A Time for Provident Living and Urgent Preparation
by Jeff Lindsay
Something
bizarre happened in China recently that has been largely ignored in
the West. However, the implications for the West may be huge.
Perhaps
you have heard of the term “LIBOR.” If you are tracking
the economy, it’s an important indicator related to the
financial industry.
LIBOR
stands for London Interbank Offered Rate, which is the average
interest rate estimated by leading banks in London that they would be
charged if borrowing from other banks. It is used as an indicator for
the interest rates banks charge for short-term loans between
themselves, such as for overnight lending between banks.
A
spike in LIBOR can indicate financial trouble and distrust between
banks when there is fear that other institutions may go belly-up
before repaying short-term loans. During the 2008 financial crisis
in the US, LIBOR shot up to 6.88%.
China
has its own version of LIBOR called SHIBOR (replacing the “L”
for London with “SH” for Shanghai). As is reported by
CaseyResearch.com in their post, “The
Beginnings of a Chinese Banking Crisis?”,
SHIBOR hit at astounding level of 25% on June 19, 2013. It’s
one of several indicators that there is serious trouble brewing in
China, in spite of best efforts to follow America’s steady
example of hiding and downplaying inconvenient realities.
If
China faces a credit crisis, it will have implications for all of us,
eventually. China is a major player now in the financial world and
its economy is closely linked to Western economies in multiple ways.
I definitely don’t want to see China’s economy sink.
Meanwhile,
back in the States, economic policies continue to add to debt and
increase the control of bureaucrats over the economy while making it
harder than ever for entrepreneurs and innovators to create growth
and jobs. The prospects of long-term inflation from our burgeoning
deficit spending and crushing debt demand immediate corrective
action, not more of the same.
This
is a time for nervous and resolute preparation — a time to
build provisions for the future. Do you have a solid food storage
program?
Do
you realize that the lives of your loved ones may literally depend on
what you have stored? Your food storage may become more than just a
great way to get through a period of unemployment. It can be the key
to survival for you and others around you in a natural disaster or in
a man-made economic disaster.
Zimbabwe
may be on the other side of the world, but they have been following
very similar economic policies and are reaping the consequences of
insane government spending and crushing debt with massive
hyperinflation that wiped out the financial hopes for much of the
nation.
This
can happen to once prosperous nations. If we can't get our government
to restrain itself with the flood of fiat money it is creating to
fund its spending orgy, who can stop the tsunami of debt and
inflation from eventually reaching our shores? Sober preparation is
needed, coupled with active efforts to elect honorable men and women
who will not burden future generations with impossible levels of
debt.
In
addition to food storage, I also recommend that people have a portion
of their investments in some areas that may survive inflation. This
is a complex topic since no investment is safe from corruption,
theft, market surprises, and the vagaries of government out of
control.
Precious
metals, certain commodity stocks, agricultural investments, and other
vehicles may be useful. Some people recommend owning some physical
silver or gold in a truly secure location — the challenge is
finding such a location.
As
an alternative, one example of an asset backed by physical bullion
(gold and silver) is the Canadian Exchange Fund, which trades as CEF
on the New York Stock Exchange. It has its own risks, as does
everything, so I’m not necessarily recommending it but I will
disclose that my 401K has a portion invested in CEF and some mining
stocks, energy stocks, agricultural stocks, and other vehicles.
But
stocks and investments of any kind will be worthless if you aren’t
prepared for the brutal realities of survival in a crazy world. Start
with food storage, financial discipline, and research that does more
than accept the sugar-coating diet of often irrelevant news from the
mainstream media. This is a time for preparation.
Jeff Lindsay has been defending the Church on the Internet since 1994, when he launched his
LDSFAQ website under JeffLindsay.com. He has also long been blogging about LDS matters on
the blog Mormanity (mormanity.blogspot.com). Jeff is a longtime resident of Appleton,
Wisconsin, who recently moved to Shanghai, China, with his wife, Kendra.
He works for an Asian corporation as head of intellectual property. Jeff and Kendra are the parents of 4 boys, 3 married and the the youngest on a mission.
He is a former innovation and IP consultant, a former professor, and former Corporate Patent
Strategist and Senior Research Fellow for a multinational corporation.
Jeff Lindsay, Cheryl Perkins and Mukund Karanjikar are authors of the book Conquering
Innovation Fatigue (John Wiley & Sons, 2009).
Jeff has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University and is a registered US
patent agent. He has more than 100 granted US patents and is author of numerous publications.
Jeff's hobbies include photography, amateur magic, writing, and Mandarin Chinese.