Information You Need to Know

I find these prognostications on a specific (and fairly short) timeline tiresome. Like the old Soviet 5 year plans, they rarely come to fruition, and when they don’t, those who made such bold predictions never own up to their failure, nor is there any real accountability for a big miss (or even repeated big misses). The last time I remember anyone suffering actual consequences for being blatantly wrong about warning of an incoming crisis was when Professor Iben Browning claimed a massive earthquake was imminent in the New Madrid seismic zone (this was 1991ish), while I was still in high school). When his prediction was finally judged to be thoroughly busted (which was at least a couple of months past the timeframe he insisted it would happen within) his credibility was shot, and no one ever took him seriously again. He was probably correct to raise concern (and thereby preparedness) but he boxed himself in by being far too specific.

The majority of these “doomsday scenario is coming” in a week/month/quarter type videos that are all over YouTube end up being busted time and time again. Some have made entire decades long careers on peddling doom porn. I’m not saying there aren’t deadly serious problems (that’d be an understatement for the ages) that are likely to blow up (sometime) but trying to get cute and fashion oneself a prophet by making public exclamations about some disaster about to happen is a fool’s errand, and those who do it are either mugging for clicks (in this age of internet attention whoring) or are probably charlatans of some sort.

Yes, I often speculate about consequences and disasters to come, but only in very broad and generalized terms, based on what I logically extrapolate from bad policies/decisions/ideas being embraced either by the government, or the public at large. I don’t walk on the field and call my shot like Babe Ruth. That’s just stupid, because it invites ridicule when it doesn’t pan out. And where economic catastrophes are concerned, if one actually has rock solid advance knowledge of such an occurrence, they’d be a fool to share it, instead of trying to short it. After all, one random voice will not steer the herd away from a cliff, no matter how convincing their impassioned pleas may be.

Why does your government hoard the gold? Why? Is that okay with you?