So i was reading through the book "The Coming Economic Collapse" by Dr. Stephen Leeb which was written about two years ago and the predictions he had on oil prices and the absolute collapse of world economies, specifically our own were quite frightening. He makes it very clear he hopes he is dead wrong, but unfortunately all of the signs back in early 2006 and before that were pointing towards some negative trends in our future. He argued that the then 35 dollar a barrell oil would easily hit 100 dollars a barrel before 2010, but was unsure of whether it would reach its 200 dollar a barrel potential. He argues as well that the tech bubble burst of the 90's would be nothing compared to what would happen if situation a, b, and c were to happen.

What scared me most about the book was the accuracy so far, the things that saved us in the 90's from economic catastrophe can not work again, because its just not feasible. The housing market issues combined with a plethora of outside forces, not even addressing the possibility that on any given day a country may notice that their oil supply is running lower than they predicted and cause global panic, would lead to some pretty unpleasant times for your average joe american. How bad could it get? well you have to read the book, honestly some of the talk is above my head, but the fact that the oil companies basically shunned this PhD because of their disbelief that oil would ever go beyond 40 dollars a barrel, let alone hit 100 dollars a barrel 2 years before his predictions, is enough to convince me that maybe i need to prepare for some drastic financial times ahead for us. 1. I'm starting to save and invest more.... i know the solution the government wants is for us to spend more.... but that sounds really really dumb to me, and if thats the best solution they've got, then perhaps its time to board the life rafts. 2. The interest rate versus inflation issue.... they can only do so much to adjust this before its out of their hands, and i don't believe its an issue that can be cured within a year or two, i think we have to roadmap 10 or so years to figure out what we need to do to get back on track individually and nationally. If inflation starts to rise... people, you're going to want to have some stuff stockpiled.... and you're going to want to have extra income set aside to help you alleviate stress as the cost of your minimum standard of living costs slowly rise. An upside, probably even a biased side of the book is that the author speaks to what the normal person can do to actually protect their current investments and make lots of money while everyone else heads to breadlines. Take his advice with a grain of salt if you want to, but I just noticed some things today i'm not pleased with.

Gas is now about 3.75 a gallon here... i filled up 2 weeks ago and it was 3.15, i have no idea whats up, but memorial day is coming up and i'm guessing 4 bucks a gallon is gonna be here wayyyy before that. Also prices for my favorite foods are slowly rising, not o mention that beef recall nearly doubled the price i pay for beef out here. Because the interest rate is as low as it is now, i checked to see if i could throw some money into a CD and hopefully beat inflation... too late, that bus has sailed.... a sail bus if you will. I can get 2% on a CD from my bank, last i checked my savings account almost matches that, and inflation is well over 3%. I'd be losing money either case.... so i'm feeling a little worried. sensationalized by the media "covering" the issue, probably, but i thought the above picture covered my thoughts best. If I saw gas that cheap i'd be right there with that plane.

Alright, thanks for checking in, this week i'm proud to announce we have a new contributor Dana. She'll hopefully be submitting her thoughts and poems and stories as time goes on. Also PandaSquatch comic 1 is under production, i have the sketches in the computer i just have to "ink" and color the thing, throw a few chat bubbles and party when it releases. Alright now to the ads that pay for this site... check them out so this site can keep going for free, possibly even grow as a result.