The most valuable commodity will be corrugated tin for the roof of your hovel

Since we’ll all be living in Bidenvilles soon, it might be wise to develop some skills that our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents learned during the Great Depression for making do in times of want. Yes, we could just tax the rich and take all their money for ourselves, but between inflation and the stock market tanking, there won’t be any rich people.

-Instead of meat, use oats or beans or lentils
-In the absence of eggs and butter, vinegar and baking soda in breads and cakes
-Make your own soap and cleaning products
-Remember those Home Ec classes that just reinforced hateful gender norms? Take a few. Learning how to sew will come in handy.
-Remember how guns are scary? Learn to use them. Hunting will keep food on the table.
-Raise a few chickens in the backyard. You’ll thank me later.
-You’ll want to learn how to ride a horse, and hook one up to a buggy.

And don’t forget to plant that Victory Garden!

23 thoughts on “The most valuable commodity will be corrugated tin for the roof of your hovel

  1. Stock up on old-fashioned kitchen matches, the strike-anywhere kind.

    That trick about starting a fire by rubbing sticks is way harder than it looks.

  2. I’m a weird one who’s always enjoyed lentils, my family sews (myself; badly), we’ve made soap, and my wife grew up with horses. Some things to add here:

    1. Learn to dry your clothes in the sun instead of with a dryer.
    2. Learn to use sourdough–it makes not only wonderful bread, but also wonderful biscuits, pancakes, and more.
    3. Learn to dress for the weather, because it’s going to get expensive to maintain 70 degrees year round in your home. We’re talking sweaters in the winter and linen shirts and pants in the summer.
    4. Learn to ride and maintain a bicycle. Driving is getting more and more expensive.

  3. Get a water filtration device.

    Matches are good, could also get a flint and steel set up for making sparks.

  4. bike;
    That first item you mentioned, brought a chuckle.

    Back in the early 80s, some enterprising person put ads in Popular Mechanics magazine, advertising a solar power clothes drier for $19.95. PM revived thousands of complaints from readers that claimed that they were scammed. They eagerly awaited their product, which turned out to be a 100 ft. package of the old vinyl covered cable that was used for clothes lines. PM and I believe even judges, determined that although the advertiser/seller could have been more descriptive in his ad, he did not defraud anyone.

  5. Boss: that is hilarious. I have to note, however, that you need something to tie it to to actually dry your clothes.

    My dad grew up in a neighborhood where if you didn’t hang your clothes out to dry (e.g. you had a drier inside), the neighbors thought you didn’t wash your clothes. Given that his house had coal heat until he was grown up, that might not have been the dumbest idea, actually–downstairs would always have had a fair amount of coal dust. Of course, outside always had a fair amount of coal smoke as well….couldn’t win I guess. Life in an inner ring Chicago suburb, I guess (Brookfield).

    OK, a couple more things come to mind, like learning to see what’s good at thrift shops, antique stores, and garage sales. Plus, learn to do your own home repairs and basic carpentry. Somehow, I’m reminded (there’s Popular Mechanics again) of the drive in the 1970s to be able to do it all for yourself.

    Maybe I’d better turn down the heat and put on a cardigan today. Welcome back, Carter. I mean Biden.

  6. “That trick about starting a fire by rubbing sticks is way harder than it looks.”

    It’s actually not. It’s just that not many people know how to do it (for instance, it’s not done by “rubbing sticks”).

    It’s how I start all my fires in my hunting camp. I’m very proficient at it.

  7. Here’s a video all you rugged individualists should watch.

    What happens if SHTF, and all you got is a pair of fucking shorts?

    Not 1 in 500,000 people living in cities could do this:

    https://youtu.be/fUiQSo7fxxw

  8. BTW, I’d bet my paycheck that if suburban militia LARPers tried to sneak up on that guy with an AR15, he’d kill 75% with his stone ax, and stretch their pelts over his porch.

  9. I have contacts with grocery people. I talked to the chip guy last week, and bugged him about how the $2.99 bag of chips was now the $3.59 bag of chips.
    He told me they would be $5.99 in July.
    Let’s go Brandon!

  10. Pingback: In The Mailbox: 05.20.22 (Afternoon Edition) : The Other McCain

  11. Blah blah blah … This is just another market cycle, after 10 years of growth we are getting a long overdue pause. Nothing new. It has happened before, it will happen again and capitalism will be perfectly fine. The economy will be making new highs in a few years. Meanwhile Venezuela and North Korea still wonder what an expansion looks.

  12. Highest inflation in four decades, longest string of Wall Street losses since 1932.
    Emery: “This is just another market cycle . . . ”
    Never take financial advice from an internet guy named Emery.

  13. There is no problem, nothing to see here, move along.
    There is a problem, but it’s not our fault.
    We’d solve the problem but Republicans won’t help us.
    We already discussed this issue; it’s old news, move on.

  14. Remember 4 years ago when Trump had been in office for 16 months?
    Here is the Atradius executive summary on the economy in May of 2018:
    Global GDP growth is forecast to accelerate to 3.2% in 2018, the strongest annual expansion since 2011. Growth is expected to remain strong in 2019 but moderate slightly to 3.0%.
    The US economy is outpacing other advanced markets, with growth set to expand 2.8% this year before easing to 2.4% in 2019. After a very strong year, the eurozone economy is forecast to expand a solid 2.2% this year before easing further to 1.8% in 2019. Growth is also easing in Japan while it stays resilient in the UK.
    GDP growth across emerging market economies as a whole is picking up strongly. Latin America is set to see the strongest acceleration, to 2.0% in 2018 and 2.9% in 2019. Eastern Europe is expected to see some momentum easing from 3.0% this year to 2.5% next year. Emerging Asia will continue to enjoy the strongest growth, but a gradual slowdown in China is forecast to increasingly drag on regional growth, bringing it down to the still respectable 5.8% in 2018 and 5.5% in 2019.
    The global upswing has translated in further improvements in the insolvency environment. After a 4% decline in corporate failures across advanced markets in 2017, Atradius forecasts a further 3% decline this year. Insolvencies are also on a downward trend in key emerging markets.

    Happier days, indeed.

    Here is what Atradius said about Biden’s economy 16 after he was sworn into office:
    The Russia-Ukraine conflict is having a negative impact on global growth mainly through its impact on commodity and energy prices. We have downwardly revised growth by 0.7 percentage points (ppt) in 2022 and by 0.4 ppt in 2023. Despite the downward revision, global growth remains relatively robust at 3.4% in 2022 and 3.2% in 2023. This growth forecast is subject to a high level of uncertainty.
    Prices of a broad range of commodities are forecast to increase significantly in 2022. Already overheated oil and gas markets are showing renewed volatility after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war. We also expect prices of other commodities of which Russia and Ukraine are major producers, such as wheat, barley, vegetable oils and base metals, to rise significantly.
    Supply chain bottlenecks show some signs of easing, though shipping costs and equipment shortages remain elevated. Furthermore, the Russia-Ukraine conflict is distorting some specific supply chains, like that of semiconductors and the automotive industry. Trade growth remains relatively robust in 2022, however, as supply chain pressures and inflation are counterbalanced by strong consumer demand.
    Global inflation is expected to rise in 2022. Even at the start of 2022, there were already inflationary pressures from supply chain issues, strong consumer demand, and rising energy and commodities prices. The Russia-Ukraine conflict is only making matters worse, given its effect on commodities prices. This means central banks will have to move more aggressively to quell inflation.
    Growth in advanced markets is slowing as a result of high inflation, supply chain pressures and indirect effects of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Growth in the eurozone is expected to cool significantly in 2022. Price pressures were already rising in past months, but the conflict has exacerbated this trend. Inflation is building up rapidly. The consumer-led recoveries in the US and UK are facing increasing challenges as accelerating inflation drives a more rapid turnaround in monetary support. Both the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England have already hiked the policy rate in the past couple of months and the outlook for the Fed is increasingly hawkish.
    Growth momentum for emerging market economies is weakening as fiscal and monetary support are being rapidly withdrawn. New headwinds are created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This comes on top of other issues, such as supply chain bottlenecks and in some regions new waves of Covid infections.

    What a shitty president.

  15. Kind of bad luck that the Biden admin announced its “anti-disinformation” initiative the same week that Hillary was fingered as approving the disinformation campaign at the root of the “Russian collusion” hoax, and Biden’s “disinformation czar” was exposed as having pushed disinformation about the “Russian collusion” hoax and the Hunter Biden laptop.
    I think that about now every one of Biden’s staff must be looking for an exit.
    Word is that Biden will finally — finally — fire his incompetent chief of staff, Ron Klain, after the disaster that awaits the Dems in November comes to pass.
    ??
    Shouldn’t you fill your car with gas _before_ you run out? This is insane. Even Klaine must know that he is a shitty head of staff and should be fired by now.

  16. ‘Bears sound clever; bulls make money and pigs get slaughtered’

    Woolly sounds like he’s riding the market down and then hoping to ride it back up — how’s it feel to be a pig….

    I avoided the downturn and was out of the market in 2022 until last week. I avoided the 17.66% downturn in the SPX as well as the
    24.20% downturn in the DWCPF.

    But ya whatever you say Mr savvy investor…

  17. ^^Does anyone know why Emery thinks that he knows my investment strategy?
    Voices in his head? A crystal ball?
    Imagine a person like that thinking that he has some special insight on the markets.

  18. I avoided the downturn and was out of the market in 2022 until last week. I avoided the 17.66% downturn in the SPX as well as the
    24.20% downturn in the DWCPF.

    LMAO! You said you had liquidated your vast portfolio, taken your GAinZ and retired to your premium laKeFrontT EsTAte in 2019!

    You marvelous lying asshole…you forgot, didn’t you! Hahahahahahaaha!

  19. Speaking of intended consequences – Californians trade guns for $50 gas cards amid rising fuel prices

    Never let a crisis go to waste, right?

  20. I avoided the downturn and was out of the market in 2022 until last week. I avoided the 17.66% downturn in the SPX as well as the
    24.20% downturn in the DWCPF.

    Wow! What a coincidence! I did the exact same thing! And I don’t even know what the DWCPF is (maybe Dick Wad Consumer Price Fluctuation?).
    Thanks to a subscription to The Economist, and highly tuned financial instincts, I, like Emery, am rolling in clover.
    Hoping to get a deal on of those confiscated $300,000,000 Russian oligarch yachts. My finger is poised over the bid button!

  21. JPA, you missed something:

    Speaking of unintended consequences, Californians trade guns used to commit crimes for $50 gas cards amid rising fuel prices

    FIFY. :^) If you want to get money out of a gun and can risk selling it at a gun store, you’ll get a lot more money there. Just not if they trace the serial number and find it was stolen. Hence “gun buybacks” get broken guns and guns used in crimes. Great way to reduce violence, eh?

  22. Swiftee piles on and buys more Cryptocurrency. I saw an article online with graphs showing the historic value of all the crypto currencies. There were hundreds of them and once you got past the top few most of the graph lines resembled the way urine behaves as a result of gravity. Crypto is multi-level marketing for people who think they are too smart to fall for multi-level marketing.…

    I don’t know what all the fuss is about. This year’s decline in the S&P 500 is a perfectly normal feature of market behavior.

    For example, there were four broadly similar declines between 2009 and 2020 — the longest bull market in history.

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