Post
by daybrown » Mon Jan 14, 2008 12:40 pm
Agreed that its hard to underestimate the total stupidity, but you dont feed a family with gold, but food. And with that, YMMV enormously depending on the area. Some areas produce a lot of food, some none.
There will be those who have food that wont be selling it for any amount of gold if it gets that bad. After all, after the rubble quits bouncing, its the survivors who will own all the gold.
It may not come to that either, because no matter how bad it looks, the USA is still a major global food producer, and the power elites will want to keep American agribusiness in business so that food riots in their own homelands dont result in them being dragged out to be shot. And to keep agribusiness growing food will require the complex infrastucture support of fuel, tractor parts, petrochemicals, and- trains or barges to haul it to the ports.
Of the current presidential candidates, Huckabee, coming from an agricultural state, seems like the only one who might understand the power. Chinese and Japanese negotiators have often come to Arkansas because of the rice and soybeans. I dunno if it was his idea, but a bigger barge terminal was built recently on the Arkansas river with an eye on future production.
I expect barges will be coming down from OK & KS with grain, but then go back up with giant wind turbine blades from the new factory on the river at Little Rock. I dunno if Huck had anything to do with that either. He does claim some credit for improving the road system, and since he took office, I noted the water lines being put in all over the Ozarks, which really looked weird to me.
We aint been using that much water. Damn pressure is so high, like 80 PSI, that its a bitch to keep the faucets from dripping. But then I read that when the trains first came in 60-75 years ago, that the whole area was full of "truck" farms and orchards. Which were put out of business pretty much when CA, and now more recently, Mexico, began shipping fruits and veggies to American stupid markets.
But now, we all pretty much know that besides the dramatic rise in shipping costs, both of those areas are not all that culturally stable. I dont think Huck figured that out, but I bet he listened to somebody who had. It looks to me like somebody looked at Hubbard's Peak oil, and figured out that this region, which already produces a lotta food, what with the hydro power, the Nuke near the barge terminal, and the Fayetteville shale gas field... will be able to maintain food production at a very high level even after economic crisis.
The gas wells not only would provide propane to keep the tractors (I have one with a propane tank on it) and trucks of produce rolling down to the terminal, but could also be used to manufacture nitrogen fertilizer. I dunno if somebody told Huck all this was coming or not. But it reminds me of a response by Napoleon, who after hearing the talents and virtues of an officer suggested for promotion, he said:"I dont care about all that. Is he lucky?
No matter which way the economy goes, some areas are going to be lucky. Some are already fucked. When it comes to investment, be it in gold, commodities, or real estate, whatever you have will be worth dramatically more, or less, than it is now.
Goddess made sex for company.