I’ve got a lot of odds and ends to discuss, so here’s a brain dump.
This story about removing an asphalt driveway and building a garden is pretty cool.
Freegans in the UK, with video.
Some good reading about the financial markets:
Article 1
Article 2
Article 3
While I’m at it, these bailouts in the financial sector are sickening. I’m obviously in the wrong business. I guess I need to start a bank, grow it haphazardly and run it poorly, but make sure it gets too big to fail, rake in millions for myself, bitch at the regulators about free markets and leaving me alone and then when I start to fail I’ll go to them with my hat in my hand asking for help. Yeah, I think that’s what I should do. In fact, maybe I should become a consultant and travel around to bank and recommend they do this. Of course, maybe someone is already doing it because they seem to be doing it already.
Time Magazine had an article recently about cooking a gourmet meal for under $10. I have to tell you, I don’t see what the challenge is. I could easily cook a meal for less than $10, do it all the time. Granted it might not be as fancy as these guys produce, but it will feed a whole family and give you leftovers for lunches. That’s something I say.
The cabbage turned out pretty good tonight. I followed this recipe here. I did mix up a little though. I shredded a carrot into it, along with part of an onion. Then I kicked it up a notch with some crushed red pepper. Turned out good. Not the best still but edible. The boys ate some of it, which is good at this stage. My wife finished off the bowl (it was a small dish) so she liked it too.
I finally did it on Monday. Ever since I got involved with Peak Oil I decided I wasn’t going to profit financially with the knowledge I had when it came to investing. I could easily have bought gold when it was cheap. Oil was around $30 a barrel when I started to become aware of potential shortages. The Dow was 14K plus when I thought the market’s would crater, but I made a promise to myself that I was going to profit at the expense of others. I’ve come to the realization over the past few years that while I can make plenty of money investing in the stock market (and it’s something I’m very good at), it’s not really money. It’s ill gotten funds taken from other people who probably need them. Interest isn’t really creating new money (it sort of does) but more it takes money from other people and gives it to me. If I’m saving $10K and earning interest it’s because someone is borrowing $10K and paying interest. I’m OK with this part of it, but investing in the stock market knowing that when I gain it’s because someone else somewhere is losing is not appealing to me anymore. This is fine in one regard (like simple interest on a bank account) but profiting on oil or food just didn’t seem right to me.
The actions of the past few weeks have changed my opinion. Mostly because of this, the way the country is run my dollar now will be worth a lot less in 5 years and 10 years and 15 years. Not because inflation is so bad (although it is on a few key items) or because of deflation (which would actually make money more valuable) but because the government is debasing the currency too much. For example, how the hell are we going to payoff $10Trillion in national debt? Probably by trying to “inflate” the debt away. (This isn’t the true meaning of inflation but it seems to be what people understand) Meaning, they’ll probably just print some money on the printing presses. This is what they are doing in Zimbabwee. I don’t see why they won’t do it here.
So I need to get as many as I can now and I need to be positioned right when they do start the printing. The way I can do this is to come off the sidelines and invest my money based on my beliefs and what I think is happening. Right now I think we’re heading down a deflation curve so I’m going to invest based on this idea. This week I invested in 3 mutual funds that will profit handsomely if the markets crater. I’m not sure if I entirely want them too or not, but if I emotionally detach from that aspect all the indicators are pointing to this being a smart financial choice FOR ME. I also put some cash into a fund in the expectation that Treasury rates will rise in the future (which seems a near certainty as the Fed is concerned about inflation even though we’re in a deflationary recession).
Does this mean this is something you should do? I don’t know. That’s up to you. But I should also tell you that I still own 3 stocks and 2 mutual funds that are long the market (meaning I would profit as prices go up) as well as a fair amount of CDs to insulate the portfolio and provide some cushion against price swings on securities. So I’m pretty well covered on all spectrums of the market.