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Welcome To Vilcabamba
"The Sacred Valley of Longevity"


This Is A Privately Circulated Blog, scribbled exclusively for Friends & Familiars, that peers into and pontificates about Expat life in the hinterlands of South America. If your eyesight is less than optimal (like mine), then just click the type size up a notch on your browser..


Here you will find a series of curmudgeonly commentaries that I've posted from atop my rickety old soapbox for the past few years. And yes, there are indeed political rantings, so place your seats in the upright position and fasten your seat belts .... it may be a bumpy ride.






6/30/12

Obamacare - What Could Go Wrong?

Please excuse me while I go all political on you, but I have a question that you dear readers might be able to answer for me.

Let me see if I have this right. We have now been "gifted" by our government with a healthcare plan we are forced to buy and fined if we don't, which purportedly covers at least 10 million more people, without any new doctors but provisions for 16000 new IRS agents, written by a committee whose chair says he doesn't understand it, passed by a congress that didn't read it (but exempted themselves from it), with funding by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, for which WE will be taxed for four years before benefits even take effect, by a congress that has bankrupted social security and medicare, signed by a president who smokes, all overseen by an obese surgeon general and financed by a country already trillions in debt? What could possibly go wrong? Hm-mmm?

Let's face it, the problem with America's healthcare is that it pays for treating symptoms not curing causes, and changing how we pay or who pays will not fix this crises. Taking personal responsibility for our health and living healthier lifestyles is the solution, not Obamacare! Check out www.healthyfooders.com

6/23/12

The Sorcerers of Silence

We are all of us, each and every one, cast under the spell of enchantment. The malevolent Wizards of War have placed us in a trance; enthralling man, woman and child with words and images which hold us in fitful slumber. It is a place of dark bad dreams and the erratic vibration of fear. It is, alas, our present reality.

For the past few years I have pointed out to friends and familiars that you must focus on real issues and ignore all of the background noise that is produced by the media and the so called financial gurus. The scene for what is happening today, and which will continue to happen in the next few years, has already been set for years and even decades. What happens to Greece, J.P. Morgan, U.S. Federal Reserve or the European Union has no effect whatsoever on the exceedingly severe long-term economic and social decline that the world will experience in the next few years.

These daily headline events merely create short term volatility caused by irrational and short-term-oriented investors, including HFC (high frequency computer) traders. The Dark Years Are here, the world is almost certain to experience a hyperinflationary depression of a magnitude that will have a massive impact for the majority of the world’s population for years and probably decades. And there is no short term action taken by any governments that can change the outcome. They have tried, and failed.

It is time to Get Out Of Dodge! It is long since past the time to make a change, you must not tarry further. You must distance yourself from the steadily encroaching fascist Security State apparatus that seeks to hold you in thrall to their corporatist masters and bleed from you the taxes necessary to wage their Everlasting War (aka population reduction). It is time to make a change.

The very thought of "change" in one's life is scary to a lot of people. But change is our only constant companion. It is the only sure thing in our lives. Thus, we ought to embrace change as a friend who brings opportunity, even though in the companionship of uncertainty.

There are still countries that, due to their unique circumstances, offer a more benign governance to their citizens, along with their foreign residents. These places, particularly a few countries in South America, will soon close down their borders to the veritable tsunami of immigrants attempting to escape from the tyranny of their current governments. Thus, time is of the essence. You should seek safety. Now!

Richard Russell of Dow Theory Financial Letters, who, like myself, experienced the 1930s Depression, says that in an economic depression everyone suffers, it is just the case of who suffers the least. For me, that's just where I wish to be …. somewhere else, in company with the least suffering. Those who had "Eyes To See and Ears To Hear", and then acted!

6/21/12

Growing Your Own Grocery Store

These beautiful, tender, succulent leaves that you see above will provide me several nutritious, organic meals ... all with very little time and effort on my part. It takes only high altitude sunshine, the magical mineralized water of Vilcabamba and deep, rich soil. Add in a few vegetables that grow along side the lettuce in the same garden greenhouse and you have what is called "Healthy Food". When that day comes where the supermarket shelves are stripped bare, my garden will sustain me ... abundently. How about you? Just wondering.

In the Dark Days to come, FOOD is going to be in short supply (if available at all.) The little garden plot you create now, either an inexpensive indoor hydroponic system or outdoor greenhouse, can feed you and your family with nourishing, organically grown food. If what the so-called "prepping experts" are telling us is true, then the greenhouse will be needed to protect the plants from excess solar UV radiation. It's why I have one, as do my neighbors. And it helps me grow HUGE heads of lettuce like that which I'm holding in the photo just above. Good luck with your own.

6/12/12

U.S. FAMILY NET WORTH DROPS TO LEVELS OF EARLY 1990s

The Fed’s much anticipated release of its survey of U.S. consumer finances reports that a hypothetical family richer than half of the nation’s families had, in 2010, a net worth of $77,300 as compared to $126,400 in 2007. That’s a whopping drop of nearly 40%. In fact, that is galloping poverty! Moreover, the median family income also fell to $45,800 in 2010 from $49,600 in 2007. No, quantitative easing does not solve all problems; far from it.

The only way to beat such a growing reality caused to us all by a fiat currency system and uncontrolled credit and debt creations is to own the right asset classes at the right time, i.e., NOW. Failure to do so will only lead to further net worth loses. Oh, and in case you're wondering, GOLD is the only item shown on the chart below to be a buy ... except for periods of strong growth. Do you really think THAT is right around the corner?

For those of my greatly belabored readers who are still invested in the stock market (hmm-mm, like to live dangerously, dont'cha?) here is a chart that gives you at least a hint as to "what to do when". But good luck in figuring out from government statistics whether we are in inflation or deflation. Fear and Greed aren't that hard, just check your gut feeling. Here is the chart: