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How about some rocky horror?

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Message 121 of 2,258
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Who is the wisest in your country?

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Message 122 of 2,258
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@alfa1 wrote:

Who is the wisest in your country?


not me! 

 

I used a spray rubber device to seel a hole in my foundation (Oh, Honey,  Do we have any Baking Soda to get this stuff off my finger?) Despite the Lovely Mrs. following up with a game of "Go Falling" at the local bowling alley, (the sprained ankle will heal well) I STILL win the IOTW award! (IOTW = Idiot of the week)

 

 


"Should be" isn't "Is" -Jay
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Message 123 of 2,258
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@alfa1 wrote:

Who is the wisest in your country?


Probably the one that sits back on the verrandah of his beach house looking out at the sun setting over the ocean getting in tune with nature and smiling to himself that he doesn't care about politics, sport or what colour to paint his bedroom.

Message 124 of 2,258
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@Hornless.Rhino wrote:

How about some rocky horror?


I can see my wife jump up and start dancing at the mear mention. The Rocky Horror Picture show was a cult classic in PGH back when I was in the Navy (so I missed it myself). There was a movie theatre in the heart of Oakland (U of Pitt and CMU part of town) that specialized on only that movie. People would bring supplies to take part in every song.

 

My wife is genearlly pretty serious but Rocky Horror always brings out here silly side.

 

Ben

 

Retired Senior Automation Systems Architect with Data Science Automation LabVIEW Champion Knight of NI and Prepper LinkedIn Profile YouTube Channel
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Message 125 of 2,258
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350 miles across Colorado this weekend.

 

Maybe I should change my name from SnowMule to DirtDonkey.

 

 

Speaking of mules....

 

I love my dirt bike. Cat Happy

 

Then I went home and did laundry. Smiley Frustrated

Message 126 of 2,258
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I regularly track the Dow to Gold ratio (search for that term there is web-site that has the historical graphs) to monitor the health of the dollar. It has historically varied in the range from 8 to 10 with exceptions of course.

 

Since Wednesday the ratio has dropped from about 8.1 to 7.5 earlier today.

 

7% in three days is quite a drop.

 

Ben

Retired Senior Automation Systems Architect with Data Science Automation LabVIEW Champion Knight of NI and Prepper LinkedIn Profile YouTube Channel
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Message 127 of 2,258
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Wise people care about politics, sport or what colour to paint his bedroom...

 

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Message 128 of 2,258
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Ben, what do you make of it? I have been thinking that gold is a bubble since it went over $1k.
=====================
LabVIEW 2012


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Message 129 of 2,258
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Steve Chandler wrote:
Ben, what do you make of it? I have been thinking that gold is a bubble since it went over $1k.


Too complicated to say of course.

 

The following is just my persanl opinion and reflects how my family is reacting.

 

Qualitative easing bumps the gold number as the news ripples out and is realized. But Gold competes with the Dow for investments so they seem to drag each other while things "look normal" The news on Fridy about the unemployment hurt the Dow so money ran to gold. But if you have listened carefully to Ron Paul silver (think of it as cheap gold) has held its own against comidites like gasoline for example. The same silver dimes that would buy a gallon of gas when I wa a kid can still do so now. What has changed was the value of the paper money where it not take 3.5 paper dollars to but those same silver dimes.

 

Durring the last QE, I did a quick calculation that I lost about 20% of me REAL (value in real stuff) over that week-end. So all of this speak badly for the value of the dollar.

 

But the dollar has some other factors affecting how it is viewed in the world. With the unknown situation in Greece and Europe and the effect on the Euro the dollar is looking good in comparison, for the time being. But, if I have my history right, the US Fed did a dollar for euro swap to help with the last time Greece was bailed out. So altough the dollar can look relatively good, the swap has copuled the dollar to the Euro. SO the US dollar value will depend on the Euro.

 

There is yet anothe factor where I can not recite the name/term off hand but there is an offering from the Fed that is designed to beat inflation and helps to dampen the rise in the price of gold. But of course the Fed only has a printing press to back that one up.

 

I have also observed indications that the US market never finished the free-fall that was happening when the US stimulus packages kicked in. As a phical type of guy I see the US market as a machine or an engine. It was sputtering down when they hit it with ether. Yes there was a reaction but the ws not enough energy introduced to increase the inertia to a point where it can run on its own.

 

For our part my family does not feel things are going to level out before they complete that decline that was influenced by the stimulus. The added debt people have taken on thinking things will be happy again has only made it more complicated.

 

Since we only have ourselves to rely on we have been doing what we think is prudent. We pulled our cash out of the market and missed the big crash. Converted a good portion to gold and watched it climb. Added to our investments siver since gold will be hard to make change when the dollar is worthless. Since the dollar was tied to the Euro, we got a more uncertain veeling about how things are going so we have been stocking up on food and bartaerable itmes. Had to add guns to the mix to defend what we have. Since it takes at least 8 people to cover 24 X 7 guard duty we have been organizing our local community to pick-up at the Amish level and thrive rather than survive. We have seen the Twilight Zone episode "The Shelter" enough times to know that we are no planning on exclusion but inclusion.

 

So we wen from stocks to paper (money) to gold to silver to lead. My wife agree with the gut from Independence USA that said something like "If I am wrong, I have lot of extra tools and food. If I am right, God help us."

 

Now it is not a total lost cause. It can be fixed but the residents of the US have to choose to change it. The big itme that keep the Fed printing dollars is the ever increasing budget with the biggest part of that being entitlements. If the US decides to address the needs filled by entitlements in a responcible manner the budget could be reduced to less than what we actually bring allowing a pay-down of the debt and a reduction of the number of paper dollars in circulation. I do not for a minute entertain the notion of just ripping the expect support out from under those that have learned to depend on it. We need to recognize that the needs covered by "entitlements' can be covered other ways and that those systems and organization (no-governemt since they are soooo inefficient). Before Social Security (lenght of life has now grown beyond what was ever expected) was invented we had charities covering those needs. SO to work to prove ourselves wrong my family has been working in our own small way to support those charities that meet those needs.

 

Hopefully we are not alone and ther are others that think the same way. My family and I are packing up a van in late July and are headed to the Restoring Love to be held in Dallas. Between my brother and myself we can handle most every remodel repair job and we hope to "put our money where our mouth is". If the event shows there is another way and the country turns then it is well worth the losses I will bear from gold tanking. Let me close with a quote from one of my favorite songs.

 

"

And the world will be better for this

that one man, scorned and covered with scars,

still strove with his lat ounce of courage,

To reach the unrachable star!

"

 

Ben 

 

Retired Senior Automation Systems Architect with Data Science Automation LabVIEW Champion Knight of NI and Prepper LinkedIn Profile YouTube Channel
Message 130 of 2,258
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