For those that watched the show series, or the book series of Game of Thrones, “Winter is Coming” was the words of House Stark.
For any that aren’t familiar with this series (and from what I gather from reading the books and watching the show to the best of my current recall), the seasons operated differently in that world. Instead of seasons lasting months in our reality; in the world of Game of Thrones, the seasons could last years. If the summer was short, it was an omen of a short winter. If the summer was long, it was an omen of a long winter.
One of my favorite lines from the books and series was one that came of a woman that was very old. The line was “My sweet summer child”. I have found myself using that phrase from time to time – including having it being referenced at myself. What this phrase insinuates is that the one that this phrase is directed to hasn’t lived enough life to experience the hardships of life in general or the ebbs and flows of various cycles.
Generally, I try to keep a pulse on the news cycles and the stock market movements and headlines from Wall Street. I try to keep out of the rabbit hole of the news cycles since they change so fast, but I try to keep informed enough to have an awareness of what is happening in the world outside my immediate daily operations.
Many of the headlines I see for the general news cycle, and the headlines coming out of Wall Street, it looks like many include the phrases “Recession” and “Depression”. Personally, I would have to agree. I don’t think it’s a question of IF, I think it’s a question of WHEN.
Similar to the world of Game of Thrones, “winter is coming” – but it’s not a season like hot and cold weather. This winter is an economic winter.
My personal opinion is that this economic winter will be very harsh. Much of my reasoning for this largely has to do with various factors. I think one of the biggest catalysts of this is due to the United States going off the Gold Standard in 1971. As a result of this, it essentially gave the Federal Reserve the freedom to print as much currency to put into circulation as they wanted.
Additional to this, many of the politicians “kicked the can down the road” to look good for their next election cycle when various natural downturns in the stock market or economy came around. They softened the blow through various methods – from adjustments to interest, printing more money, and/or legislation and SEC initiatives. At some point the chickens will come home to roost. I believe we are near that place, especially because of the drastic measures and wild printing of the Fed of US Currency since the 2008 economic downturn and again with the 2020 Covid-19 initiatives from essentially closing down the country. At present, the Federal Reserve has painted themselves into a corner with their game of “kick the can”. The markets are so addicted to easy money and low interest rates, it doesn’t function like normal. My personal opinion is that the majority of the economy is manipulated to the point that it is controlled to the point where the economic winter will come when it’s most advantageous to whomever is in control of the economy. Who is in control of the economy – I have no idea.
Therefore, my personal plan is to invest in gold and silver as much as my budget will allow and to get preparations in order for my own projections of what the “worst case scenario” will be for the coming economic winter. Personally, I think the coming economic winter will make the Great Depression of the 1930’s look amazing and we will wish we had it that good.
It is certainly possible that the coming economic winter will not be that bad. But the way I see it, if I prepare for the worst case scenario I can come up with – should it not be that bad, I am that much better off. I wouldn’t want to be more optimistic and have the worst case scenario be the reality.
Do you have a group of people you can go through an economic winter with?
What are your plans for making it through the economic winter?
Have you defined what your definition of “worst case scenario” is and what that means for daily life and how you function?
What skills do you and the other members of your group have? What skills do you or other members of your group need?
What resources do you and the other members of your group have and need?
Should the fiat currency become worthless, what is your backup?
If there is a grid failure and electric and wifi aren’t an option, are you able to operate without those creature comforts associated with that as your daily reality?
What do you have as barter currency?
If you and any members of your group rely on medications – if those weren’t available for some reason, what are alternatives? In many cases, some medications can be removed from one’s cabinet with an improved diet and workout regimen. How much can you or someone in your group remove even one or two medications from a lifestyle change to one’s diet and workout schedule?
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