These are the things that happened in Argentina before it collapsed. Sound familar?

[dixiegrrrrl]

Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre went thru the Argentina collapse in the early 90's and wrote a book about it,
Surviving the Economic Collapse. He says he is seeing the same things happen here as happened there, and gives these examples:
( I edited some sentence structure)

"Having the people living on the streets where it didn’t happen before.
Inflation slowly going up.
There’s small details.
The sizes of items and products shrinking and changing the design. It’s all very well-campaigned with good marketing and such. It’s like we’re offering this new improved product but that new improved product happens to be just a bit smaller than it used to be at a slightly higher price.
So all those little things, the way in which they hide the inflation, they slowly creep it into your life.
.....people see that their shopping cart just isn’t filling as much as it used to.
You’re just buying half of what you used to with the same amount of money; but in the official statistics they’re saying that everything is fine because they changed the way they measure inflation so as to fit what they want to show you."

The guy has a blog ...http://ferfal.blogspot.com/

the above interview snips I got from another website.

http://www.chrismartenson.com/blog/argentina-case-study-how-economy-collapses/59179#comment-112587

the book is on Amazon but most of the stuff is available via the blog and around the web.

edited to add: just found out that the biggest bank in France is limiting withdrawals.

The Biggest Bank in France Has Suddenly Cut ATM Card Access to Cash in Half and People are Freaking Out!
"This was sudden, without warning, and people here in France are freaking out. Pierre tells me that its the first clear sign that liquidity in the European banking system is drying up. "

http://maxkeiser.com/2011/06/07/the-biggest-bank-in-france-has-atm-card-access-to-cash-in-half/

[ixion]

1. Yep. Japan, Russia, Argentina... we're not walking a path untraveled by others,

just untraveled by us. We're standing at the gate burning resources pretending like we can make it all go away.

We can't.

The government and financial institutions are pretending that 20+ trillion in toxic investment vehicles don't exist.

They do.

They think that by printing money, a.k.a. "Quantitative Easing," that it will make things better.

It won't. In fact, it makes things worse.

And so that's what we're doing here at the Gateway to the Dark and Scary Path of Real Market Value. There is no "getting things back to normal". There is only procrastination and something that must be done. The longer we wait, the worse it will be. It's simple macro-economics.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Meanwhile, what can not-in-denial folks do to blunt the impact of whats coming?

[ixion]

4. try to get out of the way as much as you can... that's my strategy

I've moved onto and am in the process of building an off-grid, eco-friendly human habitat that will (uh, someday) produce everything I need, or as close to everything as I can get.

Ultimately, in the Grand Scheme of Things, what I think will happen is that we'll organize our supply chains regionally (the old fashioned way), so eventually things will calm down. In between now and then, though, it's going to be a rough ride, in my opinion.

Just about every town has a cooperative farming group. In lieu of having your own property, I think it would be good to get involved with groups like that. But with a few acres, a good aqua-culture rig, a hybrid wind-solar array and buildings designed using the concept of Thermal Mass (for climate stabilization), you can go a long, long way. :)

Here's to getting through this mess in one piece! :toast:

[Art_from_Ark]

14. Japan is not like Russia and Argentina

I don't know how you made that comparison.

Twenty years ago, the USSR rouble (before the breakup) was worth (officially) about about $1.29. Its successor, the Russian rouble, was redenominated in 1998 at a rate of 1000 old roubles = 1 new rouble. Today, the Russian rouble is worth about 3.6 cents.

Twenty years ago, the Argentine currency was called the "austral". It had been issued 6 years earlier to replace the peso argentino, at a rate of 1 austral = 1000 pesos argentinos. In 1992, the austral itself was replaced with a new peso, at a rate of 1 (new) peso = 10,000 australes. Or, one new peso of 1992 was equal to 10 million old pesos of 1985.

Twenty years ago, the Japanese yen was trading at approximately 130 to the US dollar. While it experienced some major fluctuation in the ensuing years, today it is approximately 61% stronger, trading at roughly 80 yen per US dollar.

[bluebuzzard]

3. “Those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it”

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4353655982817317115&hl=en#


long but worth it

[provis99]

5. now Argentina is throwing its former conservative leaders in prison.

Maybe going the same route as the Argentines wouldn't be so bad...

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. Really? I did not know that.

We can only hope.

[Art_from_Ark]

16. It's not that they were "conservative"

it's that they were human rights violators who imprisoned, tortured, and even murdered thousands of victims (known in Argentina as the "desaparecidos")

[madmax]

7. K&R

[femrap]

8. I just ordered his book

today...he's just a regular guy (dentist, I think) and I believe he self-published...so I bought it.

Funny, you mention him the same day.

I know we are facing such difficult times. Alas.

Do you ever read Clif High's reports from halfpasthuman.com

They are not for the faint of heart. After I read one, I had to lay down and sleep. It absolutely exhausted me. He was recently hacked so there won't be another report until July, I guess. He charges $10/report.

Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert are wonderful.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. Max and Karl Denninger are my must-reads.

Denninger today updated his WTSHTF action steps, which is kinda scary.

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=187887

Ten Things You Must Do to be ready. His first one was in 2009, I took it seriously.
Now he is clearing his throat about what he sees coming and updating the list.
Actually, he is suggesting August is a key month.

[femrap]

10. Thanks for the link....

I've done pretty much what he advises. Except I can't run a mile....I walk fast....bad knees. But I do need to get into better shape. I'm an emotional eater...times are 'weird'....so I have been eating. I need to get a grip.

Did you watch the Silver Bears? I love 'Silver Bears Part 6' (google, please)...I laugh every time I watch.

I feel like I should be canning every vegetable, meat, etc. in sight.

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. oh my....the Silver Bears...they are delightful. Bookmarked.

thank you!

:hi:

[donco]

12. I remember the

same things happening in this country in the recession of the early eighties.Nothing new hear.

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. What is new about it is

the size of the deficit, the global nature of the collapse, the lack of alternatives.
Just about every bubble possible was blown after the early 80': dot com, then housing, then finance.
all to keep the game afloat.
They are running out of tricks now.

[roamer65]

15. Rinse, lather...repeat.

Central banks will just create more money, buy gov't debt and repeat the process.