Saturday rambling thread

Welcome to the Precious Metals Bug Forums

Welcome to the PMBug forums - a watering hole for folks interested in gold, silver, precious metals, sound money, investing, market and economic news, central bank monetary policies, politics and more. You can visit the forum page to see the list of forum nodes (categories/rooms) for topics.

Please have a look around and if you like what you see, please consider registering an account and joining the discussions. When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including no ads, market data/charts, access to trade/barter with the community and much more. Registering an account is free - you have nothing to lose!

ancona

Praying Mantis
Messages
3,341
Reaction score
32
Points
0
Location
Waaay south
I can’t believe its Saturday again, the week sped by so fast I hardly knew it was gone. I’m sitting in my trusty barcolounger writing, because the rain simply refuses to stop coming down. In fact, I am seriously considering starting construction on an ark, because I’m going to need one if this shit doesn’t stop sometime soon. There were four confirmed funnel clouds in my immediate area yesterday and considerable hail and high winds. A huge branch got torn off of a perfectly healthy tree in the wind, crashing to the ground a few feet from the family truckster, but nothing was damaged. I suppose I should count my blessings instead of bitch about the rain, but damn it man, too much more of this and I’ll literally have to sandbag my house.

I spent some time last night watching some video of Obama doing the stump thing at a couple of rallies and found it quite interesting that in the thirty minutes of speeches I listened to, he did not speak about anything of substance whatsoever. Nothing. I heard a lot of platitudes, a lot of blaming the republicans for everything under the sun, a lot of “We need to move forward” and a lot of “The millionaires and billionaires need to give their fair share”, but not once did this guy say anything substantial about the economy, not once did he offer a solution to any of the ills in this country. I didn’t hear a single word about how he was going to fix the too big to fail banks. Not one word about small business and the hyper regulation that strangles us. If this is his official strategy to get himself re-elected, he may as well quit right now.

My idiot neighbor’s house just sits there, an attractive nuisance for the little miscreants and reprobates down the street. I have sent multiple letters to the holding company that owns it, but have never received a response. I offered to purchase the house all cash, and to accept it in its current full-on disaster shape. Nothing……..crickets. It makes me wonder if these fuckers really want to sell the house or if it is just a front for the banks holding all those notes. Meanwhile, the rain flies in through open windows, and leaks through where the soffit and fascia were damaged when they tore down the carport to sell the metal for beer and pot money. Mold is beginning to set in, meaning that in a very short time, the place will have to be completely gutted and rehabilitated. What sucks is the fact that I am offering cash, and to cover the closing costs and expense of a survey, yet I get zero response. It isn’t as if they don’t know what shape this property is in, because they sent a rep out to do an inspection, who came running out after thirty seconds inside because it is so nasty. He took a raft of pictures on the exterior, detailing the damage and the four foot high weeds in the yard. With my luck, some other half-wit hillbilly will move in with his eight strong brood of ankle biters and truant minors. We’ll see.

Next on the docket is the space program. On Friday I went to Launch Complex 40, the Space-X launch platform on the Cape Side, to look at a project. While I can’t talk about what the project is about, I can talk about what they showed me. After the site visit, we were invited to the hangar to have a look at their rocket, sitting in its cradle being prepped for flight. To see this thing up close was a real treat, and gave me some insight in to the new breed of rocketeer out at the Space Center. I noticed several things right off the bat that will certainly separate Space-X from the crews at NASA. First were demographics. These guys are mostly an entire generation younger than the average NASA employee, and significantly more energetic and excited. The second thing I noticed was a good work pace. These people were working purposefully and continuously on this rocket. On the NASA side, by the time you dig your way through fourteen layers of useless bureaucratic bullshit, five overlords [managers] and all the union nonsense, the work pace is around a quarter of the Space-X pace. The third thing was the absence of unions. Elon Musk decided right out of the gate that Space-X was not going to be a union shop, and that he would offer a pay program and perks that were generous enough to dissuade his staff from voting in the unions. It worked. After the visit, we went back to the admin building and sat down in the break room. Everything they stock in there is free. Everything. Soda, bottled water, Gatorade, pre-packaged sandwiches, salads, snacks etc. I’m not talking about 7-11 style sandwiches either, these are catered in by a small firm near here and are absolutely delicious. Free lunch. Having seen their operation up close, I have regained my faith that the space program will be rejuvenated and made significantly less expensive through the Space-X plan of simplification, younger more energetic workforce and application of true assembly line practices in the construction of their vehicles. I am not easily impressed my friends, but yesterday, I was amazed.

Work went by in a blur this week because we’re busy as hell with bids, and we’ve laid off a third of our staff. No more intern to do copies and make donut runs, no more admin girl on Wednesday and Friday, no more shop boy to keep the warehouses and sea vans organized, no more tool crib manager to maintain equipment and no more full time accountant. This means we all wear a lot of hats these days. For instance, I come in sometimes two hours early to work on power tools and electrical equipment, changing out brush sets, worn pillow blocks on fan axles, etc. Every other Saturday I come in [for free of course] to do heavy maintenance on larger equipment such as our 40,000 psi hydro blaster and our 38’ scissor lift. Even though we’re cut to the quick and everyone has sacrificed most of our perks and even all of our overtime, it is looking pretty grim so far this year. August and September are the last two months of the fourth federal government fiscal quarter, which means every agency does a huge money dump of all the cash they have been sitting on. Roughly three quarters of our backlog book each year is won in August/September bidding. This year, faced with yet another year without a budget, a lot of cuts will go in to effect that will put a monster dent in the amount of work available, quite possibly killing off my firm as a result.

While I am not going to starve to death if the firm goes under, and in fact could go about twelve years at current lifestyle pace of spending, it is very unnerving to be faced with the possibility of having to take a position somewhere else after giving 18+ years of my adult life to this company, helping to expand operations and eventually earning the Vice Presidency. In addition, at 49.5 years of age, and after almost two decades of near autonomy within my firm, I will have to insert myself within the construct of someone else’s idea of how to run a business, and I am not altogether certain I can do that. To be handed a set of rules, a copy of some mission statement and a list of expectations would be difficult for me to swallow after being the guy who manages multi-million dollar projects, making decisions about several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of purchases and signing those checks. If I have to do it, I suppose I could suck it up and make the jump, but it’s going to suck a mouthful of sand.

Now that I’m done feeling sorry for myself, I think it’s important to note that insider sales of corporate stock have accelerated in the recent months, surpassing even last year’s outflows. In addition to that, you have hedge fund managers and wealthy elites piling in to gold, the very think they all publicly deride. George Soros, one of the Brotherhood of Darkness himself, sold every financial stock he had and bought gold with the money. In fact, he spent twice as much as he got for the stock on gold. This is meaningful in many ways, not the least of which is that these guys know something and they are building a wall of protection around their money. We should all take note of these happenings and remain aware that when the walls come down, there will be no warning. The government gains nothing by informing the sheep that something big is coming, and will do everything in its power to stop the flow of information when it does.

The obvious preps we all have made already, but the not so obvious ones many have not. A total bank holiday will mean no ATM’s, no credit cards and no checks. It will be cash only and those without will quickly get angry, meaning social disorder on a large scale. I believe the break-up of the Eurozone to be imminent, which will be a potential catalyst to the unleashing of the derivative time bomb. Several hundred trillion dollars of credit default swaps [and other “like derivatives”] are held my millions of entities, who will all be standing with their hand out when it falls. The leaders in Europe, especially Angela Merkel and Mario Draghi know all too well that the break-up of the EU means the collapse of every single bank. They will be immediately bankrupted. Period. This is the only reason the union has not been dissolved, yet the people of Europe have been fed a story about joint prosperity, brotherhood of countries, economic dominance and a hundred other reasons for the enslavement of country after country to these banks. They have a mortal fear of the people they govern, for they know all too well that if the banks all go under, they take with them the savings of every subject within the sovereign, the outcome of which will include the likely death of every single politician and banker.

The same can be said for the US banking system, which rather than de-lever after the crash, levered up even higher and took on ever more risk. When the European collapse comes, it takes the USA with it, if only as a result of the complete collapse of trust in credit and credit instruments, and the accompanying runaway collapse of every single economy across the globe. Ultimately, even cash dollars won’t be trusted as faith in fiat falls to trust in gold. The rich and powerful are bailing out because they see the writing on the wall and know the time is getting short. We all need to follow their lead.

Six months cash and the rest in gold, silver and junk silver. Something is cooking folks and it ain’t going to be pretty. When this fucker comes apart it is going to be biblical.

Get ready.
 
Last edited:
This rant is worrisome. I hope you get the bids.
 
My never-ending frustration with running my own small business, full of extremely smart guys, was that I could never, ever, get any of them to the point where I could just hand them (or create with them) a vision statement, hand them a budget, and say "call me when you're done, or there's trouble". Never got a good project/product manager out of anyone.

Not that they didn't want the title and perks. Their idea of a manager was some fat cat sitting in an office issuing arbitrary bad orders, taking no risks for making bad decisions, and generally getting paid more to be a jerk than they were getting paid to be productive.

Hell, I even promoted a couple to that post. And...no gain whatever. They still came to me for every tiny decision that needed to be made, wanting to get all that gain but take zero risk. I wasn't trying to play the usual corporate game either - you know, the one where they hand you the responsibility and risks, but keep all the authority for themselves.

In short, ancona - while it might not be easy to find an enlightened boss, they exist, and to those guys you're worth whatever they can afford. People like us are extremely hard to find - and sometimes frighten those who might be in a position to hire us, as it's obvious we'd wind up with their job - or better, in short order.

Long story short - you need a job, I'd hire ya if I had anything going on, and might start something just to be able to. I bet Elon would too. He's quite a guy. You saw the results of how he runs a show, right? I got similar ones, we're of the same cloth, and he's the one guy I could think of I'd come out of retirement to work for.
 
Something is cooking folks and it ain’t going to be pretty. When this fucker comes apart it is going to be biblical.

Get ready.

WRT your quote above, here is an interesting read:

https://www.thedailybell.com/4153/A...o-Now-to-Protect-Yourself-Before-Its-Too-Late

It gets interesting about 1/3 of the way into the interview, not necessarily because of anything new to the folks on this board, but because of the "flavor" of answers that Andy gives in the interview. Not sure about anyone else, but I enjoyed the read.
 
Ancona
is there a living to be made in your business ?
Can you cherry pick and do a lean n mean operation on your own, just hiring help or plant when you have work ?

Love your description of space-X.
Didnt know they were operating out of NASAs play area.
 
Thank you Shelby

I love Tesla because of the way he went about things as much as his results.
Think he is another example of the world not being ready for him.

It was not his time.

i do apologise for the threadjacking but Elon got mentioned ........
 
While I am depressed about these developments, I am ready for the challenge of this.......event. I am actively talking to some folks I know in industry to do what I have to do to survive.

Wish me luck!!
 
Back
Top Bottom