urgent urgent urgent urgent

[Tarrel]

The thing is, the debt is still increasing. As long as we are running a budget deficit, the total debt will keep going up. The only way to deal with this is by growing the economy so that we all (individuals, corporations and government) keep getting richer so we can sustain the repayment. But, as has been seen over the last four years, economic growth is at an end. Why? Because we're maxing out on use of resources. Oil prices are being kept high, even though most western economies are stagnant, due to unprecedented demand from China, and this is keeping the lid firmly on growth. There is no doubt, the debt bubble WILL burst. Governments are likely to either:

1. Inflate the debt away by printing money, causing potential hyper-inflation. If we do this, it will depress the pound, making purchases of commodities priced in dollars even more expensive (e.g. oil).

2. Default, which will wipe out pension funds indiscriminately, cause a run on the currency and, possible runs on the banks.

(Or of course, they could assure themselves of continued growth by helping themselves to the resources they need, through aggression.)

What does this mean to the prepper? Well, I'd start by trying to reduce exposure to rising prices. Invest in energy-efficiency measures and become less grid-dependent. Trade in the car for a more fuel-efficient one. Have a look at the green deal as a way of borrowing if necessary to fund insulation, solar PV, solar water heating and biomass. Do the maths on the returns you are likely to get by investing in these measures. If you've got money in the bank, consider using it for these types of project. We invested £8k of cash in our renewable heating system. The money saved in fuel is netting us an equivalent return of at least 10%, compared to, at best, 3% from the bank. You can add a further 2 percentage points to that, because the money we are saving we therefore don't have to earn, and therefore don't have to pay 20% tax on it, so that's an equivalent return of 12%. And all this is before energy prices go any higher.

Start moving more of your food consumption towards home grown or locally sourced produce. Avoid food waste. The more food-independent we are, the more we are insulated from rising prices.

Hold cash. Ideally enough to fund a months' worth of food shopping, and to fill the car up a couple of times. Banking systems are likely to be disrupted during financial turmoil. Cashpoints unusable. Remember Ulsterbank/Nat West a few weeks ago? A stash of cash could make the difference between riding out such a shock painlessly, and it being a real crisis.

Building up reserve stocks is, of course, a prudent move in the event of a fast collapse, or many of the "mini-quakes" we are likely to experience as the system unravels. However, becoming insulated from the worst effects of the financial turmoil is probably even more important.

Thinking about the post above, I think there is a mental adjustment that many people will have to make; from being system-reliant to self-reliant. I have a neighbour who is from Yorkshire. Used to be a regional sales manager - very connected to the system. Opted out and moved up here. They now have a B&B and he does various local services, odd jobs, etc. When they first moved up, the house they were renting had its water supplied by a spring. He said it took them ages to get to the point where they trusted the water to drink. He realised that they had become too system-dependent, and would rather trust a big-city water company than the local spring that his neighbours had been using for generations. Of course, the mains water delivered through the tap could become contaminated or interrupted at any time, but people just don't consider that. What you don't know can't kill you!