How to Prepare for the Coming Economic Crisis or the Next Great Depression

Via David Stockman's Contra Corner:

David Stockman, architect of President Reagan’s economic turnaround known as ‘Morning in America’, warns of the looming collapse of free market prosperity and the destruction of American wealth. Plus: Emergency actions viewers can take now to protect themselves from the crisis.

Watch the video.

As I've said previously, the recession is not over. In 2011, I remember posting an article on Facebook from Lew Rockwell talking about America entering another great depression.  It drew the ire of skeptics.

In fact, my motivation for starting The Goins Report in 2009 was precisely because I began to understand free-market economics, and I knew that the president's stimulus plan, and all other forms of violent economic intervention into the markets, was not going to save us...period.

My friends very incorrectly even thought I was a George Bush supporter because I came of age intellectually at the end of 2008 and opposed Obama's policies from the beginning. But if I had come of age a year earlier, or two years earlier, I would have been just as vocal about George W. Bush.

So I went on the intellectual warpath and began to warn friends about the intrinsic shortcomings of government economic policy.

And I proceeded to prepare myself for the downturns and dollar crises that I thought would come.

But now I want to share a link with you to help you, while there is still time.

Since 2010, I have had a page with links to movies that warned that the economic crisis is not over.

Since 2009, I have provided a free-book warning on how to protect yourself from the Federal Reserve's disastrous inflationary policies. In fact, it is my most visited blog post with over 1,000 hits.

Time and again, the true free-markets economists have warned that the current economy "recovery" is no recovery at all. While I can not say when, or where, or what will cause the next economic bubble to pop -- and indeed no good free-market economist tries -- I know that the ball is up in the air, and it is being continuously hit upwards by government and central bank policies. But every volley ball game has to end. The ball must come down eventually.

But it doesn't have to come down on you or your side of the court.

You can be on the winning team.

"The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it." Proverbs 22:3 (ESV)

That is the Bible's wisdom for our day.

Don't be simple; be prudent. Watch the video.  Download this free book. Prepare.

Again, watch the video.

Vladimir Putin learns the wrong lesson from the Soviet Union's collapse

As I was watching the opening ceremony for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, a commentator said that Vladimir Putin thought the collapse and break-up of the Soviet Union was devastating, or something to that effect, and that Russia lost a lot of "good Russians." 

Bizarreness of that statement put aside, it deflects from real analysis of the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.

What we should make of the Soviet Union's collapse was that we saw the complete and utter collapse of a nation based on an idea: Socialism. 

The "former glory of the Soviet Union" was no glory at all because socialism -- no matter how many years and decades it will take -- always plants the seeds for economic destruction. So going back to it would be like a "dog going back to its vomit" (Proverbs 26:11), and fool repeating his folly.

One other point here.

We are not unlike the Soviet Union.

As Thomas Woods explained in his 2009 book "Meltdown": "[the U.S. Federal Reserve System] is dedicated to central economic planning, the great discredited idea of the twentieth century. Except instead of planning the production of steel and concrete, as in the Old Soviet Union, it plans money and interest rates, with consequences that necessarily reverberate throughout the economy."

We are in the midst of a grand experiment that will end in nothing less than devastation for a lot of people. As I explained in previous statuses**, the time for a "soft landing" was over a decade ago. We should end our foolishness now to avoid an even harder landing later.

**Originally written as a Facebook status

Thomas Woods on Fiat Money

Fiat money artificially and unjustly increases the wealth and economic power of the banking system, well beyond what would occur in the free market.

Thomas Woods, Rollback: Repealing Big Government Before The Coming Fiscal Collapse

Video: Ron Paul Speaking @ Cato's 29th Annual Monetary Policy Conference

I was there.

For an exclusive story I wrote on this go here.

The lead is below:

Washington (GoinsReport.com) – When asked whether he agreed with GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain on his suggestion that Federal Reserve should go back to a single mandate focusing on price stability, GOP Presidential Candidate Ron Paul said that he “hardly” agrees.

Price stability refers to the concept that prices levels are constant enough that people won’t take into account price inflation when making decisions as a consumer – not that the value of the dollar will remain the same.

On numerous occasions this year, including at the CNN-Tea Party Republican debate in September and during a press conference with reporters at TeaCon 2011, Herman Cain said that he did not want to end the FED but return it to a single mandate where the central bank allegedly only focused on price stability.

Mises on Government Lust for Inflation and Credit Expansion

"It is a fable that governments interfered with banking in order to restrict the issue of fiduciary media and to prevent credit expansion. The idea that guided governments was, on the contrary, the lust for inflation and credit expansion. They privileged banks because they wanted to widen the limits that the unhampered market draws to credit expansion or because they were eager to open the treasury a source of revenue. For the most part both of these considerations motivated the authorities. . . . The establishment of free banking was never seriously considered because it would have been too efficient in restricting credit expansion" (p. 441).

Ludwig Von Mises, Quoted in Mises on Money

The Ten Planks of Communism

Does the 5th one look familiar?

According to The Communist Manifesto, Communism has ten essential planks:

Abolition of Private Property.
Heavy Progressive Income Tax.
Abolition of Rights of Inheritance.
Confiscation of Property Rights.
Central Bank.
Government Ownership of Communication and Transportation.
Government Ownership of Factories and Agriculture.
Government Control of Labor.
Corporate Farms and Regional Planning.
Government Control of Education.

Source: All About Philosophy