Tinfoil Hats, Doomsday Prepping, and The Financial Collapse

Over the summer, I attended Freedom Fest in Las Vegas with Students for Liberty. The event itself well attended by beltway libertarians and paleo-conservatives. There were only a few anarcho-capitalists there, but we were kind of lost in the crowd. (Except I met Bob Murphy!)

Before one of the events, we were talking about Peter Schiff and the Austrian school (my buddies were from the neoclassical and Chicago schools). Their main critique of the Austrians was that "the Austrian school has predicted 7 of the last 3 financial crises."

Obviously, those in the liberty movement have spoken of the "great collapse" that is supposed to bring an end to the era of central banking and fiat currency. This is something that Ron Paul has said repeatedly, along with names like Peter Schiff, James Rickards, David Stockman, and pretty much everyone associated with the Mises Institute.

All of this rhetoric can scare a person, and might be completely unbelievable if the predictions of collapse weren't in fact the logical  conclusion of Austrian theory.

While I recognize that, according to Austrian theory, the collapse is inevitable, it is a hard thing to believe. Do I believe the collapse will happen? Yes. Do I warn people in my personal life? Depends. Would I bet my life on the collapse? I don't know.  Who can predict the future?Just short of selling all my assets and investing in cypto-currencies, commodities, and emerging markets, what steps am I willing to take to prepare (or even profit from) the collapse?

If the Austrian alarmists are correct about the collapse, James Rickards explains in his book The Road to Ruin, how the United States and global governments will lock down the financial system and replace the world's reserve currencies with the SDR (Special Drawing Rights). This is to be followed by an Orwellian nightmare of global governance.So, what do we do in the meantime? If you aren't willing to hedge fund your entire investment portfolio (it is always smart to keep at least some wealth in commodities), maybe prepping is a legitimate hobby to take up? It certainly is less risky.

*Queue the tinfoil hat memes*

Yes, yes, we all know that some people on National Geographic's Doomsday Preppers are some real nutjobs. But reality TV shows tend to cast some rather unique individuals. The truth is that a lot of normal people prep.

For instance, most members of the LDS Church prep as a part of their faith. In fact, a few years ago the LDS Church began advising members to pay off their debts and to create contingency preps for themselves and those in their communities.

And yes, Mormons are mostly normal people.

If India's recent attempt to eradicate paper money is any hint of what we may see in the future, ATMs will be locked down, and Rickards predicts that the government will seize people's assets. Hopefully demonetization will  be a boon to crypto-currencies or, better yet, the re-establishment of the gold standard.

Every prep should begin with some firearms and ammunition, but beyond the usual food, water, survival and tactical gear, it might be wise to keep some physical gold or fiat government monopoly money--which might only be worth anything in the initial shock. But hey, if worse  comes to worst, you could always use it as kindling or toilet paper.

So, with that all being said, what do you think of prepping? Is it only for tinfoil hat people, or is there some legitimacy in it? Let me know in the comments!

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