Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The Accounting.

Have you ever stood on a precipice, quietly, and just contemplated the profundity of the moment? The place itself, with highly resolved definition, its obvious hazards and possibilities, forces a conception of a finely discrete moment in time. . .one MUST be aware.

I am halfway through the last year of my thirties, to the day. I've been in Hawaii for six months, to the week. The world heaves around me, with the first suggestion of a convulsion. It is food for thought for sure. Having walked Kilauea enough now I can surely see the signs.

Someone asked me the other day, taking note of the projects around the place: "Dude, you REALLY think the shit is going to hit the fan, don't you?"

I was a bit taken aback, actually. The shit HAS hit the fan. It's simply a matter now of the spray pattern, where one was lucky or unfortunate enough to be standing, and whether one ducked quick enough.

Are we not paying attention?

Oil is at 120, expert mainstream opinion suggests stability later in the year at 150-180.
In the last 12 months.
Wheat has quadrupled in price.
Corn tripled.
Rice quadrupled and even so, spot shortages occur now.
Copper tripled.
Aluminum doubled.
Molybdenum doubled.

Countrywide went bust.
Bear Sterns went bust.
Citigroup is near bust.
Ambac is near bust.
Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Washington Mutual--are all in dire situations as well.
Aloha Airlines dead in the water.
ATA dead in the water.
Others flounder.

The dollar has slid 30 percent in its buying power around the world.

The Fed has loaned out at giveaway rates 80 percent of all the capital it has available, more or less for the collateral equal in value to a sack of dirty socks.

Real estate values across the country(and Europe) have slid 25 or so percent, experts call for another 20. There's 1.1 trillion dollars of home equity loans out on that crap.

Consumer Confidence Index at record lows. No damn doubt!

Bush has taken up singing and dancing, and seems strangely Nero-esque.

I have:

Made a choice to move to bum-fuck no-where Hawaii to avoid Zombiegeddon.

Planted 100+ koa trees
1 dozen coffee
1 dozen tea
1 dozen papaya
3 cashew
1 allspice
1 nutmeg
a 2000 square foot garden
all the taro I can get a hold of.

Built a producer gas generator(which works) to power in event of gas shortages and rationing.

Invested in a ton of tools.

And basically am training myself to get to hunkerdown living in the most comfortable way possible, which is no small deal.

I would REALLY encourage those people I care about to pull the head out and take a good look around, and be very very careful: make every attempt possible to prepare for what may lay ahead. There is a real possibility, not yet a certainty, of a very dire and disruptive future not far ahead. There IS a certainty of a merely difficult one.

Only while ignorance and denial still holds the popular mind will there remain an ability to act.