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This ain't your Grampas' Depression...


fear_and_greed

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Chicken_Little.jpg

 

"Hope for the best but prepare for the worst".

 

It's what I keep in my head. That and "Organize and execute around written Priorities". (been a bit remiss on that lately:-)

 

You'll sleep so much better at night Fear and Greed. However, judging from all the signs I'm reading, it oculd be a bit rocky around Nov 4th! :lmao: Could be a good day to sleep in:-)

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  • 2 months later...
Some random thoughts...

The banking system house of cards is about to implode. Society is comprehensively bankrupt and is defaulting on loans at record rates. When there is no more money to loan, from non existent companies, to no more credit worthy people, the economy will stop.

GM stock is just a short time away from reaching $0.00. Peoples savings, retirement funds are disappearing in a stock market that just ran out of smoke and mirrors.

Oil prices are making new highs everyday. The spin off effects will touch all aspects of everyday life. Less money for "luxuries" and necessitities.

Houses are now worth less than the mortgages owed in some areas.

Manufacturing has moved offshore. Nothing is made in the USA anymore. The workforce has been reduced to service industry drones.

Millions of family farms and their knowledge have disappeared, replaced by multinational agri business' that have just started to twist the knife. Recent floods in Iowa will have a big effect on grain prices.

Surburban sprawl has consumed the small towns and taken the local culture away.

The airlines are going to merge and consolidate or go under until there are none left.

Infrastructure is crumbling, education is getting cutback.

The fiasco in Iraq continues and will soon probably spread to Iran.

It's like watching a slow motion train wreck....

 

"But other than that, how did you like the play Mrs Lincoln?"

 

She suffered from severe clinical depression--just like FearAndGreed.

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""1. record life expectancy""

 

The US ranks 45th in the world

 

""2. record low unemployment""

 

sure if you want to work at Walmart.

 

""3. unprecedented economic growth over the past 25 years""

 

benefiting only the super rich, the middle class has been in decline starting in the Raygun years. It's takes 2 workers per household when it used to take one, which erodes the family unit, the key to the middle class.

 

""4. record "happiness" levels, worldwide (announced last week)""

 

at least someone is optimistic

 

""5. booming economic growth and freedom in India and China (only 1/3 of the world's people)""

 

This is good, the oppressed should be brought up. The problem is the environment can't support a bigmac and SUV for these numbers.

 

""6. continual reductions in pollution for the past 50 years""

 

Are you sure about that? Amidst all the "news" there's real news that doesn't get reported. Like we are in the middle of a species "die-off" the first one caused by man.

 

There is also a "trash vortex" in the north Pacific larger than the state of Texas. Some claim as large as the contiguous USA, and it's growing. There's a more-or-less permanent high pressure system in the north Pacific. Called the North Pacific Gyre, the water there is doldrums and it slowly circles clockwise. This causes floating trash to collect, 60 to 90 percent of which is plastic.

 

Since plastic was first created 50 years ago it's been collecting in this "vortex". 20 percent of all plastic produced ends up in the water. Plastic breaks down even to the molecular polymer level but it doesn't biodegrade to it's basic elements. In many areas of this vortex plastic outweighs plankton 5 to 1, seriously threatening the food chain. Water birds eat so much un-digestible plastic, which fills their stomach, they end up dying of starvation. Est 1MIL deaths annually.

 

800px-Albatross_chick_plastic.jpg

 

DEAD-BIRD.JPG

 

Albatross-Carcass.jpg

 

Been to the beach lately?, pristine places like Hawaii are becoming garbage dumps when the edges of the vortex swirl onto land. In '02 I went to the mouth of the Columbia at the Pacific, the beaches there were similar to some of these pics.

 

61945943tm7.jpg

 

marine-debris-2006-hawaiian-islands2.jpg

 

 

plastc050208_15074a.jpg

 

Kure-Atoll_Albatross-758890.jpg

 

 

""7. unprecedented freedom of movement, worldwide""

 

 

did you see the lockdown China put on the olympics, they have some economic freedom but no political

 

May be anecdotal but I've been going to Canada since '93. This year I was stopped as I was exiting the USA going to Canada by US Office of Homeland Security officials. They acted very rude, like jack booted thugs. They didn't even have a building, just orange cones on the side of the road, SUV's and drug sniffing dogs. I'm pretty clean cut and my car and gear were all clean and organized, my climbing partner also. They pulled us over and put a dog inside the car. He found the food LOL.

 

Searched as you're leaving the country by your own country. Isn't that like communism or something? Guess their looking for recreational drug users to fill up their world record rate of incarceration prison industry prisons.

 

""For the past 250 years, life has continually improved in almost every concievable way. Things just keep getting better, and they will continue to do so... anyone who doesn't recognize this is some kind of massive idiot.""

 

It took 150MIL years during the carboniferous for the petroleum reserves to accumulate and develop. We've used up about 1/2 of that in 100 years. We're still deforesting at unsustainable rates, and conducting blind experiments of which we know not the consequences like bio-engineering. The earth can't sustain this rate of degradation. Aids is just the first sign that these population levels can't be sustained.

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Some random thoughts...

The banking system house of cards is about to implode. Society is comprehensively bankrupt and is defaulting on loans at record rates. When there is no more money to loan, from non existent companies, to no more credit worthy people, the economy will stop.

GM stock is just a short time away from reaching $0.00. Peoples savings, retirement funds are disappearing in a stock market that just ran out of smoke and mirrors.

Oil prices are making new highs everyday. The spin off effects will touch all aspects of everyday life. Less money for "luxuries" and necessitities.

Houses are now worth less than the mortgages owed in some areas.

Manufacturing has moved offshore. Nothing is made in the USA anymore. The workforce has been reduced to service industry drones.

Millions of family farms and their knowledge have disappeared, replaced by multinational agri business' that have just started to twist the knife. Recent floods in Iowa will have a big effect on grain prices.

Surburban sprawl has consumed the small towns and taken the local culture away.

The airlines are going to merge and consolidate or go under until there are none left.

Infrastructure is crumbling, education is getting cutback.

The fiasco in Iraq continues and will soon probably spread to Iran.

It's like watching a slow motion train wreck....

 

"But other than that, how did you like the play Mrs Lincoln?"

 

She suffered from severe clinical depression--just like FearAndGreed.

 

Reality has a habit of blinding stupid folk...

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After only recently being made aware of the trash vortex I've been wondering what to do about it besides spewing on the internet.

 

Today I was in Anacortes on an errand and had about 5 hours to kill. I went and picked up trash. First I started on the highway. In one mile I gathered a full garbage bag of trash. The highway wasn't that pleasant because of the cars.

 

Then I went to the beach. In one mile on the beach I got another full bag and then some.

 

The breakdown goes like this. 75% of the trash was plastic. Of that 75% about 1/3 was plastic grocery bags. A second third was 16oz water bottles. The other third was alum cans, flip flops, plastic chairs, milk jugs, foam cups, etc etc. By weight the highest percentage was probably the 16oz water bottles.

 

Was using a ski pole to poke stuff but it doesn't work that well, think I'll get one of those grabber thingies. Gloves are nice also.

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The breakdown goes like this. 75% of the trash was plastic. Of that 75% about 1/3 was plastic grocery bags. A second third was 16oz water bottles. The other third was alum cans, flip flops, plastic chairs, milk jugs, foam cups, etc etc. By weight the highest percentage was probably the 16oz water bottles.

 

Was using a ski pole to poke stuff but it doesn't work that well, think I'll get one of those grabber thingies. Gloves are nice also.

 

The sad thing about this is that plastic is so recyclable, especially plastic pop/soda/juice bottles. Plastic bags are another story. Its amazing what things people will just toss anywhere.

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