Get Off My Lawn!

I guess I can now understand how young folks often fail to follow the advice of their elders.  Because that advice is often wrong, after all, especially these days, so maybe they know best.

But maybe sometimes it isn't, and they don't.  This is one of those times...  

I used to be like that, too.  When I was six I thought my Dad knew everything.  When I was sixteen I thought I knew at least as much as my Old Man.  When I was twenty-six I was absolutely sure I knew at least twice as much as my Dad, and he paid for my college degree!  And now that I'm almost as old as our bozo POTUS, who couldn't find his ass with both hands and a flashlight, who's proof-positive that the Peter Principle works (look it up), I wish he was still around so I could tell him I wish I knew half as much as he did!  On my best day and his worst!  

But I'm guessing he already knows that, wherever he is, in that Cloud of Consiousness up there, because I think that's the nature of the beast.  We're dumb until we're not, and by then we're too old and feeble to do anything about all the stuff we've learned.

So yes, I can understand how we tend to look askance upon advice from our elders.  But that doesn't free us from the responsibility of making the right decisions.  And for that we need information.  The right information...

I began advising my close friends and family members a couple of years back that the light we all see at the end of the tunnel...is the headlight of an oncoming train.  Because of the General Election preference expressed by just over half our population in November, 2019, they were facing a recession the likes of which hasn't been experienced in America since Jimmuh Carter was f*****g up the Country more than 40 years ago.  

I know.  I lived through it.  I paid 11.5% interest on the mortgage on my first home.  And it later got all the way up to 18.5% for those who got in late.  And then most likely went bankrupt later.  

And it got worse from there.  Much worse.  Interminable gas lines, sky high prices, price gouging, tax dodges.  I'm suggesting to all who will listen that they should expect Federal Reserve rate hikes totaling at least 275 basis-points by the end of the year.  And as much as 300 more during 2023.  That will have the effect of killing the U.S. economy.  Those "help wanted" signs will all be taken down.  People will have to be "punished" in order to quell the raging inflation.  So they should prepare, now.  Buy those things that are permanent, those things that will last, including homes and cars and boats, today, at today's lower interest rates, using tomorrow's deflated dollars to pay for today's inflated purchases.  

Stock up.  Buy several months' supply of foodstuffs to last in the event of an emergency.  Learn to bake.  Buy in bulk.  Not "prepping," necessarily, but stock up if for no other reason than to take advantage of today's lower prices.  And they're not "lower" except from the perspective that they'll be higher tomorrow...

And if you doubt what your Gubmint can do to you in the future, just think of what they did during the pandemic!    

That the profligate spending of the O'Biden Administration, the more than $3 Trillion Dollar "Stimulus Bill" just dumped upon our unsuspecting economy, would cause too many dollars to chase too few goods, I told them, and cause rampant inflation, making the cost of everything skyrocket (luuuuv those lonnnng sentences!).    

Especially, in this case, I told them, all products made with or delivered by fossil fuels.  Which is damn near everything.  And this should be no surprise to anyone who's been paying attention.  Mumblin' Joe told/warned us that he'd do his best to end the oil and gas industry if we'd just elect him to the Oval Office.  These are the same fossil fuels upon which the O'Biden Administration has declared open war.  The same War that has caused your price of gas to $Double at the pump.  Almost $7.00 here in Taxifornia, where my family unfortunately lives.

Including me.  Boo hoo.  Anybody know of a service which will come on out, box you and all your stuff up, ship your ass to any of about a dozen other states, and then unbox me, hook everything up and turn on my TV?

I would pay dearly for that service.

But most of my family and friends ignore my advice, the way I did from my Father way back when.  Because if for no other reason than he was my Father.  Like that was a reason, which it wasn't.  And even though it happens, in my case, because this Father, moi, is a graduate economist who actually knows what the Hell he's talking about.  

Only in this case, perhaps, but accidents happen... 

I'm sure, also, 'cause I'm a craggy old fart, admittedly, who often metaphorically yells, "Get off my lawn!"  Just like Clint did in "Grand Torino."  That's because it often takes a few decades to actually figure out what the Hell is going on here in our plane of existence.  And by that time, you're too old and infirm to do anything about it.  So you get mean and nasty and occasionally cantankerous.  Like I now do on occasion. If for no other reason than nothing else seems to work.  

Woe is me (and millions of other old farts!).

I kept reminding my brood of what was coming 'round the pike.  I did so nudgingly, hoping they wouldn't tune me out entirely.  And knowing there may be members of my family who don't think I know what I'm talking about (you know who you are!).  Up to them to either take my advice, and prosper, or fail to do so, and face the consequences.  Look at the advice I've given thus far and decide for yourselves...

But in the meantime, just count me among those who were ordered to go home, close and lock the doors, pull down all the shades, and stay there for a couple of years.  During which time my accumulated "wealth" has been depleted enormously by a series of idiotic policy blunders (or successes?) by Mr. O'Biden and whomever is behind the curtain pulling his strings.  Some 8% a year of my meager savings has gone out over the transom since he mumbled the Oath.  While I've been ordered to stay home.  And wear a mask.  And grow poorer.  So I ask, can you now believe anything this Outfit has to say?    

And if you voted for this bozo, you deserve our collective blame.

Those in Foggy Bottom are congratulating themselves over the recent "drop" in the price of gasoline, apparently not knowing that "demand destruction" has occurred and folks can no longer afford to buy gas.  They're not out buying that new bed or that new car or that new suit.  And remember, our buying public, you and me, are responsible for fully 71% of our economic engine!  Far more than corporations, and even employers, the Buying Public's 71% keeps the turnstile turning.  And when they can no longer afford to go out and BUY, the game calls a halt; until or unless we see a yuuuge drop in the price of energy, we're facing a long, miserable, painful and expensive downturn.  

I'm guessing I'll be long gone before this recession is.......

The main difference between FDR's 12 year-long Great Recession and the one we're now facing, is that Mr. Roosevelt was a Patriot.  A misguided Patriot, but a Patriot nonetheless.  Although misguided, at least he wanted the very best for America.  This Administration...doesn't.  You think we can't face another "Great Depression?"  We can.  And we just might...  

I know the "suits" in Foggy Bottom don't know that, however, because they're a bunch of commie pinko dumbass liberal pukes.  None of the bozos in charge of economic policy in the O'Biden Administration has any business experience nor idea of what they are doing!  None!  So I call a spade a spade.  

Will somebody ask Mr. Obama if I can still say that?