Depression 2.0: Creative Strategies for Tough Economic Times
Depression 2.0: Creative Strategies for Tough Economic TimesBy most economic indicators, America is inching toward financial collapse. The familiar signposts are all too visible: profligate spending, a debased currency, bank failures, record foreclosures, and the looming threat of a crippling energy crisis. We have grown accustomed to living in a stable, prosperous society, and many of us may not be prepared for a shock of this magnitude.
Depression 2.0 is a practical, empowering, hands-on guide to persevering and even thriving in the event of an economic crisis. Placing particular emphasis on self-sufficiency and personal resilience, this timely, informative book offers a hopeful way forward in a time of great uncertainty. Bankruptcy, barter, and survival investing are just a few of the important topics explored.
Chapters include:
* When Economies Fail: A Look Ahead
* Sounds of Distant Thunder: Preparing for Collapse
* Clearing the Slate: The Bankruptcy Option
* Trapped Inside: Urban Survival
* Return to Simplicity: Rural Retreat Options
* Powering Down: Surviving Gridcrash
* Between the Cracks: When You Have No Shelter
* Beyond Currency: Barter and the Black Market
* Survival Finances: Investments for Uncertain FutureDepression 2.0 is the fourth title in Process’ celebrated Self-Reliance Series, created to help urbanites make smart choices to live sustainably and self-sufficiently in the twenty-first century.
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Gloom and Doom Mongers.
I don't think living like the amish is the future I'm looking for and want to happen.
From page 178:
Stagflation
STAGFLATION IS NOT AN ENVIABLE SCENARIO, AND IS CHARACTERIZED
by slow (or non-existent) economic growth, rising unemployment and high levels of inflation. At least in a deflationary environment consumers can look forward to lower prices and increased savings. However, when stagflation prevails, money and credit will be scarce, but overall costs will continue to rise.
When we look back on the history of the 1970s, we often think of Watergate, the Vietnam War and the energy crisis. Yet we often forget that inflation and the rising cost of living were the most pressing concerns for the majority of Americans. Indeed, these issues were paramount during the 1980 presidential elections. Consumers at the time were fearful that inflation would continue to eat away at disposable income and lead to increased poverty. We got a brief taste of stagflation in the first half of 2008 when the economy started to stall but prices continued to climb. Investing when the economy is crippled by stagflation is unlike the inflationary situation we discussed. Generally, people will move toward precious metals and will studiously avoid stocks and bonds which rarely produce earnings that outpace the rate of inflation.
I'm not going to cycle from the pointless unsustainability and inane environmental destruction of the 20th century into the hair-shirt drudgery and fanaticism of the 11th, personally.
But integrating the best features of the Amish lifestyle (such as, local food production and neighborhood co-operation) with the best features of the postwar technology boom (such as, the Internet) seems like a good long-term strategy for family happiness.
Have a Thunderdome built while your money is still worth something. Then, after the collapse of civilization, you can host elaborate battles to the death.
I'll wait for the torrent of it. :/
It's funny. I created a package containing quality web 2.0 tools that patients dealing with clinical depression can use in their health management.
Guess what is the name of it?
Depression 2.0
"Debased currency"? These people don't know enough economics. Whatever our current problems, the dollar's not debased (or we'd be seeing hyperinflation). Unless, which is likely, the authors are gold-standard zealots, in which case any modern floating-rate currency is by their definition "debased"; but in that case, their use of "familiar signposts" is weird, because the last major US economic collapse came before the US abandoned the gold standard (and was in fact exacerbated by the government's inability to adjust exchange rates.)
Let me guess — this used to be a ten-year-old book about the coming Y2K apocalypse, then the authors revised it to trigger this year's hot-button panic issues. Ten years from now they'll have it back on the shelves as a guide to surviving coastal flooding or oncoming asteroids or whatever.
@SNEJ
And in my part of the state, where everyone moves to escape the apocalypse, we welcome these books with open arms. People move here to survive, we fleece them and then five years from now, if they last that long, our local economy sends their nearly bankrupt sorry behinds back home.
Whether it's cold war MAD, nuclear winter, social collapse, Y2k, etc. our area has been determined to be the paradise that will escape total destruction. Despite the fact that if trucks quit moving on I5, everyone here will starve.
The only thing that is different this time around is that the survivalists have lost so much back home that they cannot afford to visit the real estate vampires here to give their gallon of blood for their postage stamp of guaranteed apocalypse surival utopia.
It would be a joy to see a commenter actually read and absorb a post before posting an opinion.
"Depression 2.0" engages readers with alternatives to panic IF there is a gridcrash or an even deeper economic crisis.
This could mean creating a Victory Garden, or making sure that you're connected with neighbors, or have a couple months of food and medical supplies.
One doesn't need to be a Y2K ninny or gold bug zealot to see that if one invested in gold six months ago it would have paid off quite well.
This book is a totally rational and even optimistic approach to national and international economic failures. Ask your mom and pop whether or not they still believes the system will protect their retirement funds.
Any increase in the Money Supply is debasement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantity_theory_of_money
Mark: Hard to know what to make of this without more information ... have you read it?
Feral Man: I appreciate your comments. I should note that you are sort of representing the publisher (Process Media is a collab. between Feral House and Dilettante Press). It is nice to know you believe in this work.
I'm always on the fence about these books, but I see Douglas Rushkoff is interviewed, whom I like.
The prospect of bartering for my Internet through how many intermediaries is enough for me to keep the Money Faith.
Yes, Feral Man is Feral House and a collaborator on Process Media. My posts here are totally biased.
That said, it can't hurt people to investigate alternatives to the Federal Reserve note.
I live in the Olympic Peninsula, and belong to Fourth Corner Exchange. This is not exactly a "barter" system in which people exchange good for good, but another way to supplement the way in which one can exchange goods for services services for services without being absolutely tied to the dollar. It's easy and a good way to connect with the community and local resources.
See here: http://www.fourthcornerexchange.com/
There are other systems like this across the country. I'm pretty sure they'll be even more engaged in coming months and years.
I can't wait to raid all the honeypots with my Mad Max-mobile loaded with sawed-off shotguns and the whole crew sporting 2 foot mohawks full of dirt and oil. I might even throw a pet twink slave in the back for effect.
Good times ahead.
Does it cover other recent trends such as "friendly fraud" (WSJ, 05.26.09) or the 'boom' in online networking and marketing that is rapidly expanding? There will be unforeseen remedies for all of these problems, as there always have. I'm keeping my chins up.
* complimentary currency
* currency competition
* Chapter 12: "E-Money", Out of Control by Kevin Kelly
* "Digital Bearer Bonds vs. Book-Entry Settlement: What is a Geodesic Economy?" by Robert A. Hettinga
* Denationalisation of Money: An Analysis of the Theory and Practice of Concurrent Currencies by Friedrich von Hayek
* "The Great Simoleon Caper" by Neal Stephenson
* Halting State by Charlie Stross
What I find most depressing about books in this genre are that I still have a couple of shelf loads of really good stuff on precisely the same topics that was published between 1970 and 1982, and from brief scans of the new books, its hard to see what is actually new. It always puzzles me that the excitement of thinking you've discovered something new can so blind you to even recent antecedents, but in this case it seems extreme. What precisely is it that these new advocates of urban agriculture, disintermediation, rural retreat, barter, and more think that they bringing to the table over and above whatever was presented about 30 years ago? Or is appending "2.0" to the same concepts all that really matters? Let me guess - teh netz makes all the differenz.
Next from the publisher: You're Not The Captain: A Rat's Guide To Leaving The Sinking Ship.