Thanks for the Great Response...

to my offer in the post titled, "How to Prepare for the Coming Financial and Economic Crash", dated Monday, September 28, 2015.  Thanks, too, to those of you who later had kind remarks relative to the Guide.  That makes the effort of constructing it worthwhile.
Happy Trails
p.s.  As you probably know by now, I'm fairly certain that the Crash already has started.  It may take a few months or even a year to reach critical mass.  Good luck to us all if my best guess is correct.

This is Not Free Market Capitalism

This will be short.  For decades, I've been an informal student of economic systems, and in particular, Free Market Capitalism.  From all I've read and seen, there is no such thing in the world today.  Perhaps in the days of Adam Smith (the 1700's) it existed, but no longer.  Even in the mid-to-late 1800's, during and shortly after the Industrial Revolution began, Free Market Capitalism was gone.  That can be shown quite easily.

1.  The great railroad barons, such as Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jay Gould, essentially were given large tracts of land on both sides of the rail tracks by the Gov't.  That's not Free Market Capitalism (FMC)...it's Crony Capitalism.
2.  The tycoon banker, J.P. Morgan, sometimes would lend vast sums of money to the Fed Gov't.  That's not FMC either.  That's also Crony Capitalism.
3.  The great steel entrepreneur, Andrew Carnegie, was known by his critics as the "Crony Capitalist".

Today in the USA, and all countries with an intrusive central bank, Free Market Capitalism does not exist.  The proof of that is simple.  When interest rates essentially are set by central planning bureaucrats in, for example, the Fed Reserve--- instead of by the Market--- that's not Free Market Capitalism.  The fact is, we have a Mixed Economy in the USA.  So do almost all "democracies" in existence, including the social democracies (or democratically socialist countries) in Scandinavia and the rest of Europe.  I'm not saying that's good or bad; it's simply a fact.

My point here is this:  I believe Capitalism is a great economic system, but Free Market Capitalism is no more.  I'm really tired of the so-called "Right" claiming they practice FMC (as opposed to "Socialism"), and the so-called "Left" claiming that most of our ills are due to "Capitalism".  Neither one is correct.  Some of what Big Business practices is Capitalism, some is Crony Capitalism (aka, Fascism), and some is Socialism.  The same is true of our Gov't.  As to the Left's claims, many or most of our ills are due to Crony Capitalism and super-huge companies that may as well be monopolies.  That means the Gov't (Republicans AND Democrats) is partially responsible.

We definitely live in a Mixed Economy.  For example, we do have some Capitalism (mostly in the SMALL Business sector), but we also have not only the Fed Reserve interfering with the Money Market, but we have the V.A. Health Care System (a good thing), as well...which is pure socialized medicine.  The patients go to Gov't clinics/hospitals where they are treated by Gov't employees who use Gov't equipment and Gov't-purchased medicines.  Except for a small co-pay, it's all paid for by the Gov't.

Capitalism is here to stay, but it's not Free Market Capitalism.  It's a mixture of this and that.  Even China is embracing Capitalism to some degree.  Russia is now Crony Capitalism gone wild.  So to those on the Right, I would suggest this:  stop complaining about Socialism; we've had some degree of that in this Land for a long, long time.  To those on the Left, I would suggest:  stop complaining about Capitalism; it works, we've had some degree of it for a long, long time, and the problem is Crony Capitalism.  If you know what that means, then you know that the Gov't is a big part of the problem.

Not only my opinion.  Be well

 

How to Prepare for the Coming Financial and Economic Crash

I've written a concise Guide (15 pages, large type) with the title above.  [The Table of Contents is found below.]  Sometimes I copy things I've written elsewhere and post them here.  Unfortunately every time I do that, the copied piece does not paste correctly onto this venue.  To get it readable requires a lot of editing.  Due to time constraints, I can't do that amount of editing for 15 pages; therefore, I'm offering the following alternative.

If you're interested in having a copy, email me and I'll reply with the file attached.  There's no cost to you whatsoever.  This blog doesn't have thousands of readers at any one time, so I should be able to handle any requests.  [In 8.5 years (or so), there have been only about 44,500 pageviews.  I suspect that's because most of my posts irritate both the "Right" and the "Left". :)  UPDATE---as of August, 2016, this blog is at 58,000 pageviews...better, but still puny.]
For a copy, email:  AbstractCowboy@gmail.com .  Title your email:  My Order.

                              Table of Contents

Subject                                             Page

Part I---  Causes

          Brief History of Underlying Factors....1

          Summary of 2007-2008……………..2

          Beyond 2008………………………...3

Part II--- Steps to Prepare

          The Problem with Mega Banks………5

          Will Any Bank be Open?…………….6

Will Paper Money be Any Good?.........7

          Commodities, Tangible Assets………8

          Home Security………………………10

          Barter………………………………..11

          Psychology…………………………..12

          Time…………………………………12

Part III--- Going Forward

The Powers-That-Be…………………14

We the People………………………..14

The subtitle of the Guide is:

A Bit on the Causes,

And

A Lot on How to Weather the Storm

A Very Concise Guide

I'm still of the opinion that a severe Crash may or may not happen, but it seems logical to me (given current conditions) to prepare for one.  Even if it doesn't happen, 99% of the commodities I suggest that you stock up can be used by you & your family in the future.  If the Crash does occur, then you'll be better prepared to handle it than a lot of other people.  Preparing is a win-win situation.  By the way, the Guide is much expanded from my last post...and includes a lot of that post in a small section of the text.  Finally, sometimes emailing a document messes it up for some reason.  I've emailed the Guide twice so far, and both times some of the page numbers (found at the top of each page, not the bottom) were somehow out-of-place; nevertheless, the text was completely readable & the Table of Contents still worked.

Be Well