Recent News about Financial Armageddon: Protecting Your Future From Four Impending Catastrophes

I was a little late getting up this morning, as Elaine and I had a "two book dinner."  She read Dean Radin's "Entangled Minds" and I was busily munching through Michael Panzner's latest book which he sent me (thank you!) titled: "Financial Armageddon" [available at Amazon and other major bookstores].  To borrow some Amazon text:

"Four key elements--Debt, Derivatives, Government Guarantees, and the Retirement system--are quickly unraveling, and because they are so intricately connected, there will be an unremitting domino effect. With time running out, this is a disaster-in-the-making on which every American must be informed so they can protect themselves, their families, and their economic well-being before it's too late."

What was interesting was what Panzner was talking about toward the end of the book - the "How do you prepare?" question.  I started working on that last week on my subscriber side (www.peoplenomics.com) last week in apiece called "Transitional Economics" and I'll likely continue with that course of research this week, because the problem for many people - stuck in big cities, suburbs and such, will be how to scratch out a living.  While we made the decision several years ago to get close to food and water, people in big cities take so much of life for granted that they have no Plan B for what to do when the lights going out, the net goes down, the food disappears, and the water stops coming out of the taps...all of which happens at the same time banks could be shutting down.

Panzner, by the way, writes in the wake of yesterday's paper quake that there's basically "Nothing in Reserve at Commercial Banks."

I'd recommend Panzner's book, especially if you're new to reality-based economics (as opposed to the paper asset floating craps games) as he approaches it methodically and comes to the same outcome as we've been talking about for years now.  If you're already there, the book's a good gift for your friends who may think by now that you're some kind of survivalist freakazoid.

"Financial News from UrbanSurvival," UrbanSurvival, George Ure, February 28, 2007.

Two excellent, brand new bearish books have crossed my desk in the past few weeks from publishers, and I will have reviews of them on my website later this week. The books are Financial Armageddon, by Michael Panzner, and Crash Proof by Peter Schiff. They're both excellent books, have good advice and I recommend them both.

"Tuesday's Market Plunge," Bull! Not bull! Michael Nystrom, February 27, 2007.

Oh, the credit balloon keeps building and building, and the rich insiders get richer because, guess what, they are transferring that debt from private to public.

These Big Swinging Dicks might own $50 million personal jets, but they cannot personally write checks for 32 billion. Not even when two or three of them sit around the table.

So what’s going to happen when interest rates pop? I’m guessing that some of these deals will fail, and then Mom & Pop will discover their retirement plans will have to be put on hold for another five to ten years because their pension fund manager was an unwitting counter-party in the mess. Oh the law suits I can see coming.

If all this seems to be a blur, then I recommend you go to a bookstore today and purchase a copy of Michael Panzner’s brand new book “Financial Armageddon”. The sub-title is, “Insights on debt, derivatives, government guarantees, the retirement system, and the coming economic unraveling.” My comments are on the book jacket.

Michael has a website by the same name: www.financialarmageddon.com

You know, if it were not for the incredibly rich trying to become incredibly richer, the US would not be staring down a potential crisis in the order of the Great Depression. As the Chinese expression goes, these are interesting times.

"February 24, 2007: Week #08 (2007-02-24) in Review (FINAL)," Bill Cara: Capital Markets and Social Equity, Bill Cara, February 24, 2007.

Comments

[Terry]

I earn minimum wage and have student loan debt. How the heck am I supposed to prepare and protect myself?

[Michael Panzner]

It won't be easy, but everyone has some measure of control over their destiny. If you read the book, I think it will help you find a way.

[Page]

My comments are addressed to the young person above... Learn a trade that will be practical and desirable skill should the worst occur. Move out of the big city and into an area where a "sense of community" actually still exists. Cities will be dangerous places because of the lack of social cohesion and enormous dependency upon supply chains, ie: food, water, fuel, etc. Small town citizens typically pull together in a crisis to help each other. We live in a highly interdependent world in modern day America. The least you are dependent, the more strength and security you will have. I have followed what Michael has described for several years. I fear the human factor more than anything else because our people for the most part have lost knowledge that was hard-learned during the Great Depression. In general, honesty, self-reliance, morality and respect for others were key components of America back then. Folks fed other people who were hungry, including many strangers, as best they could. Crime was not an issue. Together, people got through the hard times because our people stuck with old-fashioned values, worked together and did the best they could with what they had available at the time.

In short, you cannot protect yourself against every possible eventuality. Your goal should be is to place yourself in the most advantageous position should the worst occur. Learn from history. That is where many coping skills and lessons may be obtained.

[Edward Charles Ponzi Jr]

Vermont Town Meeting Day (the first Tuesday in March) is a state holiday. My town is odd and meets Monday night and we vote Tuesday (today). Some smaller villages meet ALL DAY, make food and chit-chat.

Vermont was an independent Republic from 1777-1791. Then we did this really dumb-ass thing.....

Edward Charles Ponzi Jr, Futurist
Hooverville Falls, The Republic of Vermont