The New Paranoia: Hedge-Funders Are Bullish on Gold, Guns, and Inflatable Lifeboats
The irony, is, of course, um, priceless... Cheers, RAH ------- <http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=The+New+Parano ia%3A+Hedge-Funders+Are+Bullish+on+Gold%2C+Guns%2C+and+Inflatable+Lifeboats&e xpire=&urlID=33582962&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnymag.com%2Fnews%2Ffeatures%2Fall -new%2F53372%2F&partnerID=73272
New York Magazine The New Paranoia: Hedge-Funders Are Bullish on Gold, Guns, and Inflatable Lifeboats By Timothy Sohn Published Jan 11, 2009 Illustration by Mark Nerys During the final months of 2008, as the financial markets imploded, talk on trading desks turned to food and water stockpiles, generators, guns, and high-speed inflatable boats. The system really was about six hours from failing, says Gene Lange, a manager at a midtown hedge fund, referring to the week in September when Lehman went bust and AIG had to be bailed out. When you think about how close we were to the precipice, I dont think it necessarily makes a guy crazy to prepare for the potential worst-case scenario. Preparations, in Langes case, include a storeroom in his basement in New Jersey stacked high with enough food, water, diapers, and other necessities to last his family six months; a biometric safe to hold his guns; and a 1985 ex-military Chevy K5 Blazer that runs on diesel and is currently being retrofitted for off-road travel. He has also entertained the idea of putting an inflatable speedboat in a storage unit on the West Side, so he could get off the island quickly, and is currently considering purchasing a remote farm where he could hunker down. If theres a financial-system breakdown, it could take a year to reset the system, and in that time, whats going to happen? asks Lange. If New York turns into a scene out of I Am Legend, he wants to be ready. Hes not the only one. In his book Wealth, War, published last year, former Morgan Stanley chief global strategist Barton Biggs advised people to prepare for the possibility of a total breakdown of civil society. A senior analyst whose reports are read at hedge funds all over the city wrote just before Christmas that some of his clients are so bearish theyve purchased firearms and safes and are stocking their pantries with soups and canned foods. This fear is very much reflected in the marketprices of corporate bonds have been so beaten down at various points that they suggest a higher default rate than during the Great Depression. Meanwhile, while the overall gold market has fluctuated, the premium for quarter-ounce gold coinsmeaning the difference between the price for gold you can hold in your hand and that for paper gold, such as exchange-traded fundsrose to an all- time high of 20 percent. Gold is transportable, its 100 percent liquid, and its perfectly divisible in the context of ounces, bars, or coins, says the head of a California research firm who keeps a supply of it, along with food, water, and guns, on hand. And most important, theres no counterpartyi.e., its an investment beholden to no one, and perhaps one of the few assets that will retain value if the financial system collapses. While it may look like these Wall Streeters are betting on such a collapse, their embrace of survivalism is an outgrowth of their professional habits of mind: Having observed the economys shaky high- wire act from their ringside seats, they are trying to manage their risk and hedge against a potential fall. Its like insurance, says an investor who has stockpiled MREs and a hand-cranked radio. And by the time you need it, its way too late. Leave it for others to weep for the collapse of the social order. These guys would prefer to be in a high-speed boat or ex-military vehicle, heading off toward their fully provisioned compounds in pursuit of the ultimate goal: to win the chaos. Next: If Jackson Pollock Were a Gamer
Har. This is another effort to boost buying and hoarding of gold as if it will be worth more than evanescent financial data. Gold won't be worth shit in a collapse. Those with guns won't know how to defend their families when being hunted as food by large gangs long-accustomed to getting by without financial security fantasies. Those in bunkers will be smelled at the vent outlets and dug out like tasty bunnies shaking in a burrow. Offering the grubbers a gold bar to go away, pretty please, will buy a prime spot on the roasting spit. Shooting a digger, or a dozen or two, will bring hundreds more to the feast. Best bludgeon your loved ones to death with the worthless gold. Why idiot money-grubbers think precious metal protection is a safe harbor to be defended with popguns in the outback reminds of what Libertarianism will be reduced to when the cops join the brutes take all of it back where it belongs. Any case, these fictional scare stories only appeal to those who never learned physical labor, believed mind work was the same, don't pity their willful ignorance. Call them bosses, or worse, investors, even worse, seers of what's needed for survival. Now let me show you a surefire way to eternal life, and don't insult my fancy headdress.
On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 10:56:42AM -0500, John Young wrote:
Gold won't be worth shit in a collapse. Those with guns won't
Depends on the level of collapse. Cheap gold jewelry was ok during the Argentina collapse. Mad Max could happen, and it's high-outcome, but the probability is quite low.
Now let me show you a surefire way to eternal life, and don't insult my fancy headdress.
We're all ears. (Wait, is that a Phrygian cap?) -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE
On Sun, Eugen Leitl <eugen@leitl.org> wrote:
On Sun, John Young wrote:
Gold won't be worth shit in a collapse. Those with guns won't
Depends on the level of collapse. Cheap gold jewelry was ok during the Argentina collapse.
in a collapse the only thing worth shit is food and water; you can can find shelter with the previous two. to the extent that shiny stuff is fungible with food and water it is useful. if you're really bearish a market for sustenance will not exist.
Mad Max could happen, and it's high-outcome, but the probability is quite low.
guns and brute gangs as catalyst for fungible trade is left as an exercise for the reader. note that death is a perfectly acceptable payment for either party :) ... in any case, i always preferred the bifurcated breakdown in Battle Angel Alita for my vision of futuristic deconstruction ... *grin* maybe this is all theatrical suggestion to encourage a bottom sooner rather than later. compared to savage collapse and descent into madness, we're not quite so bad off? think i'll buy some stock!
I still remember doing some Y2K work down at DSC on the day they were purchased by Alcatel (I think it was). Back in the digital switch area there were two characters, one an old drinker-nosed Texan named "Sonny" the other a young 20-something. The young guy kept making fun of Sonny pointing out that the only thing Sonny had that was worthwhile was his gun stockpile. He said his own plan for surviving Y2K (in the event something actually happened, which none of us seriously considered) was that he was just going to go over to Sonny's house, kill Sonny, and grab his stockpile and provisions. (Oh, and he told us this with Sonny standing right there.) Me, if there's actually a scenario like The Road, well I'm not that interested in surviving. But if I had to do something I'd just hole up in NYC and try to figure out how to survive in the whole new barter economy. -TD
From: jya@pipeline.com Subject: Re: The New Paranoia: Hedge-Funders Are Bullish on Gold, Guns, and Inflatable Lifeboats
Har. This is another effort to boost buying and hoarding of gold as if it will be worth more than evanescent financial data.
Gold won't be worth shit in a collapse. Those with guns won't know how to defend their families when being hunted as food by large gangs long-accustomed to getting by without financial security fantasies.
Those in bunkers will be smelled at the vent outlets and dug out like tasty bunnies shaking in a burrow. Offering the grubbers a gold bar to go away, pretty please, will buy a prime spot on the roasting spit.
Shooting a digger, or a dozen or two, will bring hundreds more to the feast. Best bludgeon your loved ones to death with the worthless gold.
Why idiot money-grubbers think precious metal protection is a safe harbor to be defended with popguns in the outback reminds of what Libertarianism will be reduced to when the cops join the brutes take all of it back where it belongs.
Any case, these fictional scare stories only appeal to those who never learned physical labor, believed mind work was the same, don't pity their willful ignorance. Call them bosses, or worse, investors, even worse, seers of what's needed for survival.
Now let me show you a surefire way to eternal life, and don't insult my fancy headdress.
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participants (5)
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coderman -
Eugen Leitl -
John Young -
R.A. Hettinga -
Tyler Durden