by Brandon Smith, Alt Market:

One rule every preparedness expert should go by is to always be concerned when establishment authorities, the media and “shoe shine boys” start volunteering their “expert” opinions on why you should not be concerned about a particular danger.  The establishment most likely has an agenda to keep you passive, and the shoe shine boys are simply regurgitating what they hear from the media like good little robots.  These people are far too interested in whether or not you are preparing for a threat; in fact they seem hell bent on talking you out of preparation in general.  Why is that?

In the past two months I have seen an endless flow of mainstream news stories arguing first, that Covid 19 is nothing to worry, and second, that the public is “in a panic” over the virus. The first assertion is obviously ridiculous. With an official death rate of around 6% in Italy alone, I think we are starting to see what the Chinese government has been trying to hide as they continue to threaten their citizens with punishment for leaking “fake news” (FACTS) on the coronavirus. This event is not something to be taken lightly; it is a paradigm shifting scenario which will change the world forever.

The second assertion seems to be a calculated exaggeration; a form of reverse psychology. Keep telling people they are “panicking” when they are not and maybe they will go to the other extreme and passively do nothing at all just to avoid the label. I have to say, I don’t think people in this day and age know what a mass “panic” actually is, especially if their only point of reference is some empty toilet paper shelves at Costco.

In terms of the stock markets one could say a “panic” has FINALLY ensued as trillions in capital are being wiped out daily, but this does not affect the average person financially in the short term. The stock market matters only in that it is a psychological placebo which keeps people from looking into the deeper problems within the fundamentals of the economy. They see the stock market is doing well, they don’t bother to investigate anything else.

Now that stocks are crashing perhaps the public will look into other more important factors, including historic levels of corporate and consumer debt, the global dollar liquidity shortage and the Fed’s repo crisis, the global plunge in exports and manufacturing, the retail Apocalypse in the US, collapsing Treasury yields, collapsing oil prices, etc. Most of these are problems that existed long before the coronavirus, but maybe now people will start paying attention to them.

These problems will still be lost on the shoe-shine boys, who will continue to call you a “chicken little” for merely taking practical precautions in case of disaster.

A friend of mine was talking with some people at a local gas station about getting prepared just in case supply lines break down during the pandemic.  A highway patrolman overheard him and decided to butt into the conversation, smugly telling everyone this is “just another Y2K” and it only kills people over the age of 80.  My friend related to me that he tried to present a rational case for why his concerns go beyond just the virus…but the dumb cop just grinned and ignored him.

I had an interesting encounter a few weeks ago myself, when I was surprised to find a box of N95 masks at a hardware store.  I went to purchase them to add to my supply and a cashier in a little vest decided to regale me with a long list of reasons why the coronavirus is “no worse than the flu” and there’s nothing to worry about.  None of his information was correct, but it’s not really my job to save every all-knowing cashier I come across, so I just told him “I guess we’ll find out in a couple of months…but it’s better to be found prepared than it is to be found stupid.”  The box of masks I purchased for $14 is now selling for $100, if you can even find them.

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