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Better A Year Early Than A Day Too Late

August 22, 2017

livelifehappy.com

Better A Year Early Than A Day Too Late

Preparation only has value if it’s done in advance

He who hesitates is lost.
~proverb

Change, especially a collapse scenario, often happens quite fast. So fast that there’s little to no time to react in the short frenzy between “before” and “after”.

This is true throughout nature. Glaciers that took millennia to form calve off into the sea in a matter of moments. Old-growth forests filled with thousand-year-old trees can be decimated by a single wildfire. The bubonic plague “Black Death” pandemic of the Middle Ages killed one-third of the Earth’s human population within just four short years.

Fast change is also a hallmark of human society. Movements and ideas — oftentimes simmering for years, decades or longer — suddenly reach a critical state in which the populace is swept up into history-making action. The outbreak of World War I. The Civil Rights movement. The dissolution of the USSR. The Digital Age.

When it comes, change happens swiftly. And life after — for better or worse — is forever different.

I’ve witnessed this time and time again since co-founding PeakProsperity.com. And in pretty much every instance, I notice that the vast majority of people — including even many of the the watchful and preparation-minded folks who read this site — are caught by surprise.

Fukushima

A good example of this was the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March of 2011. Of course, no one could have foretold the timing and scale of the tsunami, and virtually nobody expected that it could overwhelm the facility as spectacularly as it did. So in the immediate aftermath of the plant’s failure, the world looked on in sympathy, not fear.

But on March 12th, that changed as the first of several hydrogen explosions was observed among the reactors. And then my phone rang.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Former Treasury Secretary says banks may be riskier now than in the 2008 crisis

September 17, 2016

larry-summers

Former Treasury Secretary says banks may be riskier now than in the 2008 crisis

“Sir. SIR! This your bag,” the TSA agent barked at me last week, more as a statement than a question.

“It is.”

“Are you carrying any liquids?”

I knew immediately; I had forgotten about the bottle of water that I had shoved in my briefcase before checking out of my hotel.

They opened my bag and confiscated the water bottle immediately with an extra harrumph to make sure I knew that I had wasted their time.

Yeah, I get it. I broke the rule. But it’s such a ridiculous rule to begin with.

Are we really supposed to pretend that Miami International Airport is any safer because there’s a brand new, unopened Dasani bottle in the TSA wastebin?

You may recall how Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport was attacked on June 28th by men armed with automatic weapons and explosives.

Ataturk was already one of the most security-conscious airports in the world– you actually have to go through a security checkpoint just to enter the building, followed by a second security checkpoint on your way to the gate.

And yet, despite all of this extra security, 41 people were killed and hundreds more wounded in an attack that shows just how ineffective airport security really is.

Airport security isn’t real security. It’s merely the illusion of security– a bunch of busybodies in uniforms enforcing pointless rules to make people believe that they’re safer.

Candidly, our financial system has borrowed the same principle. There’s no real safety in our financial system– merely the illusion of safety.

Leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, most people thought the banks were safe.

After all, we’ve been told our entire lives that the banks are rock solid. What could go wrong?

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Corruption, resources, climate and systemic risk

April 10, 2016

Corruption, resources, climate and systemic risk

Corruption is a loaded word. One person’s corruption is another’s sound social policy. Some people believe providing unemployment benefits to laid-off workers corrupts them by making them “lazy.” Many others think such benefits are sound social policy in an economic system that is prone to major cyclical ups and downs.

Fewer people agree that bailing out major U.S. banks at taxpayer expense in the aftermath of the 2008 crash was a good use of public money. An alternative would have been for the U.S. government to seize the banks, inject funds to stabilize them, and then resell them to investors, perhaps at a profit.

Was it corruption that led to the bailout instead of a takeover? Or was it an honest difference of opinion about what would work best under emergency circumstances?

We can argue whether these examples of transfers of funds from one group to another are fair. But by themselves they do not constitute a systemic risk to the stability of the entire economic and social system. In fact, some would argue that such transfers enhance that stability. However one evaluates these transfers, I would contend that a much worse corruption is to subject our society knowingly to systemic failures such as severe climate change and widespread crop failures.

To understand this contention, we must review the material basis for our modern society. Despite all the hype about the service economy, the activities which make the service economy even possible are agriculture, fishing, forestry, mining and manufacturing. These sectors create the surplus food and fiber, the surplus energy and minerals, and the surplus goods that allow so many of us to do something other than farm, fish, log, mine or manufacture goods.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

New law proposed to shift bank failure risk from taxpayers

March 23, 2016

New law proposed to shift bank failure risk from taxpayers

Ottawa proposes ‘bail-in’ regime to force creditors to prop up failing banks

The Liberal government says it will create legislation that shifts some of the risk in a bank failure to creditors. (Canadian Press)

The Liberal government says it will create legislation that shifts some of the risk in a bank failure to creditors. (Canadian Press)

Canada will introduce legislation to implement a “bail-in” regime for systemically important banks that would shift some of the responsibility for propping up failing institutions to creditors.

The proposed plan outlined in the federal budget released on Tuesday would allow authorities to convert eligible long-term debt of a failing lender into common shares in order to recapitalize the bank, allowing it to remain operating.

The plan is in line with international efforts to address the potential risks to the financial system from institutions that are deemed too big to fail, the budget document said.

The issue was at the heart of the 2008 global credit crisis, with various governments having to bail out systemically important institutions.

Canada, which escaped the crisis relatively unscathed, did not have to rescue any of its banks though they got billions in support during the crisis and the recession that followed. The government said it will introduce framework legislation for the plan, along with enhancements to Canada’s bank resolution toolkit.

When the Harper government floated the idea of a bail-in regime in 2014, Moody’s cut its ratings on Canadian banks.

10 Key Events That Preceded The Last Financial Crisis That Are Happening Again RIGHT NOW

January 7, 2015

10 Key Events That Preceded The Last Financial Crisis That Are Happening Again RIGHT NOW

If you do not believe that we are heading directly toward another major financial crisis, you need to read this article.  So many of the exact same patterns that preceded the great financial collapse of 2008 are happening again right before our very eyes.  History literally appears to be repeating, but most Americans seem absolutely oblivious to what is going on.  The mainstream media and our politicians are promising them that everything is going to be okay somehow, and that seems to be good enough for most people.  But the signs that another massive financial crisis is on the horizon are everywhere.  All you have to do is open up your eyes and look at them.

Bill Gross, considered by many to be the number one authority on government bonds on the entire planet, made headlines all over the world on Tuesday when he released hisJanuary Investment Outlook.  I don’t know if we have ever seen Gross be more negative about a new year than he is about 2015.  For example, just consider this statement…

“When the year is done, there will be minus signs in front of returns for many asset classes. The good times are over.”

And this is how he ended the letter…

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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