OK...so some random thoughts and comments.
Zombies: The have been around for a while. They are the ones who can't extract themselves from their Smart Phones.
TP: You can't survive on it and my shower/w hand-held are one step away...in a pinch. Worst case...the yard is full of pine cones.
Gas Prices: I just went across the street to the local store/fuel station. Gas was $4.57 USD for one gallon, but a coffee refill was still a buck. The upside...the bike gets 50 MPG, providing I don't grab too much throttle. The Silverado has been re-tasked to firewood and fuel storage.
China Economy: They may appear strong, but they are inextricably woven into the Gordian Knot of Derivatives and negative bond yields, and they hold a ton of U.S. Debt in the form of long term bonds. Deutsche is the plunger in the powder keg, but JPM and quite a few others share the potential to set off the chain reaction.
Download the IMF white paper.
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2017/09/29/Interconnectedness-of-Global-Systemically-Important-Banks-and-Insurers-45223
I have long forecast that the Bond Bubble would break, beginning with China. I didn't know specifically what the pin would be to pop the bubble...but the current Black Swan event certainly has momentum.
Compare the exponential growth of the pathogen against the exponential growth of the Repo bailout numbers. You can get those from the New York Fed website and build your own spreadsheet. The bailouts and the bug charts are carbon copies of each other. The original overnight interest spike that triggered the Repo crisis began last September...about the time that the bug was either accidentally, or intentionally introduced into the wild. The Repo money ran on a long flat line until the "virus" began to break out to the exponential. Now the Repo requires trillions per day, just to keep the banks liquidity stable. On a good day pre-Covid19, a nudge of one basis point would trigger chaos in the markets. Shutting down a global economic engine completely, for months, sets off an irreversible chain of "calls" on short contracts and derivative hedges. These are algorithm driven and nearly impossible to intervene...most likely the entire process is now block chain.
The massive banks are in a panic to dump their short contracts on Gold and Silver. Just go to any legitimate dealer and look at the bid and ask, then go try to buy a coin. The contracts are hammering the shorts on digital metal, but premiums on real coins are rising while inventory's on physical have been completely depleted.
All of this points to a very dangerous situation where governments will bail in infinite trillions to stop the hemorrhaging, but in reality the entire system is at risk...most likely beginning with Deutsche Bank, who were already auguring in for months prior to the bug.
I have a personal strategy which I base on my understanding of economics, politics and human nature. I have followed it for nearly twenty years.
I live 300 miles north of Los Angeles...intentionally. That is more than one tank of gas for just about everybody except line haulers. My home is one of the last structures on the eastern fringe of Kalifornia, from my kitchen window east there are thee states of desert and low mountain ranges. At my back are the Sierra Nevada Mountains which go straight up to 13,000 ft directly out my back door. No one, and I mean no one is going to cross the labyrinth of glacier canyons that separate me from Western Kalifornia without some serious climbing gear and a guide. From the south the desert is virtually impassable for anyone wishing to walk from LA to my house to steal potatoes. Same to the north but its Reno, which is 150 miles drive/walk. The roads both directions are either two lane or four lane...very controllable with multiple choke points...if necessary. And...Los Angeles only water travels down the same Owens Valley, leaving them very vulnerable to pissed off ranchers..if you get my meaning. It's not like it hasn't happened before...the Mulholland/California Water Wars. Just sayin'.
I own my home, I'm not tied to the State with property taxes, technically the mobile is a vehicle. The structure is covered with corrugated metal and the walls are insulated with rigid foam, which is lined both sides with foil. Tin foil hat...maybe, but corrugated metal is a dandy Faraday Cage none the less. Call me a nutter, but I find it prudent to anticipate all variables.
Locally we have a fully capable geo-thermal plant that can produce infinite energy from the lava lake below our butts. We have fish hatcheries that can be converted to food production, and we have many lakes within waking distance. The meadows are fertile cattle grazing soil that produce fields of edible flowers, and the streams are full of watercress and other edibles. This is cattle country, so food on the hoof is available for barter if necessary...and this is deer country.
Calculating all of the available data, I am prepared to ride out worst case scenarios. The parallel trajectory of the pathogen and the potential for economic brain freeze are at this time breaking out to the exponential. I see no reversal on the horizon, so I'll create a strategy based on best available data, which is horrifically comprised at best. I'm allowing for the probability, and likelihood that data have been intentionally suppressed "to avoid panic". However, the charts don't lie, and the charts are going vertical. That's all I need to know until trends show signs of changing trajectory, but that is doubtful in light of existing supply chain shock.
Recognizing that the post 2008 bailout (23 trillion all told) bond/derivatives bubbles have been systematically re-hypotheticated out into the quadrillions, I doubt that any form of theoretical economics will begin to touch a collapse once the weight passes the event horizon...and that is dangerously close. The trillions the Fed and Plunge Protection algorithm riggers threw at the markets resulted in precisely zero effectiveness, well not exactly zero seeing as how those billions were/are plunged into stock buy backs benefiting corporate officers and creating illusions of a 30,000 point market.
Bottom line, there is no amount of counterfeit FIAT money that can put this monster back in its box.
IMHO, the lunatics have screwed the pooch big time, and BTW...the bug came out of the University of North Carolina and was sold to the Chinese by a...err...former administration. That's proven data. The rest appears to be a temper tantrum of galactic proportions, thus validating my thesis that Eisenhower was right, and the lunatics took over the asylum.
I've done the best I can, I've tried my best to help my friends prepare, now hopefully I can help my friends get through this as I implement what I have learned over the last two decades. If it all blows by, I'm none the worse for wear. If it doesn't I'm as prepared as I can be to ride out a storm.
Thanks for being my friends. We don't necessarily need to agree but we can certainly share our combined knowledge to navigate what is clearly evolving into a life altering social paradigm shift.
Ancillary tidbit;
Go the Boston Fed website and search "Road to Roota" for some fascinating insights into what is currently taking place.
For those inclined towards forensics...the insights are profound. Begin by asking why Nobel Laureates are writing comic books.
https://www.bostonfed.org/publications/economic-education/road-to-roota.aspx
