Friday, September 25, 2015

Relax and Enjoy the Decline - Where the Cat goes the World will Follow





Oops.... Wrong type of Cat. So the news that should be rocking the prepping world today is that Caterpillar Corp. is cutting almost 10% of it's work force and reducing future sales predictions.

Sales of large scale industrial earth moving equipment and other products Caterpillar sells are a good bellwether sign almost as telling as the Baltic Dry shipping numbers for what is heading the worlds way as far as growth and financial matters go.

Of course this is nothing new to those of us out on the edges of society. We have been seeing less road work, weedier ditches and washed out gravel more and more for years now. All while the transportation departments are screaming for more money.

The official reason for this decline in Caterpillar's sales is being blamed on current oil prices and the financial problems of those companies invested in oil that are now having liquidity flow issues because of them, but I believe this is more of a worldwide problem that is hitting pretty much all commodities from oil drilling to mining and development the world over.

To tell ya the truth with all the bad financial news and Blackswan events going on I am beginning to think the current doomsayers for a Fall to early Winter crisis and/or collapse maybe on to something this time. Of course we know the collapse has been steadily marching on for years now but perhaps the speed is about to pick up? Perhaps the service side of the financial industry is going to feel some pain this time around?

This really could prove interesting. Are you ready?

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!!



17 comments:

  1. I have been seeing a lot of similar things on Zero Hedge here is their article on lumber:
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-24/americas-lumbering-economy
    Here is the story on CAT:
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-24/caterpillar-shocker-industrial-bellweather-fire-10000-slashes-revenue-outlook
    A lot of people are saying things will go down next year but typically it happens around the month of October, I don't know why, maybe it is just a psychological thing of it being fall or something about it being Q3. With no leadership in the white house, it seems like the world trouble makers is taking advantage of this collapse of US leadership in the world to start trouble. The danger is that we will unexpectedly react with force somewhere to show we aren't weak and that is how a war starts. Wars of the last century started when progressive peace loving leaders were in the white house. Even our current president could get pressed too hard and actually do something which makes him the key black swan event, if he actually does something besides talk about how bad his country is.

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    1. Sf - I am not too worried about the war scenario although with Obummer in office anything is possible. I don't think any politician really has the balls to get into it with a real military anymore and with all the Multi-Cult BS I think we might get our ass handed to us if we did.

      I am beginning to think about all the politicians and FED can do is manipulate the figures to try and keep people ignorant as long as possible. The world is collapsing around them though.

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  2. I have a Realtor in my CAP squadron, he said record homes sales here last month, Aug, and Sept should be just as good. I have seen some new homes built here in Cokato,two local businesses have built additions, and we have a new Shopco store opening next week. Our farmers are seeing record crop harvest, due to good weather and an early planting. But like you say with all the crap going on in Europe things could pop as fast as popcorn kernels in a hot pan.

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    1. Rob - Well according to Reuters August home sales in the US were down 4.8% overall. June and July were good months with sales around an 8 year high but even at an 8 year high total number of sales is still coming in somewhere around 1970 or 1980 US total sales.

      We have also been seeing record car sales for a few years but the loans are all toxic. A debt recovery ultimately isn't I imagine.

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  3. Things do feel unsettled. I had not heard this about caterpillar.

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    1. Lisa - Caterpillar is huge though. They supply almost all of the major earth moving equipment. When their sales drop I take notice.

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  4. To answer your question, I think no matter how well you are prepared, you are never ready. If or when there is a serious SHTF event or events people who are unprepared are going to be a major issue.

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    1. Anon - I would agree no one is ever 100% ready for a surprise disaster or event. The slow grind we been having though is giving some people a heads up. Not many in the scheme of things though I imagine.

      The unprepared will be a problem but if it is a bad crash I doubt they will be a problem too long.

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  5. PP,

    We had a well known oil company offer it's employee's in Oklahoma and early out with a payout. The employee's have only a couple of weeks to make a decision before lay offs.
    It's happening!

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  6. Odd that Cat is blaming it on oil prices. I thought it was pretty clearly linked to that implosion known as the Chinese economy - to which the low gas prices are linked of course. Maybe Cat was afraid they might tick off the Chinese if they put the blame on them.

    ReplyDelete

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