12 B est Things About Economic Collapse

[Liberty Belle]

1. Even Wal-Mart is feeling the pain

2. Schwarzenegger screwed up worse than Grey Davis; recall sequel, anyone?

3. Deep discounts at dollar stores

4. Gas prices went down--and SUVs are a steal

5. Bartering is back in vogue

6. Pot lucks aren't just for po' folks anymore

7. The dollar's plunged but the peso is down more, so there are still bargains south of the border. If you don't get shot in the drug lords' crossfire, that is.

8. Jobs are so scarce that undocumented migrants are going home; Bush finally found a cure for illegal immigration: Depression!

9. It's cool to go to community college; nobody can afford UC anymore and they're hardly letting anybody in due to budget cuts.

10. Mom's Depression-era cookbook is coming in handy. Dandelion wine, anyone?

11. Resale wear is chic, not cheap.

12. Bush lowered the bar so low, anything Obama does will be an improvement!

Liberty Belle

[FirstLight]

1. 13. squatter's rights !

If the economy fully tanks, then I can stay in my rental house inefinately!

[Liberty Belle]

4. Good one!

Plus real estate is at bargain basement prices...if you can get a loan, that is.

[vadawg]

20. not sure about that

if the economy goes way south, the person who owns the rental property might just physically move you and not have to worry about legal issues. society might have bigger fish to fry.

[Warpy]

2. Suburban McMansion inhabitants aren't smug any more

In fact, some of them look downright panicky as they mow the lawns of foreclosed houses in an attempt to keep the area looking nice and their property values from taking an even bigger dive.

There weren't even many McCain campaign posters there last year.

[RJ Connors]

3. Don't talk bad about Wal-Mart!

Right now, they're the only thing my family has going for us now.

[Liberty Belle]

5. Heck, we can all be Wal-Mart greeters if things get bad enough.

[RJ Connors]

6. I don't know. Do you know how cold it is right now at their fron door?

LOL

[shintao]

14. Are they running the aircondition on the door man??

ww

[Occam Bandage]

7. Um...yay?

[Grey]

8. I want your Dandelion wine recipe nt

[Greyhound]

9. Oh yes, please post that. It may turn out to be the thing that keeps me off

the roof with a rifle.

[Warpy]

10. My granny made wine all during Prohibition

and she never grew grapes. I tasted her wine when I was a kid and it was wonderful stuff, probably made from carrot ends and potato peel and parsnips and anything with a sugar content that might have gone to waste, otherwise. Dandelion wine was out of the question, though, since the yard was small and manicured within an inch of its life.

The only part of the dandelion with enough sugar to turn into wine is the flower. You'd need quite a lot of them. You pull the petals off the flower and leave all the green stuff behind. The petals are what make the wine, but even they need to be supplemented by other sugar sources.

I did manage to search out one recipe that looks pretty easy: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/dandelio.asp

I never bothered with wine, myself. My drunken ex demanded something with a much shorter fermentation period, so I turned to brewing kickass homebrew beer. But that's another post.

[Grey]

12. Any chance you can direct me to that "other post"? nt

[Javaman]

24. You can also eat the greens while the wine cures. :) nt

[sarcasmo]

11. 14, Multi generational housing is back and #15 Layaways are making a comeback.

[JCMach1]

13. Actually, the Dollar has risen as the crisis has hit...

Britain is much more affordable than 6 months ago... so is the euro zone.

Dollar is still the currency of last resort in an economic shitstorm.

Just don't plan a Tokyo trip any time soon.

[JackRiddler]

15. That's because of the deleveraging process...

Many converted reserves in other currencies so as to service the enormous dollar debts. In the meantime, dollar is dropping again.

[JCMach1]

18. Ummm. no the dollar is fine

http://www.x-rates.com/d/GBP/USD/graph120.html

Pound


http://www.x-rates.com/d/EUR/USD/graph120.html

Euro


http://www.x-rates.com/d/JPY/USD/graph120.html

Yen (this is still unwinding carry trade), so don't go to Japan



It's even made a come-back against the Canadian dollar

http://www.x-rates.com/d/CAD/USD/graph120.html


So bottom-line is the Dollar is worth more if you have them!

[JackRiddler]

19. Fine, schmine. Let's look at the euro chart...

From the all-time euro high in Oct., we see it fell a bit. But now half of the difference has been restored again. You say 'safe haven' (people still believe that?), I say 'temporary product of deleveraging.' Where Dollar-Man goes from here, we'll see, right? Your Pollyanna, my Cassandra. (In the mythologies, only one of them was actually right! Bet we see 2:1 in 2010.)

[JCMach1]

21. The dollar is still way off of the Summer lows

I think your currency prediction is way off in the current environment... Europe and the ECB have been very slow to react to their own real estate bubble. They will be pumping more liquidity into the market as well.

I will take your bet and state that we will see 1:1 with the Euro before the end of 2009.

I think the pound will find itself in even worse shape. First 1:1 parity with the Euro and then later in the year 1:1 with the dollar.

Also, the Yen will fall as Japan slides deeper into recession.

Pollyanna, hardly... I am very bearish on the economy in general. The exchange rate is just a fortunate side-effect.

[JackRiddler]

16. Manny Ramirez might be affordable.

[shintao]

17. I was working on a post of things to learn before the depression

Can any of you make bread from scratch? You might have to. Know what starters yeast is and how to use & maintain it?

Have a mechanical can opener?

Can you plant seed for a garden?

Change your own oil in the car?

Have a portiable radio?

Solar powered battery charger?

[Tsiyu]

22. I tried to click on that thread but get an error message every time

:shrug:

I remember a while back when SoCalDem, I believe, did a similar thread to yours. Tips on surviving tough times, saving money, making do with less.



Lots of folks said - back then - that kind of thread was silly and that those of us who saw an impending financial meltdown were being paranoid and even irresponsible.

:rofl:

Maybe your thread will be taken more seriously :hi:

[tsuki]

23. Bread, yes. But my big achievement this month was rendering

lard. :evilgrin:

[Javaman]

25. yes to all of the above. nt