Nothing has been fixed

I listened to a great interview today with one of my favorite financial commentators, Jim Willie. It's about a half hour long, but if you have time to listen, you certainly won't be bored.

The theme of the interview is that "green shoots" are a joke, because we have not fixed anything. We haven't increased US production. We are not, in truth, really trying very hard to halt foreclosures. Nothing has been done about derivatives, many of which are a kind of insurance against rising interest rates. If interest rates do rise, as at some point they must, it will obliterate the major banks (again). The central banks are already talking about how to repair the derivatives nightmare with -- you guessed it -- newly printed bailout money.

The most striking thing Willie said was that he thinks the Fed is buying 60 to 80% of all Treasuries. Holy cow. If that is true, there is no way to avoid Weimar now. It's too late.

No, nothing has been fixed, unless you think printing money is the solution to every problem.

You'd better have food stored.

If you start accumulating things now, picking up extra TP and some canned soup and a bag of dried beans every time you go to the store, or taking advantage of that sale on batteries or the 2-for-1 fleece blankets, you have time enough to gather a good deal together. If you think this is silly, visit some preparedness sites to see what the other end of the spectrum looks like.