How Bad Will It Get?

This is always the tough one. The predictive linguistics report coming out in a week or so will outline a balance of 2009 and 2010 which will be more (putting it politely here and as unemotionally loaded as I can think of) 'intense' than anything anyone alive has likely ever lived through. Does that mean 'bad' per se? Maybe - it will depend on your readiness for extreme - and fast - personal decisions.

Just for example, in terms of emotional 'release' language: From January 7th of 2010 until February 14, 2010 - just a month and seven days - that has the release level of in that single month plus a week as we have experienced (and will experience up until then) as has been 'released' since the financial downdraft started in October of 2008. And that will include the possible events of late October (a joint US/Israeli nuclear strike on Iran) and fallout (yes, that kind) to follow. Think there will be much point in worrying too much about the financial system should that happen? I mean with radioactive fallout dropping out of the jet stream?

But that's only the beginning of the intensity during 2010 because what follows from Feb. 14 2010 to March 26, 2010, will release as much emotional tension language as we have in the previous four release levels, spanning the whole range from 2003 to February 14, 2010...release fades out over the following month and a half.

And if even that isn't enough, it doesn't just 'go away' and things get back to 'normal' (whatever that is!) thereafter. Nope. We then get into a series of even more extreme cycles of building tension and release through 2011.

No, the global population doesn't stay anywhere near present levels through this period. But remember, this is just language change we're looking at so maybe someone will invent a new language that sweeps the whole world - a universal slang and so our way of seeing the future will become bogus and we can't see it yet...who knows. Maybe OMGoogspeak, or some other new viral spamguage will run us out of the future forecasting business and we just can't see it yet. That said, the one in five impacted by fallout comes from the same part of the data that warned of the 300,000 dead/land driven back to a previous age part of the August 2004 data run that presaged Banda Aceh, so that should be a tip.

Barring the big change in the way humans communicate, we'll be in ever shorter yet more intense build/release periods such that by late 2010 the cycles will release as much emotion as the whole period from say the late 1990's till that part of 2010.

Think about what this could be like: in a few weeks to experience all the emotional impact of more than a decade...Challenger disaster, 9/11, Columbia, a couple of wars, international financial meltdown, a 'death of the dollar' meme which seems likely to be coming along...all that starts being compressed into more and more violent and shorter and shorter cycles.

Do I want to proffer financial planning for that kind of world? No, thanks. But I suggest Cliff's report when it comes out and you can decide for yourself how to play things.

Ultimately, my personal long-term strategy has been pretty simple: Prepare for the worst, hope for the best and keep your 'ship always ready for sea.' Even thought about buying an old but still flyable old Cessna so as to have lines of retreat by land, sea, and air. But to where?

Hopefully, the time monks will have misread things in the next report. Consider that had they read about the events of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis in data from 1960 had it existed (had the global consciousness begun to arise back then, which it hadn't) would there have been worries about 'nuclear war', 'fall-out', radiation, and other hotly loaded worry-words? Of course! And although close no cigar or even a consolation prize since no nuclear war evolved - thankfully. Hopefully the time monks will be at lunch on the data run this time.

That's why offering personal financial planning advice is so difficult. My view of the future being privy to an occasional small preview of things and having time to noodle on them changes my whole economic outlook. From money-grubbing capitalist to thanks for seeds that germinate - a fair bit of psychology to cover.

Still, even in a best case it seems to me that inflation and continued softness if not outright declines in real estate (and in turn, dropping government tax revenue streams) will continue such that we should see another big leg down to the markets this fall when that starts to be discounted. If I were the couple with two homes, I'd lose the one in the Big City and get to the rural setting so as to be ready for come what may - and if that means a long commute for the hubby, oh well. An adjustment to rural schools? yep. And the kids would learn all about 'chores' and other hard work-related concepts that are so foreign to most of today's young.

Why, they might even start to build something of value and put themselves out to work on rural land. Nothing like running farm machinery when you're young. 14- and up is a good age to be tractoring and I can tell you that after driving on 10,000 acre ranch (owned by friends in Eastern Washington when I was young) that nothing is more adventurous than living in the country. Why, the city is boring in comparison. Not exactly boring...but interesting in a much different way, how's that?

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And as for worries about a late October (25th) Iran bombing? No idea why, but we now have two full-face masks and a batch of N100 filters. No clue why, but out of the blue a month of two back, my son sent them to me along with instructions to have a good supply of the N-100 filters. All without my asking...he just volunteered.

Now I may be a bit of a nut-job, but when full-face masks show up and a month later the time monks get all worried about fallout, I have to start wondering "Is this supposed to be a hint from Universe that keeping banksters happy is NOT our biggest concern anymore and that time for those worries is passing uys by on the way to bigger issues?"

I guess in time we'll learn the answer to the question whether 'happy holidays" refers to events of December or banking/market events of September/October...and whether references to Iranian carpets will be about fine weaving or a kind of bombing pattern.

Stay tuned....and stay independent in your thinking...