourself, thus offsetting lost income with lower expenses. Look at those who are successful in the current environment: what most of them share is a commitment to life-long learning that translates into a multitude of personal and professional skills.

Diversification is not always easy to achieve. The more resources we have, the easier it is to diversify. The fewer resources we have, the more our diversification focuses on building our human capital and community. Interestingly enough, many of the best opportunities before us are those that can happen when people who have a lot of money and people who don’t have money but have a lot of skills become allies in building greater diversification together. Isolation shrinks our options. Opportunities expand as we organize and collaborate effectively. Hence, it is critical to not assume financial capital can provide sufficient diversification alone and remain isolated from our neighbors and family.

One of my goals for the Solari Report is to explore options we have to strengthen and diversify our human and financial capital and to introduce you to leaders who are taking action to help us do so. This week, I will be reviewing recent financial events and discussing indications that more and more people are concerned about a financial coup d’etat.

38 Comments

  1. Catherine,

    I love your blog and follow it closely. Someday soon I will join the weekly conference call. I really appreciate this introduction to a new way of thinking about deversification. I am forwarding the link to all my friends/family.

    But with regards to your use of “The Take” as an example of economic collapse caused by globalists, please take a look at this review of Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine” I found at amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/review/R1XEHFOIY3K1XN/ref=cm_cr_pr_cmt?%5Fencoding=UTF8&ASIN=0805079831&nodeID=#wasThisHelpful

    In it, an Argentinian categorically denies Klein’s view of the economic crisis and claims Klein’s view is often referred to in Argentina as “the Official Lie”. She goes on to correct many of Klein’s alleged errors and, in reponse to a query, provides references to three books (only two of which have been translated into english) that tell a much different story. I haven’t read any of these and am no expert on Argentinian politics/economics. But when a native reacts so strongly to the history of her country written by a priveleged white woman from Canada, it gives me pause.

    Byron

  2. Thanks, Byron.

    I agree with the poster that the problems go back a long way — as does the exploitation. Klein’s work is not perfect — but it does do an excellent job of nailing the fundamental model what we are watching world wide — and the complicity of foundations and academics. I really appreciate seeing this link and your post.

    When we come back to the red button story, we come back to the fact that we are all complicit and the model is centuries old.

    Catherine

  3. Maybe it would not be a bad idea if someone would elaborate on your history – there was a period in American history where there was no inflation – how it was done, what they did, how it can be done again; or post some usefull links on that subject – best practices examples …
    Kind regards.

  4. I AM SORRY — but once again the MASTER covered it when HE said — ” THE WORLD WILL NOT CHANGE UNTIL MENS HEARTS CHANGE ” — and so — that is the question I have persued the past 25 years —– WHY HAS CHRISTIANITY FAILED TO CHANGE MENS HEARTS SUFICIENTLY TO HAVE CHANGED THE WORLD ? and the answer is that JESUS gave us the solution — HE called it the NARROW PATH — and HE gave us the instructions on how to find it —– and thru the grace of GOD I have —- but try and find a CHURCH that SPECIFICALY TEACHES ITS MEMBERS HOW TO DO THAT and I have almost given up on trying to get any pastors or priests to listen — THEIR YEARS IN THE SEMINARY PROVES THEY ARE THE ” EXPERTS ” and therefore it would be IMPOSSIBLE for amere student of ALL THAT JESUS TAUGHT to know something they dont —- PRIDE — PRIDE — PRIDE —– but of course that is what also drives all those members of those GOOD OLE BOYS CLUBS also —- to the point that they love PLAYING GOD WITH THE REST OF US —- no wonder the CREATOR gets DISGUSTED WITH US — and WIPES THE SLATE CLEAN every so many million years with a POLE SHIFT — where the invisible axis about which the earth rotates —- shifts to a new location causing enormous changes in the earths crust and wiping out most of its population — and a group of 150 scientists of all the various disciplines (www.thehorizonproject.com ) believe that such a shift is begining to occur — now that possibilty is truly SOBERING PEACE KEN

  5. Usury — neither a borrower nor a lender be else thou kannst be false to any man.
    “The debtor is servant to the lender.” “Be the head and not the tail.”

    Any society permitting debt will eventually follow corrupt paths. It is inevitable.
    If the average home price is $150,000 and a modest rate of interest is charged, most people if they do not refi and if they pay off their loan, really pay $450,000 for their house.
    I recommend smaller communities of like raced and like-minded people who form their own schools that don’t promote racial hatred of one race against another funded by the tax dollars of the local residents.
    I recommend communities with far less regulation work together contributing skills — the plumber helping his neighbor, the doctor and teacher helping, the crafts and tradesmen taking pride again in their local work, the grower of food first thinking of the immediate homogeneous grouping.
    By getting together to build the homes of one another, the cost of materials would make the $150,000 home perhaps a third that amount at most. Saving and paying cash in a year or two would reduce the mortgage slavery. Ability to pay would also shift as would the sense of building a future, loving this earth, and working together with people one wants to see have lives even better than ones own. In cooperation without competition, this is possible in like communities where scholarship is prized and independent thinking creates innovative, even relatively permanent solutions to many problems.
    This seems like a dream as one surveys the complex jungle we have built around ourselves. It is possible if people wish for it and realize the distractions and false debates are someone else’s lingo and value system.
    There are several innovative home builders that groups could look at. The alternative energies, passive solar, and other free energies that have been with us before these many rules and regulations go unused … only and mostly … because of greed of a few.
    I do not look at either capitalism nor communism as a solution.
    I also believe we are in a gigantic engineered love fest while looking away as our freedoms have been attacked and our good government with many products produced here locally plundered. All in the name of progress or whatever buzz word is fed us, the sheeple stampede … as the puppet masters intend (have to keep them doing something as well as working and consuming).
    Cheers! May we build the world we wish to live in and find the happiness of closer groups instead of neighborhoods where few talk with their neighbors for years. Even 50 years ago, we had a better world in terms of society.

  6. Catherine,
    Re: The voracity of Naomi Klein as referenced herein

    First, allow me to thank you for your efforts to provide intelligent and honest information to the public in your chosen fields of interest. I have followed and enjoyed, admittedly at a distance, your writing via the “Scoop” mailing list for several years. Upon coming across your language, “Financial Coup d’Etat”, today, I was finally motivated to sign up for your news letter directly; when I read the comment above, and your reply, regarding one of the reviews, on Amazon.com, of Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine”. Aside from your commenter’s derisive characterization of Ms. Klein as a “privileged white woman from Canada”, I was curious to read the review, one of over 300 submitted by Amazon members, written by one Mariano Muruzabal. This reading caused me to reply thusly:

    “At first glance this rant against the work of Naomi Klein, cloaked in the pretense of defending the economic woes of Argentina, appears to be sincere and authoritative. However, calling Naomi Klein a liar, Evo Morales a Nazi, and attributing the economic woes of greater South and Central America to the failed efforts of communist militants, smacks of a particularly repugnant form of psuedo-intellectual revisionism typical of the advocates of economic colonialism.
    As is typical of such propagandists, both of Mariano Muruzabal’s comments on the Amazon blog are replete with just enough credible information and references to lend the appearance of credibility to the intended revisionist diatribe.
    Why, one might ask, is there no mention of the catastrophic effects on Argentina’s economy that resulted from the privatization of the public infrastructure by the IMF and the foreign corporate international interests?
    I concur that a careful reading of Mauricio Rojas is informative, but only if the reader understands his position and loyalties in Chile at the time. One might also consider “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” by John Perkins an informative work by a person intimately involved in the subject.
    As an anthropologist who has lived and travelled all over South and Central America over the past 50 years, I am very pleased to see so many of these proud countries casting off the yoke of colonialism and forming their own individualized versions of democracy. For anyone to portend that these new democratically elected governments are communist or socialist dictatorships following the Cuban model is a highly suspect claim at best.”

    I look forward to participating in future discussions, and hope these thoughts are not regarded as a serious digression from the instant topic, “Rethinking Diversification.”
    ta

  7. CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN is a fascinating story — and one that RINGS TRUE —- I tend to lump all COURAGOUS WHISTLEBLOWERS —- and DEFECTORS FROM THE ” SYSTEM ” and LOVERS OF TRUTH AND HATERS OF LIES AND DECEPTION as simply ” TRUTHSEEKERS ” —- and one of the problems we face is identifying the clever liars around us —- among the techniques I use are — THE WORDS THAT COME OUT OF PEOPLES MOUTHES —- and just as importantly — THE WORDS THAT DONT —- and evaluating their eyes —- becase the ” EYES TRULY ARE THE WINDOWS OF THE SOUL ” and catherne — you can be glad you declined that opportunity ( when you were serving in government ) of meeting what I recall was described as a HYBRID REPTILLIAN — I had a personal encounter with one — and they posses STRONG PYSCHIC POWERS that we dont —- and the only protection from them is STRONG SPIRITUAL ARMOUR —- but that story gets into UFOs and ALIEN ABDUCTIONS and GENETIC EXPERIMENTS on humans — etc ————- PEACE KEN

  8. Hi. I must say that if anyone insists that Jesus and or god is the answer to these problems consider this………… If you want to know the truth you must question those things you hold most dear to your heart. PERIOD. Please don’t waste my time with rebuke. 40 plus years of research and study. I KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT. Christianity is responsible for destroying the planet. Your very best efforts to do any good will fail and at 84% of the U.S. population, you have Obama to show for it. Wake up you childish people. Your country is a mess because of YOU and your religion. If you want to go toe to toe with me with anything you have, I’m ready to go with you. If any one person is anti Christ, I hope it is ME. I hope I will stand out as the one person who will fight the GOOD fight against you deluded, insane people. If there is a god who created us, this god should be tried in court for crimes against humanity a thousand times over. You are a sick perverted people to have taken such a fraud as Christianity and embraced it without due care and consideration for the destruction it has caused for so many centuries. I will predict that you will fail to change anything on this planet for 2 reasons. 1. you and your god CAN”T and won’t. 2. You don’t want to and so you won’t even try.

  9. Thom Allen,

    Thanks for providing an alternative expert opinion on the Argentinian situation. As I said, I’m not an expert, so I appreciate your input very much. Can you comment on the books Mariano Muruzabal references? Are they also transparently economic colonial propaganda? I would appreciate your opinion on the matter. And I’m sorry you misunderstood my description of Ms. Klein as derisive. It wasn’t intended that way. If you are as opposed to colonialism as you appear to be, you will certainly appreciate how our view of colonialization has been horribly warped by the writings of influential priveleged Europeans. I’m glad to know you don’t think Klein fits that mold. Now I can start reading the copy of “The Shock Doctrine” I received for Christmas without so much skepticism.

  10. Dear Catherine, (love that name, it was also my mother’s)
    Speaking diversification, I have to say that wandering around the Internet it is amazing and gratifying to see the prolific amount of diversification in the way people address the problems of the day. To these tired old eyes (eighty years and still counting) the increasing numbers of commentators and the diversity of their positions is a source of comfort. Regardless of the clashes of opinion it is at once hopeful and productive that so many minds are contemplating the world around them. To add to the discourse, I would say there is a fundamental problem underlying every position pro and con on every subject that gets hammered on. That has to do with control. Most do not recognize the simplicity of how the entire system both here and abroad is controlled. We have seen perhaps the greatest manifestation of this control in our lifetimes happen right in front,as the old saying goes, of God and everybody. That of course is the so called bank bailout. We simply watched and accepted bankers taking taxpayer (present and future) money and giving it to themselves. This strikes at the heart of identifying those in control, namely the bankers. Just go back and review how the Federal Reserve and the Income tax (which are joined at the hip) came to be. That clandestine meeting of bankers at Jekyl Island brought forth, as Griffith so aptly named it, The Creature. That Creature is The God of the day. Only that God is the Devil himself. Those same people formed the infamous Council on Foreign Relations to insure their misbegotten creation endures. E Mandel House foretold of the plan in his 1912 epic Phillip Dru, Administrator. The plan was simple and easy for him and others like him to implement. It consists of three legs all of which have been firmly entrenched in the American firmament. These of course are: the creation of a central bank, the imposition of an income tax, and lastly, total control of the two major political parties. The first two are obvious and their existence is generally recognized. As to the third, not too many people realize that no matter who is voted into office they are and have to be members of the CFR or one of its related secret societies. It would do all commentators well, regardless of their particular passions, to get on the same page in so far as this issue is concerned. It has to be fundamentally understood by all well meaning commentators that control of our government, and hence of our way of life, is in the hands of these evil devils. Until they’re driven out of existence, most likely on the end of ropes, we cannot hope to correct the situation we are currently in. It is a well known fact that the worldwide derivative financial bomb adds up to six hundred trillion dollars. That’s forty times the GDP of this once great country. To throw a few trillion taxpayer dollars at it is exactly like tossing our money into a black hole. One has to recognize just how necessary it is to, as Nancy Regan once said, Just Say No! Let that bomb go off where it will do the most good and the least harm to the rest of us. Will it affect us? Sure, but not as much as if we let our hard earned monies be used to try and defuse it. I say, stand back and let it blow.
    Good luck to all in spite of what we have to put up with, and God bless all the commentators.
    Larry TM

  12. You are absolutely right Loren. Take religion out of it and many of the problems go away. I’ve found the closer one holds their space god the more likely they are to kill, remember the words of George Carlin – “Murder…religion has never really had a big problem with murder. More people have been killed in the name of god than for any other reason. The more devout they are, the more they see murder as being negotiable. It depends on who’s doin the killin’ and who’s gettin’ killed.”

    There are many more rationalists out there than you think – EXPRESS YOURSELF!

  14. Constantinople was the longest lived civilization in human history at 800 years. They tinkered with inflation ONE time and never did it again. Their coins were universally valued.

  15. At Davos Putin seemed to offer some sage advice. Perhaps the Russians have learned a thing or two after being hosed by the bankers in the early 90’s. We should consider Putin’s remarks carefully.

  16. Read Klein’s book, The Shock Doctrine, as I have, and you’ll just laugh at these ideologues with their despicable slander of her assertions. It’s patently clear, for those who have read the book, that the evidence is damning. Her critics will seek to obfuscate, but don’t let them lie to you. Read the book. Just ask the Russian people, or for that matter, the Chilean people, whose privatized system of social security failed massively, so massively in fact, that the gov’t was forced to re-think it. Thanks for your work, Catherine. Well done. Diversification has always been a guiding philosophy of myself and my husband, and for that reason, we are financially secure enough to deal with the current economic disaster. No one is bullet-proof, of course, but by paying attention to economic signs and reading diverse [that word again] sources for the past 4-5 years, we could see what we needed to do to prepare for this. Still, our money is being stolen in the financial coup much as everyone elses, due to theft of the common wealth by privateers and “banksters” and our government leaders.

  18. Oops! Looks like I’ve discovered part of the answer, Sorry!

    This is the cite I attempted to share in the “deleted” comment. It is an interesting take on the so-called “economic crisis” as presented on the newly formed Real News Network out of Canada.
    http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=3264

    I also would like to repeat a “shout out” to “Larry Martines” for adding his voice to the fray. We senior citizens must not sit on our hands, we must lend them to the collective effort any way that we can.

    Similarly to “byron griffith” – You are very welcomed, good sir. Enjoy Ms Klein’s book, and I, for one, am looking forward to your comments on it. I did address your question about the books you mentioned in my initial comment, except to say that I have not read the untranslated ones.

  19. Diversification.
    Your telling us to prepare for disaster.
    Have multiple skills and multiple forms of value–gold coins, food, things that can be bartered.
    What will we tell our children?

  20. Nina:

    Let’s invent a better future. One of the ways to do it is to prepare for all possible scenarios, including the most stressful ones. Then we can focus on building and encouraging the positive ones.

    Teach your children to use their time well — to learn a wide variety of skills, including practical ones — to fix a bicycle, to fix a car, to build a house, to do plumbing — teach them to be life long learners and how to attract the positive to themselves and to withdraw from the negative. Teach them to avoid TV and other forms that manipulate their minds. Teach them how to eat nourishing food, to take care of their bodies and be very careful how to use the health care system. Teach them how to defend themselves — judo or, depending on your approach to weaponry, the proper care and use of firearms. If you have the ability and resources to home school, do so. The school system is increasingly not safe and not a good use of their time and power.

    Catherine

    I have a curriculum — Economics 101 — that I wrote for my pastor’s high school class. It is in the archives. Everything we can do to teach them about money and economics so that they understand how the world works is invaluable.

    • Well said Catherine, and thank you for bearing this flag. This resonates a lot with me, and these are the kinds of people I want (and have) around me.

      Also let’s remember to be grateful for our skills, for our clarity, and for the human connections which give this life meaning. I find there is so much worth appreciating in people of every walk of life… and if we focus on each other’s virtues there is a lot to bring us together. Fundamentally, we are all part of the great tree of life, and our responsibility is to see that life is renewed, on through the ages.

  22. The Klein Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Polemics

    http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9384

    Is this an ad hominem?

    Klein’s responce:

    https://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2008/09/response-attacks

    Norberg’s retort:

    http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9626

    Intersting how in her responce, Ms. Klein doesn’t mention the name of her critic, but instead resorts to name calling (labeling her critics and their respective organizations as “nonconservatives”) in an attempt to marginalize her critic(s) through demonization, how’s that for an ad hominem attack? IMO, Ms. Klein is such a predictable authoritarian leftist, whose desire for retrogressive control of individual lives via central planning, she seems to come straight from central casting of a bad stage production, written by Joseph McCarthy.

  23. I am glad I discovered this great blog and group of commentators. In responding to Alfred’s comment about the Byzantine Empire (capital Constantinople) being the longest empire in history, I read somewhere that it was because Jews were prohibited to get into politics, banking and education. Before someone jumps and calls me an antisemite, I suggest you consider three points:
    1) Jews are oppressing and killing Semitic people or their cousins the Arabs so they have no right to call anyone else antisemite.
    2) There is plenty of evidence that the Jews of the Byzantine and later the Ottoman empire were involved in the Armenian Genocide.
    3) The great majority of Jews has always supported the actions of their leaders. As we see now the most bloodthirsty ones have the best chance of being elected.

    Judaism is a racist religion by definition.

    Even diversification as discussed by Catherine could not help if the financial system is infested by greedy crooks, many of whom are Jews as those who control the media and other institutions. They may be less than 1% of the population but they control 90% of the country. To comment on everything else and ignore the elephant in the room is good only for fools.

  24. Wow–I hit the jackpot tonight. I came over from survival.com by a link and found a home. Thanks to all of you for posting your thoughts and desires for a new, better world. I put my shoulder to this wheel in the early eighties and since have labored in silent obscurity. I too believe and practice diversity in all endeavors. (Thanks to great leadership at survivalblog.com, I diversified some into investments that would have never interested me before–and at a time when they were abundant, Thanks JWR.)

    Now to my comment: We are witnessing a ground-swell. I believe this new world has already begun in the hearts of many. This past year I watched gardens growing where lawns had been and neighbors helping neighbors. Citizens are waking from their commas to introduce political conversations in drugstores–it happened today. Watch Main Street for up-to-the-minute news. Main Street is mobilizing, not with vengence, but with concrete direction toward individual responsibility and creativity. The cat is out of the bag–the genie out of the bottle–the American is crawling out of the government womb.

    I tell you, it’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. People are hatching into independent providers, frantically learning to do for themselves. They are reading every how-to book they can find. They are buying things they don’t yet know how to use. Try buying a piece of cast iron cookware or a corn sheller or a chicken incubator or a WWII cookbook–The prices on EBay have tripled in two years. Seed companies are doing twice the normal business. Used stores are the vogue. Mending and shoe repair are back. Dad’s teaching son to hunt, even if they are both new to hunting. Mom, dad and the kids are learning together to raise vegetables. Canning jars are in great demand. Seniors are in too. Many older people remember their grandmothers performing tasks now generally forgotten. Yes! we remember. And yes, we want to share.

    To discount the tenacity of Americans is a mistake. We are still one with our pioneer roots. All it took was a crisis of sufficient proportion to push folks out of their comfort and into gear. We will see a citizenry become able and eagar to produce. Corn shops (local canneries) might begin popping up beside McDonalds and the Department of Human Services. Already men are finding it more rewarding and practial to do ground-up restorations on eighties vehicles than to buy new.

    AND Americans all have one very important thing in common: they all read and loved “Little House on the Prairie” in grade school. Ask’um

    Here’s toward a good life in a better, cleaner kinder world, ccw

  26. Rethinking Diversification really gives food for thought. I don’t want to invest in corporations who are paying their management obscene amounts of money. Where is the shareholder value in that?
    So, I am pondering what to do???? This article really gets you questioning and thinking. Thanks.

  27. Although these articles are giving good info on the times and trails that men leave in their quest to usurp authority from the creator, we must yet look ahead to the finish as is about to come. As God has foreknown the end from the beginning, and authored in His book of things to come, the things evil men will do to gather all to their service. We can be reashured in these last days that man will continue to seek this path unknowing that he is assisting the Lord of all to bring about the finial demise of man’s rule and the establishing of the eternal kingdom of God on this earth. This is becoming so clear in the timeline that one can only sound the trumpet in hopes that the many will rend their hearts to the Lord that they may find security in Him since the god of mammon is about to be destroyed. Folks, the time is very short, The Lord Jesus is the safe place ahead, seek Him while He can be found, all the riches are about to pass away, but The Lord is eternal. He can be found now if you only cry out to Him.

  28. This is certainly a time of awakening and a period I call the Great Leveling where forced regression takes us back to our core values. Unfortunately, many will not understand it nor see it coming as it is only now being acknowledged when the collapse is in our face. However, I see regression as an opportunity to recreate our future and embrace our peace. I see this as an adjustment to slow down, which is not a bad thing. It is only difficult when the rest of the world is fragmented into various speeds and wrestling with different expectations. I have always struggled with what Loren wrote and believe that religion was important to get the highest percent of control in order for certain agendas to be carried out successfully. The remarkable thing is how this has been passed down for centuries – talk about project management! At the same time, since I firmly agree with Larry, I have to wonder at some of the religious truths and the devil that roams in the details. We are trying to keep things real honest without creating hopelessness in our children. I think that is what it comes down to in survival terms – to not lose hope and keep your kids close with open communication. They know and understand more than we think. Thanks.

  29. You are absolutely right Loren. Take religion out of it and many of the problems go away. I’ve found the closer one holds their space god the more likely they are to kill, remember the words of George Carlin – “Murder…religion has never really had a big problem with murder. More people have been killed in the name of god than for any other reason. The more devout they are, the more they see murder as being negotiable. It depends on who’s doin the killin’ and who’s gettin’ killed.”

    *Yea man, cause communism (athiests) don’t ever kill anybody and Hitler (athiest/psudo-occultist) and Mao (another athiest)…..

    yea, religion is all at fault. Can’t be people with free will choosing to do evil cause no rational human being would ever choose to do something the whole world considers eeeeeevvvvvil. What morons.

  30. Wow I’m young and ignorant at the age of 32 I have just started researching, reading books and blogs on variuos topics about 2 yrs ago that gave me a view of the bigger picture and helped me make since of some of my own views and theories on things that the masses are caught up in.I wish I had spent more time learning from others in various industries,cultures,and a had a better circle of influence than what I surrounded myself with in the past. But as I look at the current situation the world is in and here in the US in particular it amazes me how we have the largest amount of information,knowledge, and communication technology but we can’t rally together and fight off these rediculous schemes like this econmic stimulis plan that will hurt us and only work for the few that will steal from it. Our government should be in a pre-school sand box or jail with the ideas they have to help the people and the economy. It’s obvious that they only have a plan for the few and privledged who caused the problems bail them out give us the bill and all though out of our “elected” officials
    36 have been accused of spousal abuse
    7 have been arrested for fraud
    19 have been accused of writing bad checks

    117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses

    3 have done time for assault

    71 , repeat 71
    cannot get a credit card due to bad credit

    14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
    8 have been arrested for shoplifting
    21 currently are defendants in lawsuits,
    84 have been arrested for drunk driving
    and as we all know as of late none of them know how to pay taxes
    all of this happened in the last year 2008 this is equals out to 380 offenses spread out over the 535 members of the US Congress

    and they are making the decisions on our behalf. They can recieve millions of phone calls and emails against these bailouts and still get these things past. Obama is no different than any other politician claims of change is what every politician runs on and look still business as ussual I remember Bush saying we have to get this pushed through immediatly and Obama says the same to avoid catastrophe what a joke. But how can things change when the same people are in charge and making the rules. between corrupt: world leaders,poiticians,business,industries,and religous leaders. Do we the people have a chance to change things?

    So my questions are, what do you think can be done in reality to change the path of the world or your respective nations,or states? Bacause we now more than ever have the ability to connect with others and communicate to fight against what is for the most part tyrany on the part of the collective world leaders and we are now more of a world civilization than ever.How do we rally people and get our opinions heard and followed by our representatives since it obviously hasn’t worked to stem the bailouts or anything else for that matter? Is it impossible to change since these few and and all powerful have kept the masses broken and in control too long and if not what do we do?

    There have been some comments on here that raised my questions and I believe are even great ideas like teaching and learning about finances an dmultiple skills and trades and helping one another in your local community,but its hard when even your parents won’t share with you what they are doing with thier money and thier experiences. Our society is secretive and taught not to tell what you have and how you got it but to use your knowledge to use others and get more? What do we do?
    thanks for a great forum I will try and keep things short next time

  31. At 21 years old it is rather difficult to understand the multiple issues at their entirity. Whats even harder is making the attempt to bring up political, business, religious, or economic conversation with my “era.” When one my age does actually get a “wild hair” and attempt to seem like they know what is going on with our economy, they havent the slightest clue what they are talking about (let alone hold facts to back up there so called “points).
    What is even worse is when I conversate with a person twice my age, they look at me like Im a dumb child. All I am trying to do is reach a better, deeper understanding of what, who, why, when, and well basic understanding of how…..

    James- your questioning of “change” is what I ponder most in my speratic day dreaming. One thing is for sure and rather unfortunate- You will never see the lazy, brainwashed, ill-willed American Citizen march to the door step of what we call Government and say “NO MORE!” As long as the American people have there I-PODS, comfortable couches in front of giant television screens, the dollar menue at Mcdonald’s, etc…..then there desire or motivation to rise up against the corruption and greed of this once great nation will be put on a “to-do” list, right up there with attending the gym….

  32. First to say that most in the world are concerned about what is going to happen next in the whole sceam of things. Let me say we have all been taught to seek our own, even in the religions of the world. The TRUE religion of GOD, our creator, the creator of all, tells us to first to seek the needs of others, and of course not enough want to be among the first to do so, fearing they will be left out. Don’t judge the Truth with religions of men, don’t deny the things you know nothing about. The understanding all need to come to, and will come to, is this world is not created for the pleasure of mankind, but to refine man, through the trials that arise in the mix of light and darkness, good and evil and the separation of the two. Evey man has a choice and will follow one or the other, some atempting both only to decieve themselves. These times that we are in now, are the finial years that the Word of GOD describes as occuring just before His return, who, when He comes will bring about an end of man’s evil against each other. The leadership of the world is gathering wealth only to subvert society, to fulfill their own lust through control of mankind, their lust for power. While at the same time the Lord is seeking all that will give up the evils of this world of men and seek Him in to eternal life. Yes, there will be suffering on both sides all the way till the end, but the rewards will be much different. Time is short.

  33. From an economic standpoint, this sounds like very “sound” advice. And I thank the editor for reminding some of the newer kittens out there about some very old and true lessons. These money manners are exactly what some of our grandparents taught us. “Put a little here, and a little there.” Definitely, we shouldn’t put all our eggs in one basket, in any tangible facet of our lives.

    However, I am more concerned that despite all this intelligence, we are not able to see truth for itself. It looks like a lot of otherwise intelligent people have found a way to take good advice and remain ignorant. Religion, is a study of the different ways people try to conceptualize God. It isn’t law, nor is it neccessarily always fact. That’s why we have so many of them. Although, we attempt to phantom what God can and cannot do – it is irrelevant to what He can, will or won’t do. When people appear to be without similiar astuteness, and claim that God or Jesus will make a way it’s not because they are ignorant or uneducated. And, (yes at the beginning) it does not infer that they have no economic “smarts” either. It’s a result of history and countless testimonies. Examples, those who have homes paid for now, and didn’t have a job or down payment to pay for it when they closed on the property. Those who survived relocating with a dime their name and now own their own conglomerates.

    If you want real names of people and reasons to blame, don’t go as far as concluding that religon or God is at fault. Look in the mirror. A God that most don’t believe in didn’t make our messes, we did. Either we are the ones who elected these shams; we are the the shams or this is the art of our own mistakes. Fess up to it.

    The only living God, and his son Jesus Christ, our only savior (Acts 4:11) whether we believe or not, are the only reasons we have half the wits that we think. For it is him that has supplied the world with mercy, prayer warriors, the mathematically gifted, and even the economic savy with a heart to know Him, and still decide to share true wisdom about these with the rest. Give the gifted their “props,” but without taking any away from God.

  34. I was privileged to hear avant-garde composer/philosopher John Cage speak some years ago. An audience member asked him during Q and A time whether a proletarian revolution can ever take place here in the USA and he responded “No. Too many are far too comfortable for that to occur.” Even with the millions of foreclosures putting families out on the street there is still enough of an unaffected population to resist the urge to take to the streets en masse in protest of this economic mass murder and robbing of the public treasure.

  35. Maybe this guys could help in rethinking diversification or coming back to local and not “global”, cooperation instead of “competition”, fair trade instead of “free” market, and so on…:
    http://www.polyfacefarms.com/
    Thanks again Catherine you are really a source of inspiration and courage to me.

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