X-Message-Number: 31058
From: "Robert Newport" <>
Subject: a response to;   #31056: Alcor's emergency financial plans [M...
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 08:28:23 -0700

Hi Cryonauts:   Mark Plus's question is an important one, one among many,
that should prompt us all to be looking at the future through a wide angle
lens as opposed to the very narrow "lens of our own experience." I have
appended a letter to me from a HNW individual which should serve as a wake
up call. While he is focusing on the immediate dangers, he mentions in
passing "planetary change and glaciers melting" which has been my concern
for some time.  With both threats, one in our immediate future and the
other, which gets closer and grows bigger daily, the consequences to those
of us who have "long term plans" e.g., cryonics, grow more dire. We may not
need to protect ourselves from ocean water lapping the shores of Scottsdale,
but the social disorganization and reaction to the coming upheavals will
drag us down, even if not directly focused on us. We are NOT
self-sufficient. Even if we had our own liquid nitrogen production facility,
which might be a very good idea in the short term, our hopes currently
depend on progress being made in mainstream science.  And we have not at all
factored in the possibility that this might be seriously hampered. We should
start to address these issues.  Thank you, Dr. Robert Newport   

 

 

 

Dear   X  ,

 

 

I'm glad we got to touch, however superficially, on last weeks topic as to
what's happening right now across our land and a little about our current
banking crisis.   How does this affect me personally?  Well, first off, I
can tell you that not bringing this to the group up would be akin to me
trying to ignore 9/11 2 weeks afterwards.

 

 Exaggerated?  Hey, no more than the climate change "crisis".   And we'll
see effects of this crisis and in a much shorter time frame than planetary
change or glaciers melting..

 

Gentlemen, out there is unfolding  a systemic meltdown on a par with some of
the greatest panics this country has seen and no one seems to get it or much
care.

 

How this plays out is at least as important as, whether Dems or the GOP are
running the country for the next 8 years.  Actually it's more important even
though I admit the subject is a yawn to most Americans for whom this is not
nearly as interesting as the fall line up of new shows on TV.

 

I believe it was   X  who asked that people speak to the personal level: how
this affects the individual.

 

Look,  I've spent all my life studying the economy and not academically  but
because I have a large personal and economic stake in the order,
fundamentals, and underlying operating principals of national economic
activity, on a scale both large and small, nationally and globally.   I have
witnessed many economic cycles over my investment life.  

 

Not to sound alarmist, but the current banking and credit crisis is a
lifetime event for all Americans and has very significant consequences
globally as well.   I'm having something akin to an Al Gore moment but there
isn't cool film about this showing at the cinema, .... no pictures of polar
bears swimming desperately out to drown in the Artic Ocean or dolphins being
hauled up in tuna nets to grab one's attention.  No one's putting me on
camera.

 

This is being called by people like the US Secy of Treasury and other policy
makers and regulators very close to the epicenter of this meltdown.
"Armageddon".   

 

 I doubt the average citizen has the slightest inkling of what could have
happened to our collective economic security without massive intervention by
the United States federal government in the credit markets, the bankruptcy
of Bear Sterns, the backing of Fannie May, and Freddie Mack ( with more such
events to come ].  The most critical danger has passed and, although we are
going through the worst right now, I believe , in the short term, we will
come though this.  But as a finance and economic maven, I know what I am
witnessing is something I never dreamed could happen in this country or in
my lifetime.

 

The sky is not falling and it's not time to sell everything you own to buy a
remote plot in Canada and put the rest in  Kruggerands.  In fact,  corporate
America, in terms of it's balance sheet is in very good shape to weather
this and, when the worst has passed, is poised dynamically to come  back.
Anyone who sells this country which is the most dynamic economy in the
world,  short is making a very bad bet.

 

But the bailouts will change the very nature of lending, risk taking,
finance, and leverage for years to come.   This means the prospects of
future growth, investing, and the government's part in our solvency as a
nation is going to change.   Much higher interest rates, for one.  Perhaps
much less capital available for US businesses, large and small for another.
And it ain't going to be pretty.  Nor will the campaign promises abounding
begin to come to fruition the way many voters are hoping for and expecting.

 

Now, is this personal?  Kinda hard for me to answer but try to imagine some
biologist who has, over three months, come across 5 cases of avian flu in
northern California.  Or a social case worker coming across an investigative
report that large well financed Medlin linked criminal gang is coming in to
set up a major amphetamine operation in south central LA.  They aren't
"personally "affected.  The biologist wouldn't have the flu or feel much
different the day after he made the discovery.  In fact, his life would go
on pretty routinely.  But he or the social worker would know that life as
they know it for their neighborhoods and community was headed for major,
possibly drastic change some time down the road.  That's how this feels to
me.

 

As a speculator, I know how to profit financially from this and I am taking
moves to do so.  And I may lose big on the bets I'm placeing.  But  I will
come O.K. in the long run. 

 

I'm just not sure Uncle Sam, the typical voter, or the average Joe with his
401K will.  And that my friends, is what is ever so much more important to
us as Americans.

 

Sincerely,

 

Mark

 



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