Wall Street Types Stockpile Food and Ammunition for Armageddon

" U.S. government securities are revered in the financial world as the risk free asset. They are the modern equivalent of gold; they are the safe haven in times of trouble.  Indeed, when Lehman imploded, capital flooded out of privte debt markets and into Treasuries, similarly after the 9/11 attacks. Treasuries rallied briskly. But if China were to engineer an inverse crisis, in which the customary life boat became the source of the storm, a different order of panic might ensue. There would be nowhere to hide, nobody would trust anybody. When you hear that sober Wall Street types have stockpiled food and ammunition in hideouts in the deep woods, this is the Armageddon they imagine."-- Time Magazine, May 11, 2011 written by Sebastian Mallaby  

Mallaby directs the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomics Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. The fact Time printed this article gives it some mainstream credibility.

I read this paragraph four times, then read it aloud to my life partner. He thought it was revealing as well, and notable to the long term survivalist who now see "sober" wall street types making preparations.

The name of the article, which begins on page 34 is, You Are What You Owe: Why power built on debt is no power at all.

We all know of faux multi-millionaires, who carry on in a huge pretense of wealth, yet underneath are one tiny step from total bankruptcy. Hell, the "banks too large to fail" did just that.

This 3 page article details the historical precedent of the rise and fall of several nations. Is ours next? Its no secret that China holds a vast amount of our debt. A calculated sell off of Treasuries would put our country in economic Armageddon.

The characteristic downplay of such a scenario is that we are such an important force in their economy we are safe from such an objective. Yet, as the author so aptly puts it: ... states inevitably inflict losses on themselves when they get into fights, if they calculate that the losses suffered by their adversaries will be more severe...

It is good to remember that we are only as strong as our independence. Why would we imagine a benevolent creditor on an international level when that doesn't even happen on the local level.

A very good article which spells out the disaster of this ever growing debt-cancer in our midst.

Let me go buy some more food and ammunition.